I've had to go up against Words of Worship a lot. The life gain from it can really matter. Skipping just two draws will net you 10 life and, in case you're really bad at math, that's half of what you start with. Life-gaining enchantments are often disregarded and most of them really are pretty bad: only a handful make this list. But there are plenty of situations where skipping one draw to get 5 life is totally worth it. If that were all, there'd be no way I'd place Words of Worship over the more practical Words of War, but Words of Worship has cool interactions with lots of different cards. Play it with spells that pay life to draw cards and that's when things get really interesting. And by "interesting" I mean "broken." You pay life to draw cards, but then skip drawing some cards to gain lots of life, which you can use to pay to draw cards, and so on until you win.#149: Pure Reflection
There are lots of cool tricks with Pure Reflection. Fine, I'm lying. I have no idea what I'm talking about. I've only seen it used with Unnatural Selection, but that combo is awesome. You turn your opponent's creatures into reflections and kill them all, then attack with your own creatures, winning the game and all that. But yeah, I actually can't remember seeing another use for this card. I'm sure it can do stuff. Here we go: I just found a Pure Reflection deck on my own stomping grounds, the CPA message boards. Let's see, Fires of Yavimaya (gives your reflection tokens haste). Not bad. Oh, and he used Fleetfoot Panther! Nice. This deck is old, but the concept of using gating creatures with Pure Reflection seems solid. Go build a deck based around this card or something. What do I know?#148: Parallax Nexus
The parallax enchantments from Nemesis were cool. Unlike the two more successful ones (Wave and Tide), Nexus never really stood the test of time. But in certain cases, it was a force to be reckoned with. Parallax Nexus is always temporary. And how long it lasts is inversely proportional to how much you use it. Not using it at all means it will last several turns before fading runs out, but it won't do anything. Using it a lot means it will get rid of your opponent's hand, but only very temporarily. This might sound like it sucks, but it can actually be very useful. Say you're about to kill your opponent, but he has cards in his hand he might be able to use to stop you. Rather than leaving yourself open, just remove his hand with Parallax Nexus and kill him before he gets it back again. Sorceries like Duress and Thoughtseize are generally more practical, but Parallax Nexus has its place and is cheap enough to be effective. Also, I think the artwork is cool. Shut up.
#147: Lurking Jackals
And here arrive at another "sleeper" enchantment. If my own collection is any indication, most of these that were printed were white or green, but they're bad. It's the black ones that are good. Well, mostly it's Lurking Jackals. It's a 3/2 creature for just one black mana. If this sounds too awesome to be true, that's because it's actually an enchantment that turns into a 3/2 creature when one of your opponent's has 10 life or less. It really does only cost B though. So the Jackals won't be there when you need them most. But what they will do is really put the pressure on an opponent who's already hurting. And that makes sense, because they're jackals, you know. They prey on the weak. So just soften your opponent up and Lurking Jackals will be a really good deal on a medium-size creature. It's not fancy and it's not the best beatdown black has to offer, but it is a pretty good way of ensuring you can get that finishing blow in.
The parallax enchantments from Nemesis were cool. Unlike the two more successful ones (Wave and Tide), Nexus never really stood the test of time. But in certain cases, it was a force to be reckoned with. Parallax Nexus is always temporary. And how long it lasts is inversely proportional to how much you use it. Not using it at all means it will last several turns before fading runs out, but it won't do anything. Using it a lot means it will get rid of your opponent's hand, but only very temporarily. This might sound like it sucks, but it can actually be very useful. Say you're about to kill your opponent, but he has cards in his hand he might be able to use to stop you. Rather than leaving yourself open, just remove his hand with Parallax Nexus and kill him before he gets it back again. Sorceries like Duress and Thoughtseize are generally more practical, but Parallax Nexus has its place and is cheap enough to be effective. Also, I think the artwork is cool. Shut up.#147: Lurking Jackals
And here arrive at another "sleeper" enchantment. If my own collection is any indication, most of these that were printed were white or green, but they're bad. It's the black ones that are good. Well, mostly it's Lurking Jackals. It's a 3/2 creature for just one black mana. If this sounds too awesome to be true, that's because it's actually an enchantment that turns into a 3/2 creature when one of your opponent's has 10 life or less. It really does only cost B though. So the Jackals won't be there when you need them most. But what they will do is really put the pressure on an opponent who's already hurting. And that makes sense, because they're jackals, you know. They prey on the weak. So just soften your opponent up and Lurking Jackals will be a really good deal on a medium-size creature. It's not fancy and it's not the best beatdown black has to offer, but it is a pretty good way of ensuring you can get that finishing blow in.#146: Ivory Mask
Here's another historical goody. Ivory Mask might be obsolete. True Believer has all but replaced it, being cheaper and having the ability to attack/block. But I remember a time when Ivory Mask was thought of as one of the strongest white cards of all time. Some decks are stopped outright by it because they need to target you and don't have a way to get rid of enchantments. Moat may protect against creature hoards, but spells targeting you are at least as much of a threat as attackers, if not more of one. Ivory Mask shuts all of that down. If you're playing a control deck with White Cards, this effect is huge and you'll be wanting to play Ivory Mask. Well, you'll be wanting to play True Believer or Ivory Mask and probably True Believer, but the enchantment version is available and can't be destroyed by direct damage spells, which is a big point in its favor.
Here's another historical goody. Ivory Mask might be obsolete. True Believer has all but replaced it, being cheaper and having the ability to attack/block. But I remember a time when Ivory Mask was thought of as one of the strongest white cards of all time. Some decks are stopped outright by it because they need to target you and don't have a way to get rid of enchantments. Moat may protect against creature hoards, but spells targeting you are at least as much of a threat as attackers, if not more of one. Ivory Mask shuts all of that down. If you're playing a control deck with White Cards, this effect is huge and you'll be wanting to play Ivory Mask. Well, you'll be wanting to play True Believer or Ivory Mask and probably True Believer, but the enchantment version is available and can't be destroyed by direct damage spells, which is a big point in its favor.
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