MTG Salvation

Hello all!

I originally started off making an enchantment-based EDH deck around Gaddock Teeg (original thread here), but switched to Angus Mackenzie for two reasons. One, Teeg tends to draw a *lot* of hate, even when you aren't actually playing him, and two, blue offers a bunch of very interesting tactical options that straight G/W doesn't have. Without further adieu, here's the list:


The goal of the deck is to remain low-profile, playing mostly defensive enchantments and creatures which discourage aggression against you, letting the other players duke it out until you get one of your win conditions on the board. Said win conditions include Sigil of the Empty Throne, Luminarch Ascension, and shrouded/trollshrouded creatures doped up to the eyes with the powerful auras in the deck.

Fun synergies:

• Argothian Enchantress, Verduran Enchantress, and Enchantress's Presence with all the enchantments in the deck
• All the various draw mechanisms with Solitary Confinement
• Empyrial Archangel with the various means of putting Auras onto the field without casting them (Wargate, Sovereigns of Lost Alara, Academy Rector, Open the Vaults, Replenish, Copy Enchantment, Sun Titan)
• Clone and Spitting Image killing off generals

EDIT: I've now made several updates to the deck. Here's the new version:

Some changes I made:

• Dropped Spirit of the Hearth for Imperial Mask
• Dropped Mark of Asylum for Moat
• Saffi Eriksdotter and Dauntless Escort underwhelmed me each time I played them, so I dropped them for Lignify and Akroma's Memorial. Lignify in particular I included as a removal solution in case my opponent had Iona out naming white.
• Decided I didn't need quite as many trollshroud creatures, so I dropped Drove of Elves and added in Iona, Shield of Emeria. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
• Worldly Tutor got replaced by the almost-strictly-better Eladamri's Call
• Dropped Angelic Renewal for Idyllic Tutor

EDIT AGAIN:
I've made a few more changes to the deck which have made it much stronger. The latest decklist:



Changes:

• I replaced Iona, Shield of Emeria with Stormtide Leviathan. Mostly, I found that Iona was getting Briberied/stolen other ways too often, and an Iona naming white is really hard for me to get around. The Leviathan, on the other hand, doesn't hurt my deck nearly much if it's used against me, and dovetails into the other prison strategies I run quite nicely.
• Continuing my trend of dropping all non-shroud/utility creatures in the deck, Knight of the Reliquary went away in favor of Aura Shards. Despite the relative dearth of creatures I have, the Shards is still a mindbogglingly useful card, and is hilarious when combined with things like Rite of Replication.
• Also unimpressive was Mirrorweave. Since it was occupying the rotating try-a-card slot in my deck, I replaced it with my latest toy, Mimic Vat. In other news, the rotating try-a-card slot is gone -- I'm in love with the Vat, and will henceforth put one in every EDH deck I every build ever. Repeatedly copying creatures that have gone to the graveyard is just way too much fun.
• After having Daybreak Coronet sit dead in my hand one too many times, I replaced it with Cho-Manno's Blessing. Instant-speed pro-color can really come in handy when you're trying to protect one of your few creatures.
• In the Eye of Chaos, while cute, was too dead against any non-blue deck. I replaced it with the third enchantment-based Mask effect, Ivory Mask, since such effects are amazing in multiplayer games and don't suck in 1v1.
• I got ahold of a Kor Haven as a vaguely budget Maze of Ith replacement. Dropped a Sejiri Steppe for it, since I no longer had Knight of the Reliquary to benefit from the Steppe.
• Same for a Mystifying Maze. Dropped a basic for it.
• I dropped Genesis for Karmic Guide, on the theory that since I have relatively few, powerful creatures, it was better to be able to reanimate one of my bombs than to take 3 mana each turn returning stuff to my hand.
• Verduran Enchantress, while nice, doesn't have shroud. It generally didn't survive long enough to do any good. I dropped it and added in Land Tax.
• I got my hot, grubby little hands on an actual Savannah. It replaced a Plains as a straight-up upgrade.
• Same thing with a Breeding Pool and an Temple Garden.
• I realized I was flooding a bit too much, so I dropped the land count down to 35. I put the following cards in instead of land:
• Rite of Replication. Why the Rite? When looking through the "fun EDH stories" thread here on MTGS, I noticed that about half of them started with "So I kicked a Rite of Replication..."
• Wrath of God, because every white deck needs one.
• Honden of Seeing Winds as a good source of card draw that interacts quite well with Solitary Confinement.
• Diplomatic Immunity as a last-minute protect-my-creature spell that has shroud itself.

Any comments or suggestions?

Clone is always fine but in an enchantress based deck I would take Dance of Many. Sure it has an upkeep but, a lot of time, Clone nukes a general for 4. Dance does it for 2 and you draw a card.

For lockdown, you might look into Crackdown and Mana Maze. Granted both you have to play around, but both are great at hosing your opponents. Mana Maze is the easier one for your deck as you run three colors. Against combo and mono-colored decks, it's pretty sweet.

How about...

Mesa Enchantress - another way to keep drawing cards from playing enchantments.

Agree on Dance of the Many, especially for your purposes of instant general death. Definitely faster to cast and can save you from some of the quick-beater problem generals out there.

City of Solitude also needs a spot in this deck - it at least forces out counters and bounce...and if that doesn't happen you can continue to have fun recurring and playing enchantments unmolested. Also Dosan the Falling Leaf for the same effect.

Another fun, and hilariously mean, thing to do is to play Words of Wind. With exploration and some draw effects you can go totally nuts (esp with serra's sanctum.....) and also bounce all sorts of permanents all over the place...if you've got two draw effects you can go infinite. It's also just plain good when you're going to draw a bunch of cards and might not want to draw them.

Good point on Dance of Many -- I'll sub that card in first chance I get. I especially like that I can do fun things like recur it with Sun Titan.

I'm not sure about City of Solitude, Crackdown, and Mana Maze, though. They all seem like lockdown cards that make people want to kill me without actually giving me a whole lot of resilience in return. Ideally, lockdown cards in this deck will be one-sided -- they'll impede other players' ability to hurt me, while leaving them completely free to hurt one another. Suppression Field is one of the few exceptions I've made to this rule, as it stops so many infinite combos.

EDIT:
Interesting. I hadn't thought of Words of Wind playing the same function Cloudstone Curio does in combo elf decks...

If you can swing the cash...Moat is another great card here. Granted, it's still uber expensive even though it's not necessarily played that much...but if you can get your hands on one it is mildly hilarious.

Indestructibility is also a random jank card that is crazy hilarious with Emyperial Archangel as you suddenly have an indestructible damage sponge. You can toss this on with Sovereigns of Lost Alara.

War Tax is another interesting way to get good propaganda effects depends on the types of decks you'll face.

I might also take a look at Arrest. I personally like prison term better, but it might have a place somewhere.

Quote from coandco

I'm not sure about City of Solitude, Crackdown, and Mana Maze, though. They all seem like lockdown cards that make people want to kill me without actually giving me a whole lot of resilience in return. Ideally, lockdown cards in this deck will be one-sided -- they'll impede other players' ability to hurt me, while leaving them completely free to hurt one another. Suppression Field is one of the few exceptions I've made to this rule, as it stops so many infinite combos.

Really? I always thought City of Solitude was a really good card to play at the table, especially if there are some "blue mages" and "not blue mages." Maybe I've been around different table politics....or just that I'm about the only one that seems to be able to play blue without having a deck that ends up being created by the thought "well control...20 counters and 2 win cons should work...go." (Yeah, hardly anyone I play with seems to really grasp the concept of control...)

I look at it as a better in the eyes of chaos personally.

Quote from coandco

EDIT:
Interesting. I hadn't thought of Words of Wind playing the same function Cloudstone Curio does in combo elf decks...

Yup, exactly. And what's worse is that it totally bones your opponents and you can keep going all day. It's a little hidden favorite of mine in my legacy enchantress deck that catches people off-guard in a major, major way.

However, this might be too hard to assemble in the typical EDH deck.

Quote from Ubershaum

If you can swing the cash...Moat is another great card here. Granted, it's still uber expensive even though it's not necessarily played that much...but if you can get your hands on one it is mildly hilarious.

I actually do own a Moat, and had it in the deck at one point. I ended up taking it out because I don't have many good fliers, and the effect is symmetrical.

Indestructibility is also a random jank card that is crazy hilarious with Emyperial Archangel as you suddenly have an indestructible damage sponge. You can toss this on with Sovereigns of Lost Alara.

Indeed. That's what I currently use Shield of the Oversoul for, although I suppose having more than one copy of that kind of effect wouldn't hurt. Not sure what I'd drop for it, though.

War Tax is another interesting way to get good propaganda effects depends on the types of decks you'll face.

I might also take a look at Arrest. I personally like prison term better, but it might have a place somewhere.

Hmm. I think I'd rather run Faith's Fetters over Arrest, given the increased flexibility of "enchant permanent" instead of "enchant creature". The extra mana is negligible, and gaining 4 life doesn't hurt.

Really? I always thought City of Solitude was a really good card to play at the table, especially if there are some "blue mages" and "not blue mages." Maybe I've been around different table politics....or just that I'm about the only one that seems to be able to play blue without having a deck that ends up being created by the thought "well control...20 counters and 2 win cons should work...go." (Yeah, hardly anyone I play with seems to really grasp the concept of control...)

I look at it as a better in the eye of chaos personally.

Oh, good point. Didn't think about it that way. I have a City of Solitude sitting around, so I'll throw it in next time I play the deck in a multiplayer setting and see how it does.

EDIT:
Speaking of all these good cards, what do people think are the weakest/most droppable cards in the deck?

Stuff I might take out...
This one really sticks out to me like a sore thumb.
daybreak coronet. It's good. You also don't have enough auras to be able to use it much of the time.

I'm not sure I'd play Leyline of Anticipation and In the Eye of Chaos - for purposes of this deck...especially if you want to run City of Solitude and Dosan the Falling leaf.

Spirit of the Hearth - why not just play ivory mask? Just fits this deck so much better...

Empyrial Archangel - it's cool, you can play games with sovereigns...I'm not sure it will be a useful thing to play considering the mana cost and the synergy you might have with other cards in the deck.

Cards I'd add or at least consider that haven't been mentioned before
words of Worship - especially if you get more than 1 draw effect out, being able to gain silly amounts of life is great. Especially if you can keep playing enchantments or....see cloudstone curio and words of wind.
Cloudstone curio - way to draw lots of cards pretty easily but you're missing a lot of the fun 1cc enchantments that let this get silly broken (e.g. wild growth, exploration).
elephant grass - stops black decks cold, another propaganda effect...and you can just recur the sucker.
Ivory Mask - gives you shroud and it's not on a stick like spirit of the hearth or true believer.
Spiritual Asylum - good way to protect your card drawing engine until it's time to wipe out the board. Protecting serra's sanctum from wasteland and strip mine seems nice too!
Idyllic Tutor - sure it's a sorcery..shoot me. It also sticks the card in your hand.
Eldrazi Conscription - seems like one of the better cards if you're going to play around with sovereigns...except...sovereigns might not really be what the doctor ordered in this deck.
Fountain Watch - more enchantment shroud, also for your artifacts...
Crystal shard - protection for your dudes for U. Oh, and you can just abuse the snot out of eternal witness, Seht's Tiger...auramancer...monk idealist
Mystic Remora - depending on who you play with this is rhystic study on steroids.

random likely won't fit, but funny.
Cleansing Meditation - wrecks all enchantments...but yours come right back...and you get all new comes into play effects too...
Femeref Enchantress - pretty nice piece of don't hate on me. also fun if you can just recur things with sun titan, eternal witness, etc.
second sunrise - helps with tranquility.
Yavimaya Enchantress - non-shrouded beatstick in this deck.

clone wont kill general if you copy a general the copy just gets sacraficed

Quote from (N->)90°-(E-N²W)90°

clone wont kill general if you copy a general the copy just gets sacrificed

That's incorrect. It used to be the case, but the official EDH committee changed it so that generals now only have regular legendary, not "superlegendary".

Speaking of which, I've once more put Clone back in my deck in place of Dance of Many. The thing that Clone has going for it that the enchantment version doesn't is a lack of targeting. With Clone, I can drop it naming my opponent's Uril, the Miststalker and kill it, or do the same against a general suited up with Lightning Greaves. Dance of Many, on the other hand, requires you to target the creature you're copying, so it's significantly less flexible as a kill spell.

EDIT:
Recent changes I've made to the deck include adding Mystic Remora, Eldrazi Conscription, and Ivory Mask, and Mystical Tutor. I also traded Worldly Tutor out for the almost-strictly-better Eladamri's Call.

Can you update your decklist?

I've been taking an interest in EDH lately, but the format is still kind of hard to keep straight.

Also, the statement about:
"Worldly Tutor out for the almost-strictly-better Eladamri's Call"

When would worldly tutor be better?

Quote from Seneschul

Can you update your decklist?

Decklist is now updated in the main post, along with a list of changes.

I've been taking an interest in EDH lately, but the format is still kind of hard to keep straight.

Also, the statement about:
"Worldly Tutor out for the almost-strictly-better Eladamri's Call"

When would worldly tutor be better?

Well, to say that something's "strictly" better, you have to adhere to a fairly rigorous set of standards. In this case, the culprit is the manacost -- WG instead of G. The extra color of mana limits which decks it can go in, and the CMC is technically higher. However, neither consideration means much to a W/G EDH deck.

I've now made significant updates to the main list, and the deck as a whole is *much* stronger now. I've put card-choice explanations after the updated list in the original post.

Some of the new synergies:

• Abundance with Sylvan Library equals three cards a turn, with no downside, and each of those cards can be land or nonland as you please.
• Karmic Guide often dovetails nicely with Solitary Confinement. There have been several times when I've discarded a fatty to the Confinement, only to reanimate it with the Guide.

I'm also considering Forcefield for the deck, but haven't decided whether it's worth the $50 pricetag.

Thoughts on the updated deck?