Enduring Renewal, the most powerful card youve never heard of.
Modern forum
Posted on Feb. 10, 2016, 5:20 a.m. by RoarMaster
Enduring Renewal, it just screams potency. Im very curious as to why it hasent made it to the big times yet.
When I first looked at it years ago, I loved it. It seemed pure combo gold, but at the same time it supports aggro strategies and I feel this is one of the greatest strengths of the card.
A good combo card should also serve a secondary function in the deck, you dont want dead cards after all. Not only does Enduring Renewal provide many combo possibilities, but it also gives staying power to various other deck types as well.
Now there is the obvious downside of the card, which is that you no longer get to draw any creatures, in fact you pretty much just miss your draw if it would be one. Its a pretty big potential drawback, Im not going to lie, especially if your opponents are managing to exile your creatures via Path to Exile or the like. And of course, revealing each card you draw is a bummer and can possibly give away important information.
At the same time, maybe we want creatures in the grave, or maybe we dont want to draw creatures late game or at all. Or maybe we have ways to bring them back from the grave, or search creatures out from the library. Thats a lot of maybes, I agree, but there is the potential to turn the drawback into a benefit, or at the very least make it less detrimental, is what Im saying.
I have pretty much only seen this card run in dedicated combo decks, and those are all 3 card combos and usually involving cards that are simply not very good to begin with, or just useless outside of being used in the combo. Although thats not strictly true, cards like Ornithopter, and Wild Cantor might not be bad per se, but they wont make you win a game or stop you from losing one.
Id like to see it played in something not so all-in combo, as I feel like its a bit of a noob mistake to do so, and having run a pure combo version, I know its not super good from first hand experience. So Im going to mention a couple decks that might benefit from some renewals.
Collected Company decks? They are running curves generally high enough to hit 4 mana in good time, they usually also run Eternal Witness which allows them to get creatures they may have lost to the renewals 'mill' effect, and CoCo itself digs cards from library, hence bypassing renewals drawback to a degree.
And the one with the most potential I believe might be Martyr Proc. For the unfamiliar, that is a deck based around endlessly recurring Martyr of Sands each turn with a Proclamation of Rebirth. Martyr Proc is also a deck that has many different builds, from aggro to control. So the addition of renewal could potentially benefit either build of the deck. Enduring Renewal acts as a cheaper Proclamation effect, and is capable of much much more lifegain. Why recur Martyr once a turn when you can do it as many times as you have mana? Proclamation is also a non-creature way of returning renewals 'milled' creatures, and the deck usually runs at least a few copies of Ranger of Eos who can search critters from your library, again bypassing renewals main drawback. Additionally, the main creature in the deck, martyr, can protect himself from PtE by sacrificing in response, as can Kami of False Hope. And the deck mainboards Wrath of God, a card that likes being cast after renewal. Basically, it fits very well with almost all the cards already run in the deck, furthers all strategies of the deck from aggro to control, and opens up the option of an easy combo addition if you are feeling cocky.
Long story short, I feel that the card has huge potential in general, although its far from broken. Im very curious as to peoples thoughts on the card, and how it might fit into modern. Im fairly impressed with the Martyr Proc potential, but Im sure that there are many other great places it could find a home.
interesting synergy with things like cycling, channel or discard effects.
Erebos's Emissary+another creature card+Enduring Renewal
Glassdust Hulk + Enduring Renewal basically pay X draw X
February 10, 2016 5:56 a.m.
A potential combo here is Blasting Station and Memnite or Ornithopter.
February 10, 2016 6:09 a.m.
Let's see... I don't think it would fit anywhere in a midrange deck so I guess just combo and aggro. And in aggro, Enduring Renewal would be at the top of the curve.
February 10, 2016 6:14 a.m.
mathimus55 says... #7
I don't think it's bad, but there are lots of other things that you could be doing with that slot instead at the same time. 4 mana is a lot unless you plan on ramping it out early.
I think the only deck that wants this card would be the Abzan/Kiki chord decks. Since it stonewalls your future draws(except under a few specific conditions) it makes you need everything you could want in the deck in your hand already. You also need to have a sac outlet on the board if you plan on benefitting from recurring your ETB effects, which could be sweet with some effects like Orzhov Pontiff to wipe their board/pump your team infinitely, but at that point you may as well gain infinite life/damage with the combo already built in that you can also tutor for.
It's a powerful card with a great effect for sure, I'm just not sure how many decks go out of their way to play the effect. Hatebears maybe as a sideboard?
February 10, 2016 6:33 a.m.
It is a combo piece, especially well suited for infinite combos.If you use the card outside of a combo, it is far less potent and it has a hefty drawback (you discard all the creatures you draw, though I see a possible connection to a reanimator theme)). Also, since some playgroups frown upon combo, and especially infinite combo it isn't played often.
I had a combo with enduring renewal once, pretty classic come to think of it: Ornithopter + Ashnod's Altar + Fireball (or Exsanguinate, Comet Storm, etc...)
February 10, 2016 7:33 a.m.
With the advent of 2 recent creatures who can be cast for 0... but die... there are new combo options for it.
Hangarback Walker
Endless One
- Both of these can simply be cast as larger threats if needed.
Either of these + Enduring Renewal can be an instant win with any 'ETB', 'dies', cast, or 'LTB' effect... no sac outlet needed.
Altar of the Brood
Impact Tremors
Blood Artist / Zulaport Cutthroat
Molten Nursery
Since the creature dies right away, your opponent doesn't have the chance to use something like Path to Exile to remove your creature permanently.
They do, however, have the opportunity to remove your graveyard, so the deck needs to be able to work around Relic of Progenitus or Surgical Extraction and what-not.
Here is the deck I made... but I'm thinking of removing 
, in favour of more 
for hand disruption to protect the combo. Plus there will be room for 
's ability to stop graveyard hate (enchantment/artifact hate), as well as Rally the Ancestors or similar effect (makes it so you need not care if creatures go to graveyard).
Endless Mardu Tremors
Modern*
SCORE: 1 | 0 COMMENTS | 87 VIEWS
February 10, 2016 8:35 a.m. Edited.
KillDatBUG says... #10
Why would I ever tap out for a 4 mana enchantment that doesn't do anything when I could just kill you before then with Eldrazi?
That card may have had, like, a 10% chance of being viable before, but it's worthless now in the face of our new Eldrazi overlords.
February 10, 2016 12:01 p.m. Edited.
RoarMaster says... #11
reyenous, HSF117, yes there are dozens of combos available to be used with renewal, some of which are better than others, but all of which are 3 card combos, and most of which are forced to run sub-par cards in order to do so. I feel that if you want to have a successful combo deck, you either need your combo pieces to be stand alone good cards, or it needs to be a 2 card combo. If they are stand alone good cards then you are not reliant solely on comboing quickly to win, and if its a 2 card combo then you are not needing to fill your deck with a bunch of dead cards.
GobboE I kind of have to disagree about not using renewal outside of combo. In a combo deck, renewal is an almost utterly useless card unless you achieve combo, at which point you win. The card provided you with next to no advantage throughout the game, it was merely the engine required to win. In a non-dedicated combo deck, you will be able to take advantage of the powerful ability right up to the point where you win via renewal provided attrition advantage, or manage to combo. Yes it is an incredibly versitile combo card, but the ability itself is very powerful simply on its own, you dont Need to have your combo assembled in order for it to pay off.
KillDatBUG Why would you tap out for an eldrazi when I could just Path to Exile it? Lol. But really, you would probably tap out for a 4 mana enchantment because it potentially wins me the game on the same turn. Thats like saying "why would you pay 2 mana for Melira, she doesnt do anything when she enters". Or why would anyone want to play kikki since apparently you will never have the time to reach 5 mana to cast him because you are dead on T3 to eldrazi. Besides, if eldrazi turns out to be as oppressive as you seem to think, then it will get the ban-hammer obviously. Just like any other doing-to-good deck in modern. For that matter, eldrazi already run Heartless Summoning, all you would need to add would be renewal and Perilous Myr to have an infinite combo in eldrazi.
February 10, 2016 2:08 p.m.
As much as I love the sound of this deck, isn't it just a worse Abzan Company?
February 10, 2016 2:58 p.m.
RoarMaster: Yeah I know, I didn't say that it was good or bad. I was just giving an option.
February 10, 2016 3:54 p.m.
RoarMaster says... #14
Baltec Im not sure what deck you are referring to. To my knowledge there are two main Abzan CoCo lists, Melira/anafenza combo, and value abzan. I dont think it would be the best fit for the combo version, but the more aggro midrangy version I think might use it to good advantage with all of those ETB creatures it runs.
As I mentioned in the original post though, I think Martyr Proc can take the most advantage of it with little to no other changes to the deck.
HSF117 More options are always good :)
February 10, 2016 4:25 p.m.
alanwescoat says... #15
Enduring Renewal + Disciple of the Vault + ( Hangarback Walker or Phyrexian Marauder or Shifting Wall ) = Win.
Enduring Renewal + Disciple of the Vault + ( Ashnod's Altar or Krark-Clan Ironworks ) + Myr Retriever = Win.
Disciple of the Vault + ( Ashnod's Altar or Krark-Clan Ironworks ) + Myr Retriever + Myr Retriever = Win.
Leonin Elder + ( Ashnod's Altar or Krark-Clan Ironworks ) + Myr Retriever + Myr Retriever = Infinite life.
Enduring Renewal + ( Ashnod's Altar or Krark-Clan Ironworks ) + ( Ornithopter or Memnite or Phyrexian Walker or Shield Sphere ) + ( Fireball or Disintegrate ) + = Win.
There is a deck here. Maybe Glimpse of Nature helps out here as well.
February 10, 2016 9:11 p.m.
alanwescoat says... #16
Actually, the second one should not just be Myr Retriever. It could be any artifact with 2 C.M.C. or less. I wish I could edit my posts.
February 10, 2016 9:19 p.m.
RoarMaster I was referring mainly to the idea where you run something like Endless One or Hangarback Walker, in conjunction with an ETB or dies trigger, that someone mentioned earlier. If you take this route with the deck it wins the same way that Abzan CoCo does, it just does it slower, and less consistently.
But yes, it could work in something like Martyr Proc. I just feel that recycling Martyr of Sands even more than the deck already does isn't necessarily what that deck wants to be doing. It already gains a ton of life, it really needs more threats. But I have never played a martyr proc deck so I am really just guessing what the deck should do.
February 10, 2016 9:45 p.m.
alanwescoat says... #18
Also, Enduring Renewal + ( Ashnod's Altar or Krark-Clan Ironworks ) + Hangarback Walker = Infinite thopter tokens.
Dropping Mass Hysteria or Concordant Crossroads could lead to an instant win, though Grapeshot is nice, too.
Enduring Renewal + Genesis Chamber + ( Hangarback Walker or Phyrexian Marauder or Shifting Wall ) = Infinite myr tokens.
February 10, 2016 10:49 p.m.
mathimus55 says... #19
The first combo you mentioned with Hangarback Walker making infinite thopters doesn't work because when the walker comes back from the Enduring Renewal it comes back to the battlefield with 0 counters. It comes in with 
when you cast it but needs those counters to make the thopters when it dies.
The combos with making infinite myr would work, but it's an infinite combo you can't stop at sorcery speed. You need instant speed interaction to stop the loop otherwise you're caught in a loop that doesn't stop and the game would be a draw
February 11, 2016 9:25 a.m.
alanwescoat says... #20
mathimus55, You play the Hangarback Walker for 2 mana, then sacrifice it using Ashnod's Altar or Krark-Clan Ironworks for the 2 mana you need to cast it again. Rinse and repeat.
All of the loops can be stopped by the controller at any time. They require discrete casting actions. There is no way to get stuck in any loop. There is no draw from that. I am not sure what you are thinking in that regard.
February 11, 2016 9:32 a.m.
alanwescoat says... #21
Blood Artist is a nice extension for Disciple of the Vault here as well, instead of adding another color like red for the wincon.
MollyMab says... #2
It did use to be the engine of a combo deck with a 0 cost artifact creature and Goblin Bombardment.
February 10, 2016 5:34 a.m.