[OCD][Seriously Casual] Enchant Creature Deck

[Ephraim]

Introduction
My kharmic geis has surfaced once again. This time, the lucky rare was Kitsune Mystic // Autumn-Tail, Kitsune Sage. Having the opportunity to build a deck that makes heavy use of creature enchantments really excited me. Rancor and Capashen Standard in particular are two of my casual staples. The deck I am about to discuss is hardly set in stone. Truth be told, I'm not particularly happy with the way it operates. If I could swing the deck somewhat away from aggro and toward control, I think it would give the deck a more diverse playbook, which would simultaneously make it more interesting to play and more versatile, although it would probably lose some of its overwhelming power. This deck is definitely in its infancy. I would like to see it develop into a more sophisticated, finely-tuned deck. (I also wouldn't mind coming up with a snappy name for it. Nothing comes to mind at the moment.)

Deck List
Creatures (22)
3 Tragic Poet
4 Lantern Kami
4 Child of Thorns
4 Tallowisp
4 Waxmane Baku
3 Kitsune Mystic

Enchantments (15)
4 Capashen Standard
4 Rancor
3 Pacifism
4 Ancestral Mask

Land (23)
7 Forest
16 Plains

Summary
As you can see, the deck has a clear game plan. Tallowisp and a bevy of spirits allow this deck to maintain a hand full of creature enchantments most of the time. This means that once Kitsune Mystic is found, it is a trivial matter of flipping it into Autumn-Tail, Kitsune Sage. It is important to note that although Autumn-Tail is the focus of the deck, Tallowisp makes it fairly easy to establish a fast offense with a handful of spirits alone. Although this deck suffers from the obvious drawbacks associated with creature enchantments, both Rancor and Capashen Standard have mechanisms by which they dodge card disadvantage and Autumn-Tail helps immensely to mitigate the risk of a heavily-enchanted creature being hit with removal.

Card Choices
After I decided to build a deck around Autumn-Tail, Kitsune Sage, Rancor seemed like an auto-inclusion. This established the deck as green/white, which I found limited my options primarily to aggressive strategies. I selected Capashen Standard to augment my enchantment complement because it has served me well in the past. It is not stellar, but it comes at a low cost, provides a useful, if mediocre boost to the creature's power and toughness, and potentially dodges card disadvantage. Pacifism was included as a token nod to control. It has worked out well, but obviously, there is a limited number of strategies that Pacifism effectively counters. Given the relative abundance of enchantments in the deck, Ancestral Mask seemed like a valuable addition to the deck's aggressive game -- a conjecture that has proven to be true. The deck's control game might be better served by Arrest.

Because I wanted to flip Kitsune Mystic into Autumn-Tail, Kitsune Sage as often as possible, Tallowisp seemed like an invaluble addition to this deck. Unfortunately, in order to make the most of Tallowisp, it was necessary to fill the deck with spirits and/or arcane spells. Lantern Kami has proven entirely worthwhile, but Child of Thorns and Waxmane Baku are mediocre. (Okay -- it's unfair to call Waxmane Baku mediocre. It backs up Pacifism in staving off other aggro decks extremely well, just as one would expect. Unfortunately, aside from an incidental synergy with the spirit subset of the deck, it really has nothing to do with the rest of the deck.) Child of Thorns is an inexpensive spirit and nothing more. I have considered using Kami of False Hope, instead of either Waxmake Baku or Child of Thorns, but once again -- all it does is shore up my matchup against aggro. That said, if I am going to replace either Waxmane Baku or Child of Thorns, it must be with spirit or arcane spells in order to continue fueling Tallowisp. Wear Away or Terashi's Grasp could possibly give me better control options, but they also have the potential to be dead in my hand, which makes them dangerous cards to consider alongside Tallowisp. Kodama's Reach is always a possibility in any green deck -- particularly one that requires arcane spells.

Tragic Poet is basically a placeholder in the deck. I haven't noticed any great need for enchantment recursion, so this slot could easily be fiilled with any other spell that fits into the deck.

Reaching into a third colour (namely, blue) might give the deck a handful of better options, although it would certainly weaken the mana base. Blue offers nominally better spirits and arcane spells in Teardrop Kami and Reach through mists, but its real strength lies in the quality of its creature enchantments. Curiosity and Sigil of Sleep are definitely strong options. Betrayal often acts like a blue Arrest. If I can manage the double-blue requirement, Control Magic would be a worthy consideration. Generally, I don't think that blue offers enough to make it worthwhile to splash it. Since green offers too much to consider cutting it, I'm pretty sure this rules out the possibility of blue. Of course, if I've missed something, I'd love to have it pointed out to me.

[Jacob Orlove]

Kirtar's Desire is a cheaper Pacifism. I'd definitely run it here.

Also, you're missing out on some fantastic non-Kamigawa spirits. Phantom Nomad in particular is spectacular with toughness-boosting creature enchantments. Phantom Centaur is similar, but bigger and more expensive. Windborn Muse offers a defensive option that can fly over for more damage, and Elvish Spirit Guide offers mana acceleration.

[Malhavoc]

Have you thought about Femeref Enchantress? It's not a spirit, but it's a great way to avoid card disadvantage when your enchantments leave play. It would also make a great combo with rancor and auratog (if you decide to add this too).

[Matt]

Nomad Mythmaker?

[Ephraim]

Kirtar's Desire -- I'll definitely consider this card. I had been thinking of using Arrest, but then I realized that Arrest is no good at flipping Kitsune Mystic into Autumn-Tail. Rather, it is good at flipping the creature, but then it shuts down Autumn-Tail's ability to get the Arrest off himself.

Nomad Mythmaker -- This card is perfect for this deck. It does everything that Tragic Poet does, but better. Plus, it's body is a little bit beefier, which is definitely a plus. I will definitely look into getting a trio of these to replace the Poets.

Femeref Enchantress -- I didn't look closely at any of the enchantresses when I started constructing this deck. I should have mentioned it in the initial post, but I'm wary of adding enchantresses to the deck. Although in its present incarnation, this deck might qualify as a "bad enchantress deck" anyhow, I'd rather not push the deck in the direction of an enchantress build. Although Femeref Enchantress is probably the least objectionable of the lot, I don't want to start down the path of modifications that eventually leave this deck as an enchantress deck that happens to run Kitsune Mystic.

Various other spirits -- Phantom Nomad is definitely an aggro beast. I think I'll avoid Phantom Centaur for the moment, just because I don't think I can support double green. I am also looking at Spirit en-Kor and Blinking Spirit.

With all of these suggestions, one of my large concerns is how the increase in mana costs is going to affect this deck. Nomad Mythmaker costs 2 more than Tragic poet; Phantom Nomad costs 1 more than Child of Thorns; Spirit en-Kor and Blinking Spirit cost 1 more than Waxmane Baku. Will the benefits I derive from these new creatures outweigh the tempo loss they are going to induce?

[warble]

Since you are running white and creature enchantments, the two broken creature enchantments for white are:

1) Pariah.  No damage me.  NO!!!

2) Flickering Ward.  Dude, why did they print this?  It's a little white weenie house.

If you're planning on running insane aggro you can also add:

Empyrial Armor.  7/7 on turn 3 please?  The combo with any two of the above three is usually game.

My white weenie is absolutely killer because of savannah lions and javelineers that happen to get enchanted and grow either a) uber-big, b) invincible or c) die terrible deaths while defending their master.  Mono-white does a lot better perhaps you would consider going all white?

Oh yeah, and pariah is quite powerful offensively (Now your platinum angel is my pariah too, buddy)

[Ephraim]

Pacifism is already in the deck, although I am presently testing with Kirtar's Desire in its place.

Flickering Ward is actually kind of mediocre, in my opinion. I think if I were going to go with a protection enchantment, I would use Cho-Manno's Blessing so that I could use it as a pseudo-counterspell. Either one would be good with Nomad Mythmaker and Auratog or Claws of Gix – some way to sacrifice my enchantments.

I have considered Empyrial Armor, but it's really just overkill. It seldom yields an effect all that much bigger than Ancestral Mask and as the game progresses, it almost always becomes worse than Mask. With four Ancestral Masks already in the deck, I don't really need more ways of generating huge creatures.

[warble]

Pariah, not pacifism.  Pacifism versus Pariah is like the difference between welding in a platinum angel and welding in a mox.  One kicks ass and the other is laaaaaaame but sometimes exactly what you needed(not often).

Flickering Ward has this one-white ability that says, "even if you kill the creature, you're not getting rid of me"  also, it's one mana versus two, a critical factor when putting together a weenie deck that likely plays a low mana curve.

As for Empyrial Armor, the only reason your deck would run it over empyrial plate is that you want an enchant creature deck.  The difference between empyrial armor and ancestral mask is...empyrial armor kicks ass on it's own and ancestral mask is situational.  Once you plop down an armor and your creature is 7/8 you're really not in a situation to worry about playing more spells.  However, with blessing you're just asking to be controlled and it doesn't start by doing much at all.

From an experienced white weenie player, I don't want to corner you into going white weenie, I'm just saying that cho-manno's blessing really is too situational/relies too heavily on your "game plan" whereas you can just use empyrial armor as a plan by itself.  I would liken this to the question, "would you rather run a bunch of bombs or a bunch of cards with amazing synergy that, once played together, have this great combo value?  I don't really think you've gotten that great combo value out of the deck yet, so until you really find a way to combo off like food chain goblins can, you're probably stuck needing as many bombs as you can get.  Empyrial armor on turn 3 in an unpowered environment is DUDE, game over.  Especially with a flickering ward or two.

[Zeke]

I'm curious as to why Armadillo Cloak didn't make the list, especially since it is GW, like the deck.

[Ephraim]

It got excluded because my search failed to include gold cards. The only trouble is figuring out what to replace with it. I think that three copies of Ancestral Mask and one copy of Armadillo Cloak sounds about right. Armadillo Cloak won't win games as quickly, so it is going to be more situational, but it's easily searched for with Tallowisp. Likewise, I have settled on three copies of Kirtar's Desire and one copy of Arrest.

[pooispoois]

I myself have a Spirit-based enchant creature deck and it is based on the synergy between Judgment spirits, Tallowisp and toughness-enhancing enchantments.
In my deck I run, just like you, Rancor and Armadillo Cloak, but I also run: Elephant Guide, a huge pumper for its cost that does not normally yield card disadvantage (and is a great tool against board sweeping control strategies like Wrath of God); Spirit Link (mainly as an one of to tutor for, and is a way to crush aggro decks or direct damage based decks; it is normally outclassed by Armadillo Cloak, however); and an enchantment I have found to be great, Unquestioned Authority. Not only doesn't it, as Rancor and Elephant Guide, produce card disadvantage, it is one of the surest ways to ensure one of your creatures gets through, or to provide an emergency resilient blocker.
I also run Indomitable Will as an one of to tutor for, but it doesn't have much synergy in your deck as you don't run arcane instants. It is another nice enchantment too, although I wouldn't recomend it for your deck.

[Ephraim]

Elephant Guide � I can see very few situations in which Elephant Guide would be preferable to one of the three primary pumping enchantments already in use: Rancor, Armadillo Cloak, or Ancestral Mask. I agree that it is a very solid card, but it doesn't hit any of the power extrema that the other cards hit. Ancestral Mask yields a larger pump, Rancor has better raw efficiency, and Armadillo Cloak is swingier. Because of Tallowisp, my selection of enchantments operates somewhat as a toolbox. I don't want one enchantment that sort-of solves all of my problems, when I can easily select between three enchantments, each of which really solves one particular problem.

Unquestioned Authority � I don't feel as though this card does enough. As far as defense goes, a Phantom Nomad with any toughness increase is an excellent defender. Situations where I need protection from targetted abilities of creatures are sufficiently rare that I don't feel comfortable spending maindeck space worrying about them. As far as offense goes, many of my creatures fly (more in the most recent edition, which I will post shortly) and Rancor grants trample. That seems like plenty of evasion.

Spirit Link � You're correct that this is outclassed by Armadillo Cloak. This deck doesn't typically need so much life gain that I'd like to dedicate two slots to it. If I were to include this, it would be in the place of Armadillo Cloak, since A.C. overlaps with Rancor and Ancestral Mask a lot, it might be worthwhile to use Spirit Link for its one dedicated purpose than the superiour, but more costly Armadillo Cloak (same reasoning used above to veto Elephant Guide.)

Pariah � This is an excellent idea, particularly with Phantom Nomad in the deck. I don't own one, presently, but I am looking into acquiring one.

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Creatures (23)
4 Tallowisp
3 Kitsune Mystic

4 Lantern Kami
4 Phantom Nomad
4 Kabuto Moth

4 Advance Scout

Enchantments (14)
4 Capashen Standard
4 Rancor
2 Ancestral Mask
1 Armadillo Cloak
2 Pacifism
1 Arrest

Land (23)
16 Plains
7 Forest

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In this build, I have returned to Pacifism. Kirtar's Desire is cheaper, but I have often found myself wishing that I could prevent my opponent's creatures from blocking as well. I have also decreased the number of Pacifisms and the number of Ancestral Masks. They are useful cards, but I often felt (especially with Ancestral Mask) that the multiple copies were gratuitous.

I have also settled on a more effective complement of creatures. Kabuto Moth is probably not the optimal choice for the position it's in. Inexpensive, flying spirits are difficult to come by. Ideally, that position would be filled with Thunder Spirit, but they are monetarily expensive. It's really the first strike that I am looking for there, so Emissary of Hope really isn't an adequate replacement. If I can't have the Thunder Spirit, Kabuto Moth at least has a more manageable mana cost.

I have also included Advance Scout. My sudden obsession with first strike may be perplexing, so I will explain. Because Autumn-Tail, Kitsune Sage allows me to move enchantments at instant speed, if I have a creature with first strike getting +8/+8 from an Ancestral Mask, I can respond to first strike damage by moving the Ancestral Mask to a creature without first strike. (I initially realized the potential of these sorts of tricks playing around with Cranial Plating.) First strike is never a bad thing, but I think that a deck with movable creature-pumping is very well-suited to take advantage of it.

Also note that my army is easy to cast. Most of my creatures cost two or fewer mana, which makes it easy for me to establish myself and fill my hand with enchantments via Tallowisp early in the game. Previous builds using multiple 3- and 4- casting cost creatures often left me wishing for some early plays or for something to enchant with my clutch full of cheap creature enchantments. Although the raw power of my current army is lower than that of one containing Blinking Spirit, Spirit en-Kor, or Waxmane Baku, I think the mana curve of this deck is much more playable.

[Ephraim]

This deck has taken an interesting turn. A long while back, I hit upon the notion of modular deck building. Think about the way a transformational sideboard works. Essentially, modular deckbuilding uses that principle, except that none of the modules is particularly dominant to the others. That is the direction in which I have taken this deck. After I built the green variant, I considered what interesting enchantments some of the other colours had to offer. Blue and black, in particular, looked interesting. In part because I'm lazy, I decided I would just try taking out the green cards and the forests and adding an equal number of blue/black cards and islands/swamps. The result was actually very satisfying. Each of the three modules results in the deck handling differently, which means I get three deck experiences from what is, essentially, the same deck.

White Base
Creatures (20)
4 Lantern Kami
4 Phantom Nomad
4 Tallowisp
4 Kabuto Moth
4 Shinen of Stars' Light

Enchantments (8)
4 Capashen Standard
2 Pacifism
1 Arrest
1 Empyrial Armor

Land (23)
23 Plains

Blue Module
4 Curiosity
2 Unstable Mutation

7 Island

Black Module
2 Lingering Death
2 Festering Would
1 Soul Channeling
1 Soul Link

7 Swamp

Green Module
4 Rancor
1 Ancestral Mask
1 Armadillo Cloak

7 Forest

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The green module is obviously very close to the initial build of the deck. It has one fewer Ancestral Mask. This is the result of adding Empyrial Armor to the white base — a necessary nod to aggression when either of the non-green modules were in use. In particular, it is potent in conjunction with blue's Curiosity.

Blue and black both get to make use of an interesting stacking trick that I investigated. Both Unstable Mutation and Lingering Death can be moved with Autumn-Tail, Kitsune Sage in response to their triggered abilities. The enchantment will move and then the triggered ability will kill or put a -1/-1 counter on the creature that the enchantment was on.

The black module may be seen to be somewhat underdeveloped compared to the other two. I haven't played with it as much, so I'm still determining an optimal selection of enchantments. Festering Wound is, thus far, the clear star of the black component. The white base plays a fairly strong defensive game, which allows me to sit back and wait for Festering Wound to finish off my opponent. In fact, none of the other enchantments in the black module have really been necessary. This suggests that at the very least, Soul Channeling and Soul Link should become two more Festering Wounds.

[Ephraim]

Of no great relevance, but amusing to me, I have properly named this deck in homage to Deck Parfait. Generically, the deck is to be called Enchantment Sundae. Packing green, it is "Spearmint Sundae;" packing blue, it is "Raspberry Sundae;" packing black, it is "Hot Fudge Sundae."