New Moon Rising: Early Thoughts on Enigma

Oh what is this?
The moon must have guided you on your arduous journey, for not many find their way to the Immortal Lunar Shrine.
I’m sure your voyage must have been full of perils - but fear not, my dear traveler, for those that reach this place are blessed by the moon.

But now your mind may be at ease. Embrace this sacred place, and the spirits that reside here will aid you in your moonlit future.
Come on in and let me teach you about the different phases so you might understand.

I’m sure you must have witnessed or at least heard of some sisters of the sun and ashes.

And while those kindred spirits seem to work in similar ways, let me show you how different we really are.

Like the legendary Sculptor of Arc Light, I myself also employ powerful wards in the form of Spectral Shields; but while she drew upon her own soul and burnt it away for protection, I will transcend and channel my Inner Chi to do so.

And while that sister turned from such a passive way by embracing and awakening the heat of the sun to dazzle her foes with terrific angels, the moon is much gentler and similar to her older self.

Then there are the tales of the Ash Artists from the deserts of Volcor which, similar to us, conjured ancestral beings and gave them form - but those beings are less kind than our spirits.

While our spirits will keep on protecting us, it is our duty as well to return that favor, which is unknown to those that simply command ash to grasp for power.

While the moon can be much more similar to the sun, we will not blind you with things that could be, but rather show you what once was real while giving it a corporeal form again.
For this I will use the tales of our ancestors, written down on this Scroll to converse with the spirits and answer their call...

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There are a lot of similarities between Enigma and the old aura builds of Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light, while sticking to some newer concepts as well. The new auras that will be the backbone of Enigma builds aren’t “blessed” with the spectra ability, but have ward instead - an ability we've seen on angels and Spectral Shields for quite some time - but even if we have some really big similarities with our beloved Illusionist of Solana, I can definitely see some aspects of Dromai as well, especially in the form of really efficient cards.

Take a look at red Waxing Specter, for example. Since we will often just pitch a blue for it, we can assume that it will typically come into play with a +1 counter and therefore gets build in go again thanks to our weapon. Now if we just pitch a blue for it in our turn and attack we essentially played a 7 for 3 with go again. 

Why 7 you ask? The ward 3 alongside with the +1 counter let's us immediately attack for 4 while essentially healing us as well.
What makes this even better is that, if our opponent is not able to remove it in his next turn, those 4s with go again will stick around and become 11, then 15 and so on.

But even if we are unable to protect our auras and some of them were to die instantly, they were already on a good rate at that point.

Some other auras like Haze Shelter or Waning Vengeance are a bit more restrictive, since you want to pitch a blue for them on your opponents turn to get the full value; but this restriction is generally fine since we can pitch to play new auras or activate equipment like Phantasmal Footsteps and Uphold Tradition.

Now that you know of the moons essence let me explain how to use it correctly.
You see unlike the sun of the past day our moonlight won’t climb to reach it’s zenith on each night.
So to utilize it’s true potential it is sometimes necessary to wait for the time after a new moon.
So even in battle, do not fear the waning moon, for it will wax to become full again once the time is right.

You don’t understand how that would work in battle? - Let me explain more clearly then.
There will always be some opportunities where you will be able to assemble a huge amount of spirits and you generally want to protect them from harm, but that won’t always be possible.
So instead of crippling yourself by clinging to the last full moon, you should sometimes let it all go to restart the cycle for a new moon to climb.

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Enigma will generally play some loop that can fittingly be described with the phases of the moon:

Waxing Moon Phase:

You setup and try to protect your spectra auras on the board so they can accumulate as much value as possible, your number of auras will generally grow in this phase.

Full Moon Phase:

This will be the point where your board of auras will be at it’s strongest.

Waning Moon Phase:

You won't always end up with enough block for all of your opponents attacks or can't compensate their power turn completely, so defending with some of your auras on board can be critical to finding the perfect balance of offense and defense.

New Moon Phase:

There will be moments where you can't keep your board at all and sometimes it is the right call to let your opponent clear it completely without spending any of your resources on defense so you can rebuild a strong new board presence.

Even if I classify the general playstyle mostly into these phases, they can all turn out different depending on each game and either follow each other quite fast or take some time to pass on.
For example you could setup on your opponents turn, then attack with a lot of auras on your turn, be unable to fully defend on your opponents next turn and even start setting up again in the same turn.
Alternatively you could maybe setup your auras much slower over multiple turns sometimes and protect them from being cleared by your opponent until they get a huge power turn to reset the board again before you start rebuilding.

Some key pieces that could stick around a long time would be the few spectra auras Haze Bending and Shimmers of Silver, since they have insane synergy with your aura plan.
While Haze Bending would allow you to start rebuilding the moment your board gets wiped or to establish a bigger defensive board presence by sacrificing a single Waning Vengeance for 2 Shields and similar things, Shimmers of Silver not only grows your first attack with a counter, but makes it gain go again as well thanks to the synergy with Cosmo, Scroll of Ancestral Tapestry.

The next great synergy piece would be Phantom Tidemaw, and while it has the downside of the Phantasm keyword, it can be amazing if you can grow this beast with essentially go again while protecting it with your other auras.

Another card with Phantasm worth mentioning and including in your lists is Miraging Metamorph. This one fits perfectly at the end of our combat chain to force an awful decision onto our opponent: take this 1-cost 7 or pop this and let us duplicate any aura on the board, which only gets worse if we have any pitch floating and cards in hand or arsenal since we could always play an instant speed aura to get duplicated as well.
I don’t want to be the opponent that has to decide which fate is worse.

Now the cherry on top of our deck: Transcend cards. While I am not sold on all of them there are some really solid ones like A Drop in the Ocean, Rising Sun, Setting Moon, or our Sacred Art: Immortal Lunar Shrine.

One line that is especially noteworthy would be to play Sacred Art: Immortal Lunar Shrine, keep priority to play another one of the Transcend cards and let it resolve first, then before the Sacred Art resolves we could pitch our gained Inner Chi to gain a Spectral Shield from Enigma's ability, finally we let the Sacred Art resolve and end up with 3 Shields in total with 2 having +1 and one having +2 with another Chi in hand. If you did all of that on your opponents turn and have an additional blue in hand, you can then activate Enigma on your own turn to attack with 4 Shields in total, or just pitch your 2nd Chi for the Shield attacks before finishing with another aura or maybe a Metamorph.

This is one of the countless ways to rebuild from an empty board and swing for at least 10 value with 3 cards, 13 with another blue or 17 with Metamorph.

Some additional cards worth mentioning are Diadem of Dreamstate and Celestial Kimono, both could have some insane value if you manage to protect them from the beginning of the game - but since I like to pitch a blue regardless on my opponents turn I am not sure if Kimono is worth it over something like a Fyendal's Spring Tunic. That said, we are currently only at the beginning of the Spoiler Season and I would be happy to be proven wrong.

As someone who started with the old aura playstyle of Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light I am really happy to see a similar hero again in the form of Enigma.

I always liked to gain some Spectral Shields from her hero ability and building a board in Flesh and Blood always felt unique and interesting to me.

Unlike the old aura plan this one seems much more fluid and less restrictive than the spectra plan already.

I am really looking forward to the upcoming spoilers, especially for Enigma, but with everything we have so far the deck looks really solid already.