Marina VendrellMarina Vendrell | Art by Magali Villeneuve

Welcome back to Best At, Worst At. In this series, we look at some of Commander's most popular strategies, see which legendary creatures lead the most decks for them, and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of those cards. After we analyze a strategy's most popular commander, we'll look at another commander that fills in some of their weak spots.

In today's edition, we'll be talking about Enchantress decks. These decks are quite popular, currently sitting as the 15th-most popular strategy in EDHREC's data with 58,052 decks!

Why Play Enchantress?

These decks make great use of one of Magic's most interesting card types. While most Commander decks run just a handful of enchantments, these decks often run more than a dozen of them, some with enchantments numbering in the scores, just to get the density they need to make this strategy tick.

Enchantments come in multiple forms, with Auras, Sagas, and Rooms all doing different things. But, in general, these decks can make a ton of mana (with cards like Sanctum WeaverSanctum Weaver), wipe the board easily (with beefers like Doomwake GiantDoomwake Giant), and even set up a pillow fort (with permanents like Sphere of SafetySphere of Safety).

Who's the Most Popular Enchantress Commander?

The most popular Enchantress commander is Marina VendrellMarina Vendrell, leading 7% of this strategy's lists. As the legend in charge of 3,771 decks with this tag, Marina lets pilots make good use of all the Rooms that got printed in Duskmourn.

For , Marina is a 3/5 Human Warlock. When she enters the battlefield, we get to look at the top seven cards of our library and put all enchantments from among them into our hand. We can also Marina to lock or unlock half of a Room enchantment, letting us use and re-use their effects!

What Makes Marina Vendrell So Powerful?

As one of just two commanders that synergize with Rooms, Marina provides a home (no pun intended) for all of the great cards from the haunted-house-themed set that released in 2024. Rooms are generally pretty well-designed, and Marina lets us play the best ones while also giving us access to some fantastic synergy pieces.

Her five-color identity lets us play a "no holds barred" sort of game, not needing to settle for sub-par removal, card advantage, or ramp. She also lets us cheat huge mana costs very effectively. If, for example, we spend two mana to get the cheaper half of a Mirror Room // Fractured RealmMirror Room // Fractured Realm on the field, Marina can save us by unlocking the more costly side. She can also let us reuse Mirror Room's ability by repeatedly locking and unlocking it!

What's in a Marina Deck?

Marina Vendrell decks keep their hands full with draw engines like Sythis, Harvest's HandSythis, Harvest's Hand (which finds itself in a whopping 73% of Marina decks) while keeping the board on lockdown with Fear of Sleep ParalysisFear of Sleep Paralysis (in 60% of Marina decks). Other cards from Duskmourn also feature heavily, like The Master of KeysThe Master of Keys (in 30% of lists).

Other decks may focus on filling their 99 with cheap enchantments, like Abundant HarvestAbundant Harvest, but Marina Vendrell pilots want to play house. The most popular Room for these lists is Secret Arcade // Dusty ParlorSecret Arcade // Dusty Parlor, which turns all of our permanents into enchantments. This works well with Marina, letting us grab more cards with her ETB trigger, but it pairs even better with effects like Setessan ChampionSetessan Champion!

Cramped Vents // Access MazeCramped Vents // Access Maze is another popular choice, letting our commander to provide us with on-demand removal while also saving us even more mana in the long run. Finally, Dollmaker's Shop // Porcelain GalleryDollmaker's Shop // Porcelain Gallery makes a great target for our commander's unlock ability. We can spend just and use Marina's ability to get both halves of this Room up and running!

Here's Marina's average decklist, according to EDHREC. Rooms, of course, feature heavily!

What Are Marina Vendrell's Shortcomings?

While Marina can provide a spooky amount of value when played alongside an adequate number of Rooms, she doesn't inherently give us a way to win the game.

Some of the Rooms that we play can put a good amount of power and toughness on the field, and there's even a Room that acts as an alternative win condition (Central Elevator // Promising StairsCentral Elevator // Promising Stairs). But, beyond that, we won't be reducing opponents' life totals meaningfully. Many Rooms are built for Duskmourn's Limited environment, or for 60-card formats, meaning they fall flat in Commander.

How Can We Shore Up Marina's Weaknesses?

In stark contrast, Bello, Bard of the BramblesBello, Bard of the Brambles provides some real offensive firepower. We'll have a board of card-drawing, quick-moving 4/4s before our opponents can say "Raccoon Bard" ten times fast.

For , Bello is a 3/3 that turns all of our non-Aura enchantments and non-Equipment artifacts into 4/4s that draw us cards upon dealing damage to an opponent. These newly-minted creatures have haste and indestructible to boot!

Bello decks play some unique cards. Overlord of the HauntwoodsOverlord of the Hauntwoods, for example, can attack ahead of schedule if we get Bello on the field after casting the Avatar Horror. Weaver of HarmonyWeaver of Harmony's +1/+1 anthem suddenly looks a lot more relevant, too, with our commander on the field. Finally, and funnily enough, Path of DiscoveryPath of Discovery can trigger its own ability to explore!

Bello pairs extraordinarily well with enchantments that augment the damage our creatures can deal. Berserkers' OnslaughtBerserkers' Onslaught and Gratuitous ViolenceGratuitous Violence turn our animated army into functional 8/4s, allowing us to crash through for tons of damage. Gruul War ChantGruul War Chant and Fiery EmancipationFiery Emancipation have similar effects. We can even copy our creature-fied enchantments with Molten EchoesMolten Echoes or Flameshadow ConjuringFlameshadow Conjuring, delivering a real wallop to our opponents in the combat step.

Here's Bello's average Enchantress-tagged deck. This list may be a bit tainted by the original 99 of Bello's preconstructed deck, but the differences between this deck and Marina's should still be clear.

Conclusion

Enchantments appear in every set, but it was so neat to get a whole set focused on them with Duskmourn. I do hope that Rooms return at some point in the near future, and that's not just for Marina Vendrell's sake. They're among the more interesting enchantment subtypes, and I think that there may be some unexplored design space available for multicolored Rooms!

Are you as hopeful as I am for the return of Rooms? Let me know below, and I'll be back soon with another Best At, Worst At!