[Deck] Solitaire (Enchantress)

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Originally Posted by wcm8

Agreed. Halo is the best bet and worthy as a 2/2 split main/SB, but beyond that I'm not sure if you should worry too much about combo. Just hope to not get paired up against it, I guess.

FWIW, I played a small tournament today. (Low turn-out due to Easter weekend, I guess). Anyways, I beat Ichorid, Zoo, Goblins, and lost to Zoo and a legacy Jund.

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Yeah. Aggro is generally our good match up. Combo is a blow out for them. But that's why I pack 3 Mindbreak Traps in the board, just in case I get lucky. For example... at the SCG 5k, my friend played RB Goblins. His first round match up was ANT. Got smashed in the first game. 2nd game, he put in Mindbreak trap, had one in opening hand and won. 3rd game, the guy had to pitch his silence to Chrome Mox, and my friend had mulled to 6 to find another Mindbreak trap. Opponent scooped g2 and g3 after the trap. ANT is NOT a match up Goblins is supposed to win.

Mindbreak trap is great for goblins, but Enchantress can tutor for its answers to combo. I'd probably rather run some extra enlightened tutors in the board to get Halo/Canonist/Rule of Law than resort to mulling on games 2/3 for the trap. Maybe its good as an addition to the other slots.

I've been testing recently with 4 Exploration, and actually I kind of like the more combo-ish build. It becomes a lot more explosive around turn 4/5. 4 Sprawl/4 Exploration/2 Growth rounds out my acceleration, as I don't think Chrome Mox/ESG/Petal are very useful past turn 1 or 2. If you can get the engine going, you can pretty easily kill the turn after you drop a Sigil.

I used the list here with some modifications: http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=32315

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wcm8

Mindbreak trap is great for goblins, but Enchantress can tutor for its answers to combo. I'd probably rather run some extra enlightened tutors in the board to get Halo/Canonist/Rule of Law than resort to mulling on games 2/3 for the trap. Maybe its good as an addition to the other slots.

I've been testing recently with 4 Exploration, and actually I kind of like the more combo-ish build. It becomes a lot more explosive around turn 4/5. 4 Sprawl/4 Exploration/2 Growth rounds out my acceleration, as I don't think Chrome Mox/ESG/Petal are very useful past turn 1 or 2. If you can get the engine going, you can pretty easily kill the turn after you drop a Sigil.

I used the list here with some modifications: http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=32315

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I really don't see where Mindbreak Trap is good against Goblins. It might let you counter 1 Goblin... if they've played (not vialed) 2 other creatures before it?

And if you look at my list, Mindbreak Trap is not my only answer to combo. I also have 2x Runed Halo in the board, as well as the 2x Runed Halo already in the main. Mindbreak trap is also something that they might not expect you to bring in. They might board out the chants and silences G2 against you since you (normally) wouldn't have counters to stop them. But they probably are going to board in Enchantment hate to get rid of things. I also do not really like dropping Cannonist or Rule of Law because it's going to slow me down and in a tight game, could give them the opportunity to find their enchantment hate and then go off and you've got nothing for them. I would probably also board in Aura of Silence as another card to slow them down and give me an opportunity to win before they find the hate when I drop an early Runed Halo.

You misunderstood me. Mindbreak Trap is a great sideboard card for Goblins to use, NOT AGAINST goblins. Haha. It was in response to the post above mine.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wcm8

You misunderstood me. Mindbreak Trap is a great sideboard card for Goblins to use, NOT AGAINST goblins. Haha. It was in response to the post above mine.

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*facepalm*

Yeah, that makes more sense. But I think my point still stands. Adding Mindbreak Trap as another option for your opening hand is hard to ignore in addition to your other options in Enchantment form. However, you can't always rely on Sterling Grove T2, pop it during your upkeep for Runed Halo and drop it on T3. Sometimes ANT will kill you before you get to that point. Sure, if I get a hand that will let me do that, I'm going to keep it, rather than risk not getting something in a mulligan.

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Originally Posted by jiazhouhuaqiao

For me, the biggest questions in Enchantress are Exploration and/ or Gaea's Touch- 0, 1, 2 or 4 copies?

You need some acceleration, and Enchantress's glaring structural weakness is that it needs to generate way too much mana to win compared to other decks in Legacy. But acceleration is in the form of Petal/ Mox/ ESG/ Wild Growth, at this point Exploration and Gaea's Touch cannot replace primary acceleration. Exploration is rarely an optimal turn 1 play. Gaea's Touch is rarely an optimal turn 2 play. Once you have Enchantress effects out, both are roughly of the same value. Exploration: 1 casting cost- great! Gaea's Touch: pseudo 0 casting cost- great, and you can break it to beat Daze.

Thus the choice becomes:
a. Exploration with its value as a suboptimal turn 1 play
b. Gaea's Touch with its value as a mana efficient Enchantress trigger with some added metagame value against Fish
c. A 3+ casting cost enchantment with more board impact but no impact on turn 1
d. Root Maze with an enhanced value as an asymmetrical turn 1 on the play play

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Digging this back up from a couple pages ago, because I do think it is probably the biggest point of contention regarding the deck's construction. Each has their merits, and the way you build the rest of the deck has a lot to do with what you decide. I have tested pretty much all of the configurations of acceleration, so the conclusions are my own...

Here's my take on it, and it's kind of a moderate approach rather than swaying more towards the 'control' or 'combo' side of the deck.
-You most definitely want 4 Utopia Sprawl, I think this is a given and no one would really disagree here. You have enough Forests that playing them shouldn't ever be a problem, and they function pretty well throughout the entire game.
-Wild Growth doesn't really cut it. You already have 4 better land auras, and they will never let you power out a turn one Argothian like ESG/Petal/Mox.
-Regarding the latter, you definitely want at least two accelerators. Right now I am running 2 Mox. Petal and ESG have the advantage of being Daze deterrents, but they also have the detriment of being one-shots as well as feeding Goyf (a minor concern, but the reality of playing Enchantress is that you will often be dipping REALLY low on life before you finally stabilize). Mox IS disadvantage initially, but look at it this way: the opportunity of getting a turn one Argothian out often means that you will be well on your way towards winning (and you will also have it for the remainder of the game unlike Petal/ESG), and later on when you are playing green "brainstorms" the disadvantage becomes minor. I advocate 2 instead of 3 because you don't really want to ever see multiples in the first few turns.
-Exploration is nuts. Anybody thinking it sucks because of the likelihood to be a suboptimal play turn 1 vs. Wild Growth is ignoring the fact that it has utility that replaces itself turn after turn. There are also situations when it's NOT a bad turn 1 play. I'd also rather have it versus a deck packing land destruction. However, 4 seems excessive. I like 2. They can make good hands great, and bad hands playable. Turn 2 Moat vs Goblins or Ichorid? Early game Sigil? All very situational, but you're not always guaranteed an Enchantress in your opening 7 which otherwise would have been a good hand. I'd often rather keep a borderline hand with Exploration in it than risk mulliganing, because you still have a shot of delaying the opponent until you get your engine. Exploration makes it possible.
-Gaea's Touch doesn't make the cut. Seems like too much of a "win more" card to me. The GG cc is very awkward in most situations, in a way that exploration isn't. Also won't let you drop a Sanctum once you're drawing through your deck towards the win.

Now with only 8 slots of acceleration, you have a couple more slots to devote towards silver bullets or catchalls. I'd rather be top-decking an Oblivion Ring than a Wild Growth in most situations (if you have the engine online then its a moot point anyways.) I think 8 is enough to give yourself a decent chance to open with one in a beneficial way, and not so much that you get flooded with useless top-decks. If you REALLY think your build needs to go up to 10, then you can add an additional 2 wild growth.

tldr: 4 Utopia Sprawl, 2 Exploration, 2 Chrome Mox

Kor Spiritdancer :1::w:
Creature - Kor Wizard (R)
Kor Spiritdancer gets +2/+2 for each Aura attached to it.
Whenever you cast an Aura spell, you may draw a card.
0/2

At first I was like O_O, then I was like -_-. If this card drew whenever you cast any enchantment and not just auras, it might function pretty well here. When are they gonna color-shift Argothian??

.

It may be good in an aggro based enchantress deck with rancors, flickering ward and the like

I dunno, I mean it's not like Auratog ever really caught on in Legacy. I wouldn't really want to drop too much of the rest of the deck in favor of subpar Auras just to focus around one card that might or might not swing for 20...

I guess a potential build would look something like

4 Kor Spirit Dancer
4 Argothian Enchantress
4 Enchantress' Presence
4 Worldy Tutor (might as well)
0-2 Auratog (maybe, maybe not)
4 Rancor (the best Aura printed)
4 Spirit Link (functions for your guys, as well as nullifying opponents' creatures)
2/4 Flickering Ward (to make Dancer unblockable and resilient)
0-4 Whipsilk (most just to function as a Draw enabler)
0-2 Empyrial Armor (hell, why not.. you might end up drawing some obnoxious amount of cards)
4 Wild Growth (aura)
4 Utopia Sprawl (aura)
0-4 Exploration
0-3 Chrome Mox
1-2 Concordant Crossroads (a key aspect of winning on one explosive turn)
20 Lands
X other things

You sacrifice long term investment for short term explosiveness. You trade in a slow kill with Sigil/WoWar for a quick one via Spirit Walker or Auratog. I think it could work, but needs testing.

edit: There might also might be a decent Umbra that would fit in, as well as that Future Sight Aura, Daybreak Coronet. Auras might be a viable strategy, as you gain the ridiculous card advantage from Enchantress with explosive attacks. It might be able to function as a pseudo-combo deck that hopes to swing for 20 by turn 4/5 or so.

Needs something along the lines of trollshroud to be good. It's what makes Uril scary in EDH.

http://www.gatheringmagic.com/wp-con...ening-Zone.jpg

Not sure at all if this is worth anything or not, but it seems like it merits at least a bit of testing. The main problem is that it costs three, rather than two or one, but it could still be quite good in some situations.

Sacred Mesa seems to be strictly better.

edit: I guess that one could be situationally better, but in Enchantress as it is now, no. Doesn't really seem to fit.

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/l..._Overview.html

"As usual, the three most popular archetypes are Zoo, Countertop, and Merfolk. These constitute the three major pillars of the format. What’s surprising, though, is that Reanimator was the fourth most popular archetype! It came out of nowhere and leaped the other major decks, like Burn, Dredge, Aggro Loam, Suicide Black variants, and Land decks."

Obviously metagames shift, but looking at the statistics of this tournament, how would Enchantress be best able to handle these contenders?

Enchantress can handle Zoo pretty well as it is, provided you don't get a terrible opening hand, so I don't think there's really a need to add additional Moats or Ghostly Prison or whatever. Maybe keep a Cop:Red in your sideboard, and Karmic Justice for their possible Reverent Silences.

With Countertop being a major contender, running a main deck City of Solitude (or two) seems like a good choice, as it also helps against Merefolk. The question becomes if you should leave it at 1-2 Cities, or a 1/1 split with Choke. Despite the discussion about Choke, I think it is a great option -- yes, they have 'free' counters, but they hurt their tempo, especially when they won't be able to attack once you have a Grass out. A resolved Choke wins games, and I think 1 or 2 in the sideboard is essential.

Or perhaps even using a maindeck Blood Moon to shut down fetchlands, duals, and Wastelands? I like using Serra's Sanctum though, so I'm not sure if this will just be a 'win more' card, that can actually end up hurting you nearly as badly. But it could help out some in the Zoo match if you get it out early enough.

Reanimator I feel is a very difficult matchup, but using runed halos, Lignify, and a decent sideboard can help out. Perhaps Karakas as well. Regarding the sideboard, I think for graveyard hate it's between using Crypt, Relic, and Faerie Macabre. Wheel of Sun and Moon seems to be a mediocre option, as you typically don't have to worry too much about the Dredge matchup since you have elephant grass... I guess just be wary of a potential Iona. Faerie seems like an especially good option since it's uncounterable, hits targets, and is free. Unless they print a split second reanimation spell, I don't think Reanimator can do much about it -- and it's really only Iona that's the biggest problem, the others can be handled by the rest of your deck.

I think we should be using this data and that from other tournaments to start trying to make an 'optimized' list. Anyone have suggestions?

My sideboard:
1 - Tormod's Crypt
4 - Faerie Macabre
3 - Mindbreak Trap (these have been working out really well, people don't expect it coming from Enchantress.. thanks for the suggestion)
2 - Runed Halo (2 in the main)
2 - Choke
1 - Karmic Justice
1 - CoP: Red
1 - Aura of Silence

I play 1 Blood Moon maindeck and it is not a win more card, it is a real bomb and wins many games by itself.

Done a 63-person tournament today of the regional league. Here is my report.

List:

2 savannah
1 taiga
4 heath
1 misty
1 karakas
1 plains
2 sanctum
7 forest

8 enchantress
3 grove
3 solitary

3 grass
1 ghostly prison

1 Oblivion ring
1 lignify
1 aura of silence
1 runed halo

3 Esg
4 utopia sprawl
3 Wild growth

2 replenish

3 Mirri's guile
1 ground seal

2 sigil of the empty throne
1 word of war

Side:

2 vexing susher
1 Gaddok teeg
1 Aethersworn canonist
2 E. tutor
1 Wordly tutor
1 sacred ground
1 karmic justice
1 replenish
1 sterling grove
1 runed halo
1 blood moon
1 Cop: red
1 Cop: green

1) Merfolk 2-1: slow start for him give me time to set the lock. he kill me at turn 4. last match i replenish the lock on my last turn of life.

2) tropther Foundry control 1-1: opponent was a friend. he set a counter top lock on turn 2 after 35 min he tutored an humility countering my replenish. 2nd match he screwed and i kill him quite fast. 5 min to the time we decide to have a draw and go to eat instead of playing.

3) UBG ferie 0-2: i mull to 5 1st match he stifled 2 fetch and wasted 2 lands -.- . nice hand but he see 2 toughtsize, 2 waste, 2 deed, 2 explosives, extirpate on grove, 2 krosan and some counter. no way.

4) Supreme blue 2-0: i arrange to survive chaining grove and confinement with only 1 draw effect down. Finally i cast runed halo to stops his 3 goyf on the board. 2nd match was very easy: 1st turn mirri, 2nd susher,3rd grove( krosan grip), 4th grove 5th grove 6th cop green 7th halo on vendilion. game

5) rock 2-1: i mull to 5 an 1 dures + 1 hymn kills mine engine. 2nd Cop green slow him down until grass arrives for his confidant. 3rd with karmic justice on the board he play a pulse on my presence, i kill his bird of paradise and then i resolve a bloodmoon that give me the win.

6)UW aggro control 2-1: he get screwed 1st match so i arrange a easy win. 2nd 2 maddling mage and 1 mother of the rune kills me. 3rd he set out on 4th turn 2 Aura of silence. casting about 1 spell for turn i arrange to beat him down with angel.

I arrange a 8th position so i go to top 8

Zoo: I mull to 5( no enchanterr on 7, no land on 6) after some bolt and some attyack i find myself at 2. with 2 encantress down and 1 solitary i played 2 enchantment and on 4 card i see 4 lands.
nice hand on the match later. i set Cop green, cop red, double grove,and 8 mana i stop him at 2 but he topdecked loam lion -.-
Unlucky match.

By the way i feel quite happy of the result. 8/63

About my deck, i was lucky with pairing but sincelrly there was only 1 belcher, 1 Ant and 1 painter grindstone.

- Susher easily kills countertop and sincerly people don't know how work it around.
- Cop green buy me a lot of match.
- 3rd mirri give me a great advantage with control deck and let me hide cards vs black deck.
- ESG: i noticed putting in the 3rd mirri i find myself always have 1st turn mirri 2nd turn enchantress, i'm thinking to move them in side for combo match up and put some stuff in( like the 3 tutor, or the 4th grove and the 2 E tutor.)
- Sincerly i don't like halo in the stadard match-up, i think its an answer for combo deck. But you don't think so, so i'm playitesting it, we will see.
- I paid a lot the lack of the 4th grass. the 3-1 split with prison is good but holding in only 3 don't let you to cantrip them.
- I'm thinking to switch Karakas for 1 more basic lands.
- Blood moon give me a win but there was 6-7 landstill or similar deck so i think its a good choice for the meta.


Thank you all for the time,
sorry for my bad english.

Let me know what do you think about mine list.
thank you.

I have recently taken an interest on this deck, and i'm currently hunting the cards for it. I was wondering if I may be able to get some advise for a starting shell for my deck. I have most of the cards but sadly I cannot afford the dual lands and moat. So for now, I was wondering if anyone with experience to the deck, can give me a nice basic shell for my deck, in which my budgeted mana base can support. Here are the cards which I have in my collection at the moment.

//Land Selections
4 Windswept Heath
2 Serra's Sanctuary
X Forests
X Plains
4 Horizon Canopy

//Creatures Selection
4 Argothian Enchantress
4 Yavimaya Enchantress
4 Verduran Enchantress

//Enchantment Selections
4 Enchantress's Prescence
4 Seal of Primordium
4 Seal of Cleansing
1 Holistic Wisdom
4 Solitary Confinement
4 Elephant Grass
4 Ghostly Prison
4 Karmic Justice
4 City of Solitude
4 Wheel of Sun and Moon
4 Ground Seal
1 Words of Wisdom
4 Rule of Law
4 Sterling Grove

//Other things
3 Replenish
2 Hoofprints of the Stag
2 Sigil of the Empty Throne
2 Luminarch Ascension
1 Words of Wilding



That's what I have at the moment for my collection. But I am currently reading through the pages of this thread, and I am getting a bit discouraged as it seems like I'll have difficulty trying to support my deck with such a poor budget mana base, since I am lacking such expensive cards, which are the duals. Can anyone with knowledge of the deck, lead me to a direction on how I can tackle my deck's approach, such as a proper mana base from what I have in my collection to support the deck? It's a bit discouraging since it seems like I have no choice but to get the duals from reading the posts, but as a new comer to this archetype, and having a big financial difficulty to entry, may I get some help from anyone kind enough to lead me to a recommendable mana base as a starting shell? Something which I can play for now and have fun and slowly work my way up upgrading in the future?

Thank you.

PS:
The most frequent decks I see are usually Bant, Survival Bant, pro Bant, Zoo, Merfolk, Threshold, Reanimator, Pox, Dredge and Landstill.

Hi Zappa,

I have no budget on my landbase and I'm using 1 taiga and 1 savannah. I never fetch them because Wasteland hurts so much and you need basic forests for Utopia Sprawl anyway. Windswept Heath is better in this deck as the duals in my opinion. Horizon Canopy I would not use.

4 Windswept Heath
2 Serra's Sanctuum
4 Plains
8 Forest
4 alternate mana sources (Elvish Spirit Guide, Chrome Mox)

Above manabase assumes a standard Enchantress build which goes for control first to buy time (Elephant Grass, Solitary Confinement,...) and the kil later (Sigil of the Empty Throne, Words of War).

Some cards in your list (Yavimaya Enchantress, Verduran Enchantress) do not fit that deck. But maaaybe you can build a different deck, using the Enchantress shell for an aggro apporach, including Yavimaya Enchantress and Auratog abusing Rancors.

I was trying to justify things also in a way make me feel better that I am more wasteland proof by going with mainly basics. But admit thats just poor excuse to not running them.

I understand that 4 Windswept Heath + 2 Serra's Sanctum is the correct number and obvious choices for what I currently have for my collection. But my struggle is trying to find the ratio of basic forests versus basic plains. I dont wanna run too little plains as to hurt my chances of casting my white business spells, but I also don't want to run too much that it affects my utopia sprawl openings.

I don't really plan on running those 2 other enchantress's but I just felt that I needed to write down the cards I have to work with to make things easier for people to help me. But my main struggle comes from finding the recommendable balance between plains and forests. I mean I understand that eventually I want to upgrade the deck, but with my circumstances, I just wanted to have fun with it for now and play it, instead of waiting a couple of months to buy the duals then play.

Zappa - have you seen the new spoiled Enchantress?

Kor Spiritdancer 1W

Creature - Kor Wizard

Kor Spiritdancer gets +2+2 for each Aura attached to it.
Whenever you cast an Aura spell, you may draw a card.

I have been working on an aggro list with this, rancor, flickering ward, auratog and some others. It is a different approach and seems to have potential as long as we can figure a way to limit the 2 for 1's. Spiritual Asylum comes to mind, but I am sure that there are others.