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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Enchantress Deck
March 6, 2008

Hi BMoor,
I like to read your articles. Even the older ones can
teach you something, thanks. I like to play magic for
fun, so I don't want to spend too much money. This
deck only cost me around $30 which is great. Don’t
worry too much about cost though. I'm trying to
optimize an enchantress deck for standard. The most
important nonstandard cards needing to be replaced
being: Argothian Enchantress, Wild Growth and
Exploration. Thankfully Auratog was reprinted; he is
awesome.

Creatures(12)
4Auratog
4Mesa Enchantress
4Yavimaya Enchantress

Enchantments(26)
4Hoofprints of the Stag
4Temporal Isolation
3Spirit Loop
2Oblivion Ring
4Aspect of Mongoose
4Fertile Ground
3Rites of Flourishing
2Primal Rage

Land(22)
4Horizon Canopy
4Brushland
8Plains
6Forest

Side Board(15)
4Eyes of the Wisent
3Seal of Primordium
3Cloud Key
2Pentarch Ward
2Pithing Needle
1Feldon's Cane

This deck is fun, because it can be so explosive. You
can plan on drawing most of your deck and Auratog ends
up swinging as a huge fatty. The biggest problem can
be getting all of that on the move. The deck doesn't
accelerate well enough. Fertile Ground is “OK” for
that. Also, of course you are not always going to draw
Mesa Enchantress and she is fragile without Aspect of
Mongoose. Hoofprints of the Stag is in there because
of the insane draw power in the rest of the deck.
Temporal Isolation and Oblivion Ring are for removal;
Temporal Isolation also makes Auratog unblockable,
because you can sacrifice it to him after they declare
blockers (or the lack there of in this case). Primal
Rage also helps out with those blocking problems.
Spirit Loop and Aspect of Mongoose are great because
you can sacrifice them repeatedly to Auratog building
him up and also building card advantage if there is a
Mesa Enchantress on the field. Rites of Flourishing is
good as a replacement for Exploration, but it is
problematic with it benefiting the other player so
much, so I sometimes side in Cloud Key for them. What
do you think about that? Eyes of the Wisent is a must
in my meta, because there is so much darn control. Eh,
playing against control makes me wake up screaming at
night. help would be good.
Thanks BMoor even if all you do is read this and good
gaming to all.
From Salacious
 
Well, it's good to see that the old G/W aura strategy is still popular.  A friend of mine had a similar deck to this oen a while back, but his was dependant on getting Daybreak Coronet on a Mistmeadow Skulk, thus making it almost unkillable (since anything that could deal enough damage to kill it would surely cost 3 or more, making the Skulk immune to it).  Your deck, however, is based on Auratog, and thus it shall stay.
 
The Auratog/Spirit Loop or Aspect of the Mongoose combo is indeed quite a potent one.  If you have enough mana, Auratog effectively becomes a Shade.  And with Fertile Ground givign you mana and all your card draw, you stand a good chance of setting up the combo.
 
So what's the problem?  Well, first of all, you're a bit creature-light.  A Wrath could wreck you, and even spot removal will be hard to deal with if your opponent finds a time when you don't have Aspect of the Mongoose out.  There must be some way to give you more creatures without denying you enchantments.  Militia's Pride could work, except that your main attackign will be with one enormous Auratog.  A 1/1 Kithkin token will be of little use there.  Griffin Guide would be more useful, at least giving you something in return when your Guided creature dies.  But neither of these are even any ore useful than Hoofprints of the Stag.  Maybe Opal Guardian?  A 3/4 flying pro:red would come in handy.
 
Next, I'd recommend a few copies of Idyllic Tutor.  In an enchantment-heavy deck, this is almost an auto-include.  It would also let you run fewer copies of each of your enchantments, thus turning the deck into more of a toolbox-style build.  It's your decision of you want to play it that way, but it is fun running many different enchantments for different occasions.
 
For example, I wouldn't recommend four copies of Shape of the Wiitigo, but if you could tutor up a single copy, it'd be great!  Shape of the Wiitigo puts six +1/+1 counters on the creature it enchants, and then has a second ability that adds or removes counters, but the counters are on the creature, not the Aura.  So it works great with Auratog-- play it, then sacrifice the Shape for +2/+2 and keep the six counters!  Now you've got a 7/8 Auratog!  Even Tarmogoyf can barely compete with that.  Granted, we are talking about two cards and one of them costs 3GGG, but it's still impressive.
 
Also impressive is Abundance.  This little number completely eliminates mana problems, by letting you choose for each draw whether you want a land or a nonland card.  And with your superfluous draws generated by Rites of Flourishing and Mesa Enchantress, you can guarantee to draw the perfect game!
 
So what comes out for that?  Primal Rage, I'd say.  The card just doesn't do enough.  You already have Temporal Isolation making your creatures "unblockable" (and remember, this trick works even if Auratog isn't the one enchanted), so trample is a win-more card.  I'd also like to see a higher percentage of your enchantments be Auras for the final card I'm going to suggest: Retether.  I'll bet your graveyard gets pretty full of enchantments, doesn't it?
 
I'll leave you on that note and let your mind spin with possibilities.
 
~BMoor


  


 

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