[Developmental] Enchantment-Stompy

[JanoschEausH]

Hey guys and dolls out there! I searched the forums, but there seems to be no thread featuring a similiar strategy out there.
Remember, everything of the following content is developmental. I don't think my list is perfect or even highly competetive. I just wanted to share my ideas with you and work on them.

I have been building mono white control Decks for quite some time and found an interesting interaction between two old enchantment cards, which i tried to fit into a playable Legacy deck somehow. The cards are Parallax Wave and Opalescence. With both of this cards on the battlefield you can do some insane stack tricks.
Of course, I dont claim to be the first to discover this synergy, as Tom van de Logt build a very similiar deck in 2000, making 5-8th place at worlds.

I tried both enchantments in alot of control shells, but in the end i figured they would be most effective in a stompy shell.

But now to the list i came up with.

Enchantment Stompy

Artifact
4x Chalice of the Void
4x Chrome Mox
3x Trinisphere

Creature
2x Eternal Dragon

Enchantment
2x Journey to Nowhere
4x Oblivion Ring
4x Opalescence
4x Parallax Wave
3x Rule of Law
2x Runed Halo

Instant
2x Argivian Find
1x Enlightened Tutor

Land
13x Plains
4x Ancient Tomb
4x City of Traitors

Sorcery
4x Idyllic Tutor

Sideboard
4x Tormod's Crypt
4x Ghostly Prison
4x Leyline of Sanctity
1x Wheel of Sun and Moon
2x Replenish

I bet your first question is: But why should this be better in any form than existing Stompy-Decks like Faerie-Stompy or Dragon-Stompy?

My answer is: I won't say that this deck is essentially better than any stompy build, but it packs alot of interactions, which i bet 90% of your opponents don't know how to play against, because they have never seen it before.

Synergy #1
Lets assume you have Parallax Wave and Opalescence on the battlefield. What you can do now, is resetting your Parallax Wave as often as you like. Since Opalescence makes Parallax Wave a creature, you can remove a fade counter and target Parallax Wave itself. This will result in Parallax Wave going to the exile, which will immediately trigger Parallax Waves "When Parallax Wave leaves the battlefield, each player returns to the battlefield all cards he or she owns exiled with Parallax Wave". Parallax Wave will now enter the battlefield as a new card with fresh 5 counters on it.
Remember:Any creatures removed from the game with Parallax Wave will return to the battlefield when you reset it!

Synergy #2
With the knowledge of Synergy #1 you can now effectively remove any targetable creature on the battlefield permanently.
1. Remove a fade counter, targeting the desired creature.
2. HOLD PRIORITY and remove another fade counter to target Parallax Wave itself.
3. Pass Priotity

If your opponent let it resolve, this it what happens:
The abilities on the stack will resolve from top to bottom. First your ability removing Parallax Wave will resolve. This will immeadiatly lead to it rejoining the battlefield as stated in Synergy #1. Now the next ability removing the creature from the game resolves. And because the version of Parallax Wave which removed the creature at first doesnt exist anymore (remember: permanents entering the battlefield, enter as completely new cards, which have no past existence whatsoever) the removed creature will be exiled forever.

Synergy #3
With the knowledge of Synergy #1 and #2 you know now how you can safe every enchantment you own besides Opalescence and Parallax Wave from any spot-removal or even mass-removal.
Lets say you have a Oblivion Ring on the battlefield, too. Now your opponent points a Swords to Plowshares at your Ring (its a creature now). What you can do now is the following, responding to the STP:
1. Remove a fade counter, targeting Parallax Wave itself.
2. HOLD PRIORITY and remove a fade counter to target Oblivion Ring.
3. Pass Priority.

If your opponent let it resolve, Oblivion Ring will be removed from the game and will set free whatever it removed before. Then Parallax Wave will reset itself, which will return Oblivion Ring to the battlefield again, which can now remove the permanent which it has removed before.
The target of your opponents STP is now not legal anymore (because it doesnt exist) and it will be countered on resolution.

Synergy #4
Like you saved your Oblivion Ring in Synergy #3, you can safe any creatures on your side with the same trick from mass removal, by losing only Parallax Wave itself.

Most of the spells supporting the main strategy work really well together with the Sol-lands. For example Idyllic Tutor.
The deck plays slowly and is vulnerable to counters and creatures with Shroud or Hexproof. The stompy part makes up for this and can ruin alot of opponents hands.

This deck is also perfectly able to stall against nearly every creature deck until you draw into your win conditions, because mostly every enchantment is good on its own.

The main problem with this deck is to get the combo working. Alot of counterspells are a hinderance, as is a fast clock.

Nevertheless i think this deck has some potential to surprise people who are not that familiar with stack tricks and stompy builds. In my testing i could keep up a really good record against Stoneblade, Maverick and Show and Tell and combo decks like Elves or ANT. RUG-Delver and Control can be hard to play against.

I hope you don't just look at the decklist and close the thread, because this deck is really fun and i think, offers some serious potential.

Thanks for reading!

[Rock Lee]

Needs serra sanctum and leyline of sanctity for some nutty potential plays. Comon this deck can turn 1 win with 5x Leyline, Serra Sanctum & Opalescence! That's only 7 cards!

[JanoschEausH]

I think this wont work, because every enchantment, which is turned into a creature, suffers from summoning sickness, when it came into play the same turn.

[Philipp2293]

Since Leylines start the game in play, they are not affected by summoning sickness if you cast Opalescence turn 1 cause you control them since the start of the turn.

[frogger42]

Hey! Neat deck! What I noticed:

Drop the 1-Drops, your Chalice @ 1 nulls them completely, and you can't Brainstorm them away for something else. It's like Time Walking yourself, which costs games when you need them, and often matches. Serious legacy decks never step on their own feet, there are 1000s of available cards, just take the time to find the right one.

Running 4-drops as your win con means you need serious accel. Chrome Moxen are fine, but I think Mox Diamond's a necessary evil here, too. Diamond + Crucible of Worlds speeds up your deck A LOT, smooths out your land drops, and gives you serious access to Fetches + another color. I think blue's worth considering - Intuition + Replenish looks pretty gamebreaking vs most decks. Best!

[JanoschEausH]

Yea, Crucible of Worlds + Mox Diamonds sounds pretty good. Even splashing a second colour might be good. I found Copy Enchantment a long time ago, which provides more flexibility because it can be everything. Im trying to play with that!

[Barook]

Why not go for blue as second color? It gives you Intuition as reliable tutor and not crap like Idyllic Tutor.

Blue also offers Attunement which enables Replenish alongside of Intuition.

[JanoschEausH]

I will now seriously try blue as a second colour with Intuition. The one thing i fear is Surgical Extraction taking all of my win-conditions.

[Barook]

The one thing i fear is Surgical Extraction taking all of my win-conditions.

Then diverse your wincons. Relying on just one wincon is bad anyway for exactly that reason.

I would also replace one Plains with Karakas.

[Darkenslight]

I would actually eschew blue as the secondary colour for either Red or Green: Red for Pandemonium/Warstorm Surge, and Green for Concordant Crossroads and Rofellos's Gift as well as Sterling Grove.

[Freggle]

I'm not sure if this is a poor necro, or should be it's own thread, but what if the Opalescence / Parrallax Wave combo left the stompy shell and took on some of the newer Enchantment dig spells since this thread started? Below is a list of just that


4 Kruphix's Insight
4 Commune with the Gods
3 Replenish
4 Opalescence
4 Parallax Wave
4 Sylvan Library
4 Ground Seal
4 Wild Growth
4 Utopia Sprawl
1 Oblivion Ring
4 Enchantress's Presence

4 Serra's Sanctum
4 Windswept Heath
1 Plains
11 Forest


This list incorporates Replenish to fight Mass removal. Presence, Commune, Sylvan, and Insight to draw into combo pieces.

Adds a new combo of Ground Seal + Parallax Wave + Opalescence to draw infinite cards, and is fairly consistent.

With the spoiling of Starfield of Nyx that could also add more resiliency to ensure we can land a wincon.

Thoughts, Feedback?

[area]

I am definitely going to be toying around with something like that with the printing of Starfield of Nyx at my local Legacy nights, so I'm on board.

In your post in the Enchantress thread, you had a blue version that ran Attunement - is it simply improving resilience of the mana base the reason for removing the blue?

Sadly, there are very few enchantments that win the game as soon as Opalescence / Wave is online, and none are useful pre-combo, as far as I can see. Impact Tremors is probably the best out of the Pandemonium / Purphoros family, and there's Grim Guardian in black. Looping Ground Seal until you find your one-of Tremors and a Utopia Sprawl isn't terrible to win on the spot, but the combo is so oppressive (especially with an Oblivion Ring) that maybe it's good enough you can just wait a couple of turns to win through the combat step.

I will probably start tinkering with some number of Boseiju, as well as Starfield; having a combo deck that leans on just four copies of key pieces never feels good, and Starfield does duty both as an Opalescence and a mini-Replenish.

[Fatal]

Everything quite nice but I'm not sure you don't need some answers vs Gaddock - 1 Oblivion Ring isn't enough. Gaddock stops all your action.

[Freggle]

I am definitely going to be toying around with something like that with the printing of Starfield of Nyx at my local Legacy nights, so I'm on board.

In your post in the Enchantress thread, you had a blue version that ran Attunement - is it simply improving resilience of the mana base the reason for removing the blue?

Yes. It's also to see if I could become more resilient to Graveyard hate. In theory this deck will have a better change of having Starfield go unabated since playing graveyard hate is at such a low for disrupting the combo then.

Sadly, there are very few enchantments that win the game as soon as Opalescence / Wave is online, and none are useful pre-combo, as far as I can see. Impact Tremors is probably the best out of the Pandemonium / Purphoros family, and there's Grim Guardian in black. Looping Ground Seal until you find your one-of Tremors and a Utopia Sprawl isn't terrible to win on the spot, but the combo is so oppressive (especially with an Oblivion Ring) that maybe it's good enough you can just wait a couple of turns to win through the combat step.

The very first builds were built to exploit constellation triggers. What I had found was the triggers just were not needed, and wining through the attack step was very hard for opponents to stop, and the added cards that did not help you hit the combo made the deck overall weaker.

I will probably start tinkering with some number of Boseiju, as well as Starfield; having a combo deck that leans on just four copies of key pieces never feels good, and Starfield does duty both as an Opalescence and a mini-Replenish.

Keep us posted.

Everything quite nice but I'm not sure you don't need some answers vs Gaddock - 1 Oblivion Ring isn't enough. Gaddock stops all your action.

Your likely best playing more oblivion rings, or Banishing lights so you can find them with the "draw" engine. Plus it stops quite a bit of hate. There is also Karakas if Gaddock proves to be too difficult.

[area]

Minor testing has immediately discovered the nonbo between Starfield of Nyx and Ground Seal.