Izzet Pirate (Standard)

Aetherdrift gives us two aggressive payoffs for discarding cards: 《Marauding Mako》 and 《Scrounging Skyray》. Both of them also happen to be Pirates, and thus go along very well with 《Fearless Swashbuckler》, which gives you a lot of card selection and discard triggers for the 《Marauding Mako》 and the 《Scrounging Skyray》.

They also go along perfectly with 《Inti, Seneschal of the Sun》, which both provides you with discard triggers to grow your payoff creatures AND acts as another payoff for the other cards that discard cards. Thus it’s a perfect glue card for the deck. These cards are also all aggressive by nature, so they are not only synergistic but also strategically cohesive.

Rounding out the deck is a bunch of cheap interaction. One of the major upsides of having this many looting effects is that you can play situationally powerful cards like 《Spell Pierce》 and 《Unsummon》 without having to fear them getting stranded in your hand. Speaking of which, 《Spell Pierce》 is now back in Standard after a break!

Mana bases of Blue-Red decks also get a huge improvement from the new set in the form of 《Riverpyre Verge》. Out of the enemy color combinations only Green-Black had tolerable mana without the Verges, and it will be interesting to see how Blue-Red and Red-White decks in particular will fare now that they have enough dual lands to function reliably.

Azorius Affinity (Modern)

I have a soft spot for Affinity decks in Modern, and a couple of months ago when 《Mox Opal》 was unbanned I wrote an article with a Mono-Blue Affinity list in it. Thus, when I was reading the Aetherdrift card list I was happy to spot multiple new tools for these decks!

《Mendicant Core, Guidelight》 is a cheap artifact creature that always hits as if it had a 《Cranial Plating》 equipped on it. If you compare it to 《Patchwork Automaton》, it doesn’t protect itself with Ward and it costs colored mana to cast, but on the other hand it’s probably going to hit harder and it’s definitely going to be a much better draw later in the games.

And because you have more card draw than before, it’s more important to be a good draw off the top of your deck than in your opening hand. I would expect the Max speed ability on the 《Mendicant Core, Guidelight》 to be mostly just flavor text, but if you ever get to activate it, it’s very powerful.

Of note is that the angry Blue-White Robot rare is a Legend, so it would pair well with 《Mox Amber》. You could definitely build a version of this deck that would support 《Mox Amber》 too, which could include 《Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student》, 《Emry, Lurker of the Loch》, 《Sundial, Dawn Tyrant》 and 《Skrelv, Defector Mite》.

《Thoughtcast》 has always felt very easy to enable in these decks and 《Memory Guardian》 ought to fit right in next to it. As a flier it would pair very well with 《Cranial Plating》 and 《Nettlecyst》, but I didn’t know how to make room for everything. There’s so much to explore here!

《Voyage Home》 is 《Thoughtcast》’s big brother, and competes for a slot with 《Thought Monitor》. It is unclear to me whether the additional card and life gain are worth more or less than the easier casting cost and the 2/2 body, but time will tell.

One upside of these new additions is also that they are all Blue cards. This is really important for 《Force of Negation》, which now has fodder to pitch more reliably than before.

Reevaluation Card

《Simulacrum Synthesizer》! The new set has support for the artifact theme and if we reach a critical mass of good artifact cards in Standard then the Synthesizer could be a key piece.

I’m particularly interested in combining this with 《Repurposing Bay》, as it would give you a free Construct token every turn. This type of deck might have some issues with 《Heartfire Hero》 and 《Manifold Mouse》, but I’m hoping to be proven wrong!

Temur Exhaust Cauldron (Standard)

《Loot, the Pathfinder》 seems like a premium target for 《Agatha’s Soul Cauldron》. The abilities are all excellent, and most importantly, remember that you get to Exhaust each ability once per creature! A Cauldron with Loot underneath will overwhelm your opponent very quickly.

《Cache Grab》 and the new 《Dredger’s Insight》 help you put 《Loot, the Pathfinder》 in the graveyard and find the 《Agatha’s Soul Cauldron》. 《Dredger’s Insight》‘s passive ability can stack up and gain you a solid amount of life alongside Cauldron – a neat little upside!

《Afterburner Expert》 is another payoff for self-milling. 《Loot, the Pathfinder》 and 《Draconautics Engineer》 both offer cheap Exhaust abilities for us to use. The synergy between Expert and Engineer is especially formidable – since their return from your graveyard upon activating the ability, your 4/2s will be ready to attack immediately!

《Krenko, Mob Boss》 is a secondary target for the 《Agatha’s Soul Cauldron》. 《Afterburner Expert》 and 《Draconautics Engineer》 both happen to be Goblins already, so if you ever manage to activate Krenko more than once per turn, you should flood the board easily. 《Draconautics Engineer》 can easily haste all of those tokens – possibly winning immediately!

I tried to incorporate 《Krenko, Baron of Tin Street》 to push that specific combo even further, but it proved hard to do, and likely just unnecessary. Still, 《Scrapwork Mutt》 is an option if you’d like to take the deck in that direction!

While we primarily try to place Loot in the graveyard, it’s cheap enough to cast – especially alongside 《Llanowar Elves》. Unfortunately, both of the on-color Verges fail to produce Green mana on turn 1 for your Elves, which makes building the manabase slightly challenging!

Orzhov Ketramose Midrange

《Ketramose, the New Dawn》 reads pretty impressive. Drawing a card every time I exile a card? I mean, how hard can it be!?

I took the lately popular Orzhov Taxes deck, moved away from some of the more synergistic elements, and transformed it into a value deck using 《Ketramose, the New Dawn》 as its main card advantage source and a way to go over the top of the Energy decks.

Incidental graveyard hate is very valuable in Modern nowadays – nearly every top deck uses the graveyard to an extent. 《Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury》; 《Emrakul, the Promised End》; 《Underworld Breach》 and 《Abhorrent Oculus》 all dislike seeing a game one 《Relic of Progenitus》.

The minor antisynergy between 《Relic of Progenitus》 and 《Overlord of the Balemurk》 can be slightly annoying, but alongside 《Ketramose, the New Dawn》, 《Relic of Progenitus》 also becomes a 《Phyrexian Arena》!

It’s not only 《Relic of Progenitus》 that becomes a value engine. Every time you remove something with 《Static Prison》 or 《Solitude》, you draw a card. Every time you attack with 《Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd》 or play a 《Flickerwisp》, you draw a card!

Getting to seven total exiled cards to unlock the formidable attacker part of 《Ketramose, the New Dawn》 should not take too long. 《Emperor of Bones》, 《Prismatic Ending》, and 《Portable Hole》 would function as well.

Sadly, 《Ephemerate》 did not end up making the cut. 《Solitude》/《Ephemerate》 combo seems disgustingly powerful if you control a 《Ketramose, the New Dawn》, but unfortunately, as I said, to fit the God and 《Relic of Progenitus》 the more synergy-driven parts of the deck had to be restructured. 《Ephemerate》 should still be a card you keep in mind, and definitely a worthwhile tool in slightly different builds!

But we have to remember that card draw from 《Ketramose, the New Dawn》 is not voluntary – and so is the life loss. 《Guide of Souls》 and 《Ocelot Pride》 are excellent one-drops to start the game with, while the lifegain they offer helps offsetting the lifeloss that we have to suffer from Ketramose’s ability.

Reevaluation Card

《Greasefang, Okiba Boss》 reanimating 《Parhelion II》 has been a staple of Pioneer for years, but the deck’s strength and popularity waxed and waned.

Aetherdrift brings us a bunch of new Vehicles – some of them, like 《Valor’s Flagship》, even have Cycling! The ability to very easily place your big Vehicle in the graveyard seems very welcome and makes me interested in revisiting the deck.

Golgari Beanstalk (Standard)

This is a creature-based version of Simic Terror, where you play 《Up the Beanstalk》 and then repeatedly play big creatures with reduced costs. While similar decks have been possible before using existing cards, new cards have significantly improved stability, so I am introducing this version.

《Molt Tender》 and 《Quag Feast》 are dream-like new cards for graveyard-based decks. 《Molt Tender》 provides a crucial one-mana opening play, while 《Quag Feast》 allows interaction with the opponent while setting up the graveyard.

There is already 《Writhing Necromass》 as a similar big creature, but this deck includes the newly introduced 《Chitin Gravestalker》. When big creatures stack your hand, this card allows you to use “Cycling” to look for mill cards.

We must not forget the presence of the Verge lands. Two-color decks are now much easier to build. For decks that want to start playing from turn one, like those using 《Molt Tender》 or 《Llanowar Elves》, the increase in untapped lands is highly beneficial.

Brightglass Gearhulk (Standard)

This deck is built around 《Brightglass Gearhulk》. With the wide card pool of the current Standard format, there are many viable search targets.

It can fetch removal spells like 《Dusk Rose Reliquary》 and 《Unable to Scream》, big creatures like 《Goldvein Hydra》, or even 《Shardmage’s Rescue》 to protect creatures enchanted with 《Sheltered by Ghosts》.

A particularly strong choice is 《Mockingbird》. Copying 《Brightglass Gearhulk》 lets you use its search ability again, ensuring you can fetch the next 《Mockingbird》 and maintain your board presence. Additionally, post-sideboard, it can search for silver-bullet cards like 《Ghost Vacuum》 or 《Authority of the Consuls》.

《Thunderous Velocipede》 is a notable three-mana option that can be played from 《Llanowar Elves》. While it synergizes well with token strategies, it also enables a turn-four 《Brightglass Gearhulk》, resulting in a 5/5 first strike & trample finisher.

The strategy of using 《Sheltered by Ghosts》 alongside big creatures is strong against Prowess decks, and sideboard options like 《Wilt-Leaf Liege》 can counter the currently popular Self-Bounce decks. As a result, Selesnya decks might become a notable archetype in the new metagame.

Reevaluation Card

《Breeches, Eager Pillager》

One of the powerful Pirate cards being highlighted this time. Even in “Foundations,” strong cards like 《Spectral Sailor》 are being introduced, making it quite feasible to play them on turn three and trigger them twice.

《Training Grounds》

The “Exhaust” mechanic includes many powerful activated abilities, which may raise the evaluation of this card. For instance, playing 《Training Grounds》 on turn one, then 《Draconautics Engineer》 on turn two allows you to activate both of 《Draconautics Engineer》’s abilities on turn three and attack for seven damage.

《Brass’s Tunnel-Grinder》

This is one of the few ways in Standard to discard multiple cards at once. The new set includes cards like 《Cryptcaller Chariot》 that trigger upon discarding, so this effect may be used to enable those strategies.

Goblins (Standard)

In the previous set, Foundations, many powerful Goblins were included. With the addition of 《Howlsquad Heavy》《Burnout Bashtronaut》, and 《Draconautics Engineer》 from Aetherdrift, the missing creatures for each mana slot have been filled.

Goblin decks have traditionally been associated with budget builds using commons and uncommons, but this deck is built almost entirely of rare cards. Personally, I have the impression that strong aggro decks tend to include many rares, so I am paying close attention to these Goblins.

《Three Tree City》, which had not been effectively utilized before, has the potential to generate absurd amounts of mana in a wide-spreading kindred deck like Goblins. Combined with 《Howlsquad Heavy》, it can produce a large amount of mana on a decisive turn, enabling surprise plays such as repeatedly activating 《Draconautics Engineer》‘s “Exhaust” ability or deploying 《Krenko, Mob Boss》 with haste.

Dinosaurs (Standard)

This Dinosaur deck was inspired by the newly included 《Regal Imperiosaur》. Foundations also brought back 《Llanowar Elves》, which may now have the perfect opportunity to shine. With 《Ixalli’s Lorekeeper》 and a full set of one-mana mana dorks, you can start playing big three-mana Dinosaurs as early as turn two.

《Agonasaur Rex》 is also incredibly powerful, boasting an absurd 8/8 trample body for just five mana. However, its most notable feature is its “Cycling” ability, which allows you to protect your Dinosaurs from removal or giving trample to non-trample creatures like 《Pugnacious Hammerskull》, potentially ending the game in an instant.

As a high-risk, high-reward inclusion, I considered using 《Palani’s Hatcher》 to cheat out 《Ghalta, Primal Hunger》. However, this slot could easily be replaced with removal or other Dinosaurs. Another card I debated including was 《Bonehoard Dracosaur》. Since opponents will likely use their removal on the big three-mana Dinosaurs, it could remain on the battlefield and secure victory once their removal is run out.

Reevaluation Card

《Arahbo, the First Fang》

Aetherdrift has introduced a few Cat-themed cards. While I have focused on kindred decks like Goblins and Dinosaurs, Cats are steadily increasing in number, making them worth keeping an eye on. 《Arahbo, the First Fang》 is undoubtedly a must-have for any Cat deck, and if a strong Cat deck emerges, its value will likely rise.

《Inti, Seneschal of the Sun》《Fear of Missing Out》

《Monument to Endurance》 has been gaining attention, and creatures that reduce the downside of discarding may become more common in the future. The two-mana creatures mentioned here are individually solid and could form the core of a discard-based aggro deck, which would be an exciting archetype to explore.