[Deck] Solitaire (Enchantress)

[Otter]

Equipoise - http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...tiverseid=3710 (buys turns where they only get one or two attackers instead of the whole team)

I believe that you're misreading the card. It triggers on your upkeep, so it'll phase their team out on your turn and then dump them back into play for their turn to hit you with all of them.

[anonymos]

Whoops! Well, at least it keeps me from hunting anoter weird card.

[Julian23]

Played Enchantress to a 5-4 in Madrid. Meeeh, I'm kinda frustrated, actually don't wanna talk about it. The night before the tournament a had very intense discussion with 3 fellow Russian/Venezuelanian players at our hostel about Enchantress, one of them making Day 2. Let me say their liste derivate from what we have been discussing here quite a lot. Maybe I'll find the time to talk about it once I can recover...just returned home. My girlfriened would kill me if she knew I was posting here instead of going to bed...

[dontbiteitholmes]

Having Mirri's Guile really makes the deck play differently, if you've never tried it you should atleast test it, I think it's good personally.
Also Mudslide is just an ultra crappy Ghostly Prison, and yes Ghostly prison rocks really hard. When I used to play Enchantress I ran 1x main and it won me more games then I care to count. Your mileage may vary but I often found myself tutoring it up with Grove instead of Moat when (W) mana was the difference and it saved my ass in many games I would have lost otherwise. Of course this was pre-Goyf so like I said, your mileage may vary.

[Darkenslight]

So play both. Mudslide forces your opponent to make a decision without full information; Ghostly Prison makes them decide what to attack with. It adds an extra denial resource to the deck; combat denial.

[Oiolosse]

Dueling Grounds? I find this card exceptional, especially paired with a Maze of Ith -or a Kor Haven.

[SpatulaOfTheAges]

8x Enchantresses
4x Sprawl
4x Grass
4x Ground Seal
3x Confinement
3x Replenish
3x Grove
2x Gaea's Touch
2x Exploration
1x Words of War
1x O. Ring
1x Sylvan Library
1x Seal of Primordium
1x Wild Growth
3x ESG
4x HEath
3x Savannah
2x Sanctum
1x Taiga
9x Forest

That should work. Wasn't running Kirtar's desire or Aura of Silence, as I mentioned, for +1 Wild Growth, +1 Confinement and 1 O. Ring.

re: Mudslide - 3 mana makes this iffy, but looks like it's worth testing.

re: Zoo in general - The most common situation I found myself in in testing is having one Enchantress out and digging for something relevant turn 3 or 4. Grass at that point can be played around with enough burn, as can anything that deals with the attack step. If we are looking for a card that hits the attack step, we want something that works WITH Elephant Grass. Dueling Grounds doesn't. Ghostly Prison and Mudslide do.

Honestly, I'm thinking of Rest for the Weary.

[anonymos]

A lot of the options I mentioned aren't exactly fix alls. They are more like thick mud to slow them down. I didn't want to go into non-enchantment options with my search. I like drawing the cards too much.

RE: Dueling Grounds - I was just posting anything that fit my search requirements at that point. It had to work to slow them down some how. It had to be an enchantment in color (R, G, W) and it had to have CMC 3 or less. I agree that it isn't the best option.

NINJA EDIT: If you're thinking about Rest for the Weary, why not play Heroes Reunion and get a more consistent life gain out of it? It's a guaranteed 7 instead of 8.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...iverseid=23183

[wcm8]

I love Enchantress, because it is one of the few decks that, if it gets its engine online, you have a very good chance of either tutoring or outright drawing all of the answers in your library. However, to make the deck remain consistent, you need to stick with playsets of the essentials, which leaves little room for toolbox answers. Thus, calling Enchantress itself (and the card choices to an extent) a metagame decision is spot-on. Luckily, games are decided on a best-of-three basis, and this is a deck where sideboard choices can mean the difference between going 8-0 or 0-8 in a tournament.

The downside of it, of course, is that it more mentally demanding than most other decks. There are many 'workable' hands, but the way the game permutes is different each time and really requires some important choices. A simpler deck like Zoo can forgive misplays, but with Enchantress each turns' choices can determine a win or a loss.

There was discussion several pages back about how Enchantress will never be truly competitive until a new powerful enchantment card gets printed. I am ambivalent about this viewpoint, but one thing against the deck is that many cards that hurt it have been printed. When the deck first started out, you didn't have to worry about things like Krosan Grip or Quasali Pridemage. If your goal is to win, at this point you might indeed be better off playing a 'tier 1' deck archetype and leaving Enchantress back home for the casual games.

However, I think everyone in this thread loves it for its rogue-ish charm, not to mention that it can on occasion win major tournaments. In certain metagames with lots of creature-type decks, it can really do well. But if your meta has tons of combo, it's basically a lost cause -- not that you can't win some of the rounds, but luck of the draw will play a big factor. Again, this is all pretty much repeating the main points of this thread, but perhaps someone jumping into it on the last page might like this little summary.

With that all said, here is the list I run. It is pretty conservative, but if anyone has some suggestions for alterations I'd be happy to hear them. I haven't had much opportunity to playtest it extensively as I've only recently gotten back into Magic (and don't really do the MWS thing yet), but at a recent local tournament I went 4-1-1. Not too bad since it's been awhile.

20 Lands:
4 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Taiga
1 Savannah
2 Serrah's Sanctum
4 Plains
7 Forest

32 Engine/Staples:
4 Argothian Enchantress
4 Enchantress' Presence
4 Sterling Grove
3 Solitary Confinement
2 Replenish
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Elephant Grass
2 Wild Growth
2 Exploration
1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
1 Words of War
1 Moat

8 Toolbox:
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Ground Seal
1 Choke
1 Karmic Justice
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Aura of Silence

Sideboard:
4 Orim's Chant
2 City of Solitude
2 Choke
1 Replenish
1 CoP: Red
1 Sacred Ground
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Rule of Law
1 Aura of Silence

One of the worst matchups I had was a reanimation deck packing Iona. Other than hoping to get the Relic or Ground Seal in play before they can get her out, there's really not much you can do. The green half of your deck lacks any answers to her and at best can only delay her... Does anyone have any suggestions for this sort of matchup, or is it just a lost cause? I only encounter this sort of thing rarely, but when it does happen...

[Otter]

One of the worst matchups I had was a reanimation deck packing Iona. Other than hoping to get the Relic or Ground Seal in play before they can get her out, there's really not much you can do. The green half of your deck lacks any answers to her and at best can only delay her... Does anyone have any suggestions for this sort of matchup, or is it just a lost cause? I only encounter this sort of thing rarely, but when it does happen...

There were just like three pages of the thread talking about Iona. Anyways, long story short -- Lignify wrecks her and if you see her a lot, you can play a Karakas and try to draw into it.

[Patrunkenphat7]

Why are people straying away from Runed Halo? It helps a ton in the bad matchups for this deck and it's never a dead card.

[wcm8]

Why are people straying away from Runed Halo? It helps a ton in the bad matchups for this deck and it's never a dead card.

I think a lot of people have said that it's not always easy to swing WW early on, and by the time you can it may be too late. What exactly does it help with that other cards don't do as well or better?

I'll admit that I haven't tested it much, but in my experience there hasn't been a situation where I would have won a game if I had sideboarded it in instead of something else. YMMV

[Xero]

NINJA EDIT: If you're thinking about Rest for the Weary, why not play Heroes Reunion and get a more consistent life gain out of it? It's a guaranteed 7 instead of 8.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...iverseid=23183

You'd think that there would be more green or white enchantments that increase life totals, but Peace of Mind and Sunspring Expedition are the only two that don't completely blow.

[Patrunkenphat7]

I think a lot of people have said that it's not always easy to swing WW early on, and by the time you can it may be too late. What exactly does it help with that other cards don't do as well or better?

I'll admit that I haven't tested it much, but in my experience there hasn't been a situation where I would have won a game if I had sideboarded it in instead of something else. YMMV

I feel like it helps a ton vs. storm and belcher. It's maindeckable unlike something like Canonist or Chant.

[Sevryn]

Runed Halo is very good. Running it pretty much requires that you add more non-basics to the land base, going from:

0-1 Savannah
1 Taiga
0 Plateau

to:

4 Savannah
1 Taiga
1 Plateau

and probably adding 1-2 more fetchlands as well. This allows you to run 4 Runed Halos and really make the most of them, but it also makes you more vulnerable to Wasteland, especially the worst-case scenario of an enchanted non-basic. To fight this, you probably cut the Wild Growths, leaving just the Utopia Sprawls, and have to add some alternate acceleration (Chrome Mox or ESG). Which is fully possible. I'm just trying to point out that running Runed Halo is not as simple as just throwing them in the deck, a lot of other things have to be changed around them.

[wcm8]

running Runed Halo is not as simple as just throwing them in the deck, a lot of other things have to be changed around them.

Which is why I am hesitant to add them, certainly not as a 4-of. I think having a stable manabase is more important to Enchantress than the potential of having a good first-game matchup vs. those decks, because you are typically more likely to run into decks that run Wastelands and/or Stifle. An ideal first turn play is often just putting a WG/U Sprawl on a land in preparation for your next turn. Forests won't get blown up.

I suppose you can also maindeck Sacred Ground, but for each time you start protecting/enabling Runed Halo, you are hurting your toolbox and stability.

It's a good card, no doubt, but the Enchantress deck is tight as is.

[dontbiteitholmes]

So play both. Mudslide forces your opponent to make a decision without full information; Ghostly Prison makes them decide what to attack with. It adds an extra denial resource to the deck; combat denial.

I see the allure of Mudslide, but really I feel like Ghostly Prison is better 9/10 times in this deck.
W mana is much more available then R mana especially earlier in the game and in basic land form which is relevant.
Prison works before the first attack. This one is the huge point, if I search out a Ghostly Prison and drop it and they drop creatures into play untapped Ghostly Prison succeeds where Mudslide fails. It costs 4 mana for them to swing at me twice with their creature instead of getting the first attack free then 2 for the second. Really Ghostly Prison's main effect is that it slows down the game allowing you to take control. Example you don't want to be in a situation where you play Mudslide say turn 3 pass the turn, they attack with Goyf then play another Goyf and next turn they pay 2 and swing with double Goyf. Where the Mudslide is cute in that they have to make a decision before they draw, Prison is superior in that many times they have to make a decision involving creatures that were summoning sick last turn. I mean really how many turns is zoo passing the rock with no untapped creatures in play when they are not already in burn range? Then on the flipside how often does aggro w/blue already know the top card of their library before your EOT effectively negating any advantage Mudslide has over Prison.
Prison is more effective vs. Goblins because of Haste.
Prison is better vs. ETW tokens
Prison works vs. Vigilance (not that it's a big deal)
Prison works vs. manlands
Prison works vs. flyers
Prison works much better vs. Dredge
Prison works much better vs. decks with equipment

I mean really I could go through the entire Decks to beat and say Prison is better 99% of the time in those matchups.

I really don't see where I'd ever run Mudslide in the current meta. If I was going to run one of each I'd just run 2x Prisons instead. Prison is just much better at buying extra turns which is what you need, it is less situational then mudslide, effects more creatures, can't be circumvented by manlands and equipment, and is overall easier to cast. I don't see where the debate is on Mudslide being better outside of certain situations and even then if the opponent plays smart or gets lucky it negates any advantage over Prison. Even if they were to draw a disenchant they are still spending a turn paying mana to attack in effect so Prison is still doing work. So yeah Mudslide I'm just not seeing it.

Edit- Oh also fetching a dual out early to play Mudslide then having it Wasted could make the difference later in the game seeing as you run 2x red sources and both are duals and instead you could have got a basic and played Prison and been up a land. Another +1 for Prison. If you are playing a card with red mana in enchantress is really needs to be game breaking to justify it.

[Patrunkenphat7]

Runed Halo is very good. Running it pretty much requires that you add more non-basics to the land base, going from:

0-1 Savannah
1 Taiga
0 Plateau

to:

4 Savannah
1 Taiga
1 Plateau

and probably adding 1-2 more fetchlands as well. This allows you to run 4 Runed Halos and really make the most of them, but it also makes you more vulnerable to Wasteland, especially the worst-case scenario of an enchanted non-basic. To fight this, you probably cut the Wild Growths, leaving just the Utopia Sprawls, and have to add some alternate acceleration (Chrome Mox or ESG). Which is fully possible. I'm just trying to point out that running Runed Halo is not as simple as just throwing them in the deck, a lot of other things have to be changed around them.

That is a rather ridiculous exaggeration. You don't have to change the mana at all to run a 1 or even 2-of Runed Halo. It is relatively easy to stick on turn 2 with the manabase already in this deck, and even if you have to wait til turn 3, it's not bad. This entire post doesn't make any sense to me...

[Opax]

Hi All. Here to post My Madrid Experience. I'll say before start that we had some travel problem and after 5 hour late of the flight i arrange to arrive at the 1st day of tournament with only 4-5h of sleep and very very tired.

But going on this my list:

Lands (19)

7 forest
1 Karakas
1 mistyrain forest
1 Plains
2 Savannah
2 serra sanctum
1 Taiga
4 Windswept heath

Creature (7)

4 argothian enchantress
3 ESG

sorcery (2)

Replenish

Enchantment (32)

1 Aura of silence
4 elephant grass
4 Enchantress presence
2 ground seal
1 Lignify
2 mirri's guile
1 oblivion ring
2 replenish
1 sacred mesa
2 sigil of the empty throne
3 solitary confinement
3 sterling grove
4 utopia sprawl
3 wild growth
1 word of war

Side

1 Cop: Red
2 enlightened tutor
1 aethersworn canonist
1 In the eye of chaos
1 karmic justice
1 moat
1 replenish
1 rule of law
1 runed haloo
1 sacred ground
1 sterling grove
3 vexing susher


i started at turn 4, as i got 3 bye from a gp trail of my zone:

MUC 0-2:

In the 1st game only utopia sprawl and a 1st turn mirri landed on the board nothing else -.-

2ndG same until i see a susher then i arrange some spell but bounce them all with command and repeal until he lock the match with a Oblivion stone recursion -.-

Nice start i thought (XD). later i discovered he finish the 1st day with a 9-0 or something similar.

5)Merfolk 2-0:

G1 a ESG counter a daze on 2nd turn enchantress. i arrange early the lock and then he concede.

G2 i get manascrewed with, for a lot of the match, 1 forest with 2 sprawl on it as my mana source -.- . he send me at 1 i arrange a confinement lock with an an enchantress and a mirri down. moat give me the win.

6) Rok 2-0:

1G he get manascrewed with a loam in his hand 2 fetch in his graveyard and a ground seal on the board. elephant grass stop his tombstalker in the end of the match.

2G I open with a nice hand and a turn 1 enchantress he chain 4-5 discard effect on my. Mirri + replenish give me the victory.

7)Zoo 1-2:

1G He bet me down very fast to 4 life then i arrange an instable confinement i fetched 3 grove to hold it up fortunately he doesn't seen the 3rd quasaly and finish him with wow.

2G He kills me in 3-4 turn an horrible krosan on my elephant grass kils me at turn 4 4G he set a canonist turn 2. I made an horrible error with a goblin guide and a canonist on the board i fetched 2nd grove for the moat instead for the COp he burn me with 3 bolt in 2 turn -.-. My big mistake

8) Zoo 2-1:

1G he burn me down. no way for me

2G nice hand for me i win the race with angels O_ò. (he draw to much with his sylvan)

3G i set a confinement with 1 enchantress and mirri. i lost it ( 6 land on the top of my library)-.- but fortunately 7th card was a replenish :)

9) Baseruption 2-0:

1 G Counter top lock on my at 3rd turn. he didn't see any finisher so i take time, i show him a lost of must counter thank to mirri and then when he was with no cards in his hand i resolve a replenish that was waiting on the top of my library from 7 turn.

2G a Turn 2 susher kills his counter and i set an hard lock quite fast.



7-2 i arrange a non expected day 2.

We leave the tournament zone late i had my dinner after midnight and going to sleep 10 min later wasn't a good idea as i get up in the morning with a terrible stomacache.



10) reanimator 0-2:

1G turn 3 Ioona calling green kills me with 3 enchantress in my hand and no white card on top 3 cards.

2G My hand was very fine turn 1 ench + mirri with an oblivion and a grass left. a thoughtseize take care of the grass and a ioona calling withe kills me with the oblivion in my hand ( sterling grove, e. tutor, replenish , throne and a land was on the top of my library CRAP). just needing 1 more turn to set a ground seal.

11) probant 2-1:

1G he lock me fast with an counter top lock. and 3 times exalted noble hierarch kills me quite faster.

2G a 5/6 rox was killing me until i set a uncounterable replenish that force him to concede.

3G an esg fucked a spell pierce on turn 2. an elephant grass stops his 4th turn progenitus. 7 angel and 2 pegasi give me the victory on turn 4 of time called. ( he get very angry)

12) Tempotresh 2-0:

1G 2nd turn double daze blocked by a double ESG. he was going to cry.

2G he wasn't knowing so good enchantress as he side in submerge -.-. Nice player by the way funny match.

13) Aggro loam 2-0:

1G slow start for me he had a turn 2 fetcher knight. on his turn 3 and 4 he fetched and use top quite 15 time ( still asking what he was looking for). devastating dreams kills our land he comes with a 15/15 knight. i arrange a elephant grass with 3 land in my hand (I was saving them) he doesn't see any one and a lignify buy me time to arrange a lock that kills him.

2G he get in screw i win quite easy but he continue to fetch 4-5 time a turn. we get close to time. Sacred ground give me the victory.



10-3. here my tournament really finish. i get very tired. i go to time quite 3 time. it was around the 14 i was very hungry and i didn't have time to take somewhat to eat. I lost concentration and i started to pay to have not a brainless deck.



14) Aggro loam 0-2:

1G he see all EE for mirri and sprawl, dreams for my 3 enchantress ont he board and wastes for my 2 sanctuary, mesa slow his goyf until i arrange a double ench + solitary lock but a pulse kill my draw engine and he win.

2G i mull to 6 and i don't know why i hold an horrible hand with karakas and sanctuary as only manasource O_ò. then i went for a ESG for a wild growth under chalice at 1, instead of having a sacred ground. No comment. Finally i get time to eat smoke and have a biobreak.

15) Nausea 0-2:

1G nice hand but not for a combo match. i arrange 3 enchantress but i don't have the time to set confinement.

2G i mull to 5 while shuffling he said me he was going to kill me at turn 1. i mull to 4 and i open with plains ESG canonist (with an arghotian still in my hand) . i beat down him to 12. he use a krosan on canonist and he burn me. ( Land, 2 dark ritual, nausea, tendrils, brainstorm, reverent silence was his opening hand)

16) mirror 1-0:

1G he set a mirri turn 1, then i set a double enchantress on turn 2 and a third on turn 3. he concede

2G he mull to 6, then he concede. ( probably he was more tired than me XD)

17) ubr ferie 1-2:

1G i see 14 lands, 14! he was beating me with bitter tokens. he get hurry and cast down spellstutter without countering to beat me faster. i resolve a funny grass. i kill him with WoW after bitter bring him down to 8

2G not a big hand for me. mesa slows his 2 stalkers, perish kills my poor enchantress and i see no grass.

3G he see a lot of counter he was beating me slowly with bitter than i arrange a grass. but i was little screwed so after 5 turn i don't arrange to pay upkeep, and an extirpate on it with my replenish on the stack kills my game. Probably timing a little more i was going to brought at home a draw as we finished at time . but sincerly i was at the end.

Final result 11-6.
Position 111/2220

It was my first big tournament, i go to Madrid only cause i winned the bye. and i was sure to going out 1st day so i bring enchantress and not a brainless deck to test it in a true and big meta.
I'm very happy for my result, a little sad about the lasts match. Probably with 1-2 more win i was going to top 100 or top 64 with some luck.

I'm very happy too cause Tobias Henke write an article on my deck built on the madrid online journal. Sadly it is expired cause they have uploaded top 8th guys, But if anyone is interested i'll post some screehshot.

Sincerly me and my friends paid a lacks of organization, next gp we will travel 2 day before and save 1 day for rest and see the city.
By the way it was our first gp,according to me so its gone quite fine. I think i return from Madrid as a better player. Next time we will see.


About my deck:

- ESG vs a daze blue meta is very strong. and if your problem if no 1st turn runed halo remember you have still fetch for savana, Esg utopia sprawl calling white and then runed halo, of course more difficult to have in your opening hand but still more functional.

- ground seal: i main deck them for slow dredge and reanimator. But mainly cause i don't have aggro-loam and 43-lands in my meta and i was a bit scared about this matchup. And stop loam is a strong gamebreaking vs quite all black deck.

- lignify: a lot of time very useful, unfortunately i didn't see it vs reanimator.

- Mirri: its a card that often is not countered. and sincerly help you a lot to dig into your deck with fetch and grove and to maintain confinement in desperate situation.

- sacred mesa: I added this finisher cause i was scared about land, dark ritual sadistic sacrament postside opening. Never happend. it sometimes give me time but create blockers is a mana dump. and as finisher is to slow for this deck. I'll continue to search one better. If anyone have any suggeestion.

- 3 grove + 1 in side is the better setting according to me, like 2-1 for replenish. test it your own.

- karakas: it seems like gaddok is not so played out of my zone ( like sadistic), i was expecting a lot of zoo and so i decide to maindeck it, another cards i'll like to see vs reanimator.

- 3 shusher: i was expecting a lot of counter top and so i prefer this answer then city or choke. it pays a lot of time. and it is quite sinergic with ESG as people with a shusher down start to counter random enchantment when you are tapped out :). I would like to test them vs stacks deck but ( fortunately) i miss them.

- In the eye of chaos: nice card. i move it to side as i was expecting an aggro meta. when i arrange to put it on the board it was very fine, baseruption waves and sincerly it can slow a lot both combo zoo and burn.


I noticed that shusher on game 2 is a big problem for all control deck cause they sided out quite all answer, i'll try next tournament wish + angel finisher. We will see.

Thank you all for you time. Very Very sorry for my English but i'm very tired. I'll edit error tomorrow.

Thank you all for your help in building this list.

Suerte



P.S. About Zoo and grass discussion i've tested the darkest hour if anyone is interested and its working fine. i cut it for manabase problem but if anyone want to work on it i'll glad to retest it :) ( its a funny card)

[Cthuloo]

Congrats for the result, as I supposed playing tight with this deck for 17 rounds was impossible, but until you were able to remained focused you did a great job!

I see in the end you kept the ground seals in, probably a good choice since you met aggro loam twice, a loam rock and reanimator. In the eye of chaos rocks!

Btw, the article is still avalible here.