With the release of the newest Magic the Gathering set, Aetherdrift, on February 14th, you may be wondering which singles are worth seeking to spice up your Commander deck lists. There’s no denying that there are plenty of heavy hitters in this set, with some notable standouts being Riptide Gearhulk, Repurposing Bay, and Radiant Lotus.
These are obviously powerful cards with a good deal of hype behind them that will undeniably see a lot of play across the format. With bombs like these, it’s easy to overlook some of the less flashy cards that release alongside them; however, there are plenty that are well worth your attention. Let’s review five lesser-discussed cards released in Aetherdrift that deserve your consideration.
5: Demonic Junker
Starting with Demonic Junker, this is a mono-black vehicle with a symmetrical creature removal effect that triggers upon entering the battlefield. With Commander being a four player format, cards with symmetrical effects that target multiple opponents rather than only one should always be sought after and highly valued as they effectively provide a 3-for-1, which is great for staying ahead of your opponents. Demonic Junker allows you to remove the most threatening creature on each of your opponent’s boards, which is already great, but it also stays on the board as a buffed up vehicle thanks to those +1/+1 counters it places on itself.
The largest obstacle to slotting this card into a deck is its relatively high cost of seven mana; thankfully, the card also has the ‘Affinity for artifacts’ ability which means its mana cost is reduced by one for each other artifact you control. You may think that this requires you to build around artifacts entirely, but if you just have a few artifact-based ramp pieces in play it can be easy to reduce the cost down to four or five mana, at which point you are getting a great value for the cost. If you do happen to be playing an artifact based strategy, then Demonic Junker can get absurdly cheap to cast and can also be combined with any sort of recursion or blinking effects to create an incredibly efficient creature removal engine.
4: Oviya, Automech Artisan
Oviya, Automech Artisan is a mono-green creature with two powerful abilities, one of which provides trample to all creatures that are attacking one of your opponents, while the other allows you to pay a single green mana and tap her to place any creature or artifact from your hand directly onto the battlefield. Your attention may be first drawn to this second ability as using her to cheat out large, expensive-costed threats from your hand is powerful, flashy, and just generally a lot of fun; however, her first ability should not be overlooked either. While there are a large number of green cards that can grant your own creatures trample, it is unique to see those that selectively grant your opponent’s creatures trample as well.
In creature-based strategies, your method of winning the game will usually be creating a large board of threats that will chip away at your opponent’s life totals over several turns which trample will, of course, assist with doing. Decks in this strategy will often be difficult for opponents to attack due to the high number of creatures, which generally means they will be sending their attackers elsewhere. Oviya, Automech Artisan granting those attackers trample means that more damage is going to be dealt to your opponents. This results in your opponents having lower life totals, which makes it easier for you to swing out and win the game on following turns. Oviya having these two powerful abilities stapled onto a relatively cheap body at four mana makes her a great addition to any green deck with a creature based strategy.
3: Spectacular Pileup
Due to the multiplayer nature of the Commander format, it is not uncommon for the battlefield to become quickly flooded with a large number of threatening creatures. This is great when you’re the one doing so, not so much when you’re behind the competition and at risk of being targeted. It is during these moments that a creature-based board wipe comes in clutch, and with Spectacular Pileup’s ability to destroy all creatures, including those with indestructible, this is a great piece of removal to slot into any white decks that can afford it.
While five-mana is a bit expensive for this type of effect, the additional cycling ability on the card grants an extra layer of flexibility that other board wipes don’t tend to offer. Usually, if you’re the one ahead on board then having a wipe in hand tends to be a dead card, Spectacular Pileup’s cycling ability easily allows it to be swapped for something useful. Due to the high variance of the Commander format, this type of flexibility should never be undervalued.
2: Molt Tender
While many decks may focus primarily on ramping during the first few turns of the game and getting their value engines in place on turns three or four, the value of a proactive turn one play that aids and supports your game plan should not be ignored. Molt Tender is a fantastic one mana green creature for any decks you have that are looking to play in and out of their graveyards. Functioning not only as a recurring means of getting cards into your graveyard, it also has the ability to exile those cards to produce additional mana.
While it may only mill one card a turn, and can only exile from your own graveyard, this inconspicuous engine will often put in far more work than you may expect as it continuously produces value as the game goes on. Most graveyard or self-mill focused decks should be looking to have as many redundant effects like this as possible, and as the Commander format continues to speed up, low cost options like Molt Tender are becoming increasingly valuable.
1: Stock Up
There are few abilities in Magic the Gathering more powerful than drawing cards. A steady stream of cards ensures that you always have plays to make, and that you are consistently able to recover past any setbacks thrown at you from across the table. Reliable card draw also ensures that your deck will more often perform at a higher power level, as you will find your synergy pieces and large threats more frequently.
While there are plenty of options for card draw within the Commander format, Stock Up’s ability to dig five cards deep and draw you the two best of those cards is incredibly useful, especially for the reasonable rate of three mana. Regardless of where you are at in the game, this will nearly always be a great proactive option to help sculpt your hand and ensure you are in a good position to overcome your opponents.
What are your favorite cards from Aetherdrift? Do you have any that you feel are being overlooked? Let us know in the comments or on the Boss Rush Discord.
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