I had a few ideas floating around a more artifact centric build, and thought I'd present a brew containing some fun ideas. It certainly not meant to be more competitive or anything like that, just a different take, using some off-the-wall ideas.
It's not that there are a massive number artifacts in this build, it's more that we are looking to use some cards to turn our artifacts into mainly 5/5 creatures. This will create a T-800 like army, to defend your various planewalkers, as well as potentially lead an assault. After all, mankind is obsolete.
There are some interactions with some of the lesser played planeswalkers, where they untap creatures as part of their abilities. Once we start turning our artifacts into creatures as well, this in turn will allow us to generate extra mana.
Finally if we get The Chain Veil and make it part of Tezzeret's diabolic creature creations, we can look to go infinite with planeswalker activation's.
Tezzeret planeswalkers are a large part of the decks theme, as often one of his abilities is to turn artifacts into creatures.
There are still many of the quality cards from my other builds. There are fundamental core cards that lead themselves to harmonizing with Aminatou.
But this deck has a lot more planeswalkers. We are still looking to gain advantages out of them using Aminatou [-1] to get more uses out of their abilities. Plus of course Oath of Teferi and The Chain Veil provide insane value.
Where the Tezzeret planeswalkers specifically look to make them 5/5 creatures (as well as The Antiquities War), what happens with Karn, Silver Golem and March of the Machines is that they are based on their converted-mana-cost. For this reason having zero-cost artifacts is a little dangerous, so I've specifically avoided a lot of these types of artifacts, except artifact lands and Mana Crypt.
There are some card that help to mitigate this effect if you do play March of the Machines.
The Antiquities War is great in that in will provide value, but you can look to exile it with Aminatou every other turn to reset it, waiting on the final saga, when you might want it.
Alright so we have two spicy planeswalkers in Gideon, Martial Paragon and Jace, Ingenious Mind-Mage. Certainly not what you'd consider "go to" planeswalkers in any constructed format. But here we are looking to leverage off them by allowing us to untap our artifacts as creatures and gain lots of mana, and also by potentially creating an infinite with The Chain Veil.
Gideon, Martial Paragon also gives a +1/+1 bonus each time, so in a combo turn you'll have infinite sized creatures to make sure you hit opponents hard.
There is also Gideon's Resolve which can be used to search out your combo planeswalker. It also give's your creatures +1/+1, which will mean you can play March of the Machines with your artifact lands in play.
Karn, Scion of Urza can start creating potentially huge construct creatures, but he also works fairly well with removing the top of library, helping with filtering with Aminatou [+1] a little better.
Actually Aminatou will build up to infinite loyalty if you start with say 3 loyalty as she gets to double off the Deepglow Skate, so after a while you can just use her [-1] as many times in a row as you want.
If you have an artifact that produces 2 mana then you'll need at least 8 other mana to combo.
If you have an artifact that produces 3 mana then you'll need at least 5 other mana to combo.
Next Turn 1:
Repeat the process, but you're hoping to draw into even more mana, so that you can eventually not have to Aminatou [-1] twice in a turn to pay for things.
If you have enough mana to activate the The Chain Veil three times then you can go infinite with just; Teferi, Timebender + The Chain Veil + artifact mana.
It must noted that with Niambi, Faithful Healer and Gideon's Resolve that you have two permanents that can be exiled with Aminatou [-1] to get back the respective planeswalkers from your graveyard if they have been removed. In this sense it is very hard for opponents to stop you getting these specific combo pieces into play.
Tezzeret, Cruel Machinist has an ultimate which works really well with Aminatou [-1]. Any face-down cards that are exiled with her return to play face-up. Effectively you can cheat expensive cards into play with this method.
You have a game plan of being able to create a hard to deal with force on the ground, but the deck is a bit weak to flyers. So to bolster this, we have some vehicles to make attacks a little harder with, Heart of Kiran and Aethersphere Harvester. Bitterblossom can also help with this, creating chump blockers.
Glint-Nest Crane is a nice additional to an artifact orientated build. Certainly guaranteed to get value out of it.
Paradox Engine is literally one of the main engines of the deck, a no brainier this will allow you to chain off massive amounts of mana, and with your planeswalker providing draw, you should have enough action to do insane things.
Cloudstone Curio Infinite Combos
I've also leveraged off an idea I had using Cloudstone Curio as a means to get value off not only your creatures with 'enter the battlefield' triggers, but you can also use it to return planeswalker to garner more value potentially.
You can check out my "Will & Rowan Kenrith - Super Siblings with Super Friends", with link in my signature. It explains much of the concepts in the introduction.
But the general idea is that once we get some of our artifact mana going, and also hopefully getting them as creatures, we can also look to bounce some of our planeswalkers with Cloudstone Curio to then recast them again, allowing us to reuse their abilities.
All these planeswalkers can potentially generate mana, allowing to keep recasting to allow reusing abilities, or even gaining infinite's.
For example if you have a number of artifact mana that are creatures, then Gideon, Martial Paragon, Jace, Ingenious Mind-Mage can untap them all to give you mana to recast another planeswalker, that you might look to get value out of.
You can always bounce Aminatou and she can Aminatou [-1] an artifact for mana as well. So you can potentially generate infinite's.
If you also have Oath of Teferi or The Chain Veil, then you will definitely be able to generate infinite mana and probably draw.
I wanted to make a specialized Aminatou, the Fateshifter "top cards of library" focused build. I also put some stipulations on myself as well.
I wanted to make sure that people wouldn't just think that it was better to run Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign as the commander for the particular build I ended up with, or for that matter Narset, Enlightened Master.
In the end I've constructed quite the spicy build.
The idea is to transform your "cheap to cast" spells into some of the best creatures ever to be printed in Magic. The deck is designed to have only a select number of non-top end creatures, but mostly it has a lot of non-creature ways of producing token creatures. These are mainly with planeswalker abilities.
The token creatures can be used to setup a big Synthetic Destiny or Mass Polymorph.
The Planeswalkers in the deck also leading to some synergies with Aminatou as well, which you can read in my other primers.
There is also Divine Visitation to make any token creatures into 4/4 Angels instead. Make sure to spot the easter-eggs in the title picture to the original Divine Visitation art
There are a number of different cards and methods that look to put your top-end cards into play without paying their mana cost and I am happy to explain them in the card choices section below.
Right so the main theme is to try and "cheat" as many permanents into play, mostly from working off the top of your library.
There are cards that allow you to do this with; Proteus Staff, Jalira, Master Polymorphist, Synthetic Destiny, Mass Polymorph.
Because these cards require creatures to already be in play, we are using a lot of non-creature cards that generate creatures, so that we can avoid having to play too many small-to-mid sized creatures, so that the effectiveness of these cards is a lot better.
There are also a number of manifest cards, that you can use to setup your top of library so that you can use Aminatou [-1] on the manifested card to return to play face-up.
These are; Soul Summons, Reality Shift, Mastery of the Unseen, Primordial Mist.
Manifesting cards is also another way of producing creatures from non-creature sources, so you can still use the transform cards on them, if you've not setup something relevant to turn face-up in the first place.
Divine Visitation can be used to make all the token creatures you generate into much more solid bodies in 4/4 flying Angels. Normally the tokens are like between 1/1 and 2/2 ground creatures, so the upgrade is perfect for protecting your planeswalkers as well as producing an army of threats.
There are some "mid-range" creatures, but these have a lot of synergy with the deck. Kaho, Minamo Historian gives you access to a number of manipulation cards, you can Synthetic Destiny, which is an instant. You can also get Vampiric Tutor to specially setup the top of your library with whatever card you want.
Zur the Enchanter can get a number of key enchantments, token generators, manifest in Mastery of the Unseen, and even Necromancy in case you wanted to return one of your premium creatures back from graveyard.
With Aminatou [+1] you can put cards back ontop of your library that you are looking to get into play for no cost. Often drawing large mana costing creatures early on before you have mana is bad in decks, but this deck is designed to reward you for drawing your bug creatures early, in that you can use a number of cards to get them into play.
The deck plays a lot of top of library manipulation that you can see in my other builds, as this is important to your overall goal.
This section is to collate general information about potential cards or synergies that we've discovered in this thread to do with interacting with Aminatou, the Fateshifter.
With Aminatou costing three mana, there is an importance to protecting her during the early stages of the game.
Having a one or two mana creature with an "enter the battlefield" ability can really set you up, as you cast it on Turn 2, then you can cast Aminatou on Turn 3 and use her [-1] to get additional value.
This creature can then threaten to block early game creatures.
I've made a select list of creatures to help you potentially on deciding if you want to run some of these creatures for your own version of Aminatou, the Fateshifter.
The sort of criteria is making sure that ETB is effective, and also the stats of the creature (power/toughness) can hold up to other common early play creatures.
So I personally think that playing 1/1 creatures yourself is not advisable, as you be trading off. You really want to be at least able to survive an attack from a 1/1, so that all the opponents small creatures are held off in the early stages. So in general looking for higher toughness than 1, but there are some 1/1 creatures that have in built abilities to kill creatures, and these can be an exception.
Aether Theorist - Scry 1 is relevant to Aminatou [+1]. Auriok Champion - If your meta seems to run black or red consistently then this can also combo with Felidar Guardian for infinite life. Contraband Kingpin - Solid blocking stats, and you can use Aminatou [-1] to blink an artifact to get the Scry 1. Fogwalker - Locking down a creature for a couple of turns might be enough for you to get the traction you need. Merfolk Trickster - Locking down a creature for a couple of turns. Harbinger of the Tides - Return to hand is even more of a tempo play. Jeering Homunculus - Goad means that the creature has to attack another player. Kitesail Freebooter - This isn't perfect, as if you blink it, the card will return back to opponents hand. But you can use this to sniff out opponents, as you might not hit anything of relevance on the first opponent, so can do it on another. The 1/2 isn't great either, but in combo heavy metas is an option. Leonin Relic-Warder - Same deal that blinking will mean that the card will return. However it is a blocker, and allows you to readjust the target if needed. Omenspeaker - Scry 2 is relevant to Aminatou [+1]. Oreskos Explorer - Probably unlikely to get value on a Turn 2 play, but can be a blocker and then later on in the game you can look to get value out of it, if you come up against ramp decks. Thraben Inspector - Bare minimum stats to block mana creatures, but you can get slower draws off it from the clues. Suncleanser - Meta specific, but look to this card to potential setback opponents plans using particular counters strategies. Solid blocking stats at 1/4.
Any time you have cards that specifies a card type, it pays to do a little math. When you have cards that say look at top X cards of your library, and you can get a particular card type, then you really want 1/X of your deck to be of that type to get consistent value. Augur of Bolas - Is a third of your deck instants or sorceries? Now if you are OK with only getting value half of the time, then this number can only be a 1/6 of your deck which is much more realistic. Glint-Nest Crane - Is a third of your deck artifacts?
But it's also important to note that Aminatou [+1] can set you up with putting a particular card type on top, so you can look to guarantee value this way.
So when looking to see if these cards could be played in my decks I do a count. Super Friends
10/99 (1/10)- Artifacts
26/99 (near 1/3) - Instants and sorceries.
1/10th for artifacts is too low to get consistent value.
Near 1/3 is borderline, but it is actually reasonable to run Augur of Bolas in the deck.
1/7 is a low number, but if you're OK with hitting an artifact less than half of the time you play the creature, then it's not unfeasible to run it. For the reasons that it does have a reasonable blocking stat and is a flyer as well.
1/3 is the perfect number for just hitting the mark, so Augur of Bolas would be a good card to include in the deck.
These are 1/1s, but do have good ETBs. I personally would not play them, but you might find they are good enough as early value and once off blockers. Augury Owl Dusk Legion Zealot High Priest of Penance
These are premium two-drops that I am running in my decks: Knight of the White Orchid - The First Strike is surprisingly relevant, holding off many creatures, and then early ramp is great. Baleful Strix - The draw is great and can threaten to kill any creature, but is prone to the 1/1 mana creatures. Wall of Omens - Perfect for draw and can survive blocking most early creatures. Snapcaster Mage - Nothing needs to be said about this fulla. Heart of Kiran - Altough not a creature as such, or an ETB trigger, the ability to cast on Turn 2 and the cast Aminatou on Turn 3 and potentially have a 4/4 flyer to block at any stage is big enough to deal with any creatures cast during those early stages, or even late game.
Ranking the Planeswalkers
There are 61 planeswalkers in Esper to choose from, so what I've done is list the top 22 that could be played in some capacity and try and rank them in an order as well, for "best fit for this configuration of deck".
There is the Superfriends list and also the Reanimator deck. People have been putting together hybrids of the two.
Specifically the way I've ranked these is for the Superfriends deck. But for a deck that has Reanimation theme as well, I'd rank some of them higher. So with this in mind there is another list for reanimation sub-theme after.
I'll just point out that a lot the ranking does weigh on the ability to get to ultimate range off a Deepglow Skate from starting loyalty.
1) Tezzeret the Seeker - Infinite combos.
2) Teferi, Temporal Archmage - Infinite combos.
3) Narset Transcendent - The [+1] works nicely with Aminatou. The ultimate is game ending.
4) Teferi, Hero of Dominaria - Draw and untapping lands is good. The ultimate is good.
5) Kaya, Ghost Assassin - Although no ultimate the cost to card advantage is nice and exiling herself means that you can look for secondary gains in following turns if a creature heavy board.
6) Jace, Cunning Castaway - has some synergies with going infinite, with Oath of Teferi/The Chain Veil + Oath of Gideon.
7) Will Kenrith - Drawing 2 cards is excellent. The protection is good. The ultimate is pretty average however for this particular deck.
8) Jace, Architect of Thought - Protection can be stacked up for situational boards. Deep card draw. Ultimate works particular well with combos wins.
9) Jace, the Living Guildpact - The draw works well with Aminatou. The ultimate is excellent and remains in play if Deepglow Skate (2x5=10)
10) Liliana Vess - You can literally draw the card you put on top with Aminatou [+1]. The ultimate is pretty situational.
11) Jace, Unraveler of Secrets - Basically for the same reasons as Jace, the Living Guildpact.
12) Sorin, Grim Nemesis - Can offer draw and definitive protection from the ultimate. Just the casting cost is a little high.
13) Jace, the Mind Sculptor - [+2] works nice with Aminatou. [0] works nicely if you have some shuffle effects. Ultimate isn't very good.
14) Jace, Memory Adept - The draw doesn't work all that well with Aminatou. The ultimate is good and remains in play if Deepglow Skate (2x4=8)
15) Tezzeret, Artifice Master - Small protection and draw. Ultimate works particular well with combos wins.
16) Tamiyo, the Moon Sage - Can provide situational draw with the [-2]. The ultimate is excellent.
17) Sorin Markov - Can reduce two opponents to 10 life in a turn with Aminatou, but the deck is not designed to push through damage.
18) Jace Beleren - Might be underrating this, as you can probably get away with [-1] and the [+2] and this will satisfy opponents to leave it alone? Ultimate is weak, so I've got it down the list.
19) Liliana, Death's Majesty - Offer small protection, top 2 cards into graveyard helps with Aminatou [+1]. The ultimate can help (not game ending)
20) Elspeth, Sun's Champion - No card advantage, but the protection is excellent.
21) Karn, Scion of Urza - The draw is a little awkward with Aminatou [+1]. But you can guarantee that you get a card exiled with Aminatou [-1]. Not enough artifacts to make protection effective, and no ultimate.
22) Elspeth, Knight-Errant - No card advantage, small protection. The ultimate is pretty good, but the deck doesn't go wide, so trying to protect your walkers with limited creatures is still not perfect.
In Reanimation themed deck, the planeswalkers that interact with your graveyard are much more powerful. Liliana many versions being the stand outs.
Liliana Vess - Her ultimate is actually a solid game plan for reanimating a bunch of your creatures. Liliana, Death's Majesty - Her [-3] can obviously be used to put a powerful creature into play.
It's more than feasible that you could have a build that supported all of these.
Now I've already touched upon ratios of number of card types when playing things like The Antiquities War or The Mirari Conjecture.
Normally you'd want at least a 1/5 ratio of artifacts in order to make a trigger successful for The Antiquities War.
Similarly you'd normally want a number of instants and sorcery for The Mirari Conjecture in order to get value each trigger.
But I feel in a Saga focused build these numbers don't need to be as high as you can get more value out of them in a specific build, and I'll try and show you how.
Proliferate also has the advantage of adding loyalty counters to Aminatou or any other planeswalkers you might have.
I've played Inexorable Tide in my Will & Rowan Kenrith deck, but found it too slow in that build. However this can be a combo card for a Saga build. If you are getting infinite's then you can use this to move through Sagas.
Contagion Clasp and Contagion Engine are mana intensive in general, but again in a build that has The Antiquities War along with plenty of artifact mana is certainly worth looking at. Viral Drake is similar in that it requires mana to activate, but this can be done multiple times each turn if you have the mana.
Getting back to the Sagas themselves there are some powerful abilities.
Fall of the Thran allows you to keep the land count down, and you could run a good number of artifact mana to mitigate less lands. Being able to reset it with Aminatou [-1] does mean that opponents are kept to two lands, and this lines up nicely with being able to defend Aminatou as opponents can only cast so many spells being shorted on mana.
Because the Saga happens in your turn, you're more likely to get use of the lands coming into play before you reset it back to destroy all lands.
The Eldest Reborn has three different abilities. You can use Aminatou [-1] to get multiple creature/planeswalker sacrifices in a turn.
With some of the return enchantment from graveyard creatures you can get The Eldest Reborn back with the 3rd Saga trigger. Auramancer, Monk Idealist, Restoration Specialist can be used to get it back straight away. Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Silent Sentinel can do it as well, but summoning sickness will probably mean delayed for a turn.
Phyrexian Scriptures, History of Benalia, Time of Ice can be used to to control creatures to a certain extent.
Resetting them all before the 3rd Saga, so that you can keep protecting Aminatou and perhaps other planeswalkers or just your life total.
The Antiquities War can be used as a solid value card for getting artifacts, and in conjunction with artifacts that naturally allude to supporting the other Sagas. For example if playing Fall of the Thran then artifact mana will be good so running Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo, Signets, etc. Phyrexian Scriptures doesn't destroy artifact creatures, so you could have a number of artifact creatures to support this theme.
Now because they are enchantments, it'll pay to look for further enchantment support.
The problem with cards like Greater Auramancy or Fountain Watch is that you cant then use Aminatou [-1] ability to reset the Sagas.
You probably should be running Starfield of Nyx for it's value, but it does have a double edged sword in that you can then use your enchantments as creature beat down plan, but then you're exposed to creature removal as well. Opalescence can also be used if wanting to go the enchantments as creature beatdown plan, and combos with Parallax Wave to remove all opponents creatures indefinitely, using tricky timing making sure to have the exile triggers on opponents creatures on the stack, before resolving your own exile on Parallax Wave to itself (as it's a creature). This way the Parallax Wave is a new copy of the card coming into play, so opponents creatures will be stamped with a different copy of the card, and remained exiled forever.
Of course Parallax Wave is already da.bomb.com in Aminatou decks, don't leave home without it.
Skybind can be used to good effect if you're running a number of non-enchantment "enter the battlefield" effects. Auramancer and Monk Idealist can be used to get back other enchantments at end of turn.
Unfortunately because it takes effect of return at end of turn, Skybind is a little less useful for planeswalkers.
Sigil of the Empty Throne could be used if you have enough enchantments to protect your planeswalker or life total, or go on the offensive!
If you are running some number of proliferate cards to further your Sagas for value, then some number of planeswalkers can be beneficial.
It's hard to completely recommend what to run as it'll depend on the rest of your build. There are going to be the usual suspects in; Tezzeret the Seeker, Teferi, Temporal Archmage, Kaya, Ghost Assassin.
But if you're running a number of artifacts already and supporting the The Antiquities War more, then Karn, Scion of Urza and Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, Tezzeret, Artifice Master are worth a look. Open the Vault can be slightly more abusable in a build which has more of a spread between your artifacts and enchantments.
I was super hyped on this commander when she was spoiled. In my theory crafting I eventually started leaning towards a "super-friends lite" deck as you have as well. I wasn't originally going to make her hardcore-competitive, as I have never made a cEDH deck and I wasn't sure how viable she was as a commander, but after reading through your post I am a bit more inspired to go in that direction. As I have never experienced a cEDH meta, my question is how viable will Aminatou be in cEDH?
Other than that this post looks pretty great, I just picked up a bunch of cards for her, I can't wait till she's released and I can start putting them all together in a deck. I think I'm gonna start off outside of cEDH and slowly upgrade it in that direction. I might make my own post depending on if I find a different angle to take this commander, but as I said my own theory crafting came up pretty similar to this.
EDIT: One card I think is missing from your list is Parallax Wave. Shuts down opponent's creatures temporarily, can protect your board from a wrath, and blinking it with Aminatou is straight gas. If you get to ult Aminatou you can use all the counters on it on your creatures then give it to the person who goes after you, and on their upkeep Wave will die and you'll get all your stuff back. Also, in magical christmas land with Teferi emblem you can activate the wave five times and before the triggers go off blink it with Aminatou to permenetly exile 5 creatures every turn/possibly more times per turn with Oath of Teferi and or The Chain Veil
I was super hyped on this commander when she was spoiled. In my theory crafting I eventually started leaning towards a "super-friends lite" deck as you have as well. I wasn't originally going to make her hardcore-competitive, as I have never made a cEDH deck and I wasn't sure how viable she was as a commander, but after reading through your post I am a bit more inspired to go in that direction. As I have never experienced a cEDH meta, my question is how viable will Aminatou be in cEDH?
I mean for like true cEDH you have to be ready for turn 3-4 combo wins, draw 7 cards potentially every other turn (Timetwister, Windfall, Wheel of Fortune). Like cEDH can have a different speed that you need to be prepared for.
So on that note, I feel like you'd have to have some elements of changing the deck to that environment, but it only works in that environment.
So for example if you're expecting draw 7 cards every other turn, then you're better off playing Chrome Mox, Mox Amber, Mox Diamond, etc.
But I am not playing these because unless I have these big draw cards, then in 75% commander games, they can be a bit hit or miss.
I have been careful to keep this deck low to the ground, however. There are no big dumb creatures where top of deck matters, because on turn 7 you might get in an attack and get value. The deck is designed around setting up around the first 6 turns.
How would I change it for true cEDH? You need to be able to assemble infinite combos as quickly as possible. So I'm not positive the general approach is quick enough?
Changes you could make are putting in cards like Flash and Academy Rector and Arena Rector.
These can get you to Oath of Teferi or Tezzeret the Seeker, assembling infinites at a potential quicker speed.
The reason I am not playing these is that I'll point to the cEDH scene that would allow you to draw into these thresholds of cards more quickly because of draw 7 cards.
If you are completely relying on your own deck to get these cards, then it is a lot slower. i.e you might just have a Flash sitting in your hand for the entire game and nothing to do with it.
Other than that this post looks pretty great, I just picked up a bunch of cards for her, I can't wait till she's released and I can start putting them all together in a deck. I think I'm gonna start off outside of cEDH and slowly upgrade it in that direction. I might make my own post depending on if I find a different angle to take this commander, but as I said my own theory crafting came up pretty similar to this.
EDIT: One card I think is missing from your list is Parallax Wave. Shuts down opponent's creatures temporarily, can protect your board from a wrath, and blinking it with Aminatou is straight gas. If you get to ult Aminatou you can use all the counters on it on your creatures then give it to the person who goes after you, and on their upkeep Wave will die and you'll get all your stuff back. Also, in magical christmas land with Teferi emblem you can activate the wave five times and before the triggers go off blink it with Aminatou to permenetly exile 5 creatures every turn/possibly more times per turn with Oath of Teferi and or The Chain Veil
I did have Parallax Wave in my original pile. It does sound correct to say play it over Day of Judgement for the reasons that you mentioned.
You can target 4 opponents creatures and then blink out Parallax Wave in your next turn and it'll reset, so you can keep that up for as long as you can [-1] Aminatou. But as you say, you can use Parallax Wave on your own ETB creatures and use Aminatou to blink out the Parallax Wave to get multiple ETB effects in a single turn.
First and foremost, thank you for this awesome look at probably one of the most interesting planeswalkers in the game! I was initially underwhelmed by her effects, but after reading guides like this, I am becoming more and more excited to run her. She could be the replacement for my Zur, the Enchanter reanimator deck to use more of my favorite cards!
In my mind, I had an idea for a combo/Reanimator style of deck with good ETB effects and just beat beaters. Dies_to_doom_blade has a primer for a 4 color deck with Thrasios/Vial Smasher running a similar style to that. It uses reanimating a big creature to lock the board down then either out valuing your group, or combing them all to death (having backups plans are always good!).
I’m thinking of using Angel of Serenity to exile problem child creatures, Magister of Worth for some political boardwipes and reanimation, and even Avacyn, Angel of Hope for overall protection (plus they are my favorite creatures lol). That combo with Emeria Angel is amazing to bring stuff back! Plus, having an excuse to
The planeswalker subtheme seems like a lot of fun as well plus it uses Oath of Jace which I use anyway to loot big stuff away. This gives much more reason to keep the card and run more planeswalkers too.
Though, I could see the edition of Restoration Angel with Felidar Guardian for more ETB shenanigans with another card to kill the table when our commander isn’t present.
First and foremost, thank you for this awesome look at probably one of the most interesting planeswalkers in the game! I was initially underwhelmed by her effects, but after reading guides like this, I am becoming more and more excited to run her. She could be the replacement for my Zur, the Enchanter reanimator deck to use more of my favorite cards!
In my mind, I had an idea for a combo/Reanimator style of deck with good ETB effects and just beat beaters. Dies_to_doom_blade has a primer for a 4 color deck with Thrasios/Vial Smasher running a similar style to that. It uses reanimating a big creature to lock the board down then either out valuing your group, or combing them all to death (having backups plans are always good!).
I’m thinking of using Angel of Serenity to exile problem child creatures, Magister of Worth for some political boardwipes and reanimation, and even Avacyn, Angel of Hope for overall protection (plus they are my favorite creatures lol). That combo with Emeria Angel is amazing to bring stuff back! Plus, having an excuse to
The planeswalker subtheme seems like a lot of fun as well plus it uses Oath of Jace which I use anyway to loot big stuff away. This gives much more reason to keep the card and run more planeswalkers too.
Though, I could see the edition of Restoration Angel with Felidar Guardian for more ETB shenanigans with another card to kill the table when our commander isn’t present.
Yeah absolutely reanimator would be a strong theme. You can not only use Aminatou [-1] on blinking out Animate Dead cards to target juicer things down the line, but also you can target the creature itself, so that it removes the enchantment, giving it a bit more resilience. So if that makes sense you don't then have to worry about Disenchant effects.
Best used on ETB creatures of course so nice reanimation targets like Rune-Scarred Demon for additional value.
Now the other bonus you get with a reanimator deck, is at least 3 extra "shuffle" effects in Entomb, Buried Alive and Intuition, which all helps with her [+1] ability.
Thanks for the guide. I'm working on Animatou for Duel Commander, but it is similar to this, but the kill is either Return to Hagra (infinite blink of a land) or Parasitic Strix looping. For the player swap stuff, give them an Illusions of Grandeur and bounce it, -20 life right there. My own build had 3-4 'walkers and about 20-30 ETB value critters. Fun commander!
(Oh, my solution to the +1 not really filtering is Sawtooth Loon, which puts stuff on the bottom. Meep meep! Scroll Rack works too.)
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The "Crazy One", playing casual magic and occasionally dipping his toes into regular play since 1994.
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.
Thanks for the guide. I'm working on Animatou for Duel Commander, but it is similar to this, but the kill is either Return to Hagra (infinite blink of a land) or Parasitic Strix looping. For the player swap stuff, give them an Illusions of Grandeur and bounce it, -20 life right there. My own build had 3-4 'walkers and about 20-30 ETB value critters. Fun commander!
(Oh, my solution to the +1 not really filtering is Sawtooth Loon, which puts stuff on the bottom. Meep meep! Scroll Rack works too.)
Piranha Marsh is a land you can use to kill opponents with infinite.
I don't have my list together quite yet but I have some more thoughts. Do you think Urborg and Coffers could be worth it in this deck? Sure you are three colors, but you are already running Weathered Wayfarer, and tutors. Slotting in Tolaria West, and Expedition Map could be easy as well. Blinking Coffers with an Urborg on the table seems like big money. You already have quite a few utility lands in the deck that are worth searching up (Bog, Mistveil Plains, Skyline Cascade) And you could add a few more such as Academy Ruins -- which would be nice recursion for your artifacts that are going to be removal magnets (The Chain Veil, Rings of Brighthearth) -- and Maze of Ith which seems really good for protecting your Commanders. It is also a three color deck so fitting these in around color fixing may be difficult, but it's just some ideas.
The other thought was Perplexing Chimera. This card might not be the greatest but it sure is ridiculous. And with Aminatou's -1 it actually can be pretty scary, being able to reuse this guy will stop opponents from wanting to play anything.
Along those same lines Decree of Silence is disgusting with Aminatou's -1. If you wanna be that guy.
Finally, there may be some constellation effects to take advantage of. Specifically Skybind, and Agent of Erebos. Agent is just another graveyard hate effect to take advantage of, and Skybind is really good imo. Also you don't have to blink them specifically to get their effects, you can blink your Oaths or your Parallax Wave and get extra value stapled on.
I don't have my list together quite yet but I have some more thoughts. Do you think Urborg and Coffers could be worth it in this deck? Sure you are three colors, but you are already running Weathered Wayfarer, and tutors. Slotting in Tolaria West, and Expedition Map could be easy as well. Blinking Coffers with an Urborg on the table seems like big money. You already have quite a few utility lands in the deck that are worth searching up (Bog, Mistveil Plains, Skyline Cascade) And you could add a few more such as Academy Ruins -- which would be nice recursion for your artifacts that are going to be removal magnets (The Chain Veil, Rings of Brighthearth) -- and Maze of Ith which seems really good for protecting your Commanders. It is also a three color deck so fitting these in around color fixing may be difficult, but it's just some ideas.
The other thought was Perplexing Chimera. This card might not be the greatest but it sure is ridiculous. And with Aminatou's -1 it actually can be pretty scary, being able to reuse this guy will stop opponents from wanting to play anything.
Along those same lines Decree of Silence is disgusting with Aminatou's -1. If you wanna be that guy.
Finally, there may be some constellation effects to take advantage of. Specifically Skybind, and Agent of Erebos. Agent is just another graveyard hate effect to take advantage of, and Skybind is really good imo. Also you don't have to blink them specifically to get their effects, you can blink your Oaths or your Parallax Wave and get extra value stapled on.
Working on my list as well, but I believe that the Urborg/Coffer combo could work fine as another way to generate infinite mana.
I love your idea for doing an enchantress build since there are plenty of U/x enchantments to take advantage of. Plus, constellation cards like Grim Guardian or Doomwake Giant can really ruin someone’s day.
I don't have my list together quite yet but I have some more thoughts. Do you think Urborg and Coffers could be worth it in this deck? Sure you are three colors, but you are already running Weathered Wayfarer, and tutors. Slotting in Tolaria West, and Expedition Map could be easy as well. Blinking Coffers with an Urborg on the table seems like big money. You already have quite a few utility lands in the deck that are worth searching up (Bog, Mistveil Plains, Skyline Cascade) And you could add a few more such as Academy Ruins -- which would be nice recursion for your artifacts that are going to be removal magnets (The Chain Veil, Rings of Brighthearth) -- and Maze of Ith which seems really good for protecting your Commanders. It is also a three color deck so fitting these in around color fixing may be difficult, but it's just some ideas.
The other thought was Perplexing Chimera. This card might not be the greatest but it sure is ridiculous. And with Aminatou's -1 it actually can be pretty scary, being able to reuse this guy will stop opponents from wanting to play anything.
Along those same lines Decree of Silence is disgusting with Aminatou's -1. If you wanna be that guy.
Finally, there may be some constellation effects to take advantage of. Specifically Skybind, and Agent of Erebos. Agent is just another graveyard hate effect to take advantage of, and Skybind is really good imo. Also you don't have to blink them specifically to get their effects, you can blink your Oaths or your Parallax Wave and get extra value stapled on.
Working on my list as well, but I believe that the Urborg/Coffer combo could work fine as another way to generate infinite mana.
I love your idea for doing an enchantress build since there are plenty of U/x enchantments to take advantage of. Plus, constellation cards like Grim Guardian or Doomwake Giant can really ruin someone’s day.
Yeah even though there's only one actual enchantress in these colors (and I don't even know if i'd run it) I'm kinda looking at some kind of Enchantment/Reanimator/Superfriends list. All the reanimation enchantments work very well with Aminatou and plus if you can run enough creatures/token producers (such as Grave Titan) to justify sac outlets then Academy Rector and Arena Rector become much better.
I don't have my list together quite yet but I have some more thoughts. Do you think Urborg and Coffers could be worth it in this deck? Sure you are three colors, but you are already running Weathered Wayfarer, and tutors. Slotting in Tolaria West, and Expedition Map could be easy as well. Blinking Coffers with an Urborg on the table seems like big money. You already have quite a few utility lands in the deck that are worth searching up (Bog, Mistveil Plains, Skyline Cascade) And you could add a few more such as Academy Ruins -- which would be nice recursion for your artifacts that are going to be removal magnets (The Chain Veil, Rings of Brighthearth) -- and Maze of Ith which seems really good for protecting your Commanders. It is also a three color deck so fitting these in around color fixing may be difficult, but it's just some ideas.
You really need high casting cost cards to make use of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Coffers. I've been thinking about infinite mana and "what to do with it?". The reason is that there is Rings of Brighthearth/Grim Monolith that produce infinite colorless, so it got me thinking how can this be spent? Sure it can pay for the non-colored cost of spells, but it's not super necessary for the content of the deck.
The best use I can think of is ensuring that you can always pay for commander tax.
So there is a build which could abuse Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth/Cabal Coffers, but it would need cards like Arguel's Blood Fast, Erebos, God of the Dead and probably bigger threats to cast into like Rune-Scarred Demon, Massacre Wurm, Noxious Gearhulk, to really make use of lots of black mana.
Just for my particular deck the color pie is very light in black, so running the Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth/Cabal Coffers would be risky. Maze of Ith is nice, and if you do run Urborg, then it can provide you mana as well. But as currently I can't justify Urborg as a land, and therefore probably can't justify Maze of Ith either.
But to get back to the commander tax thing, one thing I did think of was Hex Parasite. Bit of an unusual one, but if you have infinite colored mana, then you can actually use the Hex Parasite to kill Aminatou, just so that you can recast her again. This way you can use Aminatou an infinite number of times. Hex Parasite on it's own is not a totally dead card, as you can use it on opposing planewalkers and other +1/+1 strategies.
The other thought was Perplexing Chimera. This card might not be the greatest but it sure is ridiculous. And with Aminatou's -1 it actually can be pretty scary, being able to reuse this guy will stop opponents from wanting to play anything.
Perplexing Chimera is the one other exchange card that interested me. It is way more of a lock down card than you'd first imagine. I've played against it quite a few times, and it does have this unseen ability to stop opponents casting anything really. You just can't into it, so it ends up stalling your opponents game very well. So it's not incorrect to play it. It will be better than you expect, it's just that you'll never know how good it is, unless opponents tell you what it was preventing them from doing after the game has finished.
Along those same lines Decree of Silence is disgusting with Aminatou's -1. If you wanna be that guy.
Finally, there may be some constellation effects to take advantage of. Specifically Skybind, and Agent of Erebos. Agent is just another graveyard hate effect to take advantage of, and Skybind is really good imo. Also you don't have to blink them specifically to get their effects, you can blink your Oaths or your Parallax Wave and get extra value stapled on.
I did look at Skybind, as I looked at all the cards that have blink effects, and it's biggest setback is that it "returns at end of turn". This is the same as a lot of cards, and makes all the difference when it comes to infinite loops. But it doesn't need to be about infinites, if you can generate enough value per turn (aka like Brago) then you'll still just run away with the game.
Plenty of directions to take Aminatou and enchantments that have "enter the battlefield" effects would be interesting.
Finally, there may be some constellation effects to take advantage of. Specifically Skybind, and Agent of Erebos. Agent is just another graveyard hate effect to take advantage of, and Skybind is really good imo. Also you don't have to blink them specifically to get their effects, you can blink your Oaths or your Parallax Wave and get extra value stapled on.
I did look at Skybind, as I looked at all the cards that have blink effects, and it's biggest setback is that it "returns at end of turn". This is the same as a lot of cards, and makes all the difference when it comes to infinite loops. But it doesn't need to be about infinites, if you can generate enough value per turn (aka like Brago) then you'll still just run away with the game.
Plenty of directions to take Aminatou and enchantments that have "enter the battlefield" effects would be interesting.
I think in my list (which I'm gonna try to get up by the end of the weekend) I want to have a good mix between end of turn "blinks" and immediate "flickers." The end of turn blinks actually have a lot of value imo. They don't go infinite easily, but they allow you to "hide" your things and then wrath. I mentioned this in the speculation thread but with Felidar GuardianOath of Teferi and Aminatou you can "hide" your entire board and then cast something like Worldpurge which seems fun lmao. Also if you can abuse these effects at instant speed you can activate them during the endstep and because of the wording they won't come back till the beginning of the next endstep. This allows you to exile opponents things for the entirety of their turn which can be very effective at slowing them down.Venser, the Sojourner, Flickerwisp, and Skybind are all cards I'm looking at for this effect.
EDIT:
Looking at good ETB creatures: Stonehorn Dignitary can keep the pressure off your walkers and with infinite blinks can just remove the combat step from the game forever.
Gonti, Lord of Luxury is fun to blink and can mill your opponents out with infinite blinks.
Oblivion Sower is along the same lines as Gonti. But another fun trick with it is exiling a bunch of your opponents lands with something like Flickerwisp or Skybind and then casting Sower and stealing them all.
Given that she literally allowed herself to spark early, I wonder how powerful she'd be when she actually grow up, compare to Bolas.
I like your super friend approach, would you consider Venser, the Sojourner in your deck?
The problem with any of the cards that exile but "return at end of turn", is that you can't loop them for infinites. So any value is going to be delayed as well, for example blinking out a Trinket Mage, will only get you the effect at end of turn, so it ends up being pretty slow.
His ultimate is mean, but the fact that his starting loyalty is 3 and ultimate is 8, means that you can't do the Deepglow Skate trick of getting the ultimate in the same turn played, which is really what I'm aiming for. So the answer is he is not quite good enough for this deck.
I think in my list (which I'm gonna try to get up by the end of the weekend) I want to have a good mix between end of turn "blinks" and immediate "flickers." The end of turn blinks actually have a lot of value imo. They don't go infinite easily, but they allow you to "hide" your things and then wrath. I mentioned this in the speculation thread but with Felidar GuardianOath of Teferi and Aminatou you can "hide" your entire board and then cast something like Worldpurge which seems fun lmao. Also if you can abuse these effects at instant speed you can activate them during the endstep and because of the wording they won't come back till the beginning of the next endstep. This allows you to exile opponents things for the entirety of their turn which can be very effective at slowing them down.Venser, the Sojourner, Flickerwisp, and Skybind are all cards I'm looking at for this effect.
Seeing a lot of good cards here with a bunch of potential!!! Loving where all of this is going! Just finished my first draft of the deck and it runs a similar list to yours with more cards to loot things into the graveyard. Really like the planeswalker subtheme though I worry if taking it out would take away from main cards like Oath of Jace or Oath of Teferi. This also uses my favorite creatures which surprisingly work well with the deck. Any thoughts would be appreciated though I am seeing a few things needing some changes.
Seeing a lot of good cards here with a bunch of potential!!! Loving where all of this is going! Just finished my first draft of the deck and it runs a similar list to yours with more cards to loot things into the graveyard. Really like the planeswalker subtheme though I worry if taking it out would take away from main cards like Oath of Jace or Oath of Teferi. This also uses my favorite creatures which surprisingly work well with the deck. Any thoughts would be appreciated though I am seeing a few things needing some changes.
Also if you can afford them, Entomb and Intuition are the.bomb.dot.com.
Also as Astro_Man pointed out with the Urborb+Coffers package, Tolaria West becomes are a great addition.
Liliana, Death's Majesty is a reanimating PW, and you can potentially get two creatures the same turn you play her, as you can use thee ol' Aminatou [-1] for double value.
Just one minor detail is that if you read my thread about Tezzeret the Seeker + Oath of Teferi going infinite, then you need to spend [-3] of Tezzeret to get at least 4, if you were to naturally go infinite assuming you didn't have any other support cards in play. Currently your artifacts can't get this combination. So you need at least one of the following: Mana Vault, Grim Monolith, Mana Crypt. You can combine them with Sol Ring. Now it's fine if you already have an artifact in play that produces mana, you could just get Basalt Monolith, but I like to design decks that you know can win without having the extra support cards.
[EDIT]
Oh I completely forget about Supreme Verdict, I need to add this to my deck.
Yeah even though there's only one actual enchantress in these colors (and I don't even know if i'd run it) I'm kinda looking at some kind of Enchantment/Reanimator/Superfriends list. All the reanimation enchantments work very well with Aminatou and plus if you can run enough creatures/token producers (such as Grave Titan) to justify sac outlets then Academy Rector and Arena Rector become much better.
Oh actually now that I've thought about it, Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, Necromancy actually work really nicely with Academy Rector and Arena Rector if you reanimate them, as you can Aminatou [-1] the reanimate enchantments, sending the Rectors to the graveyard, while also being able to target another creature in graveyard.
Seeing a lot of good cards here with a bunch of potential!!! Loving where all of this is going! Just finished my first draft of the deck and it runs a similar list to yours with more cards to loot things into the graveyard. Really like the planeswalker subtheme though I worry if taking it out would take away from main cards like Oath of Jace or Oath of Teferi. This also uses my favorite creatures which surprisingly work well with the deck. Any thoughts would be appreciated though I am seeing a few things needing some changes.
Also if you can afford them, Entomb and Intuition are the.bomb.dot.com.
Also as Astro_Man pointed out with the Urborb+Coffers package, Tolaria West becomes are a great addition.
Liliana, Death's Majesty is a reanimating PW, and you can potentially get two creatures the same turn you play her, as you can use thee ol' Aminatou [-1] for double value.
Just one minor detail is that if you read my thread about Tezzeret the Seeker + Oath of Teferi going infinite, then you need to spend [-3] of Tezzeret to get at least 4, if you were to naturally go infinite assuming you didn't have any other support cards in play. Currently your artifacts can't get this combination. So you need at least one of the following: Mana Vault, Grim Monolith, Mana Crypt. You can combine them with Sol Ring. Now it's fine if you already have an artifact in play that produces mana, you could just get Basalt Monolith, but I like to design decks that you know can win without having the extra support cards.
[EDIT]
Oh I completely forget about Supreme Verdict, I need to add this to my deck.
Crap! I forgot Entomb. I was working on the list in a rush so I missed a few cards.
I agree on your choices for reanimator threats, and felt a little sad that I had no room for them. Would prefer not to get rid of my angels, but I am sure that can shoe horn them in. Going to take out the Tezzeret since I don’t have the other cards to do the combo.
Anymore suggestions would appreciate it!
EDIT: Ok, figuring out what to remove is becoming much harder than I expected. It seems like taking out some loot spells hurt the reanimator stragety while taking out more planeswalker focused cards takes away from having Animatou as our commander. Decisions decisions...
I agree on your choices for reanimator threats, and felt a little sad that I had no room for them. Would prefer not to get rid of my angels, but I am sure that can shoe horn them in. Going to take out the Tezzeret since I don’t have the other cards to do the combo.
Anymore suggestions would appreciate it!
EDIT: Ok, figuring out what to remove is becoming much harder than I expected. It seems like taking out some loot spells hurt the reanimator stragety while taking out more planeswalker focused cards takes away from having Animatou as our commander. Decisions decisions...
Actually your current reanimate targets are good enough probably, so just stick with what you have in your original list. Otherwise you really are going to struggle to remove cards.
Now you don't really need to protect your walkers so much with a reanimation theme of big fatties.
So you can cut down on mass creature removal. Take out the Wrath of God.
Oath of Gideon is not really necessary in your deck. I'm using it more for the 1/1s as early protection, but you have an alternative plan for protection with potential reanimation.
Actually your current reanimate targets are good enough probably, so just stick with what you have in your original list. Otherwise you really are going to struggle to remove cards.
Now you don't really need to protect your walkers so much with a reanimation theme of big fatties.
So you can cut down on mass creature removal. Take out the Wrath of God.
Oath of Gideon is not really necessary in your deck. I'm using it more for the 1/1s as early protection, but you have an alternative plan for protection with potential reanimation.
Hilariously enough, those were cards I was thinking to taking out, so good to know that it’s on the right track lol
As far as my changes go, I took out those cards to pop in Liliana and Entomb. Going to try goldfishing the Cards a bunch of times to get it back in shape. 2 Things I want to ask:
1) Is it worth keeping both oaths if one decides to not do as heavy of a planeswalker package? (Thinking of maybe doing this to get the deck to run faster and add more beaters or mana rocks).
2)During my playtesting, I’m having trouble seeing how you can go infinite mana with just our commander or either of our loyalty doublers like Oath of Teferi or The Chain Veil? If you could clarify, that would be appreciated!
Hilariously enough, those were cards I was thinking to taking out, so good to know that it’s on the right track lol
As far as my changes go, I took out those cards to pop in Liliana and Entomb. Going to try goldfishing the Cards a bunch of times to get it back in shape. 2 Things I want to ask:
1) Is it worth keeping both oaths if one decides to not do as heavy of a planeswalker package? (Thinking of maybe doing this to get the deck to run faster and add more beaters or mana rocks).
2)During my playtesting, I’m having trouble seeing how you can go infinite mana with just our commander or either of our loyalty doublers like Oath of Teferi or The Chain Veil? If you could clarify, that would be appreciated!
Oath of Jace is perfect for re-animator and remember you can Aminatou [-1] the Oath of Jace for card advantage. It's one of the ETB cards. Even if you only have Aminatou in play you get to Scry 1, so that enables you to use her [+1] to filter through your deck effectively, rather than card locked.
Also Oath of Teferi is special in that you can just use it with Aminatou, nothing else required. It might be that you're just using the [+1] and [-1] in combination to keep her on a set amount of loyalty. Or you might even want to build her to ultimate range.
Keep them both in, even if you go down on the Planeswalker theme.
As far as infinite mana, there are only a few very specific combinations.
Aminatou + Emeria Shepherd + Clever Impersonator.
You can copy Aminatou with Clever Impersonator and let her go to the graveyard with the "only one in play rule". Use Aminatou [-1] to blink a Plains to get back Aminatou. Once again let the Clever Impersonator go to the graveyard with the "only one in play rule", and you can keep looping this getting an untapped Plains each time. Hopefully you have multi-colored Plains like Tundra, Hallowed Fountain,Prairie Stream, Scrubland, Godless Shrine, so that you can cast any colored spells.
Aminatou + Teferi, Temporal Archmage + The Chain Veil. Teferi, Temporal Archmage can untap The Chain Veil and 3 lands to get an additional PW activation.
Because you get additional activation's out of Aminatou you can use a combination of her [-1] and [+1] just to keep her on a steady loyalty amount. But you can use the Aminatou [-1] on Teferi, Temporal Archmage who will come back with a fresh new amount of activation's. So you'll get infinite mana and infinite planeswalker activation's.
Aminatou + Sun Titan/Emeria Shepherd + The Chain Veil. HOWEVER you need to be able to get 2 x The Chain Veil activation's, so this requires having at least 8 to spend on The Chain Veil.
This one is tricky. Pay 4 to use The Chain Veil. You need to Aminatou [-1] until she is down to 1 loyalty. So use Aminatou [-1] on the The Chain Veil. Pay another 4 to use The Chain Veil again. Now you can activate Aminatou x 3 times each time she come back into play.
So you can use Aminatou [-1] on lands for mana, but when she is on 1 loyalty, use that last one on either a Sun Titan or if you have Emeria Shepherd in play just another Plains again.
Let Aminatou go to the graveyard (because she dies when last loyalty is used).
Then you can use the Sun Titan or Emeria Shepherd graveyard trigger to bring Aminatou back to play. As I said you can get x3 uses out of her, and her starting loyalty is 3, so you can just keep repeating.
Aminatou + Heart of Kiran + Emeria Shepherd.
Same sort of theory as above, but you can just use Heart of Kiran to put her on the 1 loyalty. So just keep targeting a Plains with Aminatou [-1] and use the Emeria Shepherd graveyard trigger to bring her back to play. Keep looping.
Aminatou + Tezzeret the Seeker + The Chain Veil + Any of Mana Crypt/Sol Ring/Mana Vault/Grim Monolith/Gilded Lotus
The same sort of principle as Teferi, but the mana margins are tighter at the start. But because you can use Aminatou [-1] a number of times on Tezzeret the Seeker, eventually you get to a threshold where you can just use Tezzeret to gain mana on the artifacts. Then you just alternate Aminatou between her [+1] and [-1].
I just thought of this one now, it's not actually infinite mana, but it does give you infinite draw. Aminatou + Will Kenrith + Heart of Kiran + Oath of Teferi/The Chain Veil + Gilded Lotus.
Because Will Kenrith [-2] can reduce Planeswalkers cost by 2, you can always pay for the commander tax for Aminatou.
So you use Will Kenrith [-2]. Tap the Gilded Lotus for say UUU. Aminatou [-1] the Gilded Lotus. Tap Gilded Lotus for say WWW. Aminatou [-1] the Gilded Lotus again and tap for BBB.
Use Heart of Kiran to send Aminatou to the command zone, so that you can recast her.
Use Aminatou [-1] on Will Kenrith and use his [-2]. Note if you make sure to use this each time the reduction accumulates.
Use Aminatou [-1] on the Gilded Lotus, and now you have a means of always being able to pay for the commander tax and the colored portion of casting Aminatou, so just keep repeating using Heart of Kiran to send her back to command zone.
-OR-
Aminatou + Will Kenrith + The Chain Veil + Gilded Lotus.
Same as above, but you need to get 2 x The Chain Veil activation's, so that you can naturally send Aminatou to the command zone using x3 activation's each time.
This one will allow you to get infinite mana as well.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
It's not that there are a massive number artifacts in this build, it's more that we are looking to use some cards to turn our artifacts into mainly 5/5 creatures. This will create a T-800 like army, to defend your various planewalkers, as well as potentially lead an assault. After all, mankind is obsolete.
There are some interactions with some of the lesser played planeswalkers, where they untap creatures as part of their abilities. Once we start turning our artifacts into creatures as well, this in turn will allow us to generate extra mana.
Finally if we get The Chain Veil and make it part of Tezzeret's diabolic creature creations, we can look to go infinite with planeswalker activation's.
Tezzeret planeswalkers are a large part of the decks theme, as often one of his abilities is to turn artifacts into creatures.
There are still many of the quality cards from my other builds. There are fundamental core cards that lead themselves to harmonizing with Aminatou.
But this deck has a lot more planeswalkers. We are still looking to gain advantages out of them using Aminatou [-1] to get more uses out of their abilities. Plus of course Oath of Teferi and The Chain Veil provide insane value.
Cards that allow to turn our artifacts into creatures include; Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, Tezzeret the Schemer, Tezzeret the Seeker, Tezzeret, Cruel Machinist, The Antiquities War, Karn, Silver Golem, March of the Machines.
Where the Tezzeret planeswalkers specifically look to make them 5/5 creatures (as well as The Antiquities War), what happens with Karn, Silver Golem and March of the Machines is that they are based on their converted-mana-cost. For this reason having zero-cost artifacts is a little dangerous, so I've specifically avoided a lot of these types of artifacts, except artifact lands and Mana Crypt.
There are some card that help to mitigate this effect if you do play March of the Machines.
The Antiquities War is great in that in will provide value, but you can look to exile it with Aminatou every other turn to reset it, waiting on the final saga, when you might want it.
Gideon, Martial Paragon also gives a +1/+1 bonus each time, so in a combo turn you'll have infinite sized creatures to make sure you hit opponents hard.
There is also Gideon's Resolve which can be used to search out your combo planeswalker. It also give's your creatures +1/+1, which will mean you can play March of the Machines with your artifact lands in play.
Karn, Scion of Urza can start creating potentially huge construct creatures, but he also works fairly well with removing the top of library, helping with filtering with Aminatou [+1] a little better.
Teferi, Timebender ability to untap an artifact or creature, means that cards like Gilded Lotus and Coveted Jewel are premium sources of man in the deck.
There are a number of ways to go infinite with Teferi, Timebender, please check out the spolier tags below for combinations.
Teferi, Timebender + Deepglow Skate + Oath of Teferi.
Aminatou [+1]
Aminatou [-1] Deepglow Skate to put Teferi, Timebender on 10 loyalty. Ultimate him.
Teferi, Timebender [+2] to put him on 3 loyalty.
Next Turn 1:
Aminatou [+1]
Teferi, Timebender [+2] to put him on 5 loyalty.
Aminatou [-1] Deepglow Skate to put Teferi, Timebender on 10 loyalty. Ultimate him.
Next Turn 2:
Aminatou [-1] Teferi, Timebender to restart on 5 loyalty.
Aminatou [-1] Deepglow Skate to put Teferi, Timebender on 10 loyalty. Ultimate him.
Teferi, Timebender [+2] to put him on 3 loyalty.
Next Loop Infinitely from 'Next Turn 1':
Actually Aminatou will build up to infinite loyalty if you start with say 3 loyalty as she gets to double off the Deepglow Skate, so after a while you can just use her [-1] as many times in a row as you want.
Infinite turns with;
Teferi, Timebender + Niambi, Faithful Healer + The Chain Veil + artifact mana.
Let's assume you have one of the > 2 mana artifact rocks like, Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Grim Monolith, Gilded Lotus, Coveted Jewel.
If you have an artifact that produces 2 mana then you'll need at least 8 other mana to combo.
If you have an artifact that produces 3 mana then you'll need at least 5 other mana to combo.
Cast Teferi, Timebender.
Teferi, Timebender [+2] untapping the artifact mana.
Activate the The Chain Veil.
Teferi, Timebender [+2] untapping the artifact mana.
Aminatou [+1]
Aminatou [-1] The Chain Veil and activate again.
Teferi, Timebender [-9] ultimate for extra turn, sending him to the graveyard.
Aminatou [-1] Niambi, Faithful Healer getting back Teferi, Timebender.
Next Turn 1:
Repeat the process, but you're hoping to draw into even more mana, so that you can eventually not have to Aminatou [-1] twice in a turn to pay for things.
If you have enough mana to activate the The Chain Veil three times then you can go infinite with just;
Teferi, Timebender + The Chain Veil + artifact mana.
It must noted that with Niambi, Faithful Healer and Gideon's Resolve that you have two permanents that can be exiled with Aminatou [-1] to get back the respective planeswalkers from your graveyard if they have been removed. In this sense it is very hard for opponents to stop you getting these specific combo pieces into play.
Tezzeret, Cruel Machinist has an ultimate which works really well with Aminatou [-1]. Any face-down cards that are exiled with her return to play face-up. Effectively you can cheat expensive cards into play with this method.
You have a game plan of being able to create a hard to deal with force on the ground, but the deck is a bit weak to flyers. So to bolster this, we have some vehicles to make attacks a little harder with, Heart of Kiran and Aethersphere Harvester.
Bitterblossom can also help with this, creating chump blockers.
Glint-Nest Crane is a nice additional to an artifact orientated build. Certainly guaranteed to get value out of it.
Paradox Engine is literally one of the main engines of the deck, a no brainier this will allow you to chain off massive amounts of mana, and with your planeswalker providing draw, you should have enough action to do insane things.
You can check out my "Will & Rowan Kenrith - Super Siblings with Super Friends", with link in my signature. It explains much of the concepts in the introduction.
But the general idea is that once we get some of our artifact mana going, and also hopefully getting them as creatures, we can also look to bounce some of our planeswalkers with Cloudstone Curio to then recast them again, allowing us to reuse their abilities.
We are looking at Gideon, Martial Paragon, Jace, Ingenious Mind-Mage, Tezzeret the Seeker, Teferi, Temporal Archmage, Teferi, Timebender to be one of the planeswalker we are looking to bounce in effect with others, with Cloudstone Curio.
All these planeswalkers can potentially generate mana, allowing to keep recasting to allow reusing abilities, or even gaining infinite's.
For example if you have a number of artifact mana that are creatures, then Gideon, Martial Paragon, Jace, Ingenious Mind-Mage can untap them all to give you mana to recast another planeswalker, that you might look to get value out of.
You can always bounce Aminatou and she can Aminatou [-1] an artifact for mana as well. So you can potentially generate infinite's.
If you also have Oath of Teferi or The Chain Veil, then you will definitely be able to generate infinite mana and probably draw.
You use Aminatou [-1] twice on the Gilded Lotus to gain 6 mana.
You cast Teferi, Timebender bouncing Aminatou.
Teferi, Timebender [+2] untap Gilded Lotus.
Teferi, Timebender [-3] gain 2 life and draw two cards.
Recast Aminatou bouncing Teferi, Timebender and you can keep looping this infinitely.
It's even easier with Teferi, Temporal Archmage and Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Aminatou, the Fateshifter
Planeswalkers (11)
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1 Karn, Scion of Urza
1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Tezzeret the Schemer
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Gideon, Martial Paragon
1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
1 Jace, Ingenious Mind-Mage
1 Tezzeret, Cruel Machinist
1 Teferi, Timebender
1 Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Creatures
1 Glint-Nest Crane
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Baleful Strix
1 Wall of Omens
1 Dark Confidant
1 Niambi, Faithful Healer
1 Trinket Mage
1 Spellseeker
1 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Felidar Guardian
1 Academy Rector
1 Arena Rector
1 Deepglow Skate
1 Thalia's Lancers
1 Karn, Silver Golem
Vehicles
1 Heart of Kiran
Enchantments
1 Bitterblossom
1 Search for Azcanta
1 Intruder Alarm
1 Oath of Gideon
1 Oath of Jace
1 March of the Machines
1 The Antiquities War
1 Parallax Wave
1 Oath of Teferi
1 Gideon's Resolve
1 Omniscience
1 Brainstorm
1 Preordain
1 Ponder
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Swan Song
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Lim-Dûl's Vault
1 Arcane Denial
1 Mana Drain
1 Flash
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Temporal Mastery
1 Force of Will
Artifacts
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Throne of Geth
1 Cloudstone Curio
1 The Chain Veil
1 Paradox Engine
Artifact mana
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Azorius Signet
1 Dimir Signet
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Grim Monolith
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Coveted Jewel
Lands (31)
1 Command Tower
1 Underground Sea
1 Watery Grave
1 Morphic Pool
1 Underground River
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Tundra
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sea of Clouds
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Mystic Gate
1 Scrubland
1 Godless Shrine
1 Ancient Den
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Academy Ruins
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Arid Mesa
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Marsh Flats
1 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
1 Fetid Heath
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
I wanted to make sure that people wouldn't just think that it was better to run Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign as the commander for the particular build I ended up with, or for that matter Narset, Enlightened Master.
In the end I've constructed quite the spicy build.
As I was researching cards, a couple really stood out to me as fun to build around; Synthetic Destiny and Mass Polymorph.
The idea is to transform your "cheap to cast" spells into some of the best creatures ever to be printed in Magic. The deck is designed to have only a select number of non-top end creatures, but mostly it has a lot of non-creature ways of producing token creatures. These are mainly with planeswalker abilities.
The token creatures can be used to setup a big Synthetic Destiny or Mass Polymorph.
The Planeswalkers in the deck also leading to some synergies with Aminatou as well, which you can read in my other primers.
There is also Divine Visitation to make any token creatures into 4/4 Angels instead. Make sure to spot the easter-eggs in the title picture to the original Divine Visitation art
There are a number of different cards and methods that look to put your top-end cards into play without paying their mana cost and I am happy to explain them in the card choices section below.
Right so the main theme is to try and "cheat" as many permanents into play, mostly from working off the top of your library.
There are cards that allow you to do this with; Proteus Staff, Jalira, Master Polymorphist, Synthetic Destiny, Mass Polymorph.
Because these cards require creatures to already be in play, we are using a lot of non-creature cards that generate creatures, so that we can avoid having to play too many small-to-mid sized creatures, so that the effectiveness of these cards is a lot better.
Most of the token creature generators are in the form of planeswalkers; Jace, Cunning Castaway, Karn, Scion of Urza, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Sorin, Solemn Visitor, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Liliana, Death's Majesty, Elspeth Tirel, Elspeth Sun's Champion.
There is also some other enchantments and creatures that do this with; Bitterblossom, Hidden Stockpile, Oath of Gideon, Sacred Mesa, Faerie Artisans.
There are also a number of manifest cards, that you can use to setup your top of library so that you can use Aminatou [-1] on the manifested card to return to play face-up.
These are; Soul Summons, Reality Shift, Mastery of the Unseen, Primordial Mist.
Manifesting cards is also another way of producing creatures from non-creature sources, so you can still use the transform cards on them, if you've not setup something relevant to turn face-up in the first place.
Divine Visitation can be used to make all the token creatures you generate into much more solid bodies in 4/4 flying Angels. Normally the tokens are like between 1/1 and 2/2 ground creatures, so the upgrade is perfect for protecting your planeswalkers as well as producing an army of threats.
The creatures in the deck represent some of the best that have ever been printed for sheer power; Doom Whisperer, Sun Titan, Consecrated Sphinx, Medomai the Ageless, Emeria Shepherd, Ashen Rider, Tidespout Tyrant, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur.
There are some "mid-range" creatures, but these have a lot of synergy with the deck.
Kaho, Minamo Historian gives you access to a number of manipulation cards, you can Synthetic Destiny, which is an instant. You can also get Vampiric Tutor to specially setup the top of your library with whatever card you want.
Zur the Enchanter can get a number of key enchantments, token generators, manifest in Mastery of the Unseen, and even Necromancy in case you wanted to return one of your premium creatures back from graveyard.
With Aminatou [+1] you can put cards back ontop of your library that you are looking to get into play for no cost. Often drawing large mana costing creatures early on before you have mana is bad in decks, but this deck is designed to reward you for drawing your bug creatures early, in that you can use a number of cards to get them into play.
The deck plays a lot of top of library manipulation that you can see in my other builds, as this is important to your overall goal.
There are still some infinite's you can get through Felidar Guardian, Oath of Teferi and The Chain Veil, but this deck has a lot less focus on these, and looks to overwhelm your opponents with hay makers, like Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Tidespout Tyrant, and a bevvy of other game warping creatures.
1 Aminatou, the Fateshifter
Creatures
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Kaho, Minamo Historian
1 Zur the Enchanter
1 Felidar Guardian
1 Doom Whisperer
1 Sun Titan
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Medomai the Ageless
1 Emeria Shepherd
1 Ashen Rider
1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1 Razaketh, the Foulblooded
1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
Flash Combo
1 Flash
1 Academy Rector
1 Arena Rector
Planeswalkers
1 Jace, Cunning Castaway
1 Karn, Scion of Urza
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Liliana, Death's Majesty
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Liliana Vess
Token generators
1 Bitterblossom
1 Hidden Stockpile
1 Oath of Gideon
1 Sacred Mesa
1 Faerie Artisans
From library into play
1 Proteus Staff
1 Jalira, Master Polymorphist
1 Djinn of Wishes
1 Synthetic Destiny
1 Mass Polymorph
1 Soul Summons
1 Reality Shift
1 Mastery of the Unseen
1 Primordial Mist
Enchantments
(other)
1 Necromancy
1 Oath of Jace
1 Oath of Teferi
1 Divine Visitation
1 Omniscience
Artifacts
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 The Chain Veil
Instant and Sorcery
(other)
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Pact of Negation
1 Swan Song
1 Arcane Denial
1 Mana Drain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Terminus
1 Temporal Mastery
Lands (35)
1 Command Tower
1 Tundra
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Irrigated Farmland
1 Prairie Stream
1 Sea of Clouds
1 Mystic Gate
1 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Underground Sea
1 Watery Grave
1 Morphic Pool
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Temple of Deceit
1 Underground River
1 Scrubland
1 Godless Shrine
1 Fetid Heath
1 Temple of Silence
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
1 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flats
1 Windswept Heath
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Plains
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Phyrexian Tower
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
The Power of the Two-Drop Creatures with Aminatou
Just thought I'd add a post on reflection of how two mana costing creatures can be really good for your Aminatou, the Fateshifter deck.
With Aminatou costing three mana, there is an importance to protecting her during the early stages of the game.
Having a one or two mana creature with an "enter the battlefield" ability can really set you up, as you cast it on Turn 2, then you can cast Aminatou on Turn 3 and use her [-1] to get additional value.
This creature can then threaten to block early game creatures.
I've made a select list of creatures to help you potentially on deciding if you want to run some of these creatures for your own version of Aminatou, the Fateshifter.
The sort of criteria is making sure that ETB is effective, and also the stats of the creature (power/toughness) can hold up to other common early play creatures.
Opponents playing mana creatures is popular, so you could expect Llanowar Elves, Arbor Elf, Deathrite Shaman, etc.
So I personally think that playing 1/1 creatures yourself is not advisable, as you be trading off. You really want to be at least able to survive an attack from a 1/1, so that all the opponents small creatures are held off in the early stages. So in general looking for higher toughness than 1, but there are some 1/1 creatures that have in built abilities to kill creatures, and these can be an exception.
Aether Theorist - Scry 1 is relevant to Aminatou [+1].
Auriok Champion - If your meta seems to run black or red consistently then this can also combo with Felidar Guardian for infinite life.
Contraband Kingpin - Solid blocking stats, and you can use Aminatou [-1] to blink an artifact to get the Scry 1.
Fogwalker - Locking down a creature for a couple of turns might be enough for you to get the traction you need.
Merfolk Trickster - Locking down a creature for a couple of turns.
Harbinger of the Tides - Return to hand is even more of a tempo play.
Jeering Homunculus - Goad means that the creature has to attack another player.
Kitesail Freebooter - This isn't perfect, as if you blink it, the card will return back to opponents hand. But you can use this to sniff out opponents, as you might not hit anything of relevance on the first opponent, so can do it on another. The 1/2 isn't great either, but in combo heavy metas is an option.
Leonin Relic-Warder - Same deal that blinking will mean that the card will return. However it is a blocker, and allows you to readjust the target if needed.
Omenspeaker - Scry 2 is relevant to Aminatou [+1].
Oreskos Explorer - Probably unlikely to get value on a Turn 2 play, but can be a blocker and then later on in the game you can look to get value out of it, if you come up against ramp decks.
Thraben Inspector - Bare minimum stats to block mana creatures, but you can get slower draws off it from the clues.
Suncleanser - Meta specific, but look to this card to potential setback opponents plans using particular counters strategies. Solid blocking stats at 1/4.
Any time you have cards that specifies a card type, it pays to do a little math. When you have cards that say look at top X cards of your library, and you can get a particular card type, then you really want 1/X of your deck to be of that type to get consistent value.
Augur of Bolas - Is a third of your deck instants or sorceries? Now if you are OK with only getting value half of the time, then this number can only be a 1/6 of your deck which is much more realistic.
Glint-Nest Crane - Is a third of your deck artifacts?
But it's also important to note that Aminatou [+1] can set you up with putting a particular card type on top, so you can look to guarantee value this way.
Super Friends
10/99 (1/10)- Artifacts
26/99 (near 1/3) - Instants and sorceries.
1/10th for artifacts is too low to get consistent value.
Near 1/3 is borderline, but it is actually reasonable to run Augur of Bolas in the deck.
Reanimator
14/99 (1/7) - Artifacts
33/99 (1/3) - Instants and sorceries.
1/7 is a low number, but if you're OK with hitting an artifact less than half of the time you play the creature, then it's not unfeasible to run it. For the reasons that it does have a reasonable blocking stat and is a flyer as well.
1/3 is the perfect number for just hitting the mark, so Augur of Bolas would be a good card to include in the deck.
These are 1/1s, but do have good ETBs. I personally would not play them, but you might find they are good enough as early value and once off blockers.
Augury Owl
Dusk Legion Zealot
High Priest of Penance
These are premium two-drops that I am running in my decks:
Knight of the White Orchid - The First Strike is surprisingly relevant, holding off many creatures, and then early ramp is great.
Baleful Strix - The draw is great and can threaten to kill any creature, but is prone to the 1/1 mana creatures.
Wall of Omens - Perfect for draw and can survive blocking most early creatures.
Snapcaster Mage - Nothing needs to be said about this fulla.
Heart of Kiran - Altough not a creature as such, or an ETB trigger, the ability to cast on Turn 2 and the cast Aminatou on Turn 3 and potentially have a 4/4 flyer to block at any stage is big enough to deal with any creatures cast during those early stages, or even late game.
Ranking the Planeswalkers
There are 61 planeswalkers in Esper to choose from, so what I've done is list the top 22 that could be played in some capacity and try and rank them in an order as well, for "best fit for this configuration of deck".
There is the Superfriends list and also the Reanimator deck. People have been putting together hybrids of the two.
Specifically the way I've ranked these is for the Superfriends deck. But for a deck that has Reanimation theme as well, I'd rank some of them higher. So with this in mind there is another list for reanimation sub-theme after.
I'll just point out that a lot the ranking does weigh on the ability to get to ultimate range off a Deepglow Skate from starting loyalty.
1) Tezzeret the Seeker - Infinite combos.
2) Teferi, Temporal Archmage - Infinite combos.
3) Narset Transcendent - The [+1] works nicely with Aminatou. The ultimate is game ending.
4) Teferi, Hero of Dominaria - Draw and untapping lands is good. The ultimate is good.
5) Kaya, Ghost Assassin - Although no ultimate the cost to card advantage is nice and exiling herself means that you can look for secondary gains in following turns if a creature heavy board.
6) Jace, Cunning Castaway - has some synergies with going infinite, with Oath of Teferi/The Chain Veil + Oath of Gideon.
7) Will Kenrith - Drawing 2 cards is excellent. The protection is good. The ultimate is pretty average however for this particular deck.
8) Jace, Architect of Thought - Protection can be stacked up for situational boards. Deep card draw. Ultimate works particular well with combos wins.
9) Jace, the Living Guildpact - The draw works well with Aminatou. The ultimate is excellent and remains in play if Deepglow Skate (2x5=10)
10) Liliana Vess - You can literally draw the card you put on top with Aminatou [+1]. The ultimate is pretty situational.
11) Jace, Unraveler of Secrets - Basically for the same reasons as Jace, the Living Guildpact.
12) Sorin, Grim Nemesis - Can offer draw and definitive protection from the ultimate. Just the casting cost is a little high.
13) Jace, the Mind Sculptor - [+2] works nice with Aminatou. [0] works nicely if you have some shuffle effects. Ultimate isn't very good.
14) Jace, Memory Adept - The draw doesn't work all that well with Aminatou. The ultimate is good and remains in play if Deepglow Skate (2x4=8)
15) Tezzeret, Artifice Master - Small protection and draw. Ultimate works particular well with combos wins.
16) Tamiyo, the Moon Sage - Can provide situational draw with the [-2]. The ultimate is excellent.
17) Sorin Markov - Can reduce two opponents to 10 life in a turn with Aminatou, but the deck is not designed to push through damage.
18) Jace Beleren - Might be underrating this, as you can probably get away with [-1] and the [+2] and this will satisfy opponents to leave it alone? Ultimate is weak, so I've got it down the list.
19) Liliana, Death's Majesty - Offer small protection, top 2 cards into graveyard helps with Aminatou [+1]. The ultimate can help (not game ending)
20) Elspeth, Sun's Champion - No card advantage, but the protection is excellent.
21) Karn, Scion of Urza - The draw is a little awkward with Aminatou [+1]. But you can guarantee that you get a card exiled with Aminatou [-1]. Not enough artifacts to make protection effective, and no ultimate.
22) Elspeth, Knight-Errant - No card advantage, small protection. The ultimate is pretty good, but the deck doesn't go wide, so trying to protect your walkers with limited creatures is still not perfect.
In Reanimation themed deck, the planeswalkers that interact with your graveyard are much more powerful. Liliana many versions being the stand outs.
Liliana Vess - Her ultimate is actually a solid game plan for reanimating a bunch of your creatures.
Liliana, Death's Majesty - Her [-3] can obviously be used to put a powerful creature into play.
Esper 'Enter the Battlefield' Creatures Worth Considering
1 Baleful Strix
1 Rotting Rats
1 Wall of Omens
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Knight of the White Orchid
1 Gilded Drake
1 Lazav, the Multifarious
1 Dusk Legion Zealot
3cc
1 Devout Lightcaster
1 Rishadan Cutpurse
1 Trinket Mage
1 Spellseeker
1 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Flickerwisp
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Trophy Mage
1 Portal Mage
1 Reflector Mage
1 Plaguecrafter
4cc
1 Archaeomancer
1 Gonti, lord of luxury
1 Evil Twin
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Hostage Taker
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Felidar Guardian
1 Clever Impersonator
1 Angel of Finality
1 Nevermaker
1 Karmic Guide
1 Puppeteer Clique
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Mulldrifter
1 Doom Whisperer
1 River Kelpie
1 Thalia's Lancers
1 Perplexing Chimera
1 Doomwake Giant
1 Deepglow Skate
1 Reveillark
1 Djeru, With Eyes Open
1 Peregrine Drake
1 Lavinia of the Tenth
1 Mnemonic Wall
1 Cloudblazer
6cc
1 Sun Titan
1 Grave Titan
1 Frost Titan
1 Noxious Gearhulk
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Magister of Worth
1 Duplicant
1 Demon of Dark Schemes
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Sepulchral Primordial
1 Magister Sphinx
1 Angel of Despair
1 Emeria Shepherd
1 Angel of Serenity
1 Diluvian Primordial
1 Luminate Primordial
8cc
1 Ashen Rider
1 Kederekt Leviathan
Sagas
I was doing some combo interactions with The Eldest Reborn in another thread, and it got me to thinking how Sagas can be used with Aminatou.
People have mentioned some already in this thread, and her ability to reset them by [-1] does mean you can keep them around indefinitely.
I thought I'd list some interactions that you could use if you wanted to build around a Saga theme.
These are the most powerful of the Sagas in Esper;
Fall of the Thran, History of Benalia, Phyrexian Scriptures, The Antiquities War, The Eldest Reborn, The Mirari Conjecture, Time of Ice
It's more than feasible that you could have a build that supported all of these.
Now I've already touched upon ratios of number of card types when playing things like The Antiquities War or The Mirari Conjecture.
Normally you'd want at least a 1/5 ratio of artifacts in order to make a trigger successful for The Antiquities War.
Similarly you'd normally want a number of instants and sorcery for The Mirari Conjecture in order to get value each trigger.
But I feel in a Saga focused build these numbers don't need to be as high as you can get more value out of them in a specific build, and I'll try and show you how.
Argivian Find
Auramancer
Cleansing Meditation
Crystal Chimes
Dawn to Dusk
Hanna, Ship's Navigator
Mine Excavation
Monk Idealist
Open the Vaults
Replenish
Restoration Specialist
Second Sunrise
Silent Sentinel
Starfield of Nyx
Tragic Poet
Auramancer and Monk Idealist can be repeatable blinked with Aminatou [-1] to return an enchantment.
Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Silent Sentinel, Starfield of Nyx can get one back every turn.
Replenish and Open the Vaults are just the most powerful effect for returning all your enchantments.
Crystal Chimes would be worth considering especially in a build that has The Antiquities War.
Another aspect of Sagas is actually to get value out of the Sagas themselves more quickly. So anything that can add counters to them;
Contagion Clasp
Contagion Engine
Core Prowler
Fuel for the Cause
Grim Affliction
Inexorable Tide
Spread the Sickness
Steady Progress
Tezzeret's Gambit
Throne of Geth
Thrummingbird
Viral Drake
Skyship Plunderer
Proliferate also has the advantage of adding loyalty counters to Aminatou or any other planeswalkers you might have.
I've played Inexorable Tide in my Will & Rowan Kenrith deck, but found it too slow in that build. However this can be a combo card for a Saga build. If you are getting infinite's then you can use this to move through Sagas.
Contagion Clasp and Contagion Engine are mana intensive in general, but again in a build that has The Antiquities War along with plenty of artifact mana is certainly worth looking at.
Viral Drake is similar in that it requires mana to activate, but this can be done multiple times each turn if you have the mana.
Throne of Geth, Thrummingbird, Skyship Plunderer are already cards that I have played in my Superfriends deck with much success, so will add even more value in a Saga theme.
Getting back to the Sagas themselves there are some powerful abilities.
Because the Saga happens in your turn, you're more likely to get use of the lands coming into play before you reset it back to destroy all lands.
With some of the return enchantment from graveyard creatures you can get The Eldest Reborn back with the 3rd Saga trigger.
Auramancer, Monk Idealist, Restoration Specialist can be used to get it back straight away.
Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Silent Sentinel can do it as well, but summoning sickness will probably mean delayed for a turn.
You can get Argivian Find or Second Sunrise to return The Mirari Conjecture later on.
Similar with the 2nd Saga with sorcery, you can use Replenish, Open the Vaults or Cleansing Meditation to keep getting back your Sagas indefinitely.
Resetting them all before the 3rd Saga, so that you can keep protecting Aminatou and perhaps other planeswalkers or just your life total.
Phyrexian Scriptures doesn't destroy artifact creatures, so you could have a number of artifact creatures to support this theme.
Now because they are enchantments, it'll pay to look for further enchantment support.
The problem with cards like Greater Auramancy or Fountain Watch is that you cant then use Aminatou [-1] ability to reset the Sagas.
You probably should be running Starfield of Nyx for it's value, but it does have a double edged sword in that you can then use your enchantments as creature beat down plan, but then you're exposed to creature removal as well.
Opalescence can also be used if wanting to go the enchantments as creature beatdown plan, and combos with Parallax Wave to remove all opponents creatures indefinitely, using tricky timing making sure to have the exile triggers on opponents creatures on the stack, before resolving your own exile on Parallax Wave to itself (as it's a creature). This way the Parallax Wave is a new copy of the card coming into play, so opponents creatures will be stamped with a different copy of the card, and remained exiled forever.
Of course Parallax Wave is already da.bomb.com in Aminatou decks, don't leave home without it.
Skybind can be used to good effect if you're running a number of non-enchantment "enter the battlefield" effects. Auramancer and Monk Idealist can be used to get back other enchantments at end of turn.
Unfortunately because it takes effect of return at end of turn, Skybind is a little less useful for planeswalkers.
Sigil of the Empty Throne could be used if you have enough enchantments to protect your planeswalker or life total, or go on the offensive!
If you are running some number of proliferate cards to further your Sagas for value, then some number of planeswalkers can be beneficial.
It's hard to completely recommend what to run as it'll depend on the rest of your build. There are going to be the usual suspects in;
Tezzeret the Seeker, Teferi, Temporal Archmage, Kaya, Ghost Assassin.
But if you're running a number of artifacts already and supporting the The Antiquities War more, then Karn, Scion of Urza and Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, Tezzeret, Artifice Master are worth a look.
Open the Vault can be slightly more abusable in a build which has more of a spread between your artifacts and enchantments.
I also like Liliana, Death's Majesty if you're running a number of creatures like Auramancer, Monk Idealist, Restoration Specialist, Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Silent Sentinel.
Finally with so many interactions with returning enchantments from graveyard, actually getting enchantments into your graveyard from hand or library can be beneficial. So if you look at the Reanimation build in my primers, you can use some of the cards that normally you are looking to put creatures into your graveyard, for enchantments instead; Entomb, Intuition, Oath of Jace, Windfall, Predict, Frantic Search, Search for Azcanta, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, to name a few.
Also with Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, Necromancy being enchantments, you can look to integrate some number of reanimation. Even just being able to reanimate Auramancer, Monk Idealist, Restoration Specialist, Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Silent Sentinel could be worth it, but again some other usual suspects in Felidar Guardian and Academy Rector, along with other powerful low-cost creatures like Trinket Mage, Spellseeker, Recruiter of the Guard means that you don;t actually need big creatures to make reanimate enchantments really good.
Damn you Aminatou and wanting to pack in so many themes that work together!!!!
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Other than that this post looks pretty great, I just picked up a bunch of cards for her, I can't wait till she's released and I can start putting them all together in a deck. I think I'm gonna start off outside of cEDH and slowly upgrade it in that direction. I might make my own post depending on if I find a different angle to take this commander, but as I said my own theory crafting came up pretty similar to this.
EDIT: One card I think is missing from your list is Parallax Wave. Shuts down opponent's creatures temporarily, can protect your board from a wrath, and blinking it with Aminatou is straight gas. If you get to ult Aminatou you can use all the counters on it on your creatures then give it to the person who goes after you, and on their upkeep Wave will die and you'll get all your stuff back. Also, in magical christmas land with Teferi emblem you can activate the wave five times and before the triggers go off blink it with Aminatou to permenetly exile 5 creatures every turn/possibly more times per turn with Oath of Teferi and or The Chain Veil
So on that note, I feel like you'd have to have some elements of changing the deck to that environment, but it only works in that environment.
So for example if you're expecting draw 7 cards every other turn, then you're better off playing Chrome Mox, Mox Amber, Mox Diamond, etc.
But I am not playing these because unless I have these big draw cards, then in 75% commander games, they can be a bit hit or miss.
I have been careful to keep this deck low to the ground, however. There are no big dumb creatures where top of deck matters, because on turn 7 you might get in an attack and get value. The deck is designed around setting up around the first 6 turns.
How would I change it for true cEDH? You need to be able to assemble infinite combos as quickly as possible. So I'm not positive the general approach is quick enough?
Changes you could make are putting in cards like Flash and Academy Rector and Arena Rector.
These can get you to Oath of Teferi or Tezzeret the Seeker, assembling infinites at a potential quicker speed.
The reason I am not playing these is that I'll point to the cEDH scene that would allow you to draw into these thresholds of cards more quickly because of draw 7 cards.
If you are completely relying on your own deck to get these cards, then it is a lot slower. i.e you might just have a Flash sitting in your hand for the entire game and nothing to do with it.
I did have Parallax Wave in my original pile. It does sound correct to say play it over Day of Judgement for the reasons that you mentioned.
You can target 4 opponents creatures and then blink out Parallax Wave in your next turn and it'll reset, so you can keep that up for as long as you can [-1] Aminatou. But as you say, you can use Parallax Wave on your own ETB creatures and use Aminatou to blink out the Parallax Wave to get multiple ETB effects in a single turn.
Added
+ Parallax Wave
Removed
- Day of Judgement
Too be honest a little bit more interested in exploring some more "enter the battlefield" creatures, to get more value out of Parallax Wave.
[EDIT]
Parallax Wave does give you another angle on Felidar Guardian. You can use Parallax Wave on Felidar Guardian and another ETB creature, and use Aminatou [-1] on the Parallax Wave. This way you can get infinite value out of whatever your other ETB creature is.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
In my mind, I had an idea for a combo/Reanimator style of deck with good ETB effects and just beat beaters. Dies_to_doom_blade has a primer for a 4 color deck with Thrasios/Vial Smasher running a similar style to that. It uses reanimating a big creature to lock the board down then either out valuing your group, or combing them all to death (having backups plans are always good!).
I’m thinking of using Angel of Serenity to exile problem child creatures, Magister of Worth for some political boardwipes and reanimation, and even Avacyn, Angel of Hope for overall protection (plus they are my favorite creatures lol). That combo with Emeria Angel is amazing to bring stuff back! Plus, having an excuse to
The planeswalker subtheme seems like a lot of fun as well plus it uses Oath of Jace which I use anyway to loot big stuff away. This gives much more reason to keep the card and run more planeswalkers too.
Though, I could see the edition of Restoration Angel with Felidar Guardian for more ETB shenanigans with another card to kill the table when our commander isn’t present.
EDH
WOrzhova's PoliticsB
UStensia's SaintW
U1000 FacesB
UIzzet's GambitR
RUBThe Rose's ThornBUR
RUGEternal HuntGUR
UWBArchitect's FoundryBWU
BBlood PactB
Best used on ETB creatures of course so nice reanimation targets like Rune-Scarred Demon for additional value.
Now the other bonus you get with a reanimator deck, is at least 3 extra "shuffle" effects in Entomb, Buried Alive and Intuition, which all helps with her [+1] ability.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
(Oh, my solution to the +1 not really filtering is Sawtooth Loon, which puts stuff on the bottom. Meep meep! Scroll Rack works too.)
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
The other thought was Perplexing Chimera. This card might not be the greatest but it sure is ridiculous. And with Aminatou's -1 it actually can be pretty scary, being able to reuse this guy will stop opponents from wanting to play anything.
Along those same lines Decree of Silence is disgusting with Aminatou's -1. If you wanna be that guy.
Finally, there may be some constellation effects to take advantage of. Specifically Skybind, and Agent of Erebos. Agent is just another graveyard hate effect to take advantage of, and Skybind is really good imo. Also you don't have to blink them specifically to get their effects, you can blink your Oaths or your Parallax Wave and get extra value stapled on.
Working on my list as well, but I believe that the Urborg/Coffer combo could work fine as another way to generate infinite mana.
I love your idea for doing an enchantress build since there are plenty of U/x enchantments to take advantage of. Plus, constellation cards like Grim Guardian or Doomwake Giant can really ruin someone’s day.
EDH
WOrzhova's PoliticsB
UStensia's SaintW
U1000 FacesB
UIzzet's GambitR
RUBThe Rose's ThornBUR
RUGEternal HuntGUR
UWBArchitect's FoundryBWU
BBlood PactB
EDIT: It's too bad Propaganda and Ghostly Prison don't really play too well with planeswalkers.
I like your super friend approach, would you consider Venser, the Sojourner in your deck?
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
You really need high casting cost cards to make use of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Coffers. I've been thinking about infinite mana and "what to do with it?". The reason is that there is Rings of Brighthearth/Grim Monolith that produce infinite colorless, so it got me thinking how can this be spent? Sure it can pay for the non-colored cost of spells, but it's not super necessary for the content of the deck.
The best use I can think of is ensuring that you can always pay for commander tax.
So there is a build which could abuse Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth/Cabal Coffers, but it would need cards like Arguel's Blood Fast, Erebos, God of the Dead and probably bigger threats to cast into like Rune-Scarred Demon, Massacre Wurm, Noxious Gearhulk, to really make use of lots of black mana.
Just for my particular deck the color pie is very light in black, so running the Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth/Cabal Coffers would be risky. Maze of Ith is nice, and if you do run Urborg, then it can provide you mana as well. But as currently I can't justify Urborg as a land, and therefore probably can't justify Maze of Ith either.
But to get back to the commander tax thing, one thing I did think of was Hex Parasite. Bit of an unusual one, but if you have infinite colored mana, then you can actually use the Hex Parasite to kill Aminatou, just so that you can recast her again. This way you can use Aminatou an infinite number of times. Hex Parasite on it's own is not a totally dead card, as you can use it on opposing planewalkers and other +1/+1 strategies.
Perplexing Chimera is the one other exchange card that interested me. It is way more of a lock down card than you'd first imagine. I've played against it quite a few times, and it does have this unseen ability to stop opponents casting anything really. You just can't into it, so it ends up stalling your opponents game very well. So it's not incorrect to play it. It will be better than you expect, it's just that you'll never know how good it is, unless opponents tell you what it was preventing them from doing after the game has finished.
I did look at Skybind, as I looked at all the cards that have blink effects, and it's biggest setback is that it "returns at end of turn". This is the same as a lot of cards, and makes all the difference when it comes to infinite loops. But it doesn't need to be about infinites, if you can generate enough value per turn (aka like Brago) then you'll still just run away with the game.
Plenty of directions to take Aminatou and enchantments that have "enter the battlefield" effects would be interesting.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
EDIT:
Looking at good ETB creatures: Stonehorn Dignitary can keep the pressure off your walkers and with infinite blinks can just remove the combat step from the game forever.
Gonti, Lord of Luxury is fun to blink and can mill your opponents out with infinite blinks.
Oblivion Sower is along the same lines as Gonti. But another fun trick with it is exiling a bunch of your opponents lands with something like Flickerwisp or Skybind and then casting Sower and stealing them all.
His ultimate is mean, but the fact that his starting loyalty is 3 and ultimate is 8, means that you can't do the Deepglow Skate trick of getting the ultimate in the same turn played, which is really what I'm aiming for. So the answer is he is not quite good enough for this deck.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
I think Gilded Drake, Daring Thief, Perplexing Chimera, and Puca's Mischief look to be the best of the renewable exchange cards.
Vedalken Plotter is an interesting choice for land trickery.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
1 Baleful Strix
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1 Spellseeker
1 Clever Impersonator
1 Felidar Guardian
1 Deepglow Skate
1 Magister of Worth
1 Noxious Gearhulk
1 Sun Titan
1 Angel of Serenity
1 Emeria Shepherd
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Instant:
1 Brainstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Swan Song
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Arcane Denial
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Lim-Dul's Vault
1 Negate
1 Predict
1 Frantic Search
1 Thirst for Knowledge
Sorcery:
1 Careful Study
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Reanimate
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Buried Alive
1 Entreat the Angels
1 Entreat the Dead
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Windfall
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Wrath of God
1 Unburial Rites
1 Terminus
1 Temporal Mastery
1 Sol Ring
1 Azorius Signet
1 Dimir Signet
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 The Chain Veil
1 Gilded Lotus
Enchantments:
1 Animate Dead
1 Dance of the Dead
1 Search for Azcanta
1 Necromancy
1 Oath of Gideon
1 Oath of Jace
1 Rhystic Study
1 Parallax Wave
1 Oath of Teferi
Planeswalker:
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Kaya, Ghost Assassin
1 Narset Transcendent
1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Teferi, Temporal Archmage
1 Will Kenrith
Lands:35
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cabal Coffers
1 City of Brass
1 Command Tower
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Flooded Strand
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Godless Shrine
1 Halimar Depths
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Island
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Mana Confluence
4 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Prairie Stream
1 Skyline Cascade
1 Sunken Hollow
3 Swamp
1 Temple of Deceit
1 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Temple of Silence
1 Temple of the False God
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Watery Grave
1 Windswept Heath
EDH
WOrzhova's PoliticsB
UStensia's SaintW
U1000 FacesB
UIzzet's GambitR
RUBThe Rose's ThornBUR
RUGEternal HuntGUR
UWBArchitect's FoundryBWU
BBlood PactB
Also if you can afford them, Entomb and Intuition are the.bomb.dot.com.
Also as Astro_Man pointed out with the Urborb+Coffers package, Tolaria West becomes are a great addition.
Liliana, Death's Majesty is a reanimating PW, and you can potentially get two creatures the same turn you play her, as you can use thee ol' Aminatou [-1] for double value.
Just one minor detail is that if you read my thread about Tezzeret the Seeker + Oath of Teferi going infinite, then you need to spend [-3] of Tezzeret to get at least 4, if you were to naturally go infinite assuming you didn't have any other support cards in play. Currently your artifacts can't get this combination. So you need at least one of the following: Mana Vault, Grim Monolith, Mana Crypt. You can combine them with Sol Ring. Now it's fine if you already have an artifact in play that produces mana, you could just get Basalt Monolith, but I like to design decks that you know can win without having the extra support cards.
[EDIT]
Oh I completely forget about Supreme Verdict, I need to add this to my deck.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Crap! I forgot Entomb. I was working on the list in a rush so I missed a few cards.
I agree on your choices for reanimator threats, and felt a little sad that I had no room for them. Would prefer not to get rid of my angels, but I am sure that can shoe horn them in. Going to take out the Tezzeret since I don’t have the other cards to do the combo.
Anymore suggestions would appreciate it!
EDIT: Ok, figuring out what to remove is becoming much harder than I expected. It seems like taking out some loot spells hurt the reanimator stragety while taking out more planeswalker focused cards takes away from having Animatou as our commander. Decisions decisions...
EDH
WOrzhova's PoliticsB
UStensia's SaintW
U1000 FacesB
UIzzet's GambitR
RUBThe Rose's ThornBUR
RUGEternal HuntGUR
UWBArchitect's FoundryBWU
BBlood PactB
Now you don't really need to protect your walkers so much with a reanimation theme of big fatties.
So you can cut down on mass creature removal. Take out the Wrath of God.
Oath of Gideon is not really necessary in your deck. I'm using it more for the 1/1s as early protection, but you have an alternative plan for protection with potential reanimation.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Hilariously enough, those were cards I was thinking to taking out, so good to know that it’s on the right track lol
As far as my changes go, I took out those cards to pop in Liliana and Entomb. Going to try goldfishing the Cards a bunch of times to get it back in shape. 2 Things I want to ask:
1) Is it worth keeping both oaths if one decides to not do as heavy of a planeswalker package? (Thinking of maybe doing this to get the deck to run faster and add more beaters or mana rocks).
2)During my playtesting, I’m having trouble seeing how you can go infinite mana with just our commander or either of our loyalty doublers like Oath of Teferi or The Chain Veil? If you could clarify, that would be appreciated!
EDH
WOrzhova's PoliticsB
UStensia's SaintW
U1000 FacesB
UIzzet's GambitR
RUBThe Rose's ThornBUR
RUGEternal HuntGUR
UWBArchitect's FoundryBWU
BBlood PactB
Also Oath of Teferi is special in that you can just use it with Aminatou, nothing else required. It might be that you're just using the [+1] and [-1] in combination to keep her on a set amount of loyalty. Or you might even want to build her to ultimate range.
Keep them both in, even if you go down on the Planeswalker theme.
As far as infinite mana, there are only a few very specific combinations.
Aminatou + Felidar Guardian + Oath of Teferi/The Chain Veil.
Use one Aminatou [-1] on a land, then use second Aminatou [-1] on Felidar Guardian.
Aminatou + Emeria Shepherd + Clever Impersonator.
You can copy Aminatou with Clever Impersonator and let her go to the graveyard with the "only one in play rule". Use Aminatou [-1] to blink a Plains to get back Aminatou. Once again let the Clever Impersonator go to the graveyard with the "only one in play rule", and you can keep looping this getting an untapped Plains each time. Hopefully you have multi-colored Plains like Tundra, Hallowed Fountain,Prairie Stream, Scrubland, Godless Shrine, so that you can cast any colored spells.
Aminatou + Teferi, Temporal Archmage + The Chain Veil.
Teferi, Temporal Archmage can untap The Chain Veil and 3 lands to get an additional PW activation.
Because you get additional activation's out of Aminatou you can use a combination of her [-1] and [+1] just to keep her on a steady loyalty amount. But you can use the Aminatou [-1] on Teferi, Temporal Archmage who will come back with a fresh new amount of activation's. So you'll get infinite mana and infinite planeswalker activation's.
Aminatou + Sun Titan/Emeria Shepherd + The Chain Veil.
HOWEVER you need to be able to get 2 x The Chain Veil activation's, so this requires having at least 8 to spend on The Chain Veil.
This one is tricky. Pay 4 to use The Chain Veil. You need to Aminatou [-1] until she is down to 1 loyalty. So use Aminatou [-1] on the The Chain Veil. Pay another 4 to use The Chain Veil again. Now you can activate Aminatou x 3 times each time she come back into play.
So you can use Aminatou [-1] on lands for mana, but when she is on 1 loyalty, use that last one on either a Sun Titan or if you have Emeria Shepherd in play just another Plains again.
Let Aminatou go to the graveyard (because she dies when last loyalty is used).
Then you can use the Sun Titan or Emeria Shepherd graveyard trigger to bring Aminatou back to play. As I said you can get x3 uses out of her, and her starting loyalty is 3, so you can just keep repeating.
Aminatou + Heart of Kiran + Emeria Shepherd.
Same sort of theory as above, but you can just use Heart of Kiran to put her on the 1 loyalty. So just keep targeting a Plains with Aminatou [-1] and use the Emeria Shepherd graveyard trigger to bring her back to play. Keep looping.
Basalt Monolith + Rings of Brighthearth = infinite colorless mana.
[EDIT]
Also..
Aminatou + Tezzeret the Seeker + The Chain Veil + Any of Mana Crypt/Sol Ring/Mana Vault/Grim Monolith/Gilded Lotus
The same sort of principle as Teferi, but the mana margins are tighter at the start. But because you can use Aminatou [-1] a number of times on Tezzeret the Seeker, eventually you get to a threshold where you can just use Tezzeret to gain mana on the artifacts. Then you just alternate Aminatou between her [+1] and [-1].
Aminatou + Heart of Kiran + Sun Titan + Oath of Teferi/The Chain Veil.
Same trick of getting her onto 1 loyalty.
I just thought of this one now, it's not actually infinite mana, but it does give you infinite draw.
Aminatou + Will Kenrith + Heart of Kiran + Oath of Teferi/The Chain Veil + Gilded Lotus.
Because Will Kenrith [-2] can reduce Planeswalkers cost by 2, you can always pay for the commander tax for Aminatou.
So you use Will Kenrith [-2]. Tap the Gilded Lotus for say UUU. Aminatou [-1] the Gilded Lotus. Tap Gilded Lotus for say WWW. Aminatou [-1] the Gilded Lotus again and tap for BBB.
Use Heart of Kiran to send Aminatou to the command zone, so that you can recast her.
Use Aminatou [-1] on Will Kenrith and use his [-2]. Note if you make sure to use this each time the reduction accumulates.
Use Aminatou [-1] on the Gilded Lotus, and now you have a means of always being able to pay for the commander tax and the colored portion of casting Aminatou, so just keep repeating using Heart of Kiran to send her back to command zone.
-OR-
Aminatou + Will Kenrith + The Chain Veil + Gilded Lotus.
Same as above, but you need to get 2 x The Chain Veil activation's, so that you can naturally send Aminatou to the command zone using x3 activation's each time.
This one will allow you to get infinite mana as well.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith