Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Monster Island's Top 200 Enchantments: Part XLVI

#25: Parallel Thoughts
I used to use Mangara's Tome all the time and I loved it. When I first saw this card, I was amazed. Here was my Mangara's Tome in enchantment form, but better. And blue. Parallel Thoughts is also blue. And I like blue. If waiting for the cards you want to show up as you draw one at a time from a library of 40+ cards isn't your thing, and I know it isn't mine, you'll like Parallel Thoughts. You do still have to shuffle the cards you pull, but there are only seven of them. It could also conceivably be used to thin your deck our by getting rid of seven cards that you want to avoid drawing, but why you would do that when you could just get whatever you need with Parallel Thoughts is beyond me (unless you're really worried that someone could destroy Parallel Thoughts). The bottom line is that this is a tutor for seven cards. Tutors are really good. Even if it costs five mana, grabbing whatever seven cards you want is well worth it.

#24: Pandemonium
This is one of the enchantments that I have personally used the most out of all of the enchantments on this list. Pandemonium is great fun and does a lot of damage very quickly. I see three ways to have fun with this card. Firstly, you could use it in a multiplayer deck and let damage fly everywhere as creatures are played. People might just choose to hit you with it and kill you with your own enchantment, but more likely they'll target each other and the result will be, well, pandemonium. Secondly, you could play lots of creatures and use Pandemonium to clear away potential blockers or get in some extra damage. This works very well on its own and even better if the appropriate creatures are chosen. Thirdly, you could use a combo of some sort to kill opponents with massive Pandemonium damage. There are lots of ways to do this. Tombstone Stairwell could be good. Phyrexian Dreadnought is better. Saproling Burst is best. By the way, this is it for red cards. Sorry, Pandemonium is the coolest one. That's right, no red enchantments in the top 20. But at least red made it this far. Enchanting stuff was never its specialty.

#23: Attunement
The odd enchantment that behaves like a sorcery. Being an enchantment gives Attunement two considerable benefits: the effect can be stored for later, and it can be used repeatedly. Although it's actually a pretty good card, Attunement is mostly ignored by casual and tournament players alike because there are so many other options out there when it comes to digging for cards. Rarely will Attunement be what fits your deck moreso than any other such card. But Attunement is worth looking into precisely because it's an unusual take on a common effect. Maybe it is what you're looking for. I see it working well in aggressive decks that play bombs with little regard for card advantage, as well as decks that play stuff from the graveyard and don't care about discarding. Attunement is perhaps most impressive when combined with Replenish, as the synergies there produce an enchantment generating engine that wins for sure once it goes off.

#22: Enchantress's Presence
With how many enchantments on this list have I found myself noting that they can be used in Enchantress decks? Enchantress decks use more enchantments than other decks do. And this is a list about enchantments. It's to be expected. A lot of cheap enchantments work really well in Enchantress decks. Al0ysiusHWWW covered this to some extent when he wrote about the Enchantress Bloom combo deck. Enchantress decks are powerful, diverse, and use lots of enchantments. Perhaps best of all, they go crazy, using enchantments that accelerate mana production to make lots of mana, to play enchantments, to draw cards, and repeat the cycle until they're ready to kill. It's great. And it's the "draw cards" component that makes all this possible. Argothian Enchantress does this well, but the best card in this category and one of the best card-drawers ever is Enchantress's Presence.

#21: Counterbalance
With our change in focus to Legacy tournament play, perhaps I should note how good this thing is there. Not that it's bad elsewhere. Counterbalance is a powerful card, giving you some chance to just counter spells out of nowhere, at virtually no cost. Manipulating the top of your library completely changes things and actually makes Counterbalance scary. Sensei's Divining Top is the ultimate in this area. In fact, the combination of Counterbalance and Sensei's Divining Top is so prevalent in Legacy that it's practically a defining feature of the format. I must pay Counterbalance the respect it is due. There aren't many stronger enchantments in Legacy. Also, it's blue. And yes, I'm going to continue to point out the colors of cards even when an image of the card is right next to my text. Anyway, Counterbalance is scary.

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