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Dear Azami: Hanna

This week’s Dear Azami reader wants some big-time help wielding a very notorious commander! Can Cassidy find a sweet new way to wield Hanna, Ship’s Navigator without angering the rest of the table?

This week is going to be a monster. I had an intro that was awesome, only to get done with everything and realize that I’d written 7,500 words. So much for that plan.

So let’s just dive right in, okay? Take it away, Chris:

 

Dear Azami,

I have recently finished the chromatic project, building one deck of every color combination, and although most of my decks aren’t super powerful (partly
by design) they are all quite fun, except for Hanna, Ship’s Navigator. This could be in part that I am not a natural blue player, and I think this color
combination takes a pilot that is very in-tune with his or her blue mage. I also don’t know if this deck has any discernible theme or it’s just about
playing the good enchantments.

What I am hoping you can help with is getting this deck to a level where it can be fun, interactive, and provide a play experience that will let me keep
coming back for more. If you can do that, it will be a tremendous feat as I have never played a blue deck that I have wanted to play again and again. Are
you up for the challenge?

Can’t wait to see what you got!

Thank you in advance!

Chris

1 Academy Ruins

1 Adarkar Wastes

1 AEtherspouts

1 Ancestral Vision

1 Ancient Den

1 Argivian Find

1 Aura of Silence

1 Celestial Colonnade

1 Chasm Skulker

1 Claws of Gix

1 Cleansing Meditation

1 Clever Impersonator

1 Coastal Piracy

1 Condemn

1 Control Magic

1 Copy Artifact

1 Copy Enchantment

1 Counterspell

1 Cryptoplasm

1 Darksteel Ingot

1 Day of Judgment

1 Detention Sphere

1 Devouring Light

1 Dig Through Time

1 Entreat the Angels

1 Expedition Map

1 Faerie Conclave

1 Glacial Fortress

1 Hoofprints of the Stag

1 Hypnotic Siren

12 Island

1 Journey to Nowhere

1 Karmic Justice

1 Keiga, the Tide Star

1 Kheru Spellsnatcher

1 Leyline of Anticipation

1 Luminarch Ascension

1 Mass Calcify

1 Mesa Enchantress

1 Mind Control

1 Mirror Mockery

1 Muddle the Mixture

1 Mystic Remora

1 Mystical Tutor

1 Oblivion Ring

1 Ojutai Exemplars

1 Ojutai’s Command

1 Pearl Lake Ancient

12 Plains

1 Polymorphist’s Jest

1 Prognostic Sphinx

1 Reliquary Tower

1 Rhystic Study

1 Righteous Authority

1 Rout

1 Seal of Cleansing

1 Seat of the Synod

1 Sejiri Refuge

1 Serra Avatar

1 Sigil of the Empty Throne

1 Sol Ring

1 Spectra Ward

1 Spine of Ish Sah

1 Steal Artifact

1 Strip Mine

1 Sun Titan

1 Supreme Verdict

1 Swords to Plowshares

1 Take Possession

1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir

1 Temple of the False God

1 Terminus

1 Treachery

1 Vedalken Orrery

1 Venser, the Sojourner

1 Visions of Beyond

1 Wrath of God

Hanna is a tough nut to crack. Well, that’s not entirely true; the stigma attached to Hanna is a tough nut to crack. As far as the format is
concerned, you’re always going to bump into haters when you play one of the “card advantage” commanders – that is, one of the potential commander choices
that provides raw card advantage with little-to-no drawback. Hanna arguably has it worse than most, as she also is a card-carrying member of the dreaded
“tutor” sub-group; though limited in scope to what can be found in the graveyard, she still effectively says, “Tap me each turn to go find the best card
for the current job.”

Now, this is a particularly-problematic type of card to have in your command zone; you hear lots of talk across forums and in articles all over the
intarwebs about people trying to go the “no tutor” route with their decks – aiming to preserve the core sanctity of the format’s random big-deck singleton
nature by removing or cutting way back on the number of tutors that they include in the lists that they brew up and assemble. Running Hanna, Ship’s
Navigator as your commander draws hate because she’s the total opposite of that sentiment; not only is she a repeatable tutor effect, but you never wonder
where she is in your deck. Barring summoning sickness, you can have her whenever you want her without tapping the top of your deck and praying that she’s
going to come off the top.

When you couple all of this with the fact that she is relatively inexpensive to cast, you have a good idea of why she draws the hate. She’s easy to find,
easy to use and re-use, and she takes away the random nature of your deck.

From there, her focus on artifacts and enchantments doesn’t help her cause. As Sharuum the Hegemon and Arcum Dagsson have taught us, abusing artifacts is
often devastating in Commander. I don’t think Hanna is quite in league with either of those two monsters, but she’s not far behind.

Is Hanna a lost cause, then? I don’t quite think so. There are very reasonable ways to build her without ending up on the ‘Path of Broken-ness and
Rage-Flipped tables.’

For me, the real joy of Hanna is in line with the path you seem to already be on, Chris – enchantments. Seasoned veterans of the format know that
enchantments are among the hardest permanents to deal with, and as with artifacts, there are some horrifically-powerful enchantments out there that don’t
need much imagination to be abused.

For those reasons, my preference with Hanna is to go in the “enchantress”-style build direction. Green-base decks are the standard for this kind of deck,
but that’s mostly because the enchantress draw engine is nearly exclusive to that color – we’re talking Verduran Enchantress, Argothian Enchantress, and
Enchantress’s Presence. (White fortunately offers up Mesa Enchantress, a color-shifted version of Verduran Enchantress that you’ve got slotted already.) On
top of that, green also gets goodies like Sylvan Library that are on-theme and powerful in their own right.

However, Hanna can easily make up for that shortcoming with the inherent draw power of blue, and past that, the new toys the “best color in Magic” unlocks
for a deck like this start to leave green builds in the dust in a hurry.

So the focus that I’m seeing already in this list is in the right place as far as I’m concerned; the fact that Hanna also can recur artifacts isn’t going
to be something that I’ll focus specifically on, but it’s always a nice added benefit from time to time, and I’m sure that I’ll give it a nod or two along
the way as we work through this thing.

Now then…let’s review our goals.

  • Fun
  • Interactive
  • Play experience that keeps you coming back for more
  • Better-defined theme, instead of simply being “good stuff”

We want to line this up with your other decks and make you want to take it out of the box as much as any of the rest of your stable. One of the things that isn’t on the list is “more competitive,” which is great; in my opinion, you can take Hanna to the cutting edge and have her be essentially a
monster of a control/prison deck, but that’s not much fun. What I do enjoy is that she seems geared up better than most to run a ton of powerful cards that
do really cool things, but they don’t ever have to push the deck into that competitive range. She can be good without being backbreaking, and a lot of fun
in the process; it’s what you pair with her that makes her an interesting deck to pilot.

That said, Chris – I want to do some serious work here. I think one of the main reasons that you aren’t particularly happy with what you currently have is
that it’s a little bit all over the place; you’re falling into a bit of a “good stuff” trap here by trying to do too many things that the colors do really
well, and in the process you’re spreading yourself really thin. Here’s what I see:

  • A copy/steal sub-theme – Keiga, the Tide Star and Clever Impersonator, for example.
  • An over-abundance of removal. If it’s a white board sweeper, it’s in here.
  • A stab at playing honest “draw-go” control with cheap counters and man-lands like Celestial Colonnade.
  • Some additions (Venser, the Sojourner, Chasm Skulker, Ojutai Exemplars) that just scream, “Because I have them!”

What I really want to do here is grab a chainsaw and hack away all of these branches; bring it back to a tight little “enchantments matter” main theme, and
go from there. Since I was going through the list and realized that I was planning on nuking most of your creatures, I’ve decided that I’m going to go for
an additional “no creatures” subtheme as well; this does mean we lose Mesa Enchantress, but we’ll make up for it before we’re through.

Now, a little bit about this restriction-

I find that it’s crucially important to put restrictions on yourself when building Commander decks. It’s been said a million times over, but the truth is
that our card pool is nearly endless in capacity. Commander color restrictions are a format-mandated building restriction, and that’s really a brilliant
design feature. Players gunning for tribal decks would be another.

No one wants to face down identical five-color behemoths every single game…and that would get boring for even the player piloting the deck as well. I find
that placing something in your own path when you build helps to breed creativity and interest – maybe it’s the ‘no creatures’ theme here, or perhaps it’s a
‘no spells over a converted casting cost of three’…in any case, you’ll end up with something that may not be optimized, but will be interesting, unique,
and lead you to some card choices and strategies that you may not expect. That’s the real joy of the Commander format.

Give it a try the next time you build. Trust me; you’ll like the results.

Anyway, a few other minor odds and ends to address here (35 lands and only one or two pieces of mana fixing? No bueno!), and I think we’ll get to a pretty
cool place.

Talking Theme

If dollars were no object, here’s what we’d be building around:

Moat The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

I’m not going to actually suggest this (unless you have either lying around!), because we’d be starting with four figures tied up in two cards. My record
shows that I’m not afraid to push the envelope on cost, but your list is on the relatively frugal side, and I just can’t do this in good faith. Don’t
worry, though – this is a deck I’m really excited about, and I’m not pulling many other punches. (It’s going to be built the way I’d do it if I was playing
it myself, and that means some significant changes to come.)

What these two cards represent, however, is right on the money. I want to go old-school and break out some cards that people don’t see often and that have
some pretty cool and unique board control components. Since we’re going creatureless, we need to be able to handle opposing armies, and cards like this are
a great way to cover yourself while setting up for what comes later on.

(There’s also the fact that one of our win conditions will involve attacking with our enchantments, and it’s a well-known fact that “kill an opponent with
Moat” is a must-include on everyone’s Commander bucket list.)

Take this as a thematic swatch pinned to the top of our design board.

The Lands

As I said above, 35 lands makes me nervous. Couple this with the fact that your mana-fixing and acceleration package consists of exactly three cards –
Expedition Map, Sol Ring, and Darksteel Ingot – and I’m sufficiently concerned that this deck may have problems getting off the ground. I want to tweak the
existing lands a bit anyway, so this is what we’ll do:

Out:

Ancient Den Seat of the Synod Celestial Colonnade Faerie Conclave Adarkar Wastes

I’m not particularly jazzed on the artifact lands. They’re overly susceptible to mass-removal splash damage, and you aren’t running Trinket Mage – the only
upside is that your commander can recur these in a pinch. I’d rather just run some other unassuming options that don’t die to Fracturing Gust or Austere
Command instead.

This deck is similarly not really geared to leverage man-lands, so I’m cutting those as well. By the time I’m through, there will be at least one card that
does traditionally pair with them, but with no good land recursion in this deck and the existing low mana count, you’re just not going to get value beating
for two and potentially mana-screwing yourself in the process when someone kills it.

Also, Adarkar Wastes is out. Two-color manabases aren’t all that hard on you that you’d need to take damage to get what you want, and I think I see space
for a better way to go.

In:

Flooded Strand Hallowed Fountain Command Tower

Winding Canyons Evolving Wilds Terramorphic Expanse Serra's Sanctum

If we’re going to fix the mana, we’re going to do it right.

Flooded Strand and Hallowed Fountain are the two basic mana-fixing lands that we’ll build around. I held off on Tundra for the same reason as Moat and
Tabernacle above, but the recent reprints of these two lands make them attainable for most players, and they’ll go a tremendously long way towards keeping
you on track. You probably have copies kicking around already.

The two baby fetches – Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds – are along because they do their jobs better than anything that isn’t Flooded Strand.
Ideally, one of these slots is from Adarkar Wastes, providing all the potential mana-fixing with none of the pain, and we’re simply going to need to pick
up a slot or two somewhere down the list to get the overall count higher, so the ‘ins’ are going to be bigger than the ‘outs’.

Now, this looks kind of ‘staple-ish’, and it is – but that’s fine. My policy is to play the best lands I can so that I can be prepared to play the awesome
cards that I want to later. Speaking of that, we’re adding Command Tower, which I think anyone can get behind.

Last but not least, Winding Canyons and Serra’s Sanctum round out the new additions. I know – you’re only playing one creature in this deck, so Canyons
seems silly. I get that. However, you want to make absolutely sure you get use out of Hanna before she (inevitably) gets blown up, and we want as many ways
to make sure that happens as we can. Winding Canyons may as well just grant haste here, so play Hanna on your opponent’s end step and be happy with the
results.

Serra’s Sanctum is a bit pricy, but this is an enchantment-based deck, and I have to include it. There simply is no better acceleration available to a deck
like this, and you’ll truly explode into the mid-game with access to Sanctum. If it’s too much to add, I understand…but this would be one that I’d try to
trade up for, and it will only take one use before you understand why.

Okay…that’s 37 lands, which should be enough to be comfortable (given another accelerant or two). Let’s move on.

The Creatures

As promised in a prior section…

Out:

Chasm Skulker Clever Impersonator Cryptoplasm Hypnotic Siren Keiga, the Tide Star Kheru Spellsnatcher Mesa Enchantress Ojutai Exemplars Pearl Lake Ancient Prognostic Sphinx Serra Avatar Sun Titan Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir

That’s going to buy us the space for the extra two lands and then some. Now, feel free to disagree with this plan of action. I completely understand;
getting rid of Mesa Enchantress is anathema to the basic tenet of this deck, and it would not hurt to have support from Sun Titan – I’d also love to bring
in Trinket Mage, Academy Rector, and likely Archetype of Imagination (which is a really close call, since it’s half enchantment already) and Magus of the
Moat – both to make up for my earlier Texas-$$$ thematic omission, and to include a really enjoyable interaction between the two. Attack all you want – the
skies are guaranteed to be clear, and no one is coming back at you.

However, a theme is a theme, and I’m going to hold the course here. I think by the end of it all, you won’t miss any of these cards.

You know, while we’re here…

The Planeswalker

I typically enjoy Venser tremendously, but thematically, he’s not really in alignment with the rest of the deck. You already have a ton of removal (making
the ultimate not all that important), and there isn’t much you want to blink in this deck – at least, not as sorcery speed.

Out:

Venser, the Sojourner

In order to fill the vacated slots, let’s focus on card advantage next.

In:

Attunement Honden of Seeing Winds Standstill Sensei's Divining Top Scroll Rack Replenish Crystal Chimes Enlightened Tutor Idyllic Tutor Land Tax Dispersing Orb Omniscience

Right off the bat, I wanted to bolster the draw capabilities of the deck, and there are an absolute ton of enchantment-based options out there. First and
foremost is Standstill; this is the card that I was referring to earlier, and it has a long history as the cornerstone draw engine in Legacy control decks
designed to force opponents to either do nothing and get Mishra’s Factory-ed to death, or else give away free Ancestral Recalls and get buried under the
card advantage. In this deck, Standstill plays out similarly to Mystic Remora in the earlygame, providing a serious influx of cards while other players are
setting up and are loath to not cast spells; lategame, it comes in as a very reasonable spell deterrent, as the roles have reversed and your opponents will
now be doing what they can not to refill your hand for you.

Attunement is another techy favorite of mine. In this deck, it is pure gold; the bounce effect to activate it is part of the cost, meaning that once this
hits play, it’s going to do its job and do it well without getting blown up in response. The downside of a slightly uprated Bazaar of Baghdad effect is
mitigated by the ability of Hanna to negate the card disadvantage by bringing back anything you toss away. Slick, huh?

While we’re on topic, I’m also slotting Honden of Seeing Wind. It’s just a simple, one-sided Howling Mine. ‘Nuff said.

The artifact twins of Sensei’s Divining Top and Scroll Rack are next. Now, this appears to be pure good stuff padding at first glance, but the trick to
this deck is that for all the flash of the power-play cards, it really isn’t doing anything super-overpowered. You really need to find a way to garner card
advantage as soon as possible just to stay relevant and be able to hang in the game. Top is a no-brainer here, and it is an easy way to control draws;
Rack, on the other hand, becomes far better with the inclusion of the three fetchlands we added earlier, but no one is arguing that it isn’t amazing in its
own right.

Adding to the mix are Enlightened Tutor and Idyllic Tutor. Again, neither is particularly surprising in this deck; I’ll go on record as saying that I don’t
completely agree with the “No Tutors!” crowd, but I do like a limitation on number and scope of tutors in a given deck. Adherence to a design constraint
means both of these options are strong and can get effectively any answer or threat when needed, but as I said above, it’s important to make sure this deck
has legs and can get going and stay going to be able to compete with the rest of the metagame.

Besides, I would say that nine times out of ten, these are probably used to find answers and mana fixing in the earlygame.

Speaking of mana fixing, the addition of Land Tax is a huge shot of added mana-fixing in a deck with a very demonstrated need for it. Everyone is familiar
with Tax, and everyone knows just how good it is. Staples are staples for a reason, and again, this is an area where I’m fine seeing low-hanging format
fruit. I want people to play the game, not be forced to sit back and watch it.

Next, you have the one-two combination of Crystal Chimes and Replenish. If you’re not familiar with Replenish, you’ve likely just started playing the
format (and Magic in general.) This is an absolute back-breaking powerhouse when timed correctly, and it also plays remarkably well with Attunement.
(Spoiler Alert – There are some costly cards on the way as far as mana goes, so having a way to circumvent casting costs can be pretty critical for Hanna.)

Crystal Chimes isn’t quite as strong (as the cards come back to hand), but the recursion interaction with Hanna means that you can literally play your
graveyard as a second hand, and that you don’t have to be nearly as worried about graveyard hate for the most part.

Tucked in at the end here is Dispersing Orb, a little surprise that I came across last year. You already understand the power of Claws of Gix, so this one
shouldn’t come as a surprise, with the added benefit that it plays supremely well with some of the other cards that might end up in the deck (more on this
later). In a pinch, you have another added way to deal with opposing problems, but for the most part, this will allow you to maintain total control over
your permanents – a very welcome thing in this deck. Losing something key can often mean it’s gone for good if Hanna isn’t active, so the instant-speed
bounce can be a huge boon. Hanna again offsets the sacrifice cost nicely.

Last, but certainly not least – Omniscience. There are scores of people rolling their eyes right at this moment, but it’s important to take a look at the
facts before snapping off judgment. First, it costs ten mana. That serves to keep it pretty fair, especially considering that there’s no Academy
Rector to cheat it in early – as I said above, you have to jump through hoops by either a solid Serra’s Sanctum or discarding it and Replenish-ing it to
get it in play early. Next, I decided that it would be important to have some high-cost enchantments for a little later on down the list. Once enchantments
start attacking (hint hint), this thing is going to be among the biggest threats on the table, and that might be where it serves the best purpose.

That isn’t to say that it doesn’t have the ability to fuel some crazy interactions – it’s just that they typically aren’t combos here, and they aren’t
usually unfair ones either. The draw engines you have are limited in nature such that they will serve to prevent you from chaining your way through one big
turn where you resolve every spell in the deck, and realistically, the deck itself isn’t designed to win in one giant turn anyway.

You may raise some eyebrows with this inclusion, but it should prove over time to be pretty tame.

The Protection Package

This is where the tech starts to hit. As I mentioned before, we need to up the protection for this deck. Not having a regular complement of creatures means
that you’re extremely susceptible to a strong beating at any time, and without lifegain, you’ll have a hard time coming back from getting knocked down too
low too early. Let’s address this in bulk.

Out:

Journey to Nowhere Ancestral Vision Cleansing Meditation Coastal Piracy Condemn Copy Artifact Day of Judgment Devouring Light Entreat the Angels

There are some fairly strong cuts in this section, but I feel strongly that they’re correct; some obvious choices are going to have to come out to free up
space to add in a truckload of enchantment synergy.

First, let’s talk about the removal that we’re pulling. Originally, your list ran five or six board sweepers, a good handful of single-target removal
options, and then a suite of enchantment-based removal. One of the pitfalls of playing blue/white is that it suggests control, and if you’re not careful,
you end up overdoing it and building yourself into an over-reliance on answers without enough gas to do something proactive; this is the ‘draw-go’
reference from before. In order to break out of that, I pulled out the lesser of the enchantment-based removal options (Journey to Nowhere) and a few of
the weaker removal spells (Devouring Light, Day of Judgment, Condemn) to clear the air a bit.

From there, I pulled draw options that are either outclassed by our other additions (Ancestral Vision), or don’t work nearly as well with the decreased
creature count (Coastal Piracy).

I also yanked out Entreat the Angels; I’m finally seeing the light ‘angels’ subtheme here, but you’ve already got too many other subthemes as it is, so
we’re re-classing this spot.

Copy Artifact is pulled not necessarily due to lack of synergy, but mostly because the effect is a little soft; artifacts are weak to removal as it is, so
making them weak to enchantment removal as well isn’t ideal, and this card is a little too reactive for my tastes.

Finally, a word on Cleansing Meditation. This is typically a favorite in decks like this because of the extreme synergy with Enchanted Evening. In a
nutshell, Cleansing Meditation with Enchanted Evening in play is a total one-sided board wipe. Everything in play is nuked, and then all of your things only come back. I don’t think I need to mention how against that kind of play I am, and I’d much rather have the added utility of
Evening available (and it’s coming shortly), so this reset button is out. (I’m not totally sure why it’s here to start with; without that combo, it’s
likely to wreck you harder than anyone else anyway if should you miss on the threshold requirement somehow.)

In:

Parallax Wave Pendrell Mists Sphere of Safety Propaganda Ghostly Prison Rest In Peace Energy Field Greater Auramancy Solitary Confinement

Parallax Wave is a potential five-for-one exile effect with Claws of Gix or Dispersing Orb around. Simply stack the exile triggers, then use a sacrifice
effect in response to trigger the ‘leaves the battlefield’ effect first, and voila – the creatures are exiled permanently. Rinse and repeat with Hanna for
some serious value.

Since I’m staying true to my promise and not adding The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, Pendrell Mists is the next best thing. Better, even, since it’s an
enchantment.

The trio of Propaganda, Ghostly Prison, and Sphere of Safety shouldn’t be a surprise, but all three are going to be life-savers – especially if your
metagame is rife with token decks like mine is. Again, once Enchanted Evening finds its way in, Sphere of Safety is by and large the best of the bunch. I
know this lends itself to an air of ‘pillow-fort’ non-interactivity, but it’s absolutely critical without any creatures to protect you.

For all of you Legacy ‘Miracles’ players out there, the one-two combo punch of Energy Field and Rest In Peace is a familiar safety net. Rest in Peace
provides some strong graveyard hate that this deck was lacking to begin with, and adding Energy Field means you’re simply not taking any damage at all. The
only downside is the negative synergy with your commander, so be judicious in application.

Solitary Confinement is another take on Energy Field that old-school players will remember from back in the day. I specifically decided to prevent it from
being super-abusable in this deck by taming the draw engines, but it does work well with Hanna, so it’s worth the inclusion.

Finally, there’s Greater Auramancy. Board wipes will still hurt, but this provides solid insurance against losing key toys to Return To Dust or Acidic
Slime.

The Offense

We’ve got card advantage and protection covered; now, we need to finish things off. The key to winning with this deck is now two-pronged; we already have
the killer enchantment-based token generators – Luminarch Ascension and Sigil of the Empty Throne – and we’re going to add a little more variety to the mix
here as well to beef things up a bit.

Out:

Hoofprints of the Stag Mass Calcify Mind Control Mystical Tutor

Ojutai's Command Righteous Authority Spectra Ward Steal Artifact

In comparison to the aforementioned Luminarch Ascension and Sigil of the Empty Throne, Hoofprints of the Stag is downright glacial in comparison. We’ll do
it one (or two) better.

Steal Artifact and Mind Control are coming out roughly for the same reasons Copy Artifact did; both are soft to removal, and in particular, Mind Control is
duplicating Control Magic – but at a higher cost. There’s nothing I hate more than a well-placed Austere Command ruining my board and giving my opponents
back all their things, and this deck is already weak to that angle of attack (due to Detention Sphere and Oblivion Ring), so I’m minimizing the exposure.

Mass Calcify…nope. Again, you have way too much removal as is, and this isn’t really worth the price anyway.

We’ve talked tutors already, and Mystical isn’t much good with the reworked angle of the deck now. Out it goes.

Fun story: I personally jumped at the chance to preorder several Ojutai’s Command at a relatively high price without really reading the card when it was
first spoiled. As it turns out, Cryptic Command it is not. Losing any targets for the creature recursion mode is just enough to push this out of
favor. (If only that counter qualifier read ‘non-creature’…)

And again, without all the creatures, Righteous Authority and Spectra Ward aren’t quite as good anymore. Snip snip.

In:

Myth Realized Opalescence Dovescape

Akroma's Memorial Enchanted Evening Decree of Silence Mind over Matter Blind Obedience

Myth Realized is a cool card, and this may be the first good home for it that I’ve uncovered. It’s not a creature when you don’t need it to be (so it
dodges removal and Pendrell Mists), and literally every card you cast makes it bigger. I’m also a huge fan of having mana sinks lying around so that I can
stay productive, so this seems like it could be a solid addition.

Opalescence is the card I’ve been (not-so subtly) hinting at, and it serves to make the entire deck a threat. This is why Omniscience is awesome!
If you want real finishing power, this is it. Note that this also allows you to get a four-for-one with Parallax Wave since you can stack four exile
triggers first, then aim the fifth at Parallax itself (since it’s a creature) to trigger the LTB effect before the others happen.

Dovescape is a tough call; usually, you only hear about it as a board lock in conjunction with Humility. Here, it serves dual purpose, protecting your
enchantments from opposing board wipes and also allowing you to power out a team of tokens with every spell you cast; you should easily outrace the other
players numbers-wise. Like Omniscience, it’s going to raise an eyebrow or two, but it’s just a solid role-player here…nothing more.

Akroma’s Memorial is a way to take your animated enchantments and tokens and give them an edge in combat. I will readily concede that I want Archetype of
Imagination in this slot, and if you were to break theme for any card, this is the one I would do it for. (Again, it’s a half-enchantment already, so maybe
you can reconcile it to yourself that way?) Memorial might be too strong, but you need evasion, and you need it for the whole team.

Enchanted Evening. Finally. This is the card that ties the synergy of the deck together. The few artifacts you have now play ball too. Lands join the fun.
(Note: do not mix with Opalescence unless you and your playgroup like Armageddon effects. You’ve been warned!) Serra’s Sanctum suddenly puts Gaea’s Cradle
to utter shame. Sphere of Safety makes it literally impossible to attack you, and Greater Auramancy protects everything you have. I’ve said it
before, but this card really nails it home – blue is a better enchantress color than green.

I did pull some countermagic out of the deck, and I wanted to add a little back in with Decree of Silence. This card is fantastic in this deck; in a pinch,
you have a good impression of Cryptic Command when you cycle Decree to counter something, but for the most part, this is right in stride with Dovescape as
a great way to protect the deck. It also beats for eight under Opalescence! Just beware that the depletion counter removal is not optional, so your
opponents control how fast this thing exits the board by casting things.

Mind Over Matter is another lightning rod of a Magic card, but it’s right in line with theme here. Without a Temple Bell to mill your opponents into
oblivion, MOM ends up being just a solid role-player. It can accelerate mana production, play defense by tapping opposing creatures, run a key mana denial
role, and so much more. Again, the synergy with Hanna can’t be ignored.

The final addition is Blind Obedience. I guess I was wrong about the lifegain component; Blind Obedience is one of my favorite cards in the format due to
the synergistic combination of a win-condition, lifegain, and the tap clause which serves to effectively nullify opposing haste. Remember that color
identity doesn’t look at reminder text on a card, so this is a legal choice for a non-black deck.

Whew. That was a workout. Let’s see where we end up with all of these changes.

I’ll fully admit that this might possibly be overdoing it, but here’s where I’d go with this thing:


No more mish-mash of multiple sub-themes. No more ‘draw-go’ tendency. Just a focused enchantress build with a ton of synergy that will offer you many
different ways to play out your games without being too overpowering or disconnected.

Now, the cost. Hold your breath:

Yeah…so thirty-six cuts in total, with a price tag of $282.72. I realize that’s pretty steep, but hey…it could have been worse:

CARD: PRICE:
Moat $399.99
The Tabernacle at Pendrell
Vale
$799.99

So you should take some solace in that. Plus, you’re getting $20 store credit to StarCityGames.com for being the deck of the week as always, so that’s
something too.

Seriously, though – I believe in the direction of the deck, and anything you can do to move in the strategic direction I’ve laid out would be a move in the
right direction. I think you’ve got the basis for a great overall angle for this deck, and with a solid commitment to the theme, you’ll very likely want to
pull it out to play over and over.

It’s not overpowered or unfocused. It’s not comboing out anyone. It’s just a solid, focused role-player. That’s my kind of deck.


Want to submit a deck for consideration to Dear Azami? We’re always accepting deck submissions to consider for use in a future article, like Ignas’s Scion of the Ur-Dragon deck or Zach’s Mishra, Artificer Prodigy deck .
Only one deck submission will be chosen per article, but being selected for the next edition of Dear Azami includes not just deck advice but also a $20
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Email us a deck submission using this link here!

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