Enduring Ideal
fell out of favor in Legacy and is too slow in Modern. There aren't any polished up-to-date Legacy Ideal builds out there, so here's a (largely academic) attempt at making the most competitive one possible.
Gameplay
Enduring Ideal
is a combo deck which just tries to cast Ideal as quickly as possible. An un-countered Ideal almost always wins the game (except against the most overwhelming boards additionally backup by removal). All you need to do is choose the correct sequence of enchantments to tutor. See Enduring Ideal sequencing below.
This build casts
Ideal
on turn 3.7 average, often backed up by
Orim's Chant
. We omit cards like
Lotus Bloom
which are too slow (turn 4 at the earliest).
Orcish Lumberjack
is incredible, allowing turn 2
Ideal
if we have
Pentad Prism
and 1 or 2 additional ramp. On the other hand, it might just be removal magnet, being one of the few creatures. Having and for
Brainstorm
and
Sylvan Library
also gives us excellent consistency compared to other builds. While we don't need , we splash
Badlands
just for powerful
Burning Wish
targets in the Sideboard.
Enduring Ideal sequencing
Our first tutor is almost always
Solitary Confinement
(if our opponent might have lethal),
Dovescape
(to shut down removal and anything noncreature), or
Overwhelming Splendor
(against creature-based interaction or combo).
Our second tutor is often
Pernicious Deed
to wipe the board. If that's not necessary, see below:
If we started with
Solitary
, our next tutor is usually
Dovescape
, which basically
Time Walk
s our opponent until we run out of cards, at which point we've already tutored a hard lock.
If we started with
Dovescape
, the next most common sequences are:
Dovescape
>
Sandwurm Convergence
>
Form of the Dragon
(Sandwurm prevents any of the birds from attacking and clogs up the ground. Finally Form and Sandwurm quickly close out the game.)
Dovescape
>
Splendor
>
Form
(Dove + Splendor prevents any interaction. Finally Form prevents any further attack and closes out the game.)
If we started with
Splendor
, our sequence is usually
Splendor
>
Form
/
Dovescape
>
Dovescape
/
Form
(Splendor takes care of flying, so we just need to lock down creatures and noncreatures)
Last but not least,
Starfield of Nyx
is very powerful, allowing us to reanimate any enchantments unlimitedly (e.g. unlimited board wipes with
Pernicious Deed
). We can even discard and reanimate enchantments we failed to shuffle back with
Brainstorm
.
What's with the sideboard?
According to tournament rules, "a card that's 'outside the game' is one that’s in your sideboard," so
Burning Wish
lets us tutor from our sideboard. So we can load our sideboard with juicy niche cards which wreck specific different decks. (Further description to come.) However, the primary reason for
Burning Wish
is so we can tutor the single sideboard copy of
Ideal
, giving us 7 copies of
Ideal
.