Food For Thought: Enshrined Memories

[Talen Lee] So are you going to be PO’d if I write an article about it, since I’ve spent the past six months telling you it’s crap?

[Mournglash] Not PO’d. Vindicated.

Oh, how the worm, she doth turn. A most vile and festerous beast, it lurks beneath the skin, the insistence, the urging, and the unending guilt, it doth wrack my frame like a lone vessel adrift on the seas, tempestuously ruined by blah blah blah, you’re still reading this sentence? Huh. Okay, I guess I owe Riv a coke.

When Betrayers came out, I had a discussion with my good friend Mournglash, and another player of this fine Magical Game of ours. I will not name him, but we will suggest that this red-haired gentleman was as is conventionally defined, a “better player” than either of us… at least when it came to sixty-card piles. He was at the time, courtesy of a most ridiculous Draft deck, flipping cards off the top of his library. It seems, given that he had a Sachi, and no less than four other shamans on the table, he has something of a “mana flood” as you kids call it.

So he cast Enshrined Memories for twelve, putting seven new cards in his hand, most of which were shaman or just low-key cards in a deck which had six snakes on the table like Seshiro the Anointed and Patron of the Orochi.

His opponent was not impressed.

It was at this time that Mournglash turned to me and said, “I think that’s good for Constructed.”

I didn’t even look up, watching the mauling that was ensuing. “Eh, I dunno, we’ve already had time to play with Snakes, and I don’t really see Saviours adding anything…” Being Australian, I of course pronounced the ‘u’ in the word “Saviour.” It’s silent, like the P in Karen. Anyway, I glanced at the table as our Red Haired Protagonist deployed some twenty-plus power on the board against an opponent whose deck was well out of steam. That’s when Mournglash nudged me.

“Not that,” he said descriptively, “That.”

There were several iterations of this, with me making steadily more and more fun of him along the way. Ah, the silliness of my youth.

“Enshrined Memories,” he said. “In a Green deck, it says ‘XG, draw X cards.’”

“That’s true. And a Green deck says ‘I’m completely crap unless I’m paying for Tooth and Nail or Gifts Ungiven’.”

“Point.”

“Point indeed.”

I believe it’s at that point that the opponent, tired of the utter drubbing he was receiving and the color commentary from two individuals who had finished their own rounds of Draft embarrassingly fast (Mournglash, in the good way; me, in the bad way), and threw his cards on the table, challenging myself and my compatriot to a cross-country kayaking duel to settle this most disturbing matter.

Anyway, as we strapped on our various protectives, including Mournglash’s decidedly fashionable satin fuchsia Kevlar pantaloons, I commented to him, “Forget about it. It’s just like the last time you did this with Shirei — a silly fascination with a crappy card that won’t ever produce a decent deck.”

“Eh.” He responded, as he did up my chinbuckle for my cross-weave quinghai-style forehead guard, and, being the wiser man — and also because his kayaking style was one that required a most intense martial focus, derived from his time herding the upside-down yaks of Tebit — left it at that*.

Well, Don’t I Feel Stupid.
That was back in the Before Days. When I could play cards in physical Magic, and where my stone-cold ability to bluff (read: lie) my way to wins I had no right to own in Constructed games, and when my opponents annoyed me, I could quite judiciously deal out a bit of good-natured verbal battery. Now, when I do that, it’s against the Code of Conduct — and because they’re not my friends who know me well, I don’t feel right doing it.

What I also don’t feel right about is all the crap I gave Mournglash over this card. We had all the pieces right there in front of us to make the deck good. I was just too ignorant to really spend my time on it. Well, it so happens that, during that maddening, fluxed period between Guildpact becoming legally spoilered and Guildpact becoming electronically playable, I was champing at the bit. I wanted my Blind Hunters, I wanted Thrulls swinging while armed with tiny time-bombs that said “Go ahead and remove me, dork.” I wanted a Red-Blue bounceland. I wanted Guildpact.

And I couldn’t have it.

Oh, it was Christmas Day and nobody had bought any batteries! It was the last day of school term and all the clocks were running slow! It was the night before my wedding day, with the knowledge that my wife was taking me to the Fifth Dawn prerelease in the morning, holy crap I love her, will it all just hurry up?

I don’t like waiting much. I’m not a very patient person.

So anyway. How the hell do you keep yourself busy during that kind of period of time? I figured I had a month to take up a challenge. A decent, rough, and generally pain-in-the-rear kinda challenge. A challenge befitting the kind of man who molests brick walls with his forehead. A challenge from Mournglash.

Let us take now ye olde crappy rare, I spaketh, and said I, Let it make it something that satisfies me.

This is where traditionally, as all onanistic deck designers are wont to do, I write out a dozen iterations of the deck as it evolved, and you skip ahead. I’m not going to do that. Not even a little. What I am going to do is talk about how the centerpiece of this deck works in tandem with our old friend, the Grozoth Principle.

The Grozoth Principle In Action
“The Grozoth Principle, in summary: Make your cards relate to one another. The more they do that, the better the deck will hang together.”
-Some Theory Dork.

So let’s look at our current victim. What does it tell us? What does Enshrined Memories want as a card? Well — let us now take the card in question, and give it a good hard look.

First and foremost, it’s Green, but it’s not very Green. Its mana cost, in any situation where we’re going to cast it, is going to be one Green mana plus stuff. So we can run it in a multicolor deck without much problems, and Green is nice enough to provide mana fixing if we want to do that.

Second, it’s an X spell. Theoretically, this means it sits anywhere you want on the mana curve; but looking deeper than that, this is an X spell that operates blindly. Unlike Blaze, you’re not always sure how the effect’s going to go. Compare the two. Enshrined Memories for one is a gamble; Blaze for one is just an overcosted burn spell; but you know when you need Blaze to deal three, it will deal three. If you need Memories to go cheaply, you’re taking a gamble. Memories for one — a two-mana sorcery-speed spell — has only a chance of doing “anything” literally speaking. So this indicates that your best Memories are going to be for sizeable values.

Third, Enshrined Memories wants you to run creatures in your deck. Ideally, lots and lots of them. Indeed, Memories would like nothing more than for you to have nothing in your deck but creatures — that’s how it could maximize the card advantage it gives you. However, in any situation you run Memories, you’re going to be running lands and the memories itself — meaning that suddenly, your options become very narrow for non-creature cards.

Fourth, when Enshrined Memories is done with its business, it puts whatever cards it didn’t put in your hand very far away — about as far away as they could get. So Memories can’t get you more Memories, and Memories can’t dig for anything except creatures.

Here are our four parameters. Do any of these parameters give us a hint as to what we want to do with Memories? Well, consider the big archetypes. Does Combo want this? Is there some combo that wants to resolve a ridiculously large X spell for some reason? Perhaps, but it doesn’t seem as efficient as other hand-filling options. What about aggro? Not really. Aggro decks don’t really want to draw a card that’s only good when they can pump four or five mana into it. Control decks, even those that use creatures, really care more about their spells, and their creatures are usually a means to an end. I don’t see the pieces for a “pure” control deck that uses nothing but creatures right now. So that’s the big, well-known three out of the way.

How about Aggro-control? No, its ideal plan involves making a threat in the early turns of the game, then using it to skull your opponent while you use your other spells to protect it. Which leaves us with that most blessed archetype, the archetype that warms the cockles of my heart… Midgame.

(By the way, Mike Mason has written far more than I could ever hope to explain on these archetypes. Go read his stuff. It’s quite good, even if it’s primarily from a tournament-player perspective. Knowing whether you look upon fish or fowl is not about to infect your brain and make you desire to start all your decklists with four Jitte, neither is it going to have your soul shriven from your frame.)

We’re looking at making a Midgame deck. That’s pretty easy. We want cheap spells that accelerate us to the midgame. We can afford to play loose with our manabase, since we don’t mind using spells to fix that. We also can afford to play creatures based on their general ability to take care of themselves — tempo is less important to us than overall staying power. Little aggressive men like Kird Ape need not (necessarily) apply; this is a deck where size does matter.

Taking these points holistically, they pull in a direction very strongly. Point one wants us to play Green, and point two wants us to play with lots of mana. Point three wants us to play with creatures, and point four wants us to not rely on anything but creatures if we can help it.

Well, it just so happens that there are quite a large number of good, Green creatures who accelerate your mana. Until recently, Standard has been defined by one of them; Sakura-Tribe Elder. There’s also the perennial favorite, Llanowar Elves, and his older, more badass brother Civic Wayfinder. Using that as a backbone, I figured I could afford to splash some extra colors into the deck; significantly, I opted into Red and White.

More specifically, I opted into Ghost-Lit Raider and the One-Man Gang. Both of these cards are absolute heart attacks for control decks — an uncounterable Meloku-killer, and a hernia-and-a-half in a two-mana package; these are great threats for a midgame deck. In theory, Ghost-Lit Raider can come down on turn 2, load up, and spend the rest of his time gunning down enemy creatures. Against an opponent where his one toughness makes him vulnerable, he’s happy to stay in hand and, ninja-like, leap out at instant speed to kill pretty much every threat that’s around.

Ghost-Lit was the missing piece of the puzzle. Enshrined Memories demand I run no non-creature spells. Well, didn’t demand, but it got all whiny and said I didn’t love it any more. I just can’t take that kind of pressure. I couldn’t handle the idea of a deck that had no way of clearing out blockers or dealing with threatening permanents. So, once I had the idea fleshed out — creatures that function as non-creature spells in their maximum numbers — I riffled through my card collection and began acquiring cards.

So, About That Decklist, Eh?
Now, I understand, after my last few articles, that I’m primarily a casual writer and that my audience appreciates “budget” decks that actually are budget. JMS’ offerings routinely hit thirty dollars apiece, and Romeo, god bless him, goes beyond that at times. That’s alright; Romeo’s shooting for tournament fame and fortune, and JMS is, well, JMS. He could write a Taco Bell menu and I’d read it. Hm, wait…

Anyway. The thing is, Grozoth can lead us in odd directions. This is a deck that wants us to play with the parameters it’s set. We’re playing with creatures, we’re playing with channel cards, and we’re playing with the best threats money can buy. I have to repeat this because, the fact is, good creatures are sometimes rare. In some cases, they’re not only rares, they’re expensive rares. Because this deck can fiddle-faddle with its mana base isn’t necessarily a reason that it should. So I’m now going to present this deck in three specific versions.

The first is going to be the cheapest build of the deck I can manage while still having the same general intent. Unfortunately, I haven’t directly tested this build. Finding cheaper substitutes for “good cards” can often murder an enterprise like this. Fortunately, while there’s a power gap between Kodama of the North Tree and Moss Kami, it’s not such an absolute one that the game is lost on its back.

Card Men – Budget Version

Talen Lee

Test deck on 03-12-2006

Standard

Creatures (33)

Lands (24)

Spells (3)

3 Enshrined Memories

Total cost: five tickets, assuming you’re generous and don’t get rough on trades.

Oh, that’s not a very inspiring pile. But it is rare-lite; only the Memories themselves show up to spoil your day, and they’re not really that expensive — indeed, you can get them for half a ticket if you know where you’re looking. The Raiders and Nourishers give you what you wouldn’t otherwise have — spells — and the Guildmage lets you use that late-game mana for something other than fuelling Memories.

Card Men – Mid-range version

Talen Lee

Test deck on 03-12-2006

Standard

Creatures (33)

Lands (24)

Spells (3)

3 Enshrined Memories

Total cost: 15 tickets

(In the tradition of such things, the deck name is clearly designed to make me sound clever, because it’s a reference to something that you mightn’t have seen. Just making this clear.)

Here’s the rub. Isao and Kodama of the North Tree are fantastic midgame threats. There are few things that can swing past a Isao on the ground, and there are even fewer that want to proactively tangle with a Kodama of the North Tree. The Selesnya Guildmage does its duty as a one-man gang, and Ghost-Lit Raider is all the oodles of goodness I talked about before.

That’s right, oodles.

Now… I would be remiss if I didn’t mention what I sketched as an outline for a version of the deck that would happen in that wonderful, magical happyland of “not having a budget.” Be warned, its golden shine has blinded lesser men, and its flashing silver belly be pock-marked with terror itself.

Card Men – Golden Monstrosity Version

Talen Lee

Test deck on 03-12-2006

Standard

Creatures (33)

Lands (24)

Spells (3)

3 Enshrined Memories

Total cost: My Wallet, My Wallet, My God, You Just Punched Me In The Wallet

Ach, avert yer eyes, children! It’s a terrible sight tha’s nay to be born by mortal men! Flee, flee, mortal man, lest you be caught up in its flames, consumed by that most benthic weight with which it thrashes! Its very berth is financial doom, and the winds are tainted with the taste of its fell blood since ‘ere a man…

What the hell am I talking about?

Simply put, it’s pricey in this build. This is an initial sketch — and a sketch that goes without Loxodon Hierarchs, which I do have, but chose not to use. Why? Because even though Hierarchs fit the theme, you guys don’t want me to do all the work for you. If I go out, test, and say Hierarchs are the Nut High in the deck, and you do the same thing and disagree, you’re going to think I’m a freaking twit.

“No artwork is ever completed; instead, all are left at varying stages of abandonment.”
– Leonardo Da Vinci (alleg)

So this is where this Grozoth has led me. But I have to say, it’s a hoot to play. Some tips on playing the deck follow, since they weren’t obvious to me as I put the decklist together. Oh, and they’re going to be obvious to you, now, since I’m freaking mentioning them.

Tin Street Hooligan attacks and blocks just fine. It’s true! He can come down, not touch an artifact on the way, and suddenly, bang, you have — and this is a stunner — a 2/1 creature! Don’t hoard the little wretches in hand. The only “Holy crap, gotta deal with that!” artifact in Standard for this deck is Umezawa’s Jitte. And you know what? While it can really ruin your day, the times it does aren’t going to be as many as the times you were silly enough to hold back decent aggression for the sake of maybe popping a Jitte. Hooligan is a perfectly-designed Gruul card — in that he encourages you to make stupid plays.

Enshrined Memories are ideal when they’re for four or five. More than that, and you tend to hit large wads of land, and you will probably want to play some of what you draw. Just like with Necropotence, cheap spells are good when combined with massive card draw — Memories should usually net you one or two things you can play immediately.

Isao cannot be countered. Channel cannot be countered. This gives you uncounterable removal and uncounterable pump along with an uncounterable creature. The effect this has had in matchups where opponents intend to protect themselves with Mana Leaks and Remands is huge. I recently finished the game against an opponent who was holding all four Mana Leaks — because all I had on the table was an Isao, kept healthy and swinging through a clear path by various Ghost-Lit friends.

You’re going to get mana-flooded sometimes. That’s generally okay, because the mid to late game is where your expensive spells thrive — your Memories and your Guildmage make you quite content to play long — but it does mean that sometimes you will get early game draws that feature two or even three Gruul Turfs. This is basically probability kicking you in the butt, and there’s not a lot you can do about it. You have mana-fixing out the wazoo, you shouldn’t have to worry for mana after the first two turns.

I’m considering substituting the Hooligan for Viridian Shaman; after all, that removes one non-Green spell for a Green one, and increases the deck’s reliance on its main color. I’m also considering turning the Frostlings into Frenzied Goblins (like they were in the initial sketch). The other big thing that I’m considering is Kami of Ancient Law or Absolver Thrull. I have spent a few too many games losing to troublesome enchantments, and the Hooligans have yet to tag an artifact that I care about, aside from that game where Hooligans turned up in a neat little chain to deal with a Signet, a Howling Mine, and an Ebony Owl Netsuke in that order. So they can stay a while, until I get bored with them and decide to change ‘em up.

Where Are We Now?
So first up, this is an eight-page long apology to Mournglash. I must offer my deepest and most heart-felt apologies for thinking that Enshrined Memories bore with your normal pattern of becoming fascinated with awful cards, and I promise that, next time you get a stupid idea, I will do my best to consider it more thoroughly. I really did think that this was just like Chromescale Drake; or Proteus Staff; or Arcbound Crusher; or Homura; or Lightning Coils; or Kyoki, Sanity’s Eclipse. Hey, maybe they’ll make another Kamigawa block, where all the good cards are highlighted in big golden writing, so we can agree on stuff again!

I kid — I kid because I care. In all seriousness, Mourn was on the ball on this one, and I wasn’t. This deck is a blast to play and it’s got game all over the place, even if it doesn’t draw a Memories. Uncounterable threats against control are some good, I hear, and regenerating and untargetable blockers are a big pain for aggro’s gameplan as well.

This deck has had some remarkably solid results in the casual room on Magic Online. It’s lost once or twice, often to its own mana issues. It’s also what I consider a “good” casual deck in that it has a lot of tinker room. This isn’t a tightly honed, well-conditioned engine the likes of which Feldman (also an awesome writer) would produce — this is a skeleton in which you can put your own Cool Stuff.

I really think that everyone who reads my articles and likes them, looks at my decks, and changes stuff. I don’t think any of “my” decks become “your” decks without undergoing some transition. It’s inevitable — casual players are almost defined by our desire to be different. I don’t expect you to look at my deck and say “Oh, wow, gotta play that,” I expect you to look at my decks and go “Oh, so that’s an interesting interaction.”

I just did some of the legwork for those of you who want to play with Enshrined Memories or Channel cards. What do you want to do with it? Any ideas? Any thoughts? Any way you’d build the deck to improve it? Should I be sticking in the big fat elephants and going harder into White, using Red only for the Raiders? What about Kodama North? White does offer some good solid flying men, and there’s room for improvement there.

Hugs and Kisses.
Talen Lee
Talen at dodo dot com dot au

* The above story may be almost entirely fabricated, or have details changed to protect the identity of innocent llamas.

Postscript The Second: Writing Blurbs
Bloody hell, was that blurb hard to write! I mean it. “My magical accomplishments” can be summed up as “not scrubbing out too badly at FNM” and “failing to scrub out at a PTQ while cards I owned won the event.” What do I write then? “Mad props to Brodo for doing something worth a damn with my Genesis?” It’s not exactly inspiring stuff. As it is, I shot for “pretentious” over “embarrassing.”