Modern Budget Builds: Green White Enchantress

Ben Fraley
December 28, 2022
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For many introductory Modern decks, the cheaper the cards are, the more aggressive the deck is. This deck is partially an exception. Modern Enchantress is a very real deck and put up a strong showing in a challenge earlier this month. Our budget version removes some of the power of this deck but also cuts the cost by 2/3rd (Down to 150~ dollars).

The deck itself is Green White Enchantress, a deck that plays Enchantments and cards referred to as “enchantresses". Enchantresses draw you cards when you cast Enchantments. The power of this deck comes from its efficient removal and powerful card draw that few decks can compare to.

This article will be broken down into 3 parts.

  1. The parts of this deck
  2. How the deck wins 
  3. How to Upgrade to the full version (& why it's worth it)

     

    How does this deck work?

    First off the enablers of the whole strategy are the enchantress effects. 

    4 Sythis, Harvest's Hand

    4 Enchantress's Presence

    These both draw you cards when you cast Enchantments. Their effect is simple and powerful, allowing you to draw through your deck at lightning speed. But with all these cards how will you cast them?

    This brings us to the 2nd point, our mana acceleration and fixing package.

    This consists of 

      

    4 Sanctum Weaver

    4 Abundant Growth

    2 Utopia Sprawl

    2 Fertile Ground

    Utopia Sprawl, Fertile Ground, and Sanctum Weaver accelerate our mana. Sanctum Weaver can get truly out of hand though producing 10+ mana each turn. Utopia Sprawl is an early ramp spell but is restricted to enchanting Forests. It is much more consistent with shocklands (as they have land types, Steam Vents is an Island Mountain) and fetch lands (can get shocklands). Fertile Ground is the worst one by far but is in here for budget concerns, a concession that must be made for 150-dollar decks. This mana allows us to cast spells and draw cards, but how do we not die?

    This brings us to the deck's removal and lock-out combo.

    The removal in this deck consists of:

    4 On Thin Ice

    3 March of Otherworldly Light

    These efficiently answer your opponent's threats and provide you with enough time to assemble your combo.

    The combo in this deck is a set of Enchantments that effectively make you unkillable.

    2 Ghostly Prison

    4 Sterling Grove

    3 Solitary Confinement

    Ghostly Prison taxes your opponent out of attacking you and Sterling Grove makes your Enchantments unable to be targeted. The true lock-out comes in the form of 2 Sterling Grove's, Solitary Confinement, and at least one but preferably 2 enchantress effects. This means none of your enchantments can be targeted, you can't be targeted or dealt damage, and though you can't draw from your draw step you still will cycle through your deck with your enchantress effects.

    The last cards in the deck at this point are your 3 Destiny Spinner and 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

    These cards bring us to the 2nd and shortest part of the article.

     

    How does the deck win?

    This deck wins via the previously explained combo to stop you from dying and then either hard-casting Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, or activating your Destiny Spinner to make monstrously large Lands to kill your opponents.

    How to Upgrade the Deck and Why You Should:

    This deck is a great intro to Modern if you have a good amount of experience in magic overall. If you are transitioning from Commander this deck allows you to play the value engine piles that are very popular in that format, but in a competitive setting.

    What to buy first?

    As for upgrading the deck the cards you would have to buy are first off, fetchlands, shocklands and Blood Moon. These provide you essentially an alternate win condition while also improving your mana. Blood Moon can single-handedly win games by completely shutting down your opponent's mana. Fetches allow you to bet basics to play unaffected by your Blood Moon as well as ensuring your Utopia Sprawls always have a Forest to target.

    Once you have your Fetches and Shocks I would then get rid of your 2 Fertile Grounds and add in 2 more Utopia Sprawls. From there you cut some of your lockout pieces to make room for your Blood Moons with the end goal of a list that looks like this from the modern challenge:

    Lastly, a quick rundown of the sideboard:

    2 Prismatic Ending provides cheap removal for early threats like Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer and Dragon's Rage Channeler.

    2 Veil of Summer is a perfect spell for protection against control.

    1 Destiny Spinner is included here for the same reason.

    1 Rest in Peace and 1 Stony Silence provide important tutor targets for Artifact and graveyard-focused matchups (decks like Dredge or Affinity).

    2 Seal of Primordium for more interruption against decks with key artifacts or enchantments.

    2 Nevermore for decks with key combo cards like Rhinos (name Crashing Footfalls) and Living End (name Living End).

    4 Leyline of Sanctity for protection against decks like Burn and Yawgmoth. Having Hexproof significantly limits what your opponent can do to you.

    Thanks so much for reading my article and I hope that this deck provides you with a fun secondary deck for your FNM's or a great first experience to Modern!