Aethersphere Harvester is a nice failsafe in almost all of the decks I'm building if I have > 15 creatures. Shuts down Mono red etc..

If the Superfriends deck is curved properly and has the right mana/fixing, it can be really obnoxious to face. It has more legs now thanks to Fatal Push shoring up the early game, and it pumps out walkers hella quick with Deathcap/Cowl/Caravan/OaA. If you adjust for the meta by replacing staples like DiS with Blessed Alliance, paired with those little boosts to consistency, have made the deck noticeably more potent.



Probably my MVP of the set. A lot of my decks are running black, so it mitigates pain costs. It out trades copter. Only 1 to crew (which is isane) means even creature light decks or token strats don't mind running it.

Next showdown w/wo sideboards?

I think Kryder did not like that I took down the afterparty with superfriends with sideboard, so he said we won't have it.
"Aggro vs control, the format" it is then

My biggest observation is that copter still runs the show, and that t3 liliana is still a huge pain in the butt. Also, glint-sleeve siphoner and aethersphere harvester are awesome!

Aethersphere harvester killed my mono red deck multiple times today. Philosophy of fire be damned! I wonder if damage to the face ala shock and its ilk can win a race against it.

I have yet to see a single Heart of Kiran in the ~40 games I have played even though that card is completely insane.

I've always said main tournaments are w/o sideboard. Nothing has changed, much to Joly's chagrin.

Speaking of Tournaments, I'll be putting out information about the Aether Revolt series this weekend if I get the chance. WotC upped the prize a little and I am thinking about a side-tournament starting around the beginning of round 4 for those who drop out/people who want to play a different format.

Neither have I, which seems quite odd. I run it in a few decks, including 4-color PW.dec

I mean, I know it's a Mythic so it's not THAT strange to not see it, but I've had quite a few games where we both went down to 20-30 cards in deck and only my copy showed up.

I have only seen it a few times. I agree that PW.dec is probably the best home for it, but even then, they may be better choices.

I had it in my Bant w/ 6 PWs, and lots of creatures, but it just did not make the cut for me. The issue was I had 5 Vehicles that made the cut first, and I just felt like I didn't need a 6th. 2 Copter, 2 Harvester and Flagship all won a place before it.

IMO, the issue is that Harvester is just better. Crew 1 is the big difference. Heart belongs w/ Planeswalkers, but it is only good if you have a PW out or a 3 power creature, otherwise, it is a dead card. In most cases, I would rather have removal.

I kinda look at it like Oath of Lilliana. If you play a PW while it is already out, you have a blocker to help defend the PW. Oath kills a creature and can make a blocker for each PW, but they don't stop fliers. Heart does stop fliers, and is generally better then just a chump blocker, but does require a loyalty to activate.

By no means am I saying it is bad, it is incredible as PW defense, it just may be a bit too situational to see as much play as expected.

That's all pretty true, the Vigilance and alternate Crew cost don't make up for the Harvester's bigger butt and Energy generation and Crew 1

I do think there are a fair number of decks that would rather have Heart of Kiran than Skysovereign, and not just PW.dec. Skysovereign is "win-more" about half the time unless you can get it out early.

The biggest issue IMO is that it competes directly with the other vehicles.

To begin with, most decks that are running vehicle (even those focused around them) don't want to be running too many vehicles, to reduce their chances of ending up with a bunch of vehicles on the table with nothing to pilot them. So when choosing which vehicles to run the amount of slots we have open to accommodate them is slim from the beginning.

We only have a few slots we can really devote to vehicles, so generally we want to go with what is going to be most effective.

For lower curve decks Heart of Kiran is competing with Smuggler's Copter and Aethersphere Harvester which are both considerably easier to pilot, and have some sort of additional benefit to them (filtering/discard outlet for madness and lifegain/energy generation).

For higher curve decks it is competing with Fleetwheel Cruiser and Skysovereign, Consul Flagship which are generally better for ending the game right there on the spot when they are dropped.

The crew cost of 3 really hurts it IMO, although I do feel like it could be very good in various PW decks running around. 1 loyalty to give a PW protection from a blocker (and likely eat their creature) isn't a terrible trade, and neither is trading 1 loyalty for 4 points of damage.

In my vehicle builds I run a lot of token generators via fabricate so you are never really short of pilots usually. Cards like Glint-Sleeve Artisan and Visionary Augmenter, I was also running Propeller Pioneer for same reason but with AER Aeronaut Admiral in same slot can give land based vehicles flight. In conjunction with Master Trinketeer and Angel of Invention it creates more win conditions supported by removal when you need it.

My first impressions:

#Revolt is pretty bad. It's hard to trigger and more importantly, there aren't good cards that can make use of it. Fatal Push & Vengeful Rebel & Renegade Rallier isn't enough to commit cards to trigger it, especially since Evolving Wilds is not a good way to trigger revolt, and especially since they don't even share the same colours. How many cards would you commit to triggering revolt for six cards?
#The AI's gotten a lot weaker ...
#Heart of Kiran is rather mediocre. 4 flying damage is great but the crew cost is difficult to meet. Vigilance is mostly pointless since it's unlikely you'll have 6 power of creatures around to crew it twice. Having a planeswalker is more plausible, and Heart of Kiran + Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is strong (but getting both of them in play at the same time is difficult).
#Overall it feels like the meta changed quite little. Unlike Kaladesh, whose vehicles really changed the game (single-handedly bringing in Reclamation Sage and Fragmentize), I can easily see KLD-era decks doing well without changing many cards, if at all.

These are FIRST IMPRESSIONS and I can be completely wrong.

Cards that I love on this set, for the moment: Ballistas, Snakes, B/G/U expertises, Harvester, MechanizedP...

Second tier: Maps, GSSs, Rampagers, big demon...I'm surely forgetting something

More first impressions: Aethersphere Harvester is really overperforming. A 3/5 flying vehicle for 3 is already good, but gaining six life in the process is extraordinary. Crew 1 is also great - you can crew it with a Druid of the Cowl. Right now, I feel it's a natural fit to all midrange decks, especially decks that are already using Aether Hub for whatever reason.

Happy birthday Winter!!