Introduction and Resources

This is a Tuvasa Enchantress deck built for a high-power casual meta featuring experienced players and well-built (but not fullon cEDH) decks. My approach was to build as competitive a deck as possible given a few constraints; in this case I'm using a suboptimal engine (Enchantresses vs. traditional draw spells) and sticking to heavily Enchantment-based ramp and wincons. This allows the deck to "feel" a lot like a true cEDH list while still maintaining some unique flavor.

Strategy

This deck wins by leveraging the classic Enchantress engine to dig for a combo while maintaining some board control with Stax-lite Enchantments like Stony Silence and Rest in Peace. There have historically been several unique combos used in Enchantress decks, but most of them require too many pieces to execute, or include several over-costed cards that are useless outside the combo. The list below is ordered roughly by how likely I would be to include them in my build. Note that the "Premium" combos are typically ones which don't force the deck to include mediocre cards.

Premium Wincons

  • Earthcraft + Squirrel Nest (on a basic Forest) or Sacred Mesa (with a Basic land than can make 1W mana) = infinite tokens. This combo will only win games with combat damage, making it a bit slow, but it can be activated repeatedly and at Instant speed, so it gets around most board wipes. More importantly, it only uses cheap enchantments that can be cast for value, making it the best of several token-based wincons for the deck.

  • Omniscience (with enough Enchantresses in play) = draw and cast through the whole deck. With a few Enchantresses in play and a few Enchantments in hand, it's easy to draw the whole deck and win with Thassa's Oracle. It's usually possible to hard-cast Omni by mid-game, but much easier to cheat it in using Academy Rector and a Sacrifice enabler.

Viable Wincons

  • Greater Good + Ominous Seas = draw through the whole deck once you reach eight counters. Sacrificing Tuvasa herself is usually enough to get started, but dorks also make fine Sacrifices and additional Enchantment casts generate counter as well. Greater Good can also sacrifice Academy Rector either for Omniscience, Ominous Seas or just value, making it a viable addition to the deck outside the combo.

  • Tuvasa the Sunlit Voltron win. This is not the deck's primary wincon, but Tuvasa has the ability to get very large very quickly. Extra Voltron cards like Ancestral Mask are rarely worth the deck slots, but Tuvasa's own ability makes her a viable wincon in longer games.

Nonviable Wincons

  • Enchanted Evening + Aura Thief, Cleansing Meditation or Calming Verse = steal or destroy all opponents' permanents. This combo is undeniably extremely powerful but includes many high-CMC cards that are useless or even detrimental outside the combo.

  • Words of Wind + Treachery + several enchanted lands + an Enchantress = infinite mana, draw through the whole deck, steal all opponents' creatures (one at a time). This combo is extremely powerful but requires two cards and nine mana up front, a combination of up to five lands making more than six mana, and a repeatable Enchantress in play. Furthermore, both Words of Wind and Treachery are clunky off-color cards that don't synergize especially well with the deck's gameplan.

  • Opalescence or Starfield of Nyx beatdown. Winning by combat this way is usually slow given the deck's relatively low average CMC, and both of the Wincon cards themselves are bad early game. Earthcraft combos are simply a better way to win via baeatdown in almost every case.

  • Sigil of the Empty Throne or Luminarch Ascension beatdown. These are both one-card beatdown wincons like Opalescence and Starfield of Nyx, but they do not make our Enchantments vulnerable to Creature-removal. Unfortunately, they both make tokens one-at-a-time, thus they're substantially slower than any other beatdown wincon.

  • Opalescence + Parallax Wave or Parallax Tide = exile all opponents' creatures or lands. This is a super spicy old combo, but doesn't technically win the game without having access to some valuable ETB effects (such as an Enchantment and and Enchantress to draw). Ultimately, it requires too many dead slots in the deck and too much mana to set up for such a conditional wincon.

Conclusion

I believe Tuvasa is the best Enchantress Commander in the format because she combines the three best colors for Enchantment support, a synergistic draw engine and a wincon in the Command Zone, a unique combination not available from any other Enchantment-themed Legend like Estrid, the Masked or Uril, the Miststalker. Nevertheless, the Enchantress engine is inherently clunky due to the density of mediocre cards needed when building and playing the deck. No truly good deck should be running so many functional reprints of Verdant Haven! This list won't hold up at fullon cEDH tables, but it works great in high-power casual with the right support. It's more fun to drive a slow car fast than it is to drive a fast car slow!

Fetches & Duals

Mana Crypt & Mox Diamond

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Date added 5 years
Last updated 4 years
Exclude colors BR
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

3 - 0 Mythic Rares

47 - 0 Rares

18 - 0 Uncommons

20 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.08
Tokens Bird 2/2 U, Clue, Human 2/2 G, Kraken 8/8 U, Squirrel 1/1 G, Treasure, Wolf 2/2 G
Folders JMCraig's Decks
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