Sythis, Harvest's Hand - Classic Enchantress
Table of Contents
A Short Introduction
Let Me introduce Myself!
Let me introduce myself briefly before I dive into everything Sythis! My name is Tim/BlackbirdPlaysMTG and I am a Dutch Magic: The Gathering player. I have been playing MTG off and on since Onslaught (2002). Like many people casual kitchen-table magic was the first thing I played. When I moved to a new city to attend university I made the decision to start playing Standard in the local LGS and I really enjoy it - I dip my toes into all kinds of decks and strategies depending on the format. Now that Pioneer is a thing I have a deck for that too (Azorius Spirits). It took me a few years, but the 2015 "Swell the Host" precon (helmed by Ezuri, Claw of Progress) was my first foray into the wonderful world of multiplayer magic. Initially, I was not sure whether EDH would be compatible with my competitive mindset and I was not used to build decks to be used in a multiplayer setting. Turns out EDH and me are quite compatible! It is a lot of fun to play with friends or drop into a pod to play with new people. Deckbuilding and upgrading existing decks is something I really enjoy too. Putting together a functioning list around a theme or commander is great fun. I feel most comfortable in EDH when it comes to green-based strategies - but I have been diversifying as of lately. I am always brewing up and testing out new stuff - you can find my experiments on my Archidekt page and some of my currently played decks in my forum signature.Commander/Archetype Analysis
Why Play Sythis, Harvest's Hand?
What makes playing Sythis, Harvest's Hand attractive to me is the prospect of having a cheap enchantress in the command zone! When Tuvasa the Sunlit got printed the enchantress archetype finally got a more dedicated commander, but she was still capped at just one extra card a turn. With Sythis out Enchantress decks now have an actual enchantress effect stapled on a cheap commander with a neat lifegain bonus. Having some card draw in the command zone helps to reduce the amount of games were you run out of gas. People seem to be quite fond of Sythis already - although she was only released a short while back in the June 2021 Modern Horizons 2 set, Sythis is currently the most popular Selesnya commander leading 3460 decklists on EDHREC at the time of editing!What Is An Enchantress Deck Anyway?
Enchantress decks use so-called enchantresses to draw through their deck quickly. Every enchantress has the text "Whenever you cast enchantment or Whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, you (may) draw a card". This means that you want to put a critical mass of reasonably costed enchantments in your deck to make sure you keep drawing cards from your deck and thus keeping the engine going. Play enchantments, draw enchantments, play more enchantments! On top of this, enchantments tend to be quite sticky and a bit harder to remove than, say, creatures. This makes enchantress decks quite resilient. Eventually you will bury your opponents in value or dig towards a game-ending combo. Below you can see the enchantress suite in its full glory:Honourary mentions:
Deck Philosophy
The Two Rules
When building this deck, I had two rules in mind. The first rule is that I wanted to give priority to enchantments that could do a certain thing. For example, I am not running Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares. Instead I run cards like Oblivion Ring and Song of the Dryads. The instants are better in a vacuum usually - they are more mana efficient and you can play them anytime you want. However, I am playing an enchantress package. This means that I get rewarded with card draw every time I cast an enchantment. The same goes for ramp. I am running Wild Growth over sorcery ramp like Nature's Lore. By running a high density of enchantments I guarantee that I get to draw cards as often as possible.The second rule is that I did not want to include infinite combos in this list. You can run things like Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista (infinite pew pew), Squirrel Nest + Earthcraft (infinite squirrels) or Seedcradle Witch/Gauntlets of Light + Sanctum Weaver (infinite mana). My playgroup does not play many infinites and I rather go the extra mile with token beatdown. These combos are good options if you do not mind running infinites though! You can even tutor for most of the pieces with all the creature and enchantment tutors.
Deck Attributes
Card Draw: Card draw go brrrrrr. This deck has a powerful card draw engine. Your enchantresses will outdraw most other decks at the table.Resilience: Enchantments are quite resilient. Your opponents can maybe remove one or two from the table, but if you keep spamming enchantments they will get overwhelmed. However, the deck is susceptible to hate cards like Bane of Progress and Austere Command. These cards set you back a lot, but if you play smart you can rebuild quite quickly. If your meta has a lot of these mass enchantment destruction effects, consider running cards such as Teferi's Protection and Heroic Intervention.
Ramp: Ramping works a bit different in this deck. In the early game, maybe you can find an enchant land aura but these effects do not ramp you a whole lot. Instead, you can ramp a lot through extra land drop effects (adds up really quickly) and the powerhouses Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Serra's Sanctum. During the lategame you can easily generate big mana.
Cost: This deck, with all the fetches, Serra's Sanctum and some expensive enchantress staples, is not cheap. At the moment it hovers around the 1000 euros. You can however make an effective enchantress deck for like 1/20th of that price. Check out the €50 budget enchantress section!
Linearity: With all the tutors I am running the deck feels quite linear sometimes. I play the same early game every time and my early tutors often go towards extra land drop effects. However, if you do not like this you can remove the tutor package. It is not key to the deck.
Scare Factor: This deck gets scary pretty quickly. In the early game you seem innocuous and suddenly you have all these permanents flooding your playmat during the midgame. Prepare to be targeted and attacked.
Combos: This deck is all about synergy and the enchantment main theme. No true combos here.
Difficulty: You need to do a bit of math from time to time, especially when you have a lot of mana at your disposal. You sometimes need to know what to tutor for. The core tenet of the deck is quite simple though: play enchantments, draw cards, play more enchantments. Hardest part of the deck is keeping track of all your triggers.
Commander Dependancy: The deck runs a redundancy of enchantress effects, so if Sythis gets removed it is not the end of the world. Sometimes you will have to hang back a bit and just play your lands and develop stuff.
Speed: Sometimes you have access to a lot of mana relatively early in the game, but the deck generally takes a while to get going.
Interaction: The deck plays quite a bit of removal. You can tutor for these pieces as well, and there's Hall of Heliod's Generosity and some creatures that can recur your removal. Sadly, our removal package is mostly sorcery speed. Be wary of sneaky combo players!
Current Decklist
Archidekt link: https://www.archidekt.com/decks/3526566 ... d_08102023
I have been playing enchantress decks for a few years now and some staples were cheaper three years back. I remember paying 'just' 60 euros for my Serra's Sanctum. In this section I can offer some tips to make the main decklist a bit more budget-friendly by shaving off the most expensive cards that are not necessarily super vital to the functioning of the deck. Note that the deck will still cost you a few hundred euros/dollars! If you want to go for a real budget experience, check out the budget decklist below.
What To Remove
- Argothian Enchantress: Can be replaced by Nessian Wanderer.
- Exploration: You could run Druid class. For five mana you have the same effect. It is an investment, but extra land drops is just a very powerful effect in this deck.
- Greater Auramancy: Can be removed for any enchantment really. Maybe you feel like you want to run some extra removal, pillowfort or card selection. You could also run Privileged Position instead.
- Green Sun's Zenith & other tutors: you can functionally replace them with cheaper tutors (think Shared Summons), or some extra card draw/selection.
- Mirri's Guile: Can be removed for any enchantment really. Maybe you feel like you want to run some extra removal, pillowfort or card selection.
- Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: Nykthos can be cut for a basic. It is pretty good in the deck though, since you can generate a lot of devotion.
- Replenish: This card can be substituted by a Brilliant Restoration, Open the Vaults or Resurgent Belief.
- Serra's Sanctum: This card is like 250 euros now. Yeah... And it probably will never get a reprint. It is a powerhouse that offers you explosive turns, but you can cut it for a basic land.
- Sylvan Library: Can be removed for any enchantment really. Maybe you feel like you want to run some extra removal, pillowfort or card selection.
- Windswept Heath & the other fetchlands: These are the first I would cut. I like them because they can find all the dual lands I am playing and the deck is quite pip-hungry. However, you can play this deck just fine without them. I would replace them with basic lands.
Sythis On A €50 Budget (WIP)
(On Magiccardmarket, English cards.)
I will be testing and trying out cards in this list, just as I do with my main decklist!
Piloting The Deck
Navigating Through The Early Game
Early game with this deck is simple: you want to play Sythis, Harvest's Hand on turn 2. I sometimes hold onto one mana enchantments only to play them after I have played my commander. On turn three you want to play castable enchantments to get things going. If you have an enchantress in hand you have to make your first real choice. Will you play an extra enchantress alongside Sythis so you can benefit more next turn, or is it better to cash in an enchantment? It depends on the pod. If your suspect removal, just go the save route and get the single draw off Sythis. If you think there is a window to be greedy, go ahead and drop an extra enchantress, so you can draw more cards in the following turns.What Cards To Keep In Your Hand?
- Exploration
- Utopia Sprawl
- Wild Growth
- Fertile Ground
- Herald of the Pantheon
- Sanctum Weaver
- Starfield Mystic
- Sylvan Library
- Wolfwillow Haven
- Azusa, Lost but Seeking
- Courser of Kruphix
- Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
- Overgrowth
Depending on who you face, removal and pillowfort cards like Ghostly Prison can really neutralise the effectiveness of your opponents in the early game. Remember that your commander turns all your enchantments into draw, so any three-or-less costed enchantments are solid solid follow-ups on a turn 2 Sythis. This makes the deck very flexible, you can keep most hands if you have enough lands in your hand (ideally 2-4).
Building A Boardstate
During the midgame you want to strengthen your position on board. You will be casting more enchantments, drawing more cards, playing more enchantments. Entering the midgame means that it is time to play more enchantresses too. Because you now have a bit more mana you can directly follow up an enchantress with an enchantment, getting some value immediately. Ideally you are looking to have 2-3 enchantresses in play to draw you plenty of cards. Feel free to use your tutors to find them, especially Argothian Enchantress, since she is cheap and protects herself. Enchantress decks are quite slow and somewhat vulnerable in the midgame. Thus, in this phase you want to play pillowfort cards such as Ghostly Prison and Sphere of Safety in order to protect yourself from being attacked. Pillowfort cards are excellent tutor targets in the midgame. Your enchantress creatures are quite tiny and blocking duty is just not for them. That does not mean that you do not have access to blockers though. If you find token producers like Archon of Sun's Grace or Hallowed Haunting, try and set those up and start gaining value from them. You are casting enchantments anyway, why not get rewarded with a couple of tokens for doing so. Having some tokens on the battlefield will help you survive the mid game. Opponents are less likely to attack you or deal a lot of damage if you have the option of chump blocking their threats. You will want to play cards like Greater Auramancy and Sterling Grove in the midgame to protect your other valuable enchantment pieces. When you have both of them on the battlefield all of your enchantments will have shroud, which means that you completely nullify targeted removal! If you have one of these on the battlefield, it is therefore often worthwhile to tutor for the other piece.Get Those Lands Into Play!
Important is hitting your land drops. You are looking to get more lands into play during the midgame and find the big mana lands Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Serra's Sanctum. If there is nothing super scary going on during this phase of the game I tend to look for cards like Exploration, Azusa, Lost but Seeking and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove. If you draw a lot of cards you will have plenty of lands to put into play. Instead of having to discard them we can put them on the battlefield with the extra land drop effects. Remember, the player who has access to the most mana during the game is often the player that wins, and this deck can generate quite lot of mana thanks to your extra-land-drop effects and big mana lands.Managing The Boardstate
In this phase you also want to remove cards that could pose a problem for you. For example, scary threats like eldrazi titans and effects that might threathen your enchantress effects like Dictate of Erebos. Remove these type of threats as quickly as possible! You run a reasonable number of enchantment-based removal spells that exile the permanents they target. If there are good targets available feel free to cast cards like Banishing Light and Banishment, since they trigger your enchantresses and draw you more cards. It is better to recyle these spells than to keep them all in your hand indefinitely, especially if you have multiple removal spells sitting in your hand. In that sense the deck is pretty proactive.Something this deck cannot have control over and is very vulnerable to are boardwipes that can hit enchantments. Bane of Progress, Merciless Eviction and Austere Command are absolutely nightmares for this deck. Imagine having built up a good boardstate, only for it to be removed by a single card! You cannot really play around these cards well, because your enchantress engine wants you to cast enchantments and thus go wide on board. However, a wipe is not the end of the world. The extra-land-drop package means that you often have access to plenty of mana. More mana means rebuilding quicker. I am also running some recursion effects in Eternal Witness, Monk Idealist and Auramancer to bring back the most important enchantments (mostly your pillowfort pieces and token producers). I am not running cards like Teferi's Protection and Heroic Intervention. These cards are very reactive, while your gameplan is to be proactively casting enchantments to keep your engine going. I have tried these reactive cards in earlier builds of the deck and they often end up sitting dead in your hand. You want to spend all the mana during your turn, so leaving mana open for these reactive cards hurts your midgame efficiency. The only anti-boardwipe tech I am running is Replenish, because you can cast it during your own turn.
A Commanding Presence
In the endgame it is time to convert your card and mana advantage into a win. How do we win? By using token producers to churn out an army! In this phase you are very likely to have more lands and permanents in play than your opponents. Your big mana lands Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Serra's Sanctum will most likely make mana in the double digits. Maybe you even have a Mirari's Wake in play. In the endgame you want to actively dig/tutor for token producers. Ideally you want to have one or two token producers on the battlefield. Committing more is usually not necessary (and plays right into mass removal). Sometimes I get handed the win by my opponents before I have a wincondition online, because they simply cannot deal with my boardstate. However, there are games in which you have been targeted quite a bit and you simply are not in a position to end the game on your own terms. Do not worry, just keep improving your boardstate and make sure that you are protected by your pillowfort pieces. As long as you are safe and your opponents have not won the game you can steer towards a win.Overwhelming The Opposition
There are multiple paths to victory. The first path is tokens. A few of the token producers we play, like Hallowed Haunting, Archon of Sun's Grace and Sigil of the Empty Throne, reward you with a creature every time you cast an enchantment. Casting and returning Flickering Ward repeatedly can create an army in no time. With these cards it is possible to wittle everyone down slowly. A few pegasi and angels might not seem like much, but they can and will take your opponents down. This deck does not have to win in one alpha strike. Instead, you are often going for slow value and inevitability. Some token producers are more explosive. Enter Luminarch Ascension. This card can make a bunch of tokens during the end step of the player before you, sometimes over twenty. This often allows you to alpha-strike all your opponents at once. The only downside is that you telegraph what you are planning to do the moment Luminarch Ascension comes down. You will have to keep up your shields for a few of your opponents turns until it comes online.There are also some non-token ways to end the game. You can use your lands to smack people in the face, courtesy of Destiny Spinner. She can animate your lands into big creatures that can take your opponents down quite quickly. In the endgame you often have 10+ enchantments on board and 10/10s and bigger tend to end the game quickly! Another way of ending the game is going for the buff-your-stuff route. Shalai, Voice of Plenty can buff your tokens, enchantresses and utility creatures if you have a lot of mana available. Skybind can do some neat tricks in the endgame. It is a great way to remove opposing blockers or troublesome permanents with a nasty static effect from the battlefield for a turn. Last but not least there is Finale of Devastation. Usually this card is used in the midgame to grab an extra enchantress, but in the lategame this card becomes a wincondition. It is not that hard to cast the spell for a value that is greater than =10. The great thing about this card is that it grants all your creatures haste. The deck mostly operates at sorcery speed and having an option to end the game in a turn you were really going off making quite a few tokens is great.
The Tutor Package
In this section of the primer, I will explain when to look for specific cards. Sometimes it is very obvious and other times it is a bit harder to figure out what to do with your tutors, leading to decision paralysis. I hope that this section will clarify a bit what I generally tutor for in different scenarios. During the game you are able to tutor for different creatures and enchantments. Your tutor package consists of the following cards:Card | Tutors For | Hand /Top/Battlefield |
---|---|---|
Crop Rotation | Lands | Battlefield |
Enlightened Tutor | Enchantments/Enchantment Creatures | Top |
Green Sun's Zenith | Green Creatures/Green Enchantment Creatures | Battlefield |
Worldly Tutor | Creatures/Enchantment Creatures | Top |
Eladamri's Call | Creatures/Enchantment Creatures | Hand |
Finale of Devastation | Creatures/Enchantment Creatures | Battlefield |
Sterling Grove | Enchantments/Enchantment Creatures | Top |
Sylvan Scrying | Lands | Hand |
Idyllic Tutor | Enchantments/Enchantment Creatures | Hand |
Moon-Blessed Cleric | Creatures/Enchantment Creatures | Top |
That is ten cards for tutoring purposes in total. During the game you are pretty likely to draw into one or more of them, especially with all the drawing that the deck is capable of. Any of our creatures and any of our enchantments could be a viable tutor target at one point in the game. So when do you tutor for what? Or do you perhaps need to hang onto a tutor for a few turns, so you can adapt to the ever-changing boardstate when it is necessary?
Some General Tutoring Advice
- Try to memorize your deck!: If you manage to do this, it will become easier to ascertain what you want to tutor for in most situations!
- You have Sythis on the battlefield, but no other enchantress: Time to search for another enchantress! Great targets for tutoring in the midgame.
- Your opponents are aggressive on board: If you notice that you are getting attacked quite a bit, tutor for cards like Elephant Grass, Ghostly Prison or Sphere of Safety. This deck can struggle a bit with on board pressure from creatures and these cards are great at stopping your opponents from attacking you.
- You are holding or drawing into quite a few lands: Great! You now need to find a way to get the lands into play and the deck has a small package to do just that. Tutor for Exploration, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove or Azusa, Lost but Seeking. This is a great way of getting a mana lead.
- You are drawing into Crop Rotation or Sylvan Scrying: These cards only have a few targets, namely Hall of Heliod's Generosity, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Serra's Sanctum. You generally want to first get one of your big mana lands into play. When one of these is online, it is generally a good idea to tutor for Hall of Heliod's Generosity to fight enchantment removal from other players.
- Your opponents are playing a scary threat: If you have a nice pillowfort set up it you might not want to deal with it. It is great if other players seem more scary than you, since it will divert their attention from you. If you are vulnerable though it might be a good idea to tutor for removal. It is a responsible play, though not splashy play.
- Your opponents are playing a card that is able to deal with your enchantress engine: Uh oh. DANGER, DANGER. You need to deal with this as quickly as possible. Tutoring for removal is the way to go.
- You have lots of mana available, engine and pillowfort are set up: Now is the time to tutor for winconditions (one of your token producers). If you have a pillowfort set up Luminarch Ascension can end the game quickly once it is online. For immediate impact it could sometimes be better to find Sigil of the Empty Throne.
- Your opponents have scary haste/tap shenanigans: The deck has two specific answers for this to slow them down. Tutor for Blind Obedience or Authority of the Consuls.
- An opponent is using countermagic: You will want to tutor for Destiny Spinner. This card shuts of their counterspells and can put some decent pressure on the board as well with her animate land ability.
- You are in the midgame/lategame and you are not really being pressured: In this case, I like to tutor for Mirari's Wake. This card kicks your deck into overdrive.
- You have everything set up; your engine, mana, pillowfort and wincondition: In this case I like to hold my tutors. You might need it to deal with something later in the game, or perhaps someone plays a wipe and you have to rebuild.
- You are aware that your opponents decks include specific cards that hurt you a lot: If you know that your opponents are playing cards like Aura Shards, it might be worth it to hold onto at least one of your tutors in the case these scary cards come online. You can also tutor for Seal of Cleansing and Seal of Primordium so you can deal with these problems at instant speed.
Card Choice Discussion - Main Decklist
Creatures are the second most important card type in an enchantress deck. The creature package consist of your enchantress suite, some finishers and useful utility creatures. Note that quite a few of the creatures in this list are enchantment creatures that also trigger your enchantresses.
- Academy Rector: This card is a great rattlesnake. People don't really want to attack into it and if the board gets wiped you will always have something useful on the battlefield to start rebuilding with.
- Archon of Sun's Grace: This creature is pretty good both offensively and defensively as it generates plenty of blockers for just following your gameplan. Flyers are pretty good in commander, and the Archon has lifelink and gives your pegasus tokens lifelink as well.
- Argothian Enchantress: Best enchantress in the deck. Protects her tiny 0/1 body with shroud and costs just two mana. I usually play her over Sythis on turn two for the extra card when I cast my commander.
- Auramancer: Simple but effective, gets you back one of your destroyed or discarded enchantments.
- Azusa, Lost but Seeking: This card may be a bit odd at first glance, but when our engine is in place we draw a lot of cards. This means we naturally draw a lot of lands as well. Azusa is great to dump those lands onto the battlefield. This is great for the mana-hungry deck that we are. I tutor for her reasonably often.
- Composer of Spring: Composer helps us to put the lands we draw into play, especially in turns were we really go off. Great new addition to the deck.
- Courser of Kruphix: Courser gives you a little bit of extra lifegain and makes it so you can play lands from the top of your library. As we draw multiple cards per turn, you wil have a higher chance of seeing a land. I also own a altered Courser with extended border (gift from a player in our store), so I cannot just not play it.
- Destiny Spinner: This card is awesome. She is an enchantment creature that gives all your creatures and enchantments uncounterable. This is great when you are dealing with pesky blue decks and want to get your finishing enchantments on the battlefield. When you have a boatload of enchantments on the battlefield already she can turn your lands into big hitters with haste and trample. Nice.
- Dryad of the Ilysian Grove: I put in Dryad because of the same reasons as Azusa. Extra land drops = good in this deck. She is also an excellent way to make things in our pip-hungry deck (as we want to cast multiple spells a turn ideally) easier to cast. Dryad is also an enchantment on top of all that. Nice things all around.
- Eidolon of Blossoms: Eidolon is our most expensive enchantress. He compensates for that by drawing us a card when it enters. It triggers on enchantments entering the battlefield instead of enchantments being cast, so if an enchantment you are casting gets countered you won't get the trigger.
- Eternal Witness: Eternal Witness gets us back anything in our graveyard, which is very useful. Enchantments, tutors... a Replenish, you name it.
- Herald of the Pantheon: Herald makes sure our deck is a bit more streamlined when we are casting multiple spells a turn. If you cast three enchantments for example, it means that you have had a discount of that turn. Also comes with a nice lifegain bonus.
- Jukai Naturalist: Jukai Naturalist fulfills the same role as Herald of the Pantheon, and is an enchantment on top of that.
- Mesa Enchantress: One of our three mana enchantresses. These are the cards you are looking for during a game of commander.
- Monk Idealist: Simple but effective, gets you back one of your destroyed or discarded enchantments.
- Moon-Blessed Cleric: Cleric is Enlightened Tutor on a stick. But sorcery speed. And you cannot search for artifacts (which we do not play). In the mid-lategame, you can often put something on top, play an enchantments, get the card from the top and even get to play it.
- Sanctum Weaver: It is Serra's Sanctum, but as a dork. This came out in the same set as Sythis and is really really good. Taps for a lot of mana often.
- Satyr Enchanter: One of our three mana enchantresses. These are the cards you are looking for during a game of commander.
- Setessan Champion: One of our three mana enchantresses. These are the cards you are looking for during a game of commander. Note: Champion also triggers on etb instead of cast, just like Eidolon of Blossoms.
- Shalai, Voice of Plenty: Shalai is there to protect our fragile enchantresses, and she also doubles up as a finisher. If you have a lot of mana available, you can turn your board from a few docile creatures into heavy hitters very quickly.
- Verduran Enchantress: One of our three mana enchantresses. These are the cards you are looking for during a game of commander.
Most of my sorceries are tutors, because I like to find the appropriate creatures and enchantments consistently whatever the state of the game. Most cards in our deck can be a valid target of tutoring at one point in the game, so choose wisely (and know when to hold a tutor for a few turns).
- Finale of Devastation: A reasonably cheap tutor that also functions as an effective finisher. In the early/mid-game, it often finds me an enchantress and in the lategame, it can often win me the game.
- Green Sun's Zenith: GSZ is a streamlined tutor that can find most creatures in our deck.
- Idyllic Tutor: Finds us an enchantment of our choice. Be wary of the state of the game. Sometimes you will find a Sigil of the Empty Throne, other times, an Exploration. And sometimes you just have to answer something and find some enchantment-based removal.
- Replenish: This card returns ALL your enchantments to the battlefield. It is just nuts and game-winning in some scenarios. Shame it is getting more and more expensive now. There are some budget options available however, which I will cover later in the budget section.
- Sylvan Scrying: I mostly use it to tutor for Serra's Sanctum or Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Sometimes you tutor for third target, which is Hall of Heliod's Generosity (I do this rarely though).
Most of my instants are tutors, because I like to find the appropriate creatures and enchantments consistently whatever the state of the game. Most cards in our deck can be a valid target of tutoring at one point in the game, so choose wisely (and know when to hold a tutor for a few turns).
- Crop Rotation: I mostly use it to tutor for Serra's Sanctum or Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Sometimes you tutor for third target, which is Hall of Heliod's Generosity (I do this rarely though).
- Eladamri's Call: A cheap tutor-to-hand that can be used at instant speed.
- Enlightened Tutor: Finds us an enchantment of our choice. Be wary of the state of the game. Sometimes you will find a Sigil of the Empty Throne, other times, an Exploration. And sometimes you just have to answer something and find some enchantment-based removal. Note that it does not tutor to hand, so be prepared to either wait a turn or find a way to draw the tutored card from the top.
- Worldly Tutor: Finds us a creature of our choice. Like I said earlier, most of our creatures are valid targets of tutoring at one point in the game. Note that it does not tutor to hand, so be prepared to either wait a turn or find a way to draw the tutored card from the top.
Our enchantments, the most important card type. Pair these with the enchantress suite and you have a strong card drawing engine. Enchantments tend to be quite resilient and sometimes stay on the board for the entire game... but watch out for blowout cards like Merciless Eviction, Cleansing Nova, Austere Command and Bane of Progress!
- Aura of Silence: When this card comes down on turn 3, it can really mess with the mana curve of our opponents. Later in the game, it is a solid removal option. Do not hesitate to blow up an early Sol Ring though!
- Authority of the Consuls: Gives us a bit of extra lifegain, and can mess with certain decks. Also cheap to cast, which makes it easy the cycle through our deck with our enchantress engine.
- Banishing Light: Can remove anything we want (except for lands).
- Banishment: Can remove anything we want (except for lands), and at instant speed... this gives some options to an otherwise sorcery-speed deck. Can also deal with an army of multiples of the same token or copies of a card.
- Blind Obedience: Gives us the option to gain a bit of life with every cast (the lifedrain is not as relevant usually), and tapping our opponents creatures and artifacts can really slow our opponents down. This is great, as we are slow deck.
- Elephant Grass: Very cheap pillowfort card. It does come with an upkeep but it will give you some breathing room for a few turns. You can also easily cycle it because it is only on mana.
- Enchantress's Presence: The enchantment option in our enchantress suite. Generally a bit harder to remove than the creature enchantresses.
- Exploration: When our engine is online, we draw multipe cards a turn. This means more lands as well. Exploration helps us to play those lands.
- Fertile Ground: Some ramp to improve the flow of the deck.
- Flickering Ward: This card can be played, returned to hand and played again over and over. A great way of digging deeper in our deck or creating angels with Sigil of the Empty Throne/getting triggers out of Skybind.
- Ghostly Prison: A classic in the pillowfort category. Does a good job holding off opponents going wide. Even opponents with larger threats suddenly have to decide whether they want to attack or develop their board.
- Grasp of Fate: Great removal option that targets multiple cards on the battlefield for only . This card can be of great use politically too.
- Greater Auramancy: Pair this card with Sterling Grove, and you have got some nice protection going for your enchantments. Even on its own it often prevents removal being used as some people do no like to use their removal on it, which is a mistake on their part and great for us.
- Hallowed Haunting: This card is very comparable to Sigil of the Empty Throne, with a higher ceiling. An excellent win condition. One downside is that they do not have evasion until you hit seven or more enchantments, but it is pretty use to build up a big boardstate.
- Karmic Justice: It punishes our opponents for interacting with our board state. You can threaten to blow up lands as a response to removal, and it often makes opponents think twice about targeting our enchantments.
- Luminarch Ascension: It is a bit slow in that you have to turn it on first (ideally takes only slightly longer than one full turn cycle), but it is still a very powerful win condition. You generally have the mana in the lategame to create an army of angels out of nowhere, and just start oneshotting people with them.
- Mana Bloom: Quite unassuming, but nice value. This card can act as ramp in the early game and give us the option to play it every turn triggering our enchantresses later in the game (just remove the last counter before the beginning of your upkeep).
- Mirari's Wake: The first big mana option of the deck. Mirari's Wake adds one mana to each land tapped for mana. This makes it so that our deck can play more enchantments, draw more cards and sculpt a win condition on the board.
- Mirri's Guile: Mirri's Guile is great early game to make sure you find the right cards early one, and is cheap card draw later in the game. Because we play a full fetch suite, we can shuffle away things we do not like.
- Oblivion Ring: Can remove anything we want (except for lands),
- Out of Time: A boardwipe... on an enchantment, which means we have a few cards to tutor for it. Very strong. Be aware though, if it gets destroyed everyone gets their stuff back.
- Overgrowth: Some ramp to improve the flow of the deck.
- Quarantine Field: Solid removal option for four mana, and if you have a boatload of mana you can really pick boardstates apart with this card.
- Seal of Cleansing: Good removal for artifacts and enchantments.
- Seal of Primordium: Good removal for artifacts and enchantments.
- Sigil of the Empty Throne: One of our finishers. Gives us a respectable 4/4 flying beater every time we cast an enchantment.
- Skybind: This card is like a Swiss army knife. It can remove opposing blockers, remove tokens permanently, get rid of stax pieces during your turn.... the possibilities are endless. I always find new ways to utilise it.
- Solitary Confinement: Very strong pillowfort card. Prevents a surprisingly large number of cards from targeting you and makes death by combat impossible. Warning: life drain still works (as long as it is not targeted)! Note that you need some form of your enchantress engine online if you want to keep this cards on the board, otherwise you will fall behind in cards.
- Song of the Dryads: Strong (commander) removal option. Can also target lands, which means you can get rid of things like Cabal + Urborg.
- Sphere of Safety: If everyone has to pay per creature to attack me... This card just shuts down combat towards you completely. Great pillowfort card. Suddenly that pesky Edgar Markov deck cannot send their vampires your way anymore.
- Stasis Snare: Can remove a creature, and at instant speed... this gives some options to an otherwise sorcery-speed deck.
- Sterling Grove: If you pair this card with Greater Auramancy, your enchantments cannot be targeted anymore. This makes it even more difficult for your opponents to interact with your boardstate. In the case of removal/wipe you can crack it to tutor for something useful. I generally refrain from cracking it if it is not necessary, but sometimes it can be the right call to look for something else.
- Sylvan Library: Provides some filtering, as well as the option to draw multiple cards in our draw step. Because we run some incidental lifegain (and Sythis gains us a point of life for every enchantment cast), we can slightly more greedy with the library. Because we play a full fetch suite, we can shuffle away things we do not like.
- Utopia Sprawl: Some ramp to improve the flow of the deck.
- Wild Growth: Some ramp to improve the flow of the deck.
- Wolfwillow Haven: Some ramp to improve the flow of the deck.
I do not run many utility lands, but here are my four very powerful lands choices for this deck. Note that I am running the full suite of fetches... you do not need them. I just like being able to find my dual lands.
- Boseiju, Who Endures: This land is pushed. A source of green when it needs to be a land, and versatile removal in a single package.
- Hall of Heliod's Generosity: This land can help you recover powerful enchanments by putting them on top of your library. Very useful effect. It is the only non-coloured mana generating land in my deck.
- Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: This land is great as you play mostly permanents in the deck. That means that you can generate a lot of green or white mana.
- Serra's Sanctum: This land is absolute bonkers. Sadly, it is also ridiculously expensive...
I had to make some tough choices when building this deck. You might wonder why I am not including certain staples. In this section I will explain why I do not include certain cards.
- Aegis of the Gods: I ran this card for a while and it just did not do enough for me. It basically cycled for and that was it. In my meta I am not regularly targeted by spells like Villainous Wealth. Also, I already have Shalai, Voice of Plenty in the deck with a similar effect.
- Austere Command: I am not running Austere command or other sorcery based boardwipes in this deck. I found that they would often just end up in my hand for the entire game. You are often the person with the most permanents on the battlefield and you do not want to wipe your enchantresses. Instead, this deck utilizes some enchantment-based "pseudo" boardwipes in Quarantine Field and Out of Time.
- Darksteel Mutation: This is a strong removal effect. You can get rid if really scary creatures and commanders alike. I opted for more catch-all removal like Oblivion Ring, but this card is really good if you life in a meta were you really have to answer specific creatures and commanders.
- Earthcraft: Pair with Squirrel Nest for infinite Squirrels. Throw in a Concordant Crossroads as well and you can win in a single turn. I decided to go for slower token finishers, since I find them more fun. If you want to be more efficient than me, include this combo.
- Femeref Enchantress: This poor enchantress just does not do enough. It is basically passive boardwipe insurance. We do not really like passive cards.
- Heliod, Sun-Crowned: Pair this card with Walking Ballista and you have a game-ending combo. You even run multiple cards that can tutor for them! I went for the token route instead of running combos though.
- Heroic Intervention: Very strong reactive cards. Basically negates one enchantment/creature wipe. I have been running this card for a while, but it always ended up doing nothing in my hand. Also, you can generally build up a boardstate again relatively quickly with your recursion effects and Hall of Heliod's Generosity. If you are more responsible than me, you should probably run this card or Teferi's Protection.
- Nessian Wanderer: A nice enchantress-like effect. However, I find that I am running enough enchantress effects. This card is perfectly playable if you cannot afford an Argothian Enchantress though.
- Path to Exile: Excellent removal at instant speed for just one . I prefer running on-theme removal though. Enchantment-based removal triggers your enchantresses and ends up providing you with more value. You are also pretty good at ramping, so you do not really need the efficiency.
- Sol Ring: Sol Ring is not that great in this pip-heavy list. I prefer running enchantment ramp like Wild Growth over the omnipresent commander staple.
- Swords to Plowshares: See Path to Exile.
- Teferi's Protection: See Heroic Intervention.
Credit & Thanks
Primer History
Dear Diary,
September 26th, 2021Today I decided to post my decklist to MTGNexus. I enjoy writing and discussing anything MTG-related, and I hope to talk enchantress stuff in this topic with other fans of the archetype!
December 28th, 2021
Time to work a bit on my primer and make the first few changes to my list. So far, I have been pretty happy with the performance of my Enchantress deck. One of the 'problems' I have been running into is winning when I am in an overwhelmingly advantageous position. I do not run win-on-the-spot combos , so winning in a going off turn is not really possible. Usually this means that I give my opponents a turn to react to my boardstate. I am currently unwilling to add things like Heliod + Ballista to my list and sort of accept that my deck works this way for now.
January 16th, 2022
Working on the philosophy and gameplan parts of this primer. I am looking forward to the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty expansion. I really hope they print some interesting cards for my enchantress deck!
February 14th, 2022
This thread is now officially a primer !
Changelog & Set Reviews
Changelog
REMOVED
- Plea for Guidance: This tutor was really expensive, so I am removing it for now. My deck often has more than enough mana to take advantage of this card in the midgame and onwards, but I think Moon-Blessed Cleric is slightly more flexible.
- Root Maze: This card was hurting me more than helping in games I have been playing so far. It is cheap and in some metas it will do work, but I am happy to remove it from my list.
- Hallowed Haunting: The deck was feeling a bit light on winconditions, so this is an excellent add I think. It is very reasonably costed (both money and mana-wise), so in it goes.
- Moon-Blessed Cleric: A spicy tutor on a stick. You can play it in any stage of the game, and it leaves a blocker. Very solid card.
REMOVED
- Land Tax: This card did not pull its weight. Half the time it was not online and I did not really need to draw lands from it.
- Elephant Grass: A strong pillowfort card. Since I am facing a lot of aggressive creature heavy decks now this should put in some work.
REMOVED
- Forest: I do not think I will cut more basic lands, but I really wanted to make a spot for the new Boseiju.
- Starfield Mystic: Great card, but now we have Jukai Naturalist.
- Boseiju, Who Endures: Great card! Comes in untapped, and I can tutor it to my hand with Sylvan Scrying if I need to.
- Jukai Naturalist: Upgrade over Starfield Mystic. This draws me cards when I cast it while I have enchantress effects on the battlefield. The heavier pip cost does not matter, since I can always cast my commander on turn two as well.
REMOVED
- Cast Out: I barely used the cycling option. It was relevant sometimes when the card was in my opening hand. I think Banishment is a nice little upgrade over Cast Out overall, since it is an answer to tokens and copies of cards (from things like Rite of Replication).
REMOVED
- Heliod, God of the Sun: Heliod was not super useful in the list. Sure, with Skybind and Serra's Sanctum or Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx you could generate quite a few tokens, but I'd rather draw more cards and make bigger tokens with the other token generators in the deck.
- Nyxbloom Ancient: This card was simply too win-more. Generating insane amounts of mana with Serra's Sanctum or Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is fun, but not necessarily needed. It's also seven mana, so sometimes it clogged up my hand doing... nothing.
- Academy Rector: Wooooh, I finally traded one with someone. This card is a great rattlesnake. People don't really want to attack into it and if the board gets wiped you will always have something useful on the battlefield to start rebuilding with.
- Composer of Spring: I ordered one a few days ago, so I will try it out. I have high hopes for this one. It should be able to put quite a few lands (the creature part is less relevant) into play once I get the enchantress train rolling.
Set Reviews
Set Review - Kamigawa: Neon DynastyGo to post
Set Review - Streets of New Capenna
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Set Review - Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate
Go to post
Set Review - Dominaria United
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Set Review - The Brothers' War
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Set Review - Phyrexia: All Will Be One
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Set Review - March of the Machine + Aftermath
Go to post
Set Review - Wilds of Eldraine
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*****Credit for this Primer Template belongs to all members of the Primer Committee*****