Shifting the Fate of Aminatou
Hello, and welcome to my first article on flipsidegaming.com! My name is Nathan McCarthy, and I enjoy playing card games with friends. That’s the key focus of my Commander play: enjoyment. I have had moderate local success in competitive Magic events and enjoy the spike-ey aspect of Magic immensely, but that is not what I come to Commander for. Commander is my personal outlet for creative deckbuilding, usually through arbitrary restrictions, and casual fun with friends.
That last point is one that I feel is often missed when deckbuilding in commander: fun with friends. I learned from running Dungeons and Dragons games that, when playing a social game, everyone has more fun when instead of trying to win; they all try to make sure everyone enjoys themselves. This is not a required goal when playing Commander, but know that it’s a bias of mine when approaching the format and deckbuilding.
Now that introductions are over, let’s talk about why I’m writing today: Aminatou, the Fateshifter!
Genesis:
Every year when Commander products are released, players flock to the new and interesting Commanders and all pick their favorite. I admittedly have a bit of a type, and tend to build the most confusing/interaction heavy commander that is released each year.
This year, the obvious choice for me was Aminatou. She has a lot of text that doesn’t seem obvious together, and is niche powerful but not in any way overwhelming. She is definitely a scalpel, not a hammer. Upon further examination, and after playing with her in practice, it actually becomes clear that her abilities synergize in non-obvious ways. Not only is there the way that Manifest works with both her abilities (allowing you to stack the card you want to manifest, and blink that face-down permanent to potentially cheat out giant enchantments/creatures/artifacts), but there is also the way that value/blink gameplay meshes well with the Miracles that exist.
The Miracle spells in Esper are almost universally tools that help keep the board clear (Terminus, Devastation Tide) or let you amass a defensive board presence out of nowhere (Entreat the Dead/Angels). One weakness I have found of the blink strategy in the past is that you need to include heavy control tools or a combo/lock piece to win. The strategy of blinking your own permanents provides huge and impactful long-game advantage, but making it to the long-game is not always easy. Because the Miracles that Aminatou’s first ability enables help extend the game length, you get to leverage your enter the battlefield abilities much more effectively.
Now that I know why I’m building this deck, I want to explicitly state restrictions I’m putting on my deckbuilding and why:
- No tutors
- No original dual lands
- Have fun
- Actually be able to win the game
The first rule is likely the one people will have the hardest time grasping, so I’ll detail why. When I play Commander, I do not want my deck to play out the same way every game. The 100-card singleton format exists, in my mind, to force me to interact with play patterns I would not expect to see and may never see again. The presence of powerful tutors in the format means that decks have the ability to play out the same sequence of cards each game. This may be in the form of a game-ending combo (Felidar Guardian + Aminatou + Altar of the Brood), a lock that effectively guarantees your win (Decree of Silence + Aminatou), or simply repetitive play patterns (tutor for Board wipe -> tutor for Archaeomancer -> repeat).
That is not to say that I want my deck to be inconsistent. On the contrary, I prefer it when my deck performs similarly every game (ie: draw a bunch of cards and find convoluted 4-card combo by drawing naturally), but not exactly the same. This added unpredictability not only increases the replayability of your deck, but also will broaden the play experience of your playgroup and decrease the chance you will be “targeted” or otherwise stopped from whatever your plan is this game. If this does not make sense or you want to discuss this restriction more, I would love to elaborate in the comments section or in a future article. Just let me know!
The next rule I set out is simply due to budgetary restrictions. I, like many Commander players, have a limited budget, and while I do own some of the original duals for my Legacy decks, never want to go out of my way to buy them for Commander. This may bring up the question: “why don’t you just play the ones you have”, and the answer is simply a known shortcoming of mine: I don’t like playing sub-optimally. Ever.
It bothers me significantly to be playing the second-best version of whatever I’m playing and diminishes my enjoyment of and pride in my deck. This is strictly a personal bias that I cannot back up with any logical arguments like I have for other points so far. Adding this restriction allows me to still be playing the best version of the deck I am playing without having to buy an Underground Sea. For example, if you (the reader) don’t have all the fetch lands to fill out this deck, you could either just replace a few with alternatives like Terramorphic Expanse or Evolving Wilds, or you could change the restriction to “no cards over $30” and not have to be thinking of cards you wish you had for the deck every time you play. Because you know your deck cannot contain these expensive fetches, obtaining them is no longer a goal (for this deck).
My third rule is the one that is hardest to balance and get right and ties very closely into my fourth rule. In order to have fun with my deck, I need to, primarily, avoid things that I personally believe are “un-fun” for myself or others at the table. This means that I am avoiding effects that make it so my opponents don’t get to play. This includes lock pieces like Winter Orb, Time Walk effects that are only interactable on the stack (an example of a time-walk I would happily play is Medomai, the Ageless, as all decks can include some way to interact with creatures), and easily assembled instant-win combos. Allowing everyone to play the game is important for your enjoyment as well. It will keep them coming back so you can answer their threats and kill them after they’ve done their sweet thing.
The fourth rule is, unfortunately, almost in direct conflict with the third rule. In a multiplayer format, winning the game isn’t always easy and the path isn’t obvious. In order to have fun, you have to be able to win. You don’t have to win every game, but for me to enjoy Magic, there has to be at least a feeling that I had the tools in my deck to win. However, in order to beat 3 people, you need to stop them from winning (easiest way is with prison pieces), win unexpectedly (usually with combos), or create such an overwhelming board state or card advantage that you can attack them to death. The third of these options is the “fairest” way to win the game, and thus, the most fun, in my opinion. However, it is also the most difficult to pull off, especially in decks without access to Green mana.
Because the board-state win condition is so difficult outside of Green, I frequently make some concessions to the third rule and include some convoluted combo (Peregrine Drake + Archaeomancer + Ghostly Flicker) or some lock piece that lets me win quickly (Fall of the Thran + Aminatou + mana rocks). This is exactly how my first build of the deck went, but it did not stop there by any means.
Evolution of a deck:
My first build of the deck included the maximum possible number of “un-fun” effects that I thought was acceptable. This includes Fall of the Thran, Peregrine Drake, Deadeye Navigator, Felidar Guardian, Temporal Mastery, and Temporal Trespass. I passed on easier to assemble combos and better extra turn cards, but wanted to start from a place where winning the game was not a problem and pare down the “un-fun” cards as I developed the deck.
As the deck developed, I dropped many cards that underperformed and ended up cutting all the “un-fun” ways to win, as I found they were not necessary. The power level of blinking permanents (particularly Sagas like The Eldest Reborn) when backed up by board wipes proved to be enough to get the card advantage, and adding specifically Myr Battlesphere, Obzedat, Ghost Council, and Phyrexian Scriptures allowed the deck to really leverage the blinking aspect in a way that actually killed people. Obzedat in particular has hugely impressed. I underestimated this card dramatically, and the durable 5/5 body that cannot be board wiped combined with just that little bit of life drain makes it an absolute powerhouse in any fair game, even though it appears low-impact. If you want to ask specific questions about cards I did or did not include, I would love to respond in the comments or a follow-up article, depending on how many questions I get.
Conclusion:
Honestly, this article has ended up more long-winded and philosophical than I expected when I began, but I’m happy with this as my first chapter. In the future I would like to go over specific card inclusions/exclusions, more stream-lined deck techs that help explain what you’re supposed to be doing with a given deck, more high-concept discussions of Commander philosophy, and perhaps even decks I would build given more limiting restrictions.
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