#kaladesh

Kaladesh is the kind of plane I can really get behind, as it inspires innovation and creation. For the purposes of this I’m leaving out legendary creatures and cards I intend to put into other decks (hope to get to those in weeks to come). So what has got my creative juices going in Aether Revolt?

1] Mechanized Production
What an epic card for our format! Enchant something with an ETB effect like Spine of Ish Sah, or any of the Gearhulks. Then use artifact counters like clues, gold, thopters, myr or servos to win the game from nowhere. For maximum win power combine the two with Myr Battlesphere. Very powerful in most artifact decks but I could easily see Sharuum or Breya using this to its greatest effect.

2] Scrap Trawler
I love to sacrifice my artifacts for fun and profit, and with Breya now as my go to artifact commander I want to be sacrificing more and more. Scrap Trawler turns such decks into engines, as cards go in and out of graveyards gaining value each cycle. Combine with Krark-Clan Ironworks, the Wellsprings and AER’s own Implements.

3] Trophy Mage
I love to try and build decks with odd restrictions, so how about a deck a deck around the Artifact Mages - Trinket, Treasure and Trophy - and every other card is an artifact that costs either 1, 3 or 6 mana? Best 3-drops include the Swords, Coalition Relic, Ashnod’s Altar and Burnished Hart. I’d love to see a Padeem deck based on this concept.

4] Call for Unity + Hidden Stockpile - token blink
There are lots of creatures in black and white that make tokens on entering the battlefield - Marsh Flitter, Sengir Autocrat and Grave Titan are some of my personal favourites. Mix in all the Fabricate creatures from Kaladesh, and a bunch of blink/flicker effects - Conjurer’s Closet probably being the best. Then blink a creature, and Hidden Stockpile makes another token, and Call for Unity pumps the whole team by more each time. Combine with Blue for more blink effects like Mistmeadow Witch. Teysa, Orzhov Scion might be a good commander for this deck, or Ravos + X to expand your colours.

5] Aid from the Cowl
Lurking Predators has been a powerhouse of EDH since its printing, so doubling up the effect with Aid from the Cowl is very powerful, and expanding the effect to all permanents turns this into a really effective engine. Fetchlands are probably the best way to trigger Revolt, but I could also imagine a token sacrifice deck like Mazirek or Meren generating a lot of value from the Cowl. One of my favourite things to do in EDH is try to cheat cards into play off the top of my deck using Intet the Dreamer, Descendant’s Path or Call of the Wild together with scry or Hua Tuo to fix the top card of your deck.

That’s just a brief glimpse of what Aether Revolt has to offer. What cards are you excited to brew around?

Rune-Scarred Demon

Here is the solution for last week’s puzzle, Smuggler’s Thopter. If you missed it, you can find it here.

It will take 1 Hour to complete the sting.

Every 20 minutes, my Thopters will be able to bring me a total of 4 artifacts, meaning that they will bring me all twelve in 60 minutes!

Not the most efficient system, granted, but it’s the best I can do right now. In any case, I’ll be starting the operation tonight! Want to see how it went? You can see the result of my sting here.

Anyways, thanks for the help! I’ll give you 30 Thopters as a reward. If only these little thopters I give out were strong enough to lift artifacts. Then maybe this sting would go faster. :T

Severalweeksago, I took a trip to Kaladesh to partake in the Inventor’s Fair. And unfortunately, as most of you know, it didn’t exactly turn out so good. I got into a fight with a member of the Consulate and I had all my artifacts confiscated! If they think that I, a proud Espirian Artificer, am just going to let them keep my precious metal babies, then they have another thing coming. I’m going to return to Kaladesh to reclaim what was taken from me!

So what does that mean for all of you? Well, just like last time, the puzzles for the next two weeks will be based on my travels in Kaladesh. And, to help you all get ready for the upcoming prerelease, there will be an additionalpuzzle this Thursday, using only cards that you will find in your Aether Revolt sealed pool.

I hope to see you all back on Kaladesh soon. Viva la Revolution!

Here is the solution for last week’s bonus puzzle, Caught! A Revolting Battle. If you missed it, you can find it here.

For this puzzle, timing is everything! In order to get past the Exquisite Archangel, we’re going to need to plan how we play our cards very carefully. This puzzle is going to be pretty tricky, but what do you expect? We are facing off against the Head Judge himself.

Strap in, things are going to get spicy!

1. Ok, first thing we need to do is pay UR to cast Wrangle, targeting the Cataclysmic Gearhulk. Use Embraal Gear-Smasher’s ability to sacrifice the Gearhulk to deal 2 damage to the Head Judge, bringing him down to 6 life. Revolt is now online!
2. Use UG to cast Hidden Herbalists. We have Revolt, so the Herbalists will add GG to our mana pool.
3. Use one the G form the Herbalists to cast Greenbelt Rampager. Then, in response to the Greenbelt’s ETB trigger, tap the Greenbelt to crew Skysovereign. Greenbelt bounces back to our hand, and we get E. We’ll then pay E to activate Multiform Wanderer’s second ability, giving it flying.
4. Repeat step 3 again using the second G from the Herbalists, but this time we’ll crew the Heart of Kiran and give Multiform Wanderer +2/-2, making it a 5/1 flyer.
5. Pay UUB and 1 life (by tapping our Spire of Industry) to cast Tezzeret’s Touch, enchanting the Exquisite Archangel’s Lightning Greaves. Because a creature can’t be equipped to a creature, the now 5/5 Lightning Greaves will fall off of the Angel.
6. Pay U to cast Take into Custody, tapping down the Archangel.
7. Pay URR to cast Siege Modifications on Audacious Infiltrator, making him a 6/1 First striker.
8. Now it’s time to go to attacks! Swing with everybody (besides the Embraal Gear-Smasher, obviously). We’ll have Skysovereign’s attack trigger deal 3 damage to Foundry Hornet, killing it.
9. Because Audacious Infiltrator can’t be blocked by artifact creatures, and the rest of your team is flying, your army can’t be blocked at all! Because he has first strike, the Infiltrator will deal 6 damage to the Head Judge, bringing his life total down to 0. This would normally kill him, but Exquisite Archangel will instead reset his life total to 20.
10. Finally, let’s pay our last two RR to give Skyship Stalker +1/+0 twice. Our four remaining attackers are now going to deal exactly 20 damage (4+6+5+5). Killing him a second time! Victory!

It wasn’t easy, but we just barely managed to get out of there alive! The Head Judge is no joke. I really hope that’s the last we see of that guy!

I’m really thankful for those of you who helped me out in my time of need! I know this was a tricky puzzle, so I’ll reward 70 Thopters to those that solved this one. You earned it!