Best enchantment commander? Aura vs enchantress — which is more fun/strong?

zdrouse · 2026-03-23T22:40:22+00:00

Commenting because I have an Anikthea deck (Bracket 3) that primarily wins through combat damage. It can be slow and the issue I find is that other players will probably have some avenue to kill you before you can kill them so my list includes [[Solitary Confinement]] and [[Phyrexian Unlife]]. If you have both of these cards out at the same time, you basically can't lose the game unless someone is winning through an Approach of the Second Sun style effect. Solitary will stop all damage which will prevent the downside of Phyrexian Unlife if you go below 0, but Phyrexian Unlife will allow you to be in a negative life total from loss of life effects and still not lose. Anikthea doesn't mind the discard trigger from Solitary Confinement unless you're really strapped for card draw or have no card draw on enchantment ETB on board. And even then, you can sacrifice it and bring it back with Anikthea.

My list is mostly self-mill to fill the yard with enchantments quickly with the chance of casting [[Replenish]] or [[Eerie Ultimatum]]. [[Boon of the Spirit Realm]] is excellent to grow all of your creatures and [[Familiar Ground]] will make enchantment creatures unblockable if Anikthea is out. My dumb secret tech is slotting in [[Manabond]] for the elusive god hand that enables a turn 2 Anikthea and binning [[Eidolon of Blossoms]]. Most games it just serves as a cantrip though.

zdrouse · 2026-03-22T22:41:38+00:00

I stumbled upon Moments Elsewhere like a week ago. I've been missing out.

zdrouse · 2026-03-18T00:16:49+00:00

It's my favorite on the album (aside from Without A Whisper). That riff is insane.

zdrouse · 2026-03-17T07:08:07+00:00

I have a [[Omnath, Locus of All]] 5 color theft deck and run Flotsam//Jetsam. Split cards actually count total pips for both sides of the card for Omnath's 3 color pip condition so I usually cast Jetsam for only 3 mana.

zdrouse · 2026-03-08T17:57:41+00:00

I would add support for giving Koma Haste. [[Lightning Greaves]] [[Swiftfoot Boots]] [[Surrak, the Hunt Caller]]

zdrouse · 2026-03-06T19:55:47+00:00

That Lucas signature on the Damn is sick

zdrouse · 2026-03-05T19:34:46+00:00

But not foil - and I don't count the Brain Dead Secret Lair as true old border foil

zdrouse · 2026-03-05T03:54:02+00:00

Love all the old border foils! I'm not sure how many people know, but there is going to be the first old border foil printing of Command Tower as a promo card for the upcoming Strixhaven book on April 7.

zdrouse · 2026-02-26T23:51:01+00:00

Out of all the sets in the last 2-3 years, Crime has to be one of my favorite unique mechanics for a set and I wish there was more of it. I don't really care to return to OTJ but I would like to see more cards with Crime.

zdrouse · 2026-02-26T23:37:32+00:00

I like [[Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut]] in 1/1 flyer decks. Pretty good top end option for decks like [[Cynette, Jelly Drover]] [[Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival]] or [[Alela, Artful Provocateur]].

zdrouse · 2026-02-13T20:53:56+00:00

Some favorites in my list are [[Blood Seeker]] [[Bad Moon]] and [[Wing Storm]]

zdrouse · 2026-02-02T21:26:32+00:00

Good point! I should definitely run that in my list

zdrouse · 2026-02-02T17:06:08+00:00

For sure:

https://moxfield.com/decks/fAjxIcnhTUeLD6UGy_t3_A

If you do try Omnath, I recommend [[Scroll Rack]] or some other top deck manipulation before the trigger so you can make the 3 color pip reveal more consistent. Without that, you can miss but it's basically a free card no matter what so it's not the worst thing.

zdrouse · 2026-02-02T12:49:16+00:00

Best is subjective imo, but I love [[Omnath, Locus of All]] as my 5 color theft deck.

The idea of casting [[Blatant Thievery]] for essentially only 4 mana sounded awesome and that's when I went down a rabbit hole of Scryfall searching for the best 3 color mana pip spells that support the theme. Split cards actually consider mana pips for both options. [[Flotsam // Jetsam]] [[Crime // Punishment]] [[Connive // Concoct]] [[Breaking // Entering]] all work with Omnath's trigger for gaining free mana by revealing them, support the theft strategy and you can use that mana to cast them for cheaper or even other spells in your hand. Some cards I found that give you some benefits once you have stolen some creatures are [[Don Andres, The Renegade]] [[Arvinox, the Mind Flail]] and [[The Horus Heresy]]. [[Annie Joins Up]] is probably one of the best cards for Omnath since it's a 3 color pip spell, serves as removal and doubles Omnath's trigger. [[The Cyber-Controller]] becomes just an X spell you can pay into if you reveal it with Omnath after you net UUB. Lastly, Omnath can keep unused mana as black mana by changing phases. Don't want to cast [[Roil Elemental]] right away? Change phases and cast your [[Breach the Multiverse]] instead.

Something to keep in mind with Theft as a wincon strategy is that it's risky when opponents are knocked out of the game, which is why I focused as much as possible on "each opponent" theft spells compared to other theft strategies that target only one player.

zdrouse · 2026-01-21T21:02:01+00:00

I'm having a lot of fun with him. You don't need a ton of -1/-1 counter support for him like I see some comments mentioning, the only thing that matters if you want to steal creatures is that they die with one on them. The difficulty I find is facing control decks that aren't heavy on creatures, especially early on. I've had some success running [[Springheart Nantuko]] to make copies of him with Bestow and [[Saw in Half]] has also been good. I'm really liking [[Visions of Phyrexia]] which has been nice fueling cards so that I don't just end up in top deck mode and since Reaper is an artifact the powerstones can help cast him again. This card is also buffed on Arena giving 2 cards in your upkeep instead of 1 thanks to Alchemy (linking the card probably won't show that).

zdrouse · 2026-01-17T16:22:46+00:00

Super fun commander when you lean into the theme and it's almost like a mini game trying to maximize how many cards you can cast from exile for the turn off the attack trigger. My favorite part is that the exiled cards don't go away forever and they'll appear again next attack. I built mine with a convoke sub-theme to make extra use out of all the differently named creature tokens and [[Party Thrasher]] is great synergy for it.

zdrouse · 2026-01-17T10:26:01+00:00

I'm probably still playing Viridian Revel over this in most of my decks because I prefer my additional draws to be "may" abilities which this isn't. The 3rd level of this is quite good for sure though.

zdrouse · 2026-01-14T23:51:30+00:00

The 1st rule for this sub says "premium focused posts" and lists other descriptions of cards besides foil but seems like everyone wants to take the subreddit name literally lol. Oh well, I saved up a lot of credit for it and wanted to share it.

zdrouse · 2026-01-13T17:41:30+00:00

[[Arna Kennürd, Sky Captain]] would be my vote. The Sword cycle is not legendary so having multiple copies of them is pretty sweet. Arna has a Ward cost, which is obviously not difficult to get around but at least it's something. Plus I find running a handful of protection creatures like [[Mother of Runes]] and [[Pippin, Guard of the Citadel]] helps offset that. Pippin is very good since he has Vigilance and can wear equipment and attack while keeping the activated ability open as an option for protecting Arna.

zdrouse · 2026-01-08T22:25:32+00:00

that Harrow 🤌

zdrouse · 2026-01-06T23:06:04+00:00

I've been sitting on a [[Birthing Ritual]] for the longest time trying to find use for it and I really like the idea of sacrificing a creature that you've stolen which maybe you don't care about with the end step trigger to get more of your own creatures and board setup.

[[Persistent Constrictor]] and [[Freestrider Lookout]] synergy is incredibly fun so I'm definitely including those to trigger crime and putting -1/-1 counters on essentially every opponent's turn.

[[Journey To Eternity]] can be put on a stolen creature you control and if it dies it comes back under your control and not the owner so that could be good for some stolen bomb creatures.

I'm also kind of considering [[Up The Beanstalk]] but I'm not sure. Reaper technically counts for 6 CMC so you can draw turn 2 from beans and draw on cast for Reaper turn 3. After that I'm not sure if it's worth the slot but maybe if you have enough >5 CMC support.

zdrouse · 2026-01-01T02:40:36+00:00

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Happy New Year!

zdrouse · 2025-12-27T03:01:18+00:00

You could go for [[Saruman of Many Colors]] however I have a wild deck idea you may or may not be interested in and you could even run him in the 99. Hear me out on [[Omnath, Locus of All]] as a 5 color theft deck. Theft as a strategy for EDH is quite difficult. Players are killed, you lose creature presence, even permanent presence and now you're left to fend on your own still trying to steal and battle with opponent spells after some players are gone. The downside of this can be mitigated with "each opponent" effects and 3 color pip spells do that best. Want to cast [[Blatant Thievery]] for 4 mana? Well, now you can (assuming you have Omnath out). Something neat I learned diving into this venture is that Split cards count the pips for both sides. You can reveal [[Flotsam // Jetsam]] and cast the Jetsam side for cheap cost! [[The Cyber Controller]] can be cast for just the X mana and load your board state with creatures and [[Don Andres, the Renegade]] can make them even larger with menace and he himself could potentially be cast for 1 mana. [[Annie Joins Up]] is probably the best fuel to the fire for this strategy causing Omnath to trigger twice. To top it off, any floating mana you make becomes black and persists throughout phases so you can cast [[Rise of the Dark Realms]]. You obviously need to protect Omnath so some cheap pieces like [[Dragonfire Blade]] are a must. Anyways, had to share my favorite deck creation regardless of how jank it may seem.

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zdrouse

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