Hello guys.
This is my personal brew for Aminatou in cEDH :)
I know that all cedh decks share pretty much 90% of the cards with each other, so I will be brief here, no need to explain why I put in the deck Force of Will or Thassa's Oracle ;)
I'll just explain why I'm using those few cards that you may have never seen.
Mindbreak Trap is an unorthodox counter, but one that came in clutch so many times.
Some examples: it can get rid of uncounterable spells (like a Niv-Mizzet, Parun or a Dovin's Veto). It can bypass the protections of Veil of Summer and Destiny Spinner. It can exile all copies of a card on the stack with storm (like Flusterstorm or Brain Freeze)
You probably will want to hold it in hand till an opponent is trying to go off, in which case it will be free to cast. But even on turn one can be an unexpected savior (ex: the first player plays land, Sol Ring, Lotus Petal and Trinisphere. Mindbreak Trap can counter the Trinisphere, without the annoying -1 in CA of a Force.
If you don't like it, you can just play a Negate, but I urge you to test it ;)
I tested Echo of Eons since I didn't own a Timetwister... and oh boy, I was surprised at how good it can be! A Timetwister in the grave is quite strong, and I needed a third wheel to pair with the trio Narset / Notion Thief / Smothering Tithe. You can dump it there with an Intuition, a Jace, a mill of Ashiok... Or it can be countered once, just cast it again. Until they release a new 3 CC wheel in esper, I think I will stick to her!
Supreme Verdict took the spot that is usually reserved for Toxic Deluge. The latter is amazing since you can basically control which creatures live and which die when you cast it and take advantage from it... but the issue here, is that basically all my creatures have 1 Toughness. So, i don't really gain all the advantage from its flexibility. Thats why I prefer Supreme Verdict over it, the extra mana it's well worth the "Can't be countered" part.
For a time, I also tested "Hour of Revelation" in this spot, with mixed results (mixed from 'it made me win the game' to 'I lost cause while resolving Ad Nauseam this thing killed me). It ALWAYS, ALWAYS costs only 3 mana in a multiplayer game, and can get rid of everything bar lands. However, the triple white mana required can be a bit problematic early game, and that's why I cut it. If you are running more white sources, you should definitely give it a try if you wanna be funky.
Cataclysm is both my ace in the hole and a huge panic button, that no one will be prepared to. Are you behind in lands, resources, cards and creatures? If this thing resolves, it can change immediately the course of the match. And if you are already in a good spot and you manage to resolve this thing while floating some mana, you are off.
I started loving this card when playing Legacy, and I absolutely love it in cedh.
I really like Darkwater Catacombs and Skycloud Expanse for their ability to filter the colorless mana of my rocks into colored mana. That can really make the difference.
For example, I can do a turn 1 land - Sol ring, and a turn 2 Aminatou by filtering one the the colorless mana of the sol ring with these lands.
Or a turn 1 Mana Crypt, Darkwater Catacombs and Ashiok. No other land does that.
So far I never got stuck with only this land in hand, and I never had troubles late in the game, but that's also maybe due to the fact that I run 29 lands, while other lists run less.
If you don't wanna risk or you are running fewer lands, just play painlands over these.
Some notes and notable cards I cut:
I decided to cut most of the annoying stax / hatebear creatures you usually see in esper or multicolor builds (like for example Aven Mindcensor or Ghostly Pilferer).
If I were playing a deck like Tymna - Kraum, I'd definitely put more creatures, since they provide me with card draw in the long run while also disrupting the opponents. Here, however, running a hate piece will either set me back in assembling my combos or set me back in card advantage, and that's something I don't really want to do unless its absolutely necessary. Aminatou doesn't have the sheer card advantage power other commanders have. I still run some hate pieces of course (like Drannith Magistrate), but I just don't want to go full on that theme.
On lands count, I find myself pretty comfortable with this amount (29). I know many players want to be even more aggressive, running around 27 lands, but I prefer to be on the safer side in this regard. You can definitely cut a couple more lands for a few more cheap spells or rocks (like, I don't know, a Gitaxian proble and a Signet ) ;)
Mystical Tutor and Imperial Seal. For Imperial Seal, I had terryfying experiences running it. The sorcery speed hurts it a lot, the field can change drastically in one turn. I could be tutoring a Sol Ring, only to find out the player after me played a Stony Silence. I could be tutoring an important combo piece and having an opponent making it mill with Though Scour. And list goes on...
For Mystical, the selection of cards it can tutor is limited in this deck, and I don't want to reveal to my opponents that I may be about to cast a Cataclysm or an Angel's Grace, and lose all the surprise effect thos ecards can have.
Having Aminatou in play for multiple turns is extremely difficult to accomplish in cedh with the amount of little creatures in play in the first turns, and I don't have a reliable commander (ex: Tymna) to draw cards consistently every turn.
Both are card selection that gives me a -1, and in all of my testing, going -1 with this commander hurts you A LOT more than one could expect. I prefer running tutors for cards going directly to hand like Wishclaw Talisman over these.
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries is an alternative to labman and thassa's oracle, but in dozens of playtesting, I think I only casted it once. It has many thigns I don't like: very hard to recur from the grave, very expensive in blue mana, very difficult to stick around the board for one rotation. Most fo te times it was stuck in my hand cause if I casted it, i didn't have enough mana to interact and he would die before it could get back to my turn. I think labman and oracle are enough, you don't need a third wincon (since i'm also running a backup strategy).
Rate and comments :)
