Much Abrew: Enduring Ideal (Modern)

by SaffronOlive // Dec 26, 2016

Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. Last week, it seems that everyone thought one Instant Deck Tech in particular was epic: Enduring Ideal! So, this week, we are heading to Modern to see if a seven-mana sorcery can be good enough in the format, with some support from janky enchantments like Dovescape to lock the opponent out of the game and Form of the Dragon to finish the game. Really, Enduring Ideal is half Enchantress and half Mono-White Prison, looking to lock the opponent out of the game with disruptive enchantments like Ghostly Prison, Runed Halo, and Suppression Field long enough to resolve an Enduring Ideal, which should be enough for us to win the game!

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Enduring Ideal Instant Deck Tech

Enduring Ideal vs. Grixis Control (Match 1)

Enduring Ideal vs. Naya Burn (Match 2)

Enduring Ideal vs. Thing Ascension (Match 3)

Enduring Ideal vs. Gilder Walkers (Match 4)

Enduring Ideal vs. Abzan (Match 5)

Enduring Ideal (Wrap Up)

Discussion

First off, we finished our matches with a 3-2 record, which isn't horrible but also isn't great. This was likely aided by the fact that we ran into a couple of interesting brews like Gilder Bairn Planeswalkers and a Grixis control deck featuring the worst Liliana of all time.

I swear that someday soon, I'm going to write an article called, "When You Think You're Done Building a Deck, Cut Your Worst Card and Add One More Land." Seriously, after playing a lot of Instant Deck Tech decks on stream and for Much Abrew, I'm convinced that the most common deck building mistake brewers make is skimping on lands. Our Enduring Ideal deck provides a great example. Its goal is to resolve a seven-drop sorcery, but it only plays 22 lands! This surely isn't enough.

We also ran into some issues where we would draw our Form of the Dragon, but we only have two red sources in our deck so we could never cast it (instead looking to eventually discard it to hand size and put it back on the bottom of our deck with Mistveil Plains). This got me thinking that maybe we can solve both of our problems at once.

The reason Enduring Ideal is skimping on lands is because it doesn't have any card draw or card selection, so it's looking to make sure it keeps drawing action by running as few lands as possible. In theory, we can add two more copies of Temple of Triumph, which not only raises our land count to a more reasonable 24 and allows us to cast Form of the Dragon from our hand but also keep us drawing action thanks to the free scry.

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is—by far—the most important card in our deck. It gives us some nut draws where we can cast our Enduring Ideal as early as Turn 4, and once we resolve an Enduring Ideal, it becomes nearly impossible to lose the game.

Overall, I had a lot of fun playing the deck, although it was frustrating losing to ourselves when we were just a land or two short of casting Enduring Ideal.

So, should you try Enduring Ideal in Modern? I think the answer is yes, but with a slight change, by cutting the Heliod, God of the Sun (our worst finisher) and maybe a Runed Halo (which is pretty hit or miss and mostly in the deck to give us white mana symbols) and adding in the third and fourth copies of Temple of Triumph. With this change, I think the deck should be much more consistent and likely powerful enough to compete with the best decks in the Modern format!

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today. Don't forget to vote for next week's deck by liking, commenting on, and subscribing to Instant Deck Tech videos! As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive and at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.