Commander - Sythis Big Mana Enchantments

37 40
18 40 1 40
Midrange

Elevator pitch: A ton of card draw into big mana and token generating enchantments looking to have an explosive turn around t7-8 if everything goes well and depending on draw, potentially winning the game on the spot.

Quick disclaimer: This is an expensive deck if I was ever going to buy it. Play on Tabletop Simulator so that's not an issue. The deck can afford to be as non-interactive as it is because it can win quickly thanks to 4 Gaea's cradle effects and our other big mana cards. Be careful of simply cutting them for cost and hoping it will still work if you are considering putting it together :). Being honest though, I reckon Cradle, Serra's Sanctum, and two fetchlands could probably be replaced with basics and the deck would still function nearly the same.

We have a total of 42 enchantments so once you get Sythis, Harvest's Handimage out turn 2 your hand pretty much always stays full and you're usually mana limited with what you can play.

The general game plan is try and stay alive and ramp early, cos apart from hand size, we can look quite unassuming for the first 4-5 turns. Then once we get to 10-15+ mana a turn with two draw engines in play it's go time, because the threat is real. Ideally we'd cast Genesis Waveimage, Finale of Devastationimage for 20+ and win on the spot (target Nylea, God of the Huntimage with Finale for trample). Otherwise just string enchantments with Sigil of the Empty Throneimage, Luminarch Ascensionimage, or Trudge Gardenimage with a mana doubling/tripling effect and win the next turn. If you draw Concordant Crossroadsimage early, hold it back until the token explosion/Genesis Wake turn to give opponents less opportunity to deal with it.

As mentioned above, it is essential that we get Sythis out on turn 2. Don't keep hands that can't cast her. I've made the manabase so this shouldn't be an issue most of the time. Since we're two colour, this limits the pool of good lands to choose from and has resulted in a more tapped lands than is ideal. I could just put all the Forest/Plains fetches in but I felt that's a bit pushing the point of colour identity, although it's not totally clean on that front. In any case lands are rarely a bad draw for us with our 'play additional land' effects and a very mana hungry deck.

Thanks to the draw ability of this deck and the fact that ramp enchantments have a preference for number of lands in play, I've gone all in on that route, with 4 'you can play more land' effects, and a further 3 low cost land targeting ramp effects, all of which are enchantments themselves. That's enough that we can reasonably hope to have one in the first 3-4 turns, and in the opening hand about 50% of the time. As mentioned previously, the are then 3 mana doubling/tripling effects, if you include tutors, you should get one each game by turn 7 a fair proportion of the time. Needless to say play then as soon as possible if you draw them. Wilderness Reclamationimage is mainly useful for holding up our defensive instants and pumping mana into any token generators we have out.

Key tutor targets are Nyxbloom Ancientimage and Sphere of Safetyimage. If Nyxbloom is the best mana boost we have and if it sticks, you should be winning the game in next turn, two turns max, the rate that you will be drawing through the deck and getting all the best toys in play. If you're not up to 7 mana yet or just need to survive Sphere basically shuts down anyone trying to attack us; from turn 5 onwards we've probably got more enchantments in play than the opponents have lands. Once you have either of these, usually prioritise cheap enchantments to draw into one of our protect my stuff cards like [Heroic Intervention], Teferi's Protectionimage, or game enders of Genesis Wave or Finale.

Aside for the obvious point per enchantment on our commander, we have a small selection of incidental lifegain triggers. I feel like it's about right to tide us over to the point where we can take over at the moment, but without commiting anything that doesn't have another function in the deck. If you find you need more, Ajani's Welcomeimage or Blind Obediance seem good next inclusions, or preferably refer to the next paragraph, just having enchantment synergy isn't enough to make the cut for a lot of cards.

The decks main weakness is against fast strategies or really anything with a lot of power in play early. We don't have many creatures that we actually want to block with until turn 5-6 and a God fills it's devotion reqs or we start producing tokens meaningfully. Negotiation and our powerful defensive enchantments of Sphere of Safety, Aurificationimage, and to a lesser extent Ghostly Prisonimage, are the main way we avoid dying too early. If you find you can't survive and need bring new cards in to bridge the gap, I would suggest avoid cutting anything to do with mana, board protection, or card draw. As explained above on the mana front, those are at a sort of critical mass required for the deck to function at it's best, and it's the same with card draw. Also look to cut more expensive cards before cheaper ones even if they're less powerful. A healthy amount of 1-2 mana enchantments is essential to let us keep drawing through the deck to the things we really want.

As an example, Beastmaster Ascention was in the deck for a long time but since we generally don't attack until we're swinging for lethal it was a bit winmore. Similarly, we don't typically let the game last long enough/cast enough creatures for Karametra, God of Harvestsimage's ability to be relevant, who also used to be in. Early defense cards of Ghostly Prisonimage and Scute Swarmimage for chumpers replaced them to help us survive long enough. I would love to bring Beastmaster back if the deck is fast/defensive enough already to get to where it wants to be. More playtesting needed.

Overall, I feel like the deck is in a great spot though. As you can see from some of the cards in the maybeboard that haven't made the cut, fairly powerful cards like Court of Graceimage which originally seemed like an auto-include just don't do enough fast enough to earn their place in the deck.

Hope you enjoy playing a bunch of 4-mana do nothings that team up together for some mad shenanigans!

Comments

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2 comments

fossar__
Thanks for the comment JeremyJoe. Yeah I probably should update the description to explain this is an infinite budget deck I'll use in Tabletop Simulator.
Walking Ballista isn't an otk in this deck without Heliod and I'm not relying on that combo even with tutors.
You may have missed [[Aura Shards]], quality card, very happy I found it.
I thought about Craterhoof but Nylea does the same trample job with more synergy as casting Finale for X≥10 clause is easy.
Two cards/turn for Confinement is too
JeremyJoe
Given the price of the deck, I see no reason not to include [[Walking Ballista]] as a fast win-con (+ creature tutors?), especially since you're not running any of the anti-artifact enchantments like [[Stony Silence]]. You could also run [[Craterhoof Behemoth]] to ensure your [[Finale of Devastation]] will end the game and perhaps [[Solitary Confinement]] for extra protection.
fossar__
Last Updated: 23 Oct 2021
Created: 28 Sep 2021
531 125 2

Commander - 1 cards (1 distinct)

$1.58€1.050.02

Mainboard - 99 cards (93 distinct)

Creature (18)
$2.73
$0.59€0.550.03
$0.87€0.700.02
$1.05€1.030.02
$1.43€1.320.02
$0.40€0.270.03
$2.23€1.670.02
$0.78€0.670.02
$11.05€7.972.22
$14.99€13.330.96
$0.49€0.330.02
$27.19€13.640.02
$6.64€4.530.02
$1.35€1.170.03
$64.67€40.871.26
$0.80€0.300.02
$6.25€4.010.24
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (40)
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$16.23€9.209.97
$1.06€0.600.02
$0.50€0.350.02
$2.75€1.690.02
$5.24€2.730.02
$4.87€2.910.03
$26.95€20.321.48
$16.96
$12.59€9.690.02
$24.41€15.360.06
$25.18€9.551.28
$12.00€8.240.02
$54.50€29.010.02
$3.81€1.230.02
$11.82€12.89
$43.30€27.91
$1.40
$4.63€4.440.02
$44.00
$21.99€20.920.08
$1.53€1.890.03
$0.59€0.430.02
$0.65€0.25
$6.79€3.750.02
$89.99€60.813.68
$23.61€14.124.34
$0.77€0.750.02
$0.49€0.19
$0.33€0.46
$0.35€0.230.03
$1.43€0.870.03
$14.49€9.590.02
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1.38
$3.87€2.11
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$2.99€2.470.27
$3.25
$0.99
Land (40)
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$2.25€1.200.03
$14.09
$37.28€25.210.51
$0.670.01
$12.00€9.610.11
$3.42€2.950.02
$0.42€0.47
$11.22€7.964.07
$13.56€6.040.02
$0.25€0.24
$0.390.03
$0.250.03
$13.08€8.470.02
$0.49€0.280.03
$0.25€0.170.03
$3.99€3.610.02
$29.76€26.961.32
$4.98€3.870.32
$0.44€0.250.02
$0.67€0.490.02
$20.50€14.044.62
$811.17€526.8623.56
$249.98€153.101.90
4.39
$6.37€4.640.20
$0.30€0.25
$2.99
$0.28€0.25
$3.06€2.220.22
$5.17€5.051.81
$14.98€12.471.04
$16.54€14.851.86
$0.33€0.130.03
Planeswalker (1)
$1.00

Maybeboard - 26 cards (26 distinct)

$3.00€2.360.02
$11.18€9.66
$0.76€0.430.02
$16.99€15.350.08
$8.25€8.010.11
$5.04
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$0.550.02
$0.99€1.010.04
$0.49€0.160.02
$1.27€0.380.02
$3.26€2.420.02
$3.80€2.530.02
$9.99€3.210.02
$0.35€0.150.02
$0.47€0.280.06
$3.50€2.940.02
$4.40€2.240.02
$0.50€0.240.03
$9.27€7.390.12
$9.74€8.693.23
$5.21€1.940.02
$2.22€2.060.03
$4.74
$2.46€1.710.02
$4.08

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