Monday, April 6, 2009

Type Fun's Top 200 Enchantments: Part XXXIV

#80: Seal of Cleansing
It's the last seal we will be featuring on this list and also, of course, the best of that particular cycle. There's not much to say about it, as it's obviously just a stored Disenchant and Disenchant is a pretty common card. As with the other seals, a surprise factor is lost, but being able to save the effect for whenever you need it can make up for that. In this case, we definitely prefer the enchantment version. If you're using it, you're probably playing control, so being able to drop the spell early and keep it there for whenever you need it while your mana is free to be used for other things makes a difference. Another potential comparison for Seal of Cleansing is an enchantment we already featured on this list: Aura of Silence. It does everything Seal of Cleansing does and more, but we the higher mana cost and greater white mana requirement that come with this allows Seal of Cleansing to shine as both more practical and more versatile.

#79: Sylvan Library
It's already been mentioned in other posts on this list. This is, in part, because it's a cheap card-drawing engine that other enchantments (like Abundance or Pursuit of Knowledge) have strong synergy with. But Sylvan Library is a very strong card on its own. In a time when Necropotence was the standard for card-drawing power, I frequently heard Sylvan Library referred to as the "green Necropotence." While the life payment option can usually only be used scarcely, it is available and lets you draw two extra cards per draw step if you're willing to pay the price. Combined with library-shuffling effects, it lets you hide unwanted cards in your library, exchanging them for fresh draws. It also works well with effects that take advantage of you controlling the top of your library. But using something that replaces draws is probably the best. You can use it with almost anything, though. Like I said, it's a very strong card on its own.

#78: Mist of Stagnation
I used to think it was a bit silly, but in addition to being fun, this is actually a very potent enchantment. Sure, it costs five mana and needs support, but there are so very many ways to empty your opponent's graveyard. Knowing that you're playing with Mist of Stagnation, you use cards that do this (Leyline of the Void can take care this by itself). Your opponent, on the other hand, won't likely be running such cards and will be caught unprepared. It's not too difficult to make Mist of Stagnation act as a one-way Stasis. For those who haven't played with Stasis, when it starts behaving one-way, that usually means the Stasis player wins the game (even if it takes a while). Better yet, even if the opponent is running his own graveyard hate, you can still build your deck to run better under the enchantment's effect. Mist of Stagnation also works just as well in multiplayer, so it should get some bonus points for that.

#77: Phyrexian Tyranny
As someone who generally shies away from three-color requirements, I have to say that Phyrexian Tyranny is awesome. Some people use Underworld Dreams instead. It only affects opponents and doesn't require three different colors of mana. But you know what? Phyrexian Tyranny makes the list instead of Underworld Dreams because Underworld Dreams is dumb. There, I said it. If you're going to hurt your opponent for drawing cards, then actually hurt him. I don't know what this "1 damage" nonsense is about. Double it and then we're talking. Also, Underworld Dreams still has a triple-color requirement. And you know, it might not finish your opponent off because it's not hurting him as badly. That's the ostensible reason, anyway. The real reason is that it didn't finish him off because you lacked the fortitude to use Phyrexian Tyranny.

#76: Conspiracy
It's not the most efficient and it will never be a tournament powerhouse, but Conspiracy is cool because it does something unique. With so many cards that do things based on creature type, it's nice to have one card that can make all of your creatures (and even the ones that aren't in play) the same type. There used to be an amusing combo between Conspiracy and Donate: play Conspiracy naming "wall" and Donate it to your opponent so that none of his creatures could ever attack again. Unfortunately, the rules were changed and the "defender" ability was retroactively added to walls as the thing that made them unable to attack (before it was the creature type itself). There are still some Donate combos using Conspiracy and one or more other cards, though. And there are countless other synergies with Conspiracy. It's not fast and it's certainly not the most direct way to kill anything, but it's a fun, flashy enchantment.

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