Way back when Theros was first released, one of the first decklists to make the rounds in testing was a White-Black-Green Enchantment based deck, running most or all of the new Bestow creatures in those colors along with
Ethereal Armor and
Auramancer. While quite powerful in initial testing, it didn't take long for the metagame to adapt, and eventually that particular build fell out of favor, replaced by a
White Weenie build that took advantage of similar synergies.
Now, with the full block in the cardpool, I wanted to look at two particular Green cards that might just push this archetype back into favor:
1. Kruphix's Insight is one of a long line of Green Sorceries that allow you to dig through a number of cards in your deck and keep one or more of a particular type. In this case, for the same cost as
Divination, you can potentially draw up to three enchantment cards (which, of course, includes all Bestow and other Enchantment Creatures) and hopefully discard Lands or other undesirable cards. While this certainly requires a very dedicated build, the explosive potential of refilling your hand rewards you quite well for such a focus. A mere 20 Enchantments in your deck is probably enough to make this good most of the time. Perhaps the only downside is that it does nothing to help you find additional Lands when you really need them.
2. Oakheart Dryads looks fairly innocuous; in fact, I rated it merely as borderline in
my set review. But in a deck that is casting an Enchantment basically every turn, the +1 / +1 boost becomes surprisingly relevant. Get two of more of them into play, or cast multiple Enchantments in a turn, and suddenly you are flinging +1 / +1 counters all over the board, allowing you to swing in for massive amounts of damage. And while a 2/3 for 2G is marginal for Green, that extra point of Toughness is certainly not irrelevant in a metagame of 2/2 creatures,
Shock, and
Pharika's Cure. In a dedicated Enchantment deck, most of the time this creature should almost certainly warrant inclusion.
So what specific list is most likely to be able to take advantage of these synergies? What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.
I've seen those two cards in play, piloted by you and I have to say I liked the effect very much. I've been testing enchantment heavy decks a lot on the past week, because I really like some of the new cards. I tried a four colors build, some combinations of two and three colors and ended up with a White, Black and Green control (midrange?) deck. It is a sort of anti-aggro deck, using enchantments like Pacifism and Stab Wound to stop the opponent, Kruphix's Insight, Auramancer and Font of Return as a card advantage engine and some enchantment creatures as win con, helped by the Constellation ability of Grim Guardian and the boost of Ethereal Armor. I think it is a fun deck to play. I tested it a lot today with good results (except against mill) and I think it will be at least a decent deck, once correctly tuned.
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