Since the release of Duskmourn, we’ve seen a multitude of strategies become quite popular thanks to the power of the new cards. For instance, Pioneer Enigmatic Incarnation became more powerful and consistent than ever with the printing of the Overlords. Overlord of the Hauntwoods especially is a godsend for that deck.
As strong as the Overlords are, they aren’t the only cycle of creatures from Duskmourn to make an impact. The Enduring cycle of Glimmer creatures have also made a name for themselves. As it turns out, though, one Enduring card in particular has proven to be much more impactful than the rest. Enduring Innocence is a multi-format all-star, and we felt it deserved recognition.
Enduring Innocence in Pioneer
- Mana Value: 1WW
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 2/1
- MTG Set: Duskmourn
- Card Text: Lifelink. Whenever one or more other creatures you control with power 2 or less enter, draw a card. This ability triggers only once each turn. When Enduring Innocence dies, if it was a creature, return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control. It’s an enchantment. (It’s not a creature.)
We’ve seen cards with similar card-drawing abilities see play from time to time in Pioneer, such as Tocasia’s Welcome. The problem with cards like Tocasia’s Welcome is that it does absolutely nothing to impact the board when it comes down. As such, you can’t push your advantage as a creature-based deck. In some cases, you also risk falling too far behind.
Enduring Innocence completely negates this downside. As a 2/1 with Lifelink, you can always trade it off to buffer your life total, then have Enduring Innocence come back as an enchantment and take over the game. This is a huge deal and is a big part of the reason why Selesnya Company has been so successful as of late in Pioneer.
Selesnya Company is well set up to consistently trigger Enduring Innocence every single turn. This makes it elite in attrition-based matchups, especially against decks that can’t easily remove the enchantment, such as mono-black midrange. Plus, because Enduring Innocence is a creature, you can hit it off Collected Company. If you ever get multiple copies of Enduring Innocence out of the deal, you’ll really start to bury your opponent in card advantage.
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Enduring Innocence in Standard
- Mana Value: W
- Rarity: Uncommon
- MTG Sets: Return to Ravnica, Time Spiral Remastered, Wilds of Eldraine Commander, Duskmourn
- Card Text: Enchant creature. Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each enchantment you control and has first strike.
Selesnya Company may be the place that best showcases Enduring Innocence’s power, but there are multiple decks in Standard that also abuse the card. Azorius enchantments is a great example. Enduring Innocence synergizes well with all of your Eerie cards as an enchantment itself. Most importantly, Gremling Tamer becomes a card-drawing machine once you have access to Enduring Innocence.
On top of that, if Enduring Innocence is left unchecked as a creature, suiting it up with Ethereal Armor can break a game wide open. This deck has protection spells like Shardmage’s Rescue available to protect your big Lifelink threat, which goes a long way.
Beyond the Azorius enchantments shell, Enduring Innocence also makes an appearance in mono-white token control decks in Standard. Enduring Innocence plays a similar role to Caretaker’s Talent in this archetype, ensuring that your token producers like Carrot Cake and Fountainport provide additional advantage.
Ever since Duskmourn released, Enduring Innocence has been getting more and more respect. The card is simply excellent as long as you build around it, which is not hard to do. Perhaps it’s time for players to start packing more copies of Torch the Tower to cleanly answer the Glimmer menace. Otherwise, Enduring Innocence will continue to break games wide open.
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