In late 2016, Kaladesh proved to be a truly potent set. Smuggler's Copter and Aetherworks Marvel ran Standard over until their eventual bannings, and energy was on its way to being a dominant force. On the way to reach that point, we got Aether Revolt - the second and final set of the Kaladesh block.Today, we're going to run through all of the mythic rares of the set and see if they hold up quite as strongly as the classic first set. Let's dive on in!

Number Twelve

All of the text on this card rocks. What hinders it, though, is its mana cost, which is clearly playing things as safely as possible. By the time you hit five mana, this card isn't getting through for any sort of real damage and almost certainly isn't even giving you an extra combat phase either. This made the card about as unplayable as it gets in just about every sense of the word.

Number Eleven

This card provides some interesting design space in a theoretical sense. Realistically, though, you're not going to have this on the board when you die. Additionally, if you lose the game by way of poison or milling out and this triggers, odds are you're still dying anyways. Exquisite Archangel had some fringe use cases, but for the most part was just useless bulk.

Number Ten

Etherium Cell tokens being the proto-Treasure token following the Gold tokens of the Theros block was interesting to see here. However, there weren't really any artifact centric decks that could take meaningful advantage of the -2 and -7 effects to make good use of the tokens. As such, Tezzeret floundered with this iteration and proved to be not all that exciting.

Number Nine

Recently, Gonti's Aether Heart has seen quite a resurgence of play thanks to the increased prevalence of energy thanks to Universes Beyond: Fallout and Modern Horizons 3. However, taking history into play, this card was as bulky of a bulk mythic as they came for years and was pretty much stone unplayable outside of a few brave souls trying to do energy things in Commander. Still, I'll give it the props for its long-term utility here in this case.

Number Eight

When it came to Limited, Herald of Anguish was a certified bomb. Everywhere else, though, it didn't really offer much utility and ended up being a rather mediocre card. It saw some minor Standard play, but not enough to really be worth mentioning, leading it to be a rather middle-of-the-road card on the whole.

Number Seven

Planar Portal already existed, though that put the card searched into your hand. Planar Bridge just put it straight onto the battlefield instead. As a result, it had Commander written all over it, which is where it sees the most play now. I'd hardly call it a great card, personally, but it's got some of the best casual appeal around, and sometimes that's worth its weight in gold.

Number Six

Not many people really made good use of Aetherwind Basker in its time. It was far too expensive to be good in Constructed, after all. Still, the card was a massive bomb in Limited, and for those daring folks bold enough to play an energy-based Commander deck, this card was massive. You'd easily be able to generate colossal amounts of energy and then use it to your heart's content on whatever powerful effect you want to win with. Its uses may be niche, but when it works, it's an absolute beating.

Number Five

This iteration was simply value on top of value on top of value. It effectively let you draw multiple cards a turn and then gave you a Swords to Plowshares removal option as well. The problem was casting the card, as six mana was often too much to reliably make good use of. That didn't stop him from making a respectable showing in Standard all the same, as well as an even better showing in Commander thanks to his repeatable card advantage engine.

Number Four

For as long as I can remember, Followed Footsteps has been a fairly popular Commander card. As such, it's not difficult to see how the same sort of card can be just as good for artifacts as is for creatures. Oh wait, but there's more than just getting a free copy each turn. If you get enough copies on the board at once, it can actually win you the game! This made the card extremely popular in casual circles right from the jump, even if it was completely non-viable in Constructed play.

Number Three

Typically when I write these mythic reviews, I try to write with the context of the era the cards were released in. This is because many cards that were once incredible and dominated formats have been swept away with time. In this case with a lower power set like Aether Revolt, though, it's hard to ignore the elephant in the room of Indomitable Creativity. Long considered a bulk rare post-release, the card has become a defining card in Creativity decks in both Pioneer and Modern. That alone makes this worth putting highly on a list like this.

Number Two

Nowadays you won't see Paradox Engine showing up in very many places. The reason? It got banned in Commander, the one format where it continually saw the most play. This ban came after two and a half years of the card utterly dominating the format to the point that it comboed off by sneezing. That alone deserves a high placement.

Number One

Heart of Kiran is a prime example of a card that utterly dominated in its era. The card was in high demand and very costly, showing up in all kinds of decks, mainly aggro lists. The cheap cost with the alternate crew activation made it extremely trivial to get a huge evasive threat online. While it hasn't seen much use since it rotated, Heart of Kiran even showed up in pre-Karn ban Nykthos Ramp in Pioneer to help your combo along. An absolute all-timer of a card, even if it's time in the sun has long since passed.

Paige Smith

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