The Daily Magic Update is a roundup of everything Magic you should know on January 17, 2017. Today's Update is brought to you by Azami. May you always be surrounded by other Wizards willing to lend you a card.
Today's Must
- Aether Revolt Constructed Set Review: White | ChannelFireball | Luis Scott-Vargas
The Prerelease is over, which can only mean one thing—well, okay, scratch that. It means a lot of things. But one of those things is that Luis Scott-Vargas's Aether Revolt Constructed review is starting up. Today's article is quite bereft of puns, which are typically LSV's expertise, but it's a worthwhile read nonetheless, as are the other color-focused reviews that will follow over the next week or so.
After That, Read, Watch, or Listen to These
- Aether Revolt—Revolution Begins | SeibenLore
Seiben catches you up on the Aether Revolt story thus far.
- Top Ten Cards from Aether Revolt | Gathering Magic | Abe Sargent
If you don't already know about Abe Sargent, then know that when Abe says "Top Ten cards," he's talking about casual play—anything from Commander to Cube to the kitchen table. These are cards that are cool, sometimes powerful, but always, always a blast.
- From Prerelease Card Battles to the Digital Future | First Strike | Kar Yung Tom, Doug Potter, and Robert Lombardi
The debate podcast is back with its ninth episode, going back and forth on everything from Prereleases to Aether Revolt Limited to the digital-focused announcement made by Wizards of the Coast President Chris Cocks late last week. Basically, all the things.
- Could Fatal Push Make Grixis Control Tier 1? | ChannelFireball | Corey Burkhart
Let's give Modern a little love, if for no other reason than we've finally got Grixis expert Corey Burkhart chiming in on what Fatal Push does for Grixis. Everyone else has been pointing toward that archetype as the one helped most by Fatal Push, but now we get to hear from the one guy who can still make Grixis work in Modern. The floor is yours, Burkhart.
- The BEST Modern Cards from Aether Revolt for Magic: The Gathering | Tolarian Community College | The Professor
Okay, here's a little more Modern love. Prof looks at Fatal Push, plus four other cards that will be the best cards from Aether Revolt for Modern. Don't worry, that's not really a spoiler.
What to Watch Tonight
Tonight on twitch.tv/magic, we've got some hot, hot Vintage Super League action. Here's a tweet to tell you more about it.
There's one spot left in Vintage Super League, and 6 players who want it. The double elim Last Chance Qualifier starts tomorrow night! pic.twitter.com/mTT6sAuSxU
— Randy Buehler (@rbuehler) January 17, 2017
Thanks, helpful tweet! The show starts at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on twitch.tv/magic.
Community Spotlight
- Dear Azami: The Endgame | StarCityGames.com | Sean McKeown
I missed this yesterday, but I didn't want to let it pass without mention. Sean McKeown, who has written about Magic basically forever and who has written the "Dear Azami" column for around five years, is hanging up his writing stylus (people still use those, right?) for the time being. You can never keep a good Magic writer down, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him back in another form at another time, but for now, wish him a fond farewell from the content community.
What People Are Talking About
None were particularly expected, but the update is always cause for some chatter. In this case, there was a weird undercurrent of discussion about unbanning Braids, Cabal Minion—a conversation that can only serve to drag people out to sea and drown them in an ocean of awful, awful Braids play experiences.
Deck of the Day
Calling this deck from NinjaTheNick on Reddit "Combo" is underselling it. This deck is "Combos," as in the deck basically can't help but combo with itself just by throwing cards on the table.
The key to all the shenanigans you see in the list below is Paradox Engine, with honorable mentions for Lifecrafter's Bestiary and Greenbelt Rampager. You can read the full Reddit post for NinjaTheNick's take on the deck, but let me give you a primer just to get a taste of what this deck is capable of.
Let's say you have Paradox Engine on the battlefield and a Greenbelt Rampager in hand. Not too difficult, right? Well, if you have that set up, then all you need is some kind of energy user—a Minister of Inquiries, a Servant of the Conduit, etc.—and some kind of mana producer—Servant of the Conduit still works, but so does Rishkar, Peema Renegade, Loam Dryad, and Cryptolith Rites—and you can get infinite untaps by playing the Rampager (untap), bouncing it and getting an energy, then using Minister or Servant to use up the energy, tapping Loam Dryad or something else for mana, and playing the Rampager again (untap), which resets everything and lets you do it as many times as you please.
From there, if you have multiple creatures that make mana—whether thanks to Rites or Rishkar—you can make unlimited mana. With unlimited mana, you can do things like draw your entire deck with Merchant's Dockhand, or search up all of your deck's creatures with Duskwatch Recruiter, or draw your entire deck with Lifecrafter's bestiary, or make as many tokens as you like with Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter.
The thing that makes this deck so cool is that, outside of Paradox Engine, a ton of the pieces are redundant, leading to a lot of random combos popping up seemingly out of nowhere. If the goal for Aether Revolt was to let you feel like an inventor, no deck will let you feel that way more than this crazy concoction.
