Greetings, folks. Sorry for the long silence, but I’ve had
writer’s block lately. And by writer’s block, I mean I’ve been binge-watching
Supernatural, playing Settlers of Catan, and generally just playing far, far
less Magic than I’d like to, but right now it’s just not my #1 focus. That said
I’ve got a lot of unfinished projects in the works, some farther along than
others. I have also just been having a hard time writing lately, independently
of any distractions. I’ve began, then scrapped, about three previous attempts
at an EDH set review for Aether Revolt. So I finally decided this would be a
good time to fall back to the trusty ol’ Top 10 format.
I think one of the problems with doing a broader set review
this time was that, while there are a LOT of EDH-playable cards in Aether
Revolt, most of them are only good in
specific archetypes – so I was just spending a lot of time saying things like “obviously
good in artifact decks”, or “obviously good in +1/+1 counter decks”. If you are
playing one or both of those two archetypes, you are probably very excited
about this set. If you are not, well, luckily there are still some more
generically-good cards as well!
Wouldn’t be much of a Top 10 list if I didn’t cheat by
throwing out a few Honorable Mentions, so let’s start there.
Metallic Mimic
Dark Intimations
Ajani Unyielding
These are all pretty good and might make the Top 10 of a
lesser set, but Aether Revolt is actually a deceptively strong set loaded with
sweet cards. First up is Metallic Mimic, which is just a good Tribal option. That
he gives +1/+1 counters instead of the usual “anthem” effect common to most
tribal lords gives the Mimic some extra utility. For one thing, if the Mimic
dies, the existing +1/+1 counters on your creatures stick around. And of course
he synergizes with any effects that care about +1/+1 counters, everything from
Hardened Scales to Rage Forger. If you are running a tribal deck and need a
cheap lord, you might want this. If you’re running tribal AND have some +1/+1
counter synergies, you definitely want this.
Next up, we have Dark Intimations. This is another card that
seems really strong in the right decks, but is pretty limited in what those
decks are. In short, it wants to be run in any Grixis deck that is also running
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. Of course we are almost certainly getting a new
version of Nicol Bolas in the next block, so this card’s stock may go up if the
new Bolas is any good. But for now it’s just a decent card you’ll probably
happily play in decks that happen to be running Bolas already.
Ajani Unyielding is a bit tough to pin down. He’s got a
respectable if not exciting +2, and his “Swords to Plowshares” -2 is great. His
ultimate is pretty unexciting, basically requiring you to already be way ahead
in either creatures or planeswalkers for it to do much. A lot of ‘walker
Ultimates feel “win more” but in reality many of them also can also help you catch
back up when you’re behind. This Ajani’s ultimate is very unlikely to matter if
your behind and will very likely be truly win-more if you’re not. But really it
comes down to the bane of all 6-mana planeswalkers: being compared to Elspeth,
Sun’s Champion. The six-mana Elspeth is pretty much the gold-standard of 6-drop
planeswalkers in EDH. In a broader sense, I don’t think Ajani compares all that
well to Elspeth, but of course if you’re going deep on the Superfriends plan,
you are clearly running Ajani anyway.
With our honorable mentions out of the way, let’s move on to
the proper Top Ten.
10. Planar Bridge – Yes it’s insanely expensive, which is
why it barely squeaks onto the list rather than topping it, but I think there
are a lot of decks that can very reasonably afford the cost, and virtually no
decks wouldn’t want this effects, were cost not an obstacle. I’m mainly thinking
of mono-color decks here. For starters, most mono-color EDH decks are loaded
with mana-doublers like Caged Sun or Extraplanar Lens, as well as busted lands like
Gaea’s Cradle, Cabal Coffers, or Nykthos. Green decks in particular seem
well-poised to abuse the Bridge with commanders like Selvala, Heart of the
Wilds. Indeed, 8 mana per turn will be downright trivial to many decks. Adding
to that, many mono-color decks lack tutors or at least can only tutor for
certain things. Being able to tutor any PERMANENT in your deck directly into
play, at instant speed will be an insanely valuable ability to some decks, as
this will feel very much out-of-color for them. But, yes, at the end of the day
this does cost a TON of mana, and so only decks that are very effective at
setting up broken mana production will really be able to make great use of
this.
9. Winding Constrictor – One of those niche cards I spoke
of, but a very good one nonetheless. A 2/3 for two mana is already a good rate,
though the body is still virtually insignificant in EDH terms. But that ability
is what we’re really after. This goes in virtually anything that cares about
counters. Atraxa, Varolz, Ghave, etc. It works with Poision and Experience
counters. It cuts the clock from Darksteel Reactor fully in half. Has fun
synergy with any charge-counter based mana rocks like Coalition Relic or Everflowing
Chalice. Sadly, though, it does not work with Planeswalkers. Well, maybe that’s
a good thing, actually.
8. Inspiring Statuary – Another niche card in that it needs
to be in decks with a very high number of artifacts that aren’t just mana
rocks, but also needs a lot of non-artifact spells for it to be of use. But
most artifact-centric decks do tend to run a lot of non-artifact spells, and so
this is probably very strong in any artifact deck that isn’t just mono-brown.
By itself the statue basically reads “Tap: Add 1 to your mana pool. Only use
this mana to cast non-artifact spells”. That’s not good enough to run if that
was all it did, but that’s its WORST CASE state. Once you have even a single
other “do nothing” artifact like, say, Alhammaret’s Archive in play, it starts
to really pay dividends. Being able to tap an army of thopter tokens or myr
tokens for 1 colorless can be very powerful.
7. Heroic Intervention – Mono-green Boros Charm? Sure, we’ll
take it! Actually the additional utility of granting Hexproof should not be
overlooked. Obviously you still want try to use this in response to a sweeper
for maximum value, but saving a single critical permanent from spot removal can
sometimes mean the difference between winning and losing. There really isn’t
too much more to say about this card – if you’re in green and you’re playing
the sort of deck that has to really respect a Wrath of God, then you probably
want this in your deck. And most green decks do tend to run out a lot of
creatures.
6. Lifecrafter’s Bestiary – Speaking of green decks running
out creatures... In some decks this will be largely inferior to Elemental Bond,
but at the same time, I have seen and played quite a few green decks that were too
low to the ground to reliably trigger Bond. If you’re running out a lot of
Elvish Mystics and other small-fry critters, you’ll probably want this. That
said, I’d still be inclined to run the Bestiary in decks alongside Elemental
Bond because frankly there is no such thing as too much card draw. At this
point I think Green might be better at drawing cards than Blue! And I don’t see
that as a bad thing. Oh, and I should mention the upkeep Scry is not to be
disregarded. It’s a small thing, but it’s still actually very good to have.
5. Sram, Senior Edificer – The sole Legendary creature to
make the list, not because Sram is the best in a vacuum, but because he’s a
mono-White legend that says “Draw a card” in his text box. He’s great in the 99
of any white or boros Equipment list, probably decent in Rafiq or any other
aura or equipment –based voltron decks, and most importantly he has tremendous
potential to make mono-white decks actually good in EDH. Not, like, COMPETITIVE
good, but, like, not a joke even at kitchen tables. Cheap draw in your command
zone is always fun to have, in any color, but White clearly needed this the
most.
4. Trophy Mage – This uncommon is so good, I could see her
being #2 or even #1 on this list, were the set not so ridiculously good. At
first glances she may not seem that great, but just do a Gatherer search for
3-mana artifacts and see for yourself how many good-to-amazing targets there
are for this chick. Just the selection of equipment alone is enough to ensure
she’d see play. Then you add all the mana rocks at three, and she gets really
enticing. Finally, throw in all the amazing stuff like Oblivion Stone, Crucible
of Worlds, Mimic Vat or Vedalken Shakles and honestly I’m starting to think she’s
actually just plain better than Trinket Mage. Absolutely a fantastic card.
3. Baral’s Expertise – I could easily see this card and my
#2 pick swapping places, and almost hedged by calling this a tie. But
ultimately I settled on this being my #3 pick simply because it doesn’t draw
cards (well, it can, if you cast a draw spell off it, but you get the point). At
any rate, this is just a phenomenal tempo/control card. Bounce three opposing
threats, then get a four-drop spell for free? Insane value, especially if you
just Winfall or Wheel of Fortune so those threats you just bounced don’t get to
come right back. Personally I’d be just thrilled to get a Deep Analysis or a
Hedron Archive off this, but honestly virtually ANY spell + the Expertise’s
main effect is going to be solid value.
2. Rishkar’s Expertise – You can easily draw three to five
cards reliably off this Expertise, which for six mana wouldn’t be that great,
but once you add the free five-drop into the mix and you’d easily be coming out
a head even if this is “just” a Harmonize. And in many green decks, that free
five-drop is likely to be a significant threat. Or a Seedborn Muse, the best
five-drop in green! Yeah, any card that both helps you dig for Seedborn Muse,
then lets you cast her if you find her seems good to me. But as we all know I
love to draw cards. Casting stuff for free is just a great bonus. Like Baral’s
Expertise above it just seems ridiculously easy to get way more than six-mana
worth of value out of this card. Six mana is not cheap, but I still think this
is going to feel very undercosted much of the time.
1. Paradox Engine – And here we have just the nuttiest card
in the set, hands down. At first I was thinking this might not be that bonkers
outside of an actual combo, but after slotting it into a couple of decks and
playing around with it, I realized how utterly wrong I was. Of course it doesn’t
just go into any ol’ deck and suddenly turn broken, but if you have more than a
smattering of mana-rocks, this is going to be good. Once you add in any other valuable
tap effects… holy shit. I’ve already goldfished more than one game where I was
able to effectively draw more or less my entire deck without actually going
infinite. It does absurd things with Cryptolith Rite and a Cryptbreaker. It
does absurd things with Selvala (either version, but especially the mono-green
one). It just does absurd things. It is indisputably the most powerful and most
breakable card in the set. I can absolutely envision a future where this gets
banned, though I don’t necessarily think it will come to that. More likely, I
think it will get a ton of play, but over time those players like myself and my
group who do not like to combo off will just slowly weed it out of one deck
after another until it sees little to no play anymore.
All in all, I think Aether Revolt is a mostly a strong set, with
several very impactful cards at the top of the curve. Artifact decks and +1/+1
counter decks are the biggest winners, with an absolute crapload of playable, but
for there’s a little something for just about everyone. On the other hand, Red got
shafted even more than usual, getting two mythics to the other colors’ one
each, yet still somehow coming off as the worst color by a mile. Sure either of
Red’s mythics could see a smattering of play here and there, but the regular
rares are almost entirely crap-tier. Red got the worst legend in the cycle in
Kari Zev (though she is hella cool, flavor-wise, I’ll be the first to admit),
and similarly the red Expertise is the worst of that cycle (for EDH at least).
Another downside of the set is that a disproportionate
number of the set’s playables are concentrated in the mythic/rare level, with
very few commons and uncommons making much of a splash (though the few that do
make the cut are above par). I mean, that sounds pretty typical of any set,
right? Rares and mythics are usually better than uncommon, I agree. But most
sets have a pretty good spread, at least at uncommon, of utility cards I could
at least conceivably play. Aether revolt even has a cycle of 10 two-color
uncommons which out to have produces some really gems, but of those only Winding
Constrictor seems destined for heavy play, and only two or three others seem
worthy of niche play. That said, we did
get Trophy Mage so I can’t complain too much. So ultimately this is a set with
a few number of desirable cards overall, but those cards you will want, you’re
likely to want very badly and in multiple copies.
Enjoy!
