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When I was going over colorless mana, I mentioned how popular a topic it was to discuss what would happen if a sixth color of mana was added to Magic. While it's common to consider the colorless mana that was introduced in Oath of the Gatewatch a sixth "color" in the game - one that requires its own mana, and lands, and is included in casting costs - energy as a resource ends up working very similarly, and could also easily be considered a sixth (or I suppose seventh?) type of mana.
Just like devoid and colorless mana, energy is another mechanic that ended up making an appearance as recently as Modern Horizons 3, and what a splash it has made in Modern. The interesting about this is if you consider both colorless mana and energy additional "colors" in the game, then Modern Horizons 3 gave players access to seven total "colors." At the very least, it gave players seven different resources they can accumulate.
In truth, energy is less of a color than colorless mana was, but it was still a brand-new resource for the game that you needed to amass in order to do powerful things with it. The more energy you gained, the more you could do, so the resource overlap with mana or lands was obvious.
Energy was introduced in Kaladesh in 2016 and is represented by energy counters that a player receives whenever they generate energy via a card or effect. Similar to experience counters and poison counters, energy counters are counters that were placed "on" players. Energy as a mechanic was simple: certain spells you would play or abilities you would activate generate an amount of energy for you. This energy was stored and you didn't lose it until you used it.
Energy has only been utilized in four sets: Kaladesh, Aether Revolt, Fallout, and Modern Horizons 3 - and there are 138 cards that reference energy.
Out of all the sets that include energy, Fallout has to be the most interesting. Not only is Fallout my absolute favorite video game franchise, it also happens to be just a perfect choice for a set to include energy. A futuristic, post-apocalyptic wasteland that's full of androids, robots, and energy weapons is an ideal environment to resurrect the energy mechanic.
Not only was energy a huge part of the Kaladesh Standard metagame - as one might expect it to be, as the central mechanic of the block - it is also currently a huge part of the Modern metagame thanks to all the energy inclusions in Modern Horizons 3.
In Kaladesh Standard, there were a variety of popular, metagame-defining decks, from combo to aggro. One of my favorites was a combo deck based around the energy card Aetherworks Marvel that would be used to cheat cards like Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Chandra, Flamecaller into play.
Aetherworks Marvel | Standard, Pro Tour Amonkhet | Martin Müller
- Creatures (15)
- 3 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
- 4 Rogue Refiner
- 4 Whirler Virtuoso
- 4 Servant of the Conduit
- Spells (18)
- 2 Aether Meltdown
- 4 Attune with Aether
- 4 Harnessed Lightning
- 4 Woodweaver's Puzzleknot
- 4 Aetherworks Marvel
- Planeswalkers (4)
- 4 Chandra, Flamecaller
- Lands (23)
- 1 Botanical Sanctum
- 1 Sheltered Thicket
- 1 Island
- 2 Lumbering Falls
- 2 Mountain
- 2 Game Trail
- 4 Spirebluff Canal
- 4 Aether Hub
- 6 Forest
- Sideboard (15)
- 2 Confiscation Coup
- 2 Manglehorn
- 4 Tireless Tracker
- 2 Sweltering Suns
- 3 Negate
- 2 Sphinx of the Final Word
Truth be told, some energy cards were too efficient. Rogue Refiner and Attune with Aether specifically ended up being banned in Standard.
Two other energy cards that were huge in a Sultai Energy deck at the time were Longtusk Cub and Glint-Sleeve Siphoner. And all decks had four copies of Aether Hub. In fact, Seth Manfield ended up winning Pro Tour Ixalan in 2017 with just such a deck.
Nowadays cards like Amped Raptor, Guide of Souls, Static Prison, and Galvanic Discharge dominate a R/W aggro deck in Modern, while cards like Wrath of the Skies and Tune the Narrative have been pivotal pieces of the Jeskai Control deck. Even the energized version of Recurring Nightmare, Chthonian Nightmare, sees some play.
Like devoid and colorless, only time will tell if we see the energy mechanic revisited in another Standard set, or if it will be relegated to supplemental product, like Modern Horizons 3 and the Fallout expansion.
Frank Lepore
