Aminatou Staxshifter (Esper Stax Primer)

Commander / EDH SynergyBuild

SCORE: 44 | 43 COMMENTS | 10764 VIEWS | IN 15 FOLDERS


Enral says... #1

I'm really digging this version of Aminatou! +1 from me!

December 11, 2018 2:34 p.m.

SynergyBuild says... #2

Enral thank you, I believe it might be extremely competitive.

Any suggestions?

December 11, 2018 3:01 p.m.

Enral says... #3

There's a lot of good target for Trinket Mage...I don't think the single inclusion of Torpor Orb should prevent you from including him in. Muddle the Mixture is another great permission that doubles up as a tutor. Academy Ruins can return important artifacts and can be put immediately back to hand with Aminatou. Notion Thief/Timetwister/Teferi's Puzzle Box seems like they might fit in. That's all I can think of off my head for now!

December 11, 2018 4:09 p.m.

SynergyBuild says... #4

Academy Ruins is certainly good, and our 2 cmc slot is pretty stacked, so I'll see what I can do for muddle. The Puzzle Box is certainly an option I haven't considered to abuse that +1, thanks!

December 11, 2018 5:20 p.m.

Dango says... #5

Enral The thing about Trinket Mage is that we also run Humility, and my personal list currently runs Hushwing Gryff as well. The creature count is so low as of right now too, so finding slots for others is conflicting especially when our Stax pieces and hate kill other cards that feel like they get the would get the wheels turning otherwise. Cards like Academy Ruins and Buried Ruin are only really hit by Rest in Peace which doesn't feel bad considering that's one of three of our graveyard hate cards, so it's definitely worth thinking about. I can see problems with running too many colorless producing mana lands though, since we want to get Aminatou out sooner than later. A problem with draw cards like Timetwister is problematic since we also use Ensnaring Bridge as means to defend our walkers, which makes card advantage less than ideal if we don't have means to immediately dump our hand afterwards. Teferi's Puzzle Box could be manageable, however. I'm not sure yet if it can find a slot in here, but we greatly appreciate the suggestions!

December 11, 2018 7:08 p.m.

CyborgAeon says... #6

Hi

I love the deck. I play a few cEDH decks: Gitrog, Yisan & Circu. All 3 have stax pieces but they're combo decks at the end of the day. I saw you mention this and I want to ask a few q's

Bob - [dark confidant] is not in this list. Though he breaks parity with chains, allows you to dig deeper than just the 1 you already knew was there thanks to animatou and regardless of your average cmc, provided you don't need to worry about damage because you choose what goes back!

Love the deck nonetheless, will definitely have a few goes piloting.

December 13, 2018 6:59 a.m.

IAmTheWraith says... #7

CyborgAeon: I think this mainly comes back to the value we get off of Humility. While I think Dark Confidant can be good to break parity on some occasions, I don't think there is anything I would cut for it. I think spots are extremely tight in the list, and slotting in a card that sometimes breaks parity just isn't going to benefit you as much.

December 17, 2018 2:24 p.m.

SynergyBuild says... #8

CyborgAeon I'll definitely admit that Dark Confidant is really sweet, but I'll have to test it out - thanks!

IAmTheWraith - Humility is our key control card, but some creatures are so good they are worth it, I will update this list to show that!

December 17, 2018 3:07 p.m.

CyborgAeon says... #9

I suppose that if Bob really doesn't work (in the instance that humility is that key), then i suggest trying his less popular enchantment cousin: dark tutelage?

December 17, 2018 6:38 p.m.

Dango says... #10

CyborgAeon Glad you like the deck! Bob is not a bad choice at all for the reasons you mentioned. I also believe that the only thing that shuts him down is Humility too which is nice because he's not all too affected by our other hate cards.

One issue I find with the inclusion is that our creature count is low as it is, and our primary means of defending our walkers is Ensnaring Bridge which doesn't make card advantage feel very desirable if we don't have outs to empty our hand right away. We have found through testing that the deck operates well with minimal cards in hand, and through Aminatou's card filtering ability coupled with durdling through a Stasis lock, we tend to manage better than other commanders at the table. Dark Tutelage is certainly a card worth considering since it avoids our hate, but I feel like I would rather run Phyrexian Arena instead. Even then though, we still prefer cards that don't force draws, which makes our Rhystic Study and Mystic Remora highly desirable with text that says "you may draw a card".

Hope that clears some things up! We will definitely keep in mind your suggestions while we work on our revisions soon to come. Cheers!

December 17, 2018 7:14 p.m.

DanTheBear says... #11

This deck looks incredibly irritating to play against so good job with that. I know very little about STAX decks but I like the look. That pricetag thou.

December 18, 2018 2:20 p.m.

Dango says... #12

DanTheBear hush my sweet child. The pricetag is a figure of the most idealistic flashy deck on paper possible. A result of SynergyBuild's work he put into intentionally expensifying the deck as much as he possibly could. We'll be working on a budget version soon, and if you'd like we can provide a price estimate for a non-foil version of the list with lower value printings. Also keep in mind the price from there can be lowered by cutting cards like Chains of Mephistopheles, Scrubland, Tundra, and Underground Sea. Hell, $8K of this deck is coming from the alpha edition Underground Sea alone haha.

December 18, 2018 2:42 p.m.

SynergyBuild says... #13

Yeah, a well-powered version of this deck, without cutting even most of the lands, just the Tabernacle, OG duals, and Chains makes this deck go from 3k to around $800, $600-$700 if yo u pick lower-quality cardboard.

I will work on budgeting the deck down to around 750, 500, 400, 300, 200, 100, 50, and 20 dollars in the future, DanTheBear, so don't worry.

Soon everyone will ruin eachothers livelihoods with this deck, and at any budget ;)

Also, DangoDaikazoku, it was an hour max because I had the free time, not any serious work, you flatter me xD

December 18, 2018 2:49 p.m.

griffstick says... #14

So sweet. I love how abused the wording of Goblin Cannon. Wizards of the coast must be looking back at this card today and going "oops, better not make this mistake again!" lol. Awesome.

December 20, 2018 10:50 p.m.

SynergyBuild says... #15

griffstick actually, it was meant to be abused like that. Rocket Launcher was the original, but has such unruly text that Goblin Cannon became the 'fixed' one without delayed triggers, "summoning sickness," and stuff.

December 21, 2018 6:26 p.m.

Megalomania says... #16

Very nice list and primer guys! I would honestly switch to this build if my Aminatou wasn’t going for a less oppressive build to match my playgroup’s power level. I have a question though. Does the deck have any alternative win con in case Goblin Cannon gets exiled?

December 22, 2018 11:01 p.m.

Dango says... #17

Megalomania We use Codex Shredder as a backup mill alternative in case Cannon gets hit. Shredder can be accessed through similar steps we take in the Cannon combo and requires infinite mana generated by Rings of Brighthearth and Basalt Monolith, we then tap Shredder, and then dump our infinite mana back into Rings to copy the mill ability for an arbitrarily large number and deck out our opponents. This method can be cleaner, but it can also get tricky if our opponents have pesky Eldrazi like Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre in their decks, which is why Goblin Cannon is our go-to win condition. Codex Shredder's second ability can also be used to retrieve any of our combo pieces as long as we don't have a Rest in Peace exiling our graveyard if something goes interupted. One can opt for slotting Helm of Obedience into the deck as well, but we found that to be clunkier and not as efficient in practice. As the deck stands right now, a Tezzeret resolving almost ensures a win as long as our opponents don't have artifact removal in hand.

Thank you for your feedback on the list by the way! SynergyBuild has been working hard developing this combo and putting this primer together. As of right now we are working on gathering data for cEDH matchups while also fleshing out and optimizing the 99 in the process. We are fans of your take on Aminatou Stax and admittedly I took a lot of inspiration from your list on the original rendition of my personal decklist, except I wanted to use some more oppressive effects which made the development for a resilient win condition challenging. Rule of Law and Arcane Laboratory combined with ETB hate like Torpor Orb and Humility really limit the streamline winning combos we would otherwise have access to. I would like to see more combos and infinite mana generators make their way into the deck, but it's not easy finding them when we want them to both be functional in the presence of all of our other hate pieces as well as be useful and productive toward the gameplan when not in the presence of other combo pieces. We are so close to getting the deck where it really wants to be and we greatly appreciate the feedback and support.

Cheers!

December 22, 2018 11:45 p.m.

Megalomania says... #18

Thanks! Great idea with using the Codex as a backup. If i’d have to nitpick, i’d suggest replacing Counterspell for Unsubstantiate. It’s not as mana intensive and provides a little flexibility. Maybe consider Waste Not as a possible replacement for Rhystic Study? The deck is fine as it is though.

December 23, 2018 12:29 a.m.

SynergyBuild says... #19

I am very sorry peeps! I have been gone since the 22nd, so haven't been working on this, I will make sure to finish it all up, with the matchups and primer swaps, etc. soon enough!

December 25, 2018 8:53 a.m.

Last_Laugh says... #20

Ever consider Ancestral Knowledge?

January 3, 2019 10:28 a.m.

SynergyBuild says... #21

Last_Laugh now that is kinda hilarious. Will definitely consider in a budget version!

January 3, 2019 11:47 a.m.

Last_Laugh says... #22

It fills several roles here.

A: It sets up 1 to 2 draws while thinning your deck and digging 10 cards deep. That's a lot of finding what you need when you need it.

B: Bounced with Little Orphan Amini it's a free repeatable shuffle effect then repeat A:

January 3, 2019 11:59 a.m.

TorinoAK says... #23

I don't understand your alternate win con with codex shredder. You can only double an activated ability once with rings, so it is not an infinite mana sink for codex shredder. I thought I misunderstood you and figured you might be using rings to double aminatou's exile ability, exiling aminatou and codex, which would enable you to repeat the loop. However, Aminatou can't target herself. Am I confused?

April 21, 2019 5:43 p.m.

IAmTheWraith says... #24

TorinoAK Codex Shredder isn't a wincon, it's there to mill the card that we put on top with Aminatou, the Fateshifter 's +1.

April 21, 2019 8:40 p.m.

Dango says... #25

oof yeah, I may have made a mistake by sequencing shredder as an alt win condition in the comments months back when we developed the initial tez combo. My bad man, sorry for the confusion.

April 21, 2019 9:05 p.m.

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