The Ideal Modern Toolbox

Today I bring to you a toolbox deck that’s a bit...odd. Creature toolbox is usually done using either Chord of Calling or Eldritch Evolution. Artifact toolbox is possible thanks to Aether Revolt’s Whir of Invention. But what about enchantment toolbox? Well that, my friends, is where Enduring Ideal comes in. The biggest issue with Ideal is that, unlike its creature and artifact counterparts, Enduring Ideal is expensive. It costs seven whole mana. Thankfully, there are plenty of white enchantments to help slow down the game until we get to that point. In fact, the deck is actually very good at it! Let’s take a look at the list I used, courtesy of Ruferd on the MTGSalvation forums.

Enduring Ideal is quite slow, and looks to get to the late game in order to win. It plays like an enchantment prison deck initially, using the enchantments to slowly lock the opponent out of the game. A turn 0 Leyline of Sanctity to shut off hand disruption. Turn 2 Suppression Field to stop your opponent from fetching. Turn 3 gives you access to Oblivion Ring to deal with nearly any problem permanent, and Ghostly Prison to keep the opponent’s creatures at bay. You slowly build up these lock pieces, stopping your opponent from carrying out their game plan. Then, using Nykthos and Calciform Pools, you ramp up to cast Enduring Ideal to win the game. Unfortunately, you can’t just slam an enchantment to win instantly. Often times, you’ll actually just be trying to use it to stabilize, finding your one-ofs like Peace of Mind for lifegain or Phyrexian Unlife to give you an extra turn to slam a Form of the Dragon.

In the main deck, we have the tools to deal with almost anything the opponent can throw at us. Liliana of the Veil? Meet Oblivion Ring. Thoughtseize? Leyline of Sanctity. Opponent trying to run you over with creatures? Throw down a Porphyry Nodes or Ghostly Prison. The deck is capable of handling a lot, and draws pretty well in my experience. The best part is, enchantment removal is very underplayed in Modern, since enchantments themselves don’t see much play. BGx decks can get you with Liliana and Abrupt Decay in the main, and out of the sideboard they usually only add a single card, like a Maelstrom Pulse, to their arsenal of enchantment removal. Dredge has no maindeck hate, and out of the sideboard only has four pieces. In fact, many of the top decks run only 4-5 pieces of enchantment removal in their entire 75, with some decks running zero.

Tips:

If you can pull it off, the Phyrexian Unlife + Form of the Dragon wincon is very reliable. Since an opponent has to deal 5 damage to you, and then 10 poison, it is nearly impossible for an opponent to beat this through combat alone.

Use Starfield of Nyx after playing Greater Auramancy, or your opponent can blow away your defenses.

Sphere of Safety is the top card in the deck for stabilizing. If your opponent is beating you down in combat, pull this out as soon as you can with Ideal.

Mistveil Plains are here for a reason. If you draw a win condition after playing Ideal, discard it with Peace of Mind, and then you can put it back in your deck to tutor for with Ideal.

Be careful with Suppression Field, since it hurts your Mistveil Plains and Calciform Pools.

This deck was an absolute blast to play with, and definitely exceeded my expectations with how it performed. The deck is very capable of winning, and there were plenty of games in my testing where I only lost due to a misplay that I caught a few seconds later. The deck feels quite powerful, is a lot of fun, and is, compared to a lot of other modern decks, actually really cheap.You’ll want to keep a hand with 2-3 lands, plus some interaction. You can worry about finding ramp later, but the most important thing is just surviving until that point. This is not a deck that tries to win upfront. Much like Lantern Control, you’re just trying to not lose in the first few turns, which can be a thrilling experience to say the least!