My top ten cards from Aether Revolt

The new set is upon us like a fantastic mechanical storm and there are quite a few cards in here soon to make waves in commander.
This list is based off my own opinion and as I usually play competitive commander will tailor more to that. Feel free to post your own thoughts on cards you think could be impactful and let's start a discussion.



Honorable mentions:

Fatal Push

This card will obviously be making waves in constructed. Killing nearly everything for one black mana is pretty strong. Pair it with any fetchland can make this just another one mana removal. While it's no Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile it's a good card to test out in decks without access to white.

I think this card will be getting a good amount of testing outside of white decks and maybe some in.






Planar Bridge

Big mana decks will love this. I will adore this in my Selvala deck for sure and I'm sure there are plenty of decks where 14 mana is nothing at all (Remember Treasonous ogre?!). Being able to cheat in an uncounterable Ugin end of turn can easily switch the game in your favor. Terastodon, Omnscience, Karn, and plenty of other huge spells are very viable with this too since you pretty much get a free turn with it.

Not to mention the infinite mana possibilities of easily vomiting your deck on the board. It didn't make the top ten because of how huge the mana cost is but some decks just don't care about that.
Selvala, Kozilek, and Captain Sisay come to mind






Felidar Guardian

This guy is solely for combo decks. You can use him as another kiki target for quick wins. Also works well with Pod.

Pod into Deceiver Exarch into Guardian into Karmic guide, get back Guardian, then Kiki, copy guide to get Guardian, and then sac him again to get zealous for infinite damage. This seems a little clunky but I can't help but think this guy will be seeing play in every single Kiki deck that he can fit in. Jeskai+ colors will probably wanna test him out











Heroic Intervention

The biggest weakness for creature based decks like Edric, Selvala, Sisay, and Yisan is when they get a decent board state, about the win the game and suddenly the board gets exploded.

Another thought is how well this works with your own destruction, kinda like how using Boros Charm with a wipe should win you the game. So using this as protection and making one sided wipes was enough for me to think this card will see play in creature heavy or land destruction heavy decks.









Efficient Construction

Ok, ok, ok...so I am likely Biased since I adore playing Breya artifacts but this card is very exciting for me. Giving yourself ammo and blockers in a heavy artifact deck seems real good. While it's no Thopter Spy Network I'm sure it will be played in some decks.














Disallow

Better Voidslime is here.
While Voidslime isn't quite good enough for most decks the less restrictive version could make some splash in counter heavy control decks. Excluding Forbid it may be the best 3 cmc counterspell
















Spire of Industry

Mana Confluence and City of Brass have a new friend. While this isn't quite at the same level as mandatory as the other two this guy will be making it into tons of artifact based deck like Sharrum, Breya, and other decks with tons of early ramp.
It doesn't hurt that it can just tap for mana without artifacts on board and isn't dead after a vandalblast or bane of progress.













Alright, now we can finally get into what I consider the ten best cards in Aether Revolt.





10: Hope of Ghirapur

This guy is a legendary fella that can sac himself to prevent someone from playing threatening spells. And in colorless it's very easy to ramp into playing him over and him. He also will have good slots in decks like Edric were evasion plus stopping opponents is real powerful and Meren where the ability to get him back over and over can really hurt and potential knock someone out of the game. For 1 mana this seems extremely good.










9: Inspiring Statuary

Another card that will be a heavy hitter in artifact decks, it's almost like this set was artifact based.
This itself can "tap" for mana to cast your spells but it also turns everything else you have into mana. Tapping down your static orb or winter orb at the end of your opponents turn can lead to easy lockout situations.
I'm sure this will make waves in heavy artifact based decks and maybe a few others.










8: Scrap Trawler

Hey look another artifact. I'm not doing this on purpose since I just built Breya, I promise.

Trawler seems solid in multiple artifact builds (But especially Breya) the ability to return artifacts repeatedly means that in order for your opponents to really move forward they need to take card of him. That's easier said than done when you can easily get access to all your most powerful artifacts because of this guy. Not to mention the ramp possibilities by saccing a grim monolith to get a mana vault to get a mana crypt. 8 mana from that is nothing to sneeze at.









7: Rishkar's Expertise

The whole cycle of rares that let you play a spell with lower cmc afterwards almost made the list but I found this one to be the best.
The mana cost is a little high but in the right deck this draws you 8+ cards fairly easy and now you have a whole new hand so you can play the best 5 mana or less card for free. I'm sure this will lead to plenty of situations where you draw a ton of cards and can win the same turn thanks to that.
Selvala, Sisay, Yidris (Oh my god Yidris) are all gonna like to try this card out.











6: Walking Ballista

Here we have another kill spell with infinite mana decks. Also this guy kills the whole table in Mikeaus the Unhallowed as well. Think of him as Triskelion number two in that way but he also works well in the decks like Animar in which he can come in with infinite power and kill the who table.
Best part is you can play him for 0 with Mikeaeus out and he will come back with a counter. Repeat to do one damage to each player over and over. Come to think of it, it may be better than Triskelion

Another artifact makes the list but now is more based on the combo side of commander.

Animar, Mikeaeus, necrotice ooze decks will all want to test this guy out.

Edit: It's come to my attention that you need something else to kill the table as the Ballista won't be able to kill everyone. Adding Bitter Ordeal, Blood Artist, or Infinite mana makes this work though




5: Renegade Rallier

This guy of often gonna get you the best cards out of your graveyard. In a graveyard antics deck you can easily get animate dead/dance of the dead to get any creature you need for combos. Or getting a super powerful land like Gaea's Cradle.
Hatebears, Reanimator, or pretty much anything that is Green/White will wanna try this guy ok. Run all the fetches you can to abuse his Revolt ability
Saffi loves this card so much











4: Baral, Chief of Compliance


Lowering the cmc of spells is real powerful. This guy is two mana and does that for all your instants and Sorcery spells. This just screams blue high tide with things like Merchant Scroll, Turnabout, Mind's Desire, Fabricate, and plenty of great spells. On top of that whenever you counter a spell you can loot. So this can work well in reanimator, storm, mono blue control, pretty much any blue decks. The value from making spells like Demonic tutor, wheel of fortune, or whatever cost just one less makes them even more broken. I expect to see a lot of Baral in the future.
Azami, Yidris, Mizzix, and Jace will love this









3: Trophy Mage

Trinket Mage is a fantastic card as it can get you either early mana with Sol Ring, Mana crypt, Mana vault, and later in the game can get you powerful answers like Grafdiggers cage.
Trophy Mage is a little different and needs to have a deck that is more built towards exploiting it but here are some good targets for it

Rings of Brighthearth and Basalt Monolith
Coalition Relic
Chromatic Lantern
Tangle Wire
Static Orb
Trinisphere
Sword of X and Y
Scuplting steel so it can be any artifact
Metalworker
Staff of domination
Crucible of worlds

Just look at that list of cards it can get, tons of all stars.
While Trinket mage is amazing late game he isn't super late game but Trophey Mage could be good all the time.



2: Whir of Invention

This is likely going to surpass Reshape as one of tutors of choice for heavy artifact decks.  Instant speed search for any artifact is already great but the new Convo----Improvise mechanic makes this even better by tapping down your Winter Orb, Static Orb, Trinisphere so you don't have to worry about the "Symmetrical" effects. This will see play in pretty much every artifact based deck. Teferi will use this for Chain Veil antics, Brago and Breya can use this since they often vomit artifacts on the board with ease and can abuse this much easier than anything. This will be a staple for sure.










1: Paradox Engine

 This is the card I see making the most waves in commander. Landing this card with decks with heavy artifacts or creatures can easily generate you insane amounts of mana. Pair it with repeatable draw or tutors and you just win. Captain Sisay, Arcum, Selvala are a few that come to mind that can abuse this but it doesn't even have to be in decks that rely on generals that tap. Yidris gets more mana for more spells, artifact decks untap the 20 rocks they have for more mana. Looters draw you even more cards. I can't wait to see what happens in the future with Paradox engine.











So that's my list, what do you think? Am I missing anything? Do you think any of these cards will be subpar? What kinds of decks are you wanting to expand with these? Let's start a discussion and get some sweet ideas from eachother.

Also, I'm running a little Giveaway
More details here:
http://diestodoomblade.blogspot.com/2017/01/ranking-planeswalkers-giveaway.html






If you want to support the blog please visit my Patreon for more. Every little bit helps a ton and allows me to make more content for you guys in the future https://www.patreon.com/diestodoomblade