Anikthea, Hand of Erebos | Art by Magali Villeneuve

Stella for Star

Enchanté, this is Lenny from the Scrap Trawlers Channel where we do EDH on a budget. Today we're making the acquaintance of the Enduring Enchantments deck from Commander Masters. I'm personally very excited for the face commander of this precon, Anikthea, Hand of Erebos.

Anikthea comes down for five mana and is a solid combatant, being a 4/4 with menace. She grants menace to all your attacking enchantment creatures, and when she enters the battlefield or attacks you can exile a non-aura enchantment from your graveyard and make a token copy that is also a 3/3 Zombie. She lends herself to an enchantress strategy, possibly with a self discard or self mill sub-theme to take full advantage of her "reanimator" effect.

As a commander, I think she's quite strong. Cheating mana costs is powerful, and that's exactly what Anikthea is doing for enchantments. Even if you aren't going out of your way to cheat out expensive enchantments, the value she provides from recurring even smaller enchantments is great. On top of that, she also provides evasion to help push through combat damage. Some folks might scoff at her cost, but enchantress is a well supported strategy in the game and there is plenty to be doing before resolving the commander. Myrkul, Lord of Bones is probably the closest parallel, since it turns your creatures into enchantment tokens. Karador, Ghost Chieftain is also similar in that it gives you access to your graveyard. Both of these care more about creatures, but some folks out there have taken to enchantress builds with them. Now, without further ado, let's take a look at the deck.

We got one other commander in the 99 of this deck, Narci, Fable Singer. She's a 3/3 lifelinker for four mana. She draws you a card whenever you sacrifice an enchantment and whenever you get to the final chapter of a Saga, She drains each opponent and gains you life equal to the mana value of that Saga. I think Narci is an incredibly cool commander, but she needs to be built around more than she gets as the backup commander of this precon. I counted only seven Sagas and seven cards that either sacrifice enchantments or are enchantments that sacrifice themselves. I don't recommend using her at the helm of this deck, and I would debate keeping her in the 99 without adding a significant amount of Saga support.

Star Wars

First and foremost, this is an enchantress deck. Enchantress decks make use of cards like Verduran Enchantress and Doomwake Giant to gain benefits from casting other enchantments or having them enter the battlefield. Tokens are often a sub-theme in enchantress decks because of payoff cards like Sigil of the Empty Throne. This deck is no different, the tokens are helpful as a way to get in for damage and to protect yourself from opponents.

There's also a Saga sub-theme present here that speaks to Narci, Fable Singer as an alternate commander. Sagas are pretty intriguing with Anikthea, since she can get them back, but I think most of the ones that were chosen aren't particularly great and ultimately take up space in the deck. In addition to the legends, enchantress players got some great new toys to play with. Composer of Spring puts a land onto the battlefield every time an enchantment enters under your control, and once you have six enchantments it lets you start putting creatures in instead.

Ondu Spiritdancer makes you token copies of your enchantments when they hit the field. While this only happens once per turn, enchantments often have powerful effects that your opponents don't want to see two of, and it gets out of hand if you can find a way to get enchantments out off your turn. With Demon of Fate's Design, you can pay life to cast an enchantment on your turn, and it's a sacrifice outlet for enchantments you don't need.

Boon of the Spirit Realm is a great new anthem for all those tokens you make with your enchantments. For Saga lovers we get Battle at the Helvault which provides temporary removal and a powerful legendary token. Finally we get a board wipe that misses enchantment creatures and can become an enchantment creature itself, with Cacophony Unleashed.

Some of the win conditions of the deck already got a mention. Sigil of the Empty Throne has been a common win condition for these decks, showing up in 71% percent of enchantment decks with white. Those Angels from the Sigil, as well as any other tokens, will benefit greatly from Boon of the Spirit Realm. Demon of Fate's Design can dish out some serious damage if you're willing to sacrifice a high mana vale enchantment. Archon of Sun's Grace can easily fill the skies with Pegasi, and the 5/5 you get every turn from Sandwurm Convergence is not nothing. Four mana for a token from Heliod, God of the Sun may seem like a lot, but in conjunction with the commander, or Doomwake Giant, your opponents will struggle to find blockers for those Cleric tokens. Last but not least, Nyxborn Behemoth is there for your giant beater with trample needs.

Guiding Star

Like other enchantress decks, this one is something of a snowball. It starts out small, but eventually you can just bury your opponents in the value you gain from having so many effects on the field. Enchantments also tend to be fairly safe since people don't pack as much removal geared toward dealing with them.

When picking a starting hand, you ideally want one of the "Enchantress" cards, like Mesa Enchantress or Eidolon of Blossoms, to start running through your deck. Green and white sources should be your top priority since the black cards tend to be useful later on in the game. When deciding which opponent to go after, keep in mind that green and white players are more likely to be able to answer you. Use your board wipes if combat starts to come your way, or if it looks like someone is outpacing you too much in creature count. Many of them are one sided for you, and aren't going to hit your best cards.

This deck can end up having a lot of triggers to keep track of. Be sure to keep your board state as organized as possible, not only for your sanity, but for your opponents' ease of understanding as well. Don't fall into the trap of running out the commander as soon as you can cast her. Wait until you have a few enchantments. When your commander is on the field, don't be afraid to exile enchantments in your bin. That's free value you don't want to leave on the table, and if it gets got, just move on. You'll have plenty of cards to use.

Starlight, Star Bright

If Abzan isn't your thing, this deck has great new cards for your enchantress deck. Composer of Spring is, in my opinion, the best new card. Getting free land drops and eventually free creatures whenever an enchantment hits your battlefield is powerful, and if you're already running something like Whip Silk to get enchantress triggers, this can cover your playmat in no time, and since it's only two mana it fits easily into an enchantress storm turn. Don't forget about Amulet of Vigor if you want those lands to be untapped.

Battle at the Helvault is something of a new take on Grasp of Fate. You can remove up to six things from your opponents, albeit temporarily. The fact this card also lets you exile one of your own things is pretty wild, since you can exile an Eternal Witness or an Auramancer and get this Saga back when it goes away. Getting a flying indestructible token with vigilance is the best kind of gravy. There aren't many ways to make copies of an enchantment and none come to mind outside blue, which makes Ondu Spiritdancer quite a unique effect and quite good considering you could potentially get an extra copy of Smothering Tithe.

After what we saw for reprints in the Planeswalker Party deck, I have to admit the reprints in this deck were somewhat of a letdown. This would have been a good spot to reprint Argothian Enchantress and Nylea's Colossus, still there are some bright spots. Grasp of Fate only ever saw a printing in Commander 2015 and was creeping up to $10 for a while. This is a great removal effect that can deal with multiple problems at once. Dryad of the Ilysian Grove is the total package. Ramp and color fixing on a solid blocker for three mana with a naked man on the art. If anyone knows of a more perfect magic card, I'd like to hear about it. Hopefully the reprint does something about that $12 price tag. Starfield of Nyx managed to climb its way up to being more than $13 and this is the first time we've seen a reprint for this one as well. Some people get nervous when it comes to making their enchantments vulnerable to more cards by making them creatures, but this can absolutely be a win condition when you consider getting menace from the commander. 

Star Crossed

I've had an Abzan Enchantress deck of my own since 2019, and while I'm sad that I'm going to be less of a hipster now, I am excited for this deck. I think it's well built, and provides a game experience that feels powerful without feeling oppressive, or going overboard with triggers. That itself is an accomplishment as enchantress decks can easily spiral out of control in complexity, and many strong enchantments make for miserable game states. I'm looking at you Tainted Aether.

I do think the deck suffers a bit from forcing that Saga theme, but I'm glad the card type got some additional support. I will say I'm a bit baffled by the inclusion of more traditional green ramp like Rampant Growth and Kodama's Reach, as opposed to land auras that trigger more effects in the deck.

If you're looking to get into enchantress, this deck is an excellent place to start, but the $80 price tag makes it hard to recommend purchasing. Furthermore it's a tough strategy to recommend to new players, as the cognitive load of all those triggers can be overwhelming. I'd say if you're an experienced player and somehow don't have any of the cards, go for it. Otherwise you might be better off grabbing singles. If you're looking to pick this up, be sure to check out my Upgrade Guide. I've got some ideas I think you'll be enchanted with. See you next time, and as always, remember to budget before you buy it.

Scrap Trawlers

Scrap Trawlers is a Magic: The Gathering budget EDH streaming and video group, with gameplay, deck techs, chats, and more. Catch our videos at youtube.com/scraptrawlers. Andy, Lenny, and Bert.