Aetherworks Marvel Is Going To Dominate Pioneer

Pioneer will be a format defined by interaction. In order for a combo deck to succeed, it must have a sufficient backup plan for when their combo gets disrupted. I fully expect to get hit with many Thoughtseizes and my spells to be countered by Negate. Despite that, I think Aetherworks Marvel is the best deck in the format.

First, a history lesson. The Marvel decks that were dominant were never full combo decks. They also never got to reach their true power due to the various bannings that happened throughout Standard’s life.

Emrakul, the Promised End was banned in early January of 2017 and Aether Revolt came out later that month, bringing with it Rogue Refiner and Felidar Guardian to go with Saheeli Rai. That combo invalidated what Marvel was doing, so the deck mostly ceased to exist until the end of April. After that, Amonkhet was released and Aetherworks Marvel became the best deck until it was banned in June.

When Emrakul, the Promised End was banned, Marvel had to shift into more of a combo deck, which then became a combo-control deck. It completely lost the midrange option of slowing the game down with Ishkanah, Grafwidow and eventually casting Emrakul to end the game. Even the Marvel decks at the end used Ulvenwald Hydra and Shrine of Forgotten Gods to cast Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger in slower matchups.

No matter what was going on in Standard, Marvel decks always found a successful backup plan. Let’s find ours.

There’s no shortage of powerful things to Marvel into. The key is finding cards to Marvel into that are powerful and potentially game-winning, but are also reasonable to cast normally. Ishkanah was always a reasonable choice if you thought you’d be able to get delirium. Some versions used Elder Deep-Fiend as long as they had some disposable bodies, and the more controlling versions used Chandra, Flamecaller.

Simply copy-and-pasting an old Aetherworks Marvel decklist is going to work to some degree, but you should really try to incorporate other cards and synergies from the other legal sets. Pioneer is going to involve taking shells from old Standard formats and splicing them together where applicable. Here are some new options I’m interested in:

Each of these cards interacts profitably with the Marvel shells to some degree. Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy is an easy inclusion in any Marvel deck (and likely any Pioneer deck with blue mana). Not only do you get to filter through redundant combo pieces, but you get extra velocity to help hit your land drops, and you can even reuse removal spells. Buying back Attune with Aether in a pinch is completely reasonable too. There are also graveyard implications for delirium and Dig Through Time, which Jace and Emry, Lurker of the Loch both love.

I’m less interested in things like Omniscience since they’re not particularly castable. You could have a Nexus of Fate setup with Growth Spiral and Search for Azcanta, but spending your energy just to take an extra turn likely doesn’t accomplish much. However, Emry and a Woodweaver’s Puzzleknot will net a Marvel activation each turn, which could lead somewhere.

The other cards listed are roughly just as uncastable as Emrakul, the Promised End, so unless you think you’re creating a stronger effect on the battlefield, I would stick with old faithful at the top-end.

Here’s a traditional version of Marvel.

Temur Marvel

Gerry Thompson

Test deck on 10-25-2019

Pioneer

Creatures (19)

Lands (16)

Spells (25)

Sideboard

I did a lot of digging, but as far as I can tell, Ishkanah into Emrakul will be the strongest backup plan.

Since we actively want to work toward delirium, Vessel of Nascency is a card we’ll happily include. It finds Aetherworks Marvel or an energy producer to enable it. Plus, it fills the graveyard for Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy and Dig Through Time. Since we’re kind of leaning on Ishkanah, Grafwidow, it doesn’t seem like we should play Dig Through Time, but by the time you want to use it, you should have plenty of cards in your graveyard. Playing a single delve card, even with delirium, is just fine.

The midrange versions frequently played Servant of the Conduit while the combo-control versions did not. Without Servant of the Conduit, Marvel typically played 23 lands. Marvel decks are quite good at using their mana each turn, which makes me less likely to incorporate any lands that enter the battlefield tapped.

Splitting Jace and Servant seems weird, but I don’t want to draw more than one copy of each. Servant of the Conduit was a particularly poor topdeck in the old versions, and I’m not surprised people eventually cut them entirely. I wouldn’t be surprised if I did the same in Pioneer.

Initially I wanted to start with Sultai Marvel, but the red cards seem too good. There are so many aggro decks and none of them can beat Whirler Virtuoso. I also undervalued how easy it would be to stabilize without Whirler’s power. I wouldn’t recommend playing Marvel without it.

Fry doesn’t have many relevant targets in the format, but it does cleanly answer Teferi, Time Raveler. I wouldn’t be surprised if we can find a better answer. “Ignore it” is a perfectly reasonable one if you’re trimming Marvels during sideboarding.

We need a sweeper for aggressive decks. Kozilek’s Return is a fine option (especially because of the synergy with Emrakul), but Radiant Flames being able to hit that third toughness is more important in a world where Winding Constrictor and Benalish Marshal exist.

Veil of Summer is going to be incredible in Pioneer. Black is one of the strongest colors in the format and Thoughtseize will be one of the most popular cards.

Sultai Marvel

Gerry Thompson

Test deck on 10-25-2019

Pioneer

Creatures (16)

Lands (17)

Spells (27)

Sideboard

As I mentioned earlier, Sultai seemed like the way to go. Thoughtseize gives you game against other combo decks and Abrupt Decay handles problems like Grafdigger’s Cage; Teferi, Time Raveler; and Sorcerous Spyglass. After doing some digging, I found plenty of answers for those cards in Temur, plus your anti-aggro options are much stronger. The black cards are still very strong and there isn’t a replacement for Collective Brutality against decks with Monastery Swiftspear, so it’s not strictly better to play Temur.

Pioneer is limited in both its removal and counterspell options, so Drown in the Loch could potentially fill two major gaps in the format. I’d love to play some copies in this deck if I could, but with all the powerful delve cards being legal in the format, Drown in the Loch could potentially be worthless. We also don’t have access to anything like Thought Scour, so we have to rely on trading cards with our opponents (or them trying to utilize their graveyard for things like delirium), but I don’t anticipate that being an issue. Those cards could also end up getting banned eventually, but then again, so could Aetherworks Marvel.

If it ever comes down to it, you can and should sideboard Leyline of the Void. Scavenging Ooze is another fine card, but I’m already seeing some decks based on Prized Amalgam or Rally the Ancestors that need a big piece of hate.

If we want to utilize the Food engine maindeck, we’ll be able to transition into more of a midrange deck after sideboard after our opponents bring in hate for Aetherworks Marvel.

Goose Marvel

Gerry Thompson

Test deck on 10-25-2019

Pioneer

Creatures (18)

Planeswalkers (3)

3 Oko, Thief of Crowns

Lands (15)

Spells (24)

Sideboard

Once you have a different mana accelerator, you no longer want or need Servant of the Conduit and you have better things to be doing on Turn 2. In fact, trading Servant of the Conduit for Elvish Mystic might be better, even in builds without Gilded Goose and Oko.

I’m skeptical that Gilded Goose will become a staple of Marvel decks. When you curve it into Oko, Thief of Crowns, it feels great, but without the planeswalker, Gilded Goose mostly sits there doing nothing. It’s a glorified Wild Cantor. Initial testing in builds with Emry, Lurker of the Loch made it look solid, but the games were never won or lost because I had the Goose. More testing is required.

Emry Marvel

Gerry Thompson

Test deck on 10-25-2019

Pioneer

Creatures (20)

Lands (14)

Spells (26)

Sideboard

This was my attempt at getting the deck as lean as I possibly could. In most games, you don’t need much interaction besides playing some blockers and gaining life with Puzzleknots. Some matchups do come down to grinding out your opponent with Ishkanah, Grafwidow and if things don’t go exactly as planned, you probably lose.

Having something of value to return with Emry was of the utmost importance, but the best thing I could find was Walking Ballista. Overall, while it’s not bad, I was hoping for something a little stronger. Ballista mostly does the trick against decks where you need to pick off utility creatures, flyers, or planeswalkers. After sideboarding, you also have access to Ratchet Bomb.

Is Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy good enough with only Attune with Aether to flash back? The answer I will likely always give you is yes, especially because this deck doesn’t have much to do early and desperately wants the filtering. Jace also enables Mox Amber, which isn’t trivial with Emry, Lurker of the Loch in the equation.

We could include more things for Jace, like Opt, Traverse the Ulvenwald, or Growth Spiral, but it’s not really what I want to be doing. If I wanted anything else, it would probably be Grapple with the Past. Once Upon a Time could be added to solve that problem. It would make more sense if I wanted to play Gilded Goose and Oko maindeck, which could also be reasonable. The easiest answer is splashing another color for removal, but Merfolk Looter with upside is just fine.

With Jace, Emry, and Vessel of Nascency, I wonder if Drownyard Temple could find a home here. Casting Emrakul, the Promised End often feels a turn too slow, so getting the extra ramp would likely help. Maybe Drownyard Temple isn’t the correct answer, but it did feel like I wasn’t utilizing my graveyard enough for how deep we could mill ourselves in the mid-game. Dig Through Time helps with that, but by the time it comes online, you usually have enough self-mill going on that delving is trivial.

Between Rogue Refiner and Emry, Lurker of the Loch, we have enough bodies to include a couple of copies of Elder Deep-Fiend maindeck. They are solid Marvel hits and another reasonable backup plan. I’m much happier with them when you have some amount of removal, so they didn’t make the cut here.

I imagine another version with Deathrite Shaman, Satyr Wayfinder, and Smuggler’s Copter could be sweet, but then I don’t know why we’re playing Aetherworks Marvel.

Finally, we get into the wild stuff.

Golos Marvel

Gerry Thompson

Test deck on 10-25-2019

Pioneer

Creatures (17)

Lands (20)

Spells (23)

Sideboard

Has science gone too far? In this case, I think so.

This was my attempt at making my Emrys stronger. I wanted stronger cards to cast with her and ideally something that was a reasonable hit off Marvel. Golos, Tireless Pilgrim fits that bill. The manabase is tailored for Field of the Dead, although that’s not the main gameplan.

If anything, Golos will bridge the gap between four or five mana and casting Emrakul, the Promised End. Some of the older Marvel decks used to use Nissa’s Renewal as a Marvel hit that bridged the gap. We can do the same thing here, except with better cards.

There’s also the backdoor option to activating Golos thanks to Terrarion, Aether Hub, and Spire of Industry. I considered playing a Cascading Cataracts, but it’s not necessary. Honestly, the combination of Emry, Golos, Marvel, and Emrakul seems reasonable. The details just need work.

It was very rewarding to go through each land in the format and try to think of situations where you’d want to search for them with Golos. For example, there’s currently a Mortuary Mire that can put an Emrakul on top of your deck to cast with Aetherworks Marvel.

You could build a version of this with green, which would make Jace, Emrakul, and Marvel stronger thanks to Attune with Aether. I already have a tiny green splash for the activation of Woodweaver’s Puzzleknot, but you could easily go deeper.

Finally, something fun.

Boar Marvel

Gerry Thompson

Test deck on 10-25-2019

Pioneer

Creatures (17)

Planeswalkers (3)

3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

Lands (13)

Spells (27)

Sideboard

Oink!