The Fateshifter | **PRIMER**

Commander / EDH Control Infinite Combo Multiplayer Primer WUB (Esper)

Enral

Land (35)

• 1x Ancient TombGC
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Mistveil Plains
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Mystic Sanctuary
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 4x Snow-Covered Island
• 2x Snow-Covered Plains
• 1x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 1x Sunscorched Desert
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Demonic TutorGC
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Temporal Manipulation
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Winds of Abandon

Creature (20)

• 1x Agent of Treachery
• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Fblthp, the Lost
• 1x Felidar Guardian
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Lavinia of the Tenth
• 1x Mnemonic Wall
• 1x Peregrine Drake
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Spark Double
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Thassa, Deep-Dwelling
• 1x Thassa's OracleGC
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Venser, Shaper Savant
• 1x Wall of Omens
• 1x Yorion, Sky Nomad

Artifact (14)

• 1x Altar of the Brood
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Arcum's Astrolabe
• 1x Chrome MoxGC
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana VaultGC
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Wishclaw Talisman

Commander (1)

Instant (16)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cyclonic RiftGC
• 1x Demonic Consultation
• 1x Fierce GuardianshipGC
• 1x Force of Negation
• 1x Force of WillGC
• 1x Ghostly Flicker
• 1x Heliod's Intervention
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mystical TutorGC
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Vampiric TutorGC

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Act of Authority
• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Oath of Jace
• 1x Oath of Liliana
• 1x Oath of Teferi
• 1x Omen of the Sea

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Ashiok, Dream Render
• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils

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The Fateshifter

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my Aminatou, the Fateshifter primer. This is my 75% flicker toolbox control deck that seeks to abuse permanents with ETB effects with Aminatou's -1 ability to control the board while gaining value to get closer to victory. "Flicker" is the nickname (alluding to the effect of its namesake, the Urza's Destiny card Flicker) for exiling something, then returning it to the battlefield. With the introduction of Aminatou, esper has brought flicker to a whole new level. In the past, flicker generals like Brago, King Eternal or Roon of the Hidden Realm are limited by the lack of haste or some kind of restriction like requiring the combat step. Aminatou, the Fateshifter eliminates most of the problems those commanders faced as she can activate the flicker ability immediately, costs only 3 mana, dodges creature removals, targets permanents, and is part of an infinite combo suite. Access to black meant increased consistency in assembling any synergies or combos due to unrestricted tutors. Having access to black also meant an easier path to an infinite combo payout unlike Bant or Azorious.

Her Story

Aminatou's magic revolves around fate and the manipulation of destiny. She can perceive the matrix of fate and foresee the destinies of others. Aminatou's spark ignited at an incredibly young age, and for seemingly no reason at all. If one were to ask her why it did so, she would answer, "Because I foresaw it would one day, and I decided I didn't want to wait for that."

Like all eight-year-olds, Aminatou is playful and fickle. Her own destiny is something she toys with on a daily basis; some days she'll grow up to be a singer, other days a powerful wizard, some days a trainer of beautiful beasts and other days a conquering queen. She is young, but because of her powers, possesses the knowledge of a lifetime. That knowledge is often offset by her childlike capriciousness—it may be one thing to wield great knowledge, but utilizing it can be difficult when one still has the decision-making skills of a child.

Aminatou is mercurial but not impulsive, and pragmatic despite the chaos she leaves wherever she goes. A child's logic guides her choices for now, and while those who know her are certain she'll grow out of it, the results of her current temperamental nature can be worrisome. Aminatou's independent nature often gets the better of her; her parentage is a mystery in that she only ever has them when she wants to be taken care of.

Source

Her Way of Doing Things

Aminatou Analysis

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

Her +1 ability essentially gives us a virtual eight card handsize as it allows us to foresee the next draw, and if it's a good card, exchange it with a card we don't need this turn. This means we can setup a miracle spell, play something relevant, and also shuffle away a bad card with our fetchlands. All cards that put things on top of our library like Volrath's Stronghold and Vampiric Tutor also becomes significantly better. Since this deck's primary theme is flicker, her top deck manipulation ability will act as a strong enhancement to our overall gameplan.

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

This is the ability that this deck is based upon. Other than the obvious synergy with ETB effect permanents, there are other tricks this ability can do. The keyword here is own, which is completely different from control. This means that cards like Gilded Drake becomes obscenely powerful and is a Homeward Path effect at the commandzone. Another keyword is permanent, which means lands can be targeted too. This means that ETB lands like Bojuka Bog becomes a repeatable graveyard hate and the landfall mechanic like that of Emeria Shepherd can be abused.

-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 is a very unique ultimate for a planeswalker and will likely not get activated very much. Her ultimate serves as a panic button in my build when I'm severely behind in the game. The fact that Aminatou is still under my control after she ultimates, means that I can slowly get back my permanents over the next few turns. Another strong combo with her ultimate is Paradoxical Outcome/Teferi's Protection where you can cast it in response to her activation to retain all of your important nonland permanents in addition to gaining control off your victim's permanents. There is a way to make her ultimate useful but only with Oath of Teferi + Felidar Guardian combo and Aminatou needs one extra loyalty to be able to survive her own ultimate. This will give Aminatou infinite -1 flicker activation to be able to get everything you gave away back to our control.

General Strategy

The general strategy is to get the value engine going as soon as possible. The value engine consists of an ETB permanent and the combination of a constant flicker effect. Thankfully, we already have a consistent flicker effect in the commandzone. Treat the library as a toolbox and use tutors to get whatever is needed for the given situation. This deck can easily spiral out of control and play archenemy once the engine is set up and it is better to have some access to protection before taking off. This deck wins via out grinding the table by stripping away their resources slowly or infinite combo (see "She Controls Your Fate" section for more information). I seldom use the combat step to reduce the risk of running into any combat shenanigans that may kill my creatures but it is an option when the table is low on life.

Early Game (Turns 1 to 4)

Our Opening hand should include some form of card draw/tutor and ramp to be considered keepable. Only drop Animatou when the coast is clear with some kind of ETB permanent like Baleful Strix in play for her flicker to generate value. Depending on the draw, aggressively tutoring for card draw ETB permanents is key in keeping us in the game.

Mid Game (Turns 5 to 8)

This is where we start to go off. Keep the board clear of threats, deploy more permanents with disruptive ETB effects to set up an engine to control the board, and generate more gas by flickering permanents that generate card draws which we should have been aggressively tutoring for early game. There is also many chances to combo off to win at this point with the numerous tutors present in this deck.

Late Game (Turn 9 and Beyond)

It is very rare that we will lose at this point if none of the engine is significantly disrupted. If we were to fall behind in our boardstate due to the table ganging up on us, we should work towards getting Aminatou's ultimate off and take over the player with the most threatening boardstate.

Her Favorite Toys

Assembling her Toys

There are several synergies in the deck that can form a pretty backbreaking engine if assembled. It is usually too late by the time my opponents realized what kind of trouble they are facing. What makes the engine so scary is the recursive element of it where it just keeps looping itself over and over again till my opponents run out of resources:

• Aminatou, the Fateshifter + Oath of Teferi = Aminatou will be able to activate her ability every turn without depleting her loyalty counters.

• Aminatou, the Fateshifter + Yorion, Sky Nomad = Aminatou is able to flicker the entire board every turn (including herself to reset her loyalty counters).

• Archaeomancer/Mnemonic Wall + Ghostly Flicker = Recursive creature ETB effects for .

• Archaeomancer/Mnemonic Wall + Panharmonicon + Ghostly Flicker = Recursive instant/sorcery engine.

• Thassa, Deep-Dwelling = A one card flicker engine for creatures every turn.

Yorion is Her Favorite Toy

Yorion, Sky Nomad is a great addition to the deck and essentially forms a self-sustaining engine that gets more value as more permanents are added to the board. The engine lasts every other turn including opponents' and is fairly difficult to break up once I have my shields up. The following are cards that return Yorion to play immediately which means Yorion will be left exposed through opponents' main phases while my other nonland permanents will remain in exile:

• Archaeomancer/Mnemonic Wall + Ghostly Flicker
• Felidar Guardian

The following are cards that return Yorion to play at the beginning of the next end step which means Yorion will be exiled through opponents' main phases while my other nonland permanents will remain in play:

• Oath of Teferi

Even though I do not include this in the deck but I feel like I should mention this in case anyone is interested in the stack interaction for Detention Sphere with Yorion:

• Parallax Wave/Felidar Guardian + Detention Sphere = Permanently exile a nonland permanent. Yorion exiles Felidar and Sphere, then return EOT. Let Felidar's flicker ability resolve first to exile Yorion with Sphere's exile ability on the stack (targeting an opponent's nonland permanent). Yorion then exiles Felidar and Sphere again. Because Sphere has already left play with the exile ability still on the stack, the second part of the leave play ability will fizzle. Repeat ad nauseam.

She's Done Playing

The following are cards that makes the above engines so disruptive and backbreaking:

• Lavinia of the Tenth = Essentially locks down the board.

• Glen Elendra Archmage = Prevents opponent from interacting with me effectively.

• Venser, Shaper Savant = Bounce a permanent back over and over again.

• Gilded Drake/Agent of Treachery = Steal an opponent's creature/permanent over and over again.

She Controls Your Fate

Win Condition A

The following is the most efficient and fastest way to close out a game with Altar of the Brood to mill everyone out to death:

• Aminatou, the Fateshifter + Felidar Guardian
• Aminatou, the Fateshifter + Spark Double

Win Condition B

With the printing of Thassa's Oracle, Aminatou has another great two-card win condition that can be easily assembled with the plethora of tutors we run. Both cards fit really well in the deck by themselves so including this win condition makes sense:

• Demonic Consultation + Thassa's Oracle

Win Condition C

The following are another easy and efficient two card combos involving infinite Turns with Temporal Manipulation:

• Archaeomancer + Thassa, Deep-Dwelling

• Archaeomancer + Panharmonicon/Mystic Sanctuary + Ghostly Flicker

Win Condition D

The following win conditions generate infinite mana and ETB triggers but require more moving pieces and setup including having a payout like Altar of the Brood, Sunscorched Desert, Baleful Strix, or Agent of Treachery:

• Archaeomancer + Ghostly Flicker + Peregrine Drake

• Aminatou, the Fateshifter + Felidar Guardian + Oath of Teferi

• Aminatou, the Fateshifter + Felidar Guardian + Panharmonicon

• Aminatou, the Fateshifter + Panharmonicon + Spark Double

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Top Ranked	Achieved #1 position overall 6 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	4 years
Key combos	Archaeomancer + Ghostly Flicker + Peregrine Drake Aminatou, the Fateshifter + Felidar Guardian + Oath of Teferi Aminatou, the Fateshifter + Felidar Guardian Aminatou, the Fateshifter + Felidar Guardian + Panharmonicon Aminatou, the Fateshifter + Spark Double Demonic Consultation + Thassa's Oracle Aminatou, the Fateshifter + Panharmonicon + Spark Double
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 53 - 0 Rares 13 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.48
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	My Active EDH Decks, My EDH Brews, Interesting Ideas, Cool decks I can never afford, Cool ideas, Cool Ideas, Great Ideas, EDH Decks, Overpriced decks that I fucking need but I’m to broke, EDH Primers