As much fun as I had playing Mountain tribal (Scapeshift) this weekend, there isn’t too much to talk about there. I thought that Oliver Tiu’s deck from the World Championship looked great, and more or less it was. Other than some small sideboard tweaks, I think the deck is excellent and would recommend it moving forward into Modern.
Creatures (8)
Lands (27)
Spells (25)
On the other hand, the Kaladesh card list is complete, and that means there’s plenty to talk about in Standard with the prerelease this weekend and #SCGINDY looming soon after.
Energy was one of the first things that I had my eye on at the beginning of preview season, largely because of how grand a reveal Aetherworks Marvel was.
It is, of course, difficult to know exactly how to build around a card based around a new resource mechanic, but I knew immediately from my initial testing that this was a mythic that folks should keep an eye on. The potential is massive.
Now that we know what we are working with, what exactly can we do with Energy?
Enablers and Payoffs
Oftentimes, when building decks around a central theme or idea, the concept of filling it with enablers and payoffs is fairly straightforward. A handful of powerful cards are the benefit of packing your 75 with synergy. I assumed that Energy would be the same early on based upon the text of Aetherworks Marvel, but there are many examples in which Energy has blurred that line significantly. Some of the more powerful Energy consumption cards are also great for generating the resource.
Essentially, there isn’t too much of a cost associated with playing the majority of Energy cards because such a wide berth of various effects have been printed that provide it.
Where there is a fairly large divide is the split between aggressive Energy cards and those that aren’t. Many of the best rates in the set involve Energy – like Voltaic Brawler or even Longtusk Cub.
Similarly, some of the best removal in Kaladesh also generates Energy: Harnessed Lightning and Aether Meltdown.
Aether Meltdown specifically generates the resource in a pure manner while also critically being one of the few removal spells that can be used “preemptively” on a Vehicle – avoiding a tempo black hole when it comes to fighting the new wave of Smuggler’s Copters we are sure to see.
Looking over the entirety of the card list, it really feels like blue and green are the big winners for Energy. Not only does Blue have a reasonably low curve of enablers like Aether Theorist and the aforementioned Aether Meltdown, but Confiscation Coup feels like one of the best cards in the set, giving many decks another powerful Energy sink in addition to Aetherworks Marvel.
Green not only has a variety of aggressive cards but critically Servant of the Conduit. Servant is going to be everywhere, whether Energy is focused on or not. It also serves as a fine source of Energy when its role as a powerful mana creature isn’t relevant. We finally have a mana creature accelerant that isn’t vulnerable to Liliana, the Last Hope.
In summation, it doesn’t really feel like we’ll be stretching. Will all of our more Energy-focused cards size up pound-for-pound with the heavy hitters of the format like Sylvan Advocate, Tireless Tracker, and various planeswalkers? Unlikely. However, there just isn’t going to be much of a significant cost either. Playing with cards like Confiscation Coup isn’t going to feel like much of a chore.
So let’s get started.
Creatures (11)
Lands (23)
Spells (26)
I’ve gone through many iterations, specifically at the beginning when there were fewer Energy role-players revealed, but this is my current generic Aetherworks Marvel deck, now only two colors. Many seem attracted to the “dream” of curving Woodweaver’s Puzzleknot into spiking an Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger on turn 4, but I just don’t see building your deck in that manner as a realistic path.
Instead, I want to fill my deck with as much incidental interaction as I can, and that’s pretty easy with the likes of Aether Meltdown, Deadlock Trap, and Confiscation Coup. Deadlock Trap in particular is a huge pickup for decks like these and even those that may only be interested in using Energy incidentally.
There simply were not many good answers to planeswalkers available in nonblack colors, and critically most of the lower-casting-cost planeswalkers are unable to do anything particularly devastating the turn they enter the battlefield. Is Deadlock Trap the cleanest answer available to them? No, but I do like that it can help to stymie early aggression before containing your opponent’s biggest threat.
What is particularly notable about the majority of this deck’s suite of interaction is that it can be found by Vessel of Nascency. Aether Meltdown being an enchantment in addition to Trap’s artifact type means that this Energy deck won’t just be digging through air to try to locate Aetherworks Marvel – we can actually manage the battlefield nicely in the early turns.
I’ve only briefly touched on Confiscation Coup, but this card just feels powerful to me. Mind Control was already a Constructed-playable card, so don’t make the mistake of assuming that the artifact clause is a simple tack-on; this adds an entirely new dimension to the theft spell. Stealing a Hedron Archive is incredibly real!
Glimmer of Genius is fairly difficult to assess. On the one hand, I really want to play this card with Torrential Gearhulk as it feels like the cheapest “high-impact” draw spell that we have access to right now. That said, it does generate Energy and it does dig deep, allowing us to find Aetherworks Marvel in a timely manner while also building towards it. This card is not Foresee, but from what I can tell right now, it deserves its slots.
The threat suite in this deck is admittedly still in its infancy. Is World Breaker the best “hybrid” castable/high-impact hit we can play in our deck? I’m not sure, but the fact that it now acts as a “Flametongue Kavu” against the likes of Gearhulks and various other trinkets means that this card’s stock has likely risen considerably. Again, I’m worried about the idea of just filling my deck with a bunch of Ulamogs, but Emrakul, the Promised End should still be realistic to make it to in a strategy that is only eschewing planeswalker as a type.
What may be the unfortunate reality is that this deck still needs Kozilek’s Return as a means to catch up, but as it stands, it feels very difficult to play the appropriate support for all of those moving parts.
If U/G is a midrange Energy deck, let’s look at a few variations on “combo” versions:
Engulf the Shore is such a fascinating card to me. I’ve already taken a look at one version, and really the only conclusion I’ve come to is how much of a ceiling there is for it paired with Torrential Gearhulk.
Similarly, Paradoxical Outcome is one of those cards that looks unplayable at first glance outside of some fringe Modern combo decks that may prove to be a centerpiece of a viable strategy.
The key here is that blue has several cheap creatures that generate a ton of Energy when they enter the battlefield. Thriving Turtle is a great defensive tool that can “level up” to play even better defense when necessary, but it also is just the cheapest Energy-generating permanent.
Aether Theorist, for the price of two mana, is far more powerful. I suspect this card is another that most would write off, but scrying is an underrated form of advantage. All this deck wants to do is generate some battlefield presence, get its cheap cards on the table, and continuously reset the battlefield, buying time, drawing cards, and generating Energy while continuing to dig to its various payoffs. Once Aetherworks Marvel is on the battlefield, we can keep digging towards various resets even if we “brick” on finding a win condition like Ulamog, the Ceasless Hunger or Torrential Gearhulk. That last part is certainly worth talking about – this deck is fairly light on cards that actually win the game.
This could certainly prove to be an issue, but a deck like this also needs a critical mass of velocity and moving parts. Theoretically we should be able to keep chaining Engulf the Shore long enough to end the game with Ulamog, but perhaps that is something that will need to be addressed.
It’s also worth touching upon that I just finished discussing how Glimmer of Genius was so appealing with Torrential Gearhulk, yet I’ve chosen to play a card like Anticipate over it here: this deck is going to live and die on its curve and ability to deploy its resources quickly. Having a glut of four-drops is just too risky when we need those more expensive cards to be as high-impact as possible.
Here’s another take on pairing Paradoxical Outcome with Energy generation:
Creatures (15)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (24)
Spells (19)
This deck is a little more aggressively slanted. Whirler Virtuoso is a card that I would love to play in the Mono-Blue version, but there are obvious restrictions when trying to leverage Engulf the Shore. In particular, Whirler pairs nicely with Era of Innovation, effectively giving you the ability to assemble your own (poor) version of Thopter Foundry / Sword of the Meek. Every iteration of a Thopter effectively costs one mana and one Energy – still a powerful interaction.
Aethertorch Renegade is another big payoff for generating Energy. Despite the fact that the card needs to live a turn to actually deal a massive chunk to an opponent, I still think the upside is worth exploring – and the card is an undeniable combo with Saheeli Rai, as eight Energy is the precise number needed for Saheeli Rai’s -2 copy to deal the immediate damage to an opponent.
This next deck is far less Energy-focused than the previous, but it utilizes another new and seemingly inconspicuous Artificer:
Creatures (22)
- 4 Prized Amalgam
- 3 Elder Deep-Fiend
- 4 Haunted Dead
- 1 Distended Mindbender
- 2 Ovalchase Daredevil
- 4 Scrapheap Scrounger
- 4 Minister of Inquiries
Lands (25)
- 7 Swamp
- 10 Island
- 4 Sunken Hollow
- 4 Aether Hub
Spells (13)
It would be foolish to assume that Scrapheap Scrounger won’t make some significant upgrades to the “Zombie” shell, as it is an excellent tool for Prized Amalgam and Haunted Dead. This version basically tries to push those synergies as hard as possible by playing Minister of Inquiries and Perpetual Timepiece to turbo self-mill.
Hitting Scroungers, Haunted Dead, Prized Amalgam, Ovalchase Daredevil, and Kozilek’s Return is basically all we want to do – and I’m willing to support all of these pieces with a few “scraps” like Corpse Churn.
Key to the City is one of my picks for “most underrated card in the set.” I’ve seen little to no buzz regarding it and it is an incredible effect for not only generating advantage with graveyard or madness synergies but simply breaking up battlefield stalls and acting like a “Clue token” every turn. How can anyone ever hope to beat this card when the battlefield is at parity? It allows you to “draw” two cards a turn and clock your opponent!
Taking a step back, what about taking Energy in a more straightforward, aggressive approach?
Creatures (24)
- 4 Tireless Tracker
- 4 Verdurous Gearhulk
- 4 Longtusk Cub
- 4 Voltaic Brawler
- 2 Bristling Hydra
- 4 Servant of the Conduit
- 2 Aethertorch Renegade
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (25)
Spells (8)
I think this deck does a nice job of incorporating hard-hitting creatures that are great at every stage of the game, some small Energy synergies, and just generically good cards. This is an excellent shell for Servant of the Conduit, as it allows cards like Longtusk Cub to immediately sneak past opposing blockers and start running wild while also just enabling great draws where you deploy your cards ahead of schedule.
A few things worth mentioning are the lack of Lathnu Hellion and the presence of Aethertorch Renegade. On the former, I really value raw battlefield presence in a deck like this. I want my creatures to stick around and be able to accrue advantage, not only to play longer games but to power up Verdurous Gearhulk. The green Gearhulk is by far one of the best cards in Kaladesh and I want to support it with as many bodies as I can in my aggressively slanted midrange deck.
Aethertorch Renegade may simply not be good enough. However, what it does do is give the deck a different element and also a means to dump any excess Energy in the late-game. This card is a massive threat off the top in the late-game and demands to be killed immediately – six damage is a ton!
I want to close on a different note. I spent a good chunk of time trying to piece together a R/W Energy-based aggressive deck, and I just don’t believe there to be one. Of course, just by taking a look at the R/W multicolored cards, you can tell what their identity is – Vehicles. Veteran Motorist and Depala, Pilot Exemplar are excellent payoffs for playing with the new card type, and this serves as an example of how to shortcut what is and likely isn’t possible with the card pool.
That said, I do genuinely think cards like Spontaneous Artist and Aetherstorm Roc are powerful; it’s just that they don’t function within the framework of the card pool given to us. In particular, white is notoriously weak in its Energy cards and they all seem to sit on top of each other by costing four.
It is important lesson to learn that “forcing” decks together is often a failing strategy, especially when a color identity is pushing in a very different direction. There’s no reason to try to build a deck that is trying to incorporate various types of enablers and payoffs, as you will often find yourself with disjointed draws that don’t do either “thing” particularly well.
The Prerelease is this weekend and immediately following will be “week one” at #SCGINDY. Whether it’s an evolution of one the brews I’ve written about or something else entirely, I can’t wait to be a part of the unveiling of the Kaladesh Standard format.