If you’ve been with me a while, you know it doesn’t take much for me to get pumped about a set. I may not have the tour de force of some other Magic personalities that go nuts for sets, but I can still get excited about the newest expansion fairly easily.
Kaladesh was a piece of cake.
This set is bananas. Gilded, filigreed bananas.
I’m a big fan of the high-fantasy style that’s more familiar in Magic. Most planes follow this path, whether Zendikar, Innistrad, or even Ravnica. Kaladesh brings the world of Vehicles, Constructs, and flying machines into Magic.
Even more than the styling, though, Kaladesh promises to shake up the way we think about Magic as a whole, and each of the new mechanics revealed so far provide a novel diversion, both in Limited and Constructed.
Today I’m just gonna gush. There’ll be plenty of time to brew, and I’ll still be bouncing ideas off you, but there’s more than enough time for that in the coming weeks. At the time you’re reading this, only about a third of the whole set will be spoiled, but already you can see the outline of the set, and at its core, its mechanics.
For the first time in a long while, we have another durable, innate resource that’s not land or life. Energy counters give an extra dimension to your game, channeling a limited resource where it’s needed most. There are already several rares and a couple of mythics spoiled that provide ways to generate and expend Energy, so I’m confident that Standard will leverage some of these Energy users.
Aetherworks Marvel was the first card I saw with Energy counters, and it represents a potentially bonkers effect. It is utterly ripe for brewing. We know there are some powerful spells that care about you casting them, and doing so for free, potentially at instant speed, has me hungry.
Energy Counters
Back in the day, I loved Gruul. Scab-Clan Mauler, Rumbling Slum, Giant Solifuge…those were my homies. I fell out of love with the Gruul strategy for a long time, and even when the guild enjoyed a reprise in Return to Ravnica, I was still a little disappointed.
These cards get me very excited, though, and the added benefit of energy powering is excellent. Turn 2 Longtusk Cub, turn 3 Voltaic Brawler, give Longtusk Cub a +1/+1 counter, attack, hit, get another +1/+1 counter on it? That’s a 4/4 that doesn’t get smaller, and that’s what Gruul needs: constant relevance. I really like Lathnu Hellion, too; three mana for a four-mana burn spell is fine, and the energy it gives you can be expended to keep it around for another turn or used to protect something else. I love that energy counters don’t always cost mana, so it truly is another resource.
The lyrical homage aside, these two commons are going to be workhorses in Limited and potentially Constructed. Granting energy counters is going to be worth some fraction of a card, and these clean, unique designs allow a lot of flexibility whether you’re on offense or defense. The presence of energy on a card helps it scale well, too, giving it relevance long after its alternate game effect passes.
Chances are that energy, as well as Kaladesh’s other mechanics, have many other cards to be spoiled, and Aether Revolt, Kaladesh’s successor, may provide even more.
Vehicles
Finally, we get vehickers! What an appropriately innovative take on Equipment!
Vehicles function much in the same way as their equipping cousins, providing an added benefit for an extra cost (tapping a creature), and with just as much flavor. You’re getting a lot for your contribution, too, as the mana cost is often severely reduced for the power level you’re getting, usually doubling the power of the Crewing creature at minimum.
So far most of the vehicles are analogues of cards we’re familiar with. Ovalchase Dragster feels a lot like Ball Lightning and Sky Skiff is this set’s Wind Drake. No problems here, but I’m sure the way they’ll play in Limited and potentially in Constructed will be way different from their memorable, nonmechanical counterparts.
Speaking of Constructed, you want to know two of my favorite Vehicle-related cards?
Speedway Fanatic is a first for red: a 2/1 for 1R with haste and no downside. That alone is enough to warrant something, but the ability to efficiently and effectively Crew a Vehicle is awesome. Herald of Kozilek is a great card that does two things Vehicles want, reducing their low cost and providing two power to crew them. Let’s go to Magical Christmas Land: turn 2 Speedway Fanatic; turn 3 Herald of Kozilek; turn 4 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship; smack something for three; attack; smack something else for three and deal six evasive damage.
Got your gears turning yet?
The first thing I thought of when I saw this card was arguably the only redeeming part of Star Wars Episode I: the podrace scene. I’ll tell you what, when twelve-year-old me went to see this movie in a big, dark theater on opening day, this scene rattled my bones, made my palms sweat, and blew my mind. Just the roar of the engines got my blood flowing. Maybe, in the end, that’s why I like Kaladesh and its vehicles so much; it makes me remember how fun it was to be a twelve-year-old.
It wouldn’t take much for this sorcery to be good. The biggest downside to effects like this, such as Trumpet Blast and Rally the Peasants, is that you need to build up a battlefield that is weak to sweeping effects. Vehicles are immune to sweeping effects in and of themselves, so after your opponent blows away your Crew creatures, you’re still live.
While I don’t think I could make a viable deck that leverages Start Your Engines before a full spoiler, I think I can make a Vehicle deck.
Creatures (15)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (15)
Spells (27)
I think it’ll only improve once we get more gas!
Saheeli Rai’s hiding in this list, so let’s bring her into things, as well as her plane-mate, Chandra, Torch of Defiance.
I love red and blue. I love three-mana planeswalkers, especially new ones (see my praise for Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver), and especially ones that care about something special, in this case artifacts. She’s a slam-dunk, and I think her +1 is pretty solid all on its own. Her -2 in this deck (and admittedly in most decks) is very powerful, giving her a tinge of aggression. Slam your Fleetwheel Cruiser, copy it, and smack you for ten! I look forward to trying her in a variety of decks.
Chandra, Touch of Defiance is a whole other animal.
She is one of the best planeswalkers we’ve seen in a while; all four of her abilities are solid, and she is one of the few planeswalkers that facilitates velocity. Most planeswalkers slow the game down, but she’s got the pedal to the floor. Her first +1 ability will push your opponent closer to death, sealing their fate. Her other +1 ability gives you more gas to cast a removal spell or a defender to protect her…or, on turn 5, you can cast that six- or seven-drop you were waiting for. Her -3 is basically a red Smother in this format, and her ultimate is frighteningly easy to obtain. Your time is very short if you let a player get there.
Nissa, Vital Force? She’s…fine. Not nearly so splashy or interesting as the other two, and word on the street is we have one more planeswalker to spoil. Can’t wait!
Enemy-Colored Scars Lands
Not only are these beautiful new iterations of the Scars of Mirrodin lands like Blackcleave Cliffs and Darkslick Shores, these are a huge deal when it comes to gameplay. Life points matter, and while the painlands from Magic Origins were a welcome return for their ability to provide colorless mana, these are the real deal. They come into play untapped and painless, so they’re just what an aggro deck needs to get the speed and self-sustainability that our previous manabases did not allow. Unlike the Shadows over Innistrad lands and Battle for Zendikar lands like Port Town and Prairie Stream, these require nothing else to support them. As long as it isn’t your fourth land, you’re good. Each of the colors that need these for maximum aggression got a boost, including B/G Delirium Aggro, R/W Humans, and certainly other brews we can’t dream of yet. This is a big deal, so be ready to see a lot of these.
Build-Around-Me Artifacts
Wizards, how did you know I wanted these cards? You’ve always slipped in a couple per format, like Alhammarret’s Archive and Strionic Resonator, but to give me five in a set, and that’s just so far? These all look awesome! The possibilities are immense with the two standalone rare artifacts; Panharmonicon interacts with literally every enters-the-battlefield ability, even those that don’t originate with that permanent. Rally effects double; turn 5, cast Tajuru Warcaller and get +4/+4! Pilgrim’s Eye finds two lands in the Emerge deck! Wasteland Strangler can eat two creatures or one big one! Eldrazi Displacer, meet your new best friend!
Ghirapur Orrery is a great madness enabler, too, both getting your hand empty of excess cards and recharging your hand once you’re spent. I also really like it in a Fevered Visions build; they try to empty their hand to dodge it and whoops, you loaded them back up! Double landfall triggers, combining with The Gitrog Monster and Mina and Denn, Wildborn, also seem tantalizing.
Admittedly, there was just one list this time, but trust me, once this set fully spoils, you won’t be able to shut me up.
Comments from Last Week
Commentor Craig Gallagher and I are kindred spirits; he was excited to try my Providence brew out and gave me an in-depth follow-up after some MTGO testing.
“Cool deck!
I’m a brewer at heart. A fun deck like this that can win spectacularly some of the time is right up my alley.
It’s okay if I lose spectacularly the rest of the games while I’m at it….
I will say that I kept holding Bedlam Reveler in my hand because I liked the other cards I was holding (the first Providence that I cast that I was waiting for my seventh land for).
It’s a really good card to reveal to Sin Prodder, but I was holding two of them at the end so that I didn’t have to discard all the Providence that I was also holding.
I could have cast my first Reveler pretty early in the game, with all the discard to Tormenting Voice and Geier Reach Sanitarium, but I had to hang onto it to not lose the Providence I had in hand that I needed to come back from four life.
Might cut two Revelers for something else, since I liked having one late-ish in the game but not having it so early or having so many later on.
I might cut two and just put two Declaration in Stone in their place, or put two of those in the sideboard and play four Incendiary Flow in the main.
I cut two Revelers, put the Nahiris in from the sideboard, and added two Declaration in Stone to the sideboard.”
– Craig Gallagher
Good on you, Craig, and I really appreciate another perspective on this. Further testing on my side has indicated the deck is too weak to Bant Collected Company (a large portion of our metagame) to be currently viable, but there might be hope following rotation!
We’re still early in Kaladesh, but what’s your favorite card so far? Which cards have your gears turning?