Olde-School Enchantment for Commander

Posted on June 5, 2013

A few days ago, I was looking through my card collection and saw that there were several powerful cards that simply did not have a home. The more I looked, the more I wanted a home for these longtime friends of mine. I figured this would be a good time for another Commander deck since these cards were the same two colors over and over again.

They even had a bit of a theme: enchantments and Selesnya.

So, I looked for a decent legendary creature and some cards and built a quick deck around this idea.

Now, for a G/W enchantment deck, we have weak choices. If you are running Auras, Krond the Dawn-Clad is great. I’m not doing that, so who is any good at all? Trostani, Selesnya's Voice is weak for the deck; some of the crappy legendaries from old years (such as Tobias Andrion and Lady Caleria) aren’t exactly winners. Some guys—Rhys the Redeemed or Gaddock Teeg—don’t fit. So, I was looking at people such as Tolsimir Wolfblood, whom I use as a Commander frequently, and Sigarda, Host of Herons. So, Sigarda it is!

Actually, Sigarda will end up being pretty useful for several reasons. The first is that she will protect my stuff from sacrifices, which is one of the ways to bypass my defenses.

My hands dashed across the keys, and I immediately assembled the first core cards of my deck. What were these essentials? They were Mirari's Wake, Replenish, Academy Rector, Serra's Sanctum, Defense of the Heart, and Privileged Position. Those core cards immediately jumped into my deck.

Then, I pursued similar thoughts. I wanted to protect my stuff. Sterling Grove tutors and protects. Fountain Watch and Asceticism protect, and Leyline of Sanctity protects me. All of these will help to keep my stuff in line. With Sigarda out, sacrifices to avoid these things weaken.

The next line was enchantment enablers. Sigil of the Empty Throne is a bit obvious, but it works. Dowsing Shaman helps to recur dead enchantments. Despite enabling others, I felt that a Replenish effect was important enough to warrant the 6-mana Open the Vaults. Celestial Ancient is an often-forgotten card with enchantment-heavy decks, but it works here. I intentionally avoided too many Enchantresses because I didn’t want to water down my minimal creature base overly much. Instead, I just had Argothian Enchantress and Enchantress's Presence.

After looking at enablers, I fleshed out my enchantment count. Then, I added a few combos to the deck. I don’t normally add intentional combos to my Commander decks, instead just playing a normal hundred cards against foes. But this time, it seemed really helpful to do so. Here are the various combos I tossed in.

Scroll Rack + Land Tax – By themselves, each card is quite useful. When used together, you can draw three cards a turn and get good card quality from them as you dig very deep into your deck. You can also put basics back into the deck to pull out again and enjoy new shuffles each turn.

Abundance + Sylvan Library – Sylvan Library is strong on its own because 4 life is not a bad payment when you need extra cards in a format that starts you at 40 life. Abundance is not great by itself, but it will basically give you either a land or a nonland when you go to draw. When you combine them, you draw three cards a turn in your draw step instead of one, and you do not pay life nor are you forced to put any back. It’s a great combination of stuff!

Worship + Pariah's Shield + Indestructible Creatures – I have quite a few creatures that would love a Pariah's Shield, so all damage is dealt to them that would otherwise have gone to my face. Cho-Manno, Revolutionary joins my indestructible clan as a nice option. Or alternatively, I can drop a Worship and hide behind those same creatures. I added quite a few indestructible dudes, and since one of the ways to fight them is a sacrifice effect, Sigarda becomes better as an adjunct.

Earthcraft + Squirrel Nest – You put the Nest on a basic land and then tap it to make a Squirrel. Tap the Squirrel to untap the land with Earthcraft, and repeat until you have an arbitrarily large number of 1/1 dorks out for fight. Squirrels for the win!

In addition to these combos, I have strong synergies. For example, I have three cards that will bring any creature from my deck to the battlefield: Defense of the Heart, Pattern of Rebirth, and Tooth and Nail. Blightsteel Colossus, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, and Avacyn, Angel of Hope are all strong choices to fetch with those.

For mana, the deck runs Veteran Explorer—to die early—and your normal Solemn Simulacrum, Cultivate, Sol Ring, and Kodama's Reach in addition to the aforementioned Serra's Sanctum, Land Tax and Mirari's Wake. To those, I added Mana Reflection, Thran Dynamo, and Everflowing Chalice. I wanted some powerful mana bumps to fuel the enchanting love. Plus, while this is not a ramp deck, I’d love to be able to drop my big guns and run some of the mana-users in the deck.

I wanted enchantments that did double-duty. Removal-oriented cards joined ones that made dudes. I love Spirit Mirror because the 2/2 dork on the ground never goes away permanently post-blocking or removal unless someone wastes a Disenchant on it. I also enjoy Soul Snare as a great rattlesnake that sits on the board and threatens the exile of any attacker. Centaur Glade was an ideal choice for the deck because it uses extra mana to spit out 3/3 Centaurs. Luminarch Ascension is a card I normally avoid, but it felt all right here, adding to my creature making capabilities. Urza's Factory also joined us as a mana sink.

With such great enchantments already in the deck, the need for artifacts outside of creatures, combos, and mana was light. I wanted a card-drawing mana sink, so Diviner's Wand jumped in. Manriki-Gusari joined my team as a good Equipment destroyer. With a solid amount of card-shuffling, I wanted to duplicate Sylvan Library with Sensei's Divining Top.

After that, I added cards to flesh out the deck for combos. In went Idyllic Tutor and Enlightened Tutor to find removal, such an Aura Shards or Oblivion Ring, a combo piece when I have the other half already, a powerful engine like Sigil of the Empty Throne, or even a creature that can help my board position. Joining Sterling Grove and Academy Rector, these give me some nice ways to find those vital powerhouses.

I noticed that my number of flying creatures was light, so I tossed in Silklash Spider to defend and keep the skies clear. I loved that inclusion, so I pushed my creature removal. With flyers like Darksteel Gargoyle, Commander Eesha, and Avacyn running around, I risked the death of very few of my guys. Arashi, the Sky Asunder has always been great at pulling double-duty as a 5/5 for 5 mana that can blow up flyers intermittently or channel to take them out at instant speed. I also added one more sky-clearer in Tornado Elemental—a nice creature of size with an enters-the-battlefield trigger of doling out 6 damage to the flyers—that will kill a lot of stuff at the multiplayer table. Remember that if you don’t run a lot of flyers, play cards to clean them out because other players will be playing them.

The final round up for my deck added cards such as Eternal Witness, Lieutenant Kirtar, Genesis, and Karmic Guide to enchantments such as Martyr's Bond and Collective Blessing.

After that, I looked at my lands. I had only four lands at this point: Kor Haven, Maze of Ith, Urza's Factory, and Serra's Sanctum. I initially added a lot of colorless lands: Strip Mine and Wasteland to control nasty lands on the other side of the table, Winding Canyons for flash purposes, and more. Since I had so many colorless lands, I pushed my land base with quite a few entries that make both colors. I didn’t dig deep into guys such as Selesnya Guildgate or Elfhame Palace, but I added seven lands that tap for both. After adding my basics, I called it a deck.

Are you interested in seeing the entire deck?

"Olde-School Enchantments"

Commander (0)

The last cards pulled included Greater Auramancy and Wild Pair.

I often build fun Commander decks, and some of those I have built in the past are built around fun guys such as Jacques le Vert, Tolsimir Wolfblood, Cromat, and Reaper King. So sure, I often like to relax and take it easy.

While this deck has some nice and easy cards, such as Lieutenant Kirtar, Veteran Explorer, and Spirit Mirror, it’s not your normal relaxed deck, and I know that. With the combos, the synergies, the tutors, the protection, and more, it can be a bit antagonistic. Now, I didn’t push it that much. For example, there are no instant kills with Tooth and Nail or Defense of the Heart. Neither am I grabbing nasty creatures that destroy your mana base, such as Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Kamahl, Fist of Krosa and turning all of your lands into creatures for each to off them. So yes, this is an aggressive deck, but I have not tweaked the dials to maximum power.