With Final Fantasy now officially out on game store shelves, we’re seeing a slew of new Magic: The Gathering decks rise up. A number are thriving in Standard, as you’d expect. What’s more impressive, however, is the range of new decks we’re seeing in eternal formats. Some new MTG decks are cropping up in Legacy, and a spicy Enchantment Reanimator list has even made waves in a Modern League.
Normally, Reanimator decks are all about bringing back your most impressive creatures. This deck takes things in a bit of a different direction, abusing Final Fantasy’s new Summon mechanic to put enchantments in the limelight instead. It’s a hugely novel list, and one that runs a number of long-forgotten gems of the past. Whether it’ll establish a real foothold in the Modern metagame remains to be seen, but in the meantime, it’s great to see a new set inspire such wanton deckbuilding innovation.
Four-Color Enchantment Reanimator In MTG Modern
This innovative Enchantment Reanimator brew comes to us via Modorra, who took it to a 5-0 finish in yesterday’s MTG Online Modern League. While it bears some similarity to Living End, it’s pretty much unique as far as Modern lists go.
The most important card in the deck is Resurgent Belief, a forgotten bulk rare from Modern Horizons 2. Appropriately enough, this deck could cause a resurgence in popularity for the card. It brings back every enchantment in your graveyard for just two mana, as long as you’re able to wait the two turns for it to come off Suspend.
That wait has pretty much killed the card up to now, but it turns out you can get around it using Cascade. Shardless Agent is a bit too expensive for the deck, but Bloodbraid Marauder fills this role just fine. The deck plays nothing with mana value less than two, so dropping Marauder is guaranteed to cast Belief. This will bring back every enchantment in your ‘yard for two mana and, as we’ll see shortly, likely end the game.
Unfortunately, Marauder doesn’t have Cascade by default. You need to enable it by hitting Delirium, which means getting down to some good ol’ fashioned self-mill. This deck needs to dump big enchantments into the graveyard anyway, so it’s not too much of an inconvenience. Early game, you’ll be casting the likes of Malevolent Rumble and Cache Grab to really get things going.
You can supplement this with rummage effects like Bitter Reunion, Cathartic Pyre, and Fear of Missing Out. Reunion and FOMO are also, handily, enchantments themselves. This makes them useful both in the preparation phase and the execution phase for the deck.
Bringing Out The Big Guns
To make the most of this deck’s reanimation, Modorra runs a trio of huge, high-impact enchantments, any one of which can effectively end the game when it drops.
The sexiest of these by far is Summon: Bahamut. This is a brand-new, much-hyped Final Fantasy card, and it’s great to see it find a home so quickly after launch. It’s a huge Flier, a double removal spell, a draw spell, and a huge damage chunk all in one. Sure, those elements are staggered out over multiple turns, but it’s still a ton of value for your opponent to compete with.
The other big enchantments in the deck are more conventional, but no less potent. Overwhelming Splendor makes it very difficult for your opponent to win the game, crushing their creatures stat-wise and turning off most of their abilities, creature or otherwise. Even go-wide decks like Boros Energy that can still keep a reasonable board after this will struggle to do much from that point on. Omniscience puts in a rare non-combo appearance here too, letting you dump any copies of Bahamut or Splendor you have stuck in your hand, and dig for more using your self-mill and rummage cards.
The last notable enchantment in the deck is Leyline Binding, which is really more of a support piece. It’s great to get a removal spell back with Belief, of course, but you can also just cast this pretty cheaply from your hand in many cases. The single Zagoth Triome in the deck gives you a fetchable way to cut its cost by three, and you’ll naturally have Plains and Mountains anyway.
A Window Of Opportunity?
Like many innovative MTG Modern strategies, Modorra’s Enchantment Reanimator deck is laser-focused on its specific goal. This makes it a risky bet in the format right now, especially with how the current top decks are looking.
Boros Energy may not be as dominant as it once was, but it’s still the most popular deck in the format. As a highly aggressive list, there’s a good chance it can run Enchantment Reanimator over before it really gets going. On top of that, it naturally plays a number of silver bullets for enchantment-heavy decks like this. Both Thraben Charm and Wear/Tear can remove your big enchantments at instant speed for very little mana. Charm can even exile your graveyard, too, to stop you cheating them out in the first place.
It’s safe to say that the Boros Energy matchup is rough for Modorra’s new brew. Thankfully, things get a bit better after that. Decks like Izzet Prowess and Domain Zoo tend to play less enchantment removal, which gives you more of a chance to stick your big haymakers. You could still lose to an aggressive start, but you have more potential to recover.
For Combo decks like Belcher and Amulet Titan, things will generally come down to who draws better, since neither deck is particularly interactive in these matchups. Enchantment Reanimator doesn’t guarantee a win when it pops off, mind you, so these decks likely still have the edge.
Overall, while it’s a fun novelty and a great showcase for Bahamut, I don’t think current Modern is conducive to Modorra’s list rising to the top.
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