I have an admission. Well, another one as I’m pretty sure I mentioned some in the past. I’m hooked on the ‘Enchantress” deck idea.

Enchantress sounds like a simple thing, but works great. It’s a combination of creatures and such that gain you additional card drawing every time you cast any enchantment spell. Eventually you win by any number of methods. Some I’ve used in the past include: Milling your opponent, making him draw infinite cards, making him pick up every permanent he has in play, as well as just plain old ‘hit you with a 50/52 trampler.’ I’ve played so many versions that they sort of blend together in my mind. I have the cards for, but have yet to build and test, the Legacy version of Enchantress called “Solitary” as well.

What am I getting at? Well, if there’s an “enchantress effect” in the format, I’ll at very least put serious time into trying to make it work. It doesn’t matter if there’s only Verduran Enchantress, my brain still fires off into the unknown trying to drag in some ideas to make it semi-viable.

Ravnica block has really gotten me thinking. Mostly because, you guessed it, all the ‘aura’ related cards. Since all auras are also enchantments, it was enough to make me start dreaming of silly and fun ways to abuse my favorite interaction. Tallowisp looked promising, until you realize the effort it would take to balance what would, essentially, be two different decks in only 60 cards. You’d want enough enchantments to make your Verduran’s reliable sources of extra card draws. You’d also want enough Arcane and/or Spirit spells to make Tallowisp work as way to get Aura’s. And you also probably would want a way to search up both of the afore mentioned creatures… it’s a real hassle trying to even think about balancing that many ideas in one deck. So I moved on to other, hopefully more achievable, goals.

Breaking the Creature Tap...

I’ve always had combinations that involved tapping creatures and then ‘cheating’ the untap multiple times to do nasty things. Vitalize was a fun card for this, but was a one shot that was best if you had a ton of creatures all working towards the same goal, like an elf swarm deck. That usually meant you were begging to lose all those creatures as well. Another weird trick was to use Immobilizing Ink as a weird way to untap a specific creature multiple times for effect. The original version was a lot like ‘Elf ball” decks, which used the ridiculous mana acceleration of lots of elves to power out game winning Fireballs and such. I tried a different version, using Priest of Titania, Ink and Prosperity to set up a hopeful loop of “Draw ton of cards, oh look, discard to untap, tap for mana, discard, untap…. cast Prosperity number two?” The kill was usually some sort of “Black Vise” card, or if I was feeling a bit mean, Storm Seeker. This was definitely a casual deck!

When Kamigawa block hit, I finally saw a card that reminded me quite forcefully of that old, weird elf deck. That card was of course, Freed from the Real(FftR). Immediately I started thinking of all sorts of bizarre combinations that FftR made possible. And yes, a lot of them were based off Enchantress decks. Then when Dissension finally broke recently, I realized there was another card that could be just as, if not more, broken in a deck based on enchantments. Ocular Halo. Suddenly a creature with FftR and Ocular Halo could draw as many cards as you had blue mana. I was high on life. Then I went to the Dissension combo page here on the site and, voila, it struck me right between the eyes as I read about combos. I didn’t NEED Freed from the Real if the creature I put Ocular Halo on could already untap itself just as cheaply!

Yes, Simic Ragworm was my new friend. Untapping for just a blue has always been a good thing. See, I’m an old enough magic player to remember Horseshoe Crab decks. When they were legal even. Horseshoe has the exact same ability as Simic Ragworm, but with a lower cost and less useable power/toughness combination. I remember slapping an enchantment on that let the Crab ‘ping’ your opponent and the look of horror on your opponents face as he read the cards and then frantically started to count how many islands you had. Ah, nostalgia.

The similarity to the Enchantress style decks is quite similar. Both decks use a specific interaction between a creature and a card(s) to set up in one case, card advantage, and in the other, massive damage. How massive an amount of damage? Try X+1 where ‘X’ is the number of islands you have in play… and you can do that every turn.

This might be too few land, but with the cheap blue card drawers and search, you should be able to get away with it. It’s a pretty simple deck really. Dig like crazy to find Ragworm/Crab, then slap one of your ‘ping’ enchantment’s onto it and go to town. If you manage to draw the Halo instead of the ping, it will help you draw a lot of cards and hopefully get you the card you need to complete the ‘combo’ as it were.

The trick to getting this deck right is the fact that although you want more blue mana then green, the best ways to get mana in general and to search out your creatures are green. Any and all lands that allow you to get Green and Blue mana should be considered if you have the appropriate Ravnica Lands or Pain lands.

You could also go straight Blue here. Dropping the three sets of green cards would allow you to bring in some counters as well as more card drawing. Probably some combination of Serum Visions, Counterspell, and Mana Leak would work well there.

If you have the lands to support it, White/Green/Blue will work wonders, giving you access to White’s superior ability to go find enchantments. Sterling Grove is both a search card for your enchantments as well as a way to protect them once they get into play, and that’s just good news no matter how you look at it. You gain Enlightened Tutor as well.

Dealing with a four card combo.

Another fun idea that caught my eye was the use of the Sprouting Phytohydra and some trickery to make ‘infinite’ numbers of creatures. The tricky part here is as mentioned: if you don’t have a way to sacrifice one of the affects that causes the loop, technically you’re in an ‘infinite loop’ and the game becomes a draw.

I first started with the listed infinite loop: Sprouting Phytohydra, Aether Flash, and Kaysa. Then I needed to decide on a way to break said loop (and possibly be a win condition, as well). I found the perfect card for both conditions in Goblin Bombardment. It lets you break the loop (by sacrificing Sprouting Phytohydra for free) as well as turn your infinite walls into a source of damage. But it seemed to ‘clunky’ still, somehow. Especially as Kaysa was a 5 cc permanent, and so was the Phytohydra.

Now, I thought, if I could find a cheaper way to do that toughness enhancing, I might be in business. I looked into the two enchantments that came to mind, Lashknife Barrier and Spidersilk Armor. Lashknife Barrier would make the flash deal one instead of two, keeping the Hydra tokens alive without actually dealing with their toughness. Spidersilk Armor would simply enhance their toughness flat out. Lashknife Barrier was especially tempting as it also drew a card on casting.

Then I realized that I’d need a different card to break the loop, if the toughness increaser wasn’t a creature. So back to the drawing board I went. Veteran Armorer looked good. Heck, I’ll admit a lot of cards looked good. But I kept coming back to the fact that I was looking at a four-card combination in three different colors.

In the midst of pondering combinations and ideas, a new idea struck me out of the blue. A sort of revelation the likes of which I haven’t had in ages. Suddenly, I realized there was a way to do the combo in two colors with only three cards!

Ladies and Gentleman, the Yellowstone Sniper deck.

See the combination yet? I don’t blame anyone who misses it, as it uses an obscure ‘loophole’ in the rules involving state-based affects.

If a token hits the graveyard, it actually stays there just long enough to set off affects that check for things hitting the graveyard. Hence, when a Phytohydra goes to the graveyard, it untaps Sharpshooter. Sharpshooter then can ‘ping’ the new hydra, which makes a copy. Sacrifice the old one with the damage on it to Bombardment. This deals your opponent a point of damage and untaps Sharpshooter for another go.

Why all the odd cards? Well, G/R doesn’t have a way to ‘tutor’ for the enchantment you need to go off. So you just have to substitute raw card drawing. Weird Harvest lets you search out the two creatures you need, and in a pinch can also set up a huge burst of card drawing if you happen to be holding a Glimpse of Nature, as well. The sixteen elves let you try to accelerate as fast as possible into the combination, as well as being an alternate win condition, especially if you draw a Path of Anger’s Flame to make them even nastier. Goblin Bombardment is also good here, as a surprise “I win” card if your beat down gets your opponent down to those last few life points. Goblin Sharpshooter is no slouch either by himself.

And now my arbitrary:
“What’s Cool in Dissension?”

Condemn: It’s not Swords to Plowshares, but it’s by far the closest we’ve come in a long, long time.

Proclamation of Rebirth: A perfect match for Buried Alive. Now only if you could think of a combo deck that revolves around three 1cc creatures!

Plaxmanta: Almost as much fun as Mystic Snake. Almost.

Spell Snare: the older the format, the better this is.

Vigean Graftmage: I look at this and wonder if there’s some sort of loop combo…

Brain Pry: Just a great backup to the classic duo of Duress and Cabal Therapy. The three of these together set each other up so well and they’re all so cheap, it’s almost a crime.

Infernal Tutor: Their already debating this one in the Vintage forums

Slithering Shade: its not Nantuko Shade, but it’s the same sort of idea. Considering how easy it should be to just drop your own hand in this format, this could be a serious surprise killer.

Flaring Flame-kin: Considering I’m a long-standing enchantress player, you can just imagine this one got my attention. It’s just amazing if you manage to enchant this. Plus built in trample is something Enchantress decks have needed since the loss of good old Rancor.

Cytoplast Root-kin: A solid, efficient creature with abilities that fit perfectly into the new idea for the Green/Blue guild. I’m shocked at some of the quality cards Green has been given lately.

Might of the Nephilim: Yeah, this thing hurts as a +4/+4 for just about any gold creature you can think of. And on a select few (or with some color shifting help) it can be a spine shattering +10/+10.

Thrive: Probably one of the absolute best uses of a reprint in years.

Assault Zeppelid: Sign me up for four of these bad boys. A great combination of power, toughness, and abilities.

Azorius First-wing: Just two mana for a flying grizzly bear that can’t be hit by Fetter’s? Sign me the heck up.

Momir Vig, Simic Visionary: My only question: If I cast a blue/green creature, can I stack the abilities and just draw whatever creature I want out of my deck??

Simic Skyswallower: I so want one or two of these just for casual reanimator fun.

Windreaver: It’s not Morphling but its pretty damn spiffy nonetheless!

Shielding Plax: Cute little enchantment. Definitely makes me think of creatures I’d want to slap it on.

All the new “split cards”: Most of these are at least interesting. Some are seriously thought provoking. I personally love the “Punishment” side of Crime // Punishment.

Transguild Courier: Custom made for breaking “Might of the Nephilim” as well as any cards that require you to have all five colors of creatures in play.

Novijen, Heart of Progress: I can see some instances where this thing would get downright evil.

And there you have it. A couple interesting combo decks and some of the cards that really caught my eye from the newest set. Have fun looking for even more interesting combos!

Greyfell

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.

Article Spotlights from 2006
The Games People Play - Tactical Magic.
If I worked at R&D
The Beginner’s Guide to Rogue
Druid Week Primer
Opting In: Ravnica
MDV Idol: Finale!
Avatar Week Primer
Delusions of Mediocrity: Getting Stuffy in Here.
Raiding Ravnica: Guildmages and You!
Lands-More than Mana: Part One