[Deck] Solitaire (Enchantress)

[16km]

1) Sideboard Tech [...]

What's your maindeck? This is mine. (All the fetches are Windswept Heath on paper).

I am running 4 Leyline of the Void side, which I like at the moment. I have 3 Leyline of Sanctity main at the moment.

If you're on the living wish build, I like Gaddock Teeg and Peace Keeper side.

My sideboard is:

1 Humility - Elves, Show n Tell, Eldrazi
4 Leyline of the Void - Storm, (Manaless)Dredge, Elves (faster helm kill?), Reanimator
1 Cast Out - Leovold decks
1 Aura of Silence - MUD, Storm(?), the mirror, Aluren, Food Chain, Shardless BUG
1 Dueling Grounds - Elves, Eldrazi, D&T, go wide Aggro Decks
1 Seal of Primordium - Chalice/Trinisphere/Artifact hate decks
2 Engineered Plague - Elves, (TES)Goblins, misc-non-human Tribal
2 Choke - Blue Control Decks
1 Karmic Justice - Elves, decks with Wasteland+Decay
1 Worship - Elves, Burn, Eldrazi, other Aggro Decks

In paper and online testing, Humility, Chokes, and Karmic Justice are my least boarded in cards.

I like the idea of Trinisphere and Suppression Field. In testing, Suppression Field doesn't feel strong enough. I wind up landing it too late to be effective, or early in an already favored matchup.

I took out Pithing Needles because I found in most matchups, if I'm relying on Pithing Needle, I'm losing.

2) Oblivion Ring vs. Cast Out - I have two ORing effects in the deck. I know Cast Out is anti Abrupt Decay, but costs one more. I don't think the instant speed comes up often enough and the cycling is kind of redundant.

With Czech Pile being popular, I really like Cast Out. Flash is rarely relevant, but you can cast in on their upkeep to get the additional card draw.

Sword to Plowshares seems betterish in creature matchups. Cast Out can be Echoing Truthed or Wiped Away, where Swords is done and gone.

3) Lotus Petal - Though of adding Lotus Petal, but do you go to 19 lands? Play 61 cards? I see getting the two cost out immediately being helpful?

I'm not a fan. It's 1-shot, and seems like a dead draw late game. Gemstone Caverns seems like it might be better? I haven't tried it though. Some lists run Exploration, which at least will draw a card later in the game.

4) Number of Fetches - How worried about stifle and/or Ghost Quarter should I be? I play around 7 fetches?

Moon Stompy is still prevalent in my area. I run 4 Fetches . The number of times I've been Blood Mooned out of a game is too many. My list is Green Heavy, so I'm comfortable with 4 fetches. Stifle seems a little light in the area, but Eternal Weekend had a lot of Grixis Delver in the top 8, which some run main deck Stifle.

[Claymore1]

Going out to Washington DC with enchantress.

Hello, best of luck to you, please share with us your experience and a report would be greatly appreciated.

2) Oblivion Ring vs. Cast Out - I have two ORing effects in the deck. I know Cast Out is anti Abrupt Decay, but costs one more. I don't think the instant speed comes up often enough and the cycling is kind of redundant.

Most people seem to prefer Banishing Light as it can be cast on an empty board. I, however, prefer Oblivion Ring between the two. When it's something we run so little of, I prefer to hold it for when I really need it. One thing as well that Oblivion rings does, which is in very narrow situations, you could cast a 2nd confinement, O-ring it, therefor when they play a sweeper, it'll buy you 1 turn to either replenish or rebuild your board. O-ring, if running Eidolon of Blossoms, can also net you all the cards you want, if you so happened to have 3x O-ring effect triggers via replenish, each of them exiling one another on a loop, triggering eidolon with each.

However, due to the popularity of Leovold, I favor Cast Out, as it cannot be decayed, and it gets so much value from replenish. Cycyling it out early on when its not needed, and just Replenish them back. One that note though, since we're on the 4cc spell. One thing worth noting as well is it's competitor for that cost Ixalan's Binding is also worth looking into. Same cc as Cast Out, however, once you land it, you will never see that threat for the rest of the game. Which also in a way, opponents top decking extra copies, is like getting time walks for us.

4) Number of Fetches - How worried about stifle and/or ghost quarter should I be? I play around 7 fetches?

With the sheer card drawing power we have it may not be needed, however, if you do run some library manipulators, like 2-3 of either or a combination of Mirri's Guile / Sylvan Library, then it becomes much better. 7 May be overkill though, perhaps drop down to 6.

[Gozerfish]

What's your maindeck? This is mine. (All the fetches are Windswept Heath on paper).

Here is my deck:
4 Argothian Enchantress
2 Carpet of Flowers
2 Doomwake Giants
3 Elephant Grass
1 Emrakul
1 Enlightened Tutor
4 Enchantress Presence
3 Green Sun Zenith
1 Helm of Obedience
2 Mirri's Guile
2 Oblivion Rings
2 Rest In Peace
1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
1 Sphere of Safety
2 Solitary Confinement
2 Sterling Grove
4 Utopia Sprawl
3 Wild Growth

1 Bayou
6 Forests
1 Karakas
1 Plains
1 Savannah
3 Serra's Sanctum
1 Urborg
4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills

I am running 4 Leyline of the Void side, which I like at the moment. I have 3 Leyline of Sanctity main at the moment.
I originally played Leyline of Sanctity in the main, but I found it bulky. The issue I have with 4 Leyline of the Voids is it takes up too much sideboard tech. Feels like I am all in,

If you're on the living wish build, I like Gaddock Teeg and Peace Keeper side.
No living wish, but can green sun zenith gaddock teeg and I can tell you Peace Keeper has been very good for me.

My sideboard is:

1 Humility - Elves, Show n Tell, Eldrazi
4 Leyline of the Void - Storm, (Manaless)Dredge, Elves (faster helm kill?), Reanimator
1 Cast Out - Leovold decks
1 Aura of Silence - MUD, Storm(?), the mirror, Aluren, Food Chain, Shardless BUG
1 Dueling Grounds - Elves, Eldrazi, D&T, go wide Aggro Decks
1 Seal of Primordium - Chalice/Trinisphere/Artifact hate decks
2 Engineered Plague - Elves, (TES)Goblins, misc-non-human Tribal
2 Choke - Blue Control Decks
1 Karmic Justice - Elves, decks with Wasteland+Decay
1 Worship - Elves, Burn, Eldrazi, other Aggro Decks

In paper and online testing, Humility, Chokes, and Karmic Justice are my least boarded in cards.

I like the idea of Trinisphere and Suppression Field. In testing, Suppression Field doesn't feel strong enough. I wind up landing it too late to be effective, or early in an already favored matchup.
Suppression Fields seems to buy me enough time when boarded in and for people using Aether vial, the vial becomes not as effective.
For lands, it gives me extra turns.

I took out Pithing Needles because I found in most matchups, if I'm relying on Pithing Needle, I'm losing.


With Czech Pile being popular, I really like Cast Out. Flash is rarely relevant, but you can cast in on their upkeep to get the additional card draw.

Sword to Plowshares seems betterish in creature matchups. Cast Out can be Echoing Truthed or Wiped Away, where Swords is done and gone.


I'm not a fan. It's 1-shot, and seems like a dead draw late game. Gemstone Caverns seems like it might be better? I haven't tried it though. Some lists run Exploration, which at least will draw a card later in the game.

I don't play it, just curious of opinion. Early on, it gives you a two drop play immediately. I used to play exploration, but I didn't feel it did enough.

Moon Stompy is still prevalent in my area. I run 4 Fetches . The number of times I've been Blood Mooned out of a game is too many. My list is Green Heavy, so I'm comfortable with 4 fetches. Stifle seems a little light in the area, but Eternal Weekend had a lot of Grixis Delver in the top 8, which some run main deck Stifle.

Actually that is why I went down form 7 fetches to 6 fetches exactly for that reason.

I went 4-2-2 last time I played in Baltimore and 3-2-2 when I played in Vegas GP.

[16km]

I was featured at Card Kingdom's 1K on Enchantress. Video Here. A lot of the "big local names" were at Eternal Weekend, so I thought it'd be a good event to run Enchantress at (and a lot of other people brought their fun/pet decks as well).

In Game 3, I have a major misplay. I was about to lead with Sterling Grove, but I realized I'd run out of green. So I removed a white mana, then cast the Wild Growth. I didn't realize there was an Urborg in play. With the miscount, I could have gone for Doomwake Giant. Without the miscount, I could have gotten a Sphere of Safety.

I linked my list and side board here.

Round 1 vs Lands

Elephant Grass basically says they can't win the game. Game 1, they have a Loam + Ghost Quarter loop. I cast an Enchantress, make my land drops and draw cards. I wind up drawing Rest in Peace. They Ghost Quarter me, I get my basic plains and land Rest in Peace. They slow down on things to do. When they are in Crop Rotation -> Dark Depths range, I drop my Elephant Grass, find Helm in a couple of turns, and win. Side in 4 Leyline of the Void, 1 Seal of Primordium, 1 Aura of Silence, out: 1 Doomwake Giant, 3 Leyline of Sanctity, 1 Sigil of the Empty Throne, 1 Sphere of Safety. Game 2 goes quick. I land Graveyard Hate and a Sterling Grove. The Krosan Grip the Sterling Grove when I cast my 2nd grove. They Gamble for another K-Grip which gets exiled. I find Helm.

Round 2 vs Stax

Game 1, I'm on the play. I start off with Wild Growth, and they lead with a Trinisphere. My hand is all 3 drops and lands, so I'm not too concerned yet. I land an Enchantress. They cast a Chalice on 1, and a Chalice on 2. I have to Banishing Light the Chalice on 2, then land an Enchantress. They land a Smokestack , but my board is built up more than theirs, and they're too behind to add counters. I cast Emrakul for the win. Side in 1 Aura of Silence, 1 Seal of Primordium, 1 Karmic Justice (don't do this, Smokestack is Sacrifice), out 3 Leyline of Sanctity. Game 2, they land Chalice on 1. I play an Enchantress and get an early Seal of Primordium. I find a Serra's Sanctum, cast a Sphere of Safety and Sigil of the Empty Throne. They land a Smokestack, but it's too slow. I get enough lands to cast Emrakul for the win.

Round 3 vs Czech Pile

I don't remember this one too much. Games 1 and 3, I have Leyline of Sanctity. Game 1, I get Rest in Peace and Helm pretty quickly. Side in: 4 Leyline of the Void, 1 Cast Out, out: 2 Rest in Peace, 1 Mirri's Guile, 1 Green Sun's Zenith, 1 Seal of Primordium. Game 2, I die slowly and sadly. I get Leyline of the Void, but they force my Helm of Obedience and Sigil of the Empty Throne. I can't find Emrakul or Doomwake. Game 3, we go to time. They Surgicaled my Enchantress's Presence. When I went to cast Sterling Grove, they Abrupt Decay'd and Surgicaled my Utopia Sprawls after they saw I only ran 1 Bayou and couldn't cast Leyline of the Void without Utopia Sprawl. I have Leyline of Sanctity, Sphere of Safety, and some Argothian Enchantresses. They have a Jace and some DRS out. On the last Turn, they find Leovold. From the board state, we can't tell who's ahead, so we draw.

Round 4 vs Elves

Game 1, I think I land an Enchantress and a wild growth, then I'm dead. Side in 1 Humilty, 1 Dueling Ground, 4 Leyline of the Void, 2 Engineered Plague, 1 Worship, 1 Karmic Justice, 1 Cast Out out: 1 Seal of Primordium, 1 Green Sun's Zenith, 2 Rest in Peace, 2 Mirri's Guile, 3 Leyline of Sanctity, 1 Wild Growth (I think?). I start off with 2 Engineered Plagues in hand with some lands and a Utopia Sprawl and an Enchantress. I lead with Utopia Sprawl on black. They cast a Quirion Ranger, and I put Engineered Plague on Elves. They cast a Wirewood, and I put the other Plague on Insect. I play an Enchantress, find a Doomwake Giant, and my opponent scoops. Round 3, I land an early enchantress, and find a Sterling Grove and Sphere of Safety. I load my hand with enchantments while surviving behind Sphere of Safety and Banishing Light a DRS. I crack Sterling Grove for a Doomwake Giant and clear the board. I find Sigil of the Empty Throne, and get enough angels for lethal.

Round 5 vs Eldrazi

Game 1 is quick. Mimic -> Thought-Knot -> Reality Smasher, and I'm done. Side in 1 Worship, 1 Humity, 1 Dueling Grounds, 1 Aura of Silence, out: 1 Green Sun's Zenith, 1 Elephant Grass, 1 Mirri's Guile, and I think Sigil of the Empty Throne? Game 2, I find a quick Rest in Peace and Helm of Obedience with Doomwake Giant on defense. Game 3, I mess up. I land a Dueling Grounds, but I'm knocked to 1 life pretty quickly. I think I can't crack my fetch and I think I have no black mana even though my opponent has a Urborg. I chain some Enchantments, and should have gone for Doomwake or Sphere of Safety. I wind up drawing a Green Sun's Zenith and Argothian Enchantress. I am dead.

Round 5 vs Manaless Dredge

I think this is a bye, but I lose... Game 1, they reveal a Chancellor of the Annex. This slows down my Rest in Peace plan. I cast Green Sun's Zenith into the Chancellor Trigger. Turn 2, I play a Utopia Sprawl into Sterling Grove. Turn 3, they generate 2 Zombies, Cabal Therapy away my 2 Argothian Enchantresses and 1 Elephant Grass, and they land a Prized Amalgam. I upkeep crack Sterling Grove, get Rest in Peace. With 7 power on board, and me with an empty hand, they get me. Game 2, I wind up mulling down to 5. I start off with 2 Leyline of the Voids on the board. I lead with a Mirri's Guile, and they sided in lands and several Demystify/Fragmentizes. They Get rid of my Mirri's Guile. I cast some enchantments, and they Force of Will my Doomwake Giant. They hard cast some of the creatures. I draw all lands and Wild Growth's/Utopia Sprawls. They Demystify my Elephant Grasses and any relevant Enchantments I find. I get up to 14 mana, and they Cabal Therapy away my Emrakul. I continually draw lands, and find no Enchantresses or Elephant Grasses or Sphere of Safety. I am sad.



I had a lot of fun playing the deck. I had a lot of favorable matchups and missed the top 8 :( . The decks called "solitaire," but I need to keep better track of my opponents' board states.

[Claymore1]

I was featured at Card Kingdom's 1K on Enchantress.

Hey thats the video I tuned in and was happy when my pet deck was being played lol. I was cheering for you and was hoping you'd make top 8, I was like I hope I get to see enchantress get played again. But when I heard from the announcers to lost the breakers for top 8, I was hheart broken.

[Fjaulnir]

I'm watching that now.


First thing I noticed was you draw a card after B Lighting the Thought-Knot Seer around 4:21:00, but TKS's leaves the battlefield ability also targets so you couldn't have drawn there due to Solitary Confinement.

Around 4:45:40 you play your first Wild Growth on the Sanctum, why? If you put it on the basic plains, you either stand to lose/gain nothing, or you stand to gain not being as vulnerable to Wasteland. Also drawing into another Growth like you did, would have net you 1 more white mana off tapping the Sanctum after playing the 2nd Growth on it.
That would, with being aware of the Urborg, also have allowed you to tutor for the Sphere of Safety making attacking cost 8 (he has 5 mana so ripping Sol Land wouldnt lose you the game yet) instead of Solitary Confinement for better long-term protection you wouldn't need to sac immediately. (casting the last Utopia sprawl around 4:48:00 you have 4 mana floating + untapped fetch land so you tutor up Confinement. With the Growth play reversed you'd have 5 white floating + 1 black off the Urborg, so you could have gotten either Sphere or Safety or Doomwake already and cast it. Doomwake seems equally fine there, as it'll protect you with the Dueling Grounds as a perfect blocker as well.

EDIT: I see you did mention the Doomwake/Sphere in your comment, but I think that was about playing the Sterling Grove earlier? (before playing the other stuff) With playing the Growth in the correct order, you could still have corrected the mistake in the above fashion.

Other than that I didn't see any misplays, the Dueling Grounds did more here than I ever imagined it would do in legacy at all.



Question though, your linked decklist seems outdated? I saw you play RIP but your posted 75 does not contain it. It does have 3 struck out Leyline of the Voids, have those been replaced by 3 RIP or so? And does the sideboard then still contain 4 Leylines?

[16km]

I'm watching that now.


First thing I noticed was you draw a card after B Lighting the Thought-Knot Seer around 4:21:00, but TKS's leaves the battlefield ability also targets so you couldn't have drawn there due to Solitary Confinement.

Around 4:45:40 you play your first Wild Growth on the Sanctum, why? If you put it on the basic plains, you either stand to lose/gain nothing, or you stand to gain not being as vulnerable to Wasteland. Also drawing into another Growth like you did, would have net you 1 more white mana off tapping the Sanctum after playing the 2nd Growth on it.
That would, with being aware of the Urborg, also have allowed you to tutor for the Sphere of Safety making attacking cost 8 (he has 5 mana so ripping Sol Land wouldnt lose you the game yet) instead of Solitary Confinement for better long-term protection you wouldn't need to sac immediately. (casting the last Utopia sprawl around 4:48:00 you have 4 mana floating + untapped fetch land so you tutor up Confinement. With the Growth play reversed you'd have 5 white floating + 1 black off the Urborg, so you could have gotten either Sphere or Safety or Doomwake already and cast it. Doomwake seems equally fine there, as it'll protect you with the Dueling Grounds as a perfect blocker as well.

EDIT: I see you did mention the Doomwake/Sphere in your comment, but I think that was about playing the Sterling Grove earlier? (before playing the other stuff) With playing the Growth in the correct order, you could still have corrected the mistake in the above fashion.

Other than that I didn't see any misplays, the Dueling Grounds did more here than I ever imagined it would do in legacy at all.



Question though, your linked decklist seems outdated? I saw you play RIP but your posted 75 does not contain it. It does have 3 struck out Leyline of the Voids, have those been replaced by 3 RIP or so? And does the sideboard then still contain 4 Leylines?

The three voids were replaced with 2 Rest In Peace and 1 Elephant Grass.

I didn’t realize the thought knot seer was target on entry and leaving :O I’ll remember that for future games.

I started playing Dueling Grounds because Stompy Decks seemed to have no issue with Elephant Grass, and there’s several players on 10 post Eldrazi. It’s been doing a lot more than I thought it would.

[HouseOfCards]

Hello all!
I used to play enchantress during the 7th edition standard era(Verduran Enchantress/Dueling Grounds build) and I decided to take the plunge into legacy to play enchantress(of course!).

I've been scouring builds around the internet to get an idea of all the different options/variations of the deck. I recently stumbled upon a version on MTGtop8 that included blue for cards like Back to Basics in the main and In the Eye Of Chaos in the sideboard. This specific build also runs 4X Candelabra of Tawnos in the main. What are the pros/cons of running candelabra over cloud of faeries? Here is the list for reference.

http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=16751&d=303595&f=LE

19 LANDS
1 Bayou
6 Forest
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Savannah
4 Serra's Sanctum
1 Tropical Island
4 Windswept Heath
7 CREATURES
4 Argothian Enchantress
2 Doomwake Giant
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 INSTANTS and SORC.
3 Green Sun's Zenith
31 OTHER SPELLS
4 Abundant Growth
2 Back to Basics
1 Banishing Light
4 Candelabra of Tawnos
4 Elephant Grass
4 Enchantress's Presence
1 Oblivion Ring
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Wild Growth
3 Words of Wind
SIDEBOARD
1 Aura of Silence
1 Engineered Plague
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Ground Seal
1 Humility
2 In the Eye of Chaos
2 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Rest in Peace
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Solitary Confinement


I also have another question. I realize that the deck has gone through different evolutions over time. What made the old U/G version obsolete? What made G/W confinement come into favor?

[slayjay]

Hi. There is an own thread for us UG Enchantress maniacs. ;-)

It plays like the old UG list back from extended. Bounce everything the opponent have. Very strong with the Candelabras.

[HouseOfCards]

Hi. There is an own thread for us UG Enchantress maniacs. ;-)

It plays like the old UG list back from extended. Bounce everything the opponent have. Very strong with the Candelabras.

Thank you for the response. I checked out the thread. Neither threads tells what pros/cons each version has over the other. Any chance you might know why g/w may be a better choice than the g/u or vice versa?

[optml]

I just played a 3-rounder with Enchantress, and went 3-0 in matches (6-1 in games).

It was just a small, local event, but for those interested I'll write a brief report.

First off - decklist:


// Lands
4 Serra's Sanctum
1 Plains
8 Forest
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Windswept heath
3 Wooded foothills

// Creatures
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Argothian Enchantress

// Spells
4 Enchantress's Presence
3 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Seal of Primordium
1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Wild Growth
4 Solitary Confinement
1 Suppression Field
1 Sphere of Safety
2 Journey to Nowhere
3 Elephant Grass
1 Exploration
3 Mirri's Guile

// Sideboard
1 Solemnity
2 choke
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Rest in Peace
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Aura of Silence


Some clear choices, some less clear.
I wanted RiP + Helm combo main, but I prefer having fewer dead cards (RiP is a little useless against a lot of decks, and Helm is obviously a terrible topdeck if no RiP).

I've gone from 3, then to 2, reduced to 1 and then finally 0 Sterling Grove. I've found it to be slow, never really threatening to them and given how little enchantment destruction (really only abrupt decay) is played, I always wished it was something else. So I replaced the 2 with Journey to nowhere and honestly never looked back.

Brief report. Apologies, I didn't take notes, but will do my best to recall relevant points.

Match 1 - Stoneblade variant I think
Game 1 - He started, tropical island - go.
I started with a Mirri's Guile, and pretended to be delighted he didn't counter it and about how it's the best card in the deck, etc. I really enjoy playing mind games with people, and getting people to counter or not counter spells incorrectly.
I played standard game after that (ramping up) and then going for enchantress. I had 2x Green Suns and Enchantress Presence. For my 4th turn, I used Mirri's guile to put Argothian Enchantress on the top, draw it and claimed false glee about it finally being the card I needed.
I had a solitary Confinement in my hand that I didn't want him to counter, and he'd not done much this game. He'd cast a Noble Hierarch and Deathrite Shaman (I'd oblivion ringd the DRS) and otherwise he'd just used a load of cantrips. He had no mana issues, so I had to presume a lot of counterspell action in his hand.
I cast my Argothian, pretended to be dejected when he played FoW (exiling daze). He played a True-name, then passed the turn with more mana open. I cast my Green Sun x=2, with 4 mana open. Again, 'delighted' that I 'finally' got what I needed. He FoW again without question, exiling another daze.
The remaining mana I cast my Presence. It wasn't countered. He's basically out of cards now, with 2 creatures in play and me on a healthy ~20 life.
All over for him now, I could feel it.

He cast stoneforge in his turn, attacked me down to 14 or something non-scary.
I cast an argothian, my confinement (card draw engine running smoothly) followed by a bunch of other stuff. He scooped.

Sideboard: I didn't make any changes.

Game 2:
He's now convinced my game is entirely dependent on Mirri's Guile. Luckily, it's in my opening hand.
He plays land (non-blue), DRS.
My turn, I have usual ramp, wild growth I think, argothian, presence, 2 fetch + Sanctum, journey to nowhere. .. .. and Mirri's Guile.
If I get argothian + presence out, with journey backup against DRS, I'm fairly confident this game is in the bag.

So... I played fetch to forest, and knowing he can't daze with his land and only FoW, I was eagerly slamming down the Mirri's Guile. He immediately whipped out the FoW and discarded Leovold, emissary of trest (!!!). He could have hard casted it next turn, and would have slowed me down (and possibly even won if he used that counter on my journey to nowhere).
He was delighted with his move.
So was I.

His turn, he played stoneforge for batterskull and attacked with DRS.
Next couple of turns went along fine, me getting board presence, him attacking with batterskull et al.
I landed Elephant grass, which slowed him pretty hard. Followed fairly swiftly by oblivion ring and then hard casted Emrakul.

That was all she wrote.

Match 2 - 4 colour control deck

Game 1: Nothing too eventful. He played well but couldn't kill me before I landed solitary confinement. I actually had 3 in my hand at one point, and used 1 to bait a counter, and the second as a holy day to buy me the turn I needed. I managed to hard cast a big old flying monster and won me the game.
Note, during this game I was again delighted by my Mirri's guile. FYI, I know they are good (hence why I play them) but if someone is going to be determined to counter something, I want it to be that

Sideboard: I saw he had snapcasters, gurmag, DRS, lingering souls so I brought in Leyline Package.
In: Leyline of the Void x4, Helm of Obedience x1, RiPx1
Out: Seal of Primodium x1, Sigil x1, Oblivion ring x1, Solitary Confinement x1, Exploration x1, Sphere of Safety x1

Game 2: My opening turns are ramp + enchantress presence, with a starting Leyline of the Void. He casts meddling mage... naming Mirri's Guile. (honestly... people need to play against this deck more).
I pretend to be disappointed. I did eventually draw a couple of them, but they ended up being fodder to my solitary confinement while I built up my board and hand.
I draw Helm, he doesn't have any counters left and it's gg.

Match 3 - Infect
Game 1: I'm on the play, got going nicely as he gets out a medium speed start. He's got a Pendlehaven, noble heirarch, and casts a blighted agent which I send on a journey.
Another mind-game I played in this game, was to clear the way for my beautiful Serra's Sanctum that was nestled in my hand. I know generally infect runs ~1 wasteland and I didn't want it pointed at the Sanctum. So while fetching I asked him if Infect plays wasteland. He said he wouldn't say (of course) so I joked that it means he doesn't have any. While searching, I made it clear that this was a crucial land (it wasn't) and I'd have gone basic plains if he had played wasteland etc. etc.
Anyway, his next turn he played the wasteland he'd been saving, and destroyed my savannah. Nice turn of events, I found out later from him that the mana he could have left open, instead of playing & saccing the wasteland, would have used it for spell pierce for next turn's Seal of Primordium.

I landed the Serra's Sanctum next turn, and over the following 4 turns I won the game entirely due to that land and it's ridiculous mana and my Seal of Primordium.
One fun play during this game was he had 1 inkmoth nexus staring down a Seal of Primordium. He had to wait until he drew a crop rotation into nexus.
Which he did.
So he attacked with both. I think he thought I'd forgotten about my Seal when I agreed to take the damage. He triumphantly played his become immense after which I broke the seal and killed the big nexus.
Maybe because it had been a long night, but he'd totally missed that line of play and seemed shocked.

Anyway, a couple of turns later my Emrakul made short work of him and it was onto game 2.

Sideboard: -1 Exploration, +1 Solemnity

Game 2: a.k.a. the only game I lost that night.

He started. Inkmoth nexus.
I played land, green sun into dryad arbor.

Turn 2. attack with Inkmoth. invigorate + invigorate, straight to the face.
My journey to nowhere sitting useless in my hand. Where's a vedalken orrery when you need one?

Game 3
This was a close game, and he managed to deal 7 infect to me.
But in one turn, (maybe turn 5?) I cast Sigil, solemnity, solitary confinement and elephant grass (plus other enchantments)

He had one abrupt decay. I had about 5 angels, and he had to concede.

-----

All in all, a great evening.
Some thoughts:
I always felt choke would be too slow and never wanted to sideboard in. I'll probably replace 1-2 with carpet of flowers and see if that helps.
I didn't play any very unfair decks (even infect relies on attacking, albeit with amazing effectiveness), so some cards didn't see action - sigarda, sanctity.
I wanted another suppression field. Solid performer everytime I drew it. Just happened I didn't have one, and couldn't find one to buy.

Any input would be great!
and sorry for scattered report, it's hard from memory.

[16km]

Thank you for the response. I checked out the thread. Neither threads tells what pros/cons each version has over the other. Any chance you might know why g/w may be a better choice than the g/u or vice versa?

U/G is a combo deck. With Cloud of Faeries/Candelabra, Words of Wind, and an Enchantress+Abundant Growth (or multiple Enchantresses), you can generate infinite mana, draw your library, and cast your wincon, while preventing your opponent from having a board state. U/G can combo off as early as turn 3.

With the popularity of UW Control and Czech Pile, Pyroblast is a common sideboard card. There are also a lot of decks with Lightning Bolt. Cloud of Faeries tends to have more instant speed removal available for it. Candelabra tends to be harder to remove, but to cast it and untap 2 lands costs 3 mana. Cloud of Faeries is 2 mana and untaps 2 lands.

G/W Enchantress is a Prison deck. You establish a bubble fort so your opponent can't do anything to you, and you hopefully draw into your wincon and play it. The deck can "go off" early, but it tends to be a 6 turns or more deck. Almost all your permanents are Enchantments, and the answers/disruption is more limited.

Leovold is a popular legacy card at the moment. U/G has the advantage of Words of Wind. As long as you never draw a card, you can choose to use Words of Wind's ability to hopefully clear your opponents board and remove the Leovold. Some builds run Seal of Removal, which can also provide an opportunity. G/W Enchantress has a harder time dealing with Leovold. The main answers are Banishing Light or Cast Out. Banishing Light can be hit by Abrupt Decay, which in response to the draw triggers stops the draws.

G/W Enchantress tends to mull better and perform better against go-wide aggro decks. U/G Enchantress can race other combo decks, but can also lose to itself. G/W has redundancy in the pillow fort with Sphere of Safety, Solitary Confinement, Elephant Grass, and whatnot. U/G doesn't offer as much protection, but the goal isn't to draw out the game.

I like G/W Enchantress. As long as you can develop a board and draw out the game, your chances of winning tend to go up. Sideboard cards tend to flow better and not disrupt what you're doing. The issue is you can lose to super fast decks.

U/G Enchantress is a combo deck. Sideboarding is more complicated, you can disrupt your battle plans. There's a lot more build considerations and choices to take into account.

Which one is better depends on your meta and what you want to play. They're both "Enchantress" decks and share a lot of cards, but they're different deck types. One's heavier combo, and one's heavier prison. Do you want to be responsive or aggressive?

[HouseOfCards]

U/G is a combo deck. With Cloud of Faeries/Candelabra, Words of Wind, and an Enchantress+Abundant Growth (or multiple Enchantresses), you can generate infinite mana, draw your library, and cast your wincon, while preventing your opponent from having a board state. U/G can combo off as early as turn 3.

With the popularity of UW Control and Czech Pile, Pyroblast is a common sideboard card. There are also a lot of decks with Lightning Bolt. Cloud of Faeries tends to have more instant speed removal available for it. Candelabra tends to be harder to remove, but to cast it and untap 2 lands costs 3 mana. Cloud of Faeries is 2 mana and untaps 2 lands.

G/W Enchantress is a Prison deck. You establish a bubble fort so your opponent can't do anything to you, and you hopefully draw into your wincon and play it. The deck can "go off" early, but it tends to be a 6 turns or more deck. Almost all your permanents are Enchantments, and the answers/disruption is more limited.

Leovold is a popular legacy card at the moment. U/G has the advantage of Words of Wind. As long as you never draw a card, you can choose to use Words of Wind's ability to hopefully clear your opponents board and remove the Leovold. Some builds run Seal of Removal, which can also provide an opportunity. G/W Enchantress has a harder time dealing with Leovold. The main answers are Banishing Light or Cast Out. Banishing Light can be hit by Abrupt Decay, which in response to the draw triggers stops the draws.

G/W Enchantress tends to mull better and perform better against go-wide aggro decks. U/G Enchantress can race other combo decks, but can also lose to itself. G/W has redundancy in the pillow fort with Sphere of Safety, Solitary Confinement, Elephant Grass, and whatnot. U/G doesn't offer as much protection, but the goal isn't to draw out the game.

I like G/W Enchantress. As long as you can develop a board and draw out the game, your chances of winning tend to go up. Sideboard cards tend to flow better and not disrupt what you're doing. The issue is you can lose to super fast decks.

U/G Enchantress is a combo deck. Sideboarding is more complicated, you can disrupt your battle plans. There's a lot more build considerations and choices to take into account.

Which one is better depends on your meta and what you want to play. They're both "Enchantress" decks and share a lot of cards, but they're different deck types. One's heavier combo, and one's heavier prison. Do you want to be responsive or aggressive?

Thank you very much for the detailed and informative explanation. I guess i'll just buy everything for both decks and start fooling around with them.

[Claymore1]

If you want to do a little tuning as well geared more towards Leovold. Consider swapping out your 3cc Exile effects with 4cc ones, making it immune to decay, thus keeping that creature exiled. If you're on the Replenish plan I recommend Cast Out as you get so much value with it, if not, then the new card Ixalan's Binding does a great job keeping that card exiled for good, and if you used another one on something else, you're blanking so much off the opponent's draws as they are drawing so much dead cards. Quite a bit of time walk for us really.

Favoring Mirri's Guile as well, when gearing your deck vs leovold decks.

[Gozerfish]

While I would love to say I did well, I pretty much sucked. I went 4-5, but at least with some interesting stories. Things I learned:

a) I play too much online, therefore I was not careful enough with triggers and targeting.
b) Leyline of Sancitity mainboard is quite good, shuts off direct damage but even more importantly shuts off discarding.
c) Carpet of Flowers didn't do much - I pretty much sideboarded it out in every matchup.
d) Wound up playing Grixis Delver 5 times.


1) vs. Elves - Tough matchup, but at least prepared for it this time.
Game 1: Craterhoofed about turn 4.
Sideboard: +2 Engineered Plagues, 1 Humility, 1 Gaddock Teeg, 1 Pithing Needle, 1 Peacekeeper
-2 Carpets of Flowers, -1 Cast Out, -1 Oblivion Ring, -1 Land, -1 GSZ

Game 2: I was able to get engineered plague and humility out very quickly, so won game 2.

Game 3: Had Engineered Plague but could not get black out quickly enough, lost via Shaman of the Pack.

2) vs. Grixis Delver (0-1) -

Game 1: Guy was very much a rules lawyer. I pointed to my argothian and said trigger when I cast my O-Ring on his Jace. He asked me what I was targeting, I said Jace. At that point claimed I was passed that point. Brought Judge over, but was essentially he said/she said and didn't draw. I was able to clear his board when I cast the Doomwake Giant and a Wild Growth.

Sideboard: -2 Carpets, -1 Cast Out
+3 Leyline of Sanctity

Game 2: I got Doomwake out pretty early. So, I got the win.

3) vs. Grixis Delver (1-1) - Don't remember much about this round, but won 2-0 pretty easily.

4) vs Bant Stoneblade (2-1) - Played against someone from my LGS store. Unfortunately he is good player, and he was not enough drinks into the round.

Game 1: Close game. Kept playing Doomwake and he kept using Jace's least used ability of Bounce. Eventually, equipped his Baterskull onto the Stoneforge Mystic (had elephant grass out) for the win.

Game 2: Had Quick Helm/RIP setup. Got Sterling Grove\RIP out early and had enlightened tutor in hand. He mettling maged after probing me and in response, right or wrong, I tutored for Helm. But instead of naming Helm, he named Choke. Why? So, I decided to play around Spell Pierce in case he had a soft counter. I tried to cast Helm and he forced. It's possible I need to pop the sterlng grove, but assumed he would counter that.

5) vs Grixis Delver (2-2) - Once again, don''t remember much. Won this round 2-1.

6) vs Grixis Delver (3-2) - This Grixis Delver was an interesting match.

Game 1: Young Pyromancer created enough tokens (3 of them) with YP, a flipped delver showing me a lightining bolt, 2 lands on the board. With a Sigil of the Empty throne in hand, Solitary Confinement , 3 Wild Growths on the board and no enchantress and total of 5-mana (Yes, that will be relevant). Play Solitary Confiment that turn essentially as a fog. Next turn, I drew Sphere of Safety and was able to build the board back up.

Sideboard: -2 Carpets, -1 Cast Out
+3 Leyline of Sanctity

Game 2: Did not draw Leyline. Cabal Therapied: 2 Argothian Enchantress, 2 Enchantress Presence, 1 Utopian Sprawl and 1 Doomwake Giant. Yes, I lost.

Game 3: Had the win in hand with Helm of Obedience and Serra Sanctum out. He wasted the Serra Sactum.

7) vs Death & Taxes (3-3)

Game 1: Very long game. Had Solitary Confinement and Sphere of Safety out, had to fight through 3 Rishadan ports, but eventually whiffed with 3 enchantresses. He was able to spend 11 mana to win with a very big Serra Avenger.

Game 2: Mana Screwed. Lost quickly,

8) vs Show & Tell (3-4)

Game 1: Show & Tell Emrakul - She won

Sideboarded in: +1 Pithing Needle, +1 Gaddock Teeg, +1 Humility, +1 Peacekeeper
-2 Carpets of Flowers, -1 GSZ, -1 Land

Game 2: She showed Emrakul. So did I ;-)

Game 3: She was able to get Grislebrand out through Sneak Attack, but could not activate enough. Eventually I was able to Cast out Sneak Attack.

9) Vs. Grixis Delver (4-4).

Game 1: Kept hand with 2 Argothian Enchantress, 2 Utopia Sprawls, 1 Wild Growth, 1 Forest, 1 Solitary Confinement on the draw. What could go wrong?
island, delver go. (no land draw)
forest, wild growth daze
island, 2nd delver (no land draw)
forest, utopia sprawl, daze
island, shows Spell Pierce (no land draw)
forest, utopia sprawl

Game 2: Flooded out.

[Fjaulnir]

c) Carpet of Flowers didn't do much - I pretty much sideboarded it out in every matchup.
d) Wound up playing Grixis Delver 5 times.

The combination of these statements somewhat confuse me - Carpet of Flower is *at its best* vs Delver decks?? Their best way to deal with you is early Spell Pierces and Dazes, so if you ever resolve a Carpet you can just resolve 90% of your spells... (and play more spells/turn to not die to a quick clock)

[HouseOfCards]

The combination of these statements somewhat confuse me - Carpet of Flower is *at its best* vs Delver decks?? Their best way to deal with you is early Spell Pierces and Dazes, so if you ever resolve a Carpet you can just resolve 90% of your spells... (and play more spells/turn to not die to a quick clock)

Great insight here, thank you.

[Therealmslayer]

Just a note to anyone playing rest in peace /helm, outside of a couple caveats, you 'must' also play Emrakul, because one of your threats needs to be uncounterable.

[Emurian]

I also have another question. I realize that the deck has gone through different evolutions over time. What made the old U/G version obsolete? What made G/W confinement come into favor?

16km summed up a large part that answers your questions so I am not going to restate points out of his post.

To answer your question: Why are people preferring the GW version over UW: Cost $$.

I mean, buying 4 candelabra’s hurts anyone their pocket. (1200 euro minimum orso). Rough estimate out of my head, your able to buy yourself the whole GW version for that amount of money. If you add up the price of tropicals your coming near the deckprice of a Legacy T1 deck.

I think that’s the main reason why you don’t see allot of people play UG. Candelabra is also a really niche card that you can only use in High Tide and 1-2 in 12 Post. That said, even for the GW version I advocate including a Candelabra if money is no issue (I am the only one on this forum that seems to include one in his list and have suggested it before in this thread, people should test the card as a proxy and I am SURE they will come to the same conclusion, card is totally bonkers in this deck but once again, cost, which I can understand why people here don’t wanna jump over the fence)

Enchantress decks are sadly enough not the best decks to take with you if your planning to win a tournament. Their viable, and you can win games with the decks, but you are better off picking up another deck if your competitive and want to increase your chances of reaching/winning a top 8.

That said, enchantress IS one of the most fun decks in Legacy to play. (This is almost a fact, when you play versus other people you will notice from their reactions as they lose that they admire the deck in general how it plays out. I have never seen someone turn salty from losing to this deck) I bought Enchantress as my 2nd Legacy deck and have never regretted spending money on it. (currently working on deck 9 and 10) It also has plenty of flexslots which are open to be fine tuned to your own playstyle.

The only thing I can stress out if you are planning to spend a large sum of money at once in MtG: Proxy and test the decks that attract you. There is imo nothing worse then buying into a deck, only to play it out 20x and realize its not what you hoped for, or it doesn’t connect to your playstyle at all.

[HouseOfCards]

16km summed up a large part that answers your questions so I am not going to restate points out of his post.

To answer your question: Why are people preferring the GW version over UW: Cost $$.

I mean, buying 4 candelabra’s hurts anyone their pocket. (1200 euro minimum orso). Rough estimate out of my head, your able to buy yourself the whole GW version for that amount of money. If you add up the price of tropicals your coming near the deckprice of a Legacy T1 deck.

I think that’s the main reason why you don’t see allot of people play UG. Candelabra is also a really niche card that you can only use in High Tide and 1-2 in 12 Post. That said, even for the GW version I advocate including a Candelabra if money is no issue (I am the only one on this forum that seems to include one in his list and have suggested it before in this thread, people should test the card as a proxy and I am SURE they will come to the same conclusion, card is totally bonkers in this deck but once again, cost, which I can understand why people here don’t wanna jump over the fence)

Enchantress decks are sadly enough not the best decks to take with you if your planning to win a tournament. Their viable, and you can win games with the decks, but you are better off picking up another deck if your competitive and want to increase your chances of reaching/winning a top 8.

That said, enchantress IS one of the most fun decks in Legacy to play. (This is almost a fact, when you play versus other people you will notice from their reactions as they lose that they admire the deck in general how it plays out. I have never seen someone turn salty from losing to this deck) I bought Enchantress as my 2nd Legacy deck and have never regretted spending money on it. (currently working on deck 9 and 10) It also has plenty of flexslots which are open to be fine tuned to your own playstyle.

The only thing I can stress out if you are planning to spend a large sum of money at once in MtG: Proxy and test the decks that attract you. There is imo nothing worse then buying into a deck, only to play it out 20x and realize its not what you hoped for, or it doesn’t connect to your playstyle at all.

Thank you very much for the insight, greatly appreciated. I chose to pick up enchantress because it was one of my favorite decks during the 7th edition standard era, it has a special place in my heart :). Back then it was about controlling the board with dueling grounds/parallax wave and voice of all etc. The GW build is similar to how the old deck operated but the UG is entirely different and more combo based for sure. I'm probably just going to build both versions. Thanks again for the insight/suggestions.