Been able to get heaps of reps in with the Superfriend deck now that Magic Online has released the Commander 2018 cards. Get to play the deck to a larger meta, mostly more casual online.
I've made a few changes, wanted a catch all removal, and also wanted another planeswalker with a sort of game ending ultimate. It's good to have some backup win plans, so with Deepglow Skate, it's good to have a planeswalker that will probably win you the game.
Nice! It's funny that you pulled in another board wipe, as I just did as well. I've been playing around with Slaughter the Strong and Dusk//Dawn, both of which can be rather onesided. Dusk to Dawn is nice, because it can potentially recur Felidar Guardian if you need to get him back.
Not a huge fan of Tamiyo in the deck. Though if your hunting for a good ultimate I can see how you might struggle to find many others. Have you considered [Jace, Unraveler of Secrets[/card]?
Hoping the new Kaya is playable in our deck. Might even have a flicker mechanic we can abuse, considering the walker.
Nice! It's funny that you pulled in another board wipe, as I just did as well. I've been playing around with Slaughter the Strong and Dusk//Dawn, both of which can be rather onesided. Dusk to Dawn is nice, because it can potentially recur Felidar Guardian if you need to get him back.
Not a huge fan of Tamiyo in the deck. Though if your hunting for a good ultimate I can see how you might struggle to find many others. Have you considered [Jace, Unraveler of Secrets[/card]?
Hoping the new Kaya is playable in our deck. Might even have a flicker mechanic we can abuse, considering the walker.
I've been toying with the idea of playing Urza's Ruinous Blast, but would need to configure the deck a little bit different. Basically other peoples commanders on the whole would pose the problems after an Urza's Ruinous Blast so I would probable want Price of Fame and I'd probably run the Gilded Drake in that version.
Yeah it's been a tough choice for an additional planeswalker. I'm thinking about Jace, Architect of Thought. I mean there are a lot of potential ways to win, depending on what your opponents might be playing.
For example if you're up against another planeswalker deck then you might just have access to Doubling Season or The Chain Veil.
I could get Emeria Shepherd and if playing a white player, simply grab a Plains from their deck and this will bring Jace, Architect of Thought back into play. With Doubling Season I could just ultimate Jace again, and keep looping for as many Plains that are in opponents decks.
Plus the Jace, Architect of Thought [-2] does get 3 cards deep into your deck, so this is good in a pinch.
But don't me wrong sometimes Tamiyo [-2] actually lines up pretty well with draw sometimes, but it IS situational draw, rather than guaranteed, which often you need when you're up against it scrambling for answers.
I've been toying with the idea of playing Urza's Ruinous Blast, but would need to configure the deck a little bit different. Basically other peoples commanders on the whole would pose the problems after an Urza's Ruinous Blast so I would probable want Price of Fame and I'd probably run the Gilded Drake in that version.
In my experience Urza's Ruinous Blast is hot garbage. There are a lot of legendary permanents in EDH, especially in my meta.
Yeah it's been a tough choice for an additional planeswalker. I'm thinking about Jace, Architect of Thought. I mean there are a lot of potential ways to win, depending on what your opponents might be playing.
For example if you're up against another planeswalker deck then you might just have access to Doubling Season or The Chain Veil.
I could get Emeria Shepherd and if playing a white player, simply grab a Plains from their deck and this will bring Jace, Architect of Thought back into play. With Doubling Season I could just ultimate Jace again, and keep looping for as many Plains that are in opponents decks.
Plus the Jace, Architect of Thought [-2] does get 3 cards deep into your deck, so this is good in a pinch.
But don't me wrong sometimes Tamiyo [-2] actually lines up pretty well with draw sometimes, but it IS situational draw, rather than guaranteed, which often you need when you're up against it scrambling for answers.
Don't get too deep into magical christmas land lol. In all seriousness, I've always been curious to see how that Jace would perform for us. [+1] is nice protection, [-2] can dig deep. The ult is merely passable imo, but can still get some strong value.
Iirc, her art was spoiled in one of the ravnica pictures. I'd expect the next set as Orshov is supposed to be present in that one. Otherwise, the set after most likely.
The Children of Korlis is specifically for the Razaketh, the Foulblooded combos. You can lose a whopping 29 life through the process, so you can sequence it so that you can also tutor up for Children to gain enough life to carry on. I win a lot of games through this combo, and life totals matter.
I could see running Necropotence now as well.
It's probably a little naughty of me to take out interactive cards like Swords to Plowshares and Negate, but I've really tuned the deck to be a combo deck, so it's more like opponents need to deal with what I'm doing and not the other way around.
Bloodtracker is a card from the precon that might be worth taking a second look at. Greed has always been a playable card in Edh. Bloodtracker's Greed effect is notably weaker, but trading that for a strong blocker//attacker might be worth while. Sticky firebreath on a flying creature is absurdly strong. Might only be playable in mono B, but it could earn a slot in anyones deck who's willing to test it.
I decided to put in some extra creatures with 'enter the battlefield' effects, as I've gone to setup a Parallax Wave combo with Felidar Guardian, but didn't have an ETB creature to abuse it with a few times now.
I took out the Snapcaster Mage for the reason that when it comes to infinite, he also fails to actually give you the win, where something like Omenspeaker or Augur of Bolas will keep digging until you find a win condition.
Because I get so many wins from Tezzeret the Seeker combo of having him on 5 loyalty to get The Chain Veil I've added Skyship Plunderer to the deck as another means of setting this up. On the same line of thinking setting up this combo is about having the enough mana to pull it off, and so Gilded Lotus is one that can really help this.
I'm also tempted to run a Dark Ritual in the deck as so many games I could pull off a win if I just had a few more mana.
Skyline Cascade is just way to slow and misses having a target a lot.
The Imperial Seal is obviously a pretty fine card, but honestly I've found that there is enough ways to search the deck for combo or answers, and that card disadvantage is a real thing with having too many of the top of library tutors. You still need to setup a threshold of mana before assembling and committing too many resources to combo, so you can find that you don;t want to cast it early, as you just want to hit land drops rather than tutor for a combo card.
Now you could argue that it's strictly better than Enlightened Tutor and Mystical Tutor, and this probably is true, but I respect that most people wont have access to it, so I'd prefer to run a deck that everyone can look to build. But I'd also argue that the instant speed ones really do have advantages as well.
I do prefer mystical tutor to imperial seal. It sets up miracles better, which is super relavent imo. Especially being able to setup a terminus and cast a planeswalker on an empty battlefield for example.
I do prefer mystical tutor to imperial seal. It sets up miracles better, which is super relavent imo. Especially being able to setup a terminus and cast a planeswalker on an empty battlefield for example.
Oh yeah Thrummingbird is basically a strict upgrade, but I mean I could even look to play both, just making room is a nightmare.
Actually I'm just going to add the Treasure Map, the 4 mana you can get from it is perfect for setting up the Tezzeret the Seeker combo. But I'm still going to keep the Gilded Lotus.
The Gilded Lotus can literally gain you a mana in the same turn you cast it with Aminatou in play, i.e. it cost you nothing. As you get the three mana straight away then can Aminatou [-1] the Lotus to get three more mana.
I've decided that Teferi's Protection is just too hard to setup with Aminatou [-6]. Just so many things need to line up. Now there are times that you use Teferi's Protection to fade a turn to protect a planeswalker or two, but it's such a reactive card, that I'd prefer to be proactive in general with say Treasure Map.
I do agree with the Mystical Tutor being slightly better, there have been many times where I've had a Sensei's Divining Top in play and had to use a Mystical Tutor to get a counterspell to stop some game winning spell. Instant speed is important to reactivating to what happens over the course of an entire round. Imperial Seal is still really good in decks that refill hands with powerful cards like Windfall, Timetwister, Time Spiral, etc, as you can recoup the card disadvantage. So it's still great in my reanimation deck that packs a few of these. But as I say for the Superfriends it's a little bit more setup time, so are happy to just naturally draw lands, rather than trying to setup too early.
It's more than feasible that you could have a build that supported all of these.
Now I've already touched upon ratios of number of card types when playing things like The Antiquities War or The Mirari Conjecture.
Normally you'd want at least a 1/5 ratio of artifacts in order to make a trigger successful for The Antiquities War.
Similarly you'd normally want a number of instants and sorcery for The Mirari Conjecture in order to get value each trigger.
But I feel in a Saga focused build these numbers don't need to be as high as you can get more value out of them in a specific build, and I'll try and show you how.
Proliferate also has the advantage of adding loyalty counters to Aminatou or any other planeswalkers you might have.
I've played Inexorable Tide in my Will & Rowan Kenrith deck, but found it too slow in that build. However this can be a combo card for a Saga build. If you are getting infinite's then you can use this to move through Sagas.
Contagion Clasp and Contagion Engine are mana intensive in general, but again in a build that has The Antiquities War along with plenty of artifact mana is certainly worth looking at. Viral Drake is similar in that it requires mana to activate, but this can be done multiple times each turn if you have the mana.
Getting back to the Sagas themselves there are some powerful abilities.
Fall of the Thran allows you to keep the land count down, and you could run a good number of artifact mana to mitigate less lands. Being able to reset it with Aminatou [-1] does mean that opponents are kept to two lands, and this lines up nicely with being able to defend Aminatou as opponents can only cast so many spells being shorted on mana.
Because the Saga happens in your turn, you're more likely to get use of the lands coming into play before you reset it back to destroy all lands.
The Eldest Reborn has three different abilities. You can use Aminatou [-1] to get multiple creature/planeswalker sacrifices in a turn.
With some of the return enchantment from graveyard creatures you can get The Eldest Reborn back with the 3rd Saga trigger.
So Auramancer, Monk Idealist, Restoration Specialist can be used to get it back straight away. Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Silent Sentinel can do it as well, but summoning sickness will probably mean delayed for a turn.
Phyrexian Scriptures, History of Benalia, Time of Ice can be used to to control creatures to a certain extent.
Resetting them all before the 3rd Saga, so that you can keep protecting Aminatou and perhaps other planeswalkers or just your life total.
The Antiquities War can be used as a solid value card for getting artifacts, and in conjunction with artifacts that naturally allude to supporting the other Sagas. For example if playing Fall of the Thran then artifact mana will be good so running Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo, Signets, etc. Phyrexian Scriptures doesn't destroy artifact creatures, so you could have a number of artifact creatures to support this theme.
Now because they are enchantments, it'll pay to look for further enchantment support.
The problem with cards like Greater Auramancy or Fountain Watch is that you cant then use Aminatou [-1] ability to reset the Sagas.
You probably should be running Starfield of Nyx for it's value, but it does have a double edged sword in that you can then use your enchantments as creature beat down plan, but then you're exposed to creature removal as well. Opalescence can also be used if wanting to go the enchantments as creature beatdown plan, and combos with Parallax Wave to remove all opponents creatures indefinitely, using tricky timing making sure to have the exile triggers on opponents creatures on the stack, before resolving your own exile on Parallax Wave to itself (as it's a creature). This way the Parallax Wave is a new copy of the card coming into play, so opponents creatures will be stamped with a different copy of the card, and remained exiled forever.
Of course Parallax Wave is already da.bomb.com in Aminatou decks, don't leave home without it.
Skybind can be used to good effect if you're running a number of nonenchantment "enter the battlefield" effects. Auramancer and Monk Idealist can be used to get back other enchantments at end of turn.
Unfortunately because it takes effect of return at end of turn, Skybind is a little less useful for planeswalkers.
Sigil of the Empty Throne could be used if you have enough enchantments to protect your planeswalker or life total, or go on the offensive!
If you are running some number of proliferate cards to further your Sagas for value, then some number of planeswalkers can be beneficial.
It's hard to completely recommend what to run as it'll depend on the rest of your build. There are going to be the usual suspects in; Tezzeret the Seeker, Teferi, Temporal Archmage, Kaya, Ghost Assassin.
But if you're running a number of artifacts already and supporting the The Antiquities War more, then Karn, Scion of Urza and Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, Tezzeret, Artifice Master are worth a look. Open the Vault can be slightly more abusable in a build which has more of a spread between your artifacts and enchantments.
I could have posted a complete deck list, and perhaps I will, but I mainly wanted to get a picture of how Sagas could be better integrated into Aminatou builds, and I know some of you are already using them. Please feel free to include your experiences and thoughts on the matter
I've been playing the Reanimation deck a lot more recently, normally the Superfriends is my go to and hogs my games.
But I've made a few changes, and the deck has ended up being more of a hybrid, as I find myself drawn to some of the planeswalker interactions I get from the Superfriends. I just win soooo many games with setting up the Tezzeret the Seeker + Aminatou wins (getting Throne of Geth into The Chain Veil).
But it still very much reanimation focused, but hybridizing is a bit more fun, can't help myself.
I also wanted another reanimation target that could be a nice catch all for an early play. Often I've had Entomb in starting hand with the ability to reanimate on Turn 2 or Turn 3, but the thing with going straight for Razaketh, the Foulblooded is that often you don't have another creature to sacrifice to get value straight away. So if you do that play and opponents have removal, then you get no value. It's a lot of resources to then get Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares, etc.
I've chosen Nezahal, Primal Tide as an early reanimation target for just general good value. The alternative was putting back Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur. There is more upside to Jin, but Nezahal, Primal Tide is just a safer option being able to protect itself.
I took out some combo elements with Heart of Kiran and Clever Impersonator as the deck has a lot more combo elements with the reanimation package, so honestly never ended up sequencing much with these cards.
Also just made a few changes to the Superfriends deck, adding in Omniscience and Soul Summons. I just had so much success with them in the Reanimation and Transformers (Tokens and Top of Library) decks that it was foolish not to have them in the Superfriends deck.
The number of times I could have abused it with the Academy Rector as well, plus there have been quite a few games where I've had the Oath of Teferi in hand, so didn't have great targets for the Academy Rector.
I found that Knight of the White Orchid just misses too much to get the land value. Because almost always if you're playing it on Turn 2, you are not getting value. Normally you'd only get value on Turn 3, before you play a land, and this is the turn you'd prefer to play Aminatou. So it ended up being a 2/2 first strike only most games (like 85%).
I tweaked my own Aminatou list to be closer to your Super-Friends list and I've gotta say that the [CARD}Throne of Geth[/CARD] interaction is one of the coolest things in the deck. I've cut my Planeswalker count down to about 10 and included a few Stax elements such as [CARD}Stasis[/CARD] and Cursed Totem along with a full complement of ETB creatures. It's running pretty smoothly and is one of my favorite non-cEDH decks to play.
I tweaked my own Aminatou list to be closer to your Super-Friends list and I've gotta say that the [CARD}Throne of Geth[/CARD] interaction is one of the coolest things in the deck. I've cut my Planeswalker count down to about 10 and included a few Stax elements such as [CARD}Stasis[/CARD] and Cursed Totem along with a full complement of ETB creatures. It's running pretty smoothly and is one of my favorite non-cEDH decks to play.
Happy holidays, comrade!
Yeah the Tezzerit->Throne of Geth->The Chain Veil is my main go to way of winning. If you look at other one card wins combos with commanders, they usually involve a creature commander, which are more easily dealt with instant speed removal. So it's harder for your opponents to interact with this type of planeswalker combo.
I think Teferi, Temporal Archmage is the only non-creature commander which can go infinite with a single other card, but even he requires some sources that will provide additional mana over say lands.
This combo literally just requires having 4 after Tezzerit comes into play which is very feasible to setup.
I've decided to get on the throne of geth wagon. Will pick one up when I can.
Kaya, Orzhov Usurper is stronger than she looks, but not by much. She will probably see sideboard play in standard as tech against the graveyard strategies present. And her downtick is nice. Niche strong against control.
I am dissappointed with spoilers tho. Had really hoped we'd get something for our deck in either Orzhov or Azorious, but so far we have nothing. And with both of our color walkers gone, hope dwindles.
Couple of interesting cards for Aminatou out of Ravnica Allegiance.
Forbidding Spirit is a solid 3/3 creature for 3 mana for a Superfriends deck as a potential defensive card.
If you were to use Aminatou [-1] for the protection part however, then you're not really getting anywhere with her, so you'd need to have another planewalker in play to realistically use this ability. Unless you're actually facing some big creature beats from opponents in general. But that's more of a later game thing.
Lumbering Battlement is very interesting, an alternative to Parallax Wave, but just for your own creatures.
Has the potential to gain you massive value with some enter the battlefield creatures in play.
Could be a little awkward using it however as you can't use the ability at instant speed like Parallax Wave.
If you end up exiling your creatures and passing the turn, then you're down those creatures as blockers for your planeswalkers. Where with Parallax Wave you can block with creatures and then exile them in response.
So if that makes sense say you have Trinket Mage and Wall of Omens in play and you cast Lumbering Battlement.
Your plan would be to exile Trinket Mage and Wall of Omens with it, and then you can use Aminatou [-1] on the Lumbering Battlement to return those creatures to play. But then you have the decision of again exiling them when Lumbering Battlement comes back into play, to try and get more value next turn. But this leaves you down some creatures for potentially blocking.
But it is solid card, certainly worth thinking about, if your build has a lot of coming into play triggers off creatures.
Hi!
I don't get how you cast reanimate after sacrificing LED in step 7. Could you elaborate?
Snapcaster Mage targets the Reanimate in your graveyard, which gives in flashback. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost, in this case B. You may cast that card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.
So until end of the turn you can cast the Reanimate from your graveyard.
Once you sacrifice the LED you'll have the mana to cast the Reanimate.
For those that might have already read this thread in the past, you might notice that the formatting has been spruced up a lot. This is in part due to getting it recognized as an official primer. Wish me luck.
One significant difference is that there is only one deck being presented. I talk about this in the section 'Deck History' a bit in the primer, but I've essentially fused elements of both the Superfriends and Reanimation into one deck, that is actually more robust and fun, so made sense in the end.
I wanted to wait for the entire set to be spoiled before I'd make an assessment of what new toys Aminatou might have gained fully.
War of the Spark is an absolute barn-burner, make no mistake that this is one of the more unique and interesting sets in..well maybe ever. Not to say that's it's the most powerful, but never before has a set got my brain churning so much.
Definite includes
Spark Double is the only other cards since Clever Impersonator that allows you to copy a planeswalker. However rather than only being able have one version due to the legendary rule (Clever Impersonator), Spark Double allows you to have another copy remain in play. Wow, just wow.
So now we have a way of creating another version of Aminatou, and with either Oath of Teferi or The Chain Veil we are able to get infinite activation's by targeting each other with [-1] ability to reset themselves.
You can of course get infinite mana by just targeting a land, but as long as you have another Aminatou [+1] to setup various plays. The er ETB you can get infinite uses out of that as well.
This is an auto include in any Aminatou deck, get hold of one as soon as you can.
Teferi, Time Raveler is actually quite a powerful planeswalker in general, but in Aminatou decks planeswalkers with really strong minus abilities become even better. So his [+1] ability isn't like the strongest. Sure it's fine you might be able to time some mass creature removal at instant speed with it, but on the whole it's an ability that you wouldn't lean on much.
However it's the [-3] ability that you'd look to keep using, with Aminatou [-1] to reset the loyalty each turn. And this ability is enough of a tempo swing that getting several uses out of it, you can really get value.
The static ability of shutting down interaction to sorcery speed is a giant hoser in commander, so Teferi, Time Raveler is actually a little powerhouse at three mana, which is important for getting competitive value during early game, or freeing up mana to keep up your own disruption later on in the game if casting him.
Possible includes
Flux Channeler. I've played Inexorable Tide in a planeswalker deck before, and it was very disappointing. Just too expensive to get rewarded, and you need to play specifically cheap cards to really get proper value, so ended up getting cut.
However Flux Channeler is in itself a 2/2 body meaning it does offer protection with blocking if need be. The reason that I'm interested is that as I've pointed out in the primer, if you can get Tezzeret the Seeker on 5 loyalty immediately then you can go infinite with only one additional mana. The more cheap spells you have in your deck, the more effective this card becomes at doing exactly the combo plan. I have 15 one mana non-creature spells in the deck, so it is possible to sand-bag one of them until you have this setup.
So a likely setup would be to wait until you have 7 mana and then cast Tezzeret the Seeker with Aminatou and Flux Channeler in play. Now you can look to cast your one mana spell, put a loyalty counter on Tezzeret and minus to get The Chain Veil. Then you can Aminatou [-1] Tezzeret to rest him, to then get Mana Vault, and look to go infinite. I guess ultimetly you're looking to cut down on 2 from the original combo of just playing Tezzeret by himself, so it's not like a massive thing.
Command the Dreadhorde is both a planeswalker and creature reanimation card..which is exactly what that deck is.
I have Entomb, Intuition, Buried Alive in the deck, so the ability to setup powerplays is within the build already. I honestly think the life loss is totally manageable with commanders 40 life.
Obviously there is Living Death and other mass reanimation cards for creatures, and I don't play any of those, so it's really the ability to bring planeswalkers into play from the graveyard which is the super interesting aspect.
If I Intuition for Tezzeret the Seeker, Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Teferi, Temporal Archmage with Command the Dreadhorde in hand, then it's going to be easy to setup a win.
What I like about it, is that you can also let Aminatou go to the graveyard if attacked, to bring them all back at once, as often the case it's hard to setup Aminatou and Tezzeret together.
But on the other hand it is more like a card that only works specifically with Entomb or Intuition. I don't have a lot of discard outlets in the deck, it isn't massively geared that way. The thing is that I can already do very broken things with Entomb and Intuition already, so it would only be worth including it if I wanted a backup way to bring back planeswalkers who have been killed or maybe even milled.
Liliana, Dreadhorde General is a super powerful planeswalker in the right builds. The ability to replace herself with card advantage is amazing as a static ability. She can protect herself with token creatures and the [-4] if say doubled up with an Animatou [-1] would be sacrifice four creatures, which in a lot of games is good as a Damnation or Wrath of God.
Her ultimate at [-9] which is within Deepglow Skate will reduce your opponents lands (and other permanent types) down to one, which is pretty game winning, let's be honest.
Six mana is a lot however, so it's not like an automatic include, but it's got me tempted for sure.
Mana Geode is actually very close to being an include. The scry does work with Aminatou [+1], and unlike the Temple lands that come into play tapped, you can target it with Aminatou [-1] to get a mana and a scry. Certainly during an infinite Aminatou activation setup, you could use this card to win. It is possible that I should play this over a Signet.
Honorable mentions
God-Eternal Kefnet can be used with Aminatou [+1] to setup various plays. The most broken of them using any extra turn card to get infinite turns.
For example if you use Aminatou [+1] to put Time Warp on top of your library, then when you draw it you can copy it for 1UU to take an extra turn, and then just use Aminatou [+1] to put it back on top to keep doing infinitely.
As you can see without some other cards to gain advantages, you wouldn't be gaining any extra cards. However even then you can build up Aminatou to her [-6] ultimate.
I personally think that you'd want to be playing at least five extra turn cards, maybe Time Warp, Capture of Jingzhou, Temporal Manipulation, Temporal Mastery, Nexus of Fate.
But if you can't afford those, it must be noted that it doesn't matter if you use extra turn cards that exile themselves, as God-Eternal Kefnet copies the cards, so the exile portion doesn't matter. So cards like Karn's Temporal Sundering, Part the Waterveil, Walk the Aeons are all fine and will only cost you 2UU with God-Eternal Kefnet.
God-Eternal Oketra simply as an incredible hard to deal with blocker. Double strike is no joke when it comes to combat, 6 toughness is hard to kill. You can add a lot of power to the board with 4/4 Zombies via casting your small ball creatures. Then if she is removed, you can put her 3 cards down on top of your library, and then Aminatou [+1] can get you to her a turn quicker.
Probably going to be an overlooked card for a lot of peoples builds, but I see her potential as a defender and not just as an offence threat. In creature heavy metas, seriously consider her in my opinion.
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries does allow you to put two cards into graveyard from top of your library, so you could setup for reanimation by using Aminatou [+1] to put a creature ontop.
The ultimate [-8] isn't too bad, and within Deepglow Skate range, but isn't actually game ending.
The triple blue is also very off putting for a three color deck, and the static ability of having no library is not part of the deck design.
Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor. Part of the set of uncommons that don't have a plus ability to build up loyalty naturally. However it does provide protection, creates blockers and the draw and discard can be used to fuel the reanimation strategy. With Aminatou [-1] you can reset her every third turn to maintain value. Actually better than probably first evaluated for most, especially when it comes to Aminatou.
Ashiok, Dream Render static ability is a complete nightmare (boom pun) for let's face it most commander decks. In fact the more competitive a meta is, the stronger the static ability will be. Not having it's own way of building up loyalty is certainly a downside and the minus ability doesn't provide card advantage. It is a way to fuel your graveyard for reanimation, and does have a way to set opponents own graveyard strategies back each turn.
I feel that this deck would be better in builds that are looking to leverage off Living Death, Patriarch's Bidding, type cards. But if I was entering a cEDH tournament, I'd add Ashiok, Dream Render as it shuts down a lot of strategies.
Narset, Parter of Veils is a potential hoser for a lot of decks in commander, and she does represent card advantage in the long term. It's going to depend on your creature to non-creature ratio how successful the [-2] is. I've been a bit disappointed at Augur of Bolas when testing that, but the ability to hit planewalkers and artifacts means that it's a better ratio. Narset, Parter of Veils becomes much more oppressive if playing cards like Windfall, Timetwister, Time Spiral, etc, so just better in a build that supports those type of storm cards as well.
Massacre Girl is better at mass creature removal than Massacre Wurm in my opinion, which is a popular include in a lot of Aminatou builds. It does require a particular board presence, but I think you'll find more often than not it'll have a cascading effect of killing off most of the creatures. If you have a control focused build and are not concerned too much about keeping your own creature base on board, then certainly an exciting new option.
Ignite the Beacon is interesting in that you can grab two planeswalkers, certainly setting up for a double of say Teferi and Tezzert. It is an instant so you can wait until end of opponents turn to cast it. However I feel like it's too much of a mana investment, and certainly doesn't compare to putting down a creature body to protect planeswalkers in the first place, like Thalia's Lancers.
Prison Realm The scry ability can work with Aminatou [+1] and resetting another creature or planeswalker latter into a game with Aminatou [-1] is possible. I don't play Oblivion Ring for the reasons that it's a bit narrow as far as reusability, so for the same reasons I won't be playing Prison Realm.
Lazotep Plating. I actually think this is going to be a massively underrated card in commander. It competes against potential straight up conterspells, but in a planeswalker deck where blockers count, you can actually make a 1/1 creature token at instant speed, and this can have a subtle swing in a game, where you'd save your permanents from targeted removal and create another blocker. Plus can be used to protect against player targeting, so as I pointed out with Teyo, the Shieldmage you can prevent targeted graveyard removal like Bojuka Bog.
Dovin's Veto is a new top tier counterspell for Azorius colored decks. The only reason that I'm not playing it is that have focused proactive combo deck. I would play Negate over this first for the reasons of color requirements, but look for this card to shine in various decks.
Ugin, the Ineffable ability to exile the top card of your library can be relevant with Aminatou [+1]. Obviously only really good in an artifact or colorless build, but he is straight up removal of a lot of permanents.
Creating token creatures is always good for protecting your planeswalkers.
Karn, the Great Creator is a card that I've talked about when the card was spoiled. I'll just repost my thoughts, but note that I'm not discussing it's relevance in Aminatou.
Black already has a lot of tutors, but if you wanted to make the exile cards from libraries more robust for different matchups, then you can make cards like, Bitter Ordeal and Lost Legacy into tutors for artifacts for yourself.
There is also the means to use your graveyard as an additional resource.
For example say you have cards like Relic of Progenitus, Scrabbling Claws or Scavenger Grounds. You can specifically target your own artifacts in graveyard that you might have already used, or got removed, or even milled, to get back with Karn, the Great Creator [-2] ability.
Mimic Vat can exile an artifact creature to get back to hand. Haven't thought about this much, but I'm sure it's abusable.
Anyway there will be a ton of ways to use this card on levels that you might not have thought about, and to boot it's a one-sided Null Rod.
Most of the stuff I've been talking about is for commander, but actually for Vintage it could actually be playable..
The reason is that with the delve cards in Dig Through Time and Treasure Cruise you'll often be exiling your Black Lotus, Moxes, etc, so the [-2] gives you access to them. The Null Rod ability is very powerful in Vintage, and the [+1] can be used on opponents Moxes to kill them.
Plus even if you have creature removal against a creature-less deck, it gives you the ability to make an artifact a creature, to then Lightning Bolt, Swords to Plowshares, etc it.
My guess is that this is going to be an underrated card in general, but I see everything with cards.
Doesn't make the cut
Dovin, Hand of Control is obviously better in stax builds. Although protection is nice with the [-1], I find that you're not really getting anyway proactive if you're simply defending without actually gaining anything. For example if you use Aminatou [-1] on Dovin, Hand of Control, so that you can make two creatures not deal damage for the turn, sure you're protecting them from taking damage, but you've only accomplished delaying, as you are not gaining card advantage or building up loyalty.
Oath of Kaya is another one of the Oaths, and it does represent renewable ETB for killing creatures with 3 toughness or less. The life gain isn't all that important in commander, so against probably better options like Oath of Liliana, it doesn't actually have a static ability which synergies with planeswalkers in enough of a meaningful way in my opinion.
Fblthp, the Lost is nothing more than a draw card. Wouldn't be looking to use it's double draw in anyway, simply a slightly worse version of Baleful Strix or Wall of Omens. But it's still a way to get card advantage on curve. The 1/1 body however is pretty mediocre.
Karn's Bastion is too mana intensive to get the benefits for this particular deck. However I am looking to play it in my Will & Rowen Kenrith deck, so it's just a case of lining up ultimate's with sinking mana into it.
The thing is that the deck is so tuned that every card has a combination of strategies that it leads to, that making cuts incredible difficult. Swords to Plowshares is top-tier mana efficient, but I've got to make some small-ball cuts to try out bigger strategies. Man this is what happens when you get a really focused deck after a time, lol.
I really want to try out Liliana, Dreadhorde General but I just can't find space for her at the moment. I mean you get to the stage where you'd have to make her a creature wrath instead of say Supreme Verdict, but I know that this is just not correct for a more streamlined deck.
So with the new WAR set being totally revealed, I think I am going to try and make this 100% superfriends. Do you happen to have your latest superfriends list before you merged the two?
So with the new WAR set being totally revealed, I think I am going to try and make this 100% superfriends. Do you happen to have your latest superfriends list before you merged the two?
Thank you. These are the changes I made, so if you just put these cards back..
However you'll noticed that only two of the cards are specifically planeswalker related, Narset Transcendent and Thrummingbird, so it's not like I moved away from the theme, I just traded quality cards around Aminatou for reanimation as well.
I've made a few changes, wanted a catch all removal, and also wanted another planeswalker with a sort of game ending ultimate. It's good to have some backup win plans, so with Deepglow Skate, it's good to have a planeswalker that will probably win you the game.
Superfriends
Added
+ Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
+ Akroma's Vengeance
Removed
- Negate
- Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Not a huge fan of Tamiyo in the deck. Though if your hunting for a good ultimate I can see how you might struggle to find many others. Have you considered [Jace, Unraveler of Secrets[/card]?
Hoping the new Kaya is playable in our deck. Might even have a flicker mechanic we can abuse, considering the walker.
Yeah it's been a tough choice for an additional planeswalker. I'm thinking about Jace, Architect of Thought. I mean there are a lot of potential ways to win, depending on what your opponents might be playing.
For example if you're up against another planeswalker deck then you might just have access to Doubling Season or The Chain Veil.
I could get Emeria Shepherd and if playing a white player, simply grab a Plains from their deck and this will bring Jace, Architect of Thought back into play. With Doubling Season I could just ultimate Jace again, and keep looping for as many Plains that are in opponents decks.
Plus the Jace, Architect of Thought [-2] does get 3 cards deep into your deck, so this is good in a pinch.
But don't me wrong sometimes Tamiyo [-2] actually lines up pretty well with draw sometimes, but it IS situational draw, rather than guaranteed, which often you need when you're up against it scrambling for answers.
What set is a new Kaya supposed to be in?
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
In my experience Urza's Ruinous Blast is hot garbage. There are a lot of legendary permanents in EDH, especially in my meta.
Don't get too deep into magical christmas land lol. In all seriousness, I've always been curious to see how that Jace would perform for us. [+1] is nice protection, [-2] can dig deep. The ult is merely passable imo, but can still get some strong value.
Iirc, her art was spoiled in one of the ravnica pictures. I'd expect the next set as Orshov is supposed to be present in that one. Otherwise, the set after most likely.
..
Azusa - Derevi - Glissa - Mizzix - Sharuum - Wanderer - Wort
Reanimation
Added
+ Children of Korlis
+ Diabolic Intent
Removed
- Swords to Plowshares
- Negate
The Children of Korlis is specifically for the Razaketh, the Foulblooded combos. You can lose a whopping 29 life through the process, so you can sequence it so that you can also tutor up for Children to gain enough life to carry on. I win a lot of games through this combo, and life totals matter.
I could see running Necropotence now as well.
Diabolic Intent just seems great with the Rectors, I've had a few games where I've wanted the Rectors to die and obviously going from Academy Rector into Omniscience, searching for probably Razaketh, the Foulblooded is just too good to not run.
It's probably a little naughty of me to take out interactive cards like Swords to Plowshares and Negate, but I've really tuned the deck to be a combo deck, so it's more like opponents need to deal with what I'm doing and not the other way around.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Superfriends
Added
+ Skyship Plunderer
+ Omenspeaker
+ Augur of Bolas
+ Jace, Architect of Thought
+ Gilded Lotus
+ Island
Removed
- Imperial Seal
- Bitterblossom
- Hidden Stockpile
- Snapcaster Mage
- Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
- Skyline Cascade
I decided to put in some extra creatures with 'enter the battlefield' effects, as I've gone to setup a Parallax Wave combo with Felidar Guardian, but didn't have an ETB creature to abuse it with a few times now.
I took out the Snapcaster Mage for the reason that when it comes to infinite, he also fails to actually give you the win, where something like Omenspeaker or Augur of Bolas will keep digging until you find a win condition.
I've found that Bitterblossom and Hidden Stockpile are just a bit slow to consistently provide protection.
Because I get so many wins from Tezzeret the Seeker combo of having him on 5 loyalty to get The Chain Veil I've added Skyship Plunderer to the deck as another means of setting this up. On the same line of thinking setting up this combo is about having the enough mana to pull it off, and so Gilded Lotus is one that can really help this.
I'm also tempted to run a Dark Ritual in the deck as so many games I could pull off a win if I just had a few more mana.
I had already made the change from Tamiyo, the Moon Sage to Jace, Architect of Thought.
Skyline Cascade is just way to slow and misses having a target a lot.
The Imperial Seal is obviously a pretty fine card, but honestly I've found that there is enough ways to search the deck for combo or answers, and that card disadvantage is a real thing with having too many of the top of library tutors. You still need to setup a threshold of mana before assembling and committing too many resources to combo, so you can find that you don;t want to cast it early, as you just want to hit land drops rather than tutor for a combo card.
Now you could argue that it's strictly better than Enlightened Tutor and Mystical Tutor, and this probably is true, but I respect that most people wont have access to it, so I'd prefer to run a deck that everyone can look to build. But I'd also argue that the instant speed ones really do have advantages as well.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
thrumming bird > Skyship Plunderer imo
I personally would prefer treasure map to guilded lotus but either works.
I do prefer mystical tutor to imperial seal. It sets up miracles better, which is super relavent imo. Especially being able to setup a terminus and cast a planeswalker on an empty battlefield for example.
Actually I'm just going to add the Treasure Map, the 4 mana you can get from it is perfect for setting up the Tezzeret the Seeker combo. But I'm still going to keep the Gilded Lotus.
The Gilded Lotus can literally gain you a mana in the same turn you cast it with Aminatou in play, i.e. it cost you nothing. As you get the three mana straight away then can Aminatou [-1] the Lotus to get three more mana.
I've decided that Teferi's Protection is just too hard to setup with Aminatou [-6]. Just so many things need to line up. Now there are times that you use Teferi's Protection to fade a turn to protect a planeswalker or two, but it's such a reactive card, that I'd prefer to be proactive in general with say Treasure Map.
I do agree with the Mystical Tutor being slightly better, there have been many times where I've had a Sensei's Divining Top in play and had to use a Mystical Tutor to get a counterspell to stop some game winning spell. Instant speed is important to reactivating to what happens over the course of an entire round.
Imperial Seal is still really good in decks that refill hands with powerful cards like Windfall, Timetwister, Time Spiral, etc, as you can recoup the card disadvantage. So it's still great in my reanimation deck that packs a few of these. But as I say for the Superfriends it's a little bit more setup time, so are happy to just naturally draw lands, rather than trying to setup too early.
Superfriends
Added
+ Treasure Map
+ Thrummingbird
Removed
- Teferi's Protection
- Skyship Plunderer
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
I was doing some combo interactions with The Eldest Reborn in another thread, and it got me to thinking how Sagas can be used with Aminatou.
People have mentioned some already in this thread, and her ability to reset them by [-1] does mean you can keep them around indefinitely.
So I thought I'd list some interactions that you could use if you wanted to build around a Saga theme.
These are the most powerful of the Sagas in Esper;
Fall of the Thran
History of Benalia
Phyrexian Scriptures
The Antiquities War
The Eldest Reborn
The Mirari Conjecture
Time of Ice
It's more than feasible that you could have a build that supported all of these.
Now I've already touched upon ratios of number of card types when playing things like The Antiquities War or The Mirari Conjecture.
Normally you'd want at least a 1/5 ratio of artifacts in order to make a trigger successful for The Antiquities War.
Similarly you'd normally want a number of instants and sorcery for The Mirari Conjecture in order to get value each trigger.
But I feel in a Saga focused build these numbers don't need to be as high as you can get more value out of them in a specific build, and I'll try and show you how.
First off, lets look at card that can retrieve enchantments from graveyard in Esper;
Argivian Find
Auramancer
Cleansing Meditation
Crystal Chimes
Dawn to Dusk
Hanna, Ship's Navigator
Mine Excavation
Monk Idealist
Open the Vaults
Replenish
Restoration Specialist
Second Sunrise
Silent Sentinel
Starfield of Nyx
Tragic Poet
Auramancer and Monk Idealist can be repeatable blinked with Aminatou [-1] to return an enchantment.
Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Silent Sentinel, Starfield of Nyx can get one back every turn.
Replenish and Open the Vaults are just the most powerful effect for returning all your enchantments.
Crystal Chimes would be worth considering especially in a build that has The Antiquities War.
Another aspect of Sagas is actually to get value out of the Sagas themselves more quickly. So anything that can add counters to them;
Contagion Clasp
Contagion Engine
Core Prowler
Fuel for the Cause
Grim Affliction
Inexorable Tide
Spread the Sickness
Steady Progress
Tezzeret's Gambit
Throne of Geth
Thrummingbird
Viral Drake
Skyship Plunderer
Proliferate also has the advantage of adding loyalty counters to Aminatou or any other planeswalkers you might have.
I've played Inexorable Tide in my Will & Rowan Kenrith deck, but found it too slow in that build. However this can be a combo card for a Saga build. If you are getting infinite's then you can use this to move through Sagas.
Contagion Clasp and Contagion Engine are mana intensive in general, but again in a build that has The Antiquities War along with plenty of artifact mana is certainly worth looking at.
Viral Drake is similar in that it requires mana to activate, but this can be done multiple times each turn if you have the mana.
Throne of Geth, Thrummingbird, Skyship Plunderer are already cards that I have played in my Superfriends deck with much success, so will add even more value in a Saga theme.
Getting back to the Sagas themselves there are some powerful abilities.
Fall of the Thran allows you to keep the land count down, and you could run a good number of artifact mana to mitigate less lands. Being able to reset it with Aminatou [-1] does mean that opponents are kept to two lands, and this lines up nicely with being able to defend Aminatou as opponents can only cast so many spells being shorted on mana.
Because the Saga happens in your turn, you're more likely to get use of the lands coming into play before you reset it back to destroy all lands.
The Eldest Reborn has three different abilities. You can use Aminatou [-1] to get multiple creature/planeswalker sacrifices in a turn.
With some of the return enchantment from graveyard creatures you can get The Eldest Reborn back with the 3rd Saga trigger.
So Auramancer, Monk Idealist, Restoration Specialist can be used to get it back straight away.
Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Silent Sentinel can do it as well, but summoning sickness will probably mean delayed for a turn.
The Mirari Conjecture is certainly powerful effects and can be abused in a number of ways. Maybe you are getting back an instant for control like counterspells or using it with tutoring effects like Vampiric Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Mystical Tutor.
You can get Argivian Find or Second Sunrise to return The Mirari Conjecture later on.
Similar with the 2nd Saga with sorcery, you can use Replenish, Open the Vaults or Cleansing Meditation to keep getting back your Sagas indefinitely.
Phyrexian Scriptures, History of Benalia, Time of Ice can be used to to control creatures to a certain extent.
Resetting them all before the 3rd Saga, so that you can keep protecting Aminatou and perhaps other planeswalkers or just your life total.
The Antiquities War can be used as a solid value card for getting artifacts, and in conjunction with artifacts that naturally allude to supporting the other Sagas. For example if playing Fall of the Thran then artifact mana will be good so running Gilded Lotus, Thran Dynamo, Signets, etc.
Phyrexian Scriptures doesn't destroy artifact creatures, so you could have a number of artifact creatures to support this theme.
Now because they are enchantments, it'll pay to look for further enchantment support.
The problem with cards like Greater Auramancy or Fountain Watch is that you cant then use Aminatou [-1] ability to reset the Sagas.
You probably should be running Starfield of Nyx for it's value, but it does have a double edged sword in that you can then use your enchantments as creature beat down plan, but then you're exposed to creature removal as well.
Opalescence can also be used if wanting to go the enchantments as creature beatdown plan, and combos with Parallax Wave to remove all opponents creatures indefinitely, using tricky timing making sure to have the exile triggers on opponents creatures on the stack, before resolving your own exile on Parallax Wave to itself (as it's a creature). This way the Parallax Wave is a new copy of the card coming into play, so opponents creatures will be stamped with a different copy of the card, and remained exiled forever.
Of course Parallax Wave is already da.bomb.com in Aminatou decks, don't leave home without it.
Skybind can be used to good effect if you're running a number of nonenchantment "enter the battlefield" effects. Auramancer and Monk Idealist can be used to get back other enchantments at end of turn.
Unfortunately because it takes effect of return at end of turn, Skybind is a little less useful for planeswalkers.
Sigil of the Empty Throne could be used if you have enough enchantments to protect your planeswalker or life total, or go on the offensive!
If you are running some number of proliferate cards to further your Sagas for value, then some number of planeswalkers can be beneficial.
It's hard to completely recommend what to run as it'll depend on the rest of your build. There are going to be the usual suspects in;
Tezzeret the Seeker, Teferi, Temporal Archmage, Kaya, Ghost Assassin.
But if you're running a number of artifacts already and supporting the The Antiquities War more, then Karn, Scion of Urza and Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, Tezzeret, Artifice Master are worth a look.
Open the Vault can be slightly more abusable in a build which has more of a spread between your artifacts and enchantments.
I also like Liliana, Death's Majesty if you're running a number of creatures like Auramancer, Monk Idealist, Restoration Specialist, Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Silent Sentinel.
Finally with so many interactions with returning enchantments from graveyard, actually getting enchantments into your graveyard from hand or library can be beneficial. So if you look at the Reanimation build in my primers, you can use some of the cards that normally you are looking to put creatures into your graveyard, for enchantments instead; Entomb, Intuition, Oath of Jace, Windfall, Predict, Frantic Search, Search for Azcanta, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, to name a few.
Also with Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, Necromancy being enchantments, you can look to integrate some number of reanimation. Even just being able to reanimate Auramancer, Monk Idealist, Restoration Specialist, Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Silent Sentinel could be worth it, but again some other usual suspects in Felidar Guardian and Academy Rector, along with other powerful low-cost creatures like Trinket Mage, Spellseeker, Recruiter of the Guard means that you don;t actually need big creatures to make reanimate enchantments really good.
Damn you Aminatou and wanting to pack in so many themes that work together!!!!
I could have posted a complete deck list, and perhaps I will, but I mainly wanted to get a picture of how Sagas could be better integrated into Aminatou builds, and I know some of you are already using them. Please feel free to include your experiences and thoughts on the matter
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
But I've made a few changes, and the deck has ended up being more of a hybrid, as I find myself drawn to some of the planeswalker interactions I get from the Superfriends. I just win soooo many games with setting up the Tezzeret the Seeker + Aminatou wins (getting Throne of Geth into The Chain Veil).
But it still very much reanimation focused, but hybridizing is a bit more fun, can't help myself.
Animatou Reanimation
Added
+ Tezzeret the Seeker
+ Teferi, Temporal Archmage
+ Kaya, Ghost Assassin
+ Nezahal, Primal Tide
+ Throne of Geth
+ The Chain Veil
Removed
- Tithe
- Weathered Wayfarer
- Heart of Kiran
- Clever Impersonator
- Timetwister
- Mystic Remora
I also wanted another reanimation target that could be a nice catch all for an early play. Often I've had Entomb in starting hand with the ability to reanimate on Turn 2 or Turn 3, but the thing with going straight for Razaketh, the Foulblooded is that often you don't have another creature to sacrifice to get value straight away. So if you do that play and opponents have removal, then you get no value. It's a lot of resources to then get Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares, etc.
I've chosen Nezahal, Primal Tide as an early reanimation target for just general good value. The alternative was putting back Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur. There is more upside to Jin, but Nezahal, Primal Tide is just a safer option being able to protect itself.
I took out some combo elements with Heart of Kiran and Clever Impersonator as the deck has a lot more combo elements with the reanimation package, so honestly never ended up sequencing much with these cards.
Also just made a few changes to the Superfriends deck, adding in Omniscience and Soul Summons. I just had so much success with them in the Reanimation and Transformers (Tokens and Top of Library) decks that it was foolish not to have them in the Superfriends deck.
The number of times I could have abused it with the Academy Rector as well, plus there have been quite a few games where I've had the Oath of Teferi in hand, so didn't have great targets for the Academy Rector.
Aminatou Superfriends
Added
+ Omniscience
+ Soul Summons
Removed
- Knight of the White Orchid
- Predict
I found that Knight of the White Orchid just misses too much to get the land value. Because almost always if you're playing it on Turn 2, you are not getting value. Normally you'd only get value on Turn 3, before you play a land, and this is the turn you'd prefer to play Aminatou. So it ended up being a 2/2 first strike only most games (like 85%).
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Happy holidays, comrade!
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
I think Teferi, Temporal Archmage is the only non-creature commander which can go infinite with a single other card, but even he requires some sources that will provide additional mana over say lands.
This combo literally just requires having 4 after Tezzerit comes into play which is very feasible to setup.
Happy New Year buddy.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Kaya, Orzhov Usurper is stronger than she looks, but not by much. She will probably see sideboard play in standard as tech against the graveyard strategies present. And her downtick is nice. Niche strong against control.
I am dissappointed with spoilers tho. Had really hoped we'd get something for our deck in either Orzhov or Azorious, but so far we have nothing. And with both of our color walkers gone, hope dwindles.
Forbidding Spirit is a solid 3/3 creature for 3 mana for a Superfriends deck as a potential defensive card.
If you were to use Aminatou [-1] for the protection part however, then you're not really getting anywhere with her, so you'd need to have another planewalker in play to realistically use this ability. Unless you're actually facing some big creature beats from opponents in general. But that's more of a later game thing.
Lumbering Battlement is very interesting, an alternative to Parallax Wave, but just for your own creatures.
Has the potential to gain you massive value with some enter the battlefield creatures in play.
Could be a little awkward using it however as you can't use the ability at instant speed like Parallax Wave.
If you end up exiling your creatures and passing the turn, then you're down those creatures as blockers for your planeswalkers. Where with Parallax Wave you can block with creatures and then exile them in response.
So if that makes sense say you have Trinket Mage and Wall of Omens in play and you cast Lumbering Battlement.
Your plan would be to exile Trinket Mage and Wall of Omens with it, and then you can use Aminatou [-1] on the Lumbering Battlement to return those creatures to play. But then you have the decision of again exiling them when Lumbering Battlement comes back into play, to try and get more value next turn. But this leaves you down some creatures for potentially blocking.
But it is solid card, certainly worth thinking about, if your build has a lot of coming into play triggers off creatures.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
I don't get how you cast reanimate after sacrificing LED in step 7. Could you elaborate?
So until end of the turn you can cast the Reanimate from your graveyard.
Once you sacrifice the LED you'll have the mana to cast the Reanimate.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
For those that might have already read this thread in the past, you might notice that the formatting has been spruced up a lot. This is in part due to getting it recognized as an official primer. Wish me luck.
One significant difference is that there is only one deck being presented. I talk about this in the section 'Deck History' a bit in the primer, but I've essentially fused elements of both the Superfriends and Reanimation into one deck, that is actually more robust and fun, so made sense in the end.
Primer
Added
+ Reanimate
+ Animate Dead
+ Dance of the Dead
+ Necromancy
+ Entomb
+ Intuition
+ Buried Alive
+ Razaketh, the Foulblooded
+ Leonin Relic-Warder
+ Reveillark
+ Snapcaster Mage
+ Lion's Eye Diamond
+ Fetid Heath
Removed
- Dark Confidant
- Oath of Liliana
- Treasure Map
- Preordain
- Ponder
- Entreat the Angels
- Thrummingbird
- Akroma's Vengeance
- Narset Transcendent
- Gilded Lotus
- Augur of Bolas
- Omenspeaker
- Island
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
War of the Spark is an absolute barn-burner, make no mistake that this is one of the more unique and interesting sets in..well maybe ever. Not to say that's it's the most powerful, but never before has a set got my brain churning so much.
So now we have a way of creating another version of Aminatou, and with either Oath of Teferi or The Chain Veil we are able to get infinite activation's by targeting each other with [-1] ability to reset themselves.
You can of course get infinite mana by just targeting a land, but as long as you have another Aminatou [+1] to setup various plays. The er ETB you can get infinite uses out of that as well.
This is an auto include in any Aminatou deck, get hold of one as soon as you can.
However it's the [-3] ability that you'd look to keep using, with Aminatou [-1] to reset the loyalty each turn. And this ability is enough of a tempo swing that getting several uses out of it, you can really get value.
The static ability of shutting down interaction to sorcery speed is a giant hoser in commander, so Teferi, Time Raveler is actually a little powerhouse at three mana, which is important for getting competitive value during early game, or freeing up mana to keep up your own disruption later on in the game if casting him.
However Flux Channeler is in itself a 2/2 body meaning it does offer protection with blocking if need be. The reason that I'm interested is that as I've pointed out in the primer, if you can get Tezzeret the Seeker on 5 loyalty immediately then you can go infinite with only one additional mana. The more cheap spells you have in your deck, the more effective this card becomes at doing exactly the combo plan. I have 15 one mana non-creature spells in the deck, so it is possible to sand-bag one of them until you have this setup.
So a likely setup would be to wait until you have 7 mana and then cast Tezzeret the Seeker with Aminatou and Flux Channeler in play. Now you can look to cast your one mana spell, put a loyalty counter on Tezzeret and minus to get The Chain Veil. Then you can Aminatou [-1] Tezzeret to rest him, to then get Mana Vault, and look to go infinite. I guess ultimetly you're looking to cut down on 2 from the original combo of just playing Tezzeret by himself, so it's not like a massive thing.
I have Entomb, Intuition, Buried Alive in the deck, so the ability to setup powerplays is within the build already. I honestly think the life loss is totally manageable with commanders 40 life.
Obviously there is Living Death and other mass reanimation cards for creatures, and I don't play any of those, so it's really the ability to bring planeswalkers into play from the graveyard which is the super interesting aspect.
If I Intuition for Tezzeret the Seeker, Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Teferi, Temporal Archmage with Command the Dreadhorde in hand, then it's going to be easy to setup a win.
What I like about it, is that you can also let Aminatou go to the graveyard if attacked, to bring them all back at once, as often the case it's hard to setup Aminatou and Tezzeret together.
But on the other hand it is more like a card that only works specifically with Entomb or Intuition. I don't have a lot of discard outlets in the deck, it isn't massively geared that way. The thing is that I can already do very broken things with Entomb and Intuition already, so it would only be worth including it if I wanted a backup way to bring back planeswalkers who have been killed or maybe even milled.
Her ultimate at [-9] which is within Deepglow Skate will reduce your opponents lands (and other permanent types) down to one, which is pretty game winning, let's be honest.
Six mana is a lot however, so it's not like an automatic include, but it's got me tempted for sure.
Mana Geode is actually very close to being an include. The scry does work with Aminatou [+1], and unlike the Temple lands that come into play tapped, you can target it with Aminatou [-1] to get a mana and a scry. Certainly during an infinite Aminatou activation setup, you could use this card to win. It is possible that I should play this over a Signet.
For example if you use Aminatou [+1] to put Time Warp on top of your library, then when you draw it you can copy it for 1UU to take an extra turn, and then just use Aminatou [+1] to put it back on top to keep doing infinitely.
As you can see without some other cards to gain advantages, you wouldn't be gaining any extra cards. However even then you can build up Aminatou to her [-6] ultimate.
I personally think that you'd want to be playing at least five extra turn cards, maybe Time Warp, Capture of Jingzhou, Temporal Manipulation, Temporal Mastery, Nexus of Fate.
But if you can't afford those, it must be noted that it doesn't matter if you use extra turn cards that exile themselves, as God-Eternal Kefnet copies the cards, so the exile portion doesn't matter. So cards like Karn's Temporal Sundering, Part the Waterveil, Walk the Aeons are all fine and will only cost you 2UU with God-Eternal Kefnet.
Probably going to be an overlooked card for a lot of peoples builds, but I see her potential as a defender and not just as an offence threat. In creature heavy metas, seriously consider her in my opinion.
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries does allow you to put two cards into graveyard from top of your library, so you could setup for reanimation by using Aminatou [+1] to put a creature ontop.
The ultimate [-8] isn't too bad, and within Deepglow Skate range, but isn't actually game ending.
The triple blue is also very off putting for a three color deck, and the static ability of having no library is not part of the deck design.
I feel that this deck would be better in builds that are looking to leverage off Living Death, Patriarch's Bidding, type cards. But if I was entering a cEDH tournament, I'd add Ashiok, Dream Render as it shuts down a lot of strategies.
Ignite the Beacon is interesting in that you can grab two planeswalkers, certainly setting up for a double of say Teferi and Tezzert. It is an instant so you can wait until end of opponents turn to cast it. However I feel like it's too much of a mana investment, and certainly doesn't compare to putting down a creature body to protect planeswalkers in the first place, like Thalia's Lancers.
Prison Realm The scry ability can work with Aminatou [+1] and resetting another creature or planeswalker latter into a game with Aminatou [-1] is possible. I don't play Oblivion Ring for the reasons that it's a bit narrow as far as reusability, so for the same reasons I won't be playing Prison Realm.
Lazotep Plating. I actually think this is going to be a massively underrated card in commander. It competes against potential straight up conterspells, but in a planeswalker deck where blockers count, you can actually make a 1/1 creature token at instant speed, and this can have a subtle swing in a game, where you'd save your permanents from targeted removal and create another blocker. Plus can be used to protect against player targeting, so as I pointed out with Teyo, the Shieldmage you can prevent targeted graveyard removal like Bojuka Bog.
Dovin's Veto is a new top tier counterspell for Azorius colored decks. The only reason that I'm not playing it is that have focused proactive combo deck. I would play Negate over this first for the reasons of color requirements, but look for this card to shine in various decks.
Ugin, the Ineffable ability to exile the top card of your library can be relevant with Aminatou [+1]. Obviously only really good in an artifact or colorless build, but he is straight up removal of a lot of permanents.
Creating token creatures is always good for protecting your planeswalkers.
Karn, the Great Creator is a card that I've talked about when the card was spoiled. I'll just repost my thoughts, but note that I'm not discussing it's relevance in Aminatou.
If you look at the "wishes", like Living Wish, Cunning Wish, etc, they specifically are only "outside the game", and are not able to target exile.
Karn, the Great Creator can get artifacts that have been exiled with Karn, Scion of Urza.
You can use his ability to give yourself access to your deck in a number of different ways.
Color-pies that normally can't search for artifacts, or limited number, now have another means.
Skyship Weatherlight
Mangara's Tome
Jester's Cap
Myr Incubator
It can give mono-blue more ways to search for artifacts
Distant Memories
Extract
Foresight
Manipulate Fate
Parallel Thoughts
Selective Memory
Red can use Hoarding Dragon to get it straight away.
Black already has a lot of tutors, but if you wanted to make the exile cards from libraries more robust for different matchups, then you can make cards like, Bitter Ordeal and Lost Legacy into tutors for artifacts for yourself.
There is also the means to use your graveyard as an additional resource.
For example say you have cards like Relic of Progenitus, Scrabbling Claws or Scavenger Grounds. You can specifically target your own artifacts in graveyard that you might have already used, or got removed, or even milled, to get back with Karn, the Great Creator [-2] ability.
Saprazzan Bailiff for major value.
Prototype Portal can cheekily get the artifact back to hand.
Mimic Vat can exile an artifact creature to get back to hand. Haven't thought about this much, but I'm sure it's abusable.
Anyway there will be a ton of ways to use this card on levels that you might not have thought about, and to boot it's a one-sided Null Rod.
Most of the stuff I've been talking about is for commander, but actually for Vintage it could actually be playable..
The reason is that with the delve cards in Dig Through Time and Treasure Cruise you'll often be exiling your Black Lotus, Moxes, etc, so the [-2] gives you access to them. The Null Rod ability is very powerful in Vintage, and the [+1] can be used on opponents Moxes to kill them.
Plus even if you have creature removal against a creature-less deck, it gives you the ability to make an artifact a creature, to then Lightning Bolt, Swords to Plowshares, etc it.
My guess is that this is going to be an underrated card in general, but I see everything with cards.
Oath of Kaya is another one of the Oaths, and it does represent renewable ETB for killing creatures with 3 toughness or less. The life gain isn't all that important in commander, so against probably better options like Oath of Liliana, it doesn't actually have a static ability which synergies with planeswalkers in enough of a meaningful way in my opinion.
Fblthp, the Lost is nothing more than a draw card. Wouldn't be looking to use it's double draw in anyway, simply a slightly worse version of Baleful Strix or Wall of Omens. But it's still a way to get card advantage on curve. The 1/1 body however is pretty mediocre.
Karn's Bastion is too mana intensive to get the benefits for this particular deck. However I am looking to play it in my Will & Rowen Kenrith deck, so it's just a case of lining up ultimate's with sinking mana into it.
Contentious Plan, Grateful Apparition, Guildpact Informant. The small-ball proliferate cards are not that appealing, I tried Thrummingbird in the past and found the 1/1 body would have been better as a bigger blocker instead.
Planeswalkers who don't synergies with the primer
Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord, Kaya, Bane of the Dead, Gideon Blackblade, Gideon, the Oathsworn, The Wanderer, Jace, Arcane Strategist, Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage, Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted, Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge just don't have any synergies within this particular deck. Sorry.
Given all this, I'm going to make the following changes to try out new cards.
Primer
Add
+ Spark Double
+ Teferi, Time Raveler
+ Flux Channeler
Remove
- Swords to Plowshares
- Azorius Signet
- Morphic Pool
The thing is that the deck is so tuned that every card has a combination of strategies that it leads to, that making cuts incredible difficult.
Swords to Plowshares is top-tier mana efficient, but I've got to make some small-ball cuts to try out bigger strategies. Man this is what happens when you get a really focused deck after a time, lol.
I really want to try out Liliana, Dreadhorde General but I just can't find space for her at the moment. I mean you get to the stage where you'd have to make her a creature wrath instead of say Supreme Verdict, but I know that this is just not correct for a more streamlined deck.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
So with the new WAR set being totally revealed, I think I am going to try and make this 100% superfriends. Do you happen to have your latest superfriends list before you merged the two?
Added
+ Reanimate
+ Animate Dead
+ Dance of the Dead
+ Necromancy
+ Entomb
+ Intuition
+ Buried Alive
+ Razaketh, the Foulblooded
+ Leonin Relic-Warder
+ Reveillark
+ Snapcaster Mage
+ Lion's Eye Diamond
+ Fetid Heath
Removed
- Dark Confidant
- Oath of Liliana
- Treasure Map
- Preordain
- Ponder
- Entreat the Angels
- Thrummingbird
- Akroma's Vengeance
- Narset Transcendent
- Gilded Lotus
- Augur of Bolas
- Omenspeaker
- Island
I would make sure you get Liliana, Dreadhorde General at least to test.
With God-Eternal Kefnet ability to combine with Aminatou, a very tempting route would be to leverage off extra turn cards. I don't know what your budget is, but if you could play Time Warp, Capture of Jingzhou, Temporal Manipulation, Temporal Mastery, Nexus of Fate, then these work really well with planeswalkers.
Then you can also play Jace, the Mind Sculptor as a backup to Aminatou for this.
God-Eternal Kefnet is a 4/5 flying blocker for 4 mana, which can be really important for protecting planeswalkers.
The other planeswalkers that I really rank in an Aminatou deck are;
Narset Transcendent
Jace, Cunning Castaway - Has some infinite's.
Will Kenrith - Abilities are incredible.
Liliana Vess - The [-2] can set you up.
Narset, Parter of Veils - Is sort of like a Jace Beleren but with a higher upside of stopping big draw decks.
Unfortunately Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor and Ashiok, Dream Render are not quite as good without a reanimation theme as the discard is not advantageous.
Hope this helps guide you. Feel free to ask more questions, and post a deck list in the future for further help if you want.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith