This past weekend we had two large Standard events to close out the year. While I’m writing this before the conclusion of the events I think it’s easy to tell that Standard really isn’t the two deck format that a lot of people had been proclaiming. The decks that only took into account those two decks were punished by more innovative ways to win a game of Magic. The resurgence of Aetherworks Marvel in the top 8 of the SCG Invitational in Atlanta isn’t surprising to me. It’s a little surprising that it happened so soon. I talked about Aetherworks Marvel as a card to watch on the Cartel Aristocrats Podcast (which you can find here). The decks end up operating a lot like dredge in Modern and Legacy. An unprepared metagame can have a lot of trouble dealing with them. We saw this weekend that the matches where Aetherworks played against B/G Delirium it was almost a joke. B/G Delirium doesn’t have the speed or attrition to deal with the enormous number of threats that Aetherworks Marvel decks can produce. The U/W Tempo decks (which are still erroneously being called flash despite a lack of flash threats) have been the thorn keeping Aetherworks Marvel down, but they have a lot of trouble beating the B/G decks. This type of rock-paper-scissors will likely continue until we get Aether Revolt early next year.

Some cards that standout this weekend are definitely the Sigarda, Heron's Grace coming out of the once R/G Aetherworks decks that are now Naya to support this angel. It’s a bit nuanced but it does the best job of stopping you from getting wrecked by Emrakul’s cast trigger. It blocks reasonably well and produces a bunch of ground blockers to clog up the board like Ishkanah, Grafwidow if you need to buy time. I’d also mention that Aetherworks Marvel is likely to see an uptick but let’s be honest, by the time you read this, it’s already too late to buy in. Going forward we may see more people adopt Baugh’s build.

Naya Aetherworks ? Kaladesh Standard | Jacob Baugh, SCG Invitational Atlanta

• Creatures (12)
• 1 Sigarda, Heron's Grace
• 3 Ishkanah, Grafwidow
• 4 Emrakul, the Promised End
• 4 Servant of the Conduit

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• 3 Nahiri, the Harbinger

• Instants (4)
• 4 Harnessed Lightning

• Sorceries (6)
• 2 Traverse the Ulvenwald
• 4 Attune with Aether

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Vessel of Nascency

• Artifacts (8)
• 4 Aetherworks Marvel
• 4 Woodweaver's Puzzleknot

• Lands (20)
• 1 Plains
• 2 Mountain
• 8 Forest
• 2 Evolving Wilds
• 3 Game Trail
• 4 Aether Hub

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Tireless Tracker
• 1 World Breaker
• 3 Kozilek's Return
• 2 Natural State
• 3 Tears of Valakut
• 1 Sigarda, Heron's Grace
• 1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1 Nissa, Vital Force

Buy This Deck

Fellow Gathering Magic author, Ben “Forty Card” Friedman, was also on a similar plan playing Aetherworks Marvel and had a light splash for Sigarda to help combat the mirror. I think the real innovation lies with Baugh’s build, though. Nahiri, the Harbinger has been great on camera and provides the deck with a lot of flexibility. In addition to her ability to tutor up Emrakul to kill your opponent, she can help you get delirium for Ishkanah, remove an opposing Emrakul or Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger after it has attacked, and help filter draws when you end up with too many bad cards in hand. Either way, I think Aetherworks Marvel only gets better after Aether Revolt comes out. We will presumably get access to more energy cards and more options to build the deck.

With the end of the year approaching quickly I’d recommend everyone to get their pennies together for the lowest prices of the next 6 months. If you play Standard or Modern and were holding off on buying your Kaladesh fastlands, you’re likely to find the best deals on or near Christmas this year. When we start getting spoilers for Aether Revolt in early January it will already be past the time to get in the cheapest. Also as a reminder, the rotation changes mean that cards from Battle for Zendikar through Eldritch Moon are going to be in Standard until next September. You will have all of Amonkhet block to play with them, so approximately another 10 months. If you play competitive Magic but have been putting off buying Gideon, Ally of Zendikar (for example), you may want to get them soon so you have a good amount of time to play with them.

But really, these Standard cards aren’t the movers and shakers that continue to confound a lot of people that think they are Magic financiers. Some of the biggest jumps were seen in the cards below, which see almost no competitive play:

What do these cards even do? Why are they so expensive all of a sudden? My friend, you need to read more of Jason Alt’s Commander articles. These are the easiest missing cards from the Breed Lethality Commander deck (commanded by Atraxa, Praetors' Voice). These are all pretty low print run staples that people are just rediscovering. If you didn’t need a Doubling Season before you definitely need it in your new Atraxa deck. The best and worst part of a Commander player (to a fault) is they are like a black hole for Magic cards. They buy often but sell rarely. Meaning the unlike Standard or Modern where people sell their deck to buy a new one, EDH players just buy more decks. Because of this, it really wouldn’t surprise me if Doubling Season made it to $100 before it gets reprinted. It’s just the kind of card that people can find more reasons to own copies.

I know what you’re thinking. But Jim that’s only one deck. It’s probably just anecdotal evidence, right? Have you taken a look at Breya, Etherium Shaper staples?

Arcum Daaaang son, indeed. These are the quickest and easiest cards to jump due to their low supply but there are still going to be many more cards that haven’t even started creeping up enough yet to be noticed. My favorite resource for EDH data has to be EDHREC.com. If you play EDH and have never visited you’re doing it the hard way. Here, we can see the common cards people are putting into Atraxa decks. Luckily with the set symbols on the cards it’s easy to tell when the card was last printed. From here we can find out which cards are popular but not in the actual precon. One of the first cards you see here is Inexorable Tide.

Okay so Inexorable Tide has data for 4 years and has gone from $0.40 to $0.75. This probably won’t burst its bubble but it could be a $2 card soon. But there is an even more insane card to be looking at.

Proliferate is a mechanic that really incentivizes 3 distinct game plans. Counters on creatures, counters on players, or counter on permanents. Generally, there is not a ton of overlap between the three even though they use a lot of the same cards. One really big type of permanent that people love to use with Doubling Season and proliferate is Planeswalkers.

The legendary artifact, The Chain Veil is $2 still! It’s a mythic of a core set so supply is pretty constrained and it lets you do your thing with your Planeswalkers again. What’s not to love? Well according to EDHREC, it’s only in 27% of Atraxa decks right now so it’s likely not a ton of people have caught on. Teferi, Temporal Archmage is in 35% of decklists and has an ultimate that is pretty similar to The Chain Veil. I’m not saying that you’re going to be able to retire on your chain veil profits but I don’t want you to be surprised to see it shoot up in price.

Well it seems like the groundhog popped it’s head up and saw its Eldrazi shadow and we’re in for another 10 months of Emrakul. This weekend shows that there is still some room for improvement but we will likely need to wait for Aether Revolt for any shakeups. What cards have been on your wishlist? It might be time to get them on the cheap!