Enchantress Onslaught changes

[cooberp]

Because the slots you would devote to random combo cards you would have to take away from either card drawers, disruption, or anti-aggro measures, weakening your other matchups.  Moreover, it would require you to resolve a Replenish to win, which you don't and shouldn't have to do.  Mesa is the most versatile win condition in the game--it stops opposing armies staring you down and can win in two turns.

[Matt The Great]

Would it be possible to take out only one Mesa and one of something else for the Pandeburst combo, akin to the Power Artifact Keepers floating around? You'd still have your primary win condition in the deck, recurrable and tutorable. Or would you need to drastically change the deck to be able to consistently get those enchantments in the graveyard? I'm thinking it's this second problem (getting the enchantments into the graveyard) that's the primary thing holding the inclusion of said combo in the deck, because it's not like you can hardcast either part effectively.

[spin13]

Considering the deck is already lacking for space for the whole Regrowth/Holistic/Will (secondary recursion) issue, I don't think cutting things for a random combo element is wise.  Either build the deck around it (in which case, use blue) or don't.  As I said before, there is something to be said about having flexibility and non-reliance on one card and that is exactly why two separate decks exist to abuse Replenish in different ways.

 -E

[cooberp]

Power Artifact Keepers are horrific. Adding a PandeBurst combo would indeed make the deck more similar to Power Artifact Keepers; it would also make it more similar to sucking.

Am still testing various options for Sanctum recursion.  Wish I could find something to cut cause I hate 61 cards.

[cooberp]

So far have been very impressed with HW. May have to stick my foot in my mouth about this one--I dismissed it out of hand for a year.

[Rico Suave]

Will is more along the lines of a win-more card in this deck.  Regrowth can punch through counters by recurring a dangerous enchantment (or recurring Replenish).  Will can, at a price of an insane mana cost.

Going down to only 1 Mesa is dangerous.  There are many times when topdecking it allows the deck to win out of nowhere, much like Keeper dropping Morphling can randomly win.  I'd be tempted to go up to 3 Mesas if possible, but deck space limits that.

Coob, what is on your mind to cut in order to go down to 60?

On a sidenote, I'm glad at least one other person out there thinks Power Artifact Keeper should be burned.

[Radjammin]

Quote (Rico Suave @ Oct. 01 2002,09:10)Will can, at a price of an insane mana cost.

I'd hate to go out to dinner with you paying...

Yes regrowth is 10 times cheeper, and I am also working on a Winds deck.  Do you think you can help me analyze the cc of these cards too to find the most effiecent ones?

Your just so gosh darn good at it and all...

[cooberp]

Rico Suave--
2 Mesas is just right.  You REALLY don't want them in your hand early game.  I cast them against control to draw counterspells, but when they let it through before I"m ready to win I groan.
There's absolutely no room in the maindeck.  Spin13 thinks I should go to 28 mana/62 cards with four fetchlands.

Radjammin--Will you have to have the mana to do everything that turn, and you're not going to be able to do more than 1 or 2 things.  Regrow lets you use stuff the next turn.  But I think HW is what I was looking for--it's really looking very very useful.

I'm also revisiting Story Circle.  I got rid of it when City of Solitude became such an important part of the deck, but I"m realizing that if I have City of Solitude out a) I've likely won and b) the Circle still cantrips.  I will probably rule it out again, but I said the same thing about HW.

I want to be cutting cards, not adding cards...

[Radjammin]

How many times do you go-

Regrow this card, Done.

Why don't you just go-
Draw my card, Conceed.

My point is, most good players don't spend their entire turn regrowing a card. But you can if you want to, and I will time walk on you.

[ZoneSeek]

I've always loved the card Holistic Wisdom and have waited for a deck that can use it. Often times in early testing, a card just may not work. But, after the deck has evolved alot, the card may reappear and simply be amazing. Perhaps this is the case with Holistic Wisdom?

The big problem is finding a card to cut.

What all has it been doing for you so far, cooberp? Have there been common situations where a certain card just wasn't working?

[cooberp]

Sanctum recursion is the biggest, obviously, although Strip and Library recursion are also nice.  The other thing is that I am running a ton of dead cards against control (Abyss Moat Worship Estate Pariah etc.) which I am happy to swap for countered Sylvans and Cities of Solitude, and conversely am eager to pitch City of Solitude to get back Pariah against Suicide.
There's no room in the maindeck.  With four fetchlands, running 28 mana and 62 or 63 cards might be OK.

[Captain Cannibus]

Hey cooberp, I haven't tried out anything from onslaught so I don't have any space issues yet.  However, one of the first cards that I removed from the build was pariah.
This is my vote for a card to remove because frankly, this thing needs to be no more than 60 cards.
I have never found pariah very useful in the main deck, but I don't play against much black except for void.  As a general rule I would rather just get a moat on the board and they cost nearly the same.  I think it's worth having around so I simply moved pariah to the sideboard.

Yawgmoth's will was another card that I've experimented with as a regrowth replacement.  It worked well, but I realized that all I got out of it was an enchantress or two, maybe a replenish, and a land... either my LoA or sanctum usually.
I've since replaced it with holistic wisdom.  The mana cost was the same and it was more useful for getting lands back and pitching a late game duress for a replenish.  It does exactly what I wanted Yagwill to do, except better and it's more consistent.  It dosen't cycle enchantress's, but with the appearance of presence, maybe it's not so much of an issue.

You might try moving out pariah and see how much you miss it.

[cooberp]

Pariah is searchable Replenishable spot removal that buys you a turn as well.  It's soooo good.  2W is WAY easier to cast than 2WW.  I have won tons of games by tutoring for Pariah when I didn't have enough mana for Moat and Replenishing it twice, buying me the time to set up the permanent answer.  Your winning percentage against Suicide would drop dramatically and against Sligh somewhat.
I now like HW.

[spin13]

I'm not sure what kind of testing Dan plans to do, but we were discussing a few things earlier tonight, and I figured I'd post them for group discussion.  

Obviously, the most obvious change the deck begs for is the loss of the 61st card.  With the rise of importance of Holistic Wisdom, it really does seem to be something that, up to this point, was fairly set in stone.  Dan's first reaction was to remove Moat.  However, I argued that the 40% game one percentage against most aggro is already low enough; its one thing to plan on having to steal game 1 from aggro (even Keeper plays this way), but removing even more creature "removal" just seems silly.  If, from a control standpoint, compare the deck to Keeper you see that Enchantress has Moat, The Abyss, Pariah, Worship, Estates, and Balance against aggro, while Keeper has Edict, Swords, Fire/Ice, The Abyss, Balance, and Zuran Orb.  If you consider Abyss, Balance, and the life-gainers to be out of the question you see that Keeper, in addition to generic removal (counters) has three very cheap removal cards to Enchantress' very expensive removal cards (one being conditional at that).  Not only does having more expensive answers hurt, but having fewer answers would surely be a mistake.

The next suggestion was Story Circle.  It helps versus Control whereas Moat only really helps against Ophids and Mishra's, but not Morphling.  It also has bad synergy with City of Solitude, and against aggro Story Circle doesn't even come online (early) until the same turn as Moat, and even then is dependant on a secondary resource: white mana.  Story Circle does not seem to be a replacement for Moat, nor does Moat want to be removed without a anti-creature replacement.  Cutting down on any anti-critter removal does not seem appropriate so we are left looking to remove generic (bad idea, these cards are "generic" because they are so powerful they affect any situation/matchup and are the core of the deck (Enchantress, Replenish)) or anti-control measures.

My thought was that Enchantress' Presence #2 was the best option to cut.  Though you might say Presence is a core card, any beyond hte first does not seem to be.  One, against aggro is it slow (mana cost), doesn't help Worship, and can't block if need be.  Two, against control it is always recurable and tutorable making only one copy truly necessary (especially if we are cutting it for an extra recursion card and we have plenty of dead cards in this matchup).  While you lose a bit of power against control, I think between the option of sideboarding it and the consistency gained both in deck size and general recursion more than makes up for this.

Besides, though its hard to fault them sometimes, Dan and the NGNY crew sometimes have the tendency to put the control matchup before anything else.  Sometimes its more about beating aggro (not cutting Moat, etc) than it is about having the best anti-control deck in the world.  This is not an insult, rather just a point that should be held true in many places around the world: one fewer dead cards against control is not worth the entire aggro matchup.  Metagaming is nifty and all, but sometimes all the tech you can imagine is worthless and a Terror would serve you better.

 -Eric

[cooberp]

Current test build in light of Eric's well thought out and expressed views:

//NAME: Enchantress
// Mana (27)
        4 City of Brass
        4 Savannah
        3 Windswept Heath
        2 Bayou
        2 Scrubland
        2 Wasteland
        1 Strip Mine
        1 Serra's Sanctum
        1 Library of Alexandria
        1 Sol Ring
        1 Mox Pearl
        1 Mox Jet
        1 Mox Emerald
        1 Mox Sapphire
        1 Tundra
        1 Black Lotus
// Draw (10)
        4 Argothian Enchantress
        3 Sylvan Library
        1 Enchantress's Presence
        1 Pursuit of Knowledge
        1 Ancestral Recall
// Vs. Control (5)
        3 Duress
        1 City of Solitude
        1 Words of Waste
// Recursion (5)
        4 Replenish
        1 Holistic Wisdom
// Search (4)
        3 Sterling Grove
        1 Demonic Tutor
// Removal (4)
        1 Seal of Cleansing
        1 Pariah
        1 Balance
        1 The Abyss
// Staying Alive (4)
        1 Overgrown Estate
        1 Moat
        1 Story Circle
        1 Worship
// Kill (2)
        2 Sacred Mesa
// Sideboard (15)
SB:  2 Swords to Plowshares
SB:  2 Powder Keg
SB:  2 Femeref Enchantress
SB:  2 Samite Ministration
SB:  1 Aura Fracture
SB:  2 Choke
SB:  1 Circle of Protection: Red
SB:  1 City of Solitude
SB:  1 Karmic Justice
SB:  1 Enchantress's Presence

27 mana in 61 cards with three fetchlands might get me killed, but it might not.  We'll see.

[defe]

To find room in the deck, why simply don't cut the U cards and redo the mana base without the U? Personally, I don't think that this deck needs the Ancestrall

[cooberp]

It would only make one slot, as the Tundra would become another land.  Ancestral doesn't strain the mana base at all and it is simply the best card in the game.  I somehow can always cast it, frequently DT for it, and have NEVER regretted adding it since I finally listened to what all the NG people were telling me.  It's just good.

[Radjammin]

Um, Fastbond anyone?

I wanta combo..... Not, twiddle my enchantments.


Warning issued.

There will be a re-evaluation of the policies of letting non-adepts post in Extreme Vintage. This is a prime example of why there is such a consideration. While what you posted might have passed in the regular Vintage forum, you are well out of conduct for this specific forum.

Some convenient rules summaries for you:

"2. Reading and writing aren't mere ways of communicating - they're a pleasure, and should be treated as such. We come here for a game, and if a post is not pleasing to read, it should not exist. Thus, we ask our posters to make an effort to write well, and, even more important, think before writing.

Before making a post, you should: Ask yourself what your thesis is, how you will defend it, and how you will write those ideas in an understandable way. We will happily delete "one-liners", posts too full of typos, and posts including statements such as "<3 smurphling", "I agree", or "Moat >>> Abyss."

If you simply agree or disagree, state why."

"5. You should have a working knowledge of the decktypes discussed before being qualified to post."

[spin13]

If you want to play Fastbond and you want to play combo why don't you just play Turboland?  Fastbond has no place in this deck.  It doesn't provide provide any card advantage, it isn't a solution to anything, and it only works in this deck once you're already winning.  If you want to play combo, play a dedicated combo deck, because honestly, this deck does not turn aggro into a bye (until SB, but thats because it becomes a complete control machine, -NOT- because it becomes a combo deck).

Its been covered before: Fastbond is a waste of a slot.

 -Eric

PS/EDIT: Zherbus = mad beats.\n\n

[Radjammin]

I don't think anyone likes to get flamed, but my point was that in previous version of Enchantress,the deck used off colored moxes for mana exceleration.  I was recommending to try to use the only enchantment restricted in Type 1, fastbond, for this purpose.  After playtesting it serves a more main deck answer then choices such as Carpet of Flowers.  It also combo's nicely with Worship.

Also I would like to bring up another idea, hoping I don't get flamed again.  In never version of enchantress, wouldn't Abundance be a better solution to the WoW and Sylvan Delema and negate the worries of the draw step drawing problems.

After adding Abundance main deck, would Chains of Mephistopheles be a better solution then WoW vs control decks?  This solution might not prove viable, but what about Chains as a sideboard card if Abundance is added.  

I don't think Chains has been giving the credit it diserves as being one of the mose annoying cards every made.  Woudn't a deck that wasn't effected by this work?  Chains could even setup a nice replenish early game.

[spin13]

First of all, Fastbond is not the only restricted enchantment.  You're forgetting about Mind Over Matter and Dream Halls and Yawgmoth's Bargain.  This is irrelevant, but true nonetheless.

Being a control deck, you have to minimize the amount of dead cards as well as the amount of time each card is dead.  Fastbond is sometimes good in the early game (if you draw 1 land, 2 moxen, and a Fastbond, its still not good; if you need to use your G to cast Fastbond, but want to drop a first turn Enchantress and only have 1 G producing land, Fastbond still doesn't help you, etc), and its good when you are winning.  However, it is a horribly dead card in the mid game.   If you topdeck Fastbond in the midgame, its horrible.  At least if you topdeck, for example, The Abyss, its an answer; perhaps the wrong answer, but perhaps its the right answer.  Drawing a Fastbond midgame will almost never help you, simply by the fact that it is neither the correct answer, the wrong answer, or any sort of answer at all.

As for Abundance, its weaker than PoK, and there is no room in the deck for both.  PoK is much more explosive, just as recursive (through Replenish; you only need to PoK every other turn and you'll still beat out an Abundance), and is less harsh on the mana base.  Chain's also -must- be used with Abundance, and you really don't want to get stuck in situations (it already happens with City of Solitude, occasionally, although to a lesser degree) where you can't Replenish because an enchantment in your grave will hurt you.  Words of Waste will at least trade 1 for 1 without Sylvan, works -with- your Enchantresses instead of against them, and is an option effect which you control.  Playing combo cards is silly unless they win the game.  We've already discussed Pandemonium and related combos, and if those aren't good enough, neither is a pseudo-control combo, that only works against certain archtypes.  As a sidenote, Worship/Enchantress works because you're running 4 Enchantresses, it -does- win some games.  Also, you have 2 Mesas, which means its a 2 out of 7 card combo, rather than a 2 out of 2.

Also the theory that Chains sets up a Replenish is not so good.  There are better ways to do these things (mostly blue), and if you are spending energy to set up a replenish, you damn well better win when it resolves.  The idea is to cast the threats first, then Replenish if you have to.  Again, it comes back to a reliance on one card, which is not hte way a contol deck should function.

 
 -Eric

[Eck]

After the changes, I would be tempted to try Fact or Fiction in Enchantress because it would have great synergy with other cards in the deck.  In addition to being an excellent card drawing engine it: (1) digs five cards deep which refreshes the top end of your deck for the Sylvan Library—especially helpful since another one was added; (2) cards you pass up in an early FoF are not lost and forgotten.  They can be easily brought back with Replenish or the newly added Holistic Wisdom.

[Rebel428]

Also, would Multani's Presence have a place in the deck, at least in the sideboard?  It's worked for me so far since it can help overload the control player's counters with threats.  Also, with an Enchantress in play, you would draw two cards every time you try to play an enchantment, but gets countered.

Other green enchantments that someone might want to test:

Burgeoning
Mirri's Guile
Exploration

I'll look up white ones later.

[Rebel428]

Here are some white enchantments that might be worth consideration:

Arenson's Aura (for the mirror or B2B)
Opalescence (an alternative win condition)
Dueling Grounds (possible anti-aggro tech?)
Testament of Faith (ditto)

I also know of a card that would completely RAPE enchantress if control players started sideboarding it.  It's even more devastating than Aura Fracture.  Being an Enchantress fan I'm not gonna say what it is, but if cooberp or spin13 are interested they can email me at TheRebellious@hotmail.com.

[Pacman]

Are you talking about Nova Cleric?

[Matt The Great]

Don't be an ass, tech wants to be free.
Let me guess - Serenity? Or that green thing that puts the enchantments on top of the library?

As for your suggestions, if Fastbond isn't cutting it you can be damn sure Exploration won't make it. Ditto Burgeoning.

Dueling Grounds and Testament of Faith can't possibly be as good as a second Moat or something.

Opalescence - Sacred Mesa is the better (ideal, even) win condition. It doesn't suck before you're winning, isn't stopped by Moat, Abyss, or any creature kill, and both holds off and overruns Morphling. Further win conditions are not necessary.

Arenson's Aura - The most ironic part of this card is that it's exactly the enchantment you least want on the table, making it a 2WW Seal of Cleansing. Aura Fracture, more Seals, and Aura of Silence are all worlds better than this junk.

Mirri's Guile - just no. Three Sylvans are run because a) they actually CAN draw you cards, and b) their interactions with Words of Waste. Guile does none of this, and is just weaker overall. The one mana is not enough to offset this vast power difference.\n\n

[cooberp]

I would contribute my thoughts, but my esteemed Enchantress colleague spin13 has said everything I would and more about the first batch of posts.  As for the second...you really should read the primer.  I'm going to go through these and say why they're bad, but you should be able to understand why yourself if you took the time to read it.

Fact or Fiction is a) blue and b) not an enchantment.  This is not a four-color deck, and it doesn't typically have blue mana.  It just runs a Tundra because Ancestral is 3 cards for 1 mana instead of 2-3 cards for 4 mana.  Remember that this deck will never go EoTFoFYL because it does everything mainphase (City of Solitude)?, and thus FoF is likely to get Mana Drained.  You can't Mana Drain into FoF like Keeper does either.  So no, no, and no.
Multani's Presence--The deck already has five Enchantresses, and would MD 6 in a control-heavy metagame (it wants to now but there's no room).  An Enchantress's Presence that only works when they counterspell is pretty subpar, given the other options.  I know we want one-drops...but they have to print good ones.  I don't miss the Land Tax effect much, but I wish there was some other one-mana enchantment that would help this deck's tempo and card drawing.  Presence just isn't it.
Mirri's Guile--Well, you could make a weak case for this if a) the deck wasn't already running three Sylvan Libraries and b) Sylvan Library was never printed.  In which case Enchantress would suck.
Burgeoning/Fastbond/Exploration--Burgeoning and Exploration are weak Fastbonds, and Fastbond is only good in combo decks.  You will not have like four lands in your hand at almost any time.  These are completely pointless.
Arenson's Aura--Cut "Arenson's" and copy and paste "Fracture" and you'll get the best card ever printed.
Opalescence--Let's pay 4 mana to make all our enchantments vulnerable to creature hate!  Or we could just win with THE BEST victory condition in Type One, given sufficient mana--yes, better than Morphling.
Dueling Grounds--Or we could Moat those guys without making our own kill take 20 turns.
Testament of Faith--If I would have enough mana to make this a good blocker, I have enough to drop Moat, Abyss, or Worship.
Sideboard hate--Cleansing Meditation isn't that bad; you can just Replenish everything.  The double white means that only Parfait would run it.  The cards that Enchantress really hates are Hibernation (which is widely played) and Wash Out (which isn't).  If these are prevalent in your area, you're going to have to weaken your SB to fit 2-3 Thran Lens to defend yourself.  I've never seen it played, but yes, Harmonic Convergence would be an auto-scoop for this deck given that it has no counterspells.  There would just be nothing you could do but cry.

---

So far, Story Circle has been great, saving me in both aggro and control matches (perhaps because the deck has more draw and dig now, three more ways to get painless white mana, and a recursible Serra's Sanctum).  I haven't run into the dreaded City of Solitude/Story Circle conundrum yet; hopefully I won't!

I want to say this again--after a boatload of testing the last few weeks, Onslaught gives Enchantress a HUGE kick in the ass.  I am going to run through each major matchup and compare it to Keeper's, in an attempt to convince you that Enchantress is no longer a pet deck but one of the best choices you can make for a combo-weak metagame.

Aggro
Sligh, Suicide, and Void metagamed vs control--No worse than 40% preboard, and about 70% after.  Samite Ministrations absolutely rock.  Keeper certainly does no better than this.
Stompy--like 65% preboard and 80% afterwards.  You absolutely own this deck, which is one of Keeper's worst nightmares.
TnT--It's a split.  MD Moat with lots of tutoring combined with searchable recursible Seal of Cleansing for Survival works strongly in your favor, as does the deck's lack of disruption. They have answers to most things, but only if Survival stays on board, and they do die to Enchantress/Worship with a Grove or two. However, you can't Stop them from doing anything, so sometimes they'll just get all broken on your ass.  All in all, I would say slightly better than Keeper against aggro.
Zoo--They don't have much disruption, their draw 7's load up your graveyard for Replenish, they can't deal with nasty enchantments and Sterling Groves.  Untargetables are cute and all, especially when they're on the wrong side of a Moat.  I haven't played enough matches with Zoo to give an estimated percentage, but it's pretty good.

Control
Keeper--This deck got a *lot* scarier for Keeper after Onslaught.  I have definitely won a small majority of my games against good Keeper players online, but that's meaningless as we all know; I haven't been to NG with these cards.  That said, I think that it is now at least a real 50/50 split if not even SLIGHTLY in Enchantress's favor, similar to Mono-U's matchup against Keeper.  It's really fun to beat up on those guys again.  Nothing--including TnT--really BEATS Keeper, but I believe Enchantress has as good of a matchup against Keeper as any deck out there, including Keeper itself.  Like all control matchups, this just comes down to who gets the more broken draw, who goes first, and who takes advantage of the other's mistakes better.
Mono-U--There was that weird aberration where I kept losing to BigChuck's UrPhidian, but other than that mono-U and UrPhidian have stayed in the 65-70% win range, and will probably push 75 with the inclusion of MD Story Circle.  If you fear B2B/Blood Moon, sideboard a Carpet of Flowers as well as the Aura Fracture.  Remember, Enchantress was originally designed to beat mono-U.  As Matt D'Avanzo put it, the problem with Enchantress is that it can't really stop its opponents from doing anything, it can only answer what they do.  That's why it's at its best against decks that don't really do anything.
Parfait--Anything they can do you do 10 times better.  At least 65%.
OSE--A little better than Keeper cause they really can't remove enchantments (now that you have Enchantress's Presence, they can't stop the Enchantress effect with Kegs).  Moat is valuable here.  They are by definition a little more aggressive and have a greater diversity of threats, so they can steal wins even after you've Replenished out the fort with a Fire or Mishra's Factory.  Just be careful and don't expect to win 3 out of 5 games.
Straight Survival--Haven't tested to see if the changes make a difference.
Oath--ditto.

Combo
MaskNaught--This is one of the few combo decks you can deal with because it's creaturebased.  Moats and Seals of Cleansing and Worships are golden.  Haven't played enough to give a percentage.
TurboLand--The controlling versions with lots of counters you can split with; the goldfish builds will 0wn you.
Army of Squirrels--Haven't tested.
Dragon--Haven't tested.  It's a horrible deck, but I'd imagine Enchantress would be thrilled to take one in four.
Pandeburst, Academy, etc..--A control deck that doesn't have a prayer against real combo decks.  Isn't it sad?  Maybe 20% vs. PandeBurst and 10% vs. Academy.

Conclusion:
So Enchantress can't beat combo.  Neither can aggro decks, and people still play those.  Enchantress is still obviously not Tier One.  But I think it is as good a choice as any deck besides multicolor blue control and maybe TnT for a random metagame--combo is by far the least represented part of the metagame triangle, and Enchantress' matchups against control and aggro are as good as anyone's.  Moreover, for a metagame in which many people are bringing Keeper and the rest of the people are bringing Keeper-hating decks (from untargetable Zoos to Miracle Blo to Stompy to mono-blue), and few people play combo because they're scared of all the counterspells--which is my understanding of that big tournament that sparked all of those articles a while back--there is No better choice than Enchantress.  The deck has finally come into its own.

Now can anyone get me a Lotus??

[ZoneSeek]

VERY well stated, cooberp. I would like to thank you for this wonderful deck, I have certainly fallen in love with it. I had a chance to test out Samite Ministration in a few casual games, and it actually has been working fairly well, I must say. (Just to let skeptics know) I was quite surprised that an instant lifegain / damage prevention spell could be useful in a sorcery-speed control deck, but it has worked wonders.

Unfortunately, due to it's lack of viable silver bullets vs. combo, the combo matchup will always be horrible. Unless...

This idea may have been shot down in the past, but what about devoting a sideboard slot to Ivory Mask? Resolved, it wins (or greatly helps) vs. Academy, Pandeburst, and Dragon, but not Turboland (w/ the dreams). Double white should be of little concern due to the general lack of mana-base disruption found in said combos and the recent addition of Windswept Heath. With the tutoring and Sylvan / shuffle search of the deck, could it be possible to land an Ivory Mask through the disruption and permission on 3rd or 4th turn?

I concede that the combo matchup will probably always be hopeless but I would like to hear some feedback about Ivory Mask. Or maybe True Believer? If one 2cc creature works in the board, why not another?

[Milamber]

the problem with ivory mask, true believer, et al. is that they are permanents, and most combo decks run capsize to bounce problem permanents.  pandeburst is the only deck that you listed that might have problem bouncing the mask (and they will just kill the believer).

i think you will just have to accept that, barring something crazy, this deck just can't do that well vs. combo.

[Gzeiger]

I think it's worth the slot, still. Sterling Grove is a sufficient answer to Capsize, given mana to sacrifice it, and two Groves is a lock. Although they can get back the countered Capsize with Timetwister or something, there is a limit to the mana they can produce in a single turn, even for Academy, and the first Grove may buy enough time to find the second.

In my estimation, the boarded Mask brings your win percentage against Academy from something on the order of 2% to more like 15%. Still amazingly crappy, but without the Mask I doubt you could even stack their deck so as to give you a win.

25% seems wildly optimistic against Dragon, too. Not that it matters, but honestly.