What Will We Do?

I seem to have a problem with G/W Enchantment decks.

This particular game was especially silly, where I couldn't find any land and Fuz had nothing but land.

Eventually though, he got rolling with the Enchantress draws and I couldn't keep up. Turns out, targeted removal has a problem with creatures that have shroud.

I know, who'da thunk?

In this matchup, the key card was Pacifism. Killing my creatures is fine: I can bring them back. But immobilizing them means I need to try tricks like 'Lightning Bolt my own creature so I can bring it back' (something I did in game 3, I'm proud to say). Still, that's some different thinking to wrap around.

To be fair, I would have a similar issue against a card like Terminus but so would most decks. I don't feel too bad about that, especially since I can load up my graveyard with creatures and go long.

I will say, Prism Ring did do what  hoped it would: gave me time. I was able to withstand a 21 point swing from Fuz and draw another card to try and win. I didn't but the fact is, I was at 28 and he couldn't kill me in one shot.

Chandra has also been doing some good work too, although I'm not as well versed in her utility yet. Still, the damage dealing and card draw effect are enhancements. I'm almost considering adding Outpost Siege as a result.

The biggest challenge, actually, has been remembering all of my triggers. In a multiplayer game with Matt and Caitlin that I lost, I forgot multiple Prism Ring triggers that might've made the difference. For some reason, playing online has been easier in this respect; I seemed to catch my triggers more often.

I wonder if that's because of the different interface: keyboard and mouse requires a different brainset of moves than twenty years of practice I've had just placing a card down and saying what I'm going to do. Rize is also a new deck, with interactions that I'm working out the best path on. Discarding Flamewake Phoenix over Kuldotha to Wild Guess? It all depends on what I think is most likely to happen!

The matchups I had with Fuz also, finally, gave me the "you need mass removal" blow to the noggin. The second game we played he brought his zombies deck, a resilient, difficult to handle thing and my ability to keep cards like Undead Warchief off the table was hampered by his Unholy Grotto. As a matter of fact, I think the game I won, he didn't have Unholy Grotto. If I had been able to sweep his side of the table all at once, Grotto becomes a lot more difficult to use.

So it seems like there is one last tweak: Shard Phoenix. Firewing Phoenix, as much as I like you, just isn't efficient enough and Magma Phoenix, my original alternative, belongs in a deck where I don't get 8 creatures killed because I used the ability.