Overview:

This Grixis enchantment deck revolves around Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor as a resilient Curse engine. The primary strategy involves attaching multiple Curses to opponents to drain life, disrupt resources, and generate value through Lynde's upkeep trigger. Secondary Constellation synergies amplify damage/life loss (e.g., Grim Guardian, Forgeborn Oreads) while controlling the board. Wins through incremental life drain, forced sacrifices, and amplified damage triggers rather than fast combos or combat. Lynde is essential for recursion and card draw, enabling long-term attrition.

Primer:

Core Strategy Execution:

1. Early Setup (Turns 1-4): Deploy mana rocks (Sol Ring, Talismans), cheap Curses (Trespasser's Curse, Curse of Opulence), or value engines (Phyrexian Arena, Black Market Connections). Prioritize casting Lynde by turn 4 using lands/rocks.
2. Curse Deployment (Turns 3-7): Attach Curses to opponents using Lynde's upkeep trigger or direct casting. Focus on high-impact Curses like Curse of Misfortunes (tutor), Curse of Bloodletting (damage doubler), or Torment of Scarabs (resource denial). Recur sacrificed/destroyed Curses with Lynde's death trigger.
3. Amplification & Control (Turns 5+):
   • Leverage Constellation payoffs: Doomwake Giant for board control, Thoughtrender Lamia for discard, Entity Tracker for card draw.
   • Copy Lynde's triggers with Strionic Resonator to attach multiple Curses or draw 4+ cards per turn.
   • Use board wipes (Blasphemous Act, Toxic Deluge) or targeted removal (Terminate, Infernal Grasp) to stall opponents.
4. Win Condition: Grind opponents down with cumulative Curse triggers (e.g., Curse of Thirst, Grim Guardian), amplified by Curse of Bloodletting. Force sacrifices via Cruel Reality or Braids, Arisen Nightmare.

Mulligan Priorities:

• Keep hands with 2-3 lands (including color-fixing), at least one ramp piece (e.g., Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone), and an early play (cheap Curse, Phyrexian Arena, or Lynde).
• Prioritize hands with Lynde + protection (e.g., Counterspell, Talisman of Indulgence for recast) or a key engine (Curse of Misfortunes, Black Market Connections).
• Avoid hands lacking colored sources, ramp, or proactive plays.

Key Tips:

• Lynde Triggers: Always attach a Curse during upkeep if possible—even moving a low-impact Curse draws cards and enables recursion. Sacrifice Curses before board wipes to guarantee recursion.
• Target Selection: Attach "punisher" Curses (e.g., Curse of Fool's Wisdom) to draw-heavy opponents and "token-generating" Curses (Curse of Disturbance) to goad-focused players.
• Protection: Use counterspells (Negate, Countersquall) defensively. Strionic Resonator can copy Lynde's death trigger for double recursion if she's removed.
• Card Advantage: Leverage Perilous Research/Read the Runes with expendable Curses. Black Market Connections provides flexible resources at life cost.

Weaknesses:

Critical

• Enchantment Mass Removal: Farewell, Cleansing Meditation, or Back to Nature cripple the deck by exiling Curses/engines with no recursion.
• Commander Focused Hate: Repeated Lynde removal (e.g., Darksteel Mutation) halts Curse recursion and card draw, stalling the primary engine.
• Graveyard Exile: Rest in Peace/Leyline of the Void prevent Lynde from recurring Curses from the graveyard.

Moderate

• Fast Aggro: Overwhelming early creature pressure can outpace the deck's setup and life-drain strategy.
• Artifact/Enchantment Hate: Targeted removal (Abrade, Feed the Swarm) on key pieces like Strionic Resonator or Curse of Misfortunes disrupts synergy.
• Stack Interaction: Heavy counterspell decks can prevent Lynde/Crucial Curses from resolving.

Minor

• Life Gain Strategies: Outhealing incremental damage is possible but mitigated by forced sacrifices and Curse of Bloodletting.
• Mana Base Consistency: ETB-tapped lands and limited ramp may delay early plays.

Most Important Cards:

• Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor (Engine: Curse recursion & card draw)
• Curse of Misfortunes (Tutors and deploys Curses automatically)
• Strionic Resonator (Doubles Lynde triggers for explosive value)
• Black Market Connections (Flexible card draw/ramp/board presence)
• Curse of Bloodletting (Amplifies all damage-based win conditions)
• Bitterheart Witch (Tutors a Curse on death)
• Doomwake Giant (Board control via Constellation)
• Grim Guardian (Primary life-drain payoff)
• Braids, Arisen Nightmare (Forces sacrifices and draws cards)
• Thoughtrender Lamia (Disrupts opponents' hands)

Attribute Ratings:

Speed: 4/10

• Wins typically occur around turns 9-12 through accumulated life drain and forced sacrifices, lacking fast combos or early combat threats.

Resilience: 6/10

• Lynde's built-in recursion and enchantment synergies provide recovery from single-target removal, but mass enchantment exile is devastating.

Consistency: 6/10

• Multiple Curse tutors (Curse of Misfortunes, Bitterheart Witch) and card draw (Lynde, Phyrexian Arena) ensure access to key pieces, but reliant on resolving Lynde.

Interaction: 7/10

• Strong targeted removal (Terminate, Infernal Grasp), counterspells (Counterspell, Ice Out), and board wipes (Toxic Deluge) handle threats efficiently.

Rating Justification:

This deck operates as a focused casual build, leveraging synergistic attrition through Curses and Constellation effects but lacking the speed or redundancy for higher tiers. Its T9-12 win benchmark and vulnerability to mass enchantment removal align with the "Casual/Precon" to "Focused Casual" range.

Power level: 4.0 - 4.5