Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Type Fun's Top 200 Enchantments: Part XXXVI

#70: Copy Artifact
I did note that the ranking of Copy Enchantment was rather arbitrary (it was replacing a card that didn't belong on the list). But Copy Artifact definitely is better. It's cheaper by a mana, which counts for a lot. But also, artifacts just generally better than enchantments for this purpose. More of them are good in multiples. Some of them are creatures too. Some of them produce mana. Some of them do even more. Copy Artifact is easily one of the most versatile enchantments in the game as its applications are nearly as numerous as the number of artifacts (well over a thousand). The most impressive use I've seen of Copy Artifact was in a deck I played against in a tournament that used it to copy Sol Rings and Thran Dynamos for huge mana acceleration into Stroke of Genius and such. I lost. Really, there are so many ways to use this card that I'm sure most of them I'll never even see. Being blue also makes it a great color to use, as blue has plenty of other good spells that have synergy with artifacts.

#69: Oblivion Ring
Targeted removal usually takes the form of an instant or sorcery. Targeted removal cards that are both enchantments and actually useful are rare. But there's at least one, because we have Oblivion Ring. It's cheap and it can hit anything that's not a land. This makes it ideal for decks that don't want to waste slots for more specific removal. The card that's stopping you might be a creature or it might be an artifact. It might even be an enchantment. Oblivion Ring lets you forgo building your deck to accomodate removal spells for everything because of its one-size-fits-all nature. It even has a secrondary use. Since when Oblivion Ring dies, the card it removed comes back into play, it can be used to "hide" something while you use a board-sweeper. For example, Nevinyrral's Disk can be used to destroy all artifacts, creatures, and lands, with Oblivion Ring leaving the card it removed as the sole survivor. I have visions of using it with Apocalypse and Barren Glory, but that's silly. Really this trick works for just about any card you'd like.

#68: Sleeper's Robe
My favorite story with Sleeper's Robe, which I've told far too much, is from when I was a senior in high school and we did our last session of the gaming club. One guy randomized his whole collection into booster repacks and we did a booster draft using his cards. After a few cards I was going blue/black with a red splash and then came across a pack that had Fact or Fiction, Nekrataal, and Flametongue Kavu. When I passed them all to the next guy, he was sure I wasn't drafting in any of those three colors because I'd left such good cards in all three. That was because I was compelled to take Sleeper's Robe. And it paid off too. I only lost one game (and I don't think I drew Sleeper's Robe that game). Being a creature enchantment usually causes problems, but Sleeper's Robe is like two enchantments rolled into one (and at an affordable mana cost too). Despite bing a multicolored card, it works really well because blue/black is easily one of the best color combinations and two mana is pretty cheap.

#67: Power Artifact
While it could be used with a lot of things, Power Artifact is easily most famous for its infinite combos. Putting Power Artifact on either Grim Monolith or Basalt Monolith lets the untap ability cost less mana than the artifact produces by tapping it, which makes for an easy kill with Braingeyser, Fireball, Magma Mine, or whatever. This is the only use for Power Artifact that I can actually think of that I've seen in action. And it might not seem like much, but we're talking about a two-card infinite mana combo with one component that's already really good by itself (Grim Monolith is borderline broken). I don't really have much else to add here. This enchantment lowers the activation cost of activated abilities on artifacts. If you have an artifact with an activated ability that costs mana and requires more than one generic mana, Power Artifact will lower the cost of that ability. So yeah, twice as much damage with a Goblin Cannon or Masticore. And, you know, infinite mana combos. Mainly infinite mana combos.

#66: Pemmin's Aura
There was a time when Morphling was widely considered the best creature. The game has changed since then, but it's still a respectable kill condition for blue control and still somewhere in the rankings of the best creatures in Magic (but we're focusing on enchantments for now). It had a reasonable mana cost and had five abilities. You needed mana to power it, but Morphling could attack, block, resist removal, and fly. Collectively, its abilities let it do everything, so Morphling was nicknamed "Superman." the appeal of Pemmin's Aura is that it makes any creature like Morphling. It's gimmicky, but it does work, especially with Zur the Enchanter. Or, if you like infinite mana combos, just put Pemmin's Aura on a creature that taps for more than one blue mana and use the untap ability repeatedly. The advantage to Pemmin's Aura isn't that it gives you Morphling. For that, you'd be better off just using Morphling. Pemmin's Aura is good because it can give these abilities to a creature that has its own ability working alongside them.

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