Pauper Commander

Sythis For the Common Man

Chev Eldrid

24 Jun 2021 - 7 min read

While Modern Horizons 2 has given us a slew of new commanders for PDH, I will admit - the first creature to catch my eye was a rare. I know, I know. Only one complete week into our new PDH series and my eyes are already wandering BUT Sythis, Harvest’s Hand is a super versatile commander and well worth the attention. In fact, they’re the star of this week’s Hexdrinkers Podcast which you should totally check out! From cEDH to a $25 budget build we cover allll the bases for the little Selesnya value engine that could.

But we’re not gathered here today to talk about those Elder Dragons. Not when we’ve already had our own Pauper Dragon Sythis for nearly three years! May I introduce: Satyr Enchanter . What we lose in the incidental lifegain and one more pip really becomes inconsequential once the ball starts rolling, and as anyone who might have experience with a card-draw commander ( Tatyova, Benthic Druid , Chulane, Teller of Tales ) will know, the ball starts rolling pretty freaking fast.

I’m also excited to say this build has been a group effort! The original inspiration for a Satyr Enchanter PDH deck obviously came from our work on Sythis, but when Oakley shared his relatively cheap auras build including some nifty commons like Shield of the Oversoul and Rancor it immediately started bringing back memories of Eric’s Eutropia, the Twice-Favored deck from the gang’s very FIRST foray into PDH all those moons ago….(or, if you just want that simic auras decklist, you can check it here)

While the majority of this build is the combined effort of Oakley and I, we did hire Eric as an independent consultant to fully vet our auras and test for leaks. Ladies, Gents, I’m proud to say this deck has got the Von Allmen seal of approval. We made it. But that’s enough preamble, Let’s deck tech!

The Build

What we’ve got here is a classic auras enchantment build that hopes to turn an explosive start of card advantage into just out-valuing our opponents as the game continues.

Since Satyr Enchanter benefits from being on the battlefield early and often, we’re hoping to consistently drop them on turn three and just start drawing ALL the cards. With that in mind, a lot of our ramp/early pieces are looking to have a mana value of 2 or less. Utopia Sprawl or Wild Growth are GREAT t1 options to get our little Satyr onto the battlefield a turn early. Font of Fertility , Rampant Growth , and Fertile Ground are what we’re going to be looking for on that t2 where any one of them would allow us to spend the next turn dropping our commander with a Hyena Umbra for protection or at least some other 1 mv enchantment out to start the value train. Our final ramp option at that sweet spot of 2 mv is the ever-forgotten Gaea’s Touch , or the budget cousin to Exploration that can ALSO serve as a quick burst of mana in the late game. Frankly I’d always consider running Gaea’s touch in any base green PDH deck.

After those early hits, it’s a fight to protect our bullseye-marked boy and build up terrifying threats on the backs of “protected” creatures like Gladecover Scout who absolutely thrive in an environment without good wraths. Hexproof, for the most part, is broken down here and only really stoppable with combat tricks or sacrifice effects. Things no deck is going to be truly built for until they encounter a Silhana Edgewalker equipped with Ancestral Mask and Ethereal Armor . Trust me. Anyway, protection. For this we will generally rely on White’s bevvy of different protection effects from ACTUAL protection with Benevolent Blessing or Cho-Manno’s Blessing , to granting indestructible through Shield of the Oversoul , or the aforementioned umbras of which we’re running like four. With any luck, before long both your commander and your main threats will be completely untouchable, lethal combinations of keyword soup and the biggest bodies on the table.

Now, inevitably, someone somewhere will be able to resolve a Chainer’s Edict and our whole world will have the potential to come crashing down. Playing voltron is very high-risk high-reward, and while we don’t have access to say… Sun Titan to continuously recur a Lignify or two (Oakley), we are able to run a pretty exhaustive suite of enchantment graveyard recursion with Monk Idealist , Auramancer , Ironclad Slayer among others with things like the Late to Dinner or Pulse of Murasa for the threats themselves. We don’t plan to be on the back foot for long.

…Although just in case we’re going to run basically all the on brand removal we can think of with Journey to Nowhere , Oblivion Ring , Seal of Cleansing , and the more permanent all-in-one removal tool: an Introduction to Annihilation . Cause sometimes you just have to banish a feisty Ulamog’s Crusher to the shadow realm and no one can tell me differently.

Pics: Whip Silk, Dawn Charm, Track Down

Lastly, I want to highlight a few lesser-known heroes in this deck. Whip SIlk has been making some big waves after slowly sneaking onto Sythis’s EDHREC page, and it’s easy to see why. A one mana enchantment that cantrips with our commander out, BUT can be bounced for another one mana??? A lean, mean, card draw machine - it’s the perfect way to dig for answers or just generate a ton of value in the mid to late game when you might be passing turns with some unspent green mana. Dawn Charm I think is a perfect example of a card we all agree sounds cool, but forget to actually play. It can…

Be a counterspell in white which is the exact OPPOSITE of what’s expected when you pass with a Plains open
Regenerate your prized pig (including all its tasty auras)
Worst case, fog if you’re caught without a threat on the board

Basically, it’s a powerhouse and y’all should be ripping copies left and right. Our last “hidden gem” is Track Down . While it’s certainly not as flashy as the first two, this guy can put in significant work to remedy a mana flood/drought or hopefully snag a useful creature. At the very least, being able to essentially Brainstorm in green is always worth a slot.

So there you have it! Terrify your friends and strangers alike with a beast of an enchantments deck, here’s the full list.