Last August, I started regularly playing EDH on Wednesday nights at the LGS that opened up in my old hometown (it's just down the highway from where I live now). At that time, I had two long-term decks from 2019 that were still assembled and ready to play. "Epic" was one of them. So I got to do Enduring Ideal shenanigans several times last year. Eventually, though, I had poached individual cards from the deck enough times that it was becoming tedious to reassemble it. I came up with the idea for an Oath of Druids deck ("
Time to Scrouge") and assembled it in early January as my first new deck o 2022. After that, my use of Enduring Ideal has been on hiatus. It's not a permanent retirement. I'll return to Enduring Ideal someday. In fact,
I've started branching out into the other Epic spells. But for now, all I have are the Memories. Or something. Anyway, here are the enchantments that were the final roleplayers in my deck before the dismantling...
Abundance: not a primary EI payload, but it does function as a way to prevent decking, and that function has saved me from defeat. More generally, it's there for the combo with Sylvan Library and for the overall filtering utility. I use this card in lots of decks and it has served me well. I've gone on record declaring to all EDH players at my local stores that I would drag them kicking and screaming onto the Abundance bandwagon. I've seen some success there too. As a four-drop with no immediate impact, Abundance is a lousy tempo play. But if it gets going and does its thing, it provides excellent value in almost any green deck.
Awakening: not a primary EI payload, but it was in the deck for the group hug aspect. I don't normally use Awakening in my decks because it helps other players a bit
too much, but this deck has several creatures with useful activated abilities. It's nice. I didn't lean into that theme as much, but it's nice.
Decree of Silence: combo piece alongside Solemnity. In a pinch, it can be used on its own to counter spells. The Solemnity + Decree of Silence combo is so compact and effective that I've set it up without using Enduring Ideal at all. If I have one piece out already, I can use Enduring Ideal to fetch the other piece.
Divine Intervention: ends the game in a draw! What's not to love?
Dovescape: traditional EI payload. Few non-creature spells cannot get through it. If I'm worried about gamebreaking spells, this becomes the first enchantment fetched with EI. If I don't need my own creatures to help along the way, then I fetch Humility. If I want to keep using my own creature abilities, then I fetch Sandwurm Convergence instead. Dovescape is obviously more compact than Decree of Silence + Solemnity, but does nothing to stop creatures.
Eladamri's Vineyard: not generally fetched with EI, but it can be used to help cast EI in the first place. Also, it's just a good group hug enchantment.
Estrid's Invocation: amazing utility. My default for it with EI is to make a copy of Paradox Haze. That's three upkeeps per turn, which means three epic triggers on EI per turn. Prior to EI loops, Estrid's Invocation can be used to copy all sorts of things. Sterling Grove, Sylvan Library, and Sandwurm Convergence are the likeliest targets.
Greater Auramancy: protection for other enchantments. It's not as flexible as Sterling Grove, but once I have both out, my enchantments are all safe from targeted removal. In some games, getting this shroud is vital to keep opponents from disrupting my EI loops.
Heartbeat of Spring: not an EI payload. It's primarily here for group hug, but it also can help me cast EI or just help me hardcast my expensive enchantments.
Humility: the first EI payload I fetch in most of my games. It won't save me from huge armies of creatures and it doesn't do well against creatures with lots of +1/+1 counters on them. So once I've got Humility out, the clock is ticking for me to use either Moat or Solitary Confinement. Notably, Solemnity can mitigate the use of counters on enemy creatures.
Kumena's Awakening: initially included as a dedicated tool for feeding Solitary Confinement. It also masquerades as a group hug card, and is generally pretty good on its own.
Moat: potentially the first EI payload in games with overwhelming creatures on the board. Doesn't stop creature abilities or flying creatures. Pairs nicely with Sandwurm Convergence, and that one-two punch is compact enough to achieve even without EI loops. Dovescape + Humility + Moat is quite the prison.
Oath of Lieges: not an EI payload at all. But it's great for fixing mana and is more friendly as a group hug card than Land Tax would be in this slot.
Oblivion Ring: useful with EI and without it. I can get rid of pesky permanents by putting O-Ring on them and sacrificing a Seal of Cleansing to destroy the Ring with its EtB trigger on the stack.
Paradox Haze: makes Enduring Ideal do its thing faster. Since the epic ability precludes casting spells for the rest of the game, the only ways to get more copies are to copy the original EI while it's still on the stack, to copy the epic trigger itself, or to take more upkeeps. I go with the third option.
Sanctum Weaver: not an EI payload as I've used it, but in theory it could be fetched that way. This creature makes loads of mana and can easily ramp out EI or other big spells. I didn't run other enchantment creatures, but there might be an interesting EI deck in the future that is based around enchantment creatures. I just used this one. It's almost as good as Serra's Sanctum!
Sandwurm Convergence: an excellent general board control option and protective enchantment for either Academy Rector or EI. A lot of EDH decks can easily outpace my wurm tokens, so it's not foolproof on its own. But it's quite the obstacle early on. Moat + Sandwurm Convergence means no creatures can attack me at all. Dovescape + Sandwurm Convergence is another strong pairing.
Seal of Cleansing: prior to setting up EI, this is just a removal tool for me to kill troublesome artifacts and enchantments. Looped with EI and recursion, I can use this to kill my own enchantments. In particular, Oblivion Ring, Solemnity, Solitary Confinement, and Humility are all enchantments that I might use at one point, but need to get rid of at another point.
Search for Azcanta: not a primary EI payload or group huge piece. Both faces of this card are useful in the deck overall for sculpting a hand. Always nice to have the deck perform smoothly in setting up EI, and later in the game I can use this to filter my draws.
Solemnity: only fetched with EI in specific circumstances. The main role for Solemnity is to pair it with Decree of Silence. It's also just a powerful effect to stop cumulative upkeep from growing, which makes my group hug creatures turn from friendly to more pragmatic. Hosing enemy counters is nice utility too. I have to kill my own Solemnity before trying to put Divine Intervention on the table, but the card is well worth that drawback.
Solitary Confinement: other than Humility, this is my most frequent first pull for the initial casting of EI. The need for cards in hand limits Solitary Confinement, but the defensive power of this card beats any other single enchantment in the deck. Either Kumena's Awakening or Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin can sustain Solitary Confinement for a time. If I also have access to either Hall of Heliod's Generosity or Mistveil Plains, then I can put cards from my graveyard back into my library, sustaining Solitary Confinement indefinitely. Before I started running Divine Intervention, this was how the deck ended the game. After I started running Divine Intervention, Solitary Confinement became a strong card to carry me through the game long enough for Divine Intervention to end it.
Sterling Grove: targeted enchantment removal disrupts my EI loops. Sterling Grove can protect my other enchantments. If I don't need that or can't set up EI yet, then I can just fetch some other enchantment instead.
Sylvan Library: not an EI payload ordinarily. Sylvan Library does what Sylvan Library always does. Awesome with Abundance, but useless with Solitary Confinement. It draws extra cards for cheap. It just makes sense to run it in any enchantment-based deck that runs green.
