Replenish primer: rebuild the battlefield

Quick read

Replenish is a blue-white combo-control deck. It uses Attunement, Frantic Search, and Intuition to put expensive enchantments into the graveyard, then casts Replenish to return them together. The ideal rebuild combines Opalescence with Parallax Wave to control creatures and turn the rest of the enchantment package into attackers. Decree of Silence protects the rebuilt battlefield by countering the opponent’s next spells.

• Plan: develop colored mana, load the graveyard with the right enchantments, and resolve one spell that creates a battlefield worth far more than four mana.
• Games it creates: the deck shifts between draw-go setup, tap-out engine turns, and a compact combo finish. It can also cast Opalescence and Parallax Wave naturally instead of waiting for Replenish.
• Strength: most of the engine cards remain useful when drawn separately, and Replenish reverses ordinary one-for-one enchantment removal.
• Structural weakness: the deck asks for blue setup mana, double white for its battlefield cards, and a safe four-mana sorcery window. Graveyard hate, stack interaction, mana denial, and fast damage pressure different parts of that plan.
• Good fit: choose it if you like sculpting a decisive turn, tracking several zones, and changing roles after sideboarding. Avoid it if you want every opening hand to deploy a threat immediately or prefer a low-bookkeeping combat deck.

This is the post-ban version of the archetype. Premodern Magic banned Parallax Tide on January 18, 2026; the format authority explicitly identified Replenish as one of the Tide decks affected by the change (ban announcement and analysis). The list below replaces the old one-sided land-exile plan with Decree of Silence, main-deck Abeyance, and Tsabo’s Web.

Reference 75

Brian Siu, July 18, 2026

Siu won the 2026 North American Premodern Championship with an earlier post-ban Replenish list, then continued revising the archetype. The July list is a useful primer anchor because it is recent, attributable, and meaningfully different from the May championship configuration: Tsabo’s Web and Abeyance have moved into the main deck, while Mana Leak has left it. This is a snapshot of one successful pilot’s development, not a claim that the archetype has a canonical 75.

The recorded list totals 60 main-deck cards and 15 sideboard cards.

MAIN DECK — 60

Artifacts — 3
3 Tsabo's Web

Instants — 11
2 Abeyance
3 Frantic Search
3 Intuition
3 Swords to Plowshares

Sorceries — 4
4 Replenish

Enchantments — 17
4 Attunement
3 Decree of Silence
4 Opalescence
4 Parallax Wave
2 Seal of Cleansing

Lands — 25
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Flooded Strand
5 Island
5 Plains
3 Skycloud Expanse

SIDEBOARD — 15
1 Abeyance
1 Alter Reality
2 Defense Grid
2 Disenchant
3 Exalted Angel
1 Hydroblast
4 Meddling Mage
1 Swords to Plowshares

What changed after the championship

Siu’s May championship list used 26 lands, two Mana Leak, one Abeyance, no Tsabo’s Web, and a sideboard with Hydroblast, Seal of Cleansing, and two Webs (recorded championship list). The July list cuts both Mana Leak, one Swords to Plowshares, and one land for three main-deck Webs and a second Abeyance. Its sideboard adds Defense Grid, Disenchant, and Alter Reality.

That comparison supports two narrow conclusions. First, the post-ban shell is stable around four each of Replenish, Attunement, Opalescence, and Parallax Wave. Second, the interaction layer is still adjustable. It does not prove that Abeyance is universally better than Mana Leak or that three Webs belong in every field.

How the deck wins

Replenish turns setup into a battlefield

Replenish returns every enchantment card in your graveyard to the battlefield at once. It does not return itself, Frantic Search, Intuition, artifacts, creatures, or lands. That boundary determines every discard decision: an expensive enchantment is often future material, while a discarded Replenish is usually gone for good.

The common rebuild is:

1. Put Opalescence, Parallax Wave, and one or more supporting enchantments into the graveyard.
2. Resolve Replenish.
3. Use Wave to remove opposing creatures and protect the new battlefield.
4. Untap, then attack with the enchantments animated by Opalescence.

Replenish is not a same-turn combat kill by itself. Permanents returned that turn have not been under your control since the beginning of your turn, so the enchantments that become creatures cannot attack unless another effect grants haste. The normal payoff is control of the next turn, not immediate combat damage.

Opalescence converts the engine into pressure

Opalescence makes each other non-Aura enchantment a creature in addition to its other types, with base power and toughness equal to its mana value. In this list:

• Attunement becomes a 3/3.
• Parallax Wave becomes a 4/4.
• Seal of Cleansing becomes a 2/2.
• Decree of Silence becomes an 8/8.
• Opalescence does not animate itself, although a second Opalescence animates the first.

The battlefield can therefore close quickly without a dedicated creature in the main deck. This also creates risk: once animated, the enchantments can be hit by creature removal, and a Wave with no counters is a 4/4 that will still be sacrificed by fading at the appropriate upkeep.

Parallax Wave controls the board

Parallax Wave enters with five fade counters. Removing one is the cost of its activated ability, which exiles a target creature. When Wave leaves the battlefield, its linked ability returns the cards that the same Wave object exiled.

With Opalescence on the battlefield, Wave is a creature and can target itself. The established self-exile line works as follows:

1. Activate Wave targeting up to four opposing creatures, retaining priority after each activation.
2. Activate it once more targeting itself. This self-targeting activation is on top of the stack and resolves first.
3. Wave exiles itself. Its leaves-the-battlefield ability returns the cards already exiled with it, including the Wave card, which returns as a new object with five fresh counters.
4. The earlier creature-exile abilities resolve independently of their source and exile their targets.
5. Those cards were exiled by abilities of the old Wave object. The new Wave has no relation to that object, so its later leaves-the-battlefield trigger will not return them.

This line depends on current rules for independent abilities, linked abilities, and zone changes—Comprehensive Rules 113.7a, 400.7, and 607.2a. It should receive qualified judge review before treating it as fixed guidance. In paper play, announce every target and the activation order; do not collapse the sequence into “exile everything.”

If the opponent removes Opalescence before the self-targeting activation resolves, Wave stops being a creature and becomes an illegal target for that activation. The other exile abilities remain on the stack, but Wave stays on the battlefield and will later return the creatures it exiled. This is one reason Seal of Cleansing and stack protection matter even after the combo reaches the battlefield.

Decree of Silence buys the untap

Decree of Silence counters a spell whenever an opponent casts one, then receives a depletion counter; after it has at least three, its triggered ability sacrifices it. Replenish turns an eight-mana enchantment into a four-mana shield and, with Opalescence, an 8/8 threat.

Treat Decree as a limited permission budget, not the phrase “the opponent cannot play.” Triggered abilities still work, uncounterable spells remain uncounterable, and the opponent can spend low-value spells to consume counters before presenting the answer that matters. If Decree returns to the graveyard, a later Replenish can reset the resource by returning it as a new object.

The fair plan is real

You do not have to put every enchantment into the graveyard. Ancient Tomb can accelerate Attunement, Opalescence, Parallax Wave, Tsabo’s Web, and a face-down Exalted Angel after sideboarding. Naturally cast Wave can buy turns against creature decks; naturally cast Opalescence can turn existing enchantments into a clock; Seal of Cleansing can force the opponent to expose a second permanent before committing the combo.

The correct question is not “Can I Replenish this turn?” It is “What battlefield do I get, what can break it, and does waiting improve that answer faster than it improves the opponent’s?”

Card roles and construction choices

Graveyard setup

Attunement is the primary engine. Returning it to its owner’s hand is part of the activation cost, so an opponent cannot remove it in response to stop that activation. The ability then draws three cards and discards four. Recast Attunement when another activation is worth three mana; do not do it automatically when the first activation already built a winning Replenish.

Sort the hand before each activation:

• Keep Replenish unless you have a specific recovery plan; Replenish cannot return itself.
• Prefer discarding enchantments you intend to return.
• Keep the land drops and protection required for the actual combo turn.
• Do not discard every cheap interaction merely to maximize the visual size of Replenish.

Frantic Search draws two, discards two, then untaps up to three lands. With three lands, it can preserve or increase the mana available for the rest of the turn. Ancient Tomb makes that sequencing more powerful and more painful: account for the two life before using it as setup against red pressure.

Intuition can find three copies of Replenish to guarantee one in hand, provided three remain in the library. When Replenish is already secured, a pile of three different enchantments puts two chosen by the opponent into the graveyard and one into your hand. There is no universal enchantment pile: choose it from the battlefield you need, and remember that the opponent decides which card stays out of the graveyard.

Protection and time

Abeyance is a setup spell, not a counterspell. Cast it before Replenish when the opponent has priority to respond to Abeyance itself. After it resolves, the targeted player cannot cast instant or sorcery spells or activate nonmana abilities for the rest of that turn, and you draw a card. It does not stop spells already on the stack, triggered abilities, static abilities, attackers, or blockers.

Swords to Plowshares and Parallax Wave buy time against creatures. They also ask different things of the mana: Swords is immediate and cheap; Wave advances the combo but costs double white. Preserve Swords when a Dreadnought, Goblin Lackey, Hypnotic Specter, Meddling Mage, or other specific creature can prevent the setup turn.

Seal of Cleansing answers artifacts or enchantments and is itself Replenish material. With Opalescence, sacrificing Seal also gives up a 2/2 attacker, so decide whether the target matters more than the clock. Against graveyard artifacts, an untapped Seal can force activation before Replenish rather than after the graveyard is fully stocked.

Tsabo’s Web draws a card when it enters and prevents lands with nonmana activated abilities from untapping normally. It pressures Rishadan Port, Mishra’s Factory, and similar utility lands; it does not counter their first activation or stop mana abilities. Three main-deck copies are the most metagame-specific part of this 60.

Mana

The deck needs blue early, double white later, and four total mana for Replenish. Ancient Tomb accelerates the colorless portion of nearly every engine spell but cannot cast Swords, activate Attunement, or supply either white in Opalescence and Wave. Skycloud Expanse filters other mana into white-blue, but it cannot produce mana alone. A hand with Tomb plus Expanse has functional colored mana because Tomb can pay the Expanse’s activation cost; a hand with Expanse as its only land does nothing.

Fetch basics deliberately. Against Wasteland, an early Island supports setup but double white still has to arrive. Against red, every Adarkar Wastes activation and Ancient Tomb payment changes the race. Against Rishadan Port, Web may create time, but only after the opponent receives at least one activation window.

Mulligan model

An unknown-matchup seven should usually answer three questions:

1. Can it produce blue mana and reach at least three total mana?
2. Does it have Attunement, Frantic Search, Intuition, or a concrete natural-cast plan?
3. Does it have either Replenish or a credible route to find one before the opponent’s clock matters?

Double white is desirable but not mandatory in the opener if the hand can filter and make land drops. An Ancient Tomb hand is not automatically fast; the colored sources determine whether its spells are castable. A pile of Opalescence, Wave, Decree, and Replenish without setup or colored mana is not a combo hand.

Example keeps

• Keep: Flooded Strand, Island, Plains, Attunement, Frantic Search, Replenish, Swords to Plowshares. The mana casts every setup spell, Attunement can stock the graveyard, Replenish is already protected from discard-to-engine mistakes, and Swords buys time. It is slower than a Tomb hand but structurally complete.
• Keep, with matchup caution: Ancient Tomb, Adarkar Wastes, Attunement, Intuition, Parallax Wave, Opalescence, Abeyance. Turn 2 Attunement is available, Intuition can find Replenish after another land, and Abeyance can later protect the payoff. Against known fast red pressure, the Tomb and painland cost make this much less comfortable.

Example mulligans

• Mulligan: Ancient Tomb, Ancient Tomb, Tsabo’s Web, Replenish, Opalescence, Parallax Wave, Decree of Silence. Web can redraw, but the hand has no colored source, no setup spell it can cast after Web, and no guarantee that the next draw fixes both colors.
• Mulligan: Plains, Plains, Plains, Swords to Plowshares, Swords to Plowshares, Parallax Wave, Decree of Silence. It interacts with creatures, but it has no blue engine, no Replenish, and no way to convert the hand before a noncreature strategy takes over.

At six cards, bottom the first stranded Decree of Silence or redundant four-mana enchantment before removing a functional land, setup spell, or the only Replenish. After sideboarding, the bottom decision changes with the plan: Exalted Angel needs six mana face up or three plus a later morph turn, while Meddling Mage needs both colors early.

Sequencing and decision points

Before activating Attunement

• Identify the minimum land and protection package for the next turn.
• Count Replenish copies in hand, graveyard, and library.
• Name the battlefield you need: Wave for creatures, Decree for spells, Seal for a permanent, Opalescence for a clock.
• If the opponent has open graveyard hate, decide whether forcing it now is better than discarding four more cards into it.

Before casting Intuition

• Need Replenish: choose three copies only when doing so still leaves the deck with a viable follow-up if the first is countered or discarded.
• Have Replenish: choose three enchantments whose worst opponent-selected split still improves the rebuild.
• Need interaction: do not force a graveyard-value pile when three copies of the same answer, or a natural draw step protected by Abeyance, is the actual route.

The protected Replenish turn

1. Make the land drop before exposing Abeyance unless concealing information matters more.
2. Cast Abeyance while the opponent has a chance to respond.
3. After it resolves, verify which permanent-based and triggered answers remain live.
4. Cast Replenish.
5. Announce all returned enchantments together, place the correct counters, and state the resulting creature sizes.
6. Do not pass priority carelessly if the new Wave can answer a creature or protect the battlefield immediately.

Defense Grid serves a related post-sideboard role, but it is symmetrical and does not prohibit interaction. It makes each spell cost three more outside its controller’s turn. Cast it early enough to matter, and remember that the opponent can remove it on their own turn at normal cost.

Common errors

• Discarding Replenish to Attunement. Only enchantments return. Preserve the sorcery unless the hand contains another copy and the discard is deliberate.
• Treating Abeyance as a counterspell. It does not affect a spell already on the stack; the opponent can also respond before it resolves.
• Counting Tomb as colored mana. Tomb pays generic costs and fuels Skycloud Expanse, but it cannot activate Attunement or satisfy white and blue symbols by itself.
• Attacking immediately after Replenish. The returned permanents normally have summoning sickness once Opalescence makes them creatures.
• Letting Wave targets blur together. Announce each activation and maintain stack order, especially when Wave targets itself.
• Forgetting that Opalescence excludes itself. One Opalescence is not a creature. Two animate each other.
• Assuming Decree is an unlimited lock. The opponent can spend spells into it, and the third trigger sacrifices it after resolving.
• Overfilling the graveyard through live hate. Build only the battlefield needed to win; a larger Replenish is not automatically safer.

Matchups and sideboard roles

Sideboard roles

Creature combo and tempo

Against Stiflenought, Replenish must respect a fast 12/12 and cheap permission. Swords and Wave answer Dreadnought; Meddling Mage can name Dreadnought, Stifle, or a revealed answer; Defense Grid and Abeyance can create a Replenish window. Tsabo’s Web has few or no targets in basic-Island versions, and Decree may be too slow when it is not entering through Replenish.

Testing question: test whether the baseline begins with four Mage and the fourth Swords for Web and some Decrees, then determine when Disenchant is justified by Powder Keg or other artifacts.

Red pressure

Against Burn or Sligh, life is the resource. Ancient Tomb and Adarkar Wastes can turn a nominally fast hand into the opponent’s last burn spell. Swords, Wave, Hydroblast, and Exalted Angel all buy time in different ways; Decree and Intuition are candidates to trim when the game will end before their ceiling matters. Creature-heavy Sligh and spell-heavy Burn should not receive the same map.

Testing question: separate the two configurations, test whether three Exalted Angel are fast enough on the play and draw, and record which cards leave without reducing the Replenish engine below a functional density.

Goblins and creature swarms

Parallax Wave is the main-deck reason to choose Replenish into creature fields. Prevent Goblin Lackey from connecting, preserve an answer to Goblin Tinkerer or a sideboard artifact, and decide whether Tsabo’s Web is stopping Rishadan Port in the list actually shown. Meddling Mage can name a key engine card, but it is not a substitute for answering a developed board.

Testing question: begin with the fourth Swords and Hydroblast, then test Mage counts and the value of Web against Port-heavy versus Port-light builds.

Mono-black attrition

Discard attacks Replenish itself; graveyard hate attacks the stored enchantments; Gloom and Dystopia can attack white spells and permanents. The natural-cast plan and Exalted Angel matter because they do not require a stocked graveyard. Alter Reality appears designed for color-word hate, while Disenchant answers the permanent directly. Tsabo’s Web may still have text against Mishra’s Factory or other utility lands.

Testing question: identify the current mono-black configurations first. Build separate maps for creature-heavy Specter, Pit Rack, and control shells rather than calling all of them “Mono Black.” Confirm every Alter Reality interaction with a judge.

Blue control and Landstill

Do not rush a weak Replenish into open permission when Attunement can continue sculpting. Abeyance, Defense Grid, and Meddling Mage all create different kinds of windows. Tsabo’s Web constrains Mishra’s Factory and other utility lands, so it may be one of the strongest main-deck cards here. Exalted Angel can diversify threats, but transforming too heavily can make the opponent’s creature removal live again.

Testing question: record the opponent’s post-sideboard enchantment removal, graveyard hate, and permission suite, then decide whether Angel is a secondary threat or a full transformation.

Replenish mirror and Enchantress

These matchups revolve around noncreature permanents, protection turns, and who can make an opposing battlefield irrelevant. Swords is likely to lose value unless Meddling Mage or another creature is central. Disenchant and Mage gain targets; Defense Grid matters only when the opposing configuration has meaningful instant-speed interaction. Decree can consume the opponent’s setup spells, but neither matchup should be reduced to “resolve Replenish first.”

Testing question: develop independent mirror and Enchantress plans. List the exact names for Meddling Mage, the permanents Disenchant must answer, and which main-deck creature-control slots can leave without weakening the deck’s own Opalescence clock.

Variants and access

Mana Leak versus main-deck Web and Abeyance

Siu’s May and July lists demonstrate the fork. Mana Leak interacts with any cast spell while the opponent is constrained on mana. Web replaces itself and attacks utility lands; Abeyance protects a chosen turn and draws a card. Select the package for the field rather than mixing them without checking blue count, total lands, and the number of proactive setup spells.

Meddling Mage in the main deck

Bryan Gulotta finished second at the 2026 North American championship with four main-deck Meddling Mage and no main-deck Abeyance or Mana Leak (recorded list). That build starts with proactive naming and a creature clock, but gives opposing creature removal a Game 1 target. It is an established structural fork, not a sideboard swap that can be copied without rebalancing the 60.

PandeBurst

PandeBurst Replenish uses Pandemonium and Saproling Burst for a direct-damage combo rather than the post-ban Decree control shell. Premodern Magic published an early version in 2018 (deck tech). It shares Attunement, Opalescence, and Replenish, but its mana, tutors, kill conditions, and sideboarding are different enough to require a separate primer.

Card access

Intuition and Replenish are financially significant cards in current paper lists, but this draft does not publish a price snapshot. A budget substitute must be evaluated by function: replacing Intuition loses both guaranteed Replenish access and controlled graveyard loading; replacing Replenish changes the deck’s core identity. Do not label a slower blue-white enchantment deck “budget Replenish” without stating those losses.

History, sources, and updates

The current archetype descends from old blue-white Opalescence–Replenish strategies, but the useful present-day dividing line is January 18, 2026. The Parallax Tide ban removed the deck’s land-exile plan. Decree of Silence became a prominent replacement, and Siu’s May championship win established that post-ban Replenish remained tournament-capable. The July list shows continued movement in the interaction package.

Primary working references:

• Brian Siu’s July 18 reference 75 and May championship 75.
• The organizer’s 2026 North American championship report and Hardcast interview with Siu. The interview is queued for human review; this draft does not attribute untranscribed strategic claims to it.
• Premodern Magic’s 2026 Parallax Tide ban announcement and current ban list.
• Current Magic rules and Oracle records for Replenish, Attunement, Opalescence, Parallax Wave, Decree of Silence, and Abeyance.
• Bryan Gulotta’s main-deck Meddling Mage configuration and Premodern Magic’s PandeBurst deck tech for established variants.

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