The Hitchhiker's Guide to Nyx

Christmas came early for Magic players – we're barely out of spoiler season for Modern Horizons, and already diving into Core 2020. Wizards of the Coast has provided us with an excusive spoiler card, and we're pumped to reveal it!

Without any further ado: Say hello to Starfield Mystic

Were you surprised? Get the card now before everyone catches on!

Enchanters, take notes!

As I mentioned earlier, Starfield Mystic is no obvious bomb rare, but the good thing is, it doesn't need to be. For 2 mana we get a permanent cost reduction on all enchantment costs with the added bonus of growing the Starfield Mystic every time an enchantment is put into a graveyard.

Right of the bat this card reminds me of Etherium Sculptor a staple for all artifact EDH decks, or an even more recent card with a similar ability; Herald of the Pantheon.

Enchantments in Commander

In 2018, enchantment fans around the world rejoiced when Wizards revealed that one of the pre-constructed commander decks was going to revolve around enchantments. Finally, there were three distinct enchantment commanders with each their own playstyle, in the correct colors (Sorry Daxos the Returned, it's nothing personal). Tuvasa the Sunlit allows you to gain card advantage while creating a huge beater in the process. Estrid, the Masked is a perfect commander for an aura-themed control deck, while Kestia, the Cultivator answered all calls for a mix of the previous two; mostly focused on the "Bestow" mechanic. Naturally the new Starfield Mystic is an auto include in all these decks.

Starfield Mystic's first ability is a very welcome addition. Where artifact decks have no issues with ramping or reducing the cost of their spells, pure-enchantment theme decks were always left a bit in the dust. Instead, enchantment decks have to rely on cards like Fertile Ground and Overgrowth to accelerate their mana while fixing colors. Both Starfield Mystic and Herald of the Pantheon allow you to ramp faster into these enchantments and eventually your payoff enchantments.

Now Starfield Mystic's second ability is even more interesting. At first sight, it seems strange that there is a card that cares about enchantments going to the graveyard. After all, this is a domain generally relegated to artifacts. A little bit of research, however, shows that there are plenty of enchantments that care about being sacrificed. Sterling Grove, Aura of Silence and Font of Fortunes are just a few examples of this.

Let's Brew

Naturally while writing about this card and enchantments that can be sacrificed, I wanted to brew a deck that cared about sacrificing and recycling enchantments, a deck where Starfield Mystic can truly shine. As a commander I have decided to go for Tuvasa the Sunlit as it provides the most value when we keep recycling our enchantments by letting us draw cards. Tusava also allows us to play the three most important colors for enchantments, White, Green and Blue respectively. A very important card in this strategy will be the new Hall of Heliod's Generosity, allowing us to truly recycle our enchantments.

Choosing the Sacrifice Enchantments

A quick search shows that there's currently 134(!) enchantments in Bant colors that care about being sacrificed. I've selected the ones that seemed interesting to me at first glance:

The power level on these cards isn't that high, but the real value comes from finding a way to keep recurring these enchantments. This way you can have a toolbox enchantment setup that allows you to adapt to the game or board state like drawing cards, ramping, removing permanents, etc.

The Recursion

So, with that said, let's look at what options we have for recurring these enchantments. These options ideally allow you to recur enchantments either en masse or repeatedly.

Enchantments Matter

Naturally, having some enchantments that sacrifice themselves and recurring them isn't going to get us there. But if we throw some cards in there that generate advantage whenever we play or sacrifice these enchantments, we are getting somewhere.

Ramp, Tutors, Removal, and Win Conditions

Now that we've established our theme for the deck we're going to take a look at some cards that can fill up the remaining slots, to make this deck compete with other EDH decks.

The Final List

Recycling Enchantments by Robert

Starfield Mystic

A big thank you to Wizards of the Coast for allowing us to spoil this card! What do you think of Starfield Mystic? Do you have a deck for it? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading and until next time!

Check out our Core 2020 page if you're interested in more M20 cards!