Beating the Meta: Enduring Ideal in Extended - Magic: the Gathering article

Written by dv8r on April 25, 2007

Beating the Meta – Enduring Ideal in Extended

by dv8r

For all of you who don’t know, my name is Peter Christopher Ernest Munro Dun (my friends call me Pete or Peter, but you can call me Chris). I’m from the UK, a small island off the coast of Northern Europe where it always rains, you can buy at least fifty different varieties of tea and we all wear pullovers and speak like Hugh Grant. Famous magic players from the UK include people such as Craig Jones (some lucksack who is famous for topdecking a Lightning Helix in the top 4 of a Pro Tour and then going on to lose in the final), Nick Lovett (he wins the occasional FNM and apparently managed to top 4 in some regional tournament in Paris last year), and Stuart Wright (in the UK, when there is a big tournament coming, we test separately for months, but in the end we all just end up playing whatever he tells us to…). Some British people get so good at Magic that they are kidnapped by other Magic playing communities to work in their underground nut mines (I mean, what other logical reason can there be for Sam Gommersall CHOOSING to live in the US or Quentin Martin living in… wait for it… Holland [?!?!]).

So what does this have to do with magic? Well, if there are some good magic players from the UK, then by definition, I, as a British Magic player must also be good. Therefore you should listen to everything I am about to tell you and assume it is correct. (Good magic players are never wrong about anything, even about things that have nothing to do with magic, remember that next time you try to win an argument with your local pro about politics, whether the chicken or the egg came first or if Scarlett Johansson is in fact the hottest person on the planet). In this series of articles I’ll be covering several underplayed decks (not rogue decks, which, as we all know, are almost universally bad) that have the potential to break out as tier one decks in the coming PTQ seasons. To start with, I’m going to cover a deck that was designed here on Magic-League about five months ago, but is only now taking off in popularity on MODO and irl (in real life… yes people do play magic with so called “real” cards… or so I’ve been told).

Now, as many of you who have been playing magic league regularly will know Enduring Ideal is a great deck (no, I’m not bias because I designed it. Go back and reread what I said about good magic players always being right… I’ll wait). It dominated the Magic-League metagame for two months, consistently winning minis, top 8ing trials and masters and just being a genuine nuisance for aggro and control players everywhere. However, this success was not replicated elsewhere in part because no one else really knew about the deck, and extended season had not really come around. This extended season passed without it really registering a blip on the radar (people concentrate mainly on the US and Japanese metagames, so ignored the fact that it was winning or top 8ing the occasional PTQ in the UK, Spain or Italy despite almost no one playing it). I breathed a sigh of relief and figured that I had a guaranteed money-winning deck to play at PT Valencia this year. This was until the last round of PTQs in the US when some guy called Jesse Clark top 8’ed in Portland with an awful version of the deck, and Mike Flores picked up on it in his article on Wizards. And, because as we all know, there are many similarities between MODO players and lemmings (I apologize in advance to any lemming who feel insulted by this comparison), of course the deck has gained significant popularity on MODO since the great Flores admitted that it might actually be good.

So, for those of you who don’t know what an Enduring Ideal deck looks like in extended, and are too lazy to look it up… (come on, how long can it take to type “Enduring Ideal, Magic the Gathering” into Google?): I present Enduring Ideal.

Enduring Ideal
Main Deck		Sideboard
3 Enduring Ideal 4 Burning Wish 4 Sensei’s Divining Top 4 Lotus Bloom 4 Pentad Prism 3 Seething Song 2 Form of the Dragon 2 Solitary Confinement 1 Dovescape 1 Pernicious Deed 1 Honden of Seeing Winds 3 Orim’s Chant 3 Lightning Helix 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder	2 Flagstones of Trokair 2 Mikokoro, Centre of the Sea 3 Windswept Heath 2 Wooded Foothills 2 Forest 2 Mountains 2 Plains 1 Swamp 1 Overgrown Tomb 1 Sacred Foundry 1 Stomping Grounds 1 Temple Garden 1 Godless Shrine	1 Enduring Ideal 4 Duress 1 Pyroclasm 1 Wrath of God 2 Boseiju, Who Shelters All 2 Akroma, Angel of Wrath 2 Krosan Grip 1 Pithing Needle 1 Dovescape

(For those of you who checked the link, I will be covering Crispin Bateman’s “Hairless” deck, which came third, in a couple of weeks from now.)

So how does an Enduring Ideal deck work? Well, you ramp up your mana to cast Enduring Ideal or Burning Wish for the game winning sorcery, cast it fetching Dovescape, shutting down your opponent’s ability to interfere with the combo, then fetch Solitary Confinement in your next upkeep (Enduring Ideal puts copies of the spell on the stack, so they are not countered by Dovescape, or Teferi/Orim’s Chant for that matter). Solitary Confinement prevents all damage that would be dealt to you by creatures already in play and stops things like Mindslaver or hellbent Demonfires from killing you. At this point, if you have a Mikokoro already in play, you use it each turn to keep Solitary Confinement around and eventually you will deck your opponent (he/she draws two cards every turn to your one). If you don’t have it, you can discard down to one card before searching up a Honden of Seeing Winds (by which point your opponent will probably have fewer cards left than you) thus keeping Solitary Confinement around forever. Form of the Dragon is there to search up as a Solitary Confinement when you need to survive next turn with zero cards in hand or if decking seems like a bad strategy vs. your opponent (if they have an Academy Ruins in play, you lost game one, or you suspect that they might have sideboarded in a way to break your lock, such as Kami of Ancient Law), Pernicious Deed helps deal with annoying permanents that can disrupt your combo such as other Pernicious Deeds or Circle of Protection: Red.

Enduring Ideal is the cheapest card, in terms of mana, that says “you win if you cast me” in extended. Because it only costs seven mana (unlike Tooth and Nail or Mindslaver/Academy Ruins recursion) you can afford to run a stable basic-orientated mana base instead of vulnerable tron lands. Because you only need to cast one spell to win, and furthermore one you essentially run seven copies of, you don’t lose to Counterspells, Stifle, mass discard or Orim’s Chant at bad times like TEPS or Springtide do. Whereas Enduring Ideal can and DOES topdeck its way out of bad situations, if you empty your hand going off with TEPS and fizzle you are almost certain to lose. Furthermore, because the combo takes up such a small amount of room in your main deck, you can afford to run several cards to protect your combo and throw a wrench into your opponent’s game plan. What is more, as your game plan is just to build up mana and cast a single spell to win, the deck requires almost no skill to play and barely punishes misplays at all.

There have been several variations on the Enduring Ideal theme which have had mixed success in previous extended seasons. For instance, some decks run the Invasion block sac lands to ramp up their mana, whilst others play side parts to the deck such as Balancing Act. However, in doing so they take away from the deck’s core strengths, by weakening the deck’s mana base or using room for key support cards on cute tricks that don’t actually help you to win (such as Obliterate and Balancing Act). One of the main advantages of running a non-basic mana base is that it speeds the deck up a little. However, in its current incarnation, Enduring Ideal can already win on turn three, often wins on turn four, and has almost always won by the end of turn five, speed is not really an issue, consistency and resistant to hate is (remember, Lightning Helix and Orim’s Chant can often buy you the extra turn you need vs. other combo or aggro decks).

An Enduring Ideal Deck is composed of five main parts: Tutors, Enchantments, Mana Acceleration, Miscellaneous and Lands.

Tutors – 3 Enduring Ideal, 4 Burning Wish, 4 Sensei’s Divining Top
Basically you need to cast Enduring Ideal to win, to do this you actually need to draw Enduring Ideal. Sensei’s Divining Top helps you to do this in the same way Tooth and Nail finds its signature card, by turning your shuffle effects into mini Brainstorms. It also helps to prevent you drawing your key enchantments through regular draws. Burning Wish is basically Demonic Tutor in this deck. Always try to play around Duress by “floating” Enduring Ideal or Burning Wish on the top of your deck until the last possible moment.

Enchantments – 2 Form of the Dragon, 2 Solitary Confinement, 1 Pernicious Deed, 1 Honden of Seeing Winds, 1 Dovescape
See above. It should be noted that in game one you will very rarely need Dovescape to win, so drawing your singleton Dovescape in your opening hand is rarely a reason to mulligan, drawing both Solitary Confinements can be very bad though. Remember that there is nothing wrong with hard casting a Form of the Dragon and just going for the win (or a Solitary Confinement if you have Mikokoro out). Also note that Solitary Confinement can act as a bad Orim’s Chant if you need it to (don’t discard to it in your next upkeep).

Mana Acceleration – 4 Lotus Bloom, 4 Pentad Prism, 3 Seething Song, 4 Sakura Tribe Elder
You need seven mana to win. Lotus Bloom by itself can give you this on turn four. Sakura Tribe Elder can buy you another turn as well as accelerate, not to mention the synegy it has with Sensei’s Divining Top. Pentad Prism and Seething Song help you get to nine mana so you can Burning Wish and cast the wished for Enduring Ideal in one turn. Seething Song, although in a vacuum the worst of the mana accelerants (it doesn’t add white mana for a start) is important against decks running Ancient Grudge and Pernicious Deed.

Miscellaneous – 3 Orim’s Chant, 3 Lightning Helix
Whereas I wouldn’t recommend making adjustments to the rest of the list, these six cards are purely a metagame call. Duress, Pyroclasm, Sterling Grove, Solitary Confinement, more Onslaught sac lands, Moment’s Peace and Ancient Grudge are all fine substitutes. I have Orim’s Chant because it gives you an extra turn to go off as well as protecting against countermagic (there are numerous times when I have cast Burning Wish for Ideal, and then Chanted my opponent in upkeep to counter a Duress/Cabal Therapy play on their next turn). Lightning Helix was because I expected lots of Gaea’s Might Get There and playing it main deck freed up slots in my sideboard which I would have otherwise needed to deal with Meddling Mage.

Lands
Not a lot to say here really; five sac lands just seems the right number in testing, although I have seen people run as many as seven or eight. Mikokoro is bad if drawn in multiples, and you don’t really need it to win, so a 2-of is okay. You should use Mikokoro very aggressively in this deck to help you draw into Enduring Ideal quickly. All the card advantage in the world will not help your opponent to win if they can’t break through the Dovescape/Solitary Confinement lock. Flagstones of Trokair is a plains that can randomly help you recover from Balancing Act and Devastating Dreams. It is also sometimes randomly useful against Destructive Flow, protecting your more important non-basics (such as Mikokoro) for two turns, as well as giving you a shuffle effect for Sensei’s Divining Top.

Sideboard – 4 Duress, 2 Krosan Grip, 1 Pithing Needle, 2 Boseiju Who Shelters All, 1 Dovescape, 1 Pyroclasm, 1 Enduring Ideal, 1 Wrath of God, 2 Akroma, Angel of Wrath

Duress comes in for Lightning Helix against control (leave one as a wish target); Pithing Needle is Krosan Grip number three, but one that can get you out of the Static Orb/Opposition Lock; Boseiju and Enduring Ideal’s purposes are self evident; Dovescape almost always comes in game two against hate; Pyroclasm kills Meddling Mage amongst other things; Wrath of God is better against Affinity for this deck than Shattering Spree; Akroma, as strange as it sounds, is actually very good against Aggro Loam as it is immune to Duress, one turn faster than Terravore, and circumnavigates most, if not all (some builds run one Chainer’s Edict sideboard) of their removal, it is also worth siding in against Gaea’s Might Get There as a pseudo answer to Meddling Mage that is also a very fast clock.

Matchup Analysis
[Note that these matchups were from our groups testing, so against people who a) knew what the deck was from the start, and b) knew how to play against it. At a normal PTQ you would expect to do better on average.]

Bad Matchups

Affinity – Pre-Side 45/55, Post-Side 45/55
Affinity goldfishes kills on turn 4/5 consistently, you kill on turn 4/5 about 80% of the time. Neither deck can really do anything to impede the game plan of the other (Arcbound Ravager and Cranial Plating get around Sakura-Tribe Elder and Lightning Helix quite easily, gaining three life when plating or ravager are hitting you for ten is less than good). Game one it’s very hard to win going second, and you can still lose going first.

Game two you bring in two Krosan Grip and one Pithing Needle for Lightning Helix (which does nothing in this matchup) and hope to win game three. This matchup improves dramatically if you win the coin flip.

Scepter Chant – Pre-Side 30/70, Post-Side 45/55
Game one they can chant lock you quite easily and you have no outs.

Game two you side out four Lotus Bloom, three Lightning Helix and one Orim’s Chant, one Pernicious Deed for one Pithing Needle, two Krosan Grip, two Boseiju Who Shelters All, one Dovescape, three Duress. Meddling Mage, if they run it, is awful for you, thankfully most Scepter Chant builds have other things to worry about besides killing Enduring Ideal. In game two and three, play the slow game, build up mana and Duress when you can. Be careful of Orim’s Chant in response to Seething Song or in response to Orim’s Chant and just hope you draw better than they do. Thankfully this deck has been mostly hated out of extended, although it should be noted that if you have practiced this matchup your will be more likely to make the correct plays than your opponent, who is unlikely to know what you are playing.

Aggro-Loam – Pre-Side 40/60, Post Side 40/60 (varies depending on build)
To win, Aggro-Loam needs to delay you long enough to resolve Devastating Dreams and still have gas to recover. A turn 2-3 dreams isn’t going to do a lot against you unless they have a Terravore on the table or a Life from the Loam in the graveyard and mana to use it. They do this by resolving Dark Confidant early (to reach a critical mass of cards for the dreams scenario, or by casting Duress and Cabal Therapy to leave you playing off the top of your deck. The most Devastating Dreams (haha?) happen on turn 5-6, about 1-2 turns after your would ordinarily try to go off, so they must slow you down until then.

Game two: Side in two Akroma and one Dovescape for one Pernicious Deed, one Lightning Helix and one Honden of Seeing Winds (or whatever else you feel like) and hope to topdeck your way out after their initial attack on your hand (you will consistently have seven to nine outs).

Good Matchups

Rock Variants – Pre-Side 70/30, Post-Side 70/30
Although gifts rock and flow rock are two very different decks I’m going to group them under the same category as their game plans are very similar against you, hand discard followed by threats in the form of midrange creatures or Destructive Flow. However, whereas Aggro-Loam can present a very effective clock in the form of Devastating Dreams, Rock decks cannot, and you can and will topdeck out before they beat you (especially if you manage to drop a top on turn one). Side nothing (unless you HAVE to side Duress for Lightning Helix against gifts). Your deck is tuned to beat theirs.

Gaea’s Might Get There and other Boros Variants – Pre-Side 60/40, Post-Side 50/50
The matchup percentages for Boros are similar to those for Rock (i.e. it’s hard for you to lose), whereas those for GMGT are the ones listed. GMGT has Meddling Mage and Vindicate, so, whereas you can normally fetch Solitary Confinement with impunity against Boros, you have to consider if you can risk getting it first against GMGT. Note that once Enduring Ideal resolves, they can’t burn you in response to seeing what you get. Knowing this can let you randomly steal a game you don’t deserve to win. Side out one Orim’s Chant and one Honden of Seeing Winds for two Akroma against GMGT, side one Dovescape in for one Pernicious Deed against Boros so you don’t have to randomly mulligan good hands that have your one of Dovescape.

TEPS and other Storm Based Combo– Pre-Side 60/40, Post-Side 65/35

How many deck runs Orim’s Chant main? Basically, both decks are as fast as each other, but chant just randomly wins you games (and it’s not like they have time to play around chant). It’s like the Affinity matchup, but with roles reversed, remember that this again means you want to win the die roll. Practice the Springtide matchup a lot if you expect it or you might end up wasting your Orim’s Chant advantage due to playing it at the wrong time.

Game two side out one Pernicious Deed and three Lightning Helix for three Duress and one Dovescape (some people have also recommended siding out one Burning Wish for the fourth Duress, but I will reserve judgment on that for the time being).

GU Opposition – Pre-Side 55/45, Post Side 65/35
Game one, either they draw opposition, or you win. Even if they do, you might still win thanks to Pentad Prisms or delaying them for one turn with chant, or killing their Wirewood Symbiote with Lightning Helix.
Game two, side out three Lightning Helix for two Krosan Grip and one Pithing Needle. Now you have an answer to Opposition, they don’t have an answer to Dovescape.

Coin Flips

Trinket Tog – Pre-Side 40/60, Post Side 60/40 (maybe higher)
Much like the Scepter/Chant matchup except that they have to work for their kill and their lock (Counterbalance/Top) is nowhere near as good against seven mana spells. If you can, show them Lightning Helix game one, as it can make them think a bit for game 2 when going for the kill.
Game two, as against scepter, side out four Lotus Bloom, three Lightning Helix and one Orim’s Chant, one Pernicious Deed for one Pithing Needle, two Krosan Grip, two Boseiju Who Shelters All, one Dovescape, three Duress. Don’t forget that you can Pithing Needle Psychatog if you have to.

WU Tron and Variants – Pre-Side 45/55, Post Side 50/50
There are so many ways to build Tron that I can only make tentative suggestions as to what to do. You basically need to race them setting up their Mindslaver/Academy Ruins, through whatever disruption they have (Chalice of the Void, Remands etc.). Orim’s Chant is very, very good here, as it lets you resolve Lotus Blooms against Remands.
Game two, side out four Lotus Bloom, one Pernicious Deed and three Lightning Helix for three Duress, two Krosan Grip, one Dovescape, two Boseiju. (Leave Pithing Needle SB). If you don’t see Chalice of the Void game two, bring the Lotus Bloom’s back in.

Okay, so that’s Enduring Ideal. Play it because it's powerful, needs no ability to play and just wins over and over against most commonly played decks in the Extended metagame. Join me next week when I’ll be looking at doubling your fun (okay, no more bad puns) with Future Sight in the Time Spiral Block format, in preparation for the PTQ Valencia season. Until then, may your games play out Ideal-ly.
-dv8r

Back to Magic: the Gathering Articles

by bigshowes on 2007-04-25 17:12 MDT

hmmm very good and i enjoyed reading this god i am so temeted to say frist.becuase i have never done so befor but i dont want to get ban.

by Wiley on 2007-04-25 17:29 MDT

I liked the article and it was nice and insightful especially for someone who isn't too good at extended. I don't have much else to say except that your "good" matchups aren't as good as you'd like them to be, so maybe you're being a bit hard on your deck (or you're ingenious and just don't want anyone to play it)

by Atobe on 2007-04-25 17:31 MDT

i just wanna say that this was a good article, i found the humor quite humorous, it was like reading a mike flores column, only it was actually informative, and actually funny.

job well done you limey. a great deck around a fun card.

i also hate people throwing out percentages on certain matchups, unless you've tested the matchup thousands of times (with different variables) the actual numbers are just pure speculation

by dv8r on 2007-04-25 17:48 MDT

ummm... there's a missing link somewhere near where the deck title is

http://www.thegamesclub.org/mtg/results/ptq/yokohama_07.htm

Atobe: the sad thing is that I HAVE actually tested this deck that much..., but I agree, matchup analysis are tedious to write and read, inaccurate and just generally pointless, I'll cut them down for future articles (that part of the article kinda sucked when I reread it just now)

by yavin1 on 2007-04-25 17:57 MDT

Killer of an article d8vr. the thorough MU analysis was awesome, and ideal is just an awesome underplayed deck

by Stevesper on 2007-04-25 19:44 MDT

BANNED.

by benbw on 2007-04-25 20:02 MDT

the article was great. the deck is almost as good.

by Equinox- on 2007-04-25 20:12 MDT

I've played ideal for awhile now and after winning a master with it can say it's the most amazing deck ever.

by Erebus- on 2007-04-25 20:42 MDT

the deck is very good. Almost no bad matchups.

by Goji on 2007-04-25 21:03 MDT

wtg Peter.. But why did you not list the tech cards? Cause this isnt the version your running ^^^^

by Shyft- on 2007-04-26 00:52 MDT

Why on Earth are you writing an article about 1.x? That seems awful. Also, no sac-lands seems, well, far from optimal. *shrug* I guess it is a Magic-League article.

by dv8r on 2007-04-26 01:54 MDT

(pls don't flame shyft-, it's not constructive and we can all see that he is just making himself look stupid without other people pointing it out)

by TaZi on 2007-04-26 03:48 MDT

yeah, nice article. Much better than the last ones.

by Revik on 2007-04-26 04:51 MDT

I love you dv8r, and your decks and articles. Very good read, and nice take on the deck :)

by Meatwarz on 2007-04-26 05:33 MDT

The only problem it is quite outdated as Extended season is over now >.<

by SarcasticRat on 2007-04-26 14:04 MDT

Very good article. Definitely one of the best strategy articles I've read on magic league. Anyone else wanting to do a deck write up should look at this as an example.

by SpareSocks on 2007-04-26 15:09 MDT

BANNED.

by Streakz on 2007-04-26 16:46 MDT

I love these random "BANNED" things. On the article, although it was a well written article, the deck just isn't good enough and people who choose to play it in anything more than 8 mans must just be playing for fun. Sure it is feesible it could win an occasional trial if enough people play it, however that doesn't mean it is still the correct choice.

by dv8r on 2007-04-26 17:13 MDT

Streakz: I played it for ptq yokohama season, with the intentional of qualifying for the pt, and I'm not the only one who did well with it :S

by TylerTMK on 2007-04-26 20:33 MDT

Yeah I would consider playing this deck in a real tournament...esp after worlds aggro domination

by fattyxp on 2007-05-01 19:48 MDT

Jesse Clark top 8'd cause he beat me. I was playing Domain Zoo. I was so mad he beat me with that jank pos and then went on and chumped in the top8 against decks I would have tromped. But it was probably my fault for not getting mages out early enough. The land base of that deck needs to be a little different for more flexibility in lands, I found myself confined in a couple games and couldn't get fifth colors or sometimes fourth. I also had trouble producing the two colors for mage many times, often waiting until 5th or 6th turn. Might just be because I was playing a diff landbase... dunno the deck wasn't mine and I don't remember what the base was exactly.

by TheFatOne on 2007-05-01 21:20 MDT

I must say, after the first paragraph, I think I love you 20 times more. Come to New York, where being from the UK is sexy:P

And to this fattyxp guy

I am the only Fat One in this league....you will soon leave like Jason (ImaPhatass) and TheFatOne17...Where ever that guy went to :P

by BombermanxD on 2007-05-08 11:59 MDT