Pauper is an incredibly diverse format, for both competitive and casual play. Throughout the history of magic, there have been countless cards that allow unique archetypes. These “build around cards” come in many flavors, and many make it to the Mothership with undefeated league runs. Others, while not as competitive, still can combine to make powerful and fun strategies worthy of play.

One of the greatest sources of variety of strategies available in Pauper is Enchantments. These spells provide powerful global effects or can give just enough edge to elicit victory. With a complement of supporting cards, certain enchantments are able to spawn whole archetypes, or empower others.

These powerful effects aren’t without cost, however. Global enchantments typically cost quite a bit of mana to hit the battlefield, and can be slow in a format that typically goldfishes on turn 4. Auras too are powerful, but represent a real risk of card disadvantage. While generally more powerful than equipment, having your targeted creature removed while your aura is on the stack is a real blowout.

With that said, enchantments are really powerful, and a lot of fun to play with. Below is a list of ten great Pauper enchantments that are on the cusp of finding a home in a top tier deck.

10. Bequeathal

Most enchantments come with the risk of serious card disadvantage. When playing an aura, there is a window of opportunity for an opponent to fizzle the aura by removing the targeted creature. Aristocrats is an aggro deck that devalues an opponent’s removal by playing creatures that like to die, and sacrifice outlets like Carrion Feeder to gain some value in the face of a Flame Slash. The archetype just received a new toy, Mortician Beetle, until recently a rare. However, even with new cards, Aristocrats is still a fringe deck. Cards like Young Wolf and Nest Invader are certainly aggressive, but the archetype often finds itself running out of gas. Bring on Bequeathal. Aside from Abundant Growth shenanigans with Kor Skyfisher and other bouncers, Green has little in the way of card advantage engines. Bequeathal is perfect in such a deck, where new growth is almost assured from almost certain death. It mitigates the threat of card disadvantage by targeting a creature that was sure to die anyway… nobody want to waste their precious removal on a Brindle Shoat.

9. Hopeful Eidolon

The next enchantment on list is unlike any of the others… it’s a creature! The Bestow mechanic, while summarized succinctly in four lines on the card, has some quite complicated interactions. On its surface, the card is already quite good, since it gives options for the early and late game. In the early game, a 1/1 with Lifelink won’t do much, but is easily a decent costed threat that must be addressed by decks like Burn, or if you can combine it with equipment or other enchantments. Principal among these Ethereal Armor. This combo is particularly nasty given the fact that Hopeful Eidolon itself is an enchantment! Playing two of these guys and suiting one up lets you attack on turn 2 with a 4/4 First Striking Lifelinker. Suiting up one with two Armors on turn 2 makes that a 7/7!

With its Bestow ability, you can convert another creature you control into a life-gain engine. A 4 mana Lifelink with +1/+1 is not a good rate for an Aura, to be sure. But don’t write off this ability so quickly… Bestow is not your daddy’s enchantment! If the creature onto which you Bestow Hopeful Eidolon dies, either on casting or afterwards, Hopeful Eidolon becomes a creature! Thus, late-game this Enchantment Creature has quite a bit of utility. It can get value even through Black’s removal and Blue’s bounce, and will give you a remaining threat in the event of a board wipe.

As both an enchantment and a creature, it is pretty easy to return Hopeful Eidolon from the graveyard with cards like Auramancer or Unearth. As a one mana Spirit, it can also be recurred when any creatures with Soulshift die, and is a target for Spirits-matter cards like Devouring Greed.

With its two abilities, Hopeful Eidolon performs well in all four Quadrants. As a result, it earns a place on this list.

8. Blessing of Leeches

Blessing of Leeches is a key piece of one of the jankiest combos in our format. In the deck Spiteful Leeches, this Aura can turn Crypt Rats into an infinite board wipe. Additionally, by enchanting an opponent’s creature with the Blessing, Guilty Conscience and Spiteful Shadows, to use an opponent’s own creature against them for an infinite damage combo. You might therefore call this Enchantment a blessing in disguise!

Blessing of Leeches is an Aura with a lot of utility. Blessing has de facto Flash, making it great (and rare) creature protection in Black, as well as allowing a combo kill in Spiteful Leeches with as little as 3 mana on an opponent’s end step.

7. Cho-Manno’s Blessing

The next card on our list is another Aura with de facto Flash. Cho-Manno’s Blessing is an old school card seeing reinvigorated interest. Pauper brewmaster Deluxeicoff champions Cho-Manno’s Blessing as a centerpiece of White Infect. Like Apostle’s Blessing in Green based Infect lists, it acts as both protection for the deadly yet fragile Infect creatures, and evasion through stalled board states. Pauper’s mana base requires color commitment, and there is a real cost to adding colors. Pauper is not a format with 3-4 color good-stuff decks, like Jund. Even when a deck plays more than 2 colors, for instance in Tron or Affinity, its creatures are usually of one or two colors only, splashing other colors for value spells like Pulse of Murasa. Thus Cho-Manno’s Blessing is an incredibly powerful card in combo-aggro white strategies, such as the Infect list above, or Inquisition en-Kor. Unlike Apostle’s Blessing, Cho-Manno’s persists, providing protection and evasion for the rest of a game.

6. Bound in Silence

While the next Enchantment does not have Flash, it can still be played at instant speed, thanks to its very useful tribal synergy. Bound in Silence, at first glance, is an over-costed, under-powered removal spell in White. Unlike Journey to Nowhere or Oblivion Ring, it does not exile its target. Yet, unlike these two removal spells, it does not target! Bound in Silence is a little known answer to the very powerful, non-interactive Hexproof mechanic. Most Hexproof lists aim to win by “suiting up” a single creature into a 25/25 Lifelinking, Firststriking, Trampling “Voltron.” In sideboarded games, they expect their opponent to fight back with Enchantment hate or sweepers. Bound in Silence is not the response they expect, and unlike other hate cards, it is both maindeck-able and tutor-able. As a Rebel, this Tribal Enchantment can be tutored up in an instant by cards like Defiant Falcon and Ramosian Lieutenant, as part of a powerful toolbox, and played without targeting. It also answers an Ulamog Crusher‘s Annihilator, or any other single creature threat an opponent may muster.

5. Spreading Seas

While this card may look innocuous, Spreading Seas is a criminally underplayed card, with a ton of value. Although Blue is the the most popular color in any eternal format, this land enchantment threatens to color screw quite a few decks. Most decks with Blue are not mono Blue, so Spreading Seas still has valid targets. Keeping Dimir Handlock off Black, for instance, turns off all of the list’s removal, as well as its namesake combo. Additionally, Spreading Seas is great against the Karoo lands that see quite a bit of play in the format, and is well worth playing to neuter a Dimir Aqueduct.

Where Spreading Seas really shines is its second line, where it replaces itself. By itself, it is not card disadvantage. Moreover, in the right build, this Enchantment is a card advantage engine. Like the popular Kitty lists such as Kuldotha Boros, Spreading Seas can be bounced and recurred with a Kor Skyfisher or Dream Stalker. While not colorless like Prophetic Prism or Ichor Wellspring, Spreading Seas is the same converted mana cost, and in a very versatile color.

4. Impact Tremors

There are very few non-aura enchantments that see play in Pauper. Impact Tremors is an incredibly powerful spell, in the right build, for a competitive cost. Seeing play in a variety of go wide decks, Impact Tremors is an early threat that is incredibly difficult to remove. Usually paired with cheap goblins or tokens, it ensures your manifold masses will get in some damage, even in a stalled board state. Additionally, Impact Tremors works great in a combo shell, with free artifact creatures such as Ornithopter and a Retraction Helix empowered Mirran Spy. Its utility in multiplayer pauper is just icing on the cake.

3. Angelic Renewal

Angelic Renewal is a card that has been around a while, and is seeing a renewed interest, due to the increasing popularity of Tortured Existence decks. In that archetype, it functions as an additional recursion engine, for times when the deck cannot find its namesake or needs additional value. There are few plays more powerful in the format than a turn two Angelic Renewal into a turn 3 evoked Mulldrifter, resulting in a flying 2/2 with draw 4. Together with Augur of Skulls its “GGs” from Burn, with a 2 card discard 4 combo. It kills an additional Faerie or Elf when recurring a Fume Spitter. Essentially, any creature with a valuable “Enters the Battlefield” or death effect is a target for Angelic Renewal.

The best of the bunch, however, is Auramancer and its functional reprint Monk Idealist. When either dies, it can be recurred with Angelic Renewal, reentering the battlefield, at which point it can get Renewal back! Thus, for 1W each turn grindy value decks that want this card can infinitely recur a blocker, or a suicidal attacker when combined with a Grim Guardian.

Finally, Angelic Renewal is a great way to cheat into play big threats. Other Evoke creatures, like Ingot Chewer, make great targets. However, in combination with cards like Momentary Blink and Ghostly Flicker, it can cheat into play expensive morph creatures like Ponyback Brigade. Even an early Ulamog’s Crusher is possible with morph enablers like Write into Being or Sultai Emissary.

2. Freed from the Real

Peregrine Drake reminded Pauper players that infinite mana is incredibly broken. Freed Combo is an infinite combo deck centered around this Enchantment. By turning a Karoo land or Utopia Sprawl enchanted land into a creature, with cards like Wind Zendikon, Lifespark Spellbomb, or the Awaken mechanic, Freed from the Real can generate infinite mana. Alternatively, Freed from the Real can target an Axebane Guardian in a defender ramp deck. With this infinite mana, many things are possible, including using Ghostly Flicker with Archaeomancer to draw through an entire deck, or infinitely ping an opponent via a Trinket Mage fetched Viridian Longbow.

A less explored alternative for Freed from the Real is in Elves, where the Aura can count as additional copies of Quirion Ranger, targeting a Timberwatch Elf or Wellwisher, as well as an enchanted Forest become Treefolk with Elvish Branchbender.

1. Reality Acid

In Kitty’s close cousin, Acid Trip, Reality Acid is a recursive removal engine. Using Kor Skyfisher and Dream Stalker, Reality Acid can destroy any permanent (like Bound in Silence, if it is not cast, it does not target). Even Indestructible and Regenerate creatures fall to Reality Acid, as well as difficult to deal with win conditions like Jace’s Erasure. Within the typical Acid Trip deck, with 8 bounce creatures and 6 blink effects, 3 Reality Acids represent 17 total destroy permanent effects! With the Ghostly Flicker combo on a bounce creature, this card can be used infinitely. It is incredibly versatile removal, and even if it cannot be bounced back to hand, will still eventually kill its mark. Its incredibly effective against its preferred target, an opponent’s mana base, and is arguably better at this role than the entirely of Pauper’s land destruction archetype.