This last weekend was the World Championship at PAX West. Not only did we crown Brian Braun-Duin, we also got our first taste of what to expect from Kaladesh in a few short weeks. I love to do nothing more than brew with the upcoming sets, so why not just jump right in?
The Big Picture
To the relief of many, Collected Company is gone. Other notable rotating cards from Standard include Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy; Nissa, Vastwood Seer; Languish; Tragic Arrogance; Hangarback Walker; Dromoka’s Command; and the entire cycle of pain lands, which makes the majority of the Oath of the Gatewatch Eldrazi significantly weaker. Our new “replacement mana” has already been spoiled to the joy of many: the enemy cycle of lands from Scars of Mirrodin will make a massive impact in Modern while also being excellent tools in Standard.
Despite there being a lot of awesome new cards to digest and think about, I do have some small concerns moving forward into Kaladesh. If the previous Standard format boiled down to “Collected Company vs. Emrakul,” then where does that leave us?
Many of the Emerge-style decks did not lose a significant amount of pieces, and even more than that, the “Delirium-core” way to build green decks is more-or-less completely intact. The combination of Vessel of Nascency, Grapple with the Past, and Traverse the Ulvenwald gives a variety of decks the means to play a low land count, have immense threat density in the late-game, and wield the ultimate end-game of Emrakul, the Promised End. It’s unclear whether this is going to prove to be problematic, but it is certainly the way that I am going to start building the majority of my decks moving into Kaladesh due to how high the power level of these cards are.
On Energy
I love this mechanic. I also see a lot of folks waffling about it, but as soon as I saw Live Fast and Die Young I was convinced that energy is going to be the real deal in Constructed. Wizards want us to play with energy in Constructed and it will be worth the effort.
The typical problem with mechanics that use specific “block-centric” resources in the past is that you were often forced to play a deck with a critical mass of underpowered cards to utilize the payoffs. Energy looks to be a seamless part of Kaladesh’s design that will be creatively incorporated in normal effects that one would play anyway. Die Young is a great example of using a new mechanic well – a card that can scale appropriately between two desired effects depending on the state of the game is great, but it also serves as an enabler in its own right for a multitude of other cards and abilities.
Of course we’re still early in spoiler season, so it is difficult to fully realize the capabilities of energy, but that doesn’t mean some really cool payoffs haven’t already been shown off. I certainly intend to take a crack at them right now.
How can you break Aetherworks Marvel?
Creatures (13)
- 4 Sylvan Advocate
- 3 Tireless Tracker
- 2 Emrakul, the Promised End
- 1 Ishkanah, Grafwidow
- 3 Multiform Wonder
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (22)
Spells (20)
This deck shows off quite a few of the cards that have caught my eye already. As I spoke about earlier, the delirium enabler package is powerful, especially when Vessel of Nascency has the ability to dig specifically for a niche permanent that a deck wants to utilize, like an artifact, enchantment, or planeswalker. In this case, Aetherworks Marvel is a huge draw to trying to play with energy.
I think it is important to realize when looking at a card like Aetherworks Marvel that the goal of our deck shouldn’t just be to fill our 60 with the “best things.” Playing four copies of Emrakul, the Promised End or Ulamog, the Ceasless Hunger is not going to lead to a cohesive strategy despite the ability to spike an Ulamog on the fourth turn with our best draw possible (Woodweaver’s Puzzleknot, sacrifice it, activate Marvel). Rather, I want to take a try at building a deck that can utilize the fact that Aetherworks Marvel can be used repeatedly. Woodweaver’s Puzzleknot is certainly a part of that equation, but Multiform Wonder is another huge contribution to that effort.
This card is akin to a colorless Baneslayer Angel that also fuels your engine cards. How can that not be awesome? Multiform Wonder is also excellent in tandem with Saheeli Rai for providing pressure, getting out of range, and simply building energy.
It’s true that Saheeli might be out of place here, especially due to the fact that it is difficult to leverage the incidental damage from her +1 ability, but her potential to provide constants bursts of energy to keep activating Aetherworks Marvel makes her ceiling absurd. It doesn’t matter if we are “just” hitting Chandra, Flamecallers; she’s free!
I also love how tricky it is to attack into a “charged up” Aetherworks Marvel. What is there to stopping you from running face-first into a five-power lifelinker?
In addition to all of these cool new toys, we can also just play some honestly solid Magic with efficient creatures like Sylvan Advocate and Tireless Tracker with access to an Emrakul, the Promised End end-game. Tireless Tracker even incidentally works nicely with Aetherworks Marvel’s energy generation!
Creatures (10)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (24)
Spells (22)
This isn’t perhaps as exciting, but it is a more traditional use for Saheeli. U/R Thermo-Alchemist is all about getting some additional chip shots, and her copy ability has the potential to enable some huge turns with any of the creatures in this deck. Making a Bedlam Reveler token is certainly the most dramatic, but just having another Thermo-Alchemist to double up on spells played is serious damage output.
There’s another unique artifact that’s been revealed in Kaladesh that should encourage some interesting designs from folks.
Creatures (14)
- 3 Sylvan Advocate
- 3 Tireless Tracker
- 1 Emrakul, the Promised End
- 2 Ishkanah, Grafwidow
- 4 Noose Constrictor
- 1 Demon of Dark Schemes
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (23)
Spells (20)
Ghirapur Orrery encourages being able to quickly spend and leverage resources while simultaneously breaking the potential symmetry by burying or killing your opponent.
It just so happens that Noose Constrictor has the ability to get us “hellbent” while also presenting a wealth of pressure. I feel like utilizing the G/B Delirum shell makes a lot of sense here because, again, Vessel of Nascency is excellent for quickly finding an artifact that we want to build around. It also has the added bonus of digging for either of our enablers, Noose Constrictor or Call the Bloodline, while incidentally letting us work towards Emrakul, the Promised End.
It should be easy to outpace an opponent for a few turns if we can get a couple of triggers off of Ghirapur Orrery, although it is certainly a scary card to play against a hyper-aggressive deck.
What is likely my favorite card spoiled so far happens to be the perfect replacement for Tragic Arrogance: Cataclysmic Gearhulk.
Cataclysmic Gearhulk – 3WW
Artifact Creature – Construct
Vigilance
When Cataclysmic Gearhulk enters the battlefield, each player chooses from among the non-land permanents he or she controls an artifact, a creature, an enchantment, and a planeswalker, then sacrifices the rest.
4/5
Creatures (16)
- 4 Sylvan Advocate
- 4 Archangel Avacyn
- 1 Emrakul, the Promised End
- 4 Selfless Spirit
- 3 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (23)
Spells (17)
Cataclysmic Gearhulk is powerful. Despite the fact that it doesn’t allow you to choose for your opponent like Tragic Arrogance did, the Gearhulk being a piece of battlefield position in addition to such a powerful effect makes it almost guaranteed that you will come out very far ahead in the exchange. The fact that it is incidentally an artifact is pretty close to being a sick joke. Not only do I clear my opponent’s battlefield with a 4/5, but I get to bring along something else?
This deck specifically is very much a spiritual successor to G/W Tokens, if you will. Despite being far less slanted towards tokens with Hangarback Walker rotated, having a concise suite of quality threats backed up by removal and planeswalkers is a winning strategy. In particular, this G/W deck has a ton of sweeping power built into its threats. I’ve chosen to go down the Selfless Spirit / Archangel Avacyn combo route with Hangarback Walker gone, and that in tandem with the new Gearhulk should make it especially hard for most decks to build a real position in the game against this deck.
Again, there’s a little bit of effort made towards incorporating the delirium package, because well, why not? Gearhulk being a creature means that it is far easier to have access to a sweeper effect when we need it.
It is possible that this deck is a little bit soft to other Emrakul decks, but it should be fairly easy for our Emrakul to win a straight-up fight with theirs between Selfless Spirit and Gideon emblems, which is another powerful element of this type of strategy.
Creatures (7)
Planeswalkers (10)
Lands (27)
Spells (16)
I have a feeling that B/W Control will make for another excellent Gearhulk strategy. It is true that Languish is gone, and there is potential for another black sweeper to be printed, but even if that weren’t the case, Gearhulk might be all this deck needs. The curve of Kalitas into the Construct is absolutely devastating against any aggressive archetype, and B/W is shockingly good at leveraging even the smallest amount of aggression.
A creature that catches you up and ultimately puts you ahead is scary in a deck that is as effective as turning the corner as B/W.
I mentioned earlier that Die Young and Live Fast were cards that caught my eye, and I could certainly see B/W Control as a great home for those cards. Multiform Wonder could easily occupy a spot here instead of the Gearhulk if we were interested in trying to support Aetherworks specifically. Flipping over just about any planeswalker every other turn is going to prove to be too powerful of a snowball to keep up with.
Finally, if you truly do miss Bant, maybe you’ll ultimately prove to be the good guy this Standard Season.
Creatures (21)
- 4 Reflector Mage
- 2 Eldrazi Displacer
- 4 Sylvan Advocate
- 2 Archangel Avacyn
- 3 Spell Queller
- 3 Selfless Spirit
- 3 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (23)
Spells (12)
Tamiyo, Field Researcher is starting to pick up some steam, and with Collected Company gone, I think she will finally solidify herself as a truly phenomenal planeswalker.
In addition, it’s not like Reflector Mage, Sylvan Advocate, or Spell Queller are going to stop being great cards.
I mentioned at the beginning of the article that supporting the “colorless” Eldrazi was going to be super-difficult without pain lands, but I think trying to make Eldrazi Displacer / Cataclysmic Gearhulk happen might be worth the effort. This combo is ridiculously difficult to break through. Even if we can only activate Displacer once per turn, blowing up the world and then displacing the one creature that is left is basically impossible to beat straight-up on the battlefield.
New mechanics and difficult build-around-me cards alongside some unique heavy hitters? Magic sets just keep getting better and better. I can’t wait to keep exploring the world of Kaladesh over the next few weeks as new cards keep pouring in.