Enchantress

General Plan#

The matchup against Enchantress is, in my view, fairly favorable. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to lose, but in general you start from a positive position because you’re usually one or two turns faster than their setup.

Enchantress is a deck that needs to assemble multiple pieces: card-draw engines, mana, protection, and lock pieces. hFEB, on the other hand, can win much earlier, especially when you can land Hermit Druid or Survival of the Fittest with even minimal protection.

The opponent’s main interactions are:

• Seal of Cleansing or Aura of Silence;
• Swords to Plowshares;
• Parallax Wave;
• Solitary Confinement;
• Abeyance, in some lists already main deck.

The counts on Seal and Swords can vary, but they often sit between three and four copies. You rarely see just two.

Your general idea is simple:

You’re faster, but you have to use discard to strip the card that beats your specific plan.

Game 1#

Why You Are Favored#

In Game 1 you’re often favored because Enchantress doesn’t apply immediate pressure and doesn’t have a huge amount of direct interaction. Their cards are powerful, but they need time to become really oppressive.

You, on the other hand, can build a relatively fast kill.

Hermit Druid can close before Enchantress has assembled its engine. Survival of the Fittest is very strong if you can protect it from Seal of Cleansing, because it lets you build a kill line with great consistency.

The best path is often to use a discard spell before resolving your combo piece.

With Cabal Therapy, the most common calls are:

• Seal of Cleansing, if your plan is Survival;
• Swords to Plowshares, if your plan is Hermit Druid;
• Argothian Enchantress, if your hand looks slow but can develop an engine;
• Abeyance, if you suspect that card and your plan goes through Hermit Druid.

You don’t have to name the same card every time. The choice depends on which plan you’re following and which card prevents you from winning.

Argothian Enchantress#

Argothian Enchantress is a card that deserves attention.

If your hand is slow and you need more turns to assemble the combo, it can be correct to use Cabal Therapy naming Argothian Enchantress. It’s probably the opponent’s best turn two: if it resolves, it starts their engine, and since it has shroud, you won’t be able to remove it easily later.

This means that even a Triskelion can’t solve the problem. An Argothian left on the board for several turns can draw enough cards to let the opponent find Seal, Swords,…

So if you can’t win quickly, stopping the opponent from starting to draw cards can be more important than stripping a single answer.

Seal of Cleansing and Swords to Plowshares#

Seal of Cleansing and Swords to Plowshares are the most linear interactions of the matchup.

Seal is the main problem for Survival of the Fittest. If Survival resolves but gets destroyed immediately, you risk wasting time and mana without having built a real line. For this reason, when your plan is Survival, Therapy on Seal can be the right call.

Swords, instead, is the most important card against Hermit Druid. If your plan is simply to play Druid and activate it the following turn, you have to know whether the opponent can remove it.

The important thing is not to use discard automatically. You always have to ask:

Which card beats the line I’m about to follow?

Solitary Confinement#

Solitary Confinement can be a problem, especially if you don’t see it coming.

Sometimes it isn’t a card that wins immediately, but it can buy the two or three extra turns Enchantress needs to stabilize. This is especially important if you’ve already activated Hermit Druid and think you have the game under control.

If the opponent can resolve Confinement with enough draw engine in play, they can turn it into a real lock. From there, the game can become very hard to close unless you have access to a specific answer.

For this reason, you shouldn’t think of Confinement only as a defensive card: in certain positions it’s the way Enchantress completely flips the tempo of the game.

The Most Dangerous Card: Abeyance#

In my view, the most insidious card of the matchup is Abeyance.

The reason is that Abeyance can win the game in response to a Hermit Druid line.

The key scenario is this:

You activate Hermit Druid. You put your entire library into the graveyard. In upkeep, you want to cast Krosan Reclamation to put cards back into the library. The opponent casts Abeyance. You can no longer cast Krosan Reclamation. On your draw step you lose because you can’t draw a card.

This makes Abeyance an extremely dangerous card. It isn’t just a card that slows you down: in certain spots it’s a real win condition against you.

For this reason, you always have to watch the opponent’s mana. If they’re representing white mana and you think they might have Abeyance, you have to decide whether it’s worth the risk, or whether it’s better to wait a turn, use discard, or switch to a different plan.

The key question is:

Can I afford to lose to Abeyance in this spot?

If the answer is no, you have to find a way to strip it or work around it.

Post-Sideboard#

Post-board the matchup stays generally favorable, but the way it plays changes.

From the Enchantress side, you can expect:

• additional Abeyance;
• Tormod’s Crypt;
• more enchantment hate.

On your side, you want to bring in all the enchantment removal you have:

• Ray of Revelation;
• Naturalize;
• Monk Realist;
• any other answers available.

You should also gladly bring in Uktabi Orangutan, because it can remove Tormod’s Crypt. In this matchup, having two Naturalize in the sideboard, rather than a split between Naturalize and Crumble, can be more useful precisely because Naturalize is more flexible: it answers both enchantments and artifacts.

The Value of Discard Post-Board#

Post-board, discard is extremely valuable.

Many Enchantress players, knowing they’re against hFEB, tend to keep slower but more interactive hands, aiming not to lose in the early turns. This means your discard spells become even more important, because they can strip the single card that holds their hand together.

It isn’t uncommon to use Cabal Therapy naming Tormod’s Crypt if your plan is Hermit Druid. Even if Swords to Plowshares is a strong card, sometimes Crypt is the bigger problem because it doesn’t just shut off one turn: it can make an entire line difficult or impossible.

Swords can stop a Hermit Druid. Crypt can make an entire line difficult or impossible.

So here too, the call has to follow the plan:

• if you want to win with Hermit and you can’t beat Crypt, name Crypt;
• if your plan loses to Swords, name Swords;
• if you’re going through Survival, you have to respect Seal or Ray;
• if the risk is Abeyance, you have to seriously consider that call.

Elvish Spirit Guide and Speed#

In Game 1, using Elvish Spirit Guide to accelerate the game makes complete sense.

If you can speed up Hermit Druid or Survival and put the opponent under pressure before they develop the engine, it’s often correct to do so. Enchantress doesn’t always have immediate interaction, and if it doesn’t start fast, it risks being simply too slow.

Post-board, instead, this approach becomes riskier. The opponent knows that need answers, using Spirit Guide to accelerate can expose you to a 2-for-1 or a line that’s too fragile. It doesn’t mean you should never do it, but it isn’t automatically correct anymore.

Post-board you should often prefer a more protected approach, based on discard and answers, rather than a blind race.

Serra’s Sanctum and Counting Mana#

A common mistake against Enchantress is underestimating how quickly they can generate mana.

With Serra’s Sanctum, Exploration, and a few enchantments in play, your math can fall apart completely. You think you have another turn, but the opponent suddenly produces enough mana to play multiple pieces, stabilize with Confinement, or build a position you can no longer get through.

This is one of the reasons the matchup, while favorable, can’t be played carelessly. Enchantress can look slow, but some of its openings transform the board very quickly.

When the opponent has Sanctum or Exploration, you have to constantly re-evaluate the real clock of the game.