Aminatou vs. Ertai - LTC#8 Sunday - Round 3 - Duel Commander - EDH│MTG│bitzelberg

Deck Strategies

• 

  Ertai Resurrected

  A control-oriented deck that uses a high density of counterspells and card draw to maintain board control and inevitability. The deck aims to disrupt opponents' key plays while gradually building advantage through card filtering and recursion.

• 

  Aminatou, the Fateshifter

  A blink and value-based deck that leverages Aminatou's ability to flicker creatures and permanents, gaining incremental advantages and disrupting opponents. The deck aims to stabilize with powerful creatures like Lord of Change and use reanimation and recursion to outvalue opponents.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  The Ertai player effectively used counterspells and card advantage to shut down Aminatou's attempts to develop the board or resolve key threats.

• 2

  Aminatou's attempts to reanimate creatures were often countered or negated by Ertai's disruption, highlighting the matchup's difficulty for the blink strategy.

• 3

  Discarding key cards like Lord of Change was necessary due to the lack of safe windows to cast them given the heavy counterspell presence.

• 4

  The use of creatures like Black Market and synergistic targets for Black Market helped Ertai maintain resource advantage in a grindy control matchup.

• 5

  Timing flicker effects with Aminatou was complicated by the constant threat of counterspells, requiring careful planning and patience.

Notable Cards

• 

  Lord of Change

• 

  Dance of the Dead

• 

  Black Market

• 

  Spell Pierce

• 

  Brainstorm

• 

  Counterspell

Summary

The game between Ertai Resurrected and Aminatou, the Fateshifter, unfolded as a challenging control matchup where the Ertai player held a distinct advantage due to a multitude of counterspells and disruptive spells. Early on, the Ertai deck focused on maintaining control by countering key threats and leveraging spells that hindered Aminatou's strategy. The Aminatou player tried to develop the board and find windows to resolve their commander and impactful creatures like Lord of Change, but the pervasive interaction from Ertai made it difficult to establish a foothold. A pivotal moment in the match was when the Aminatou player attempted to cast impactful reanimation spells and threats but was repeatedly stymied by counterspells. Despite having potential powerful plays such as blinking creatures with Aminatou or leveraging Dance of the Dead, the Aminatou player struggled to find a safe opportunity to execute their game plan. The Ertai player's inevitability and card advantage from drawing extra cards through their commander proved critical, ultimately putting Aminatou on the back foot and forcing difficult decisions under pressure. The matchup showcased the importance of timing and resource management in a spell-heavy control duel, with Ertai's resilience and interaction prevailing in the late game.