Theme: Enchantments

[Michael Hansen]

Hey all,

I've been looking for the last little bit at using enchantments as a theme in cube. Disclaimer: this cube exists on paper in an incomplete form; I'm starting with enchantments. I think that this can be an interesting design element because it creates a means white control to be a thing through permanents focused control and prison effects. Additionally, it enables GW/Bant auras through cards like Ethereal armour, Armadillo Cloak, etc. I'm also looking at it as being something which enables red aggro through enchantments such as Furor of the Bitten, and has potential for combo, though I think running Sneak Attack is a bad idea (I think the draw engine of Enchantress will be fine because even if the combo isn't being specifically made it can play a role in a few decks as a draw source). I want to work with the Graveyard as well, and there are some enchantments which cross over into graveyard as well, such as Burning Vengeance, Wreath of Geists, and Chronic Flooding. 

What I was wondering is this: do you think that this is an interesting theme to explore? Is a Prison deck going to take too long to play? I think one of the benefits of this, is that it frees up, to some degree, blue to fit other purposes than control; and the fact that enchantments can be used to play roles in other decks makes me think that this is worth pursuing. I don't want to have people complaining that a significant control archetype is the most miserable, shoddy experience.

Thoughts?

[Jason Waddell]

Hi Michael!

I am firmly of the opinion that most themes can work as a set theme. One note is that it can take a lot of work to get things where you want them, but I think the reward is worth the effort. Like my recent "sacrifice theme" article (another one posting early next week), what you want to do is figure out how it connects to the rest of your set. Enchantments seem like a big enough design space that you could make it a pretty substantial part of your set. 

What I would do is start jotting down ideas for cards that slot in and connect different parts of your design space. There are actually some pauper constructed decks that connect your themes. Look for Auramancer and Tortured Existence. There, for example, they use a graveyard engine to rebuy things like Dead Weight. You're going to want to look for enchantments that have value on their own (Dead Weight being a good example), as well as a few "anchors" in the form of "enchantments matter" cards. You will also want lots of things that answer enchantments. 

Prison might not be the best here, but it's worth trying to see how it plays. One thing to remember is that the most powerful implementation of an archetype might not be the most fun. Obviously I wouldn't want Moat, but I'm sure there are other cards that cross that line. A miser's Ghostly Prison or whatever could be fine though. 

There are also weird combos you can put together. Arcanum Wings + Eldrazi Conscription (or any other number of things). 

I would just get on Gatherer and go wild. Write down every card that looks appealing to you. Then you'll start to feel what sort of design space is available to you. Oh, and report back here with your findings! I'm really interested to see what you come up with. 

[Christopher Morris-Lent]

hey michael -- go for it! i love enchantments too.

a few caveats:

-a big offensive aura theme is a tough sell; it was a complaint i heard often about GTC limited -- these cards (madcap skills, holy mantle, gift of orzhova) create games where you either stick the threat and win, or lose your dude and get blown out. it's sad for me to type this, as armadillo cloak brings back cherished childhood memories of playing two colors for the first time. that being said i just drafted triple rise and remembered how much i loved umbras; they solved both ends of the issue by printing totem armor and then making the buffs less efficient. i'm not sure how the umbras would stack up in the higher power level of cube, but i am a fan of rancor and angelic destiny!

-i doubt prison decks would be too powerful, as control doesn't care all that much and mid-range can often find answers and aggro can just attack. i'd encourage you to try ghostly prison.

-stay away from zur, my cube has a gazillion fixers and more than enough targets for the guy but god was he awkward to cast. the other lesson from zur is that 'bullets' are rarely worthwhile inclusions -- they're more of a constructed thing, i think, as playing with really situational cards is not to my playgroup's taste.

-(the big one) you gotta look at themes in the big picture sense. in order to add a theme you gotta weaken some other theme. the bigger the theme, the more it has to jive with the rest of the cube, since other decks need to want some of the theme cards and they also need to have more answers to the theme cards. in addition to being flexible, the theme also has to be powerful. i thought zur was worth trying since he needed no support. while this was true, though, he fatally suffered from a case of sucking, which made him no fun to play with. 

synergy with the rest of the cube is a big point for me (poison principle!) so let me expand further with some concrete examples. if you have burning vengeance or chronic flooding, you need a big graveyard theme too. if you have enchantress effects, you need your enchantment theme to be enormous, as the enchantresses will not stand on their own and must have their inclusion justified by the rest of the cube. per the poison principle i'd actually discourage you from running enchantress effects and encourage you to find a lot of enchantments that could go in other decks.

card suggestions (just a place to start):

standard tutors: enlightened tutor, demonic tutor, vampiric tutor

fun enchantment tutors: idyllic tutor, academy rector, sterling grove, auratouched mage, sovereigns of lost alara, three dreams

some of my favorite enchantments: survival of the fittest, utopia sprawl, Angelic Destiny, Animate Dead, Assemble the Legion, Bitterblossom, Bloodchief Ascension, Detention Sphere, Faith's Fetters, Oblivion Ring, Pernicious Deed, Prison Term, Rancor, Sulfuric Vortex, Survival of the Fittest, Utopia Sprawl

some others i've tried: phyrexian arena, oversold cemetery, tortured existence, ghostly prison, eldrazi conscription, armadillo cloak, gift of orzhova, treachery, control magic, threads of disloyalty, honor of the pure, marshal's anthem, glorious anthem, gaea's anthem, mirari's wake, form of the dragon

avoid: recurring nightmare, no mercy, enduring ideal

answers: all the standard stuff like vindicate, pulse, decay, mortify, wickerbough, qpm. if the theme is decently-sized you have to start including stuff like duergar hedge-mage. if the theme is gigantic, it's time to dig deep!! nantuko vigilante!! esper charm!!

let us know how it goes!

[Christopher Morris-Lent]

as a lover of eventide and enemy-color cards i am remiss in not mentioning recumbent bliss and pillory of the sleepless too

On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 6:26:11 PM UTC-7, Michael Hansen wrote:

[Jason Waddell]

I don't think having Enchantress is a bad thing. It's pretty analogous to Furnace Celebration in my current design. There's a large density of things that want to sacrifice anyways, and usually it's not worth it to go for Furnace Celebration, but sometimes you get really into that mechanic and like having the anchor. You want functional enchantments that exist outside the purpose of an Enchantress deck though. 

Regarding Zur, I wonder if having stuff like Dead Weight or Journey to Nowhere makes it a useful one-of. I think we specifically want to look for cards that can function well in the right setting. 

You also get cool cantripping enchantment removal that gains some value: 
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?output=spoiler&method=visual&text=+%5btarget%5d+%5benchantment%5d+%5bdraw%5d+%5bcard%5d

The big question for me comes in the ties to other things. Can you find cards that are glue to form layers between your archetypes?
E.g. if you have graveyard stuff and enchantments, maybe you look for cards like this:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=29883

[Jason Waddell]

There's also a ton of enchantment mass removal, but you have to figure out which of those are most interesting for you. Maybe you have a slower cube that likes cards like Austere Command? You also have some weird color pie issues. What do you do with Red / Black in this cube? I like to build a map of my colors and try to figure out the structure of the set. Perhaps you could draw one up for yours? Even a rough one is a good starting point. 

[Christopher Morris-Lent]

sure, give the enchantresses a try, that's a convincing argument and there's only one way to find out if they're fun or not.

oddly, black has the best enchantments, but in order to kill them it needs its buddies green and white. this seems like a good place for the color to be with such a theme. it has all the questions but none of the answers. it can dish it out but it can't take it. that's black for ya. (red, on the other hand...)

for some reason i overlooked trygon predator. i recommend him.

enchantment mass removal like tempest of light would fail my "every card is maindeckable" test as well as my "let the hate be beatable" test. austere command is about where i'd like to be, but jesus is that card strong. planar cleansing, merciless eviction, explosives, and the self-hating deed all come to mind as well. also, that new card that makes both players sacrifice an everything is just so wonderful. it's like decimate that doesn't have to have legal targets.

[Michael Hansen]

In terms of Black enchantments, I am looking at trying to do some graveyard crossover, such as Attrition (1BB;Enchantment B, Sac. creature: destroy a non-black creature), Bloodchief Ascension (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=197892). I want to put some decent removal in black as well in the form of enchantments as well. I am also looking at Golgari Germination and Bitterblossom to support a junk tokens right now. I'm thinking Greed and Dark Tutelage would both be decent card draws, not sure if this will end up being too weak.

For red, I'm less sure of things. I like the idea of burning vengeance as an archetype, because it intersects both enchantments and graveyards to different degrees. I'm also leaning towards making some enchantments available that supports heavy aggro, such as the red Genju (R, pay 2: ench. land becomes a 6/1 until end of turn), Madcap Skills, or Volcanic Strength,; but I haven't really finalized what I want to do with Red enchantment wise because I don't want it to be an all in on one creature situation.

In terms of removal, I'm trying to figure out the balance between not enough mass removal and too much. I'm leaning towards not having too much mass enchantment removal, but a good amount of targeted removal. Not sure what a good number of mass removal spells would be. 

[Michael Hansen]

I went through Gatherer and started picking out enchantments that seemed worth considering. Column A is the column of cards I thought more likely, Column C is cards I wasn't sure would be good for colour-themes or power (high/low) considerations. 

I haven't transcribed all the information about each card yet; this is just a messy list to things to help me narrow down which enchantments I would like to ultimately keep.  List can be seen here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlK1mn0wH-HddFRTZFBTenJ2REFlOVdQbUk2Y0JPVlE#gid=0 (organized by colour).

If you want it to show what each card is (but the sorting is gone), you can see it here as well: http://tappedout.net/mtg-cube-drafts/enchantment-cube-1/

[Christopher Morris-Lent]

hey michael, i really like a lot of what you turned up. i tried to get rid of all the cards that are too weak and/or too narrow and arrange the rest thematically below. brief comments:

Angelic Destiny, Daybreak Coronet, Blind Obedience, Divine Sacrament, Ethereal Armor, Faith's Fetters, Field of Souls, Hoofprints of the Stag, Ghostly Prison, Soul Snare, Spirit Mantle, Unquestioned Authority, Concerted Effort, Endless Horizons, Griffin Guide, Martial Law, Planar Collapse, Porphyry Nodes -- go for it

Animal Boneyard -- this is a sweet one, also check out chamber of manipulation from the same cycle. better together!

Arrest, Bonds of Faith, Hobble, Journey to Nowhere, Oblivion Ring, Pacifism, Shackles, Prison Term -- 8 of these effects is overkill, i think you want 2-3. prison term and o-ring are my favorites (det sphere too when you do non-white)

Intangible Virtue, Leyline of the Meek, Promise of Bunrei -- just keep in mind tokens need anthems and anthems need tokens.

Aura of Silence, Opalescence, Seal of Cleansing, Sigil of the Empty Throne, Serenity -- i love these 'enchantments matter' enchantments

Land Tax, Parallax Wave -- i hate playing with and against these cards, but if your playgroup likes 'em just be careful. wave can perma-exile creatures if you respond to activations by getting rid of it, which given many of the above cards, would be more easily done than in other cubes

Earnest Fellowship, Favor of the Mighty -- great finds! i hate protection but i want to try these myself.

[Christopher Morris-Lent]

attrition is a sweet one. also check out grave pact. black does not lack for powerful enchantments, easy to find the effects you like.

i like control decks that lack blue. BW cards are the best for this. they draw no extra cards but jesus do they give you value. enchantments are nice for this kind of thing.

looking at my list red enchants are sulfuric vortex and assemble the legion. i submit to you that vortex is not as OP as everyone says it is when your cube is well-designed. assemble is all kinds of fun and complements your token theme.

On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 6:26:11 PM UTC-7, Michael Hansen wrote: