When you build to an extreme limitation, sometimes it just makes sense to give yourself a strict framework so you're not completely lost. With Tinybones, the Pickpocket last week, the goal was to get Tinybones through so we can cast our opponents' spells, using only one color and one-mana spells. Today, we're going to go even more focused: we're playing Enchantments with two colors and two-drops.

I'm Certainly Enchanted

Sythis, Harvest's Hand is a cheaper, better Mesa Enchantress. We get a 1/2 for and every time we cast an Enchantment spell, we gain a life and draw a card. Let's break that down a little.

First, it's obligatory. If we cast an Enchantment spell, we must gain one life and draw one card. That means if we cast an Enchantment with no cards in our Library, we'll deck ourselves and lose the game immediately.

Second, it's when we cast, so even if the spell gets countered, we still get the card and life. However, we don't get the life and card if we create an Enchantment without casting it. Here's what I came up with.

Sythis Two-Drops | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Sythis, Harvest's Hand

• Creatures (15)
• 1 Aegis of the Gods
• 1 Argothian Enchantress
• 1 Bamboo Grove Archer
• 1 Daxos, Blessed by the Sun
• 1 Destiny Spinner
• 1 Fear of Surveillance
• 1 Glyph Elemental
• 1 Jukai Naturalist
• 1 Leafcrown Dryad
• 1 Nyxborn Unicorn
• 1 Sightless Brawler
• 1 Spirited Companion
• 1 Springheart Nantuko
• 1 Transcendent Envoy
• 1 Weaver of Harmony

• Enchantments (51)
• 1 All That Glitters
• 1 Alpha Authority
• 1 Animal Friend
• 1 Arachnoform
• 1 Azusa's Many Journeys
• 1 Bestial Bloodline
• 1 Blind Obedience
• 1 Bonds of Faith
• 1 Brilliant Wings
• 1 Call to Serve
• 1 Canopy Cover
• 1 Chivalric Alliance
• 1 Cooped Up
• 1 Darksteel Mutation
• 1 Dawn of Hope
• 1 Daybreak Coronet
• 1 Era of Enlightenment
• 1 Grasp of the Hieromancer
• 1 Greater Auramancy
• 1 Haunted Library
• 1 Hoofprints of the Stag
• 1 Idolized
• 1 Journey to Nowhere
• 1 Kenrith's Transformation
• 1 Lignify
• 1 Lion Umbra
• 1 Luminarch Ascension
• 1 Lunarch Mantle
• 1 Michiko's Reign of Truth
• 1 Night Soil
• 1 Ossification
• 1 Pacifism
• 1 Path to Redemption
• 1 Ranger Class
• 1 Rest in Peace
• 1 Saving Grace
• 1 Seal of Cleansing
• 1 Seal of Primordium
• 1 Sheltered by Ghosts
• 1 Spectral Steel
• 1 Spirit Mantle
• 1 Sterling Grove
• 1 Stony Silence
• 1 Summoner's Sending
• 1 Sun Clasp
• 1 Sylvan Library
• 1 Talons of Wildwood
• 1 Teachings of the Kirin
• 1 Treetop Bracers
• 1 Veteran Soldier
• 1 Welcome to Sweettooth

• Land (33)
• 8 Forest
• 9 Plains
• 1 Access Tunnel
• 1 Blossoming Sands
• 1 Branchloft Pathway
• 1 Canopy Vista
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Fortified Village
• 1 Gavony Township
• 1 Hall of Heliod's Generosity
• 1 Ishgard, the Holy See // Faith & Grief
• 1 Overgrown Farmland
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Scattered Groves
• 1 Sungrass Prairie
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Temple of Plenty

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Notice anything? As long as we include Ishgard, the Holy See as a Land, we have exactly one card which is not an Enchantment. We'll get into the ramifications of that in a minute, but first, the mana.

Mana

I'm learning more about hypergeometry (more officially the "hypergeometric distribution", which basically tells us (as I understand it): if you have X cards in your Library, and Y of them are Lands, what are the various chances you'll have a specific number of Lands in your opening Hand or by a certain number of turns?

Okay, I'm tapping out of complex math now, but suffice to say because everything is a two-drop, 33 Lands will be plenty to help make sure we get enough; basically, our chances of two Lands in our first nine cards are just under 90%; with a mulligan, that'll go up to a statistical guarantee. Since we really only need two to function decently, we'll be fine with this.

Keep any Hand with two Lands in it. If it's got one, I'd ship it back, but I'd keep a second seven on one Land in Hand. Jukai Naturalist and Transcendent Envoy both reduce the costs of Spells we cast, too. It's also worth noting the deck does not need Hall of Heliod's Generosity, which will save you some coin if you replace it with a simple Basic Plains.

Draw

66 cards in our deck are Enchantments, which means 66 cards will trigger Sythis's draw trigger. Considering nearly every nonland card in our deck will draw for us, the only thing dropping us below a grip of seven is our Land drop. Argothian Enchantress means we'll be drawing two every spell we cast - she's our only non-Enchantment, by the way, but the extra cards were too attractive.

Chivalric Alliance adds more to the draw pile, Dawn of Hope turns mana into cards, and Sylvan Library gives us the chance to turn our Life into cards. Kenrith's Transformation and Spirited Companion both draw when they Enter, too. Keeping gas in our Hand should not be a problem.

Threats

The design of the deck is Voltron, where we'll suit up Sythis and send her in to do a bunch of damage. We have a lot of Auras which can make her much stronger and difficult to block, like Alpha Authority, Talons of Wildwood, All That Glitters, and Spirit Mantle. Most of the time, the plan should probably be to play some Auras on Sythis and send her in for damage.

However, we've also got stuff like Animal Friend and Summoner's Sending, both of which can spit out Tokens quite a lot. Night Soil pulls double-duty, turning mana and Graveyard management into Creatures for us. And Luminarch Ascension will probably get to four Counters without any trouble.

Answers

Mostly to answer problems we have variations on Pacifism. We have actual Pacifism, Journey to Nowhere, Ossification, Darksteel Mutation, and Lignify. There are a number of effects at this mana cost and we're not playing them all, but still - we need to use them quite carefully. Once they're used, they're gone, and we need to make sure we're targeting the Creatures which will honestly be the biggest problem for us.

Seal of Cleansing and its color-shifted partner Seal of Primordium both do a nice job taking care of opposing Artifacts and Enchantments. I love Blind Obedience here, which slows our opponents down quite a bit, while Aegis of the Gods gives us Hexproof.

Synergy

We have several cards which help our game plan. Sterling Grove, for example, gives all our other Enchantments Shroud, which means if they want to get rid of one, they have to get rid of Sterling Grove first. Since we can crack it to tutor for an Enchantment, it seems like an obvious inclusion. Weaver of Harmony buffs up most of our Creatures, and Destiny Spinner makes it so none of our spells can be countered.

Final Thoughts

I love a deck that's all-in like this. We have Enchantments, and we have Enchantment Creatures, and we have Lands. That's it, with that one exception. The best thing about this is how very much fun it will be to play, and just like last week, I'd recommend not telling anyone the conceit of the deck. Instead, just start playing it and see if anyone notices what's going on. Then, probably, attack them with Sythis while she's 14/14 and smile.

Thanks for reading.