How to Build an Enchantment Commander Deck in MTG

Gain an enchanting advantage.

Magic: The Gathering, and Commander in particular, is often driven by how efficient you can be with your cards. Few card types exemplify this efficiency better than enchantments, as the synergies that have been built into the card type include ways to generate value over time, including crucial card advantage engines. Here, I’ll highlight the best cards to include in your own enchantment build, and other key play elements for this value-oriented strategy.

Enchanting Command

Powerful enchantments are printed in almost every set in Magic. While artifacts may ultimately win out as the most powerful permanent type in the game (in some part due to their largely colorless nature making them more ubiquitous), the focused synergy offered up by enchantments is truly something to behold.

If you’re drawn towards enchantments in Commander, the first thing you need to do is pick the legendary card to head your deck. Take note, that I’m focusing on enchantments as a whole, as opposed to Auras or Enchantment Creatures. I’ve picked out the top five enchantment commanders currently available:

1. Sythis, Harvest’s Hand
2. Go-Shintai of Life’s Origin
3. Tuvasa the Sunlit
4. Tatsunari, Toad Rider
5. Ghen, Arcanum Weaver

Sythis, Harvest’s Hand is the most straightforward and the most recommendable overall. Go-Shintai of Life’s Origin is open-ended, giving you access to all five colors, but really wanting you to hone in on the Shrine subtype. I personally recommend narrowing the focus down, so the majority of recommendations here will be with Sythis, or other Selesnya enchantment commanders, in mind.

Tuvasa the Sunlit trades out multiple card draws to get you access to blue, while Tatsunari, Toad Rider gives you a life draining win condition in the command zone. Losing out on white puts Tatsunari lower on my list, however, as I think the core of the deck really wants to be white and green.

That said, Ghen, Arcanum Weaver is critically underplayed in the format. Being able to cheat out powerhouse enchantments from the yard is something that should not be underestimated. As an honorable mention, I also strongly recommend Eutropia the Twice Favored for a budget Enchantment deck, but you’re better off sticking with any of the top five to start.

The Enchantress Core

Enchantress’s Presence

Commander Masters, Rare

Enchantment-focused decks are often called “Enchantress” decks and its due to them typically including a critical mass of the Enchantress’s Presence effects. Drawing cards whenever you play out your key card types is extremely powerful, and getting a couple of these on the board can have you set for cards for the entire game.

Sterling Grove

Judge Gift Cards 2020, Rare

Protecting your enchantments is also of great importance, and Sterling Grove does double duty. If you need to defend your enchanting permanents, the grove does exactly that, and if you’re less concerned with their defense then it can be cashed in for a tutor as needed. If you’re in Selesnya (which I believe you should be) this needs to be in the deck.

Sigil of the Empty Throne

Commander Masters, Rare

Drawing an endless pile of cards is usually the first goal of an enchantment-centric deck, but you have to find a way to win from there. The scaling threats offered up by enchantment decks is one of their advantages (which we’ll get to later) with Sigil of the Empty Throne potentially being the most powerful of these.

Sanctum Weaver

Commander Masters, Rare

Piles of cards in hand and threats ready to go, you need to be able to cast them. Enchantment decks rarely hae to struggle for mana, and Sanctum Weaver is one of the payoffs that makes sure that’s the case. It isn’t quite Serra’s Sanctum, but it’s close!

Destiny Spinner

Commander Masters, Uncommon

Enchantment decks tend to play a little bit like solitaire. You’re doing your own thing, piling on advantage, and then just looking to roll over your opponents once you’ve gotten there. Destiny Spinner goes a long way towards this, stopping counterspells from mattering and giving you trampling threats in the late game.

Enchanted Card Advantage

Typical “Enchantress” decks excel at drawing cards. I wholeheartedly recommend finding your favorite variants of enchantment-centric card draw and throwing them into the deck immediately. A critical mass of these can be serious problem for your opponents.

Eidolon of Blossoms is my favorite of these, triggering other enchantress effects. Mesa Enchantress and Satyr Enchanter are close seconds, just doing what you want to be doing as you go about your game plan. You can’t go wrong with running plenty of these cards as long as you’ve also get enchantments to pay them out.

Scaling Threats

Enchantment decks have some stellar inevitability, as most of their best threats scale very well throughout the game. Your creatures get bigger as the game goes on, and ideally your opponents can only watch.

Setessan Champion is the best of these, growing over time while also drawing you more cards. Archon of Sun’s Grace isn’t quite Sigil of the Empty Throne, but it’s close and gums up the sky.  Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr can get huge and, if answered, then juices another of your threats. While outside of our colors here, I’ll also note that I like Doomwake Giant for similar reasons in black-focused enchantment builds.

Enchantingly Efficient

You have cards, and your threats are busily doing their thing, but it all is completely worthless if you can’t actually play them out. Enchantments have your back here too!

Jukai Naturalist and Herald of the Pantheon make curving out (and chaining card draw with your enchantress effects) much easier with their cost reduction. Similarly, there are several ramp effects in enchantments like Wild Growth and my favorite classic, Mirari’s Wake.

Transformative Answers

Enchantment builds are surprisingly flexible, often having a unique array of ways to play. One element of that flexibility is the variety of removal they have on hand, including Pacifism and Oblivion Ring effects.

Even better than Oblivion Ring, however, are the transforming enchantments.  Darksteel Mutation, Kenrith’s Transformation, Song of the Dryads and several others all take a threat and nullify them almost entirely. If the opponent doesn’t have an answer to these enchantments, you may be able to turn off a problem forever.

Easily Found Enchantments

Enchantress decks may draw a lot of cards, but sometimes you just want to guarantee finding your favorite enchantments. To that end, you should run at least a couple of cards that can tutor for your key pieces.

Enlightened Tutor and Idyllic Tutor are the most effective enchantment tutors, though there are quite a few budget options alongside them.  Please for Guidance is literally just two Idyllic Tutors stapled together, but that can sometimes be exactly what you need.

Enchanting Lands

There are few cards focused exclusively on enchantments, especially if you don’t have the budget for Serra’s Sanctum. That said, there are a few lands that fit well into your game plan to start with.

Hall of Heliod’s Generosity gives you excellent recursion without having to take up more than a land slot. Reliquary Tower is a card that many players over rate, but it’s one that has a home here with how often you’ll end up drawing. Rogue’s Passage is also key for several of our scaling threats, making sure that the juiced Setessan Champion has somewhere to go.

Playing Enchantments

A traditional enchantment deck starts a little differently than other Commander decks. You can play out some ramp or early threats, but your first few turns are ideally spent dropping your enchantress engines ASAP. Dropping a Satyr Enchanter quickly and then drawing cards for the rest of the game is where you want to be.

Your mid game is spent accumulating card advantage with those enchantress effects and beginning to scale your threats. Getting angel tokens off of Sigil of the Empty Throne or beginning to crash in with an Ethereal Armor empowered creatures lets you control the flow of the game.

In the late game, you should be able to use your value engines to overtake your opponents. My favorite is to start juicing creatures with Nylea’s Colossus, potentially making those big beats unblockable with Rogue’s Passage. If things haven’t gone your way, you can also potentially get some epic value off of a late Brilliant Restoration.

Your First Enchantment

As noted earlier, I recommend keeping your build focused— in this case that means having an enchantress effect in your command zone and limiting yourself to the two colors this article focused on. Sythis, Harvest’s Hand can generate some impressive value through the course of a game, and is definitely where I recommend you start your enchantment build.

Commander

Sythis Enchantments Base

Market Price:$206.70

Maindeck, 99 cards

Sortsort deckCommander (1)

• 1Sythis, Harvest’s Hand

Creature (20)

• 1Alseid of Life’s Bounty
• 1Archon of Sun’s Grace
• 1Courser of Kruphix
• 1Danitha, New Benalia’s Light
• 1Destiny Spinner
• 1Eidolon of Blossoms
• 1Eternal Witness
• 1Herald of the Pantheon
• 1Jukai Naturalist
• 1Kami of Transience
• 1Karametra, God of Harvests
• 1Katilda, Dawnhart Martyr // Katilda’s Rising Dawn
• 1Mesa Enchantress
• 1Nylea’s Colossus
• 1Sanctum Weaver
• 1Satyr Enchanter
• 1Setessan Champion
• 1Spirited Companion
• 1Sun Titan
• 1Weaver of Harmony

Sorcery (8)

• 1Austere Command
• 1Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary
• 1Brilliant Restoration
• 1Cultivate
• 1Idyllic Tutor
• 1Nature’s Lore
• 1Plea for Guidance
• 1Wrath of God

Instant (6)

• 1Beast Within
• 1Chord of Calling
• 1Cosmic Rebirth
• 1Enlightened Tutor
• 1Generous Gift
• 1Swords to Plowshares

Artifact (4)

• 1Arcane Signet
• 1Sol Ring
• 1Swiftfoot Boots
• 1Thought Vessel

Enchantment (25)

• 1Abundance
• 1All That Glitters
• 1Banishing Light
• 1Cleric Class
• 1Court of Grace
• 1Darksteel Mutation
• 1Enchantress’s Presence
• 1Ethereal Armor
• 1Fertile Ground
• 1Ghostly Prison
• 1Hallowed Haunting
• 1Kenrith’s Transformation
• 1Lignify
• 1Luminarch Ascension
• 1Mirari’s Wake
• 1Privileged Position
• 1Rancor
• 1Seal from Existence
• 1Seal of Cleansing
• 1Sigil of the Empty Throne
• 1Song of the Dryads
• 1Sphere of Safety
• 1Sterling Grove
• 1Wild Growth
• 1Zendikar Resurgent

Land (36)

• 1Bountiful Promenade
• 1Branchloft Pathway // Boulderloft Pathway
• 1Brushland
• 1Canopy Vista
• 1Command Tower
• 10Forest
• 1Fortified Village
• 1Hall of Heliod’s Generosity
• 1Krosan Verge
• 10Plains
• 1Reliquary Tower
• 1Rogue’s Passage
• 1Scattered Groves
• 1Stirring Wildwood
• 1Sunpetal Grove
• 1Temple Garden
• 1Temple of Plenty
• 1Wooded Bastion