Aminatou, the Fateshifter Multiplayer Commander Deck - A comprehensive guide to Esper Control in Mid Tier
(note: this list has been created prior to the release of Ikoria)
Hello everyone : )
My name is Silvano and I am an italian player of multiplayer commander since the times when it was called EDH.
I started playing with
Chromium
, then switching to
Merieke Ri Berit
,
Sen Triplets
,
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
and, finally,
Aminatou, the Fateshifter
.
I've had some success at my local game stores throughout the years with my esper builds, and I would like to share with you all my experience and my suggestions.
A couple of quick disclaimers:
1: I'd say it sits in the level 7 out of 10 of the power scale (focused).
-
-
- This is also why this deck follows the main rules of the 'Social Contract': no land mass destruction (ex:
Armageddon
,
Catastrophe
), no stax pieces (ex:
Tangle Wire
,
Winter Orb
), no reliable combos in the first 5 turns of play.
-
-
- If you play in the Playedh discord, this is probably a Mid deck.
I built another aminatou deck for high and competitive: here the link if you are interested https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/can-aminatou-the-fateshifter-take-the-cedh-crown/
2: This is not a 'final' version. I love commander because you have to keep tinkering and updating the deck with every change in the meta or in your playgroup playstyle, and with every new product (especially the ones meant for commander, i can't wait for Ikoria!).
Take this deck as a base to build your own version of esper control decks, not as the only available truth in the universe.
3: Don't let the final price scare you!
I will provide an explanation about why every card is in the deck, as well as alternatives for their role I tested trhoughout the years.
I'll also make sure to include budget options, whenever possible, for every card costing more than 5 dollars.
Let's start with the basics:
The deck aims to control the board by abusing ETB (enter the battlefield) effects and by putting back into play cards from the graveyards over and over for extra value.
With good politicking and good piloting of the control pieces the deck offers, you should manage to get rid of the opponents scariest creatures or combo pieces and slow the game down enough for you to build your own win condition. Or, you can simply win the long game by exhausting enemy resources while keeping yours online.
No deck is perfect. I'd say the 'weak' points of the deck are extremely fast aggro decks that can deal you lots of damage early game (ex:
Najeela, the Blade-Blossom
) and force you to play on the defensive for the rest of the game, as well as white stax/control decks that play cards like
Hushbringer
or
Rest in Peace
. If you don't have cards in your hand to answer these threats, try using politic ; )
The deck is built exclusively to take advantage of the -1 ability of Aminatou.
I know she is usually played with Miracle cards, but I feel like they are in general a bit clunky, too much reliable on the commander, and don't give you any real advantage in this build over the rest of the cards I am using already.
Finally, remember that even if 100 cards seem a lot, the space is actually quite limited. We can't play everything we would like, and at one point we will need to make hard choices when cutting cards.
I'll put at the end a list of very powerful cards that unfortunately I couldn't find a place to fit in. Honestly, i feel like that if I put together all the esper cards that didn't make it to this list and make another commander deck, it would be almost as powerful as this one! xD
Oh, and don't feel bad if Aminatou gets attacked a lot. If she does, then she is the one taking the hits instead of you. And the higher your life total is, the higher are the chances you can get to the late game and outvalue your opponents in the long run.
Baleful Strix
and
Wall of Omens
are cheap creatures that replace themselves and protect efficiently your commander from early attacks of opposing utility creatures such as
Burnished Hart
. Staples.
Gilded Drake
is an expensive but awesome card in this deck, as you can trade it with an opposing scary creature and then blink it to use the effect again with
Aminatou, the Fateshifter
-1 ability.
For budget decks, you can try to use
Spawnbroker
, a bit more finnicky to use but very effective if you manage to play him right, or a 'clone' card such as either
Phyrexian Metamorph
,
Stunt Double
,
Clever Impersonator
or
Vizier of Many Faces
.
Phantasmal Image
is a cheap clone card you can't blink, but that you can put back into play with
Sun Titan
for lots, lots of value. It's deceptively powerful due to his low casting cost.
For budget decks, you can replace it with
Mirror Image
.
Snapcaster Mage
is so famous he doesn't need a presentation... Staple and, if you need to replace him, I'd consider other creatures that can get value back from your graveyard such as
Body Double
,
Karmic Guide
,
Mnemonic Wall
or
Reveillark
(but for this last one, make sure you have enough target creatures with 2 base Power or less).
Tribute Mage
is one of our win conditions in combination with
Tainted Pact
. Play
Thassa's Oracle
and
Tainted Pact
together to win on the spot, if counters aren't around the corner of course.
If your playgroup's social contract doesn't allow fast combos of this kind, i'd suggest to replace the Oracle with a low cost control card that works well in your specific playgroup meta, like
Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
,
Meddling Mage
or
Kataki, War's Wage
. Or with an additional blinker (read below on
Soulherder
).
Auramancer
. We run 8 enchantments, but they are all extremely powerful and crucial to our strategy. Having a cheap creature to bring them back to our hand for us is great.
Spellseeker
and
Recruiter of the Guard
are absolute powerhouses, allowing us to search for the right card at the right time. Being cheap creatures we can abuse their effects over and over. They are absolute staples and, if you are starting to build an esper deck, they are the first 'expensive' cards you should pick up. For budget builds, you can try and play with other cheap creatures giving you card advantage such as
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
,
Pilgrim's Eye
,
Boreas Charger
or
Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths
.
Trinket Mage
is our creature version of a ramp card, allowing us to fetch our low cost mana artifacts, or a
Sensei's Divining Top
. Staple as it is, and I've even considering to play a
Darksteel Citadel
to be able to have an additional target.
Tribute Mage
is a reliable way to grab signets,
Baleful Strix
or the
Wishclaw Talisman
If you don't like it, you can replace it with a low cost control card that works well in your specific playgroup meta, like
Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
,
Meddling Mage
or
Kataki, War's Wage
. Or with an additional blinker (read below on
Soulherder
).
Soulherder
and
Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
are our Commander alternatives to blink creatures.
Soulherder
is especially cool cause it is searchable via
Recruiter of the Guard
and recoverable with
Sun Titan
. They are both staples. Cheaper alternatives for budget decks to Thassa are
Conjurer's Closet
,
Deadeye Navigator
,
Eldrazi Displacer
,
Oath of Teferi
or
Venser, the Sojourner
.
I suggest not to play too many blink enablers cards though, as in my experience, in the past I often found myself having in hand only blink cards and no creatures to blink. Due to the high amount of tutors we play, I think 2 to 4 blinkers in the deck plus the commander is enough. If you can't afford to play all the tutors though, you could slot in one additional blinker from the list above, a
Restoration Angel
or a clone creature.
Archaeomancer
is both a solid creature to recover instant and sorcery cards from our graveyard as well as part of a second 'combo' in the deck. Our commander, Archaeomancer and any one spell that grats us an extra turn without exiling itself will grant us a ton of extra turns to close the game with. If the social contract of your group prevents multiple extra turn strategy, remove the extra turn card from the deck but leave this card in.
Basilica Bell-Haunt
covers alone two aspects of the deck that no other card does: gaining life, and discarding cards from the opposing hand. And we can abuse it over and over again!
The only downside is the strict mana cost to play this creature from our hand since we are running a majority of blue lands, but even if it arrives later on in the game, it's not an issue. Commander games are usually long and people keep their best plays in hand till the end. Just be careful of making a black opposing deck discard a big creature that he can reanimate before you...
Ravenous Chupacabra
is the first card I'd replace in the deck if I wanted to test some other ETB creature. It's definitely a good targeted removal card, but it doesn't add anything substantial or unique to the deck. Also, killing is much less impactful than exiling. A decent choice, but not a staple.
I'd love to replace him with something that would make the opponents sacrifice creatures to get around hexproof for voltron decks such as
Narset, Enlightened Master
, but apart from
Rishadan Brigand
I can't find anything cheap that does that and sticks on the table... Maybe Ikoria will bring me the missing creature I seek?
If you replaced many of the previous cards with more expensive cards concerning mana costs, I'd advise replacing this card with a land, a mana dork such as
Commander's Sphere
, or a card that searches lands such as
Pilgrim's Eye
,
Boreas Charger
or
Oreskos Explorer
.
If you don't run
Recruiter of the Guard
,
Duplicant
or
Noxious Gearhulk
can also be other valid options to deal with creatures more efficiently, but for a higher CC.
Solemn Simulacrum
doesn't need an intro. You aren't playing green? You play the sad bot.
Glen Elendra Archmage
is basically a free counter spell each rotation of the table. She flies (good to attack opposing planeswalkers), is difficult to kill, and her -1/-1 counters can be removed via blinking. Her price dropped due to recent reprints and I highly suggest you to pick her up, she is that good as a control piece.
Venser, Shaper Savant
. If there is a control creature I like more than Glen Elendra, it's Venser. It can do everything, from bouncing lands if you feel really evil, to bouncing uncounterable spells that you may have trouble dealing with otherwise (like that time where I was about to died from a huge
Banefire
and he saved my ass). It's value is irrepleaceable. For a budget deck, you could replace it with Restoration Angel, another CC4 creature with flash with a lot of tricks up its sleeve.
Cataclysmic Gearhulk
it's our wrath effect with legs. We play it when the opponet boards are too crowded, and being a creature it's much easier to bring back later on than, say, an
Austere Command
.
Mulldrifter
is a classic staple. A draw engine with our commander in play, but also a cheap draw spell if we need it early game.
Consecrated Sphinx
is our late game draw engine to make sure we don't lose steam. try to play it not as soon as possible, but when the cost is clear of counterspells or if you can protect it. For low budget builds, you can consider
River Kelpie
or the not very known
Sphinx of Enlightenment
.
Sun Titan
. My favourite commander card of all time. It does all! Need lands? He brings back a fetchland or a Strip Mine. Need to dig for answers? Brings back
Spellseeker
and
Recruiter of the Guard
. Need card draw? Brings back
Mystic Remora
or
Rhystic Study
. Need to resurrect big juicy creatures? Bring back
Necromancy
. And so much more that I'd need to write an entire article only about this card to cover them all... And on top of it has Vigilance, so he can swing and also block! The most staple of staples!
Torrential Gearhulk
is kind of a second Snapcaster Mage that enables a lot of tricks. If you don't have it, you can try to use
Dream Eater
, another CC6 creature with flash and good of utility.
Sepulchral Primordial
is also a very good pick. I slotted it out of the deck when
Ashiok, Dream Render
was released. Practically everyone here plays it, me included, and opposing graveyards are not as full of creatures as they used to be before. If your playgroup is more casual than competitive, then
Sepulchral Primordial
is a must play in the deck, feel free to put it in place of the Gearhulk (or in place of the
Snapcaster Mage
if you own this gearhulk but you miss the snapcaster).
Agent of Treachery
. What's better than destroying or exiling opposing permanents?
Steal them. Forever. And no one does it like Agent of Treachery! Staple.
Angel of Serenity
is my second best favourite card of the deck. It can act as a temporary removal spell for creatures, as a card advantage engine that brings back to your hand creatures from your graveyard, or as a political card that can bring creatures to the opponent hands from their graveyards. And it has a good enough body to swing at opponents or defend. Staple.
Diluvian Primordial
is so much value. Opponent graveyards are always full of sweet instant and sorceries, even just a couple turns after an Ashiok hit the board. A ramp spell like cultivate, a draw card like fact of Fiction, a tutor, a spot removal, a wrath, an extra turn spell... with
Diluvian Primordial
you will always get tons of value. I prefer it to
Sepulchral Primordial
since not all decks play sweet creatures, but everyone plays sweet spells, even artefact or enchantment decks.
Luminate Primordial
Is a Swords to Plowshares on legs that hits every opponent. Exiling is so much better than destroying in the format, and this is a must play card that will always be relevant.
Rune-Scarred Demon
is a
Demonic Tutor
on legs, and we definitely want to abuse that! For budget decks, replace it with
Sepulchral Primordial
.
Ashen Rider
is, together with
Agent of Treachery
, our main answer on legs to problematic non creature permanents such as the gods of Theros. And the sinergy with
Flash
is so damn amazing... Definitely give this big creature a try, and don't be scared about it's casting cost. Most of the times, we will dump it to our graveyard and bring it back later instead than paying it's casting cost aniway : P
Artifacts:
Sol Ring
. No explanation needed.
Wayfarer's Bauble
is tutorable with trinket mage and provides ramp while thinning the deck. Very good in this tier.
Sensei's Divining Top
. I don't think it exists any card in the game that does what the top does. It's a staple, and it's quite hard to find a similar card.
If you don't own it, either replace it with a cheap mana dork and remove from the deck the
Trinket Mage
, or play one artefact land to keep the count of targets for the Mage to 3 minimum.
Alternatives for budget decks may be cantrips such as
Brainstorm
, tutors such as
Mystical Tutor
or
Enlightened Tutor
, draw spells like
Fact or Fiction
or
Mystic Confluence
, or tempo cards such as
Remand
or
Arcane Denial
.
Arcane Signet
is the most solid 2 CC mana rock. The first alternative for budget would be
Fellwar Stone
, followed by Signets and Talismans.
Wishclaw Talisman
is a very reliable tutor since you can blink it back on your side of the field, or you can use it to bargain politically. Alternatives are
Tainted Pact
,
Enlightened Tutor
,
Mystical Tutor
... But in those cases, probably remove the Tribute Mage from the deck.
Enchantments and Planeswalkers:
Ashiok, Dream Render
. Fills our graveyard and it's an anwser to every opponent graveyard shenanigans.
If you can defend it or recur it, slowly but surely, it can also allow you to deck out opponents who draw heavily from the deck with cards such as
Nezahal, Primal Tide
or
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
.
If you dislike the use of Planeswalkers, you can consider
Angel of Finality
as a replacement, the card I used before Ashiok's release.
Serenity
. This cards alone wreaks havoc to any Enchantress or Saheeli/Daretti deck. Hard to remove and very easy to bring back to re-use with
Sun Titan
and
Sevinne's Reclamation
.
It's also great to get rid of mana dorks in turn 3, and everyone plays mana dorks.
Yes, this card is THAT good. Test it and you won't be disappointed! One of my friends playing a
Daxos the Returned
deck said to me this is the card he hates the most of the entire deck xD
Mystic Remora
,
Phyrexian Arena
and
Rhystic Study
are the famous enchantment trio that provides tons of cards advantage early game. You should definitely pick up a copy of each, since you are gonna use these cards in every commander deck of the corresponding color.
If you miss some of these cards, you will need to slot in some card draw.
Kumena's Awakening
is a decent budget replacement as an enchantment, but you can't recover it via
Sun Titan
.
Narset, Parter of Veils can be considered as well.
Otherwise, go on with cheap instant or sorcery draw spells such as
Fact or Fiction
or
Windfall
, or creatures such as
Cloudblazer
or
River Kelpie
.
But I would definitely try and get a hold on to at least the Remora and the Arena ; )
Smothering Tithe
is another staple, generating tons of mana over the course of a match.
If you don't have one, you can replace it with any mana rock of your choice (possibly 3 or lower CC) or simply with a land.
Animate Dead
and
Necromancy
are staples, since we want to play a lot with graveyards, and we want to recur these enchantments as much as possible.
For budget decks, the best way to replace
Necromancy
is
Dance of the Dead
. I know, it's not that much cheaper, but it's really worth it : ) you want at least 2 of these 3 enchantments in the deck.
Sorceries and Instants:
Pact of Negation
and
Force of Negation
are extremely powerful counters because you can play all your spells on curve without a need to leave mana open to answer opposing unexpected plays. With time, i learned that a couple of spots for gratuit, unexpected counters, is usually worth it.
However, they are very expensive and are NOT a key part of the deck. If you aim to build this deck, pick them as the last cards.
For budget builds, you have choices of 1 mana counters in Swan Song and Flusterstorm, as well as strong 2 mana counters in
Remand
,
Counterspell
and
Arcane Denial
. I wouldn't use any higher CC counterspell in these two slots, cause it's difficult to leave enough mana open for them and still be able to play your big cards turn by turn.
Ephemerate
. Take one of your ETB creatures. Save it from a targeted removal spell. Trigger it's ability again. Oh, and another time again on the enxt turn. For only 1 white mana. Yeah, we are playing this!
Swords to Plowshares
. Best. Spot removal. Ever. Staple.
Entomb
is a staple. Take a card (not just a creature, any card) and put it in your graveyard, which for this deck is often like a second hand. In instant speed. For one mana. Yes please!
For budget lists, you can play the slightly slower but still effective
Buried Alive
.
Reanimate
is sooo powerful. Take any creature from a graveyard and get it into play for a mere one mana and some life? Soo good! Not too mention that
Spellseeker
can tutor this... it's a staple, if you can afford it.
For budget builds, even if its a bit expensive in mana,
Unburial Rites
is probably the best option to replace it due to the fact that you can cast it twice via Flashback.
Victimize
is also another option, a bit more risky for its conditions and the fact that the creature come into play tapped and thus can't protect the commander from attacks.
Vampiric Tutor
is a staple too if you can afford it. It can be replaced for midrange budget builds by either
Mystical Tutor
or
Enlightened Tutor
depending on your build.
For even more budget options, you can try some tricky tempo cards such as
Remand
, a cantrip such as
Brainstorm
or
Gitaxian Probe
, a spot removal such as
Anguished Unmaking
, an unexpected tricky card such as
Sudden Substitution
, or even just an additional mana dork such as a signet. Or a creature. Or a Planeswalker. Pretty much anything you want, tutors are amazing for consistency, so if you can't play them, go for variety instead!
Demonic Tutor
explains itself. If you are playing on a budget and you don't own it,
Praetor's Grasp
is a very overlooked and powerful replacement. It basically tutors a card for you from the deck of target opponent, for only 3 mana. You can even use it to remove from play forever a combo piece. it's much better to play this card over a slow 4 mana tutor like
Diabolic Tutor
; )
Flash
. I wouldn't remove this card in any case, as it is that good to put creatures from your hand to the graveyard, while also providing advantage via the ETB effects of said creature at instant speed. There is one case though: if it gets the ban hammer.
In that case, I'd suggest you to run some spell that helps you get rid of cards in your hand while also providing advantage to you. I still haven't given much thought to it, but i'd definitely consider
Liliana of the Veil
and
Windfall
. But if you can... just play
Flash
!
EDIT: Unfortunately, now Flash is ban :'( If your playgroup doesn't allow you to play it without combo interactions, the best card to replace it i can think of is
Careful Study
, a cheap card selection spell that also lets you set up your graveyard for future reanimation spells.
Last but not least, let's not forget
Windfall
, the old but gold blue wheel.
Mana Drain
is one of the most broken cards of the format, as it provides you with lots of mana as well as a cheap and effective counter. This is the only counter of my base deck that I usually don't keep for the late game, as I can counter a card early game such as a
Cultivate
to make a big turn 3 or turn 4 play.
For budget builds, you could replace it with either a cheap counter or with a cheap mana dork, depending on what you need the most.
Intuition
is a great card selection tool, as well as a way to fill up the graveyard with important specific pieces suitable to your needs. If you can choose well, no matter what the opponent picks, you will always get what you want.
A couple of examples of a trio of cards you can select: let's say you want to recover a creature in a graveyard, and you only have
Intuition
in hand.
You can use it to pick up
Animate Dead
,
Auramancer
and
Sevinne's Reclamation
, or
Reanimate
,
Snapcaster Mage
and
Archaeomancer
/
Sevinne's Reclamation
.
No matter what ends up in your hand, you will always be able to dig out your reanimation spell.
And this is just one example among plenty.
For budget builds, some alternatives I can recommend to fill up the graveyard for 3 mana are
Forbidden Alchemy
and
Buried Alive
, but neither comes close to the power of
Intuition
.
Oh, except
Gifts Ungiven
, of course. But that's banned (thank god).
Sevinne's Reclamation
. Did I mention already how much I love
Sun Titan
? Well, this is a
Sun Titan
on a Sorcery. With flashback. Staple, I love this card so so much!
For budget builds, you can replace it with another reanimation spell or creature, such as
Karmic Guide
,
Reveillark
,
Unburial Rites
or
Victimize
. Or even better, if you have it,
Dance of the Dead
.
Cryptic Command is a very versatile spell that any blue deck should consider running.
For budget builds, you can replace it with
Mystic Confluence
, or with
Ojutai's Command
.
Bribery
is practically a staple in any blue deck. At least one of our opponents will be playing big creatures. Getting out an Eldrazi or something like that early in the game for only 5 mana is absolutely priceless. Play this card if you can.
For budget decks, You can replace it with
Acquire
. Not as powerful, but still very dangerous if you manage to land on an artifact deck running things like
Mindslaver
,
Wurmcoil Engine
or
Blightsteel Colossus
.
Temporal Manipulation
is part of one of our combos (read the description of Archaeomancer). It's the best extra turn spell available to us because it targets only us (so, for example, an opponent controlling our turn with a
Mindslaver
can't use it to give himself an extra turn) and costs only 5 mana.
You can replace it with any other extra turn spell the game can offer though, as long and it won't exile itself after resolution.
Walk the Aeons
is, I think, the cheapest option.
If your playgroup's social contract doesn't allow combos that include extra turns, I suggest you to run Approach of the Second Sun in place of this spell as your go to win condition.
Now, let's examine my favourite part of this section: wrath effects!
I have plenty of ways to remove creatures already, so what I need in my slots are wraths that are able to target not only creatures, but also other kinds of permanents. This is the reason why I don't play wraths such as
Terminus
,
Rout
or
Supreme Verdict
. They are great, but it's not what I need the most.
Merciless Eviction
exiles every permanent of the kind of my choice. I've grown to love exile so much more than destruction, that this has become one of my favourite wraths.
However, other very valid options are
Austere Command
and
Akroma's Vengeance
. Pick the one you like the most.
Austere Command
gives you even more freedom, but destroys instead than exiling.
Akroma's Vengeance
doesn't give you any choice, but it has Cycling, that can come clutch in certain situations when you don't need a wrath.
One of the downsides wraths commonly have, is that they are so expensive to cast that you won't be able to cast other spells on the same turn. So, if you push the reset button, you will also be the one to restart from the reset in last position.
Luckily, there exists a couple of wraths that can be casted for se cheap, that you can play them AND then play something else on the same turn once they have done their job.
Hour of Revelation
destroys all nonland permanents for 3 mana. Yeah, 3 mana. I've NEVER had to pay 6 to cast it: there were ALWAYS at least 10 permanents on the battlefield every time I wanted to wrath. It's just amazing.
Play of the Game
is the ultimate panic button, and the best way to use is to make sure someone else helps you to cast it, so that you can get the maximum advantage out of it. Every time I played this card, I never had to pay more than 3 mana total, as there was always someone willing to help me paying for it.
And let's not forget
Serenity
, that I covered in the Enchantments section ; )
...
...
...
What? I forgot something? Oh right...
Cyclonic Rift
, one of the most absurdly powerful cards ever printed for commander. If you have it, play it, you probably know the power of this card already...
For budget decks, you can replace it with one play of the other wraths I mentioned above. It won't be better than
Cyclonic Rift
, as nothing is, but they will be serviceable. Oh, or also with Mystical Confluence if you are already running the Cryptic Command.
Lands:
You should always keep track of how many spells you play in white, black and blue, and how important it is for you to have access to that color early game. In my base deck, blue is the most represented color, followed by white and finally black. However, black has lots of cheap tutor cards and reanimation spells that I want to cast as soon as I hit them, while white is more leaned mid game to late game plays.
So, I tried to build my mana base with Blue as primary color and White and Black equilibrated, whith black represented slightly over white. However, in your list it may vary ; )
I decided to play only 5 Basic lands. Slot one more if you play
Wayfarer's Bauble
and you don't own some of the original dual lands.
The two Snow Covered lands in the list are here exclusively due to the card
Tainted Pact
, in order to have a deck completely made of cards with different names. If you don't play that card, use just normal basic lands.
For other exclusively mana producing lands, I feel like I don't need to talk a lot, since it's a topic you probably know already.
And If you don't, or if you are a beginner, The Professor from Tolarian Community College can surely explain how to build a mana base in a clearer way than I can, and I suggest you to watch his video here : )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifig4xSp0kA
Since that video is a bit old, make sure to also consider the recent Conspiracy lands
Sea of Clouds
and Morphic Pools, the zendikar tango lands
Prairie Stream
and
Sunken Hollow
, as well as the new Amonkhet recycling lands
Irrigated Farmland
and
Fetid Pools
.
As an additional suggestion, I'd say that since this deck doesn't run many mana rocks (it prefers destroying them with
Serenity
and
Hour of Revelation
xD), it's best to play as much lands as possible that enter the battlefield UNtapped. This allows you to play on curve and to catch up more easily if an opponent has a couple of mana more than you. I wouldn't run more than 8 lands entering tapped out of 38. The less there are, the better.
So, I'll limit myself to cover the uility lands I play or that I consider playing.
Bojuka Bog
is a staple to stop graveyard shenanigans on a land.
The bouncelands
Dimir Aqueduct
and
Azorius Chancery
are decent in this list since, if you played no spells in the first two turns, you can dump a card from your hand in the graveyard on turn 2. If it's a creature, you may be able to get that back on turn 3 with a reanimation spell : ) Sure, it's not an optimal play, but it's definitely an option to consider and one that I am so affectionate to that I can't remove the bouncelands from my deck.
Gemstone Caverns
and
Ancient Tomb
are extremely powerful in allowing you to basically 'ramp' for free, but are also very expensive. Cheaper utility lands you may play are
Kor Haven
,
Mirrorpool
or
Field of the Dead
. I would avoid the
Maze of Ith
since it can't produce mana.
Phyrexian Tower
is great as a way to sacrifice creatures as instant speed. This can, for example, save a creature from being exiled via a
Path to Exile
or being taken control of via a
Gilded Drake
. Or giving you the option to put it in the graveyard to resurrect it again.
A cheaper option is
High Market
, almost as good, and you could even make a case about running both of those cards.
Hall of Heliod's Generosity
and
Volrath's Stronghold
are great cards to recover strong cards in top of your deck... and to prevent a death to mill! They are staples if you have them.
Castle Locthwain
is a cheap and good alternative to
Volrath's Stronghold
, and I'm thinking about re-including it in the deck in the future if I will have problems in drawing cards in the late game.
Silent Clearing
either provides colored mana early game or provides a card late game. Very good card, staple.
Strip Mine
can be hard to find for a cheap price. If you don't own either a copy of it or of
Wasteland
, i'd say you should just switch to a different utility land. Lands such as
Tectonic Edge
are not worth running, in my opinion. We can still deal with dangerous lands with some of our creatures.
Darksteel Citadel
is also an option if we need an additional target for our
Trinket Mage
.
Various suggestions, finnicky rules and important interactions not to miss:
-
Aminatou, the Fateshifter
blinks not only creatures, but also permanents! This is VERY important, as you can blink other planeswalkers, enchantments or lands (ex:
Bojuka Bog
,
Animate Dead
) whenever needed.
-
Aminatou, the Fateshifter
only blinks permanents YOU OWN. You can't blink opponent creatures you control (for example one taken with
Bribery
), but you can blink back permanents an opponent stole from you (ex: with a
Desertion
) or that you gave them (ex: with
Gilded Drake
)
-
You can take somewhat of an advantage / card selection with the +1 of
Aminatou, the Fateshifter
in conjuction with Fetchlands and Temples. If you have to use the +1 aniway, don't pass on the chance to put a card you don't need from your hand on top and then playing the land.
-
If you blink
Animate Dead
, you can't put back into play the same creature it was enchanting on the field, you have to switch to another target.
-
If you want to use
Animate Dead
on
Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
, make sure you have enough devotion to keep her in play as a creature, or she will die again immediately.
-
Use well your counters! A counter in multiplayer is not as valuable as in 1 vs 1 due to losing card advantage. Either keep them for cards that wrecks your entire strategy and that are difficult to remove while in play (ex:
Ashiok, Dream Render
or
Rest in Peace
with a full graveyard), or to potential game ending spells (ex:
Expropriate
,
Time Stretch
), or to crucial combo pieces of the opponents.
-
Use politic and bluffs when you see the opportunity. Don't use your removals immediately if you can persuade an opponent to swing it's big creature to other players.
-
With
Ashiok, Dream Render
you can mill yourself while still exiling every opponent graveyard. I usually mill myself to fill my own graveyard with it.
-
When updating the deck, ALWAYS ask yourself these 2 questions: 'Can I bring this permament back with Sun Titan' or 'Can I search this card with
Recruiter of the Guard
/
Spellseeker
?'. If the answer is no to both, make sure your list of targets for those 3 cards is still high enough before making changes. The card selection effects of those 3 cards are huge, you don't wanna have too few targets.
Notable cards that are not in the list and reasons why:
-
I recently slotted out
Mystic Confluence
to test
Ephemerate
. Still not sure which one of the two to keep in the deck, I need more testing. Both are awesome cards, but so far i'm leaning more towards Ephemerate due to his so low CC : )
-
Field of dead is another card I still haven't tested, but that I plan to test in the near future. I always looked down on it since it enters the battlefield tapped, I don't have many ways to abuse fetchlands triggers or multiple lands entering the battlefield, and there are other sweet utility lands that I like and still haven't managed to slot in (ex:
Kor Haven
,
Creeping Tar Pit
,
Maze of Ith
). But the ability to basically create a bunch of tokens 'for free' late game that can protect the planeswalkers is making me want to give it a shot.
-
Teferi, Time Raveler
and Narset, Parter of Veil are extremely oppressive planeswalkers for many decks. That is usually a good thing, but in a multiplayer environment you don't really want to catch all the attention to yourself early on, and planeswalkers with static abilities on the board do just that. Also, I don't have a tons of options to protect them reliably. However, they are definitely worth another shot, i will try and slot them in soon. Probably together with
Field of the Dead
.
-
Jace, Vrynn's Prodigy and
Search for Azcanta
are very powerful cards when dropped early in the game, but terrible top decks later on. And in my playtesting, they always performed poorly or came too late to be of any use. Maybe I just got unlucky, but I don't really like them anymore...
-
Magister Sphinx
,
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
and the Eldrazi Titans.
This may sound stupid... But I have lost more matches than the ones I won by using these cards. Why? Because EVERYONE in my LGSs always uses
Bribery
, and targets me. And you don't want one of these creatures to pop out on the opponent side of the field on turn 3 to 5.
if Bribery were banned, I would try and slot one or two of these in the deck. But as long as the specter of Bribery is on my head like the sword of Damocles, I prefer not to take any risk.
-
Expropriate
. This card is absolutely broken, but it has a couple of downsizes for me. The first is its very high casting cost that makes it a dead card in the starting hand, the second... is that I don't like the design of it, i find it not fun and I prefer to try and win without it.
If I had to play it, it would be as a win condition card that replaces the other combos of the deck.
-
Sheoldred, Whispering One
and
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
.
Definitely strong picks, but since they don't have ETB effects I can abuse, I find them a bit too slow for my own taste.
-
Necropotence
is a risky card in casual play. I played it a lot when the Commander was
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
.
However, in this deck I often face early game pressure and I don't usually have many life points to spare, nor ways of recovering it.
I don't have cheap mana dorks or fast combos to easily play with
Necropotence
, so I can't really reap all the benefits ofthe card in this current list. However, if I had to change the deck to adapt for the competitive edh, Necropotence would surely go in.
-
Land Tax
is great, but I don't play enough basic lands to get full benefits from it. If you prefer to play a larger number of basic lands, you should definitely play it though!
-
Zur the Enchanter
seems a very sweet idea that can dig out of your deck practically all the enchantments in the deck by attacking. I still haven't got the chance to try him, though. Once I do I'll update this.
-
Underground Sea
. I don't play with proxies in my decks as a personal rule. I own the other two original dual lands, not this one, so I don't play it. If you have it or if your playgroup allows it, of course use it, in place maybe of a temple or a basic land.
-
Imperial Seal
. As above, don't have it.
-
Force of Will
. Reason number one, I don't have Force of Will xD Reason number two, this isn't a CEDH list, counters are important but not crucial. Also, you usually will prefer not going into a -2 in card advantage in a multiplayer environment. I feel
Force of Negation
does a better job since it's cheaper to hard cast and exile the opponent card, while retaining the 'casting for free' capability.
However, feel free to use Force of Will if you have it, it's a very strong card : ) You could replace maybe the
Pact of Negation
, the
Mystic Confluence
or a creature.
-
Panharmonicon
. I slotted this card out very recently, with the introduction of the new
Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
. I always felt Panharmonicus is a 'win more' card, in the sense that if you have an already established board presence and card advantage, this will push you over the edge. But if you are already behind, it won't make you come back easily, actually the opposite, will call onto yourself even more hate.
Also, it's a bad topdeck unless you are already in a commanding position, it is easily removable being an artifact, and it forced me to run
Academy Ruins
as the only way to take it back in my hand from the graveyard. I feel Thassa does a much better job, by being more resilient, easier to recover, and by giving you a conditional beater and a way to sink mana in excess.
-
Any Planeswalker with casting cost 4 or higher. Reason is, I treat my graveyard as an additional hand. I want to be able to recover and play again EVERY single card of my deck.
CC 3 planeswalker can be brought back easily via Sun Titan and
Sevinne's Reclamation
, but there is nothing really that viable in Esper colors to recover higher CC Planeswalkers (if only I could play
Eternal Witness
...).
This is of course very personal, but I really can't put in my deck a card that I know to be able to use only once trhoughout the course of a game...
-
Vedalken Orrery
is one of my favourite cards for the tricks that it allows... but in colors other than Blue. I feel like I already have enough instants and flash cards as it is, I don't really need it in this specific decks. It's like playing
Solemn Simulacrum
in a green deck. Yeah, it will surely perform ok, but green already have lots of other ramp cards available, it's redundant.
Same reasoning for
Teferi's Protection
. I play a lot of counters to protect myself, I don't think I should play that card in a blue deck, while instead it's amazing in any non-blue deck. I play that in my
Mayael the Anima
deck.
-
Path to Exile
. I don't really like spot removals in this deck, unless they are on a cheap creature I can use over and over.
Path to Exile
is just a worse
Swords to Plowshares
, and I don't want to help opponents get any additional land in play since I already . I removed it from the deck and never ever felt the need to put it back.
-
Living Death
. I'm not a fan of this card, cause there will be cases in which they it's super powerful, cases in which it's good and cases in which it's super bad. I prefer cards that are reliably good instead than one that is a bit of a gamble. In this deck, at least.
I built a fun
Karona, False God
deck that love crazy effects like that one xD
-
Mana Crypt
and
Mana Vault
: too fast and powerful for the tier the deck is meant to.
Thassa's Oracle
is one amazing win conditions in combination with
Tainted Pact
, but i think it's too good for this tier meta.
That's it for me : ) I hope this decklist helped you in some way : )
Good luck in your games! : )
