Hello everyone! I wanted to get your opinion on my variant of an Enduring Ideal deck.
This deck started as a Tainted Remedy deck that, although it was very fun and interesting to pilot, was pretty easy to disrupt by a serious Modern deck. A few weeks ago I set out to make a new version that was much more resilient, and after a lot of searching, found Enduring Ideal to be the perfect shell for it.
The deck works mainly off the idea that when you trade life, it is still considered life gained or life lost. This leads to interactions like:
1x Wall of Shards (cumulative damage dealer, while also being a huge flying defender early game.)
1x Tree of Perdition (trade health and then trade it back the next turn to kill opponent)
1x Condemn (removal with player damage tacked on to it.)
1x Axis of Mortality (can often kill an opponent in two upkeeps, from any amount of health. Can kill in one if at 0 or less thanks to Phyrexian Unlife)
At its core, it's still a Tainted Remedy deck, but Enduring Ideal allows it to have much more consistency, makes it a lot harder to disrupt, and early game is easier to control. The Tainted Remedy core inherently handles opponent lifegain better than Enduring Ideal normally does, can end the game T4 with a great hand, and has alternate wincons that all interact well together.
That being said, I'd appreciate if someone with more experience than me could help me identify weaknesses in the build so that I can make it better. I'm pretty new to Modern, and Magic in general, but I love taking obscure cards and making them work as best as they can. I've read the last half of this thread or so, and got a lot of good ideas already (using scrylands over fetches, why you would use Flagstone of Trokair, etc..).
Hi, been playing this deck on and off since Eldrazi Winter and figured that the (post-PT) meta might fit this deck once again. Here's my current 75 that I just finished 4-1 in a Modern league with.
Solemnity - I primarly go for Unlife + Form of the Dragon when I win. It's nice to be able to cast Solemnity from the hand, but mostly it just feels a bit weak.
I've recently been thinking about Enduring Ideal at work...I think you could totally fit it in a UW Control Shell as a win condition. It's basically 9 +/- 2 cards, which is generally about how much a normal UW Control deck puts towards actually winning.
Idealist:
4 Flooded Strand
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Glacial Fortress
4 Ghost Quarter/Field of Ruin (any split)
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Bosejiu, One Who Governs All
5 Island
3 Plains
+2 Lands
3 Search for Azcanta
4 Spreading Seas
2 Detention Sphere
2 Phyrexian Unlife
1 Form of Dragon
1 Dovescape
1 Overwhelming Splendor
1 Starfield of Nyx
1 Solemnity
I also think that Search is incredible for this deck, it's filter + ramp + advantage. After Enduring Ideal, if we're low on cards and holding an important piece we can use the land to increase our hand size so we can discard it, as well as stacking the Mistveil Plains into drawing range.
You could even side into a standard UW Control deck, just take out the 9-ish cards that are specific to Enduring Ideal and put in 4 Jace and other stuff.
I can confirm search for Azcanta is indeed super in the uw ideal deck (traditional version with s fields, Ghostly, sphere of s etc.)
I see no reason why an enchantment light control version would not work, but then why not use straight uw control and planeswalkers win cons?
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Yes, this card is obviously really powerful as a butt saver when a sphere of safety is out. It is reanimatable via Starfield, fetchable and could theoretically come down with sphere and other enchantments to slow the game to a crawl.
The fetch an o ring or similar tech is obviously really good.
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I can confirm search for Azcanta is indeed super in the uw ideal deck (traditional version with s fields, Ghostly, sphere of s etc.)
I see no reason why an enchantment light control version would not work, but then why not use straight uw control and planeswalkers win cons?
( because you can't afford Jace )
This was more relevant before Jace unbans, but UW control has a hard time actually winning and even then takes forever. Enduring Ideal gives them a way to win in 7 turns. Also, if you start with Enduring Ideal as a wincon and then side into planeswalkers, all your opponent's enchantment hate becomes obsolete.
Wednesday was my 2nd week in a row coming 1st place with Enduring Ideal. the deck above is what i used last night to go 2-0-1 and take first place in an 8 man Swiss.
The first Match of the night was against Grixis Control.
Game 1 was a sweep. I started with 2 Lotus Bloom's and an Enduring ideal. Long story short he didn't counter Enduring ideal at turn 4 and i won the game.
Game 2 was the long one. I didn't get any ramp in my opening hand after going down to 4 so i knew this one was gonna go long. This game was very slow since on turn 3 & 4 he let me play 2 Suppression Field's which stopped his Jace from popping off early. The game ended when he played a Snapcaster Mage and had enough mana to burn through 4 Ghostly Prison's.
We decided to draw on game 3 since we had 2 minutes left on clock.
Second match was against Bogles.
Pretty bland matchup. Game 1 opponent started with Leyline out and at the moment i knew i was screwed. Only having Form Of the Dragon as my wincon in the mainboard. Luckly i got enduring ideal off turn 5 and bluffed i had an answer and he scooped.
2nd game i stall out for a while with Runed halo naming Slippery Bogle. I eventually get out Enduring ideal but next turn he plays Leyline. he then decides to read form of the dragon and stalls it out. at the time Starfield of Nyx wasn't in my sideboard so i had to used my oblivion rings BUT sadly i drew both of them. i put him on such a hard lock that i had every enchantment on board except blood moon since if blood moon was out my Mistveil Plains would be useless and i would deck out before he did. with 30 seconds left people were getting mad that we were going to time so they pressured him to scoop. Ended the match 2-0.
Third match was against Blue Moon.
1st game was a stomp. I got enough ramp to hit him with ideal at turn 4 and he didn't counter it. i pulled Dovescape and that was it.
2nd game was worse. I didn't get a Leyline of Sanctity and he got a bunch of burn on me. It didn't help he kept bouncing my Boseiju, Who Shelters All. I lost pretty hard.
3rd game was close. There was a lot of consistent burn spells used on me. Once i had 9 mana available, I baited Runed Halo. In response he burned me with 2 Electrolyze's and in response i named Lightning Bolt. But because he only had 1 mana up I took a chance with the Spell Pierce and played Enduring ideal. He let it through and i pulled Dovescape which locked him out. Ended this match 2-1.
Overall i have had consistent Wins with this deck. Not taking a loss for 2 weeks in a row. I'm hearing rumors of enchantment hate being played for next week so i'm going to have to add some countermeasures to stop that. I'm thinking of adding Assemble the Legion as a secondary win con, Adding in a Heliod, God of the Sun as a win con against enchantment hate, and Porphyry nodes to combo with Heliod.
So this is a bit winmore, but it's super fun. I've been using 1 of's of the following for a REALLY consistent wincon if you get ideal and whatever lock you want (I start with dovescape or overwhelming splendor, unless I can get the following down if I know I have 2 turns).
Phyrexian Unlife, Solemnity, and axis of mortality. But then I added the following to make sure axis can win us the game, and also increase the lock by a TON:
Zur's Weirding. Pay life until you reach zero, and win on your next upkeep. If the opponent can't attack, and you have unlife on the battlefield, play zur's weirding and they can't draw cards until the turn before you win the game. It's incredibly trolly and unneccesary, but with Ideal it becomes a great wincon. I have played it heavily and the deck with a copy of zur's weirding and a copy of axis runs really well, I just pillowfort into ideal and I haven't found a SINGLE deck that has an out if this is your enduring ideal pool of answers/locks. Even graveyard based decks can't do anything if you bring in a single copy of stony silence game 2 (again, assuming you get to ideal.)
I have used Zurs Previously, because with Starfield down we can get anything back, and because it is great with cards like Peace of Mind. I have never used it as a win con with anything like Axis. I did enjoy locking out a Tron deck with it once- hilarious. I had the Ideal in hand and he could not stop me durdling to 7 and casting it, whilst I could take all his action cards.
Honesty it is fine, but generally if you resolve Ideal you should be winning regardless. Only Axis and Zur's are not stellar on their own and even then some decks fold to Zurs' in some circumstances.
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I haven't had much success with this deck on MTGO - it seems unable to ramp or draw cards, and often I'm sitting with a hand that has three expensive spells that don't do anything for the next seven turns. With the low number of lands, the deck seems to take ages to do anything at all while the opponent plays a (usually)faster and more focused strategy.
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"To make peace with the forest, make peace with me." -Multani, to Urza
As with any ideal deck, if I can resolve an ideal, I pretty much win. But I've been experimenting with which wincons I like, and this is what I've found are my top 2.
I've had an enormous amount of success with this deck. I feel like I need to make more room for more detention spheres, and trim it down by a card for 60 (just can't decide, I'm thinking 1 luminarch ascension is the most correct). I don't get why more people don't play magus of the moat. Well, I do, he folds to creature removal, but on his own he shuts down SO much.
One difference between my deck and most of the decks I have seen here is that you can fairly safely hardcast Dovescape and still have a way to win the game. Just build an army of your own to stave off the opponent, then wait until you reach Archetype of Imagination and/or Magus of the Moat. The ghostly prisons and copy enchantments work incredibly well, they buy this deck SO much time to assemble either the ramp needed or draw the card, often locking players out on their own. My wincon upon a successful enduring ideal is luminarch ascension. The solemnity/unlife combo is amazing, as is splendor, and all of my cards can be cast from hand. If you are looking for a more pillowfort build instead of a spot-removal/control build, I'd recommend something that looks like this! I also appreciate any and all advice about this deck, I'm always looking for ways to improve it.
In my opinion, luminarch ascension is the only wincon this deck will ever need if you hardlock your opponent with a dovescape, an overwhelming splendor, and multiple copies of sphere of safety. (Or even Reverence if you side it in, or the unlife combo. You get the point.) This deck simply has all the time in the world at that point, because you can make it damn near impossible to remove your stuff, and there isn't hardly an answer in the world that people play that can stop luminarch ascension once it goes off, that you can't just remove.
ALSO, a note: If you have solemnity down, you have to remove it before you can start activating luminarch ascension. This is FINE. Just tutor up your leyline of sanctity and overwhelming splendor, and enough sphere of safetys that they can never swing. THEN detention sphere your own solemnity and wait four turns. You can assemble the combo while you wait. Worst case scenario, if you somehow draw your detention spheres, you can always starfield of nyx and archetype of imagination and your opponent can't block your enchantments.
That being said, I swapped it in favor of a zur's weirding based kill below with awesome results. On its own, the card sucks. It just does. But with an ideal resolved, it becomes the best wincon in the game IMO because it shuts your opponent down from ANY card draw until basically the moment you win. And all it required is a 2 card change from the deck (dropping ascension.)
The following is my "weird" version of the deck, which is less powerful early game if you draw zur, but in my opinion more fun. It actually works better than ANY combo I have found assuming you resolve an ideal.
The only changes from the previous deck are the wincon becomes a little bit stronger, in my opinion. I dropped luminarch ascension in lieu of axis of mortality and zur's weirding. You also need to either add ajani's mantra, which I didn't want to do, or swap one of your lands out with a shefet dunes. Most of the time, you will just tap it for colorless mana, but you can use it early game for color in a pinch. The whole point of either card is to get to an even life total consistently in 4 or 5 turns, so that you can weird yourself to 0 life every turn until you win. That sounds complicated, but ideally your opponent won't be drawing any cards anyways, so you'll probably be fine. It usually tends to work out, although I'm REALLY considering keeping mantra for tutorability, to insure you can get even once you have the lock. I included it in the above deck but sometimes go back and forth regarding whether it is worth it. Once your opponent is completely locked out of the game, you can kill them from any life total and through almost any pieces (because you can always detention sphere or copy enchantment a detention sphere their leyline of sanctity or whatever is keeping them from losing to your axis.
Basically, pillowfort or ramp into an ideal, then set this up any way you want:
Dovescape, phyrexian unlife, solemnity, zur's weirding, axis of mortality. Bam! You pretty much automatically win from there. Either crack a fetch at some point (you can still play lands) or use your shefet dunes, OR if you chose to run Ajani's Mantra then tutor it out anytime before you reach 1 life. Your opponent will get to draw 1 card between the moment you cast zur's weirding and the moment you win with axis. It has to be able to get around dovescape.
Notes on some of the weird parts of the deck, and my choices for cards:
If you draw into your combo pieces, then cast starfield of nyx, but be careful to grab some enchantment protection first (hopefully dovescape, or else greater auramancy.
The even lifetotal thing isn't actually that big of a deal either. You can always wait until you are at 3-4 life, tutor Archetype of Imagination, pay down to 1 or 2 life on their draw step(your opponent can't draw their last card before they die that way), and switch life with your opponent so they become below 3 life on your turn. Swing with archetype, which is by definition unblockable, and win on your turn.
I really want to improve this deck, any suggestions are appreciated! I'd almost like to run card draw but fear there is no room right now. It hurts to get rid of any of my pillowforts because as it is almost any of my draws slow the opponent down significantly. The weird deck I have has 62 cards right now and I'm not even sure if it needs to be 60 that badly. I'd rather have a wide range of tools for ideal, in a way, than run tons of 4 ofs that I consistently draw. Hmmmm. Any advice you guys have? Also, super sorry for the crazy long post! I started typing and it ended up being WAY longer than I thought, but I figured I'd try to explain my train of thought for some of these cards.
Sidenote: I used to run windborn muse but she always died to removal, and wasn't game changing enough on her own the way magus of the moat is. When I did, it was a lot more tempting to hardcast dovescape, and I had access to basically 12 pillowfort cards. It may be a card worth considering again.
Lich's mastery could potentially be a butt saver in this deck. Technically Unlife fetching will likely achieve the same thing against most decks, but this is hexproof and you can't lose the game protects against more. With spheres of s down the lock could be strong. You would still need Dovescape fetching, of course to prevent Back to Nature type effects g2/3. I think there is more potential in the Geddon effect, but it is nice to see options.
I feel straight Ideal less Pillow Fort has been better placed to not lose than Ideal these past couple of years, and are better for smaller events, but that Ideal builds win more quickly and are better choices for bigger events. The Sagas seem to swing the pendulum towards Ideal decks, but the big issue is always resolving the Ideal, especially as Boseiju is vulnerable to blue deck's ubiquitous HQ and Field landkill. I ramp in red to Obliterate to solve the issue in pillow Fort, but what both builds need are some enchantments can't be countered tech.....
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Hello everyone! I'm new to this forum but I love this deck. I've been wanting to build it for quite some time now, I have a list that I will link below. Since I have never played before am I missing anything or should I make any other changes? If I should could you explain why it may be better? Thank you! https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1039016#paper
Question: If ideal tutors up Phyrexian Scriptures on your upkeep, it will get 2 lore counters instead of 1 correct, and wrath the board of nonartifact creatures the turn it comes into play? Also, does fall of the thran do that as well, therefore you can't truly armageddon with it via an ideal? You'll always be stuck with each player having 2 lands?
I haven't been playing much MtG recently, but I always look around to see if this deck has posted any results recently. Shayne Morris was at it again in the SCG Baltimore Classic on 8/26/18. Here's his decklist. Seems like he still prefers the Lotus Bloom, they can help pump out a Form of the Dragon if it gets drawn, or earlier Sphere of Safety. Interestingly he included the 1-of Overwhelming Splendor, which I always thought as a win-more card (but I haven't actually tested it out so I don't know. Also, I don't play any ramp like the Lotus Bloom to play it early, so in my build the only way to reasonably cast it would be from Enduring Ideal itself, which should be searching for Dovescape/Phyrexian Unlife/Form of the Dragon). So his version might be fine with the Splendor.
One thought I'm having recently is the utility of the Suppression Field. I was always a proponent of at least 3 main deck, maybe 4. But now I'm not so sure. They still seem useful, but would main deck Rest in Peace be better in those slots? Or a mix of both. Rest in Peace hits so many deck it seems: aggro (bridgevine, dredge, hollow one, Gurmag angler), combo (storm, Ironworks), control (Snapcaster Mage, Logic Knot), and midrange (scavenging ooze, Tarmogoyf, Eternal Witness, Lingering Souls, even Knight of the Reliquary). So I've really thought about switching the Suppression fields to Rest in Peace, or maybe some split between them. Or maybe I'd remove all four of my Suppression fields for 3 Rest in Peace and 1 Greater Auramancy? Anyways, just some thoughts I've had recently. There's a slim chance I can go to SCG Charlotte at the end of October, so I will need to test if Rest in Peace > Suppression field. But I'm curious if anyone else thinks main deck Rest in Peace is as good as I think it is in this meta...
Here is the decklist that GPash mentioned (5-0 on MTGO league on 9/4/18)
Creature (12)
4 Arbor Elf
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Eidolon of Blossoms
Sorcery (4)
4 Enduring Ideal
Enchantment (24)
4 Abundant Growth
1 Dovescape
3 Fertile Ground
4 Ghostly Prison
2 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Sandwurm Convergence
1 Sphere of Safety
3 Unbridled Growth
4 Utopia Sprawl
Land (20)
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
4 Forest
1 Mistveil Plains
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Plains
4 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
60 Cards
Sideboard (15)
2 Leyline of Sanctity 1 Eidolon of Rhetoric 1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar 1 Greater Auramancy 1 Heroic Intervention 3 Rest in Peace 2 Satyr Enchanter 3 Stony Silence 1 Worship
Seems neat. The advantages of this list (and the Shayne Morris one) is you can hardcast the wincons (Form of the Dragon, Sandwurm Convergence) from hand with mana acceleration and don't have to rely on the Ideal. This one also lets you filter through your deck by drawing cards with the Eidolon and the land enchantments (and Satyr Enchanter from SB too). Also, the worship seems nice from the SB too. So they both seem to be more focused on getting to enough mana to proactively play the wincon vs my mono-white version that sets up the prison and just waits to draw Ideal (I must say I have lost some games because I have prisons and protection but lose to a hard cast Simian Spirit Guide that pays 6 mana to attack me for 5 turns in a row while I draw air).
EDIT: Interesting thing though about this list, they chose Misty Rainforest as their other fetchland, I wonder if you'd want access to white fetchlands to get the Mistveil Plains if absolutely necessary (they destroy the convergence somehow, counter it, or make you discard it). Since that's the only wincon in the maindeck, it seems like you really need to have access to it in the worst case scenario.
Additionally, It seems like a smart move to put Boseiju into the Main Deck again due ot the prevalence of UW control in the current meta. I had lost to some aggro decks because of it, so I moved it to the SB, but maybe it is back into the Main deck for now...
Asstrophy certainly is an issue- a Sphere of Safety has less protection from the 4 of trophy vs a couple of Pulses at best that could nerf it. With a fast start those Ghostlies and Spheres will do less work when they can be trophied away.
That said Pulse will drop from the 75, so no "kill all your spheres" and Asstrophy will also ramp us towards that Ideal, and Ideal means Dovescape, meaning no Asstrophy at all.
Honestly, the card may make tron less popular, which is good, and Trophy has zero interaction with a resolved EI.
I normally play RW pillow fort, and UW Ideal, but the majority of the time is with the former. As things stand, the Ideal version gets much better as it is more about the Ideal than about the pillow fort aspect of the deck.
Cards like Search for Azcanta give the deck more manipulation than it has had in U, the big issue has always been the fact that the deck slightly beats itself with inconsistent draws, I think printing a good removal spell that kills all is not that much of an issue. It may make those decks better- no blankable terminate, for example, but we are talking about 3 cards our deck blanked, the rest replace Pulse and Decays.
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Hi all, I'm thinking of making enduring ideal for modern, can anyone tell me the pro's and cons of the different colors, and what good and bad matchups they have
Enhanced Surveillance anyone? I run Peace of Mind in my deck, which I mentioned above (under a different account, forgot my password lol) and I think I'm going to include it now. In my deck, specifically, I could use it to get cards out of my hand and into my library. It's a way to recur threats post ideal if they get destroyed by say a reclamation sage, without playing starfield of nyx and opening yourself up to a wrath, like supreme verdict. (And without having to have that recursion land in hand) For me, I'm considering removing my one of starfield and adding this in? Not totally sure yet. It would be nice if I had an enchantment way to put something from my hand to my library. It is also a way to avoid getting your enduring ideal surgical extractioned, after discard picks it apart, which has happened to me before.
What are your thoughts? Are there already better options?
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This deck started as a Tainted Remedy deck that, although it was very fun and interesting to pilot, was pretty easy to disrupt by a serious Modern deck. A few weeks ago I set out to make a new version that was much more resilient, and after a lot of searching, found Enduring Ideal to be the perfect shell for it.
The deck works mainly off the idea that when you trade life, it is still considered life gained or life lost. This leads to interactions like:
At its core, it's still a Tainted Remedy deck, but Enduring Ideal allows it to have much more consistency, makes it a lot harder to disrupt, and early game is easier to control. The Tainted Remedy core inherently handles opponent lifegain better than Enduring Ideal normally does, can end the game T4 with a great hand, and has alternate wincons that all interact well together.
That being said, I'd appreciate if someone with more experience than me could help me identify weaknesses in the build so that I can make it better. I'm pretty new to Modern, and Magic in general, but I love taking obscure cards and making them work as best as they can. I've read the last half of this thread or so, and got a lot of good ideas already (using scrylands over fetches, why you would use Flagstone of Trokair, etc..).
So here it is:
1 Axis of Mortality
1 Dovescape
4 Ghostly Prison
1 Greater Auramancy
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Overwhelming Splendor
1 Phyrexian Unlife
1 Solemnity
1 Sphere of Safety
4 Tainted Remedy
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
Sorceries
2 Enduring Ideal
2 Grand Abolisher
1 Tree of Perdition
4 Wall of Shards
Instants
1 Beacon of Immortality
4 Condemn
Lands
4 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Godless Shrine
2 Mistveil Plains
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
3 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Temple of Silence
4 Lotus Bloom
1 Aura of Silence
1 Banishing Light
1 Blood Moon
1 Copy Enchantment
2 Nevermore
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Privileged Position
2 Rest in Peace
2 Silence
1 Sphinx's Tutelage
2 Stony Silence
P.S. - I don't know how to sideboard yet, so most of mine is borrowing from other EI decks I have found.
Thanks for any help or suggestions you guys can provide!
4 Runed Halo
2 Spreading Seas
1 Greater Auramancy
1 Rest in Peace
4 Ghostly Prison
2 Banishing Light
2 Nevermore
1 Phyrexian Unlife
1 Copy Enchantment
1 Solemnity
1 Gideon's Intervention
1 Heliod, God of the Sun
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Dovescape
4 Enduring Ideal
1 Form of the Dragon
7 Plains
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Temple of Enlightenment
2 Flooded Strand
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Field of Ruin
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
4 Grand Abolisher
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Consulate Crackdown
1 Rule of Law
1 Magus of the Tabernacle
1 Dragonlord Ojutai
1 Magus of the Moat
1 Angel of Sanctions
1 Greater Auramancy
Some cards in main deck I'm not 100% sure on:
Heliod, God of the Sun - my other wincon if Form of the Dragon gets exiled. Might be better to run something else like Luminarch Ascension since it's more resilient to Path to Exile.
Solemnity - I primarly go for Unlife + Form of the Dragon when I win. It's nice to be able to cast Solemnity from the hand, but mostly it just feels a bit weak.
11-3-1 @ GP Copenhagen: Top Stories of Grand Prix Copenhagen
Idealist:
4 Flooded Strand
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Glacial Fortress
4 Ghost Quarter/Field of Ruin (any split)
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Bosejiu, One Who Governs All
5 Island
3 Plains
+2 Lands
4 Enduring Ideal
4 Serum Visions (Not really sure about this)
2 Supreme Verdict
4 Path to Exile
4 Negate/Mana Leak/Spell Snare (any split)
2 Cryptic Command
3 Search for Azcanta
4 Spreading Seas
2 Detention Sphere
2 Phyrexian Unlife
1 Form of Dragon
1 Dovescape
1 Overwhelming Splendor
1 Starfield of Nyx
1 Solemnity
I also think that Search is incredible for this deck, it's filter + ramp + advantage. After Enduring Ideal, if we're low on cards and holding an important piece we can use the land to increase our hand size so we can discard it, as well as stacking the Mistveil Plains into drawing range.
You could even side into a standard UW Control deck, just take out the 9-ish cards that are specific to Enduring Ideal and put in 4 Jace and other stuff.
I see no reason why an enchantment light control version would not work, but then why not use straight uw control and planeswalkers win cons?
The fetch an o ring or similar tech is obviously really good.
( because you can't afford Jace )
This was more relevant before Jace unbans, but UW control has a hard time actually winning and even then takes forever. Enduring Ideal gives them a way to win in 7 turns. Also, if you start with Enduring Ideal as a wincon and then side into planeswalkers, all your opponent's enchantment hate becomes obsolete.
1 Mistveil Plains
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
10 Plains
2 Rugged Prairie
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
2 Blood Moon
1 Dovescape
4 Enduring Ideal
2 Form of the Dragon
4 Ghostly Prison
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Lotus Bloom
1 Overwhelming Splendor
2 Phyrexian Unlife
4 Runed Halo
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Sphere of Safety
4 Suppression Field
1 Defense Grid
2 Greater Auramancy
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Rest in Peace
3 Silence
1 Nevermore
2 Stony Silence
1 Story Circle
Hello everyone!
Wednesday was my 2nd week in a row coming 1st place with Enduring Ideal. the deck above is what i used last night to go 2-0-1 and take first place in an 8 man Swiss.
The first Match of the night was against Grixis Control.
Game 1 was a sweep. I started with 2 Lotus Bloom's and an Enduring ideal. Long story short he didn't counter Enduring ideal at turn 4 and i won the game.
Game 2 was the long one. I didn't get any ramp in my opening hand after going down to 4 so i knew this one was gonna go long. This game was very slow since on turn 3 & 4 he let me play 2 Suppression Field's which stopped his Jace from popping off early. The game ended when he played a Snapcaster Mage and had enough mana to burn through 4 Ghostly Prison's.
We decided to draw on game 3 since we had 2 minutes left on clock.
Second match was against Bogles.
Pretty bland matchup. Game 1 opponent started with Leyline out and at the moment i knew i was screwed. Only having Form Of the Dragon as my wincon in the mainboard. Luckly i got enduring ideal off turn 5 and bluffed i had an answer and he scooped.
2nd game i stall out for a while with Runed halo naming Slippery Bogle. I eventually get out Enduring ideal but next turn he plays Leyline. he then decides to read form of the dragon and stalls it out. at the time Starfield of Nyx wasn't in my sideboard so i had to used my oblivion rings BUT sadly i drew both of them. i put him on such a hard lock that i had every enchantment on board except blood moon since if blood moon was out my Mistveil Plains would be useless and i would deck out before he did. with 30 seconds left people were getting mad that we were going to time so they pressured him to scoop. Ended the match 2-0.
Third match was against Blue Moon.
1st game was a stomp. I got enough ramp to hit him with ideal at turn 4 and he didn't counter it. i pulled Dovescape and that was it.
2nd game was worse. I didn't get a Leyline of Sanctity and he got a bunch of burn on me. It didn't help he kept bouncing my Boseiju, Who Shelters All. I lost pretty hard.
3rd game was close. There was a lot of consistent burn spells used on me. Once i had 9 mana available, I baited Runed Halo. In response he burned me with 2 Electrolyze's and in response i named Lightning Bolt. But because he only had 1 mana up I took a chance with the Spell Pierce and played Enduring ideal. He let it through and i pulled Dovescape which locked him out. Ended this match 2-1.
Overall i have had consistent Wins with this deck. Not taking a loss for 2 weeks in a row. I'm hearing rumors of enchantment hate being played for next week so i'm going to have to add some countermeasures to stop that. I'm thinking of adding Assemble the Legion as a secondary win con, Adding in a Heliod, God of the Sun as a win con against enchantment hate, and Porphyry nodes to combo with Heliod.
Thanks for reading! Let me know what your think!
Phyrexian Unlife, Solemnity, and axis of mortality. But then I added the following to make sure axis can win us the game, and also increase the lock by a TON:
Zur's Weirding. Pay life until you reach zero, and win on your next upkeep. If the opponent can't attack, and you have unlife on the battlefield, play zur's weirding and they can't draw cards until the turn before you win the game. It's incredibly trolly and unneccesary, but with Ideal it becomes a great wincon. I have played it heavily and the deck with a copy of zur's weirding and a copy of axis runs really well, I just pillowfort into ideal and I haven't found a SINGLE deck that has an out if this is your enduring ideal pool of answers/locks. Even graveyard based decks can't do anything if you bring in a single copy of stony silence game 2 (again, assuming you get to ideal.)
Thoughts?
Honesty it is fine, but generally if you resolve Ideal you should be winning regardless. Only Axis and Zur's are not stellar on their own and even then some decks fold to Zurs' in some circumstances.
4x Flooded Strand
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4x Plains
3x Island
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x shefet dunes
Enchantments
4x Ghostly Prison
1x Greater Auramancy
1x Dovescape
1x Archetype of Imagination
1x Solemnity
1x Phyrexian Unlife
4x Copy Enchantment
2x Detention Sphere
2x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Luminarch Ascension
4x Porphyry Nodes
2x Sphere of Safety
1x Starfield of Nyx
4x Lotus Bloom
4x Enduring Ideal
2x Ensnaring Bridge
4x Magus of the Moat
2x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Luminarch Ascension
1x Sphinx of the Final Word
2x Ensnaring Bridge
3x Bribery
1x Reverence
4x Defense Grid
I've had an enormous amount of success with this deck. I feel like I need to make more room for more detention spheres, and trim it down by a card for 60 (just can't decide, I'm thinking 1 luminarch ascension is the most correct). I don't get why more people don't play magus of the moat. Well, I do, he folds to creature removal, but on his own he shuts down SO much.
One difference between my deck and most of the decks I have seen here is that you can fairly safely hardcast Dovescape and still have a way to win the game. Just build an army of your own to stave off the opponent, then wait until you reach Archetype of Imagination and/or Magus of the Moat. The ghostly prisons and copy enchantments work incredibly well, they buy this deck SO much time to assemble either the ramp needed or draw the card, often locking players out on their own. My wincon upon a successful enduring ideal is luminarch ascension. The solemnity/unlife combo is amazing, as is splendor, and all of my cards can be cast from hand. If you are looking for a more pillowfort build instead of a spot-removal/control build, I'd recommend something that looks like this! I also appreciate any and all advice about this deck, I'm always looking for ways to improve it.
In my opinion, luminarch ascension is the only wincon this deck will ever need if you hardlock your opponent with a dovescape, an overwhelming splendor, and multiple copies of sphere of safety. (Or even Reverence if you side it in, or the unlife combo. You get the point.) This deck simply has all the time in the world at that point, because you can make it damn near impossible to remove your stuff, and there isn't hardly an answer in the world that people play that can stop luminarch ascension once it goes off, that you can't just remove.
ALSO, a note: If you have solemnity down, you have to remove it before you can start activating luminarch ascension. This is FINE. Just tutor up your leyline of sanctity and overwhelming splendor, and enough sphere of safetys that they can never swing. THEN detention sphere your own solemnity and wait four turns. You can assemble the combo while you wait. Worst case scenario, if you somehow draw your detention spheres, you can always starfield of nyx and archetype of imagination and your opponent can't block your enchantments.
That being said, I swapped it in favor of a zur's weirding based kill below with awesome results. On its own, the card sucks. It just does. But with an ideal resolved, it becomes the best wincon in the game IMO because it shuts your opponent down from ANY card draw until basically the moment you win. And all it required is a 2 card change from the deck (dropping ascension.)
The following is my "weird" version of the deck, which is less powerful early game if you draw zur, but in my opinion more fun. It actually works better than ANY combo I have found assuming you resolve an ideal.
4x Flooded Strand
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4x Plains
2x shefet dunes
2x Island
1x Hallowed Fountain
Enchantments
4x Ghostly Prison
1x Greater Auramancy
1x Dovescape
1x Archetype of Imagination
1x Solemnity
1x Phyrexian Unlife
4x Copy Enchantment
2x Detention Sphere
2x Leyline of Sanctity
4x Porphyry Nodes
2x Sphere of Safety
1x Starfield of Nyx
1x axis of mortality
1x zur's weirding
1x ajani's mantra
4x Lotus Bloom
4x Enduring Ideal
2x Ensnaring Bridge
4x Magus of the Moat
2x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Luminarch Ascension
1x Sphinx of the Final Word
2x Ensnaring Bridge
3x Bribery
1x Reverence
4x Defense Grid
The only changes from the previous deck are the wincon becomes a little bit stronger, in my opinion. I dropped luminarch ascension in lieu of axis of mortality and zur's weirding. You also need to either add ajani's mantra, which I didn't want to do, or swap one of your lands out with a shefet dunes. Most of the time, you will just tap it for colorless mana, but you can use it early game for color in a pinch. The whole point of either card is to get to an even life total consistently in 4 or 5 turns, so that you can weird yourself to 0 life every turn until you win. That sounds complicated, but ideally your opponent won't be drawing any cards anyways, so you'll probably be fine. It usually tends to work out, although I'm REALLY considering keeping mantra for tutorability, to insure you can get even once you have the lock. I included it in the above deck but sometimes go back and forth regarding whether it is worth it. Once your opponent is completely locked out of the game, you can kill them from any life total and through almost any pieces (because you can always detention sphere or copy enchantment a detention sphere their leyline of sanctity or whatever is keeping them from losing to your axis.
Basically, pillowfort or ramp into an ideal, then set this up any way you want:
Dovescape, phyrexian unlife, solemnity, zur's weirding, axis of mortality. Bam! You pretty much automatically win from there. Either crack a fetch at some point (you can still play lands) or use your shefet dunes, OR if you chose to run Ajani's Mantra then tutor it out anytime before you reach 1 life. Your opponent will get to draw 1 card between the moment you cast zur's weirding and the moment you win with axis. It has to be able to get around dovescape.
Notes on some of the weird parts of the deck, and my choices for cards:
If you draw into your combo pieces, then cast starfield of nyx, but be careful to grab some enchantment protection first (hopefully dovescape, or else greater auramancy.
The even lifetotal thing isn't actually that big of a deal either. You can always wait until you are at 3-4 life, tutor Archetype of Imagination, pay down to 1 or 2 life on their draw step(your opponent can't draw their last card before they die that way), and switch life with your opponent so they become below 3 life on your turn. Swing with archetype, which is by definition unblockable, and win on your turn.
If you know they run abrupt decay, consider tutoring your greater auramancy and even copying it if you have time.
I really want to improve this deck, any suggestions are appreciated! I'd almost like to run card draw but fear there is no room right now. It hurts to get rid of any of my pillowforts because as it is almost any of my draws slow the opponent down significantly. The weird deck I have has 62 cards right now and I'm not even sure if it needs to be 60 that badly. I'd rather have a wide range of tools for ideal, in a way, than run tons of 4 ofs that I consistently draw. Hmmmm. Any advice you guys have? Also, super sorry for the crazy long post! I started typing and it ended up being WAY longer than I thought, but I figured I'd try to explain my train of thought for some of these cards.
Sidenote: I used to run windborn muse but she always died to removal, and wasn't game changing enough on her own the way magus of the moat is. When I did, it was a lot more tempting to hardcast dovescape, and I had access to basically 12 pillowfort cards. It may be a card worth considering again.
Don't think k it offers enough but you never know.
Nonbo with S field..... to an extent.
I feel straight Ideal less Pillow Fort has been better placed to not lose than Ideal these past couple of years, and are better for smaller events, but that Ideal builds win more quickly and are better choices for bigger events. The Sagas seem to swing the pendulum towards Ideal decks, but the big issue is always resolving the Ideal, especially as Boseiju is vulnerable to blue deck's ubiquitous HQ and Field landkill. I ramp in red to Obliterate to solve the issue in pillow Fort, but what both builds need are some enchantments can't be countered tech.....
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1039016#paper
Itching to play something of this sort and no current lists exist!
1 Mistveil Plains
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
10 Plains
2 Rugged Prairie
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
2 Blood Moon
1 Dovescape
4 Enduring Ideal
2 Form of the Dragon
4 Ghostly Prison
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Lotus Bloom
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Overwhelming Splendor
2 Phyrexian Unlife
4 Runed Halo
2 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Sphere of Safety
4 Suppression Field
2 Damping Sphere
2 Greater Auramancy
2 Patrician's Scorn
2 Rest in Peace
3 Silence
1 Starfield of Nyx
2 Stony Silence
this is my current list. There are a few things you can probably change since the sideboard is tailored for my local meta.
One thought I'm having recently is the utility of the Suppression Field. I was always a proponent of at least 3 main deck, maybe 4. But now I'm not so sure. They still seem useful, but would main deck Rest in Peace be better in those slots? Or a mix of both. Rest in Peace hits so many deck it seems: aggro (bridgevine, dredge, hollow one, Gurmag angler), combo (storm, Ironworks), control (Snapcaster Mage, Logic Knot), and midrange (scavenging ooze, Tarmogoyf, Eternal Witness, Lingering Souls, even Knight of the Reliquary). So I've really thought about switching the Suppression fields to Rest in Peace, or maybe some split between them. Or maybe I'd remove all four of my Suppression fields for 3 Rest in Peace and 1 Greater Auramancy? Anyways, just some thoughts I've had recently. There's a slim chance I can go to SCG Charlotte at the end of October, so I will need to test if Rest in Peace > Suppression field. But I'm curious if anyone else thinks main deck Rest in Peace is as good as I think it is in this meta...
Creature (12)
4 Arbor Elf
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Eidolon of Blossoms
Sorcery (4)
4 Enduring Ideal
Enchantment (24)
4 Abundant Growth
1 Dovescape
3 Fertile Ground
4 Ghostly Prison
2 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Sandwurm Convergence
1 Sphere of Safety
3 Unbridled Growth
4 Utopia Sprawl
Land (20)
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
4 Forest
1 Mistveil Plains
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Plains
4 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
60 Cards
Sideboard (15)
2 Leyline of Sanctity 1 Eidolon of Rhetoric 1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar 1 Greater Auramancy 1 Heroic Intervention 3 Rest in Peace 2 Satyr Enchanter 3 Stony Silence 1 Worship
Seems neat. The advantages of this list (and the Shayne Morris one) is you can hardcast the wincons (Form of the Dragon, Sandwurm Convergence) from hand with mana acceleration and don't have to rely on the Ideal. This one also lets you filter through your deck by drawing cards with the Eidolon and the land enchantments (and Satyr Enchanter from SB too). Also, the worship seems nice from the SB too. So they both seem to be more focused on getting to enough mana to proactively play the wincon vs my mono-white version that sets up the prison and just waits to draw Ideal (I must say I have lost some games because I have prisons and protection but lose to a hard cast Simian Spirit Guide that pays 6 mana to attack me for 5 turns in a row while I draw air).
EDIT: Interesting thing though about this list, they chose Misty Rainforest as their other fetchland, I wonder if you'd want access to white fetchlands to get the Mistveil Plains if absolutely necessary (they destroy the convergence somehow, counter it, or make you discard it). Since that's the only wincon in the maindeck, it seems like you really need to have access to it in the worst case scenario.
Additionally, It seems like a smart move to put Boseiju into the Main Deck again due ot the prevalence of UW control in the current meta. I had lost to some aggro decks because of it, so I moved it to the SB, but maybe it is back into the Main deck for now...
That said Pulse will drop from the 75, so no "kill all your spheres" and Asstrophy will also ramp us towards that Ideal, and Ideal means Dovescape, meaning no Asstrophy at all.
Honestly, the card may make tron less popular, which is good, and Trophy has zero interaction with a resolved EI.
I normally play RW pillow fort, and UW Ideal, but the majority of the time is with the former. As things stand, the Ideal version gets much better as it is more about the Ideal than about the pillow fort aspect of the deck.
Cards like Search for Azcanta give the deck more manipulation than it has had in U, the big issue has always been the fact that the deck slightly beats itself with inconsistent draws, I think printing a good removal spell that kills all is not that much of an issue. It may make those decks better- no blankable terminate, for example, but we are talking about 3 cards our deck blanked, the rest replace Pulse and Decays.
What are your thoughts? Are there already better options?