Return of GW Enchantment Power

[Terentius]

Hey folks, returning member getting back into the game after taking years off. I can get my own cards more easily now, and I've revamped/redirected one of the decks I had, first posted here: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/gw-uh-enchantment-power.13782/.

This deck is ancient/pre-modern cards only. I'm particular about style and card art, so it has a lot of one-offs. Also it has no creatures. Also it's 80 cards.

Sleeping Enchantments - 10
4x Opal Caryatid
1x Opal Avenger
4x Opal Titan
1x Opal Archangel

Creatures - 6
4x Yavimaya Enchantress
2x Tethered Griffin

Instants/Sorceries - 1
1x Replenish

Auras - 9
4x Rancor
2x Pacifism
1x Cessation
2x Brilliant Halo

Global Enchantments - 19
4x Seal of Cleansing
1x Planar Collapse
1x Words of Wilding
1x Sacred Mesa
4x Sterling Grove
4x Enchantress's Presence
4x Solitary Confinement

Lands - 22
10 Plains
9 Forest
3 Serra's Sanctum
---------------------
66 cards

The win combo is Sterling Grove, Enchantress's Presence, and Solitary Confinement. With two Sterling Groves I'm dang near invincible. Enchantress's Presence more than makes up for the cost of Solitary Confinement. And obviously Serra's Sanctum provides great mana ramp, because much of this deck is mana-expensive. The deck was originally intended to use Feroz's Ban, but even with Serra's Sanctum I couldn't play that in a timely manner.

Questions/comments/ratings?

 

[Mooseman]

Question, and I'm no Einstien of decks, but is your only way to take out other players creature damage?
I see a lot of removal and protection, but no alternate kill condition.
Looks like afun deck to play, how do you think it would fare in a multiplayer game?

 

[Oversoul]

Welcome back!

This is an interesting take on the Enchantress concept. I do like it much better than your old version of the deck. I don't know about relying on sleeper cards, though. I do want them to work. I've had a soft spot for them ever since my very first precon I ever bought was the Urza's Saga "Sleeper" precon. But they are just too likely to be dead weight against creatureless decks.

Also, I recognize some pretty bad cards here. Serra Bestiary? Tornado? Surely those aren't really helping you...

I think Solitary Confinement can be a really cool card, but I'm wary of it in a lot of decks like this one, where you're not actually doing anything to stop your opponent (other than slowly setting up unfeasible disruption like Serra's Liturgy). If you rely on Solitary Confinement, while your opponent is trying to do anything other than attack you with creatures or target you directly with spells, you're very likely to lose.

What's a typical clock for this deck? How many turns do you give opponents before they are shut out by Enchantress's Presence and Solitary Confinement?

 

[Terentius]

Question, and I'm no Einstien of decks, but is your only way to take out other players creature damage?
I see a lot of removal and protection, but no alternate kill condition.
Looks like afun deck to play, how do you think it would fare in a multiplayer game?

Well it's green white, and I don't know of much else to win in the way of those colors. I find it easier to play in multiplayer because my sleepers wake up more often, and Solitary Confinement still enervates all my opponents.

Welcome back!

This is an interesting take on the Enchantress concept. I do like it much better than your old version of the deck. I don't know about relying on sleeper cards, though. I do want them to work. I've had a soft spot for them ever since my very first precon I ever bought was the Urza's Saga "Sleeper" precon. But they are just too likely to be dead weight against creatureless decks.

Also, I recognize some pretty bad cards here. Serra Bestiary? Tornado? Surely those aren't really helping you...

I think Solitary Confinement can be a really cool card, but I'm wary of it in a lot of decks like this one, where you're not actually doing anything to stop your opponent (other than slowly setting up unfeasible disruption like Serra's Liturgy). If you rely on Solitary Confinement, while your opponent is trying to do anything other than attack you with creatures or target you directly with spells, you're very likely to lose.

What's a typical clock for this deck? How many turns do you give opponents before they are shut out by Enchantress's Presence and Solitary Confinement?

Thanks for the kind words!

I'm aware that I could make this deck better, more versatile, and more consistent by swapping out some of the sleepers and other things for Verduran, Yavimaya, Argothian, or the other Enchantresses, or even better modern enchantments like Sigil of the Empty Throne, but I really like winning with my 80 card ancient creatureless deck. For Tornado, I just saw a green enchantment that said destroy target permanent, so I threw one in the toolbox in case I may want to fetch it with Sterling Grove. Serra's Bestiary is bad though; I just realized today that it doesn't block mana abilities. Weak!

As far as Solitary Confinement, the only time I really rely on it is when they're hitting me early and my sleepers haven't woken up to block. Then it's either play one of my token generators or Solitary Confinement, tutoring for them with Sterling Grove if necessary. I've never gotten a turn 3-Enchantress's Presence/turn 4-Solitary Confinement together, but that would probably be best case scenario, and 6 turns at worst case. Though I would only really need those things to happen if I was losing the creature battle in the first place, and Opal Gargoyle/Champion/Titan may have something to say about that. In any case, once the Solitary Confinement does come out with Enchantress's Presence, my opponent is pretty much boned if they can't get rid of it (red/black), because my deck will get stronger than theirs over time. If I have Sterling Grove out, they'll have to go through that first, and if I have two Sterling Groves out, the only way to beat me would be to make me sacrifice all my enchantments. If there's anything this deck relies on, it's Serra's Sanctum.

 

[Oversoul]

Of course, there are going to be some decks that this concept just can't beat, but one issue that I'd be worried about is that most creature-based decks could let a few sleepers trigger, kill them, and have their own creatures on the battlefield to go for the kill. Solitary Confinement is one way to stop that. But what about Opalescence? It would turn all global enchantments into weapons. It also has a goofy synergy with Replenish. Of course, the idea with this deck isn't to emphasize Replenish combos, but I'd think just swapping out one of the lackluster enchantments for Opalescence would give the deck some explosiveness that could shore up some weaknesses.

 

[Terentius]

You are right, Opalescence would make a great additional defense that I can tutor for with SG if necessary (for some reason I thought Opalescence was an artifact). But I don't think I'd want to use it offensively, for fear of my critical enchantments being bolted or some such thing.

 

[Terentius]

Of course, there are going to be some decks that this concept just can't beat

I have become very disillusioned with this deck over the past few months, and also learned that this was already a well-known deck type during its day. I originally wanted it to be a toolbox of sorts, fetching whatever funny or stupid powerful enchantment I needed while hiding inside the bubble, but that's not flying anymore. So it's time to clean it up.

-1 Opal Archangel
-1 Opal Acrolith
-1 Opal Titan
+4 Yavimaya Enchantress

+2 Brilliant Halo
+1 Cessation
-1 Rancor
-3 Armadillo Cloak
-1 Serra's Bestiary

+1 Sacred Mesa
+1 Solitary Confinement
-2 Serra's Blessing
-1 Serra's Liturgy
-1 Words of Wilding
-1 Karmic Justice
-1 Tornado
-2 Midsummer Revel

-4 Forest
-3 Plains


Anyone ever used Limited Resources? I haven't actually tested with it, but it looks fun and seems like it would work with my deck.

 

[Oversoul]

Limited Resources is extremely powerful, but mostly that's in combination with cards that exploit its continuous ability, such as things that put lands onto the battlefield directly and things that destroy/steal opponents' lands. That's not really what you're going for here, though, so it doesn't seem like such a good fit.

 

[Terentius]

Limited Resources is extremely powerful, but mostly that's in combination with cards that exploit its continuous ability, such as things that put lands onto the battlefield directly and things that destroy/steal opponents' lands. That's not really what you're going for here, though, so it doesn't seem like such a good fit.

Yeah, I hadn't read the card properly. There's no way I can make it consistently work in my favor.

-1 Opal Champion
-2 Opal Gargoyle
+2 Tethered Griffin - This should help shore up the problem with sleeping enchantments

-1 Centaur Glade - Why was I ever paying 2GG for a 3/3 vanilla?
+1 Words of Wilding - This is only so I don't deck myself with two Enchantress's Presence
+1 Rancor

Wish I could have kept the no-creature thing going, but Yavimaya Enchantress + Rancor is pretty much my beatstick now.