[DECK] T1 Enchantress - The Control version.

[WingsOfDaidalos.]

Since the old topic was closed, here a new topic discusses the improvement of the Enchantress control deck.

The old topic was here http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9304&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=enchantress&start=120
For Card-by-Card analysis check there.

My version currently:

Kawaii.dec

Mana:
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Sol Ring
3x Bayou
4x Savannah
1x Scrubland
1x Tundra
3x City of Brass
1x Library of Alexandria
1x Serra’s Sanctum
1x Strip Mine
2x Wasteland
4x Windswept Heath

Draw:
4x Argothian Enchantress
2x Enchantress’s Presence
1x Ancestral Recall
2x Sylvan Library
1x Pursuit of Knowledge

Utility:
1x The Abyss
1x Moat
1x Seal of Cleansing
1x Aura of Silence
1x Worship
1x Words of Worship
3x Duress
1x Words of Waste
1x Regrowth
1x Balance

Kill:
2x Sacred Mesa
1x Mirari’s Wake

Tutor + Recursion:
4x Sterling Grove
1x Demonic Tutor
3x Replenish

Sideboard
1x Powder Keg
1x Mind Twist
2x Choke
1x City of Solitude
2x Ground Seal
1x Aura Fracture
2x Ivory Mask
1x Karmic Justice
1x Sacred Ground
1x Plains
2x Swords to Plowshares

-----

Now the questions:

- Mind Twist or Words of Waste mainboard? EDIT: Changed the deck to Words mainboard.
- 3 or 4 Replenish? If 4, which card should leave?
- Seal of Cleansing or Aura of Silence mainboard? Aura seems like a card that is really worth the extra mana. EDIT: I play both =)
- Is it worth tweaking the mana base for Mana Drain? The ability to counter improves the match up for Combo a lot.
- Any other suggestions?

What do you think?

[MrZuccinniHead]

word's of waste is pretty tech since it is an enchantment and has great synergy with pursuit of knowledge

[Sean Ryan]

Occassioanally I play Enchantress in 1.5 and I used to play the T1 version a long time ago but I don't think it can be competitve in this metagame...hence this post may be better in the casual forum.    

Here are a few questions observations about your list.

1) Why aren't  you running the full compliment of Enchantress' Presence?

2) While blue does give Ancestral and the Wake it also bastardizes your manabase and scatters your strategy.  I would drop it unless you plan to use Words of Wind as part of your Win.

3) The best win condition we have found in 1.5 is Words of War.  This allows you to "combo out" in a turn or two without having to build up the massive my little pony beat down brigade.  

4) Disruption - DO NOT RUN MANA DRAIN!  4 Duresses, 3 Replenish and a City of Solitude MD should suffice.  You want to be playing enchantments every turn and drawing cards.  Unfortunatly you must run these 7 non-enchantment disruption slots to have a chance in T1.  As far as combo is concerned SB the appropriate hate in Enchantment form - Ground Seal for Dragon - Chains of Mephistopheles for Storm combo.  You are also missing the single best defensive enchantment in the game - Solitary Confinement.  This does require you to run the full compliment of Enchantresses.

I hope this helps you out a little bit.  The next thing you need to do is test the main matchups - 4cControl, Fish, Workshop Aggo & Prison, TPS & Dragon.  This will tell you if it is worthyour time to be ressurecting Enchantress or not.  Rather than simply bringing back old deck lists try and find different enchantments that answer the current metagame.

Good luck
Sean

[Kowal]

I miss this archetype.  I used to have a blast playing it.  Unfortunately, its time as a competitive deck has passed, so I'm moving this down a rung in to newbie.

For my constructive post however, I'd like to agree that Mana Drain is unnecessary, and you should be sticking with things like Duress.  Words of Waste was a massive bomb back in the day, and that should also find a permanent home in your build.

Good luck.  

[cardiffgiant]

I love Enchantress based decks, but I question whether this style of build can work in the current type one metagame. Combo is really fast and much more resilient than in the past. Against control this deck is good, but there is little if any straight control. I think the only reason 4CC holds it's own are better tutoring for silver bullets, better silver bullets, and non enchantment brokenness.

I think to come back, Enchantress needs to be less reactive and more pro-actively disruptive. Card like Root Maze, Energy Flux, Island Sanctuary, and Drop of Honey to slow the game down.

I also think you need to accept some games will be lost pre-sideboard to increase the effective of the deck in general.

Let's assume you preside to deal with the fastest deck. I would guess Workshop and combo decks are probably high on the list.

I would probably start by slowing them (with low casting cost)
4 Root Maze
4 Drop of Honey
4 Force of Will
3 Birds of Paradise (if they nuke them, great, otherwise you gain tempo)
2 Daze (I know it's lame, but it works)
2 Stifle
2 Energy Flux
2 Orim's Chant


And then add the toys that help you win the mid-game
4 Argothian Enchantress
2 Enchantress's Presence
2 Ancestral Knowledge
1 Decree of Justice
1 Bearscape
1 Enlightened Tutor
2 Replenish
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Aura Shards

and Mana to taste

For sideboard
4 Swords to Plowshares (aggro)
3 Chills (Goblins)
2 Worship (black, some aggro)
2 Ground Seals (more help against artifacts)
3 Oath of Druids
2 Darksteel Colossus

[Shadow-Walker]

I highly endorse running FoW, Daze, and Root Maze (any deck that can run force probably should).  I dont agree with the birds however, just run fastbond/exploration they have better enchantress/daze synergy and allow you to go for the combo kill. My (budget) enchantress looks like:

Control
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Leak
2 Words of Wind
+other
Draw
4 Mystic Remora
4 Brainstorm
4 Argothian Enchantress
4 Enchantress Presence
1 Gush
+other
Mana/Mana Accel
4 Tropical Island
various other lands
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Exploration
1 Fastbond


This is just the base of it (from memory), some missing because its not all together right now (cant find my fucking fastbond) and ive been messing around with various kill conditions as well as assorted other cards.  I will probably run tundras to up the island count while allowing me to SB in white. Obviously other stuff like seal of removal in various proportions.

[rozetta]

Now the questions:

- Mind Twist or Words of Waste mainboard?
- 3 or 4 Replenish? If 4, which card should leave?
- Seal of Cleansing or Aura of Silence mainboard? Aura seems like a card that is really worth the extra mana.
- Is it worth tweaking the mana base for Mana Drain? The ability to counter improves the match up for Combo a lot.
- Any other suggestions?


What do you think?

I remember following the original threads on here a few years ago and tried the deck briefly, so I might be able to help.

1) Words of Waste over Mindtwist for definite. It's just massive with Sylvan Library and can keep their hand free of counters once it's on the board.

2) I'm not qualified to say whether 3 or 4 Replenish is better. In the old days, the plan was something like:
land, mox, enchantress/sylvan <- FoW
land,  duress/presence
land, replenish
This scenario was the case for 4 Replenish, since you wanted to see it early enough to get back into the game.

3) I'd actually go with Aura mainboard, since it's quite strong against artifacts right now. Actually a mix of Seals and Auras might not be a bad idea.

4) I wouldn't bother with Mana Drain either. I know combo is stronger now than back when this was more competitive, but you have many more sideboard options like Chalice of the Void, Root Maze and Rule of Law nowadays. It depends on your metagame, but it's probably not wise to play this in a combo-heavy metagame anyway.

Other suggestions:

I know that the lone ancestral was debated for pages and pages back when cooberp was working on the deck, but I have the slight feeling it's a little too random. One good reason to add blue to the manabase back then was Arcane Laboratory, but now you don't need to splash for that any more, so it becomes even harder to justify.

Also, I have a feeling that the Overgrown Estate might be a little out of date too. As mentioned above, if cutting blue would also allow you to avoid the City of Brass damage, you could hang onto a few more points of life while stabilizing. If I were to run any kind of life gain in there, I'd use Words of Worship instead. I understand the synergy between Sylvan Library and Overgrown Estate, but now you have fetchlands to shuffle the library when needed instead of hoovering up additional cards to get past unneeded ones.

On that note, I remember that cooberp might have actually upped the Sylvan Library count to 3 or even 4 around the time the "Words" enchantments arrived, since it gained even more relevance. That might be something to toy around with.

By the way, I think Mirari's Wake is an excellent idea. I hope it's working out well in there!

[WingsOfDaidalos.]

Thanks everyone for the feedback, I hope we can bring this discussion as far was the last one.

I guess its a big no-no for Mana Drain, and certainly Words of Waste.

@cardiffgiant and Shadow-Walker:
You both have quite a different build than mine, and it like to stick to mine. I want to tweak the deck, not change it to another build.

@Rozetta: Thanks, your comment is quite usefull. =)

- I want to add a Library and a Replenish, but what should go to make room?
- Maybe I'll try with 1 Seal and 1 Aura.
- Ancestrall seems like a card that is worth splashing... Still in doubt on that one.
- Wake was a card I also had to think over twice. However, now it is seeming like a good idea to add one. It really fastens the kill.

[cardiffgiant]

Tweaking the existing build is cool. Thanks for the gentle response.

I definitely wouldn't drop blue. It is probably better that even black in this deck. What I like in blue is

- Ancestral Recall
- Time Walk (even if it's not an enchantment, it has no down side)
- Energy Field (this is at least a Time Walk again most decks and is cheaper than Worship)
- Energy Flux (side again Workshop)
- Seal of Removal (for Sundering Titan and Darksteel Colossus and Worldgorger Dragon)

I agree that Duress is incredible, but I'm not sure it's better than Orim's Chant. Maybe they're just different. Stifle is probably of equal power level in the current metagame.

I also agree with pulling Overgrown Estates. There aren't many situations where Words of Worship wouldn't be better (especially with lots of Sylvan Libraries).

You might also want to consider Engineered Explosives instead of Powder Keg. It's a lot faster.

I would also look at replacing Aura Fracture, 1 Ivory Mask, and possibly City of Solitude. There aren't that many enchantments worth destroying right not (aside from Curiosity and Standstill in Fish). Artifact hosing would probably be better. With the 4 Groves, one Mask should be enough. You will also have problems getting to WW early so you can't depend on it for the first several turns. City of Solitude is really only useful against hard control. I can't think of any current deck that would make it worth a slot. I would probably prefer Opalescence for usefulness or Multani's Presence (because it's cheap). City is also an auto-loss again many decks.

Best of luck

[Shadow-Walker]

Id definitely SB Multani's Presence, enormous bomb against control.

[Law]

budget aggro-enchantress decklist deleted.

[Shadow-Walker]

EDIT: doesnt matter now that law's post is gone.

[WingsOfDaidalos.]

I definitely wouldn't drop blue. It is probably better that even black in this deck. What I like in blue is

- Ancestral Recall
- Time Walk (even if it's not an enchantment, it has no down side)
- Energy Field (this is at least a Time Walk again most decks and is cheaper than Worship)
- Energy Flux (side again Workshop)
- Seal of Removal (for Sundering Titan and Darksteel Colossus and Worldgorger Dragon)

Yeah, but I do not want to add to much blue. Either just the Recall, or no blue at all. City Of Brass is a card the deck needs anyway, so why not add 1 blue card. AR is worth it.

I agree that Duress is incredible, but I'm not sure it's better than Orim's Chant. Maybe they're just different. Stifle is probably of equal power level in the current metagame.

I believe Duress is a much better card. It draws out counters, which is what the deck needs (as the deck cannot counter myself).

I also agree with pulling Overgrown Estates. There aren't many situations where Words of Worship wouldn't be better (especially with lots of Sylvan Libraries)

Agree. Overgrown is out for WoW.

You might also want to consider Engineered Explosives instead of Powder Keg. It's a lot faster

Hmm. Thinking about it. What do others think?

I would also look at replacing Aura Fracture, 1 Ivory Mask, and possibly City of Solitude. There aren't that many enchantments worth destroying right not (aside from Curiosity and Standstill in Fish). Artifact hosing would probably be better. With the 4 Groves, one Mask should be enough. You will also have problems getting to WW early so you can't depend on it for the first several turns. City of Solitude is really only useful against hard control. I can't think of any current deck that would make it worth a slot. I would probably prefer Opalescence for usefulness or Multani's Presence (because it's cheap). City is also an auto-loss again many decks.

I need the Masks sideboard against Long and Academy. Hope for a Lotus and a Mask turn 1 on my hand against them =). Opalescende lacks synergy with Moat and The Abyss. Plus it makes my key-echantments vulnerable.

Id definitely SB Multani's Presence, enormous bomb against control.

I'll consider it.

I'm still wondering what should go out for the third Sylvan Library and the fourth Replenish!

EDIT: Law's post is already gone, so never mind =).

[cardiffgiant]

Have you got to try this deck against Draw 7 or Belcher or Dragon? How did it perform?

Ivory Mask feels to slow to me, but I might be overestimating combo. Again, I'd prefer Orim's Chant or Root Maze. They both make a mess of combo and are easier to cast.

Are you also comfortable that you'll get black early enough to help with combo?

[WingsOfDaidalos.]

Ivory Mask feels to slow to me, but I might be overestimating combo. Again, I'd prefer Orim's Chant or Root Maze. They both make a mess of combo and are easier to cast.

Root maze is no help for Enchantress I believe.

This is because Root Maze only slows Combo down. However, Enchantress itself is also a very slow deck. It takes time to get everything out, and even more time to create enough tokens to kill your opponent. I feel by then, combo will have had enough time to get their pieces in place.

Have you got to try this deck against Draw 7 or Belcher or Dragon? How did it perform?

No, Alas! =) Due to the summer holidays, everyone is on vacantion.  I expect to be able to post some results end of next month.

All right; I took Overgrown Estate out, and placed a Words of Worship in.
However, now I am doubting if Life-Gain is needed Mainboard. I've already got a Words of Worship sideboard, and if I cut the Life-Gain from the mainboard, I have room for an additional Replenish or Sylvan Library. But; Lifegain is usefull when dealing with a lot of Sylvan Library and City of Brass use... I'll have to test this. How do you feel about it?

[cardiffgiant]

You definitely want WoWorship main. It's synergy with Sylvan Library is just too good ( 3 and skip draw -> +15 life). By itself, it can turn game 1 loses into wins. You can also life gain out of kill range for Tog and Tendrils decks. For the first game, I'd rather have it than WofWaste or Regrowth, partly because I hate losing to red.

At least with the decks I've seen, I think you're overestimating the value of Replenish. Aside from Deeds and Disks, there isn't a lot of mass removal of enchantments. If you are using it to get back a silver bullet, then Argivian Find is about as good. Rofellos' Gift is great if you have lots of green. Nostalgic Dreams can be REALLY good.

I would definitely have at least 3 Sylvan Libraries. I'd probably go 2 Replenish, 1 Nostalgic Dreams and drop Regrowth.

I'm a little concerned about your mana. You are REALLY vulnerable to non-basic hate. What do you think about dropping blue?

Ancestral Recall -> Skeletal Scrying
Mox Sapphire -> Mox Diamond
Tundra -> Scrubland
Wasteland -> Forest
Wasteland -> Plain
Strip Mine -> Swamp
Windswept Heath -> Polluted Delta
City of Brass -> Polluted Delta

This shouldn't affect your access to early W or G and should provide you enough access to basic lands to survive Blood Moon, Basic to Basics, and Wastelands.

[WingsOfDaidalos.]

You definitely want WoWorship main. It's synergy with Sylvan Library is just too good ( 3 and skip draw -> +15 life). By itself, it can turn game 1 loses into wins. You can also life gain out of kill range for Tog and Tendrils decks. For the first game, I'd rather have it than WofWaste or Regrowth, partly because I hate losing to red.

Agree. 15 life for 3 mana at any upkeep is a good deal indeed. WoWorship stays Mainboard. An additional one is kept in the SB.

At least with the decks I've seen, I think you're overestimating the value of Replenish. Aside from Deeds and Disks, there isn't a lot of mass removal of enchantments. If you are using it to get back a silver bullet, then Argivian Find is about as good. Rofellos' Gift is great if you have lots of green. Nostalgic Dreams can be REALLY good.

A turn 3 Replenish is huge bonus, if not a must. For an explanation, I refer to a thing Rozetta said before;

In the old days, the plan was something like:
land, mox, enchantress/sylvan <- FoW
land, duress/presence
land, replenish
This scenario was the case for 4 Replenish, since you wanted to see it early enough to get back into the game.

The synergy with Sterling Grove is just awesome, and it also brings back bullets that are discarted, countered or destroyed. I mean;

Sterling grove -> Sacrifice for Enchantment A (Worship)
Sterling grove -> Sacrifice for Enchantment B (Moat)
Replenish -> A and B are cannot be targeted. (Aggro concedes)

Against control or combo, just sac the Sterling Groves over and over for anything you need. Thats why I want 4 Replenish; I want to cast as many as possible, each preceded by a sac of a grove and/or a Seal of Cleaning.

I'm a little concerned about your mana. You are REALLY vulnerable to non-basic hate. What do you think about dropping blue?

True, but not so great a problem as you might think. Nonbasic hate isn't very common in my meta. However, 1 plain might be a good idea for a Seal of Cleansing against a BtB or Blood Moon. On the other side, I can always draw the 1 white mana from a Pearl. On the other other side, I cannot fetch a Pearl with a Heath...

Dropping blue is not an option for me. I really love Ancestral Recall, and 3 cards for 1 mana has to have a place in any deck that can support it.

Also you suggest removing my strip effects for basic lands. A T1 deck without strips? That doesn't seem like a good idea. Like CooperP once said, an active Library can kill you.

I've edited the decklist in the first post a little, but I'm still wondering which land should go for the 1 basic plain...

[Toad]

Words of Wisdom is definitly not needed in the maindeck. It's really crap. 15 life is good? Maybe. But you could have used this 3 cards to get a real game breaker against Aggro, such as Moat or Worship. It also sucks against Tog, since Tog can go "Pernicious Deed your board, then cast Tog, then pump Tog, remove some useless cards from the graveyard, Berserk, Yawgmoth's Will, draw billions, pump Tog like crazy, replay Berserk, take 80". It's a nice sideboard card to put you out of Disciple of the Vault range though.

I don't like having 4 Sterling Grove in the deck, I found 3 to be the perfect number.

Mirari's Wake is only good when you are already winning and should not be included in the deck. If you want some really janky win condition, try Eternal Dragon or [card]Necra Sanctuary[/card].

Aura of Silence is too slow to be really efficient, especially when you have to way to deal with Goblin Welder and Thirst for Knowledge. Seal of Cleansing is really better. Especially if you are running 1 Eternal Dragon. You should definitly maindeck 3, these are hot in many matchups and are never dead draws.

You really really should cut Blue from the deck. You need basic lands to face Trinisphere + Wastelands. At least one Plains, for Seal of Cleansing under Blood Moon. Ancestral Recall is broken, I admit it. But brokeness is useless if Wasteland prevents you from using the cards Ancestral Recall gave you.

Oh, and the deck needs some maindeck spot removal. Artifact Aggro is immune to The Abyss, and UG Madness or Food Chain Goblins are immune to Moat. Both are too slow against Fish variants. Try to fit in some STP or, if you want an enchantment, [card]Seal of Doom[/card].

[cardiffgiant]

Toad -

I disagree with you about WoWorship. It buys you turns or limits the options other decks have to win. Much like Worship or Abyss or Moat, it's a temporary solution. Your Tog example is case in point. They now need Yawgmoth's Win and/or Berserk to win. They have become a poor combo deck.

I agree with the wake. I'd prefer Living Wish with Serra's Sanctum and a couple game changing creatures in the SB. Or Enlightened Tutor.

Also, I think it needs at least a basic Forest and Plains. That allows you to Grove into the Seal of Cleansing too.

I agree about having a weakness against aggro, especially swarm decks like UG Madness or Fish. Again, Drop of Honey seems good.

I love Necra Sanctuary. In a lot of ways it's a better clock than Sacred Mesa. I personally like Endless Wurm but then you need to be able to recur creatures (Volrath's Stronghold), which probably isn't worth it.

WingsOfDaidalos -

I cut the strips because I'm not sure how effective they will be if you aren't running 5 or running Crucible. Many decks are starting to run Crucible which further limits their effectiveness. But this is just my opinion.

I think you could cut the WofWorship in the SB if you have it maindeck, though.

I wish there was a Copy Enchantment.

[Toad]

I disagree with you about WoWorship. It buys you turns or limits the options other decks have to win. Much like Worship or Abyss or Moat, it's a temporary solution. Your Tog example is case in point. They now need Yawgmoth's Win and/or Berserk to win. They have become a poor combo deck.

Words of Worship does not buy turns. It trades cards (hence turns) for life. Life gain is really bad unless It fits some kind of game breaking specific game plan, as Exalted Angel does in 4cControl. Gaining 5 or even 15 life won't change the fact that you are beaten down by a couple of Juggernauts. If you skip your draws, you won't be able to find solutions to the opponents threats, while the opponent will keep digging his deck for additional threats. Overgrown Estate was used in the original CooberP's builds because It perfectly comboes with Sylvan Library, the green Necropotence : "Sac a land, pay 1 life : draw a card". You really don't need that against standard Aggro to win. Workshop decks can hit you too fast, Food Chain combo can hit you for 40 in a single turn, etc ...

Oh, and your argument about Tog is flawed. I mean, Tog IS a poor combo deck already and need Yawgmoth's Will or Berserk to win, you know?

Drop of Honey seems good

Especially with Argothian Enchantress on the board ...
You need STP.

[WingsOfDaidalos.]

@Toad:

Words of Wisdom is definitly not needed in the maindeck. It's really crap. 15 life is good? Maybe. But you could have used this 3 cards to get a real game breaker against Aggro, such as Moat or Worship. It's a nice sideboard card to put you out of Disciple of the Vault range though.

Hmm, you guys are not making it easier for me. However, Toad, what you are forgetten is that a little life is needed for extensive Library and City of Brass use. Off course you could use those 2 cards from Sylvan, but then again you are also paying 8 life for them. You can only pull that off so many times before putting yourself in the danger zone. A little lifegain once every few turns really delivers speed, as you can then affort to draw 2 extra every turn.

I don't like having 4 Sterling Grove in the deck, I found 3 to be the perfect number.

How's that? Grove is one of the most usefull cards in the deck, and 4 seems like an obvious choice.

Mirari's Wake is only good when you are already winning and should not be included in the deck.

True, but it also puts more pressure on the opponent. Giving an opponent 4 more turns before he dies, is giving him 4 more turns to deal with the problem.

Aura of Silence is too slow to be really efficient, especially when you have to way to deal with Goblin Welder and Thirst for Knowledge. Seal of Cleansing is really better. Especially if you are running 1 Eternal Dragon. You should definitly maindeck 3, these are hot in many matchups and are never dead draws.

My meta is very artifact heavy, and I believe the silence to be very useful against them. That's why I run both. Its only one mana more, for a very substantial extra effect.

You really really should cut Blue from the deck. You need basic lands to face Trinisphere + Wastelands. At least one Plains, for Seal of Cleansing under Blood Moon. Ancestral Recall is broken, I admit it. But brokeness is useless if Wasteland prevents you from using the cards Ancestral Recall gave you.

In total I have 7 sources for blue mana. 4 cities, a Tundra and the mox and lotus. Chances seem slim for them to all disappear before the AR is cast. True, one blue card seems offbeat in the deck, but when you DO draw it, it is worth the slot.

Oh, and the deck needs some maindeck spot removal. Artifact Aggro is immune to The Abyss, and UG Madness or Food Chain Goblins are immune to Moat. Both are too slow against Fish variants. Try to fit in some STP or, if you want an enchantment, Seal of Doom.

Why is Arfticact immune to Abyss and FCG immune to Moat?...
Anyway, I have StP sideboard against those (rare in my meta) decks. It just doesn't seem worth it, giving most Aggro decks cannot deal with Worship, Moat and The Abyss. Especially after a Replenish and 2 Groves in play.

Do not get me wrong Toad, I value every bit of feedback.

@cardiffgiant:

Living wish is an interesting option, but it needs a sideboard fitted for it. That makes you vulnarable against certain types of decks, where you just need those SB cards...

[rozetta]

This is a totally off the wall idea, but I thought I'd throw it out anyway. Your black cards are 3 x Duress, 1 x Words of Waste/Mind Twist, 1 x Abyss and 1 x Demonic Tutor (assuming overgrown estate is being cut).  Given that only two of these are enchantments (and Abyss is really not that good anymore), would it be better to remove black all together for a stable G/W mana base and run Xantid Swarms in place of Duresses? Since the deck isn't all that fast anyway, Xantid Swarm would buy you a turn or two to resolve some key spells versus control. In turn, you would have a solid 2-colour mana base which could utilize lots of basics to avoid Crucible/Wasteland lock and you could also use the free slots to find space for those cards you couldn't fit before. Be careful not to go below 19-20 enchantments in the deck, though, otherwise it will lose too much steam.

The Living Wish plan looks like a good idea, especially considering Serra's Sanctum (and perhaps even Gaea's Cradle) and the fact you could wish for, e.g. a 4th Xantid Swarm (if following the above plan), a Verduran Enchantress or some other utility creatures. You could even put an Exalted Angel or Eternal Witness in the sideboard.

On the issue of Words of Worship, it's true that the card is somewhat slow. However, it shouldn't be used to replace your default draw step - it should be used to replace a draw from an enchantress or in conjunction with Sylvan Library. In this case, it's better than Overgrown Estate, especially with multiple Sylvans in play, if I remember the rules regarding this correctly (hence the need for running 3 or 4).

One problem with the deck is that it takes a couple of turns to get going, since it's draw engine is dependent on casting enchantments with enchantresses in play. Sterling Grove is also really slow as far as tutors go. I agree that some spot removal maindeck would be wise in the current environment, most likely Swords to Plowshares.

One more thing - I'd run all 5 Moxes, since you really need the early off-colour acceleration to cast turn 1 enchantress or sylvan.

Edit: I just read the previous post. Regarding The Abyss, it's a targetted effect and states on the card that it only targets non-artifact creatures. That's partially why decks like Keeper stopped running it when TnT and Mask came out.

The Abyss
Color= Black    Type= Enchant World    Cost= 3B    LG(R)
Text (LG+errata): At the beginning of each player's upkeep, destroy target nonartifact creature that player controls of his or her choice. It can't be regenerated. [Oracle 2001/08/24]

    * This is a targeted ability. The Abyss targets one creature each upkeep. It cannot target creatures which are untargetable, such as those with Protection from Black. [Aahz 1994/07/13]
    * If the target becomes invalid after being chosen but before resolution, you do not have to choose another target. [Duelist Magazine #16, Page 25]
    * The controller of The Abyss controls the ability, but the current player chooses what gets destroyed. [Barclay 2000/12/31]
    * Extended tournaments (see Rule 803) have always banned this card.
    * Note - Also see Enchant World, Rule G5.10.

The reason FCG isn't bothered by Moat is that they can use Siege-Gang Commander to throw goblins at you from behind the moat for the win. I've had this done to me in testing and it's relatively easy for them to set up.

[WingsOfDaidalos.]

Cutting Black is a bit extreme I feel. Without blue and black, the deck loses its control feel, which is what I find appealing about it. In Green/White, the deck is just a silly combo/control deck. I believe it needs the black cards, especially tutor and duress. Words of Waste is also incredible with Libraries.

I really really do not want to cut any colours. =)

Living Wish is great, but it demands a lot of tweaking. First to make room for 2 or 3 wishes, then the modification of the entire sideboard. And to be able to get the most out of the wish, the sideboard must consist of mostly lands or creatures. However, the SB NEEDS StP, Ground Seal, Ivory Mask, Sacred Ground (I forgot that card in my discussions about NB-Land hate; after boarding the strip effect doesn't seem so bad anymore), Choke, etc.

Sterling Grove is also really slow as far as tutors go.

It slow alright, but also re-usable and makes your enchantments untargetable. =)

Ow, now that we're are at it:

- What does Tog do about Worship?
- What does FCG do against Worship?

It seems like a card that can really break, or at least slow, most aggro decks...

One last thing: How do I quote specific persons? Everytime I Quote, it just says "Quote:" instaid op "Rozetta said:"  

[Shadow-Walker]

Id think that Tog would just cunning into an answer.

[rozetta]

Cunning Wish into an answer is not that good, since Sterling Grove forces them to target it, and if there are two out, you cannot target enchantments at all. However, Pernicious Deed is run in a lot of Tog decks, which would be brutal.

[cardiffgiant]

From playing against Rock in Extended, Pernicious Deed can be brutal. In theory, Karmic Justice takes care of that, but I had a hard time get enough pieces out fast enough.

Choke can be pretty effective, though.

[Shadow-Walker]

Dont assume youll have a grove out, worship is a one-of so you probably popped a grove to get it in the first place.  Now yes it helps that you have them but Tog has counters so it may not resolve in the first place.  I just really dont think worship is up to par in this matchup, hell for the same price you could drop a rector and go for bargain (replacing duress with therapy not that you should necessarily run rector but i would over crap like worship).