Eriette, the Beguiler Commander Deck Guide

Eriette, the Beguiler | Illustration by Chris Rallis

In the ever-expanding world of Magic: The Gathering, new commanders constantly emerge, each offering unique strategies and playstyles for players to explore.

Today, I'll introduce you to one of my personal favorites from Outlaws of Thunder Junction, an Esper commander whose schemes revolve around the intricate web of enchantments and the art of stealing your opponent's creatures.

That's right. It’s none other than Eriette, the Beguiler, a commander who, once in play, can turn every aura enchantment into a control card for turning the tide of battle in your favor.

Join me as we explore Eriette's beguiling tactics and unravel the secrets of her mesmerizing command right now!

The Deck

Killian, Ink Duelist | Illustration by Ryan Pancoast

The Commander: Eriette, the Beguiler

While many Commander decks are centered around enchantments, and some are even classified as cEDH ones, Eriette, the Beguiler wants to play differently outside of the more commonly known Voltron.

While Eriette shares some similarities, as there’s some inevitability to it, this is an aura-centered commander who primarily wants to focus on a go-wide plan to eventually win with your oversized enchanted creatures or with permanents you’ll steal thanks to your commander’s main ability.

While this is how the deck plays at a major glance, you’ve got some individual cards that make it robust.

Key Enchantments

While all enchantments in this deck are important, I’ll highlight the ones that play a significant role in the deck or synergize optimally with your commander.

The first that comes to mind is Curator's Ward, a blue enchantment that can be attached to any permanent, giving it hexproof. The key to it, and others like Rune of Sustenance, Rune of Flight, and Rune of Mortality, is the part where you can steal cheap permanents, like mana artifacts or creatures with a low mana value while giving them extra abilities that can come in handy later.

The runes, in particular, are also cute with equipment like Lightning Greaves, as they can be later reequipped to other creatures as needed, regardless of whether the boots are yours or your opponent’s.

Necrotic Plague is a black enchantment that may be terrible in other decks, but with Eriette, the Beguiler, you get to abuse the creature it enchants for a turn before it moves to the next target when it dies. The loop continue for as long as you control your commander once each of your turns. Of course, if you want to abuse this interaction further, you can throw in some sacrifice outlets, like Ashnod's Altar, to make a pseudo board wipe, but I decided not to run it for this deck in particular.

Another notable card is Copy Enchantment, an enchantment that can double down on the other enchantments you control to enhance your opportunities to take over games in the blink of an eye with your win conditions.

From there, you have other enchantments that protect your creatures or the creatures you may be stealing, like Timely Ward or Gift of Doom; card advantage enablers like Followed Footsteps or Songbirds' Blessing; and protection for the enchantments themselves, as does Greater Auramancy.

Win Conditions

With these many enchantments, or at least in any enchantment-centered deck, cards that pump creatures based on the number of enchantments you control are key to winning games. Ethereal Armor and All That Glitters are the first ones you’ll encounter in this deck, as they’re the cheapest ones that can pump your creatures.

Sage's Reverie is next, and it's a big one. This white enchantment not only provides the boost effect but also the much-needed card advantage for this deck, as it can draw you a card for each aura you control that’s attached to a creature.

Now that you have a big creature, you need a way to get through without being chump-blocked; this is where Spectra Ward comes into play to bypass any blockers and also to give protection to your creature in one more layer.

Another way of winning with this deck is by using the other printing of Eriette, Eriette of the Charmed Apple, as it can drain your opponents for a good chunk at the beginning of each of your end-steps based on the auras you control.

While most of these effects were repeated in the deck, some are one-offs. To maximize your opportunities to play these kinds of win conditions, which may otherwise be hard to find, I ran some tutors.

Tutors

Open the Armory, Idyllic Tutor, and Demonic Tutor are the cheapest main ways to tutor your enchantments at sorcery speed, while Enlightened Tutor accomplish a similar role at instant speed, but at the cost of not giving you the card right away.

Some other cards like Invasion of Theros and Heliod's Pilgrim provide the same effect while also adding a permanent to the board that can be useful depending on the right scenario.

Still, accessing your enchantments and being able to cast them is a whole other story.

Enablers

These “enablers” can also be referred to as cost reducers, as that's what they primarily do. I want to take a moment to acknowledge that Starnheim Courser was originally in the list, but since I wanted to expand my enchantment density, eventually, I cut it. However, it’s a cheap option to consider if you lack access to other similar cards from the deck.

Hero of Iroas, Starfield Mystic, Danitha Capashen, Paragon, and Transcendent Envoy are the main cost reducers the deck has and overall are better than our Pegasus friends as they’re either cheaper or provide an additional effect.

Another creature with a similar effect for auras is Killian, Ink Duelist. While it doesn’t make enchantments cheaper themselves, it does reduce the cost of spells that target creatures, and auras happen to do so. If you take into account that it reduces the cost by 2, you have at your disposal probably the cheapest and best cost reducer from the deck.

Card Advantage

We already talked about some cards like Sage's Reverie that can draw you some cards but are expensive overall. This is why this deck runs some creatures that can be noticed in white-based enchantress decks: Kor Spiritdancer, Sram, Senior Edificer, and Mesa Enchantress.

Note that these effects trigger only when you cast your enchantments; if you return them from the graveyard to the battlefield, no cards are drawn.

Recursion

While you expect your cards to resolve, the rest of the table will likely aim to counterspell, destroy, or kill the creatures you may be willing to enchant.

Because of this, I decided to add some effects that return auras or enchantments from your graveyard to the battlefield, like Retether or Resurgent Belief.

Some others, like Heliod, the Radiant Dawn, return your enchantments to your hand, which is ideal if you plan to abuse the effect of Kor Spiritdancer.

Lastly, Sun Titan is an all-star that can be used to return any permanent whose mana value is 3 mana or less, including lands.

With these cards, you add some resilience to the deck, but you also run some others that are tailored to interact with the board when needed.

Counters and Removals

Unlike other decks, I decided to run just a handful of counters and removals in the mix as there really wasn't much space to toy around with both the enablers and the actual enchantments that are the centerpiece of it.

I also decided to prioritize counters and protection spells like Teferi's Protection over actual removal. You’ll focus on assembling your board and protecting it rather than dealing with what your opponent can play. At the end of the day, the end goal is to steal their permanents with your commander in play.

Still, Swords to Plowshares is the best white card for dealing with almost any creature, while Winds of Rath can act as a one-sided board wipe when needed. Of course, this deck is running blue, so you have to have one of the best instant-speed board wipes in it: Cyclonic Rift.

The Mana Base

Your main colors are, as you may have guessed, white and blue with a splash of black.

To this, the deck runs the Esper () color signets: Arcane Signet, Azorius Signet, and Dimir Signet.

It also runs all lands that aren’t excessively pricey to fix your mana. You should get your hands on fetch lands and lands that have more than one basic land type on them like the Raffine's Tower triome or Undercity Sewers as they can be tutored.

If you can invest in dual lands, that's an option, but staying in a middle ground seemed reasonable.

Also, I must admit I forgot to add some utility lands to the deck, with the exception of Arcane Lighthouse, as I find it critical to use your enchantments on creatures with shroud or hexproof.

The Strategy

This deck can be used as either an aggro plan or a grindy one with the help of your commander. The choice depends on how the table unfolds, but you’ll most often refer to the second option.

However, surprising someone very early with Ethereal Armor and All That Glitters isn’t out of the question, especially if their board is relatively small.

Combos and Interactions

While the deck itself should be straightforward to play, there are some interactions that you may need to of be aware before diving into playing the deck.

While Enlightened Tutor is a white instant that you may need to cast on your opponent’s end step, you can accelerate the process by using it alongside cards like Kor Spiritdancer as you can draw the card you searched for, by having the creature in play and casting an enchantment. This is pretty neat if you are trying to combo on your turn.

While Gift of Doom can be used to steal a creature, you can cast it for cheap using its morph cost. This way, you can sacrifice another creature you may have stolen earlier to pay this enchantment’s cost instead of sacrificing some of your valuable setup creatures.

Spectra Ward is a tricky aura to play for two reasons: one, you can’t attach further auras to the creature with it, as it gains protection from all colors, and two, if you somehow give protection from white to the creature with Spectra Ward, the Ward falls from the creature, losing its bonus.

Songbirds' Blessing is very good at finding other auras. However, in some cases, it may be worth putting them in your hand instead, especially if they don’t have added enter-the-battlefield effects and, more importantly, if you have card draw enablers that trigger when you cast enchantments already in play.

Rule 0 Violations Check

This deck technically doesn’t have any infinite combos your play partners may need to know about, and should clear any Rule 0 conversation.

Budget Options

Regarding deck building, some people are often limited by their budget and look for replacement cards, which can sometimes become a nuisance. Here are some “budget cards” that could also be an option for the deck.

If you’re looking for enchantments that have card draw on them, I’d suggest Astral Wingspan as my first option, as it also provides your creature with evasion and a slight pump.

Eidolon of Countless Battles is your DIY All That Glitters effect that you may want to use on a creature or as a creature itself if you want to stay aggressive in earlier portions of the game.

If you’re into the token-making department, Alela, Artful Provocateur can prove to be very useful, as your enchantments don’t need to resolve for Alela to start creating a deadly army.

Moon-Blessed Cleric is very good at returning fallen enchantments at the top of your library, and Austere Command does a similar job as Farewell for a tenth of its price.

Mana rocks are already very cheap, but Commander's Sphere and Mind Stone are other options you may want to consider.

Lastly, Temple of Silence and Theros temples in general are my go-to cards for cheap mana fixers, which can cost as low as a dollar a set.

Bounce lands like Azorius Chancery are other options you may want to run, but I’m not a big fan of them.

Other Builds

Since this deck contains blue and black, you can do some not-so-fun things with it.

For example, just by adding an Ashnod's Altar, you can abuse the interaction of Sun Titan and Minion's Return to add infinite colorless mana. This doesn’t have to do with the colors you’re in, but I wanted to point it out first, as it requires very little investing, just taking out a card from your deck.

However, as you may have guessed, you can also run the two-card combo of Tainted Pact and Thassa's Oracle for unexpected wins.

If you want to dive into other fun interactions, here are some that you may find interesting:

Archon of Sun's Grace + Enchanted Evening = Infinite Pegasus tokens.

Enchanted Evening + Aura Thief = Steal all permanents from your opponents when Aura Thief enters the battlefield.

Ondu Spiritdancer + Enchanted Evening= Infinite creature tokens.

Round Up

Open the Armory | Illustration by Steve Prescott

This may be your standard enchantress commander, but its unique ability to steal opponents' permanents is what sets it apart.

That said, this deck is just a mere reference you can take to tweak and build to your heart's content, and I hope you find it interesting at least.

Which other commanders from OTJ would you like to see covered next? Did you enjoy the picks I chose for this one? Let us know in the comments!

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As always, take care and see you next time!