Unique Enchantments Deck Meshes Two Archetypes Together!

Since the recent ban announcement, Pioneer has felt a little bit more diverse and a bit less stale than it previously had. Obviously, there are bound to be a group of decks within the top echelon of the format, and Azorius control, Rakdos midrange, Abzan Amalia Benavides Aguirre Amalia Benavides Aguirre Ward—Pay 3 life.
Whenever you gain life, Amalia Benavides Aguirre explores. Then destroy all other creatures if its power is exactly 20. (To have this creature explore, reveal the top card of your library. Put that card into your hand if it's a land. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature, then put the card back or put it into your graveyard.) combo, and Izzet Phoenix still seem to make up that top tier. However, there are lots of different decks that are all quite capable of putting up excellent performances from week to week.

One deck that has been rising in popularity over the course of the last few weeks has been none other than five-color Enigmatic Incarnation Enigmatic Incarnation At the beginning of your end step, you may sacrifice another enchantment. If you do, search your library for a creature card with mana value equal to 1 plus the sacrificed enchantment's mana value, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle. . Typically, these decks are highly proactive, playing a bunch of value-oriented Enchantments with the goal of landing Incarnation and getting to tutor up some awesome haymakers during your end step. To help accelerate out these Enchantments, usually these decks make use of Fires of Invention Fires of Invention You can cast spells only during your turn and you can cast no more than two spells each turn.
You may cast spells with mana value less than or equal to the number of lands you control without paying their mana costs. .

While powerful, these Fires of Invention decks do naturally lack Instant-speed interaction, making them quite weak to combo decks. On the flip side, the sheer value and board presence they are capable of generating gives them a great edge against midrange decks. In order to help on the interaction front, one player in yesterday’s Magic Online Pioneer Challenge took it upon themselves to make some major changes to the ordinary Incarnation shell.

Rather than playing entirely proactively, this new version meshes the draw-go play patterns from Azorius control with the over-the-top potential of Incarnation decks into one archetype. Let’s take a closer look at this unique approach.

Enigmatic Incarnation Package

Much like the Enigmatic Fires lists of old, this decklist utilizes some immensely powerful Enchantments. First and foremost, there’s a playset of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker Fable of the Mirror-Breaker (As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter.)
I — Create a 2/2 red Goblin Shaman creature token with "Whenever this token attacks, create a Treasure token."
II — You may discard up to two cards. If you do, draw that many cards.
III — Exile this Saga, then return it to the battlefield transformed under your control. . Fable is a naturally strong card on its own, generating a Goblin token with a strong ability right away. Fable also pairs nicely with Incarnation, though, providing a three-mana Enchantment that digs for Incarnation and can be sacrificed to find a potent four-drop, such as Omnath, Locus of Creation Omnath, Locus of Creation When Omnath enters, draw a card.
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, you gain 4 life if this is the first time this ability has resolved this turn. If it's the second time, add {R}{G}{W}{U}. If it's the third time, Omnath deals 4 damage to each opponent and each planeswalker you don't control. or Heliod, the Radiant Dawn Heliod, the Radiant Dawn When Heliod enters, return target enchantment card that isn't a God from your graveyard to your hand.
{3}{U/P}: Transform Heliod. Activate only as a sorcery. ({U/P} can be paid with either {U} or 2 life.) to return Fable from your graveyard to your hand.

The best card to pair with Incarnation, however, is absolutely Leyline Binding Leyline Binding Flash
Domain — This spell costs {1} less to cast for each basic land type among lands you control.
When this enchantment enters, exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls until this enchantment leaves the battlefield. . Binding fits both the control plan and the Incarnation plan quite well. It provides early interaction for problematic threats, but as a six-mana Enchantment, it can be sacrificed later to Incarnation to find Atraxa, Grand Unifier Atraxa, Grand Unifier Flying, vigilance, deathtouch, lifelink
When Atraxa enters, reveal the top ten cards of your library. For each card type, you may put a card of that type from among the revealed cards into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. (Artifact, battle, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker, and sorcery are card types.) or Agent of Treachery Agent of Treachery When this creature enters, gain control of target permanent.
At the beginning of your end step, if you control three or more permanents you don't own, draw three cards. to help end the game.

Read More: Underrated Ixalan Goblin Emerges as Multi-Format All-Star!

Azorius Control Package

The main Enchantments to sacrifice within this deck are Fable, Leyline Binding, and Omen of the Sea Omen of the Sea Flash (You may cast this spell any time you could cast an instant.)
When this enchantment enters, scry 2, then draw a card.
{2}{U}, Sacrifice this enchantment: Scry 2. (Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them on the bottom and the rest on top in any order.) , all of which are decent cards in their own rights. While Fable and Incarnation are proactive cards, almost every other card in this deck is reactive, which differs drastically from previous Incarnation decklists.

Much like typical control decks, this archetype makes great use of board wipes like Temporary Lockdown Temporary Lockdown When this enchantment enters, exile each nonland permanent with mana value 2 or less until this enchantment leaves the battlefield. and Supreme Verdict Supreme Verdict This spell can't be countered.
Destroy all creatures. to help against aggressive decks. Yorion, Sky Nomad Yorion, Sky Nomad Companion — Your starting deck contains at least twenty cards more than the minimum deck size. (If this card is your chosen companion, you may put it into your hand from outside the game for {3} as a sorcery.)
Flying
When Yorion enters, exile any number of other nonland permanents you own and control. Return those cards to the battlefield at the beginning of the next end step. pairs perfectly with Omen of the Sea, Lockdown, and Fable, providing additional value as an elite Companion.

Once you are able to stabilize the board, you can begin playing much more reactively by interacting on the opponent’s turn. Cards like Get Lost Get Lost Destroy target creature, enchantment, or planeswalker. Its controller creates two Map tokens. (They're artifacts with "{1}, {T}, Sacrifice this token: Target creature you control explores. Activate only as a sorcery.") , Make Disappear Make Disappear Casualty 1 (As you cast this spell, you may sacrifice a creature with power 1 or greater. When you do, copy this spell and you may choose a new target for the copy.)
Counter target spell unless its controller pays {2}. , and Dovin’s Veto Dovin’s Veto This spell can't be countered.
Counter target noncreature spell. are cheap pieces of interaction that you can leave up. If the opponent casts something potent, you can respond. If not, you can sculpt your hand with Omen of the Sea and Memory Deluge Memory Deluge Look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the amount of mana spent to cast this spell. Put two of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Flashback {5}{U}{U} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.) .

Eventually, if you can find a good window, you can slam Teferi, Hero of Dominaria Teferi, Hero of Dominaria +1: Draw a card. At the beginning of the next end step, untap up to two lands.
−3: Put target nonland permanent into its owner's library third from the top.
−8: You get an emblem with "Whenever you draw a card, exile target permanent an opponent controls." , draw a card and untap two Lands, then hold up any combination of Dovin’s Veto, Get Lost, and Leyline Binding to protect your powerful Planeswalker.

Read More: MTG Karlov Manor Could Make These EDH Gems Seriously Powerful!

Adapting to the Opponent

Where this deck gets a strong edge when compared to either traditional control decks or more ordinary Incarnation decklists is with its ability to adapt according to the matchup. Against aggressive decks like Boros Convoke, the combination of Temporary Lockdown and Yorion can be quite difficult to beat. Temporary Lockdown can also be a devastating card for Abzan Amalia combo to deal with.

However, in matchups like Rakdos midrange, having access to Enigmatic Incarnation is a huge boon. Rakdos decks historically have a tough time answering Enchantments, and Enigmatic Incarnation threatens to run away with the game singlehandedly. Leyline Binding helps keep problematic cards like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse Sheoldred, the Apocalypse Deathtouch
Whenever you draw a card, you gain 2 life.
Whenever an opponent draws a card, they lose 2 life. in check, and if you manage to get Atraxa into play, the game likely ends on the spot.

Against combo decks like Lotus Field Lotus Field Hexproof
This land enters tapped.
When this land enters, sacrifice two lands.
{T}: Add three mana of any one color. combo, running a playset of Dovin’s Veto as well as a few copies of Mystical Dispute Mystical Dispute This spell costs {2} less to cast if it targets a blue spell.
Counter target spell unless its controller pays {3}. out of the sideboard gives you a fighting chance. Not to mention, Enigmatic Incarnation can find Archon of Emeria Archon of Emeria Flying
Each player can't cast more than one spell each turn.
Nonbasic lands your opponents control enter tapped. as a silver bullet when necessary.

In this sense, by meshing two archetypes together, you have a better shot at beating a wider variety of different strategies. By abandoning Fires of Invention for counter magic and other Instant-speed disruption, your chances of winning against combo decks goes up significantly. Meanwhile, the Incarnation package allows you to more reliably close the game against Creature-based decks.

Read More: Standard MTG Cards Continue to See 234% Price Increases!

Issues with Consistency

Of course, this doesn’t mean this strategy doesn’t come with its downsides. Likely the biggest issue this style of deck has is with its consistency. Much like traditional Incarnation shells, this deck plays a lot of individual cards that aren’t the best to naturally draw. For instance, drawing cards you’d like to tutor with Incarnation, like Atraxa or [Gloomshrieker[/tooltips] isn’t ideal.

Sure, Fable can help mitigate this issue to a certain extent by letting you convert those cards into different ones with its Chapter II ability, but this isn’t always reliable. On top of that, your Enchantment count for Incarnation isn’t super high, especially when considering the fact that you might not want to sacrifice Temporary Lockdown. While traditional Incarnation decklists make use of Up the Beanstalk Up the Beanstalk When this enchantment enters and whenever you cast a spell with mana value 5 or greater, draw a card. and Nylea’s Presence Nylea’s Presence Enchant land
When this Aura enters, draw a card.
Enchanted land is every basic land type in addition to its other types. to keep your gameplan as streamlined as possible, this variant is much more reliant of Omen and Fable to get things going.

Furthermore, you can definitely suffer from drawing the wrong half of the deck in specific matchups, especially in game one when you don’t know what your opponent is playing. Cards like Temporary Lockdown and Dovin’s Veto, for example, are quite specific in their effects and can range from excellent to nearly useless depending on the matchup.

What’s nice, though, is that even though the Incarnation and control gameplans can conflict with each other at times, many of the cards in the deck are strong with both gameplans. Omen of the Sea and Leyline Binding are great with Incarnation, but also work nicely with Teferi and allow you to leave up open mana to react to your opponent. Overall, this deck is surprisingly cohesive despite showcasing two archetypes in one. Could this deck be on the verge of a breakout? Only time will tell.

Read More: Draw Your Deck on Turn 3 With this Absurd MTG Combo!