I put in about 15 games last week and I felt like it was very clunky. My hand was constantly jammed with 3 and 4 drops in the Jund shell. I like the idea of its potential to play a longer game, but too often I'd have some combination of BBE, Shaman and Coco in hand with only 2 or 3 land on the board and my early dorks in the graveyard. When I did have enough mana to cast multiple 3 and 4 drops it was difficult to make the mana line up to cast two BBE in a turn or a BBE and a Shaman since you are getting your off color mana almost strictly from lands.
For now I'm going to stick with the consistency, speed, and smoothness of the traditional GW or GB builds.
I've been looking to build a non-green edh deck for quite awhile when I saw a pretty cool Merieke Ri Berit deck played on the SCG Vs. series. I threw the list together with a few changes based on the cards I had, and I'm really enjoying the deck. I really like that the primary focus of the deck is to control the board, steal creatures, and gain incremental value through flickering, but sometimes it's not enough and having a combo to fall back on if the game goes long is necessary. What I want to do is squeeze in two or three ways to end the game without being dedicated to the combo or diluting the deck with cards that don't synergize with the strategy. For example I have Rings and Basalt Monolith in the deck. Rings work will with Merieke's activated ability and Monolith works will with the flicker and untap effects I have in the deck, but I don't really have much to do with infinite colorless mana. So I'm considering Staff of Domination, which fits in well with the theme of the deck on its own. What's an easy way to turn the colorless mana into colored mana? And what are infinte mana mana sinks that are good without infinite mana?
I'm also looking at Peregrine Drake/Palinchron with Deadeye Navigator to provide infinite colored mana. Deadeye pairs up with other creatures in my deck well enough that I don't mind seeing him without an infinite pay off. Currently he can flicker Mnemonic Wall to get back Time Warp for infinite turns. Venser, the Sojourner also works with the wall. I'm considering fitting in an Eldrazi Displacer, but I'm not sure I have enough colorless sources to make him worthwhile if I don't have infinite colorless going.
What kind of combos would fit in to this deck where the individual pieces are good on their own?
Places that I'm looking to start cutting to fit these cards in are flicker effects that return the creatures to their owner's control like Momentary Blink, Kaya, Flickerwisp, and Felidar Guardian. I usually end up with opponent's creatures that I'm not always willing to part with so I thought that'd be a good starting point to cut.
Great write up. I'll make sure to get over to Reddit and send some upvotes your way.
Starting with your shell and thoughts on changes I'm going to swap out the 2nd Lead and the Visionary in the main for a Rec Sage and Elvish Champion. This gives the deck a couple more powerful cascade targets. I want to give the Elves of Deep Shadow a little more of a chance before I cut it to bring in the 4th Nettle Sentinel. I think it might be important to cast an Abrupt Decay and other black spells through Blood Moon and land hate. This frees up two slots in the sideboard which I may use to bring in two more Essence Warden. Looking at the day two meta game break down it looked like Burn was pretty popular. I think we have a shot against burn. Usually when I lose to burn it's only by a turn or two and a few Essence Warden is probably enough to slow them down.
Have you played around with Kitchen Finks over Essence Warden at all? It comes down a turn slower with acceleration, but it's a much better blocker. Were you happy with the rest of your sideboard?
Here is what your deck would look like with some of the changes.
I'd probably stick with Echoing Truth over Spellskite. Echoing Truth is great if you draw it after their auras have already come down. It can also two for one them if you catch a Daybreak Coronet on something with only one other aura. Echoing Truth is also great in a lot of other match ups, like Affinity and Lantern.
Just wanted to report my latest 5-0 in the MTGO competitive league! Details below.
List here. I've been on Spell Pierce for a bit of time thus far, and I'm pretty happy with it; the creature-based combo decks I was hedging against with Dismember's inclusion are gone, so you might as well jam lots of countermagic and interact with folks on the stack.
Matchups Faced:
Dredge (2-1)
Game 1 (draw): This was a non-game, because my opponent had the nuts. I only got to cast an Aether Vial before they put 10 power of attackers on the table, which makes the rest of the game rather academic.
Game 2 (play, mull 6): My opener has Vial into Relic, which is the best start I could ask for. While my opponent does find a Decay for the Vial, I take them off Dredgers, slap a Seas on one of their lands, and start hacking away at their life total. Their scratched-together board of Bloodghasts, Stinkweed Imps, and Narcomoebas is no match for a pile of Lords and Harbingers, and we're on to Game 3.
Game 3 (draw): My opponent mulls to 5 and attempts to make a game of it with Haunted Dead and looping Life from the Loam, but I curve out smoothly and alpha them with double Master of Waves.
Game 1 (play): My opponent durdles hard with Ancestral Vision into Search for Azcanta, and I quickly slap together a board state and start beating him down. Spell Pierce catches an As Foretold, and while Field of Ruin buys them just enough time to resolve the Vision, they are unable to gain control of the board with their additional cards and swiftly succumb.
Game 2 (draw): My hand this time around is significantly slower, but so is my opponent's. They manage to sneak As Foretold into Vision by me, but their follow-up Living End is Negated. I start beating down hard with Mutavaults, Cursecatchers, and a Lord, and my opponent's attempt at forcing through a Terminus ends in defeat.
Game 1 (draw): I am in line to weather my opponent's aggression and turn the corner with islandwalking Merfolk until I make a critical mistake; fearing Conflagrate going upstairs for lethal (and failing to count the number of cards in my opponent's hand), I make a block with Merrow Reejerey that I should not have. This combined with a sequencing mistake (I could have used Reejerey to cast a Cursecatcher and a Spreading Seas in the same turn) leave me a couple of points short on the critical crackback turn.
Game 2 (play): Both of us start somewhat slow (I go T1 Vial into T2 Vial, my opponent's first 2 turns only yield a Bloodghast), but I get untracked very quickly thanks to multiple Silvergills, and my opponent is unable to keep pace with the barrage of Merfolk hitting the battlefield.
Game 3 (draw): My opponent starts off well (2 Narcomoeba, 2 Bloodghast, and an Amalgam by T3), but Relic and Harbinger allow me to stabilize, and Master of Wavess plus a couple of Lords put them away.
Game 1 (play): My opponent starts aggressively with a Delver, but it fails to flip early, and I slap Seas on both their lands to cut them off black. My opponent flails around a bit with Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and assorted cantrips before they can find sources of nonblue mana, and that buys me the time I need to build up a board state of Merfolk and get their life total too low for them to complete the comeback.
Game 2 (draw): This time, my opponent's Turn 1 Delver flips, and it cracks me a couple of times before I find a Harbinger to reset it. Unfortunately for my opponent, a Turn 1 Relic keeps them from doing anything overly interesting until I have a nice board state put together, and their Paths keep finding me the lands I need to keep the pressure on and finish the game.
Game 1 (draw): Another non-game where my opponent had the nuts. Not opening with an Aether Vial severely hampered my chances of fending off a start that featured Flameblade Adept, Hollow One, and Gurmag Angler being cast back-to-back-to-back.
Game 2 (play):Burning Inquiry blows up both of our plans this time around, but I managed to get a Turn 1 Relic down, and that keeps my opponent from doing anything overly interesting until after Master of Waves has hit the table. A follow-up Lord then seals the deal.
Game 3 (draw): My opponent digs hard with Burning Inquiry and Looting, but fails to find much other than some Bolts for my early creatures and a Flameblade Adept. I flash in a Harbinger to prevent a healthy chunk of damage from said Adept, then follow it up with Lord into Master of Waves. My opponent's deck has next to no credible answers for that kind of a board, and so they scoop and we get there.
Sideboarding: +2 Echoing Truth, +4 Relic of Progenitus; -4 Merrow Reejerey, -2 Spell Pierce. Unlike Dredge, Pierce is pretty hit-or-miss here, as they have few noncreature spells (and it's not critical for them to resolve them early). Reejerey also comes out, because the tempo loss from having it get zapped by a Bolt or a Brutality is unacceptable in a matchup this fast.
Notes and Observations:
This 75 honestly handles like a dream. Everything felt very smooth, and the toolbox is plenty capable of handling anything that comes its way. I didn't face any Jace or BBE decks this league, but I haven't really had trouble with those either (Exhibit A). This meta seems to be treating mono-U Merfolk very well (I wouldn't dare jam SWOLFOLK right now; Master of Waves is far too good against this field).
I'm kind of excited to see the deck go back to this configuration. I really thought that deck ran well when there was a lot of Jund in the meta and we ran Tectonic Edge in the board.
I think the deck runs fairly smoothly, but I wanted some opinions on what cuts could be made to fit in some of the cards from my maybe board, or should I not be trying to fit them in in the first place?
Firstly Market Festival and Dawn Reflection could be cut. I originally had them in the deck as ramp and color fixing, but at 4 mana they tend to be a bit more clunky than their cousins in Wild Growth, Utopia Sprawl, Fertile Ground, and Overgrowth. What are your experiences with these cards? For now I'm trying Frontier Siege and Carpet of Flowers in that spot. Frontier Siege is still 4 mana, but it provides 2 back immediately on turn 4, unlike the auras, and 4 mana per turn, compared to 2 from the auras. My concern with Frontier Siege is that it's only green mana, and the color fixing of the auras is nice. Carpet of Flowers is situational, but I think my meta has enough blue to warrant it.
Aura Shards has the highest power ceiling, but I think I would need to run Heliod, God of the Sun and Sigil of the Empty Throne to take full advantage of it. I'm not sure this is a bad thing, but I'm not sure where I'd fit all three in.
The other option is Seal of Cleansing and Seal of Primordium. These two are easy to cast and are decent Sun Titan targets. I don't know if I need 3 Seal effects with both Seals and Aura of Silence, but is the efficiency of the seals worth more than the potential power of Aura Shards along with the token producers?
Overwhelming Splendor is a top end bomb, but I've never tested it out. What is your experience with the card? I'm not sure it's necessary as the deck has a lot of lock pieces already, but it seems like this card alone can neutralize a problematic player.
Aven Mindcensor and Hushwing Gryff are just generic hate pieces. The deck is designed to make it difficult to deal with my permanents and advance your game plan, but I'm unsure of how deep I need to go.
Aven Mindcensor is a great tool for inconveniencing your opponents. There is no downside to me, and it can help stop people from tutoring up the answers that I may be vulnerable to.
The problem here is what to cut, as I'm sure everyone has run into when tuning a deck.
I could cut Opalescence as Starfield of Nyx is strictly better, and I'm not sure I need two of that effect. I usually don't go on the enchantment beat down plan. When I turn my enchantments into creatures, it's usually to end the game with a Parallax Wave.
Necropotence is a potential cut. I generally don't need it if I get an enchantress online. Also, getting to BBB can be unreliable sometimes. I feel like my mana base is good, but this card definitely stretches it. But then there are the times where it pulls you right back into a game by drawing 7.
Thoughtrender Lamia is another potential cut. While shredding your opponent's hand is powerful, she's pretty expensive at 6 mana.
What has your experience been with the cards up for consideration?
So this post from a few pages back doesn't directly relate to Esper, but I think it gives you a good idea on why Blue over Green could hinder the deck. I don't think it would be impossible to make an Esper deck with a lot of enchantments in it, but I don't know if it'd really fall in to the Enchantress category.
What kind of shell did you have in mind? I could see Ertai being good with Starfield of Nyx, Auramancer, and Monk Idealist. Dovescape and Illness in the Ranks would definitely shut everything down, but that includes your own things too. Elesh Norn would go great with Dovescape. I'm curious to hear more about how you win with the deck.
Daxos is a weird one. I really have had a hard time figuring out the right direction to go- it was my friend's first EDH deck and he liked the black cards a lot, so he wanted to keep black but still play Enchantress (which is where the Teneb deck came from).
There's a lot of different ideas with Daxos. You can try and play cheap, efficient enchantments so you can cast Daxos and start gaining experience counters as fast as possible and make him a main focus, or you can focus on playing just a really good enchantment based B/W deck where he's just a 3 drop that's always in your hand so to speak.
If I were building B/W enchantments (from a competitive standpoint), I would probably go all in combo with a core shell of:
You don't get nearly as many enchantress effects anymore, so it's important to have other draw engines, and we should look to enchantment based draw engines where possible. Black gives you Phyrexian Arena and Underworld Connections for example, as well as Greed and Erebos God of the Dead, and everybody's favorite Necropotence. These should fill in the blanks nicely, but our draw is probably outclassed by other decks, so we can add some things to make it more oppressive, like Spirit of the Labyrinth, or maybe even Underworld Dreams to punish players who try to get ahead in card advantage.
You don't get access to Gaea's Cradle anymore, but you can run Cabal Coffers/Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to make up for it.
Now that we don't have green must-play cards anymore, we have more space to run other things instead. We can look to black for enchantment based removal, like Seal of Doom, with white offering Oblivion Ring, Banishing Light, and maybe Return to Nowhere. So you can pick up a decent bit of spot removal that can also be tutored for in a pinch.
For further protection, we'll play the obviously powerful Sphere of Safety, and probably Ghostly Prison, but black also gives us No Mercy, and Grave Pact.
We also need protection to be able to beat combo decks. Leyline of Sanctity and maybe Ivory Mask help here, but so can cards like Rule of Law.
White also gives Aura of Silence, but we'll probably want to ensure we've got some more destruction that we can hopefully keep enchantment based. Let's also play Seal of Cleansing. Between Aura, Seal, O-ring, and Banishing Light, we have four different ways to deal with artifact/enchantment based issues that are all enchantments themselves. Still, Austere Command is another card I would probably sleeve up. Its versatility makes it worth playing.
So we should probably figure out ways to kill our opponent outside of Daxos tokens. Sometimes he'll get killed as soon as he's cast, or you won't be able to gain worthwhile XP, or be allowed to untap with him if you do. Let's see how enchantments can produce kill conditions.
Aside from our two card combos (that are both decent on their own), our first look should be Enchantment Creatures. There's some real good ones here, but not a whole ton since they were only in one block.
Erebos and Heliod, God of the Sun are good places to start, they're pretty good inclusions and I like that the tokens Heliod makes are also Enchantments, meaning they help fuel Serra's Sanctum and Sphere of Safety and similar cards. Ghostblade Eidolon makes just about anything quite terrifying and so does Eidolon of Countless Battles. Doomwake Giant is a house. Underworld Coinsmith gives us a nice big fat mana sink that can kill on its own when Sanctum and Cabal Coffers is online, or can be used to setup Sanguine Bond/Exquisite Blood. He's an easy inclusion. Athreos, God of Passage may or may not end up making the cut depending on the rest of the bodies we slot in, but let's just keep him in mind for now that he exists. The rest of the enchantment based creatures may not be good enough unless they play to a specific focus, but they're a good start. Let's look at non-enchantment creatures. Academy Rector provides defensive and offensive capabilities. Please, attack me while this guy is out so I can tutor up and play something really dumb, or maybe just finish assembling a combo. Easy pick. Auramancer is our version of Eternal Witness. It's an easy include, as is Odunos River Trawler. Ajani's Chosen is a card that might not make the cut in GW, but probably could here. He's worth trying at least. Blessed Spirits and Blightcaster are also good cards to feed off of your deck doing what it does. Mesa Enchantress is a no brainer. It's the only one we really get to play though. Celestial Ancient is another good choice we might look to to make our utility creatures more threatening, and Treasury Thrull is also a good beatstick.
We'll of course play Sigil of the Empty Throne and Luminarch Ascension as well for additional killcons.
That should give you a good starting point to flesh the rest of the deck out with, but the important thing is to look at the functions you need your cards to perform and then see if there's a decent enchantment that can perform that function. Powerhouse cards that enchantment themed decks scale upwards in power, and so the criteria for a card to go into the deck needs to basically be:
1) It needs to be an enchantment.
2) If it's not an enchantment, does it benefit from enchantments? (Mesa Enchantress et al)
3) If it's not an enchantment, and doesn't benefit from enchantments, it needs to be a really good card to make the cut. (Demonic Tutor is an example)
There are two concerns with this deck- there's not a lot of ways to make Sanguine Bond good on its own (Blind Obedience might be a decent start though) and focusing hard on that might take the deck off course. Sanguine Bond is probably just a card you hope you don't draw until you're ready for it.
The second is that there's little to no acceleration. The deck will be capable of producing tremendous amounts of mana mid-late game with Sanctum, Nykthos, or Urborg, but there aren't black or white wild growth effects. This leaves you with mana rocks if you want to have acceleration. There's not room for much, you don't want to dilute the deck, but you should probably sleeve up Sol Ring, mana Crypt if you have it, Orzhov Signet, and Pearl/Jet Medallions. I like the medallions because enchantress style decks really like to play several enchantments in one turn if possible and so the medallions are better at ramping several small spells as opposed to one big one. But that's just my two cents. Anyway, if I built Daxos, that's kind of the thought process I'd have for a rough draft.
Anyway, there's a skeleton of Daxos for you with plenty of free slots to figure out what else you want to play.
Well I just bit the bullet and bought about 15 Ice Age Snow-Covered Forests along with a Mouth of Ronom for only $10.00. I'm excited to give them a shot. I think I'll be cutting Buried Ruin for Mouth. I already run E Wit, Noxious Revival, Regrowth, and Nissa Vital Force to get things back from the graveyard so Ruin isn't all that useful. Almost every game there is a time where I wouldn't mind shooting a creature for 4 damage. I can't say that there is always an artifact in my yard that I'd like to recover.
I'm also considering cutting Scorched Ruins to fit in Myriad Landscape or a 14th Forest, though I'm not sure on that one.
Oh doomwake is excellent. Even without living plane, he wipes out tokens simply by hitting the board, and if you are “going off” he can definitely wreck opponents fields.
You'll have to let me know how Mouth works. I've looked at that land for awhile, but I haven't felt like paying the premium on Snow-Covered Forests (I'd go for Ice Age too).
*Edit* I guess the pricing on Snow-Covered Forests isn't too bad. I just picked up Snow-Covered Islands for pauper and they were a bit more.
And I'm right there with you on the plains. That Invasion art is probably my favorite as well.
I'm old school. I've got 5 edh decks together and I use lands no newer than Invasion. I know these don't pertain to Titania, but I'm going to take a second to show off the lands because I'm a sucker for basics as well. I run all mine matching. I can't handle mismatched lands in my decks for some reason.
I just came across this thread and it is great! I just put together an abzan enchantress deck with Anafenza at the helm. She really doesn't contribute to the game plan, but she can be a relevant hatebear and put me in the colors I want to be in to abuse the Living Plane I picked up.
Reading through the pages it sounds like everyone agrees that the 4 mana enchant lands are a bit clunky. I really like the color fixing, but would something like Frontier Siege fit in better? At least you gain 2 green during you second main on the turn you cast it. The Dragons mode can also be relevant if you have a Sigil in play or an Ascension online.
The deck can win with Living Plane into Elesh Norn/Linvala/Doomwake Giant. Or draining people out incrementally with Flickering Ward and Grim Guardian, or all at once with Grim Guardian, Opalescence/Starfield of Nyx. I have also just beat down with a Bear Umbra'd Sigarda while I'm sitting in my pillow fort. But I've found that winning in any of these ways is a ton of fun! I really like what black brings to the deck. Demonic and Vampiric Tutor are superior to Idyllic Tutor. Doomwake Giant is an excellent way to control the board, and Thoughrender Lamia + Grim Guardian can really wear people down. And of course there is Phyrexian Arena and Necropotence.
Anyway, I hope this list gives people some ideas and stimulates more discussion.
For now I'm going to stick with the consistency, speed, and smoothness of the traditional GW or GB builds.
I'm also looking at Peregrine Drake/Palinchron with Deadeye Navigator to provide infinite colored mana. Deadeye pairs up with other creatures in my deck well enough that I don't mind seeing him without an infinite pay off. Currently he can flicker Mnemonic Wall to get back Time Warp for infinite turns. Venser, the Sojourner also works with the wall. I'm considering fitting in an Eldrazi Displacer, but I'm not sure I have enough colorless sources to make him worthwhile if I don't have infinite colorless going.
What kind of combos would fit in to this deck where the individual pieces are good on their own?
Places that I'm looking to start cutting to fit these cards in are flicker effects that return the creatures to their owner's control like Momentary Blink, Kaya, Flickerwisp, and Felidar Guardian. I usually end up with opponent's creatures that I'm not always willing to part with so I thought that'd be a good starting point to cut.
1x Merieke Ri Berit
Land (35)
1x Adarkar Wastes
1x Arcane Lighthouse
1x Arcane Sanctum
1x Caves of Koilos
1x Command Tower
1x Dreadship Reef
1x Drowned Catacomb
1x Fetid Pools
1x Flooded Strand
1x Glacial Fortress
1x Godless Shrine
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Irrigated Farmland
6x Island
1x Isolated Chapel
1x Marsh Flats
1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
3x Plains
1x Polluted Delta
1x Prairie Stream
1x Reflecting Pool
1x Sunken Hollow
3x Swamp
1x Underground River
1x Wasteland
1x Watery Grave
Enchantment (4)
1x Pemmin's Aura
1x Retreat to Coralhelm
1x Rhystic Study
1x Search for Azcanta Flip
Planeswalker (4)
1x Jace, Ingenious Mind-Mage
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1x Kaya, Ghost Assassin
1x Venser, the Sojourner
Creature (20)
1x Baleful Strix
1x Brago, King Eternal
1x Clever Impersonator
1x Deadeye Navigator
1x Ephara, God of the Polis
1x Evil Twin
1x Fatestitcher
1x Felidar Guardian
1x Flickerwisp
1x Gonti, Lord of Luxury
1x Grave Titan
1x Mnemonic Wall
1x Restoration Angel
1x Rune-Scarred Demon
1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
1x Stonecloaker
1x Sun Titan
1x The Scarab God
1x Trophy Mage
1x Vizier of Tumbling Sands
1x Anguished Unmaking
1x Arcane Denial
1x Cloudshift
1x Cryptic Command
1x Eerie Interlude
1x Force of Will
1x Ghostly Flicker
1x Hero's Downfall
1x Mana Drain
1x Momentary Blink
1x Mortify
1x Path to Exile
1x Swords to Plowshares
Artifact (17)
1x Azorius Signet
1x Basalt Monolith
1x Chromatic Lantern
1x Commander's Sphere
1x Conjurer's Closet
1x Dimir Signet
1x Illusionist's Bracers
1x Magewright's Stone
1x Orzhov Signet
1x Paradox Engine
1x Rings of Brighthearth
1x Sol Ring
1x Static Orb
1x Swiftfoot Boots
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Thousand-Year Elixir
1x Thran Dynamo
Sorcery (6)
1x Austere Command
1x Bribery
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Ponder
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Time Warp
Maybe Creatures (16)
1x Aphetto Alchemist
1x Ashen Rider
1x Cloudblazer
1x Dragonlord Silumgar
1x Duplicant
1x Eldrazi Displacer
1x Gilded Drake
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
1x Hostage Taker
1x Karmic Guide
1x Mulldrifter
1x Palinchron
1x Snapcaster Mage
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Torrential Gearhulk
1x Venser, Shaper Savant
1x Blue Sun's Zenith
1x Capsize
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
Maybe Enchantments (2)
1x Crab Umbra
1x Freed from the Real
Maybe Sorceries (1)
1x Merciless Eviction
Maybe Artifacts (4)
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Mana Crypt
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Staff of Domination
1x Unbender Tine
Maybe Lands (3)
1x Academy Ruins
1x Strip Mine
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Starting with your shell and thoughts on changes I'm going to swap out the 2nd Lead and the Visionary in the main for a Rec Sage and Elvish Champion. This gives the deck a couple more powerful cascade targets. I want to give the Elves of Deep Shadow a little more of a chance before I cut it to bring in the 4th Nettle Sentinel. I think it might be important to cast an Abrupt Decay and other black spells through Blood Moon and land hate. This frees up two slots in the sideboard which I may use to bring in two more Essence Warden. Looking at the day two meta game break down it looked like Burn was pretty popular. I think we have a shot against burn. Usually when I lose to burn it's only by a turn or two and a few Essence Warden is probably enough to slow them down.
Have you played around with Kitchen Finks over Essence Warden at all? It comes down a turn slower with acceleration, but it's a much better blocker. Were you happy with the rest of your sideboard?
Here is what your deck would look like with some of the changes.
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Elvish Mystic
4x Heritage Druid
4x Elvish Archdruid
4x Dwynen's Elite
4x Bloodbraid Elf
4x Shaman of the Pack
3x Nettle Sentinel
3x Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1x Elvish Champion
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Elves of Deep Shadow
4x Collected Company
1x Lead the Stampede
Land (18)
3x Forest
4x Gilt-Leaf Palace
4x Cavern of Souls
4x Windswept Heath
1x Stomping Ground
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Penedelhaven
2x Thoughtseize
2x Shaper's Sanctuary
2x Lead the Stampede
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Fracturing Gust
2x Abrupt Decay
2x Relic of Progenitus
3x Essence Warden
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/240138323?t=01h46m56s
Top 32 list at GP Phoenix. Ctrl+F on Ezuri to skip the chaff.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gppho18/grand-prix-phoenix-top-32-decklists-2018-03-18
I'm kind of excited to see the deck go back to this configuration. I really thought that deck ran well when there was a lot of Jund in the meta and we ran Tectonic Edge in the board.
1x Anafenza, the Foremost
Enchantment (34)
1x Aura of Silence
1x Bear Umbra
1x Carpet of Flowers
1x Dark Tutelage
1x Enchantress's Presence
1x Exploration
1x Fertile Ground
1x Flickering Ward
1x Frontier Siege
1x Ghostly Prison
1x Greater Auramancy
1x Karmic Justice
1x Land Tax
1x Living Plane
1x Luminarch Ascension
1x Mana Reflection
1x Mirari's Wake
1x Mirri's Guile
1x Necropotence
1x Opalescence
1x Overgrowth
1x Parallax Wave
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Prismatic Omen
1x Privileged Position
1x Protective Sphere
1x Solitary Confinement
1x Sphere of Safety
1x Starfield of Nyx
1x Sterling Grove
1x Stony Silence
1x Sylvan Library
1x Utopia Sprawl
1x Wild Growth
1x Austere Command
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Genesis Wave
1x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Replenish
Instant (4)
1x Eladamri's Call
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Teferi's Protection
1x Vampiric Tutor
Creature (20)
1x Academy Rector
1x Argothian Enchantress
1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1x Courser of Kruphix
1x Doomwake Giant
1x Dragonlord Dromoka
1x Eidolon of Blossoms
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Erebos, God of the Dead
1x Eternal Witness
1x Faith Healer
1x Grim Guardian
1x Herald of the Pantheon
1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1x Mesa Enchantress
1x Nissa, Vastwood Seer Flip
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Sun Titan
1x Thoughtrender Lamia
1x Verduran Enchantress
Land (36)
1x Bayou
1x Brushland
1x Canopy Vista
1x Caves of Koilos
1x Command Tower
1x Deserted Temple
1x Exotic Orchard
1x Fetid Heath
4x Forest
1x Godless Shrine
1x High Market
1x Isolated Chapel
1x Mana Confluence
1x Marsh Flats
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Overgrown Tomb
3x Plains
1x Reflecting Pool
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Sandsteppe Citadel
1x Savannah
1x Scrubland
1x Serra's Sanctum
1x Sunpetal Grove
2x Swamp
1x Temple Garden
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Windswept Heath
1x Woodland Cemetery
Enchantment (7)
1x Aura Shards
1x Dawn's Reflection
1x Market Festival
1x Overwhelming Splendor
1x Seal of Cleansing
1x Seal of Primordium
1x Sigil of the Empty Throne
Creature (3)
1x Aven Mindcensor
1x Heliod, God of the Sun
1x Hushwing Gryff
Sorcery (1)
1x Eldritch Evolution
I think the deck runs fairly smoothly, but I wanted some opinions on what cuts could be made to fit in some of the cards from my maybe board, or should I not be trying to fit them in in the first place?
Firstly Market Festival and Dawn Reflection could be cut. I originally had them in the deck as ramp and color fixing, but at 4 mana they tend to be a bit more clunky than their cousins in Wild Growth, Utopia Sprawl, Fertile Ground, and Overgrowth. What are your experiences with these cards? For now I'm trying Frontier Siege and Carpet of Flowers in that spot. Frontier Siege is still 4 mana, but it provides 2 back immediately on turn 4, unlike the auras, and 4 mana per turn, compared to 2 from the auras. My concern with Frontier Siege is that it's only green mana, and the color fixing of the auras is nice. Carpet of Flowers is situational, but I think my meta has enough blue to warrant it.
Next there is Aura Shards, Seal of Cleansing, Seal of Primordium.
Aura Shards has the highest power ceiling, but I think I would need to run Heliod, God of the Sun and Sigil of the Empty Throne to take full advantage of it. I'm not sure this is a bad thing, but I'm not sure where I'd fit all three in.
The other option is Seal of Cleansing and Seal of Primordium. These two are easy to cast and are decent Sun Titan targets. I don't know if I need 3 Seal effects with both Seals and Aura of Silence, but is the efficiency of the seals worth more than the potential power of Aura Shards along with the token producers?
Overwhelming Splendor is a top end bomb, but I've never tested it out. What is your experience with the card? I'm not sure it's necessary as the deck has a lot of lock pieces already, but it seems like this card alone can neutralize a problematic player.
Aven Mindcensor and Hushwing Gryff are just generic hate pieces. The deck is designed to make it difficult to deal with my permanents and advance your game plan, but I'm unsure of how deep I need to go.
Aven Mindcensor is a great tool for inconveniencing your opponents. There is no downside to me, and it can help stop people from tutoring up the answers that I may be vulnerable to.
Hushwing Gryff is another disrupting tool that won't slow me down much, and can turn off things like Reclamation Sage, Acidic Slime, and Bane of Progress.
Lastly, Eldritch Evolution pairs nicely with Academy Rector as sacrificing Academy Rector will get me both Doomwake Giant and Living Plane. Though outside of that combo, I'm not sure how much I want that effect.
The problem here is what to cut, as I'm sure everyone has run into when tuning a deck.
I could cut Opalescence as Starfield of Nyx is strictly better, and I'm not sure I need two of that effect. I usually don't go on the enchantment beat down plan. When I turn my enchantments into creatures, it's usually to end the game with a Parallax Wave.
Karmic Justice could get cut. Between Greater Auramancy, Privileged Position, and Sterling Grove, I have plenty of ways to stop opponents from targeting my permanents in the first place. I have Avacyn, Angel of Hope and Teferi's Protection to protect against sweepers.
Necropotence is a potential cut. I generally don't need it if I get an enchantress online. Also, getting to BBB can be unreliable sometimes. I feel like my mana base is good, but this card definitely stretches it. But then there are the times where it pulls you right back into a game by drawing 7.
Thoughtrender Lamia is another potential cut. While shredding your opponent's hand is powerful, she's pretty expensive at 6 mana.
What has your experience been with the cards up for consideration?
What kind of shell did you have in mind? I could see Ertai being good with Starfield of Nyx, Auramancer, and Monk Idealist. Dovescape and Illness in the Ranks would definitely shut everything down, but that includes your own things too. Elesh Norn would go great with Dovescape. I'm curious to hear more about how you win with the deck.
I'm also considering cutting Scorched Ruins to fit in Myriad Landscape or a 14th Forest, though I'm not sure on that one.
*Edit* I guess the pricing on Snow-Covered Forests isn't too bad. I just picked up Snow-Covered Islands for pauper and they were a bit more.
And I'm right there with you on the plains. That Invasion art is probably my favorite as well.
Titania - https://magiccards.info/in/en/347.html
Mono Black - https://magiccards.info/mr/en/312.html
Bant -
Forest - https://magiccards.info/ug/en/88.html
Island - https://magiccards.info/ug/en/85.html
Plains - https://magiccards.info/ug/en/84.html
Abzan
Forest - https://magiccards.info/ia/en/330.html
Plains - https://magiccards.info/ia/en/344.html
Swamp - https://magiccards.info/ia/en/355.html
Esper -
Island - https://magiccards.info/in/en/336.html
Plains - https://magiccards.info/in/en/331.html
Swamp - https://magiccards.info/in/en/340.html
Reading through the pages it sounds like everyone agrees that the 4 mana enchant lands are a bit clunky. I really like the color fixing, but would something like Frontier Siege fit in better? At least you gain 2 green during you second main on the turn you cast it. The Dragons mode can also be relevant if you have a Sigil in play or an Ascension online.
The deck can win with Living Plane into Elesh Norn/Linvala/Doomwake Giant. Or draining people out incrementally with Flickering Ward and Grim Guardian, or all at once with Grim Guardian, Opalescence/Starfield of Nyx. I have also just beat down with a Bear Umbra'd Sigarda while I'm sitting in my pillow fort. But I've found that winning in any of these ways is a ton of fun! I really like what black brings to the deck. Demonic and Vampiric Tutor are superior to Idyllic Tutor. Doomwake Giant is an excellent way to control the board, and Thoughrender Lamia + Grim Guardian can really wear people down. And of course there is Phyrexian Arena and Necropotence.
Anyway, I hope this list gives people some ideas and stimulates more discussion.
1x Anafenza, the Foremost
Enchantment (34)
1x Aura of Silence
1x Bear Umbra
1x Dark Tutelage
1x Dawn's Reflection
1x Enchantress's Presence
1x Exploration
1x Fertile Ground
1x Flickering Ward
1x Ghostly Prison
1x Greater Auramancy
1x Karmic Justice
1x Land Tax
1x Living Plane
1x Luminarch Ascension
1x Mana Reflection
1x Market Festival
1x Mirari's Wake
1x Mirri's Guile
1x Necropotence
1x Opalescence
1x Overgrowth
1x Parallax Wave
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Prismatic Omen
1x Privileged Position
1x Protective Sphere
1x Solitary Confinement
1x Sphere of Safety
1x Starfield of Nyx
1x Sterling Grove
1x Stony Silence
1x Sylvan Library
1x Utopia Sprawl
1x Wild Growth
1x Bayou
1x Brushland
1x Canopy Vista
1x Caves of Koilos
1x Command Tower
1x Deserted Temple
1x Exotic Orchard
1x Fetid Heath
4x Forest
1x Godless Shrine
1x High Market
1x Isolated Chapel
1x Mana Confluence
1x Marsh Flats
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Overgrown Tomb
3x Plains
1x Reflecting Pool
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Sandsteppe Citadel
1x Savannah
1x Scrubland
1x Serra's Sanctum
1x Sunpetal Grove
2x Swamp
1x Temple Garden
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Windswept Heath
1x Woodland Cemetery
Instant (4)
1x Eladamri's Call
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Teferi's Protection
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Academy Rector
1x Argothian Enchantress
1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1x Courser of Kruphix
1x Doomwake Giant
1x Dragonlord Dromoka
1x Eidolon of Blossoms
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Erebos, God of the Dead
1x Eternal Witness
1x Faith Healer
1x Grim Guardian
1x Herald of the Pantheon
1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1x Mesa Enchantress
1x Nissa, Vastwood Seer Flip
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Sun Titan
1x Thoughtrender Lamia
1x Verduran Enchantress
Sorcery (5)
1x Austere Command
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Genesis Wave
1x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Replenish
Maybeboard (6)
Enchantment (3)
1x Frontier Siege
1x Overwhelming Splendor
1x Carpet of Flowers
1x Sigil of the Empty Throne
Creature (3)
1x Auramancer
1x Heliod, God of the Sun
1x Monk Idealist
Sorcery (1)
1x Eldritch Evolution