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I remember seeing this week's Casual Challenge and trying to convince myself that, given the ability to select Pernicious Deed as one of the top three multiplayer enchantments, I would not have selected it. Needless to say, I failed - Pernicious Deed is a wonderful, wonderful card, able to sit on the table, waiting for the perfect opportunity. But Pernicious Deed is not available for use this week, so I'll just have to choose other cards.
First off, I'll admit that I don't really have too much experience with pure multiplayer decks - our playgroup tends to throw various Block, Type 2, and Extended decks against each other. Needless to say, eeing the interactions between the last Extended season's RDW deck and the Standard format's Death Cloud deck can be rather interesting. To get back to the point, I'll try to select cards that fulfill a few criteria, from what I've observed from multiplayer games in the past.
Such criteria include:
- The enchantment should not be threatening enough to make you public enemy number one. For example, cards like Call to the Grave had better win you the game in a hurry, because the other players aren't going to let it sit there for too long.
- The enchantment should have a reasonably repeatable effect or, failing this, have a reasonably powerful effect (like, say, the forbidden Pernicious Deed). This would exclude cards like Seal of Fire.
- As fun as randomness can be, there is such a thing as too much of it. As such, I won't be looking at Confusion in the Ranks today; sorry.
- And many other criteria that I'm sure will come up ...
Anyway, on with the enchantments!
Enchantment #1: Heartbeat of Spring
Happy that my pet card (of the moment), Sway of the Stars, had actually made a showing at Pro Tour: Philadelphia, I built up Olivier Ruel's Sway of the Stars deck for testing in block. From this I have learned something quite profound - Heartbeat of Spring is quite a fun card to have in play. Seeing an opponent drop both Keiga and Kokusho onto the board, only for me to cast Final Judgment was good times. And not just for me, of course; my friends agreed that the huge swingy effects that this Mana Flare variant allows are very enjoyable.
Let's see what I can do about throwing a decklist together. Despite my innate ability to overlook obvious cards existing in the non-Standard Extended card pool, I'll actually attempt to make it Extended. (After all, at least one of the other enchantments I'll be looking at today will not be legal for Standard.)
Essentially, like the (Gifted) Myojin Flare and Sway of the Stars decks seen in some numbers at the last Pro Tour, this deck aims to produce crazy amounts of mana with Heartbeat of Spring, and then cast ridiculous Legends.
Oh, wait - they're Legendary Creatures now, aren't they? No matter.
Just a few comments about the deck itself, first. Let's actually look at Heartbeat of Spring and some of the reasons why I thought it would make a nice card for this week's Casual Challenge. First of all, unlike some of the other powerhouse enchantments that I considered (and/or may be using later in this article), this one is nice and symmetrical, making the game fun for everybody.
Also, while the deck it suggests is not exactly hard to see, it does actually suggest a deck which could utilize it. The deck does not utilize the Heartbeat to do anything truly degenerate, like massive Blazes (which are rather unfun), but I think that's part of the deck's charm. Overall, I think this deck will be a blast to play with and against.
The deck aims to break the Heartbeat's symmetry in a few ways. First on this list are the ten mana-accelerating cards in the deck. Rather than going with the old standbys like Llanowar Elves or Birds of Paradise, we are taking the path of Solemn Simulacrum and Rampant Growth. We also can't forget the humble Sakura-Tribe Elder, which has already proved its worth in both Standard and Kamigawa Block. The ability to out-land your opponent becomes rather significant when each land now produces twice the mana.
Another way of breaking the symmetry is by using large effects (in this case, creatures). I elected to use a toolbox filled with Legendary Creatures for several reasons. Firstly, this might be a surprise, but in this form, the deck isn't actually that expensive. Most of the Legends in that list can be switched around with other cards (like Silvos, Yosei, Jugan, or whatever) which means that you can utilize much of your collection in this deck. Secondly, it's just great fun beating down with different Legends each time. With so many one-ofs, it can make each game a new experience.
This occasionally leads to some synergy that comes together almost by accident. The green Kamahl and the white Myojin results in an Armageddon that only wipes the lands of your choice. Reya Dawnbringer and Eternal Witness or Solemn Simulacrum can really rack up the card advantage.
Finally, the deck runs Wrath of God and Vindicate to deal with any of the threatening creatures or threatening creature swarms that your opponents may drop with their infinite mana.
Brief Aside:
Did anyone aside from me notice the gradual increase in enchantments from Champions of Kamigawa onwards? Maybe it's just because we had just come from the enchantment drought that was Mirrodin Block, but it seemed as though the number of enchantments was on the rise. Especially with the preview cards this week, Enduring Ideal, Measure of Wickedness and Promise of Bunrei, it would seem that this is correct. Could the choice of this week's competition as "The Three Best Multiplayer Enchantments" week be surreptitiously coinciding with the mass influx of enchantment preview cards this week? One can only wonder.
(No, it's a coincidence - The Ferrett, destroying wonder in children's hearts everywhere)
Enchantment #2: Grave Pact
I know nobody out there really cares, but I was trying to stay away from this card as I was having a fear that this card's deck would be a little too much like the deck below: after all, they are both decks that require a reasonable number of creatures and also utilize a black enchantment.
Before we leap straight into the deck, let's have a look at the card and think about how we could use it. First, its 1BBB mana cost is not the most color-friendly cost you're going to find, so I think it's likely that we'll find ourselves in base black. Secondly, its ability requires you to have creatures in play, so our deck will run some number of creatures. What else? We could sneak in a reanimation effect, but enchantment number three has that covered.
Onto the decklist:
| Grave Pact Featured by Brandon Lau on 2005-05-08 | ||
Creatures 3 Corpse Harvester 1 Gempalm Polluter 1 Gravespawn Sovereign 4 Nantuko Husk 4 Twisted Abomination 4 Undead Gladiator 4 Undead Warchief 4 Withered Wretch Enchantments 3 Grave Pact 3 Gravestorm |
Sorceries 4 Mutilate Basic Lands 22 Swamp Lands 3 Unholy Grotto | Stats: Average mana: 2.27 Average creature mana cost: 3.96 Average creature power: 2.72 Average creature toughness: 2.04 Deck Composition: Basic Lands: 36.67% Creatures: 41.67% Enchantments: 10.00% Lands: 5.00% Sorceries: 6.67% |
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| Download this deck in Apprentice format! |
Download this deck in Magic Online Text format! | |
I've always had an irrational attraction towards Gravestorm, and given the chance to play Gravestorm in a deck, I leapt for it. It may not seem like a lot of synergy, Gravestorm with Grave Pact, but they... um... both start with "Grave."
Seriously, with Withered Wretch limiting your opponents' graveyard options, Unholy Grotto can return creatures from your graveyard to your hand without costing you your draw for the turn. Maybe simply running the next enchantment.
Most of the deck is fairly self-explanatory: Nantuko Husk acts as a sacrifice outlet, allowing you to force every other player to sacrifice creatures if necessary. Undead Gladiator cycles in the early game, and uses up unnecessary extraneous swamps or other cards to return to hand. Twisted Abomination helps out early game land problems, if necessary, and also serves as a large beater later in the game.
The Corpse Harvesters have been a personal favorite of mine for a zombie deck. Sure, 3BB for a 3/3 isn't all that efficient, but the ability to sacrifice creatures with damage on the stack to tutor up a zombie and another land is a good one. ...Which leads us to the single Gempalm Polluter and the single Gravespawn Sovereign. The Polluter allows us to win around cards like Teferi's Moat, while the Sovereign can allow us to use other people's threats.
The Mutilates are likely to be unnecessary, considering the Grave Pacts, but who knows? It doesn't hurt to stray on the safe side. Anyway, one can never have too much mass removal in multiplayer.
Enchantment #3: Oversold Cemetery
Since we've got an enchantment that will symmetrically help all players, and an enchantment that will destroy creatures, now we'll go on into an enchantment that will give you the firepower to last through those often long multiplayer games. Mind you, my choice of this card could be because this is one of my favorite enchantments - but nevertheless, the card is great in multiplayer.
Once again, let's throw a deck together.
| Oversold Cemetery Featured by Brandon Lau on 2005-05-08 | ||
Artifact Creatures 3 Solemn Simulacrum Creatures 3 Bane of the Living 4 Birds of Paradise 3 Eternal Witness 4 Ravenous Baloth 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder 1 Spiritmonger 4 Viridian Zealot |
Enchantments 3 Oversold Cemetery 4 Pernicious Deed Legendary Creatures 3 Kokusho, the Evening Star Basic Lands 13 Forest 7 Swamp Lands 4 Llanowar Wastes | Stats: Average mana: 1.83 Average creature mana cost: 3.17 Average creature power: 2.52 Average creature toughness: 2.31 Deck Composition: Creatures: 38.33% Basic Lands: 33.33% Enchantments: 11.67% Lands: 6.67% Legendary Creatures: 5.00% Artifact Creatures: 5.00% |
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| Download this deck in Apprentice format! |
Download this deck in Magic Online Text format! | |
I was actually tempted to cut the Pernicious Deed, as it does kill our own Cemetery. However, it also selectively (to some extent) kills everything else, so I couldn't just let it go. But this article isn't about Pernicious Deed - in fact, it can't be - so I'll just leave it alone and slowly back away, hoping I haven't invalidated myself.
We can get the Cemetery back with Eternal Witness anyway - and even if we can't, the deck performs fine without the Cemetery. The deck plays a lot like B/G Rock in Extended, but without the disruption. In this respect, the deck aims to squeeze as much card advantage out of each creature, hopefully winning the game in the process.
It combines everything I like to have in large games into a single deck. With Birds of Paradise, Sakura-Tribe Elder and Solemn Simulacrum, all creatures that develop your board while giving you potential bodies to fill your graveyard with. I always enjoy having the mana to cast everything that I want to, and the additional buffer against the dreaded mana screw is always enjoyable too.
I have a strange affinity for recursion effects, even silly ones like Reminisce. Yes, I know it's not technically a recursion effect, but it feels good to be shuffling useful cards from my graveyard back into my library to be reused later. Maybe I just like recycling.
The deck contains a lot of utility. From the Viridian Zealots that kill threatening enchantments or artifacts, to the Ravenous Baloths that ward off death, to the Bane of the Living that wipes the board of creatures (albeit at a fairly steep cost), the deck is filled with creatures with multiple purposes.
And of course, if you read my last article, you'd know of my love for dragons. Kokusho may not be your household red dragon, but he'll certainly do fine. Maybe I could have squeezed a Jugan into the deck, too... At least I know the Spiritmonger is just there to remind me of the days when I had just started playing Magic.
Also, did I mention just how much I like Green and Black?
Anyway, the article is not about Brandon's favorite Magic-related things, sadly: Rather, we are here to talk of some powerful multiplayer enchantments. On the topic of the enchantment at hand, Oversold Cemetery provides you with a slow but steady source of card advantage over the course of a game, without being too threatening.
Some Conclusions:
So it would seem that my color preferences in Magic are fairly obvious. And to think that I actually attempted to find cards that would make for some varied and interesting decks. Oh well; it's all a learning process after all, isn't it? Mmm... this makes me feel like playing a few chaos multiplayer games.
Until next time,
Brandon
