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View Full Version : G/x Enchantment Shenanigans (Breaking Kruphix's Insight)



maharis
04-15-2014, 12:38 PM
Despite the relative blah of Journey into Nyx and Theros block as a whole, one recently spoiled card has been clogged in my brain since I first saw it and I can't rest until I find a home for it.

Kruphix's Insight (http://mythicspoiler.com/nyx/cards/kruphixsinsight.html)
2G
Sorcery
Reveal the top six cards of your library. Put up to three enchantment cards from among them into your hand and the rest of the revealed cards into your graveyard.

Wait, that's not right. Here is a corrected description:

Kruphix's Insight
2G
Sorcery
Draw six cards.

I know, Mulch has been legal forever and this usually isn't a winning Legacy strategy. But until now, enchantments have had no synergy with these types of cards. Now not only do we have this thing that digs six deep and gets you up to half of those cards, but we also have its little brother Commune with the Gods. And we can get a card type that previously went to the graveyard for limited, if any, value. Take, for example:

Pernicious Deed
Recurring Nightmare
Sylvan Library

I envision this as a sort of Nic Fit build — you use VetEx and Cabal Therapy to make sure the coast is clear from jerks like Rest in Peace and get some lands in play, then start digging for Recurring Nightmare and fuel for it while controlling the board with Deed and ensuring you draw the cards you need to with Sylvan Library. You can go for big cuts like Titans or even Griselbrand (but why do you want cards in your hand, anyway?) or fun stuff like Tidespout Tyrant + Raven's Crime + Life from the Loam. Or just loop value creatures like Thragtusk and Acidic Slime and Eternal Witness. You can start the chain with Lingering Souls, Dryad Arbor, Acorn Harvest, Roar of the Wurm (pretty much any of those Odyssey block flashback-token makers)

This is probably the most likely strategy to be successful and honestly my head is spinning from the possibilities of what to do with it. Probably needs a third color, and that color is probably white, but you could also go into red or blue as well. You can sideboard Choke, Stony Silence, Night of Souls' Betrayal, Engineered Plague, any of the new enchantment creature hatebears, and other things I'm sure I'm forgetting about.

There are some other synergies, though:

Bitterblossom
Contamination

Could this finally be the way we set up this lock?

Sarcomancy
Spiteful Returned
Gravecrawler

And of course other zombies. Hey, this card digs up Goblin Bombardment too! Probably also a good place for a Recurring Nightmare/Deed package, or Loam/Crime/Bloodghast.

Food Chain
Rest in Peace
Prismatic Omen
Misthollow Griffin
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Maga, Traitor to Mortals

Wait, what? Well, you dig around till you find the enchantments and finisher creatures, storing the Misthollow Griffin safely in your graveyard, then RIP everything into oblivion, cast Misthollow Griffin off your rainbow lands, chain it into itself and win. OK, that might be asking a bit much. Maybe we just play Misthollows, RIPs, counters and Favorable Winds.

Are these two cards potential game-changers in the fact that they essentially bring enchantment tutoring to green? I hope so because I'd like to see at least one new archetype come out of Theros block (or perhaps more accurately be bolstered/reborn by it). Also I love the idea of looping Acidic Slime and Thragtusk to blow up all your lands and gain lots of life.

Darkenslight
04-15-2014, 01:42 PM
The correct land to play is always Serra's Sanctum. And you will always want a Replenish. Because you can go, Commune, Insight, Replenish.

FTW
04-15-2014, 02:39 PM
The correct land to play is always Serra's Sanctum. And you will always want a Replenish. Because you can go, Commune, Insight, Replenish.

Sounds like a good plan. Especially since Insight is best suited to setting you up with so many enchantments in the graveyard before you Replenish. Using it to fail to find is so much better than Tome Scouring yourself for less mana. That doesn't at all lose to Rest in Peace, Tendrils of Agony, Show and Tell, or Force of Will. Good thing the format is all Zoo and Goblins.

maharis
04-15-2014, 03:56 PM
Sounds like a good plan. Especially since Insight is best suited to setting you up with so many enchantments in the graveyard before you Replenish. Using it to fail to find is so much better than Tome Scouring yourself for less mana. That doesn't at all lose to Rest in Peace, Tendrils of Agony, Show and Tell, or Force of Will. Good thing the format is all Zoo and Goblins.

Maybe a little ascerbic, but yeah — this plan isn't about reanimating enchantments. We could already do that with Forbidden Alchemy or something. This plan is about pseudo-tutoring for powerful enchantments that interact with cards in the graveyard or that augment graveyard-based strategies. Something like this:

1x Acidic Slime
3x Bayou
4x Cabal Therapy
2x Commune with the Gods
1x Courser of Kruphix
3x Crippling Fatigue
1x Dryad Arbor
1x Eternal Witness
1x Fleshbag Marauder
3x Forest
1x Gaddock Teeg
2x Green Sun's Zenith
2x Kitchen Finks
3x Kruphix's Insight
1x Life from the Loam
2x Lingering Souls
1x Oblivion Ring
3x Pernicious Deed
1x Phyrexian Tower
1x Plains
3x Recurring Nightmare
2x Savannah
1x Scrubland
1x Sun Titan
2x Swamp
2x Sylvan Library
1x Thragtusk
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Veteran Explorer
3x Windswept Heath

Tyrio
04-15-2014, 04:18 PM
This idea sounds super sweet, but I worry that we're too slow to interact. We probably want some number of Innocent Blood to kill off opposing DRS and Delvers (Crippling Fatigue/Fleshbag is probably a little too slow as the only source of removal. It obviously goes very well with Veteran Explorer as well.

I've always wanted abuse Astral Slide as well. I doubt we can jam it into this list but maybe Insight provides enough digging power to find Loam, cycle lands and Astral Slide quickly.

FTW
04-15-2014, 06:13 PM
I like this value-town pseudo-NicFit plan.

Crippling Fatigue seems bad. If you want a removal spell that recurs when you mill yourself and kills weenies, Darkblast is probably way better and doesn't suck from your opener. I think the deck needs more cheap removal (Innocent Blood seems like a good fit, randomly good against Show and Tell too... maybe Shriekmaw if DRS wasn't so popular) and more ways to interact with the opponent early.

Some of the enchantments you dig into could be interactive, especially post-board. You can have combo hate enchantments, aggro hate via Ghostly Prison, etc. You could even run those new hatebear enchantment creatures in the SB. I don't know what the optimal mix is, but seems like there's some way to get value there.

Astral Slide seems like it involves too much tempo loss (cycling lands) to play.

maharis
04-15-2014, 09:54 PM
I like this value-town pseudo-NicFit plan. Crippling Fatigue seems bad. If you want a removal spell that recurs when you mill yourself and kills weenies, Darkblast is probably way better and doesn't suck from your opener. I think the deck needs more cheap removal (Innocent Blood seems like a good fit, randomly good against Show and Tell too... maybe Shriekmaw if DRS wasn't so popular) and more ways to interact with the opponent early. Some of the enchantments you dig into could be interactive, especially post-board. You can have combo hate enchantments, aggro hate via Ghostly Prison, etc. You could even run those new hatebear enchantment creatures in the SB. I don't know what the optimal mix is, but seems like there's some way to get value there. Astral Slide seems like it involves too much tempo loss (cycling lands) to play.

Yeah, I just slept on Darkblast. Not sure how I forgot about it. With Sylvan I believe you can get it back for "free" too. Kills unflipped delvers which seems good.

One of the enticing things to me about this idea is getting cool sideboard enchantments. I hadn't even thought of Ghostly Prison but it seems good.

I did goldfish-test today against UWR delver and either lost horribly or ended up with like 27 life, 11 lands, and 4 permanents in play and multiple Recurring Nightmares in my hand. So I do think there's a deck here.

rufus
04-18-2014, 12:07 PM
Yeah, I just slept on Darkblast. Not sure how I forgot about it. With Sylvan I believe you can get it back for "free" too. Kills unflipped delvers which seems good...

Since the regular draw happens first, you'd have to replace at least two draws in order to get a freebie.

I'm not sure how far you can get with it, but we do have Wild Growth/Utopia Sprawl (and Carpet of Flowers) available as in-color enchantment-based mana production. I wonder if there's some kind of viable ramping game plan.