The main idea behind the deck, is that there are 15 enchant land cards, so that Estrid, the Masked"[+2]: Untap each enchanted permanent you control.", will mean that you have access to tons of mana each turn.
It is a classic "enchantress" deck, the main content is enchantments, and it has a lot of the typical draw cards based around enchantments.
Her "[-7]: Put the top seven cards of your library into your graveyard. Return all non-Aura enchantment cards from your graveyard to the battlefield, then do the same for Aura cards." is a very powerful ability.
We are looking to abuse this as much as possible and there is a Life from the Loam sub-theme, to help really put cards into your graveyard so that you can get the maximum value out of a potential ultimate. The Life from the Loam package includes 8 lands that have cycling. This allows you to dredge the Life from the Loam, and cycle the lands to still get draw for your turns. New Perspectives is an enchantment that can allow you to then cycle those lands for free.
Another interesting card for fueling your graveyard is Chronic Flooding.
Starfield of Nyx also makes great use of filling up your graveyard and itself can be your win-condition, as it allows you to alpha attack with your enchantments.
There are a few very Spikey cards in Stasis, Winter Orb and Static Orb. The ability to untap so many lands with Estrid, just means it's too hard to pass up on these interactions.
Estrid's, "[-1]: Create a white Aura enchantment token named Mask attached to another target permanent. The token has enchant permanent and totem armor.", ability allows you to put "totem armor" onto any card. This means if a permanent enchanted by an Aura with totem armor would be destroyed, the Aura is destroyed instead. If that permanent is a creature, all damage is removed from that creature.
So you can setup protection against removal for key cards. You can also potentially setup your own mass removal and plan to keep certain cards in play to gain advantage.
She also allows you to simply target lands, so that her [+2] can also be used to gain you additional mana without needing any further cards.
I know The Chain Veil can go infinite with Estrid and putting an Aura on it and lands with enchantments that can produce at least four mana, but my last two primers have had a central theme around this card, and the deck is running Stony Silence and Energy Flux, so it's time for me personally to take a break from it. It is a card that you can run however if you want to try and combo with it, and will be super strong to winning games.
It's important to know that your enchant lands, because most of them provide additional mana, means that their mana cost for casting them in a turn is truly less taxing, and in fact with Estrid [+2], will probably gain you mana for the turn. So if you can imagine that with enchantment draw cards, that you are not only replacing the enchant lands (or gaining cards), but also gaining mana in the very same turn they are cast. Very efficient way of getting through your deck at speed.
The same also goes for casting Estrid, if you've established some enchant lands, then because of her ability to untap mana, you can cast her and get additional mana for other spells. So in this way she can be thought of as casting for free when you get setup. This also means that you can cast her out multiple times in the face of creature attacks, although you do have to be careful not to get her commander tax up too high.
Words of Wind can be used as both a draw card and as a way of locking your opponents out of permanents. With tons of mana you can afford to keep paying 1 to pick up cheap enchantments of yours, so that you can replay it to draw more cards. You can simply pick up an enchant land that provides additional mana, so the cost of them is at a reduced rate. Treachery will allow you to get infinite mana with Words of Wind and a few enchant lands.
One excellent combination you are looking for is to put an enchant land on Serra's Sanctum, so that you can Estrid [+2] untap it for double the mana. Garruk Wildspeaker can also double up to Estrid when it comes to enchanted lands that give you extra mana.
The nice thing is that with Life from the Loam, you can make sure special lands like Serra's Sanctum can be retrieved in the face of removal, or have additional access to them. Tolaria West is a means to search for this key land for gaining you large amounts of mana.
Genesis can be used to get back your important card draw creatures from your graveyard. With the dredge element of Life from the Loam, you can get deeper into you deck this way as well.
With lots of enchantment mana, it makes sense to run artifact hate cards, in a format where almost every opponent will have them in some capacity in their decks. Stony Silence can lock down artifacts, while Energy Flux can really nullify any additional mana that artifacts might provide. Energy Flux also works well with Stasis, Winter Orb and Static Orb.
With Estrid ability to untap, you should have the means to pay for these cards, even in combination with having Energy Flux. Urban Burgeoning is special in that it not only provides synergy with Estrid [+2], but you can use it to have the mana to pay for Stasis and lock artifacts under Energy Flux.
You do give up a lot of speed in the deck with having lots of the cycling lands enter the battlefield tapped. But there are a lot of cards that allow you to play additional lands each turn in Burgeoning, Exploration, Azusa, Lost but Seeking and Oracle of Mul Daya. This really helps to make up some deficit you have for having a more grindy, longer term graveyard and cycling plan with the coming into play tapped lands.
It must be noted that the whole Life from the Loam package is a nice backup plan to the Enchantress draw engines. Often in multiplayer board wipes occur, so then your enchant draws are removed. So with the play of using Life from the Loam with cycle lands for additional draw, means that you're not just top decking. You immediately have a game plan. It does require a fair amount of mana to invest, you need to cast Life from the Loam and cycle a couple of lands. Let's say that 5+ mana invested, for your draw and setting up your graveyard. But it does mean that you have a hard to stop backup plan for this deck.
Try and avoid leaving Life from the Loam in your graveyard for sorcery speed graveyard removal, like Bojuka Bog. Not always possible. But if you're dredging in the latter parts of the game, and cycling lands, then try and dredge to put the Loam into your hand before you pass the turn. This way if your graveyard is removed, you can look to set it up again.
To really prevent removal Greater Auramancy, Sterling Grove, can offer amazing protection for your enchantments, while Privileged Position provides all your permanents hexproof.
If you can combine a mix of these then it's impossible for your opponents to target your enchantments or even possibly your entire board with Privileged Position. Shalai, Voice of Plenty has the ability to protect your enchantress creatures who are key for your draw engine, but also the ability where she give "you" hexproof, meaning that effects like Bojuka Bog or Relic of Progenitus can't be used on you. Because you are looking to fill up your graveyard over the course of the game, this can be important.
Normally in this deck you're not looking to use Estrid [-1], mainly because you want to build up her loyalty to the [-7] as many times as you can during the course of the game. But in the case of putting a totem armor on one of the protection cards, it is tempting to setup further for making it difficult to remove your board.
Replenish is an alternative to using Estrid's [-7] ability, so even if you're struggling to keep her on the board for this, you can draw into this card.
Mystical Tutor will give you further access to Life from the Loam or Replenish enabling the game plan of self milling and returning your enchantments back from the graveyard more consistently.
Intuition can get you Life from the Loam and a couple of lands as an example. It doesn't matter which card they give you, you can dredge the Life from the Loam if they don't give it to you in the first place, which is even a better option.
You could possibly get 3 enchantments as a setup to Estrid, the Masked [-7] ability to get enchantments back from the graveyard.
Oath of Teferi can double the amount of activation's you can do with Estrid, so you can untap your lands that have auras twice in a turn, as well as build to the ultimate [-7] over just one full round with opponents having a turn.
Academy Rector presents a challenge for your opponents as you can run it out as a blocker, and it's very hard for your opponents not to attack into you when you have Estrid in play. Obviously lots of different targets for the Rector, but Omniscience is a premium target. Omniscience at 10 mana is one of the more expensive cards in Magic, but you can cheat it into play by putting it into graveyard off a dredge and using either Estrid [-7], Replenish or even Starfield of Nyx.
Cards that allow you to search for creatures are Green Sun's Zenith and Congregation at Dawn allowing you to get some essential enchantment draw creatures to get your engine going. Congregation at Dawn can be setup to be able to draw the 3 creatures fairly quickly. One could be Eidolon of Blossoms which is going to get you a draw immediately.
New Perspectives seems out of place here. You don't have that many cycling cards. Is it really worth it to cycle some lands for free?
Overall, your list does many of the same things as mine, but with more focus on land auras. I'm intrigued by how you run both some artifact and artifact hate. I stick with the hate myself, & use dorks instead of rocks.
New Perspectives seems out of place here. You don't have that many cycling cards. Is it really worth it to cycle some lands for free?
Overall, your list does many of the same things as mine, but with more focus on land auras. I'm intrigued by how you run both some artifact and artifact hate. I stick with the hate myself, & use dorks instead of rocks.
New Perspectives at it's worst will draw you a couple of cards, but at it's best it's an alternate draw engine to your enchantresses. The thing is that if your main draw creatures like Argothian Enchantress, Mesa Enchantress, etc have been killed, then your deck does stall somewhat.
So with the Life from the Loam you can return 3 cycling lands, and get to draw 3 cards for your turn, whilst filling your graveyard. It's also one of the few good targets for Oath of Teferi to blink, as I don't actually have many "enter the battlefield" effects.
It's essentially perfect in my deck.
On the artifact + artifact hate, it's only the Mana Crypt and Sol Ring which can be locked out, but they are just so powerful to early game starts that it's always worth including them, even if they do become redundant later on. But it might be worth looking at mana dorks instead. Something like Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch. Energy Flux does mean that Winter Orb, Null Rod, Torpor Orb and Static Orb, do have an upkeep, but you can pay for these with the multitude of mana you have.
Intuition can get you Life from the Loam and a couple of lands as an example. It doesn't matter which card they give you, you can dredge the Life from the Loam if they don't give it to you in the first place, which is even a better option.
If you already have Life from the Loam going, then you can just use Intuition to get access to 3 lands.
-OR-
You could possibly get 3 enchantments as a setup to Estrid, the Masked [-7] ability to get enchantments back from the graveyard.
A super star tutor in this deck as it gives you even more levels than a straight up Demonic Tutor.
I really loved the concept of enchanting lands in order to untap them with Estrid plus ability. That's epic right there.
Have you considered Simic Guildmage as a way to instant speed move mask tokens? You could potentially protect a permanent from spot removal or a wrath. This is also a good way to just straight up move a mask token to Estrid.
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I really loved the concept of enchanting lands in order to untap them with Estrid plus ability. That's epic right there.
Have you considered Simic Guildmage as a way to instant speed move mask tokens? You could potentially protect a permanent from spot removal or a wrath. This is also a good way to just straight up move a mask token to Estrid.
Oh wow that's super interesting.
If you had Training Grounds or Heartstone with Simic Guildmage then you could gain additional mana, by moving the enchant lands that provide two additional mana.
So by spending U with Simic Guildmage you could move Overgrowth, Dawn's Reflection, Market Festival across to an untapped land, to gain additional mana for every land you control.
Probably a more realistic use would be in conjunction with Mana Reflection, as it means you can then also move most of the enchant lands to gain mana in some capacity. For example the ones that say "T: Add two mana of any one color." will get value transferring at least one of them.
The other bonus you can get from Simic Guildmage is that you can move the enchant lands in response to land removal, like Strip Mine.
I was thinking about a build that had mass land destruction, with the idea of putting Estrids [-1] totem armors on lands so that you could cast them and retain lands, especially ones with enchant lands that provide additional mana so that you're not hindered much at all.
I could see a deck that had Cascading Cataracts, Darksteel Citadel, Indestructibility, and then you could use Simic Guildmage to move the enchant lands in preparation for an Armageddon or Ravages of War type effect. Umbra Mystic would work excellent with the enchant lands and land destruction.
Edit:
Stax effects are so universally frowned upon in each of my playgroups that the only effects I run (Skybind and Words of Wind) double as wincon engines.
Skybind + Heliod + Serra's Sanctum are a great combo
And treachery + Words of Wind with any mana aura and enchantress is fantastic also.
The Skybind combo you activate sanctum during eot - after the 'At the beginning of the end step' trigger happens - for as many Heliod tokens as you can, targeting as many vital permanents (including lands) as possible for the next player in turn order - and also your own sanctum (super important). The exiled permanents return during the next where you then target the next player's permanents plus your sanctum. You'll effectively lock each player out during their turn until you can alpha strike with tokens.
Treachery / WoW lets you cast treachery on your own creature and net card draw and mana - you turn both the card draw and mana into returning treachery to your hand and recasting it for more cards. Everyone else's permanents get bounced in the process.
Yeah Estrid, the Masked seems like a nice fit into your 99. I like the Duel Nature combo, that sort of thing is right up my ally.
Wargate is a card that I should think about, your list reminded me of it. It's versatility is pretty great, but I can imagine casting it for 3 mana to get Serra's Sanctum quite often.
Stax effects are so universally frowned upon in each of my playgroups that the only effects I run (Skybind and Words of Wind) double as wincon engines.
Skybind + Heliod + Serra's Sanctum are a great combo
And treachery + Words of Wind with any mana aura and enchantress is fantastic also.
The Skybind combo you activate sanctum during eot - after the 'At the beginning of the end step' trigger happens - for as many Heliod tokens as you can, targeting as many vital permanents (including lands) as possible for the next player in turn order - and also your own sanctum (super important). The exiled permanents return during the next where you then target the next player's permanents plus your sanctum. You'll effectively lock each player out during their turn until you can alpha strike with tokens.
Treachery / WoW lets you cast treachery on your own creature and net card draw and mana - you turn both the card draw and mana into returning treachery to your hand and recasting it for more cards. Everyone else's permanents get bounced in the process.
Those are really great combinations. I was looking at Skybind for potential abuse, but couldn't come up with much. From my side of the board there is not a lot of "enter the battlefield" effects that I could use the Skybind on, so ended up putting it to the side. I think if a deck has a few more ETB effects, then I could definitely see it being a must include. -OR- you have a reactive deck, so that you can target your own lands so that you have a number of them untapped for opponents turns. Things like Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Yeva, Nature's Herald, Alchemist's Refuge, Winding Canyons for spending mana in opponents turns.
Adding Treachery is pretty tempting, as it can generate a lot of mana for a turn with the enchant lands, and then can go infinite with Words of Wind.
Nothing wrong with Detention Sphere, but I feel like got a great handle on artifacts with this deck, so that leaves creatures, enchantments, planeswalker. Treachery can handle the creature portion, so I'm trading the ability to deal with an enchantment or planeswalker, for getting a potential infinite combo, or just a great mana generator for a turn.
There is a whole suite of lock cards like Embargo, Rising Waters, Hokori, Dust Drinker.
Honestly they are all tempting, but you just have to find this mix between Stax/lock and being proactive imo.
You actually need to be able to keep Estrid on the board in order to get the lock down advantage, so if you have too many of those, but opponents have creatures to kill her, then you won't gain any advantages.
Ghostly Prison type cards only protect against attacks on "you", so attacking Estrid herself, doesn't cause opponents to have to pay. I personally not a fan of pillow fort cards. They play against very specific decks, which I consider to be more casual builds.
I think I want to build your deck but I also hate you for solving all the Planeswalker commanders. :]
I just really like the dynamical nature of the planeswalkers, so kind of obsess over them.
Imagine if the time ever comes where all planeswalkers became playable commanders lol
I like your take on this enchantress deck. Being able to cycle through your deck to eventually get it all back is an interesting way to run it. Cannot wait to see what you do with the other two commanders!
I really loved the concept of enchanting lands in order to untap them with Estrid plus ability. That's epic right there.
Have you considered Simic Guildmage as a way to instant speed move mask tokens? You could potentially protect a permanent from spot removal or a wrath. This is also a good way to just straight up move a mask token to Estrid.
Oh wow that's super interesting.
If you had Training Grounds or Heartstone with Simic Guildmage then you could gain additional mana, by moving the enchant lands that provide two additional mana.
So by spending U with Simic Guildmage you could move Overgrowth, Dawn's Reflection, Market Festival across to an untapped land, to gain additional mana for every land you control.
Probably a more realistic use would be in conjunction with Mana Reflection, as it means you can then also move most of the enchant lands to gain mana in some capacity. For example the ones that say "T: Add two mana of any one color." will get value transferring at least one of them.
The other bonus you can get from Simic Guildmage is that you can move the enchant lands in response to land removal, like Strip Mine.
I was thinking about a build that had mass land destruction, with the idea of putting Estrids [-1] totem armors on lands so that you could cast them and retain lands, especially ones with enchant lands that provide additional mana so that you're not hindered much at all.
I could see a deck that had Cascading Cataracts, Darksteel Citadel, Indestructibility, and then you could use Simic Guildmage to move the enchant lands in preparation for an Armageddon or Ravages of War type effect. Umbra Mystic would work excellent with the enchant lands and land destruction.
Damn, that's right, Simic Guildmage is even more broken than I originally thought for this deck.
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I really am enjoying the focus of this deck, especially the Life from the Loam package. I am inclined to take out some of the stax pieces because I wanted this list to be closer to 75% for play at standard tables (I have a couple competitive lists already). What would you recommend to remove in toning this down? How many of the enchant lands would be okay to remove? I'd be looking at cutting some of the 4 and then 3 CMC enchant lands, heavier stax pieces (Winter/Static can stay), and maybe a couple tutors. I think I'd leave the cycle/draw combos in as well as the Words of Wind/Treachery combo. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
Imagine if the time ever comes where all planeswalkers became playable commanders lol
I like your take on this enchantress deck. Being able to cycle through your deck to eventually get it all back is an interesting way to run it. Cannot wait to see what you do with the other two commanders!
I do think that WotC would prefer if all planeswalkers were allowed to be commanders, it fits their push for PW to be the face of the Magic format in general (no pun intended). There have been discussion threads on it before, and as an experienced player of planeswalkers as commanders (I've been playing Brawl with Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh and Nissa, Steward of Elements for a number of months now), I can tell you that they are totally balanced and fair. So there is totally no reason why it couldn't be a thing in the future.
I actually have only been inspired by Aminatou, the Fateshifter and Estrid, the Masked for decks so far from the Commander 2018 set..but I'm starting to see one of the other planeswalkers in a slightly different light..keep an eye out in the next week maybe
I really am enjoying the focus of this deck, especially the Life from the Loam package. I am inclined to take out some of the stax pieces because I wanted this list to be closer to 75% for play at standard tables (I have a couple competitive lists already). What would you recommend to remove in toning this down? How many of the enchant lands would be okay to remove? I'd be looking at cutting some of the 4 and then 3 CMC enchant lands, heavier stax pieces (Winter/Static can stay), and maybe a couple tutors. I think I'd leave the cycle/draw combos in as well as the Words of Wind/Treachery combo. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
Well if you wanted to remove the lock pieces, then I have a configuation that I would like to try anyway.
It involves maybe a few more mass removal cards and using Estrid [-1] a bit more in the later parts of the game, to gain advantage with the board.
Also a few more token strategies for win conditions and synergy.
Aura Shards, actually enough creatures coming into play to be good. You'd need to remove Torpor Orb.
If you remove Null Rod, Stony Silence, Energy Flux you can look to put in The Chain Veil. This can go infinite if you put one of the totem armors on it and have 4 mana from your enchant lands. But more than this you can just use it to do extra Estrid [-1].
You could then also look at a few additional planeswalkers to get value from this and Doubling Season, and Oath of Teferi.
If you read through some of the posts, these cards have been discussed a bit and you can figure out why they can be combined together for advantage.
I would look to have a few "enter the battlefield" creatures/enchantments to make better use out of Skybind.
Then to make better use out of Doubling Season, etc, more things that produce tokens.
But just to reiterate the Parallel Lives, etc, cards will make twice as many Aura totem armors out of Estrid [-1], so you can look to really protect your board, and then even play your own removal cards like Hour of Revelation to not be effected in the same way.
As far as the number of enchant lands, they are pretty great as they sort of cost nothing to cast, and then with an enchantress type draw card, they replace themselves. But considering that in this build you would be looking at using the Estrid [-1] a bit more than the Estrid [+2], you could shave on a few.
[EDIT]
Oh yeah if you keep putting a totem armor on Nevinyrral's Disk, then you can get a renewable board wipe.
Note, Oblivion Stone won't work because you sacrifice it, and totem armor only works with "destroy".
I appreciate the tips. I wanted to sort of include an aura/enchant beaters subtheme, not because it is amazing, but because these are a couple pet cards I've wanted to run forever and I think Heavenly Blademaster is too cool. Here's what I am working with now: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/estrid-enbantress-prime/
I am a little concerned that not having creature tutors could negatively impact the beatdown/aura strategy, but I don't really see many slots for them to get into the list without taking too much away from other strategies though. Any thoughts on cleaning this up? Is Avacyn too much/unnecessary here? Thanks for any help you can give.
I appreciate the tips. I wanted to sort of include an aura/enchant beaters subtheme, not because it is amazing, but because these are a couple pet cards I've wanted to run forever and I think Heavenly Blademaster is too cool. Here's what I am working with now: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/estrid-enbantress-prime/
I am a little concerned that not having creature tutors could negatively impact the beatdown/aura strategy, but I don't really see many slots for them to get into the list without taking too much away from other strategies though. Any thoughts on cleaning this up? Is Avacyn too much/unnecessary here? Thanks for any help you can give.
Actually I think it's just correct to play Green Sun's Zenith. I have been also thinking about Congregation at Dawn. The more obvious choice would be Eladamri's Call, but I actually think Congregation at Dawn can just set you up so much better. With the ability to say put Argothian Enchantress as the top card, you can really setup drawing into the other two creatures very quickly.
Now for your deck, I do think that you want some more potential early game targets for your enchant creature auras. Noble Hierarch and Birds of Paradise I would say. This way you have targets for Angelic Destiny, Bear Umbra, Octopus Umbra, Rancor potentially in the much earlier stages, and you can even use Estrid [+2] then untap mana dorks for extra mana (or mana then just defense). Suiting up one of them in the absence of the enchantresses, I think will just make the deck function a bit more consistently.
If you had more forest searching fetch lands, then I would also suggest Dryad Arbor.
On that note, maybe Utopia Sprawl is a cut because needing a forest is a factor?
I mean Avacyn, Angel of Hope is great, but you are trying to do the same sort of thing, by totem armor up things, especially if you have the Doubling Season or Parallel Lives in play.
There are a few things that pushing and pulling against each other, because you are either Estrid [+2] -OR- Estrid [-1], but a lot of this deck is aiming towards the [-7].
So I do think you need at least one more token maker in order to consistently get value from say Parallel Lives. Otherwise much of the time you are looking to get value out of it by using the [-1], which is going against the build up to ultimate.
Leaving in Doubling Season is fine, having at least one to help Sigil of the Empty Throne and Luminarch Ascension, plus getting the bonus of potentially doubling Estrids loyalty when cast is good.
What I'm saying is that if you want to also play Parallel Lives, I'd like to see at least one more token generator. Probably Sacred Mesa. If you went this route then Avacyn, Angel of Hope is a little less important.
But if you decided to take out the Parallel Lives, then leaving in Avacyn, Angel of Hope is a bit more important, because you can aim to use the Estrid [-1] less often.
So I've decided to add Green Sun's Zenith and Congregation at Dawn, as the card drawaing engine is the most important part of the deck, so having more access to that is key.
Null Rod and Torpor Orb are great hosers, but they are artifacts, which means you get no other bonuses from the deck.
i.e no card draw off enchantress, no protection from Greater Auramancy or Sterling Grove, etc.
So I just want to be a bit more proactive, even though there will be lots of match-ups where these cards could easily win you the game.
Congregation at Dawn feels really quality for a deck that doesn't quite need to toolbox, but wants to access its creatures and can't run more than 1-2 tutors for them. I haven't run it before because I've always been able to run multiple creature tutors in my G/W lists, but this shell feels perfect for it. I like GSZ normally, but Eladamri's gives me access to my curve toppers, which you don't have to worry about it, so that resolves that issue for me. As a note, you can't get Shalai with it, which could be an issue occasionally.
I've managed to move a few things around in my list, and I'm now pretty happy with it. The lack of mana dorks, and no creature tutors definitely made it feel clunky to me on paper, but those are now handled. Good call on Utopia Sprawl as well. I have access to 8 Forests via fetches and land types, and up to 14 if I run the 6 off-color fetches. It is at its best in the first few turns, where there is no guarantee I get a Forest. I'll probably look to slot it back in if I decide to run the full suite of fetches.
Hey, i think this deck is super cool and I'm looking very seriously at making it my first commander deck. I just want to know what your finishers are.
I know you have a lot of shutdown with this deck but I'm just wondering what an end of game scenario would look like for this deck?
Hey, i think this deck is super cool and I'm looking very seriously at making it my first commander deck. I just want to know what your finishers are.
I know you have a lot of shutdown with this deck but I'm just wondering what an end of game scenario would look like for this deck?
It's all about just building up a mana and draw engine, before you ever think about killing your opponents. So the idea is that you are just going to overwhelm them in resources, both cards in hand, then eventually what you have on the board.
So the real finishers are Words of Wind, where you can get to the stage where you're returning all your opponents permanents back to their hands, including lands. You might get a combo type turn where you just do it all in one turn, or it might happen over a couple of turns. Cyclonic Rift can help to speed up the process.
Starfield of Nyx can help to speed up the process, by making your non-Aura enchantments creatures. But you're unlikely to be attacking with them until you have locks. So don't think about nickle and diming opponents during the course of the game, it's all about when the tide has turned in your favor.
You can even potentially attack with them under Stasis or Static Orb, by using Estrid [-1] to put aura totem armors on enchantments, so that you can untap them eventually with Estrid [+2].
There is also Shalai, Voice of Plenty ability 4GG "Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.", which you can use multiple times once you get enormous amounts of mana. There is also the Words of Wind, Treachery and at least one enchantment draw card, which will allow for the infinite bounce and infinite mana. So you can just use Shalai, Voice of Plenty to make your creatures huge (infinite power and toughness), so that you can finish off opponents really quickly, rather than it being drawn out with average sized attacks.
So, obviously Mana Crypt is an incredibly strong card. Is it warranted when this list is slowed down, or does the life loss start to take a toll? I've avoided it outside of my competitive lists for this reason, and I was just wondering if a Mox Diamond or a Chrome Mox may be appropriate in its place, or if you think the acceleration outpaces and potential life loss?
It is a classic "enchantress" deck, the main content is enchantments, and it has a lot of the typical draw cards based around enchantments.
Her "[-7]: Put the top seven cards of your library into your graveyard. Return all non-Aura enchantment cards from your graveyard to the battlefield, then do the same for Aura cards." is a very powerful ability.
We are looking to abuse this as much as possible and there is a Life from the Loam sub-theme, to help really put cards into your graveyard so that you can get the maximum value out of a potential ultimate. The Life from the Loam package includes 8 lands that have cycling. This allows you to dredge the Life from the Loam, and cycle the lands to still get draw for your turns. New Perspectives is an enchantment that can allow you to then cycle those lands for free.
Another interesting card for fueling your graveyard is Chronic Flooding.
Starfield of Nyx also makes great use of filling up your graveyard and itself can be your win-condition, as it allows you to alpha attack with your enchantments.
There are a few very Spikey cards in Stasis, Winter Orb and Static Orb. The ability to untap so many lands with Estrid, just means it's too hard to pass up on these interactions.
Estrid's, "[-1]: Create a white Aura enchantment token named Mask attached to another target permanent. The token has enchant permanent and totem armor.", ability allows you to put "totem armor" onto any card. This means if a permanent enchanted by an Aura with totem armor would be destroyed, the Aura is destroyed instead. If that permanent is a creature, all damage is removed from that creature.
So you can setup protection against removal for key cards. You can also potentially setup your own mass removal and plan to keep certain cards in play to gain advantage.
She also allows you to simply target lands, so that her [+2] can also be used to gain you additional mana without needing any further cards.
I know The Chain Veil can go infinite with Estrid and putting an Aura on it and lands with enchantments that can produce at least four mana, but my last two primers have had a central theme around this card, and the deck is running Stony Silence and Energy Flux, so it's time for me personally to take a break from it. It is a card that you can run however if you want to try and combo with it, and will be super strong to winning games.
The main drive behind the deck is to get at least one or hopefully a few of the cards that allow you to draw cards when you cast enchantments.
You have, Argothian Enchantress, Enchantress's Presence, Mesa Enchantress, Verduran Enchantress, Satyr Enchanter, Tuvasa the Sunlit, Eidolon of Blossoms.
Because the deck is super focused on draw and mana, "win conditions" are the secondary concern, as once you have your engine going then you can choose from a number of options.
It's important to know that your enchant lands, because most of them provide additional mana, means that their mana cost for casting them in a turn is truly less taxing, and in fact with Estrid [+2], will probably gain you mana for the turn. So if you can imagine that with enchantment draw cards, that you are not only replacing the enchant lands (or gaining cards), but also gaining mana in the very same turn they are cast. Very efficient way of getting through your deck at speed.
The same also goes for casting Estrid, if you've established some enchant lands, then because of her ability to untap mana, you can cast her and get additional mana for other spells. So in this way she can be thought of as casting for free when you get setup. This also means that you can cast her out multiple times in the face of creature attacks, although you do have to be careful not to get her commander tax up too high.
Words of Wind can be used as both a draw card and as a way of locking your opponents out of permanents. With tons of mana you can afford to keep paying 1 to pick up cheap enchantments of yours, so that you can replay it to draw more cards. You can simply pick up an enchant land that provides additional mana, so the cost of them is at a reduced rate. Treachery will allow you to get infinite mana with Words of Wind and a few enchant lands.
One excellent combination you are looking for is to put an enchant land on Serra's Sanctum, so that you can Estrid [+2] untap it for double the mana.
Garruk Wildspeaker can also double up to Estrid when it comes to enchanted lands that give you extra mana.
The nice thing is that with Life from the Loam, you can make sure special lands like Serra's Sanctum can be retrieved in the face of removal, or have additional access to them. Tolaria West is a means to search for this key land for gaining you large amounts of mana.
Genesis can be used to get back your important card draw creatures from your graveyard. With the dredge element of Life from the Loam, you can get deeper into you deck this way as well.
With lots of enchantment mana, it makes sense to run artifact hate cards, in a format where almost every opponent will have them in some capacity in their decks.
Stony Silence can lock down artifacts, while Energy Flux can really nullify any additional mana that artifacts might provide. Energy Flux also works well with Stasis, Winter Orb and Static Orb.
With Estrid ability to untap, you should have the means to pay for these cards, even in combination with having Energy Flux.
Urban Burgeoning is special in that it not only provides synergy with Estrid [+2], but you can use it to have the mana to pay for Stasis and lock artifacts under Energy Flux.
You do give up a lot of speed in the deck with having lots of the cycling lands enter the battlefield tapped. But there are a lot of cards that allow you to play additional lands each turn in Burgeoning, Exploration, Azusa, Lost but Seeking and Oracle of Mul Daya. This really helps to make up some deficit you have for having a more grindy, longer term graveyard and cycling plan with the coming into play tapped lands.
It must be noted that the whole Life from the Loam package is a nice backup plan to the Enchantress draw engines. Often in multiplayer board wipes occur, so then your enchant draws are removed. So with the play of using Life from the Loam with cycle lands for additional draw, means that you're not just top decking. You immediately have a game plan. It does require a fair amount of mana to invest, you need to cast Life from the Loam and cycle a couple of lands. Let's say that 5+ mana invested, for your draw and setting up your graveyard. But it does mean that you have a hard to stop backup plan for this deck.
Try and avoid leaving Life from the Loam in your graveyard for sorcery speed graveyard removal, like Bojuka Bog. Not always possible. But if you're dredging in the latter parts of the game, and cycling lands, then try and dredge to put the Loam into your hand before you pass the turn. This way if your graveyard is removed, you can look to set it up again.
To really prevent removal Greater Auramancy, Sterling Grove, can offer amazing protection for your enchantments, while Privileged Position provides all your permanents hexproof.
If you can combine a mix of these then it's impossible for your opponents to target your enchantments or even possibly your entire board with Privileged Position.
Shalai, Voice of Plenty has the ability to protect your enchantress creatures who are key for your draw engine, but also the ability where she give "you" hexproof, meaning that effects like Bojuka Bog or Relic of Progenitus can't be used on you. Because you are looking to fill up your graveyard over the course of the game, this can be important.
Normally in this deck you're not looking to use Estrid [-1], mainly because you want to build up her loyalty to the [-7] as many times as you can during the course of the game. But in the case of putting a totem armor on one of the protection cards, it is tempting to setup further for making it difficult to remove your board.
Replenish is an alternative to using Estrid's [-7] ability, so even if you're struggling to keep her on the board for this, you can draw into this card.
Mystical Tutor will give you further access to Life from the Loam or Replenish enabling the game plan of self milling and returning your enchantments back from the graveyard more consistently.
Intuition can get you Life from the Loam and a couple of lands as an example. It doesn't matter which card they give you, you can dredge the Life from the Loam if they don't give it to you in the first place, which is even a better option.
You could possibly get 3 enchantments as a setup to Estrid, the Masked [-7] ability to get enchantments back from the graveyard.
Oath of Teferi can double the amount of activation's you can do with Estrid, so you can untap your lands that have auras twice in a turn, as well as build to the ultimate [-7] over just one full round with opponents having a turn.
Academy Rector presents a challenge for your opponents as you can run it out as a blocker, and it's very hard for your opponents not to attack into you when you have Estrid in play. Obviously lots of different targets for the Rector, but Omniscience is a premium target. Omniscience at 10 mana is one of the more expensive cards in Magic, but you can cheat it into play by putting it into graveyard off a dredge and using either Estrid [-7], Replenish or even Starfield of Nyx.
Cards that allow you to search for creatures are Green Sun's Zenith and Congregation at Dawn allowing you to get some essential enchantment draw creatures to get your engine going. Congregation at Dawn can be setup to be able to draw the 3 creatures fairly quickly. One could be Eidolon of Blossoms which is going to get you a draw immediately.
Captain Sisay is a super powerful versatile search card for this deck. You can get; Tuvasa the Sunlit, Search for Azcanta, Oath of Teferi, Azusa, Lost but Seeking, Garruk Wildspeaker, Serra's Sanctum.
This is a broad range of options as it allows card draw, protection and additional mana.
Please comment on combinations and potential cards I could add to this deck.
1 Estrid, the Masked
Enchant lands (15)
1 Abundant Growth
1 Urban Burgeoning
1 Utopia Sprawl
1 Wild Growth
1 Chronic Flooding
1 Fertile Ground
1 Urban Utopia
1 Gift of Paradise
1 New Horizons
1 Overgrowth
1 Sheltered Aerie
1 Verdant Haven
1 Weirding Wood
1 Dawn's Reflection
1 Market Festival
Draw
1 Argothian Enchantress
1 Enchantress's Presence
1 Mesa Enchantress
1 Verduran Enchantress
1 Satyr Enchanter
1 Tuvasa the Sunlit
1 Eidolon of Blossoms
1 Search for Azcanta
1 Sylvan Library
1 Rhystic Study
1 Words of Wind
1 Attunement
Cost reduction
1 Sunscape Familiar
1 Omniscience
Protection
1 Greater Auramancy
1 Sterling Grove
1 Privileged Position
1 Aura of Silence
1 Grasp of Fate
1 Song of the Dryads
1 Treachery
Lock down
1 Stasis
1 Winter Orb
1 Stony Silence
1 Static Orb
1 Energy Flux
Misc enchantments
1 Parallax Wave
1 Oath of Teferi
1 Starfield of Nyx
1 New Perspectives
Lands matter
1 Burgeoning
1 Exploration
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
Mass removal
1 Supreme Verdict
Planeswalker
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
Tutors
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Intuition
1 Congregation at Dawn
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Academy Rector
Graveyard recursion
1 Life from the Loam
1 Replenish
1 Genesis
Disruption instants
1 Swan Song
1 Arcane Denial
1 Cyclonic Rift
Artifact mana
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Command Tower
1 Serra's Sanctum
1 Savannah
1 Temple Garden
1 Tropical Island
1 Breeding Pool
1 Tundra
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Flooded Grove
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Irrigated Farmland
1 Scattered Groves
2 Forest
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Slippery Karst
1 Plains
1 Drifting Meadow
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Island
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Remote Isle
1 Tolaria West
1 Krosan Verge
1 Arid Mesa
1 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Verdant Catacombs
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
Overall, your list does many of the same things as mine, but with more focus on land auras. I'm intrigued by how you run both some artifact and artifact hate. I stick with the hate myself, & use dorks instead of rocks.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
So with the Life from the Loam you can return 3 cycling lands, and get to draw 3 cards for your turn, whilst filling your graveyard. It's also one of the few good targets for Oath of Teferi to blink, as I don't actually have many "enter the battlefield" effects.
It's essentially perfect in my deck.
On the artifact + artifact hate, it's only the Mana Crypt and Sol Ring which can be locked out, but they are just so powerful to early game starts that it's always worth including them, even if they do become redundant later on. But it might be worth looking at mana dorks instead. Something like Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch.
Energy Flux does mean that Winter Orb, Null Rod, Torpor Orb and Static Orb, do have an upkeep, but you can pay for these with the multitude of mana you have.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Intuition can get you Life from the Loam and a couple of lands as an example. It doesn't matter which card they give you, you can dredge the Life from the Loam if they don't give it to you in the first place, which is even a better option.
If you already have Life from the Loam going, then you can just use Intuition to get access to 3 lands.
-OR-
You could possibly get 3 enchantments as a setup to Estrid, the Masked [-7] ability to get enchantments back from the graveyard.
A super star tutor in this deck as it gives you even more levels than a straight up Demonic Tutor.
Added
+ Intuition
Removed
- Estrid's Invocation
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Have you considered Simic Guildmage as a way to instant speed move mask tokens? You could potentially protect a permanent from spot removal or a wrath. This is also a good way to just straight up move a mask token to Estrid.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
If you had Training Grounds or Heartstone with Simic Guildmage then you could gain additional mana, by moving the enchant lands that provide two additional mana.
So by spending U with Simic Guildmage you could move Overgrowth, Dawn's Reflection, Market Festival across to an untapped land, to gain additional mana for every land you control.
Probably a more realistic use would be in conjunction with Mana Reflection, as it means you can then also move most of the enchant lands to gain mana in some capacity. For example the ones that say "T: Add two mana of any one color." will get value transferring at least one of them.
The other bonus you can get from Simic Guildmage is that you can move the enchant lands in response to land removal, like Strip Mine.
I was thinking about a build that had mass land destruction, with the idea of putting Estrids [-1] totem armors on lands so that you could cast them and retain lands, especially ones with enchant lands that provide additional mana so that you're not hindered much at all.
I could see a deck that had Cascading Cataracts, Darksteel Citadel, Indestructibility, and then you could use Simic Guildmage to move the enchant lands in preparation for an Armageddon or Ravages of War type effect.
Umbra Mystic would work excellent with the enchant lands and land destruction.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Here's a list:
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/511372-derevi-empyrial-tactician-enchantress-tactics-hour
Edit:
Stax effects are so universally frowned upon in each of my playgroups that the only effects I run (Skybind and Words of Wind) double as wincon engines.
Skybind + Heliod + Serra's Sanctum are a great combo
And treachery + Words of Wind with any mana aura and enchantress is fantastic also.
The Skybind combo you activate sanctum during eot - after the 'At the beginning of the end step' trigger happens - for as many Heliod tokens as you can, targeting as many vital permanents (including lands) as possible for the next player in turn order - and also your own sanctum (super important). The exiled permanents return during the next where you then target the next player's permanents plus your sanctum. You'll effectively lock each player out during their turn until you can alpha strike with tokens.
Treachery / WoW lets you cast treachery on your own creature and net card draw and mana - you turn both the card draw and mana into returning treachery to your hand and recasting it for more cards. Everyone else's permanents get bounced in the process.
what do you think about cards like:
Kismet, Frozen aether and Ghostly prison like effects for protection?
Wargate is a card that I should think about, your list reminded me of it. It's versatility is pretty great, but I can imagine casting it for 3 mana to get Serra's Sanctum quite often.
Those are really great combinations. I was looking at Skybind for potential abuse, but couldn't come up with much. From my side of the board there is not a lot of "enter the battlefield" effects that I could use the Skybind on, so ended up putting it to the side. I think if a deck has a few more ETB effects, then I could definitely see it being a must include. -OR- you have a reactive deck, so that you can target your own lands so that you have a number of them untapped for opponents turns. Things like Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Yeva, Nature's Herald, Alchemist's Refuge, Winding Canyons for spending mana in opponents turns.
Adding Treachery is pretty tempting, as it can generate a lot of mana for a turn with the enchant lands, and then can go infinite with Words of Wind.
Added
+ Treachery
Removed
- Detention Sphere
Nothing wrong with Detention Sphere, but I feel like got a great handle on artifacts with this deck, so that leaves creatures, enchantments, planeswalker. Treachery can handle the creature portion, so I'm trading the ability to deal with an enchantment or planeswalker, for getting a potential infinite combo, or just a great mana generator for a turn.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Honestly they are all tempting, but you just have to find this mix between Stax/lock and being proactive imo.
You actually need to be able to keep Estrid on the board in order to get the lock down advantage, so if you have too many of those, but opponents have creatures to kill her, then you won't gain any advantages.
Ghostly Prison type cards only protect against attacks on "you", so attacking Estrid herself, doesn't cause opponents to have to pay. I personally not a fan of pillow fort cards. They play against very specific decks, which I consider to be more casual builds.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Imagine if the time ever comes where all planeswalkers became playable commanders lol
I like your take on this enchantress deck. Being able to cycle through your deck to eventually get it all back is an interesting way to run it. Cannot wait to see what you do with the other two commanders!
EDH
WOrzhova's PoliticsB
UStensia's SaintW
U1000 FacesB
UIzzet's GambitR
RUBThe Rose's ThornBUR
RUGEternal HuntGUR
UWBArchitect's FoundryBWU
BBlood PactB
Damn, that's right, Simic Guildmage is even more broken than I originally thought for this deck.
BGU [Primer] Sidisi, Brood Tyrant BGU | BG [Primer] Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest BG | G [Primer] Polukranos, World Eater G
My YouTube Channel:
The Commander Tavern - a channel I just started where I'll post deck techs and gameplays. Please support by checking it out. Maybe you'll like its content and subscribe! Thanks!
URG Riku: - (Deck List) (Retired, but should probably bring it back.. I need a more casual deck)
BGU Muldrotha: - (Deck List)
UB Yuriko: - (Deck List)
UR Zndrsplt/Okaun - (Deck List)
G Seton: - (Deck List)
RGW Uril: - (Deck List)
GU Vannifar: - (Deck List) (My main)
WUBRG Alara: - (Deck List)
UBR Tresserhorn: - (Deck List)
RW Feather: - (Deck List)
EDH:
G[cEDH] Selvala, Heart of the StormG
URW[cEDH] Narset, the Last AirmericanURW
GWUSt. Jenara, the ArchangelGWU
UBGrimgrin, Chaos MarineUB
GOmnath, Mana BaronG
URWNarset, Justice League AmericaURW
GWUBAtraxa, Countess of CountersGWUB
GWUEstrid, Enbantress PrimeGWU
I actually have only been inspired by Aminatou, the Fateshifter and Estrid, the Masked for decks so far from the Commander 2018 set..but I'm starting to see one of the other planeswalkers in a slightly different light..keep an eye out in the next week maybe
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
It involves maybe a few more mass removal cards and using Estrid [-1] a bit more in the later parts of the game, to gain advantage with the board.
Also a few more token strategies for win conditions and synergy.
Add
Doubling Season, Parallel Lives, Anointed Procession.
Hour of Revelation, Nevinyrral's Disk, Akroma's Vengeance.
Ajani's Chosen, Sigil of the Empty Throne.
Skybind + Heliod, God of the Sun.
Sacred Mesa
Aura Shards, actually enough creatures coming into play to be good. You'd need to remove Torpor Orb.
If you remove Null Rod, Stony Silence, Energy Flux you can look to put in The Chain Veil. This can go infinite if you put one of the totem armors on it and have 4 mana from your enchant lands. But more than this you can just use it to do extra Estrid [-1].
You could then also look at a few additional planeswalkers to get value from this and Doubling Season, and Oath of Teferi.
If you read through some of the posts, these cards have been discussed a bit and you can figure out why they can be combined together for advantage.
I would look to have a few "enter the battlefield" creatures/enchantments to make better use out of Skybind.
Then to make better use out of Doubling Season, etc, more things that produce tokens.
But just to reiterate the Parallel Lives, etc, cards will make twice as many Aura totem armors out of Estrid [-1], so you can look to really protect your board, and then even play your own removal cards like Hour of Revelation to not be effected in the same way.
As far as the number of enchant lands, they are pretty great as they sort of cost nothing to cast, and then with an enchantress type draw card, they replace themselves. But considering that in this build you would be looking at using the Estrid [-1] a bit more than the Estrid [+2], you could shave on a few.
[EDIT]
Oh yeah if you keep putting a totem armor on Nevinyrral's Disk, then you can get a renewable board wipe.
Note, Oblivion Stone won't work because you sacrifice it, and totem armor only works with "destroy".
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
I am a little concerned that not having creature tutors could negatively impact the beatdown/aura strategy, but I don't really see many slots for them to get into the list without taking too much away from other strategies though. Any thoughts on cleaning this up? Is Avacyn too much/unnecessary here? Thanks for any help you can give.
EDH:
G[cEDH] Selvala, Heart of the StormG
URW[cEDH] Narset, the Last AirmericanURW
GWUSt. Jenara, the ArchangelGWU
UBGrimgrin, Chaos MarineUB
GOmnath, Mana BaronG
URWNarset, Justice League AmericaURW
GWUBAtraxa, Countess of CountersGWUB
GWUEstrid, Enbantress PrimeGWU
Now for your deck, I do think that you want some more potential early game targets for your enchant creature auras.
Noble Hierarch and Birds of Paradise I would say. This way you have targets for Angelic Destiny, Bear Umbra, Octopus Umbra, Rancor potentially in the much earlier stages, and you can even use Estrid [+2] then untap mana dorks for extra mana (or mana then just defense). Suiting up one of them in the absence of the enchantresses, I think will just make the deck function a bit more consistently.
If you had more forest searching fetch lands, then I would also suggest Dryad Arbor.
On that note, maybe Utopia Sprawl is a cut because needing a forest is a factor?
I mean Avacyn, Angel of Hope is great, but you are trying to do the same sort of thing, by totem armor up things, especially if you have the Doubling Season or Parallel Lives in play.
There are a few things that pushing and pulling against each other, because you are either Estrid [+2] -OR- Estrid [-1], but a lot of this deck is aiming towards the [-7].
So I do think you need at least one more token maker in order to consistently get value from say Parallel Lives. Otherwise much of the time you are looking to get value out of it by using the [-1], which is going against the build up to ultimate.
Leaving in Doubling Season is fine, having at least one to help Sigil of the Empty Throne and Luminarch Ascension, plus getting the bonus of potentially doubling Estrids loyalty when cast is good.
What I'm saying is that if you want to also play Parallel Lives, I'd like to see at least one more token generator. Probably Sacred Mesa. If you went this route then Avacyn, Angel of Hope is a little less important.
But if you decided to take out the Parallel Lives, then leaving in Avacyn, Angel of Hope is a bit more important, because you can aim to use the Estrid [-1] less often.
So I've decided to add Green Sun's Zenith and Congregation at Dawn, as the card drawaing engine is the most important part of the deck, so having more access to that is key.
Added
+ Green Sun's Zenith
+ Congregation at Dawn
Removed
- Null Rod
- Torpor Orb
Null Rod and Torpor Orb are great hosers, but they are artifacts, which means you get no other bonuses from the deck.
i.e no card draw off enchantress, no protection from Greater Auramancy or Sterling Grove, etc.
So I just want to be a bit more proactive, even though there will be lots of match-ups where these cards could easily win you the game.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
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-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
I've managed to move a few things around in my list, and I'm now pretty happy with it. The lack of mana dorks, and no creature tutors definitely made it feel clunky to me on paper, but those are now handled. Good call on Utopia Sprawl as well. I have access to 8 Forests via fetches and land types, and up to 14 if I run the 6 off-color fetches. It is at its best in the first few turns, where there is no guarantee I get a Forest. I'll probably look to slot it back in if I decide to run the full suite of fetches.
EDH:
G[cEDH] Selvala, Heart of the StormG
URW[cEDH] Narset, the Last AirmericanURW
GWUSt. Jenara, the ArchangelGWU
UBGrimgrin, Chaos MarineUB
GOmnath, Mana BaronG
URWNarset, Justice League AmericaURW
GWUBAtraxa, Countess of CountersGWUB
GWUEstrid, Enbantress PrimeGWU
I know you have a lot of shutdown with this deck but I'm just wondering what an end of game scenario would look like for this deck?
So the real finishers are Words of Wind, where you can get to the stage where you're returning all your opponents permanents back to their hands, including lands. You might get a combo type turn where you just do it all in one turn, or it might happen over a couple of turns.
Cyclonic Rift can help to speed up the process.
Starfield of Nyx can help to speed up the process, by making your non-Aura enchantments creatures. But you're unlikely to be attacking with them until you have locks. So don't think about nickle and diming opponents during the course of the game, it's all about when the tide has turned in your favor.
You can even potentially attack with them under Stasis or Static Orb, by using Estrid [-1] to put aura totem armors on enchantments, so that you can untap them eventually with Estrid [+2].
There is also Shalai, Voice of Plenty ability 4GG "Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.", which you can use multiple times once you get enormous amounts of mana. There is also the Words of Wind, Treachery and at least one enchantment draw card, which will allow for the infinite bounce and infinite mana. So you can just use Shalai, Voice of Plenty to make your creatures huge (infinite power and toughness), so that you can finish off opponents really quickly, rather than it being drawn out with average sized attacks.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
EDH:
G[cEDH] Selvala, Heart of the StormG
URW[cEDH] Narset, the Last AirmericanURW
GWUSt. Jenara, the ArchangelGWU
UBGrimgrin, Chaos MarineUB
GOmnath, Mana BaronG
URWNarset, Justice League AmericaURW
GWUBAtraxa, Countess of CountersGWUB
GWUEstrid, Enbantress PrimeGWU