New Decks for Aetherdrift Standard

Hey all, Strickles here with 10 new decks for Aetherdrift Standard. While Aetherdrift doesn’t release for another week (8 days actually), I’ve spent the weekend brewing, and I am really looking forward to trying several new decks using powerful cards from Aetherdrift.

Aetherdrift is going to make an impact on every format, but Standard is always one of the most fun formats to brew in, second only to Alchemy in personal opinion, because mana bases are cohesive enough to try a variety of combinations, and there is a wide pool of cards from across the years that Standard now spans to draw from to build interesting decks, or even to retry a variety of strategies that previously didn’t work out.

These decks are all untested first drafts – there is a good chance that numbers or mana bases will need to be shifted around, but I think they are all good starting places, for functional, and maybe in some cases, competitive, decks.

I won’t go super in-depth on each, but instead just laying out the general strategy and going over key cards and new cards.

With that out of the way, let’s dive right in!

Golgari Aggro

This is basically a mono-green aggro deck, but we are trying out Debris Beetle at the top end to give us some reach and help us force through the last few points thanks to its 6/6 trample body.

We curve out very nicely, putting the pressure on our opponent by playing annoying threat after annoying threat. We have some good card advantage to keep up with controlling decks, like Mosswood Dreadknight, another option that splashing black gives us, and Spinner of Souls to keep our threats flowing in the face of removal.

Our other new card is Webstrike Elite, which is great because it has reach, so it can block any pesky flying threats like Spyglass Siren, and it also has the ability to be cycled later on to answer an artifact or enchantment and draw a card.

There are a lot of very good green threats in Standard, and honestly building this deck was very tough. There are so many options. We have been chasing a good green aggro deck since the days of Blizzard Brawl, and I’m not sure that this is it, but it is worth a try every now and then.

Gruul Dinos

Dinooooosss! Dinos have always been fun but not super competitive, but we’ve got a couple of new cards so why not try again?

The nice part of this deck is that we have eight one mana, mana-creatures, in Llanowar Elves and Ixalli’s Lorekeeper. These curve us into our three drops ahead of schedule. 

One of our three drops is Regal Imperiosaur, new from Aetherdrift. This creature is fine on its own as a 5/4 for three mana, but the buff to our other dinos is a nice add-on, especially with our two drop dinos that can be easily outsized.

Our other new card is a very big dino, Agonasaur Rex, which is a whopping 8/8 trample for five mana. It also has a great cycling ability, where for three mana you can discard it to put two counters on a creature, and give it trample and indestructible, making for both a nice combat trick or a nice protection spell.

We also have good removal spells in this deck, in Triumphant Chomp and Archdruid’s Charm. 

I don’t know if this deck can keep up with the other aggro decks in the format, but I feel like it has started to reach a critical mass of cards that it is worth trying again.

Goblins

Goblins also got quite a few new options in this set, and I think they could also be a fairly competitive aggro deck in the format.

One of the most exciting options is Howlsquad Heavy, which on top of making a goblin token every turn, also gives all of our goblins haste. This works great with Krenko, Mob Boss, because Krenko will come down with haste and then make an army of haste tokens.

We have Rundvelt Hordemaster and Dropkick Bomber to buff up all of our goblins, and some new one drops to start our curve. First is Burnout Bashtronaut which can grow to a double striking threat, and thanks to menace is great for getting in damage. Second is Greasewrench Goblin, which is simple but can help us find action on a later turn by turning extra lands into new cards.

We also have Draconautics Engineer as another way to haste up our Krenko, Mob Boss and a way to make another threat when we have extra mana.

I don’t know, there are just a lot of pieces here that make me feel like a competitive deck could be on the horizon for goblins. Especially if bounce and one-for-one removal is popular, then having a go-wide strategy can easily overwhelm your opponents.

Izzet Discard

NOTE: Scrounging Skyray and Broadside Barrage are missing from the decklist above.

Izzet Discard is an aggressive deck looking to loot through the deck and get benefits from doing so.

Our new threats that we are trying to enable are Marauding Mako, a one drop that gets counters whenever we discard cards, and Scrounging Skyray, a two drop with the same ability. What is nice about these threats, is that they have cycling themselves, so extra copies can be used to pump up copies that we already have in play.

Our other threats include Mischievous Mystic to make tokens when we draw our second card each turn, Charming Scoundrel, Fear of Missing Out, and Steamcore Scholar to discard (and draw) cards, and Ral, Crackling Wit to make tokens or draw and discard.

Tying the deck together we have Proft’s Eidetic Memory to buff up our creatures based on all the cards we have drawn, Broadside Barrage for removal, Greasewrench Goblin for more discard and draw, and Monument to Endurance as a cool payoff for discarding cards.

I have no idea if this deck is going to work, but what I like about these kinds of decks is that they see a lot of cards, so you are most likely going to find your threats and answers in most games, giving it a sort of consistency that most decks don’t have.

Temur Exhaust

I’ve gushed a lot about Afterburner Expertin previous articles, and this is my first attempt at building a deck with it.

The goal here is to play a good amount of exhaust cards while still playing other powerful cards to help enable them. On top of Afterburner Expertas our recursive threat, we have Redshift, Rocketeer Chief to help activate our abilities, Skyserpent Seeker to find some lands, Mindspring Merfolk to refill our hand, and Boommobile for removal.

We also have Loot, the Pathfinder as our top end to do a whole variety of stuff.

Dredger’s Insight can help us find a land or threat, and is great for getting Afterburner Expertinto the graveyard to be brought back, and Wrenn and Realmbreaker does the same while also being a powerful threat.

I’ve got two Agatha’s Soul Cauldron in this list, although we may want more, because you can exile an exhaust threat and give all of your creatures with counters on them the option to activate that ability.

There are a lot of different ways to build this deck, and this is really just a first crack at it, so if you give it a try be open to trying more or less exhaust cards, or different removal, etc.

Naya Mounts

This deck combines the best mounts of Thunder Junction and Aetherdrift, with a few survivalists from Duskmourn, and some vehicles to round things out for an interesting aggro deck.

Kolodin, Triumph Caster is really sweet for this deck, giving all of our mounts and vehicles haste, and crewing/saddling them the turn they enter.

This means that our Ornery Tumblewagg, Bulwark Ox, and District Mascot will get to add more counters, Seraphic Steed will get to make an angel token, and Rocketeer Boostbuggy and Unidentified Hovership get to attack right away without tapping any of our other creatures.

We’ve also got Veteran Survivor, Canyon Vaulter, and Wylie Duke, Atlin Hero to give us some benefits when we crew/saddle our vehicles/mounts.

There are likely a lot of different ways to build this deck as well, which I am probably saying way too often, but I like this as a starting spot to see where it goes.

Abzan Roots

This is my take on an Insidious Roots deck, but we are splashing white for Ketramose, the New Dawn as a powerful card advantage engine that we can quickly turn into a powerful threat.

We have some other new exciting cards, like Molt Tender as a way to mill and exile cards from our graveyard for both roots and Ketramose, and Dredger’s Insight to mill us and gain us some life along the way.

Bloodghast is exciting, because we can mill it and then bring it back via landfall to trigger our Insidious Roots, but I was also considering Mosswood Dreadknight for this slot since when you use its adventure from the graveyard you are triggering both roots and Ketramose, so consider Mosswood Dreadknight as well.

I am not an Insidious Roots aficionado, so if you are looking for the cleanest builds for this deck I would say do some digging, but I think this list is a fine spot to start.

Orzhov Sacrifice

This deck has a lot going on, but the goal is to sacrifice creatures, draw some cards, and drain the opponent out.

Our sacrifice fodder includes Greedy Freebooter for a bit of value, Nesting Bot for two sacrifices, Bloodghast since we can bring it back each turn, and Lord Skitter, Sewer King who makes tokens for us every turn to sacrifice.

Our sacrificers include Bartolome del Presidio, which can sacrifice however often we want, Zahur, Glory’s Past to surveil and eventually make some zombie tokens for us, and Gas Guzzler to draw some cards. Both Zahur and Gas Guzzler need us to get to max speed, and we have a few ways outside of combat damage to do that.

 Vengeful Bloodwitch is one of our payoffs for sacrificing, and it can also help us get our speed up on early turns when we don’t have great attackers.

Embalmed Ascendent is also asking for us to get max speed, but it is still two bodies for the price of one, early on and another sacrifice payoff once we do have max speed.

Eaten Alive ties the deck together giving us nice cheap removal.

I have no idea if this is the right way to build this deck. This type of deck needs a lot of tweaking and tuning to really come together. You have to figure out if you have the right mix of fodder, enablers, payoffs, etc. I am excited to give it a try though and see how it feels!

Selesnya Counters

Selesnya Counters is an aggro deck looking to build several tall threats and gain a lot of benefits from putting counters on our creatures.

Dusk Legion Duelist, an oldie but a goodie at this point, draws cards, District Mascot can remove counters to destroy artifacts, Marketback Walker draws cards when it dies, and Bulwark Ox can protect our creatures with counters on them.

I’m also excited to try Brightglass Gearhulk in this deck. Thanks to trample it wears counters very well, and it can find a lot of great stuff for us. Pawpatch Recruit for two bodies, District Mascot to answer artifacts, or Marketback Walker for a mana sink.

Innkeeper’s Talent, Ornery Tumblewagg, and Ajani, Caller of the Pride keep the counters flowing, and all of our synergies working.

This may require a bit too much setup in current Standard where the aggro decks are super efficient and the other decks have so much interaction, but I’ve tried this deck so many times that I couldn’t resist trying to finally make it work.

Sultai Lands

This is my attempt at building a non-aggressive “start your engines!” deck, as the mechanic does really encourage you to be aggressive or at least on the board early to get your speed up. In this deck, we are using deserts and Iridescent Vinelasher to increase our speed.

Our speed payoffs are Point the Way to put a lot of lands into play all at once, Momentum Breaker to gain some life, The Speed Demonto draw some cards, and Muraganda Raceway to help us cast big copies of Doppelgang.

Otherwise it is a fairly straight forward ramp deck looking to finish the game with Iridescent Vinelasher and desert pings, and using a big Doppelgang on a bunch of deserts or our opponent’s permanents to finish the game off.

I think this deck will be a lot of fun. It also has access to good removal so hopefully it can keep up with the aggro decks in the format.

Wrapping Up

Aetherdrift has a lot of sweet cards in it, and I can’t wait to play with these decks and whatever else I see other people brewing up. Standard has never been this big before, so there are plenty of decks left out there to brew and try, so if you don’t see anything you like here, fear not, there will be plenty of other decks this season.

I hope this article helps you figure out what you want to try when Aetherdrift comes out on Magic Arena on February 11th. These decks should all be a blast, or at least be a good start to having a blast, so I hope you give them a try!

Until then, best of luck in all of your matches, and happy brewing!