This is the first deck I’m going to review, because I think it will be the easiest one to dissect and analyze. It has a fairly linear, straightforward strategy, which involves playing guys, buffing them with Auras, and swinging with them. Not overly complicated, is it?
So, first off, let’s take a look at the decklist as it appears, straight out of the box.
Creatures
2x Armored Griffin
2x Aura Gnarlid
1x Auramancer
1x Auratouched Mage
1x Bramble Elemental
1x Celestial Ancient
1x Dowsing Shaman
2x Dreampod Shaman
1x Elderwood Scion
1x Kor Spiritdancer
1x Krond the Dawn-Clad
1x Lumberknot
1x Silhana Ledgewalker
1x Thran Golem
Spells
2x Boar Umbra
1x Cage of Hands
2x Felidar Umbra
1x Fractured Powerstone
1x Ghostly Prison
1x Hyena Umbra
1x Indrik Umbra
1x Mammoth Umbra
1x Pollenbright Wings
1x Predatory Urge
1x Quiet Disrepair
1x Rancor
1x Sigil of the Empty Throne
1x Snake Umbra
1x Spirit Mantle
1x Three Dreams
Lands
9x Forest
8x Plains
2x Graypelt Refuge
1x Krosan Verge
2x Selesnya Sanctuary
1x Terramorphic Expanse
1x Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
Planar Deck
Akoum
Aretopolis
Astral Arena
Edge of Malacol
Grove of the Dreampods
Kessig
Onakke Catacombs
Talon Gates
Chaotic Aether*
Planewide Disaster*
(* = Phenomenon card)
Highlights
With that out of the way, let’s zero in on the brand new cards first, then go over a few key reprints.
The newly printed cards in this deck are:
Dreampod Druid
Elderwood Scion
Krond the Dawn-Clad
Felidar Umbra
Indrik Umbra
And, of course, Fractured Powerstone, which is in every deck.
All five new cards are relatively playable. Krond should be mildly popular in EDH, while the two uncommons are pretty playable in 60-card formats. I plan to use all three in my Jenara Aura deck, but they feel pretty narrow, inhibiting their usefulness outside of dedicated Enchantress decks.
Interesting or exciting reprints in this deck include:
Rancor
Ghostly Prison
Krosan Verge
Rancor and Ghostly Prison are older cards that are a bit hard for new players to find and are usually worth 3 to 4 bucks online. Krosan Verge is just a terrific budget-friendly mana fixer that every casual player should have in his or her arsenal. It’s a bit slow, but in EDH and 60-card Planechase multiplayer matches tend to be slow enough that the Verge is worth it.
Strategy
The core concept of the deck should be pretty obvious. You play some creatures, then turn them into sizeable threats by Enchanting them with various Auras. Hopefully, you’ll draw a Kor Spiritdancer early so that you can keep your hand full of cards, which is going to be important for this deck to be able to consistently apply pressure.
There seems to be a very minor token-making subtheme, which is likely more for defensive purposes than anything. Cards like Dreampod Druid, Bramble Elemental and Pollenbright Wings make 1/1 tokens which are most often going to be your main defensive line, while your Arua-laden Creatures like Elderwood Scion and such will be on the attack.
In case you need defense against Flying creatures, there is Sigil of the Empty Throne, which can easily lead to a major offensive force if it manages to stay on the battlefield long enough.
As with all WotC-made “preconstructed” decks, there is plenty of room for improvement here. Instead of just regurgitating a list that caters to my own tastes and preferences (and budget!), I’ll start by identifying what I feel are the strongest cards, and the weakest links, to give you a more adaptable idea for where to push the deck.
The MVP’s of the deck look to be:
Aura Gnarlid
Dreampod Druid
Elderwood Scion
Kor Spiritdancer
Krond the Dawnclad
Silhana Ledgewalker
Rancor
Indrik Umbra
Felidar Umbra
Spirit Mantle
Sigil of the Empty Throne
The weaker cards include:
Armored Griffin
Dowsing Shaman
Celestial Ancient
Lumberknot
Quiet Disrepair
Mammoth Umbra
Pollenbright Wings
Predatory Urge
Thran Golem and Three Dreams are nice cards, and they are definitely on-theme and appropriate for casual play, but I think they both cost too much for what they do. Three Dreams in particular is a little to slow. I’d rather just have an additional “Enchantress” to draw more cards, rather than a costly tutor.
I’d start cutting the more costly cards like Pollenbright Wings and Thran Golem for more cheap stuff like Silhana Ledgewalker and Rancor. Small, evasive creatures are great here, because you can make ‘em big pretty easily.
Creatures with Hexproof are also great. I love Troll Ascetic in an Aura deck, as he is hard to deal with for opponents without mass removal.
Another notable exclusion her is Auratog. Auratog is great with Auras like Rancor that come back to your hand. You can repeatedly sac Rancor to Auratog to pump him to a huge size, then with your last Green mana, put the Rancor on the ‘Tog to give him Trample.
I mentioned previously that I’d like to see more Enchantress cards. Kor Spiritdancer is great, so I’d like to add 1x or 2x more of her, plus a couple of Mesa Enchantresses. With one or two Enchantresses on the field, you should easily be able to keep 6 or 7 cards in your hand at all times, and by keeping an extra copy of an Enchantress in hand as well, you can very easily come back from a Wrath of God, a big weakness of this deck.
Quiet Disrepair is an understandable choice, as it’s an Aura that acts like a Disenchant… it’s a bit slow and awkward, though. I’d much rather just have a Seal of Cleansing or Seal of Primordium. They won’t trigger the Kor Spritdancer, but they will still trigger Mesa Enchantress, Sigil of the Empty Throne, and Celestial Ancient (if you keep him). More importantly, they let you deal with the problem immediately if it’s an urgent need, or wait until it becomes an issue if you prefer.
Another great idea for this deck is Qasali Pridemage. He’s a creature and an answer all rolled into one. If your opponents aren’t packing too many worrisome Artifacts or Enchantments, he’s not a blank as he can still attack and block and even wear an Aura or two. Plus this already seems like a deck that really wants to just have one big attacker, which the Pridemage’s Exalted ability plays right into.
Two of the most powerful G/W Auras in the game are noticeably absent from this list. I’m talking about Armadillo Cloak and Shield of the Oversoul. Armadillo Cloak can slot right into the deck without fuss, but Shield of the Oversoul is best when attached to a G/W creature, of which there are only a few in this stock list. If you want to add the Shield, I’d recommend adding some cheap G/W dudes like Watchwolf, Kitchen Finks, or the fantastic-with-a-bunch-of-tokens Knotvine Paladin. If you keep, or even bolster, the token-making subtheme, the Knotvine Paladin is a definite 3x or 4x include.
This goes for any of the four decks, but if you’re building this strictly for Planechase use, I’d try to max out the number of Fractured Powerstones you can play. You see, having only one copy doesn’t actually matter in the strictest sense. You could be tapping it for 1 colorless and using that colorless to roll the planar die, or you could just tap it to roll the planar die – the point is, it doesn’t actually save you any mana at all, unless you have 2 or more copies on the table. That’s when it starts to become a bargain. So you’re better off either maxing it out at 4x copies, or removing it altogether.
Spirit Mantle is pretty fantastic, and I think it deserves to be a 2x.
Almost all of the Umbras are playable, only Mammoth Umbra seems to be overcosted for its effect. That said, if you manage to work in 3x or 4x Shield of the Oversoul and some more G/W guys, I think the Umbras lose a lot of their value, and I’d just replace them with Rancors and Armadillo Cloaks.
Cage of Hands is one of the few ways to deal with Creatures, and I’d definitely add more answers. I think a 2 or 3 Journey to Nowhere and a Faith’s Fetters would go a long way to making the deck more multiplayer-viable. Fetters has the bonus utility of being able to shut down Planeswalkers, Equipment, and a host of other potential problems.
Here’s a quick and dirty revised decklist, just to use as a starting point:
2x Qasali Pridemage
2x Aura Gnarlid
1x Auratog
2x Dreampod Druid
1x Elderwood Scion
2x Kor Spiritdancer
2x Mesa Enchantress
1x Krond the Dawn-Clad
1x Silhana Ledgewalker
2x Watchwolf
2x Knotvine Paladin
2x Rancor
2x Armadillo Cloak
2x Shield of the Oversoul
1x Spirit Mantle
2x Journey to Nowhere
1x Cage of Hands
1x Faith’s Fetters
1x Sigil of the Empty Throne
1x Indrik Umbra
2x Felidar Umbra
4x Fractured Powerstone
9x Forest
8x Plains
1x Krosan Verge
2x Selesnya Sanctuary
1x Terramorphic Expanse
This list is still far from “tuned”, and represents an attempt to incorporate all of the ideas I presented above. I would strongly suggest picking which ideas you like best and really focusing on those. Choose the cards that you like best, and try to make them 3x and 4x inclusions. You’ll lose some diversity, but you’ll gain power, consistency, and reliability.
I dropped the land count by 1, because I feel that the increased card-draw this list presents will more than make up for the shortage, plus I cut many of the high-end spells and creatures to significantly lower the mana-curve and speed up the deck quite a bit. The land I cut was Vitu-Ghazi, because I feel it’s too slow and expensive for this deck, and my changes should speed it up enough that Vitu-Ghazi would likely never be relevant. If you find games are going long, it can easily come back in.
Now, let’s look at the accompanying Planar deck again, and see if we can make some adjustments there.
Akoum
Aretopolis
Astral Arena
Edge of Malacol
Grove of the Dreampods
Kessig
Onakke Catacombs
Talon Gates
Chaotic Aether*
Planewide Disaster*
Starting with the Phenomena, neither inclusion really makes sense to me. Planewide Disaster is exactly the kind of effect we don’t want to see! Not only will it kill our men, it’ll likely result in severe card disadvantage if those creatures have auras piled on them. Chaotic Aether is awesome, but seems better suited to the Chaos Reigns deck, which is all about the LOLRANDOM effects of Planechase.
I think I’d trade Chaotic Aether out for Mutual Epiphany. We can’t always rely on our Enchantresses for card-draw. This will help us refill our tanks after a Wrath, and allow us to be more aggressive with our hand early-game. Dump your hand and get as much early damage in as possible!
I’d also swap Planewide Disaster for Morphic Tide. This deck has a token subtheme, giving us opportunity to get the most mileage out of the Tide’s effect. Even more importantly, if we cut Three Dreams (and I recommend doing so), we have a deck that is literally 100% permanents! Meaning, Morphic Tide will always hit and never miss. It’s conveniently worded so that it puts creatures into play first, then Enchantments, so we don’t have to worry about our aura’s having legal targets.
Moving on to the planes, Akoum is obviously a great choice, and we’ll happily keep it. I’d also pull Gavony from the Ninja deck, as Vigilance will be highly useful here, I think. It could come in for Edge of Malacol or Talon Gates. Both have effects that can slow us down, which we don’t really want to do. I’d go with this configuration:
Akoum
Aretopolis
Astral Arena
Gavony
Grove of the Dreampods
Kessig
Onakke Catacomb
Talon Gates
Morphic Tide*
Mutual Epiphany*
I decided to keep Talon Gates because the average CMC is pretty low. There are plenty of 2 and 3 mana spells, so our Suspended stuff should hit relatively quicker than our opponents’.
If we want to bring in some of the original 40 Planes, I’d start with these:
Bant
The Maelstrom
Naya
Goldmeadow
Llanowar
Minamo
Raven’s Run
The Great Forest
One decklist down, three to go…
Enjoy!
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