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Verduran Enchantress: Whenever you play an enchantment spell, you may draw a card.
It seems simple enough to grasp but few actually do. In the right deck, the whole purpose of this card is pretty broken. What levels it out are the key words: The Right Deck. Some people wouldn't understand the power of the enchantment if they looked at it head on – in some drafts I have seen some amazing enchantments come my way.
What if I told you I could build you a Standard – that's right, Type 2 legal – Green / White (non-Selesnya Guild) Enchantress deck that can be a teaching tool to everyone you play?
You ever seen a G/W deck draw six cards a turn?
I have.
I was playing it.
Now, I know what you're thinking…
“Exploration is no longer legal, even in Extended! We don't even have Enchantress's Presence anymore!”
All these complaints are completely true, and very annoying too. We don't need either of them to play this deck. We can lock our opponent down early, wait out the storm and survive until we get our engine up-and-running.
The early game is going to be rough. I won't lie. I don't expect this deck to make Top 8 at Worlds anytime soon (well, maybe after Coldsnap). What I'm saying is this: if you'd like to play a strange deck that few are prepared for, Enchantress should be it.
Because the deck is an Enchantress deck, we need enchantments. Loads of them, to clog the board and give us a massive glut of card drawing. However, only certain enchantments will do in this semi-rogue deck. To lock your opponent down early, we need creature control in enchantment form. Pacifism, Ghostly Prison, and Cage of Hands are here to do that job, with Cage of Hands doubling up later in the game by returning itself to your hand for recasting (to draw more cards). Two of the four copies of Ghostly Prison can give you a wide berth against creature-heavy decks, and Pacifism works for any other creature you simply don't want to battle against.
Now we're at the part you all complain.
“Enchantments are weak because of Aven Cloudchaser, Demystify, Kami of Ancient Law, Naturalize, Terashi's Grasp, etc, etc, etc!”
This is a true and well-proven point. The defense of this deck comes with three copies Privileged Position, which make every other permanent, not just enchantments, untargetable.
No more creature-kill spells, or burn to destroy your fragile Enchantress.
No enchantment-hate, or land destruction to cripple the mana base.
The trap is set, here comes the net!
After establishing some early board position with these cards, the real fun can begin. Glorious Anthem starts out the enchantment beats, powering-up every creature you control. Your Thran Golem and Yavimaya Enchantress can grow to a considerable size over just a few turns, especially when you have enchanted Thran Golem with a Moldervine Cloak. I'm not too keen on the Cloak myself, but if you can find a better Aura the current Standard environment that grants +3/+3 for less then four mana, I'm all ears.
Yavimaya Enchantress has a different enchantment suited for her… Fists of Ironwood. It makes her at least a 3/3 trampling druid, on turn four. Plus, you get two 1/1 Green saproling tokens to boot. This reminds me of playing Dragon Fangs back when Scourge was Standard legal.
You must remember that these are the crucial cards to kill your opponent. Sure, you can have a 3/5 Verduran Enchantress in play after resolving all three copies of Glorious Anthem… but it won't win you the game. However, the little army of 1/1 Green saproling tokens can become 4/4 beaters in just a few turns. That victory path is somewhat rockier than the Thran Golem / Yavimaya Enchantress route, but the only real difference is that it takes a lot more time.
The real problem with the deck is what to do with all the land we draw, sometimes two or three a turn. Life from the Loam is popular, and Groundskeeper works if you only run basic lands... but both have shortcomings in the deck:
Number One: you still can't play the lands you bring back.
Number Two: both cost two mana to use, and one of them has to have three cards dredged to return it to hand.
I needed something like Exploration, of the old Enchantress deck. I looked for a creature to solve my problems. I found Azusa, Lost but Seeking.
Yes, she's only a 1/2 creature, for three mana. However, by the time she hits play there should be at least one Glorious Anthem or Privileged Position on the table. This puts her out of range of cards like Shock, or makes her untargetable. She's the best card for the slot, mainly because she's rather similar to Exploration. The land I draw (remember, sometimes two or three) can be dropped right into play, freeing up my valuable hand-space for more enchantments.
But wait! Now we get to the engine of the deck.
The first two words in the article? Verduran Enchantress.
This hot little babe – check out the pictures from Seventh Edition onward to see what I mean – can easily draw about a third of your deck, on top of your normal draws, by turn 10. Taking a step back, those of us who played Necropotence (or played against it) learned that massive card drawing is just too strong to ignore, no matter the drawback. It can also get around those pesky counters, but I'll explain how to do that later in the article.
In the early testing of this deck concoction, Cage of Hands generated some awesome draws and stalled some hefty creatures cast by my opponent. In one game, I had around six lands in my hand. I drew Azusa, Lost but Seeking and proceeded to drop three lands a turn for three straight turns. The mana acceleration in this deck is astounding, if you can get things set up early.
This plays a little like the old Enchantress deck back when Argothian Enchantress, Rancor, and Endless Wurm were Extended legal. Play enchantments, drop some land, swing with a big creature. The main difference (if you can't tell by now) is this deck is not a quick beatdown deck. It's an Aggro Control deck.
Control?
Yes, Control.
By making your opponent's forces simple non-attacking pieces of eye-candy, you are in fact controlling the game.
I'm not really a rogue deck builder, just an off the wall kind of guy! Rocking and rolling.
Playing this deck requires an I.Q. above 130, so everyone on this site should be fine. If you think I'm kidding, test it out against the metagame in your area before going to a tournament and playing it for real. You'll see that this deck requires a calm, rational early start, something that some players can't manage. This is not a “hack-n-slash, slice ‘em and dice ‘em” deck. This is a finesse deck, a deck with a certain chic.
| Enchantress Featured by Robert Tristran Lesczinski on 2006-01-22 (Standard) | ||
Artifact Creatures 2 Thran Golem Creatures 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Verduran Enchantress 4 Yavimaya Enchantress |
Enchantments 4 Cage of Hands 3 Fists of Ironwood 4 Ghostly Prison 3 Glorious Anthem 3 Moldervine Cloak 2 Pacifism 3 Privileged Position Legendary Creatures 2 Azusa, Lost but Seeking Basic Lands 10 Forest 4 Plains Lands 4 Brushland 4 Temple Garden | Stats: Average mana: 1.85 Average creature mana cost: 2.75 Average creature power: 1.00 Average creature toughness: 1.88 Deck Composition: Basic Lands: 23.33% Enchantments: 36.67% Lands: 13.33% Creatures: 20.00% Legendary Creatures: 3.33% Artifact Creatures: 3.33% |
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| Download this deck in Apprentice format! |
Download this deck in Magic Online Text format! | |
I dislike the four copies of Brushland, but in some instances they come in handy. I tried squeezing in Sakura-Tribe Elder to thin out the basic land, but he was way too clunky. This deck seeks to play a large amount of enchantments, and four Sakura Tribe Elders would have brought the creature count up to twenty. For an Enchantress build, it's simply too much.
Cards to Think About
Kitsune Mystic
Instantly move Cage of Hands to any creature. You equip your Jitte, I enchant your guy. This earned two slots in my sideboard.
Molting Skin
Regenerate by returning the card to your hand, thus allowing more card-drawing.
Genju of the Fields / Genju of the Cedars
Quick, cheap beatsticks that can draw cards even after they die. Similar to Rancor, for their recursion effect at least.
Honden of Cleansing Fire / Honden of Life's Web
Free creatures and free life gain. That also draw cards. Notice a trend here?
Ivory Mask
Cranial Extraction getting you down?
Three Dreams
“Tutor up” whatever you need. It can't be any simpler. The only weakness? Sorcery speed.
Blanchwood Armor
It works great... if you run a lot of Forests. I think we can do better.
Glare of Subdual
Tap your opponent's biggest creatures.
Suppression Field
Now, every activated ability costs more. This sounds like a good sideboard card, but not if you're running Kitsune Mystic.
Serpent Skin
Playable as an instant, this lets you pump up a creature, draw a card, and regenerate.
Galvanic Arc
OK, so it's Red… but you could splash with a few Sacred Foundries. Draw a card, deal three damage, and give one of your creatures First Strike.
Dosan the Falling Leaf
Only in here to hose Control decks. After resolving this, they can no longer counter your enchantments, only bounce them or destroy them on their turn. Personally, I would have four of them in my sideboard.
Quicksand
Early creature control, in an uncounterable form. This one is a very strong “maybe” for me.
In the event you should come across a pure Control deck, play out enchantments without overextending yourself. If your opponent allows a Verduran Enchantress to come into play early, don't jinx yourself by trying to play the other three copies in your hand. Play a few enchantments early on, to gain the advantage in the card drawing war. Sooner or later, you will cast an enchantment that your opponent can't have resolving (Privileged Position, for example). They'll waste a permission spell, so drop a Thran Golem and pray it gets through. If your opponent doesn't counter Azusa you will have more than enough mana to cast enchantment after enchantment, until he runs out of countermagic or pukes coat-hangers onto the table. Either way, it's a sight to see.
Remember, an enchantment can be countered but you'll still draw your card. Either your enchantment resolves and you draw, or they counter it and you still draw.
Another version of Enchantress harks back to the Onslaught block Green / White deck with Biorhythm (holla if you played it). I will grant you that some of the cards, like Enchantress' Presence and Mirari's Wake, are no longer Type 2 legal… these are mere bumps in the road.
The easiest way to capitalize on this deck is to run three copies of Myojin of Cleansing Fire. After playing Biorhythm, remove a divinity counter and place it on the stack so it resolves first for the win. This means the deck is more creature-oriented, but not so much that we lose the power of the enchantress.
| Rhythmic Enchantress Featured by Robert Tristran Lesczinski on 2006-01-22 (Standard) | ||
Creatures 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Verduran Enchantress 4 Yavimaya Enchantress Enchantments 4 Cage of Hands 3 Fists of Ironwood 4 Ghostly Prison 2 Glorious Anthem 2 Pacifism 3 Privileged Position |
Legendary Creatures 3 Myojin of Cleansing Fire Sorceries 3 Biorhythm 2 Time of Need Basic Lands 10 Forest 4 Plains Lands 4 Brushland 4 Temple Garden | Stats: Average mana: 2.25 Average creature mana cost: 3.47 Average creature power: 1.33 Average creature toughness: 2.53 Deck Composition: Enchantments: 30.00% Lands: 13.33% Creatures: 20.00% Basic Lands: 23.33% Sorceries: 8.33% Legendary Creatures: 5.00% |
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| Download this deck in Apprentice format! |
Download this deck in Magic Online Text format! | |
This deck lends its strength to the instant board-sweeping power from the Myojin of Cleansing Fire. With this in mind, the deck can survive a little longer then the previous deck, but has fewer enchantments and thus a little less card-drawing ability. Not that you'd notice.
Back in the Onslaught block, this deck was faster. The Fetchlands allowed for more playable opening hands, and the cycling lands helped you filter through your library find your enchantress. Mirari's Wake gave the deck all the mana acceleration you'd need, playing out Wrath/Squirrel Nest/Biorhythm for the win. This deck takes Wrath of God out completely.
When Onslaught was legal in Standard, this was a fun deck to run as it was unexpected. Now, I think this version of the Enchantress deck is a little weaker from losing the Enchantress's Presence and Mirari's Wake. With a little tinkering, depending on your metagame, this version could be a surprise for your opponents.
Obey the enchantress!
Free Tibet, no grapes, all that.
Robert Tristan Lesczinski.
