[Deck] Solitaire (Enchantress)

[ho_master]

I piloted Enchantress at GenCon's Legacy Champs event and took it to a 6-2 finish for 12th place. I ran the unpopular version of Words of Wind, but got 3 of my opponents to concede with Wind bouncing most of their permanents without finishing the kill with Angels. I'll post a tournament report here if it's still cool to do that later tonight if anyone's interested...

[Zlatzman]

I'd certainly like to read the report. I personally think blue-versions of Enchantress are fine in this thread, but I'm not sure if I'm part of the majority or not. If not you could post it in the Tournament Reports-section I guess?

If you have the time, maybe you could give some thoughts on blue vs. red enchantress in today's metagame? Strengths, weaknesses?

[ho_master]

I'm just going to post it here, since the target audience for this report is for the Enchantress community to pick me apart for making incorrect decisions on deck design/sideboarding :)

Please pardon my tl;dr style of writing, but I just want to make my thoughts as clear as possible. Also, I'm not claiming to be an expert on anything here, so everything I've written is just my (possibly very wrong) opinion.

Deck List:

Lands:
7x Forest
3x Plains
4x Windswept Heath
2x Serra's Sanctum
2x Savannah
1x Tropical Island
1x Horizon Canopy

4x Argothian Enchantress
4x Enchantress's Presence
4x Utopia Sprawl
4x Elephant Grass
4x Sterling Grove
1x Moat
2x Replenish

2x Chrome Mox
2x Solitary Confinement
2x City of Solitude
2x Oblivion Ring
2x Runed Halo
3x Wild Growth
1x Wheel of Sun and Moon
2x Sigil of the Empty Throne
1x Words of Wind

The Sideboard:
1x Humility
2x Aura of Silence
2x Karmic Justice
1x Wheel of Sun and Moon
4x Leyline of Sanctity
1x Lignify
1x Replenish
2x Choke
1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Explanation of card choices:

It's a standard deck, with everything from Replenish upwards being what I believe to be "Untouchable" slots, except the Tropical Island, which of course is for Words of Wind. I have a variety of 2's to handle various scenarios, but I don't want to over commit on anything to keep my options open. Oblivion Ring felt like it needed to be a 2 of as well with the rise of decks that cheat in too powerful creatures (Emrakul/Iona) using Show and Tell, Mosswort Bridge, or Shelldock Isle. Of course, O-Ring isn't castable under Iona (unless it's for Show and Tell), but answers to Emrakul are absolutely necessary in the current meta. I have a 1-of Wheel of Sun and Moon to address Sword of the Meek and any other Graveyard dependent strategy.

For the sideboard, I added the 4 Leylines of Sanctity, which I (and others judging from the last few posts on the thread) think are amazing in certain matchups. Obviously it's the card Enchantress has been wanting against combo for so long, but applications in other matchups are worth examining. Zoo is actually an aggro deck that can be a bit difficult thanks to the intense amount of pressure it puts on you, and Sanctity will at least invalidate 4x Lightning Bolt, 4x Chain Lightning and 3x Grim Lavamanancer ability. I'll put in 4 cards to try to stop 11 cards in a deck any day. Against discard based decks, it obviously shores up a matchup which could blow you out of a tournament purely off of Hymn and Thoughtseizes. Also, Tormod's Crypt, Relic of Progenitus, and Bojuka Bog all target a player to remove cards (excluding Relic's remove all graveyards ability), and if you feel your opponent is boarding sufficiently into those to prevent Replenish, you have leyline to match them. Finally, It seems some control decks are switching to winning almost purely by Jave the Mind Sculptor, and Sanctity is just another way to stop that win condition. Added bonus: Leyline of Sanctity is an enchantment that is free and adds to Serra's Sanctum enchantment count.

As mentioned above with O-Ring, I believe 1 or even 2 Lignify's are necessary in the board depending on if you feel the meta is very Show and Tell heavy.

I have a 1-of Emrakul in the board because this is the one deck I feel that has a consistent shot of legitamately casting it and receiving the full effects of can't be countered and most importantly, take an extra turn. Against Control decks with Counterbalance, if your opponent is just shutting you out of win con's by floating 3's or 5's or even 4's against you, you can ignore all that and simply hardcast Emrakul, untap, and wipe their board. Of course, if your opponent has generated a ton of Thopters, you have another situation on your hands, but I feel that most Counter Thopter decks don't go for the kill via annoying flyers until control has been firmly established in the late game, thus buying you between 7-9 turns to generate the mana necessary to wreck their board before they can start combo'ing off. Added bonus here: If your opponent is playing Show and Tell and you mise the Emrakul when he casts it, imagine his surprise when you windmill flip it over and he has to pass the turn to you.

Finally, the Humility is anti-synergistic with Enchantress, but in some cases, I'd rather invalidate part of my engine if it means getting rid of their Pridemages/Iona/Emrakul/Trygon Predator/anything else that's just BAD. Also, sometimes against ridiculous aggro decks, you need to be able to buy a few turns by shrinking Merfolk/Goblins to manageable 1/1's instead of them being 3/3's or 4/4's which will kill you in one turn. And with my version, once you've established a lock, you can proceed to bounce the Humility using Words of Wind, which leads into my next topic...

On Words of Wind vs Words of War:

I used to run this a long time ago in Austin, but if I recall correctly, it's fallen out of favor for a couple of reasons:

1. Words of Wind is not an "instant-kill", whereas Words of War definitely causes your opponent to lose
2. Wind also makes Enchantress games run long, which could be a factor in being unable to finish your match without a draw.

For the first reason, I say that Wind doesn't cause your opponent to definitely enter a losing state as defined by the rules of Magic, but once you start the cycle of bouncing permanents, I found that opponents usually just scoop up their cards rather than let you finish the process of wrecking their board. In the case where you don't have Serra's Sanctum out, you probably will be dealing between 8-12 damage to your opponent using Words of War, which will still require one more turn to finish him off with it. However, if you have Words of Wind, you can instead bounce 4-6 permanents of theirs (and yours of course), which I believe to be much more explosive. Sure, it's not that great against Counter Top Thopters after they have a ton of tokens, but neither is Words of War in that case, and on average, I'd say that if you go off on your opponent with Wind, you will end up bouncing at LEAST 50%-75% of their board and leave them with mostly just lands and maybe one manageable threat like a Goyf. It's just as much of a kill to cripple their position int he game as it is to let them keep their board and hope that you have two turns to activate War without being blown up by an epic topdeck. Also, Words of Wind allows you to bounce your cheap enchantments, like Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl, which I THINK nets you a little extra mana to activate Wind more times than you might be able to activate War. I haven't really done all the scenarios, but it definitely helps your hand, whereas in the War case, you'd have to just use the enchantments already in hand, which may be expensive 3 CMC spells, which would slow your damage.

For the second reason, I argue that Wind is just as fast of a kill as War either by causing instant scoops, or failing that, it should only take one or two more turns post-bouncing to tutor up Sigil with Sterling Grove with your opponent having a minimal board, protect it with a City of Solitude (or have him blow his counters on that), so you really only lose about 3-4 minutes going this approach rather than burn to the face with War. In addition, and I don't know if this point is valid enough, but if you have Landstill decks and Counter Top Thopter decks making top 8's/winning tournaments, then what is the complaint about how slow Wind is? Those decks run MUCH slower than Wind-Enchantress, and sometimes rely on just winning game 1 and going to time. Enchantress is a similar style of Control-Combo deck; why should it not follow the same principles that CTT is laying out? Again, Wind is absolutely devastating to most opponents in reducing their board to shambles, while yours stays the same.

One final note in Wind vs. War is that in the mirror, War is utterly useless mostless, whereas Wind is a way out of winning the battle, thus bouncing your opponent's Confinement and allowing you to swing in with Angels for the win. It's a <2% case that ever occurs at tournaments, but wouldn't you rather play a way out of this rather than just drawing with your opponent?

Ok enough analysis, here's the report!

Tournament Report:

Round 1: Kayvan Kole playing 4-color Counter Top

Game 1: He has turn 1 Top followed by turn 2 Counterbalance on the play, but I have turn 1 Utopia Sprawl and turn 2 option of casting Argothian or Presence. I go for Argothian, despite the higher likelihood of being countered by blind flip CMC 2, but he blind reveals a Top, and lets it resolve (I didn't want him to blind flip, miss, and still have the option to Daze Presence). He drops a Goyf, but I drop an Elephant Grass, and he pays to begin small beats for 2 at a time. Eventually I either resolve an Oblivion Ring or a Solitary Confinement, because I don't take anymore damage, then I proceed to cast Sigil of the Empty Throne, which is countered the first time, but resolves the second time, and I crap out angels until he dies. I think a Jace the Mind Sculptor was involved somewhere in all this, but it didn't matter too much once I resolved Confinement.

-4 Elephant Grass
-1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
-2 Wild Growth
-1 Moat

+2 Aura of Silence
+1 Replenish
+2 Choke
+2 Karmic Justice
+1 Emrakul the Aeons Torn

I took out the usual useless stuff against Control-ish decks, but decided to cut Moat because I didn't want to have it be useless against a Vendillion Clique, and because I could mostly resolve Runed Halo's/Oblivion Rings to handle the miniscule number of threats the deck runs (Goyf, Jace, Clique). Emrakul is the hotness against control decks, and I can actually CAST it, so I'm convinced this might be really good...

Game 2: I believe I land an early Enchantress effect with it not being countered and with no Counterbalance either. I resolve Runed Halo naming Jace the Mind Sculptor, then resolve Runed Halo naming Tarmogoyf. He resolves a Meddling Mage naming Solitary Confinement, but I have the O-Ring for it. Eventually his board is nothing but 5 lands and a Sensei's Top, while I have the usual enchantments out + Sterling Grove protection. I step into my turn where I finally have both Serra's Sanctum + Emrakul in hand, drop the Sanctum, and hardcast Emrakul almost purely off of it! His eyes widen as he nods okay, and I cast a few more enchantments just to fill my hand, end my turn, go to untap the next turn, and before I can declare attackers, he extends his hand.

1-0

Round 2: Frank Emmeret with Gamekeeper/Faeries/Bomberman (don't know the deck name).

I actually didn't know the full extent of how much trouble I was in until game 2...

Game 1: He lands turn 1 top and turn 2 Bitterblossom, but I have Elephant Grass on my turn 3 or 4 to stop the sheannigans. He drops another Bitterblossom, losing 2 life a turn for a bit, and resolves Innocent Blood to take care of my Argothian, but I have a Presence out and am drawing a ton of cards from it. Eventually I have 3 Sterling Groves out and a fresh Elephant Grass with no age counters, and so he tries to cast Maelstrom Pulse targeting my Sterling Groves. I helpfully point out that he cannot target the Sterling Grove, or any other enchantment for that matter, but that he still announced the spell and has to claim a legal target...so he wisely chooses his Bitterblossoms. Next turn, he goes for Thoughtseize, sees I have 2 Replenish and 2 Sigil of the Empy Thrones in hand, and scoops up his cards before he finishes resolve the spell.

+4 Leyline of Sanctity
+2 Karmic Justice
+1 Replenish
-2 Runed Halo
-2 Wild Growth
-2 City of Solitude
-1 Wheel of Sun and Moon

I thought he was playing some sort of Rock-ish Faeries deck since I didn't see much beyond them, but if I had known better, I'd have kept in that Wheel of Sun and Moon and Runed Halo...

Game 2: I have pre-game Leyline of Sanctity to prevent discard effects, and we spend a couple of turns setting up, me with Presence, him with Top. He hems and haws on turn 5 or so, and decides to cast Cabal Therapy targetting himself. He reveals his hand...Innocent Blood, Wasteland, Living Wish, LED, and Gamekeeper. I look at the Gamekeeper and go "Uh-Oh" to myself, and try to wrack my brain for what he could be using that for...I settle on him trying to crack it with Therapy to get Emrakul and hope I'm not wrong. In any case, he gets the Therapy in the yard, casts Gamekeeper, then sacs it targetting himself again and flips....Auriok Salvagers. He generates "infinite mana" first (I correct him into saying he can't do that, but I helpfully say I'm ok with him having a million of each color in the mana pool), goes to his yard...and curses his luck. I fetch up an Oblivion Ring and remove the Salvagers to prevent more shenanigans, but I have to hurry because he has more Therapies in the yard and may eventually draw another Gamekeeper. I spend the next 6 turns literally doing nothing but frantically drawing for a kill condition to win, and finally get Words of Wind out and bounce most of his permanents, leaving him 3 lands on the board. He has one more turn to draw a Chromatic Star/Engineered Explosives, peeks at his top card, casts Top and peeks 3 down, flips over 3 lands and extends the hand shake of defeat.

2-0

Round 3: John Adams with Saito Merfolk

Game 1: I don't have very good notes on Merfolk decks because they usually went pretty fast. I see that he knocked me down to 14 with Lord of Atlantis beats, but I wrote down that I resolved Moat and won with Angels. I remember him saying he had to quickly find more Coralhelm Commanders before things got out of control, but he only had 1 and I had at least 5 Angels when he scooped at 20 life.

+1 Humility
+1 Replenish
+2 Choke

-1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
-1 Oblivion Ring (mistake I think)
-2 Runed Halo

My deck is already suited for Aggro, and though his deck is Blue, I don't have time to cast Emrakul. Even with Humility shutting off my Argothians, I will end up winning thanks to Moat + Elephant Grass, resolve City of Solitude, then Words of Wind his board until I bounce Humility and my Angels swoop in for the kill.

Game 2: He resolves 2 Engineered Plagues, and we call for a judge to get the exact Creature types of Argothian, and names "Human" then "Druid" on each one. It doesn't matter though, as I have 3 Enchantress's Presence in hand, have 2 of them FOW'd, and end up looking at lethal on the board before I successfully tutor up a Moat with Sterling Grove and resolve it. I have only the 1 Presence out, but have a Sigil of the Empty Throne and cast my first Enchantment...and draw a land, then Chrome Mox, then Land, then Argothian Enchantress. However, the 1 Angel I have ends up swinging in 3 times, knocking him down from 16 to 4, and on his final turn, he cannot find Coralhelm to block the Angel in time.

3-0

Round 4: Mark Trogdon playing what he called Supreme Blue
I saw Mark play a creative deck with Omnath in the Vintage champs, and ihis deck for Legacy was equally creative. He ran ALL basics and fetches, what seemed to be 4 Counterspells, 4 Dazes, 4 FOW's, Academy Ruins, Oblivion Stone, Tabernacle, and the kill for the deck was Calcite Snapper (yes, that 1/4 common from Worldwake), and Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

Game 1: In this 40 minute slug fest of a match, I end up resolving almost all of my enchantments in this game. He resolves a Jace early, but I have the Runed Halo to stop it...but he has the Oblivion Stone to blow up both of our boards. I've held onto 2 enchantress effects, however, and recover my position and my hand to a comfortable situation. Eventually he drops a Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and Calcide Snapper, which slows my exponential growth of Angels, and I stupidly lose my Argothian to the effect that I forget to pay for. He draws for one of the final turns of our game, and plays an Academy Ruins, and my eyes go instantly to the O-Stone...and I realize I have one turn to win. He passes turn, and I attempt to go for Replenish with City of Solitude in the yard, and succeed. I then drop Words of Wind and proceed to play the bounce game, bouncing 7 of his permanents and leaving him with 5 lands and me with 2 angels. He scoops after he begins his turn.

Game 2: He resolves an Early calcite Snapper, but I have Runed Halo for it, and then time is called in the round. Mark is a nice guy and asks what would be better for me, for him to scoop or for it to go to a draw, and I say I have no idea. We end up drawing and I win the match.

4-0

Round 5: Jeffrey Cohen playing Belcher

Game 1: He mulls to 6, and then keeps and then passes the turn. I go "WTF dredge or Belcher??" Two turns later, he discards an Empty the Warrens and I go "Crap." However, I have a quick Confinement with Sterling Grove and think I'm safe, but he starts to go off, uses Burning Wish and hardcasts Reverent Silence with no cards left in hand. I next turn cast Replenish and he scoops.

+4 Leyline of Sanctity
+2 Karmic Justice

-1 Words of Wind
-2 City of Solitude
-1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
-2 Oblivion Ring

Finally, a combo match with Leyline usage! And I stole game 1! I'm feeling pretty good, and hoping that I can pull this out...

Game 2: I keep a hand that has enchantress effects and Elephant Grass, hoping that he's going the Goblins route this time. On my last turn, I draw into Leyline of Sanctity and think if I can untap one more time, I win, but he goes off on his turn going for Belcher. 50-50 coin flip and I guessed wrong. He flips 20 non-lands, and I scoop

Game 3: I keep a hand that has Leyline but no Grass/Moat/Confinement and hope my 50-50 coin flip guess is right this time....but he drops turn 1 12 Goblins and I am just stunned. I have a couple of draws...slow peel the top card my final turn like a poker champ....and flip over a Horizon Canopy. I sac the land and slow peel again, and extend my hand of defeat when I flip a Plains. The next card incidentally was solitary Confinement, so I missed it by that much both games 2 and 3.

4-1

Round 6: Jeff Chen with Bant Survival

Jeff is one of my friends from Houston who flew up with me and I was VERY depressed to play him in this round. I'm just going to paste his notes on the match:

Game 1: David mulls to 5 on the play. I have a pretty aggro hand with Hierarch and Pridemage in my hand. I peel the Trygon Predator and play it on T2. David O-Rings it on T3, but I drop the Pridemage and bring the Predator back with it and David can't really recover.

(I sided in Humility, Lignify, Karmic Justice, and Wheel of Sun and Moon, and sided out some Wild Growths, Runed Halo, and an Elephant grass or two)

Game 2: This game was pretty brutal. I get out a fast Goyf, Force and Enchantress effect, then drop a Meddling Mage on Sigil of the Empty Throne (I have Grip in my hand in case of Humility). David ended up having 2x Sigil as the last 2 cards in his hand, to his frustration. He drops an Argothian Enchantress and tries to get back into the game, but can't get going before I overrun him with creatures.

4-2

Round 7: Josh Hollander with Saito Merfolk

Seeing Merfolk again made me very happy this round, but it was very close.

Game 1: He goes turn 1 Mutvault, Aether Vial, and I go turn 1 Chrome Mox, land Argothian with no fear of Daze. Then I drop an Elephant Grass and stall with that for a while. He does get out 4 lands (2 Mutavault, 2 Wasteland), but I O-Ring' his Aether Vial, preventing him from casting anymore Merfolk, but he's beating in for 6 a turn. I drop to 2...then resolve Moat and crap out angels. He scoops when I summon 5 of them while he's still at 20 and doesn't have Coralhelm.

Same Sideboard as earlier

Game 2: He has the pretty much nuts draw of Adept, Lord, Reejeray, Lord and my life drops REALLY fast. He lets two of my Enchantress effects resolve and saves his Force of Will for Elephant Grass alone, which is ballsy, but did allow him to win the match.

Game 3: Again, Argothian resolves without a hitch, and I figure he has Plague, but it never comes. However, I do have 2x Elephant Grass and Choke in hand. The first Grass gets FOW'd, but the 2nd sticks...and when he attacks me, paying 2 islands, I drop Choke next turn...leaving him with an untapped Island and a Wasteland. He struggles to recover from the on, as I drop to 7 from fetching/Canopy activations, and eventually I stupidly decide to just keep drawing cards instead of searching for Words of Wind. However, I get it with 4 cards left to go in my deck and 3 Enchantress effects, cast Words of Wind with Sanctum mana, and return his entire board with 1 card left in my deck with Sigil on board. He concedes.

5-2

Round 8: Scott Yoder with Saito Merfolk

Round 1: I believe I resolve an early Presence on the play due to him going turn 1 Mutavault, Aether Vial, so I don't have to fear Daze, then drop grass to stall for time. He attacks me with a 2/2 cursecatcher from 13 to 5, but eventually I establish the Confinement lock and produce enough Angels to make him scoop.

Same sideboard, but this final one has the sweet impending taste of victory, hopefully...

Round 2: This match is infinitely more dicey, because though I get the Enchantress effects on board, he attacks me from 18 to 16 to 10 to ONE. After the final attack, however, I have City of Solitude into Moat on my turn to stop the attacks. I spend the rest of the game finding Words of Wind and then bounce his entire board without Sigil of the Empty Throne out. He sees the writing on the wall, and concedes.

Final score: 6-2, and after standings are posted, 12th place.

Overall I felt my play was very tight with minimal mistakes, except for anything made in the sideboard. I'd love to hear what people felt might've been better to side in/out/other cards to include to improve the Bant Survival matchup.

[dontbiteitholmes]

I don't have any problem with a Words of Wind deck being posted here, just the terrible pile people call enchantress that runs specifically for the combo win with Cloud of Faeries and all that jazz. Take that version to the casual forum, but if the only difference is WoWind, I'd just say if it were me personally the Wind would be War obviously and the Horizon Canopy would be Karakas. I'll read the report later when I have time. I'm sad I couldn't make GenCon but it was either MTG or pick up the GF from the airport and you know how that goes. Oh also City of Solitude should be In the Eye of Chaos since you already run Blue and Eye is good against more then counterspells.

[anonymos]

My only issue with your list is the lack of win conditions. I've been running into a lot of earwig squads lately.

How are you liking the leylines from the board? What do you use them for? I've been debating on it myself and would like to know others thoughts on them.

[wcm8]

Leylines are awesome. Leyline +/or Moat = win vs. quite a few decks. I think they are an auto-include in Enchantress, and I've been toying with the idea of playing them in the main since they've been getting sided in for a LOT of matchups. They give you a fighting chance vs. certain types of combo, and are useful vs. burn and discard.

Decks that sneak in Emrakul will continue to be a problem for Enchantress, and I'm not sure how to combat that other than packing more maindeck O. Rings and/or Karakas.

[ho_master]

Earwig squads usually aren't maindeck, so you're able to bring in Leyline of Sanctity from the sideboard and prevent yourself from being targetted. With RB gobbos especially, there won't be an answer for that early on unless they play Anarchy. Sanctity also prevents you from being targetted by Warren Weirding, keeping your Enchantress's alive, so this is a matchup I'd highly recomend boarding into Leyline of Sanctity.

Quick list of cards in popular decks that target players:
Earwig Squad
Warren Weirding/Diabolic Edict
Thoughtseize/Duress/Hymn/Inquisition of Kozileck/Cabal Therapy
Tormod's Crypt/Relic of Progenitus/Bojuka Bog
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Lightning Bolt/Chain Lightning/Grim Lavamancer/Fireblast
Seismic Assault
Intuition
Cruel Ultimatum
Goblin Charbelcher
Grindstone
Parasitic Strix

My point is that in a varied meta, you're better off having Leyline of Sanctity in your board to prevent random hate from shutting you out at a tournament.

[heroicraptor]

I helpfully point out that he cannot target the Sterling Grove, or any other enchantment for that matter, but that he still announced the spell and has to claim a legal target...so he wisely chooses his Bitterblossoms.

Congrats on cheating your way through that.

[mattguy]

Congrats on cheating your way through that.

Just curious on how is that cheating? Unless he can choose a shrouded enchantment and the spell fizzles because of non-legal target?

[Oiolosse]

yeah, if he prompted him to choose something else knowing that pulse was fizzled upon declaring sterling grove then that's cheating, but maybe he thought it had to be a legal target?

[Darkenslight]

Just curious on how is that cheating? Unless he can choose a shrouded enchantment and the spell fizzles because of non-legal target?

It's cheating because it should have been a GRV - Illegal Target, with a Warning. What our guy did would be classed as Cheating - Fraud (Misrepresenting Game State), which is a DQ without prize.

[Zlatzman]

In other words: Maelstrom Pulse should be returned to hand, and manacosts undone. You're not allowed to play a spell at an illegal target.

Just to clarify: Oblivion Ring is different because it does not target on being cast, so it's perfectly legal to cast it. It's when it enters the battlefield the target is chosen, and a legal target must be chosen.


Other than that: nice and detailed report. I'm going to playtest Enchantress a bit tomorrow, if it feels right I'll probably play it in a small local tournament next week. Might as well playtest both WoWind and WoWar while I'm at it.

[ho_master]

Ahh, I was taught differently at my local weekly tournaments, that once you cast a spell, you're stuck with it to choose a legal target. I went through the comprehensive rules to find the part about undoing spells with illegal targets. I had no intentions of Fraud, but thanks for the headsup on that. *Embarassed face*

In any case from that match, he had knocked himself down to 9 with 2x Bitterblossoms in play, so I think my opponent actually was aided there in not killing himself in 5 turns just off of Bitterblossoms.

Thanks for the comments on this though everybody! I wanted to get feedback and not knowing the rules is definitely feedback that's worth reading.

[Darkenslight]

Ahh, I was taught differently at my local weekly tournaments, that once you cast a spell, you're stuck with it to choose a legal target. I went through the comprehensive rules to find the part about undoing spells with illegal targets. I had no intentions of Fraud, but thanks for the headsup on that. *Embarassed face*

In any case from that match, he had knocked himself down to 9 with 2x Bitterblossoms in play, so I think my opponent actually was aided there in not killing himself in 5 turns just off of Bitterblossoms.

Thanks for the comments on this though everybody! I wanted to get feedback and not knowing the rules is definitely feedback that's worth reading.

No problem, but if you have only one Grove, he can target the Grove. If you have 2 x Grove, or Grove and Privileged Position, then he ain't doing shit. :)

[martyr]

Lands:
7x Forest
3x Plains
4x Windswept Heath
2x Serra's Sanctum
2x Savannah
1x Tropical Island
1x Horizon Canopy

4x Argothian Enchantress
4x Enchantress's Presence
4x Utopia Sprawl
4x Elephant Grass
4x Sterling Grove
1x Moat
2x Replenish

2x Chrome Mox
2x Solitary Confinement
2x City of Solitude
2x Oblivion Ring
2x Runed Halo
3x Wild Growth
1x Wheel of Sun and Moon
2x Sigil of the Empty Throne
1x Words of Wind

The Sideboard:
1x Humility
2x Aura of Silence
2x Karmic Justice
1x Wheel of Sun and Moon
4x Leyline of Sanctity
1x Lignify
1x Replenish
2x Choke
1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Most of the card choices I understand, and I *really* like this list, but I have a few questions.

1: For those of us poor suckers with no access to Moats, would a Humility in the main instead of it be fine? Moat's technically better against some decks, but it's an answer for Emrakul where Moat is not.

2: 2x of Chrome Mox seems...odd? Could you explain why your acceleration is 4x Sprawl, 3x Wild Growth, 2x Chrome Mox instead of just 8x enchants or something?

Great report, but other than mising O-Rings and Runed Halos and Humilities and stuff, I really can't think of an answer to Trygon Predator that wouldn't be an overreaction to perceived threat.

[sa17dk]

I've tested Chrome Mox and I've found that I wanted at least 3 if I ran it to get it consistently in my opening hands. Chrome Mox is great for casting that turn 1 Argothian or a turn 2 Presence but gets progressively worse after the first two or three turns. Obviously theyre great if youre pitching a Wild Growth or Utopia Sprawl, but I've never been disappointed top decking a Wild Growth or Utopia Sprawl later in the game because with at least one Enchantress effect out they are free cantrips/draw spells.

[ho_master]

I did used to run Humility as a poor man's option (before I broke a large chunk of a paycheck to get the Moat -_-), and it worked just as well (even better in some cases), and with the use of ridiculously overpowered creatures like Emrakul, Iona, Qasali Pridemage, Trygon, and even Terrastadon/Woodfall Prmius (in Dredge), Humility has a lot more worth now if your meta has decks that try to get these annoying critters out. I'd recommend putting it in and be damned when people say it's anti-synergistic with Argothian.

My acceleration spread really came down to the fact that 9 acceleration effects "felt" like more than enough when I was goldfishing with the deck. When I was at the standard 4x Sprawl, 4x Growth, 3x Mox (I beleive that was Lou's numbering from when he won), I would draw into too many accelerants mid-combo and not find relevant pieces to answer threats on the board. I'm not a statistician, and I'm not a pro player, but cutting 1x Growth and 1x Mox for 2x Business Spells seemed to just be stronger to me rather than going all-in on getting mana. I could be totally wrong, but during the Champs, I didn't miss the fact that I was missing a couple of acceleration sources.

[anonymos]

1: For those of us poor suckers with no access to Moats, would a Humility in the main instead of it be fine? Moat's technically better against some decks, but it's an answer for Emrakul where Moat is not.

Please read the last 10 or so pages of the thread. Moat replacement questions come up every 3-5 pages. Humility is bad for the deck MAINDECK if you are one of the people who just play everything. There are times where it just shuts off your entire draw engine because you haven't drawn presences. It can also be a dead draw in some matchups, including combo matchups where you REALLY cannot afford them.

[Adzeye]

I've been wondering how to improve the combo matchup and it seems the shifting metagame and M11 has been of some help. Leyline of Sanctities will definitely be of great help against Tendrils and Aluren, but what about Show&Tell->Emrakul? Sure we have Oblivion Ring, but better then that, since we play white, we have Karakas. But we can't really count on getting it, so that's why I've added 2 Crop Rotations, which can also get Horizon Canopy (as not to make it a dead draw) and Maze of Ith/Tabernacle of Pendrell Vale against aggro. I'm not entirely sure about playing non-enchantment spells either, but that card's always been a favorite of mine. Now here's my decklist :

6 Forest
1 Plains
4 Windswept Heath
2 Serra's Sanctum
2 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Savannah
1 Taiga
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Maze of Ith

2 Exploration
4 Wild Growth
4 Utopia Sprawl
2 Chrome Mox/Lotus Petal/ESG (if we'd like consistency rather then speed, 2 Worldly/Enlightened Tutor)
1 City of Solitude (Vexing Shusher if using Worldly Tutor, it can't even be countered itself)

2 Crop Rotation
2 Replenish
4 Argothian Enchantress
4 Enchantress's Presence
4 Sterling Grove
3 Elephant Grass
1 Karmic Justice
1 Words of War

Sideboard
1 Blood Moon (slow us down, screw them up)
1 Aura of Silence (v.s. Mirror)
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Elephant Grass
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
1 Humility
1 Replenish
2 Choke
3 Wheel of Sun and Moon
4 Leyline of Sanctity

I think it should improve some matchups, but how does Enchantress generally fares against the current meta (post-colombus)?

[dontbiteitholmes]

I'm thinking of going 1x Karakas and 1x O. Ring SB and 1x each MD, which only changes my SB one card from my last tournament and gives me 4 outs to Emrakul G2/G3. I also run the Guiles + Fetches plan so that gives me a pretty good chance to get one of them before Emrakul gets a swing in. Your results may very. I don't think Crop Rotation is the right answer, Maze definitely isn't because Emrakul will still trigger. IMO your deck lacks focus. Cut some of those bad lands and add the good ones. I never like Canopy, I've ended many games at 1 life and many where if I would have had 1 more mana I would have won, but there are very few games where saccing a land to draw a card would have been the difference. Flagstones is terrible as a Plains and as a fetchland.

Also there isn't much data as too what the meta is exactly after GP Columbus. The banning of M Tutor shook up the format and several unusual decks top 8'd. It's hard to say where that leaves Enchantress or really the format in general. I would say the top 8 for GP would be a pretty severe gauntlet to run Enchantress through, but as the format continues to adjust we could possibly never see half of those decks in a top 8 ever again, so I guess it's wait and see.