Enchantress Top 8 at Jupiter Games 4/20

[Tropotos]

Can you believe it? Enchantress is a top contender! (said no one ever)

Enchantress has been a pet deck of mine for some time now, and can never seem to dismantle it. Lately, I've been brewing some changes in the deck and although the core of the deck really can't be modified some choices can still be made to update the deck for the current meta. After a First place finish at the PAX East Legacy tournament last month, and a top 8 finish at Jupiter right after I can honestly present it as being seated for placing well in many circumstances. Let me present some quick observations first: 1st observation, RIP in a main deck is very effective as we all know. Helm of Obiedience as a 1 of replacing the lackluster words of war kill adds much consistency to the deck and is capable of pulling out wins it otherwise shouldn't be able to muster. 2 Enlightened tutors in the deck and 3 sterling groves makes tutoring a breeze. Suppression Field is very underrated, this deck makes great use of it with its little reliance on fetches and lots of expendable mana. Without further discussion here is the 75 I ran last weekend.

4 Argothian Enchantress
1 Emrakul, the Aeon’s Torn

4 Enchantress’s Presence
4 Wild Growth
4 Utopia Sprawl
3 Sterling Grove
3 Elephant Grass
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Mirri’s Guile
2 Solitary Confinement
2 Rest in Peace
1 Sphere of Safety
1 Suppression Field
1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
1 Seal of Primordium

2 Enlightened Tutor
3 Green Sun’s Zenith

1 Helm of Obedience

4 Windswept Heath
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Savannah
2 Karakas
2 Serra’s Sanctum
5 Forest
2 Plains

SB:
4 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Carpet of Flowers
1 Choke
1 City of Solitude
1 Suppression Field
1 Humility
1 Rest in Peace
1 Stony Silence
1 Karmic Justice
1 Cursed Totem

Round 1 I played against Rion Marmulstein with his Maverick deck. He was on the play and started strong with the usual suite of heirarch's and cheap beaters quickly bringing my life total down to 10 before I surprise him out of no where with RIP/Helm turn 5. early on he calls a judge because I almost miss an enchantress trigger off of Oblivion Ring but fortunately for me the judge ruled in my favor. I believe in all fairness I was gifted that ruling when I shouldn't have. It is rare that I miss a trigger and for my first game of the day I felt like it was pretty sloppy. I made a conscious effort to announce every trigger every time and wait for any kind or response even if I was fairly certain my opponent couldn't interact. (RIP Helm gets there in otherwise un-winnable games) In Game 2 I SB in an extra suppression field, a cursed totem, and a karmic justice. He starts with Leyline of Sanctity in play. Cursed totem on turn 2 shuts him down early with an early gsz for dryad arbor (to which he calls the judge for a ruling asking if it stopped its mana ability) on his field in combination with suppression field he slows to a near halt while I cast an emrakul through his teag. My friends tease me after for seeing the judge run over to my table 3+ times in this match. (Rion makes it to Top 8)

Round 2 against Bryan Marceski with Show and Tell: I play an early suppression field keeping him off of his fetchlands and slowing him down enough for an early Helm kill. Round 2 in comes Humility, all my blue hate, cursed totem, and suppression field. He goes for a turn 2 show and tell and I almost decided to put down oblivion ring, but opt for Humility instead. My hand was a snap keep with 2 enchantress effects, humility o-ring 2 lands and a utopia sprawl. Helm kill soon follows as his 1/1 grislebrand can't attack through my 1/1 enchantress.

Round 3 Sam Sam Roukas Esper Stoneforge
Unfortunately game one I have to mulligan to 5 (both hand were landless or only 1 white mana) and it wasn't a very good hand either but decide to keep it. I get tempo'd out with discard and counter magic. Round 2 in comes the blue hate suite (carpet of flowers, choke, city of solitude and karmic justice for fear of EE) I resolve 2 separate carpet of flowers and bait some "must counter" spells and proceed to helm kill early. G3 I have to mulligan again, resolve Carpet, but my enchantress's presence gets forced, next turn city of solitude gets counter-spelled and his Geist out of the SB proceeds to clock me quickly. This MU I feel is typically in my favor, but I believe poor hands on my part and no business results in a loss here. At this point in the tournament I am seated 3rd and the decks ahead at tables 1 and 2 are TES, Dredge, and some other unsavory hulk decks I feel OK going down into the x-1 bracket. He seems sorry for my tough breaks and we wish each-other luck and I tell him I hope to see him in the top 8 (I believe he comes out top place finish)

Round 4 Ralph (Last name unknown) with Maverick 4c? Seemed like 4 color rites but maverick.. G1 he mulls to 6 and I keep. I land an early suppression field slowing all of his plays while I set up my engine an d kill him with Sigil. I get down to about 11 life before the 4/4's fly over for the kill but only after having to fight through and Aven Mindcensor making my tutor effects very limited although my GSZ did end up finding an enchantress 3 cards down, how lucky. Same sideboard plan. I keep, and manage to land another turn 2 cursed totem shutting down more than 50% of his deck. A RIP shuts down the other half. After beats down to 11 life again I find helm and activate for the win. Suppression field has been superb all day. Ralph admits to me that he doesn't play much legacy and is borrowing a friends deck for the day.

Round 5 vs Phillip Cassidy U/R Delver G1 I mostly see basic islands for the first two turns making me on edge since I believe he is playing High Tide with some brainstorms and ponders. Eventually he gets a volc, and plays delver. With a slower clock and late start I win the game with 20+ enchantments on the field. G2 I bring in the blue hate + city of solitude. He plays with a very aggressive hand and a nivmagus elemental. I have a carpet of flowers and being "flustered" through his cantriped 7/7 I forget to name my carpet of flowers trigger which would have let me fight through the spell pierce he had for my oblivion ring. G3 I have the standard snap-keep hand while he is stuck on two lands and gets the angel beats.

Round 6 Michael Keller with Manaless Dredge. He is on the draw and pitches his first dredger. I have no plays except for basic forests the first two turns but he isn't exceptionally fast either. his turn 2 he cabal therapies me for enchantresses presence and with no knowledge other than scouting makes an informed play and I have no enchantress effect for a few turns. I eventually land a confinement and keep it up, he can't win. Game 2 I bring in another RIP and a cursed totem for his dryad arbor's knowing he's bring in nature's claims and I can't remember if I brought in anything else relevant, possibly a couple Leylines. I land a turn 2 RIP which he claims. Knowing he had played fetches and got 2 dryad arbors I knew he wasn't a fast dredge game anymore and waited to keep my cursed totem for turn 3. He fetches out all 4 of his dryad arbors and keeps swinging while I have very little gas. He eventually revered silences my confinement and permanents away but I quickly RIP/Helm him the turn after. His Dryad arbors got in there for 17, and I fetched 3 times, however his spells gained me 10 life thankfully. We extend courtesies after the game and was very pleasant to talk to. I figure out shortly he knows many of the players here and is a swell guy. I enjoyed chatting with practically all of my opponents today.

Round 7 pairings are up and I am seated 5th place top 3 have 16 pts and I have 15. I go over tie-breakers and do a little math and with a 60.5% OMW and 78.6% GW% I feel very confident I will make it into top 8 by splitting. I had no idea what my opponent was playing and I felt like the gamble of playing the game would be greater than playing the split. My opponent Douglas Mckay sat lower than me in %'s but after about 6 minutes decides to go along with it as well. We both make it into the top 8, however I end up seated 8th and him 5th. END swiss

Round 1 of top 8 I'm playing Royce Walter with TES, we look at the deck-lists and I answer his questions about certain cards like karmic justice, suppression field and a few other less seen enchantments. He asks if I have any questions but I know the deck pretty well having played Bryant Cook in a previous NELC (he wrote a tournament report featuring this match back in December seen here in round 3: http://jupitergames.info/articles/20...-nelc-12152012 ). He goes off on turn 2 or 3 successfully with Tendrils knowing its his only way to win since elephant grass would be a blowout. G2 I bring in leylines and stony silence for his LED's and petals, I have to mulligan to 5 not seeing any leylines. This hand has 2 lands 2 enchantresses and a cantrip, so I have to hope he fizzles. Mulling to 4 in hopes of leyline while he plays chain of vapor seems illogical. This time through what seemed like a difficult ponder he still manages to go off turn 2 which by how he played seemed like he would a stretch. He resolves Ad Nauseum and goes to 1, contemplates for about 30 seconds and stays at 1. He can easily count to 10, with enough mana to cast a chain of vapor if he really needed it.

Not knowing what might have happened playing out round 7 I could have easily placed higher, but I am still happy with the outcome. I think close to 90 people showed this month and top 8 with Enchantress felt really good. I got a few compliments on the deck and my matches had a fair amount of spectators. A few even went as far as to tell me I was quite skilled as an enchantress player which inflated my ego a little more. Aside from a sloppy play or two I believe I made close to no errors and as a result placed in the top 8. I promise this deck is not dead.

Pros: Suppression Field, Cursed Totem, t2 Humility through SnT Seeing people excited to look at my list post tournement.
Cons: mulligans, Never drawing Leyline when you need it.
Hilarious: Taking 17 dmg from Dryad Arbor in 1 game.

Hope to see everyone next month at Jupiter.

[Loxmatii]

a little mistake in main list
i think your mean Helm of Obedience, yeah? for helm of awakining you need 2 sensei and some storm wincon

congratulations with a good result! dont you miss Replenish, playing with rip?

[Tropotos]

a little mistake in main list
i think your mean Helm of Obedience, yeah? for helm of awakining you need 2 sensei and some storm wincon

congratulations with a good result! dont you miss Replenish, playing with rip?

I actually copied the list from Jupiter's top 8 announcement. I wonder how I missed that, someone must have input that wrong on the website. As for Replenish, I thought I would at first. With lots of testing I've found that the replenish was there to help you win otherwise un-winnable games. With Helm combo, I don't need it as much. With RIP being as strong as it is right now I haven't looked back. I have played many games getting "blown out" by pernicious deed but with my full grip and tutors still able to combo win the very next turn. I am currently happy with the strength and versatility/resilience of the deck. Not to say I am unwilling to try new things. If you are a fan of the deck, give my build a try and let me know your thoughts.

[Loxmatii]

Ok. I will try your list with great pleasure, because i am a real fan of enchantress

[Tropotos]

Great! I look forward to your feedback.

[sdematt]

Congrats!

Link to the rest of the Top 8?

-Matt

[Tropotos]

http://jupitergames.info/articles/20...pril-20th-2013

These were all 8 of the Final's. Thanks for your interest.

[Michael Keller]

In game one I was able to Dread Return Griselbrand, but I lacked any dredgers in the 'yard to go off. The following turn a Solitary Confinement hit the table which sealed the deal.

Game two was quad-Arbor beat-down, but that didn't work out to my favor.

It was a pleasure playing against you, congrats on the finish and I look forward to the rematch!

[baghdadbob]

This is exciting news.

[Tropotos]

In game one I was able to Dread Return Griselbrand, but I lacked any dredgers in the 'yard to go off. The following turn a Solitary Confinement hit the table which sealed the deal.

Game two was quad-Arbor beat-down, but that didn't work out to my favor.

It was a pleasure playing against you, congrats on the finish and I look forward to the rematch!

It was my pleasure as well. 17 arbor damage is pretty impressive against a prison deck imo. I did forget about the griselbear however seeing as though I took limited notes not anticipating writing a report. I look forward to the rematch as well, but I'm not sure if I will run the same deck. I think this deck is well suited towards making it to the top, but I'm not sure about winning the whole shebang at Jupiter with all the storm combo and usual suspects also up there. You seem to have valuable knowledge about the local (and otherwise) meta I gather from our coversation and from your articles. Perhaps I may pick your brain sometime?

@baghdadbob I do think so! It isn't often one gets to say "another enchantress top 8."