Deck Guide: Selesnya Enchantress in Historic

Last updated on February 1, 2023

Sterling Grove | Illustration by Seb McKinnon

When I started playing Magic all I knew was Standard, as I’d imagine is the case for lots of other players. I sometimes watched some other players at my local game store playing cards that weren’t legal in the format and were pretty weird.

One of those cards was Solitary Confinement, which prevents you from dying but taxes you in the process. That card stood out because I didn’t understand why someone would play it in a deck at first. But then I saw it in action. It was awesome not because of what it did by itself but because of the deck that ran it.

Why am I bringing this up now? Well, as some of you may have already guessed, the deck that ran this card was Legacy Enchantress. In today’s guide I’ll be going over a deck that made the archetype viable in Historic thanks to Jumpstart: Historic Horizons.

But will Selesnya Enchantress be enough to battle against the rest of the meta? Let’s find out!

The Deck

Sythis, Harvest's Hand | Illustration by Ryan Yee

The Strategy

Your primary strategy is to flood the board with enchantments and establish a presence that’s hard to deal with along with card advantage and a “surprise” win condition.

This deck resembles its Legacy counterpart since it runs some of its staple cards like Sterling Grove and Enchantress's Presence. But Historic’s version got some new toys from Modern Horizons 2. Let’s take a look at some of these cards.

The Creatures

Sythis, Harvest's Hand acts as a card draw engine along with Enchantress's Presence. Sure, its body may seem frail, but it’s tough to remove from the game if you play it correctly. Especially since your opponent may need to use its removal on other creatures, like this next one.

Destiny Spinner is your “surprise” win condition since to activate its ability may seem somewhat difficult. But your deck is filled with 35 total enchantments, so your opponent needs to think twice before letting Spinner stick on the battlefield. Especially if its partner in crime, Sanctum Weaver, hits the battlefield since it fills the role of generating the mana required to send angry lands to your opponent’s face very well.

We got Jukai Naturalist from Neon Dynasty, which fits perfectly into the deck. It makes your other enchantments cheaper and can lead to faster and more explosive turns. Paired with Sanctum Weaver, your games will usually end by turn 4 since the card advantage it can generate is awesome.

Interaction Package

As far as interaction spells, Baffling End is your primary way to stop the beatings. In theory you shouldn’t worry too much since you’ll be taking over the game in the long run anyway, but you need to buy some time to get there. End perfectly fills that role.

Banishing Light and Calix’s second ability are your only other ways to deal with your opponent’s board, at least in game 1.

The Core of the Deck

Sterling Grove and Enchantress's Presence are old friends that are very welcome in what would otherwise be a meta dominated by Izzet Phoenix and Cauldron Familiar/Witch's Oven strategies.

The Grove protects all your other enchantments with shroud. This is particularly huge in Historic since it’s a format dominated by decks running Unholy Heat as their primary removal. There are only a handful of ways to get rid of enchantments with that card out of the equation and very few of them are being played.

Don’t worry about drawing multiple copies of Grove. It has another extraordinary ability that lets you put any other enchantment in your deck on top of your library. This enchantment is very likely your win condition most of the time.

How to get there is a whole other question. I’ve already mentioned cards like Setessan Champion and Sythis, Harvest's Hand whose main role is to facilitate it by drawing you multiple cards in a row. But the deck’s other core card, Enchantress's Presence, doesn’t need protection from creature removal. While it’s a bit more expensive than Sythis, it’s one of the main reasons why the Legacy version of this deck was so dominant for a while. It’s no exception for the Historic version.

The game is almost over if you get to resolve a couple of them.

Win Condition and Other Spells

I’ve been referring to Destiny Spinner as the surprise win condition so far. You may be wondering, “what’s the actual win condition then? That card seems solid enough, right?”

This deck previously ran Sigil of the Empty Throne to close out games, but casting Hallowed Haunting a turn earlier makes a huge difference as it turns out. It may start slow, but just a few enchantments later and you have a similar (if not more powerful) army to what Sigil can create. Plus Haunting's ability to take over games is almost legendary.

It usually means game over for your opponent if you manage to play it on turn 4. Wolfwillow Haven helps Sanctum Weaver in the ramping duty to achieve this.

Not an enchantment as it is but a great addition to the deck, Commune with Spirits can tutor for the land or enchantment you need depending on your situation. Not entirely as good as Sterling Grove but very similar, and it's a real deal for .

As for the last non-land slot of the deck, you have a single copy of Rest in Peace for the graveyard-based strategies in the meta.

The Lands

The mana base is very straightforward with a mix of Temple Garden, Sunpetal Grove, Overgrown Farmland, and Branchloft Pathway. You don't have to worry too much about missing out on colors.

But you also run a couple utility lands aside from basic lands in the form of Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire and Boseiju, Who Endures. Both are fantastic additions from Neon Dynasty since they can be used in a pinch depending on the situation. You might eventually find yourself flooding and these kinds of lands are nice to have around in that situation. It's important to note that Sythis, Harvest's Hand is a legendary creature so Eiganjo's channel ability costs less if you have it out.

Finally you have Cave of the Frost Dragon and Lair of the Hydra to pressure control decks that have risen in popularity on the ladder that would otherwise be problematic to beat.

Common Interactions

There are a few interactions and sequencing you need to follow to get the most of this deck. Some of them are intuitive, and some are not. I’ll go over the ones I’ve been running into the most for you here:

• Given the abundance of 2-drops in the deck, you’ll run into situations where you don’t know which one you should be playing first. Develop your ramp spells first and the rest later as a rule of thumb. This lets you develop faster to catch up on things quicker.
• On the other hand, if you know you’re facing a deck filled with removal and your main ramp option is Sanctum Weaver, you may want to play Sterling Grove first if possible. The same applies in a hand with Sythis, Harvest's Hand and Grove. You basically almost always want to play your Sterling Grove first.
• With a Sanctum Weaver in play, play your other enchantments using regular mana first and save your activation for last. You need to remember that this only card adds one color so make sure to keep track of what you need for your remaining castables and activations.
• Sterling Grove may seem slow to tutor for an answer. Remember to set up an upkeep stop to tutor for the enchantment you need the most according to your board state if you’re tapped out and don’t have any mana available.
• Keep an eye on Destiny Spinner activations since you could have lethal damage in play and not notice it. This is very common and you need to be aware of it.
• Destiny Spinner lets you cast enchantments counter-free, and it’s great against blue decks.
• Wolfwillow Haven activations are rare, but they do happen. Remember that you may already have an answer in the form of a hidden wolf if you run into a situation where you’re missing just a few points of damage.
• Calix, Destiny's Hand’s - ability is useless if you have two Sterling Grove in play. But you’ll be able to target at least that one if you have it.

Sideboard Guide

Historic is currently a work-in-progress format, meaning today’s top decks may not be tomorrow’s top dogs. But there are always a couple that are more popular than others, so I’ll cover those here. But first, let’s look at your sideboard choices.

Rest in Peace

Rest in Peace is a must against graveyard-based strategies. You’ve got two more copies post-sideboard.

Archon of Sun's Grace

Archon of Sun's Grace can be a great tool against aggro decks and win conditions after stabilizing the board. One lifelink flier is already bad, but a flier that can make more of its kind is worse. Did I mention it also gives lifelink to its pegasus partners?

Shifting Ceratops

Shifting Ceratops comes in handy in control matchups running blue since it can surprise your opponent and threaten a short clock.

Elspeth Conquers Death

You need another solid card that targets control games, especially those that don’t run blue. Elspeth Conquers Death fits this role perfectly.

Destiny Spinner

You want to run more copies of Destiny Spinner when you need another win condition against control decks.

Arasta of the Endless Web

This not-so-little spider performs well against Arclight Phoenix (in theory). But Arasta of the Endless Web can easily die against your opponent's removal, so try to have Sterling Grove ready to go when you cast it.

Calix, Destiny’s Hand

Calix, Destiny's Hand‘s primary role is to remove pesky targets from the game. It can also serve as a pseudo-enchantment tutor if it's not dealt with and is a great card advantage engine against control.

Teferi’s Protection

Teferi's Protection has one purpose and one purpose only: to dodge Farewell and similar spells.

Selesnya Humans Matchups

This matchup depends on how your opponent leads. If they go with a relatively slow start, it’s going to be very hard for you to lose. But if it starts with a curve of Esper Sentinel, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, and Ranger-Captain of Eos, you’ll have trouble for days. Prioritize developing your non-creatures before any of them hit the field to get around it. You’ll want to build a huge mana base with your ramp spells if they do land.

The way you win this is by making one-punch-man attacks with your lands thanks to Destiny Spinner. That’s the most common way, but you’ll sometimes steal a game by casting Hallowed Haunting. Don’t let too many turns pass since a timely Collected Company will turn the game around.

Post-sideboard you have access to your anti-aggro package. Your worse cards are the ones that are otherwise fillers like Rest in Peace.

In

• +2 Archon of Sun's Grace

Out

• -1 Rest in Peace
• -1 Hallowed Haunting

Izzet Phoenix Matchups

Your opponent will try to pull off their one-trick-pony moves, which consists of discarding their hand and playing multiple phoenixes from the graveyard. Your best card here is Sterling Grove for two reasons: it protects your creatures from Unholy Heat, and it tutors your Rest in Peace.

Post-sideboard you want to bring more copies of Rest in Peace. You’ll be good to go as soon as you resolve one. Note that they’ll switch from a combo standpoint to try and hard cast their Arclight Phoenix. You also want to bring in your flying cavalry to deal with that.

In

• +2 Archon of Sun's Grace
• +1 Rest in Peace
• +1 Arasta of the Endless Web

Out

• -2 Hallowed Haunting
• -1 Baffling End
• -1 Banishing Light

Jund Sacrifice Matchups

Jund Sacrifice is a weird matchup depending on the version your opponent’s running. If they plan to use the Citadel version, the board wipes may be better than the version running Korvold, Fae-Cursed King and Trail of Crumbs. On the other hand, those colors usually have a way to deal with bulky fliers, which means that Archon of Sun's Grace is one of your best cards against them again.

If you face the Citadel version, swap a Calix, Destiny's Hand and a Rest in Peace for two Wrath of Gods.

In

• +2 Archon of Sun's Grace

Out

• -1 Destiny Spinner
• -1 Banishing Light

Jeskai Control Matchups

These are slow matches that will be decided by a resolved Teferi or Magma Opus depending whether they're straight Azorius control or Jeskai. Your best bet is to resolve Hallowed Haunting and start building an oppressive enough board state to make Jeskai Control concede. Card advantage is a must to win this matchup, so you’ll need to protect them and play them carefully.

Post-sideboard you want to replace your dead removal with cards that give you the upper hand like Elspeth Conquers Death and Shifting Ceratops.

In

• +4 Shifting Ceratops
• +2 Elspeth Conquers Death
• +3 Destiny Spinner
• +1 Calix, Destiny's Hand

Out

• -3 Baffling End
• -1 Banishing Light
• -1 Rest in Peace
• -3 Jukai Naturalist
• -2 Sanctum Weaver

Other Cards

As weird as it may sound, this deck is very customizable depending on the meta. Be aware that you may need to end up cutting some of your niche cards like Calix, Destiny's Hand or Rest in Peace or pieces of your core to add some of these cards.

Nine Lives + Solemnity

Nine Lives and Solemnity have been seen in versions of this deck, but I decided to run a smoother version that didn’t require building a Voltron to beat aggro. I also didn’t want to have dead cards in control matchups.

Authority of the Consuls

Authority of the Consuls, on the other hand, barely didn’t made the cut. It’s great against some decks that abuse haste, especially goblins.

Gideon's Intervention

Gideon's Intervention was designed to beat combos, and its mainly here to hate on decks that rely on them to win. Suppose your meta is filled with Indomitable Creativity strategies, Jund Citadel, or Magma Opus. You should consider running a couple copies of this in your 15.

Leyline of Sanctity

Leyline of Sanctity stops hand-hate and some versions of Jund Citadel running Blood Artist.

Wrap Up

Banishing Light | Illustration by Willian Murai

This deck is an underdog in the format and can be used to quickly climb the ladder below Mythic tiers. Its Legacy counterpart may not be as famous anymore, but Historic is an excellent place for this strategy to shine.

What do you think? Will you be trying it out on Arena anytime soon? If so, make sure you’re using Arena Tutor to track your games and improve your gameplay in general!

As always, take care, and I’ll see you next time!