I've been trying to close out a deck of every color combination. The experience has been pretty rewarding but a couple of things along the way stuck out to me. I really gravitate toward 2 color decks, plus or minus 1. They're just where my brain goes when I want to push the boundary on a strategy. I learned that 4 color decks are among the most difficult to build. There isn't a strong identity in any 4 color combination for me to subvert or rebel against. They also lend themselves to slower starts or clunky mana bases. That seems fair for the tradeoff of having a greater card pool. I set out to build a 4 color deck around a core identity and that had explosive starts. I totally nailed it.
Around the time I started brainstorming this deck, Duskmourn was being spoiled. I was excited for an enchantment heavy set but one cycle of cards really stuck out to me. They were the Leylines. Leylines seem like a powerful effect, starting with them in play. The format has only gotten faster and faster. What's faster than starting with cards on the field? That is both a powerful message to your opponents and way to start the game. It certainly puts a target on my back early on.
In working on an early draft of the deck I came across this great seller, Bearlord Cards. They had a lot of the cards I needed to finish the deck, especially from newer sets. I'm even luckier they decided to sponsor today's article. It's great finding a seller who has what you need and is passionate about and engaged with the hobby. Not only do they keep adding new inventory but they also do box opening and card giveaways. Do yourself a favor and check out their page. You can even find them on TCG Player here.
Let's get back to the Leylines. One of my first hurdles is the fact there aren't a lot of them to begin with. Across 5 colors I would cap out at 16 proper Leylines. Dropping to 4 colors I already lose Leyline of Mutation and Leyline of the Guildpact because of color identity. There should be more. Leylines have been printed in multiple sets, there should be more unique cards. Why aren't there? Leyline of the Void. It has been reprinted more than anything and taken up spots for unique black leylines in other sets. So I'm really only losing access to that single card by doing a 4 color deck without Black. I can recoup graveyard hate elsewhere in the deck.
So what was left for me in the other 4 colors? The cards available took me in some very opposite directions. For example, Leyline of the Meek and newcomer Leyline of Hope both have a lord effect to them, pumping power and toughness. Leyline of Sanctity on the other hand offers good general protection in the form of Hexproof. Different colors had complimentary strategies which was good synergy. Leyline of Lifeforce extends protection to my creatures by making them uncounterable, a static defensive ability like Leyline of Sanctity. Leyline of Vitality supports Leyline of Hope by turning lands entering play into life gain along with half of a lord effect. The worse half. That's good. And there's more.
I think my favorite pairing is from Leyline of Anticipation with Leyline of Lightning. Since Anticipation allows me to play at instant speed I like to hold off casting my spells as late as possible. Lightning lets me pay to add a point of damage. With these two I clear out medium sized value creatures or series of tokens just before my turn.
There are also some potent nonbos, cards that don't pair well together and actively cancel one another out. Leyline of Punishment shuts down all lifegain, even my own from Leylines of Vitality and more. Leyline of Singularity hampers creature token strategies by making it so you can only have one of each token. That significantly hampers Leyline of the Meek which wants me to go wide with lots of creature tokens. I diversified the types of token creatures I have access to in the deck just to mitigate this. Even after that tweak the tension between the non complimentary pairings are felt. It adds a unique element when piloting the deck, knowing what cancelation of effect to allow and when to sandbag other Leylines later on.
All this only left me with 13 enchantments that would start the game in play. I did a little math, a hypergeometric calculation, and the chances of starting with one or more of those cards in play were too low for me to keep pursuing this strategy. I either needed more or to walk away. It turns out Foundations had a key for me. Leyline Axe may not be an enchantment, but it does cost 4 mana and have the ability to start the game in play. I might be waiting for turn 3 to equip it, but I save on the casting cost. This equipment makes an early creature or commander a very relevant threat around the table. It has eaten some early artifact removal on more than one occasion.
This opened the door for me even wider. What other cards am I missing that can start in play? I've talked about the Chancellor cycle before, specifically Chancellor of the Annex and Chancellor of the Forge. These are way more expensive than 4 mana but have substantial upside if revealed at the start of the game. It would be cool to reveal a Chancellor of the Annex at the beginning and start the game with a 5/6 flyer, but a Force Spike on each opponent's first spell of the game is very strong. It gives me an extra turn to keep things moving and even slows down their ability to ramp. Chancellor of the Forge is more impactful when I cast it, but I'm never unhappy to see that goblin token to start the game. It pairs great with Leyline of the Meek.
Chancellor of the Spires has gotten mixed reactions when I start the game with it in hand. Some people welcome the cards in the graveyard, others would rather have the opportunity to draw into those cards. My last creature in this category is Chancellor of the Tangle. He's just a great beater that happens to ramp me at the start of the game. It's subtle but effective.
There's more. I thought I was tapped out but after doing a carefully worded search I found even more cards that have an immediate impact on the game. Devourer of Destiny is like a Chancellor of the Spires that happens to have a Scour From Existence stapled onto it. Sphinx of Foresight feels like a perfect hybrid between a Leyline and a Chancellor. It's a 4 drop that has an effect to start the game with. I even have access to a land, Gemstone Caverns, that can start in play. The cost is high, having to exile a card, but you usually have a card in your opening 7 that you know doesn't sequence well with the other 6 in your hand. Thats the sacrificial lamb. The last card to talk about is Serum Powder. I want to start the game with cards on the field and/or effects to start the game. I've got a pretty good shot at that and a free muligan gives me another crack at it. With only 6 cards in hand, my probability really drops, more on the math later. Serum Powder allows me a free mulligan and the ability to eliminate non impact starting cards from the ones from my opening hand. This can be a strong gamble on an opening 7 out of 93 cards rather than an opening 6 out of 99 cards. What would you do? Get a 3rd shot at 7 or continue to mulligan down to 6 and hope you get a strong Chancellor or Leyline?
Let's do some math and explore the hypergeometric calculator. I set my parameters as 99 cards, since my commander sits outside the deck, drawing 7 cards with 22 cards that start the game on the field or with an effect. I have almost an 84% chance of having 1 in my starting 7. That doesn't quite tell the whole story. Serum Powder doesn't really count the first time, only after a mulligan. Changing 22 hits to 21 I'm looking at an 82% chance of success. A mulligan to 6 still leaves me with a 79% chance of one of those cards in hand. Why is this relevant? I want to know if I have a Serum Powder in hand after my first mulligan if it's better to use the Serum Powder and get a new 7 or mulligan to 6. If I use Powder, discard and draw 7 I'll have 92 cards in the deck and 21 potential hits bringing my chance of a successful draw to 85%. That's my best chance so far.
That paragraph got pretty nerdy. Your big takeaway - to improve my odds of starting with a key card in hand I have to increase the number of potential hits in my deck, increase the number of cards I draw initially, or reduce the number of extraneous cards in my deck. I'm not going into 5 colors so I can't include any more hits in the deck. I can't draw more than 7 cards at the start of the game, so I can't improve my odds that way. There is a way to thin my deck. If I have partner commanders I reduce my card pool by 1. The effect is mostly negligible but better odds are better odds. Depending if I count Serum Powder as a hit or not I'm looking between an 82% or 84% chance of success.
There were only 7 options for partner commanders. I'm not going to list them all. I settled on Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist, and Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa. Ludevic Offers me card draw and incentivizes opponents to attack each other rather than me. Sidar Kondo makes that easier by making small creatures unblockable for my opponents. I'm glad that last part isn't reciprocal. These 2 actually work really well off each other. I have a couple of ways to make cheap token creatures so the potential to be unblockable is real. Until I get a couple of lord effects going and pump their power to a 3 or more. At that point, my token army is ready to rumble, being sneaky is less important. My first instinct was to choose Thrasios, Triton Hero and Akiri, Line-Slinger because of their powerful effects and cheap casting cost. I have way more Enchantments than I do Artifacts so moving away from that pair was a smart move. That and the fact people hate Thrasios and would hate me out early on rather than attack each other.
I love this idea, of starting ahead and letting opponents play catch up even before the game starts. After turn 1 though, I'm looking at a bunch of 4 drop enchantments in the deck. I need to press my advantage and make the most of my remaining Leylines. There's an easy way to capitalize on enchantments, an enchantress strategy. It's so simple. I've got classics like Mesa Enchantress, Eidolon of Blossoms, and Sythis, Harvest's Hand to enable card draw. Herald of the Pantheon and Starfield Mystic offer cost reduction and more.
An enchantress strategy can get a bad rap. Sometimes they can devolve into value engines and just be a lot of setup with no way to end the game. I wanted to guard against that and put finishers at the forefront of my plan. A couple of these options create tokens as a reward for playing enchantments. Hallowed Haunting and Archon of Sun's Grace fit that description. Boon of the Spirit Realm is a scaling anthem effect. I just have to do what the deck wants to do anyway, play enchantments. Starfield of Nyx is a card I avoided years ago. There aren't a lot of instant speed boardwipes in the format so I can play this and swing with confidence I'm not going to get blown out. Lastly, I have Brilliant Restoration to recover after things go south for me. It's great to explode my board presence after eating a ton of targeted removal.
I took a big lesson from my Leyline and Chancellors for this next group of cards. I liked having threats immediately available to me to make an impact on the game. I added Abolish, Flameshot, and Foil for that reason. For the price of a Plains I can remove a key artifact or Enchantment. I thought this was going to be strong in the first turn of the game. However, this was even better later on since I didn't care about hitting all my land drops and I would be able to spare one for the effect. Flameshot on the other hand is better early. Foil is pricey either way you cast it. What really made the difference with these spells was shock lands. Hallowed Fountain and Sacred Foundry go a long way in providing flexibility to my discard casting. It would have added to the cost of the deck but I've been playing long enough I've acquired many shock lands through prereleases and drafts over the years.
Let's take a look at the deck.
Chancellor of the Annex | Hallowed Haunting | Refreshing Rain |
Chancellor of the Spire | Boon of the Spirit Realm | Cho Arim Legate |
Chancellor of the Forge | Starfield of Nyx | Qasali Ambusher |
Chancellor of the Tangle | Brilliant Restoration | Submerge |
Devourer of Destiny | Archon of Sun's Grace | Sivvi's Ruse |
Leyline Axe | Mesa Enchantress | Mogg Salvage |
Leyline of Abundance | Setesan Champion | Flameshot |
Leyline of Lifeforce | Eidolon of Blossoms | Abolish |
Leyline of Vitality | Enchantress' Presence | Foil |
Leyline of Anticipation | Sythis, Harvest's Hand | March of Otherworldly Light |
Leyline of Singularity | Verduran Enchantress | March of Swirling Mist |
Ondu Spiritdancer | Fury | |
Leyline of Combustion | Saparzzam Baliff | Sunscour |
Leyline of Lightening | Jukai Naturalist | Temur Banner |
Leyline of Punishment | Sanctum Weaver | Jeskai Banner |
Leyline of Resonance | Herald of the Pantheon | Rampant Growth |
Leyline of Hope | Enduring Vitality | Chromatic Lantern |
Leyline of Sanctity | Starfield Mystic | Imprisoned in the Moon |
Leyline of the Meek | Farseek | Kenrith's Transformation |
Sphinx of Foresight | Starnheim Courser | Darksteel Mutation |
Serum Powder | Damn | |
Gemstone Cavern | Hallowed Fountain | Stomping Ground |
Temple Garden | Breeding Pool | Steam Vents |
Sacred Foundry | Jetmir's Graden | Spara's Headquarters |
Blast Zone | Scavenger Grounds | Plaza of Heroes |
Forest x5 | Mountain x6 | Plains x5 |
Island x6 | Exotic Orchard | Field of Ruin |
The deck is fun. It really gets me thinking when it comes to mulligans. I've been experimenting with the deck, trying to give it a little more edge. I'm doing that through the inclusion of Shrines. There's not a ton I want to add, but enough to keep the enchantress plan moving.
I wanted to give another shout out to Bearlord Cards for making this deck and article possible. Go check them out here and use my TCGPlayer link to check out their shop here.
Use my TCG Player link to pick up some cards from Bearlord Games. If you do, all 3 of us will be better off.
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