Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen a sharp decline in the presence of Mardu Vehicles. Mardu was the deck of choice heading into Standard with Amonkhet, but Aetherworks Marvel quickly overtook it as the premier deck in the format. The problem is that the combination of Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Sweltering Suns, and Chandra is enormously difficult. So that leaves us with trying to explore new options that combine the aggressive potential of Mardu with more elements that interact with Marvel. In this week, we may be seeing progress on hybridizing those goals:

Esper Vehicles ? Amonkhet Standard | MUSASABI , 7-1 Standard MOCS

• Creatures (24)
• 2 Archangel Avacyn
• 2 Selfless Spirit
• 4 Glory-Bound Initiate
• 4 Scrapheap Scrounger
• 4 Spell Queller
• 4 Thraben Inspector
• 4 Toolcraft Exemplar

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

• Instants (2)
• 2 Metallic Rebuke

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Cast Out

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Heart of Kiran

• Lands (24)
• 2 Island
• 6 Plains
• 2 Aether Hub
• 2 Irrigated Farmland
• 4 Concealed Courtyard
• 4 Port Town
• 4 Spire of Industry

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Archangel Avacyn
• 1 Cast Out
• 1 Dusk // Dawn
• 2 Negate
• 2 Metallic Rebuke
• 2 Stasis Snare
• 3 Declaration in Stone
• 3 Fumigate

Buy This Deck

Instead, this deck leaning on Blue to shore up matchups against Torrential Gearhulk and Aetherworks Marvel. With Toolcraft Exemplar, Thraben Inspector, and Heart of Kiran, you still get fast starts that can keep opponents struggling to stay afloat. You still have access to Scrapheap Scrounger to keep the pressure up through sweepers. However, instead of removal spells, now you have access to Spell Queller and Metallic Rebuke to prevent opponents from resolving spells that matter. Your goal with this deck is to resolve threats on the first two turns and then sit back with your interactive elements up to make sure that your threats go the distance.

Sure, it’s painful for a deck that’s full of threats to pass the turn without adding anything powerful to the board, but you’ve got plenty of cycling lands, Cast Outs, and even Avacyns to make it less painful to pass the turn without casting any spells.

If you’re looking to beat down and still have game against opposing Vehicles decks as well as against Aetherworks Marvel, I think you’ll be hard pressed to do better than this as a starting out.