Anyone who drafted Kaladesh block a lot is likely familiar with how powerful the trio of Modules can be when on the battlefield at the same time. They all play into each other, creating a chain reaction of triggered abilities that snowballs out of hand in a turn or two. Even two of the three can be enough to take over the battlefield if left unanswered.
In Constructed, the main combo has been between Animation Module and Metallic Mimic, which lets you start creating 2/2 Servo tokens for one mana, akin to the Thopter Foundry / Sword of the Meek combo that once dominated Extended. There is one copy of Metallic Mimic here as a tutor target for Whir of Invention, but that’s not the focus.
Instead there are more energy cards here, which combo better with the other two Modules: generating an incredible amount of energy, using that energy to pump an army of tokens or a giant Walking Ballista, or both if you should be so lucky. The energy theme lets the deck play without its main synergies while also enabling one of the deck’s over-the-top game-enders: Gonti’s Aether Heart.
Oftentimes you can go over the top with a Walking Ballista, since the Voltron of Modules generates an absurd number of counters for it, but if you go the route of creating an army of tokens, Whir of Invention easily tutors for Gonti’s Aether Heart, letting you end the game immediately, which is especially important against the reach-heavy aggressive decks in Standard.
There isn’t a lot of disruption here, since the deck necessarily has to focus on its own engine, but Harnessed Lightning and Metallic Rebuke are both top-tier options in a deck like this, since they capitalize on the deck’s themes while being cheap and flexible. Combo or engine decks in Standard are designed to not be too fast, as otherwise they’d be dominant, so having that one piece of disruption to slow your opponent down and win the race is critical.
I’m honestly a bit surprised no one else has done this in Standard yet, since this is essentially a Kaladesh block deck, but I guess when you have Felidar Guardian and Aetherworks Marvel, other combo decks have to take a back seat. But now it’s time for a Tron deck we can all get behind.
Creatures (17)
Lands (24)
Spells (19)
