(This was supposed to go into the "new card discussion" forum. A mod could move it. I suppose it's fine here though.)
I love enchantments, and I love cube. It's been surprisingly difficult to bring the two things together. I've been looking forward to Theros II for a while to breathe life into an archetype that is unfortunately pretty janky.
There is no shortage of powerful enchantments in Magic. It's easy to play enough of them (particularly in removal slots) to constitute an archetype. However, unlike artifacts, there are precious few payoff cards, and most of them are like Mesa Enchantress, and utterly lousy without proper enchantment support. With a high enough enchantment count in a low-power environment, some of the payoff cards can begin to get there (mostly Eidolon of Blossoms), but the support just isn't that prevalent.
Unfortunately, Theros Beyond Death has less direct enchantment based enchantment support than I would have hoped, but there is some good stuff.
The Best Support
Aphemia, the Cacophony is a Stormfront Pegasus, making it already playable in black aggro, and supporting a now very buildable black skies archetype. It's an enchantment that likes enchantments, which is what we need. I only wish the tokens were enchantments. She turns used Stab Wounds, Dead Weights, and sagas into utility. Bit of a nonbo with the Auramancer family though.
Shimmerwing Chimera has less impressive Snapping Drake, and sadly misses itself, but it works with a huge number of enchantments: it grants extra enchantress/constellation triggers, it works with etb cards like Omens, and it resets removal enchantments as well as auras, which can be very useful with the Animate Dead family. Working with such a swath of enchantments gives this a lot of potential. Riptide Chimera was pretty dubious, but this is much less restrictive, and even allows for redundancy. The stats are pretty unimpressive if you aren't playing a few enchantments, but with a high enough enchantment count, you'll always have something to do with this.
Setessan Champion is a real live enchantress, and 1/3 aren't the worst stats we've seen for that. Unfortunately, this isn't close to playable if you don't have several enchantments in your deck, but it's pretty solid as a stand-alone payoff card. This curves into Eidolon of Blossoms, which is swell, and if you're playing both of them, you really don't need other enchantment support to call it a minor archetype. This is a good card that I look forward to playing, and one that further asserts the utility of my favorite enchantment, Flickering Ward.
Archon of Sun's Grace is better than Ajani's Chosen on at least four accounts. The most important being that you would actually play this in a deck without any enchantments if you needed to. The stats are main-deckable in most environments, and the constellation ability is solid enchantment payoff. That's the kind of support for cube the archetype has been missing.
The Omens:
(From the leak: Omen of the Hunt: 2G to get a basic land tapped. Omen of the Dead: B for Raise Dead. Both with flash)
One of the main ways to create the enchantment theme is to replace instant and sorcery slots with corresponding enchantments. This is the fourth cycle of cards to do that, the others being Trials, Cartouches, and Seals. All of these cycles have weaker and stronger members, and while none of the cards are insanely good, there are decent cards from each which can represent various slots in cube construction. They all work great with the Auramancer family, and with Shimmerwing Chimera.
The Gods:
Naturally this mythic cycle (truly a cycle of seven) is full of powerful cards, easily worthy of play in a depowered environment.
These enchantments are all pretty nuts to varying degrees. Athreos and Purphuros are not really optimized for cube. Nylea and Erebos are probably a lot better than they look, even if they aren't traditionally cubeable. Heliod, Thassa, and Klothys are all nuts, and have their own threads (though Heliod is mostly a combo card, and doesn't do much for me). The core of an enchantment theme is playing strong enchantments, and these are undeniably powerful cards-- except for Athreos, who is super durdly even for me.
These are some of the most interesting cards here, since sagas are kinda difficult to assess on first glance. They're great with the Auramancer family, and with our new friend Shimmerwing Chimera, and they often play better than they look. Among these, none seem mainstream cubeable, however several are intriguing.
The First Iroan Games is well worth the mana if you get value from every trigger. The opponent can trip you up, especially on chapter III to stop you from getting full value. Still a sweet enchantment though.
The Birth of Meletis is a solid enchantment version of Wall of Omens. The wall is a little better, but the saga is an enchantment!
Kiora Bests the Sea God is an enchantment worth reducing the cost of or cheating out. There aren't too many of those. Just chapter I is worth the mana. Not only does this give you the curve topping, removal dodging finisher your control deck needed, it provides an open field to smash your opponent's face in, and even steal their stuff just to rub it in. This card is disgusting.
The Demigods:
This cycle is super sweet. But they all contain two colored pips. Sure that makes their stats necessarily better, and obviously they're intended to feed devotion, but it makes them harder to play in cube.
Daxos only triggers off of your creatures, but it picks up deaths as well. He's not a true soul sister, but he can make that into more of an archetype. The potential high toughness can make him pretty annoying.
Tymaret is sweet grave hate, which I love. Also black devotion is more of a thing in cube, thanks to old Gary.
Anax is nutso. I made a thread for him.
Renata is a Grumgully, the Generous/ Good-Fortune Unicorn iteration. With three cards that do that now, you could build the concept into an archetype. It's a powerful ability in its own right.
Calliphe is most likely the weakest of the cycle, but I like that it protects enchantments, and stacking with other iterations of this ability (Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor, and Unsettled Mariner) could become annoying.
Other Enchantment Creatures:
Arasta of the Endless Web
This kind of ability tends to get underestimated until you play against it. Unfortunately, Arasta is super mid-rangy, and there are loads and loads of cards that can go in that slot. Despite being an enchantment, it doesn't really fill any other archetypal roles other than being a crucial reach. The stats are pretty great though, and the ability has to be annoying to face down.
Serpent of Yawning Depths
6/6 pseudo-unblockable for 6. That's just flat a good card. This is pretty playable without an enchantment theme, albeit less degenerate than the Consecrated Sphinxes of the world. Good enchantment creatures feed the archetype, and this is that. It's a card that's worth reducing the mana cost of with Herald of the Pantheon effects (of which I'd like to see more).
Naiad of Hidden Coves, Stinging Lionfish, and Wavebreak Hippocamp
The enchantment theme and the flash theme don't tend to be buddies, but here are a trio trying to make them so. If any of these had flash, that would make a difference. The Lionfish seems pretty bad, but the other two are not indefensible.
Oread of Mountain's Blaze
Definitely not better than Merchant of the Veil (which has been decent for me), but it's an enchantment! A very very very mediocre one...
Nyx Herald
It can always target itself. That's something... Not too much going for this creature unless you have big auras that would really like some trample.
Eutropia the Twice Favored
At least the +1/+1 counter lasts. Jump really isn't the best constellation trigger, and the counter is only so-so, but combined... it's still mostly just so-so. Not really the card simic would have asked for to help the archetype, but vaguely playable if you can guarantee a trigger or two.
Thirst for Meaning
This doesn't really support the archetype, but it does benefit from it, and signal its presence, and does so in a slot that might otherwise be a generic (if slightly more efficeint) card-draw spell.
Auras Matter
Enchantments matter is hard enough, but auras matter is a bit too narrow. Siona is better than the other two, and has some infinity combos with her. Storm Herald is more of a constructed card, and Rise to Glory isn't rising above any other reanimates.
I love enchantments, and I love cube. It's been surprisingly difficult to bring the two things together. I've been looking forward to Theros II for a while to breathe life into an archetype that is unfortunately pretty janky.
There is no shortage of powerful enchantments in Magic. It's easy to play enough of them (particularly in removal slots) to constitute an archetype. However, unlike artifacts, there are precious few payoff cards, and most of them are like Mesa Enchantress, and utterly lousy without proper enchantment support. With a high enough enchantment count in a low-power environment, some of the payoff cards can begin to get there (mostly Eidolon of Blossoms), but the support just isn't that prevalent.
Unfortunately, Theros Beyond Death has less direct enchantment based enchantment support than I would have hoped, but there is some good stuff.
Aphemia, the Cacophony is a Stormfront Pegasus, making it already playable in black aggro, and supporting a now very buildable black skies archetype. It's an enchantment that likes enchantments, which is what we need. I only wish the tokens were enchantments. She turns used Stab Wounds, Dead Weights, and sagas into utility. Bit of a nonbo with the Auramancer family though.
Shimmerwing Chimera has less impressive Snapping Drake, and sadly misses itself, but it works with a huge number of enchantments: it grants extra enchantress/constellation triggers, it works with etb cards like Omens, and it resets removal enchantments as well as auras, which can be very useful with the Animate Dead family. Working with such a swath of enchantments gives this a lot of potential. Riptide Chimera was pretty dubious, but this is much less restrictive, and even allows for redundancy. The stats are pretty unimpressive if you aren't playing a few enchantments, but with a high enough enchantment count, you'll always have something to do with this.
Setessan Champion is a real live enchantress, and 1/3 aren't the worst stats we've seen for that. Unfortunately, this isn't close to playable if you don't have several enchantments in your deck, but it's pretty solid as a stand-alone payoff card. This curves into Eidolon of Blossoms, which is swell, and if you're playing both of them, you really don't need other enchantment support to call it a minor archetype. This is a good card that I look forward to playing, and one that further asserts the utility of my favorite enchantment, Flickering Ward.
Archon of Sun's Grace is better than Ajani's Chosen on at least four accounts. The most important being that you would actually play this in a deck without any enchantments if you needed to. The stats are main-deckable in most environments, and the constellation ability is solid enchantment payoff. That's the kind of support for cube the archetype has been missing.
(From the leak: Omen of the Hunt: 2G to get a basic land tapped. Omen of the Dead: B for Raise Dead. Both with flash)
One of the main ways to create the enchantment theme is to replace instant and sorcery slots with corresponding enchantments. This is the fourth cycle of cards to do that, the others being Trials, Cartouches, and Seals. All of these cycles have weaker and stronger members, and while none of the cards are insanely good, there are decent cards from each which can represent various slots in cube construction. They all work great with the Auramancer family, and with Shimmerwing Chimera.
These enchantments are all pretty nuts to varying degrees. Athreos and Purphuros are not really optimized for cube. Nylea and Erebos are probably a lot better than they look, even if they aren't traditionally cubeable. Heliod, Thassa, and Klothys are all nuts, and have their own threads (though Heliod is mostly a combo card, and doesn't do much for me). The core of an enchantment theme is playing strong enchantments, and these are undeniably powerful cards-- except for Athreos, who is super durdly even for me.
(Also The First Iroan Games.)
These are some of the most interesting cards here, since sagas are kinda difficult to assess on first glance. They're great with the Auramancer family, and with our new friend Shimmerwing Chimera, and they often play better than they look. Among these, none seem mainstream cubeable, however several are intriguing.
The First Iroan Games is well worth the mana if you get value from every trigger. The opponent can trip you up, especially on chapter III to stop you from getting full value. Still a sweet enchantment though.
The Birth of Meletis is a solid enchantment version of Wall of Omens. The wall is a little better, but the saga is an enchantment!
Kiora Bests the Sea God is an enchantment worth reducing the cost of or cheating out. There aren't too many of those. Just chapter I is worth the mana. Not only does this give you the curve topping, removal dodging finisher your control deck needed, it provides an open field to smash your opponent's face in, and even steal their stuff just to rub it in. This card is disgusting.
This cycle is super sweet. But they all contain two colored pips. Sure that makes their stats necessarily better, and obviously they're intended to feed devotion, but it makes them harder to play in cube.
Daxos only triggers off of your creatures, but it picks up deaths as well. He's not a true soul sister, but he can make that into more of an archetype. The potential high toughness can make him pretty annoying.
Tymaret is sweet grave hate, which I love. Also black devotion is more of a thing in cube, thanks to old Gary.
Anax is nutso. I made a thread for him.
Renata is a Grumgully, the Generous/ Good-Fortune Unicorn iteration. With three cards that do that now, you could build the concept into an archetype. It's a powerful ability in its own right.
Calliphe is most likely the weakest of the cycle, but I like that it protects enchantments, and stacking with other iterations of this ability (Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor, and Unsettled Mariner) could become annoying.
Arasta of the Endless Web
This kind of ability tends to get underestimated until you play against it. Unfortunately, Arasta is super mid-rangy, and there are loads and loads of cards that can go in that slot. Despite being an enchantment, it doesn't really fill any other archetypal roles other than being a crucial reach. The stats are pretty great though, and the ability has to be annoying to face down.
Serpent of Yawning Depths
6/6 pseudo-unblockable for 6. That's just flat a good card. This is pretty playable without an enchantment theme, albeit less degenerate than the Consecrated Sphinxes of the world. Good enchantment creatures feed the archetype, and this is that. It's a card that's worth reducing the mana cost of with Herald of the Pantheon effects (of which I'd like to see more).
Naiad of Hidden Coves, Stinging Lionfish, and Wavebreak Hippocamp
The enchantment theme and the flash theme don't tend to be buddies, but here are a trio trying to make them so. If any of these had flash, that would make a difference. The Lionfish seems pretty bad, but the other two are not indefensible.
Oread of Mountain's Blaze
Definitely not better than Merchant of the Veil (which has been decent for me), but it's an enchantment! A very very very mediocre one...
Nyx Herald
It can always target itself. That's something... Not too much going for this creature unless you have big auras that would really like some trample.
Archon of Falling Stars
The cow jumped over the moon, out of Eldraine and into Theros. This is pretty mediocre compared to the rest of the Auramancer family. Tragic Poet is the emo teenager. Restoration Specialist, the ambitious youth. Auramancer and Monk Idealist, the stable adults. Lotus-Eye Mystics, the drunken aunt and uncle. Griffin Dreamfinder and Archon of Falling Starsare the dottering grandparents, not able to keep up with the youngsters.
Eutropia the Twice Favored
At least the +1/+1 counter lasts. Jump really isn't the best constellation trigger, and the counter is only so-so, but combined... it's still mostly just so-so. Not really the card simic would have asked for to help the archetype, but vaguely playable if you can guarantee a trigger or two.
Thirst for Meaning
This doesn't really support the archetype, but it does benefit from it, and signal its presence, and does so in a slot that might otherwise be a generic (if slightly more efficeint) card-draw spell.
Enchantments matter is hard enough, but auras matter is a bit too narrow. Siona is better than the other two, and has some infinity combos with her. Storm Herald is more of a constructed card, and Rise to Glory isn't rising above any other reanimates.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.