In this experiment, we traumatize ourselves such that our graveyard becomes Nyx, and then we replenish the scions of the gods and slay our foes with whitewater rapids, eternal fury, and a pig.

Journey into Nyx previews have begun. With all the enchantments Theros brought, people expected enchantments to matter. Sure, there were enchantment creatures, and even bestow, but there was little if anything to actually reward players for the fact that their permanents were enchantments—there was no Yavimaya Enchantress, for example.

Well, with Journey into Nyx and its constellation mechanic, things have changed.

Eidolon of Blossoms joins the Enchantress ranks alongside Verduran Enchantress, Argothian Enchantress, and Mesa Enchantress. The Eidolon has the upside of having a flower head and of drawing a card for its own battlefield entrance, but apart from that, we’re not really playing in new territory. We’ll be playing with the Eidolon of Blossoms in today’s deck, but this Spirit isn’t what the deck is built around.

You see, Monday’s Journey into Nyx previews also brought two somewhat innocuous uncommons that share the benefit of being enchantment creatures. While this means they’ll trigger our Eidolon, it also means they can enter the battlefield from our graveyard for only by way of a Replenish. Sure, there are cards that can return nonenchantment creatures as well, but not for only 4 mana. Even more compelling is the fact that almost all mass-reanimation spells are symmetrical, meaning our opponents can also gain some of the upside. And while Rise of the Dark Realms costs 9 mana, Replenish—again—only costs 4.

Oh yeah, and here are the creatures I have in mind:

When both Cyclops of Eternal Fury and Whitewater Naiads hit the battlefield at the same time, they can both become unblockable from Naiad triggers, and, of course, they’ll both have haste thanks to the Cyclops. With enough creatures and enchantments to trigger for them (preferably they’ll just all be enchantment creatures), we’ll have an unblockable army of sufficient power to end the game.

Forming Nyx

The first is to simply cast Traumatize. That’s a pretty big shift from our library into our graveyard, and that can be quite enough. If we happen to have a Traumatize and a Replenish, we can defeat our opponent in a matter of turns.

The second option is Attunement. Attunement offers distinct card disadvantage. With the cost of 3 mana and no card (as it returns itself to our hand for future use or discard), we draw three cards but have to discard four. The silver lining here is manifold: We can shunt off enchantment creatures we don’t want to pay retail price for. We can recast Attunement and draw a bonus card with our Eidolon of Blossoms. With each iteration, we can dig pretty deeply for that Replenish we need.

Between Traumatize and Attunement, we should be able to do a pretty good job of filling our graveyard with constellatory goodness.

Fulfilling the Prophecy

Of course, the fact that these are all enchantments isn’t lost on the deck. In the event that we resolve an Eidolon before some of the acceleration, we’ll be accelerating our hand along with our mana. And if we Attune a few times, dumping some of these enchantments—before Replenishing but while still looking for more beef—an Eidolon will let us draw a bunch more cards.

Divine Intervention

Finally, Archetype of Endurance is a nail in the coffin of our opponent and prevents him or her from taking out a lonesome Cyclops of Eternal Fury that is going to allow us to swing for the win. This pig is expensive, but it hits hard, and it puts up a nice big shield while all our guys become unblockable in the whitewater rapids.

Here’s the deck:

Whitewater Fury — Casual | Andrew Wilson

• Creatures (15)
• 4 Cyclops of Eternal Fury
• 4 Eidolon of Blossoms
• 4 Whitewater Naiads
• 1 Archetype of Endurance
• 1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
• 1 Thassa, God of the Sea

• Spells (22)
• 4 Replenish
• 4 Traumatize
• 2 Mana Bloom
• 4 Attunement
• 4 Fertile Ground
• 4 Wild Growth

• Lands (23)
• 4 Island
• 7 Forest
• 4 Glacial Fortress
• 4 Hinterland Harbor
• 4 Sunpetal Grove

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Good Game

Every once in a while, I like to outline what a really good goldfish game for a deck would look like. (A goldfish game is one in which you play as though your opponent is a goldfish—there’s no interaction, just you trying to deal 20 damage.)

Turn one: Forest, Wild Growth

Turn two: Hinterland Harbor, Attunement

Turn three: Sunpetal Grove; activate Attunement; discard Whitewater Naiads, two copies of Cyclops of Eternal Fury, and Archetype of Endurance; Replenish; stack four Naiad constellation triggers, one on each of the triggering enchantment creatures; attack for 20 with unblockable, haste, hexproof creatures

Okay, so when I started writing, I didn’t realize there would be a turn-three kill. I was thinking more along the lines of a turn-three Traumatize into a turn-four Replenish, but whatever does the job I guess! The fastest draws aren’t even able to play around with Eidolon of Blossoms, but that’s certainly a sweet engine to keep the deck working outside its ideal draws.

Closing

If you’ve ever wanted to act out on your eternal fury by sending a massive, god-born pig into whitewater rapids so your opponent couldn’t help but be mauled by it, give this deck a try. Also: if you like flowers.

Andrew Wilson

@Silent7Seven

fissionessence at hotmail dot com