I don't think that just because a deck isn't a sure-fire Tier One deck that it can't be tinkered with during its "time on the bench". In that sentiment, I made a white/green control deck.
//NAME: Lime Parfait
// Engine {11}
1 Pursuit of Knowledge
3 Sterling Grove
3 Sylvan Library
4 Enchantress's Presence
// Survival
3 Orim's Chant
1 Story Circle*
2 Humility
1 Zuran Orb
// Removal {12}
1 Balance
2 Wrath of God
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Pariah
1 Seal of Cleansing
2 Aura of Silence
1 Tormod's Crypt
// Recursion
3 Replenish
// Kill
2 Sacred Mesa
// Mana {25}
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Serra's Sanctum
1 Library of Alexandria
3 Windswept Heath
4 Savannah
3 Forest
5 Plains
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
// Sideboard
SB: 1 Aegis of Honor*
SB: 1 Circle of Protection: Red
SB: 2 Seal of Cleansing
SB: 1 Aura Fracture
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Abeyance*
SB: 1 Orim's Chant
SB: 2 Argothian Enchantress*
SB: 2 Choke
SB: 1 Replenish
SB: 1 Wasteland
Asteriks indicate slots that are 'iffy'.
WHAT AND WHY IS THIS DECK, ANYWAY?
It's like parfait, it's like enchantress. I think it has most of enchantress' advantages over Parfait, with only a few of its disadvantages, and thus can rightly be a deck worth investing time in. It's more resistant to combo decks than either of the aforementioned decks, due to the preponderance of disenchant-effects. By 'resistant' I mean that I played against an Underworld Dreams deck 2-1 and a Dragon deck (post-april, I THINK, though he could have just gotten unlucky) 1-2. Of those Dragon games, the second loss was because he used a transformational sideboard that I wasn't expecting and caught me without any wraths or Balance. I still nearly pulled it out, if I'd had one more life the game would have been mine.
Granted, this is not exactly enough to say anything conclusive as to whether it's
better than Parfait against combo, but it is surely a good omen.
WHY THIS IS BETTER THAN PARFAIT
1. Parfait relies heavily on finding and resolving a two-card combo. Neither part of the combo is truly amazing on its own. This deck only needs to resolve one of the seven green card-drawing enchantments to outpace control. It also has many shuffle effects, making the Sylvans powerful.
2. Tutors make it faster. You don't have to go looking for your win condition, you can just go get it yourself.
3. Sterling Grove protects against Allay and is much better at doing so than a random, hard-to-find-when-needed Claws of Gix.
WHY PARFAIT IS BETTER THAN THIS
1. God-like manabase, though an increasing number of decks (Gro/Tog and TNT) are cutting down on their Wasteland counts, minimizing this advantage.
2. Blood Moon. I think I can live without this god-slayer of a card, but I miss it.
WHY THIS IS BETTER THAN ENCHANTRESS
1. I think Enchantress wastes too much time setting up by cantripping itself into more setup cards, rather than cards meant for doing business.
2. Enchantress, with its dual-heavy manabase and craving for a full set of Jewelery, is expensive as all hell to actually construct.
3. Far stronger manabase. Eight basics plus three Heaths (looking to go to four!) is strongly resisant to NBLH, one of Enchantress' biggest weaknesses. I fear Back to Basics not, nor Blood Moon. Wasteland is annoying when it keeps me from getting to four mana, but as far as color concerns go, it's not a problem. Enchantress, on the other hand, is forced to run things like multiple City of Brass to keep it from being cut off from a color.
4. Four maindeck Swords to Plowshares are worth their weight in gold nowadays. They range from spectacular to useful in every matchup except non-creature-combo (Academy, non-Rector versions of Trix) and Keeper. That's a LOT of the field.
5. Humility. This card is great in so many matchups - it's useful against Keeper, TNT, Gro/Tog, monoblue, every cheap aggro deck, and even Dragon and Pandeburst. It's far better than both Moat AND Abyss. Morphling decks can't use it, but Mesa decks can.
6. I don't have to rely on resolving a 4cc enchantment to win against aggro. This deck can live, for a time, on less than four mana.
WHY ENCHANTRESS IS BETTER THAN THIS
1. Sligh. I have not tested the matchup yet, but I would expect Sligh to be a fierce matchup without a Worship lock. I expect that even through a Humility-Mesa 'lock' they could easily burn me out before I ramped up enough tokens to win the game, especially since they have no other use for their bolts.
CARDS I TESTED AND DROPPED
1. Enlightened Tutor. Sometimes useful, often weak, never great.
2. Soldevi Digger. The conventional wisdom is right - you just don't need it. It would have been fun to get someone in a Digger/Chant lock, though.
3. Mox Diamond. Again, the conventional wisdom is right - you never have a land you want to throw away.
4. A fourth Sylvan. It made the deck ultra-consistent but they weren't realy useful in multiples.
5. Land Tax. This may yet find its way back because of its synergy with Sylvan Library, but I doubt I'll ever feel the need.
SURELY THIS ISN'T A FINAL PRODUCT? LOOK AT ALL THAT MESS!
In fact, there are several changes I would like.
I DEFINITELY would like more acceleration - a little more "brokenness" - but that's a sort of pipe dream. Mox Diamond treated me right, but it's also treated me wrong, too.
I would like a fourth Chant maindeck, as well as a fourth Heath.
Maybe I should cut a Plains for fourth Wasteland, but then, I think I want a 26th mana source anyway (probably a Heath).
The Argothian Enchantresses in the sideboard are a curiosity. They're hard to use because you often want a Humility in play even against control decks. These slots are VERY up in the air.\n\n
