Thursday, April 9, 2009

Type Fun's Top 200 Enchantments: Part XXXVII

#65: Barren Glory
I've never actually used Barren Glory, but I have used The Cheese Stands alone, which is the exact same thing. It's the only card from the Unglued set that I can think of that was reprinted later in a "real" set. The original might be more fun, but personally, I'm glad that they reprinted it because it's a cool enchantment and it's good to have a legitimate version. There are a lot of ways to get rid of your permanents and empty your hand, but one real barrier to using this enchantment is that it costs six mana and most things that let you win with it also cost a lot. You could play Obliterate or Jokulhaups if it's the last card in your hand or Decree of Annihilation. You could also put Barren Glory under an Oblivion Ring (see previous post) and play Apocalypse. The most practical method is probably to just play Kaervek's Spite while Academy Rector is in play. Your opponent will have one turn to kill you (or kill Barren Glory) before you win the game.

#64: Pestilence
Pestilence is, rightfully, a casual favorite. It's been around forever and works really, really well with lots of different cards. I myself have built several decks based around this enchantment, and in four different color combinations (B/W, B/R, B/G, and monoblack) to give you an idea of the variety. Pestilence is definitely an enchantment with too many uses to even list here. The only reason it's not higher on this list is that it's not really suitable for cut-throat play. It's too slow to be used in a fast deck and not powerful enough to make a slow deck that packs a punch. I do think it comes close. I wouldn't call it "underpowered." And it's certainly a good card for multiplayer. I should note that I currently have six decks built using actual physical cards (technically seven, but one of them is the White/Black Megadeck from this post), and one of them is a Pestilence deck. In fact, since 1998, I've almost always had a Pestilence deck in some form (and Al0ysiusHWWW has built his share of Pestilence decks too).

#63: Mana Flare
I don't know anyone who dislikes Mana Flare. It's probably impossible (unless maybe you lost a really memorable game in some ridiculous way to it or something). What's not to like about extra mana. Many players have used Mana Flare in multiplayer, making themselves everyone's friend and letting them power out spells to attack each other while sitting back and building up a huge supply of mana for game-winning spells. Unless you know otherwise, the guy playing Mana Flare is doing it for a reason and it's probably to help himself and not you. But this trick works repeatedly despite how obvious it should be. It can't be used quite that same way in singles, but Mana Flare is an all-around useful card (there's also a green version if you prefer that or want eight slots of this card in your deck, but we're only covering the original). For making those really cool but expensive spells affordable, Mana Flare deserves this ranking on the list.

#62: Energy Field
I mentioned the invincibility combo with Yawgmoth's Agenda earlier. Energy Field is fragile and therefore a bit tricky to use, which might explain why it's not more popular. But it does cost two mana and it does protect you from all damage (from sources you don't control). The main ways to use Energy Field are to stall (obviously won't work against every deck, but it's pretty useful and sometimes its easy to avoid doing anything that puts cards into your graveyard), to use something that can repeatedly bring it back (it only costs two mana, so replaying it from your hand is no big deal), or to use it in a combo that prevents cards from going into your graveyard (I used Yawgmoth's Agenda, but other things work). Energy Field is a great, although overlooked, defensive enchantment and possibly one of the best defensive enchantments blue has to offer (especially against creature hoards, although it works against any damage-dealing).

#61: Saproling Cluster
While Saproling Cluster is useful in general, it's probably most famous for its part in a three card combo where it's the least necessary component. Ashnod's Altar and Fecundity lets you sacrifice your creatures to get mana and draw cards, which lets you play more spells, including creatures, which you can sacrifice for mana and draw more cards, etc. It's a really good engine. But add Saproling Cluster and those draws from Fecundity and that mana from Ashnod's Altar can be used to fuel token generation by Saproling Cluster, which can be sacrificed to Ashnod's Altar for mana and draw cards with Fecundity. So basically, you win. But like I said, Saproling Cluster is useful in general. It's good by itself and is among the best token-generating enchantments in the game. All you need are cards in hand and a little mana. Squee, Goblin Nabob is a good card to discard for this. I don't recall seeing it before, but I'd imagine Saproling Cluster with madness cards, so you could always try that.

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