[Deck] Solitaire (Enchantress)

[dontbiteitholmes]

Well, my Legacy is pretty much done until next year. Didn't do very well overall as far as what I expected. Enchantress is a very very unforgiving deck, I think every tournament I played in I threw away a game I could have won otherwise on a mistake so small most players wouldn't even notice they made it. I average punting one game a tournament which actually isn't too bad considering how retarded the deck can get at times, and averaging around 6 1/2 hours of sleep the night before a tournament doesn't help. I suggest unless you have iron nerves and practically never make play errors you pick another deck. Out of all the decks I've played ever Enchantress is probably the hardest to pilot through a large tournament. First off, one mistake is often a game loss and this deck gives you more chances than any other not only to misplay, but to get penalties for missed triggers. Second you can count on 90% of your matches going at least 40 minutes. You have to be very careful for many things outside of playskill that can cost you a win, namely missed triggers and slow play. Anyways I'm not going to write a primer but here are several things I picked up over the year that could bring your Enchantress to the next level.

BTW most of these things apply to large tournaments more than anything, small events are a different breed.

1: Blood Moon is good and belongs in the MD. It can just win you games so hard. First off you don't need non-basics as bad as most decks since you run lots of basics and Wild Growth + Utopia Sprawl. Blood Moon in an opening hand is crucial, I've had so many games where I dropped a turn 2/3 Blood Moon after some careful fetching and just shut people out of the game. The mere threat of Moon if they already know you have it causes misplays all over the place. Most of our worst control matchups also tend to run lots of non-basics and fetches. Good stuff.

2: Vexing Shusher is the best anti-blue sideboard card available. Dovescape + Vexing Shusher breaks the control game wide open and owns the mirror. I've never lost the mirror or to a Control deck post board except that damn 4x Deed Jacestill deck since every card in their deck is an absolute bomb against us. Dovescape is also bomb against Combo, sure it costs 6, but if it lands the game is so over. I've won vs. impossible matchups with 2nd turn Solitary, 3rd turn discard Dovescape, 4th turn Replenish. If you don't have Dovescape in your SB you are doing it wrong.

Meh, I'm tired more later.

[wcm8]

You say Blood Moon in an opening hand is crucial... How many of them do you run?

[dontbiteitholmes]

You say Blood Moon in an opening hand is crucial... How many of them do you run?

One obviously. Crucial as in really good, not crucial as in "needed to win". EOT break Grove for Blood Moon cast it next turn will cause many scowls from the other end of the table.

[wcm8]

Mind posting the list you settled on?

[dontbiteitholmes]

It changes a little after every tournament, but if I had to go to a major event tomorrow this is the list I would play...

// Deck file for Magic Workstation (http://www.magicworkstation.com)

// Lands
2 [B] Savannah
1 [B] Taiga
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
3 [ON] Wooded Foothills
5 [M11] Forest (1)
2 [IN] Plains (3)
1 [LG] Karakas
2 [US] Serra's Sanctum

// Creatures
4 [US] Argothian Enchantress

// Spells
3 [TE] Mirri's Guile
3 [UD] Replenish
2 [LG] Moat
1 [CFX] Sigil of the Empty Throne
4 [IN] Sterling Grove
1 [ON] Words of War
4 [ON] Enchantress's Presence
3 [VI] Elephant Grass
3 [JU] Solitary Confinement
1 [TE] Choke
4 [DIS] Utopia Sprawl
4 [B] Wild Growth
1 [DK] Blood Moon
1 [ALA] Oblivion Ring
1 [SHM] Runed Halo

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [SHM] Wheel of Sun and Moon
SB: 1 [ALA] Oblivion Ring
SB: 2 [TE] Choke
SB: 1 [WL] Aura of Silence
SB: 1 [OD] Karmic Justice
SB: 1 [DIS] Dovescape
SB: 4 [SHM] Vexing Shusher
SB: 1 [B] Circle of Protection: Red
SB: 1 [OD] Ground Seal
SB: 2 [MI] Enlightened Tutor


I'd be happy to discuss any card choices and just go from there.

[wcm8]

I see you run Mirri's Guile along with Fetchlands to help control your top deck.. How useful has this really proven to be? Do you tend to not mulligan as aggressively if you have a Guile but no Enchantress' in your opening 7?

I like your opting to run blue-hate in the form of +1 Replenish +1 Choke -X City of Solitude in the Main. I've been feeling like CofS tends to be too little, too late in a lot of matchups, whereas the latter two spells can really flip the game state around.

Two Moats -- really needed?

I think your sideboard is okay, but I don't see any Leyline of Sanctity. Did you find them not very useful?

[Dr.AgOn]

Anyone tried Semblance Anvil yet??

Just think of all the fast combo action we could do..

[dontbiteitholmes]

I see you run Mirri's Guile along with Fetchlands to help control your top deck.. How useful has this really proven to be? Do you tend to not mulligan as aggressively if you have a Guile but no Enchantress' in your opening 7?

I like your opting to run blue-hate in the form of +1 Replenish +1 Choke -X City of Solitude in the Main. I've been feeling like CofS tends to be too little, too late in a lot of matchups, whereas the latter two spells can really flip the game state around.

Two Moats -- really needed?

I think your sideboard is okay, but I don't see any Leyline of Sanctity. Did you find them not very useful?

Leyline of Sanctity is good vs. Combo if it's in you opening hand. That said combo is still a terrible matchup that gets worse and worse the more combo decks evolve past relying soley on Tendrils to win. I'd rather dedicate 4 SB slots to what I feel are more relevant threats, namely Jacestill, Bant, Survival, Merfolk, ect. I've just given up on beating combo in big tournaments, luckily it rarely comes up. If you'll notice the results of most tournaments the top decks are usually mostly aggro-control, aggro, and control w/Jace. Very few combo decks top 8 compared to the number of people who play them and bad combo players tend to play themselves into the ground fairly often. So my strategy vs. combo is hope to dodge them the first few rounds and get to the higher tables where most of them will eventually fall to blue decks, and blue decks are every freaking where. I'd rather sideboard heavily vs. blue since I've played all of 3 combo decks in large events this year and roughly 90% of my matches have been vs. decks with either Force of Will, graveyard recursion, or smash face aggro strategies. In small events if I know someone is playing combo I usually put 3 Mindbreak Traps in the SB since that card plays more to my strengths vs. combo. It doesn't have to be in my opening hand and the more I dig through my deck the more I draw and the better they get. That strat has me about 2W-2L in matches vs. Beltcher in small events, which is pretty good considering how bad that matchup really is.


Two Moats needed? Not really. It's cool to have 2x the chance to draw one vs. aggro. It's still really good vs. Tribal decks, Factories, Tarmogoyfs, and the like. Let's just put it this way. It may or may not be the strongest choice, it's really hard to say. Sometimes it's almost a dead card but when it's good it's great. Most decks have at least something that it shuts down and there are still plenty of decks that practically can't win while Moat is on the board. I feel like it's a card that keeps getting less and less powerful but I have 2 and that's why I play 2. If I only had one I wouldn't rush out and buy a 2nd and I sometimes consider moving it to the Sb and bringing in another Choke just because blue is such a problem but I like playing them and I can never bring myself to take it out when the time comes.


Mirri's Guile is great. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I've gone from 2 to 3 to 4 and back down to 3, I feel now like 3 is the perfect number. Guile fills many roles, first off it's a great one drop. Yes I will often keep hands with Guile and no Enchantress's especially if I have a fetchland to help me dig. Turn one Guile, turn 2 fetch means I see 6 cards by turn 3. Why mulligan if I can keep a decent 7 and dig a mull deep in 2 turns. Otherwise I risk going to 6 and seeing a total of 8-9 cards by turn 3 as opposed to seeing 13 to 14 cards by T3 with a Guile only hand. Mulliganing with Enchantress sucks, Guile makes you mull less and mulling into a Guile on 6 or 5 makes the game much more interesting (IE winnable) in my experience. Guile has undeniable synergy with fetchlands which is obviously why I run so many of those, in fact when I drop Guile and people ask me what it does I just say "Ghetto Diving Top" and pass it to them to read.


I consider Guile effectively Enchantresses #9/10/&11 since it allows me to dig through my deck more aggressively to find the answers I need, and since I run 11 cards that can shuffle my deck it's usually not a terrible plan to rely on it to dig for whatever is not in my opening hand. Guile rarely to never gets countered which is a plus, and it gives me a really nice curve since I abandoned Chrome Mox/Lotus Petal/ESG earlier this year which means no more turn 1 Enchantress, more on that in a minute though. So with the 3x Guile I have 3 Guiles @ 1 cmc, 4 Argothians @ 2 cmc, and 4 Presences @ 3 cmc which all dig through the deck. There are very few times that I open a hand where I can not either drop first turn Guile, second turn Argothain, or drop first turn Growth effect into 2nd turn Presence. Usually if none of that is happening the hand is going back, which once again brings me back to the part where opening with a Guile makes mulling a lot less painful.


One more thing about Guile. Added bonus of making Jace's fateseal ability a lot less relevant, -> combine the 3x Guiles with the 7x fetchlands, -> ????, -> Profit! Guile should be obvious, just keep anything you don't care about on top then Guile into gas next turn and leave something else you don't want on top, or you have your draw engine up and you can tear through your deck and rely on Guile to not leave you with a land on top every turn after Jaceseal. Save fetches you don't need for when Guile gives you 3 lemons and break or my favorite move say you have 2x enchantments on top then a land, draw for turn, play enchantment, triggers on stack, draw for first trigger, break fetch or Grove, let other triggers resolve, good stuff. Guiles + fetches make the deck much harder to play but it rewards you more for playskill then a version without. 2x Guile + fetchland = Guile trigger > 3 crappy cards > break fetch > Guile trigger #2. Jace fateseals me and I have no Guile out, he leaves a card on top, EOT I break fetch and shuffle my library. All this stuff happens roughly a million times a tournament. Guile certainly makes Enchantress play much differently. It is much more skill intensive, and gives you more opportunities to play yourself out of the game, but it also gives you chances to win games that are otherwise unwinable. I can't even begin to go into all the interactions Guile opens up, it's like trying to explain to someone how to play Solidarity, but take my advice and play a million test games before you go to a tournament with it or you will pay the price.


3x Replenish has been good to me, it's hard to stay above water vs. some decks with counters and sweepers unless you have that extra one in there. Nothing beats the opponent Deeding away everything or countering 3 enchantments in a row then next turn Replenish that Choke or Blood Moon and a couple Presences. Also fun times it having Ichorid be a turn away from killing me and they Cabal Therapy the Moat/Grass from my hand and pass, then I bring up the Replenish I've been hiding with Guile and go on to win the game. If it's not needed it can always come out in the side of course.


Choke >>>>>>>>>>>>> City of Solitude if the deck runs blue. It turns Elephant Grass into a real pain, slows down Brainstorm and Counterbalance games, and if they play the control angle it can put a real hurting on their gamestate. One of the only ways I seem to ever win game 1 vs. Jacestill is to bait their counters, bait their Deed, and then play or Replenish Choke when they tap out islands. City is better vs. non-blue decks, but only slightly. Vs. Zoo they have no real reason to hold back burn anyways and it neuters our Groves if they Pridemage it during their turn. Replenish accomplishes what City aims to accomplish but at 4 mana it's easier to sneak around CB and does a better job at negating counters overall.


Chrome Mox is the only acceleration worth the trouble. I tried it for a while 2x and found it slightly underwhelming. First off, it sucks to take card disadvantage vs. counterspell decks, especially if you are trying to play a turn 1 Enchantress with it and get stuffed. It's great to draw in mid combo since it'd often let me sneak in 2-3 extra enchantments if I drew it on my explosive turn, but getting to that turn is my real concern more so than if I go off just a little faster once I get there. Lotus Petal and ESG suck. If you are going to put slots in to get explosive you are going to want that mana every turn or you often lose whatever momentum you get by playing first turn Enchantress. I mean what's really better? First turn Wild Growth > Second turn Enchantress + Guile or another Growth or first turn Mox Enchantress, second turn 2x enchantment. Both leave you with the same number of cards in hand, sure the Mox leaves you in a better position to explode but if the Enchantress gets countered you are in a markedly worse position most of the time. I don't have room for 8x Growth effects 3x Guiles and 2x Moxes and I found myself fizzling more often with Mox than without since I had cut 2x Growths for them and they lead to card disadvantage.


Enough for now. I've playtested the shit out of this deck in many different forms and changed it multiple times and I feel like my current version is very strong. Since I didn't top 8 any big events I don't feel up to writing a whole primer but I'm open to any questions about Enchantress in general. Regardless if anyone cares or not I'll post more random thoughts later when they come to me.

Anyone tried Semblance Anvil yet??

Just think of all the fast combo action we could do..

I don't think this adds anything to the deck. First off it takes the place of an enchantment and requires RFGing an enchantment from hand to do anything. Second by the time you hit 3 mana and have an enchantment in hand you should be ready to go nuts anyways. If I wanted more explosive combo ability I'd add a 3rd Sanctum over this since 3 mana usually means atleast 2 enchantments are already in play, but I think 2 Sanctums is the optimal number. You'd have to run atleast 2 also to have any hope of drawing them and if you can dedicate 2 spots to artifacts and want to go off faster Chrome Mox is the way to go since it allows 1st turn Argothian or 2nd turn Presence which is much better at increasing your critical turn than playing a 3 cmc artifact turn 2/3 then passing. I love the explosiveness that Chrome Mox gives to the deck and the synergy it has with Blood Moon but I hate RFGing an enchantment especially vs. decks with counters or sweepers. It does give you better game vs. Zoo though I feel which is a matchup that is vastly overrated especially post sideboard when they have a lightning fast clock and 7 Disenchant effects.


*Edit*
OH YEAH, one more thing for tonight...
Want to win more matches with Enchantress?

1: Watch for slowplay. More to the point have a judge come over and watch for slowplay. It is important to do this as soon as you expect slowplay and not after your opponent has already wasted 10 minutes of gametime on bullshitting around needlessly. I've drawn atleast 2 matches this year I should have won and the difference was not calling a judge to watch for slowplay. I always tell my opponent before I call a judge that it's nothing personal and that I'm just am looking out for my best interests. Don't be scared to call a judge for anything reasonable.

2: Missing a trigger is usually a warning and that sometimes includes missing effects the opponent has. Don't get warnings, play careful, but not slowly. Bring sticky notes. If you have upkeep effects put a sticky note on top of your library. Next time you forget about your Confinement or Guile and go to draw and stop when you see a sticky note, you're welcome. Sticky notes come in handy for opponents stuff also and of course Utopia Sprawls. Trust me, playing enchantress is going to be complicated enough, make it easier to play well and make it harder to make mistakes at the same time. Sticky notes or stay home.

3: Sideboard. Officially you get 3 minutes between the end of one game and when you should be presenting your Sb'ed deck for your opponent to shuffle. It's legal now to bring outside the game notes to refer to between rounds. Pick the most popular decks and write down how you will sideboard against them at home when you have unlimited time to think about it. I've sat at home for a good 30 minutes looking at decklists deciding how best to sideboard for one matchup, had I waited until the tournament to do that without a decklist infront of me I would have just done it wrong. This exercise will also help you trim fat from your sideboard. I played every single card in my sideboard last tournament at least twice. Never change your sideboard or MD at the last minute if you put more then an hour of thought into it at home. It's always the wrong choice and it's cost me many many more games than I would like to admit. Wrap a piece of paper around your sideboard that lists the cards in it and refer to it before every round to make sure you are properly desided. Game losses are something you can't afford.

4: Pile shuffle. After the game is over you likely have about 15 enchantments and 10 lands sitting in a clump on the table. Pick your cards up, sideboard, shuffle normally a couple times, then pile shuffle, then normal shuffle again a couple more times (atleast 3 according to rules IIRC). When you go through your whole deck and have 20 permanents in play it's easy to clump cards together when you scoop your deck up, when your cards are clumped it's easy to lose games. Pile shuffling breaks up clumps, just make sure you normal shuffle after to randomize sufficiently.

[sa17dk]

Have you experienced being more vulnerable to Stifle due to your increased number of fetches?

I mean I'm personally running 6 fetches right now because I like having more opportunities to fetch the Taiga/Plateau for Blood Moon/Words of War (and obviously in your list it's awesome with Mirri's Guile) but I havent been able to decide whether its worth the life loss and Stifle vulnerability.

[jhhdk]

Very nice post. You were pretty quick to dismiss ESG as acceleration for T1 enchantress. I am guessing you don't like it much as Daze protection either?

[Sevryn]

when are you bringing in dovescape? any cool stories about actually playing it?

[addaro]

dontbiteitholmes: mind sharing your sideboarding notes?

[dontbiteitholmes]

Have you experienced being more vulnerable to Stifle due to your increased number of fetches?

I mean I'm personally running 6 fetches right now because I like having more opportunities to fetch the Taiga/Plateau for Blood Moon/Words of War (and obviously in your list it's awesome with Mirri's Guile) but I havent been able to decide whether its worth the life loss and Stifle vulnerability.

Yeah Stifle, meh... I've played against it and I've been hit by it turn 1, but truthfully the gains I get from extra fetches far outweigh possibly getting hosed by one card. If I go first and open with a fetch I crack it for a basic 99% of the time incase they have Stifle or Wasteland. Since we have Growth effects we are less prone to Stifle then most other decks. The life loss isn't too bad either since once you get rolling you are drawing into enough lands that you don't have to break fetches if you don't need to. I can't remember losing a game to Stifle, but I can think of many games I would have lost without extra fetches.

Very nice post. You were pretty quick to dismiss ESG as acceleration for T1 enchantress. I am guessing you don't like it much as Daze protection either?

Nah, ESG < Lotus Petal < Chrome Mox in my testing. I can't drop turn 1 Argothian sure, but I can play a Growth turn 1 and be out of Daze range when I play one turn 2. I don't really care about the surprise factor of paying for a Daze with ESG, so you 1 for 1'd them, not great. I can also play around Daze by just ramping with Growths into my spells. Instead of having to pull a last second "Gotcha" I just let them hold that Daze while it gets less and less relevant every turn and play a must counter spell or Growth effect in that slot.

when are you bringing in dovescape? any cool stories about actually playing it?

Dovescape is awesome. I actually played it in my first tournament back in magic and didn't face any combo or control. Was kinda disappointed and thought it might just be jank. Next tournament it won me probably 6 games. If anyone doesn't get the combo it's Vexing Shusher + Dovescape, you pay R/G and make your spells uncounterable with Shusher and still get bird tokens with Dovescape. It comes in vs. most combo and control decks. Any deck that relies more on spells then creatures is Dovescape bait. I don't think I've ever lost a game with it in play. Bring it in vs. almost any deck that relies more on spells than creatures to win the game, especially those that don't start dealing damage until they have basically won anyways. The look on people's faces when I break a Grove EOT for Dovescape, they look at a Force of Will in their hand and dismiss it, then I untap, play Shusher directly into Dovescape off Sanctum... priceless.

[Doombear]

Hey,

i'm a german enchantress player (currently 1st place in my local legacy league after roughly 20 (~80 matches) tournaments, dortmund in ger). few weeks ago i decided to run a testing with dovescape as an alternative wincon next to sigil and emrakul and ended up with following assumptions:

as soon as dovescape is played, the opponent won't be able to proceed with hate such as pernicious deed / engineered explosives and less relevant - krosan grip, ray of revelation etc. which is worth a ton of gold in my opinion. qasali pridemage isn't really a problem, you won't end up often having dovescape without a sterling grove and until they play a 2nd one you should have easily enough birds to go for the lethal dmg.

as soon as dovescape is played, maybe next to a sigil, some kind of race starts.. you play spells, your opp plays spells.. but you usually get more birds (and angels) due to draw effects and more spells in a turn. this is the case in like 99% of the matches, if the above described scenario comes up.


many people distrusted that strategy and called it kind of clunky, unnecessary and bad and so i want to thank you for showing the other side of the medal. vexing shusher was not on my mind though, but i have to admit that it sounds cool enough to make it actually work. i will definately give it a try, everything that is more annoying is a good to have thing.


what i also have to second is...

choke > city of solitude, i personally face a lot of merfolk (currently ~25% of my meta) and dropping choke next to elephant grass is like christmas and birthday on the same day .. in nerd-dimensions of course. vs landstill, choke is definately bonkers and only versus u/g/x midrange decks i would prefer city of solitude to ensure a safely confinement lock.

every enchantress deck needs a moat effect... i would partially aggree, but also kind of meta dependant. merfolk now has coral helm commander which just flies as a 5/5 - 7/7 above our moat. i would rather prefer a well timed counter-overload followed by an immediate solitary confinement. but as soon as i get my fingers on a moat or two i'll try to take my pile to a larger event and see if it can compete there. btw arguing with the goblin matchup isn't necessary, enchantress wins vs goblin. single attacking creatures are usually handled by o-ring, of which i run 4.

mirris guile is nuts. really guys, some people, who are not into enchantress told me to drop that card, because its bad and to run sth like exploration instead. in fact, i started keeping hands with mirris guile and business beef recently and ended up with fine results. sometimes its just better to drop bombs first and then to establish the draw engine like luring for counters via city, o-ring etc. i personally run 2 copies in my pile, but a 3rd one wont hurt. you guys should really give that card a look and get its benefits. i run 4 fetchlands to support it and not to get too hurt by suppression field, which i play as a 4 of in my sideboard.




what i want to share as an experience with you is the following sideboard card:

suppression field

has yet worked wonders for me, since its a very uncomfortable card for your opp. it comes in vs every deck that runs 3+ colours, death and taxes, landstill and any jace-control deck. if i drop it turn 2 people often sigh and call this unfair, because they kept a 2 fetchland hand with their sort of 18 land manabase.



to end my post.. unfortunately (haha just kidding) my pile is kind of the deck to beat in dortmund and so people started trying things out that work wonders vs me.. and one of those cards is really nasty... aura flux. its an enchantment for 2 colorless and a blue mana that forces me to pay 2 mana for each other enchantment in play or sacrifice that enchantment. i have put an aura of silence into md and one into my sideboard. any other thoughts on how i could nullify that terrible card, i already lost like 2 or 3 games to that card in a merfolk deck and i sure dont want to let this become tradition?



it's rainin' angels, halleluja

doombear

[sa17dk]

Just because Coralhelm flies doesnt mean Moat isnt good. A resolved Moat shuts down every other creature in their deck.

If we take a sample Merfolk creature list:

4 Mutavault
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merfolk Sovereign
4 Merrow Reejerey

Moat shuts down 24/28 of their creatures. Throw down a Runed Halo naming Coralhelm and they basically have to concede.

The whole "metagame dependent" argument regarding Moat doesnt even make sense. If youre playing in a meta with few aggro decks, why are you playing Enchantress in the first place?

There is no debate to have about Moat. Unless the format changes and aggro decks run more fliers than non-fliers, Moat will be THE silver bullet against any creature-based strategy.

I will test Mirri's Guile.

[Ricardolucente]

And Mox DiamOND anyone use it? I think better than Chrome

[Doombear]

@sa17dk

i have to confess, that i didn't make my point clear. i think preferring moat or a solitary confinement vs merfolk is a question of taste. i didn't - for god's sake - want to argue about playing moat or not. but, i do fine without, my paperworks tell me, that i roughly won about 75-80% of my matches vs merfolk and i usually face one or two each week.

the "metagame argument" isn't totally senseless. if you want to play enchantress in a meta where control is the heaviest amount of played decks, you can dump the moat to run another copy of a card, that works better vs. control. thus you can do very fine by just playing more oblivion rings, both choke (merfolk) a whole playset of elephant grass or any other. moat isn't totally essential for this deck. it's super-awesome, but usually other cards do the same job as well and currently my account is deplete of money in a way i can't justify buying a moat. ;) in fact.. all creature based strategies tend to have a bad matchup versus enchantress.
Of course.. the thing with "dont play enchantress in a combo heavy meta" is sth like keeping your eyes peeled, you don't have to tell me...

as you mentioned my meta, you misunderstood me. my meta is almost deplete of combo players except for 1-2 dark depth variants, one shelldrakul and an ichorid. roughly about 30 players, of whom about 15 attend regularly to the weekly events. It's a small league, so don't judge me about that, but the decks and most of the players are fine since you can attend to bigger monthly events here easily. :)


If anyone is interested i can share my matchup breakdown after my year of legacy is finished. It contains mostly aggro, aggro/control and control and less combo, which i also completely ignore in my list. i also attended to 2 ~75 player events and a few ~35-40 player events.



sorry, if english is bad

[anonymos]

to end my post.. unfortunately (haha just kidding) my pile is kind of the deck to beat in dortmund and so people started trying things out that work wonders vs me.. and one of those cards is really nasty... aura flux. its an enchantment for 2 colorless and a blue mana that forces me to pay 2 mana for each other enchantment in play or sacrifice that enchantment. i have put an aura of silence into md and one into my sideboard. any other thoughts on how i could nullify that terrible card, i already lost like 2 or 3 games to that card in a merfolk deck and i sure dont want to let this become tradition?


doombear

There is a similar issue here in Ann Arbor. We regularly have 2-6 enchantress players in our weekly events. I haven't seen anyone play Aura Flux here yet. My best suggestion to that is Seal of Cleansing and it's green cousin or O. Ring. Just wait until goblins starts to maindeck Back to Nature...then you'll learn how to work around hate.

[Shawon]

Just because Coralhelm flies doesnt mean Moat isnt good. A resolved Moat shuts down every other creature in their deck.

If we take a sample Merfolk creature list:

4 Mutavault
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Coralhelm Commander
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merfolk Sovereign
4 Merrow Reejerey

Moat shuts down 24/28 of their creatures. Throw down a Runed Halo naming Coralhelm and they basically have to concede.

The whole "metagame dependent" argument regarding Moat doesnt even make sense. If youre playing in a meta with few aggro decks, why are you playing Enchantress in the first place?

There is no debate to have about Moat. Unless the format changes and aggro decks run more fliers than non-fliers, Moat will be THE silver bullet against any creature-based strategy.

Should we perhaps run an alternative Moat effect, such as Ghostly Prison? It slows down Coralhelm Commander unlike Moat.

[Ricardolucente]

@shawon: Elephant grass is for that.