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Main » Articles » New Decks for Aether Revolt Standard

New Decks for Aether Revolt Standard

Andrew Jessup
Posted on January 16, 2017
 Reddit

If you read my last article, then it should come as no surprise that I was a pretty big fan of the recent bannings. Well, at least some of them.

But all jokes aside, I think the bans were great. It was incredibly frustrating to have all of these new toys dangled in front of our faces during spoiler season knowing they would all eventually be relegated to a bulk box due to their inability to compete with cards like Emrakul, the Promised End. But now we’re practically experiencing a full rotation with the release of Aether Revolt and the bannings. The entire format is about to be turned on its head, and it’s the time for the brewers of the world to get to work.

While I’m not much of a deck-builder, that’s never deterred me from trying to break it every time a new set is released. So let’s get into it!

U/B Control ? Aether Revolt Standard | Andrew Jessup

Fatal Push
If you take a look at my tournament results, you may be surprised to find out I actually really enjoy piloting control decks. The reason why I almost never actually play them in tournaments is the fact that my goal is to win and control decks normally suck. But with that being said, I’m optimistic about this shell. Control decks have struggled in Standard in recent years due to a dearth of efficient answers, but cards like Fatal Push, Metallic Rebuke, and Yahenni's Expertise could be enough to turn it around.

When talking about efficient removal, it’s pretty much impossible to not start with Fatal Push. A lot has already been said about it, so I don’t want to spend too long on it, but Fatal Push is on short list for best removal spell of all time. Having to jump through hoops to enable revolt and 5-drops actually being playable should keep it in check in Standard, but it will still almost certainly be the defining removal spell of the format.

Exhibit B in making the case that we’re seeing a resurgence in the power level of spells, Metallic Rebuke, is the best counter we've had in years. If you’re comparing it to Mana Leak, 3 mana is vastly different than two, but the same could be said of two to one. This deck doesn’t use Rebuke to it’s full potential, but it’s still a solid role player. The ability to cast a counterspell at a discounted rate for very little effort is just too hard to pass on.

Yahenni's Expertise
When Yahenni's Expertise was first spoiled, it almost seemed too insane to be real to me. A solid 4 mana sweeper with built in cost reduction just sounds absurd at first. But after giving it some thought, my opinion of the card is dramatically different. I think it’s solid, and it should see play, but the reality is it’s almost impossible for a sweeper to be anything more than fine in this format. Planeswalkers and Vehicles are just so powerful that taking an entire turn off while leaving them in play is devastating. Hopefully, the ability to play a Ruinous Path off of Yahenni's Expertise is enough to give it a shot.

Ruinous Path is a card I want to touch on as well. It’s practically ancient at this point, but I think it’s stock just went up a ton. Removing Copter should make Sorcery speed removal viable (Although Felidar Guardian may have something to say about this), banning Emrakul should lead to a rise in midrange decks where Path is at its best, and being able to play undercosted spells like Fatal Push and Metallic Rebuke alongside it will severely reduce the amount of times you have to Time Walk yourself in order to cast it.

Jeskai Panharmonicon ? Aether Revolt Standard | Andrew Jessup

Saheeli Rai
This deck is likely too weak in any sort of mirror match to exist its current iteration, but there’s a lot of powerful interactions worth exploring here. Filling out the deck without Copter and Reflector Mage will take some work though. The deck already suffered from a lack of solid early plays, so removing Copter doesn't help. But even worse than that, without Copter it’s hard to scrounge up enough artifacts for Glint-Nest Crane. But if the format becomes hostile enough toward other forms of the Saheeli Rai combo, this deck could be a real contender. With three infinite combos and a horde of value creatures, the average midrange deck doesn’t stand a chance.

Countless Gears Renegade is card that probably shouldn’t be making it into any of your constructed decks, but I think it has potential in this shell. Against aggro decks you can just play it early and look to trade it off, but when it sticks around you can start blinking it (which turns on revolt) to gum up the ground until you piece together a combo.

This deck also aims to abuse what is potentially the most important card released in Aether Revolt, Felidar Guardian. Seemingly innocuous at first glance, but many were speculating if this card would be banned before seeing a single game. This deck not only has the combo with Saheeli, but two Felidar Guardians and a Panharmonicon results in infinite Felidar Guardian triggers. Felidar Guardian also adds a huge boost to the decks fair game plan as well. With the abundance of enter the battlefield triggers, Guardian is almost always going to be cast for value. And when a Panharmonicon is added to the mix, you can essentially quadruple your triggers.

B/G Cryptolith Rite ? Aether Revolt Standard | Andrew Jessup

Rishkar, Peema Renegade
Cryptolith Rite is a card I revisit after pretty much every set release. It’s absurdly powerful, and the Emrakul banning was likely just what it needed. This version of the deck aims to flood the board, and use Duskwatch Recruiter and Lifecrafter's Bestiary to the gas flowing. The deck can also win by combing off with Paradox Engine. If you have around five creatures, a Cryptolith Rite, and a Paradox Engine, you can pump a ton of creatures out of your deck with your draw engines then win with Zulaport Cutthroat and Yahenni, Undying Partisan. There’s probably a few too many moving pieces here, but I have an affinity for playing awful cards, so I’m probably going to spend way too much time working on this.

Lifecrafter's Bestiary is the card that makes this tick. With a Cryptolith RIte out, you have access to a ton of excess mana and your deck is filled with cheap creatures, so you start to churning through your deck quickly. The Cryptolith Rite decks needed something like this too. WIthout Company, the deck just didn’t have access to any sort of engine. Hopefully, this could be enough to revive the archetype.

Hidden Herbalists is a card I’m pretty conflicted on. On one hand, it shouldn’t be too difficult to cast it with Revolt between Evolving Wilds, Scion Tokens, and Yahenni. But on the other hand, I don’t really know how good that is here. I think it’s a powerful enough effect and works well enough with cards like Bestiary that it’s worth exploring for now.

Rishkar, Peema Renegade is another interesting one from the new set. 4 power and getting two accelerants on the board for the cost of 3 mana is nothing to scoff at. In this deck the additional mana is huge and the ability to buff some of your anemic beat’s isn’t irrelevant either. It’s also possible this deck should be using more Rishkar in combination with something like Nissa, Voice of Zendikar to function as additional Cryptolith Rites.

Smothering Abomination is a card I’m interested in trying as well. It never made the cut in the old B/G Cryptolith Rite decks, but that was mostly because of the deck-building restrictions that came along with Collected Company. It’s entirely possible, or even likely, that Paradox Engine is just too cute and the deck should adopt a more value centric game plan.

Fling Atog ? Aether Revolt Standard | Andrew Jessup

While I didn’t start really playing until around 2012, my first introduction to Magic was around Mirrodin Block. I had a lot of credit at my local game stores from playing other card games, so I just decided to buy a bunch of Magic cards because I owned most the cards to the games I played already. In hindsight this was rather dumb of my seven year old self, but as it turns out it was actually a fairly significant moment in my life.

The first deck I owned was a budget friendly version of Affinity with Atogs instead of Ravagers. The deck would flood the board with artifacts then get in some chip damage before ending the game with Atog, Disciple of the Vault, and Fling. It may be fourteen years later, but this still sounds like a decent plan to me. This deck plays a pretty reasonable beatdown game as Plan A, but aims to use Ravenous Intruder and Key to the City as a form of reach to close out games.

Ravenous Intruder
Key to the City

While it’s not possible to have six artifacts in play by turn two anymore, I think the tools are in place to make Ravenous Intruder a real card. Most the aggressive decks want access to a healthy amount of artifacts to turn on cards like Inventor's Apprentice and Toolcraft Exemplar in the first place, so it just becomes a matter of figuring if playing some dedicated fodder is worth it. I’m honestly not sure as of now, but I see no harm in trying to find out.

Servo Schematic
Servo Schematic is one of the most obvious cards to work with Intruder. For 2 mana you get three artifacts along with a Servo Exhibit. That’s not exactly a good card, but it’s not embarrassing either. The problem is when you don’t have a sacrifice outlet, and you end up paying 2 mana for a 1/1. That most definitely is an embarrassing card. Twelve sacrifice outlets should be enough to prevent this from happening too often though.

The other obvious synergy with Intruder is the Implement cycle + Terrarion. These cards all have the Chromatic Star Clause where they trigger when they’re put into a graveyard not when activated. The fact that they replace themselves makes up for the fact that their effects aren’t worth anywhere near a full card or the mana investment, but we can use our Sac outlets to circumvent this.

Implement of Combustion was my cycle artifact of choice here. It’s actually difficult to explain how bad this card is but context is everything, and I wouldn't be surprised to see this card pop up in other places as well. The reason for this is how well it interacts with the Saheeli combo. The most frustrating part of playing against Splinter Twin esque combos is that you can never really tap out. But with Implement of Combustion, you can preemptively play your answer while leaving up only 1 mana per turn. I think the biggest appeal to Implement is that most the Saheeli decks will look to cards like Dispel to protect their combo and Implement is difficult to interact with.

Closing Thoughts

It feels like after almost every set the Magic hive mind is in awe of how powerful the most recent set is, but this one genuinely feels different. I haven’t played a single game with cards yet, so I’m nowhere near qualified to make this claim, but Aether Revolt is by far the best set we’ve seen in years. The set features combos, cost reduction, and the best spells we’ve had in a long time, so my expectations are pretty high. As I mentioned earlier, I’m sure I share the same goal as all of you in trying to break every new format, but this one is just feels different. Rarely do I expect the format to actually be broken, but I’m just waiting for this one to get snapped in half. The question is, what’s going to be the deck to do it?

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TAGS articles, standard, strategy, constructed, deck list, brewing, #mtgaer, aether revolt, andrew jessup

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