#[puzzleknots]

[whatsthatmagiccard]

3/25 EDIT: I'm revising some parts of this puzzle to avoid unintended solutions. The revised sections are in green. Real House of Leaves now.

I'm in the mood for another puzzle. This one's gonna be harder, but I feel like it's too obvious if I give any part of the combo. Four unknowns it is. I'll make one more interesting.

FOLLOWERS: What are the unknown cards in the following scenario? Assume Eternal-legality.

Your opponent decided to let you have one last upkeep before finishing you off. At the start of your precombat main phase, they cast Electrodominance at your face for lethal--with 14 mana left available after casting it. Even if you somehow avoid the damage, you know they'll just drop that Inferno of the Star Mounts they tutored last turn and kill you that way instead.

You decided to keep paying the upkeep for your Mystic Remora, so right now you've only got {G}{U} to spare. You control an unknown 2MV green creature with a Slagwurm Armor attached to it, six basic lands (damn you Ruination), and that Remora. You have seven cards in hand before Remora triggers, including a 1MV green Instant. The other cards in your hand are all sorcery-speed junk. Your graveyard is empty (damn you Scavenging Ooze, thankfully that's dead), but your library is healthy. You have 5HP.

Your opponent controls a Grothama, All-Devouring that you've got your sights on, and no other creatures. They have 18HP.

You draw into a 3MV blue Instant from the Remora trigger, and fortunately, that card lets you stave off the Electrodominance and swing for lethal in your combat phase.

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Cogworker's Puzzleknot

Artist: Cliff Childs TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Glassblower's Puzzleknot by Kieran Yanner

[mtg-art-daily]

Metalspinner's Puzzleknot

Artist: Vincent Proce

[ruinedwanderers]

achilles, achilles, just put down the bottle, don't listen to what you've consumed. it's chaos, confusion, and wholly unworthy of feeding, and it's wholly untrue. you may feel no purpose nor a point for existing; it's all just conjecture and gloom. and there may not be meaning, so find one and seize it, do not waste yourself on this roof.

— introducing finn stafford •‍ the wicked puzzleknot

𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧…

FULL NAME — finn aodhán stafford

NICKNAME(S) — finnán

BIRTH DATE — february 14

AGE — 33

GENDER — cis man

PRONOUNS — he+him

ORIENTATION — panromantic pansexual

𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧…

FACE CLAIM — boyd holbrook

HEIGHT — 6'1" / 185cm

HAIR & EYE COLOUR — blond & blue

RIGHT/LEFT-HANDED — ambidextrous

MARKS — a tattoo on the inside of his left forearm, "adventure." in typewriter font; scarred knuckles.

Whatever he hides, the surface makes something very clear upon first meeting; this man has trouble in his mind. It's the way the corners of his mouth inevitably always pull up into a mischievous grin, the way his eyes scan a room looking for a thread to pull. Finn keeps his unkempt and floppy blond hair relatively short, yet even when it's as short as it is, there's no taming it, having it stick out every which way no matter how often he might push a hand through it.

His manner of dress varies vastly, going from white t-shirt and flannel over top, torn jeans and worn boots when he isn't being purposeful, to slick and put-together when the situation calls for it. It betrays a lot of his personality; he knows all about etiquette and manners, and will wield it when it'll get him somewhere, but his default is blunt and to the point, not a diplomatic bone in his body.

𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐬…

✱ KNOWLEDGEABLE

If you ask Finn, he bullshitted together his PhD. As it is, he's not only a bookworm that will read books 80 kilometres per hour, he's also gifted with the natural skill of "connecting the dots". Generating new information by connecting two seemingly unrelated bits of data is how he subconsciously stays ahead in life.

✱ STUBBORN

If Finn doesn't want to do something, no twisting or turning will get him to do something. Once he's put his heels down, very few things — or rather people — can convince him to do anything or go anywhere against his will. Unfortunately this is usually employed to benefit others rather himself. Unless it's about opening up about his inner most feelings.

✱ CURIOUS

Curiosity is what has driven him to many ends of the earth in the past, and it hasn't stopped moving him since he was a wee child. Like a cat demanding to see what's on the other side of the door, if there's something that sparks Finn's interest or curiosity, no matter how reckless or dangerous, there's few forces in the world that may deter him from reaching the other side of that damn door, come what may.

✱ IMPATIENT

When you take curiosity, a sense of adventure, and a stunning case of lack of self-preservation, and mix them all together, you get Finn's brand of "fuck it". Yes, he can be reckless and negligent towards his own well-being, but he would argue in the carpe diem variety. After all, if you know what needs to happen to make anything happen, why sit around and talk about it?

✱ QUICK-WITTED

While he is quick with his words, Finn is even quicker with his mind. It doesn't take him very long to get the gist of a situation, a text, a person, and react upon it. It's not that he knows everything, rather than he knows how to find out everything. For Finn, his mind is a giant search engine that he only needs to input the relevant data to figure out an appropriate — albeit preliminary in a lot of cases — answer.

✱ ARGUMENTATIVE

Arguments are the whetstone of the mind, and o boy does he love keeping his sharp. While often he doesn't argue for argument sake, when you leave him bored and to his own devices, he will start shit just for the "thrill of the fight". Great when you're in a college room arguing theories with your classmates. Not as much when you're in a bar calling some drunk guys idiots.

MBTI — entp‍ ‍‍‍‍ ‍‍‍•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ENNEAGRAM — 7w8‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍TEMPERAMENT — sanguine‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍MORALITY — chaotic good

𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 & 𝐡𝐨𝐛𝐛𝐢𝐞𝐬…

✱ BOOKS

When he was young, one could've been fooled to think that Finn was a reserved, introverted boy with burst of energy to him. Books are his escape, if not from the world, then from himself. You don't have to travel physically if you can travel mentally, and wishing you were someone else in the deep recesses of your mind is academic when you can simply be someone else for as long as there's another page to turn. If nothing else, books — any, really — are his lifeline to relative sanity.

✱ ART

Art museums of any kind make Finn feel a certain way, like putting a child in a candy store. Art was his in into history, and history is what his entire world revolves around. Don't get him started on the topic, however, because he will not stop and there has been times he has gotten quite heated over the morals of it — here's looking at you, British Museum.

✱ HISTORY

Not his first love, but definitely his true love. Finn got into it through movies, The Trojan Women at five years old, and eventually — realising there were whole books that contained more of the like — fiction and non-fictional books of historical accounts. By the time he was fifteen and he first saw The Lost Ark, he decided to also become a "professor of archaeology". In hindsight, the professor part was too boring, and nowadays he realises he prefers working in the field.

✱ LANGUAGES

Voracious reader as he is, a language barrier never stopped Finn. After his first foray into mythological fiction of the film kind, he discovered the Sword-and-Sandal series, made a few years before his birth — unfortunately all in Italian. It was his first proper solo venture into a foreign language, but certainly not his last. The world of linguistics opened up even more books for him to read, and through reading, he learned an astounding amount of languages, to the point where, at 33 years of age, he can now be considered a successful polyglot.

✱ PARKOUR

So this was largely by accident. Growing up, a way for Finn to get out of his head was by getting physical — climbing trees, running around, even getting into fights as a teenager. It didn't take too long for him to figure out that if he turned the environment into a puzzle for him to solve, he could keep his mind sharp and occupied with anything that wasn't rumination and ruin. So when sitting still and reading books wouldn't do, he'd go out into the world and he'd fling himself on and against and off anything he could find, pushing himself further and further.

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭…

•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍Finn was born in Swords, Ireland to a barely 19-year-old mother, shunned by her very Catholic family, struggling to make ends meet as a single mother with very little financial or emotional support.

•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍he was six years old when his mother packed everything they owned in a single suitcase and moved to the United States under promise of better days by an American man she'd met once in Dublin and had shared a two-week long intense romance with.

•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍a month after arriving there and living in his house, they broke up and she was kicked out along with her son; it wasn't long thereafter that both he and his mother ended up the hospital, where he survived — an event Finn still doesn't remember to this day and the details were never clear on — but she didn't.

•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍a stranded boy in critical condition without American nationality, it was by the grace of a doctor working there that he found a new family; before he was even discharged, he'd been adopted into the Stafford family.

•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍throughout his growing up, he showed promise and potential, a quick mind and an eager spirit that turned restless in his teenage years; although he was provided everything he needed to live in comfort, his parents were busy people, and the attention they did manage was unloaded on Hal, his older brother.

•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍there's never been resentment for this towards his brother, not now nor as he was growing. Finn loves his brother, the most consistent person he's known in his life, his role model, the shining beacon whom he placed upon a pedestal that can do no wrong in his eyes and to whom he can never live up to — if Hal said jump, Finn would ask him how high, something that no one else, not even their parents, have ever managed.

•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍how Finn graduated at 15 years of age is anyone's guess, with the trouble he frequently found himself in and his habit of bullshitting through every piece of homework that was assigned to him — even in college, his drive, passion, and interest, that some might call obsessive, saw him spending much of his free time, if he had any, in libraries.

•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍while he had outstanding grades, his track record in high school was troubled to say the least — but if your family is who they are, good colleges are easier to come by even if your behaviour left something to be desired; and thus, to occupy his time as much as he could with something that took his full interest, Finn went on to double major in archaeology and anthropology with a minor in classical history and ancient languages.

•‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍ultimately, his PhD was in archaeology, and much of his professional life was spent travelling, which worked out just fine for him — being away from his family was sad, but nothing that could stop him from desperately keeping his mind away from the darkness that threatened to consume all he was any moment of any day.

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 & 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬…

✱ THE PLANE IS NOW BOARDING

Finn's reason for boarding the flight was partially because it had been a long time since he'd properly seen or spent any amount of time with Hal and Yazmin, between their mutual busy schedules, and partially because... well. He'd never been to Sydney, but he had it on good authority that there was a rabbit hole of a party that was happening in the city in the very near future that he very much wanted to slide down into.

✱ I'M GOING ON VACATION AND I'M BRINGING...

Research-minded and inquisitive, Finn still uses his creative analytical and problem-solving skills to... well, solve problems. For the most part, he's a generalist, knows a little about a lot, enough to make him dangerous, as they say. His PhD and general education has primed him to being able to solve puzzles with a lot of pieces missing, to see beyond the evidence you have into what the evidence could be. He knows the basics of camping, he knows how to fight and win, and he's a skilled polyglot — even in languages that are considered dead today.

𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬…

✱ GENERAL DEMEANOUR

Finn is outgoing and while he can be stubborn and a blunt prick, he's not necessarily hard to get along with. He is who he is unapologetically and there's very little about himself he'll hide from people. From the get-go, he'll treat everyone like an old acquaintance he hasn't spoken to in a long time, until he gets negative reactions. While he's not going to go out of his way to antagonise anyone, he'll also not stand for bullies — whether the target is him or another person.

✱ THE INNER CIRCLE

If you've managed to get into Finn's inner circle, you'll get to see a truer part of who he is, a vision of his personality with more clarity than what he presents to the general public. He's a man who'll go out of his way to make his friends and family happy, loyal to the bitter end, and willing to damn himself to protect others — he's not a stranger to dirtying his hands for the greater good, and if he can keep others from having to do the shit that needs to be done, then that what he'll do. Frankly, for his inner circle, he'd walk through fire without so much of a complaint.

✱ THE NINTH CIRCLE

It takes a lot to get on Finn's bad side — or, on the other hand, perhaps it doesn't. While Finn's morals can bend to accommodate situations that are complex and not so cut-and-dry, there are certain things he simply will not tolerate. A very dangerous thing Finn can do is to shut off all feelings and act, allowing him to walk straight into hell to strangle the devil himself, if he has to. Abusers, predators, exploiters, anyone who looks at another person and imagines an easy target or a victim will find themselves quickly on the receiving end of his unrelenting fist — until they stop moving or he does.

[whatsthatmagiccard]

Werebear, [inconclusive], Werebear, Pay No Heed, Kindly Stranger, Emrakul the Aeons Torn, Rogue's Gloves, Die Young, Confront the Unknown, Confront the Unknown, Cerulean Wisps, Cerulean Wisps, Reap and Sow, Tendo Ice Bridge

Akki Lavarunner, Full Moon's Rise, Atarka's Command, Cemetery Recruitment, Night's Whisper, Reap What is Sown, [inconclusive], Dream Thief, Slinking Giant, Fountain of Youth, Stab Wound, Vow of Wildness, Woodweaver's Puzzleknot, Crypt Ghast, Tezzeret the Seeker, Necropolis Fiend, Maelstrom Archangel, Collected Company, Dragon Broodmother, Abomination of Gudul, Academy Ruins

Isamaru Hound of Konda, Evincar's Justice, Krallenhorde Wantons, Succumb to Temptation, All is Dust, Incorrigible Youths, Howling Chorus, Ajani's Pridemate, Ajani's Pridemate, Ajani's Pridemate, Sinking Feeling, Forgotten Cave, Forgotten Cave, Gauntlet of Power, Make a Wish, Young Pyromancer, Thunderstaff, Blind Hunter

Nevermaker, Lagonna-Band Trailblazer, Gifts Given, Start Your Engines, Urborg Uprising, Nevermaker, Lagonna-Band Trailblazer, Gauntlet of Power, Young Wolf, Ride Down

Nevermaker, Lagonna-Band Trailblazer, Raven's Run Dragoon, Arcbound Ravager, Arcbound Ravager, Mina and Denn Wildborn, Desert, Joyous Respite

Nevermaker, Lagonna-Band Trailblazer, Make Obsolete, Start Your Engines, Crypt of Agadeem, Nevermaker, Lagonna-Band Trailblazer, Sultai Soothsayer, Greater Good, Spirit of the Labyrinth, Spirit of the Labyrinth

Nevermaker, Lagonna-Band Trailblazer, Smoke Teller, Glen Elendra Liege, Gisa and Geralf, Hurricane, Start Your Engines

[horademagic]

Quebra-cabeça do Flamiforjador/ Fireforger's Puzzleknot

Artefato de Dano

Custo de mana: 2 incolores e/ou de quaisquer cores

Por que ela é interessante? Quando esse artefato entra em campo de batalha ele causa 1 ponto de dano à criatura ou ao jogador alvo. Pagando 3 manas, sendo uma delas vermelha, você sacrifica esse artefato para que ele cause 1 ponto de dano à criatura ou ao jogador alvo. Mesmo que seja pouco, é quase que um dano garantido.

Preço da carta: em torno de 0,05 até 2,50

Disponível em Português

"Essa carta tem algumas edições disponíveis, o preço pode variar a depender da edição que escolher adquirir"

Link: https://www.ligamagic.com.br/?view=cards%2Fsearch&card=Fireforger%27s+puzzleknot&tipo=1

Até a próxima postagem, Ulli e Thiago

[planetouched]

...𝙸𝙽𝚃𝚁𝙾𝙳𝚄𝙲𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐏𝐔𝐙𝐙𝐋𝐄𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐓

FINN MCGINTY is a THIRTY-THREE year old CIS MAN. he makes a living as an ARCHAEOLOGIST, which often takes him out of town for months at a time. while he’s KNOWLEDGEABLE and CHARISMATIC, he’s also known to be ARGUMENTATIVE and RECKLESS.

pinterest

spotify

musing

...𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂 𝙸𝙽𝙵𝙾𝚁𝙼𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽

NAME — finn mcginty

NICKNAME(S) — finnán

AGE — 33

GENDER — cis man ( he & him )

ORIENTATION — biromantic bisexual

ROMANTIC TYPE — monoamorous

OCCUPATION — classical archaeologist & egyptologist

ETHNICITY — irish

RELIGION — atheist

...𝐏𝐇𝐘���𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝙸𝙽𝙵𝙾𝚁𝙼𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽

FACE CLAIM — boyd holbrook

HEIGHT — 6′1″

WEIGHT — 172lbs

ACCENT — north dublin (irish)

EYES — blue

HAIR — blonde

STYLE — long enough to be a mess; unless he actively puts in the effort to tame it, his hair’s wild and seems to like ‘float’ with the smallest movement of his head

...𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘 𝙸𝙽𝙵𝙾𝚁𝙼𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽

MBTI — entp

ENNEAGRAM — type 7w8

MORALITY — chaotic good

ANGER — hot

TEMPERAMENT — sanguine

POSITIVE TRAITS — charming; mischievous; passionate; knowledgeable; quick-witted

NEGATIVE TRAITS — argumentative; reckless; impatient; chaotic; competitive

...𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐀 𝙸𝙽𝙵𝙾𝚁𝙼𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽

usually with finn, you either absolutely hate him or you love him, there’s no inbetween. he talks fast, he thinks fast, everything has to be and go fast, and there’s just no stopping him once he gets going. the only ones who can stop him in his tracks and make him behave are his da and his older brother (both whom he absolutely adores).

art and history (and art history) aside, finn’s two big loves are books and languages. he knows approximately fifteen languages in various states of fluency, and there’s no chance that he’ll pass up a bookstore, especially not a second hand one; much of this is due to the incredible speed at which he devours books -- it takes him approximately 4 hours to read a 100k word book front to back on a bad day, faster if it’s a book he’s familiar with (like the aeneid or the illiad). the languages he knows as of right now are, in order of learning: english (native), irish (c2), esperanto (c2), spanish (c2), french (c2), latin (c1), italian (c1), arabic (b2), mandarin (b1), japanese (b1), ancient greek (theoretical), demotic (theoretical), coptic (theoretical), akkadian (theoretical).

while finn doesn’t have many tattoos, there’s one that’s impossible for him to hide. located on his back, between his shoulders, it’s the tattoo that represents his family -- one that was only partially voluntarily (the choice at 16 years old was, get the tattoo or be disowned). his family is a gang of vigilantes spanning three generations who are trained from age four to fight, and essentially beat the shit out of rapists, abusers, child molestors, and the like, the ones that slip through the cracks of the law. a good thing, you’d say, until you realise that this roman catholic family has to give up their ‘place in heaven’ for the protection of others according to their generation’s ringleaders. his cousin, however, who is his generation’s ringleader, has chosen to break the cycle due to what he knows it was doing to his cousins and didn’t want the same for his own kids.

finn is energetic and chaotic and humorous and wickedly optimistic... and also clinically depressed. the latter is something he hides very well, but often it comes out in uncharacteristic irritability and being especially impatient and aggressive. he’s terrified of being abandoned (partially which stems from being adopted, and partially because he has zero self-worth) but these are the times he wants desperately to be alone. at the same time, though, he’s terrified of being alone in those moments because of permanent impulsive decisions he might make. it’s those times he misses his parents and his brother the most.

[spellscarred]

[mtg2dnd]

Woodweaver's Puzzleknot

-There are five puzzleknots; I will be posting them back to back-

Find the card here

Rarity: uncommon

Slot: slotless

Weight: 1 lb.

Attunement cost: [1][G]

Aura: abjuration

In the first encounter after you become attuned to the puzzleknot, you may use a free action and regain 3d4 hit points.

As a bonus action, you may spend [2][G] and destroy the puzzleknot to regain 3d4 hit points.

[markrosewater]

Now that colored artifacts are (nearly?) evergreen, is there still a future for artifacts that are technically colorless but require a specific color of mana to fully utilize, such as Spellbombs, Puzzleknots, and Implements?

Absolutely.

[whatsthatmagiccard]

(Oooh, oooh, I wanna try one too.)

FOLLOWERS: What are the unknown cards in the following scenario?

Your opponent controls a Silent Arbiter (, three tapped 1/1 colorless Construct tokens,) and no other nonland permanents. They have 40 cards in their library, no cards in hand, no cards in their graveyard, are tapped out, and are at 20 life.

You control an unknown 2MV black creature, 10 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens, and two Swamps. You have 40 cards in your library, no cards in hand, a Chimney Imp in your graveyard, and are at 20 life.

You draw a 2MV colorless card that allows you to win the game this turn.

There are at least two solutions. (Obvious ones have been ruled out with the edits in blue.)

[vorthosjay]

How were each of the Kaladesh puzzleknots meant to be solved? They look confusing, but puzzles are usually meant to have some objective, like a finished state that makes sense.

There is theoretically a solution. What that is I don’t think anyone worked out, exactly, in the real world.

[dhb912]

Kaladesh Deck Builder's Toolkit - third booster: Kaladesh with the Demon of Dark Schemes 005 Servo Token/Kaladesh Story Spotlights 223 Multiform Wonder [Rare] 057 Minister of Inquiries [Uncommon] 248 Sequestered Stash [Uncommon] 206 Demolition Stomper [Uncommon] 230 Renegade Freighter 028 Skyswirl Harrier 042 Curio Vendor 058 Nimble Innovator 093 Mind Rot 099 Rush of Vitality 111 Chandra's Pyrohelix 118 Hijack 171 Thriving Rhino 201 Cogworker's Puzzleknot 261 Mountain #magic #gathering #mtg #tcg #fnm #fridaynightmagic #deckbuilderstoolkit #kaladesh #chandranalaar #servo #saheelirai #bollywood #planeswalker #artificer #inventyourtomorrow https://www.instagram.com/p/B64VIcdDHvR/?igshid=1q7gw0uwm19dh

[horademagic]

Quebra-cabeça do Engreneiro/ Cogworker's Puzzleknot

Artefato de Gerar Ficha

Custo de mana: 2 incolores e/ou de quaisquer cores

Por que ela é interessante? Quando esse artefato entrar em campo você cria uma ficha de criatura artefato incolor que é um Servus 1/1. Pagando 2 manas, sendo uma delas branca, e sacrificando esse artefato você cria uma ficha de criatura artefato incolor 1/1 também sendo um Servus. Então mesmo que seja só na entrada e na saída, ele garante o benefício a seu favor.

Preço da carta: em torno de 0,05 até 2,50

Disponível em Português

"Essa carta tem algumas edições disponíveis, o preço pode variar a depender da edição que escolher adquirir"

Link: https://www.ligamagic.com.br/?view=cards%2Fsearch&card=Cogworker%27s+puzzleknot&tipo=1

Até a próxima postagem, Ulli e Thiago

[intrepidguardian]

The Format That Never Was: No Banlist Aether Revolt Standard

As a general disclaimer, I have to admit that there isn't any testing behind the statements I'm about to make. However, if you're even a little interested in what the format would look like, I strongly ask that you sleeve up some of these decks I'm proposing and try them yourself, as Collectormania will be doing on April 1st for its first Standard No Banlist Tournament. You can watch that stream at twitch.tv/collectormania at 12PM Mountain Time on April 1st.

The Standard Metagame is in an awkward place. Mardu Vehicles and 4c Saheeli are the most powerful decks right now, and any attempt to build a deck to combat one makes you hopelessly vulnerable to the other. Temur Tower is slowly rising as a late third pillar of the format, but it remains to be seen whether it can maintain the sort of sustained success that Mardu Vehicles and 4c Saheeli have been able to create.

This topic created a lot of buzz at Collectormania, my LGS. Several other players and I lamented the bannings, arguing that the format could be more diverse if players were allowed to play with Reflector Mage, Emrakul, the Promised End, and Smuggler's Copter. After some mental metagaming and a bit of research into both Kaladesh and Aether Revolt Standard, I created these decks and organized them into the following tiers:

No Banlist Aether Revolt Metagame

Tier 1

GB Delirium

UW Flash

Jeskai Saheeli

4c Vehicles

Tier 2

GR Aetherworks Marvel

RW Vehicles

UW Panharmonicon

RB Aggro

GB Snake

Without further ado, let's get into the decklists:

Tier 1

GB Delirium

Creatures (13)

4 Grim Flayer 1 Walking Ballista 2 Tireless Tracker 3 Ishkanah, Grafwidow 1 Noxious Gearhulk 1 Pilgrim's Eye 1 Emrakul, the Promised End

Spells (24)

4 Traverse the Ulvenwald 3 Vessel of Nascency 2 Fatal Push 4 Grasp of Darkness 2 Transgress the Mind 3 Grapple with the Past 2 Murder 4 Liliana, the Last Hope

Lands (23)

4 Blooming Marsh 4 Hissing Quagmire 7 Forest 7 Swamp 1 Evolving Wilds

Still the top dog, GB delirium only gets better with Aether Revolt. Fatal Push is an efficient removal spell that aids against newcomer Heart of Kiran and can hit Felidar Guardian in a pinch. With the addition of Walking Ballista as a free +2 for delirium count and some reach, GB Delirium stays well-positioned as the de facto midrange deck. However, the deck has to reshuffle some of its more expensive cards given the rise of Jeskai Saheeli. In the face of a potential turn four kill, the deck can no longer safely tap out on the draw, drastically lowering the effectiveness of Mindwrack Demon. In its place, Tireless Tracker and Walking Ballista both provide subtle advantage while also allowing for easy ways to turn on revolt. In addition, the combo threatens against the deck's “wait for Emrakul” strategy that made itself a nightmare for blue control decks. However, the deck has the tools to adjust, and many top tables will be GB vs Jeskai slugfests.

Jeskai Saheeli

Creatures (7)

3 Felidar Guardian 4 Torrential Gearhulk

Spells (27)

2 Shock 4 Harnessed Lightning 3 Immolating Glare 1 Blessed Alliance 3 Anticipate 1 Quarantine Field   4 Disallow 3 Saheeli Rai 4 Glimmer of Genius 2 Fumigate

Lands (26)

4 Aether Hub 4 Inspiring Vantage 4 Island 4 Plains 4 Port Town 4 Spirebluff Canal 2 Wandering Fumarole

Despite getting second place at Pro Tour Kaladesh, Jeskai Control fell off the map because it couldn't win the long game against GB Delirium's Emrakul plan. Now armed with Disallow and the threat of a game-ending combo in its own right, Jeskai has the tools to play an actual control game against Emrakul, and can punish splashy tap-outs from GB Delirium by comboing off. Saheeli vs Liliana likely becomes an interesting battle of three-mana walkers, as Liliana can create pressure on Saheeli by getting back fallen creatures, but Saheeli's passive damage from her +1 prevents Liliana from threatening an emblem. Additionally, the scry aspect of Saheeli's +1 and the interactions between Saheeli, Felidar Guardian, and Torrential Gearhulk highlight the combo pieces as built-in value engines.

UW Flash

Creatures (20)

4 Thraben Inspector 4 Selfless Spirit 4 Spell Queller 4 Reflector Mage 4 Archangel Avacyn

Spells (15)

4 Smuggler's Copter 1 Aethersphere Harvester 4 Stasis Snare 2 Metallic Rebuke 4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

Lands (25)

4 Port Town 4 Prairie Stream 8 Island 8 Plains 1 Westvale Abbey

Oft-regarded as the “fun police,” in Kaladesh Standard, Spell Queller, Reflector Mage, and Gideon provided harsh punishment for any deck that tried to do any slow strategy that didn't involve Emrakul. However, many pros believed that ultimately GB Delirium was favored because of its inevitability and well-positioned removal. Additionally, 4c Vehicles emerged as an aggro deck with creatures efficient enough to fight through Reflector Mage, and its Veteran Motorists often let the deck's 4/4 Copters attack past 3/3 Copters and 2/3 Spell Quellers. Despite these disadvantages, UW Flash remains a tier one deck because of how well it leverages Spell Queller against Jeskai Saheeli and a majority of tier 2. While not receiving anything revolutionary, Metallic Rebuke and Aethersphere Harvester are welcome additions that are in-line with the deck's tempo-oriented strategy, and Disallow becomes an additional tool against Emrakul out of the sideboard.

4c Vehicles

Creatures (20)

4 Toolcraft Exemplar 4 Thraben Inspector 2 Inventor's Apprentice 4 Veteran Motorist 4 Scrapheap Scrounger   2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar

Spells (18)

4 Smuggler's Copter 2 Heart of Kiran 2 Cultivator's Caravan 2 Fatal Push 4 Unlicensed Disintegration 2 Metallic Rebuke 2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

Lands (22)

4 Inspiring Vantage 4 Concealed Courtyard 4 Spirebluff Canal 4 Spire of Industry 1 Aether Hub 3 Plains 1 Shambling Vent 1 Needle Spires

Mardu is left in a difficult spot. Although many of its best draws beat other decks in the format thanks to the clock provided by Heart of Kiran, so many decks occupy the midgame and go over the top of Gideon: Ishkanah, Emrakul, the Copycat Combo, and Aetherworks Marvel are all powerful against the four-color aggro deck, and while less powerful, the deck would have to turn to Smuggler's Copter to aid its unreliable mana rather than Heart of Kiran for the clock it provides. Unable to sit on its laurels behind a Gideon, the deck has to incorporate blue to keep these threats off the table. Rather than an aggro deck with a midrange sideboard, Mardu Vehicles is forced to evolve into an aggro-tempo deck, trying to utilize advantage from Metallic Rebuke and Thalia to close out games. Although there's stiff competition, the deck's aggressive draws against a format geared around building to a powerful turn 4 keep it in the upper echelon of the format.

Tier Two

GR Aetherworks

Creatures (12) 4 Emrakul, the Promised End 2 Ishkanah, Grafwidow 4 Servant of the Conduit 2 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

Spells (26)

4 Attune with Aether 4 Vessel of Nascency 4 Woodweaver's Puzzleknot 4 Harnessed Lightning 1 Tormenting Voice 2 Kozilek's Return 4 Aetherworks Marvel 3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

Lands (22)

4 Aether Hub 2 Evolving Wilds 8 Forest 4 Game Trail 4 Mountain

One of the eventual pillars of Kaladesh Standard, Temur Aetherworks had a coming-out party in the hands of several Team Channelfireball members at GP Denver 2016. With GB Delirium having won a high-end Starcitygames tournament a week prior, the popular notion was that GB Delirium was soft to turn 4 Emrakuls and couldn't truly disrupt Aetherworks Marvel decks game 1. As Mardu rose in popularity, Marvel decks experimented with a variety of splash colors before eventually settling on GR. While GR Aetherworks remains a potent combo deck, Jeskai Saheeli presents a challenging matchup to resolve the artifact in and it must fight against a different combo that wins the game. Although it can still prey on GB Delirium, Jeskai Saheeli and 4c Vehicles all become more challenging with the tools they acquire from Aether Revolt, and UW Flash is still an abysmal matchup.

RW Vehicles

Creatures (20)

4 Thraben Inspector 4 Toolcraft Exemplar 4 Walking Ballista 4 Veteran Motorist 2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar 2 Archangel Avacyn  

Spells (16)

2 Shock 2 Smuggler's Copter 4 Heart of Kiran   4 Stasis Snare 4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

Lands (24)

4 Inspiring Vantage 4 Needle Spires 10 Plains 6 Mountain

With an emphasis on utilizing Gideon and powerful three-mana creatures, RW Vehicles superficially looks similar to what Mardu Vehicles is now – an aggressive deck with the option to further utilize aggressive draws or shift into a midrange strategy as their opponent's plan demands. While Kaladesh offered a few good matchups for skilled pilots such as Reid Duke, Jeskai Saheeli is still a challenge, as the control deck is able to manage RW's aggressive draws while going over the top of the deck's midrange plan with the Copycat Combo. Ultimately relegated to tier 2, RW Vehicles likely becomes a meta choice for pilots looking to exploit the aggressive draws of 4c Vehicles without the inherent mana problems.

UW Panharmonicon

Creatures (24)

3 Thraben Inspector 4 Glint-Nest Crane 3 Eldrazi Displacer 1 Pilgrim's Eye 4 Reflector Mage 1 Thought-Knot Seer 2 Felidar Guardian 4 Cloudblazer 2 Drowner of Hope

Spells (11)

4 Panharmonicon 4 Smuggler's Copter 2 Stasis Snare 1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship

Lands (25)

4 Prairie Stream 9 Plains 5 Island 1 Wastes 4 Evolving Wilds 2 Westvale Abbey

The deck most likely to be called “cute” by an opponent in Kaladesh Standard, it suddenly rocketed in popularity towards the end of the format with a top 8 performance at GP Denver 2016 in the hands of Seth Manfield. A difficult deck to quantify, it could be described as a UW midrange deck that creates significant value off of having Panharmonicon in play after turn 4. Every card creates value for the deck's pilot and it is hard to dismantle, making this deck a surprising foil to Marvel decks looking to “undo” a board state with an early Emrakul. With so many baked-in ways to recoup life and card advantage, it also presents a challenging matchup for GB Delirium, which is put into the bizarre position of trying to end the game before the UW deck can get its card advantage engine going. Despite these good matchups, 4c, RW and RB Aggro present fast clocks backed by effective removal, relegating this deck to tier 2.

RB Aggro

Creatures (20)

4 Bomat Courier 4 Inventor's Apprentice 4 Scrapheap Scrounger   4 Pia Nalaar 4 Bloodhall Priest

Spells (17)

2 Fatal Push 1 Lightning Axe 4 Smuggler's Copter 2 Key to the City 4 Fiery Temper 4 Unlicensed Disintegration

Lands (23)

4 Foreboding Ruins 4 Smoldering Marsh 10 Mountain 5 Swamp

The other side of the “white or black” argument for Rx Vehicle decks, RB Aggro trades a stronger midgame of powerful planeswalkers and creatures for a faster clock. Scrapheap Scrounger truly shines in this deck, becoming ideal discard fodder for Smuggler's Copter and Key to the City, and the deck itself has little to fear from the Copycat Combo when all of its removal spells positively interact with it. Although on paper it has a terrific matchup on paper against the field, in practice the deck can sputter without any real card advantage game 1, and often has to have ideal hands to hope to beat GB Delirium or GR Marvel.  UW Flash and 4c Vehicles also can be challenging, as both decks are excellent at leveraging the advantage from being able to play Gideon, Ally of Zendikar.

GB Snake

Creatures (23)

4 Winding Contrictor 4 Walking Ballista 4 Scrapheap Scrounger 2 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner 3 Rishkar, Peema Renegade 2 Tireless Tracker 4 Verdurous Gearhulk  

Spells (14)

4 Fatal Push 4 Smuggler's Copter 4 Grasp of Darkness   2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar

Lands (23)

4 Blooming Marsh 4 Hissing Quagmire 2 Aether Hub 8 Swamp 5 Forest

While many decks try to figure out a way to battle against GB Delirium by going around their card advantage with a faster clock or an infinite combo, GB Snake proudly declares, “I'll just go through them.” Ishkanah is little more than a speed bump in the face of Verdurous Gearhulk and Winding Constrictor boosting a team of efficient creatures backed by Winding Constrictor. Although Nissa can still be preyed upon by Smuggler's Copter, any GB player will feel fine cashing in a Nissa for an Overrun against vehicle decks not well-suited to blocking anyway. While slower than vehicles decks, the removal lines up well against many of their threats, and Heroic Intervention out of the board becomes a giant boon against Jeskai Saheeli. UW Flash and Marvel present difficult opponents not swayed by fast Walking Ballistas or ground assaults. And while I did tout the deck as trying to go through GB Delirium, ultimately Delirium has the advantage with a more robust endgame and the Snake deck being prone to self-destruction when controlled by an Emrakul.

4c Saheeli Copter

Creatures (18)

4 Servant of the Conduit 3 Reflector Mage 3 Rogue Refiner 2 Tireless Tracker 2 Whirler Virtuoso 4 Felidar Guardian

Spells (21)

4 Oath of Nissa 2 Oath of Chandra 3 Attune with Aether 4 Smuggler's Copter 4 Harnessed Lightning 4 Saheeli Rai

Lands (21)

4 Aether Hub 4 Botanical Sanctum 1 Evolving Wilds 5 Forest 2 Game Trail 1 Island 1 Mountain 1 Plains 2 Spirebluff Canal

I'm including this for completion's sake. If Mardu can be shaped to stay top-tier in this new metagame, then surely the other tier 1 deck in the format can do the same, right? Look at all that card advantage! Look at how much the deck can apply pressure while digging for combo pieces and ultimately winning a game because of the threat of the combo. Smuggler's Copter and a bunch of value creatures with Smuggler's Copter loots being set up by a Saheeli scry. It's perfect.

This deck faces several new challenges, though. First, it has to contend against not one, but three playable aggressive decks (4c Vehicles, RW Vehicles, and RB Aggro). The meta we're currently in shows that 4c Saheeli can contend with decks as fast as Mardu is now, which would be closer to what RW Vehicles is in this meta, but  it remains to be seen if it can keep up with a faster deck such as the 4c Vehicles or RB. Next, UW Flash will do an excellent job leveraging Spell Queller and Stasis Snare against the combo due to the deck's ability to be played mostly at instant speed. Lastly is the “backup plan;” what the deck can do against an opponent ready for the combo. Jeskai Saheeli has the benefit of a strong control game, 4c Saheeli relies on a value midrange game that can't apply enough pressure against the likes of Jeskai Saheeli or even control-oriented GB Delirium builds.

Conclusion

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Several other decks that could see success in an Aether Revolt meta, such as GR Pummeler, RB Dredge with Voldaren Pariah, UR Emerge, and UR-X Dynavolt Tower variants, and there is always room for innovation as the meta begins to settle. Although the decks I mentioned will likely be in their places in the meta (with Marvel decks in all likelihood floating between tier 1 and tier 2 based on meta shifts), there are many viable decks to sleeve up and potentially win tournaments, which is a good goal to have in a format like Standard.

The format I am proposing illustrates an important point: although the Kaladesh meta was not perfect, it presented more true diversity then the format Aether Revolt currently presents. The reason for that is, yes, many of the tier one decks leverage banned cards to a high degree of efficiency. However, the decks in Tier 2 utilized certain aspects of those cards better than the tier one decks decks can, and preyed on those decks at the cost of other matchups. This creates a situation where tier 1 decks are powerful decks that will have a good performance in any given meta, but tier 2 decks become specific tools to attack specific metagames. Therefore, the gap between tier 1 and tier 2 is made smaller, which leads the game away from the format we have now:

Tier 1

Mardu Vehicles

4c Saheeli

Tier 2

Everything else

The reason for this format is that the banning of Reflector Mage, Smuggler's Copter, and Emrakul, the Promised End was targeted at the pillars of the format, but unfortunately crippled the decks beneath them. Combined with the emergence of the Copycat Combo, tier two strategies were forced to fight against a combo when their best tools for fighting it were taken away. Without those tools, those decks faded away as Mardu, which was quickly found as a way to fight the combo, rose to combat it. Now the format's two best decks are essentially covering for each other. It is very difficult to have a positive matchup against both decks now, where if the three banned cards were still playable, perhaps other decks could be utilized to fight them.

I'm open to being wrong – maybe this format is actually worse. Maybe this is just the second coming of Combo Winter and turn 4 represents the end game, rather than the point where decks try to turn the tide against one another. Maybe 4c Saheeli Copter can be tuned into the most oppressive deck in the format, or maybe GB Delirium just maindecks Transgress the Mind and Lost Legacy to stay top dog. But Kaladesh Standard proved that even with turn 4 Emrakul or a turn 4 aggro kill, it was still possible to innovate given the proper tools. But if you have a different opinion, let me know in the comments or hit me up on @intrepid_guard on Twitter, or @intrepidguardian on Tumblr.

I look forward to putting this to the test on April 1st. For those of you that know me, it'll be little surprise when I try to run over the competition with 4c Vehicles. But I've got a one-day pass to the Inventors' Fair, and I'm so excited to see what everyone else can create.  

If you want to see this format unfold, find my LGS on twitch at twitch.tv/collectormania. The tournament will start at 12 PM Mountain time with the top two tables each round on the stream.