Type Fun's Top 200 Enchantments: Part XLV

It's been a while—again. Both of us have been busy, but we should be giving this blog renewed attention in some capacity. For now, I want to finish the project seems to have taken over. This will be the 45th post of the list. Is that fully half of the total number of posts we have? I forget how many we have. Anyway, new stuff is on its way. But first, we'll continue the list...

#30: Curiosity
One of the best local enchantments ever. There are only three local enchantments that rank higher on our list than this one. And only one of those is used for improving creatures, so for this sort of job, Curiosity is certainly one of the best. And arguably, it's the most powerful local enchantment. They all do such different things that it's somewhat arbitrary. What Curiosity does is make your opponent cry. Any creature can become a card-drawing machine. Put Curiosity on something your opponent can't block, and reap the card advantage rewards. It can also be used in combos. With Mind over Matter (coming soon to a list near you), in play, you can deal massive damage all at once. But Curiosity probably shines most with aggressive blue decks, where the card advantage lets you play aggro-control smoothly and dominantly.

#29: Seismic Assault

Land's Edge isn't too bad either, but Seismic Assault is the ultimate at what it does. The concept is simple: get lots of lands into your hand, discard them to Seismic Assault, win. But the exact way this is done can varies so much, I won't try to cover every method. Drawing lots of cards is an easy one. Or you could just set up Sunder and let it bounce all of your lands. Land Tax works too. Swans of Bryn Argoll offers an instant win alongside Seismic Assault, although the mana requirements for this are somewhat prohibitive. But the best use of Seismic Assault is its combo with Life from the Loam. This kill has taken the Legacy format by storm. Life from the Loam makes it easy to get lots of lands, to find Seismic Assault, to have the three red mana available for it, and finally to have lots of lands to pitch for the kill. It's a match made in heaven.

#28: Animate Dead
This is the last local enchantment on the list that isn't green, which should give you good hints of the identities of the two remaining local enchantments. Animate Dead is really here as a representative of a whole class of cards. Having Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, Necromancy, and Diabolic Servitude all on the list would just be redundant. Animate Dead was chosen because it's cheap, the drawback isn't particularly problematic, it doesn't remove the creature from the game at any point, it can get either your creatures or your opponent's creatures, and finally because it's the original. Whether you're making your opponent's strongest creature come back and using it against him or using it to sneak a hugely expensive creature into play without paying for it, Animate Dead is highly effective. It also has a combo with Worldgorger Dragon that I won't get into right now. It may be old, but don't underestimate this card.

#27: Food Chain

I used to have multiple copies of this card, but I think they were all traded away years ago, which is a pity. I tried to make Food Chain work, but ended up only ever using it in goofy multiplayer decks. Food Chain went pretty much ignored until the rise of the one deck to break it: Food Chain Goblins. Here's how it works: play goblins just like any goblin deck, play Food Chain, play Goblin Recruiter, stack the top of your deck with Goblin Recruiter, pitch some goblins for red mana, play Goblin Ringleader to draw some of the goblins from the top of the deck you stacked, play those goblins, repeat, attack your opponent with goblins (that have haste due to Goblin Warchief), win. Sound good? Because it's better than that. Food Chain Goblins is exceedingly fast. Even though Goblin Recruiter is banned in Legacy, Food Chain still manages to show up in goblin decks to provide a burst of speed. It may seem a little straightforward for a card we're ranking so highly on the list, but there's something to be said for making creature swarms deadly.

#26: Exploration

The one line of text says it all. "You may play an additional land each turn." Simple as can be. Also highly effective. Exploration is cheap and can do a whole lot. Alongside Horn of Greed, it created the combo known as "turboland." Each Exploration means you can play still another land per turn, and each Horn of Greed means you draw yet another card for each land you play. Exploration is also a must in Enchantress decks, where it provides acceleration while doubling as a cheap enchantment that can be used with the card-drawing engine. And it's great with Life from the Loam. It even allows for bizarre decks that use over 40 lands and rely on man-lands like Mishra's Factory for the kill. Exploration is somewhat overshadowed by Fastbond, but that card is banned or restricted in tournament formats and does damage you, whereas Exploration lets you play extra lands without killing yourself.