[Developmental] Spreading Illusions - An Enchantress Variant

Maindeck: 60

The Disruption: 15
3 Spreading Seas
4 Sea's Claim
3 Suppression Field
2 Choke
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon

The Stall: 6
3 Energy Field
3 Elephant Grass

The Draw: 7
4 Argothian Enchantress
3 Enchantress's Presence

The Acceleration: 8
4 Carpet of Flowers
4 Utopia Sprawl

The Win: 5
2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Defense of the Heart

The Wildcards:
2 Enlightened tutor


Mana: 19
10 Forest
4 City of Brass
4 Forbidden Orchard
1 Serra's Sanctum


Sideboard: 15
1 Energy Field
1 Elephant Grass
3 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Arcane Laboratory
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Journey to Nowhere
1 Defense of the Heart
1 Choke
4 Leyline of the Void


The Goal
The goal of the deck is to disrupt your opponent by disrupting their mana, and win by attacking with an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.

The Plan
The Emrakul, the Aeons Torn can be brought into play either by hard casting it via the copious amounts of mana the deck can produce by abusing (stacking) Carpet of Flowers and Serra's Sanctum or by triggering a Defense of the Heart either by your opponent naturally doing so, or by abusing Forbidden Orchard.

The Lock
The lock is simple. Turn as many of your opponents lands into islands as possible Sea's Claim and Spreading Seas and then ultimately land a Choke to cut them off or disrupt their mana. There is also a soft synergy with Suppression Field and how it interacts with fetch lands.

Deck Notes
The deck gains a tremendous amount of acceleration by abusing Carpet of Flowers + Spreading Seas / Sea's Claim interaction, and can rebound from some pretty precarious game positions.

The draw engine is the same as other enchantress builds 4 Argothian Enchantress and 3 Enchantress's Presence keep the cards flowing. Spreading Seas also has the added benefit of being a cantrip in and of itself so the engine can become quite explosive quite quickly.

Defense of the Heart is rarely is ever dead. Not only can it fish up and place into play an Emrakul. It can also make the draw engine that much more explosive by placing two Argothian Enchantresses into play.

This deck is highly disruptive and extremely competitive, and for me an all around blast to play.

I'm not going to lie. I just dreamed it up tonight took it for a spin on Cocktrice and MWS for a bit and was blowing people out. I thought I'd just go ahead and post it here so those interested could help develop this list to it's peak sooner.

I'd love to hear what people have to say good or bad.


Original Sideboard
3 Circle of Protection: Red - burn / Prog. May not be needed
4 Oblivion Ring - Emrakul, ...whatever else
4 Leyline of the Void - The best yard hate
4 Leyline of Sanctity - To help against all things targeted. ...discard, burn sac effects...[/SIZE="2"]

Utopia Sprawl with only 10 forests sounds wrong. You may want Wild Growth instead.

Wild Growth doesn't do it for him, though. He wants blue to cast his land-changing enchantments, but doesn't want islands because of Choke. Fertile Ground would be more in line with what he wants.

Are you aware that Carpet doesn't stack? You can only use the ability once.

Haven't looked into the list too much yet but I just wanted to say that I love the idea! I can tell you from experience that Spreading Seas is a really sweet card, and seeing that in enchantress is exciting. There's probably a lot of room for improvement but the idea itself is cool.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bruticus

Are you aware that Carpet doesn't stack? You can only use the ability once.

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I was not aware of this. I'm not a rules guru, perhaps I'm using the wrong terms. If I were to have multiple copies of Carpet of Flowers in play I could only use the (triggered?) ability once?

I was thinking it was once per turn per copy.

Even if you could only use the ability once regardless of the number of carpet copies that is not too much of a detriment. 1 active carpet is all you need, and in many matches that is all I ever had in play. ...and the other multiples are good cheap cantrips with an enchantress active.

Different topic it should be noted that once the engine is going it is very easy to lock people off of all mana because Suppression Field essentially turns off fetch lands / and inadvertently keep Wasteland in check. Since you get multiple enchantments per turn and they only get one land it works way better than I thought it would.

I was thinking this morning the deck could even run Decree of Silence or Erayo, Soratami Ascendant, but in the end I don't think they are needed.

It is once per turn per Carpet of Flowers.

Also, Sea's Claim, Convincing Mirage, and Lingering Mirage are ridiculously better than Phantasmal Terrain for you.

The manabase seems like it needs retooled as well. There's not much of a reason not to have some number of Savannah and at least 1 Trop. Yes it gets choke'd but only after you have ideally laid down a few Spreading Sea-esqe cards so losing just one land isn't a big deal

Yeah, a fetchable turn one blue source seems warrented, esp if you were to run sea's claim (devastating turn one spell against non-blue decks). Being stuck with two forests as your only lands in your opener would suck. I would love to take your deck for spin myself, though. Looks great.

I hate to ask, but does Enchantress even struggle with non-blue decks?

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Originally Posted by Anusien

I hate to ask, but does Enchantress even struggle with non-blue decks?

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Fast clock + discard might be a problem. And any form of combo of course.

@OP:
Is it really that devastating turning lands into islands?

When they don't untap, and when you have a one-sided Eladamri's Vineyard, yes, I suppose.

All the times I see Enchantress struggling it is because of Delver of Secrets or Lingering Souls or combo or something. Those decks aren't hurt by turning their lands to Islands, and I don't think you gain anything here.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by caiomarcos

@OP:
Is it really that devastating turning lands into islands?

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In a vacuum no. Turning your opponents lands into basic islands is an interim step for the deck that has varying effectiveness.

Against non-blue decks it can be very disruptive. For example it's not too hard to keep your opponents off of BB for a Hymn to Tourach a scary card for any enchantress player to face. ...but the real key to this particular list is that it sets up huge amounts of mana with Carpet of Flowers and ultimately taps down all their land with Choke to the point where enchantress truly becomes a game of solitaire.

It was funny I played Maveric last night, and I was annoyed that they were able to stay on color with their mana men. ...that was until I dropped a Defense of the Heart and fetched up an Emrakul & Argothian because I could.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Anusien

It is once per turn per Carpet of Flowers.

Also, Sea's Claim, Convincing Mirage, and Lingering Mirage are ridiculously better than Phantasmal Terrain for you.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Anusien

All the times I see Enchantress struggling it is because of Delver of Secrets or Lingering Souls or combo or something. Those decks aren't hurt by turning their lands to Islands, and I don't think you gain anything here.

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Anusien, I respect what you have to say. All the above cards were gross oversights. This is what you get when you dream up a list on you ride home from work, and jump into testing.

I also think your missing a few very important things, and I feel it's more my fault for not explaining them. It is my opinion that this list is stronger against blue because of all of the spells they MUST counter. In my mind they are as follows:

Argothian Enchantress
Choke
Enchantress's Presence
Suppression Field
Defense of the Heart
Carpet of Flowers

If all of those cards are not countered this deck will gain advantage over control either through card advantage or locking or stalling important aspects of blues game.

Last night I faced a delver Team America Style deck. T1 Delver T2 flip in for 3.

The first couple turns were horrible for me, but I kept them off of Hymn (I assume) and ran Suppression Field into a Force of Will. Later in the game I saw why they had a hand of fetches, and 1 dual. Next turn I land a Choke I stabilize at 7 and completely lock them out with Suppression Field and Energy Field as they are no longer hitting land drops and are tapped down or suppression fielded out of fetches. while i'm down to 7.

Then I explode off of landing an Argothian Enchantress into a Carpet of Flowers (not knowing the pre / post combat trick yet as detailed here) I pass the turn. I proceed to win this game by hard casting Emakrul off of carpets.

Long story short this deck can win under those circumstances. Elephant Grass in here plays out like an UBER Moat as it also stops fliers, and many times your opponent can not pay for it. This it due to the fact that either their under a Choke lock or Suppression Field/Elephant Grass interation is stacking them out.

Post board you can bring in Seal of Removal to annoy delvers, although I didn't bother in this match.

This deck also generates the mana to keep it up quite well.

Also, if someone want to cast and use it's flashback ability of Lingering Souls be my guest. I'll just eventually trigger my Defense of the Heart.

The deck is very versatile, and strong. It is too early to say this with any weight, but I do feel it functions better than traditional enchantress list under poor mu conditions because this list runs MD Carpet of Flowers The reason early discard, and early counter magic can be so devastating to enchantress is because enchatress simply does not have the mana to cast everything it want to in the early turns to set-up the CA engine, and those strategies are good at breaking up the engine. This list wastes little to no time in generating mana, or slowing your opponent to a similar pace. Also, in the mid to late game this list explodes past traditional enchantress in the amount of mana it can generate and ultimately the number of cards it can filter / stick.

About Combo: This list does run Suppression Field if landed this will royally mess with all things fetch. In the board we do pick-up Leyline of the Void & Leyline of Sanctity both of which can dampen most combo decks.

Lastly, I wanted to mention that this list really is 5 color that just happens to at this point run 3. There really isn't too much of a reason to limit the design space to just GWU, although I'd prefer it to make Carpet triggers easier to manage.

This deck is super interesting, and as a prison-deck-sort-of-guy I'm highly intrigued by it. You can probably search my posts and find my thread for NO-DOTH, defense of the heart is godlike!

I love all of the interactions in this deck. Though are 8 island-turning effects enough?

I'm all for any deck that runs main-deck chokes haha.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kich867

This deck is super interesting, and as a prison-deck-sort-of-guy I'm highly intrigued by it. You can probably search my posts and find my thread for NO-DOTH, defense of the heart is godlike!

I love all of the interactions in this deck. Though are 8 island-turning effects enough?

I'm all for any deck that runs main-deck chokes haha.

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I will not lie there were games where I got locked out of blue early, and it did suck. Surprisingly though those were games I did not loose. Ultimately it would be better to find a more versatile mana base.

[Edit: I'm silly]

Nice deck.

If you need access to green and blue mana without islands, you could use Hinterland Harbor, Flooded Grove, or Yavimaya Coast.

With suppression field and elephant grass both on the battlefield, does this mean an opponent would have to pay 4?

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Originally Posted by hyperchord24

With suppression field and elephant grass both on the battlefield, does this mean an opponent would have to pay 4?

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In looking into this further I think I would have to revise my earlier comments, and say no your opposed does not have to pay 4 because Elephant Grass is a static ability and not an activated one. I believe this is true also for the act of paying the mana. Much like paying the extra mana for Trinisphere.

Suppression Field would however interact negatively for us for with Seal of Removal at the time of sacrifice as I believe that is an activated ability.

I am not a judge however, so I would wait for a more definitive answer or post this question in the proper Card rulings / Interactions forum.

Does Manamorphose work well in this deck?

How do Lingering Mirage, Sea's Claim and Convincing Mirage compare to Phantasmal Terrain for you?

Why Energy Field over Propaganda?

Suppression Field affects Seal of Removal, does not affect Elephant Grass.

HI guys, MUC player here !

Nobody knows the card, I guess...

May I suggest Quicksilver Fountain ? (MUC players love Island :laugh:)

At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player puts a flood counter on target non-Island land he or she controls of his or her choice. That land is an Island for as long as it has a flood counter on it.
At the beginning of each end step, if all lands on the battlefield are Islands, remove all flood counters from them.

Note : "The land stays an Island until the flood counter is removed, even if Quicksilver Fountain leaves the battlefield." Source : Gatherer.

I hope it helped lol

The "Each player" part could run into problems with choke on the battlefield.

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Originally Posted by waSP

Why Energy Field over Propaganda?

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Energy Field Stops so much more because it prevents damage. Propaganda just slows attacks unless we are in lock down mode.

Damage prevention Field provides extends past creatures. Like burn for example targeted or untargeted. Most if not all burn lists roll over to this cards resolution. They can not send anything to our grave. ... you get the idea.

The thing I wish it stopped which I do not believe it does is Tendrils of Agony. Tendrils causes life loss whereas Field prevents damage.

I'll respond to all the others after work.

Why 2 Emrakul? Why not a different Eldrazi/other big creature, or simply just one Emrakul and more Defense of the Heart?

Why not Solitary Confinement? Or Replenish? Or Sterling Grove? I think that there are some cards from the 'normal' Enchantress deck that should definitely be played here.

As mentioned, Sea's Claim or Lingering Mirage are better than Phantasmal Terrain.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wcm8

Why 2 Emrakul? Why not a different Eldrazi/other big creature, or simply just one Emrakul and more Defense of the Heart?

Why not Solitary Confinement? Or Replenish? Or Sterling Grove? I think that there are some cards from the 'normal' Enchantress deck that should definitely be played here.

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Because one needs to search for another Emrakul if one is in hand.
I also think 4 Elephant Grass and 4 Solitary Confinement (instead of Energy Field) should be in the protection slots.
Also, Oblivion Ring is all around a better answer than Seal of Removal.

Well confinement can't (shouldn't?) be dropped early like an energy field. I think.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rufus

Does Manamorphose work well in this deck?

How do Lingering Mirage, Sea's Claim and Convincing Mirage compare to Phantasmal Terrain for you?

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I don't think Manamorphose is right. I could be wrong, I'm just not sure if that is the best way of going about fixing some early mana issues.

All the cards mentioned are better I have updated the OP.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tsabo_tavoc

Because one needs to search for another Emrakul if one is in hand.

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That is correct, however wcm8 also raises a good point in is it better to have 2 Emakrul as opposed to 1 Emakrul and 1 other creature?

I like the double Emakrul because it is the best finisher especially when you consider we can turn Karakas into an island. I also like the fact that it does give mill decks a little more to worry about, though 1 Surgical Extraction on their part would still do the trick on both.

I just like that it gives mill decks more to deal with though Suppression Field, Choke and post board Leylines.

They also help from accidentally milling ourselves.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tsabo_tavoc

I also think 4 Elephant Grass and 4 Solitary Confinement (instead of Energy Field) should be in the protection slots.
Also, Oblivion Ring is all around a better answer than Seal of Removal.

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Yes given the poor interaction of Seal of Removal and Suppression Field I think it is best to swap the Seals to Oblivion Rings. I have updated the OP.

I personally prefer Energy Field in this list because this is more of a tempo enchantress build with a prison-like "lock" whereas the traditional lists are more of a "control" list. As in they control their game state. As Hyperchord24 points out Solitary Confinement is functionally very similar, but requires more mana and more set-up. You better have an enchantress in play in order to cast it or have two copies, or some other plan otherwise your just stalling.

The deck I built eliminated fetches for two reasons 1 Suppression Field & Choke are strong enough to warrant their exclusion & 2 I wanted to eliminate anything going to the graveyard to break Energy Field. I can drop an Energy Field as early as turn 2, and force my opponent to have to deal with it (tempo). Whereas I can not with Solitary Confinement.

Now there are many matchup where that is not the correct way to play the deck, but there are also many where it is. Goblins, Burn, Maveric... All of those have to deal with it in order to attempt to win, and Goblins and Burn just can't.

I have also played Energy Field with the combo of Wheel of Sun and Moon in the past, but I had found it just wasn't worth it. If something could kill my Energy Field it could also kill my Wheel of Sun and Moon and they would two for 1 me. WoSaM just doesn't do enough for a slot because even in the MU where you would think you would want it Dredge you still have Elephant Grass, Leyline of the Void, depending on the Dredge build Leyline of Sanctity, Defense of the Heart & Energy Field to help tempo you to a win.

Why do you think Solitary Confinement should be played over Energy Field? I'm asking because even though I'm pretty certain Energy Field is the right call, I'd love to be convinced otherwise because I do like playing with confinement.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 264505

If you need access to green and blue mana without islands, you could use Hinterland Harbor, Flooded Grove, or Yavimaya Coast.

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I too have thought of this, but the more non-forests the list runs the riskier it is to run Utopia Sprawl a quality acceleration tool. Is there someone out there that is savvy with mana bases that can help me figure out what the proper amout of blue sources would be so we can go about this logically?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wcm8

Why not Solitary Confinement? Or Replenish? Or Sterling Grove? I think that there are some cards from the 'normal' Enchantress deck that should definitely be played here.

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I commented above about Solitary Confinement, but as for Replenish & Sterling Grove they are not tempo cards.

Do not get me wrong. They are very powerful, but what would I get back with Replenish that I couldn't just dig for? In testing my yard stays fairly empty by design. If I were to run Replenish I'd run Intuition and you'd have a completely different combo-y deck.

Sterling Grove is a great protection piece, but with this deck I want to be the aggressor, and put my opponent on their heals to where they have to fight to protect themselves not the other way around like the traditional "control" enchantress lists. I also do not run a toolbox to fully utilize Grove. ...and the Suppression Field/Sterling Grove interaction is too much to bear.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Freggle

I personally prefer Energy Field in this list because this is more of a tempo enchantress build with a prison-like "lock" whereas the traditional lists are more of a "control" list. As in they control their game state. As Hyperchord24 points out Solitary Confinement is functionally very similar, but requires more mana and more set-up. You better have an enchantress in play in order to cast it or have two copies, or some other plan otherwise your just stalling.

The deck I built eliminated fetches for two reasons 1 Suppression Field & Choke are strong enough to warrant their exclusion & 2 I wanted to eliminate anything going to the graveyard to break Energy Field. I can drop an Energy Field as early as turn 2, and force my opponent to have to deal with it (tempo). Whereas I can not with Solitary Confinement.

Now there are many matchup where that is not the correct way to play the deck, but there are also many where it is. Goblins, Burn, Maveric... All of those have to deal with it in order to attempt to win, and Goblins and Burn just can't.

I have also played Energy Field with the combo of Wheel of Sun and Moon in the past, but I had found it just wasn't worth it. If something could kill my Energy Field it could also kill my Wheel of Sun and Moon and they would two for 1 me. WoSaM just doesn't do enough for a slot because even in the MU where you would think you would want it Dredge you still have Elephant Grass, Leyline of the Void, depending on the Dredge build Leyline of Sanctity, Defense of the Heart & Energy Field to help tempo you to a win.

Why do you think Solitary Confinement should be played over Energy Field? I'm asking because even though I'm pretty certain Energy Field is the right call, I'd love to be convinced otherwise because I do like playing with confinement.

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Solitary Confinement hoses combo; Solitary Confinement does not die to Wasteland or Defense of the Heart. Although its drawback is obvious, it guarantees to buy you a turn, if not more.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Freggle

Then I explode off of landing an Argothian Enchantress into a Carpet of Flowers (not knowing the pre / post combat trick yet as detailed here) I pass the turn. I proceed to win this game by hard casting Emakrul off of carpets.

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I'm confused by the usage of Carpet of Flowers

Deckbor.org says
"At the beginning of your precombat main phase, you may add up to X mana of any one color to your mana pool, where X is the number of Islands target opponent controls."

While Magiccards.info reads
"At the beginning of each of your main phases, if you haven't added mana to your mana pool with this ability this turn, you may add up to X mana of any one color to your mana pool, where X is the number of Islands target opponent controls."

Which would influence how the trick should work (or not).

whats correct here?

Might it be worth running forbidden orchard for blue sources to help with defense of the heart?

.

I think the important question to ask when comparing two cards that fill a significant role in the deck is what matchups are improved/disimproved by running this or that card.
Energy Field over Confinement:
Improved: Goblins, Burn
Worsened: Anything with Wasteland, anything with hand removal, anything with counters.
Not significantly affected: Maverick probably?

This is maybe something for the rules forum, but WoSaM will cause itself to go to the bottom of your library if destroyed. The game doesn't know it's not in play until it has already done its replacement effect.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MagIsi

I'm confused by the usage of Carpet of Flowers

Deckbor.org says
"At the beginning of your precombat main phase, you may add up to X mana of any one color to your mana pool, where X is the number of Islands target opponent controls."

While Magiccards.info reads
"At the beginning of each of your main phases, if you haven't added mana to your mana pool with this ability this turn, you may add up to X mana of any one color to your mana pool, where X is the number of Islands target opponent controls."

Which would influence how the trick should work (or not).

whats correct here?

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http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...tiverseid=5858

Gatherer is correct.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by waSP

I think the important question to ask when comparing two cards that fill a significant role in the deck is what matchups are improved/disimproved by running this or that card.
Energy Field over Confinement:
Improved: Goblins, Burn
Worsened: Anything with Wasteland, anything with hand removal, anything with counters.
Not significantly affected: Maverick probably?

This is maybe something for the rules forum, but WoSaM will cause itself to go to the bottom of your library if destroyed. The game doesn't know it's not in play until it has already done its replacement effect.

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I think this is a good way to look at it. ...and as for the Wheel of Sun and Moon replacement effect question I found this.

According that old Rulings forum post WoSaM's replacement effect will place WoSaM on the bottom of the library.

Forbidden Orchard has always been in the list.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tsabo_tavoc

Solitary Confinement hoses combo; Solitary Confinement does not die to Wasteland or Defense of the Heart. Although its drawback is obvious, it guarantees to buy you a turn, if not more.

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Having run Energy Field in a number of enchantress lists I can say you fear counterspells the most.

So much so many times you may just draw and pass until you have another in hand, or an E grass or whatever which is still fine for this deck.

This list worries very little about Wasteland. Can it and will it happen? Sure, but there will be more times where Suppression Field will keep your opponent off of Waste. If they are on non-color mana and not MUD you should be winning, and can force them to use it or loose it with a sea's of some kind or an S Field. before dropping E Field.

Discard you will most definitely want to bring in Leyline of Sanctity because with discard usually comes Sac effects, and that one card hoses both.

The earlier point I wanted to make with Propaganda over Energy Field is that if you're doing your job, it will improve some of your worse matchups (while disimproving some of your very good matchups). You'll lose more games/matches to burn but you'll win more against aggro control. You should do about the same against goblins.

Manamorphose sounds like a good idea for the deck (if you don't get a CoB/FO/US opening which should be 15% of your openers--Manamorphose would drop that number to about 7% if I'm doing my calculations correctly--anyway). This deck seems like it wants to cycle through cards pretty quickly to get to its Chokes, etc. You could run 8-12 cycle cards (MM, Gitaxian Probe, Street Wraith), but the life loss might get excessive. Gitaxian would be able to tell you if you're safe to do things like play Energy Field/Choke or if you want to try to draw out the counter with other spells. It can certainly help you to be a better player.

But in the same vein, what about Ground Seal? It fits better into a shell with Solitary Confinement as it's very good at sustaining card draws.

Why only 3 Chokes? That is the most important card for the game plan, right?

What about Jace, the Mind Sculptor over Defense of the Heart for the kill? Especially if you run on Propaganda, it will be very hard to attack you. I know you really enjoy playing with Defense of the Heart, but is it the best possible win condition. Playing with Jace would free up a slot or two and has the added benefit of acting like spot removal sometimes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by waSP

What about Jace, the Mind Sculptor over Defense of the Heart for the kill? Especially if you run on Propaganda, it will be very hard to attack you. I know you really enjoy playing with Defense of the Heart, but is it the best possible win condition. Playing with Jace would free up a slot or two and has the added benefit of acting like spot removal sometimes.

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Just so the thread does not go off on a tangent Jace, the Mind Sculptor is nothing but activated abilities, and does not play nice with Suppression Field. Defense is triggered, and wins relatively on the spot.

I'll respond to the rest after work.

I didn't think we'd have too much trouble paying 2 for Jace's ability. I haven't had the chance to test yet, but are you usually tight on mana?

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Originally Posted by waSP

I didn't think we'd have too much trouble paying 2 for Jace's ability. I haven't had the chance to test yet, but are you usually tight on mana?

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This is true, but sometimes it's 4, 6, or even 8.
Suppression field is our best tool against Plainswalkers, and equipments so I tend to stack them out early when possible.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by waSP

The earlier point I wanted to make with Propaganda over Energy Field is that if you're doing your job, it will improve some of your worse matchups (while disimproving some of your very good matchups). You'll lose more games/matches to burn but you'll win more against aggro control. You should do about the same against goblins.

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I understood that, but if the deck is doing it's job that means you landed a few island enchants, and a Choke. It happens fairly often but sometimes you just need a "wall" or an obstacle for your opponent to get through while you set that up. So I still think Energy Field is the right call.

Also, by the time we are at that phase of the game and we wanted that type of effect we would probably rather have Solitary Confinement as we would likely be able to support it. Energy Field is just more flexible in it's usage so it is just less dead more often.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by waSP

Manamorphose sounds like a good idea for the deck (if you don't get a CoB/FO/US opening which should be 15% of your openers--Manamorphose would drop that number to about 7% if I'm doing my calculations correctly--anyway). This deck seems like it wants to cycle through cards pretty quickly to get to its Chokes, etc. You could run 8-12 cycle cards (MM, Gitaxian Probe, Street Wraith), but the life loss might get excessive. Gitaxian would be able to tell you if you're safe to do things like play Energy Field/Choke or if you want to try to draw out the counter with other spells. It can certainly help you to be a better player.

But in the same vein, what about Ground Seal? It fits better into a shell with Solitary Confinement as it's very good at sustaining card draws.

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I'm warming to the idea of Manamorphose except that it goes to the graveyard. As does Gitaxian Probe, and Street Wraith. Street Wraith also has the added problem of cycling (an activated ability) Maybe these should be tried, but the interaction of Energy Field and Suppression Field (very good cards for the deck) is a strong enough deterant for me not to test them right now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by waSP

Why only 3 Chokes? That is the most important card for the game plan, right?

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No, I'd say Carpet of Flowers & the enchantress effect cards are the most important cards for the deck. If a Carpet of Flowers is landed i'm probably going to win because then I cycle through my deck pretty quickly hitting 1 of the 3 Choke. Many times contol is out of gas by the time I try and stick a Choke.

They also don't do anything in multiples so I think 3 is just fine. A 4th copy wouldn't be terrible, but I'm not sure if it is the best use of the card slot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by waSP

What about Jace, the Mind Sculptor over Defense of the Heart for the kill? Especially if you run on Propaganda, it will be very hard to attack you. I know you really enjoy playing with Defense of the Heart, but is it the best possible win condition. Playing with Jace would free up a slot or two and has the added benefit of acting like spot removal sometimes.

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I'm open to alt win cons, but Emrakul is quite good. He also functions like spot/board removal.