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White Out Week

Welcome back to Anything But!  This week I get back on track and continue to look at the individual colors and what they have to offer the world of enchantments.  For those who may have forgotten we've already covered black and red by using Sanguine Bond and Braid of Fire to, rather successfully, beat up on opponents.  Now it may not surprise anyone out there, but white is perhaps the best color as far as enchantment power is concerned.  The only color that keeps white on it's toes is green and that is mostly due to the wide array of enchantresses that are available.  When you put the two together you get a lot of fun and powerful things such as Glare of Subdual and Sterling Grove.  There were also quite a few instances in TSP Block where some of the powerful green cards turned white and vice versa.  Verduran Enchantress became Mesa Enchantress and Seal of Cleansing became Seal of Primordium.  But that's another article, today we're going to look at white enchantments.

There have been quite a few decks that passed through the Classic and Extended tournament scenes.  Astral Slide was used in combination with Lightning Rift to draw and burn down opponents in no time.  Another popular deck used Solitary Confinement in addition to Enduring Ideal and Form of the Dragon to lock out an opponent and burn them down.  Here are a few other white enchantments that you may be familiar with...

A lot of decks use things such as Circle of Protection: Red or Sphere of Law in their sideboards in order to contend with the array of mono-red goblin decks, not to mention Aura of Silence.  Several of these have also been used as key lock down cards such as Rule of Law or Humility and even others have seen quite a lot of use in Tribal decks that use white.  Things such as Shared Triumph, Circle of Solace, or even Rolling Stones have been staples to tribal decks throughout the ages of Magic.  Not to mention the large number of pumping enchantments (Call to Arms, Crusade, Day of Destiny, Divine Sacrament, Gerrard's Battle Cry, Glorious Anthem, Honor of the Pure, Light from Within, Leyline of the Meek, Lumithread Field).  You could pretty much just go on and on about each enchantment that white offers because almost all of them have seen play at some point.  Sacred Ground is one of the best answers out there for land destruction.  Sacred Mesa was a real staple of the classic White Weenie decks during the time of its release.  Guilty Conscience can be used with Stuffy Doll in order to create a damage loop and Barren Glory has tantalized any number of creative players who were dying to make it work.

Like I said I could just keep going because there are soooo many possibilities for decks that capitalize on white enchantments.  I, however, am going to go in a rather predictable direction.  The enchantment I'm going to feature is a newer one that would be a lord if enchantments were creatures.  Not to mention it is used in any number of Legacy or Classic-ish decks that have the Urza block available to them for the best enchantress ever.  This card?

Yep, like I said perhaps a predictable one, but it is too good to resist, especially when you're writing an article that is focusing on enchantments.  So my idea?  Well first off this allows me to bring back my newest love affair and old friend...

I just can't help it.  Now the one thing you have to realize about a mono-white deck is that over the ages of Magic, Wizards have provided us with removal and even land fetch in the form of an enchantment.  All we're missing is heavy card draw (which we probably won't see because that is blue's territory) and tutor abilities (that would be black's territory mostly), but some of these flaws can be fixed with other white cards that aren't enchantments.  The color really becomes quite the tool box and makes you wonder what else you could need.  Here's what I mean.  You need removal for your deck?  Covered.

Thanks to recent sets and the addition of Oblivion Ring and Journey to Nowhere we now have creature control in a form that will help us by triggering out Sigil of the Empty Throne.  Also between the Oblivion Rings and Seal of Cleansings, enemy artifacts and enchantments aren't a problem.  However, the downside of Seal of Cleansing, no matter how much I want it, is that you can't really find it.  Since it is originally from Nemesis we only have it online in the form of a preconstructed deck you have to buy from the Wizards store.  Sure it's only $1.50 from MTGOTraders, but if you ever see it in stock there let me know.  I'll just have to replace it with its counterpart, Disenchant.  Ok so you need land fetch?  Covered.

Look at that.  We have an early drop, it fetches us land, AND it triggers Sigil of the Empty Throne for only one white mana.  Wow.  Now we don't have card draw, tutors, or recursion in the form of enchantments, but guess what?  White has that covered.

What else could you need?  So I'm looking at these cards and thinking that I want to be creature light.  I can add some control in the form of Moat and Ghostly Prison in addition to the removal I already have to keep myself alive while I build up some angels.  Sure this can get a little fragile if I lost the Luminarch Ascensions and Sigil of the Empty Thrones, but I'll add Greater Auramancy to protect them and just hope that by adding them in sets of three will help out a little.  Ok so here is what I'm thinking...

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There isn't much left to cover about this deck.  I added Karakas as a bit more creature control.  My initial concerns fall in line with all the creature control.  I even added Runed Halo to keep the player safe until they get their angels online, but this all maybe a bit much.  When trying to put together a deck that really showcases white enchantments it's sometimes hard to avoid falling in the trap of adding too many enchantments in order to really cover everything.  In doing so you often times hurt the deck.  In my last few decks (Mono Black Sanguine Bond, Mono Red Braid of Fire, and Ext Enchantments using Doubling Season) I managed to keep a small amount of enchantments, but at the same time maximize their effect.  So this may change as the games go on, but we'll see how things go.

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The first two games I played I went 2 - 0, however the replays didn't get saved for whatever reason.  The first deck was a 100 card deck that went down to an earlier Luminarch Ascension and Sigil of the Empty Throne off of Land Tax.  The second was a win over a green deck that used any number of mana elves and Slith Predators in addition to instant pumps that got shut down by two Runed Halos and two Ghostly Prisons that stalled until I got Sigil of the Empty Throne online.

Game 1
Opponent: palided
Deck Type: GWU Shroud Stuff

Opening Hand:

This is a mediocre hand, but that'll change quickly once I get a few more lands.  My opponent makes his first move on turn 2 with Silhana Ledgewalker and then plays a Slippery Bogle on turn 3.  I start to slow things down with a turn 4 Ghostly Prison.  The Silhana Ledgewalker continues to slowly beat and I play a Luminarch Ascension turn 6.  This kind of forces my opponent to pay the 2 mana in order to attack and slow the Luminarch Ascension.  By turn 7 I still have only three land, but draw a Land Tax.  In an attempt to keep me mana screwed my opponent casts Oblivion Ring removing the Land Tax, but I get it back at the end of his turn thanks to Disenchant.  Things move faster from here as I fetch out three Plains and cast a Lost Auramancers.  I get more land when my opponent removes the Lost Auramancers using Path to Exile at the end of my turn.  Then on turn 8 my opponent casts Sovereigns of Lost Alara, which will be trouble fast.  Luckily I have two Oblivion Rings and two Journey to Nowheres in hand.  With all my extra land I now stop my opponent's attacks cold with Moat and remove the Sovereigns of Lost Alara using a Journey to Nowhere.  All my opponent can do to bring it back is cast a Echoing Truth, but I recast the Journey to Nowhere next turn as well as a new Lost Auramancers, which also gets removed with a Path to Exile.  Turn 11 comes and I cast a second Luminarch Ascension and now have three Oblivion Rings as well as a Journey to Nowhere in hand, things are looking pretty good.  My opponent takes his turn, but when he can't do damage the first Luminarch Ascension reaches four counters.  With eight lands open I would create four angel tokens, but my opponent realizes its over and concedes.

Winner: JustSin
Record: 1 - 0

Game 2
Opponent: windycity
Deck Type: Goblins

Opening Hand:

Ok so this is usually not a hand you'd expect to keep.  Difference is that I'm on the draw so unless my opponent wants to mana screw himself as well I can get it to trigger right away.  This game only lasted four turns so I'll break it down for you.

Turn 1
WC: Mountain
Sin: Plains, Land Tax

Turn 2
WC: Great Furnace, Goblin Piledriver
Sin: Land Tax triggers, Plains, Runed Halo naming Goblin Piledriver, discarding Luminarch Ascension at end of turn (No point in holding it when a fast deck like goblins can do damage early.  Also the Mine Excavation in hand leaves me the opportunity to get it back later when its safer).

Turn 3
WC: Blinkmoth Nexus, Mogg War Marshal, Goblin Sledder
Sin: Land Tax triggers, Plains, Ghostly Prison, discarding two Plains at end of turn

Turn 4
WC: Sacrifices Mogg War Marshal to Goblin Sledder instead of paying echo, Forgotten Cave, pays 2 and attacks with Goblin Sledder sacrificing Goblin Piledriver to make it 3/3 (17 life)
Sin: Land Tax triggers, Plains, Moat... windycity concedes...

Playing Moat against a deck without any enchantment removal or flying creatures is pretty much an auto win.  Had windycity not conceded we would have played till I got my Sigil of the Empty Throne and the whole time my opponent would just watch.  It's like solitaire at that point.

Winner: JustSin
Record: 2 - 0

Game 3
Opponent: troutman44
Deck Type: Esper Something

Opening Hand:

On my opponent's turn 1 he plays an Island and bounces it for Mistvein Borderpost followed by a turn 2 Telepathy.  On my turn 3 I play Oblivion Ring targeting Mistvein Borderpost because I don't care if he sees my hand.  I'd rather drop him to one mana.  On turn 4 I drop Mesa Enchantress and a Land Tax, which draws me another Plains.  Turn 5 I drop a Oblivion Ring in order to remove the Telepathy, but my opponent concedes.

Winner: JustSin
Record: 3 - 0

I really don't get this.  I guess I would understand if he conceded to me removing his Mistvein Borderpost, but it seems more that he had a big issue with Oblivion Ring.  I guess its as unfair as Planeswalkers.......

Game 4
Opponent: Okidus
Deck Type: UWg Counter Control

Opening Hand:

This was one of those really annoying games.  Heavy Counterspells on top of more counters really isn't my idea of fun.  The opening hand seemed like a great one since I had a turn 2 Luminarch Ascension available to me.  Not to mention I draw a second Flagstones of Trokair.  My opponent plays Peek during my turn 2 and follows it with Meddling Mage on his turn picking Oblivion Ring.  Goody.  On turn 4 I can finally make another play since I had to wait on my Flagstones of Trokair fetch and play Ghostly Prison thinking that its not as important in this game as Runed Halo would be, but this is met by Mana Leak.  Then he follows by bouncing his Tropical Island and Island in order to play Gush.  I try to play a blocker with Lost Auramancers, but after it hits the field it is met with Swords to Plowshares and a second Peek.  On turn 6 I have four Plains and try to cast Greater Auramancy thinking that I can return it using Mine Excavation if it gets countered.  Luckily my opponent only has one land and his response is a Brainstorm followed by a second Gush.  On my next turn I cast Runed Halo, but it's countered with Remand so I have to replay it and choose Meddling Mage in hopes of building counters on the Luminarch Ascension.  This slows my opponent a little, but with Ponder and a Mana Leak on my Sigil of the Empty Throne not much changes.  On turn 8 my opponent finally gets another creature in the form of Werebear, which stops my Luminarch Ascension one turn before I can start making tokens.  His next turn he gets Quirion Dryad in play and I can basically on sit and watch.  At the end of my turn 9 my Greater Auramancy gets bounced with Echoing Truth followed by a third Peek, Brainstorm, and Meddling Mage number 2 choosing Greater Auramancy.  At this point the Quirion Dryad is 5/5 and when damage resolves from the attack I'm left at 2 life.  On my last turn I draw a second Greater Auramancy and its game.  Didn't once see a Journey to Nowhere, which would have been my out for the first Meddling Mage.

Winner: Okidus
Record: 3 - 1

My next game really annoyed me.  The first couple of turns my opponent makes two tokens and plays a Ghostly Prison.  My only play is a Greater Auramancy.  On my opponent's turn 4 he (I'm guessing) doesn't draw a fourth land and concedes.  What?  I really hate people who do this.  What is the point in leaving this game?

The next game?  LordDef mulligans to 6... to 5... to 4... to 3... concedes.  Great

(pic=Soltari Visionary)

Game 5
Opponent: blackops4
Deck Type: Shadow Weenie

Opening Hand:

This was a great opener with a turn 1 Land Tax.  My opponent starts turn 2 with Soltari Monk.  I trigger Land Tax and use Journey to Nowhere to remove the monk.  Then my opponent plays the nuts on turn 3 with (Soltari Visionary), which is GG against my deck.  Since I figure my opponent will have more in deck I know that I need to do more then remove it and instead play Runed Halo choosing the visionary.  This proves to be the right move because my opponent plays a second (Soltari Visionary) on his next turn.  I protect them a bit more with Greater Auramancy and my opponent responds with Sword of Fire and Ice.  Finally at 5 mana I cast my Sigil of the Empty Throne.  Finally my opponent draws some enchantment hate (something he seems to actually have quite a bit of) and Disenchants my Greater Auramancy.  It's a little too late, however, as I already have the Sigil of the Empty Throne and cast Moat followed by Journey to Nowhere to get two angels.  On my next turn I use Oblivion Ring to remove the last (Soltari Visionary) and only hit for four when one attacking angel is removed with Path to Exile.  I cast a Ghostly Prison and get my token count back up to three.  On my opponent's turn he plays a Vindicate to remove my Sigil of the Empty Throne and I miss out on 12 damage when I click past my 'declare attackers' phase.  This mistake will make the game last several more turns because my opponent draws a Damnation and clears my board.  With not tokens I can't do damage.  I hold onto enchantments, waiting to see if I get a new Sigil of the Empty Throne.  My opponent still can't attack and when he gets a Mortify for one Moat I cast my second.  Finally on turn 18 I draw Mine Excavation and use it to get back Sigil of the Empty Throne, build more tokens using Land Tax and Ghostly Prison, and then attack for the final four damage.

Winner: JustSin
Record: 4 - 1

***Not sure why the (Soltari Visionary) isn't linking, apologies***

Game 6
Opponent: mdavis6565
Deck Type: GWB

Opening Hand:

This hand opens with a nice start in a turn 2 Greater Auramancy.  On turn 3 I draw a third Ghostly Prison and that's a little ridiculous.  I use that turn and the next to play Ghostly Prisons and force my opponent to pay 4 in order to attack.  These are followed by Luminarch Ascension, which will gather counters over the next four turns without issue.  On turn 8 I finally get my fourth land and can play Lost Auramancers, but it quickly meets a Putrefy.  On my opponent's turn he makes his first creature play in Leonin Abunas.  At the end of his turn I tap out to make two angels and then remove the Leonin Abunas with a Journey to Nowhere.  The next turn my opponent plays Platinum Angel and I make a third token.  With my opponent at 14 life I take turn 11 and use Oblivion Ring to remove the Platinum Angel.  After 12 damage my opponent decides that's game and concedes.

Winner: JustSin
Record: 5 - 1

Game 7
Opponent: oryzae
Deck Type: Black Weenie

Opening Hand:

Well I started on a mistake and decided to play first, which makes my Land Tax not as powerful.  Here is my opponent's first turn...

> > choosing

Well damn.  At this point I was looking at those three Bloodghasts coming into play turn 2.  My original plan was to play Terramorphic Expanse and sacrifice it when my opponent played a land, choosing to not fetch a land out and thus triggering Land Tax.  However, after that first turn I realized this was a silly idea and just wanted to build to three land and Ghostly Prison asap.  A little to my favor oryzae doesn't have a second land turn 2 and can only cast Cabal Therapy naming Wrath of God.  On turn 3 I get my top decked land and cast my Ghostly Prison.  On my opponent's turn he gets his second land, which bounces back his Bloodghasts and plays a Bad Moon.  Ouch.  All I can do is remove the Bad Moon using Oblivion Ring.  The Ghostly Prison slows my opponent a little, but he does choose to pay the 2 mana every turn to at least attack with one creature.  On turn 5 I draw a fourth land and play Greater Auramancy followed by Journey to Nowhere, thus reducing the Bloodghast count to two.  On turn 6 I draw a second Greater Auramancy, but since black has no removal for it I play Lost Auramancers as a blocker.  On my opponent's turn 6 he finally gets a fourth land and swings with his two creatures.  I block one, but it'll be back thanks to the landfall ability.  Finally I'm closer to the win when I draw Luminarch Ascension on my next turn.  With the blocker in play I can start building counters for it.  This plan is foiled however with a kicked Gatekeeper of Malakir.  Things get bad and turn 8 I draw dead with a Plains.  A land equals the return of Bloodghast number 2 and then a Bad Moon comes into play.  Turn 9 I draw another land and take 6 damage to the Bloodghasts.  I get a small break with a Disenchant on turn 10 since my opponent only has enough land to attack twice and take four of my remaining five life.  At one life my only hope is to draw a Moat, but unfortunately what I get is a second Luminarch Ascension.  On my opponent's turn I realize even Moat wouldn't have saved me when he plays Malakir Bloodwitch and does the one damage just from the creature coming into play.

Winner: oryzae
Record: 5 - 2

Game 8
Opponent: doughboy42
Deck Type: RBU Discard

Opening Hand:

This is a great opening hand.  You have a turn two drop in Luminarch Ascension in addition to enchantment protection and removal.  On turn three I cast my Greater Auramancy and my opponent plays Consult the Necrosages forcing me to discard.  On the next turn my opponent casts Barbed Shocker and hits me.  I lose my hand and draw Luminarch Ascension, Ghostly Prison, Oblivion Ring, and Mesa Enchantress.  Glad to have the Oblivion Ring I use it to remove the Barbed Shocker and my opponent draws with Consult the Necrosages.  In hopes of blocking a new Barbed Shocker I cast Mesa Enchantress and pass the turn.  On turn 6 my opponent targets me with Wistful Thinking, which causes me to discard three.  At this point my Luminarch Ascension is at four counters and I get hit with a second Wistful Thinking.  I make two angels at the end of my opponent's turn and swing for 8.  In an attempt to slow the assault my opponent casts a Damnation and I just make two more tokens.  After I sing for 8 more my opponent is left with 4 life.  Apparently my opponent has no answers and concedes.

Winner: JustSin
Record: 6 - 2

Game 9
Opponent: goku0
Deck Type: Green White Aggro

Opening Hand:

This game went pretty well even with the mediocre starting hand.  I get the first play and drop Karakas turn 2.  My opponent responds by copying it with Vesuva. So it's like we skipped a turn.  Kind of odd, but my guess is that he has a Legend he wants to play.  This move pushes back my Ghostly Prison until turn 4.  On my opponent's turn 4 he casts a Gaea's Anthem.  Turn 5 comes and I play my first Greater Auramancy followed by a Disenchant.  On turn 6 my opponent plays Valor, which is a non-issue thanks to Journey to Nowhere.  In addition to the removal I draw a Greater Auramancy.  This is the first game I've managed to get double Greater Auramancy and thus protect all of my enchantments.  I'm a little surprised it didn't come up more often.  Finally on turn 9 I draw my fifth land and cast Sigil of the Empty Throne.  At this point it's almost game because only mass-enchant removal can stop my angels.  With Scion of the Wild and Stuffy Doll in play I put a stop to them with Oblivion Ring and Runed Halo choosing Stuffy Doll while making two tokens.  I guess my opponent has no answer because he concedes the following turn.

Winner: JustSin
Record: 7 - 2

Game 10
Opponent: minchio
Deck Type: GB Creature Sac

Opening Hand:

Ok I'm going to abbreviate things for this match since it lasted almost 30 turns.  My opponent basically used Algae Gharial and an array of creatures that would sacrifice others in order to pump the croc.  Thanks to a bunch of land fetch he had the mana available to sacrifice to Carrion Feeder, Thoughtpicker Witch, and Nantuko Husk while using Grim Harvest to bring them back.  He also used Breeding Pool to spam out creatures and have sacrifice material.  This all means nothing thanks to a turn 10 Moat and protection from Greater Auramancy that I played on turn 2.  With Thoughtpicker Witch I lose one of my Sigil of the Empty Thrones and then have to wait until turn 20 to draw a new one.  The whole time I didn't see a single Luminarch Ascension either and managed to draw instead all of my land.  This does leave me plenty of lands to cast a bunch of spells once I finally get the Sigil of the Empty Throne and use the angels to beat my opponent.

Winner: JustSin
Record: 8 - 2

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Well the deck performed as well as I had hoped.  It's really hard to beat a deck like this that is filled with card after card of control.  From the Ghostly Prisons and Moats to the Oblivion Rings and Journey to Nowheres it's really hard to do damage against this deck with creatures.  The only ways to really get to this deck is through mana screw (usually avoided by Land Tax) and burn spells (also prevented through Runed Halo).  Sure it's possible, two people did it, but I have to say it's not easy.

There is one stipulation though.  I'm betting that this deck is not fun at all to play against.  I have to be honest it wasn't the most fun to play either.  Games usually went pretty long thanks to the fact that the win condition is Sigil of the Empty Throne and Luminarch Ascension.  With only six of those in the deck it may take awhile to get one.  Also when you have them you don't get the win right away.  Sigil of the Empty Throne requires other enchantments to be played in order to make angels and Luminarch Ascension needs four turns without damage to get tokens, followed by the 1W cost of each.  This is fine due to the fact that the rest of the deck is basically there to stall for time until you get those online.  I know it's not what you'd expect from an article.  The writer presents a deck and then after playing it lets you know that it may not be that fun to actually play yourself.  This isn't to say don't try it.  Please do.  The thing is there are some people who enjoy playing a deck that is heavy control based, but that's not me.  This deck just may not appeal to everyone.  My main concern with the deck was that it was a bit heavy in the control.  Maybe it was.  This is dependent on the player because the deck plays well and performs as intended, but for my personal style it was a bit too heavy on control for me to really enjoy most games.

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Well since we had such a good time looking back at a favorite enchantment of mine (Luminarch Ascension) I'm going to do something similar next time around.  We'll take a look at the next part of the color wheel and see what green brings to the table.

-JustSin