You wouldn't use a white Argothian Enchantress in lieu of a green one, you'd use it instead of GSZ.
Again, the White mana required van be really annoying when the core of the deck is Green because of Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl. Casting an Enchantress ASAP is a priority, and occasionally White mana isn't available. Yeah, you can add more Savannahs (and maybe Horizon Canopy), but then you blunt one of the great strengths of Enchantress; the ability to laugh at non-basic hate.
It's definitely possible to print a 1WW 0/1 enchantress with hexproof.
Certainly, but it would see almost zero Legacy play, and shouldn't be driving speculation on Serra's Sanctum. That would be, if anything, more of a niche Modern card. Might even be too slow for the format, and Liliana is a thing in Modern as well.
The only things I can see Theros block bringing that might help Enchantress is a Volrath's Stronghold/Academy Ruins for enchantments or the "WIZARDS WANTS MONEY" card; a Hexproof, White enchantress in the vein of Argothian Enchantress or a White Enchantress's Presence. But even those might not be too good as neither play well with the Green backbone of the deck, especially GSZ.
A card needing to exist is a different argument than whether or not they nailed its execution. This is as well designed as it could be. Just because you don't like the idea of Blue getting board wipes, which they've had for the entire history of the game in some form of another, mind you, doesn't mean its a bad design/card.
How a card fits in with the whole of the game is integral to design, bro. The color pie is important to Magic's variety and appeal and this is a card that greatly violates the integrity of it, especially in the most popular casual format.
That's bad design; you can't just look at it in a vacuum and call it good.
Exiling the creature and replacing it with a token takes any memory issues that permanently changing the creature into a 2/2 Pig and instantly does away with them, making for a cleaner and easier to play/understand card. This obstinate attitude that Blue should never be able to exile a creature is counter productive. Wizards designs cards to have the best execution, which also means they need to be easily conveyed and understood by inexperienced players.
Here's the thing you aren't taking into consideration...this card didn't need to exist. There was no imperative that "Circe Sorcery" needed to exist. It could have been made as a (reversible by removal) Enchantment, or it could have been scrapped altogether if they couldn't find a way to make it work well. Or it could have been costed a lot higher, like with a double X cost so as to lessen it's impact.
But instead Wizards drove on because "lol top down design is kewl" and made yet another Blue-colored mistake, which will be a huge pain in EDH. Between this and Cyclonic Rift, mono-Blue has gotten awfully good at dealing with the board....something it shouldn't be so hot at.
Flavor-wise, yes. But mechanically, you're pretty much taking them out. If they wanted to make this card more in line with Blue mechanically they would have made the transformation reversible...but as it is, they gave Blue a very potent kill spell, one that is off-the-charts in EDH.
These effects have been in blue's color pie since visions, no other color has this effect save for green getting Beast Within, which MaRo has stated should have been blue because it is in blue's slice of the pie.
I get that Blue has domain over "Polymorphing", or the Magic of changing thing's shapes. The problem is, the flavor is taken too far; it gives Blue something it shouldn't have.
You can justify a lot via the flavor of Polymorphing or changing a thing's shape. Here's some examples:
-A Blue spell that messes with the shape of something's essential parts in real time and becomes "Destroy target creature". Perfectly flavorful, and since it allows regeneration it shows that critters with strong constitution (i.e. can regenerate) can resist it. MOAR FLAVORFUL GOODNESS!
-A Blue spell that pumps or adds +1/+1 counters. Why not? Blue can Polymorph a dude, why not slightly modify him to be more effective? Maybe it accelerates keratin development...ooh! sounds Sciency, and thus even more Blue.
-Or how about a Polymorphing magic that exiles Artifacts/Lands/Enchantments and replaces them with a less threatening version. Hey, thats polymorphing/alteration magic as well, so it's good in Blue, right?
The point I'm trying to make is that flavor and top-down design need to have mechanical limits. Wizards broke one with this card. It's bad design.
Flavor justifications are complete trash, just like this card.
99% of the mechanics in the game could be "flavorfully" justified in Blue (or any color, really)...that doesn't mean it's good for the game to use this "top-down" design to bend the color pie, a cornerstone of Magic, because LOLFLAVOR!!!! It's especially harmful when, traditionally, the color with the best slice of mechanics receives other color's mechanics in powerful packages based on "flavor" justification (see: Pongify, Delver, V. Clique, Snapcaster, Spin into Myth) while the others are stuck with crap.
Like Blue in EDH really needed such an excellent mass removal spell...time to run Boiling Seas in addition to regular, old Boil.
She can drop on turn 4 and ruin blocker math, and her 0 is basically card draw. Yes, it's technically worse than straight draw, but if you play and build with it in mind, it's still incredible.
Gotta love people underestimating card advantage.
There's no underestimation of card advantage...Chandra 4.0 is conditional card advantage that is overcosted. Unlike other competitive walkers, she can't always provide card parity on the turn she is cast. Lili can, Elspeth can, Jace can, Nu-Chandra can't. Playing the +0 ability is mostly impossible on the first turn; you don't have the mana to actually capitalize on the "fake" draw.
And as for messing up combat math...she's rarely better than a hasty critter and often much worse. Creature power creep has been in full swing as of late. No reason to not expect another Hellrider, Aristocrat, BBBE, FTK, or something else to fill in the 4-drop slot in aggressive Red deecks.
So it looks like Chandra Ablaze is the best they can do for pyromaniac redheads, huh? Solid roleplayer in mono-Red EDH is about as good as it gets for Chandra, I suppose.
Heads up to those who think she's good to fill in the top-o'-tha-curve spot in a RDW/Sligh deck...she really isn't. Yeah, she can mess up combat math, but you know what else can? A hasty creature. Pop quiz: which one do you want when the board is empty? The thing that pings for one damage a turn, or the critter who is attacking for 3+?
And in a midrange deck, she's obviously outclassed. There are no mono-Red midrange or control decks and other colors have much better methods of gaining card advantage.
At best she might replace Mad Prophet in my Mono-Red EDH...except she doesn't play nearly as well with Phoenixes, and plays badly with Chandra Ablaze.
So, yeah, color me disappointed once again by Wizard's attempts to make good Red cards.
She'll also not have 4 abilities. I'm sorry, but 4 ability walkers have proved to be format-warping. They do too much for too little, and the same goes for Planeswalkers in general, regardless of cost.
Just kidding, I know what you mean. Jacey-Boy did bend a few formats over and give them the business.
I really wish they would give Red a push in some interesting directions, though. A multifaceted walker would be a great start.
She won't turn into things. She won't tutor for things. She won't flashback things. She won't reanimate things. She won't pump things. These are the things she will not do, because while I dearly love Chandra, she's not intelligent. She's just a crazy, lonely girl that likes fire. She's good at burning things, let her burn things.
That's pretty much Red's entire schtick now. Need to get rid of something? Burn it! Need to draw cards? No way, just burn more! Want to disrupt your opponent's manabase? Nah...you just wanna burn! Want a solid hatebear that prevents your opponent from doing broken things? Sure...we'll just burn them everytime they do something totally broken! Want to interact with the stack? Of course you do....through burn!
Pretty terrible design. It seems made for mono-red, but is costed too steeply for the only kinds of mono-red decks that ever seem to pop up: some flavor of RDW or Sligh. It's far too ineffectual for Modern as well.
Wizards needs to realize that they can print very strong, narrow answers without necessarily damning that which they are attempting to answer to extinction. Look at the incredible graveyard hate that has been printed as of late: Cage, Rest in Peace, etc. None of those have obliterated graveyard strategies...they still keep marching on. WotC could easily print strong non-basic hate, like a Red Sinkhole restricted to non-basics and everything would be fine. As time has shown, narrow answers, regardless of how powerful they are, are not enough to wipe out the use of the "questions".
Hexproof allows for more options while Shroud limits them
Shroud sucks while hexproof is much more interactive
Not exactly right. While Hexproof is more interactive in a vacuum, due to the fact that one player is capable of interacting with the creature via targeted effects versus no players being able to interact, Magic cards rarely exist in a vacuum; they're used with other cards. And the most common thing used with Hexproof beasties is some sort of attachment to make them evasive/resilient, make them much more difficult to interact with.
It also doesn't help that Hexproof is in Blue's oversized piece of the color pie, along with the best evasion-granting ability and countermagic to stop any silly spell-based reprisals like Wrath effects.
Basically, on it's own in a vacuum, Hexproof is more interactive, but when combined with other cards (which is how most cards/mechanics should be looked at) it has strong potential to create un-interactive, degenerate gamestates. It also means they have to worry about whether or not Equipment/Auras will play nice with Hexproof critters, an additional burden on development that wouldn't be there if Shroud, in all its "safer" glory, was in the game instead as the primary "Can't Touch This!" mechanic.
In Constructed? No way. But damn, was he a menace to the otherwise excellent INN/DKA Limited format. Sure, him and a Cleaver/Dagger wouldn't happen all that often, but when they did it was one of the most unfun game states ever. One 3xINN draft with my friends, I opened Olivia Voldaren P3 while in black and red. Needless to say, things went well for me. But I couldn't help but be a little apologetic for the nuts I'd opened, doing a bit of self-depreciating stuff 'bout how Liv was really the one winning the game, not me (especially seeing as she showed up for every game). Even still, I didn't demolish people; they had a chance, and people could actually do something about her. When I got the stalker/equips combo, the games were just bad. No humor can save a completely uninteractive game state that makes both players feel dirty. Just a bad placement for the card, but Limited is taking lumps lately for Constructed-pushed cards (hello RtR Limited!).
Stocks of the Sleepless 2WB
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Creature or Planeswalker
Enchanted permanent cannot attack, block, or use activated abilities. During your upkeep, enchanted permanent's controller loses 1 life.
Again, the White mana required van be really annoying when the core of the deck is Green because of Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl. Casting an Enchantress ASAP is a priority, and occasionally White mana isn't available. Yeah, you can add more Savannahs (and maybe Horizon Canopy), but then you blunt one of the great strengths of Enchantress; the ability to laugh at non-basic hate.
Certainly, but it would see almost zero Legacy play, and shouldn't be driving speculation on Serra's Sanctum. That would be, if anything, more of a niche Modern card. Might even be too slow for the format, and Liliana is a thing in Modern as well.
Honestly, I'd be surprised if Theros throws Enchantress as many bones as Innistrad or Nu-Ravnica did. Nevermore, Stony Silence, Rest in Peace, Blind Obedience, and Sphere of Safety all bolstered Enchantress a lot.
The only things I can see Theros block bringing that might help Enchantress is a Volrath's Stronghold/Academy Ruins for enchantments or the "WIZARDS WANTS MONEY" card; a Hexproof, White enchantress in the vein of Argothian Enchantress or a White Enchantress's Presence. But even those might not be too good as neither play well with the Green backbone of the deck, especially GSZ.
This is getting pretty ridiculous.
How a card fits in with the whole of the game is integral to design, bro. The color pie is important to Magic's variety and appeal and this is a card that greatly violates the integrity of it, especially in the most popular casual format.
That's bad design; you can't just look at it in a vacuum and call it good.
Here's the thing you aren't taking into consideration...this card didn't need to exist. There was no imperative that "Circe Sorcery" needed to exist. It could have been made as a (reversible by removal) Enchantment, or it could have been scrapped altogether if they couldn't find a way to make it work well. Or it could have been costed a lot higher, like with a double X cost so as to lessen it's impact.
But instead Wizards drove on because "lol top down design is kewl" and made yet another Blue-colored mistake, which will be a huge pain in EDH. Between this and Cyclonic Rift, mono-Blue has gotten awfully good at dealing with the board....something it shouldn't be so hot at.
Flavor-wise, yes. But mechanically, you're pretty much taking them out. If they wanted to make this card more in line with Blue mechanically they would have made the transformation reversible...but as it is, they gave Blue a very potent kill spell, one that is off-the-charts in EDH.
I get that Blue has domain over "Polymorphing", or the Magic of changing thing's shapes. The problem is, the flavor is taken too far; it gives Blue something it shouldn't have.
You can justify a lot via the flavor of Polymorphing or changing a thing's shape. Here's some examples:
-A Blue spell that messes with the shape of something's essential parts in real time and becomes "Destroy target creature". Perfectly flavorful, and since it allows regeneration it shows that critters with strong constitution (i.e. can regenerate) can resist it. MOAR FLAVORFUL GOODNESS!
-A Blue spell that pumps or adds +1/+1 counters. Why not? Blue can Polymorph a dude, why not slightly modify him to be more effective? Maybe it accelerates keratin development...ooh! sounds Sciency, and thus even more Blue.
-Or how about a Polymorphing magic that exiles Artifacts/Lands/Enchantments and replaces them with a less threatening version. Hey, thats polymorphing/alteration magic as well, so it's good in Blue, right?
The point I'm trying to make is that flavor and top-down design need to have mechanical limits. Wizards broke one with this card. It's bad design.
99% of the mechanics in the game could be "flavorfully" justified in Blue (or any color, really)...that doesn't mean it's good for the game to use this "top-down" design to bend the color pie, a cornerstone of Magic, because LOLFLAVOR!!!! It's especially harmful when, traditionally, the color with the best slice of mechanics receives other color's mechanics in powerful packages based on "flavor" justification (see: Pongify, Delver, V. Clique, Snapcaster, Spin into Myth) while the others are stuck with crap.
Like Blue in EDH really needed such an excellent mass removal spell...time to run Boiling Seas in addition to regular, old Boil.
Thanks Wizards!
There's no underestimation of card advantage...Chandra 4.0 is conditional card advantage that is overcosted. Unlike other competitive walkers, she can't always provide card parity on the turn she is cast. Lili can, Elspeth can, Jace can, Nu-Chandra can't. Playing the +0 ability is mostly impossible on the first turn; you don't have the mana to actually capitalize on the "fake" draw.
And as for messing up combat math...she's rarely better than a hasty critter and often much worse. Creature power creep has been in full swing as of late. No reason to not expect another Hellrider, Aristocrat, BBBE, FTK, or something else to fill in the 4-drop slot in aggressive Red deecks.
Heads up to those who think she's good to fill in the top-o'-tha-curve spot in a RDW/Sligh deck...she really isn't. Yeah, she can mess up combat math, but you know what else can? A hasty creature. Pop quiz: which one do you want when the board is empty? The thing that pings for one damage a turn, or the critter who is attacking for 3+?
And in a midrange deck, she's obviously outclassed. There are no mono-Red midrange or control decks and other colors have much better methods of gaining card advantage.
At best she might replace Mad Prophet in my Mono-Red EDH...except she doesn't play nearly as well with Phoenixes, and plays badly with Chandra Ablaze.
So, yeah, color me disappointed once again by Wizard's attempts to make good Red cards.
Garruk Relentless was format-warping?
Just kidding, I know what you mean. Jacey-Boy did bend a few formats over and give them the business.
I really wish they would give Red a push in some interesting directions, though. A multifaceted walker would be a great start.
That's pretty much Red's entire schtick now. Need to get rid of something? Burn it! Need to draw cards? No way, just burn more! Want to disrupt your opponent's manabase? Nah...you just wanna burn! Want a solid hatebear that prevents your opponent from doing broken things? Sure...we'll just burn them everytime they do something totally broken! Want to interact with the stack? Of course you do....through burn!
Wizards needs to realize that they can print very strong, narrow answers without necessarily damning that which they are attempting to answer to extinction. Look at the incredible graveyard hate that has been printed as of late: Cage, Rest in Peace, etc. None of those have obliterated graveyard strategies...they still keep marching on. WotC could easily print strong non-basic hate, like a Red Sinkhole restricted to non-basics and everything would be fine. As time has shown, narrow answers, regardless of how powerful they are, are not enough to wipe out the use of the "questions".
Not exactly right. While Hexproof is more interactive in a vacuum, due to the fact that one player is capable of interacting with the creature via targeted effects versus no players being able to interact, Magic cards rarely exist in a vacuum; they're used with other cards. And the most common thing used with Hexproof beasties is some sort of attachment to make them evasive/resilient, make them much more difficult to interact with.
It also doesn't help that Hexproof is in Blue's oversized piece of the color pie, along with the best evasion-granting ability and countermagic to stop any silly spell-based reprisals like Wrath effects.
Basically, on it's own in a vacuum, Hexproof is more interactive, but when combined with other cards (which is how most cards/mechanics should be looked at) it has strong potential to create un-interactive, degenerate gamestates. It also means they have to worry about whether or not Equipment/Auras will play nice with Hexproof critters, an additional burden on development that wouldn't be there if Shroud, in all its "safer" glory, was in the game instead as the primary "Can't Touch This!" mechanic.
Exactly what I was thinking we might see; a combo of Pillory of the Sleepless and Faith's Fetters. Two fan favorites wrapped up into one. Good design.