This Enchantress deck functions, at its core, just like any other enchantress build - you cast enchantments and draw cards. The difference between this deck and the more popular builds is that this build is neither Voltron nor is it Stax. This build focuses on using the raw amount of Card Advantage produced by the Enchantress Engine to dig for it's combo pieces, then using Marath to end the game.
The Game Plan:
The game plan of this deck is similar to Death & Taxes, in the sense that, while your build isn't necessarily the fastest or most optimal strategy, it forces its opponents to play its own game, through the use of clever deck building and very disruptive cards. Essentially, you play a game of non-optimal Magic: the Gathering, but you force your opponents to do the same by rendering many common types of cards,which your opponent is almost certainly playing, useless.
The Different Types of Effects:
On the surface, this deck seems to be just an awkward bundle of enchantments with no real endgame, once you start to take a look at the individual types of effects, the deck makes more sense.
These are the core cards to the deck, the engine that allows this deck to function. Each of the creatures (and Enchantress' Presence) allow you to draw cards for playing enchantments, which fills your hand with enchantments to play. These are the cards that make the other enchantments worth playing. The tutors essentially act as more copies of each of these cards, and allow the deck to play a T2/T3 enchantress much more consistently.
Ramp/Acceleration
This deck relies heavily on Enchant Land cards for acceleration. This allows the deck to abuse Winter orb and Null Rod/Stony Silence by letting it gain advantage over its opponents turn after turn. These also allow the deck to refill its hand as it ramps with an Enchantress effect on field, an invaluable process which speeds the deck up considerably.Most of the Enchant Land cards here are arguably worse than an artifact counterpart, but all have the added benefit of working through the Stony Silence, and providing a benefit for playing Winter Orb.
The deck also plays Cloudkey, which is amazing when over half your deck falls into one card type.
The Tilt Package:
Next, we have what I like to call "The Tilt Package"
The Tilt Package, so called because of its ability to throw opponents off balance, is a combination of cards that are meant to render large portions of your opponents decks useless or nearly so.
The Package is:
Blood Moon
Stony Silence/Null Rod
Stranglehold/Aven Mindcenser
Kismet/Root Maze/Blind Obedience
Winter Orb/Choke
Torpor Orb/Ground Seal
You'll notice, if you look at the land section for this list, that there are a large number of basic lands in this deck, far more than most 3 color decks would dare to play. The reason for this is that we run Blood Moon (and also for Earthcraft). Playing with the land base like this, the deck is assured to be able to play around Blood Moon quite easily, while other opponents, notably Colorless and 3+ color decks, will struggle to play many of the cards in their decks, due to many restrictive mana costs on the more powerful multicolored cards.
You also notice that this deck plays just 1 artifact that has an activated ability, Basilisk Collar, and Null Rod/Stony Silence. A vast majority of decks rely heavily on ramp and utility artifacts, most of which have an activated ability. Stony Silence and Null Rod shut down these pesky enablers and force those decks to slow down considerably, all while affecting this deck not at all. In doing this, this deck becomes faster than any other deck at the table.
Note:
I would play no conflicting cards, but Basilisk Collar is just to powerful with Marath, and as such is worth the occasional dead draw.
Win Conditions
There are a number of combinations of cards in this deck that just outright win the game. Here, we'll go over the basic formula the deck needs to find.
Hardened Scales/Doubling Season/Primal Vigor + Mana Echoes + Marath = Infinite Colorless Mana, Tokens, Counters, and Direct Damage
Earthcraft + Basic Land that taps for 3+ mana + Marath = Infinite Mana
Earthcraft + Basic Land that taps for 2+ mana + Hardened Scales/Doubling Season/Primal Vigor + Marath = Infinite Mana
*Please note that any time infinite mana is established, Marath can produce infinite tokens and Damage as well (by casting Marath and removing counters)
There are others, but going through all of them would take a while.
That's it for now.
Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave comments/questions below.
If this gathers enough interest, I'll update the post frequently.
I think the biggest problem is that it fits in a totally different style of deck than Survival of the Fittest and Greater Good. I say this, because in any deck that would want either of those cards, Evolutionary Leap would be really low on the totem pole, because decks that use those two cards are chalk full of creatures that are lackluster(mana dorks, niche hate) or not worth losing board presence to (utility creatures) and generally rely on specific creatures to end the game.
Now, where this card is good are decks like my Marath Enchantress deck, where my creatures are mostly doing the same thing, or are part of a plan that my deck is on anyways (i.e: Argothian Enchantress & Friends, or Aven Mindscenser and other hate Creatures) and which creature we hit is mostly irrelevant, but that it replaces (or if a token was used, produces) a creature that is relatively important to the gameplan of the deck. Make note that since I run few creature cards in my deck, I would never play Survival of the Fittest or Greater Good in this deck, as they require me to fulfill a requirement that either I can't, or that isn't worth the effect.
Most decks that will want this card are decks which either produce tokens, and therefore net value (as each token is individually worthless, and a bonified creature generally provides more tokens, or a pump effect); or which run few creatures, but has need to replace one which is either in danger of being removed, or is not important to the game state.
Other than these niche decks, Evolutionary Leap would probably fail to make the cut in the deck due to the sheer number of powerful Green cards, and the drawback of losing board presence to gain a single random creature.
TL;DR: If your deck relies on specific creatures to advance your game plan, rather than an effect generally present throughout all your creatures, Evolutionary Leap probably doesn't cut it for your deck, and other green cards will do it better.
Ok, so I run Naya Humans, and, for the most part, I'm fine with my mainboard.
But I'd Like some help with my sideboard. The most prevalent threats to me in my meta are a Bant Aggro deck, which is the sole deck that can reliably keep pace with mine at FNM, A Bant TurboFog deck, and an Esper Control deck. I've tried a couple Sideboard variations, but have never been comfortable with any of them.
This is my most successful Sideboard, and it has saved me a number of losses. The thing is, I can never side against Esper Control well enough, And Riders of Gavony from the Bant Aggro still hurts a lot. The TurboFog isn't too much of a threat after SBing but I lose Game 1 about 80% of the time, because he stalls until he can cast Thragtusk, Terminus, or Supreme Verdict, or just mill me out with Jace, Memory Adept.
Aside from that, I'm not sure about whether to run Boros Elite, or Stromkirk Noble. Stromkirk Noble helps against Riders of Gavony, but with it, I lose explosiveness and a little consistency, whereas Boros Elite leaves me completely defenseless against Riders of Gavony, but helps with explosiveness and consistency.
Thanks for any advice, and feel free to comment on anything you have questions on.
You should actually take out Hands of Binding and Angelic Skirmisher for 2 each of Boros Charm and Azorious Charm. Replace those rootborns in the side with 2 Boros Charm and an Azorious Charm.
For starters, I'd take out Slaughterhorn and Rubblehulk for 2 more Ghor-Clan Rampagers and find space for 3-4 Lightning Maulers and 3-4 Burning-Tree Emissary.
If you can afford it, pull out the Arbor Elves for Stromkirk Nobles. Drop the Silverhearts and a Hellrider for 3 Rakdos Cacklers. Don't worry about running one less Hellrider. You'll still see him just as much.
Then drop a Forest for one more Kessig Wolf Run, or you'll never see it.
But, most of the cards that make Naya Blitz and Naya Humans so powerful, namely Champion of the Parish and Silverblade Paladin, will be dropped from the format come September.
That said, I'd still not hesitate to move to Naya Midrange after DMZ is released. Most of the core creatures will probably be replaced with the champion cycle, and M14. So the Deck itself will still be powerful.
There's not really a suitable replacement for the Nobles. I'd just suck it up. It'll be worth it when you do well at FNM.
I agree that you really want to be leaning more towards red.
I'm going to go ahead and tell you to throw out the Slaughterhorns too. As namdoolb said, 20 mana is pretty risky, so replace two of them with mountains.
I also second throwing Lightning Mauler in the place of the other two, though I'd suggest taking out your Boros Reckoners as well (they are just too hard to cast as is, though, if you lean more towards red, you'll have no problems casting it, and I'd suggest taking out the Pillars).
The Gates will only slow you down at this point. It's also important to remember that bioshift can be used to shift counters from a large creature to an unblocked creature, helping you swing for lethal more easily.
I would also suggest staying away from Primordial Hydra, as it is more of a 'win-more'. It'll never be big enough to win the game, unless you are already winning.
Yeah, the thought of chaining the Burning-Tree Emissary on turn two was what made me think Experimental One may be a strong play on the first turn. Of course, that is all dependent on my opening hand.
I was hoping to avoid Hellrider. $30.00+ on a card that will be phased out soon seems expensive. Are there any real viable alternatives?
With the rest of the deck so aggressive-minded, I figured the Boros Reckoner would be a perfect defensive card with first strike capability and the direct damage effect. Should I offset my land to accommodate the card or drop it/sideboard it?
And I really need to get some game time in. If I were to show up at a game shop to play with the deck as is, am I going to get laughed out or is it suitable for play? I can swap out as I play (I know not in game) and try new things. I already have everything in the list, including the Maybeboard.
It's actually a solid deck. You'd probably win a couple games, depending on who you played. Just remember to keep a couple creatures in hand in case of a board wipe. Of course, vs Aggro, you can over-extend as much as you want.
As for actually playing by walking into a shop, it will depend on how popular the shop is, and who is at the shop. Your best bet for guaranteed play is to head to the next Friday Night Magic or Magic: The Gathering event near you.
1 Aura of Silence
1 Aura Shards
1 Enchantress's Presence
1 Fertile Ground
1 Mana Reflection
1 Mirari's Wake
1 Seal of Primordium
1 Sterling Grove
1 Trace of Abundance
1 Warstorm Surge
1 Utopia Sprawl
1 Wild Growth
1 Overgrowth
1 Market Festival
1 Urban Burgeoning
1 Earthcraft
1 Squirrel Nest
1 Sylvan Library
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Banishing Light
1 Parallel Lives
1 Hardened Scales
1 Primal Vigor
1 Abundance
1 Frontier Siege
1 Exploration
1 Burgeoning
1 Carpet of Flowers
1 Flickering Ward
1 Mana Echoes
1 Mirri's Guile
1 Stony Silence
1 Blood Moon
1 Luminarch Ascension
1 Prismatic Omen
1 Blind Obedience
1 Kismet
1 Choke
1 Food Chain
1 Land Tax
1 Evolutionary Leap
1 Stranglehold
1 Ground Seal
1 Cathars' Crusade
1 Celestial Dawn
1 Root Maze
1 Starfield of Nyx
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Null Rod
1 Cloud Key
1 Torpor Orb
1 Winter Orb
Creatures: (10)
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1 Argothian Enchantress
1 Eidolon of Blossoms
1 Eternal Witness
1 Mesa Enchantress
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 Verduran Enchantress
1 Temur Sabertooth
1 Den Protector
1 Aven Mindcensor
Instants: (5)
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
1 Chaos Warp
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Worldly Tutor
Lands: (28)
8 Forest
6 Mountain
7 Plains
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Plateau
1 Taiga
1 Savannah
1 Serra's Sanctum
1 Arid Mesa
1 Replenish
1 Sylvan Tutor
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 Green Sun's Zenith
Overview:
This Enchantress deck functions, at its core, just like any other enchantress build - you cast enchantments and draw cards. The difference between this deck and the more popular builds is that this build is neither Voltron nor is it Stax. This build focuses on using the raw amount of Card Advantage produced by the Enchantress Engine to dig for it's combo pieces, then using Marath to end the game.
The Game Plan:
The game plan of this deck is similar to Death & Taxes, in the sense that, while your build isn't necessarily the fastest or most optimal strategy, it forces its opponents to play its own game, through the use of clever deck building and very disruptive cards. Essentially, you play a game of non-optimal Magic: the Gathering, but you force your opponents to do the same by rendering many common types of cards,which your opponent is almost certainly playing, useless.
The Different Types of Effects:
On the surface, this deck seems to be just an awkward bundle of enchantments with no real endgame, once you start to take a look at the individual types of effects, the deck makes more sense.
First up, the Enchantresses.
Argothian Enchantress
Verduran Enchantress
Mesa Enchantress
Eidelon of Blossoms
Enchantress' Presence
Worldy/Sylvan Tutors
These are the core cards to the deck, the engine that allows this deck to function. Each of the creatures (and Enchantress' Presence) allow you to draw cards for playing enchantments, which fills your hand with enchantments to play. These are the cards that make the other enchantments worth playing. The tutors essentially act as more copies of each of these cards, and allow the deck to play a T2/T3 enchantress much more consistently.
Ramp/Acceleration
This deck relies heavily on Enchant Land cards for acceleration. This allows the deck to abuse Winter orb and Null Rod/Stony Silence by letting it gain advantage over its opponents turn after turn. These also allow the deck to refill its hand as it ramps with an Enchantress effect on field, an invaluable process which speeds the deck up considerably.Most of the Enchant Land cards here are arguably worse than an artifact counterpart, but all have the added benefit of working through the Stony Silence, and providing a benefit for playing Winter Orb.
The deck also plays Cloudkey, which is amazing when over half your deck falls into one card type.
The Tilt Package:
Next, we have what I like to call "The Tilt Package"
The Tilt Package, so called because of its ability to throw opponents off balance, is a combination of cards that are meant to render large portions of your opponents decks useless or nearly so.
The Package is:
Blood Moon
Stony Silence/Null Rod
Stranglehold/Aven Mindcenser
Kismet/Root Maze/Blind Obedience
Winter Orb/Choke
Torpor Orb/Ground Seal
You'll notice, if you look at the land section for this list, that there are a large number of basic lands in this deck, far more than most 3 color decks would dare to play. The reason for this is that we run Blood Moon (and also for Earthcraft). Playing with the land base like this, the deck is assured to be able to play around Blood Moon quite easily, while other opponents, notably Colorless and 3+ color decks, will struggle to play many of the cards in their decks, due to many restrictive mana costs on the more powerful multicolored cards.
You also notice that this deck plays just 1 artifact that has an activated ability, Basilisk Collar, and Null Rod/Stony Silence. A vast majority of decks rely heavily on ramp and utility artifacts, most of which have an activated ability. Stony Silence and Null Rod shut down these pesky enablers and force those decks to slow down considerably, all while affecting this deck not at all. In doing this, this deck becomes faster than any other deck at the table.
Note:
I would play no conflicting cards, but Basilisk Collar is just to powerful with Marath, and as such is worth the occasional dead draw.
Win Conditions
There are a number of combinations of cards in this deck that just outright win the game. Here, we'll go over the basic formula the deck needs to find.
Hardened Scales/Doubling Season/Primal Vigor + Mana Echoes + Marath = Infinite Colorless Mana, Tokens, Counters, and Direct Damage
Earthcraft + Basic Land that taps for 3+ mana + Marath = Infinite Mana
Earthcraft + Basic Land that taps for 2+ mana + Hardened Scales/Doubling Season/Primal Vigor + Marath = Infinite Mana
Cathar's Crusade + Earthcraft + Marath = Infinite tapped tokens with +1/+1 Counters
Cathar's Crusade + Mana Echoes + Marath = Infinite Colorless Mana, and Infinite Tokens with +1/+1 Counters
Earthcraft + Squirrel's Nest = Infinite tapped Squirrel Tokens
*Please note that any time infinite mana is established, Marath can produce infinite tokens and Damage as well (by casting Marath and removing counters)
There are others, but going through all of them would take a while.
That's it for now.
Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave comments/questions below.
If this gathers enough interest, I'll update the post frequently.
Thanks Again,
~HungryWhiteGuy
Now, where this card is good are decks like my Marath Enchantress deck, where my creatures are mostly doing the same thing, or are part of a plan that my deck is on anyways (i.e: Argothian Enchantress & Friends, or Aven Mindscenser and other hate Creatures) and which creature we hit is mostly irrelevant, but that it replaces (or if a token was used, produces) a creature that is relatively important to the gameplan of the deck. Make note that since I run few creature cards in my deck, I would never play Survival of the Fittest or Greater Good in this deck, as they require me to fulfill a requirement that either I can't, or that isn't worth the effect.
Most decks that will want this card are decks which either produce tokens, and therefore net value (as each token is individually worthless, and a bonified creature generally provides more tokens, or a pump effect); or which run few creatures, but has need to replace one which is either in danger of being removed, or is not important to the game state.
Other than these niche decks, Evolutionary Leap would probably fail to make the cut in the deck due to the sheer number of powerful Green cards, and the drawback of losing board presence to gain a single random creature.
TL;DR: If your deck relies on specific creatures to advance your game plan, rather than an effect generally present throughout all your creatures, Evolutionary Leap probably doesn't cut it for your deck, and other green cards will do it better.
But I'd Like some help with my sideboard. The most prevalent threats to me in my meta are a Bant Aggro deck, which is the sole deck that can reliably keep pace with mine at FNM, A Bant TurboFog deck, and an Esper Control deck. I've tried a couple Sideboard variations, but have never been comfortable with any of them.
2x Temple Garden
3x Sacred Foundry
1x Stomping Grounds
2x Sunpetal Grove
2x Clifftop Retreat
2x Rootbound Crag
3x Mountain
3x Forest
3x Plains
2x Kessig Wolfrun
4x Champion of the Parish
4x Boros Elite / Stromkirk Noble
4x Burning-Tree Emissary
4x Lightning Mauler
4x Mayor of Avabruck
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3x Silverblade Paladin
3x Hellrider
2x Ghor-Clan Rampager
Instants (6):
3x Boros Charm
3x Searing Spear
2x Pillar of Flame
2x Mugging
3x Skullcrack
3x Fiend Hunter
3x Ray of Revalation
1x Searing Spear
1x Boros Charm
This is my most successful Sideboard, and it has saved me a number of losses. The thing is, I can never side against Esper Control well enough, And Riders of Gavony from the Bant Aggro still hurts a lot. The TurboFog isn't too much of a threat after SBing but I lose Game 1 about 80% of the time, because he stalls until he can cast Thragtusk, Terminus, or Supreme Verdict, or just mill me out with Jace, Memory Adept.
Aside from that, I'm not sure about whether to run Boros Elite, or Stromkirk Noble. Stromkirk Noble helps against Riders of Gavony, but with it, I lose explosiveness and a little consistency, whereas Boros Elite leaves me completely defenseless against Riders of Gavony, but helps with explosiveness and consistency.
Thanks for any advice, and feel free to comment on anything you have questions on.
~LeGiTLoLz
Grixis can drop a Chromatic Lantern T3, a Gilded Lotus T4, and End the game T5. Seems Damn good. Just hope Grixis gets a little more lovin in DGM.
If you can afford it, pull out the Arbor Elves for Stromkirk Nobles. Drop the Silverhearts and a Hellrider for 3 Rakdos Cacklers. Don't worry about running one less Hellrider. You'll still see him just as much.
Then drop a Forest for one more Kessig Wolf Run, or you'll never see it.
But, most of the cards that make Naya Blitz and Naya Humans so powerful, namely Champion of the Parish and Silverblade Paladin, will be dropped from the format come September.
That said, I'd still not hesitate to move to Naya Midrange after DMZ is released. Most of the core creatures will probably be replaced with the champion cycle, and M14. So the Deck itself will still be powerful.
I agree that you really want to be leaning more towards red.
I'm going to go ahead and tell you to throw out the Slaughterhorns too. As namdoolb said, 20 mana is pretty risky, so replace two of them with mountains.
I also second throwing Lightning Mauler in the place of the other two, though I'd suggest taking out your Boros Reckoners as well (they are just too hard to cast as is, though, if you lean more towards red, you'll have no problems casting it, and I'd suggest taking out the Pillars).
I would also suggest staying away from Primordial Hydra, as it is more of a 'win-more'. It'll never be big enough to win the game, unless you are already winning.
It's actually a solid deck. You'd probably win a couple games, depending on who you played. Just remember to keep a couple creatures in hand in case of a board wipe. Of course, vs Aggro, you can over-extend as much as you want.
As for actually playing by walking into a shop, it will depend on how popular the shop is, and who is at the shop. Your best bet for guaranteed play is to head to the next Friday Night Magic or Magic: The Gathering event near you.
That is a great idea. Can't believe I overlooked it. I'll think about it, but it's definitely a good card to add. Thanks.
Never said it would pay for it. I just said it'd be worth it. Besides, it'd only take 4 top 4, at the most, to pay for the investment.
That said, I understand not being able to drop a lot of money at once. But if I were you, I would look into picking them up one or two at a time.
And I agree, Boros Elite should be mainboard. Experiment One isn't half bad either.