If you played in a Prerelease this past weekend, I am insanely jealous.
Very few things come before a Prerelease weekend for me, but I had one of them come up this weekend and so I have yet to crack a single pack of Kaladesh as you read this. I have yet to Crew a Vehicle, make a tough decision with Fabricate, even see a Masterpiece in person. Heck, I haven’t even held an Energy counter…oh. Right. You haven’t either.
What I have done is spend an inordinate amount of time in airports and hotels over the past few days, and although I haven’t fully fleshed out many more decklists, I have been thinking a lot about new cards and interactions that I want to exploit in the coming weeks. This set looks incredible and excites me in ways the last few have not. That’s not to say that previous sets were bad, but I feel like there are more exciting and unique cards in this set, and spread across the rarities, than in any set since Return to Ravnica.
With #SCGINDY right around the corner, with all the first-week Standard hot tech that it will entail, people are already starting to settle on their decklists. Inevitably, some of those people will find they have misread the new format and will show up with a deck that just isn’t ready. In an effort to avoid you being one of those people, I have put together a list of cards that you will probably see in Indianapolis…but might not have thought of. Remember, knowing is half the battle!
Lansdell’s Top 8 Hidden Kaladesh Gems
This one depends on one of two things being true: Energy is easily obtained, or there’s some sort of recursive sacrifice engine out there. We already know the latter to be true: Clues are still in the format, and we can always go with Eldrazi Displacer and Brood Monitor. However it looks like the former could be true as well. Woodweaver’s Puzzleknot alone gives you six Energy, plus an extra if you already control the Marvel when you sacrifice. That gets you your first free spell, and from there you should be able to start a chain reaction. Of course, you can easily play other cards to get your Energy as well: Glimmer of Genius and Era of Innovation both look to be excellent sources, and that’s just if we’re playing fair. Whirler Virtuoso isn’t the most impressive card on its own but it does have good synergies here. If you want to take a spell-based approach, Dynavolt Tower not only stocks you up on Energy but also gives you somewhere to spend it for a relevant ability.
One of the challenges will be having a high enough density of game-winning cards to make an Energy…err, engine worthwhile. We do have the big ol’ Whale in Aethersquall Ancient, which both hits hard and provides a lot of Energy (plus a place to spend it), but my gut tells me we will need at least four true game-winning threats for Aetherworks Marvel to cast. That right there is an important distinction: we are actually casting the spell we find, meaning we can play Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger or Elder Deep-Fiend if we want to. We probably want to.
Oh sweet, they printed my Invitational card! As much as I love this beautiful piece of design, my good friend Shane is likely planning to shred, incinerate or otherwise obliterate every copy he can find. Shane likes him some aggro.
I believe you’ll see this card not just on Saturday in the Open, but also in Sunday’s Modern classic. In Standard, the tempo boost provided by a turn 1 Authority of the Consuls plays perfectly with Thalia, Heretic Cathar; Reflector Mage; Spell Queller; and Dovin Baan. U/W Tempo is waiting in the wings, my friends, and it’s bringing with it another powerful one-mana spell in Select for Inspection.
All the ways this deck has to tap things down and keep them tap make me very scared to see a turn 1 Port Town. Sadly, we lose Vryn Wingmare to rotation, so we’ll have to make do with bouncing or tapping everything in sight. Unsubstantiate, Nebelgast Herald, Stitched Mangler, Roil Spout, and maybe even Compelling Deterrence could all make the cut. If manabases will allow, we might even look to green solely for Tamiyo, Field Researcher to join Dovin Baan and (maybe) Jace, Unraveler of Secrets as a planeswalker package of tempo-creating doom. If we want to go higher up the curve instead, we can look at Drowner of Hope and Guardian of Tazeem as both ways to win and additional tempo engines, but generally tempo decks want to stay lower to the ground than that.
In Modern this card is going into at least one of my pet white decks. I can see Soul Sisters and W/R Prison both wanting the card, although Prison can run Blind Obedience without much trouble and potentially like it better. It’s probably better as a sideboard card against decks like Zoo that want to race your lifegain with their midsized creatures, but I definitely see the potential. The best part of the card is that it is not easy for many decks to remove: Abrupt Decay or bust in a lot of cases. Both Soul Sisters and Prison have plenty of targets for Abrupt Decay already, so something as seemingly innocuous as this might escape attention. I would add that I don’t expect Naya Zoo to adopt Authority of the Consuls; that deck can get the same effect and more besides on a 3/2 body in Thalia, Heretic Cathar.
I am in love with this card and I can’t really explain why. One of the things I really want to do in this format is to take advantage of all the extra land drops we have available: The Gitrog Monster; Ghirapur Orrery; and Mina and Denn, Wildborn all offer the ability to play additional lands, and with it they all have additional abilities. If we add in Tireless Tracker and Architect of the Untamed, we have the option to make the large threats that Mina and Denn are looking for while also keeping our hand full, stocking up on Energy, getting permanents to sacrifice, and of course ramping if we want to go that direction. We can throw in the nigh-forgotten Ulvenwald Hydra as well for even more synergy.
Everyone’s favorite Frog Horror would mean a third color, but that in and of itself is not an issue. We are going to be churning through our deck quickly, and we also have Evolving Wilds if necessary. What might be better is finding a way to play blue instead of black to give us access to two different creature-lands to play well with Sylvan Advocate. Unfortunately, blue doesn’t add much more to the deck’s plan than those creature-lands.
Even if that deck doesn’t materialize, Architect of the Untamed is almost certainly good enough to see play in almost any deck that wants Energy or that will be playing lands…so basically every green deck. The body is the only thing that concerns me here: at 2/3 for three, it is a little fragile. Then again, Tireless Tracker is actually more fragile and it sees plenty of play. Keep your eyes on this one.
Just before I took a break from Magic, Tolarian Academy decks were redefining the words “dominant strategy” in a way that has yet to be emulated. One strategy that came close was Affinity in the original Mirrodin block. That mechanic gave birth to a deck that essentially built itself and in the process almost killed competitive Magic. That is not an exaggeration. In fact, Mark Rosewater has classed “affinity for artifacts” on the same level as storm when it comes to the likelihood of being reprinted in Standard.
Except, you know, this card that literally has affinity for artifacts.
I am not going to pretend that this card is impressive on the face. A seven-mana 5/6 that can eventually make itself unblockable is decent in Draft and unplayable in Constructed, right? Well, how good is it if it costs 2UU? How about UU? This card is potentially dangerous in a format with Servos and Clue tokens, and considering how powerful some of the artifacts are in this set, I don’t think it’s a stretch to cast this card at a heavy discount quite often.
You know what other card wants you to control several artifacts? Metalwork Colossus. The Colossus has a unique form of “affinity” in that the cost is reduced by the total converted mana cost of our artifacts, which plays well with the Serpent anyway. A card like Hedron Archive contributes six mana to the Colossus and three to the Serpent and would definitely see some play here. One thing the Serpent has going for it is that evasion, which can be quite relevant if the opponent is able to catch up with our massive early Snake.
Unique effects always catch my eye, and this is no different. Although I don’t think the support is there for this card to be a combo piece in Standard, I would not be surprised if someone tried to make this work at the #SCGINDY Modern Classic.
Let’s be clear: Dramatic Reversal is not a card we play to be fair. We’re not casting it for value, or even casting it once to untap multiple mana rocks and generate even more mana. Heck, we might not even do that and then Snapcaster Mage it back again. No, this card needs to be broken in half if it’s going to be any good. And to do that we’re going to need an old friend, a purveyor of combos everywhere:
You probably don’t need it spelled out, but in case you do: any combination of non-lands that make three or more mana plus Isochron Scepter imprinting Dramatic Reversal gives arbitrarily large (“infinite”) mana. Not interested in mana? Any of a number of cards that tap to deal damage to a player or make a player lose a life will do the trick as well. It’s worth pointing out that we can in theory go off on turn 3 if the stars align: turn 1 mana creature, turn 2 Blightspeaker plus creature, turn 3 play your third land, activate Blightspeaker, and tap out, adding five mana. Cast Scepter, imprint Dramatic Reversal, and activate Scepter, leaving one mana floating. You now have two creatures, Scepter and Blightspeaker untapped and ready to go again.
That version of the combo is very fragile, so replacing creatures with artifacts might be more your speed. A U/B shell lets us play Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas (or Tezzeret the Seeker if you prefer) along with Talisman of Dominance and Dimir Signet. We could also look at Hedron Archive and Mind Stone for the activation. Blightspeaker is also fragile, so we might also want to substitute artifact damage in for him too. We could go with Razortip Whip, which would mean we need an additional mana rock to start the combo, or Scepter of Empires, which costs three instead of two.
Still not convinced? Let’s take a closer look at Isochron Scepter:
Oooh, we’re casting? Well then. We can always go the storm route and kill with Grapeshot, but that’s not an artifact and cannot be found with Tezzeret or Glint-Nest Crane. Aetherflux Reservoir, however, is an option. That means we only need to make two mana to go off. And if you really want to make your opponent tilt, Lux Cannon is legal in the format. We can also go with Temple Bell to draw our deck if we want.
Remember Thragtusk? Man, that was a good card. A dominant one, in fact, a card that made its way into many decks that normally wouldn’t even run green. An impressive body, five life, a fondness for being blinked, and a resistance to removal combined to make possibly the best midrange creature ever.
Make no mistake: Arborback Stomper is not Thragtusk. Not leaving behind a body is a very relevant shortfall and is part of what made Thragtusk so oppressive in combination with Restoration Angel. However, don’t overlook two things that the Stomper does have that Thragtusk doesn’t: trample and two additional points of toughness. And although we don’t have Restoration Angel, we do have Eldrazi Displacer.
If there is a G/B midrange deck, I would be shocked if Arborback Stomper wasn’t a major part of it. The five-slot isn’t jammed full in these colors, and Stomper both stabilizes the battlefield and provides a solid threat. It’s great to reanimate with Ever After if that card starts to see play (and I think it should), it’s a great receptacle for Verdurous Gearhulk counters…it’s just a flexible, solid card. Perhaps it has flown under the radar because it is so unexciting, but there’s no question it’s good. Really good.
Four-mana 2/2s with trample aren’t exactly used to setting the Constructed world on fire. To be honest, those base stats are actually pretty bad. In most sets, even the triggered ability wouldn’t be setting the world alight. Here, though, we have significant potential to make a very large trampling threat that could even kill in one swing. The thing that makes the Gorger interesting is that it doesn’t care how much Energy you get, only how many times you get it. That makes a card like Decoction Module very scary, especially if you can have multiple creatures enter the battlefield at once. Oh, hi, Fabricate! What a convenient mechanic to have in the set.
In case you’re like me and reticent to rely on an otherwise mediocre artifact to power your otherwise mediocre creature, we should probably look for other cards you might see in the company of our floppy-eared friend. Again we see Era of Innovation popping up as an option, providing as it does a source of continuous Energy. Aetherworks Marvel looks like another powerful option if we can cycle through permanents, as does Architect of the Untamed. Aetherstorm Roc is a powerful card that is nice enough to give us Energy one at a time.
This one is late on the list because it does require a lot of pieces to fall into place, but those pieces exist and it would not surprise me if someone tries to make this work.
We’re getting a little deep here. I understand that. Nobody ever found gold without digging, though. Is it really that much of a stretch, though? Look at these staples that deal in +1/+1 counters:
All of these cards are likely to see play, and they all make us draw cards with Armorcraft Judge. That’s without even looking at any cards with Fabricate that see play, Fabrication Module, and the possibility that Aetherstorm Roc sees play. What I’m saying here is that we should not have trouble drawing three cards with the Judge, and when that is stapled to a 3/3 body for four mana we’re well in to bargain territory. And we haven’t even talked about flickering it yet…
Comments from Last Week
I was just brewing up a Mardu list along these lines. Completely overlooked Nahiri’s Wrath.
I agree that the red Gearhulk is the “weakest” as far as 6/6 first strikers go, but the abilities seem custom made for reanimator builds. Do you think cards like Goblin Dark-Dwellers would fit in well?
– Dennis Brown
I was very happy with Nahiri’s Wrath, and even happier to see that Brad Nelson loves the card too. Goblin Dark-Dwellers could certainly do work if we change up the spell base just a little and even
gives us a solid target for Ever After. Certainly worth a look.
In the U/R cheap spells build, can you cast Spell Shrivel cheaper if you have Herald or the Inspector out? I hate that Spell Queller can counter everything in that build.
– Steven Peterson
You can with Herald of Kozilek, but not with Foundry Inspector. The fact that Herald reduces more spells is the reason I have more copies of it in the list.
Tested the Mardu last night. It’s a little rough but very very brutal. The red Gearhulk actually one-shotted a person that was sitting at 18 when Emrakul and another Gearhulk popped up. Deck really forces you to play as efficiently as possible. It acts like a control build with a combo to make it run faster.
– Steven Baxter
Yeah, I agree that it is still a rough list. It’s a blast to play, though, and Combustible Gearhulk is like Dan Henderson’s right hand: you always feel like you have a shot to win if it resolves. If you made any changes, I’d be interested in hearing them!
For the Mardu Hulks list, have you thought about Fateful Showdown? It works well the red Gearhulk and can be used to cycle your hand.
– Cade Ford
I hadn’t thought of it, actually. The deck cycles through cards pretty quickly so I am not sure it would be at its best here. It’s possible I love Call the Bloodline too much, and in that case, Fateful Showdown gets better. I will require a lot of convincing to cut my pet card though!
Nice brewing. Out of the three I really like the Mardu and the cheap artifacts, of course! Soon as I saw Aetherflux Resevior, I already knew what was up. One mention I’d like to make about your Mardu list is instead of Tormenting Voice, why not Cathartic Reunion? Discarding two and drawing three on turn 2 with a flooded hand and filling your graveyard up with a Gearhulk or two does seem pretty sweet if you have a Refurbish in hand. And yeah, I can agree Combustible Gearhulk doesn’t have as quite of an impact on a battlefield state turn 4 or 6 however you play it, but late-game, if the opponent is at a low life, it’s a definite draw-three. With that said, I think something like Collective Defiance or some burn might make it an even better asset late-game. Just some thoughts; I really like Combustible and not sure why it is so underrated in a meta full of high CMC cards.
– Matt Marshall
I did consider Cathartic Reunion, but although it is better in the first few turns, it can just be a dead draw in the late-game that requires two turns to do anything. Maybe a mixture of the two could work. Combustible Gearhulk keeps on surprising me with how often it puts the opponent in a tough spot. Even late-game I have drawn it and discarded it so I could Refurbish instead of casting it, and my opponent has let me draw three many times when they were afraid of the top of my deck. Mortuary Mire might need to find its way into this deck somewhere.
The next two weekends are the most exciting time for us brewers. When nobody really knows what they’re doing, anyone could have got it right. Hopefully something in this article (or last week’s) has inspired you. As always folks, thanks for stopping by the LAB. Enjoy Indianapolis, play tight, and until next time…Brew On!