Much Abrew: Bant Enigma Pod (Standard, Magic Arena)
Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. Theros: Beyond Death is finally here, which means we're heading into our brand new Standard format today to play a deck built around one of the sweetest and more unique cards in the set: Enigmatic Incarnation! Enigmatic Incarnation is clearly powerful, looking like a weird enchantment-y version of the banned-in-Modern artifact Birthing Pod, although the fact that it requires a specific mixture of enchantments (to sacrifice) and creatures (to tutor into play) means that mashing everything together into a functional deck can be a challenge. Today's list, from Huey Jensen, is basically looking to stick Enigmatic Incarnation and then use it to consistently tutor the right one-of creatures out of our toolbox for any given situation. How good is Enigmatic Incarnation in Theros: Beyond Death Standard? Let's get to the video and find out; then, we'll talk more about the deck!
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Much Abrew: Bant Enigma Pod (Standard)
Discussion
- Record-wise, Bant Enigma Pod was great. We ended up playing five matches and winning all five, including wins over some of the hot decks in Theros: Beyond Death Standard, like Simic Ramp, Mono-Black Devotion, and Rakdos Knight.
- In all honesty, Bant Enigma Pod is a weird deck to write about since it's mostly just a pile of one-of creatures that we're hoping to tutor out with Enigmatic Incarnation when the time is right. The deck's upside is that we have answers for pretty much everything, as long as you can figure out what to tutor for.
- As the deck's name suggests, Enigmatic Incarnation is the deck's centerpiece. While we can function without it, it keep the deck from being an unruly pile of one-ofs with little consistency.
- One of the deck's sweeter aspects is that all of our enchantments add some value before we eventually sacrifice them to Enigmatic Incarnation. Omen of the Hunt, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, and Wolfwillow Haven ramp; Omen of the Sea draws us cards; and Elspeth Conquers Death works as a removal spell, so we get some bit of value from our enchantments when they enter the battlefield and then even more after we can upgrade them into creatures with Enigmatic Incarnation.
- Be warned that a single copy of Dream Trawler is the only six-drop in our deck, so sacrificing Elspeth Conquers Death to Enigmatic Incarnation is a bad plan if we've already drawn our Dream Trawler.
- Speaking of Dream Trawler, as we learned in our matches, it's one of the only ways we have of beating Hushbringer since most of the rest of our deck relies on enters-the-battlefield triggers, as does our removal. Adding some non-creature ways to kill a Hushbringer to the sideboard is probably necessary.
- Golos, Tireless Pilgrim looks weird in a Bant deck that isn't super ramp-heavy, but we can actually activate it thanks to Dryad of the Ilysian Grove's Prismatic Omen static ability. Keep Golos in mind when you're deciding whether or not to sacrifice Dryad of the Ilysian Grove to Enigmatic Incarnation.
- The deck's biggest drawback is that it can be slow against aggro, especially if we are on the draw. While we technically have Omen of the Sea and one Wolfwillow Haven, our curve mostly starts at three mana. And while we can start doing very powerful things on Turn 4 (especially if we have an Enigmatic Incarnation), the best draws from various Embercleave aggro decks can run us over before our deck really gets going.
- So, should you play Bant Enigma Pod in Standard? It seemed powerful and is super fun to play, so I think the answer is yes. The sideboard could use a Hushbringer answer, but in general, the build felt solid and competitive.
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 or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
