Anatomy of the Deck
The core of the deck consists of the following:4 Argothian Enchantress
4 Enchantress's Presence
4 Sterling Grove
2-3 Solitary Confinement
2-3 Replenish
These provide the deck with a draw engine that's difficult to disrupt. Argothian Enchantress dodges Swords to Plowshares, the most common removal in the format by having Shroud and most decks have at most 4 enchantment removal slots against Enchantress's Presence. With more than 1/2 of the deck being enchantments, these 8 enchantresses provide immense card advantage if they resolve. Remember card advantage wins games?
Sterling Grove gives you the ability to tutor for silver bullets that turn the game around. Although strong, the tutor ability is not the true reason why it is such an integral part of the deck. Often overlooked is the ability to sacrificially provide protection from removal for up to 60% of your cards. In a world with several decks playing Qasali Pridemage main and Krosan Grip and/or Trygon Predator in the sideboard, Sterling Grove is more treasured for the Shroud ability it grants other enchantments. This ability culminates when 2 Sterling Grove are on the field, effectively making all non-land permanents untargetable.
Solitary Confinement that is arguably the most powerful enchantment in the deck. Although Solitary Confinement requires that you skip your draw phase, you almost get Protection from Everything. With 2 Enchantress effects on board and at least 1 enchantment in hand, this basically spells gg as you'll draw into more enchantments and lands that you can discard to sustain the Confinement lock. Most of the time, setting up the Confinement lock nabs you the win as few decks have answers to it, especially with Sterling Grove protection.
And to add on to the block of obvious statements that about cards with obvious effects, Replenish is just plain broken in a deck choke-full of enchantments. Need I say more?
Since the Enchantress effects cost 2 or 3 mana, it takes some time for the engine to set up and rev. In order to survive until you resolve an Enchantress effect, some disruption is needed.
2-4 Elephant Grass
1-2 Runed Halo
1 Moat/Humility
1-3 Oblivion Ring
0-1 Lignify
Elephant Grass is a cheap cheap Propaganda that surprisingly acts as a Light of Day for only 1 mana, although it's funny why a patch of grass can terrorize and prevent evil dark critters from approaching you. To add on to the protection package, Runed Halo counters 4 Tarmogoyf in your opponent's NO Bant, Madness Survival, Tarmo-folk, Goyf-Sligh, Dredge-a-Goyf, Belcher-goyf, Dooms-a-Goyf, 43-land + 4 Goyf.dec, and of course, Enchant-Goyf.dec. Oh, and sometimes you can name Progenitus if Natural Order resolves, or if you do not have an Elephant Grass.
To most aggro decks like Goblins and Merfolk, a resolved Moat usually means gg. With 4 Sterling Grove, finding the singleton Moat is not that difficult. Humility is often considered as a budget substitute to Moat but it is hard to justify using a card that shuts down 4 of your Argothian Enchantress. About the only situation where Humility is superior to Moat is when your opponent is playing with an Emrakul.
Oblivion Ring is the obvious catch-all to all threats, although it is probably best saved for nasty stuff like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and other non-creatures which Enchantress has problems dealing with. And if your opponent Reanimate an Iona, Shield of Emeria and named white and you do not draw the singletone Karakas? Hope you draw the Lignify or tutor it up in advance!
And the deck wins with:
1-2 Sigil of the Empty Throne
Sacred Mesa
Luminarch Ascension
Words of War
Words of Wind
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Expect at least 1 Sigil of the Empty Throne in every Enchantress decklist. Apart from a Confinement lock, this is by far the most efficient real kill condition as you just need to make a 5-mana down payment. The rest is just to do what you want to do – cast spells.
Sacred Mesa is usually the 2nd win condition of choice as Enchantress can afford to pay lots of mana in the late game. The tokens double function as chump blockers and also work well under both Moat and Humility. Although the 4 turns Luminarch Ascension needs to activate may seem like an eternity, it is often possible to achieve that when playing against slow control decks such as Landstill, making it a decent card if you expect to play several control matchups.
With a splash of red, Words of War gives you a blazing fast win condition with 2 or more Enchantress effects. Early on in the game, it serves as an additional way to kill small creatures, especially with an Argothian Enchantress/Enchantress's Presence. It also incidentally prevents you from decking due to drawing your whole deck which occasionally occurs when you get to 3 or more Enchantress effects. That stated, there are people who do not like using it.
For those who are uncomfortable not playing with blue, the blue splash with Words of Wind gives a nostalgic throwback to the days where Capsize roams and your opponents end up with an empty board. Some players even opt to add a single Cloud of Faeries to generate infinite mana to fuel an arbitrary large Stroke of Genius. This is often overkill and is considered kinky at best, susceptible to removal at worst.
Lastly, Emrakul of the I Win LOLs just win games if you can cast him/her/it. One of the few decks that can cast it reliably in the end game is Enchantress.
And that is made possible by having the manabase of:
4 Windswept Heath
1-4 Savannah
2 Serra's Sanctum
2-4 Wild Growth
2-4 Utopia Sprawl
0-2 Exploration
0-1 Taiga
0-1 Tropical Island
0-2 Chrome Mox/Lotus Petal/Elvish Spirit Guide
With 4 on color fetchlands and at least 1 dual to fetch out, having a green mana on the first turn for Wild Growth/Utopia Sprawl is almost always possible. Taiga and Tropical Island support the light splash for Words of War/Words of Wind and one-shot mana acceleration allows a first turn Argothian. 2 Serra's Sanctum allow an explosive burst in the late game to Sigil of the Empty Throne and the above mentioned Emrakul.
Here's the only Enchantress list that posted a top finish in Star City Games Open Series.
Enchantress – Winner Los Angeles SCG 3rd January 2010 – Christopher Lou
6 Forest
4 Plains
2 Horizon Canopy
2 Savannah
4 Windswept Heath
2 Serra's Sanctum
3 Chrome Mox
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Wild Growth
Disruption (16)
2 City of Solitude
4 Elephant Grass
1 Moat
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Runed Halo
2 Solitary Confinement
4 Sterling Grove
Win (2)
2 Sigil of the Empty Throne
Others (11)
4 Argothian Enchantress
4 Enchantress's Presence
1 Enlightened Tutor
2 Replenish
Sideboard (15)
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Choke
2 Runed Halo
4 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Replenish
An important note to net deckers: do not try to blindly copy lists as Enchantress decks are often adapted to suit the metagame. The above decklist demonstrated that Chirstopher Lou expected quite to play against quite a lot of blue control decks with 2 main deck City of Solitude. 2 Choke and the 3rd Replenish in the sideboard provided extra hate against blue decks packing counterspells. Christopher Lou was proven correct as he played against a total of 4 blue decks (Elves, Belcher, Goblins, Mono Black Control, counter-top goyf, and 3 Bant decks). He lost the only round to Belcher, a traditional weakness of Enchantress.
Moral of the story: Play Enchantress if you expect Bant and blue based decks. Don't play Enchantress if you expect combo and Belcher in your metagame.
How the deck works
Step 1) Resolve Argothian Enchantress/Enchantress's PresenceStep 2) Play spells, draw cards, don't get killed
Step 3) Set up a lock with Solitary Confinement
Step 4) Win with a Serra's Sanctum fueled Sigil of the Empty Throne
It is of utmost importance to get an Enchantress effect going asap. Without it, your Solitary Confinement mean nothing, your Moat is hard to find, your 4 Elephant Grass isn't quite effective against 5/6 Tarmogoyf, your 2 Runed Halo doesn't protect you from Exalted creatures, and you have only 1 Oblivion Ring. Take relief in that you have 8 Enchantress effects and will often draw a hand of 7 with 1 such effect.
It is still justifiable to keep hands without an Enchantress effect provided you can chain multiple Elephant Grass to help slow down the damage. The chances of you drawing into 1 of the 8 cards within the next 3 draws is surprisingly high.
Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl on turn 1 gives you 3 mana on turn 2 for Enchantress's Presence or Argothian Enchantress with protection from Daze. I do not really like the idea of using Chrome Mox for acceleration as the card disadvantage puts more emphasis on getting the first Enchantress effect resolved. Against piloters of blue decks who know about this matchup, that's rather unlikely to happen. When this happens, you'll be down to 3 cards on the play or 4 cards on the draw and the chances of you having a 2nd Enchantress effect is not very high. Can you survive with the 3 or 4 cards until you draw the 2nd Enchantress, cast it, resolve it, play other enchantments, and draw and cast more disruption pieces? I'm not too optimistic on that proposition.
After resolving an Enchantress, the next step in the game plan is almost always to get another down and get a Solitary Confinement on the board. Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl are effectively free spells as they get you a card and a mana back after they resolve. It is also common to play all sorts of enchantments into counterspells as this still gives you card advantage with the Enchantress effect on board and draws you closer to that game breaking Replenish.
Some players use Sterling Grove aggressively for this purpose by fetching out Enchantress's Presence, Solitary Confinement, or Moat while players like me prefer to save Sterling Grove for Qasali Pridemage and Krosan Grip, especially in sideboarded games. If you prefer to fetch out your Moat, a faster way to get that into your hand is to play a random enchantment and respond to that draw trigger by sacrificing the Sterling Grove.
Another tip is to play your lands at the very last moment, as you are likely to draw into Serra's Sanctum which gives you immense amounts of mana and almost always allows you to empty your hand. I also tend to fetch forests or name green with Utopia Sprawl as you'll have all the white mana you need with a single Serra's Sanctum activation.
Sometimes, Enchantress can go aggro by casting a fast Sigil of the Empty Throne and several cheap enchantments. However, you will almost always resolve Sigil of the Empty Throne in the late game. A small detail here is not to pass priority after Sigil resolves in order to play another enchantment immediately for an immediate 4/4 angel.
Sideboard
Players that do well with Enchantress usually have a keen sense of what matchups to expect and this shows up in their sideboard. The sideboard varies quite a lot according to the metagame but they involve these usual suspects:Leyline of Sanctity
Wheel of Sun and Moon
Ground Seal
City of Solitude
Choke
Aura of Silence
Seal of Primordium/Seal of Cleansing
Karmic Justice
Sacred Ground
Circle of Protection: Red
Sphere of Law
Blood Moon
The new Leyline of Sanctity provides a much needed fast protection against combo decks. It is perhaps the only way for Enchantress to interact meaningfully with combo decks that aim to win turns 1-3, as Enchantress lacks discard, counterspells, and Chalice of the Void. In the late game, it surpasses Orim's Chant and Silence as it is still relevant as an castable enchantment that is useful against burn. However, the right number is probably not 4 as you give up useful slots that can be dedicated to other matchups.
Against graveyard based decks such as Dredge and Loam based decks, Wheel of Sun and Moon and Ground Seal can lock up these decks quite efficiently. Targeted enchantment removal such as Nature's Claim is warded off by Sterling Grove protection which buys you time to land a Confinement lock or Sigil of the Empty Throne.
Against decks playing islands, Choke and City of Solitude comes in to counter counterspells. Choke is more useful against mana hungry control decks like Landstill but not decks packing a low mana curve and Noble Hierarch. City of Solitude surprisingly works well against decks with Counterbalance as it is an effective bait to help you resolve your engine pieces.
Against Stax, Seal of Primordium/Seal of Cleansing or Aura of Silence if you have them come in to randomly destroy their artifact and enchantment lock pieces. White Stax will be quite hesitant to cast Armageddon when Karmic Justice or even Sacred Ground is on board.
Circle of Protection: Red and Sphere of Law has always been good silver bullets against Goblins if Elephant Grass is not enough. Blood Moon sometimes surprises opponents when sideboarded in the red build.
How to Win Enchantress
Look at Enchantress's manabase. Most likely you'll see 20 lands out of which 2 are Serra's Sanctum. This gives it 18 lands that can tap for mana on the first turn. Although there are up to 8 spells that ramp her mana, these are land enchantments and depend on the land being there. When you further consider that her engine pieces cost 2 and 3 mana, it is quite possible to delay her engine from landing for some time while you advance your game plan. Cards such as Lands and Goblins' Rishadan Port work well to lock down Enchantress's mana given that the deck works at sorcery speed. Outright land destruction such as White Stax's Armageddon does a notch better. To add insult to injury, the worst that can happen to Enchantress is probably Smallpox or Death Cloud with an Argothian Enchantress on the field. Good luck recovering from the loss of Argothian, land, Wild Growth, and card in hand after a Smallpox!If you're playing blue, you should almost always counter the first Enchantress effect they play. Either that or have a plan to remove that Enchantress from the field asap. With just a single Enchantress on the field, your Counterspell becomes a 1 for 0 and your Force of Will becomes a 2 for 0. If you're able to do that and beat with a fast clock in the meantime, the game is likely to be yours.
To add on, my Enchantress build went 50-50 in my testing against Counter-top NO Bant with 4 Spell Pierce, 2 Qasali Pridemage, 2 Trygon Predator, and 3 Krosan Grip. The games that Enchantress lost were due to mana problems (lacking white mana) or having my first Enchantress effect countered coupled with fast beats.
Budget Enchantress
Enchantress seems like quite an easy deck to budgetize as these are the only cards that cost more than $10, ranked in terms of cost:1) 1 Moat
2) 1 Savannah
3) 4 Windswept Heath
4) 4 Argothian Enchantress
In an environment with 8 proxies, the deck is definitely cheap to build and run as you need only to get 2 real copies from the list. For those less fortunate to be in such an environment, I must emphasize that you must be able to commit to all of the above apart from Moat before you pick up this deck.
It is fairly obvious that you cannot scrimp on the cheapest and only untargetable Enchantress effect in Magic: The Gathering that constitutes half of your engine. Less obvious is the need for 4 fetchlands and at least 1 Savannah. Apart from Shocklands, there's no effective replacement for these 5 cards due to the fact that Utopia Sprawl is an Enchant Forest. You need a high number of forests just for Utopia Sprawl together with the ability to get white mana out by at least turn 3 for Oblivion Ring (double white for Runed Halo). Utopia Sprawl is your main mechanism for achieving that and all other replacements (e.g. Fertile Ground) costs 2 mana you should spend on Argothian Enchantress or Sterling Grove.
For those who cannot afford that, and for those who want to try a non-control-combo build, Rise of the Eldrazi brought us Kor Spiritdancer to replace Argothian Enchantress. Although you will not draw cards off regular enchantments such as Oblivion Ring, you still get the regular card advantage from Wild Growth and Canopy Cover gives it some form of insurance against Swords to Plowshares. Auratog and Rancor gives this build dynamite that can be supplemented with Spirit Loop that helps win races. Even dorks like Yavimaya Enchantress and Aura Gnarlid become much larger than Tarmogoyf as the game proceeds. Although there's no guarantee that an aggro-combo build is going to win tournaments, it sure will be a lot of fun playing it.
Further Reading
MTG The Source Enchantress Thread
Hybridize the standard Kor Spiritdancer list and the casual Two Ladies list for an aggro Enchantress Tweet this!
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