Hello everyone, and welcome back to Mystic 101 for Commoner! There’s something so incredibly enjoyable and challenging about revisiting a half-built deck after spending some time away from it, and that’s exactly what happened with the two Enigma lists I put forward last time. This week, I’ll be finishing out both the Cosmo and Iris Enigma lists with equipment suites and going over the different game plans both decks aim to finish. A huge congratulations to Jesse Hurt, who came second in the Commoner event at The Calling: Minneapolis with Enigma featuring Reality Refractor, and whose list I took some inspiration from when finishing out these decklists (especially in the Iris one).

Cosmo Enigma

" Cosmo Enigma Reds and Equipment"

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Equipment (6) 1 Wave of Reality 1 Silent Stilettos 1 Mage Master Boots 1 Aqua Seeing Shell 1 Ironhide Helm 1 Blossom of Spring Main (22) 2 Coalescence Mirage red 2 Enigma Chimera red 2 Phantasmal Haze red 2 Spectral Rider red 2 Waxing Specter red 2 Vengeful Apparition red 1 Single Minded Determination red 1 Solitary Companion red 2 Waning Vengeance red 2 Sink Below red 2 Fate Foreseen Red 2 Oasis Respite red

I mentioned in my last article that the lack of blue auras in my Cosmo-centric list was due to the fact that the scaling on ward at common is terrible. However, they’re much more palatable at red, and so I’ve opted to include a ton of them here. Waxing Specter, Vengeful Apparition, and Waning Vengeance all feature here in playsets while I’ve split the difference on Single Minded Determination and Solitary Companion. All of these defend for three in some way, either through block or ward value, and pair well with the slightly larger blue count to enable the “pitch a blue” clause on some of the auras. Vengeful Apparition at red allows you play any of the auras at instant speed upon leaving the battlefield, which is at its highest power spike at dropping in a Single Minded Determination and getting the bonus of three counters. The same attack actions feature here again, minus Spectral Prowler, which I feel is the weakest in terms of the high rate Illusionist attacks get.

I’ve supplemented this attack lineup with six defense reactions, the ubiquitous Fate Foreseen and Sink Below, but also Oasis Respite due to playing quite well with leftover pitch when playing out an aura at instant speed.

Now I did mention being an unbeliever of the cards that require a blue to have been pitched, and that still largely stands true, however the aforementioned play pattern really enables them to shine and get the hits in with Cosmo. The game plan for this deck is largely true before and after transcending, and involves either getting in with a large attack, or setting up a Vengeful Apparition and placing the aura you intend to play at instant speed in the arsenal, backed up by cost-efficient defense reactions and using Cosmo for the hit on your next turn. Cosmo’s advantage of only costing one pitch means that once you’ve stuck an aura with a counter you can start doing both in a turn, leading with an aura attack and then a large phantasm hit. The previously mentioned blue Lead the Charge continues to shine here, effectively enabling you to take a double action turn before the ball starts rolling, which is one of the main draws to this build.

Equipment-wise, there’s a bit of wiggle room due to the lack of Illusionist gear that is synergistic with this playstyle. Wave of Reality stands out as one of the best options due to creating a Spectral Shield at no pitch cost, and Silent Stilettos is not bad in a pinch while also functioning as a Nullrune Boots with upside. I’ve opted for Mage Master Boots as the regular boots of choice, being able to play out auras early and also follow up with an attack, continuing on the idea of the outlined game plan. The list that came second at The Calling: Minneapolis was playing an Aqua Seeing Shell, and I don’t dislike this as a way to cycle out a dead blue early on, or an extra Inner Chi in the late game. However, in favor of the moments where you’d need extra defense, I’ve also included Ironhide Helm. Blossom of Spring is the chest piece of choice here since it’s the only piece of gear that offers resource generation at no extra cost beyond destroying itself, which can be useful in moments where your hands are full of expensive red attacks. Overall, I’ve tried to lean into Cosmo’s strengths with this list while also maintaining a semblance of identity and competitiveness and I’m quite happy how it turned out, despite my bemoaning it in my last piece.

Iris Enigma

" Iris Enigma Reds and Equipment"

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Equipment (6) 1 Wave of Reality 1 Silent Stilettos 1 Aqua Seeing Shell 1 Ironhide Helm 1 Heartened Cross Strap 1 Time Skippers Main (19) 2 Phantasmal Haze red 2 Spectral Manifestations red 2 Spectral Manifestations yellow 2 Spectral Rider red 2 Waning Vengeance red 2 Sink Below red 2 Fate Foreseen red 2 Unmovable red 2 Enigma Chimera red 1 Spectral Prowler red

Now onto Iris Enigma. Last time I featured a blue lineup containing a whopping 23 cards which tried to leverage Spectral Shield generation from blue Water Glow Lanterns and the reds are almost just as unorthodox. Many of the red attacks here are the usual Phantasm suspects, your Phantasmal Hazes and Spectral Riders of the world, and much like the differences in blues from last article, Coalescence Mirage is once again omitted due to having no additional benefit in this list. Waning Vengeance is the only red aura I’m including due to its versatility of being played during either player’s turn which, with Iris, could convert into meaningful damage. Unlike the Cosmo list, I’ve actually also added a yellow to this deck in Spectral Manifestations, opting to play the full six copies allowed as a way to pump out large swings with Iris, something that was also seen in the list from Minneapolis, albeit using Reality Refractor instead for even higher damage potential.

I’m much too conservative a player to favor such a terminal strategy in deckbuilding, so I’ve really tried to maximize go again and being as wide as possible, rounding out my reds with a lone copy of Spectral Prowler due to having a much easier access to Spectral Shields. The high blue count has also meant that my defensive options are expanded, allowing me to comfortably play Unmovables in the deck while leaving the Oasis Respites in my inventory for those Runeblades and Wizards. The game plan of this deck is to be as well rounded as possible, playing fundamental attacking and blocking FAB with a healthy dose of extending combat chains with all the various go again actions creating Spectral Shields. The deck itself also has some extra action cheating potential within the equipment lineup, which has largely remained the same except for two pieces of gear.

I alluded to Time Skippers last article, and true to my word, they’re featured in this deck alongside Heartened Cross Strap. The logic being that there will be times where activating the Skippers will lead to huge blowout turns restricted only by the amount of pitch that can be generated, the Cross Strap helps free up some of those resources by effectively making it so that the activation cost of Time Skippers is the pitch cost of the first large attack. If this feels a bit too extreme for your liking, defaulting back to Blossom of Spring and Mage Master Boots is perfectly reasonable here too, though I’d recommend starting Silent Stilettos due to the high number of existing non-attack go again in the list.

Conclusion

When I first began exploring Enigma’s potential in Commoner, to say I was skeptical would be an understatement. I thought she was underpowered, weak, and lacking in too many departments to build a coherent strategy. However, the unique playstyles offered by the various Illusionist equipment really helped inform my deckbuilding direction, and allowed me to draw from the wider Illusionist cardpool beyond just Part the Mistveil, which is something that I always love to do when constructing a list. I’m very proud of how these decks both turned out, and will continue working on them in the future as they will always be in the rotation of decks I keep assembled.

Thank you for following along with Mystic 101 so far. Next time I’ll be continuing my exploration into the Mystic heroes, and seeing how far I can push them in this beautiful format.

Further Reading:

How to Upgrade the Enigma Blitz Precon

How to Build a Commoner Deck For Flesh and Blood

The Best Equipment for the Commoner Format

Daniel Yam

Daniel is a competitive psychopath who has relegated himself into playing the most casual format of Commoner. Starting Magic at the onset of Shards block, he jumped into Flesh and Blood when the Ira demo decks were being given out to Australian stores and is a proud holder of a 4-digit GEM ID. In his spare time, he enjoys trying to convince his friends to play increasingly worse cards, going to museums, and playing Guild Wars.