GW Enchantress/Parfait

[pyyhttu]

Edit: Don't have time to reflect the changes here, but latest list can always be found from: http://iki.fi/~pyyhttu/magic/highlander/enchantress_wg.txt

I've been playing both in league and in real life a variant of Enchantress deck that is geared towards various aggro builds. I've tried to push the synergy level of this deck to the top (Zuran Orb/Land Tax/Scroll Rack/Life from the Loam/Solitary Confinement and so on), pack in few game ending combos (STFU Doll & Guilty Conscience/Pariah, Overgrowth on plains & Earthcraft & Mobilization/Sacred Mesa).

The deck can be categorized as a control/combo build as it can play any of those roles and tries to combine the best of the both worlds from Darren Di Battista's Parfait by packing in lots of deadly silver bullets (Wheel of Sun and Moon, Choke, Worship) and various Enchantress ideas (mainly combo builds). The starting hand states what strategy you're after with this.

I have on purpose left out beatdown strategies like Auratog/Rancor and other clumsy solutions like Yavimaya Enchantress (suboptimal) and Ancestrall Mask as it's too vulnerable. (Hey, it's an aura!). Those strategies are not even suitable in this deck. The role piloting this deck is always control. I often opt to let the opponent go first as have so many cards here that give me tremendous advantage if I go second (LoA, Tithe, Land Tax, Porphyry Nodes...).

So those were the initial design guidelines.

Here's the current list:

GW-Enchantress
Mon Apr 13 11:44:07 UTC 2009

Mana:

1x Temple Garden
1x Savannah
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Thawing Glaciers
1x Serra's Sanctum
1x Tranguil Thicket
1x Secluded Steppe
1x Nantuko Monastery
1x Wasteland
1x Windswept Heath
1x Library of Alexandria
1x Kor Haven
1x Karakas
1x Flagstones of Trokair
11x Snow-Covered Plains
7x Snow Covered Forest
1x Mox Diamond
1x Chrome Mox

Acceleration:

1x Exploration
1x Wild Growth
1x Utopia Sprawl
1x Overgrowth

Removal & shutdowns:

1x Maze of Ith
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Path to Exile
1x Guilty Conscience
1x Gelid Shackles
1x Porphyry Nodes
1x Drop of Honey
1x Seal of Primordium
1x Seal of Cleansing
1x Oblivion Ring
1x Pariah
1x Aura of Silence
1x Faith's Fetters
1x Moat
1x Parallax Wave
1x Wrath of God

Dudes:

1x Argothian Enchantress
1x Academy Rector
1x Stuffy Doll
1x Eternal Dragon

Tutors & Draw/Library manipulation:

1x Englightened Tutor
1x Wordly Tutor
1x Land Tax
1x Tithe
1x Mirri's Guile
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sylvan Library
1x Scroll Rack
1x Sterling Grove
1x Oath of Druids
1x Eladamri's Call
1x Idyllic Tutor
1x Enchantress Presence
1x Crop Rotation

Business & Silver Bullets etc.:

1x Ivory Tower
1x Zuran Orb
1x Argivian Find
1x Genju of the Fields
1x Hoofprints of the Stag
1x Sigil of the Empty Throne
1x Regrowth
1x Rofellos' Gift
1x Earthcraft
1x Life from the Loam
1x Rise of the Hobgoblins
1x Wheel of Sun and Moon
1x Choke
1x Squirrel Nest
1x Sacred Mesa
1x Story Circle
1x Mobilization
1x Holistc Wisdom
1x Solitary Confinement
1x Worship
1x Replenish
1x Ivory Mask
1x Humility
1x Opalescence
1x Dovescape
1x Enduring Ideal
1x Decree of Justice

I don't have time to write long stories, so I'll just say this deck is dedicated for high synergy and combos which it tries to set up. If that fails or better plan has all along been amassing mana and attack with Mesa/Soldier and Squirrel Tokens, that's fine. Rounds with this beast *can* take a long time, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend this deck to a GP if you've only got 50 minutes or so, unless you want to develope yourself as a player and expect aggro meta.

Some of the synergy / combos this deck supports:

Draw Engine:

Land Tax & Scroll Rack (+Zuran Orb). This setup also fuels Solitary Confinement lock, works with Ivory Tower etc.

Kills:

Earthcraft & Squirrel Nest: Earthcraft in this deck can be really nasty. One can combo it not only with Squirrel Nest but also with Sacred Mesa, especially if you've got Wild Growth or Overgrowth attached to a plains. Then also Mobilization generates infinite tokens. In early / mid game Earthcraft serves as a handy way to fix mana issues if you've played some creatures / tokens.

Stuffy Doll and Guilty Conscience. Stuffy also works with Pariah, setting up a lock for red nearly impossible to solve.

Argothian Enchantress & Worship: Usually check mate against red decks. Another good one is the old usual Library of Alexandria & Solitary Confinement. Argothian Enchantress / Enchantress Presence + Dovescape is also fine on a longer run.

Enduring Ideal in this deck just owns: if you've played yourself into position to cast it, opponent is almost always screwed.

Sylvan Library (Enchantress Presence / Argothian Enchantress) + Hoofprints of the Stag.

Also a tech against aggro is to attack/block with Genju of the Fields and activate it multiple times: it gains multiple Lifelinks.

You'll find other tricks as you play this.

The only cards I've been unhappy with are Opalescence and Verduran/Mesa Enchantress. Opalescence with Replenish used to be broken in old days but nowadays it just sets my precious silver bullets on the open and I can lose to the next Wrath of God or targeted burn. Same thing with the targetable enchantresses: they attract creature removal and I don't necessary get to set up the card engine. To get virtual card advantage, I'd say the best plan to develop this deck is to take out all the targetable creatures and this way opponent's removals to be dead cards. This ofcourse affects the Oath plan/graveyard filling.

Comments are welcome.

Edit: Added that Moat, cut the 2 enchantresses, and added Sigil of the Empty Throne.

[Thibir]

What about Moat?

[Vazdru]

What about Moat?

I think because it do not fit nicely to Squirrel Nest + Earthcraft.

I wouldn't play Progenitus + Moat in an Oath-Deck likewise even if i had lots of options to remove Moat again after it hit the board.

[so_not]

As we already discussed some time ago, I still think this deck would get a huge boost by adding blue. I'm still not quite sure what is the right approach to this color since it enables various strategies, but at least you get couple nice combo-enablers and some stuff to fight against control decks. Gifts and Intuition would be pure nuts in this deck.

[Vazdru]

I played this deck as some kind of "fun-deck" on mws and rl a while ago. Your approoach looks much better than mine so if i play enchantress on "tourney-level" I surely will adopt some card choices in my next version.

Here is the decklist i've played:


// Deck file for Magic Workstation (http://www.magicworkstation.com)

// Lands
    1 [5E] Adarkar Wastes
    1 [DIS] Breeding Pool
    1 [UL] Faerie Conclave
    1 [ON] Flooded Strand
    5 4 [UG] Forest
    1 [DIS] Hallowed Fountain
    4 [UG] Island
    1 [LG] Karakas
    1 [DK] Maze of Ith
    1 [4E] Mishra's Factory
    1 [SHM] Mystic Gate
    1 [JU] Nantuko Monastery
    5 [UG] Plains
    1 [ON] Polluted Delta
    1 [SHM] Reflecting Pool
    1 [U ] Savannah
    1 [US] Serra's Sanctum
    1 [RAV] Temple Garden
    1 [UL] Treetop Village
    1 [B ] Tropical Island
    1 [U ] Tundra
    1 [TE] Wasteland
    1 [ON] Windswept Heath
    1 [SHM] Wooded Bastion
    1 [ON] Wooded Foothills
    1 Library of Alexandria
    1 Secluded Steppe
    1 Tranquil Thicket
    1 Lonely Sandbar

// Creatures
    1 [UD] Academy Rector
    1 [US] Argothian Enchantress
    1 [TE] Auratog
    1 [FD] Eternal Witness
    1 [VI] Femeref Enchantress
    1 [PLC] Mesa Enchantress
    1 [TSP] Stuffy Doll
    1 [B ] Verduran Enchantress
    1 [8E] Yavimaya Enchantress


// Planeswalker

    1 [LRW] Garruk Wildspeaker
    1 [LRW] Jace Beleren

// Spells
    1 [ON] Annex
    1 [MM] Arrest
    1 [WL] Aura of Silence
    1 [5E] Binding Grasp
    1 [US] Confiscate
    1 [U ] Control Magic
    1 [RAV] Copy Enchantment
    1 [UL] Crop Rotation
    1 [RAV] Dream Leash
    1 [PS] Eladamri's Call
    1 [ON] Enchantress's Presence
    1 [MM] Energy Flux
    1 [MI] Enlightened Tutor
    1 [US] Exploration
    1 [RAV] Faith's Fetters
    1 [RAV] Farseek
    1 [IN] Fertile Ground
    1 [ON] Future Sight
    1 [BOK] Genju of the Cedars
    1 [BOK] Genju of the Falls
    1 [BOK] Genju of the Fields
    1 [CHK] Ghostly Prison
    1 [CHK] Gifts Ungiven
    1 [SHM] Greater Auramancy
    1 [SC] Guilty Conscience
    1 [LRW] Hoofprints of the Stag
    1 [MOR] Idyllic Tutor
    1 [TE] Intuition
    1 [OD] Karmic Justice
    1 [LG] Land Tax
    1 [RAV] Life from the Loam
    1 [RAV] Mark of Eviction
    1 [JU] Mirari's Wake
    1 [ON] Mobilization
    1 [LRW] Oblivion Ring
    1 [MI] Pacifism
    1 [NE] Parallax Wave
    1 [U ] Regrowth
    1 [UD] Replenish
    1 [MI] Sacred Mesa
    1 [TSP] Search for Tomorrow
    1 [JU] Solitary Confinement
    1 [OD] Standstill
    1 [IN] Sterling Grove
    1 [LG] Sylvan Library
    1 [MR] Sylvan Scrying
    1 [TSP] Temporal Isolation
    1 [RAV] Three Dreams
    1 [MM] Trade Routes
    1 [UD] Treachery
    1 [DIS] Utopia Sprawl
    1 [U ] Wild Growth
    1 [MI] Worldly Tutor
    1 [US] Worship
    1 Squirrel Nest
    1 Earthcraft
    1 Opalescence

[pyyhttu]

Yeah, about Moat: Simply forgot to type that in. Also, if the two enchantresses are to be kicked out, then Drop of Honey in this build becomes playable.

About blue splash and combo: Haven't had time to look into it since we last talked, but my gut feeling would be that a solid GW with strong basic land base is the way to go.

[so_not]

Well actually now that I have given more thought to it, I think Vazdru's deck has some nice things going on. Some sort of hybrid between those two decks would probably the way to go.

Apart from giving you the nuts stuff, blue also provides Control Magic and such which are really really good in this deck. What's better than removal + win condition vs aggro? I mean why to play bad win conditions and bad removal when you can steal their win conditions and play less bad removal.

So you could instead go heavily on blue and splash white for Tutors, Replenish, Fetter's, Ring, Rector, Opalescence and something.

[Vazdru]

I've already made some minor changes - see above.

Three Dreams is awesome if you have U available:

Threachery, Control Magic besides strong cards like Faith's Fetters, Guilty Conscience, Squirrel Nest and many more.
CC5 is much but imo Three Dreams is worth playing. I would always choose it above Enduring Ideal.

Energy Flux is a nice silver bullet because (Black-)Staxx is one of the best decks around and lots of guys  play it on next tourneys i bet (at least those guys who have Workshop available  )

Cards worth considering:

Humility (awesome against Survival-Decks)
Back to Basics
Ivory Mask

[kriisi]

So yeah, hi. New one here, and new to the format as well. Was toying with an idea
that goes a bit like this:

- Basic aggro/combo Enchantress with the words/sanctum/etc jizz
- Including some other borderline similar combos that fit the deck (life, squirrelcraft, replenish/opalescence etc.)
- Access to a decent amount of tutoring and naturally SotF (enlightened tutor, sterling grove, gifts, rector etc.)

Just wondering if you people could chip in with some knowledge, is it too slow,
too vulnerable, too inconsistent? I have a preliminary decklist but I won't
post it yet since it is heavily unfinished and under tweaking. By first looks
it looks nice, but it lacks combo protection and possibly board control against
some heavily aggro leaned decks.

[kriisi]

nvm, found the enchantress topic, sorry