What a Cartouchebag
Modern BG (Golgari) Budget Card Draw Matters Combo Constellation Creature Cheat Enchantment Infinite Combo
Creature (18)
- 3x Destiny Spinner
- 3x Grim Guardian
- 4x Herald of the Pantheon
- 4x Setessan Champion
- 4x Weaver of Harmony
Artifact (7)
Land (21)
Instant (8)
Enchantment (6)
Sideboard
This deck was originally intended to be a multicolored toolbag making use of all the different cartouche cards released during the Amonkhet expansion, but I quickly realized…most of them stink. Arguably all of them. So the driving force behind the deck shifted, although I liked the name I had come up with so that stayed.
What we have here is an Enchantment heavy multi combo build constructed primarily in with just an itty bitty splash of . You’ll want to largely ignore small threats in the early game while shielding yourself and specific cards from the big ones as you race toward deploying one of a number of really great combos to close out the game.
I gravitated toward the cheaper end of playable here. Dodging Fetch- and Shocklands
saved a small fortune, and we don’t lose too much speed with these specific non-basics. All things considered, it’s quite performant.
•Woodland Cemetery has more than enough basics to work with to enter untapped and thus fills the dual land role admirably.
•Llanowar Wastes fits nicely. We have oodles of spells with a generic in the cost, so until we get some cost reducers in play this takes up the slack. In a pinch, or is on hand as well, and the incidental life loss is not even worth considering owing to a certain other card. Trust me.
•10 Basic Forests and a few Swamps round out the remainder of the mana base.
We have some nifty combos in store for our opponent but they won’t be ready immediately, we need time to cook. To that end we have a few tricks up our sleeve to keep our opponent from getting too close and personal. A little obfuscation, a little pillowforting and a wee dram of removal, coming right up!
•Fog Ah, a classic. Been there since Alpha and every bit as good today. Let your opponent amass a small army; it’ll do them no good when combat damage is rendered useless.
•Tamiyo's Safekeeping is here to act as a buffer against targeted removal. Thanks to a certain Enchantment Creature that shall remain nameless, most of our permanents can enter play unscathed; it’s those pesky removal spells that can really throw a wrench in the works post ETB. Protect key pieces with this spell.
•Why run the strictly inferior Trial of Ambition in lieu of Chainer's Edict/Geth's Verdict/Liliana's Triumph etc or even a more direct approach with Fatal Push or Cut Down? Because it’s only ‘strictly inferior’ 99.9% of the time. This is one instance we can gain beaucoup value from the trial by repeatedly abusing it. More on that later, but for now just know it’s cheap removal at your disposal.
Before we can build our combos we’ll need proper authorization and some capital on hand. Fortunately, we have a few friends on the government bankroll that can help get the wheels into motion.
•Destiny Spinner does two things, and does them quite well. Firstly, she’s both an Enchantment and a Creature, which will be extremely useful later on. Of more immediate value is the paling of protection she bestows upon all our creatures and enchantments as they enter play. This removes a bit of pressure as we don’t need to worry so much about countermagic, nor do we need to blow our budget on only semi-useful high priced cards like Cavern of Souls.
•Herald of the Pantheon is here for obvious reasons. That cost reduction for all our Enchantment spells (including Enchantment Creatures!) is a godsend, and is one piece of what enables our ridiculous mid game combos. The incidental lifegain will help keep us afloat in the early game and essentially amounts to invincibility during the mid to late game. This stunning centaurette is a true all star in the build, a real M.V.E. (Most Valuable Equine).
Just a couple more pieces to get into play, and then the fun begins.
•I knew what I wanted to accomplish going into this build, but hit a roadblock early on. Cloudstone Curio was that Eureka! moment as I pondered ‘how do I repeatedly return an enchantment in play back to my hand…?’
•Tangleroot is…perilous, to say the least. It gives us a free mana whenever we play a creature, but it also does the same for our opponent. Quite the two-edged sword. But, what that recurrent mana will allow us to do far outweighs the risk; couple this with the cost reduction factor of Herald of the Pantheon and we can essentially cast any Enchantment/Enchantment Creature costing for free. Add in the aforementioned Cloudstone Curio so we can return to hand only to immediately recast those costed enchantments, and…I think you can see where this is going.
The trick to making this as viable as possible without handing our opponent a free win is to know when to play Tangleroot. Wait until you’re ready to combo off, then cast it. There’s no delay to reap its benefit so hang onto it until the time is right.
•Weaver of Harmony pulls double duty. It’s perfectly costed to get played for free once Herald of the Pantheon + Tangleroot are in play, so two of these (or one and a copy of Destiny Spinner) can be traded back and forth between the battlefield and your hand to trigger both of the following cards. In addition, actually using its ability will allow us to double dip on, say, Trial of Ambition for double forced sacrifices or Trial of Strength for more tokens.
•Setessan Champion is part tank, part draw engine. Each and every time you cast an Enchantment, stack a permanent +1/+1 counter on this already stacked babe and prepare to reap a windfall in card draws. Once our combo is up and running you can literally draw the whole deck in one turn if desired. Once she’s achieved her final form, just attach Cartouche of Strength and have her Trample your opponent into submission faster than they can say ‘Step on me, Mommy!’
•Grim Guardian is here for the lazy, effortless wincon. Merely playing Enchantments saps your opponent’s life energy. Once the combo is online, it’s game over man. Game over!
•Trial of Strength is very easily castable for free with just two Herald of the Pantheons (Heralds of the Pantheon?) and a Tangleroot in play (or two Tangleroots and one Herald of the Pantheon), so it’s basically free 4/2 beast tokens aplenty. While not technically part of the ‘free to cast’ combo section, Trial of Ambition is worth mentioning once more. You’ll have to pony up the , but it’ll otherwise work just fine with the basic strategy here so it can be abused to force your opponent to clear away some of the bothersome cardboard creatures on their side of the table.
•Cartouche of Strength was highlighted above, and to recap: once you buff Setessan Champion as much as your little heart delights, just attach this to her and attack for the win.
Shout out to Icbrgr for helping me with some CSS stuff, namely these beautiful panel blocks within panel blocks that would make Mandelbrot blush.
•Keep threats away as you buy time to set up the multiple combos with cards like Fog, Tamiyo's Safekeeping and Trial of Ambition.
•Deploy Herald of the Pantheon and Tangleroot for cost reduction and Destiny Spinner to pave the way for nearly everything to enter without harassment.
•Cast Cloudstone Curio to enable benching and recasting of our Creatures/Enchantments.
•With either Grim Guardian and/or Setessan Champion in play, cast Weaver of Harmony or Destiny Spinner and return one already in play to your hand with permission from Cloudstone Curio. Use the and boons from Herald of the Pantheon and Tangleroot to recast it immediately for free, repeating the same process over and over until either Grim Guardian has depleted the opponent’s life total or Setessan Champion has become all powerful. Go ahead and attach that Cartouche of Strength and push that damage through, like the cartouchebag you are.
Simple and effective stuff here, meant more to capture potential problems with a wide net than to pinpoint anything to specific.
•Natural State gets rid of a whole host of bugbears, as there are plenty of artifacts and enchantments out there that might prove troublesome. It’s cheaper than Naturalize and nearly as effective.
•Extirpate isn’t as good as Surgical Extraction but it does the same thing, it’s cheaper (monetarily speaking), and nearly as easy to cast. Banish those problems before they materialize!
•Pithing Needle is a great catch all. Not sure what you’re going up against? Doesn’t matter!
•Ratchet Bomb is another sideboard staple, and is significantly less expensive than Engineered Explosives.
”My dear one is to me like a fragrant bag of myrrh Spending the night between my breasts.”
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91% Casual
Competitive
Revision 1 See all
(1 day ago)
| +2 | Cartouche of Strength | main |
| -1 | Cloudstone Curio | main |
| +4 | Extirpate | side |
| +4 | Natural State | side |
| +3 | Pithing Needle | side |
| +4 | Ratchet Bomb | side |
| -1 | Trial of Strength | main |
| Top Ranked |
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| Date added | 2 days |
| Last updated | 1 day |
| Legality | This deck is Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 3 - 0 Mythic Rares 24 - 11 Rares 7 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 4 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.26 |
| Tokens | Beast 4/2 G |
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