Thank you for reading. I have spent a lot of time on this deck and I am excited to share it with the 1v1 competitive community. It is probably the most enjoyable Magic deck I’ve ever played. If you are looking for something different, fun, and still competitive, this could be for you.
One note before diving in: This is not a pure oath deck. It is also not a pure humility deck. Nor is it a pure enchantress deck (although if these three were pieces of the pie, the enchantress piece would be the largest). It is difficult to place Jenara Oath Enchantress into one specific “box” – I like to think of it as a metagame system deck. The important weapons are enchantments and the deck is based mostly on synergy while a couple high powered cards often stand out. It also runs a healthy number of tutors and answers, sometimes providing the feel of a toolbox deck. Just some food for thought. Enjoy.
Jenara Oath Enchantress -A blue deck without counters-
This deck came about from seeing the power of cards like Phyrexian Arena, Sylvan Library, Bitterblossom (which is now banned), Oath of Druids, and Survival of the Fittest. Not only are the effects powerful but the Enchantment permanent type makes them often difficult to remove if they resolve. Also, there are not many all-inclusive sweepers being run in the 1v1 format. Pernicious deed is probably the most common but only playable in a few decks. The others (for example Oblivion Stone, All is Dust, Austere Command, Akroma's Vengeance, Nevinyrral's Disk, etc...) are also uncommon or too high cc to be considered viable.
So I set out to build an enchantment (and to a lesser extent planeswalker) based deck with the idea that most of my permanents would be difficult to deal with. It started with 5 colors, a host of enchantress creatures, and phyrexian arena type cards.
After testing I realized the ONLY enchantress creature worth running was Argothian Enchantress because of her shroud (thanks to Khymera for pointing this out first). Enchantress's Presence was also great of course.
As for colors, 5c was unnecessary. The two *required* colors are green (enchantress cards, wild growth cards, sylvan library) and white (pacifism cards, humility, moat, o-ring). I have heard Rhys enchantress is played. However, I believe adding blue and getting Jenara is the best build for this type of deck. Most importantly, blue gives you powerful card draw spells that don’t need an enchantress. You also gain Wargate which is really strong, as well as a few nifty enchantments. Lastly, Jenara is just perfect for this deck. She flies, makes a great win condition, and the deck can sometimes generate a large amount of mana to pump her up.
Next I realized a green deck running so few creatures... should also be running Oath of Druids. In came a few big monsters. After months of testing, I settled on Sun Titan and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Sun Titan grabs a permanent that was just milled and he can also be easily hard cast at only 6 mana. Emrakul will just win the game if you attack with him and is extremely difficult to remove. He also prevents milling via the shuffle-in effect. (I also tested Iona, Shield of Emeria and Empyrial Archangel. Both were quite good but definitely weaker than Emrakul and Sun Titan.)
Lastly, this list came about from not only ideas and helpful tips but from a grueling amount of playtesting. I believe playtesting results are the most important in determining a card’s worth as well as to see if supposedly antisynergistic cards can actually work together. Some of these cards may be considered “bad” but they work here because it all functions as a unit or a system. While I am open to all suggestions and I believe this list can be further improved, each card has proven to be useful.
Strengths and weaknesses (broadly speaking):
Strengths, aka reasons for success:
1) Enchantments. Many decks are only packing a handful of enchantment kill cards so the enchantments stick around a while. This deck runs around 40. Some aggro decks don't run this many creatures. Also keep in mind that playing pacifism cards on the commander means he cannot be recast. He just sits there, effectively dealt with, but also not coming back. It is a subtle but important edge.
2) Oath of Druids. It's an overpowered card that can be played early and outright steal games. Also works well with Replenish.
3) Jenara. Don't forget about her. If unanswered, she can end the game very quickly. Synergizes well with Moat, Mirari's Wake (huge pumping). Great win condition.
4) Humility. It's an enchantment and it owns many decks. Combined with Moat, Ghostly Prison, and Propoganda - shuts down their attack. And with man lands, Mirari's Wake, and planeswalkers, we can win through it. Note - you can kill humility with the seals if you need to (i've done this at eot, pump jenara huge, then swing next turn for the win).
5) Synergy. Argothian Enchantress, Enchantress's Presence, and Sigil of the Empty Throne turn every enchantment spell into extra value. Also, remember that these all trigger when you CAST the enchantment. That's right: even if the spell is countered, or its target becomes illegal, or whatever, if you cast the enchantment you will draw a card or make a 4/4. Sweet. Replenish and Serra's Sanctum also benefit from the enchantment focus.
Weaknesses:
Planeswalkers. Because the deck runs so few creatures, no burn spells, and only Oblivion Ring and Karn Liberated as direct ‘walker removal, planeswalkers can sometimes be a problem.
Enchantment sweepers. They are rare but they hurt.
Fast combo decks.
Creatures (especially commanders) with shroud or hexproof.
Card choice discussion:
Enchantments:
~40 enchantments (currently 38). The enchantment number has been as high as 46 but the deck is slower and the enchantment quality falls off.
Each enchantment plays an important role and I have worked to balance the number of pacifisms with the number of utility enchantments. Consistency is important.
Pacifisms. I use this term to describe any creature aura that disables the creature in some way. These are spread out over 1 2 and 3 cc. These include Gelid Shackles, Arrest, Prison Term, and Lignify. I don't like Curse of Chains and Narcolepsy because they do nothing when you cast them and sometimes it is critical to be able to render their guy unable to block and swing in for the win. I have also stopped running cards like Pacifism, Crystallization, Kirtar's Desire due to Edric's banning. Early attacks aren't so dangerous anymore. The best out of all of these is Lignify. Not many creatures have protection from green and Lignify turns any creature into a useless 0/4.
Steal cards. Two: Mind Harness. 1 cc to steal some of the most popular commanders – Edric, Doran, Jenara, Rafiq, Ruhan, Godo, Sisay, Wanderer, Thraximundar, the list goes on (you can also wargate for it against Sigarda to get around the shroud, and honestly I wargate for this thing against other decks as well. it's a strong play in the right situation) … and Legacy's Allure. Fantastic turn 2 play against aggro. Surprisingly good against control as well - if you can sneak it in early, it must be dealt with before they can cast their commander. Plus it steals Animar.
Other anti-creature enchantments. Ghostly Prison and Propaganda are well-established anti-aggro cards and they are enchantments so a perfect fit here. Parallax Wave is great stall and control. Seal of Removal is nifty one mana bounce. Dance of Many – commander killer. Moat is awesome. Expensive, but awesome. Jenara flies over it, Emrakul flies over it, Sigil tokens fly over it, Celestial Colonnade flies over it, and Elspeth can launch anything over it.
Utility enchantments. Enchantress’s Presence – auto-include. Sylvan Library – auto-include. Spreading Seas is a great one-of to deal with problematic lands or to color screw. Seal of Primordium and Seal of Cleansing are versatile and absolutely necessary. Oblivion Ring is amazing. Exploration can lead to some crazy starts, works great with Land Tax, and can help keep you ahead on land drops in a control matchup. City of Solitude – drop this against blue control and watch the tears flow. Steely Resolve set on “Angel” type protects not only Jenara but also Sigil of the Empty Throne tokens. Great enchantment at 2 mana. Nevermore helps against some weaker matchups. Parallax Tide exiles lands; exiling lands is good. Mystic Remora. Only 1 mana and powerful against control if you can stick it on the board. Seriously if you play this against artifact ramp decks like Wanderer or Griselbrand, or against blue control decks, you are going to draw so many cards… it can be obscene. Land Tax is fantastic and a 1 cc enchantment.
This deck runs quite a few tutors. Enlightened Tutor is like a Vampiric Tutor in this deck, and in your opening hand it often means a turn 2 oath. Idyllic Tutor is essentially grim tutor. Sterling Grove is often used as a tutor as well. Green Sun’s Zenith provides a second copy of Argothian Enchantress, Eladamri’s Call is often yet another but can also get Sun Titan or Emrakul. Wargate is one of the best cards in the deck – extremely versatile tutor that puts any permanent onto the battlefield. Use it to get whatever is needed. Mystical Tutor typically fetches up Wrath of God, Replenish, or Wargate. Crop Rotation is self-explanatory, great 1 cc spell to get a powerful land. Last but not least is Muddle the Mixture: typically an Oath tutor but has other uses as well.
Draw spells:
Only a few specific draw spells. Ancestral Vision – awesome turn 1 play. Preordain – scry before drawing makes risky hands playable. Compulsive Research – draw 3 with a discard, very handy. Brainstorm. Solid, can put Emrakul back into the library, great with fetches.
Planeswalkers:
Elspeth, Knight Errant – Versatile planeswalker, great against aggro and control, and works great with humility. Jace, the Mind Sculptor – It’s Jace. Gideon Jura – A recent addition but has earned his spot on the list. Like Elspeth, Gideon is versatile and works well with humility. Karn Liberated – He is awesome. Powerful and versatile, Karn wins games.
Misc:
Wrath of God. Tutorable reset button. It is generally not the deck’s philosophy to destroy creatures but sometimes you need to clear the board. Good as a one-of. Replenish. It’s cards like Replenish that push this deck over the top. Not only is it just good to recover the enchantments that have been sacrificed or destroyed, it is amazing after Oathing.
Mana base:
This deck is color hungry especially early game. The only non-color producing land is Ancient Tomb because, well, it's insane. Other than this exception, every land MUST produce color. Of course every fetch land every good dual land is included. 7 basics are included for use with Land Tax.
The good man lands are included as well. I don't like Faerie Conclave because the 1 toughness means it can't block Humility creatures.
Note that while most of the spells are white, green and blue are absolutely necessary early game so that is the reason for so many duals providing each color. You need to be able to hit mana like UU for Dance of Many and WW for Prison Term on turns 2 and 3. While still getting G for other spells. Not easy.
I also like Horizon Canopy and Cephalid Coliseum for extra draw. The life loss is no big deal with 30 life and the card draw can save you in a pinch.
Notable exclusions:
Enchantment Exclusions:
I have tested nearly every enchantment in Bant colors. Not joking. Nearly every single one. Some notable exclusions are:
Faith's Fetters (I wish this was 3cc... at 4cc it's too slow because it is often just used as a pacifism. 4 mana to "kill" one creature? too slow. Yes it deals with walkers but again it’s too slow) Treachery (the problem with creature steal is that it often just causes your opponent to remove the creature you steal, OR the creature you want to steal has hexproof. in either case, creature steal can be a let down. And treachery is technically “free” but it costs 5 to cast and that is too slow. It also can’t be returned with Sun Titan) Overgrowth (3cc is pretty high and GG mana is awkward) Defense of the Heart (either difficult to activate or just win more) Future Sight (it's pretty good but the problem is the 5 cc slot is a log jam. Mirari's Wake, Sigil of the Empty Throne, and Gideon Jura are all more powerful than Future Sight so there is just no room for another 5 cc "i win" card. I think also Future Sight makes more sense in a pure ramp deck which this is not.) Wheel of Sun and Moon (too narrow and unnecessary. this card is only useful against Iname and Karador. Karador is already a favorable matchup and Humility, Oath, and Nevermore are all strictly better against Iname.) Rhystic Study (this card is a multiplayer powerhouse and I ran it for a long while. Problem is, it’s 3 mana to do nothing, and the opponent can play around it. Rhystic study works well in GAA though, I’m sure, since you are already taxing their mana with the commander. But here there are better options.) Opalescence (while it appears to be a great card for an enchantment deck, opalescence is actually bad for the deck due to the anti-creature metagame. It makes the permanents more easily destroyed. Possibly could be used as a cast-once finisher for some lethal alpha strike attack but generally it is not what the deck wants to do.) Elephant Grass (actually a pretty good stall card. The problem is that elephant grass is best against black decks which are already a favorable matchup.) Earthcraft/Squirrel Nest (two card combo that instant wins but alone they do little to nothing. I could see it being played, and it may actually be good and by excluding them I am making a mistake, but so far I’m not running this combo.)
Other spells:
Tunnel Vision. Cool for naming Replenish, but this can be sort of random and is slow. 6 mana and 2 turns… I feel it is too slow. Maybe if Vision put the card into your hand I would play it.
Matchups:
Excellent (favorable):
Non-blue aggro decks including, but not limited to, Ezuri, Wort, Karador, Doran, Godo, Isamaru, Glissa, Rhys, Gaddock Teeg, Olivia
Basically, non-blue aggro decks that primarily aim to attack your life total via creatures are a favorable matchup.
Good (slightly favorable):
Other anti-creature "extinction" decks including Thraximundar, Merieke, Damia
The reason I believe this deck is favored against other anti-creature decks is because the threats and answers are mostly permanents of the enchantment type. This means that even the "dead cards" improve the board position if only somewhat.
Blue-containing aggro decks including Edric and Sygg, but not including Geist. Edric can sometimes just get a "god hand" and run away with the game. BUT if he is average to start, this is favorable since the deck has so many anti-creature cards. It is not included in the "highly favorable" section because of the counters and the "god start" edric can do.
Tough (50/50-ish, possibly lower):
Iname - I consider it sort of a coin flip. We have some near unanswerable cards against him (mono black has very few ways to deal with enchantments), but sometimes he can combo out too fast. Nevermore, Humility, and Oath are the MVPs.
Zur - This matchup varies depending on the build. Tough, but I think still fair.
Most difficult (unfavorable):
Geist of Saint Traft and Animar, Soul of Elements.
The problems with Geist are two-fold: he has blue for counters and the commander has hexproof. Sure we have some cards against it but he hits fast and hard. Can be difficult. Drop of Honey, Porphyry Nodes (since they do not target, they can kill Geist), Humility, and Oath are the best here. Moat, Ghostly Prison, and Propoganda can slow them down. Also, Jenara is a great blocker provided that Geist is not buffed. But it's still unfavorable especially against the “voltron” builds.
Regarding Animar, he is often too fast and you just lose. Best to go for Oath or Humility ASAP. Nevermore on Animar is good too if he hasn't cast it yet. Lignify, Mind Harness, and Dance of Many are good stall cards as well. The good news is that Animar decks typically run very few interactive/answer cards. So whatever bomb we land early he won't really be able to remove it. Also, i'm using Jester's list as the standard (aka the fastest combo version). The slower the combo, the better the matchup I think.
Still not sure on:
Clique or Wydwen (probably favorable because they run few threats and can't deal with a swarm of enchantments, though they have a lot of counters)
Rafiq or Jenara goodstuff (I would guess 50/50 or better)
GAA (I believe unfavorable against any version, but small sample size)
Maelstrom Wanderer (so far unfavorable but Wanderer is new and I don't completely understand how to play the matchup, still working on that)
Shroud commanders like Sigarda and Uril (these are slower than Geist and don’t have blue… but can still be a pain due to shroud… probably even or slightly favorable)
Captain Sisay (probably slightly favorable since it is creature based)
5C planeswalker/graveyard “grind it out” decks (I don’t believe these decks are competitive because they are too slow, but regardless they are a poor matchup – they run powerful planeswalkers, blow up everything, and can keep recurring their removal)
Overall matchup thoughts:
Obviously the matchups I reported are from my own experience and with this specific build. They may even be a bit on the pessimistic side. This deck has a high "lucksac" factor because sometimes you will just resolve Oath of Druids against any deck, hit Emrakul, and end the game. Or get a turn 2 enchantress and just draw a billion cards. This does happen, but I won't pretend like it happens a lot. But still, this deck is capable of doing broken things - some decks aren't. I believe there is room to improve the poorer matchups since some of the easier matchups are already such blowouts that I could sacrifice some of that advantage to improve a weaker matchup. This is theory though… I have been thinking and so far have not found a practical implementation of this idea. But I believe the opportunity exists.
More advice and random thoughts:
#1 Tip: Every game plays different. Repeat. Every game plays different. So it is important to plan things out with the opening hand and with each card you draw. And always be patient and be adaptive.
Jenara! Jenara can do many things. She can be used to draw out counterspells or removal, or she can be used as a brute-force win condition. Sometimes you will want to cast her over and over just to draw out counters and eat removal cards. Other times you may save her, drawing out counters with your other cards, only to land her with the intent of ending the game via Jenara. Both are viable options.
Mystic Remora - treat this sort of like a standstill but with no drawback. What I mean is, either have a threat out, or have the mana to cast a threat, when this is out. The cumulative upkeep will catch up with you so you want to force your opponent to cast non-creature spells by having a threat on the board that he must answer. Or if you have 5+ mana sure cast it. But early game, be careful... plan out when best to cast this guy. Best to be patient with it.
Oath list running a 0/1 creature??? I have heard this several times. Well, first of all this is not just a pure Oath deck. Other oath decks can basically only win via Oath or Polymorph into a monster. This list has several different and viable win conditions so it is not all in for Oath. That is also what makes it so much fun to play - you can often choose how you want to win.
Anyways, sure sometimes you oath into Argothian Enchantress. BUT, you can sometimes tutor her out of the deck before oathing, and also you have a 66% chance to hit either Sun Titan or Emrakul even if all 3 are in the library. That is pretty good odds for a game of chance.
And so what if you oath into her? You just got an untargetable draw engine on the board. That's never bad.
But still… don't always go for Oath. Well OK if they play a creature and are tapped out, of course play oath. But it's not going to beat every deck. Oath can be swingy so use caution. Against control decks with a lot of wraths and edicts it is probably the incorrect play.
Sun Titan. Not only is it great to get a permanent onto the board, but recurring auras this way lets you enchant shroud or hexproof creatures. The reason (link to the ruling explanation) is that auras only target when cast, not when brought onto the battlefield another way. Now, you can’t get around protection so you can’t put Pacifism on Animar for example. But it’s still very useful to place a disabling aura on a shroud or hexproof guy this way. Note: Using Wargate to bring auras onto the battlefield also gets around shroud and hexproof.
Sigil of the Empty Throne is my favorite mid to late game win condition. It's the most stable. It sits there and each enchantment you play adds a 4/4 flier. If not removed, Sigil will end the game fast. I know it's 5 mana and it "does nothing" but it's actually one of the best cards in the deck and i'm always happy to draw it and I tutor for it often.
Humility games will be slow. Against certain decks and in certain situations, you can't help but play it. It prevents you from losing the game. But you still must win the game. You will draw into man lands, planeswalkers, etc... eventually.
Nevermore... for the longest time I did not run this card because it seemed too narrow. But Nevermore earned it's spot forever because it is awesome against combo decks that are difficult to interact with (Iname, Zur, Wanderer, Griselbrand, and to a lesser extent Animar). Nevermore is a key card that improves these matchups.
Notes on "anti-synergy"... Yes, humility hurts Jenara and Oathed creatures. But humility is worth it. And you sometimes don't NEED to cast it. In fact I consider humility like the ultimate reset button. If it is clear that the game is out of control, play it. Or of course against dangerous combo commanders, it should be played early as a prevention. Consider it another tool in the toolbox.
The curve... sometimes feels high yes. Avg. CMC is ~2.6 but many of the lower cc spells are not played on turn 1. Anyways, on turn 5 I would rather be playing a 5 mana bomb spell than something weaker. I feel like the list has just enough early game anti-aggro tempo cards to survive and then just take over in the mid game. From seeing decks like artifact-ramp based Wanderer, Thraximundar, and Griselbrand, and GAA tap out, this whole "tap out and play my bomb spells" idea is not new. And I think it works. As an aside, this is part of the reason I LOVE this format. Not only are there so many diverse decks available but people are playing HUGE, SLOW spells and winning with them.
Ways to get Emrakul out of your hand and into the deck: Mulligan, Jace, Compulsive Research, Brainstorm, or discard phase. I think it's enough. Then again, if you have Mirari's Wake you only need 7 or 8 lands to hard cast him. Or Serra's Sanctum and a bunch of enchantments.
Try to put the wild growths on basic lands. Sometimes you can’t avoid it, true, so go for the risk, but when possible put them on basics or you’re asking to get wastelanded.
Moat is expensive. Budget alternatives include Reverence, Lightmine Field, and of course Teferi’s Moat. They have each tested OK but Moat is king.
Matchup Strategy:
My matchup tactics focus on how to mulligan, how to play early to mid game, and what win condition to generally aim for. The plan changes depending on the matchup. Also note that these are general guidelines. Sometimes the right play is wrong, sometimes the wrong play is right. But generally these are a good start to understand how to play the deck against the top commanders.
This deck has fantastic long game power. Losses often come from short games (well, I win short games too of course but not every game ends in 5 or 6 turns). This makes mulligan and early decisions CRUCIAL for your chances of winning.
Edric, Spymaster of Trest:
You NEED a turn 1 or 2 removal spell - Lignify, Journey, Seal of Removal, Dance of Many, Drop of Honey, Porphyry Nodes, Crystallization, Kirtar's Desire. If Nodes/Drop is all you have, play it IMMEDIATELY after he drops a dude and let it trade 1 for 1. This will keep him from playing another guy out, giving you more time to get to 3 or 4 mana. Now if you have Drop/Nodes AND another removal spell, this is ideal. Use the removal spell FIRST, then play Drop/Nodes to follow up. This will surely crush him. Another possiblity is a Turn 2 Oath. This is also fantastic against Edric.
Also keepable is a wild growth for turn 1 followed by a turn 3 removal or Ghostly Prison/Propaganda.
Jenara is a great follow-up turn 3 play that must be dealt with - he can't really attack into her. So with the commander you have the turn 3 play - just need at least one turn 1 or 2 removal.
If you survive the early game your chances to win are high. Keep slowing him down with pacifisms, moat/propaganda/ghostly, wrath if you have to. As for winning, go for whatever you want. No need for humility here - they don't have anything that will really hurt.
Maelstrom Wanderer:
The best card against wanderer is Nevermore. Try to get it up ASAP, naming Wanderer. Most wanderer lists will not be running many answers to this so it is a great card to slow him down.
Another key point is pumping up Jenara to at least 5 toughness. The good wanderer lists will be running 2 and 3 damage pyroclasms as well as wildfire/burning which do 4 damage. Get Jenara out and pump her to 5/5 and keep swinging.
Another option is Sigil tokens of course. Or walkers. Humility doesn't do much because he can still cascade so I would avoid Humility if possible.
If wanderer is cast, stealing him with Mind Harness is an extremely strong play - I don't think they have many ways to get their general back or even kill him.
Oath is fine too assuming they have a creature. It is safe to Oath against wanderer.
Iname, Death Aspect:
Nevermore naming Iname is the best - sort of a one-sided Humility. Humility is also fantastic, stops the ETB ability, but also slows our deck down. Iname typically runs very few answers to enchantments so if you can get them on the board they should do the trick.
Once one of these "insurance enchantments" is on the board, proceed to try to win.
For winning go for Sigil, Jenara, or Walkers.
Oath can be OK sometimes but keep in mind black decks run board wipes and edicts so this may be a difficult way to win. It is much more reliable to go for Sigil.
Animar, Soul of Elements:
Against combo Animar, you MUST have AT LEAST one of the following in your opening hand: Enlightened Tutor, Idyllic Tutor, Oath of Druids, Dance of Many, Lignify, Seal of Removal, Mind Harness, Wrath of God, Mystical Tutor, or Humility. Basically you never want to let him untap with Animar (unless you have Humility to follow up but sometimes even that can be too slow). And since Animar comes out fast, you see why you need one of these spells in your hand.
So, disrupt/disable Animar for as long as you can. Legacy's Allure can also be effective if you're on the play. Basically anything to disrupt him ONCE and set up your Oath or Humility.
Oath is the best win condition against Animar because he can't really answer it and he also can't answer the creatures we oath. Plus Sun Titan recurs key enchantments that guarantee the win.
Griselbrand:
Nevermore and Humility are awesome here. Key is to never let him cast or activate Griselbrand. If you can do this, you will likely be ahead on cards and win the game. Most Gris lists run few actual threats and rely on the general to win. If you deny them Gris, you are in a great position.
Watch out for All is Dust and Karn Liberated as enchantment removal. Saving Muddle the Mixture to counter AID is actually a really good choice. I like planeswalkers a lot here. I do not like Oath so much. As with Iname, but even worse with Griselbrand, they run edicts and board wipes galore. So Emrakul is going to have a hard time sticking around a turn to do damage.
So... try to win through Walkers, Jenara, or Sigil. The game is gonna be tough but the synergy should pull through if you can prevent Gris from coming out.
Clique, Wydwen, Nin: (the control decks)
I used to feel like the underdog against pure control decks. But now I realize that my deck is actually favored and the aggressor because they basically MUST counter the enchantments to deal with them. If you can land a key enchantment and start building the board position, you will win.
Key cards here are: City of Solitude, Argothian Enchantress, Enchantress's Presence, Carpet of Flowers, Mirari's Wake, and Planeswalkers. If you can land City of Solitude, it's probably gg. Or an early enchantress effect that they can't remove. Nin has pyroclasms so she will probably kill Argothian but Clique/Wydwen usually just stare at it and cry. Of course, enchantress's presence is great also.
Jenara should be used to draw out counterspells and removal to pave the way for your card advantage/mana advantage cards. These are the control mirror games so we need cards and we need mana.
Also don't get upset when your stuff is countered - just keep plowing through the permission. You will land something eventually and then you will start building and building and then the victory will be secured.
These are the decks that roll over to Jenara Oath Enchantress. Pacifisms, Oath, Humility, Walkers... it's all designed to dismantle these non-blue aggro decks. The only potentialy difficult ones are Doran and Karador because they can get Griselbrand or Iona off of Retainers. But we're still favored here.
Extra thoughts:
One thing I did not mention for many of the matchups is the use of the Enchantress cards as well as all a lot of other utility spells. These are all important. Like for example, if I am playing Edric and I have a bonkers hand with no removal but Ancestral Vision for turn 1 and a turn 2 Argothian Enchantress and like 3 1-cc enchantments, then i'll of course keep that hand because so what if he draws a couple cards, I will draw a billion cards. But this is not the typical case. Furthermore, in matchups that are extremely favorable, it doesn't really matter what you do or in what order. You will win the games by a landslide no matter what you choose to do.
Then again, even in tough matchups, sometimes I never cast an enchantress or sigil and can still win. This just reiterates my point that every game plays out differently. This deck has numerous routes to win and that is another aspect that makes it difficult to play against (I believe, anyways - I've never played against it).
For matchups that are more dangerous and challenging, the win/lose is oftend decided by the few key cards I mention. But plays like Parallax Tide/Seal taking 5 lands is great against like every deck. And obviously drawing a card for every enchantment you play is fantastic as well.
When going for a Sigil win route, either have a couple enchantments in hand already, OR get an enchantress engine in play before getting the Sigil. It's always good to invest in a draw engine that way you will just "go off" with the Sigil. If not, you can be slow. Sigil is still good without draw but just not nearly as explosive.
Example game videos!
These are HD youtube videos of cockatrice replays. There are two main purposes for these videos. One, to provide instruction on how to play the deck. Two, to show practical implementation of the ideas I discuss in this thread. As they say, seeing is believing.
For now I have included mostly wins and only one loss because it's my thread damnit! But don't be fooled. Many of these games are tough. There is adversity faced and a few wild situations. Some games I never get Oath or Enchantress effects and some games they are countered or killed immediately. I wanted to highlight the variety of plays, the variety of win conditions, and the versatility of the deck against various popular archetypes (control, aggro/control, aggro, combo).
Each video has my own short commentary in the description and I welcome any questions - but please post here. The videos are setup as private and I do not receive emails on my youtube account. Thanks!
The replays are done at fast speed - you can pause and rewind if you missed something but every play is recorded. Watch in 1080p for the best quality :). Oh and if you are featured in the replay, thank you for playing me! Hope you don't mind me sharing our game. If I picked our game it is likely because we had a tough game and you were a great opponent and brought an interesting game. Of course I have lost games to these players also (especially Jester) but I hope you understand this is for me and my deck!
What the deck needs (new cards I am looking out for):
#1 - More Wild Growths. More fast mana is probably the one thing every competitive deck wants, and this list is no exception. In enchantment form obviously.
#2 - Another good planeswalker.
#3 - Improvements to current cards such as cheaper better pacifisms.
Tournament Results:
I won’t go into details but the deck has done OK in the few tournaments I’ve played. There isn’t much of a competitive Duel commander scene where I live and I am also not a veteran of the format yet. A new and unusual deck is an advantage though – opponents will not know exactly what to do, may misplay, etc. So I believe this list could place well in tournaments but it depends on the pilot and the metagame (as with every deck, of course, but this one especially).
Changelog:
9-6-2012: True to my word, decided to cut back a bit on the anti-aggro cards (specifically pacifisms) and add more cards that focus on building the deck's power overall (still some anti-aggro cards but argualy more powerful and broadly applicable ones). The curve is also lower and the enchantment count went up by 1. Testing will see if I still dominate aggro decks... (I also expect to be adding the new uncounterable wrath in place of wrath of god or possibly in addition to it).
Cards that tested well and earned permanents spots on the roster: Carpet of Flowers (insane against any blue deck), Into the Roil (explained in a post below), Tithe (lets me keep risky hands, 1 cc), Legacy's Allure (awesome card!)
Cards that failed testing: Elephant Grass (still don't like it even after re-testing. propaganda and ghostly prison are better since they do not require cumulative upkeep and the black creature ability is meaningless because most black decks are handled by other cards so I don't need help there), Mirri's Guile (does nothing really... not good in singleton magic in my opinion), Narcolepsy (inferior to pacifisms in my opinion because it does not immediately affect combat when you cast it and sometimes you need to clear a blocker that turn to win. otherwise, it is better but this is something I want out of my removal enchantments)
Cards that are back in (due to being temporarily cut for testing slots): Compulsive Research, (solid) Cephalid Coliseum, (drawing 3 late game is huge. can dig for that impact spell when you are about to lose. has saved me several times) Crystallization, Kirtar's Desire (these 2 are back in because I absolutely need consistent early plays against aggro decks especially edric)
Cards that have been permanently cut:
Reflecting Pool (bad land to see in the opening hand, need color producing), Pacifism (at 2 mana I prefer crystallization and at 1 mana, Kirtar's Desire is faster. just don't need vanilla pacifism anymore), Gitaxian Probe (I don't really need information and I don't like the uncertainty it brings when kept in the opener - preordain is wayyyy more powerful at fixing a risky hand and that's what I need it for)
Land count is 38 - with the addition of Tithe, I think this is the perfect number for my deck.
Enchantment count is also 38 - this is the sweet spot apparently.
With these changes the deck has been performing beautifully. I am pleased with my recent results against some of the tough generals like Animar, Wanderer, and Griselbrand. Current list up top is damn solid.
Looking forward... Wrath of God will be replaced by Supreme Verdict. Detention Sphere will be included as well. This card is perfect because it brings a truly versatile card that is good against aggro and control, while helping against walkers. This is exactly what I neeeded. I anticipate swapping out Arrest - a fantastic upgrade.
9-30-2012: Update following banlist changes.
With Edric gone, Fastbond unbanned, and a new set released, here are the latest changes:
At this point, the list is just micro-calibrating. I feel confident with the current list and especially with another o-ring and an uncounterable wrath. Plus Fastbond (essentially a strictly better Exploration) leads to some really explosive plays especially when drawing cards from enchantress.
This deck has proven to have a positive matchup against control and I never tutored for City of Solitude. Therefore I have decided to cut it and I believe this is correct.
In its place I will be testing Rest in Peace. I do not like other grave-hate enchantments but this Rest in Peace is special. It's extremely powerful, undercosted, and it's an enchantment. It does screw up Sun Titan and Replenish but I think against certain decks and strategies, it will make an excellent silver bullet to tutor up. While Nevermore and Humility own some of the graveyard decks, they don't stop them all. I have had issues with LftL decks, Worm Harvest, and also stopping Recurring Nightmare. Rest in Peace will annihilate all of these strategies. Looking forward to testing and I think it will be nice to have a single grave hate card especially when that one card is the best anti-graveyard card ever printed.
11-12-2012: Stuff
In case anyone is following this thread, the current list is in a state of testing due to the current metagame of Zur/Wanderer being so popular and also so good!
Cards I think that were good in the edric meta but not very good now especially against these 2 top decks, as well as Geist and GAA (2 other top decks):
^^Basically the creature auras and Propaganda/Ghostly Prison, Parallax Wave. These were amazing against Edric but now... not so much. Against creature decks, we should either go for Oath or go for Humility - both will end the game without the need for all of these disabling auras in my opinion. I have not done much testing especially against aggro but I think it should be OK. Rest in Peace is great but also really narrow and absolutely dead against Wanderer, Zur, Geist, and GAA. Not good to have a card absolutely dead against these guys! I think I just need to suck up the other matchups, lean on humility more in them, and tough it out. We can't have dead cards against these 4 decks. Not if we want to be a competitive deck.
The pool of cards that are much better against Zur/Wanderer/Geist/GAA are as follows:
So basically, when considering the metagame you will play in, I would look to swap out cards from the first group and add in cards from the second group. Mix and match. They're all good it just depends on what you play against.
I am also in the process of testing out Stasis. I have cut Elspeth for Garruk 1.0 to go along with Stasis. Oathing into Sun Titan and getting Stasis can often be GG. Or, with Wargate you can get Garruk and other tutors can find stasis. Garruk + Stasis is a hard lock. Plus stasis is very strong against these ramp/tap out style decks. I will report back if it works out or not.
Few more things:
added Mistveil Plains in place of Temple of the False God. It was a mistake not running Mistveil Plains - can get back some key cards that can be tutored up, especially after Oathing. Temple was crap - early turns are the ones that matter and it is a dead card... can't hold a candle to ancient tomb...
back to running Iona, Shield of Emeria as the 3rd fatty and 4th creature. She owns a LOT of decks and gives me 75% chance of Oathing into a bomb, technically making Oath stronger. She is also an Angel (Steely Resolve) and hard casting her is not out of the question.
also running Beast Within - deals with anything, especially planeswalkers, and activates Oath. Perfect for this deck.
11-23-2012: Back to what works...
The ramp hate enchantments style just didn't work. I would rather have some amazing matchups and some poor matchups rather than having mediocre matchups across the board.
One new important innovation though: Cataclysm. This card was suggested to me months ago but that was during the reign of Edric and I dismissed the card as being anti-synergistic with the general "resource building" style that I like. However, Cataclysm owns so many decks HARD, especially ramp, and if timed well against any deck, it ends the game. Following up either Jenara or Oath of Druids with Cataclysm has won me numerous games now. This card is awesome. Also kills 'walkers!
Also back to running City of Solitude. This card does so many little things that I miss now that I wasn't playing it. City also solves a lot of issues I was trying to cure with other cards. Most importantly it protects man lands from removal, blanks maze of ith, and just generally screws with your opponent's game plan. It's an auto include from now on.
Decklist updated in main section.
12-16-2012
-Mistveil Plains
+Flagstones of Trokair
I never used mistveil plains ability during the month i've been playing it. I think it's sort of like worrying about being decked - either I win or lose before it matters, or Eldrazi shuffle gets the cards back in the library if I really need it. Flagstones should be great - it enters untapped and works awesome with Crop Rotation and Cataclysm.
Oops. Forgot to mention that I cut Mind Harness a while ago. Crystallization in its place. Harness is dead against some top decks. Crystallization is the best "vanilla" pacifism card because if they try to bounce, equip, or even give the creature protection to shed the enchantment, the trigger will exile it. I like having it.
1-14-2013
-Cataclysm
-Crystallization
+Wrath of God
+Propaganda
Cataclysm was only good against wanderer (which doesn't really run removal... Jenara into Cataclysm was gg) or when you are already ahead. There have been a LOT of situations where it is NOT good to cast and it sits dead. Wrath is back in. Good to have two wraths against Geist... Propaganda is also generally better against aggro decks than a generic pacifism I have found. Especially vs. hexproof where auras just sit in the hand...
4-23-2013
Been a while. With the banning of humility, deck needs an update. Pretty simple for now:
-Humility
+Stony Silence
Obviously losing humility is a blow but it also removes the negative synergy of humility and oath/jenara. I also noticed that humility was not even necessary against aggro decks - the rest of the deck generally crushes aggro. Humility was mostly best against combo decks: Animar, Iname, Zur. With Humility gone, I want to give Stony Silence a serious go. It will help against fast ramp/combo and will generally be useful against everything (equipment in aggro and midrange, mostly). The cmc 2 is really attractive too. Lower curve is something I want.
Giving treachery another go - it's obviously powerful and I see a lot of titans and other big guys running around. Should be good. Runner's Bane may not look so great but it is essentially a 2 cmc Arrest - stops mana dorks, mom, doran, zur, and a bunch of other guys. The key is 2 cmc, nice and aggressive, hopefully will turn out to be a 2nd Lignify (well not quite, but close!).
Dance of Many was primarily (99% of the time) a general snipe tool. Sad we have to lose it, though, because it also served as a Sun Titan copy and a way to legend rule our own Emrakul in case of decking. Rest in Peace is a nice silver bullet to have against the graveyard decks running around (anything based on Hulk, Karador, Varolz, Iname, etc.)
With Hulk gone, the graveyard doesn't really scare me much anymore. Varolz can be Arrested, nobody plays Iname, and Karador is super slow without the hulk combo. I think having another removal for artifacts/enchantments will be nice so I'm giving Aura of Silence another shot. I also decided to finally cut Elspeth. With humility gone, her value has plummeted. Unfortunate but I believe it has to be done. In her place comes Gitaxian Probe. I've always wanted to play probe. Maybe now is the time. Pleased with the current list. M14, while having an enchantment theme, did nothing for this deck.
Combo decks are still so prevalent. With Humility gone, Moat is pretty bad. Also shuts down the combo i'm adding, as well as shuts down Gideon and Sun Titan from attacking. Cut. And treachery is 5 cmc. In the interest of lowering the curve and also improving matchups against fast combo decks, i've decided to try Earthcraft and Squirrel Nest combo (makes infinite tapped squirrels, which, when you untap, attack for infinite damage). I believe this deck has enough tutors and drawing to reliably support this combo. It gives us a way to potentially outrace decks like Wanderer, Animar, and the soon to be Prossh. Hopefully testing will show if this theory is correct.
11-2-2013
Been a while. Small update from Commander 2013 - this deck gets Lignify #2, aka Darksteel Mutation. Such a powerful card, especially in here. I cut Elephant Grass for it. Aggro seems pretty dead so I don't have much use for Elephant Grass. Good upgrade for this deck~!
11-15-2013
Aggro-combo and aggro-control decks are all over the place now. I believe this deck has a good matchup against Derevi and Marath, two popular new commanders. Adding these cards back in also helps. It's just difficult to get a two card combo to work, even with all the tutors. I like having Moat... and Elephant Grass is awesome against a lot of decks, even shuts down Zur.
Thank you:
Thanks to Evergreen for help on card choices, matchup advice, and great discussion about the format.
And of course thanks to the other SoCal pals who also play this format in real life.
The End. I welcome any and all comments, questions, and suggestions.
Awesome read! This deck is a crushingly efficient machine that attacks the format from a very unique angle, so it's a real pleasure to read your thoughts on the deck. You are absolutely right that there is no substitute for play testing, and it's obvious you've logged a lot of hours tuning this deck into the weapon it is today.
I have a question regarding your mana base. I noticed that you chose not to include the filter lands (Mystic Gate etc.). Was this because you were concerned about not having colored mana on turn 1? You have a decent amount of turn 1 plays and I don't see Nimbus Maze either so I assume that is the reason, just curious.
Also you mention oathing into Argothian Enchantress as being potentially awkward. I know that in the past you've run more oath targets, and I was wondering if you could elaborate on the choice to go down to only two fatties. With three fatties you have less chance of "missing" on your oath (I know hitting enchantress can still be good, but you know what I mean), and are less vulnurable to drawing Emrakul. Of course a slot in your deck is not an irrelevant cost, and drawing the third fattie will never be fun. Considering this have you ever thought about Show and Tell? It could help turn the cost of drawing a third fattie into an advantage, and you already have Mystical Tutor for Show and Tell and Emrakul, Karn, Titan, and Mystery Third Fattie should you choose to include him as targets, with Eladamri's Call and Muddle the Mixture (fetching call) to find those targets. It could be awful since I'm not a huge fan of two card combos in this format, but a lot of the pieces seem to be there already. Just a thought.
Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to share and explain this very weird but very good deck, EDH needs more innovators like this.
Captain Sisay (probably slightly favorable since it is creature based)
I concur with this assessment. Sisay falls in the "slower combo deck" category (compared to, say, Iname and Animar, but faster than Teysa) and, even though she plays more enchantment answers than the average deck, there's still too much time for you to set up and too many threats to target when enchantment hate finally shows up. It's scary how consistently the deck plays out, and how just a few Pacify effects and one cast of Jenara can feel like GG.
In our games, I found myself so utterly dependent on Lignify to shut down Jenara, but your bombs outclass Sisay's when the inevitable draw or tutor or draw-for-the-tutor comes up and Humility turns my deck into 6 oz of crap, haha. Not to mention, I can't do squat against Planeswalkers with a couple of neutered creatures on the board.
But then again, Sisay is more about securing an early and unstoppable lead. Sadly though, Sisay gets only about 1 in 3 games where everything goes just like it's supposed to, with early ramp, Sisay shroud, and an active Sisay early on. But from playing against your deck and watching your many matchups, I'd say that you have more consistently favorable games, so although my "explosive" will probably beat your explosive, my "meh" games will probably be outclassed by your "meh" games. So, using completely made up math, I'd say you're in favor in this matchup 54-46. ;P
That said, I'd definitely like to play against you again sometime for more testing. Even though I hate hate hate Humility, I love the novelty of your deck, so I can handle losing to Humility at least a few more sets.
I see you added Exploration! Great choice. I'm pretty sure I like it enough to keep it in (though I recently dropped its weaker cousin, Burgeoning). With the metagame being what it is ("DEATH TO EDRIC AND EDRIC-LIKE DECKS!!"), I think Exploration is better than Llanowar Elves right now in decks like ours.
Just a note to everyone to illustrate how on-top-of-**** this deck is: it was seeing kwiznek's deck that finally inspired me to play safer ramp options, as I kept losing so many games due to the abundance of sweepers/clasms/multi-target removals killing all of my mana dorks. I'd be happier to have Wild Growth in my opener than Llanowar Elf (which was once called "the best card in the format" by someone).
Was gonna say that I didn't remember seeing Steely Resolve several months back, but glad to see it that it is indeed in the deck. That + Jenara can probably be enough to win in some cases. I don't see any other missing enchantments. Nevermore is another oddball one that I play and I see you've got it, too, so yay.
No suggestions, really (though I do like Evergreen's card picks! Could lead to more consistent early blowouts, if you're looking to do that). Keep up the good work. =P
Yes early colored mana, especially first turn, is crucial. However this is not exactly the reason i'm not running the other dual and filter lands - I guess I just never tried them. But you're probably right, since I have important turn 1 plays the filter lands would likely be bad. I don't think I run any "bad" land choices in the deck... but it's probably not perfect either so thanks for noticing those details. I'm always looking to upgrade.
Yes, Oathing into Argothian feels like a miss for sure compared to the monsters. And you are correct: for the longest time I was running 3 monsters + Argothian. I don't really know why I thought I needed 3. Running only 2 lowers the curve and gives me a higher chance to hit Emrakul or Sun Titan which are the all stars. Empyrial was great, difficult to deal with, etc, but she doesn't end the game in one swing like Emrakul. So she wasn't really helping me kill faster.
As for Show and Tell - interesting suggestion. Even without the 3rd monster this seems attractive. Getting an early Wake or Sigil is a big advantage, of course in addition to the permanents you mentioned. And yes I thought about it but only briefly and never tried it. I think I will try it now just to see if it does in fact lead to more "consistent early blowouts" as Riley said. Speed is something I'd like to improve simply because faster decks are a pain and this might just be the trick! (or it could be bad, but i'll test it)
Riley:
Yes I added exploration and I love it! I also added burgeoning at the same time but I cut it. BTW, exploration + land tax is obscene. And exploration helps the deck in general because when I'm drawing cards, mana becomes tight so being able to put out the extra lands drawn and play more spells really helps speed it up.
Yes when things are dealt with on the board, Jenara can usually come in and swing a few times to win. She is such a threat. And Steely Resolve is awesome on Angel - Jenara and Sigil tokens.
GSZ with only one target seems weak. Maybe Worldly Tutor ? It fetches enchantress early and can set up oath targets later. With this many enchantments, Greater Auramancy or Karmic Justice may be worth a slot in addition to Sterling Grove. I think you want Gaea's Blessing to make sure you don't mill yourself to death. Maybe it is just me, or would Temporal Mastery be pretty good with your planeswalkers, Oath, etc.
GSZ with only one target seems weak. Maybe Worldly Tutor ? It fetches enchantress early and can set up oath targets later. With this many enchantments, Greater Auramancy or Karmic Justice may be worth a slot in addition to Sterling Grove. I think you want Gaea's Blessing to make sure you don't mill yourself to death. Maybe it is just me, or would Temporal Mastery be pretty good with your planeswalkers, Oath, etc.
Worldly Tutor is a possibility - I like that it can setup a solid Oath. Despite its drawbacks, this tutor may be useful. GSZ is pretty darn good though - having one target is fine, it means I have two copies of Argothian in the deck. I'm totally fine with that narrowness.
Thank you for bringing up greater auramancy! I played this card for a long time but eventually realized it is unnecessary. Here are my reasons. In 1 out of 10 games it may protect your Oath or whatever. But most of the time they just can't kill your enchantments anyways. If I want protection I can use Sterling Grove which also doubles as a tutor (clearly you can see the power level difference between the two is massive). Greater auramancy also literally does nothing. It can also hurt you when trying to do Parallax/Seal combos (because of the shroud, not even you can target your enchantments). If people start playing more targeted enchantment kill, I could see it coming back but for now I have cut it and do not miss it. I believe this is correct.
Karmic Justice is so cool, again a nice suggestion. I thought about it but never tested it. As a protector/deterrent I like it better than greater auramancy. I like that it can target ANY permanent: this is potentially devastating. However, some negatives: it doesn't save you from All is Dust or Dystopia. And it doesn't help when your creatures die including man lands. I also don't think it would save planeswalkers from dying in combat. It just seems a bit limited. But could be good if you expect a lot of enchantment destruction.
Gaea's Blessing is not needed. I have never milled myself to death and lost. Never. And i've played a ton of games. Either I win or lose before it's an issue or Emrakul's ability prevents that.
Temporal Mastery is interesting - I see where you're going. Getting more loyalty, getting a swing with Emrakul after oathing. I do like this suggestion especially with Mystical Tutor. I will give it a try in the "Gitaxian Probe" slot - right now i'm testing some cards out here, including show and tell and genesis wave. I think mastery would fall in the same category - a game-breaking tutorable spell.
Great card! No artifacts in this deck, tons of good artifacts running around, seems attractive. I tested it for a while but cut it. However, with the resurgence of artifact ramp decks (Griselbrand, Wanderer, GAA, and of course always Iname) which are not easy matchups, it could find its way back in.
Let me say also that this would be the best reason for adding a new card - improving a tough matchup. Whether it's through increasing speed or slowing faster decks down (beating combo decks) or dealing with a tough general (hexproof, protection). This is my focus for now. Surprisingly the matchup against slower green and white decks that RUN enchantment kill cards and creatures is already so favorable we don't need cards like Karmic Justice or Greater Auramancy. But things like Temporal Mastery and Stony Silence are potentially steps in the right direction of adjustment. They may not test well but at least they appear to help the deck's weaknesses.
What made you go the zero counter spell style? There isn't much the can handle giest in these colours, aside from them.
I think having just one or two counterspells is going to be weak and random and will take away the strength of the deck. This is a system deck. It uses a high density of enchantments to assemble massive card advantage and/or a superior board position by building and building and building. That is why removal that could be instant or sorcery based is instead in enchantment form because they get extra value from enchantresses and sigil and serra's sanctum and replenish. And it's not like things like journey to nowhere and lignify are bad cards. Pacifism is weaker than some removals, yes, but it is still aggressively costed and it does the job early game against aggro which is to slow them down allowing us to stabilize and take over the board. Many victories come about by just covering the battlefield with enchantments and Angel tokens - it just keeps buliding into a winning position.
And, counterspells aren't the only options for dealing with Geist or other problematic commanders. Early Oath. Wrath of God. Humility. I am an obsessive compulsive so maybe i'm being too hard on the matchups :). Let me clarify - I don't just lose every game against Geist. Rather i'm trying to be honest about the weaknesses. But also don't forget about the strengths and the fantastic matchups (Karador, Doran, Rhys, Teeg, Ezuri, and some builds of Edric - all popular and competitive generals and all *favorable* for this deck) rather than dwell on a couple weak matchups. No deck has all 75% favorable matchups.
I am thinking about including a couple more wrath effects or good spot removal cards. Not sure what # of enchantments is a critical amount but I don't want to dip much lower than what I have now. It works very well.
Fair enough. Do you often find yourself wanting a StP? And decent wrath effects are hard to find, for a low cost. DoJ maybe. Winds of Rath? That would be rather funny.
Fair enough. Do you often find yourself wanting a StP? And decent wrath effects are hard to find, for a low cost. DoJ maybe. Winds of Rath? That would be rather funny.
Hmm... do I find myself wanting a StP? Sometimes, maybe? When I mentioned "including a couple more wrath effects or good spot removal cards" StP and DoJ are high on my list though. I could see myself cutting a couple enchantments to work in cards like these, yes. But this is fine-tuning. The enchantment count must remain high because this is how the deck wins. Small changes followed by testing is how i'm tuning the deck right now. I'll try to post updates when I come up with worthwhile modifications.
I had a GW enchantress deck for a while that did a lot of similar things as your deck. I found Creeping Renaissance to be a worthwhile addition. Paying the flashback cost after it's milled to Oath in longer games is not actually unreasonable.
I had a GW enchantress deck for a while that did a lot of similar things as your deck. I found Creeping Renaissance to be a worthwhile addition. Paying the flashback cost after it's milled to Oath in longer games is not actually unreasonable.
Have you tried Solitary Confinement? Thoughts?
About Creeping Renaissance: too slow. The mana cost is high, the cards only go to the hand (requiring further casting), and perhaps most importantly it only really works well after Oathing. Nothing in this deck requires Oath - some cards just happen to work better after Oathing. But they are good on their own.
Along these same lines, there are two cards that I like better: Crystal Chimes and Holistic Wisdom. Both of these are permanents that can be returned to the battlefield with Sun Titan when he is oathed out. I've tested both and they are good at what they do. I actually really like holistic wisdom - you can do some zany things with it, of course swapping enchantments you need but also getting back replenish by exiling green sun's zenith, etc... The problem with both chimes and wisdom is that they do nothing for 3 mana. The current state of the format just doesn't allow for them. Let's face it. You oath into sun titan... odds are there is something on the battlefield that needs answered immediately and sun titan will get the answer. Or he will get protection for himself (seal of removal or steely resolve). Keep in mind I do not think these cards are "win more" - they just aren't suited for the decks I tend to play against. If suddenly every deck is a control deck and I always expect long games, chimes or wisdom would be good. Plus I would like to re-emphasize it is not a pure oath combo deck. It just so happens that the deck runs mostly enchantments so why not run Oath as icing on the cake - it is powerful and leads to some wins. But I don't believe this avenue warrants further card investment. Current "regular" oathing works just fine. Plus, getting too focused on one all-in strategy would weaken the control matchups. Of course if Wizards prints some bonkers Replenish-esque card i'll find a way to jam it in. But Replenish is so ridiculously overpowered that none of these cards can hold a candle to it. And I doubt we'll see something on that level again.
As for Solitary Confinement. This card is a staple in legacy enchantress I believe? Easy to be a staple when they run so many enchantress cards. For this deck, I believe it's only good when there is a draw engine on the board and in those cases it is unnecessary. Other enchantments handle the job that confinement would do while also doing their job without a draw engine. Otherwise, you're just going to "lose slowly" without a draw engine.
As for updates, I have added a changelog to the original post. Currently testing several new cards but here are a few that will be earning permanent spots on my list: Tithe (sort of another land tax, lets me keep risky hands), Into the Roil (great flexible removal spell, also combos with Parallax cards and can re-use o-ring or journey after exiling a general to command zone), Carpet of Flowers (just awesome against blue decks... at the worst it's a wild growth (which I want more of anyway) but in some games i'm getting 4+ mana from it every turn. That's insane for a 1 cc enchantment.). The rest of the stuff i'm still toying with. But I am pleased with these 3 additions.
Can't forget RTR spoilers. This deck gets Supreme Verdict and Detention Sphere. Nice.
I am actually in the process of building a similar deck. We play alot of 1v1 EDH and appreciate all the work you have already done for the archetype. Any ideas how the banning of Edric will affect the metagame and in turn your card choices?
I am actually in the process of building a similar deck. We play alot of 1v1 EDH and appreciate all the work you have already done for the archetype. Any ideas how the banning of Edric will affect the metagame and in turn your card choices?
Thanks! Good to hear that you are building an enchantress deck. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the power of the deck.
I would also like to mention that, as noted in the changelog, Exploration is now Fastbond and Wrath of God is now Supreme Verdict. Both are essentially pure upgrades. I am very pleased with these recent additions.
Thank you. Yes I thought about Planar Collapse but it is too situational. Orchard won't always be there, and if collapse can't be activated it will sit there dead. Not good.
On Fastbond, I am absolutely playing this, see above. On Mirri's Guile - yes I tried it, see changelog for my comments. I don't think it is a good card in a singleton format.
Overall I feel Fastbond and Detention Sphere are both great boons for this deck.
How well does Nodes / Drop work with Enchantress? Is it too much of a nonbo or do you just sandbag your Enchantress until they've cleaned the board up?
How well does Nodes / Drop work with Enchantress? Is it too much of a nonbo or do you just sandbag your Enchantress until they've cleaned the board up?
This. Drop/Nodes are awesome against aggro decks and pesky shroud guys like Geist. When the situation calls for it, you just slow roll the enchantress. Generally i've never found it much of an issue to play both even though they conflict.
Since oath banned, does rector+omni are good replacements? Also good with molting skin, which can get infinite casts for sigil/enchantress and situationally help jenara to survive. Since deck got enough amount of tutors, place enchantreses after omni should not be hard. Also drop/node could help you to kill rector as soon as possible
Also fable of wolf and owl seems good choose as addition to sigil, and vanishing and lost in thought could be strong as "pacifism", how do you think?
Also what are your thoughts about Heliod? He ramping sera sanctum, making dangerous tokens and make all vigilance, which in my opinion pretty good options
Jenara Oath Enchantress
Introduction:
Thank you for reading. I have spent a lot of time on this deck and I am excited to share it with the 1v1 competitive community. It is probably the most enjoyable Magic deck I’ve ever played. If you are looking for something different, fun, and still competitive, this could be for you.
One note before diving in: This is not a pure oath deck. It is also not a pure humility deck. Nor is it a pure enchantress deck (although if these three were pieces of the pie, the enchantress piece would be the largest). It is difficult to place Jenara Oath Enchantress into one specific “box” – I like to think of it as a metagame system deck. The important weapons are enchantments and the deck is based mostly on synergy while a couple high powered cards often stand out. It also runs a healthy number of tutors and answers, sometimes providing the feel of a toolbox deck. Just some food for thought. Enjoy.
Jenara Oath Enchantress
-A blue deck without counters-
Decklist current as of 11-15-2013
1 Jenara, Asura of War
Creatures: (3)
1 Argothian Enchantress
1 Sun Titan
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Enchantments: (37)
1 Utopia Sprawl
1 Wild Growth
1 Drop of Honey
1 Porphyry Nodes
1 Seal of Removal
1 Mystic Remora
1 Carpet of Flowers
1 Land Tax
1 Fastbond
1 Elephant Grass
1 Fertile Ground
1 Oath of Druids
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Seal of Primordium
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Lignify
1 Spreading Seas
1 Steely Resolve
1 Sterling Grove
1 Sylvan Library
1 Legacy's Allure
1 Stony Silence
1 Runner's Bane
1 Darksteel Mutation
1 Nevermore
1 Prison Term
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Arrest
1 Enchantress's Presence
1 Detention Sphere
1 City of Solitude
1 Aura of Silence
1 Parallax Wave
1 Moat
1 Mirari's Wake
1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
Instants: (8)
1 Crop Rotation
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Brainstorm
1 Tithe
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Beast Within
Sorceries: (10)
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Preordain
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 Wargate
1 Compulsive Research
1 Replenish
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Wrath of God
Planeswalkers: (3)
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Gideon Jura
1 Karn Liberated
Lands: (38)
1 Arid Mesa
1 Breeding Pool
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 Cephalid Coliseum
1 City of Brass
1 Command Tower
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Flooded Strand
1 Forbidden Orchard
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Razorverge Thicket
1 Savannah
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Seachrome Coast
1 Serra's Sanctum
3 Snow-Covered Forest
2 Snow-Covered Island
2 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Temple Garden
1 Tolaria West
1 Treetop Village
1 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
History
This deck came about from seeing the power of cards like Phyrexian Arena, Sylvan Library, Bitterblossom (which is now banned), Oath of Druids, and Survival of the Fittest. Not only are the effects powerful but the Enchantment permanent type makes them often difficult to remove if they resolve. Also, there are not many all-inclusive sweepers being run in the 1v1 format. Pernicious deed is probably the most common but only playable in a few decks. The others (for example Oblivion Stone, All is Dust, Austere Command, Akroma's Vengeance, Nevinyrral's Disk, etc...) are also uncommon or too high cc to be considered viable.
So I set out to build an enchantment (and to a lesser extent planeswalker) based deck with the idea that most of my permanents would be difficult to deal with. It started with 5 colors, a host of enchantress creatures, and phyrexian arena type cards.
After testing I realized the ONLY enchantress creature worth running was Argothian Enchantress because of her shroud (thanks to Khymera for pointing this out first). Enchantress's Presence was also great of course.
As for colors, 5c was unnecessary. The two *required* colors are green (enchantress cards, wild growth cards, sylvan library) and white (pacifism cards, humility, moat, o-ring). I have heard Rhys enchantress is played. However, I believe adding blue and getting Jenara is the best build for this type of deck. Most importantly, blue gives you powerful card draw spells that don’t need an enchantress. You also gain Wargate which is really strong, as well as a few nifty enchantments. Lastly, Jenara is just perfect for this deck. She flies, makes a great win condition, and the deck can sometimes generate a large amount of mana to pump her up.
Next I realized a green deck running so few creatures... should also be running Oath of Druids. In came a few big monsters. After months of testing, I settled on Sun Titan and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Sun Titan grabs a permanent that was just milled and he can also be easily hard cast at only 6 mana. Emrakul will just win the game if you attack with him and is extremely difficult to remove. He also prevents milling via the shuffle-in effect. (I also tested Iona, Shield of Emeria and Empyrial Archangel. Both were quite good but definitely weaker than Emrakul and Sun Titan.)
Lastly, this list came about from not only ideas and helpful tips but from a grueling amount of playtesting. I believe playtesting results are the most important in determining a card’s worth as well as to see if supposedly antisynergistic cards can actually work together. Some of these cards may be considered “bad” but they work here because it all functions as a unit or a system. While I am open to all suggestions and I believe this list can be further improved, each card has proven to be useful.
Strengths and weaknesses (broadly speaking):
Strengths, aka reasons for success:
1) Enchantments. Many decks are only packing a handful of enchantment kill cards so the enchantments stick around a while. This deck runs around 40. Some aggro decks don't run this many creatures. Also keep in mind that playing pacifism cards on the commander means he cannot be recast. He just sits there, effectively dealt with, but also not coming back. It is a subtle but important edge.
2) Oath of Druids. It's an overpowered card that can be played early and outright steal games. Also works well with Replenish.
3) Jenara. Don't forget about her. If unanswered, she can end the game very quickly. Synergizes well with Moat, Mirari's Wake (huge pumping). Great win condition.
4) Humility. It's an enchantment and it owns many decks. Combined with Moat, Ghostly Prison, and Propoganda - shuts down their attack. And with man lands, Mirari's Wake, and planeswalkers, we can win through it. Note - you can kill humility with the seals if you need to (i've done this at eot, pump jenara huge, then swing next turn for the win).
5) Synergy. Argothian Enchantress, Enchantress's Presence, and Sigil of the Empty Throne turn every enchantment spell into extra value. Also, remember that these all trigger when you CAST the enchantment. That's right: even if the spell is countered, or its target becomes illegal, or whatever, if you cast the enchantment you will draw a card or make a 4/4. Sweet. Replenish and Serra's Sanctum also benefit from the enchantment focus.
Weaknesses:
Planeswalkers. Because the deck runs so few creatures, no burn spells, and only Oblivion Ring and Karn Liberated as direct ‘walker removal, planeswalkers can sometimes be a problem.
Enchantment sweepers. They are rare but they hurt.
Fast combo decks.
Creatures (especially commanders) with shroud or hexproof.
Card choice discussion:
Enchantments:
~40 enchantments (currently 38). The enchantment number has been as high as 46 but the deck is slower and the enchantment quality falls off.
Each enchantment plays an important role and I have worked to balance the number of pacifisms with the number of utility enchantments. Consistency is important.
Pacifisms. I use this term to describe any creature aura that disables the creature in some way. These are spread out over 1 2 and 3 cc. These include Gelid Shackles, Arrest, Prison Term, and Lignify. I don't like Curse of Chains and Narcolepsy because they do nothing when you cast them and sometimes it is critical to be able to render their guy unable to block and swing in for the win. I have also stopped running cards like Pacifism, Crystallization, Kirtar's Desire due to Edric's banning. Early attacks aren't so dangerous anymore. The best out of all of these is Lignify. Not many creatures have protection from green and Lignify turns any creature into a useless 0/4.
Steal cards. Two: Mind Harness. 1 cc to steal some of the most popular commanders – Edric, Doran, Jenara, Rafiq, Ruhan, Godo, Sisay, Wanderer, Thraximundar, the list goes on (you can also wargate for it against Sigarda to get around the shroud, and honestly I wargate for this thing against other decks as well. it's a strong play in the right situation) … and Legacy's Allure. Fantastic turn 2 play against aggro. Surprisingly good against control as well - if you can sneak it in early, it must be dealt with before they can cast their commander. Plus it steals Animar.
Other anti-creature enchantments. Ghostly Prison and Propaganda are well-established anti-aggro cards and they are enchantments so a perfect fit here. Parallax Wave is great stall and control. Seal of Removal is nifty one mana bounce. Dance of Many – commander killer. Moat is awesome. Expensive, but awesome. Jenara flies over it, Emrakul flies over it, Sigil tokens fly over it, Celestial Colonnade flies over it, and Elspeth can launch anything over it.
Land auras for mana acceleration. Wild Growth, Utopia Sprawl, and Fertile Ground. All the 1 and 2 cc land auras that accelerate.
Utility enchantments. Enchantress’s Presence – auto-include. Sylvan Library – auto-include. Spreading Seas is a great one-of to deal with problematic lands or to color screw. Seal of Primordium and Seal of Cleansing are versatile and absolutely necessary. Oblivion Ring is amazing. Exploration can lead to some crazy starts, works great with Land Tax, and can help keep you ahead on land drops in a control matchup. City of Solitude – drop this against blue control and watch the tears flow. Steely Resolve set on “Angel” type protects not only Jenara but also Sigil of the Empty Throne tokens. Great enchantment at 2 mana. Nevermore helps against some weaker matchups. Parallax Tide exiles lands; exiling lands is good. Mystic Remora. Only 1 mana and powerful against control if you can stick it on the board. Seriously if you play this against artifact ramp decks like Wanderer or Griselbrand, or against blue control decks, you are going to draw so many cards… it can be obscene. Land Tax is fantastic and a 1 cc enchantment.
“Gamebreaker” Enchantments. Oath of Druids. Humility. Mirari’s Wake. Sigil of the Empty Throne. Each one plays a different role but if you can untap with any of them, you are in a great position.
Tutors:
This deck runs quite a few tutors. Enlightened Tutor is like a Vampiric Tutor in this deck, and in your opening hand it often means a turn 2 oath. Idyllic Tutor is essentially grim tutor. Sterling Grove is often used as a tutor as well. Green Sun’s Zenith provides a second copy of Argothian Enchantress, Eladamri’s Call is often yet another but can also get Sun Titan or Emrakul. Wargate is one of the best cards in the deck – extremely versatile tutor that puts any permanent onto the battlefield. Use it to get whatever is needed. Mystical Tutor typically fetches up Wrath of God, Replenish, or Wargate. Crop Rotation is self-explanatory, great 1 cc spell to get a powerful land. Last but not least is Muddle the Mixture: typically an Oath tutor but has other uses as well.
Draw spells:
Only a few specific draw spells. Ancestral Vision – awesome turn 1 play. Preordain – scry before drawing makes risky hands playable. Compulsive Research – draw 3 with a discard, very handy. Brainstorm. Solid, can put Emrakul back into the library, great with fetches.
Planeswalkers:
Elspeth, Knight Errant – Versatile planeswalker, great against aggro and control, and works great with humility.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor – It’s Jace.
Gideon Jura – A recent addition but has earned his spot on the list. Like Elspeth, Gideon is versatile and works well with humility.
Karn Liberated – He is awesome. Powerful and versatile, Karn wins games.
Misc:
Wrath of God. Tutorable reset button. It is generally not the deck’s philosophy to destroy creatures but sometimes you need to clear the board. Good as a one-of.
Replenish. It’s cards like Replenish that push this deck over the top. Not only is it just good to recover the enchantments that have been sacrificed or destroyed, it is amazing after Oathing.
Mana base:
This deck is color hungry especially early game. The only non-color producing land is Ancient Tomb because, well, it's insane. Other than this exception, every land MUST produce color. Of course every fetch land every good dual land is included. 7 basics are included for use with Land Tax.
The good man lands are included as well. I don't like Faerie Conclave because the 1 toughness means it can't block Humility creatures.
Note that while most of the spells are white, green and blue are absolutely necessary early game so that is the reason for so many duals providing each color. You need to be able to hit mana like UU for Dance of Many and WW for Prison Term on turns 2 and 3. While still getting G for other spells. Not easy.
I also like Horizon Canopy and Cephalid Coliseum for extra draw. The life loss is no big deal with 30 life and the card draw can save you in a pinch.
Notable exclusions:
Enchantment Exclusions:
I have tested nearly every enchantment in Bant colors. Not joking. Nearly every single one. Some notable exclusions are:
Faith's Fetters (I wish this was 3cc... at 4cc it's too slow because it is often just used as a pacifism. 4 mana to "kill" one creature? too slow. Yes it deals with walkers but again it’s too slow)
Treachery (the problem with creature steal is that it often just causes your opponent to remove the creature you steal, OR the creature you want to steal has hexproof. in either case, creature steal can be a let down. And treachery is technically “free” but it costs 5 to cast and that is too slow. It also can’t be returned with Sun Titan)
Overgrowth (3cc is pretty high and GG mana is awkward)
Defense of the Heart (either difficult to activate or just win more)
Future Sight (it's pretty good but the problem is the 5 cc slot is a log jam. Mirari's Wake, Sigil of the Empty Throne, and Gideon Jura are all more powerful than Future Sight so there is just no room for another 5 cc "i win" card. I think also Future Sight makes more sense in a pure ramp deck which this is not.)
Wheel of Sun and Moon (too narrow and unnecessary. this card is only useful against Iname and Karador. Karador is already a favorable matchup and Humility, Oath, and Nevermore are all strictly better against Iname.)
Rhystic Study (this card is a multiplayer powerhouse and I ran it for a long while. Problem is, it’s 3 mana to do nothing, and the opponent can play around it. Rhystic study works well in GAA though, I’m sure, since you are already taxing their mana with the commander. But here there are better options.)
Opalescence (while it appears to be a great card for an enchantment deck, opalescence is actually bad for the deck due to the anti-creature metagame. It makes the permanents more easily destroyed. Possibly could be used as a cast-once finisher for some lethal alpha strike attack but generally it is not what the deck wants to do.)
Elephant Grass (actually a pretty good stall card. The problem is that elephant grass is best against black decks which are already a favorable matchup.)
Earthcraft/Squirrel Nest (two card combo that instant wins but alone they do little to nothing. I could see it being played, and it may actually be good and by excluding them I am making a mistake, but so far I’m not running this combo.)
Other spells:
Tunnel Vision. Cool for naming Replenish, but this can be sort of random and is slow. 6 mana and 2 turns… I feel it is too slow. Maybe if Vision put the card into your hand I would play it.
Matchups:
Excellent (favorable):
Non-blue aggro decks including, but not limited to, Ezuri, Wort, Karador, Doran, Godo, Isamaru, Glissa, Rhys, Gaddock Teeg, Olivia
Basically, non-blue aggro decks that primarily aim to attack your life total via creatures are a favorable matchup.
Good (slightly favorable):
Other anti-creature "extinction" decks including Thraximundar, Merieke, Damia
The reason I believe this deck is favored against other anti-creature decks is because the threats and answers are mostly permanents of the enchantment type. This means that even the "dead cards" improve the board position if only somewhat.
Blue-containing aggro decks including Edric and Sygg, but not including Geist. Edric can sometimes just get a "god hand" and run away with the game. BUT if he is average to start, this is favorable since the deck has so many anti-creature cards. It is not included in the "highly favorable" section because of the counters and the "god start" edric can do.
Tough (50/50-ish, possibly lower):
Iname - I consider it sort of a coin flip. We have some near unanswerable cards against him (mono black has very few ways to deal with enchantments), but sometimes he can combo out too fast. Nevermore, Humility, and Oath are the MVPs.
Zur - This matchup varies depending on the build. Tough, but I think still fair.
Most difficult (unfavorable):
Geist of Saint Traft and Animar, Soul of Elements.
The problems with Geist are two-fold: he has blue for counters and the commander has hexproof. Sure we have some cards against it but he hits fast and hard. Can be difficult. Drop of Honey, Porphyry Nodes (since they do not target, they can kill Geist), Humility, and Oath are the best here. Moat, Ghostly Prison, and Propoganda can slow them down. Also, Jenara is a great blocker provided that Geist is not buffed. But it's still unfavorable especially against the “voltron” builds.
Regarding Animar, he is often too fast and you just lose. Best to go for Oath or Humility ASAP. Nevermore on Animar is good too if he hasn't cast it yet. Lignify, Mind Harness, and Dance of Many are good stall cards as well. The good news is that Animar decks typically run very few interactive/answer cards. So whatever bomb we land early he won't really be able to remove it. Also, i'm using Jester's list as the standard (aka the fastest combo version). The slower the combo, the better the matchup I think.
Still not sure on:
Clique or Wydwen (probably favorable because they run few threats and can't deal with a swarm of enchantments, though they have a lot of counters)
Rafiq or Jenara goodstuff (I would guess 50/50 or better)
GAA (I believe unfavorable against any version, but small sample size)
Maelstrom Wanderer (so far unfavorable but Wanderer is new and I don't completely understand how to play the matchup, still working on that)
Shroud commanders like Sigarda and Uril (these are slower than Geist and don’t have blue… but can still be a pain due to shroud… probably even or slightly favorable)
Captain Sisay (probably slightly favorable since it is creature based)
5C planeswalker/graveyard “grind it out” decks (I don’t believe these decks are competitive because they are too slow, but regardless they are a poor matchup – they run powerful planeswalkers, blow up everything, and can keep recurring their removal)
Overall matchup thoughts:
Obviously the matchups I reported are from my own experience and with this specific build. They may even be a bit on the pessimistic side. This deck has a high "lucksac" factor because sometimes you will just resolve Oath of Druids against any deck, hit Emrakul, and end the game. Or get a turn 2 enchantress and just draw a billion cards. This does happen, but I won't pretend like it happens a lot. But still, this deck is capable of doing broken things - some decks aren't. I believe there is room to improve the poorer matchups since some of the easier matchups are already such blowouts that I could sacrifice some of that advantage to improve a weaker matchup. This is theory though… I have been thinking and so far have not found a practical implementation of this idea. But I believe the opportunity exists.
More advice and random thoughts:
#1 Tip: Every game plays different. Repeat. Every game plays different. So it is important to plan things out with the opening hand and with each card you draw. And always be patient and be adaptive.
Jenara! Jenara can do many things. She can be used to draw out counterspells or removal, or she can be used as a brute-force win condition. Sometimes you will want to cast her over and over just to draw out counters and eat removal cards. Other times you may save her, drawing out counters with your other cards, only to land her with the intent of ending the game via Jenara. Both are viable options.
Mystic Remora - treat this sort of like a standstill but with no drawback. What I mean is, either have a threat out, or have the mana to cast a threat, when this is out. The cumulative upkeep will catch up with you so you want to force your opponent to cast non-creature spells by having a threat on the board that he must answer. Or if you have 5+ mana sure cast it. But early game, be careful... plan out when best to cast this guy. Best to be patient with it.
Oath list running a 0/1 creature??? I have heard this several times. Well, first of all this is not just a pure Oath deck. Other oath decks can basically only win via Oath or Polymorph into a monster. This list has several different and viable win conditions so it is not all in for Oath. That is also what makes it so much fun to play - you can often choose how you want to win.
Anyways, sure sometimes you oath into Argothian Enchantress. BUT, you can sometimes tutor her out of the deck before oathing, and also you have a 66% chance to hit either Sun Titan or Emrakul even if all 3 are in the library. That is pretty good odds for a game of chance.
And so what if you oath into her? You just got an untargetable draw engine on the board. That's never bad.
But still… don't always go for Oath. Well OK if they play a creature and are tapped out, of course play oath. But it's not going to beat every deck. Oath can be swingy so use caution. Against control decks with a lot of wraths and edicts it is probably the incorrect play.
Sun Titan. Not only is it great to get a permanent onto the board, but recurring auras this way lets you enchant shroud or hexproof creatures. The reason (link to the ruling explanation) is that auras only target when cast, not when brought onto the battlefield another way. Now, you can’t get around protection so you can’t put Pacifism on Animar for example. But it’s still very useful to place a disabling aura on a shroud or hexproof guy this way. Note: Using Wargate to bring auras onto the battlefield also gets around shroud and hexproof.
Sigil of the Empty Throne is my favorite mid to late game win condition. It's the most stable. It sits there and each enchantment you play adds a 4/4 flier. If not removed, Sigil will end the game fast. I know it's 5 mana and it "does nothing" but it's actually one of the best cards in the deck and i'm always happy to draw it and I tutor for it often.
Humility games will be slow. Against certain decks and in certain situations, you can't help but play it. It prevents you from losing the game. But you still must win the game. You will draw into man lands, planeswalkers, etc... eventually.
Nevermore... for the longest time I did not run this card because it seemed too narrow. But Nevermore earned it's spot forever because it is awesome against combo decks that are difficult to interact with (Iname, Zur, Wanderer, Griselbrand, and to a lesser extent Animar). Nevermore is a key card that improves these matchups.
Notes on "anti-synergy"... Yes, humility hurts Jenara and Oathed creatures. But humility is worth it. And you sometimes don't NEED to cast it. In fact I consider humility like the ultimate reset button. If it is clear that the game is out of control, play it. Or of course against dangerous combo commanders, it should be played early as a prevention. Consider it another tool in the toolbox.
The curve... sometimes feels high yes. Avg. CMC is ~2.6 but many of the lower cc spells are not played on turn 1. Anyways, on turn 5 I would rather be playing a 5 mana bomb spell than something weaker. I feel like the list has just enough early game anti-aggro tempo cards to survive and then just take over in the mid game. From seeing decks like artifact-ramp based Wanderer, Thraximundar, and Griselbrand, and GAA tap out, this whole "tap out and play my bomb spells" idea is not new. And I think it works. As an aside, this is part of the reason I LOVE this format. Not only are there so many diverse decks available but people are playing HUGE, SLOW spells and winning with them.
Ways to get Emrakul out of your hand and into the deck: Mulligan, Jace, Compulsive Research, Brainstorm, or discard phase. I think it's enough. Then again, if you have Mirari's Wake you only need 7 or 8 lands to hard cast him. Or Serra's Sanctum and a bunch of enchantments.
Try to put the wild growths on basic lands. Sometimes you can’t avoid it, true, so go for the risk, but when possible put them on basics or you’re asking to get wastelanded.
Moat is expensive. Budget alternatives include Reverence, Lightmine Field, and of course Teferi’s Moat. They have each tested OK but Moat is king.
Matchup Strategy:
My matchup tactics focus on how to mulligan, how to play early to mid game, and what win condition to generally aim for. The plan changes depending on the matchup. Also note that these are general guidelines. Sometimes the right play is wrong, sometimes the wrong play is right. But generally these are a good start to understand how to play the deck against the top commanders.
This deck has fantastic long game power. Losses often come from short games (well, I win short games too of course but not every game ends in 5 or 6 turns). This makes mulligan and early decisions CRUCIAL for your chances of winning.
Edric, Spymaster of Trest:
You NEED a turn 1 or 2 removal spell - Lignify, Journey, Seal of Removal, Dance of Many, Drop of Honey, Porphyry Nodes, Crystallization, Kirtar's Desire. If Nodes/Drop is all you have, play it IMMEDIATELY after he drops a dude and let it trade 1 for 1. This will keep him from playing another guy out, giving you more time to get to 3 or 4 mana. Now if you have Drop/Nodes AND another removal spell, this is ideal. Use the removal spell FIRST, then play Drop/Nodes to follow up. This will surely crush him. Another possiblity is a Turn 2 Oath. This is also fantastic against Edric.
Also keepable is a wild growth for turn 1 followed by a turn 3 removal or Ghostly Prison/Propaganda.
Jenara is a great follow-up turn 3 play that must be dealt with - he can't really attack into her. So with the commander you have the turn 3 play - just need at least one turn 1 or 2 removal.
If you survive the early game your chances to win are high. Keep slowing him down with pacifisms, moat/propaganda/ghostly, wrath if you have to. As for winning, go for whatever you want. No need for humility here - they don't have anything that will really hurt.
Maelstrom Wanderer:
The best card against wanderer is Nevermore. Try to get it up ASAP, naming Wanderer. Most wanderer lists will not be running many answers to this so it is a great card to slow him down.
Another key point is pumping up Jenara to at least 5 toughness. The good wanderer lists will be running 2 and 3 damage pyroclasms as well as wildfire/burning which do 4 damage. Get Jenara out and pump her to 5/5 and keep swinging.
Another option is Sigil tokens of course. Or walkers. Humility doesn't do much because he can still cascade so I would avoid Humility if possible.
If wanderer is cast, stealing him with Mind Harness is an extremely strong play - I don't think they have many ways to get their general back or even kill him.
Oath is fine too assuming they have a creature. It is safe to Oath against wanderer.
Iname, Death Aspect:
Nevermore naming Iname is the best - sort of a one-sided Humility. Humility is also fantastic, stops the ETB ability, but also slows our deck down. Iname typically runs very few answers to enchantments so if you can get them on the board they should do the trick.
Once one of these "insurance enchantments" is on the board, proceed to try to win.
For winning go for Sigil, Jenara, or Walkers.
Oath can be OK sometimes but keep in mind black decks run board wipes and edicts so this may be a difficult way to win. It is much more reliable to go for Sigil.
Animar, Soul of Elements:
Against combo Animar, you MUST have AT LEAST one of the following in your opening hand: Enlightened Tutor, Idyllic Tutor, Oath of Druids, Dance of Many, Lignify, Seal of Removal, Mind Harness, Wrath of God, Mystical Tutor, or Humility. Basically you never want to let him untap with Animar (unless you have Humility to follow up but sometimes even that can be too slow). And since Animar comes out fast, you see why you need one of these spells in your hand.
So, disrupt/disable Animar for as long as you can. Legacy's Allure can also be effective if you're on the play. Basically anything to disrupt him ONCE and set up your Oath or Humility.
Oath is the best win condition against Animar because he can't really answer it and he also can't answer the creatures we oath. Plus Sun Titan recurs key enchantments that guarantee the win.
Griselbrand:
Nevermore and Humility are awesome here. Key is to never let him cast or activate Griselbrand. If you can do this, you will likely be ahead on cards and win the game. Most Gris lists run few actual threats and rely on the general to win. If you deny them Gris, you are in a great position.
Watch out for All is Dust and Karn Liberated as enchantment removal. Saving Muddle the Mixture to counter AID is actually a really good choice. I like planeswalkers a lot here. I do not like Oath so much. As with Iname, but even worse with Griselbrand, they run edicts and board wipes galore. So Emrakul is going to have a hard time sticking around a turn to do damage.
So... try to win through Walkers, Jenara, or Sigil. The game is gonna be tough but the synergy should pull through if you can prevent Gris from coming out.
Clique, Wydwen, Nin: (the control decks)
I used to feel like the underdog against pure control decks. But now I realize that my deck is actually favored and the aggressor because they basically MUST counter the enchantments to deal with them. If you can land a key enchantment and start building the board position, you will win.
Key cards here are: City of Solitude, Argothian Enchantress, Enchantress's Presence, Carpet of Flowers, Mirari's Wake, and Planeswalkers. If you can land City of Solitude, it's probably gg. Or an early enchantress effect that they can't remove. Nin has pyroclasms so she will probably kill Argothian but Clique/Wydwen usually just stare at it and cry. Of course, enchantress's presence is great also.
Jenara should be used to draw out counterspells and removal to pave the way for your card advantage/mana advantage cards. These are the control mirror games so we need cards and we need mana.
Also don't get upset when your stuff is countered - just keep plowing through the permission. You will land something eventually and then you will start building and building and then the victory will be secured.
Non-blue aggro decks: (Doran, Karador, Gaddock Teeg, Rhys, etc, etc..)
These are the decks that roll over to Jenara Oath Enchantress. Pacifisms, Oath, Humility, Walkers... it's all designed to dismantle these non-blue aggro decks. The only potentialy difficult ones are Doran and Karador because they can get Griselbrand or Iona off of Retainers. But we're still favored here.
Extra thoughts:
One thing I did not mention for many of the matchups is the use of the Enchantress cards as well as all a lot of other utility spells. These are all important. Like for example, if I am playing Edric and I have a bonkers hand with no removal but Ancestral Vision for turn 1 and a turn 2 Argothian Enchantress and like 3 1-cc enchantments, then i'll of course keep that hand because so what if he draws a couple cards, I will draw a billion cards. But this is not the typical case. Furthermore, in matchups that are extremely favorable, it doesn't really matter what you do or in what order. You will win the games by a landslide no matter what you choose to do.
Then again, even in tough matchups, sometimes I never cast an enchantress or sigil and can still win. This just reiterates my point that every game plays out differently. This deck has numerous routes to win and that is another aspect that makes it difficult to play against (I believe, anyways - I've never played against it).
For matchups that are more dangerous and challenging, the win/lose is oftend decided by the few key cards I mention. But plays like Parallax Tide/Seal taking 5 lands is great against like every deck. And obviously drawing a card for every enchantment you play is fantastic as well.
When going for a Sigil win route, either have a couple enchantments in hand already, OR get an enchantress engine in play before getting the Sigil. It's always good to invest in a draw engine that way you will just "go off" with the Sigil. If not, you can be slow. Sigil is still good without draw but just not nearly as explosive.
Example game videos!
These are HD youtube videos of cockatrice replays. There are two main purposes for these videos. One, to provide instruction on how to play the deck. Two, to show practical implementation of the ideas I discuss in this thread. As they say, seeing is believing.
For now I have included mostly wins and only one loss because it's my thread damnit! But don't be fooled. Many of these games are tough. There is adversity faced and a few wild situations. Some games I never get Oath or Enchantress effects and some games they are countered or killed immediately. I wanted to highlight the variety of plays, the variety of win conditions, and the versatility of the deck against various popular archetypes (control, aggro/control, aggro, combo).
Each video has my own short commentary in the description and I welcome any questions - but please post here. The videos are setup as private and I do not receive emails on my youtube account. Thanks!
The replays are done at fast speed - you can pause and rewind if you missed something but every play is recorded. Watch in 1080p for the best quality :). Oh and if you are featured in the replay, thank you for playing me! Hope you don't mind me sharing our game. If I picked our game it is likely because we had a tough game and you were a great opponent and brought an interesting game. Of course I have lost games to these players also (especially Jester) but I hope you understand this is for me and my deck!
vs. Doran
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kleiJMXs1ZU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUiisTzmZT4
vs. Animar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdsnhBOjJIg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1WYPpQx_j8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAMcjB05_Dk
vs. Karador
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mLnIFhd1Mc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siXXUJSqxV4
vs. Ruhan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xOMJQxW6JM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE-hkLPbkiw
vs. Ezuri
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFD2JkP3bBs
vs. Gaddock Teeg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCIU_nIZrSg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PaUYFG4e_o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A1qZCC41fw
vs. Talrand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTt0WG6AG0Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFjZ8kVdDDI
vs. Wort
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oboz9MLBTcM
vs. Sygg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne217vgb5mY
EVERYTHING IN ONE GAME (enchantress, enchantress's presence, sigil, mirari's wake, and fastbond. crazy game)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YplYQW-mYt4
What the deck needs (new cards I am looking out for):
#1 - More Wild Growths. More fast mana is probably the one thing every competitive deck wants, and this list is no exception. In enchantment form obviously.
#2 - Another good planeswalker.
#3 - Improvements to current cards such as cheaper better pacifisms.
Tournament Results:
I won’t go into details but the deck has done OK in the few tournaments I’ve played. There isn’t much of a competitive Duel commander scene where I live and I am also not a veteran of the format yet. A new and unusual deck is an advantage though – opponents will not know exactly what to do, may misplay, etc. So I believe this list could place well in tournaments but it depends on the pilot and the metagame (as with every deck, of course, but this one especially).
Changelog:
9-6-2012: True to my word, decided to cut back a bit on the anti-aggro cards (specifically pacifisms) and add more cards that focus on building the deck's power overall (still some anti-aggro cards but argualy more powerful and broadly applicable ones). The curve is also lower and the enchantment count went up by 1. Testing will see if I still dominate aggro decks... (I also expect to be adding the new uncounterable wrath in place of wrath of god or possibly in addition to it).
out: Essence Flare, Kirtar's Desire, Pacifism, Crystallization, Cephalid Coliseum, Compulsive Research, Gitaxian Probe
in: Elephant Grass, Carpet of Flowers, Into the Roil, Tithe, Narcolepsy, Mirri's Guile, Legacy's Allure
9-16-2012: What survived and what didn't?
Cards that tested well and earned permanents spots on the roster:
Carpet of Flowers (insane against any blue deck), Into the Roil (explained in a post below), Tithe (lets me keep risky hands, 1 cc), Legacy's Allure (awesome card!)
Cards that failed testing:
Elephant Grass (still don't like it even after re-testing. propaganda and ghostly prison are better since they do not require cumulative upkeep and the black creature ability is meaningless because most black decks are handled by other cards so I don't need help there), Mirri's Guile (does nothing really... not good in singleton magic in my opinion), Narcolepsy (inferior to pacifisms in my opinion because it does not immediately affect combat when you cast it and sometimes you need to clear a blocker that turn to win. otherwise, it is better but this is something I want out of my removal enchantments)
Cards that are back in (due to being temporarily cut for testing slots):
Compulsive Research, (solid) Cephalid Coliseum, (drawing 3 late game is huge. can dig for that impact spell when you are about to lose. has saved me several times) Crystallization, Kirtar's Desire (these 2 are back in because I absolutely need consistent early plays against aggro decks especially edric)
Cards that have been permanently cut:
Reflecting Pool (bad land to see in the opening hand, need color producing), Pacifism (at 2 mana I prefer crystallization and at 1 mana, Kirtar's Desire is faster. just don't need vanilla pacifism anymore), Gitaxian Probe (I don't really need information and I don't like the uncertainty it brings when kept in the opener - preordain is wayyyy more powerful at fixing a risky hand and that's what I need it for)
Land count is 38 - with the addition of Tithe, I think this is the perfect number for my deck.
Enchantment count is also 38 - this is the sweet spot apparently.
With these changes the deck has been performing beautifully. I am pleased with my recent results against some of the tough generals like Animar, Wanderer, and Griselbrand. Current list up top is damn solid.
Looking forward... Wrath of God will be replaced by Supreme Verdict. Detention Sphere will be included as well. This card is perfect because it brings a truly versatile card that is good against aggro and control, while helping against walkers. This is exactly what I neeeded. I anticipate swapping out Arrest - a fantastic upgrade.
9-30-2012: Update following banlist changes.
With Edric gone, Fastbond unbanned, and a new set released, here are the latest changes:
- Kirtar's Desire
- Crystallization
- Exploration
- Wrath of God
- Ancient Tomb
+ Fastbond
+ Detention Sphere
+ Gelid Shackles
+ Supreme Verdict
+ Temple of the False God
At this point, the list is just micro-calibrating. I feel confident with the current list and especially with another o-ring and an uncounterable wrath. Plus Fastbond (essentially a strictly better Exploration) leads to some really explosive plays especially when drawing cards from enchantress.
10-21-2012: Small adjustment.
- City of Solitude
+ Rest in Peace
This deck has proven to have a positive matchup against control and I never tutored for City of Solitude. Therefore I have decided to cut it and I believe this is correct.
In its place I will be testing Rest in Peace. I do not like other grave-hate enchantments but this Rest in Peace is special. It's extremely powerful, undercosted, and it's an enchantment. It does screw up Sun Titan and Replenish but I think against certain decks and strategies, it will make an excellent silver bullet to tutor up. While Nevermore and Humility own some of the graveyard decks, they don't stop them all. I have had issues with LftL decks, Worm Harvest, and also stopping Recurring Nightmare. Rest in Peace will annihilate all of these strategies. Looking forward to testing and I think it will be nice to have a single grave hate card especially when that one card is the best anti-graveyard card ever printed.
11-12-2012: Stuff
In case anyone is following this thread, the current list is in a state of testing due to the current metagame of Zur/Wanderer being so popular and also so good!
Cards I think that were good in the edric meta but not very good now especially against these 2 top decks, as well as Geist and GAA (2 other top decks):
Crystallization
Kirtar's Desire
Mind Harness (stealing wanderer is too late)
Gelid Shackles
Arrest
Propaganda
Ghostly Prison
Parallax Wave
Rest in Peace
^^Basically the creature auras and Propaganda/Ghostly Prison, Parallax Wave. These were amazing against Edric but now... not so much. Against creature decks, we should either go for Oath or go for Humility - both will end the game without the need for all of these disabling auras in my opinion. I have not done much testing especially against aggro but I think it should be OK. Rest in Peace is great but also really narrow and absolutely dead against Wanderer, Zur, Geist, and GAA. Not good to have a card absolutely dead against these guys! I think I just need to suck up the other matchups, lean on humility more in them, and tough it out. We can't have dead cards against these 4 decks. Not if we want to be a competitive deck.
The pool of cards that are much better against Zur/Wanderer/Geist/GAA are as follows:
Carpet of Flowers
City of Solitude (not against wanderer, but the rest it is good)
Elephant Grass (stops zur HARD, and acts as a Propaganda against the rest)
Aura of Silence
Stony Silence (awesome against all 4! Stops mana rocks, lightning greaves, whatever...)
Exploration (ramp for us)
Overgrowth (ramp for us)
So basically, when considering the metagame you will play in, I would look to swap out cards from the first group and add in cards from the second group. Mix and match. They're all good it just depends on what you play against.
I am also in the process of testing out Stasis. I have cut Elspeth for Garruk 1.0 to go along with Stasis. Oathing into Sun Titan and getting Stasis can often be GG. Or, with Wargate you can get Garruk and other tutors can find stasis. Garruk + Stasis is a hard lock. Plus stasis is very strong against these ramp/tap out style decks. I will report back if it works out or not.
Few more things:
added Mistveil Plains in place of Temple of the False God. It was a mistake not running Mistveil Plains - can get back some key cards that can be tutored up, especially after Oathing. Temple was crap - early turns are the ones that matter and it is a dead card... can't hold a candle to ancient tomb...
back to running Iona, Shield of Emeria as the 3rd fatty and 4th creature. She owns a LOT of decks and gives me 75% chance of Oathing into a bomb, technically making Oath stronger. She is also an Angel (Steely Resolve) and hard casting her is not out of the question.
also running Beast Within - deals with anything, especially planeswalkers, and activates Oath. Perfect for this deck.
11-23-2012: Back to what works...
The ramp hate enchantments style just didn't work. I would rather have some amazing matchups and some poor matchups rather than having mediocre matchups across the board.
One new important innovation though: Cataclysm. This card was suggested to me months ago but that was during the reign of Edric and I dismissed the card as being anti-synergistic with the general "resource building" style that I like. However, Cataclysm owns so many decks HARD, especially ramp, and if timed well against any deck, it ends the game. Following up either Jenara or Oath of Druids with Cataclysm has won me numerous games now. This card is awesome. Also kills 'walkers!
Also back to running City of Solitude. This card does so many little things that I miss now that I wasn't playing it. City also solves a lot of issues I was trying to cure with other cards. Most importantly it protects man lands from removal, blanks maze of ith, and just generally screws with your opponent's game plan. It's an auto include from now on.
Decklist updated in main section.
12-16-2012
-Mistveil Plains
+Flagstones of Trokair
I never used mistveil plains ability during the month i've been playing it. I think it's sort of like worrying about being decked - either I win or lose before it matters, or Eldrazi shuffle gets the cards back in the library if I really need it. Flagstones should be great - it enters untapped and works awesome with Crop Rotation and Cataclysm.
Oops. Forgot to mention that I cut Mind Harness a while ago. Crystallization in its place. Harness is dead against some top decks. Crystallization is the best "vanilla" pacifism card because if they try to bounce, equip, or even give the creature protection to shed the enchantment, the trigger will exile it. I like having it.
1-14-2013
-Cataclysm
-Crystallization
+Wrath of God
+Propaganda
Cataclysm was only good against wanderer (which doesn't really run removal... Jenara into Cataclysm was gg) or when you are already ahead. There have been a LOT of situations where it is NOT good to cast and it sits dead. Wrath is back in. Good to have two wraths against Geist... Propaganda is also generally better against aggro decks than a generic pacifism I have found. Especially vs. hexproof where auras just sit in the hand...
4-23-2013
Been a while. With the banning of humility, deck needs an update. Pretty simple for now:
-Humility
+Stony Silence
Obviously losing humility is a blow but it also removes the negative synergy of humility and oath/jenara. I also noticed that humility was not even necessary against aggro decks - the rest of the deck generally crushes aggro. Humility was mostly best against combo decks: Animar, Iname, Zur. With Humility gone, I want to give Stony Silence a serious go. It will help against fast ramp/combo and will generally be useful against everything (equipment in aggro and midrange, mostly). The cmc 2 is really attractive too. Lower curve is something I want.
5-6-2013
Couple more changes
- Propaganda
- Gelid Shackles
+ Treachery
+ Runner's Bane
Giving treachery another go - it's obviously powerful and I see a lot of titans and other big guys running around. Should be good. Runner's Bane may not look so great but it is essentially a 2 cmc Arrest - stops mana dorks, mom, doran, zur, and a bunch of other guys. The key is 2 cmc, nice and aggressive, hopefully will turn out to be a 2nd Lignify (well not quite, but close!).
6-16-2013
New legend rule coming...
- Dance of Many
+ Rest in Peace
Dance of Many was primarily (99% of the time) a general snipe tool. Sad we have to lose it, though, because it also served as a Sun Titan copy and a way to legend rule our own Emrakul in case of decking. Rest in Peace is a nice silver bullet to have against the graveyard decks running around (anything based on Hulk, Karador, Varolz, Iname, etc.)
7-15-2013
Protean Hulk banned...
- Rest in Peace
- Elspeth, Knight-Errant
+ Aura of Silence
+ Gitaxian Probe
With Hulk gone, the graveyard doesn't really scare me much anymore. Varolz can be Arrested, nobody plays Iname, and Karador is super slow without the hulk combo. I think having another removal for artifacts/enchantments will be nice so I'm giving Aura of Silence another shot. I also decided to finally cut Elspeth. With humility gone, her value has plummeted. Unfortunate but I believe it has to be done. In her place comes Gitaxian Probe. I've always wanted to play probe. Maybe now is the time. Pleased with the current list. M14, while having an enchantment theme, did nothing for this deck.
7-26-2013
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
- Treachery
- Moat
+ Earthcraft
+ Squirrel Nest
Combo decks are still so prevalent. With Humility gone, Moat is pretty bad. Also shuts down the combo i'm adding, as well as shuts down Gideon and Sun Titan from attacking. Cut. And treachery is 5 cmc. In the interest of lowering the curve and also improving matchups against fast combo decks, i've decided to try Earthcraft and Squirrel Nest combo (makes infinite tapped squirrels, which, when you untap, attack for infinite damage). I believe this deck has enough tutors and drawing to reliably support this combo. It gives us a way to potentially outrace decks like Wanderer, Animar, and the soon to be Prossh. Hopefully testing will show if this theory is correct.
11-2-2013
Been a while. Small update from Commander 2013 - this deck gets Lignify #2, aka Darksteel Mutation. Such a powerful card, especially in here. I cut Elephant Grass for it. Aggro seems pretty dead so I don't have much use for Elephant Grass. Good upgrade for this deck~!
11-15-2013
- Squirrel Nest
- Earthcraft
+ Moat
+ Elephant Grass
Aggro-combo and aggro-control decks are all over the place now. I believe this deck has a good matchup against Derevi and Marath, two popular new commanders. Adding these cards back in also helps. It's just difficult to get a two card combo to work, even with all the tutors. I like having Moat... and Elephant Grass is awesome against a lot of decks, even shuts down Zur.
Thank you:
Thanks to Evergreen for help on card choices, matchup advice, and great discussion about the format.
And of course thanks to the other SoCal pals who also play this format in real life.
The End. I welcome any and all comments, questions, and suggestions.
I have a question regarding your mana base. I noticed that you chose not to include the filter lands (Mystic Gate etc.). Was this because you were concerned about not having colored mana on turn 1? You have a decent amount of turn 1 plays and I don't see Nimbus Maze either so I assume that is the reason, just curious.
Also you mention oathing into Argothian Enchantress as being potentially awkward. I know that in the past you've run more oath targets, and I was wondering if you could elaborate on the choice to go down to only two fatties. With three fatties you have less chance of "missing" on your oath (I know hitting enchantress can still be good, but you know what I mean), and are less vulnurable to drawing Emrakul. Of course a slot in your deck is not an irrelevant cost, and drawing the third fattie will never be fun. Considering this have you ever thought about Show and Tell? It could help turn the cost of drawing a third fattie into an advantage, and you already have Mystical Tutor for Show and Tell and Emrakul, Karn, Titan, and Mystery Third Fattie should you choose to include him as targets, with Eladamri's Call and Muddle the Mixture (fetching call) to find those targets. It could be awful since I'm not a huge fan of two card combos in this format, but a lot of the pieces seem to be there already. Just a thought.
Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to share and explain this very weird but very good deck, EDH needs more innovators like this.
I concur with this assessment. Sisay falls in the "slower combo deck" category (compared to, say, Iname and Animar, but faster than Teysa) and, even though she plays more enchantment answers than the average deck, there's still too much time for you to set up and too many threats to target when enchantment hate finally shows up. It's scary how consistently the deck plays out, and how just a few Pacify effects and one cast of Jenara can feel like GG.
In our games, I found myself so utterly dependent on Lignify to shut down Jenara, but your bombs outclass Sisay's when the inevitable draw or tutor or draw-for-the-tutor comes up and Humility turns my deck into 6 oz of crap, haha. Not to mention, I can't do squat against Planeswalkers with a couple of neutered creatures on the board.
But then again, Sisay is more about securing an early and unstoppable lead. Sadly though, Sisay gets only about 1 in 3 games where everything goes just like it's supposed to, with early ramp, Sisay shroud, and an active Sisay early on. But from playing against your deck and watching your many matchups, I'd say that you have more consistently favorable games, so although my "explosive" will probably beat your explosive, my "meh" games will probably be outclassed by your "meh" games. So, using completely made up math, I'd say you're in favor in this matchup 54-46. ;P
That said, I'd definitely like to play against you again sometime for more testing. Even though I hate hate hate Humility, I love the novelty of your deck, so I can handle losing to Humility at least a few more sets.
I see you added Exploration! Great choice. I'm pretty sure I like it enough to keep it in (though I recently dropped its weaker cousin, Burgeoning). With the metagame being what it is ("DEATH TO EDRIC AND EDRIC-LIKE DECKS!!"), I think Exploration is better than Llanowar Elves right now in decks like ours.
Just a note to everyone to illustrate how on-top-of-**** this deck is: it was seeing kwiznek's deck that finally inspired me to play safer ramp options, as I kept losing so many games due to the abundance of sweepers/clasms/multi-target removals killing all of my mana dorks. I'd be happier to have Wild Growth in my opener than Llanowar Elf (which was once called "the best card in the format" by someone).
Was gonna say that I didn't remember seeing Steely Resolve several months back, but glad to see it that it is indeed in the deck. That + Jenara can probably be enough to win in some cases. I don't see any other missing enchantments. Nevermore is another oddball one that I play and I see you've got it, too, so yay.
No suggestions, really (though I do like Evergreen's card picks! Could lead to more consistent early blowouts, if you're looking to do that). Keep up the good work. =P
My Captain Sisay Duel Commander Primer
Duel Commander Mega-Thread
Evergreen:
Yes early colored mana, especially first turn, is crucial. However this is not exactly the reason i'm not running the other dual and filter lands - I guess I just never tried them. But you're probably right, since I have important turn 1 plays the filter lands would likely be bad. I don't think I run any "bad" land choices in the deck... but it's probably not perfect either so thanks for noticing those details. I'm always looking to upgrade.
Yes, Oathing into Argothian feels like a miss for sure compared to the monsters. And you are correct: for the longest time I was running 3 monsters + Argothian. I don't really know why I thought I needed 3. Running only 2 lowers the curve and gives me a higher chance to hit Emrakul or Sun Titan which are the all stars. Empyrial was great, difficult to deal with, etc, but she doesn't end the game in one swing like Emrakul. So she wasn't really helping me kill faster.
As for Show and Tell - interesting suggestion. Even without the 3rd monster this seems attractive. Getting an early Wake or Sigil is a big advantage, of course in addition to the permanents you mentioned. And yes I thought about it but only briefly and never tried it. I think I will try it now just to see if it does in fact lead to more "consistent early blowouts" as Riley said. Speed is something I'd like to improve simply because faster decks are a pain and this might just be the trick! (or it could be bad, but i'll test it)
Riley:
Yes I added exploration and I love it! I also added burgeoning at the same time but I cut it. BTW, exploration + land tax is obscene. And exploration helps the deck in general because when I'm drawing cards, mana becomes tight so being able to put out the extra lands drawn and play more spells really helps speed it up.
Yes when things are dealt with on the board, Jenara can usually come in and swing a few times to win. She is such a threat. And Steely Resolve is awesome on Angel - Jenara and Sigil tokens.
BRWC Mardu Shops - Tymna and Akiri Artifacts BRWC
Worldly Tutor is a possibility - I like that it can setup a solid Oath. Despite its drawbacks, this tutor may be useful. GSZ is pretty darn good though - having one target is fine, it means I have two copies of Argothian in the deck. I'm totally fine with that narrowness.
Thank you for bringing up greater auramancy! I played this card for a long time but eventually realized it is unnecessary. Here are my reasons. In 1 out of 10 games it may protect your Oath or whatever. But most of the time they just can't kill your enchantments anyways. If I want protection I can use Sterling Grove which also doubles as a tutor (clearly you can see the power level difference between the two is massive). Greater auramancy also literally does nothing. It can also hurt you when trying to do Parallax/Seal combos (because of the shroud, not even you can target your enchantments). If people start playing more targeted enchantment kill, I could see it coming back but for now I have cut it and do not miss it. I believe this is correct.
Karmic Justice is so cool, again a nice suggestion. I thought about it but never tested it. As a protector/deterrent I like it better than greater auramancy. I like that it can target ANY permanent: this is potentially devastating. However, some negatives: it doesn't save you from All is Dust or Dystopia. And it doesn't help when your creatures die including man lands. I also don't think it would save planeswalkers from dying in combat. It just seems a bit limited. But could be good if you expect a lot of enchantment destruction.
Gaea's Blessing is not needed. I have never milled myself to death and lost. Never. And i've played a ton of games. Either I win or lose before it's an issue or Emrakul's ability prevents that.
Temporal Mastery is interesting - I see where you're going. Getting more loyalty, getting a swing with Emrakul after oathing. I do like this suggestion especially with Mystical Tutor. I will give it a try in the "Gitaxian Probe" slot - right now i'm testing some cards out here, including show and tell and genesis wave. I think mastery would fall in the same category - a game-breaking tutorable spell.
Great card! No artifacts in this deck, tons of good artifacts running around, seems attractive. I tested it for a while but cut it. However, with the resurgence of artifact ramp decks (Griselbrand, Wanderer, GAA, and of course always Iname) which are not easy matchups, it could find its way back in.
Let me say also that this would be the best reason for adding a new card - improving a tough matchup. Whether it's through increasing speed or slowing faster decks down (beating combo decks) or dealing with a tough general (hexproof, protection). This is my focus for now. Surprisingly the matchup against slower green and white decks that RUN enchantment kill cards and creatures is already so favorable we don't need cards like Karmic Justice or Greater Auramancy. But things like Temporal Mastery and Stony Silence are potentially steps in the right direction of adjustment. They may not test well but at least they appear to help the deck's weaknesses.
I think having just one or two counterspells is going to be weak and random and will take away the strength of the deck. This is a system deck. It uses a high density of enchantments to assemble massive card advantage and/or a superior board position by building and building and building. That is why removal that could be instant or sorcery based is instead in enchantment form because they get extra value from enchantresses and sigil and serra's sanctum and replenish. And it's not like things like journey to nowhere and lignify are bad cards. Pacifism is weaker than some removals, yes, but it is still aggressively costed and it does the job early game against aggro which is to slow them down allowing us to stabilize and take over the board. Many victories come about by just covering the battlefield with enchantments and Angel tokens - it just keeps buliding into a winning position.
And, counterspells aren't the only options for dealing with Geist or other problematic commanders. Early Oath. Wrath of God. Humility. I am an obsessive compulsive so maybe i'm being too hard on the matchups :). Let me clarify - I don't just lose every game against Geist. Rather i'm trying to be honest about the weaknesses. But also don't forget about the strengths and the fantastic matchups (Karador, Doran, Rhys, Teeg, Ezuri, and some builds of Edric - all popular and competitive generals and all *favorable* for this deck) rather than dwell on a couple weak matchups. No deck has all 75% favorable matchups.
I am thinking about including a couple more wrath effects or good spot removal cards. Not sure what # of enchantments is a critical amount but I don't want to dip much lower than what I have now. It works very well.
Hmm... do I find myself wanting a StP? Sometimes, maybe? When I mentioned "including a couple more wrath effects or good spot removal cards" StP and DoJ are high on my list though. I could see myself cutting a couple enchantments to work in cards like these, yes. But this is fine-tuning. The enchantment count must remain high because this is how the deck wins. Small changes followed by testing is how i'm tuning the deck right now. I'll try to post updates when I come up with worthwhile modifications.
Winds of Rath is funny yes but pretty bad.
Have you tried Solitary Confinement? Thoughts?
About Creeping Renaissance: too slow. The mana cost is high, the cards only go to the hand (requiring further casting), and perhaps most importantly it only really works well after Oathing. Nothing in this deck requires Oath - some cards just happen to work better after Oathing. But they are good on their own.
Along these same lines, there are two cards that I like better: Crystal Chimes and Holistic Wisdom. Both of these are permanents that can be returned to the battlefield with Sun Titan when he is oathed out. I've tested both and they are good at what they do. I actually really like holistic wisdom - you can do some zany things with it, of course swapping enchantments you need but also getting back replenish by exiling green sun's zenith, etc... The problem with both chimes and wisdom is that they do nothing for 3 mana. The current state of the format just doesn't allow for them. Let's face it. You oath into sun titan... odds are there is something on the battlefield that needs answered immediately and sun titan will get the answer. Or he will get protection for himself (seal of removal or steely resolve). Keep in mind I do not think these cards are "win more" - they just aren't suited for the decks I tend to play against. If suddenly every deck is a control deck and I always expect long games, chimes or wisdom would be good. Plus I would like to re-emphasize it is not a pure oath combo deck. It just so happens that the deck runs mostly enchantments so why not run Oath as icing on the cake - it is powerful and leads to some wins. But I don't believe this avenue warrants further card investment. Current "regular" oathing works just fine. Plus, getting too focused on one all-in strategy would weaken the control matchups. Of course if Wizards prints some bonkers Replenish-esque card i'll find a way to jam it in. But Replenish is so ridiculously overpowered that none of these cards can hold a candle to it. And I doubt we'll see something on that level again.
As for Solitary Confinement. This card is a staple in legacy enchantress I believe? Easy to be a staple when they run so many enchantress cards. For this deck, I believe it's only good when there is a draw engine on the board and in those cases it is unnecessary. Other enchantments handle the job that confinement would do while also doing their job without a draw engine. Otherwise, you're just going to "lose slowly" without a draw engine.
As for updates, I have added a changelog to the original post. Currently testing several new cards but here are a few that will be earning permanent spots on my list: Tithe (sort of another land tax, lets me keep risky hands), Into the Roil (great flexible removal spell, also combos with Parallax cards and can re-use o-ring or journey after exiling a general to command zone), Carpet of Flowers (just awesome against blue decks... at the worst it's a wild growth (which I want more of anyway) but in some games i'm getting 4+ mana from it every turn. That's insane for a 1 cc enchantment.). The rest of the stuff i'm still toying with. But I am pleased with these 3 additions.
Can't forget RTR spoilers. This deck gets Supreme Verdict and Detention Sphere. Nice.
Thanks! Good to hear that you are building an enchantress deck. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the power of the deck.
I only changed two cards based on Edric being gone: Kirtar's Desire and Crystallization - two of the most basic pacifisms. These have been swapped out for Gelid Shackles and Detention Sphere. Early attacks are no longer so damaging.
I would also like to mention that, as noted in the changelog, Exploration is now Fastbond and Wrath of God is now Supreme Verdict. Both are essentially pure upgrades. I am very pleased with these recent additions.
Thank you. Yes I thought about Planar Collapse but it is too situational. Orchard won't always be there, and if collapse can't be activated it will sit there dead. Not good.
On Fastbond, I am absolutely playing this, see above. On Mirri's Guile - yes I tried it, see changelog for my comments. I don't think it is a good card in a singleton format.
Overall I feel Fastbond and Detention Sphere are both great boons for this deck.
This. Drop/Nodes are awesome against aggro decks and pesky shroud guys like Geist. When the situation calls for it, you just slow roll the enchantress. Generally i've never found it much of an issue to play both even though they conflict.
Also fable of wolf and owl seems good choose as addition to sigil, and vanishing and lost in thought could be strong as "pacifism", how do you think?
Also what are your thoughts about Heliod? He ramping sera sanctum, making dangerous tokens and make all vigilance, which in my opinion pretty good options