Monster Island's Top 200 Enchantments: Part L (The Forgotten)

When I introduced this series in February, I noted that a lot of enchantments would miss being on this list for a variety of reasons. Cards that were too similar to something else already on the list were likely to get cut in order to make room for more variety. Cards that weren't in print yet when I compiled the list wouldn't be included. Cards that are very specific strategy-hosers weren't interesting enough. And some stuff I'd just forget or miss. Well, we still have the top ten enchantments to do, and my plan is to do them as a countdown, with one post for each enchantment, including some analysis of the enchantment's use for Legacy decks if possible. But before we do the top ten, I want to acknowledge some enchantments that really should have made the list, but that missed out because I forgot them or mixed them, mentally mixed them up with other cards, or just plain somehow excluded them from the list when I shouldn't have.

So, in no particular order, here they are.

Wheel of Sun and Moon is pretty new. I didn't know about it when I compiled the list. I think it might be the only "enchant player" on the whole list too, although I don't know that this matters. Why would you use this on your opponent? Well, it would keep Bridge from Below active and would shut down opposing reanimation tactics, but really, you want this effect for yourself. It's a good effect and the enchantment is inexpensive to play, so this could really go into any white or green deck. Enchantress decks might like it, since they actually stand to draw the cards that this thing digs up. Control decks and even aggro decks can use it to prevent decking and to keep reusing threats. It also shuts down opposing attempts to mill you, works really well with tutors, and is an all-around useful enchantment.

Mana Echoes isn't amazing and I probably excluded it because the whole "tribal" thing is something I usually find unimpressive. I didn't actually give this card much thought, and reevaluating it, I realize that it should have been somewhere on the list, if only for the combo with Sliver Queen. She'll always be special to me, and while infinite combos I've used with her are usually three cards, Mana Echoes provides a two-card infinite combo with Sliver Queen (both infinite tokens and infinite colorless mana). Even ignoring this awesome combo, Mana Echoes is pretty cool. Tribal decks can easily have enough creatures to make tons of mana, and I was about to write that all you need is a sink for it, but not anymore. So under the new rules (mana burn is no more), Mana Echoes is just a little bit better. Also, infinite slivers.

Mobilization is another tribal type of enchantment, but unlike Mana Echoes, which could be fun but won't win you any tournaments, Mobilization is serious business. I thought that perhaps I didn't include Mobilization on the list because I might have thought it was too similar to Sacred Mesa, but I also failed to include Sacred Mesa, so this space will have to do for both cards. How did this happen? Tokens are really good. I'm wasting time trying to look back at old posts and see if some other card would bump these off as too similar, but I'll just stop and say they're both really good. Mobilization is probably better, because soldiers are a strong tribe and it also gives them vigilance, while Sacred Mesa has its upkeep cost. But flying is pretty good too and gives Sacred Mesa and advantage. Whatever, these are good cards. They should be on the list

Karmic Justice is a bit of a strategy-hoser, but I think I just plain forgot about it while compiling the list. If an opponent wants to use removal spells to hit your cards, he'd better be careful. Karmic Justice won't help your creatures, but enchantments, artifacts, and lands will all trigger Karmic Justice if an opponent kills them. Pretty cool. It won't protect your most valuable permanents from destruction, but it will at least guarantee that you can strike back with equal force, which is almost as good and effectively the same against most opponents, since being able to choose any of his permanents to take out whenever he destroys one of yours is just too harsh a penalty for most decks to handle. If you could find a way to force opponents to kill some of your stuff, that could make for fun with Karmic Justice too, although I've never seen this done.

Sulfuric Vortex seems like such an obvious card to have on a list of top enchantments, especially when it comes to how limited red is. I didn't forget about Sulfuric Vortex, though. I think I actually had it on the initial list, but confused it with Pyrostatic Pillar (both are red enchantments from Scourge that do damage to players) and ended up leaving it off because of that mixup. Sulfuric Vortex does something valuable for aggressive red decks: it completely shuts off life gain. The upkeep damage also creates an inexorable clock that will eventually kill everyone. Useful in red decks against any opponent, and invaluable against ones that rely heavily on life gain. Red decks in Legacy are probably more likely to use it as a sideboard card, but burn and sligh decks often maindeck it, because it's never a dead card and having that inexorable clock is useful against anything.

Grave Pact turns every creature you have into an Abyssal Gatekeeper. And I really like Abyssal Gatekeeper. This is another enchantment I didn't forget (I know because it's on my long list that I prepared in order to make this list), so I don't know how it didn't get included. While it won't affect creatureless opponents and it's heavy on requiring black mana, this is a very powerful enchantment. With support that is easy to generate, Grave Pact will kill all of of your opponents' creatures and leave you with your own army to swing for the kill. Actually, it's scary to think about just how easy this could be. And even if it only partially succeeds, it can still do a lot. Without a mechanism for killing your own cheap (preferably token) creatures, Grave Pact is still an imposing threat that makes your blockers more dangerous and punishes opponents for killing your attackers.

Tombstone Stairwell is a casual player's favorite. This makes it all the worse that I forgot about it when compiling this list. After all, this list was originally designed with casual play in mind (we've only just transitioned into a Legacy blog). Tombstone Stairwell is a bit tricky to play with, but has the honor of being the only card that can do what it does, which is turn your graveyard full of creatures into a massive army of zombies. The bad news is that Tombstone Stairwell costs four mana, has a cumulative upkeep, and each of your opponents also get the zombie armies. I've yet to see this in a tournament deck because of those drawbacks, but they really can be worked around and Tombstone Stairwell makes for a unique deck that fills the battlefield with zombies. And what more could you ask for?

That's all for the enchantments list—except for our highly anticipated Top Ten Countdown!