Annie Flicker-Cat

Commander / EDH WUB (Esper)

wahwoaini

Creature (25)

• 1x Adarkar Valkyrie
• 1x Boreas Charger
• 1x Conundrum Sphinx
• 1x Djinn of Wishes
• 1x Duskmantle Seer
• 1x Felidar Guardian
• 1x Geode Golem
• 1x High Priest of Penance
• 1x Jeskai Infiltrator
• 1x Lavinia of the Tenth
• 1x Leonin Relic-Warder
• 1x Loyal Subordinate
• 1x Loyal Unicorn
• 1x Magus of the Balance
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Night Incarnate
• 1x Ninja of the Deep Hours
• 1x Phyrexian Delver
• 1x Pilgrim's Eye
• 1x Sigiled Starfish
• 1x Sphinx of Jwar Isle
• 1x Sphinx of Uthuun
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign
• 1x Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Akroma's Vengeance
• 1x Aminatou's Augury
• 1x Devastation Tide
• 1x Dream Cache
• 1x Entreat the Angels
• 1x Final Parting
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Portent
• 1x Terminus
• 1x Treasure Hunt

Land (37)

• 1x Arcane Sanctum
• 1x Azorius Guildgate
• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dimir Guildgate
• 1x Dismal Backwater
• 1x Forge of Heroes
• 1x Forsaken Sanctuary
• 1x Halimar Depths
• 5x Island
• 1x Isolated Watchtower
• 1x Jwar Isle Refuge
• 1x Lonely Sandbar
• 1x Meandering River
• 1x Mortuary Mire
• 1x New Benalia
• 1x Orzhov Guildgate
• 8x Plains
• 1x Scoured Barrens
• 1x Secluded Steppe
• 1x Sejiri Refuge
• 1x Submerged Boneyard
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Tranquil Cove

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Aura of Silence
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Oath of Teferi
• 1x Parallax Wave

Commander (1)

Instant (12)

• 1x AEthermage's Touch
• 1x Banishing Stroke
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Crib Swap
• 1x Esper Charm
• 1x Mortify
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Predict
• 1x Return to Dust
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Telling Time
• 1x Utter End

Artifact (10)

• 1x Altar of the Brood
• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Genesis Chamber
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Relic of Progenitus
• 1x Seer's Lantern
• 1x Sol Ring

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Sideboard

Creature (5)

• 1x Enigma Sphinx
• 1x Serra Avatar
• 1x Silent-Blade Oni
• 1x Sower of Discord
• 1x Varina, Lich Queen

Artifact (1)

• 1x Crystal Ball

Land (3)

• 1x Azorius Chancery
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Orzhov Basilica

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x Entreat the Dead
• 1x Skull Storm

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Cloudform
• 1x Lightform
• 1x Primordial Mist

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Aminatou Budget Build

Aminatou upgrades; assuming 15 maximum changes with a $5 individual card price

Removals

1. Skull Storm -- converted mana cost (CMC) is too high, and it doesn't do much when we want to win through infinite loops
2. Army of the Damned -- same as above
3. Silent-Blade Oni -- same as above, and it's very color intensive
4. Serra Avatar -- same as above
5. Orzhov Basilica -- too many lands, and bouncelands like these often result discarding down to hand size on turn 2
6. Dimir Aqueduct -- same as above
7. Azorius Chancery -- same as above
8. Cloudform -- doesn't do much
9. Lightform -- doesn't do much
10. Primordial Mist -- doesn't do much
11. Crystal Ball -- don't need that much Scry
12. Enigma Sphinx -- costs too much and doesn't do enough
13. Sower of Discord -- this just encourages your opponents to team up on you
14. Varina, Lich Queen -- this isn't a Zombie tribal deck
15. Entreat the Dead -- this isn't a Zombie tribal deck

Additions

1. Felidar Guardian -- combo piece
2. Altar of the Brood -- combo piece
3. Genesis Chamber -- combo piece
4. Oath of Teferi -- combo piece
5. Parallax Wave -- combo piece/removal
6. Leonin Relic-Warder -- combo piece/artifact hate
7. Animate Dead -- combo piece/graveyard hate
8. Dance of the Dead -- combo piece/graveyard hate
9. Muddle the Mixture -- counterspell/combo tutor
10. Swords to Plowshares -- removal
11. Aura of Silence -- removal/artifact hate
12. Relic of Progenitus -- graveyard hate
13. Trinket Mage -- combo tutor
14. Final Parting -- combo tutor
15. Lavinia of the Tenth -- removal

Further budget additions

- Fabricate -- tutor
- Supreme Verdict -- removal
- Gray Merchant of Asphodel -- combo piece
- Panharmonicon -- combo piece
- Kataki, War's Wage -- artifact hate
- Planar Void -- graveyard hate
- Pithing Needle -- general hate
- Phyrexian Revoker -- general hate
- Ravenous Chupacabra -- removal

What does Aminatou (Annie) do?

+1 : Draw a card, then put a card from your hand on top of your library.

At first glance, this doesn't look very powerful. If you put a card on top of your library, aren't you going to draw it the next time you draw a card? Yes...and no.
1. Yes: if you don't rearrange your library somehow, you will indeed draw it. However, you have perfect information about your next draw. How does your deck take advantage of this information? Via the miracle mechanic! "Miracle [cost]" means "You may reveal this card from your hand as you draw it if it's the first card you've drawn this turn. When you reveal this card this way, you may cast it by paying [cost] rather than its mana cost." Take a look at Entreat the Angels , for example. Its usual cost is -- to make one angel, you need to pay . However, its miracle cost is only ; if it's the first card you draw during a turn, you can pay the miracle cost instead. To make one angel, it'll cost . The difference seems small for one angel, but take a bit and calculate how much mana it would take to create 4 angel tokens for non-miracle vs miracle.
2. No: if it's a card you don't want to draw, you can use a variety of effects to manipulate your library and get rid of it. An example would be shuffling your library; you could use Aminatou's ability, put an unwanted card on top of your library, then play Pilgrim's Eye . Pilgrim's Eye's enter-the-battlefield (henceforth abbreviated ETB) allows you to search your library for a basic land and shuffle it afterwards. Another example would be the Scry ability of Isolated Watchtower .

-1 : Exile another target permanent you own, then return it to the battlefield under your control.

Remember what ETB stood for? This ability is very good at re-triggering ETB abilities. Cards such as Sphinx of Uthuun have powerful ETB abilities, and "flickering" it (making it leave and re-enter the battlefield) is a good way of repeatedly getting value out of a card.

-6 : Choose left or right. Each player gains control of all nonland permanents other than Aminatou, the Fateshifter controlled by the next player in the chosen direction.

This...honestly doesn't do that much. There are two ways of looking at it:
1. One of your neighboring opponents has a favourable board state, and you'd like to take it. If this is the case, you're probably dead before Aminatou gets to 6 loyalty counters.
2. You have no board state, and you'd like to give that empty board state to someone else. If this is the case, you're also probably dead before Aminatou gets to 6 loyalty counters, or you've intentionally blown up everything except Aminatou to screw someone over. Not a great idea.

Aminatou, the Fateshifter can be your commander.

The most important ability, otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation. This allows you to play Aminatou as your commander with cards in your library.

With all this in mind, we can leverage Aminatou's +1 ability to manipulate the top of our deck and get rid of unwanted cards, and use her -1 ability to flicker our board for more ETB triggers.

How does this deck win?

At this point, you might be thinking "That's a lot of information, but what's that "flicker-cat" portion of the title?" Flicker-cat refers to Felidar Guardian , a stupidly worded card that enables infinite ETB triggers. It reads: "When Felidar Guardian enters the battlefield, you may exile another target permanent you control, then return that card to the battlefield under its owner's control." How does this enable infinite ETBs? We use Animatou!
1. Have Annie out on the battlefield.
2. Play Felidar Guardian.
3. With Felidar Guardian's ETB trigger, target Annie.
4. "Flicker" Annie.
5. When Annie returns to the battlefield, she's essentially an entirely fresh planeswalker, and we can use her abilities again.
6. Use Annie's -1 ability and target Felidar Guardian.
7. "Flicker" Felidar Guardian.
8. Repeat steps 3-7 for infinite ETBs.
9. At some point, break the loop by winning the game or activating Annie's +1 ability.
There is a second infinite ETB loop, that involves Leonin Relic-Warder + Dance of the Dead / Animate Dead / Parallax Wave :

Dance of the Dead/Animate Dead

1. Have Leonin Relic-Warder in the graveyard.
2. Reanimate it using an enchantment.
3. When LRW ETBs, you can use its effect to target the reanimation enchantment.
4. When LRW's trigger resolves, the reanimation enchantment leaves the battlefield.
5. Since the enchantment is gone, LRW dies and goes back to the graveyard.
6. Since LRW has now left the battlefield, the enchantment comes back into play.
7. Repeat steps 2-6 for infinite ETBs.
   The loop with Parallax Wave is very similar, but LRW has to be played/be on the battlefield.
   We can pair these infinite ETBs with Altar of the Brood to make our opponents mill their entire library and lose when they attempt to draw a card, or with Genesis Chamber to create an infinite number of 1/1 Myr tokens to attack with on the following turn.

Relevant MTG rules:

400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence.

121.2. Counters on an object are not retained if that object moves from one zone to another. The counters are not “removed”; they simply cease to exist. See rule 400.7.

209.1. Each planeswalker card has a loyalty number printed in its lower right corner. This indicates its loyalty while it’s not on the battlefield, and it also indicates that the planeswalker enters the battlefield with that many loyalty counters on it.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 3 Mythic Rares 25 - 6 Rares 35 - 6 Uncommons 19 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.38
Tokens	Angel 4/4 W, Manifest 2/2 C, Myr 1/1 C, Shapeshifter 1/1 C, Zombie 2/2 B