Instead of the CoP: Red in sideboard, I would play Solitary Confinement (same matchups you mentioned + added protection vs combo).
I would change the 2 Emrakul to 1 Emrakul + 1 Progenitus. This way you put 2 creatures into play with Defense of the Heart that have some form of evasion and protection, instead of an awkward Emrakul and Enchantress.
I play tested with Freggle over the weekend and wanted to talk about some of the results.
This deck blows out any stoneforge deck! Suppression Field really slows down development. A second turn suppression field slows my development to a grind while he was able to develop his board and setup a win.
The only games it was even close revolved around going 1-1 with the deck in the early turns. Discard, counter or deal with threats as they appear. I was only able to win on the back of a soft lock with Academy Ruins + Engineered Explosives.
Also, Defense of the Heart is a great alternate win condition. Even when I was able to deal with his enchantresses, Defense of the Heart came out of nowhere to finish me.
The early testing reveals a strong game against Stoneforge. Next we will test how it performs against Maverick.
I like this plan. I knew after playing with the deck I would never board in Circle of Protection: Red I just didn't know what to fill the slots with. I'm not sure all 4 should be Solitary Confinement but I think it's a good idea to explore at least 2-3 slots dedicated to this card.Originally Posted by smoky squirrel
In some ways I feel this is right, but in many others I do not. Even though Progenitus can be hard casted in this deck it is not what I would call easy. It would require a couple of simultaneous Carpet of Flowers activations. Also, with the amount of draw this deck has it will be in your hand often.
Emakrul's shuffle ability is very useful. There are many times where this deck can draw through the entire deck every turn. Without the shuffle the entire graveyard into your library clause this deck could run into serious issues.
It may be best to have (1) Emakrul & (1) Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. this way we still get the shuffle effects, and don't roll over to a well timed Surgical Extraction. ...oh, and even though it looks bad don't be fooled by the power level of putting another (or your first) enchantress into play. Many times it's just the gas the deck needs to ensure a win.
For full disclosure I ran the list in the OP with the following change.
-1 Suppression Field
+1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
I never boarded. I never felt I had to.
I have found when this deck really gets going you discard a lot at the end of your turns negating Energy Field Running (1) Wheel of Sun and Moon makes the deck a lot stronger.
Also, there was a game where I did turn Karakas into an island FTW.
This trick also halted Academy Ruins messing up may day a few games.
Against blue decks Carpet of Flowers feels like an every turn Time Walk. As in you have a pre-combat main phase (turn 1) tapping lands. And a post combat main phase (turn 2) off of Carpet of Flowers activations. Doing it this way allows you to maximize the deck by converting as many lands into islands pre-combat, and dropping additional carpets pre-combat to get uber mana post combat.
It's fairly easy to dig pre-combat find an Emakrul and post combat hard cast him off of multiple carpets or carpet / Serra's Sanctum or any combination thereof.
It's pretty fun.
Edit: I have also play tested fairly extensively against Zoo. I know it's not a popular deck right now, but I keep mine sleeved up. I would also consider this match highly favorable. Turning dual into islands shrinks Zoo's team into tiny 1/1's They also can not stop the inevitable Choke. Suppression Field gives fetches and Qasali Pridemage a hard time while Elephant Grass & Energy Field slow their attack even more until I can win. I don't bother to board here either.
Could a version of this deck more focused on a lock work? Im thinking running the Island/Choke package and Back to Basics with Elephant Grass, Proproganda, and In The Eye of Choas (unfortunately cutting white) could be decent, and it seemed ok in testing as well. It would also up the blue count high enough for Force of Will if you wanted to side that in v combo or blue decks or something.
Running Back to Basics with Forbidden Orchard & City of Brass will not work.
There might be a stronger lock version that could work though. Also, I have been brewing enchantress builds for years if not a decade, and Force of Will has never seemed right to me in these decks. In the Eye of Chaos will handle combo just fine if landed.
I have been playing this deck quite a bit, and it is very good. It is currently my top pick to take it to Star City Orlando next month, and likely GP Atlanta in June/July.
There are some tweaks I will likely make, but since I have been able to win in a wide gambit of MU's as a result of the mix I currently run I'm not sure if there will be any more changes main.
I think the sideboard needs to be totally blown up because in almost all matches I feel the main is the best deck to run opting not to SB which means I'm giving myself poor SB options.
The Leyines seem like too much of a risk in this build because they royally mess with the curve of the deck and ultimately it's explosiveness.
If I had to take a stab at what the board would look like now if I were to re-tool it it would be something like this:
1 Elephant Grass
1 Energy Field
2 Enlightened Tutor - Gets answers, like Pressence against sac effects. WoSaM prior to E. Field...
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Surgical Extraction - Maybe a way to fight combo, and find value in quite a few other MU's
2 In the Eye of Chaos - Only for combo and Discard I'd play though control, but is this better than Leyline of Sanctity?
4 Leyline of the Void - it's just too good at what it does
This way I could just bump up the effect of what I'm already doing to make that MU just a little bit more strong. Like adding the 4th E. Field and 2 Enlightened against Affinity/Burn/Gobblins...
Edit: I should also mention that I'd like to run Surgical Extraction preferably as a 3 of in the SB just to extract g2 just to see what hate they brought in to plan accordingly G3.
I would also like to find a spot for Kozilek, Butcher of Truth in the board, because I feel that (2) Emrakrul's main is right mainly because the extra turn on hardcast. This way if someone is able to extract Emrakul G2 (or I guess G1) I have an alternative.
I have made the following Main Deck adjustments and I'm very happy with them. I have updated the OP.
-1 Suppression Field
-1 Choke
+1 Enlightened Tutor
+1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
The deck remains functionally the same. These changes add more consistency / resiliency to the plan.
Enlightened Tutor does a number of things.
Against burn / affinity / Maverick it can dig up a Energy Field to keep your opponent on their heels to consistently find an answer, or just outright lock them out.
Against Discard / Sac Effects. It hides Enchantress's Presence on the top of the deck so that you may top deck to keep the engine going.
Against Dredge it finds Wheel of Sun and Moon
Or against blue it finds the Choke it replaced. It's just a wildcard, and in testing proving to be a very useful one.
Wheel of Sun and Moon is there to enable the Wheel of Sun and Moon / Energy Field combo, and limit the exposure of Emrakrul in the yard (I'm scared of Surgical Extraction) It does sometime target my opponent when they get too happy with their own.
The Sideboard is blown-up at the moment. I'd love to hear any more feedback / improvements people see out there.
Why only 1 Enlightened Tutor if it seems so useful?
I haven't upped the Enlightened Tutor count for a few reasons.
It's not the best top deck with an active Energy Field sans Wheel of Sun and Moon.
It IS card disadvantage.
And the deck does a good job in morphing into what the match-up needs through CA as is. ...and each card does play a role in it. It feels like a delicate balance. This includes the mana base which does perform remarkably well. Sure an early Wasteland hurts bit that hurts quite a few decks.
Now having said all of that I'm still considering a second in either the 4th Spreading Seas slot, or possibly the second Choke slot. (you only need 1 and it is CMC 3)
...but for now I'm testing 1 main and 2 board. This opens up the board a bit in that we do not have to depend on Leylines when we can somewhat count on e tutoring into a WoSaM for example.
This frees up innovation in how we approch combo. should we run discard out of the board?
Over this past week I tested quite a bit against a Pox list with Hymn, Smallpox, Pox, Innocent blood, BloodGhast, Hexmage / Dark Depths.
I'm surprised to say this match is favorable. It was pretty easy to avoid an early back braking hymn by turning swamps into islands. Later, once the draw engine was set-up Hymns only hindered not crippled.
I even won some games facing down a 20/20 Merit. Holding him off by either chaining Elephant Grasses or Energy Field.
After testing many matches with the list in the OP I tried the following modification:
-1 Spreading Seas
+1 Enlightened Tutor
This gave the deck more flexibly, but it makes it play a bit more reactively. You never want to waste an E. Tutor on the wrong thing. I will keep this change and continue to evaluate it.
Since I now feel that this deck can win under heavy discard & sacrifice effects I'm moving Leyline of Sanctity out of the board in lieu of some more quality Combo hate in Ethersworn Canonist.
This will allow this deck to fairly consitantly threat a T2 Canonist post board. (t1 E. tutor -> Canonist or canonist in hand)
I may also add in Arcane Laboratory to the board (easier to cast off of Utopia Sprawl then Rule of Law) to give combos Echoing Truth plan a run for it's money.
I'm also considering the 4th Defense of the Heart in the board to bring in the combo MU's because Orchard / Defense is the main plan and best way to win under the stifled card draw.
That give us Arcane Laboratory, Suppression Field, Ethersworn Canonist, Choke to mess with combo.
Board still in flux, but I'm ruling things out.
I hope to test extensively against Maverick this weekend.
Is anyone else messing around with this list at all?
Didn't get to play nearly as much Magic this weekend as I would have liked.
I played about 12 or so main deck matches against Maverick, and the match up seems to be just about dead even.
Whomever played first won 100% of the time. MVP's were Suppression Field & Energy Field
Things that worked too well against us was Aven Mindcensor (on Enlightened Tutor & Defense of the Heart) & Thalia, Guardian of Thraben on the deck.
Does anyone have any good side board suggestions to give us the edge in this MU?
My current SB is
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Energy Field
1 Elephant Grass
1 Defense of the Heart
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Choke
1 Arcane Laboratory
This week I tested against Sneak & Show. This match-up is favorable to even.
MVP's are Suppression Field, Choke, Carpet of Flowers & the island enchants.
This deck can win through a resolved Emrakrul by dropping an Emrakul of it's own by evoking the Legend rule, racing permanents with Energy Field / Wheel of Sun and Moon out, or through Choke / Elephant Grass
My favorite game was won off of dropping an Emrakul of my own off my opponents Show and Tell -> Progenitus. This drop gave them exactly 6 permanents and exactly 15 life.
These matches are exciting. The pilot of this deck just has to put faith into top decking off of enchantress draws favorably in the face of fatties. Odds are you will.
In this Match up oblivion ring could come in for Emrakul / Sneak attack, but you should definitely bring in the 3rd choke.
My current Sideboard is the following:
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Energy Field
1 Elephant Grass
1 Defense of the Heart
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Choke
2 Journey to Nowhere
1 Arcane Laboratory
The decks major problems are problematic creatures therefore Journey to Nowhere seems fitting over more Oblivion Rings.
This SHOULD help with Mavericks Thalia, and possibly swing that MU to favorable post board. Testing will tell.
Have you seen the recently spoiled Abundant Growth -- it seems generically better than Utopia Sprawl?
It is. I like. Will definitely be used in normal lists, as well as make all the three-color variants more viable.
No. Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl provide extra mana, Abundant Growth only fixes it.
Yeah. Missed that. OTOH Abundant Growth Cantrips.
I'm pretty sure that it would be a meta call between the two: the question you'd have to ask yourself is "is drawing a card on the first turn worth more than having the extra mana on turn 2?"
So as planned I took this deck to the Star City Games Legacy Open : Orlando yesterday.
All in all I went 4-3-1 to place 47th.
Please do not read the fairly lack-luster record as an indication of this decks potential.
It should be noted that I had friends in town and played Magic from Wed. night straight through Sun. Legacy event with an average night of sleep being roughly 5 hours. Needless to say I was VERY TIRED.
Wheel of Sun and Moon & Energy Field combo caused many people to scoop, and I won through some pretty disgusting board states with it.
Match 1 Dredge: 2-0:1-0
Game 1: I go Forest Utopia Sprawl go. He goes City of Brass Cabal Therapy. ...now I know these cards, but i'm so tired I say it resolves and proceed to lay my hand on the table as thought it was targeted discard. Like I said I was tired. Showed a number of lands an Elephant Grass, and and Energy Field. He tells me that is not how it works and I feel stupid and TRY to wake up. He names Elephant Grass (big mistake) and passes turn.
T2 I drop Energy Field and he plays a few turns and scoops when I drop Wheel of Sun and Moon Targeting myself.
Game 2 I board in Leylines of the Void and drop two at the start of the game. (no lands)
Play a few turns I assemble Energy Field WoSaM combo and Defense into an Emrakul he scoops.
Starting to wake up on adrenaline.
Match 2 RUG Delver: 1-2:1-1
I play Bronson the first Modern GP winner and I steal game 1 when I assemble WoSaM playing around Daze.
The next two my fate swings. Not sure how he boarded oustide I met Thoughtscour. That thing sucks for both Enlightened Tutor and Energy Field sans WoSaM. I soft lock him for a number of turns with an E. Field only. Things are looking up. I decide since I have a another E. Field in hand I EoT an Enlightened Tutor to make it a hard-lock looking for WoSaM. Bronson finds his little window and burns for lethal. He played stellar against this rouge deck gathering all the info he could trying to make me mess up and or talk about it. This actually wakes me up.
I compliment his play, and this is where I find about his GP title.
Game 3 he's got the nuts. I play though 5 counter spells just to resolve an E. Field to make me think I'm about to stabilize then I'm thought scoured, and it goes south from there.
Perhaps somewhere in there I could have played better to get this one, but I just didn't. Should have just rode the E. Field and cared more about City of Brass Damage. That would have likely have done it.
Match 3 Merfolk 2-0:2-1
Not much to talk about both games revolve around the E. Field WoSaM combo resolving and my opponent conceding.
Match 4 RUG Delver 2-0:3-1
G1 My opponent get the wrong nuts draw by turn 4 or 5 I'm looking at 3 flipped Delvers and a Tarmagyof. ... unfortunately for him I'm also looking at an Energy Field. I stick WoSaM and he concedes.
G2: I assemble WoSam / e. Feild but no conceed (perhaps bounce?) so I start stacking them. He plays 3 creatures and I drop my Defense of the Heart, and next turn tutor up Emrakul. Concede.
Match 5 RUG Delver 0-2:3-2
When I played Brandon I was so excited to show a good player my deck post match that I did so we can talk about choices and he wanted to know.
Little did I know I'd play his friend next to him later that day.
Game 1: I keep a 1 lander but stabilize on a resolved Carpet of Flowers. It's not quite enough to get out of Pierce / daze range though and a super juicy fully tapped out Choke eats a double daze :(
I loose never saw land 2
Game 2: I think I stabilize the board with a stuck E. Field, but Thought Scour ruins my day. We talk about the deck and it very good potential.
Round 6 Mangara / Karakas Stoneblade 1-1:3-2-1
Super long game 1 I assemble E. Field / WoSaM while my opponent assembles Karakas / Mangara.
He starts exiling the combo staring with WoSaM (not sure why) then I find a simple island enchant (Sea's Claim) I turn the might Karakas into an island and reassemble the combo. Eventually tutor up an Emrakul and swing a number of times to a fully stocked board and finally connect for lethal.
6 mins. left in the round I choose not to slow play and board in stally things so full e. fields / e. grasses ... Big mistake. I have to mull to 4 to find a land and my opponent lands a t2 Thalia. Take a sword hit from a suited up Thalia with FaI and cringe. I dig with an Argothian out dropping a Carpet of Flowers. I find the 3rd land to drop E. Field next turn.
Oppnent swings I block with Argothian and he has 1 more turn to do 5 damage so I drop E. Field and think I have it. he EOT E. Tutor and O. Rings :(
draw. Should have slow played.
Round 7 Esper Stoneblade 1-2:3-3-1
So I actually get paired with my friend who gets 16th place, and was the reason I forced myself to go to the tournament. Tired, Hungry, and down over my lack of slowplay decision I ask if he just want to die roll. He say no lets play.
Not thrilled with the idea nor wanting to concede we do. I have an early blow out G1 with the combo online and Defense on the prowl.
G2: I have to mull to 5 to find a land, and I play it. T1 Toughtseize hurts. I'm threat-less, and staring at an opponent with a full hand of blue. He goes all in on Jace and gets there.
Game 3: Similar Mull to find action to 5. He keeps at 7 an early Thoughtseize Nabs my Argothian. I'm doomed I have 4 lands and keep drawing land. He drops a Jace and starts Fate stealing. I discretely play a WoSaM and he doesn't care. I'm setting him up. Next turn I play an Elephant grass he doesn't care.
I now know a Jace Ultimate does not seal the game / Match as I can choose during my upkeep not to pay for E grass and I can draw it in my draw phase. So I slow play a bit to time. Before time he ultimates and my library is Emrakul, Emrakul. I draw both Emrakuls and time is called and he is pissed that I don't conceed then the shenanigans begin. I don't pay for E grass and it goes to my lib. I draw it he's shocked and pissed. The judge even gives the whoa face.
So he starts Jace Brainstorming. Even counter magic does not break this up. he finds an Engineered Explosives and set it for two and blows it. I say OK um WoSaM goes tot he bottom of my Library.
Next turn I draw it, and play it. He Pierces it. I pay the two. He brainstorms. It resolves. It win or draw time.
Then final turn he digs with about 3 brainstorms to finds the singleton Repeal and repeals the WoSaM at the end of turn. and I loose to the draw clause.
Good times.
Round 8 Stasis 1-0:4-3-1
Still tired, hungry and just not wanting to play I move on.
I play a super annoying deck he calls stasis yet I never see stasis.
I get the Forbidden Orchard / Defense of the Heart combo online early but he has a cloudstone Curio in play which allows him to bounce them.
So I take advantage of an no drawback 5 color land and start stacking the enchantress effects. he swings at me with the two tokens I gave him for many turns. and widdles down my life. Then he chain of vapors my E. Field I use to stabilize, but I sac a land to bounce his Curio. He looks stunned. I quickly give him 3 token guys. and he swings at me 5 That was stupid I should have done it Eot or in response to Curio being cast. This puts me to 5. He plays Claws of Gix and sacrifices 3 of the tokens to gain 3 life. Side stepping Defense once again. He them plays some owl artifact that if you have 7 or more cards in hand you loose 4 life. This puts me to 1.
Knowing it's now or never I start stacking Enchantress's to dig for WoSaM. I go off and draw almost my whole deck, and play 3 E Field and 2 WoSaM's off of Serra's Sanctum and Carpet of Flowers activations I land a choke with him tapped out and pass turn. EOT I give him dudes but I choose not to activate Defense becuase I want to hardcast Emrakul for the extra turn. Time is called. I win with Emrakul swings.
All in all the deck is a blast. I should find room for Runed Halo in the board or main just to buy time or get around Jace.
Thanks for reading.
Last edited by Freggle; 05-21-2012 at 11:46 PM.
Thanks for the report, I was very curious how this deck would do and seems like it has great potential. Few questions though, after playing it at a tournament and doing a lot of testing, do you think this deck would benefit from running few of the usual enchantress win conditions, like a singleton Words of War and/or Sigil of the Empty Throne. Also is the deck you ran exactly the same as the one in the opening post?
Excellent question. Same as OP with 1 very important change.
-1 Spreading Seas
+1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
As far as the traditional enchantress cards. ...Im not sure. Running the Island enchants legitimizes the main deck Chokes and Carpet of Flowers. Cutting the suite changes the deck drastically.
Sigil is too hard to cast and sucks in hand early. I would much rather have the second Emrakul over that.
But a words of war in a Supression Field slot might be good.
I'll test it when Im less burnt out on MTG.
Edit: Actually I like that a lot. Ping Delvers or Plainswalkers in leu of draw to sidestep discarding with an Energy Field out seems AMAZING.
Hey, so I've got a version of this with a couple of changes that I've been testing. I like how it's inexpensive yet powerful against a lot of the meta.
The things I've been testing are Yavimaya Coast in lieu of City of Brass, Green Sun's Zenith over Enchantress's Presence, and Wurmcoil Engine replacing the 2nd Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. I also cut the Wheel of Sun and Moons to go for more consistency at establishing a soft lock early on and trying to combo out fast. With GSZ, you get presence that can also be Dryad Arbor. Unfortunately, it doesn't draw you cards, fortunately if you've got an enchantress effect out already you should be winning.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Reply With Quote