Estrid's En-Stax-Ments
Commander / EDH Bracket 4 Enchant Enchantment GWU (Bant) Multiplayer Pillow Fort Prison Stax Tap/Untap
Lands (27)
- 1x Boseiju, Who Endures
- 1x Breeding Pool
- 1x Command Tower
- 1x Hall of Heliod's Generosity
-
1x
Hallowed Fountain
- 1x Hedge Maze
- 1x Lush Portico
- 1x Otawara, Soaring City
- 1x Sanctum of Eternity
- 1x Savannah
- 1x Serra's Sanctum
- 4x Snow-Covered Forest
- 2x Snow-Covered Island
-
3x
Snow-Covered Plains
- 1x Spara's Headquarters
- 1x Strip Mine
-
1x
Temple Garden
- 1x Tropical Island
- 1x Tundra
- 1x Valgavoth's Lair
- 1x Wasteland
Clone Club (5)
En-Stax-Ments (5)
WinCon 3 (3)
Other Cards (2)
Mana Dorks (11)
- 1x Arbor Elf
- 1x Birds of Paradise
- 1x Bloom Tender
- 1x Elvish Spirit Guide
- 1x Faeburrow Elder
- 1x Inquisitive Glimmer
- 1x Jukai Naturalist
- 1x Ley Weaver
- 1x Noble Hierarch
- 1x Pearl-Ear, Imperial Advisor
- 1x Sanctum Weaver
SearchNShuffle (9)
- 1x Chord of Calling
- 1x Enlightened Tutor
- 1x Finale of Devastation
- 1x Flooded Strand
- 1x Marsh Flats
- 1x Polluted Delta
- 1x Scalding Tarn
- 1x Windswept Heath
- 1x Worldly Tutor
Enchanters (8)
- 1x Argothian Enchantress
-
1x
Eidolon of Blossoms
- 1x Enchantress's Presence
- 1x Entity Tracker
- 1x Esper Sentinel
- 1x Setessan Champion
- 1x Sythis, Harvest's Hand
- 1x Verduran Enchantress
WinCon 1 (3)
Arti-Stax (2)
WinCon 2 (1)
Commander (1)
Enchanta-Ramp (10)
- 1x Abundant Growth
- 1x Dawn's Reflection
- 1x Fertile Ground
- 1x Freed from the Real
- 1x Market Festival
- 1x Nature's Embrace
- 1x Overgrowth
- 1x Utopia Sprawl
- 1x Wild Growth
- 1x Wolfwillow Haven
Removal Enchantments (6)
- 1x Buried in the Garden
- 1x Darksteel Mutation
- 1x Grasp of Fate
- 1x On Thin Ice
- 1x Ossification
- 1x Song of the Dryads
SolitaireSquad (5)
- 1x Destiny Spinner
- 1x Grand Abolisher
- 1x Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar
- 1x Ranger-Captain of Eos
- 1x Teferi, Time Raveler
Mass Removal (2)
Maybeboard
This is an upgrade of an old Karametra Enchantress deck, which in turn was based on the Karametra, God of Harvests enchantress deck seen on Game Nights #5. You can see the link here.
Like most Pillow fort/Enchantress deck our deck will be very good at not losing. Notice I didn't say we're not good at winning. We're trying to make ourselves difficult enough to attack that our opponents will ignore us and attack our other opponents. The longer the game goes the better the chances of our victory will become. Once we reach a critical mass of enchantments it'll be very difficult for our opponents to overcome our card advantage. Speaking of which, with the amount of ramp and card draw we have it's not impossible for us to win out of nowhere.
This is one of my oldest decks with many variations. If you don't see a card in the list check the "Strategy and Combo Graveyard" and "Primer Talking Points for Removed Cards". I don't go into why the cards were removed for the most part. This is to help people who want to look into my opinions and because I'm lazy and if I want to add something back I have the text already written.
The bread and butter of the deck. The card advantage these can produce can help you win the game out of nowhere.
- because of the wording of these cards have changed over time, and is sometimes a little confusing, I'm noting when we draw an if it's mandatory or not.
Argothian Enchantress - We draw off the casting the enchantment, and it's mandatory
Sythis, Harvest's Hand - We draw of the cast, and gain 1 life, both are mandatory.
Enchantress's Presence - We draw off the casting the enchantment, and it's mandatory
Entity Tracker - We draw when an enchantment (or room) comes into play and it's mandatory
Mesa Enchantress - We draw off the casting the enchantment and it is optional
Setessan Champion - We draw off the enchantment coming into play. The draw is mandatory and don't forget to add the +1/+1 counter
Satyr Enchanter - We draw off the casting the enchantment, and it is mandatory
Verduran Enchantress - We draw off the casting the enchantment and it is optional
Eidolon of Blossoms
- We draw off it coming into play and whenever and enchantment enters the battlefield and it is mandatory
Arbor Elf - When playing out our land auras we want to start with our Forest cards early so we can untap and make lots of mana. We also want to put auras on a Forest that can make so when Arbor Elf is enchanted with Freed from the Real we can make infinite mana. There's a reasonable arguement for putting Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth in our deck so this card can potentially untap any land. At this time it seems like a waste of a slot. First of all, Arbor Elf can only untap one land at a time. Secondly, we have enough Forests that getting one enchanted should be no problem in most games. Lastly, we're most likely going to be helping our opponents more than ourselves in most cases.
Bloom Tender, Faeburrow Elder & Sanctum Weaver - All can produce more than one mana with a single tap. When enchanted by a mask they produce an Abundance of mana when enchanted by a Mask in concert with Estrid, the Masked. Or infinite with Freed from the Real.
Elvish Spirit Guide - We want to play Lotus Petal but it's a non-bo with Stony Silence. We don't have the means to replay it in the deck, so this is the best replacement.
Inquisitive Glimmer & Jukai Naturalist - The main purpose is to reduce the cost of our enchantments and extend our plays. The secondary abilities are nice and can be relevant but they're not the selling feature. Glimmer has replaced Starfield Mystic. There are no rooms in the deck. However, the synergy of Glimmer being an enchantment in addition to a creature outweighs the value of the +1/+1 counters Starfield Mystic gets.
Pearl-Ear, Imperial Advisor - She's here more for her first ability more than her second. A little less than half of our enchantments are auras, more than half if we use our copy cards on auras, so with Affinity for Auras it's not improbable to get a two or three mana discount. Which would make all of our enchantments cost one or two. The way we want to play our cards it's unlikely we'll draw off the second ability much. If we do Yenna will almost certainly have to be involved. Lifelink is also nice to have.
Except for Sol Ring, we don't run mana rocks. The draws from our Enchantresses are just too valuable. With the a few exceptions, like Abundant Growth, we're looking to play auras which add mana when the land is tapped. Unlike auras like Gift of Paradise or New Horizons where we'd be locked down to producing a set amount of mana. Now imagine we're in a situation where we can only Gift of Paradise or New Horizons on the same land, we're stuck producing two mana. Now imagine the same situation and we attach Wild Growth and Fertile Ground on the same land. Now we're producing three mana.
Abundant Growth - Low cost mana fixing aura and even without an Enchantress in play it will replace itself. If for some reason you can't find an Abundant Growth Unbridled Growth, Nylea's Presence or even Urban Utopia are acceptable replacements.
Dawn's Reflection & Market Festival - Functionally the same cards. These are our huge mana producers and most importantly they produce mana in any combination of colours.
Fertile Ground - Costs two mana and adds an extra mana of any colour. Auto-include!
Freed from the Real - A key part of our wins with Thassa's Oracle and Triskaidekaphile. Putting it on a card which can produce and any other mana (Bloom Tender, Faeburrow Elder, Ley Weaver, & Sanctum Weaver) will make infinite mana that we can pour into Lore Weaver or Triskaidekaphile and draw ourt deck.
Nature's Embrace - What was said about the option to stack multiple auras on a single land...this is the exception that proves the rule. Yes, this locks to just two mana from said enchanted land. This card gives us the ability to enchant a creature as well. +2/+2 is nice but that's not the reason it's Estrid, the Masked. If Bloom Tender, Faeburrow Elder or Ley Weaver (which are the main targets) we can generate more mana and not take a turn off to 'Mask' them.
Overgrowth - Wild Growth's bigger brother. Try to choose a basic Plains so we can use Earthcraft & Sacred Mesa to produce infinite 1/1 flying horses and infinite green mana.
Utopia Sprawl - Enchanted land adds a blue, white or even a green when it becomes tapped, we're locked into this choice when Utopia Sprawl comes into play so think ahead. Also remember it has to enchant a Forest not necessarily a basic Forest. Utopia Sprawl can enchant: Savannah, Tropical Island, Breeding Pool or Temple Garden.
Wild Growth - The original and classic aura mana acceleration. Auto-include!
Wolfwillow Haven - An update on Fertile Ground from Theros: Beyond Death. A bit of give and take on this one. We're locked into producing just an extra and if that's where things ended it would just be a worse version of Wild Growth. However, the ability to make a 2/2 Wolf token in a pinch gives this aura, even at the kingly price of and only on our turn, just enough versatility to make the grade.
We want to focus on removal which targets our lands so Estrid, the Masked can untap our lands and make more mana. We're not exclusively on aura based removal but we do want to lean into them.
Remember not to be stingy with removal. We're playing at sorcery speed for the most part, Cyclonic Rift being the BIG exception. If there's something that is an issue that needs to be dealt with...deal with it because we likely won't get a better opportunity.
Buried in the Garden - This is first and foremost a removal card. At a CMC this is not a piece of ramp. Adding an extra mana is a nice bonus that works well with our main strategy. If the card didn't have both of these abilities it would be difficult to justify its place in the deck.
Darksteel Mutation - One of the questions we should be asking ourselves when building a deck. What's the best way to remove a Commander? The flaw with any removal is that the controller can just put it in the Command Zone and then replay it later. It doesn't matter if we destroy it, exile it or try to shuffle it into the deck, the game zone change allows the owner to return it to the COmmand Zone. A Commander enchanted with Darksteel Mutation keeps it in play. It takes away all its' abilities. Making the newly minted insect indestructible works in our favour because our opponent can't just chump block and put their Commander back in the Command Zone.
Grasp of Fate - Taking away one thing from each opponent is doubly satisfying. We're taking away each opponents biggest threat AND our opponents are gun shy about destroying this enchantment and letting the other players get their cards back.
On Thin Ice - This card is one of the reasons we're running so many basic lands (card:Back to Basics(USG) is another). One and remove a blocker is great in most decks. Also, being one cheaper than Darksteel Mutation can be relevant. If you believe Darksteel Mutation would fit better than card:On Thin Ice(MH1) that's fine. There are pros and cons both ways and came down on On Thin Ice.
Ossification - This is a broader On Thin Ice. Because it came out in a Standard set rather than a Modern set it can go on any basic land but costs . It's another way we can untap our lands with our Commander.
When writing this guide a search of 'ossification' revealed that this is a real term, not just a word made up for the game. It has two definitions which work incredibly well with the lore of Phyrexia and the flavour of the card. The first is 'the process of habits or ideas becoming fixed and unable to change'. The second is 'the process of becoming hard and changing to bone'. Both definitions come from the Cambridge Dictionary.
Song of the Dryads - One of the great things about Commander/EDH is building a strategy around a single card in a 100 card deck and the death of our Commander/General doesn't mean that strategy isn't dead in the water. With Song we're removing a creature's abilities and the body AND keeping it in play. In some decks, if not most, getting rid of a commander puts the brakes on the deck. They also don't have the option of putting the card back in the Command Zone. Song also gets rid of other problem creatures, Planeswalkers, bleaches the text off problem lands and well...any problem permanent. Enchantment removal is a little light in Commander so the card may just be stuck. If Song of the Dryads is targeted for removal we can Strip Mine or Wasteland our opponent's Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh.
Back to Basics - We play more basics largely because of this card. A well timed Back to Basics will keep most greedy mana bases tapped down while we continue to play mostly unhindered, a little like playing Winter Orb or Static Orb. For this reason prioritize putting land auras on basic lands.
Rhystic Study - Auto-include and a staple for just about all decks with blue in them. Never take it out. And get used to saying "Did you pay one for that?"
Sphere of Safety - As soon as we can cast this we want it in play and should be a priority for our tutors. This is the best way to protect our Commander and other Planeswalkers from being attacked. If Sphere of Safety ever becomes copied by Copy Enchantment, card:Estrid's Evocation and/or Mirrormade attacking becomes almost impossible.
Stasis - How to lose friends and alienate tables. This card can lock down boards and because of our Commander's first ability as long as we can keep untapping an enchanted blue source and keep the pain going. We should aim to play our card:Stasis(4ed) when our opponents are mostly tapped out for maximum effect.
Stony Silence - This only effects our Sol Ring, The Chain Veil & our treasure tokens. In return we shut down our oppenents' mana rocks, equipment, artifact lands and any of their artifacts' activated abilities.
We're focusing more on the Tax part of Stax and slow our opponents down to a crawl. We won't be working at 100% either but we should be able to function more than them.
Static Orb - Functions a little like Stasis in our deck. And like Stasis we want to pick a moment when our opponents are mostly tapped out and use our Commander and Garruk Wildspeaker to untap our lands as needed.
Winter Orb - With Estrid, the Masked and our other Planeswalker's ability to untap lands with auras, Winter Orb helps lock out our opponents without interrupting our play too much.
We're playing Blue, but not playing a bunch of Counterspells. To get the effect we're going for we'd dilute our enchantment too much. Since we're playing at sorcery speed by choice, why shouldn't everyone else be forced to play that way? Before going off we want to establish one of these so we can play without interruption.
Destiny Spinner - An interesting addition from Theros Beyond Death. It stops creatures AND enchantments from being countered. This is is a unique combination as before creatures with this type of ability would only stop creatures from being countered, like Gaea's Herald, or just one tribe, Root Sliver. When we want to go off the only path to victory Spinner doesn't protect is Approach of the Second Sun. This also comes with a not-to-be-underestimated bonus ability of changing a land into a creature with power and toughness equal to the number of enchantments we control. It also grants the lands haste and trample. A potentially game ending ability especially when we're generating a ton of mana.
Grand Abolisher - Locks out all spells and the abilities of most permanents. Generating a wide window to cast our spells. There are a lot of versions of art Big Score is best.
Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar - They just cut off opponents spells on our turns. They can keep using all abilities of their permanents. Short of help from our opponents the second ability is just flavour text, not that we attack often.
Teferi, Time Raveler - We're playing this mainly for static ability. The most Stifling version of this ability printed. The bane of all constructed players. All spells can only be cast at sorcery speed. Also denying abilities like Cascade. Cards like Knowledge Pool & Omen Machine will lock everyone else out. The +1 only works with Supreme Verdict, which isn't a bad thing. It's most helpful tokeep Teferi alive. That being said the -3 just drawing a card is powerful. Bouncing an artifact, creature or enchantment is great for tempo too.
One final thought on this group. There are other cards with similar abilities like Grand Abolisher. Conqueror's Flail is a non-bo with Stony Silence. The other two are Dosan the Falling Leaf & Myrel, Shield of Argive. What makes these two worth mentioning is that they're both humans. The same as Destiny Spinner & Grand Abolisher. Many of our enchantresses are also humans. There may be room for a Cavern of Souls to protect all of our creatures from Counterspells. Something to think about later.
Copy Enchantment - One of the great aspect of Commander/EDH is that it's a singleton format. Copy Enchantment, and its fellows, are wildcards. Allowing us to make a copy of one of our key enchantments or to make a copy of something interesting our opponents have played. What's better than one good card? Two good cards!
Estrid's Invocation -What's better than one enchantment? Why, it's two enchantments. This allows us to double up on any of our, removal, protection, card advantage and mana acceleration. Unlike Copy Enchantment we only get to pick from our enchantments, but makes up for this with an extra layer of flexibility with it's ability to blink in-and-out during our upkeep and choose something new. It also combos well with both Eidolon of Blossoms and Setessan Champion as they trigger when an enchantment comes into play. So blinking it during our upkeep, even if it's to copy the same enchantment, with one or both of these out will net us more cards.
Mirrormade - Feels like the offspring of Copy Artifact & Copy Enchantment. The same basic points said about Estrid's Invocation apply here. The more copies the better. With the extra added bonus of copying anyone's artifacts. To be fair, we'll likely be copying our opponent's artifacts more than our own.
Spark Double - What's better than one Estrid? Two Estrids! One small bonus with the copy, due to the the bonus loyalty it can be ticked up twice, use the ultimate ability and still have one loyalty left (instead of the original Estrid, the Masked which will go back to our Command zone). Spark Double can also double as one of our other Planeswalkers but our commander is the star of the show.
Enlightened Tutor - The easiest way to get a Stax piece or that missing part of a combo. There really is no reason not to play this card. Protip, in response to an Enchantress draw trigger you can cast this and choose which ever enchantment you'd like to draw.
Finale of Devastation - Can also double as a finisher.
Worldly Tutor - Helps get us our enchantresses out of our deck. As said with Eladamri's Call we likely want to get card:Argothian Enchantress(usg). That is unless we're ready to go for a crippling Words of Wind. In that case set a Eidolon of Blossoms or Setessan Champion on top. One more item to think about. In response to a draw trigger, like Enlightened Tutor, we can cast this card and control our draw. The list of cards is much smaller but it is an option.
Cyclonic Rift - Almost as prevalent as as Sol Ring in Commander. If you have one and your deck has blue mana there's really no reason not to play one in your deck. If you can't find one or can't afford one Evacuation is the next best thing.
Supreme Verdict - In days gone by we played a Selesnya Enchantress deck and this was a Wrath of God. Now that we have access to blue we've upgraded to an uncounterable board wipe with a small downside of not ignoring regeneration. Wrath of God, or even Planar Collapse, would still be good in our deck, either instead of Supreme Verdict or in addition to it if space can be. However, as regeneration becomes more and more marginalized to indestructible there's a very small risk to this choice.
Sol Ring because...do I really need to explain why a Commander/EDH deck needs a Sol Ring?
This is a little more anecdotal but there could be another reason to run non-artifact mana acceleration. I've noticed on TappedOut and my playgroup is people have a tendency to shave lands for mana rocks. Since we (in theory ) mulligan less and regularly have virtual card advantage at the beginning of the game...all things being equal.
Sterling Grove - A staple of our deck. There isn't a lot of enchantment removal in Commander/EDH and this just makes thing a little bit harder for our opponents to disrupt us. Teamed up a Mirrormade or Estrid's Invocation all our enchantments will have shroud. Sterling Grove has an extra bonus. Where we can sacrifice it and put an enchantment on top of our library. A nice consolation if it targeted by removal or we need to put something on top of our deck.
Boseiju, Who Endures & Otawara, Soaring City - First and foremost, these are uncounterable removal spells. They should be played as lands only when necessary.
Breeding Pool, Hallowed Fountain & Temple Garden - Shock lands. The best substitutes for dual lands, and much more affordable.
Command Tower - We're playing a Commander Deck with more than one colour. It's efficient, it's effective, it's available, moving on.
Flooded Strand, Marsh Flats, Misty Rainforest, Polluted Delta, Prismatic Vista & Windswept Heath - Our fetchlands. They'll smooth out our mana as well as thin our deck. We shouldn't be afraid to go for a basic land from time time when the need arises.
Savannah, Tropical Island & Tundra - Our dual lands. These are the best non-basics money can buy. For this reason they're just not in everyone's budget in which case just add more basics or the Amonkhet rare cycling lands.
Hall of Heliod's Generosity - A nice little piece of recursion courtesy of M20. An excellent way to bring back key enchantments that have been destroyed. If there's a bit of a mana glut this can also be used in response to an Enchantress trigger to control what we draw.
Sanctum of Eternity - Commander 19 potential infinite mana combo card combined with our numerous card draw engines BRING IT ON. It may be blasphemous to say but our deck draws enough cards that we cut our Horizon Canopy. To make infinite mana goes like this. When Sanctum of Eternity come out we can down tick our commander and put a mask on it. Then we'll need enough enchanted lands which produce for this land to replay our commander and at least one coloured mana. Rinse, repeat, for all the mana wanted. Playing this card as intended is also useful. We can also pick her up when she's low on loyalty. Maybe she's going to get run over by creatures or destroyed in the next turn cycle and recasting her the following turn is better than paying the Commander Tax. Or we can net more mana by recasting her again. Just remember this can only happen at sorcery speed and we're golden.
Serra's Sanctum - Speaking of adding a lot of mana with an aura and our Commander, this is one of the few non-basic lands that should be prioritized for an aura (either from our deck or from Estrid, the Masked's -2 ability). Not as famous as Tolarian Academy or as highly sought after as Gaea's Cradle make no mistake Serra's Sanctum can make an unbelievable amount of mana for us.
Spara's Headquarters - It's another dangerous comes into play tapped land with big upside. Ideally, we'll fetch this land out. Playing it on the first few turns is okay. When we're going off and have enough lands we can cycle it. It's never a land you want to play on turns 3-5.
Strip Mine & Wasteland - Sadly, these are necessary to deal with problem lands like Cabal Coffers or Gaea's Cradle. They're also reusable with Life from the Loam. If cost is an issue there are many options. Tectonic Edge is probably the next best option. And for the love of that's holy don't play Field of Ruin! EACH PLAYER gets to search for a basic land.
Valgavoth's Lair - Seems a bit weird and slavish to our theme. Why should we waste a land slot on a card that can only produce one colour which also comes into play tapped. In the early game this can become whatever colour we're missing. Along with that it has hexproof so our opponents can't cut us off one of our colours as we're trying tp develop our battlefield. Later in the game when we play it Eidolon of Blossoms, Entity Tracker and/or Setessan Champion can draw us a card each just for playing a land. We could also mill it and bring it back with Estrid's final ability.
** Establish your Engine **
The engine refers to the card-drawing machine that is our team of Enchantresses. Once one or two of these are in play we'll net cards for each enchantment played. The More enchantresses that are in play the lower the odds of running out of cards to play.
** A Steady Supply of Mana**
These parts can really be done in any order. Being aware and keeping them in mind as we start our game plan is important to success with our deck.
Back to the topic at hand. We have a draw engine now we want to keep casting enchantments and drawing more cards. Its now time forEstrid, the Masked to shine! We can go wide and untap all of our enchanted lands or put a mask on Serra's Sanctum to create a bounty of mana. Once we're ready to activate her ultimate ability it's not unlikely we could re-cast her and keep going. Our extra Planeswalkers act as back up Commanders. These allow us to do the best thing in Magic and draw more cards.
Build a Pillow Fort
Now that the cards are a-flowin' we need to protect ourselves and our Planeswalkers. We want to prioritize playing distractions like Ghostly Prison and Norn's Annex. When we have the combat phase sufficiently tied up we want to play our harder lock pieces like Winter Orb and Stasis. We can also use these kind of cards aggressively/oppourtunisticly. If our opponents get greedy and tap themselves down and we have a way to untap enchanted lands don't be afraid to windmill slam a Static Orb, or the like. An unexpected move like this puts us way ahead and all but stops the other players. It's not impossible that they may just give up. Which brings us nicely to the next section...
As mentioned above Enchantment Decks are very good at not losing and sometimes lacks in the "closing out games" department. These are the ways we'll be winning most of the time.
** Wincon 01 - An arbitrarily large number of squirrels or flying horses **
Earthcraft + Squirrel Nest or Earthcraft + Sacred Mesa - The combination of Earthcraft & Squirrel Nest is a classic two card infinite combo. I discovered a similar interaction with Sacred Mesa. As long as we can untap a basic land with an aura on it that makes and anything else we can create infinite Pegasai. If the land we're untapping a land with Dawn's Reflection or Market Festival we also generate infinite mana. Which allows us to have infinite **untapped ** pegasus tokens. We could also use Luminarch Ascension over Sacred Mesa, but Sacred Mesa doesn't need any setup. And let's be honest if we're making infinite creatures does it matter if they're 1/1 or 4/4. [Look's over to his opponent playing an Engineered Plague
- on a side note; there aren't any ways of giving our tokens haste. As such we'll have to brave our oppenents' the turns or cast our Nexus of Fate *list* so we can attack.
** if we do have to survive a round of our opponents also remember we'll only have 1 squirrel token untapped
**Wincon 02 - Approach of the Second Sun **
It's so unbelievable how quickly we can ramp up to . It's also surprising how quickly our opponents can lose track of how close ou Approach is to the top o our deck once it's been cast. In particular if we have a few draw effects or a Sylvan Library in play. (Incidently if Sylvan Library is in play use as much life as is safe to dig!) It's also not impossible to re-draw it with the amount of card draw we have in the deck.
**Wincon 03 -
Wincon 04 - Oops We Have No Library
Who doesn't like an alternate win condition. An Approach of the Second Sun win is relatively easy to pull off. We're just playing our game and 'hey, look we win'. These cards have a few more moving pieces required and there's more work to be done to pull these off.
Wincon 05 - Sadness
Finally, sadness. There's a love/hate relationship with magic players and stax strategies. People love to play them. People hat to play against them. With all of our hard and soft lock pieces it would not be unreasonable for our opponents to just scoop to a Stasis or Static Orb with an active Estrid, the Masked or just a Winter Orb.
Graveyard Removal - As stated many, many, times through this guide we always want to be trying to build up our graveyard. One way we could defend against this are cards like Leyline of Sanctity or we can get really specific answers like Ground Seal. The problem is the most popular graveyard hate are cards like Bojuka Bog, Leyline of the Void and Rest in Peace and they either take everything, grab everything as it leaves play or both.
Experience is probably the best solution. Knowing when to build, when to stop and know when you're about to have a big turn. Even with all if this in mind you're still gonna get got. When that happens take a deep breath, consider your options and move to plan b or c.
Time- another quality enchantress decks are known for I are just spinning our tires. We hide in our pillow for and hope to draw winning cards (Or "durdling" as the young folks say). As an enchantress player we're always working against a clock. We can mitigate this by mliganing for starting hands with at least one way to draw cards or some way of laying down the cushion in your pillow fort.
Calix, Destiny's Hand - Planeswalker for enchantment decks. It doesn't mean that it's good in every enmantment deck.
Invasion of Theros - The search is over costed and we're not attacking so that's all we're getting in most games.
The Bracket System was announced February 11, 2025 and not finalized. This area is under construction. The plan is to show this deck in it's ideal state and then make suggestions for card changes to fit into other brackets.
Under this new system this deck would currently be a Category 4 or 5.
Not really sure what to do. Estrid is a fringe player in CEDH. It's simpler, and cheaper, to do downgrades than upgrades.
The Deck as it is now.
Game Changers:
This is the hardest card to replace. There just aren't many lands that produce two or more . If you can afford it you'll never be taking it out.
No mass land destruction
Not a problem
No chaining extra turns
Not a problem
No two card infinite combos
Most of the infinite mana combos use Freed from the Real and require a third card. However, in the spirit of the casual and the fun of the bracket this card should go.
Possible Replacements:
No Game Changers
Enlightened Tutor Open the Armory can get us a piece of ramp or removal for just more. Idyllic Tutor will get you any enchantment you want for more.
If you can afford it you'll never be taking it out.
There are a whole host of instant speed blue mass removal. Evacuation is a good option.
card:Rystic Study
Something else which draws cards. We're not using the full suite of Enchantresses. So, Satyr Enchanter & Verduran Enchantress are options. Sylvan Library could also be a possibility.
Easiest replacement in this group, card:Labratory Maniac
Few Tutors:
This is pretty broad and what is few to one person (or play group) is too many for another. Moxfield is defining 'few' as three or less non-land tutors. This is the definition which will be used here until something more formal comes out.
Excluding Enlightened Tutor from the Game Changers we have:
According to the founding document of the format this is supposed to be a cool 'do the thing' part of the format. Where not trying to 'do a thing'. This is going to be all about how to keep the game plan of the deck in tact while also playing within the rules.
No mass land destruction and no extra turns
Not a problem
No two card infinite combos
Most of the infinite mana combos use Freed from the Real and require a third card. However, in the spirit of the casual and the fun of the bracket this card should go.
Possible Replacements:
No Game Changers
This is the hardest card to replace. There just aren't many lands that produce two or more .
There are a whole host of instant speed blue mass removal. Evacuation is a good option.
card:Rystic Study
Something else which draws cards. We're not using the full suite of Enchantresses. So, Mesa Enchantress & Verduran Enchantress are options. Sylvan Library could also be a possibility.
Easiest replacement in this group, card:Labratory Maniac
Few Tutors:
This is pretty broad and what is few to one person (or play group) is too many for another. Moxfield is defining 'few' as three or less non-land tutors. This is the definition which will be used here until something more formal comes out.
Excluding Enlightened Tutor from the Game Changers we have:
Like playing Estrid? Join us over on Discord .
Added this when a friend commented that we spend a lot of time just casting spells durdling and digging around. Aetherflux Reservoir transforms those empty spells into life, which, in turn, are turned into shots from our BFG (I may have just dated myself). Currently in out deck it's only searchable with Enlightened Tutor so it's likely we'll still be "durdling and digging around". Which is fine. We can build up our storm count and even if we only cast one or two spells after it's cast we'll be gaing mucho life.
Using Cloudstone Curio we can build our storm it to pod-ending levels using the steps described in the Other Artifacts section.
There are a few downsides for this card. card:Stoney Silence (MM3). We can pick up the card:Stoney Silence(MM3) with Words of Wind or we can also destroy it with Aura of Silence. There's also the option of clearing it out with Song of the Dryads. Bear in mind card:Stoney Silence(MM3) only affects the deal 50 part and we're still storming up life with its triggered ability.
We use Estrid, the Masked -1 ability and put a Mask Aura on The Chain Veil. We can then activate The Chain Veil to untap it and all of our enchanted lands. There are a few options from here.
We can Estrid, the Masked to an arbitrarily large amount of loyalty put all of the enchantments from our deck on to the battlefield. At this point there's not really anything our opponents can do to win. We stop milling ourselves with Nexus of Fate *list*. There are other cards that can fill this spot: Gaea's Blessing, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or Kozilek, Butcher of Truth depending on the budget of the deck.
02/20/2025 - Sad day. The Chain Veil is the reason I wanted the Estrid Precon. Just outgrew it.
Enchanted Evening + Aura Thief - When Aura Thief kicks the bucket we'll steal all of our opponents' stuff. High Market & Faith Healer will help.
Enchanted Evening + Ajani's Chosen - Every Card played equals a 2/2 cat including the 2/2 cats. Have an Altar of Dementia or like card to with the game on the spot.
Enchanted Evening + Calming Verse - We destroy all of our opponent's boards. We can also use Cleansing Meditation, however in my testing it's actually pretty hard to get to and hold threshold, compared to tapping out and floating mana. Getting all the ETB triggers wasn't worth it. Also, if you're feeling lucky Spring Cleaning is another option.
Enchanted Evening + Serra's Sanctum - 1 permanent we control = 1
Enchanted Evening + Eidolon of Blossoms or Setessan Champion - Any permanent we play draws us a card.
Update 01/29/2020 - Not a huge surprise but this strategy was too much risk not enough reward. I'm glad I took a risk and it failed. There was just too much graveyard hate to make this viable. Not to say this was a complete waste. Search for Azcanta and Life from the Loam will stay for the time being. I do believe that this could be a decent in the future with a little more thought or new cards. For now self-mill will be in the strategy graveyard.
These cards are in our deck for two, technically three, reasons. To make our Estrid, the Masked ultimates bigger and better and to give us empty library wins with Jace, Wielder of Mysteries & Laboratory Maniac. Needless to say we have to be careful how much we commit to the plan because graveyard elimination is plentiful in healthy playgroups.
Chronic Flooding - We'll be putting Chronic Flooding on one of our lands to send more cards to our graveyard and we'll get another land that untaps with our Commanders +2
Search for Azcanta
- I'm not saying that drawing extra cards is bad but we'll be able to surveil every turn and once it becomes Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin
it will become an uncounterable way to draw and another target for Estrid, the Masked's -1. It will also help us find and recast Approach of the Second Sun.
Life from the Loam - Now that we're dumping cards into our graveyard we can take advantage and return lands to our lands and continue to fill the yard. We can play out our extra lands with the help of Burgeoning & Exploration.
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries & Laboratory Maniac
These will add two more alternate wincons. With the number of cards we draw we can certainly make these happen. Removing Sterling Grove may sound like a counter intuitive move, but the ultimate goal is to add as many cards to our graveyard as possible so if a few of our cards go from the battlefield to the graveyard there isn't a huge loss.
This new aspect of our deck is one big risk vs. reward. The reward is huge but cards like Bojuka Bog just ruin our day. Leyline of Sanctity protects us from this and other targeted effects. Cards like Tormod's Crypt and Relic of Progenitus are checked by our Stony Silence. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void until after the fact.
Life from the Loam is also another option, but for the moment it's not individually powerful inside our normal strategy so it's on a second wave improvements list.
Tamiyo, Collector of Tales is already in our deck and will also help support this strategy.
card:Cloudstone Curio(rav) - This can be used in two ways. The first is:
Step One - Have either any Enchantress I play.
Step Two - Play an enchantment to trigger the Cloudstone Curio.
Step Three - in an ideal situation we'll be targeting a one mana land enchantment, like Wild Growth. We'll tap the land Wild Growth is enchanting and then pick up the aura, drawing a card from our Enchantress.
Step Four - Then we repeat this process cycling through our cards and netting mana. Casting any relevant cards.
We can also take advantage of the bouncing to reset our removal enchantments, our copy cards or Cumulative Upkeep cards.
Scroll down to Wincon 06 for Curio's other use.
One other issue. There have been some people who believe Curio and Carpet of Flowers are an infinite mana combo. Sadly, it doesn't work that way. We can make some extra mana but that's about it. Carpet only makes mana at the beginning of a chosen main phase (see Scryfall ). But, we can add mana main phase one, pick up Carpet of Flowers replay it and get more mana on main phase two.
Have a big turn and make a bunch in one shot or assemble an army of 4/4 angel tokens over the course of the game. These lovely ladies can quickly close out a game. In combination with Copy Enchantment, Estrid's Invocation and/or Mirrormade we'll close things out even faster with two, three or even four Angels with every enchantment cast.
With the addition of Cloudstone Curio we can replay our low cost enchantments for Angel's and draws.
The most obvious is: Solemnity + Decree of Silence - Our opponents can never cast spells again.
Solemnity + Naked Singularity or Reality Twist if we want to really screw with our opponents mana an never have to pay the cumulative upkeep.
Solemnity + Phyrexian Unlife - We can't die to damage. If Phyrexian Unlife goes after we start taking poison we'll die instantly.
Solemnity + Delaying Shield or Force Bubble - Like Phyrexian Unlife we can't die to damage and if we lose the Solemnity we won't die outright.
Solemnity + Lost Auramancers - It immediately dies and we get to search for any enchantment in our deck. The poor man's Academy Rector. a Solemnity + Mystic Remora - A better Rhystic Study as long as there's a Solemnity in play.
Solemnity then play a Dark Depths - An uncountable 20/20 flying indestructible that can be flashed in with Crop Rotation
Solemnity + Elephant Grass - may not be necessary with Ghostly Prison and/or Propaganda. If there are a lot of black creatures in your meta you may want to consider it.
Solemnity + Glacial Chasm - Turtle up and wait for the opportunity to strike.
Solemnity + Celestial Convergence - Can be an instant win...if we or it lasts until the beginning of our next upkeep and only if we have the most life.
Solemnity + Divine Intervention - Now the whole game was pointless or we all win(?)!
When work began on this I had no idea how in depth I would go on (or how much of windbag I am) about Words of Wind and its strategies. For this reason it's getting its own accordion section.
Here's the the ideal interaction:
Words of Wind + Utopia Sprawl or Wild Growth + Eidolon of Blossoms - Bounce as many of our opponent's permanents while we cast and bounce the same aura as many times as we have untapped lands. Works a little like Cyclonic Rift in that respect.
This is how we want the combo to work, with either Eidolon of Blossoms or Setessan Champion.
Step 1: Get our draw engine and Words of Wind on to the battle.
Step 2: Cast Wild Growth. Use it to enchant any untapped land.
Step 3: We get a trigger from our draw engine. We tap the land enchanted by Wild Growth giving us & .
Step 4: Use the to activate Words of Wind, negating our draw and choose the Wild Growth we just played to our return to our hand. Our opponents will return a permanent they control of their to their hand.
Step 5: Use the floating to re-cast Wild Growth on an untapped land.
Step 6: Repeat Steps 2-5 until we're out of untapped lands. We may be able to continue the chain with our Planeswalkers or if we have creatures, Earthcraft and our enabler on a basic land.
Wild Growth could also be Utopia Sprawl, we'd just be limited to the number of untapped Forest type lands. Unless, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove had made all of our lands all basic land types.
If we have either Herald of the Pantheon or Starfield Mystic the number of land auras expands to include: Fertile Ground, Wolfwillow Haven & Overgrowth.
If we get the enviable position of having both Herald of the Pantheon & Starfield Mystic in play we can add our big auras, Dawn's Reflection & Market Festival along with Verdant Havento the list of cards we can loop.
The first time we execute this plan it will annoy our opponents, but they'll still have hope they can get out of this situation. The second time we do this they'll most likely scoop.
There can be some resilient players who can generate infinite, or near infinite, tokens and won't go quietly. Aetherflux Reservoir added to this strategy will allow us to build storm-count and our life total and fire from the Death Star.
If a player goes to infinite life and even with no permanents just refuses to give up and believes we'll mill out before they do kindly remind them we're playing Words of Wind and we can stubbornly refuse to draw and we have Nexus of Fate. This deck should never be milled out.
Also, Words of Wind doesn't have to be a finisher there's plenty of utility to be had.
We can use it to pick up any of our Removal Enchantments (Grasp of Fate, Imprisoned in the Moon, On Thin Ice & Song of the Dryads) and deploy them against newer worse threats or protect one of our own creatures before we use our Supreme Verdict or get ready for an opponent's Cyclonic Rift they've returned from the graveyard.
Another cheeky thing we can do with this setup...add another Enchantress to the mix. Now, we're tempo-ing our opponents and drawing a card all for .
In order to get the "right" enchantress to make this strategy work we need to be playing enough creature tutors. Worldly Tutor, Green Sun's Zenith & Eladamri's Call will work as wild cards. And don't forget, Enlightened Tutor,Idyllic Tutor or even Sterling Grove can also get our Eidolon of Blossoms.
There's also side benefits to just running out Words of Wind. There are times when drawing cards can be a bad thing. This card can be used to stop us from milling ourselves out. It also stops certain group slug effects, Nekusar, the Mindrazer.
08/17/2020 - After much thought, work, and poking & prodding from my friends the Words of Wind strategy back into the deck. This section has been greatly expanded (more than I thought would need to be said). I've been gold fishing and I'm mostly happy with this and I hope that I won't be just undoing this.
01/10/2019 - Theros Beyond Death has gifted us another enchantress, Setessan Champion, which draws when an enchantment enters the battlefield. Words of Wind combo will be tried again, but it will likely be just as clunky as before.
10/09/2018 - Removed Words of Wind as it only worked the way we wanted to with Eidolon of Blossoms and Wild Growth. All other Enchantresses draw from the trigger and was very clunky and severely limited with Utopia Sprawl.
These are the text for cards which have been swapped out. They're here for general information and in case they're added back in I can just copy and past. I didn't think to do this from the beginning of this deck. Thus, cards removed early on weren't saved.
Academy Rector - Our lady is on the Reserve List and keeps creeping up in price it can do a reasonable impression of a Moat because as soon as she drop all of a sudden our opponents don't want to attack us on the ground. Our deck doesn't have any haymakers, like Omniscience so when she dies we'll most likely going for combo pieces, Sphere of Safety or a copy effect, either Copy Enchantment or Estrid's Invocation depending on the board state. If you can't find this amazing card Lost Auramancers is the best budget replacement.
Aura of Silence - Is a two-for-one card, as it taxes JUST our opponents, and can be sacrificed to remove a problem artifact or enchantment. We also have the ability to recur it with the help of our Commander, Replenish or Hall of Heliod's Generosity. This is a card that's been printed several times but if you can find it Seal of Cleansing or Seal of Primordium are decent substitutes.
Authority of the Consuls - We're trying to lock-off our opponents where we can. This card turns off any haste shenanigans and also helps to pad our life. This can also check any opponents who believes creating infinite creature tokens is a good idea.
Blind Obedience - Another way for us to stop our opponents from just running us over with hastey creatures. It also opens us up to deal chip damage with Extort. Cloudstone Curio will help with chaining those chips together.
Bountiful Promenade & Rejuvenating Springs These have pushed out our Buddy Lands (Glacial Fortress, Sunpetal Grove & Hinterland Harbor) from our deck. There are rare occasions early on where buddy lands will be coming into play tapped, but early on we'll always have multiple opponents and more often than not we win in one big push so we'll also have opponents in the late game.
Burgeoning - Works in a similar manner to Exploration except we get an extra land drop every time one of our opponents play a land. Burgeoning is at its best when it's in our opening hand along with a lot of lands or when our Life from the Loam engine is going.
Looking at the change log it becomes apparent Burgeoning goes in and out of deck like a house cat. In my opinion it's the lesser of Exploration. Without a card that gives us a larger or unlimited maximum hand size when we go through a turn of chaining enchantments and drawing cards when we go to discard lands are going to be one of the first things we discard. We can pick them up later with the afore mentioned Life from the Loam. "What about Reliquary Tower ?" can be heard on the wind. The bottom line is we're a three colour deck playing an above average number of basics. We simply cannot add a land that doesn't produce at least one of our colours. Reliquary Tower 's effect is just too narrow.
Canopy Vista & Prairie Stream - Tango lands in most decks will come into play tapped. For us it isn't unreasonable that they don't.
Drannith Magistrate - Oh what a gift we've been given. Locking out our opponents' Commanders and their creatures from anywhere they might be coming from. It's a bit early but this might be a new staple for white EDH decks.
Dryad Arbor - The constant companion of Green Sun's Zenith. For those not in the know on turn one we can Zenith for and search this out, becoming ramp and a blocker. This is the biggest reason this card is here. It also works with the always useful Earthcraft, tapping one land to untap one of our enchanted lands.
Dryad of the Ilysian Grove - Might be overselling this guy but it fits perfectly into our deck. It's an enchantment so we'll get a draw from our Enchantresses. When we're drawing extra cards we'll be able to play an extra land. Finally, with the higher number of basic lands we'll have perfect mana if we're missing an actual colour.
Eladamri's Call - Solid creature search. We usually want to grab an Enchantress (Argothian Enchantress is the best choice as she's the only one, to date, who protects herself. Even though this costs the ability to cast it at instant speed AND put our choice right into hand is a huge effect. This could be a Worldly Tutor though it doesn't quite work as well as Enlightened Tutor draw trigger trick. In that case we have an Enchantress draw effect and whether we need another is situational. Also, we aren't running many utility creatures so we don't need as many creature searches.
Exploration - Whether it's early in the game or picked up while we're casting a bunch of enchantments in one turn Exploration is always a welcome sight. Early in the game it helps to accelerate us and later it helps us extend our plays and stops us from sending more lands to the graveyard. Much like Burgeoning it work well in combination with Life from the Loam.
Garruk Wildspeaker - The greatest hunter in the multiverse functions both offensively, untapping our lands and playing more cards, and defensively, creating a 3/3 beast token to protect our Planeswalkers and our life total. The ultimate isn't irrelevant but it's not factor most of the time. Unlike Estrid, the Masked we can untap any lands we please. Remember this when Serra's Sanctum enter the battlefield.
Ghostly Prison - Who stays there's nothing good in Kamigawa block. A colour shift of the classic pillow fort card Propaganda its job is to make make attacks just inconvenient enough not to attack us and send quite a few attackers our opponent's way. We only want either Ghostly Prison or Propaganda as it will only protect us from attacks. Not our Commander and not our other Planeswalkers.
Green Sun's Zenith - Another way for us to find our green creatures. The priority like with our instant speed spells we're looking for one of our enablers. Argothian Enchantress is a good first get because its built in shroud. If we're ready for Words of Wind we should go for Eidolon of Blossoms or Setessan Champion.
Humility - Another card to help us fumble around and slow down the amount of damage that we and our Planeswalkers take. Combined with any of our attack-taxing cards make the combat step all but fruitless for our opponents. We should be aiming to play this card when we're going for an card:Earthcraft(TMP) infinite token win as we'll only have one untapped squirrel or Pegasus to block. We can also play it to help preserve our life from an opponent whose gotten off to a very fast start or is threatening to kill us with an attack on their next turn. card:Humility(TMP) has the added benefit of stopping ETB effects and any blinking decks dead in their tracks. Of course if there's any Voltron players at the table they may just shake your hand. Humility doesn't do anything about +1/+1 counters, auras or equipment.
Horizon Canopy - When enchantresses aren't enough this land will replace itself. Not sure if the new Canopy lands will be added. Green and white are our primary colours and we really don't need that much more draw. For that reason Waterlogged Grove won't be coming into the deck and Horizon Canopy is likely the next land on the chopping block when something better comes along.
Idyllic Tutor - Search for any enchantment needed and place it in to hand. Some give and take compared with Enlightened Tutor but should be played in any enchantment based deck. It was thankfully re-printed in Theros Beyond Death. So if this has out of your budget your wait is over. If you still can't get one, or you feel that you need more search, Plea for Guidance is the best option. It may also just be better overall depending on how greedy you are. That being said more mana for one more enchantment might be just too much depending on your meta.
Imprisoned in the Moon - One of the great things about Commander/EDH is building a strategy around a single card in a 100 card deck and the death of our Commander/General doesn't mean that strategy isn't dead in the water. With Imprisoned in the Moon we're removing a creature's abilities and the body AND keeping it in play. In some decks, if not most, getting rid of a commander puts the brakes on the deck. They also don't have the option of putting the card back in the Command Zone. card:Imprisoned in the Moon(EMN) also gets rid of other problem creatures and Planeswalkers and bleaches the text off problem lands. Enchantment removal is a little light in Commander so the card may just be stuck. If card:Imprisoned in the Moon(EMN) is targeted for removal we can Strip Mine or Wasteland our opponent's Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh.
Land Tax - Just don't call it ramp, because its not. As we pull out the basic land(s) from our deck so we're more likely to get the cards we need. It'll also give us lands which can be untapped when Back to Basics in play and allow us to cast On Thin Ice. Finally, we can only combo with Earthcraft with basic lands. Get aggressive with this card. There are plenty of ways to play multiple lands in a turn. Many of our opponents will be ramping. Should we have to discard a few Life from the Loam will put them back in our hand. In super corner cases it also balances out the bad luck of a bad mulligan.
Life from the Loam - Helping our Commander's ultimate and gathering our used fetchlands for re-use, lands turned over and sacrificed by Lotus Field. Life from the Loam keeps our hand full, dropping lands and even accelerating us with the help of either [[card:]Dryad of the Ilysian Grove]] or Exploration.
Lotus Field - With the addition of Life from the Loam to our deck and the single word 'hexproof' on this card Lotus Field has the potential to add a lot of mana with the addition of an aura and our Commander.
Karmic Justice - Solid rattlesnake card which should dissuade our opponents from destroying our non-creature permanents (which is most of our deck). A couple of things. Karmic Justice doesn't work against effects that make us sacrifice or exile. It will trigger when it's destroyed, so long as an opponent destroys it. It will also destroy permanents equal to the number destroyed even if it was a single spell. For example if Tranquility destroys eight of our enchantments we'll get to destroy eight of the casters permanents.
Nexus of Fate *list* - The price of the card finally came down enough to be affordable. It serves a duel function of giving us an extra turn every now and then. It also combos with our The Chain Veil to stop us from milling out (and with a little planning we may also end up with infinite turns when we do this). It's also not as dead a card when we draw it, like with Kozilek, Butcher of Truth or Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. It also doesn't shuffle our entire graveyard back into the deck which may not sound like a big improvement except consider when we're just using Estrid, the Masked's ultimate ability on its and we turn over one of the Eldrazi Titans or even a card like Gaea's Blessing we lose all of the value currently in the graveyard and all the effort and resources we may've spent getting her to that point.
Oath of Teferi - Another piece to help us close out the game. Allowing us to untap lands multiple times with Garruk Wildspeaker, Estrid, the Masked & Teferi, Temporal Archmage. It's also quicker to set off our Commander's ultimate, and potentially sticking around. Like with Estrid's Invocation it combos well with Eidolon of Blossoms if we flicker out one of our enchantments we can get an extra card at the end of turn. All of that being said Oath of Teferi is a win more and pulls our curve up. This would be an easy cut at some point in the future.
pro-tip when I get Oath of Teferi on the battlefield with multiple Planeswalkers I turn them to the tapped position when I've used them once and upside down when they've been used twice. We can take long turns at this point of the game and we want everything to be clear and fair to our opponents.
Norn's Annex - Another layer to the pillow fort which helps protect Estrid, the Masked and our other Planeswalkers. This one makes our opponents pay in blood not mana. It is easier to beat than Ghostly Prison, especially if we're playing opponents with laying around. AND most players will have some spare life to pay. On the other hand we can play this as early as turn 2. Plus, a tax is still a tax. This card plays well with Mirrormade when the need arises.
Obscuring Haze - The new surprise fog from Commander 2020 gives us a way to protect ourselves and our Planeswalkers. If Estrid is in play it costs nothing. If Teferi's Protection is out of your price range this might be the next best thing.
Replenish - Sometimes the game doesn't go our way and we need to pull everything back at once. A slightly riskier strategy with the number of card draws is to discard enchantments after a big turn and pull them back with this, or an Estrid, the Masked ultimate. There was an Open the Vaults in the deck but with the additions of Spark Double and Tamiyo, Collector of Tales it just cost too much and was redundant. Replenish is on the Reserve List and will continue to creep up in value so if price is an issue Open the Vaults is a more than acceptable substitute. Stay away from
Resurgent Belief! It sends up a great big flare to our opponents to either exile our graveyard or get a Counterspell ready in two turns.
Rising Waters - The "fair" version of Winter Orb. With Estrid, the Masked
and our other planeswalker's ability to untap lands, preferably ones with auras, Rising Waters helps lock out our opponents without interrupting our play too much.
Root Maze - Playing very few artifacts pays off again! Played early it will stifle the development of our opponents who are playing greedy mana bases that expect to chain mana rocks together. Later on it combos well Winter Orb, Static Orb and Stasis.
Smothering Tithe - Another way to tax our opponents and hard. Don't underestimate the ability to generate extra bits of mana every turn, especially in the early game. Our opponents can also help us out with their Rhystic Study and Consecrated Sphinx like cards. It may also give them second thoughts on casting Windfall or Winds of Change and anything that makes our opponents second guess themselves is a good thing.
Swords to Plowshares - When it positively, absolutely has to go. The life gain isn't important as when we're winning in combat we're doing by a mile and not an inch.
Tamiyo, Collector of Tales - The static ability is a solid bonus. The no discard is nice in the face of wheels. The no sacrifice clause is also nice but doesn't come up quite as much. The -3 is nice to recover something in the graveyard. The +1 isn't there to search for something (though we should be naming something we ACTUALLY need) it's to help fill our graveyard and make bigger ultimates for our Commander. Use with discretion.
Teferi's Protection - Oh, what an addition this has been! The ability to literally phase-out for a turn gives us the opportunity to miss a game winning play and give us one last chance to win, most likely against only one person. Since we play mostly at sorcery speed this will most likely come as a surprise. There's no real substitute for this card.
Teferi, Temporal Archmage - Like with our Commander and Garruk Wildspeaker Teferi, Temporal Archmage is primarily here to untap our lands, up to four at a time, with with his down tick. Sometimes we just need another card and we'll +1 in combination with Enlightened Tutor or Hall of Heliod's Generosity. His ultimate may as well not be there as it doesn't really advance our strategy.
Verdant Haven - The life gain is nice and we're able to produce a mana of any colour. In reality it works just like Gift of Paradise but with the option of adding more auras on that land at a later time.
Suggestions
Updates Add
Comments
Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!
Important! Formatting tips — Comment Tutorial — markdown syntax
Please login to comment
Casual
95% Competitive
| Date added | 6 years |
| Last updated | 11 hours |
| Exclude colors | BR |
| Key combos | |
| Legality | This deck is Commander / EDH legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 4 - 0 Mythic Rares 57 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons |
| Cards | 100 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.60 |
| Tokens | Copy Clone, Human 2/2 G, Mask, Pegasus 1/1 W, Squirrel 1/1 G, Wolf 2/2 G |
| Folders | Deck ideas, Estrid, Cool Decks that Inspire Me, Estrid's En-Stax-Ments, EDH, Enchantress Ideas |
| Votes | |
| Ignored suggestions | |
| Shared with | |
| Views |