In this experiment, we return to the starfield with a silent decree.

Last week, I made a G/W deck around Starfield of Nyx using low-drop enchantments to take advantage of the Opalescence-style conversion rate of converted mana cost to power and toughness. However, in the intro to that article, I hinted that I’d like to use the Debtors' Knell–style half of the Starfield to bring Decree of Silence onto he battlefield. I’m hinting at that again right now in this intro, but this time, I’m actually going to do it.

Silent Shell

The basic concept of the deck is to resolve Starfield of Nyx and then bring Decree of Silence from the graveyard to the battlefield for a huge mana discount. Then, use the Opalescence half of the Starfield to attack for 8 with the Decree while our opponent is locked out of doing anything. Once our opponent has cast three spells and worn out the Decree, we can just recur it with the Starfield.

The only questions are how to put the Decree into the graveyard in order for the Starfield to grab it and how to survive up until that point.

Graveyard Decree

However, 6 mana is still a lot, and I really want to be recurring the Decree on the upkeep after I resolve the Starfield—waiting to cycle it means we have to both spend 6 mana and wait an extra turn. And since the Decree being on the battlefield gives us virtually the same effect as cycling it (that effect being countering an opponent’s spell), there isn’t a lot of upside to the cycling-the-Decree plan.

That leaves cycling only as a final option. Instead, why not loot? Looting will allow us to discard Decree of Silence while also finding a Starfield of Nyx. And since this is an enchantment deck, I’ve included four copies of Monastery Siege and one Compulsion. Set to khans, we can loot every turn for no mana after the initial investment, which is great. Compulsion is an upgrade to Mental Discipline, but it’s still nothing to write home about. Not only does the first “loot” cost , but it’s the bad inverted looting that requires us to discard first. Still, unless we want to play red permanents and green permanents to benefit from Ceta Sanctuary, I couldn’t find a ton of options for enchantment looters.

Monastery Siege set to dragons can also help out for protecting our permanents. It’s no Sterling Grove, but if we were to add green, I’d be tempted to add Font of Fertility as well, and then we’d be looking at a completely different deck.

Starfield Cycling

The fault in our plan, outside of general combo assembly, is that we don’t have a lot of interaction for threats provided by our opponents before we’ve put Decree of Silence onto the battlefield. A set of Detention Spheres will help with that, but we’ll still want ways to stay alive and deal with opposing threats.

The Rune of Protection cycle (e.g. Rune of Protection: White) from Urza’s Saga is an interesting take on the Circles of Protection (e.g. Circle of Protection: White) from Magic’s inception. Here, they’re enchantments that can be returned with Starfield of Nyx as necessary. They also provide us a method to stay alive. Our combo of Starfield of Nyx and Decree of Silence only actually requires us to spend one time, and from then on, everything is free. That means we should have mana lying around for cycling unneeded Runes and for activating needed ones.

Font of Fortunes is like a Divination on an installment plan, and the Starfield can recur it for repeated draw. The Runes of Protection and the Fonts will help us accelerate through our library to find a Starfield and start doubling up on Decrees when we want to attack for multiples of 8 instead of just 8.

Like the Runes, Nyx-Fleece Ram is an early-drop enchantment that can stave off damage, and in fact, it can give us some life back. With an Opalescence-active Starfield, the Ram will be a 2/2 instead of a 0/5, helping us close out the game from there. It’s important to track our onboard enchantments, as we won’t always want them to be creatures. Sometimes, we’ll want those 2/2 Rune of Protection blockers, but many times, we’ll want to keep the Ram a 0/5 and prevent our Detention Spheres and Monastery Sieges from being hit by opposing creature removal.

Finally, triggering from all these discard abilities (Runes, Siege, Decree, Compulsion), we have Spirit Cairn. Every time we discard a card, including cycling and looting, we can pay to make a 1/1 flying Spirit. And when we have multiple Spirit Cairns, our excess Secluded Steppes become instant-speed Spectral Processions. These Spirits can help us hold off attackers that our Runes can’t or, when our main game plan isn’t coming together, even serve as an alternate win condition with all our cyclers.

When we’re just cycling and activating Runes, Calciform Pools can build up counters to let us hard-cast a Decree of Silence early. Secluded Steppe and Lonely Sandbar are around for additional deck acceleration and Spirit Cairn triggers, and Temple of Enlightenment is around to help us dig a little bit early.

Silent Nyx ? Casual | Andrew Wilson

• Creatures (4)
• 4 Nyx-Fleece Ram

• Spells (34)
• 1 Compulsion
• 1 Rune of Protection Artifacts
• 2 Rune of Protection Black
• 2 Rune of Protection Blue
• 2 Rune of Protection Green
• 2 Rune of Protection Red
• 2 Rune of Protection White
• 3 Decree of Silence
• 3 Spirit Cairn
• 4 Detention Sphere
• 4 Font of Fortunes
• 4 Monastery Siege
• 4 Starfield of Nyx

• Lands (22)
• 4 Island
• 4 Plains
• 2 Calciform Pools
• 2 Lonely Sandbar
• 2 Secluded Steppe
• 4 Glacial Fortress
• 4 Temple of Enlightenment

Buy This Deck

If you love locking your opponent out of resolving spells, if you love Karona, False God silhouettes, or if you just like cycling away a quarter of your deck, give this deck a try.

Andrew Wilson

@Silent7Seven

fissionessence at hotmail dot com

P.S. I’m currently running a Kickstarter campaign for a solitaire card game I designed called Quest: Awakening of Melior. It has about a week and a half to go and is about 60% funded. You can try the game for free with the black and white print-and-play files or through the Steam game Tabletop Simulator.

Check out the gameplay video to learn to play (or just read the rule book), and then look through the pledge tiers on the Kickstarter campaign page. It’s only $24, delivered to the U.S., and there’s also a sweet play mat for just $20 if you’re interested in just that.

Diamond Knights, Shadow Dragon, and Bear of Squirrels