One of the biggest appeals of Commander preconstructed decks is all of the new characters Wizards gets to explore with them. This has been true since the very beginning, as Commander 2011 - the very first precons - brought a total of 15 all new legendary creatures and is a trend that continues to this day. Oftentimes, they're just another fresh face that people forget about a few months later, but usually once or twice a year, a new character is introduced that lingers within the hearts and minds of the Magic community for years after.

One great example of this is Aminatou, the Fateshifter. First introduced in Commander 2018, this little girl planeswalker stole players' hearts due to the subtly creepy vibes she gave off. More importantly was her unusually unique abilities. The card was poised to set up players' decks which was taken advantage of in a number of ways - particularly utilizing the Avacyn Restored miracle mechanic. Additionally, she had a tremendously unusual ultimate ability that completely changed the entire dynamic of a game in progress.

It's no wonder that players would want to see more of this character. With only the single planeswalker card and one other namesake piece - Aminatou's Augury - there was a certain mystique to her that many wanted to see more of. As it happens, Magic fans everywhere finally got to see more of her seven years later with the release of Duskmourn: House of Horror.

Aminatou became an extremely important character in the Duskmourn story, though she never sets foot in the house proper. While her role was ultimately small, she provided the group who went in after Nashi with fateshifters, essentially one-time do-over buttons that allow the group to complete their quest. Additionally, she helps Kaito get back to the plane after he shows up back on Ravnica in the middle of the story.

As such, she was given an all-new card in the Duskmourn: House of Horror Commander releases. Her new card Aminatou, Veil Piercer features her as a creature, having been desparked following the events of March of the Machine and she helms the Miracle Worker deck. Remember how I noted that the original Aminatou enabled all kinds of cards with the miracle mechanic? This Aminatou takes that to new extremes, allowing you to make your own miracles out of the various enchantments in your deck.

Today I'm going to talk about this awesome deck and show you a bunch of cool ways you can upgrade it with ease! First and foremost, let's look at the deck itself!

Miracle Worker Precon | Commander

• Commander (1)
• 1 Aminatou, Veil Piercer

• Creatures (22)
• 1 Ancient Cellarspawn
• 1 Archetype of Imagination
• 1 Arvinox, the Mind Flail
• 1 Athreos, Shroud-Veiled
• 1 Auramancer
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Demon of Fate's Design
• 1 Doomwake Giant
• 1 Dream Eater
• 1 Fear of Sleep Paralysis
• 1 Mesa Enchantress
• 1 Metamorphosis Fanatic
• 1 Moon-Blessed Cleric
• 1 Nightmare Shepherd
• 1 Ondu Spiritdancer
• 1 Phenomenon Investigators
• 1 Prognostic Sphinx
• 1 Soaring Lightbringer
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Starfield Mystic
• 1 The Master of Keys
• 1 Verge Rangers

• Instants (9)
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Inkshield
• 1 Otherworldly Gaze
• 1 Return to Dust
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Telling Time
• 1 Thirst for Meaning
• 1 Utter End

• Sorceries (9)
• 1 Aminatou's Augury
• 1 Diabolic Vision
• 1 Entreat the Angels
• 1 Ponder
• 1 Portent
• 1 Read the Bones
• 1 Redress Fate
• 1 Terminus
• 1 Time Wipe

• Enchantments (15)
• 1 Bottomless Pool // Locker Room
• 1 Cast Out
• 1 Cramped Vents // Access Maze
• 1 Extravagant Replication
• 1 Life Insurance
• 1 Mirrormade
• 1 Monologue Tax
• 1 One with the Multiverse
• 1 Secret Arcade // Dusty Parlor
• 1 Shark Typhoon
• 1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
• 1 Sphere of Safety
• 1 Spirit-Sister's Call
• 1 The Eldest Reborn
• 1 Timely Ward

• Artifacts (7)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Azorius Signet
• 1 Brainstone
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Orzhov Signet
• 1 Sol Ring

• Lands (37)
• 4 Island
• 5 Plains
• 5 Swamp
• 1 Adarkar Wastes
• 1 Arcane Sanctum
• 1 Ash Barrens
• 1 Azorius Chancery
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Caves of Koilos
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dimir Aqueduct
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Halimar Depths
• 1 Hall of Heliod's Generosity
• 1 Obscura Storefront
• 1 Orzhov Basilica
• 1 Tainted Field
• 1 Tainted Isle
• 1 Temple of Deceit
• 1 Temple of Enlightenment
• 1 Temple of Silence
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Thriving Heath
• 1 Thriving Isle
• 1 Thriving Moor
• 1 Underground River

Buy This Deck Export text

Okay, let me just say: this deck rules. Getting to do miracle nonsense is always a blast, which is a big reason many cards bearing the mechanic have become so beloved. Players love getting to miracle cards like Entreat the Angels, Terminus, Temporal Mastery, Bonfire of the Damned, and more. It feels special to get to play a big flashy spell for cheap because you drew it at just the right time, adding a bit of an epic flare to your typical game of Magic.

What this deck is doing is allowing you to turn several different cards into miracles on their own. This essentially gives you a lot more freedom and depth to what's possible with the mechanic. After all, aside from getting to make your own miracles, there's only a handful of cards that actually bear the mechanic on them naturally. Here, you get to cast powerful enchantments like One with the Multiverse, Shark Typhoon, Sphere of Safety, and more at a massive discount. It's not free, but it often gets you quite close to that!

All of this is to say that right out of the box, it's a real winner. It's not hard to open this deck up fresh, get it into some sleeves, and have an awesome time. But naturally, we're here to give the deck some upgrades! After all, there's almost certainly some better options available or else effects that you might want to add in to improve things, so let's switch gears and start talking about that!

The first thing I want to discuss are the miracles themselves. Naturally, this deck is geared toward making your own miracles, but let's be real: it's a deck designed to set up those miracles as well, so why not include some natural ones in the mix? The base list contains four of these cards, two new and two returning. The classic Modern and Legacy Miracles staples Entreat the Angels and Terminus make a showing here, as do the brand new Redress Fate and Metamorphosis Fanatic.

The real problem to finding more miracle cards comes down to this: there simply aren't very many of them within the esper color combination! Across White, Blue, and Black, there's only a shockingly low 13 cards bearing the mechanic on them. Six were in Avacyn Restored, one was in Commander 2018 alongside the original Aminatou, three were in Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40,000, and three more are in here, including the new Aminatou. As a result, this doesn't really leave a whole ton to work with.

The real question then becomes of the eight cards not in the base deck, are any of them good enough to consider adding in? Admittedly, only two really come to mind. These are Avacyn Restored classics Temporal Mastery and Devastation Tide. Devastation Tide forces everyone to pick up all their cards, essentially becoming this deck's budget friendly version of Cyclonic Rift. Temporal Mastery isn't going to do much on its own without a critical mass of extra turn spells, but it always feels epic getting to cast a literal Time Walk which this enables.

There's a few other reasonable contenders as well. Entreat the Dead - the one card in Commander 2018 - enables you to pull tons of creatures out of your graveyard with ease. Normally, I'd say this too is a slam dunk, but it hits a snag for this particular list: the base precon only comes with 22 creatures, meaning it likely won't provide much value. Additionally, the couple cards in Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40,000 are rock solid - particularly Zephyrim and Triumph of Saint Katherine. Heck, the latter is a Legacy staple these days. Unfortunately, though, in terms of an actual Commander sense, they're a bit bland and you can probably find more exciting cards instead.

Since there aren't many real miracle options to pull from, let's have a look at the enchantments side of things. After all, this is what we're really looking to cheat into play, so there has to be some solid ways to improve this side of the list. As noted above, there's actually some pretty awesome options. Shark Typhoon, Sphere of Safety, and The Eldest Reborn are all excellent Commander staples, and getting to cast them for dirt cheap is sure to make for a real good time.

However, let's take some other cards into consideration. One with the Multiverse is here, which provides a pretty powerful Omniscience effect once per turn, as well as granting you the ability to play other cards off the top of your deck provided you have the mana to do so. However, you could instead just be playing Omniscience itself, a mighty effect that's gotten quite a bit more affordable thanks to its Wilds of Eldraine reprinting. Heck, it's almost certain to drop even further from there as it's getting another reprint in Foundations in just a few weeks.

Additionally, there's the big elephant in the room. Both Rhystic Study and Smothering Tithe are easy no-brainers for a list like this. It's hardly a surprise that they were excluded from the deck due to the typical constraints of your average precon, but they're too good to not run in this list. Rhystic Study especially, as your first card drawn on opponents' turns can trigger miracle given the way the mechanic is worded. Your opponent casts a spell, you draw your card, and suddenly you're dropping a big effect onto the battlefield to counteract it. Why wouldn't you want an effect like that in your list? It's practically the perfect deck for that kind of effect, and I say that as someone who's not a big fan of the card.

In terms of big payoff cards, three come very quickly to mind. Starfield of Nyx is the most obvious example. If you can miracle it into play, it's effectively a two-mana card that turns all your enchantments into creatures while also getting back enchantments every turn from your graveyard. Similarly, Debtors' Knell comes down for a meager three mana and lets you get back a creature every turn, a more reasonable reanimation effect for this deck compared to Entreat the Dead. If you don't want to pull stuff from the graveyard, you can also play Mind's Dilation. This one lets you steal your opponent's spells and cast them as your own, making it massively valuable in any Aminatou deck.

So, last but not least I'd like to take a moment and talk about ways to help set up your miracle spells. Naturally, this list already comes with several outstanding options. Aminatou does this herself by granting you a free surveil every turn before you draw your card. The deck also provides you with no shortage of the best library manipulation spells around. Ponder, Portent, Brainstorm, and Otherworldly Gaze are all here, with only Preordain being notably absent. What other ways then exist that allow you to better set up your library?

First and foremost, I'd be remiss if I didn't come out and mention Sensei's Divining Top. This powerful artifact has a reputation for slowing games to a crawl over time because of how long it takes to activate its library manipulation effect. That said, for a deck like this, it's pretty much essential. Heck right up until its ban in 2017, the card was an absolute staple in Legacy Miracles. To that end, it's also worth mentioning one of the deck's other highlights of Jace, the Mind Sculptor. The card is cheaper than ever these days and provides you a free Brainstorm every turn you get to keep it around, making it a no brainer to set up your future turns - especially if you slip a Counterbalance into your deck.

The one other noteworthy way to get stuff to the top of your deck are tutors - specifically the Mirage block and Portal ones. Most of the tutor cards from this era don't do the typical tutor action of putting the card directly to the top of your deck. As such, it allows you to perfectly set up a miracle spell for whenever you want. Enlightened Tutor is the best of the bunch, given how your deck wants to take advantage of enchantments the most. However, options like Mystical Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Personal Tutor, Cruel Tutor, and - if you're feeling ritzy - Imperial Seal all benefit you here. Much like Rhystic Tutor, I don't usually like recommending these, however if there was ever a deck that wants to utilize these in an interesting way, it's this one.

As usual, these are only mere upgrade ideas, and it's hardly scratching the surface. I couldn't find room to mention cards like Hallowed Haunting and Greater Auramancy, for example, and there's sure to be dozens more that I could think of. The advantage to a deck like this is that there are no shortage of powerful enchantments or library manipulation effects to make good use of. Dig into your collection and find what you feel is going to make you have a great time at your next Commander night and run with it.

Just make sure you don't run into that big creepy house when you do...

Paige Smith

Twitter: @TheMaverickGal

Twitch: twitch.tv/themaverickgirl

YouTube: TheMaverickGal