The Flux Capacitor is a mono-U Aetherflux Storm list that is both explosive and resilient, thanks to the life gain from its namesake card. It uses cheap artifacts and recursion to power your life total above 50 (the deck's 88 MPH), and then nukes your opponent in one fell swoop. While it can be improved on a larger budget, the vast majority of the deck's power is maintained in the $40 version.
Why should I play this deck?
Play this deck if:
You love casting spells for free or discounted
You like artifacts and crazy synergies
You don't particularly like beating down with creatures
Do not play this deck if:
You are afraid of counterspells
Combat math excites you
You believe life totals should never be more than 20
The Core
The core of this deck is separated into four categories: Draw, Acceleration, Protection, and Payload.
Draw
In the draw section, we have a few key pieces and some flex slots.
Paradoxical Outcome: The main engine of the deck, this guy is both a draw engine and an enabler for your go-off turn. Always run 4, because this deck is happy to pay retail for the effect (though it'd much rather pay 1 and tap some artifacts).
Glint-Nest Crane: This guy does double duty. It digs us 4 deeper for a combo piece or even just another 0-drop, and it also jumps in the way of aggro. Late-game when we're effectively casting this for U, it gets even better. Always a 4-of.
Thoughtcast: While this is a much worse effect than the above, it's still good and a 1-mana draw 2 is never something to scoff at. This is pretty stable at 4 as well, though it's more up to debate than the above.
Mystic Speculation: While most people would prefer Serum Visions in this slot, I actually really appreciate the buyback on this, which lets us cast it multiple times and boost our life total. Also, when we are able to buy this back but only invest 1 land into the spell, it gets really valuable. I run 4, but that's a personal decision, and many other draw spells can work just as well here.
Thirst for Knowledge: While this card is undeniably powerful, I think it's the least helpful overall, and as such I only run 1. It's still a good card to have access to, though, and I can definitely see myself deciding down the road that more than one is the right call.
Acceleration
There's not really a huge amount of acceleration in the deck, just 8 crucial slots.
Inspiring Statuary: This card is hands-down the best non-combo-piece in the deck. It lets us cheat on mana every turn, which is a big deal. Always run 4, even though multiples give no extra benefit.
Paradise Mantle: This is our other piece of acceleration, letting us cast our Statuary as early as turn 2 and getting us off to a fantastic start. It's pretty much a BYOB (build your own Birds) world for us, and while Mox Opal can sometimes be better, this is far more valuable on a go-off turn because it isn't legendary, meaning you can have multiples of it out. Also, each Opal costs more than the entire deck does.
Protection
This is fairly simple: it's a combination of aggro-stalling, interaction, and redundancy.
Glint-Nest Crane: See above. It is a 1/3 which means it blocks everything from Burn (except for the Elementals in budget Mono-R) very well. It's also disposable, meaning you can throw it in front of a large attacker and not care about it dying.
Mana Leak: The only maindeck interaction this deck runs, Leak is not supposed to be a hard counter, but more of a speed-bump to slow enemy decks down long enough for us to get going. Running 4 is recommended but not required.
Inventors' Fair/Buried Ruin: These are just meant for the long game, when you're trying to go off one more time and you need a piece of the combo. The life-gain from the Fair also can help stave off aggro, if only slightly. I run 1 of each both for budget reasons and because we're so dependent on those lovely U symbols.
Payload
The payload of the deck is its 3x Aetherflux Reservoir, as is obvious. However, there's a bit more to the payload than just the Reservoir.
0-drop Artifacts: These (Memnite, Ornithopter, and [/c]Paradise Mantle[/c] are the core of the deck. When combined with Reservoir and Paradoxical Outcome, they generate us tons of life that we can then fling directly at the enemy.
The List
Here's my current list. While it's far from perfect, it's pretty resilient and reliable for a $40 list.
The sideboard choices here are both to keep the deck under $40 and as a hedge against the metagame I'm expecting in my local super-budget league. Nothing insane, but I know that everyone will board out any removal they have against me and Enforcer seemed like a good way to leverage that. The other 11 are just good cards that hit a lot of the format and hate I'll see.
What is this deck?
The Flux Capacitor is a mono-U Aetherflux Storm list that is both explosive and resilient, thanks to the life gain from its namesake card. It uses cheap artifacts and recursion to power your life total above 50 (the deck's 88 MPH), and then nukes your opponent in one fell swoop. While it can be improved on a larger budget, the vast majority of the deck's power is maintained in the $40 version.
Why should I play this deck?
Play this deck if:
The Core
The core of this deck is separated into four categories: Draw, Acceleration, Protection, and Payload.
Draw
In the draw section, we have a few key pieces and some flex slots.
Paradoxical Outcome: The main engine of the deck, this guy is both a draw engine and an enabler for your go-off turn. Always run 4, because this deck is happy to pay retail for the effect (though it'd much rather pay 1 and tap some artifacts).
Glint-Nest Crane: This guy does double duty. It digs us 4 deeper for a combo piece or even just another 0-drop, and it also jumps in the way of aggro. Late-game when we're effectively casting this for U, it gets even better. Always a 4-of.
Thoughtcast: While this is a much worse effect than the above, it's still good and a 1-mana draw 2 is never something to scoff at. This is pretty stable at 4 as well, though it's more up to debate than the above.
Mystic Speculation: While most people would prefer Serum Visions in this slot, I actually really appreciate the buyback on this, which lets us cast it multiple times and boost our life total. Also, when we are able to buy this back but only invest 1 land into the spell, it gets really valuable. I run 4, but that's a personal decision, and many other draw spells can work just as well here.
Thirst for Knowledge: While this card is undeniably powerful, I think it's the least helpful overall, and as such I only run 1. It's still a good card to have access to, though, and I can definitely see myself deciding down the road that more than one is the right call.
Acceleration
There's not really a huge amount of acceleration in the deck, just 8 crucial slots.
Inspiring Statuary: This card is hands-down the best non-combo-piece in the deck. It lets us cheat on mana every turn, which is a big deal. Always run 4, even though multiples give no extra benefit.
Paradise Mantle: This is our other piece of acceleration, letting us cast our Statuary as early as turn 2 and getting us off to a fantastic start. It's pretty much a BYOB (build your own Birds) world for us, and while Mox Opal can sometimes be better, this is far more valuable on a go-off turn because it isn't legendary, meaning you can have multiples of it out. Also, each Opal costs more than the entire deck does.
Protection
This is fairly simple: it's a combination of aggro-stalling, interaction, and redundancy.
Glint-Nest Crane: See above. It is a 1/3 which means it blocks everything from Burn (except for the Elementals in budget Mono-R) very well. It's also disposable, meaning you can throw it in front of a large attacker and not care about it dying.
Mana Leak: The only maindeck interaction this deck runs, Leak is not supposed to be a hard counter, but more of a speed-bump to slow enemy decks down long enough for us to get going. Running 4 is recommended but not required.
Inventors' Fair/Buried Ruin: These are just meant for the long game, when you're trying to go off one more time and you need a piece of the combo. The life-gain from the Fair also can help stave off aggro, if only slightly. I run 1 of each both for budget reasons and because we're so dependent on those lovely U symbols.
Payload
The payload of the deck is its 3x Aetherflux Reservoir, as is obvious. However, there's a bit more to the payload than just the Reservoir.
0-drop Artifacts: These (Memnite, Ornithopter, and [/c]Paradise Mantle[/c] are the core of the deck. When combined with Reservoir and Paradoxical Outcome, they generate us tons of life that we can then fling directly at the enemy.
The List
Here's my current list. While it's far from perfect, it's pretty resilient and reliable for a $40 list.
3 Aetherflux Reservoir
4 Inspiring Statuary
4 Paradise Mantle
Creature (12)
4 Glint-Nest Crane
4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
Instant (9)
4 Mana Leak
4 Paradoxical Outcome
1 Thirst for Knowledge
18 Island
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Buried Ruin
Sorcery (8)
4 Mystic Speculation
4 Thoughtcast
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Into the Roil
4 Spell Pierce
3 Engulf the Shore
The sideboard choices here are both to keep the deck under $40 and as a hedge against the metagame I'm expecting in my local super-budget league. Nothing insane, but I know that everyone will board out any removal they have against me and Enforcer seemed like a good way to leverage that. The other 11 are just good cards that hit a lot of the format and hate I'll see.
Why are you not running 4 Aetherflux Reservoir. It is the deck's only win condition so you always want to run into it. It also works in multiples.
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