The 30 Best Enchantress Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on February 15, 2024

Starfield of Nyx | Illustration by Tyler Jacobson

Enchantments are an amazing card type. They’re resilient, as there are fewer ways to remove enchantments and compile formidable board states by layering enchantment after enchantment that impacts the board.

Enchantment-heavy decks are referred to as enchantress decks primarily because of Argothian Enchantress, the first of many cards that draw a card when you cast an enchantress. Enchantress decks draw lots of cards, play lots of spells, and are tons of fun. But what are the best cards for the strategy?

What Are Enchantress Cards in Magic?

Solitary Confinement | Illustration by Scott M. Fischer

The enchantresses are creatures that draw a card when you cast an enchantment. Enchantress cards are enchantresses and cards that support their strategy, that is, a deck filled with cheap, impactful enchantments.

This list looks at the enchantresses and cards that support them to make a list ranking the best cards for enchantress decks instead of just ranking enchantments or enchantresses. The cards need to have a powerful impact or synergy with enchantments. Cheaper cards are more valuable here, as enchantress decks want to play a ton of spells to draw cards and empty their hand.

#30. Elvish Archivist

The newest enchantress to join the party, Elvish Archivist, isn’t without uses. Working with both enchantments and artifacts is interesting, as this has the potential to grow into a dangerous threat. The biggest issue is the “once per turn” restrictions that make this worse than any enchantress that lets you draw as many cards as you have enchantments.

#29. Femeref Enchantress

Femeref Enchantress shines in Saga-focused decks, as those innately go to the graveyard, but other decks can struggle to maximize the ability. Unless you’re going hard on using the Seals and other enchantments that sacrifice themselves, this card is best reserved for your Tom Bombadil deck rather than anywhere else.

#28. Solitary Confinement

Nobody likes losing games of Magic, so why not use Solitary Confinement to survive forever, provided everybody only wins through combat damage. Enchantress decks often have abundant cards, even when missing their draw step. When every enchantment we cast draws two or three cards, we’ll have plenty of excess to discard.

#27. Imprisoned in the Moon

Imprisoned in the Moon is fantastic removal specifically for Commander decks. Because it transforms the enchanted permanent, it doesn’t change zones, making this one of the best ways to remove a commander without returning it to the command zone. Song of the Dryads and Lignify are similarly strong for this slot.

#26. Hall of Gemstone

Hall of Gemstone is an amazing disruptive piece for enchantress decks. Cards like Utopia Sprawl and Birds of Paradise help fix our mana, so we don’t need to worry about the color restriction. It’s at its best in a two-color deck, though three-color decks can make it work while your opponents have no idea what hit them.

#25. Tanglespan Lookout

Another entry from Wilds of Eldraine, Tanglespan Lookout is a very specific enchantress. It’s best suited for Voltron decks that want to load bogles up with auras to buff them or decks that think Pacifism is still the best form of removal. The specificity makes it narrow, but the right deck could leverage this as an extra enchantress.

#24. Solemnity

Solemnity is a bit niche, but it’s worth running as a combo piece for your deck. The primary combo is using Solemnity alongside Nine Lives or Phyrexian Unlife to keep yourself alive, but it also pairs well with Devoted Druid for infinite mana.

#23. Ghostly Prison

Enchantress decks often want to go for the late game, where they build up significantly more resources than their opponents. Ghostly Prison does a great job helping us get to the late game by making our opponents choose between attacking us and casting spells – and everybody wants to cast spells.

#22. Thoughtrender Lamia

Constellation cards are a great way to extract value from your enchantments. Thoughtrender Lamia is a personal favorite of mine that generates card advantage. Enchantresses already fill your hand with extra spells, so depriving your opponents of resources puts you even further ahead.

#21. Ancestral Mask

Ancestral Mask is one of the strongest auras for an enchantress deck. +2/+2 for each enchant adds up so quickly. This can be three mana to add 10 or more power and toughness. While it’s especially potent in Voltron-style decks, lots of decks can leverage this to make massive threats.

#20. Sterling Grove

Sterling Grove has been a staple of enchantress decks for years. Protecting your other enchantments from interaction is great, and the tutor allows you to assemble combos or find silver-bullet stax pieces like Rest in Peace to shut your opponents down. Greater Auramancy works well with this card to provide complete protection for your enchantments.

#19. Tuvasa the Sunlit

Another enchantress held back by the “once per turn” clause, Tuvasa the Sunlit has its uses as a commander. Three mana for a commander that offers (limited) card advantage and becomes a relevant threat later in the game is well worth playing. As part of the 99, she’s still reasonable as a late-game threat.

#18. Zur the Enchanter

Enchantress decks love cheap enchantments to play as many spells in a turn as possible. Zur the Enchanter also loves cheap enchantments. He’s at his best in a deck with silver bullets like Stony Silence and Deafening Silence that he quickly finds. He can also assemble some combos, like the Solemnity + Nine Lives combo mentioned previously.

#17. Jukai Naturalist

Jukai Naturalist provides a great mana advantage. Mana reduction works fantastically alongside enchantresses, making our spells cheaper so we can cast more of them and draw more cards. This inconspicuous card sets us up for explosive turns later in the game.

#16. Destiny Spinner

Enchantress decks primarily play at sorcery speed, leaving them vulnerable to countermagic. Destiny Spinner protects your creatures and enchantments while being a cheap enchantment itself. The activated ability helps keep our 2-drop creature relevant later in the game as a threat.

#15. Utopia Sprawl

One-mana accelerants are quite powerful, and Utopia Sprawl is one of the best. It only enchants Forests, which is hardly a restriction since enchantress decks often lean green. The mana fixing makes it better than Wild Growth, while the card type makes it much more relevant than your Llanowar Elves.

#14. Exploration

Exploration is a powerful ramp piece, with a few downsides. It’s only good when you have access to a steady stream of card advantage and can be a weak top deck later in the game. It shines in enchantress decks because they counteract both weaknesses. You’ll always draw plenty of cards, and this is never irrelevant since it’s a 1-mana play that draws at least one card and often more later in the game.

#13. Sphere of Safety

Ghostly Prison, move aside! Sphere of Safety isn’t strictly better than Prison but pulls a ton of weight in enchantment-heavy decks. Once your opponents need to pay more than three mana to attack you, they simply won’t. Or can’t. There’s nothing more satisfying than watching your opponents spend their entire turn to attack you for a bit of damage.

#12. Mesa Enchantress + Satyr Wayfinder

Mesa Enchantress and Satyr Wayfinder are functionally the same card, though the latter has an extra color. They’re just fine enchantresses. They do exactly what you need from the cards: draw a card each time you cast an enchantment. That said, there are so many enchantresses we can often do better.

#11. Eidolon of Blossoms

Eidolon of Blossoms has a few distinguishing features. It’s an enchantress that triggers your other enchantresses and replaces itself, but it’s also a little more expensive. Triggering off constellation is a little different than the typical trigger of casting the enchantments. It’s a little weaker against countermagic, as the spell needs to resolve, but works with flicker effects and cards like Ondu Spiritdancer.

#10. Ondu Spiritdancer

Ondu Spiritdancer is an amazing value engine. It works incredibly well with constellation cards, including a couple of the enchantresses, but basically doubles the mana you spend by giving you twice the value. Stacking cards like Ghostly Prison is nice, but this is at its best when doubling up valuable sagas, like Elspeth Conquers Death and The Eldest Reborn.

#9. Starfield of Nyx

Piling your board with enchantments is powerful, but no number of Ghostly Prison, Rest in Peace, and Stony Silence wins the game. That’s where Starfield of Nyx comes in, turning your enchantments into a formidable attack force while reanimating enchantments you might have lost to countermagic and Nature's Claim earlier in the game.

#8. Sigil of the Empty Throne

Another win condition, Sigil of the Empty Throne floods the board with an army of Angel tokens to overwhelm your opponents in the sky. Much like the enchantresses, this threat benefits from having cheap enchantments that enable casting a flurry of spells and getting a ton of triggers.

#7. Enlightened Tutor

I’ve repeatedly mentioned that enchantress decks are a great place for silver bullet answers, like Rest in Peace and Suppression Field, that help control the board. In addition to the stax pieces, we have a few valuable win conditions like Starfield and Sigil, plus some combo pieces. These irreplaceable cards make tutors like Enlightened Tutor incredibly valuable.

#6. Setessan Champion

Setessan Champion is another constellation enchantress but is cheap and, most importantly, becomes a powerful threat in its own right. Offering card advantage while becoming the largest creature makes this a must-play in enchantress lists.

#5. Sanctum Weaver

Enchantress decks have access to plenty of cheap cards, so they’ll want plenty of mana to go along with them. Sanctum Weaver is basically Tolarian Academy for your enchantments, but it can fix your mana. This provides a simple effect, but it’s a necessary one.

#4. Enchantress’s Presence

I’m a huge fan of Enchantress's Presence. It’s an enchantress that triggers other enchantresses, which is valuable, but being an enchantment instead of an enchantment creature is valuable. It’s harder to remove enchantments than creatures, so it often sticks around longer than the other enchantment creatures, which are often more vulnerable to removal since they have two card types. The resiliency makes this card valuable.

#3. Smothering Tithe

While white generally has weaker ramp options, it does have the best ramp in EDH with Smothering Tithe. This enchantment spews Treasure tokens so we can cast all the spells we’re drawing and annoy our opponents as we ask if they want to pay the two.

#2. Argothian Enchantress

Argothian Enchantress is the classic version of the effect. An 0/1 is a pretty fragile body, but shroud protects it from any spot removal. A wrath can take it down, but this is cheap enough that we’ll get to draw a card or two before board wipes become relevant.

#1. Sythis, Harvest’s Hand

Sythis, Harvest's Hand is one of the best enchantress commanders and just one of the best enchantresses overall. The standard for an enchantress is a three-mana card that draws a card when you cast an enchantment. This costs a mana less, gains additional life, and is an enchantment itself. It’s the total package.

Best Enchantress Payoffs

The best payoffs for enchantress decks are cheap enchantments and ramps. Cheap enchantments are important because you want to cast as many spells as possible for two reasons. Firstly, the more cards you cast, the more triggers you get from your enchantresses to draw cards.

Cheap cards are also important when you have a ton of card draw. Drawing five or six extra cards a turn is fantastic, but far less impactful when they cost five or more mana; you just can’t deploy those cards fast enough for them to be important. Ramp also helps deploy your spells by giving you extra mana.

Finally, enchantress decks are great at interacting with their opponents. You have typical spot removal in cards like Oblivion Ring and Grasp of Fate, but also a plethora of stax pieces. Rest in Peace, Stony Silence, Aura of Silence, and Back to Basics are just a few examples of powerful enchantments that interact with your opponents.

Wrap Up

Sythis, Harvest's Hand | Illustration by Ryan Yee

Enchantress decks have a long history in Magic. Playing a bunch of enchantments and drawing a ton of cards set up a powerful control deck that’s a little different than the traditional strategies of blue countermagic and board wipes.

While the colors of an enchantress deck heavily skew towards green and white, other colors can supplement them with powerful, unique effects. What’s your favorite enchantress card? Do you like playing the strategy in Commander? Let me know in the comments or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and remain enchanting!