Aminatou, Fateshifter Insidious [Blink Primer]

Commander / EDH Blink Combo Control Counters Exile Infinite Combo Superfriends Wizards WUB (Esper)

UltimateRoxas40

Land (35)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Deserted Beach
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Field of the Dead
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 2x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Mystic Sanctuary
• 1x Otawara, Soaring City
• 1x Plains
• 1x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Raffine's Tower
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Shattered Sanctum
• 1x Shipwreck Marsh
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 1x Sunscorched Desert
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 1x Vault of Champions
• 1x Watery Grave

Creature (18)

• 1x Aether Channeler
• 1x Agent of Treachery
• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Corpse Knight
• 1x Displacer Kitten
• 1x Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines
• 1x Emeria Shepherd
• 1x Felidar Guardian
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Orcish Bowmasters
• 1x Peregrine Drake
• 1x Skyclave Apparition *f-pre*
• 1x Spark Double
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
• 1x Wall of Omens

Enchantment (11)

• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Oath of Teferi
• 1x Omen of the Sea
• 1x Out of Time
• 1x Parallax Tide
• 1x Parallax Wave
• 1x Reality Acid
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Virtue of Knowledge

Planeswalker (10)

• 1x Ashiok, Dream Render
• 1x Dakkon, Shadow Slayer
• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1x Kaya, Ghost Assassin
• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils
• 1x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
• 1x Teferi, Time Raveler
• 1x The Eternal Wanderer
• 1x Venser, the Sojourner
• 1x Vraska, Betrayal's Sting

Commander (1)

Instant (11)

• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Artifact (10)

• 1x Altar of the Brood
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Heart of Kiran
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x Wishclaw Talisman

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Damn
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Temporal Manipulation
• 1x Toxic Deluge

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Maybeboard

Creature (3)

• 1x Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward
• 1x Cloudblazer
• 1x Preston, the Vanisher

Land (1)

• 1x Volrath's Stronghold

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"Because I foresaw it would one day, and I decided I didn't want to wait for that."

Welcome to my {W}{U}{B}Aminatou, the Fateshifter deck. When Commander 2018 was released, and we saw the return of planeswalker commanders, I was ecstatic! I've always been a huge fan of the artwork of Seb McKinnon, and this card is no exception. I was also drawn to the lore (or lack thereof) around our eight-year-old planeswalker.

Past Deck Building and Current Inspiration

I've previously built this deck, but I couldn't ever find the right balance or strategy to play her. I ended up either intentionally leaving out good cards to keep the Blink/Flicker theme as a primary focus, or ended up leaning too heavily into cEDH territory and card selection, which took away from the core strategy of the deck - to generate infinite value and combo-off. However, I was recently inspired to revisit this commander by a fearsome God of Lies and Deception who was finally introduced: Savathûn, the Witch Queen (From the Destiny 2 universe).

Savathûn, the Witch Queen, is a Hive god (one of the enemy races aligned with the Darkness/The Witness). She is driven to understand the deepest secrets of the universe and gains power from the deception and confusion of those who seek to understand her unfathomable schemes. Much of the imagery surrounding her is associated with Moths, especially the Lucent Moths - byproducts of the Lightbearer Hive. This is what initially interested me in returning to my Aminatou, the Fateshifter deck.

"Aminatou's magic is expressed through intangible moths. When one of her wisps of power lands on a person it nudges their fate in whatever direction Aminatou chooses. That shift in destiny can be as small as stepping on a thorn or as broad as shifting the day of someone's death, and Aminatou is fairly dispassionate about how firmly she adjusts a stranger's fate."

So, with that connection fresh in my head, I started working on a way to represent a blending between Aminatou, the Fateshifter and Savathûn, the Witch Queen. The result is this deck, which has a variety of schemes and backup plans that a god of cunning would undoubtedly have in her pursuit of winning.

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"She can foresee the branching consequences of the smallest actions, twist destiny with barely a thought, and perhaps even unmake the Multiverse itself."

The overall goal of this deck is to Blink/Flicker (Exile a permanent we control, then have it return to the battlefield) our permanents and generate overwhelming value, or assemble an infinite combo to close out the game.

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Aminatou, Guardian of Fate

{W}{U}{B}Aminatou, the Fateshifter + {W}Felidar Guardian + {W}Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines or {U}Virtue of Knowledge

Between our Commander and the Cat, we have infinite Enter the Battlefield (ETB) triggers and Leave the Battlefield (LTB) triggers. However, this on its own doesn't win the game. We need something to break parity. That's where Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines or Virtue of Knowledge come into play.

If a permanent entering the battlefield would cause a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time. In this case, when Felidar Guardian ETB's, we get a second trigger of his Flicker effect. This trigger can be used on a variety of permanents to gain infinite value.

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Dual-wielding the Threads of Fate

{W}{U}{B}Aminatou, the Fateshifter + {U}Spark Double + {W}{U}Oath of Teferi

Spark Double can enter as a nonlegendary copy Aminatou, the Fateshifter. Between our commander and the copy-mander, we can again generate infinite ETB and LTB triggers, with one bouncing the other endlessly.

Oath of Teferi turns this infinite loop into an infinite payoff. We care mostly about the second part of Oath of Teferi, which allows us to use a Planeswalker's Loyalty ability twice each turn. With this, we can get two -1 activations out of Aminatou, the Fateshifter, allowing us to first blink a permanent for value, then blinking Spark Double to in turn blink Aminatou, the Fateshifter, thus resetting her, and allowing for us to repeat for infinite value.

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Other sources of Blink

• {U}Displacer Kitten - Whenever we cast a noncreature spell, we can Blink a nonland permanent we control.

• {W}{W}The Eternal Wanderer - Her +1 can Exile a creature or artifact and bring it back at the beginning of the next end step. Not true Blink, but still effective.

• {W}{U}Venser, the Sojourner - Also not true Blink, but his +2 can Exile another permanent we control and bring it back at the beginning of the next end step.

• {U}Thassa, Deep-Dwelling - At the beginning of our end step, she Blinks another creature we control.

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Graveheart of Kiran

Heart of Kiran combined with one of our graveyard recursion pieces like Emeria Shepherd or Sun Titan can provide us with some additional methods to combo off. These take advantage of the fact that Heart of Kiran can drain Aminatou, the Fateshifter of Loyalty at instant speed and send her to the graveyard.

Infinite White/Blue Mana - {W}{U}{B}Aminatou, the Fateshifter + {W}{W}Emeria Shepherd + {C}Heart of Kiran

• Infinite White (and potentially Blue) mana. Aminatou, the Fateshifter can -1 to Blink a Plains (tap it first for White mana), then, while holding priority, Crew Heart of Kiran multiple times to remove all Loyalty counters from her, so she goes to the graveyard. Then the Plains will enter the battlefield, trigger Emeria Shepherd, and bring back Aminatou, the Fateshifter to the battlefield. And if the Plains we Blink is Prairie Stream with two or more basic lands in play, we can also generate infinite Blue and White mana.

• The Shock lands (Godless Shrine, Hallowed Fountain) could be used too, but if we want to generate infinite mana, we'd have to worry about the loss of life.

Infinite Creature ETB - {W}{U}{B}Aminatou, the Fateshifter + {W}{W}Parallax Wave + {W}{W}Sun Titan + {C}Heart of Kiran

• We can Exile Sun Titan and any other number of good value ETB creatures with Parallax Wave. Similar to the above combo, Aminatou, the Fateshifter can -1 to Blink Parallax Wave, then crew Heart of Kiran multiple times to remove all Loyalty counters from herself, so she goes to the graveyard. This will bring back all the creatures we Exiled with Parallax Wave, and when Sun Titan enters the battlefield, we can bring back Aminatou, the Fateshifter to repeat the cycle.

Infinite Permanent ETB - {W}{U}{B}Aminatou, the Fateshifter + {W}{U}Oath of Teferi + {W}{W}Sun Titan + {C}Heart of Kiran

• With Aminatou, the Fateshifter and Oath of Teferi, we can -1 twice a turn to Exile two permanents: Sun Titan and any other Permanent (Land, ETB Creature, Planeswalker, etc). Similar to the above combo, Aminatou, the Fateshifter can -1 to Blink Sun Titan and the second permanent, then crew Heart of Kiran enough times to remove all Loyalty counters from herself, so she goes to the graveyard. When Sun Titan and the other permanent come back into play, we bring back Aminatou, the Fateshifter to repeat the cycle.

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Aminatou's Fateweavers

Card Draw

Flicker Targets

• {U}Aether Channeler - On ETB, we have three solid options: Make a 1/1 Bird Token with Flying, Return another nonland permanent to its owner's hand, or Draw a card.

• {U}{B}Baleful Strix - On ETB, we draw a card. It's also a good defender for Aminatou, the Fateshifter, since it has Deathtouch.

• {U}Omen of the Sea - On ETB, we Scry 2, then draw a card. Helps to filter through our deck to find important pieces or interactions.

• {W}{U}Teferi, Hero of Dominaria - His +1 draws us a card and later untaps two lands.

• {W}{U}Teferi, Time Raveler - His -3 is what we are most interested in. We can return a target creature, artifact, or enchantment to its owner's hand, and then draw a card.

• {B}{BP}Vraska, Betrayal's Sting - Her 0 Draws us a card and we lose a life, then Proliferate.

• {W}Wall of Omens - On ETB, we draw a card. It's also a useful defender with four Toughness.

Other Sources

• {U}Rhystic Study -

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Removal

• {U}{U}Agent of Treachery - On ETB, we can steal any target permanent and gain control of it permanently. Taking it for ourselves is almost better than removal. As a bonus, if we control three or more permanents that we don't own, we draw three cards on our end step.

• {B}Bojuka Bog - On ETB, we Exile target an opponent's graveyard. A good way to hose graveyard strategies.

• {W}{U}{B}Dakkon, Shadow Slayer - His -3 Exiles target creature.

• {U}Reality Acid - We can enchant any permanent we don't want, then once we flicker it and Reality Acid leaves the battlefield, the enchanted permanent's controller sacrifices it. This can kill Indestructible permanents and lands.

• {W}{W}Skyclave Apparition - When this creature ETBs, we can Exile target nonland, nontoken permanent an opponent controls with a CMC 4 or less. Then, when/if Skyclave Apparition leaves the battlefield, that permanent's owner creates an X/X Illusion token, where {X} is the Exiled permanent's CMC.

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Tutors

• {B}Demonic Tutor - Grabs us any card we want into our hand.

• {W}Enlightened Tutor - Grabs us any artifact or enchantment and puts it on top of our library.

• {U}Mystical Tutor - Grabs us any instant or sorcery and puts it on top of our library.

• {U}Spellseeker - On ETB, we may search our library for an Instant or Sorcery card with a CMC of 2 or less, reveal it, and put it into our hand. We can get tutors, removal, or counterspells, depending on what we might need.

• {B}Vampiric Tutor - Grabs us any card we want and puts it on top of our library at the cost of 2 life.

• {B}Wishclaw Talisman - For {1}, {T}, we can remove a wish counter from Wishclaw Talisman to search our library for a card, put it into our hand, then shuffle your library. After that. an opponent gains control of Wishclaw Talisman. But since we can Blink this with Aminatou, the Fateshifter, we can not only get our Talisman back, but it refreshes the wish counters on it too.

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Recursion

“That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die.”

• {U}Academy Ruins - we can tap this and pay {1}{U} to put any artifact from our graveyard on top of our library. Then, with Aminatou, the Fateshifter, we can +1 her to put it into our hand.

• {U}{U}Archaeomancer - By repeatedly flickering this wizard, we can return any Instant or Sorcery card from the graveyard to our hand.

• {W}{U}{B}Dakkon, Shadow Slayer - His -6 Ultimate can either cheat an artifact from our hand or return one from our graveyard onto the battlefield, which could be really helpful in getting some important pieces back onto the field.

• {W}{W}Emeria Shepherd - When a land ETBs, we can return target nonland permanent from our graveyard to our hand. But if it's a Plains, we can return that target nonland permanent to the battlefield instead. With Aminatou, the Fateshifter, we can -1 her to flicker a land, specifically a Plains type land, to bring any permanent back to the battlefield.

• {B}Necromancy - A powerful piece of recursion. When this enchantment ETBs, you put target creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control and attach Necromancy to it. When Necromancy leaves the battlefield, that creature's controller sacrifices it. Then, you can flicker those creatures with Aminatou, the Fateshifter. Since they were Exiled and then returned to the battlefield, they are treated as 'new' versions of themselves, so they become unrelated to Necromancy. If you have Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines on the field, you can actually get two creatures out of the graveyard at once. Necromancy will trigger the first time, bringing a creature back and attaching itself to that creature, then it will trigger a second time, bringing another creature back, then attaching to that second creature. Because of how Necromancy is worded, as long as Necromancy is on the field, both creatures can continue to exist (it isn't like Animate Dead, where the creature dies if it isn't enchanted).

• {W}{W}Sun Titan - On ETB (or attack, but we mainly care about ETB), we can return a permanent from our graveyard with a CMC of 3 or less. We can get cards like our Fetchlands to go get more lands out of our deck.

Rewriting Causality to Shape our Victory

With one of the infinite Blink lines we can assemble, we can include any of these finishers to alter our opponents' fate and wipe them from the table.

• {C}Altar of the Brood - Whenever another permanent enters the battlefield under our control, each opponent Mills one card. So, if we can create an infinite blink combo line, we can trigger Altar of the Brood each time, instantly deck our opponents, then pass the turn to win.

• {UB}{UB}Ashiok, Dream Render - Target player mills four cards, then we exile each opponent's graveyard. So we can Mill out our opponents, and shut down graveyard strategies. Her static ability also prevents opponents from searching their libraries. All in all a good Stax piece to slow our opponents down while we assemble our lines.

• {W}{B}Corpse Knight - Corpse Knight drains each opponent one life when another creature ETBs, so with our infinite ETBs, we can instantly drain the table of life and win.

• {B}{B}Gray Merchant of Asphodel - When Gary enters the battlefield, each opponent loses X life, where X is our devotion to black. We gain life equal to the life lost this way. If your opponents know this deck and how quickly it can win, you might be targeted early, so being able to gain life if essential. And if we pair this with one of our infinite blink combo lines, we can just drain the table out.

• {W}{B}Kaya, Ghost Assassin - All three of her Loyalty abilities are great! Her 0 can Pseudo-flicker a creature, bringing it back at the beginning of the next end step. But, her -1 and -2 are the ones we want to abuse with our infinite Blink, either forcing our opponents to discard their hands or just drain them out and win.

• {C}Sunscorched Desert - When it ETBs, it deals 1 damage to target opponent. If we can infinitely flicker a permanent, we win.

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Manipulating the Flow of Time

{W}{U}{B}Aminatou, the Fateshifter + {U}Mystic Sanctuary + {U}{U}Temporal Manipulation

• Aminatou, the Fateshifter uses her -1 to flicker Mystic Sanctuary, which puts Temporal Manipulation back on top of our library to be cast again and again.

• This on its own doesn't make infinite turns, as eventually Aminatou, the Fateshifter will run out of Loyalty counters. However, with any of our ways to flicker Aminatou, the Fateshifter, our lines with Sun Titan, or other planeswalkers with Ichormoon Gauntlet to also Proliferate, we have a myriad of ways to keep up the infinite turns.

• Something to watch out for it Mana Crypt. With infinite turns, there are also infinite opportunities to die to the upkeep damage. However, we can circumvent this with cards like Teferi, Time Raveler or Aether Channeler, which can return permanents to their owner's hand, so we can return Mana Crypt to our hand to prevent dying to upkeep damage.

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Something to be careful of with these combo lines is that they are susceptible to graveyard hate. Leyline of the Void or anything that prevents graveyard interaction should be accounted for before attempting to go off with these lines.

Shout-out to User: darrenhabib on MTG Nexus for these combo lines and descriptions (https://www.mtgnexus.com/viewtopic.php?t=15447).

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Aminatou is quite aware of her own destiny but also knows it isn't time to enact it right now

Thank you for taking a look at this iteration of the deck! I'd appreciate any suggestions or comments to improve the overall design of the deck. As I said above, I'm working on finding a good balance between maintaining the blink theme of the deck and having this be as powerful as I can make it without it evolving into a cEDH build. Cards like Pact of Negation or the Thassa's Oracle/Demonic Consultation lines aren't in here currently, but I have previously considered them.

Top Ranked	Achieved #16 position overall 1 year ago Achieved #13 position in Commander / EDH 1 year ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Blink 1 year ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Control 1 year ago
Date added	1 year
Last updated	13 hours
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	21 - 0 Mythic Rares 50 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.12
Tokens	Bird 1/1 W, Bird 2/2 U, Elephant 3-3 G, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Emblem Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Emblem Venser, the Sojourner, Illusion */* U, Orc Army, Samurai 2/2 W w/ Double strike, Soldier 1/1 W, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	My Deck Creations, Ideas, EDH