MTG Salvation

I have been playing Magic since 1993 and I have 63 Commander decks that I have all played extensively on Magic Online, and consider myself one of the most prolific players currently within the Commander Magic Online domain.

So I thought I'd start posting some of my more unusual brews. Not quite casual, but also not quite Tier 1, 75% for sure.

Kaladesh been out for a little while and after the Kaladesh Pro Tour weekend with Aetherworks Marvel decks kicking about, I couldn't resist trying to make an E=Energy deck for Commander. I'm one of the few players online that makes Commander decks around single cards (not the Commander themselves). I can honestly say that I never came across anybody else playing a pure Jeskai Ascendancy deck in Commander Online. Foolish? Maybe..but also fun to see how you can pull it off.

After looking at this set I really only found that the Aetherworks Marvel is truly the only card that you want to sink your energy into in a Multiplayer Commander environment. Anything else isn't really getting you anywhere.

I looked at Bant as the colour choice, and Derevi as the best Commander in this strategy. However it became obvious that its the ability to produce Energy that is really central to a good Energy deck, and Brago stood out as the best source of getting repetitive Energy producers, with almost all the cards having the words "When enters the battlefield, you get E". Any Brago player will know that these are the magical words for cards you want in his archetype.

Brago as a deck, is Tier 1 in my opinion. So lets be honest, taking out any cards to build into a Energy strategy at this stage, with only the one Kaladesh set out, is probably not making the classic Brago deck stronger. So lets just say this is for trying something brave and new. If you're a Brago player, don't post saying "I can't believe you're not playing this card with Brago!", as cards have to come out, good ones, really good ones.

At first I went with as many Energy producers to blink as possible. Almost all of them if they are in U, W and C. However its hard to take out all of classic Brago synergy cards, and in the end I found a good balance between making energy and also just using good old fashioned "enters the battlefield" value cards. All or nothing on Energy ended up being more "nothing". So the balance that was struck is that I have ended up with a ten card Energy package. Ten cards doesn't sound like much, but actually you get the balance of producing just enough energy to fuel the Aetherwork's Marvel, without going overboard and just doing nothing else until you get the engine working.

The ten cards are: Eddytrail Hawk, Aether Theorist, Aetherstorm Roc, Minister of Inquiries, Thriving Turtle, Glassblower's Puzzleknot, Janjeet Sentry, Consulate Surveillance, Aetherworks Marvel, Electrostatic Pummeler.

To be sure, the cards by themselves are fairly underwhelming, but if you go into it knowing that you just want to build up energy until you can spend it it on Aetherworks Marvel later in the game, it actually feels pretty good storing it up.

Here is my Deck that I've had good success with online:



Cards that I tried out but ended up not making my final cut for whatever reason: Era of Innovation, Dynavolt Tower, Deadlock Trap, Hightide Hermit, Aethersquall Ancient and Decoction Module. Although they all seem like they could be good, they end up just being a little awkward.

So you might be asking, your deck doesn't do anything with Energy unless you have the Aetherworks Marvel. This is absolutely true. So as an experienced player with basing decks around single cards tutors are a must. There are 5 tutors used in the deck to fetch it before you might just naturally draw it: Enlightened Tutor, Tezzeret the Seeker, Inventors' Fair, Kaho, Minamo Historian, Fabricate. Actually you're really wanting to be setting up producing Energy first, so I've found that waiting for a tutor is not the biggest deal as casting it too early might be pointless. There is also Academy Ruins and general counter magic to protect it. Often I find that once Brago is going people are overwhelmed with other cards on the battlefield, so protecting it is not like a must.

The main reason for the post is not to say this deck is great (it is good and performs better than I expected), but really as the primer for Energy and future synergies with the Kaladesh block. At the moment there is really only one card this is based around Aetherworks Marvel. You might as well say its an Aetherworks Marvel deck. The only other card that does come up with from time to time, is Consulate Surveillance. Can be used in a pinch to soak damage.

However with another set coming out in the Kaladesh block, Aether Revolt, we are bound to find many more powerful things to sink Energy into, and at this stage I believe Brago will be the hallmark for Energy based strategies.

If you care about energy, Glimmer of Genius seems good enough to play. Also, given how badly you want to have Aetherworks Marvel, how about a few more tutors to find it, like Transmute Artifact and Reshape, or some more cards to help dig for it like Dig Through Time and the aforementioned Glimmer of Genius?

If you care about energy, Glimmer of Genius seems good enough to play. Also, given how badly you want to have Aetherworks Marvel, how about a few more tutors to find it, like Transmute Artifact and Reshape, or some more cards to help dig for it like Dig Through Time and the aforementioned Glimmer of Genius?

I had Transmute Artifact in my first builds, but I only have 11 artifacts, and of those only really a couple of them you'd be willing to sacrifice as they provide great value in this deck. But what I found that quite often I'd have a tutor for Aetherworks Marvel in the early game, but because I had not set up the Energy producing engine, it wasn't worth spending the turn tutoring and then playing it. So I think I've found the nice balance between the 5 tutors, plus the Aetherworks itself, is enough to be satisfied that you're probably going to get it when you're ready with Energy. I have had some games where I've been waiting for it, but as you can use it twice in a turn with Brago (blink it out), you soon use up the Energy and don't feel so bad for having to wait.

Glimmer of Genius, although a good card on its own, in a Brago deck, you really are wanting repetitive sources of draw and Energy, and I did put it into my first build, but it got cut for that reason.

You're gonna wanna add Deepglow Skate since it can double the amount of you have.

Quote from DementedKirby »

You're gonna wanna add Deepglow Skate since it can double the amount of you have.

I was just looking through the Commander 16 spoilers and thinking that this card is going straight into my Superfriends deck.

However official wording for Energy counters is: "An energy counter is a counter that, unlike most other counters, is placed on players rather than objects"

So unfortunately players are not a permanent, so will not work with Energy

Quote from darrenhabib »

Quote from DementedKirby »

You're gonna wanna add Deepglow Skate since it can double the amount of you have.

I was just looking through the Commander 16 spoilers and thinking that this card is going straight into my Superfriends deck.

However official wording for Energy counters is: "An energy counter is a counter that, unlike most other counters, is placed on players rather than objects"

So unfortunately players are not a permanent, so will not work with Energy

Damn, you're right. I didn't read "player". Oh well... proliferate it is, then, lol.

How has the deck been coming along? It has helped inspire me to build an Atraxa deck devoted to energy counters.

Quote from DementedKirby »

How has the deck been coming along? It has helped inspire me to build an Atraxa deck devoted to energy counters.

I've haven't been playing it much, but its been fun when you get the Energy engine going for sure. Honestly the best thing about the deck, is that even though its a Brago deck (which is scary for opponents) once you show an Energy theme, people are more accepting and even give you big kudos for bringing Energy to commander format in a relevant way. As I mentioned before, the strength of the deck is simply that Brago can do broken things, so I always do well.

Just had a look through your list, very cool. Kudos for trying something a little different. You will find that only a small number of your games Energy will be relevant. You have 5 Energy related cards and as I say the only two cards that really become relevant are Aetherworks Marvel and to a much lesser extent Consulate Surveillance. Aethersquall Ancient is a bit of a slow machine, but with planeswalkers is a real boon for your archetype. Make sure you remember and post how your games go when Energy was relevant. The only another time a card was actually a game finisher was when I had 38 energy and Electrostatic Pummeler. Honestly even if you can get a kill, you kind of don't want to spend it until have Aetherworks Marvel, but I had Venser, the Sojourner in play, so I used the -1 ability to make him unblockable and then went in for the kill. I needed to pump it up 6 times (18 energy) for incoming 64 damage. It got spot removed, but was worth a shot

Lol, yeah, I'm dying to see what other energy cards become available in Aether Revolt. Since proliferate can be for any amount of targets, even with few energy providers the consistent proliferate goes a long way. I'm still playing around with it and it's nowhere near finished. Hopefully with some more tinkering it will be a well-oiled machine. It is a casual deck so I don't want it to be too close to 100% or even 75%, but still, that's no excuse to not run cards that go great with it. It's almost like the energy theme makes the deck casual and not entirely competitive - which is what I like most about it.

Quote from DementedKirby »

Lol, yeah, I'm dying to see what other energy cards become available in Aether Revolt. Since proliferate can be for any amount of targets, even with few energy providers the consistent proliferate goes a long way. I'm still playing around with it and it's nowhere near finished. Hopefully with some more tinkering it will be a well-oiled machine. It is a casual deck so I don't want it to be too close to 100% or even 75%, but still, that's no excuse to not run cards that go great with it. It's almost like the energy theme makes the deck casual and not entirely competitive - which is what I like most about it.

Yeah the cool thing is that unlike most commander players, because you've invested in the concept of Energy, its gives you more to look forward to in the Aether Revolt set. Most other people are just looking at the set to see which cards can break into their 99 potentially, and of course in most cases will be disappointed. So hang in there and embrace all things that flow through the Aether, even if it is a bit janky ;-)

whats your mtgo username

Quote from Moxnix »

whats your mtgo username

MagicSince93

Hi, nice article! was thinking about building something similar. I read you built it before the launch of Aether revolt. Though that set actually had next to nothing to offer for blue/ white "energy-wise":

Shielded Aether Thief? But with the ETB you included i guess this kind of card draw is way too slow...
Aethertide Whale? nice amount of energy for ETB but 6 mana?! ...

Did you by any chance have made some changes, new ideas or new inclusions till now? Do you actually still play the deck?

Thanks in advance