Enlightened Prison

[Ben Kossman]

So I wanted to build a competitive enchantress variant in vintage since WOTC unrestricted Enlightened Tutor. I really like the idea that one can go snatch any artifact or enchantment to hose a given archetype. Here's what I've got so far. Tell me what you think....

Artifact:4
1 Black Lotus
3 Moxen (UWG)

Blue:8
3 Back to Basics
3 Energy Flux
1 Timewalk
1 Ancestrall

Green:22
3 Words of Wilding
3 Enchantresses Prescence
3 City of Solitude
3 Ground Seal
3 Root Maze
3 Utopia Sprawl
3 Wild Growth
1 Fastbond

White:10
3 Solitary Confinement
3 Rule of Law
4 Enlightened Tutor

Land:16
4 Flooded Strand
4 Windswept Heath
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Plains
3 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Savannah

So there's something for everybody with the possibility of even more hate in game two. Basically what you want to do is get Root Maze and Back to Basics in play to shut down their mana base followed by Energy Flux to finish the job. Ground Seal does a good job of shutting down Ichorid even though it's not great against Will. Rule of Law, however is excellent against both Will based decks and Tendrils (Which are both generally the same thing). City of Solitude rounds out the hatred and exists to make decks with FOW and Mana Drain cry. The best win condition I could come up with is Word of wilding in terms of Casting Cost and effect. It's generally a good idea to go get basic land early so it's possible to set up BTB Root Maze. I'll post a sideboard later.

[Ben Kossman]

So the purpose of this deck is to function similarly to Stax setting up a hard lock with Root Maze/Back to Basics/Energy Flux that deprives the opponent of mana. Solitary Confinement and Rule of Law both play a role in shutting down combo assuming you can get to three mana which can be a pretty daunting task sometimes which is why I'm running
Moxen and a Lotus and will probably cut Wild Growth to include Sol Ring and Mana Crypt and possibly even a full set of off color moxes. I really wanted to abuse Null Rod as well but the Back to Basics/Root Maze lock makes the mana a bit tenuous on my side as well. Ground Seal sucks against Will but shuts down Ichorid cold as soon as it hits the board. The decks I want to beat are basically Ichorid, Mana Drain, Storm, Stax, and Selkie Fish. I'll devote three slots per archetype in my sideboard but I also want to have a card that makes their lives difficult main as well. I also really want to play Mystic Remora but it's tough to find space with all the hate...Please note I'm not trying to build combo enchantress as it's way to slow to compete with the other decks out there. I'm pretty sure that WOW is the best win condition I can find but I also like the idea of Opalescence...

[meadbert]

Words of Wilding has synergy with Sylvan Library if you wanted to give that a shot.

[Ben Kossman]

I want to get Sylvan Library in here somehow but want to make sure that my first priority is having a card that hoses every tier one deck out there and having multiple copies of said hose to ensure that I have a good chance of drawing it in my opening hand and I can use Enlightened Tutor to go get enchantress's prescence or Words of Wilding...

[Ben Kossman]

Another route the deck could take would be to run each hoser as a single copy and use a lot of draw power to get them. Here's a bit of a diferrent version...

Artifact:8
5 Moxen
1 Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt

Blue:8
1 Back to Basics
1 Energy Flux
4 Mystic Remora
1 Timewalk
1 Ancestrall

Green:20
1 Words of Wilding
4 Enchantresses Presence
4 Argothian Enchantress
4 Sylvan Library
4 Utopia Sprawl
1 City of Solitude
1 Ground Seal
1 Fastbond

White:8
1 Solitary Confinement
1 Rule of Law
1 Aura of Silence
1 Sacred Ground
4 Enlightened Tutor

Land:16
4 Windswept Heath
4 Flooded Strand
4 Tropical Island
4 Savannah

Maybe this version would work better but I think I should probably add another win condition or two...I was also thinking about building a better enchantress combo and decided that it should involve Time Spiral with the various Enchant Land spells out there and Serra's Sanctum to generate Sick amounts of mana...

Artifact:1
1 Lotus

Blue:30
4 Cloud of Fairies
4 Snap
1 Brain Freeze
4 Time Spiral
4 Braingeyser
1 Cunning Wish
4 Force of Will
4 Mind Over Matter
1 Time Twister
1 Frantic Search
1 Timewalk
1 Ancestrall

Green:13
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Wild Growth
4 Exploration
1 Fastbond

Land:16
1 Library of Alexandria (With MOM and Library you can draw your entire deck BTW if you're holding eight cards and proceed to discard one to un-tap Library)
2 Serra's Sanctum
4 Tropical Island
4 Breeding Pool
4 Windswept Heath
2 Flooded Strand

[mmcgeach]

have you considered Drop of Honey against creature strategies?  Other options are propaganda/ghostly prison, possibly some kind of color-specific green-hate since your big enemies are qsali pridemage and seal of primordium.

I like that list with the draw, tutors, and the one-ofs, but it looks like it needs something to sweep up creatures.  What's your plan against fish?  Dig for Words and then put a buch of Bear tokens into play?

You should totally run Balance since all your permanents are enchantments, and unaffected.

I've always wanted to fit Karmic Justice into some kind of anti-stax/anti-wasteland plan, maybe it has a home here?

you might have to run a couple basic forests yourself so you can hit em with Utopia Sprawl and still untap them under B2B.

it seems to me Replenish is either a win-more card, or totally indispensible.

[vassago]

Energy Flux seems out of place, and since your artifact count is very low why isnt there null rod some where in here? I do not know whether or not this would be competitive, but I think you should consider an alternate win, because I see the whole enchantress thing to be rather slow.  Like I said I do not know because I havent sleeved it up, but speed is a serious issue in our current metagame.  The disruption pieces I see as kind of lacking, as in you should use more than what you are using.  Just a couple of thoughts. 

[MirariKnight]

If you have Enlightened why not play Vault and Key?

[silvernail]

because not everything needs to be a vault/key deck...

[MirariKnight]

It's two slots and the point of the deck is running Enlightened Tutor. There is not reason not to run either Vault/Key or Null Rod, Vault/Key taking up less slots.
As much as I hate it there is no reason not to play Vault/Key at the moment unless you play rod.

[silvernail]

Perhaps the fact that time vault is expensive and an enchantress / prison style  deck is more of a budget build is good enough to not shove vault/ key into it.

I mean you could tell goblins players to throw vault/key in their deck just because , you could tell fish players to do that too. Every single deck in an event could throw vault / key into it, but sometimes just because you can doesnt mean you should.

[MirariKnight]

I assume price isn't an issue as the original list has power.
And I wouldn't tell Goblins or Fish to run Vault/Key. I'd tell them to run Null Rod. There is very little reason not to have one or the other. For the record I hate Time Vault with a passion but it's too good not to run.

[Darkenslight]

What about the card ArchMAge Ascension?  For reference:

Archmage Ascension   
Enchantment
At the beginning of each end step, if you drew two or more cards this turn, put a quest counter on Archmage Ascension.
Whenever you would draw a card, if Archmage Ascension has six or more quest counters, Demonic.

It seems like a strong plan for a Prison variant; Draw two a turn, then DT each turn.  The only problem is that it takes six turns to activate.

[Ben Kossman]

So here's the version I'm currently testing...I cut out white entirely in order to make the mana a bit better...

Artifact:6
3 Null Rod
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus

Blue:8
3 Back to Basics
3 Arcane Lab
1 Timewalk
1 Ancestrall

Green:24
3 Words of Wilding
3 Enchantress's Prescence
4 Argothian Enchantress
3 City of Solitude
3 Ground Seal
3 Root Maze
4 Exploration
1 Fastbond

Land:22
4 Tropical Island
4 Misty Rainforest
10 Forest
4 Island

Since people don't play much enchantment hate to begin with I like my odds against a random field....

[mmcgeach]

Since people don't play much enchantment hate to begin with I like my odds against a random field....

yeah, trygon predator might be the worst thing you'd face against a competitive deck.  and that deck could be absent in your meta...

[John Jones]

I would completely cut green and instead add black and keep white

In black you get leyline/planar void, Will, Vamp, Demonic, and Planar void

[xycsoscyx]

I would also run the full set of Moxen plus Sol Ring since all your enchantments have large colorless costs.  Even though you shut then down with Null Rod, you have a better chance of getting something down turn 1 WITH them, rather then without them.

[John Jones]

I would also run the full set of Moxen plus Sol Ring since all your enchantments have large colorless costs.  Even though you shut then down with Null Rod, you have a better chance of getting something down turn 1 WITH them, rather then without them.

I completely agree, I am also going to be working on a list becuase I think this could randomly be good right now since a lot of decks have cut the only way to deal with enchantments in the form of echoing truth and the ones that run chain always run chain becuase it's relevant in their matchup.

[Ben Kossman]

Here's a comboish build I've been working on that wins with Brain Freeze and abuses Words of Wind to bounce their entire side of the board...

Artifact:7
5 Moxen
1 Lotus
1 Mana Crypt

Blue:19
1 Brain Freeze
4 Force of Will
4 Mind Over Matter
4 Words of Wind
4 Mystic Remora
1 Timewalk
1 Ancestrall

Green:17
4 Enchantress's Prescence
4 Argothian Enchantress
4 Sylvan Library
4 Utopia Sprawl
1 Fastbond

Land:17
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Tropical Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Flooded Strand
3 Forest
2 Island

Once you get MOM and Library you should be able to draw your entire libary...If you can't win past that point you're in pretty bad  shape ...

[potato]

You can combine control and combo ideas if you stick with Solitary Confinement and add the white ascension that makes angel tokens as a finisher.