The Best MTG Enchantress Commanders

Enchantress decks have appeared routinely throughout MTG’s history, attacking games in a way that players often aren’t prepared for. Playing almost exclusively enchantments and drawing tons of cards with effects like Argothian Enchantress Argothian Enchantress Shroud (This creature can't be the target of spells or abilities.)
Whenever you cast an enchantment spell, draw a card. , these decks often win by making your opponent’s game plan pointless.

Nowadays, Enchantress strategies have expanded to include any and all decks that focus on the enchantment card type, but that doesn’t mean they are any less powerful. If you want to build a Commander deck focused on enchantments, these are the absolute best Commanders you can play.

5 | Marina Vendrell

Despite her focus on the Room enchantment subtype, Marina Vendrell is currently the go-to five-color Commander for enchantress decks, at least according to EDHREC. With over 3,200 different Enchantress decks, this is shockingly the most popular Commander for the archetype.

While you can focus on Marina’s entry ability, flickering it with cards like Teleportation Circle Teleportation Circle At the beginning of your end step, exile up to one target artifact or creature you control, then return that card to the battlefield under its owner's control. to keep a constant slew of enchantments going to hand, this is really just a Room Typal deck. Still, since all Rooms are enchantments, all of the usual Enchantress support, like Eidolon of Blossoms Eidolon of Blossoms Constellation — Whenever this creature or another enchantment you control enters, draw a card. , Jukai Naturalist Jukai Naturalist Lifelink
Enchantment spells you cast cost {1} less to cast. , and Setessan Champion Setessan Champion Constellation — Whenever an enchantment you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature and draw a card. make appearances here. Notably, you can also run some more niche Enchantress support, like Zur, Eternal Schemer Zur, Eternal Schemer Flying
Enchantment creatures you control have deathtouch, lifelink, and hexproof.
{1}{W}: Target non-Aura enchantment you control becomes a creature in addition to its other types and has base power and base toughness each equal to its mana value. , since Marina is five-color.

Using Marina’s activated ability, alongside cards like Keys to the House Keys to the House {1}, {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
{3}, {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Lock or unlock a door of target Room you control. Activate only as a sorcery. , Marina can create a ton of value with Room enchantments like Charred Foyer Charred Foyer At the beginning of your upkeep, exile the top card of your library. You may play it this turn.
(You may cast either half. That door unlocks on the battlefield. As a sorcery, you may pay the mana cost of a locked door to unlock it.) and Dollmaker’s Shop Dollmaker’s Shop Whenever one or more non-Toy creatures you control attack a player, create a 1/1 white Toy artifact creature token.
(You may cast either half. That door unlocks on the battlefield. As a sorcery, you may pay the mana cost of a locked door to unlock it.) . Eventually, with enough Rooms unlocked, you can go for a Promising Stairs Promising Stairs When you unlock this door, search your library for a Room card that doesn't have the same name as a Room you control, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
(You may cast either half. That door unlocks on the battlefield. As a sorcery, you may pay the mana cost of a locked door to unlock it.) win, ending the game in true Enchantress fashion.

4 | Estrid, the Masked

Thanks to her +2 ability, Estrid, the Masked Estrid, the Masked +2: Untap each enchanted permanent you control.
−1: Create a white Aura enchantment token named Mask attached to another target permanent. The token has enchant permanent and umbra armor.
−7: Mill seven cards. Return all non-Aura enchantment cards from your graveyard to the battlefield, then do the same for Aura cards.
Estrid, the Masked can be your commander. works best with Auras that enchant your lands. Cards like Fertile Ground Fertile Ground Enchant land
Whenever enchanted land is tapped for mana, its controller adds an additional one mana of any color. and Utopia Sprawl Utopia Sprawl Enchant Forest
As this Aura enters, choose a color.
Whenever enchanted Forest is tapped for mana, its controller adds an additional one mana of the chosen color. ramp you into bigger enchantments and let Estrid’s ability untap your lands. Then, once your get your Enchantress effects like Enchantress’s Presence Enchantress’s Presence Whenever you cast an enchantment spell, draw a card. into play, you can draw a ton of cards with your extra mana, leading to Storm-like sequences.

Once you start getting extra Planeswalker activations and loyalty with cards like The Chain Veil The Chain Veil At the beginning of your end step, if you didn't activate a loyalty ability of a planeswalker this turn, you lose 2 life.
{4}, {T}: For each planeswalker you control, you may activate one of its loyalty abilities once this turn as though none of its loyalty abilities have been activated this turn. , Teferi’s Talent Teferi’s Talent Enchant planeswalker
Enchanted planeswalker has "[−12]: You get an emblem with 'You may activate loyalty abilities of planeswalkers you control on any player's turn any time you could cast an instant.'"
Whenever you draw a card, put a loyalty counter on enchanted planeswalker. , and Oath of Teferi Oath of Teferi When Oath of Teferi enters, exile another target permanent you control. Return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.
You may activate the loyalty abilities of planeswalkers you control twice each turn rather than only once. , Estrid can build up to multiple Ultimate effects per turn. The Chain Veil is particularly nasty here, since Estrid can start untapping the artifact multiple times per turn after attaching a Mask to it. With all the mana you have from your Auras, you can easily Ultimate Estrid, recast her, and Ultimate again.

With the ability to generate ludicrous amounts of mana, Estrid, the Masked is the Enchantress Commander that can take advantage of cast- and enters-related Enchantress payoffs the most. That said, because the Commander doesn’t draw cards herself, she can run into consistency issues, so you’ll need to load up on tutors to make sure she functions properly.

3 | Go-Shintai of Life’s Origin

Offering another five-color Enchantress strategy that focuses on a certain mechanic, Go-Shintai of Life’s Origin rewards you for playing Shrines. Creating a Shrine Token each time one of these cards enters play, Shrines like The Spirit Oasis The Spirit Oasis When The Spirit Oasis enters, draw a card for each Shrine you control.
Whenever another Shrine you control enters, draw a card. and Southern Air Temple Southern Air Temple When Southern Air Temple enters, put X +1/+1 counters on each creature you control, where X is the number of Shrines you control.
Whenever another Shrine you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. can create absurd amounts of value.

Since you’ll be generating a ton of enchantment tokens, other cards that care about enchantments entering, like Eidolon of Blossoms Eidolon of Blossoms Constellation — Whenever this creature or another enchantment you control enters, draw a card. and Setessan Champion Setessan Champion Constellation — Whenever an enchantment you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature and draw a card. , are particularly strong here. While Enchantress effects like Mesa Enchantress Mesa Enchantress Whenever you cast an enchantment spell, you may draw a card. won’t work for your tokens, you’ll still draw tons of cards with them.

Instead of being the core focus of the strategy, Go-Shintai of Life’s Origin’s reanimation effect is more of an added redundancy, bringing back any Shrines that may have been destroyed. That said, you can sacrifice Shrines like Kyoshi Island Plaza Kyoshi Island Plaza When Kyoshi Island Plaza enters, search your library for up to X basic land cards, where X is the number of Shrines you control. Put those cards onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.
Whenever another Shrine you control enters, search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. that create a ton of value on entry and recur them.

Sadly, since Shrines are a critical-mass strategy, this Commander is particularly weak to enchantment board wipes like Cataclysm Cataclysm Each player chooses from among the permanents they control an artifact, a creature, an enchantment, and a land, then sacrifices the rest. or Farewell Farewell Choose one or more —
• Exile all artifacts.
• Exile all creatures.
• Exile all enchantments.
• Exile all graveyards. , but you can run reanimation effects like Replenish Replenish Return all enchantment cards from your graveyard to the battlefield. (Auras with nothing to enchant remain in your graveyard.) or something like Teferi’s Protection Teferi’s Protection Until your next turn, your life total can't change and you gain protection from everything. All permanents you control phase out. (While they're phased out, they're treated as though they don't exist. They phase in before you untap during your untap step.)
Exile Teferi's Protection. to try to counteract this. With this in mind, Go-Shintai of Life’s Origin does offer a solid game plan that can be pretty fun to pilot.

2 | Anikthea, Hand of Erebos

Instead of focusing on a niche enchantment subtype, Anikthea, Hand of Erebos cares about enchantments in your graveyard, reanimating them into enchantment creatures to attack with. Thanks to this, Anikthea commonly runs a suite of high-cost enchantments like Cacophony Unleashed Cacophony Unleashed When this enchantment enters, if you cast it, destroy all nonenchantment creatures.
Whenever this enchantment or another enchantment you control enters, until end of turn, this enchantment becomes a legendary 6/6 Nightmare God creature with menace and deathtouch. It's still an enchantment. and Privileged Position Privileged Position ({G/W} can be paid with either {G} or {W}.)
Other permanents you control have hexproof. (They can't be the targets of spells or abilities your opponents control.) to reanimate on the cheap. With lots of graveyard tutor effects like Entomb Entomb Search your library for a card, put that card into your graveyard, then shuffle. and Final Parting Final Parting Search your library for two cards. Put one into your hand and the other into your graveyard. Then shuffle. , it’s rather easy to get these enchantments into the grave.

Interestingly, this also means that Anikthea is quite powerful with Sagas like The Eldest Reborn The Eldest Reborn (As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I — Each opponent sacrifices a creature or planeswalker of their choice.
II — Each opponent discards a card.
III — Put target creature or planeswalker card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. and Battle at the Helvault Battle at the Helvault (As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I, II — For each player, exile up to one target non-Saga, nonland permanent that player controls until this Saga leaves the battlefield.
III — Create Avacyn, a legendary 8/8 white Angel creature token with flying, vigilance, and indestructible. , taking advantage of the card type’s innate downside. After it sacrifices itself, Anikthea can bring it back, getting twice the value out of one card.

Of course, since the enchantments that Anikthea reanimates come back as creature tokens, signature token-doubling enchantments like Parallel Lives Parallel Lives If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead. , Doubling Season Doubling Season If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead.
If an effect would put one or more counters on a permanent you control, it puts twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead. , and Anointed Procession Anointed Procession If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead. are auto-includes here. Throw in some populate effects like Song of the Worldsoul Song of the Worldsoul Whenever you cast a spell, populate. (Create a token that's a copy of a creature token you control.) or Growing Ranks Growing Ranks At the beginning of your upkeep, populate. (Create a token that's a copy of a creature token you control.) , and Anikthea can easily amass an army of enchantment tokens to close the game with.

While Anikthea does favor certain styles of enchantments, her ability to excel with any type of enchantment puts her ahead of a lot of other MTG Enchantress Commanders. She also closes the game out in an unorthodox way for the archetype, relying on creatures. For some Enchantress players, this can actually be a downside, since the playstyle is known for its solitaire-esque pillowfort feel. If you’re not a fan of that, however, Anikthea is certainly the enchantment Commander for you.

1 | Sythis, Harvest’s Hand

The biggest draw to playing Enchantress decks is the sheer amount of card draw that your namesake support generates, and Sythis offers this ability right in the Command Zone. Suddenly, cheap ramping enchantments like Exploration Exploration You may play an additional land on each of your turns. and Carpet of Flowers Carpet of Flowers At the beginning of each of your main phases, if you haven't added mana with this ability this turn, you may add X mana of any one color, where X is the number of Islands target opponent controls. become cantrips, finding you cards to play with all your extra mana. You can then funnel all your extra mana into an X-spell like Finale of Devastation Finale of Devastation Search your library and/or graveyard for a creature card with mana value X or less and put it onto the battlefield. If you search your library this way, shuffle. If X is 10 or more, creatures you control get +X/+X and gain haste until end of turn. , winning the game on the spot.

Thanks to this, the most efficient way to play Sythis is to use a bunch of cheap enchantments that either give you mana, or play a sort of stax-y role for your opponents. Cards like Aura of Silence Aura of Silence Artifact and enchantment spells your opponents cast cost {2} more to cast.
Sacrifice this enchantment: Destroy target artifact or enchantment. and Blind Obedience Blind Obedience Extort (Whenever you cast a spell, you may pay {W/B}. If you do, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain that much life.)
Artifacts and creatures your opponents control enter tapped. can slow your opponents down, while Darksteel Mutation Darksteel Mutation Enchant creature
Enchanted creature is an Insect artifact creature with base power and toughness 0/1 and has indestructible, and it loses all other abilities, card types, and creature types. and Swift Reconfiguration Swift Reconfiguration Flash
Enchant creature or Vehicle
Enchanted permanent is a Vehicle artifact with crew 5 and it loses all other card types. (It's not a creature unless it's crewed.) remove their Commanders for extended periods. This should give you plenty of time to assemble a game-ending combo with something like Earthcraft Earthcraft Tap an untapped creature you control: Untap target basic land. , closing the game out.

While Sythis may not be the most exciting Enchantress Commander to play with, she is most certainly the best. Getting the Enchantress archetype’s signature payoff for just two mana in the Command Zone is a rate that’s extremely difficult to beat.

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