[Deck] Solitaire (Enchantress)

[Zach Tartell]

This is my list, as of 12 March 2007:

// Lands
2 [US] Serra's Sanctum
4 [B] Savannah
2 [A] Taiga
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
2 [P3] Plains (1)
6 [UG] Forest

// Acceleration
4 [DIS] Utopia Sprawl
4 [US] Exploration

// Engine
4 [US] Argothian Enchantress
4 [ON] Enchantress's Presence

// Utility
1 [MR] Rule of Law
1 [WL] Aura of Silence
1 [VI] City of Solitude
4 [IN] Sterling Grove
2 [LG] Sylvan Library
1 [PLC] Seal of Primordium
1 [OD] Holistic Wisdom
1 [OD] Karmic Justice
1 [DIS] Seal of Fire

// Lock
1 [CHK] Ghostly Prison
2 [LG] Moat
2 [VI] Elephant Grass
4 [JU] Solitary Confinement

// Win
1 [ON] Words of War
1 [MI] Sacred Mesa

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [VI] City of Solitude
SB: 1 [WL] Aura of Silence
SB: 2 [DIS] Seal of Fire
SB: 1 [OD] Karmic Justice
SB: 2 [VI] Elephant Grass
SB: 3 [MR] Rule of Law
SB: 1 [TE] Light of Day
SB: 1 [MM] Spiritual Focus
SB: 1 [MI] Null Chamber
SB: 2 [TE] Choke

Card Choices:

Let me explain the mana base first: I run 8 basic land, 4 fetches (four is all you need: I need to be able to grab the basic plains against goblins when I really need it, and you find yourself wanting more mana than shuffle effects). The two sanctums are completely necessary. I know it sucks to have one in your opening hand, but it’s playable if you have an exploration or a forest. Then it’s just a non-basic plains.

Acceleration: I think that it’s pretty much self-explanatory. Utopia sprawl is so good. Unless you’re playing against ports. But, then you get to keep your duals. Aydunno.

Engine: I think you only need 8 enchantresses. Bearded judge at TMDOII said I should run the 0/2 one, as well, but she’s not untargetable, nor much better at blocking than the ol’ argothian one.

Tool box: First of all, ROL main boarded: Thoughts? I’m not sure I like it, but it’s nice to have something to tutor into game 1 v. combo, if you have the chance to go that long. I’ll get to that later.
-Aura of Silence: So good against affinity, and any artifact mana based combo. The 1WW cost is kind of difficult to pull off sometimes, but it’s certainly worth it. And it’s much eaiser than getting the WG of grove, once you have sanctum.
-City of solitude: I hate blue cards, when I’m playing this deck. Helps, a bunch. And, it’s easily boarded out against goblins and survival.
-Sterling Grove: This must be a 4-of. Early game, it’s tough to come by the white mana to cast it, and late game, it’s tough to come by the green mana to cast it (I almost want to run cradle or something – it’s so hard to get green when I’m combo-ing out.). But it makes shit tough to blow up, and it tutors for your answers. Necessary.
-Library: I don’t like it, at all. But it’s great against combo. And better in pairs than mirri’s guile. And, when not under confinement, it can combo nasty with WOW.
Seal of primordium: Eats vials, man-lands, crucible, chrome and diamond moxen, and it’s the right color. I like it.
-Holistic wisdom: This is the single weakest looking card in the deck, but I wouldn’t get rid of it for the world. It pulls back wasted sanctum, countered confinement, and seal of fire to kill remaining meddling magi.
-Karmic Justice: I don’t’ like this main board, but I think it’s necessary, with the amount of wastelands and engineered explosives floating around. And green goblins scares the shit out of me, with their possible tranquil domains. Wrath + Armageddon for 3. I’ll take it. Makes deed a scary play for black players.
-Seal of Fire: Tutor for it against meddling mages, hippies, and . . . goblins. Boarding in the other two against goblins is a good play. Answers first turn lackey.

Lock pieces:
There’s no Squee here. I hate that. He’s my 61st card. The first cut, if I need to get under 61. Don’t play him. I’m trying not to. The problem is that it’s tough to persuade myself. Look at this data: This is from my reports and additional notes on the last 3 tournaments (the only three where I played enchantress). I attributed each of these games to Squee + confinement FTW.
Gagg:
round 1, game 1 v. solidarity
round 2, games 1&3 (game 3 had double grove lock, too) v. show & tell
round 3 game 1 v. duck hunt
round 4 game 2 v. mono red goblins
top 4 game 2 v. 3color AS

TMDO day 1:
round 1 game 2 (with grove lock) v. mono red goblins
round 3 game 1 v. red death
round 4 games 1 +3 v. RG goblins (jeff folious)

TMDO Day 2:
Round 1 game 2 v. UBR affinity
Round 3 games 1 & 2 (double grove lock both times) v. Matt's survival
Round 4 game 1 v. UBW landstill
Top 8 games 1+2 v. RG goblins (agent cody mannion)
The problem is, though, that he is hand clog when you’re not just sitting dead under confinement. At the Gagg I was running two, and I had to hardcast it against Bennett Toms’ BR goblins. I dropped one for TMDO, and I did real well in swiss. But against Watcher in the top 4 I actually had to hard cast him again. Shit with a quick clock really makes me have to play him. I don’t like admitting it, I don’t like thinking about it. Squee confinement is like cheating. But I guess every good beginning has to come to an end. I’ll miss you, my goblin naboob. Ha. Boob.

I moved my third elephant grass from main back to the board in favor of some trash. The rest is the same.

Win: I dropped my second mesa that I was running at TMDO. One is enough. And Form of the Dragon was just a hilarious mistake. It was fun, though.

Board:
-City: no brainer. I mull into this against blue control
-Aura of silence: A second gives affinity headaches. And tendrils combo w/artifact mana.
-Seal of fire: I discussed this earlier. So good.
-Karmic justice: In against a bunch of stuff I don’t like. Like BG for deeds.
-Grass: Duh.
-Rule of law: I need four for combo. Man, I use italics a lot. Being able to mull once and almost be albe to say that I’ll have it (and the mana to power it out turn two) is real good.
-Light of day: I need a solid answer to black decks. Or maybe not. I cut Sacred ground for this. Which, I think, is a weaker card overall. Aydunno. Random Black.dec is scary for me.
-Spiritual focus: I almost cut this card. But it’s great against IGG combo. Which gives me enough time to tutor for and play it. Makes the matchup hilarious. I gotta give Spatula the credit on this one.
-Null Chamber: Name tranquility against TES. Name engineered explosives against various fish and Landstill builds. I wish I could have two out at once. That’d be like cheating.
-Choke: Blue decks can eat my shit. Get a grove out so solidarity can’t chain it on your endstep.

61st cards (this comes from my days as a SWCCG player; after you write out your list, you’d list the cards you want in, but didn’t fit [in star wars you can play only 60 cards]. Thusly, this is not a list of cards to make your sixty first card. People make fun of you for that kind of stuff.):
-Mirri’s Guile: From what I hear, library is just better than this. I picked up a Chinese one from a dollar box at gaming, etc., and I really want to play it. Functions under confinement (really nice to string together 1 enchantment after another until you can start drawing two or three off of each one).
-Worship: I really want to throw it in the board, but I can’t find the space. And, you’d only need it against goblins.
-Parallax Wave: I want to test 1 moat, 1 wave, but I don’t have the wave, and double moat works fine. I’d only use it to hide a mage on one of my win conditions, or confinement. I think that it might be good to hide siege gang commander or sharpshooter when you have moat out but aren’t ready for confinement. I just don’t have room for it.
-Ivory mask: against goblins with a moat, this is almost as good as confinement. Better, I think, in that you don’t have to ditch a card. But the 2WW is tough to get early enough for it to matter. I’d love to get it out against combo, and it’s possible (though unlikely) to whip it out turn two. I want it but I can’t fit it.
-The entire blue splash for Words of Wind: This is kind of nice, but I find myself thinking that I have to leave out my control element in order to pull off the combo. And, to be completely fair, I don’t know how to put the combo together. Rancor, cloud of faeries, serra’s sanctum, and a trop with a utopia sprawl on green seems like you can go infinite. And you get trade routes, which means you can get dumb amounts of mana with sanctum. Maybe we could discuss that at a greater length later.
-Black splash: This gives access to cadaverous bloom. And use of your ridiculous storm count that you can generate.
-Multani’s Presence: This card is pretty cool, I’ll admit. I’d love to fit one or two in my board, but I already don’t have issues with decks with counterspells. I’ll put this on the back burner until I can think more about it.
-Ground Seal: If you’re going to run squee, or eternal dragon, or any other graveyard-oriented hotness, you really might want to look into this. And, it double-cantrips with your enchantress effects. I wish IGG targeted cards in that player’s graveyard. Then this would be a 1-of main, and a 1-of board. Might want to think about it, anyway. Or not.
-Seal of cleansing: Seal of primordium is better. And, for my money, aura of silence is better. When you’re going to try and go into confinement, you’ll never be short on white mana. Only early game is it taxing.
-Genjus: These don’t make me go crazy. They’re only good against agro, and you shouldn’t be afraid of agro. Know what’s good against it? Half your deck. Try ‘em if you like, if you don’t have moats. Not for me.
-Blessings: I don’t dig it. Re-animator gets around them by just being faster. And solidarity is able to play around them if they’re even a little competent.
-Fat in the board: Something like an eternal dragon seems nice against landstill, after they board out their creature hate. I just don’t have room in the board for it. Try it yourself. Maybe an exalted angel.
-Circle of Protection: Red: Dudes, you beat goblins if you’re doing it right. You needn’t fret over any more of that.
-Spreading algae: I tried it at TMDO. I played against 1 black deck. And he just didn’t tap that swamp. Maybe if there’s a lot of black in your area. It’s really nice, because it comes back to your hand, and you can draw off of it after you play it again. And if fucks up … braids? Or stax. With black in it.
-Humility: I hear it’s good against goblins and other agro. But I don’t like it. Makes my enchantresses bad. Makes my pegasuses not able to fly over my moat. I guess if you really need to beat goblins, then you should run it in your board. I still don’t like it.
-Sacred ground: I don’t dig it. I played it all three days that I ran my deck. I put it in against two different landstill decks, 1 goblins build at the GAGG (the mono-red guy), and the red death that I beat. Never saw it once. It’s really good, when you’re able to get it out. I just never wanted to waste a tutor on it. Try it yourselves.
-Chalice: Spatula wanted me to think about it, but I just don’t like it. All of my sweet stuff falls in the 1-3 range, and I just don’t want to lock myself off of anything amazing like that. Maybe for 0 against TES.

Match-ups (I will tolerate no player-hating on my match up lists. I’m not putting down percentages, and if you want to offer them, fine. I don’t want any “there’s no way you do that well” shit. If you don’t think I’m right, play it in a tournament [MWS doesn’t count for anything], and post your report.):

-RG Goblins: Pre-board is extremely favorable for you. Or, I should say, it was with both of my last two lists. I muddled the mixture a bit by adding the ROL. They have nothing to disrupt your confinement, nor your combo, ‘scept maybe a needle or two. Boarding: -1 City, -1 Aura of silence, -1 Rule of Law, -2 Library; + 2 E-grass, +2 Seal of fire, + Karmic Justice. I leave in the seal of primordium so you can tutor for it/rip it in order to deal with a needle if they put one on your wins. Even more favorable after boarding. All you have to worry about is tranquil domain, really. Krosan grip is just an un-counterable, worse (against you) disenchant against you. This is the same for RW goblins. (Like, exactly). I like Justice against Armageddon better than I like it against tranquil domain.

-Solidarity: Game 1 is just you digging for ROL via Grove, holistic-ing shit back if they counter it, and trying to resolve confinement/double grove. I haven’t lost a game 1 to solidarity, ever (I played shady and Gearhart), but it seems to me that if you aren’t made of solid luck I’d call game 1 unfavorable, almost extremely. Their fundamental turn is turn 4, yours is five or so. Boarding: -2 Elephant grass, -2 moat, -1 ghostly prison, -1 seal of primordium, -Aura of silence, - karmic justice; +3 ROL, + 1 Null chamber, +2 choke, + 1 city of solitude, + 1 Seal of fire (This is kind of weak, but I have 8 dead cards main, and I’d like to have another one drop, having lost the two e-grasses. And you can fetch a taiga w/o having to worry about wastes). Post board this is a riot. You have so many must-counters that their paltry 8 counters won’t hold up to anything. I think I used ‘counter’ too much in that last sentence.

-Threshold: Neither of these is much fun for you. I’d call it between even and unfavorable. They have all kinds of early-game disruption (both builds), magi (white), fliers to get over moat (both, though, to be fair only 1-3 in either build), and reach (red). I haven’t played against either build in a tournament, which is weird (I think it’s among the best decks in the format). I do believe, however, that it gets better post board. Let’s look at my choices v. UGr Thresh (I honestly have played against that only twice, and both times were against UGw, on an older list without side boarding): -Rule of Law, -1 Elephant Grass, - Seal of fire; +2 choke, + City of solitude. Depending on what they’re gonna put in, you should keep the karmic justice. Tutor for it and drop it, because Engineered Explosives at 3 sucks nuts. Armageddon and wrath (with the exception of a mongoose or two) for the cost of a grove is worth it for me. Board in the second if they make it to game 3 and you see the explosives. Boarding v. UGw: -1 Rule of Law, -2 Elephant grass; + City, + Seal of fire, + Karmic Justice. I’ve won against Armageddon only once, and it was tough. 3 Color angel stompy. Friendly Phil Stolze knows what he’s doing. I’ve seen more of these builds running Engineered Explosives, too. Let me know how you guys do against thresh – I’m interested.

-Landstill: uhh. . . I hesitate to call this favorable. I’ve had great success, but I can’t say you will (whole God’s chosen people thing). Against UB you’re golden game 1; run for confinement before echoes, then take your time shocking them out or whatever. Against UW they’ll have some sort of disenchants main boarded, maybe. So play around that. Bitches Hoes West Coast is more difficult. I mean, if they can find lands that make mana. Anything with xBG is scary for you, because of pernicious deed. So we’ll settle on “even” pre-boarded versus the various colors, then get on to boarding: -2 elephant grass, -1 Seal of fire, -1 Ghostly Prison, -1 Rule of Law -; +2 Choke, + Karmic justice, + city, + Null chamber. Name Explosives on chamber if they don’t have green, deed if they do. I’d say post board this gets favorable to very favorable. Depends a lot on what they board in.

-Red Death: Favorable. Elephant grass is real nice, from what I hear. It’s tough to deal with a 1st turn negator, but luckily I never had to. Boarding: -ROL, -City, -Aura of silence, -Seal of primordium, -Ghostly prison; +light of day (they scoop to this), +2 Elephant grass, +Spiritual focus, +Karmic Justice. Maybe we should switch the aura of silence for the seal of fire. Like, leave the Aura in. Distopia could get nasty. But I don’t play non-permanents. This becomes very favorable post-board. Five “Cannot Attack” effects is a pretty good ratio. Then just win before they get like 4 disopias online.

-Survival: There are like 20 ways to play survival. I’ll pretend I’m playing against RGBSA. Even, or maybe unfavorable pre-board. Unless they don’t have reverent silence or tranquility or one of its bastard brothers as a wish target. I mean, they have plenty of hand-rape. And, when they get survival out, a decent clock. Boarding: -City, -ROL, -2 Elephant grass (this is assuming they have the wish target); + Karmic Justice, +2 Seal of fire, +Spiritual Focus. Post-board, it gets reasonable. Even, or favorable, I’d say. Other variants don’t have the ridiculous toolbox that RGBSA have, so the most you’ll have to worry about pre-board is a viridian Zelot or something. ‘Yknow, the guy for GG that has GG: disenchant. I’m 4-0 against GWrb and GWru Survival.

-TES: This is only here because I test against it so much (I live near wastedlife). Game one, you probably lose. Very unfavorable. The one rule of law main board is there incase you can get to pull it out, and have a grove out for protection (I hear they’ve started running hull breach in stead of tranquility, which is amazing for us. Boarding: -1 Seal of primordium, -1 Seal of fire, -1 city, -1 karmic justice (doesn’t matter – you’ll either lock it down or it won’t be relevant – their land doesn’t stick around long enough – here are a couple more hyphens - - - ), -1 ghostly prison, -2 moat; +Elephant grass, +3 ROL, +1 Null chamber, +1 Aura of silence, +1 Spiritual Focus (in case they have to go for IGG instead of d-returns). Post board: Even. game 2 if you have three land or two land and a utopia sprawl (why doesn’t it sound right to say “an utopia sprawl”) you're golden for the turn two ROL. I add the elephant grass in case they go for the warrens. Ideally, you will go first turn: mana explosion. Turn two ROL, turn three aura of silence turn four aura of silence turn five null chamber naming either hull breach (if they have wished for it) or tranquility (if they haven't, or if they pulled it out with wish game 1)(if they run both, you’ll be in trouble). That’s as close to perfect as it gets. If you win game two (assuming you lost game 1 and thusly didn’t win the match), then he’ll probably win game 3, unless he keeps a trash hand and you get another good one. So: Very unfavorable, even, unfavorable. Good luck. (you’ll need it)

Less likely and thusly less detailed match-ups:

-Train wreck: I don’t there’s a way to win this. Scariest match-up, period. Null chamber on deed doesn’t even work, because they’ll have two or three crime/punishment as well. Dedicated Land destruction is pretty hard. Only gets a little better post-board

-Stax (or angel stax) (or anything variant): You play 60 permanents. And two aura of silences post board. I dream about match-ups this good.

-Affinity: Shit's tough. They are really fast at the start of the game, but then they usually run out of gas. Elephant grass is pretty important here. Pyrostatic pilar sucks to play against, and in my expierance (all two of the decks I played against) they don't need to sweat it much. I would call it Unfavorable/even. (for clarifaction, all of these with a slash in them connotate pre and post board)


-Wombat (MWC): if they went with the plan of wining against combo, you win, because they don’t have vengeance. If they do have vengeance, then I think you lose. Even with karmic justice x2. No joke.

-MUC: No clock + islands = you prolly win. Depends on player and the way they build their deck. You play enough basics that back to basics isn’t that scary.

-Angel Stompy: Cataclysm is real bad for you. Null chamber that shit. If they don’t run any, then you’re golden. Watch out for ‘geddon post-board. And acid rain. I saw that played once. It’d suck.

-IGGYPOP: Jesus, thinking about how much better TES is than this made me remember to write up the TES match-up. This has gotten eaiser and eaiser for Enchantress, having moved its fundamental turn from turn 2 or three to turn 3-5. The addition of white, in my opinion, makes the deck only a little better against control. Anyway, you should definitely be able to make it under confinement by then. I have faith in you. Post board just name tendrils with null chamber, and get Spiritual Focus out. Then laugh your ass off. I gotta give Spatula credit on this. Even/favorable.

-Deadguy: This is the only match where I’d want a sacred ground. Re-read Red Death, then worry about more land destruction via vindicates. Even/favorable.

Goldfishing:
I’m not going to walk you through opening hands, because, unlike combo (where your hand matters now, and what you’d draw into in the next ten usually doesn’t matter) you don’t have an “OMG I win turn 1” hand. You have ideal hands. Here’s one:

Enchantress’ Presence
Forest
Forest
Exploration
Utopia Sprawl
Plains
Argothian Enchantress.

But you’re not going to get that. Here is you you’d throw away:

Moat
Taiga
Exploration
Utopia Sprawl
Solitary Confinement
Aura of Silence
Exploration

No enchantress effect is usually an iffy hand. And so are one land-ers. But here’s a one-land-er you’d keep:

Forest
Utopia Sprawl
Argothian Enchantress
Utopia Sprawl
Sylvan Library
Aura of Silence
Sterling Grove

Here’s another one you’d throw away:

Plains
Exploration
Solitary Confinement
Serra’s Sanctum
Seal of Primordium
Sterling Grove
Moat

But then here’s a Sanctum hand you’d keep:

Forest
Utopia Sprawl
Moat
Enchantress’ Presence
Serra’s Sanctum
Sterling Grove
City of Solitude

Having a basic forest is so important. I can’t stress that enough. Wasteland sucks to play against. ‘Specially after going Savannah, utopia sprawl, go. Port sucks, too, but there are plenty ways around that.

Additional Reading:
I went through nine pages of stupid legacy articles on TML, and twenty five on Star City, trying to find stuff about enchantress. I found three decent articles, which address and (have links to) Blue enchantress (words of wind combo) and black enchantress (for a tendril of agony kill. Which, by the way, I will be looking into putting together someday).

Cavius the Great put this one together. Looks solid.
This is Spatula convincing ig'nant hoes that he's right (and he is)
This one's a guy named Scooba and some hippy pirate aruging between the builds. Some good ideas here and there, though. Spatula is here as well.
This is the orrigional Enchantress Thread from the Source. Spatula started it. (if you can't tell, he's been pretty influential in making enchantress a good deck)

I don't know if Props are usually included in Primers, but I'm going to at least thank two people: Jim Lampman, for getting me to play the deck in the first place, and Matt Elgin. Without Matt's suggestions and previous discussions to read, I don't think I'd've made it as far as I have already.

Enjoy!