Aether Revolt - First Impressions: Mythic

speakupaskanswer

While looking at the card list (https://d3go.com/mtgpq-card-list-aether-revolt/), I thought I open a thread to start discussing the new cards. First, mythics:

*Aethergeode Miner: This is a pure Energize engine. Seems pretty good for an energy deck, but is it worth a mythic? Not sure.
*Aethertide Whale: Energize 10 is pretty powerful for the right deck and a 10/6 flyer is pretty potent too. Cool card.
*Aetherwind Basker: "Amount of creatures" is rarely as powerful as it sounds but it can still be some energy. The overload ability is nice but only temporary. 20 is high cost too. Hm.
*Baral, Chief of Compliance: For a spell-heavy deck, like Jace, this is a real powerhouse. A 3-mana discount for each spell plus card drawing is really nice.
*Exquisite Archangel: It's an 8/8 vigilance flyer, which tend to die quickly but you get 30 (!) life for its death. That's a really big swing, especially if you blocked something big with it (which you, unfortunately, don't have a lot of control over because combat is so little strategic). This will be very annoying to play against.
*Gonti's Aether Heart: They really dared to do something new for this game and gaining extra swaps can be huge. It will probably not sufficient to pay for itself, but it's easy to trigger and only costs 6. I'm really interested in playing this!
*Heart of Kiran: I'm less enthusiastic for Fabricate than most people and while 4 is good this still costs 25 for a 12/12 with vigilance. To be fair, Crew 4 will make this much cheaper but I'm not sure about this one.
*Herald of Anguish: Discarding and giving -2/-2 can really add up, so I assume this will be a really annoying card too.
*Kari Zev: "This creature can't block" is such a stupid line of text in this game. But man, for 5 mana this is really cheap for a card that grows every turn and gets harder to block because of first strike.
*Lightning Runner: Again, really cheap, really powerful especially with haste and also bumping your teammates for just Overload 1? Wow.
*Mechanized Production: Overload 3 is no joke but this ability is super strong. And it doesn't cost much to play it.
*Planar Bridge: Again, OL 3, but effect is strong but can be very swingy.
*Rishkar: +3 for everyone is really strong and the constant mana gain should be great for green.
*Rishkar's Expertise: 5 mana for that mana gain is crazy. Remember what Seasons' Past costs?
*Sram: Not a fancy effect, but a 4/4 for 4 that gets bigger is nothing to ignore.
*Yahenni: The first effect is not immensely powerful, the second could be strong, the cost is rather high. Maybe interesting.

I like most of these cards. What do you think? Am I being too nice?

AettThorn

A few things that I notice, in addition to your list:

Aethergeode Miner: My only problem with it is that it's white. White doesn't have a lot of uses for energized gems. But might be good in mixed color decks, like Dovin.

Kari Zev: Can't block, and has menace, meaning you basically need spells to kill it. Gets +2/+1 each turn at a cost of only five mana. First attack will be 3/3. then 5/4, then 7/5. Gets big fast if you don't have spells to get rid of it.

Lightning Runner: Finally a decent way for C2 to get energized gems and use them! Oh, it's a mythic that most people will have trouble getting? Gotcha.

Planar Bridge: On the right deck, this could be huge. Mainly because the other player then DOESN'T get that creature to pull on you. Even if you just trash it, it's one less creature that you need to worry about dealing with.

Yaheeni: I'm really having trouble figuring out how this will be useful. A 2/2 berserker isn't likely going to take anything on the other side out, and you need to have lost a creature for it to have even triggered. Might be good to help with a defender, but if your other creature died already, then this guy is going to attack first, and so won't have prevent damage. I don't get it.

span_argoman

I predict Gonti's Aether Heart will break the game. Once you get it going, the opponent will just about never get a turn.

Rishkar's Expertise is going to earn them a lotttt of money.

And Baral, Chief of Compliance is also going to wreck havoc.

ZW2007-

Aethergeode Miner: See Depala.
Aethertide Whale: Might cost a tad too much.
Aetherwind Basker: Costs too much.
Baral, Chief of Compliance: Exclusive, will be very good.
Exquisite Archangel: Exclusive, won't win you games but will save you from losing some.
Gonti's Aether Heart: Probably my favorite of the bunch. Just begs to be broken.
Heart of Kiran: Exclusive with Fabricate 4, pass.
Herald of Anguish: Exclusive, looks to be pretty strong for control.
Kari Zev: Has a lot of potential, one of the better mythics.
Lightning Runner: See Kari Zev.
Mechanized Production: Exclusive, could be good but I'll never get to try it.
Planar Bridge: Exclusive, I like the design since it will allow you to replace one of your creatures if you already have 3 and get something better from the opponent. (I think)
Rishkar: Exclusive, and overcosted.
Rishkar's Expertise: Exclusive, and will probably get nerfed.
Sram: Devil's playground level of value without the slow animations and in white. Nothing fancy but strong.
Yahenni: Compare to Kari Zev or Lightning Runner, he's bad.

Honestly not very impressed with the mythics, which is probably a good thing. The best ones seem to be the cheap creatures that will slide right into a Nahiri Zoo deck. Then you have your gimmicky, energy-reliant ones that could be very powerful if you have the right card collection.

AettThorn

span_argoman wrote:

I predict Gonti's Aether Heart will break the game. Once you get it going, the opponent will just about never get a turn.

Overload 3 is tough to get going repeatedly, though. Even if you've got a bumped up Empyreal Voyager or something like that, it's still tough to get more than a couple of extra swaps without creating more and more energized gems.

span_argoman

AettThorn wrote:

span_argoman wrote:

I predict Gonti's Aether Heart will break the game. Once you get it going, the opponent will just about never get a turn.

Overload 3 is tough to get going repeatedly, though. Even if you've got a bumped up Empyreal Voyager or something like that, it's still tough to get more than a couple of extra swaps without creating more and more energized gems.

Not if you have Dynavolt Tower, Era of Innovation and Aether Hub in the deck as a base. Blue, especially Kiora, has ways to keep the board more or less fully Energized all the time.

Fake Cards

I take it Heart of Kiran will be available when Sahaali Rai finally drops. That'll be cool for folks that didn't pull Boomship. I'm not a big fan of power creep but unless there's set restricted events on the horizon, they had to do something to compete with EDM. My first impression: excitement!

Hibernum_JC

I love reading these impressions, folks. Super interesting to see what you think, on a pure theorycraft level.

Keep it coming!

Fake Cards

Hey look, it's Fiddler!

Steeme

Hibernum_JC wrote:

I love reading these impressions, folks. Super interesting to see what you think, on a pure theorycraft level.

Keep it coming!

Any chance you could consolidate the animation speed of fabricate? Would make the new cards a bit more enjoyable. They look great on paper, but in practice it's a different story altogether. Energize is a bit of a nuisance as well, to the point where I can't see any more matches and rely on the AI to tell me which stones to match. I really really want to play the new cards, but they have to be playable.

madwren

Aethergeode Miner: Fine as an energy generator, but only really useful in dual-colored decks since white lacks overload effects. Where does she fit? With 3 creature slots, dedicating one to a 4/4 flyer means you’d better make up for it in the other two slots, and I’m not sure there are overload effects to warrant it.

Aethertide Whale: A huge flyer isn’t bad. It’s reasonably costed (maybe should be 16), but my phone screams at the thought of energize 10. Nice to see a huge energize effect instead of the piddly “energize 2 or 3” that happened in KLD. It’s the only way to keep energy on the board instead of seeing it matched away quickly.

Aetherwind Basker: 20 mana isn’t that expensive in green, but I don’t like “until end of turn” effects, because you’re paying the mana cost for something that only happens some of the time. Admittedly, I haven’t played much with heavy energize, so it’s possible if you’re getting multiple O1 triggers, that it’ll be fairly large. There are many other creatures I’d rather play with.

Baral, Chief of Compliance: Broken. This is the new Olivia.

Exquisite Archangel: Very solid. White has a glut of these creatures, but the effect is unique enough that it’ll find some play..

Gonti's Aether Heart: Has broken potential, but O3 is difficult and its own energize isn’t easy to trigger. While it has potential in Sorin Starfield builds, I doubt this will be of note until Tezz the Schemer comes out. A great challenge for deckbuilders.

Heart of Kiran: It’s ok. Would go fine in Saheeli for her ultimate, but having 16 fabricate gems would be a mind-numbing exercise in boredom. Can’t argue with the size of the result, though.

Herald of Anguish: I like this. Great control card, presumably works with clues and fabricate. If so, subtle removal option.

Kari Zev: This card is awesome. Must-have. It’s a Drana for the new age and scales fast.

Lightning Runner: Boost red aggro, part 2. Might be a bit fiddly in red with a lack of energizers, but great potential.

Mechanized Production: It’s O3, which means most of the time you just threw away 6 mana. At least the cost is reasonable.

Planar Bridge: Again, O3. Has some great possibilities, but not sure how often it’ll trigger. While it’s colorless, seems like Kiora would be the best bet to abuse this. Overall, the energizers in this set seem better, which means O3 effects may become more useful.

Rishkar, Peema Renegade: I like him, but he’s at a tough spot, like the Angel above. Him plus Ulvenwald Hydra is a lot of green conversion each turn, though.

Rishkar’s Expertise: Overpowered out of the gate. I get the green ramping thing, but it’s becoming a bit stupid at this point.

Sram, Senior Edificer: Solid card, and if it works with clues/fabricate, could be a better Relic Seeker. Even if you only get a bit of mileage out of the ability, however, a 4/4 for 4 is very good.

Yahenni, Undying Partisan: Not a fan, the abilities are fiddly and unreliable, and if I spend 11 mana, it better be for a good reason.

Fake Cards

Steeme wrote:

Any chance you could consolidate the animation speed of fabricate? Would make the new cards a bit more enjoyable. They look great on paper, but in practice it's a different story altogether. Energize is a bit of a nuisance as well, to the point where I can't see any more matches and rely on the AI to tell me which stones to match. I really really want to play the new cards, but they have to be playable.

It's really true. Can you imagine popping Sahaali Rai's ultimate and sitting through Heart of Kiran fabricate sixteen times?
Then it dies the next turn.......

I really think Kaladesh was a learning experience for the devs. At least I hope it was. When a game mechanic that worked for months like Fetch and ID'ing supports stops working, or gems become difficult to decipher due to Energize or unnecessary holiday frost, players get fed up and put this game on the shelf. It's a huge step in the wrong direction. I understand each fabricate can trigger another effect but there's gotta be a less painstaking way.

bk1234

madwren wrote:

Baral, Chief of Compliance: Broken. This is the new Olivia.

This card makes Olivia look like she needs a buff. It should be nerfed before release.

James13

I find this to be a very enjoyable time in my experience with the game. Looking over new potential cards while thinking about various new builds and possibilities.

Theorycrafing is one of the unique joys in this game.

Particularly when a lot lot of these appear to open obvious (and some less obvious, but enticing) possibilities up. Overall I give these cards high marks for design in translating them to this game format.

Thanks.

Fake Cards

I agree, this set definitely looks like it's a step in the right direction again. That mythic blue wizard guy is gonna make my phone smoke but it'll be fun to see. He's exclusive so if they're gonna nerf him they better do it now. If they do it after I drop $30 bucks on him, I'm gonna be freaking livid.

nexus13

I think solemn recruit is a sleeper hit here. 3/3 doublestrike for only 6 is going to be pretty strong in combination with any pump. I think Nahri and G/W Ajani will probably be really happy with this.

James13

nexus13 wrote:

I think solemn recruit is a sleeper hit here. 3/3 doublestrike for only 6 is going to be pretty strong in combination with any pump. I think Nahri and G/W Ajani will probably be really happy with this.

Shhh!

I was intentionally trying to not call attention to it!

andrewvanmarle

@JC: please dont hide away nice mythic cards in ladder rewards like you did with dynavolt tower and marvel aetherworks.

Those were linchpin cards for energise and about 30 people get to play with them.
If you are afraid that some cards are meta breaking if too many people have them, then limit the power instead of limiting the number.

Also, are you sure that that green mana changer spell is balanced right? It'd be a shame to have to give it the season's past treatment after the set is released.

In general, the set looks fun and diverse

madwren

nexus13 wrote:

I think solemn recruit is a sleeper hit here. 3/3 doublestrike for only 6 is going to be pretty strong in combination with any pump. I think Nahri and G/W Ajani will probably be really happy with this.

Isn't that a rare? The thread was about mythics, which is why I think that no one has mentioned Recruit yet.

speakupaskanswer

madwren wrote:

nexus13 wrote:

I think solemn recruit is a sleeper hit here. 3/3 doublestrike for only 6 is going to be pretty strong in combination with any pump. I think Nahri and G/W Ajani will probably be really happy with this.

Isn't that a rare? The thread was about mythics, which is why I think that no one has mentioned Recruit yet.

Yes, check out the rare thread:
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=58376

Mainloop25

I'll just keep my impressions to the potential benefits I see, so as not to be too redundant

Aethergeode Miner: This will help any dual-color white PW but especially for Dovin's 3rd ability. Might be worth adding just for that.
Aethertide Whale: A 10/6 flier is not bad on its own (especially with Deploy), but the Energize 10 seems tailor-made for the Overload-3 cards.
Aetherwind Basker: Seems like it would fit in a Nissa2 deck, but I can actually see it combo well with Arlinn's first ability, if you hit Overload-1.
Baral, Chief of Compliance: This card looks ripe for abuse. Stick in a Saheeli Harness The Storm deck and watch what happens. Obviously good with Jace2, but I think this card can open up new deck building possibilities with Dovin, since he has 8 spell slots.
Exquisite Archangel: This card has tons of potential. Solid as an 8/8 with Flying and Vigilance, but gaining 30HP on death in white can really help in a Nahiri QB run. Might buy this one.
Gonti's Aether Heart: I will have to see this in practice, otherwise this could totally be the next Mind's Dilation. An extra gem-swap in one turn could be huge, though.
Heart of Kiran: Deploy this in white and wreak havoc, or Dark Petition it in black. REALLY solid blocker. Combo with Padeem or Sphinx and make it Hexproof, and you got a really strong card right there.
Herald of Anguish: This could really screw up the opponent's hand combined with other discard. The -2/2 on support destruction also has potential. Also on the purchase radar.
Kari Zev: Seems like a nice cheap card for Nahiri and Chandra1, but my favorite part about First Strike is using it to block or be blocked, so I'm not sure about it being a menace that can't block.
Lightning Runner: I love Double Strike so I'm happy to see it come back. Super cheap card with a lot of extra abilities. Looks great for a Nahiri QB deck.
Mechanized Production: Energize is getting a big bump in AER, so this one has the potential to be incredibly powerful, especially with Dovin. I bet it will be an Event Reward.
Planar Bridge: I like Mechanized Production more, but the fact that this one is colorless means that you can fit into a lot of potential deck builds. Fun.
Rishkar, Peema Renegade: I like both of his abilities. If we get Green/White Ajani, this will be a great card combined with Deploy.
Rishkar's Expertise: Ummm assuming it doesn't get nerfed before release(it absolutely should), and it goes up for sale, I am definitely buying it. The potential for up to 24 green gems hitting the board for 5 mana is too irresistable to pass up.
Sram, Senior Artificer: A 4/4 for 4 mana is already solid, but it can grow quickly. Think of the possibility of combining this with Visionary Augmenter in a Nahiri deck.
Yahenni: If this card had Deathtouch it would be amazing. Fortunately, that's not too hard to achieve in black. Looks fun in a Sarkhan deck.