Re: Aminatou, the Fateshifter - The 8-year-old Planeswalker
Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2020 12:07 am
Thanks for the extra detailed analysis. That was an excellent read.
Not to be pushy, but like, I really do think Elspeth Conquers Death has a ton of genuinely oppressive play patterns with specifically your build of Aminatou.
The first chapter is going to be the same power pretty much regardless of the build. It's exiling removal that you can trigger multiple times with your commander. Nothing to scoff at, and tutorable with Academy Rector. And getting to trigger the second chapter every turn is a significant perpetual tax on your opponents, also very nice. Looking just at those effects, I would agree it doesn't seem like enough, and frankly I'm trying to sell it here because this part is basically the best I could do with it in the decks I play.
But you can use single triggers of the second and third chapters to much greater effect than any of the decks I play because in addition to flickering it, you're also playing a combo reanimator deck. A 2 mana tax around turn 6 is nice to slow down opponents when thinking of the tax like Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, but think of it also like 1 turn of Defense Grid for your combo deck. The second turn of Elspeth Conquers Death, your opponents aren't going to be able to stop you from doing whatever you want unless they leave up a pile of mana. If everyone taps out or mostly taps out, which they may be inclined to do right after the biggest threat gets exiled, you basically have Teferi, Time Raveler's static ability active for you.
But my favorite part is chapter 3: It reanimates a creature or planeswalker. You play combos off of Entomb, Buried Alive, and Intuition. You can cast those spells while your opponents are taxed on their answers. Then it gives planeswalkers an additional loyalty. So like, you have a section of your win conditions that talks about getting a 5th loyalty on Tezzeret the Seeker. You can play Entomb fetching out Tezz while your opponents are all still taxed, and then bring him back with 5 loyalty and all of your mana still untapped on your main phase. Correct me if I'm wrong, but just in theory, that seems like a grossly effective play.
Not to be pushy, but like, I really do think Elspeth Conquers Death has a ton of genuinely oppressive play patterns with specifically your build of Aminatou.
The first chapter is going to be the same power pretty much regardless of the build. It's exiling removal that you can trigger multiple times with your commander. Nothing to scoff at, and tutorable with Academy Rector. And getting to trigger the second chapter every turn is a significant perpetual tax on your opponents, also very nice. Looking just at those effects, I would agree it doesn't seem like enough, and frankly I'm trying to sell it here because this part is basically the best I could do with it in the decks I play.
But you can use single triggers of the second and third chapters to much greater effect than any of the decks I play because in addition to flickering it, you're also playing a combo reanimator deck. A 2 mana tax around turn 6 is nice to slow down opponents when thinking of the tax like Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, but think of it also like 1 turn of Defense Grid for your combo deck. The second turn of Elspeth Conquers Death, your opponents aren't going to be able to stop you from doing whatever you want unless they leave up a pile of mana. If everyone taps out or mostly taps out, which they may be inclined to do right after the biggest threat gets exiled, you basically have Teferi, Time Raveler's static ability active for you.
But my favorite part is chapter 3: It reanimates a creature or planeswalker. You play combos off of Entomb, Buried Alive, and Intuition. You can cast those spells while your opponents are taxed on their answers. Then it gives planeswalkers an additional loyalty. So like, you have a section of your win conditions that talks about getting a 5th loyalty on Tezzeret the Seeker. You can play Entomb fetching out Tezz while your opponents are all still taxed, and then bring him back with 5 loyalty and all of your mana still untapped on your main phase. Correct me if I'm wrong, but just in theory, that seems like a grossly effective play.