Some commanders are puzzles. They get printed and mock us with their lines of text, asking us to fiddle with them until they give... or don't. They pull us in multiple direction, taunting us with various routes to victory or encouraging us to assemble bizarre combinations of cards to achieve some ridiculous goal.

Today's commander is exactly not that.

Sythis makes it very clear what we should do: play Enchantments. If we play them, we gain life and draw cards, both worthwhile things. We don't play them, we don't do those things.

The problem is, if you're a creative deck-builder, commanders like this are super limiting. If we want to do something different with our decks, just jamming the world's best enchantments along with some great support cards will make a deck that will work, but isn't much better than just doing an equation: good cards + more good cards = good deck.

A way to add some challenge is to limit the card pool. Fellow CSI writer Jason Alt talks about this a lot as a way to build 75% decks. By limiting the card pool in some artificial, personally-imposed way, we force ourselves to be more creative and make our decks more interactive and fun.

Today, we're going to limit the card pool a lot. If we're rewarded for playing Enchantments, what happens if we only play Enchantments?

Sythis, Harvest's Hand | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

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

• Creatures (40)
• 1 Aegis of the Gods
• 1 Arasta of the Endless Web
• 1 Archetype of Courage
• 1 Archetype of Endurance
• 1 Boon Satyr
• 1 Celestial Archon
• 1 Courser of Kruphix
• 1 Daxos, Blessed by the Sun
• 1 Destiny Spinner
• 1 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
• 1 Eidolon of Blossoms
• 1 Eidolon of Countless Battles
• 1 Eidolon of Inspiration
• 1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
• 1 Ghostblade Eidolon
• 1 Glory Bearers
• 1 Goldenhide Ox
• 1 Harvestguard Alseids
• 1 Heliod's Emissary
• 1 Heliod, God of the Sun
• 1 Heliod, Sun-Crowned
• 1 Hopeful Eidolon
• 1 Humbler of Mortals
• 1 Karametra, God of Harvests
• 1 Noble Quarry
• 1 Nykthos Paragon
• 1 Nylea's Colossus
• 1 Nylea's Emissary
• 1 Nylea's Forerunner
• 1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
• 1 Nylea, Keen-Eyed
• 1 Nyx Herald
• 1 Nyxbloom Ancient
• 1 Nyxborn Shieldmate
• 1 Nyx-Fleece Ram
• 1 Oakheart Dryads
• 1 Observant Alseid
• 1 Renata, Called to the Hunt
• 1 Sanctum Weaver
• 1 Transcendent Envoy

• Enchantments (16)
• 1 Banishing Light
• 1 Conclave Tribunal
• 1 Elfhame Sanctuary
• 1 Ethereal Armor
• 1 Fall of the Impostor
• 1 Font of Fertility
• 1 From Beyond
• 1 Grasp of Fate
• 1 Khalni Heart Expedition
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 1 Omen of the Hunt
• 1 Ordeal of Nylea
• 1 Quarantine Field
• 1 Song of Freyalise
• 1 Test of Endurance
• 1 The Birth of Meletis

• Artifacts (3)
• 1 Bow of Nylea
• 1 Helm of the Gods
• 1 Spear of Heliod

• Lands (40)
• 5 Plains
• 7 Forest
• 1 Arcane Lighthouse
• 1 Blighted Steppe
• 1 Blighted Woodland
• 1 Blossoming Sands
• 1 Bountiful Promenade
• 1 Canopy Vista
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Fortified Village
• 1 Gavony Township
• 1 Grasslands
• 1 Graypelt Refuge
• 1 Hall of Heliod's Generosity
• 1 Kabira Crossroads
• 1 New Benalia
• 1 Radiant Fountain
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sapseep Forest
• 1 Selesnya Guildgate
• 1 Serra's Sanctum
• 1 Sunpetal Grove
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Temple of Plenty
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Tranquil Expanse
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 1 Wooded Bastion

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Thank goodness for Theros, amirite? The wealth of Enchantment Creatures, Constellation, and Bestow is what makes a deck like this viable, because we are running 41 creatures, and every one of them is an enchantment.

We have some ramp, which isn't wildly needed but is good for thinning our deck; we're going to be drawing extra cards, and it helps if we draw action. All of our ramp cards start life as an enchantment, though, so it's a Limited amount; no Cultivates here. Stuff like The Birth of Meletis is great because it does a lot of things our deck wants to do - it gets us a land to play, makes a creature to block, and gains us some life.

We've also got 40 lands, with plenty of color fixing and some additional abilities. Gavony Township is great, as is Rogue's Passage and Arcane Lighthouse. I chose to throw in the shock and fetch lands, but they're likely not necessary; this deck will probably run fine on almost all basics.

Once our Commander hits the field, we should be drawing two or three cards per turn cycle. Every card except for the lands replaces itself, and most of our stuff isn't that expensive, so we should be able to play cards out and create a reasonable board presence while still having cards in hand. We do get a bit blown out by Wrath of God, but we should be able to rebuild quickly with all the card draw.

Winning is a different story. We have a few big beaters, plus some ways to make one of our little creatures big (I'm looking at you, Ethereal Armor). We're mostly playing as a midrange deck, though, trying to put quality creatures on the Battlefield and attacking with them, all the while grinding out value by playing more enchantments and gaining life, cards, and other benefits through synergy. How we win will be determined by the cards we draw and the order we draw them; it should make for some fun gameplay and exciting lines of play.

We do have a few removal spells, all enchantments, of course. Oblivion Ring was the first, but it has gained some cousins since its printing, and Quarantine Field is a way to get rid of a bunch of problem permanents. We could run Pacifism and the like (and if you have a lot of problem Voltron decks in your meta, you probably should) but I chose to run only enchantments that targeted nonland permanents, so we can also get rid of Planeswalkers and Artifacts.

Two cards deserve special mention.

Test of Endurance is a way to win the game. Unless people are slinging a lot of damage around, it won't be unusual for us to have over 50 life. We don't have any ways to search for it, and I'd recommend against adding any tutors for Enchantments in this deck to keep the games varied, but sometimes an "oops, I win!" moment is exactly what the game needs, and this card brings it.

Helm of the Gods is the only nonland, non-enchantment card in the deck. It's too good not to run; a one-mana one-to-Equip artifact which will often be +10/+10 is simply too good to pass up. It's worth it to break from our limitation just so we can surprise our opponents with an 11/11 Hopeful Eidolon.

Do you have any tricks for making an obvious commander less obvious? What are your favorite examples of card pool limitations? I'd love to hear in the comments!

Thanks for reading.