Release week’s story with MTG Final Fantasy has an obvious overarching theme. A lot of cards that players thought would be Commander exclusives are making surprising appearances in competitive play. We saw this with Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER earlier this week.
Now, one of the most popular Commanders from Final Fantasy is seeing a Pioneer appearance. Terra, Magical Adept just secured a top-four finish in a Pioneer Challenge, supported by an archetype we haven’t seen in a long time.
Enigmatic Terra
Terra, Magical Adept seems like a great addition to Enigmatic Incarnation decks in Pioneer, and MTGO user SirEPIC capitalized. The goal of this archetype is to, essentially, resolve an Enigmatic Incarnation and double the value provided by all the other enchantments in this deck. You accomplish this by turning enchantments with enters effects into other creatures using Enigmatic Incarnation.
There are a ton of expensive enchantments in Pioneer that can have their casting costs reduced in various ways. Whether it’s using Leyline Binding’s Domain reduction or Impending the Duskmourn Overlords, you can cast enchantments with massive mana values for cheap and transform them into gigantic creatures with Enigmatic Incarnation.
Enigmatic Incarnation means that Terra can play double duty in this deck – acting as both a way to find Enigmatic Incarnation, and as a potential target for the enchantment. As a target, Terra can recur some value on smaller boards, essentially getting back the card that was sacrificed to search for her. More often than not, however, Terra’s mill ability will find something a bit more impactful. Outside of being a target, Terra essentially lets you dig for Enigmatic Incarnation.
Even Terra’s backside provides tons of value here. If you get into the lategame without an Enigmatic Incarnation, flipping Terra should provide a similarly powerful way to close out the game. Thanks to the abundance of Overlords in this deck, Terra should mill over something substantial in her initial trigger. Copying any of these as a creature is a massive tempo swing secondary only to Enigmatic Incarnation itself. Terra essentially demands she be dealt with if she tries to flip. Otherwise, the game will likely slip out of one’s grasp.
As a side note, you may notice that there’s 81 cards in this deck, but that appears to be entirely intentional. This makes more sense here than in other archetypes, since the 81st card can function as a search target for Enigmatic Incarnation.
While Terra aids the efficiency of the Enigmatic Incarnation engine, which can make your decent matchups even better, she doesn’t do much else. Considering the problems that this archetype has traditionally had, it’s tough to say that Terra is the saving grace for Enigmatic Incarnation.
Polarizing Matchups
Enigmatic Incarnation decks are designed to go over the top of everything, giving it a massive edge against any decks that cannot pressure it quickly enough. If you’re expecting a lot of midrange or tempo decks like Rakdos Midrange and Izzet Phoenix, as well as control decks, Enigmatic Incarnation will absolutely crush the competition.
Sadly, the same cannot be said for combo and aggro decks. Aggressive strategies are 50/50s at best, but Lotus Field combo, in particular, is a horrible matchup since it attacks on an angle that Enigmatic Incarnation decks can’t do anything about. Both Mono Red Aggro and Lotus Field Combo are considered among the best decks in Pioneer at the moment, which means that Enigmatic Incarnation players are likely just playing matchup roulette.
That said, there is some sideboard tech to try and help. Deafening Silence is a cheap card to try and hinder both Izzet Phoenix and Lotus Field Combo. Ruric Thar, the Unbowed fits a similar purpose, and is easily searchable with Enigmatic Incarnation.
For red aggressive strategies, this deck employs Knockout Blow in the sideboard and, while that is a fantastic card against the deck, I’m not sure how impactful it is considering you’re running an 80-card maindeck.
Terra does, however, give a lot of consistency for Enigmatic players to play around with. Maybe Terra will allow Enigmatic Incarnation to shift some of its maindeck cards towards specific pieces that improve bad matchups, but that’s tough to say at the moment.
Enigmatic Incarnation has always been a decent Pioneer deck depending on the metagame you expect, and Terra’s inclusion in the deck makes it even more adept at this role.