Were you one of the many unfortunate individuals that found themselves on the end of WoTC’s latest Banned and Restricted announcement? Are you now trying to find someone to trade your Aetherworks Marvels to for a reasonable price, and feel that there is no hope for your Johnny sensibilities? Well first off, you’re mean people and your deck ruined my string of Standard success with far too many turn 4 Ulamogs. Secondly, don’t trade them away just yet, as there may be a home for them in another one of Magics great formats. No, not commander, but rather Modern. You heard me right, Modern is ripe for the picking, and your Marvels might just be the card to crack the format wide open.
Since its debut in Kaladesh, players everywhere have tried to crack open the power of this broken Artifact. What is more they succeed not once, but twice. The first time with the help of Emrakul, the Promised End at Pro Tour Kaladesh and beyond, until its eventual banning. It then again gained notoriety at Pro Tour Amonkhet, finally receiving the banhammer treatment itself. So if a card can force Wizards to implement two Standard bannings, it must have some potential outside in other formats, right? Well that’s what I aim to find out.
We first have to figure out how to make the most of the Marvel in this brave new world. Many brewers have had a crack at his feat, including Shaun Mclaren, who combined it with Through the Breach in an attempt to get out a super quick Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. While I liked Shaun’s list very much, I felt that although combining two ‘cheat into play’ strategies could complicate the decks battle plan. I instead thought if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. Yes that means we will be basing our deck on the tried and tested formula that has seen such success in Standard, with a few Modern tweaks.
The core of the deck is as it always was, a playset of Aetherworks Marvel and a ton of Energy producing spells. In terms of energy producers, most of the usual suspects make the cut. Rogue Refiner, Servant of the Conduit, Woodweaver’s Puzzleknot, Attune with Aether and Harnessed Lightning are all playsets, with two Glassblower’s Puzzleknot making the list too. We will also add four Ancient Stirrings, which can be used to find our Marvels or fix our mana should the need arise. But what are we going to try and find with our Marvel spins? Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is always a great call, but with only four copies we can find we lose a bit of consistency. So why not double our odds with the inclusion of Emrakul, the Promised End. This version of the giant Eldrazi titan is better than most people give it credit for. Not only does it give you a Mindslaver effect upon its casting, she is immune to most forms of Modern removal. Both of these make great finishers to the deck, and with eight Emrakuls to go and find, we will have a greater chance to finding either one of them with our Marvel activations.
Our mana base contains a healthy spread of basic lands and shock lands, as well as fetches to go and find them. What’s more, when we crack a fetch with a marvel on the board, we get to trigger its first ability and gain some Energy. The sideboard is full of answers to the major players in the Modern format. Anger of the Gods is great against Counter Company, Grafdigger’s Cage shuts down Dredge, Surgical Extraction can stop combo. Feed the Clan is surprisingly great against Burn, while Destructive Revelry takes care of Enchantments and Artifacts. Finally, we take a few Fulminator Mages to disrupt Tron.
Creatures (16)
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Emrakul, the Promised End
4 Rogue Refiner
4 Servant of the Conduit
Artifacts (10)
4 Woodweaver’s Puzzleknot
2 Glassblower’s Puzzleknot
4 Aetherworks Marvel
Sorceries (8)
4 Attune with Aether
4 Ancient Stirrings
Instants (4)
4 Harnessed Lightning
Lands (22)
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Breeding Pool
6 Forest
2 Island
1 Mountain
Sideboard (15)
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Feed the Clan
3 Destructive Revelry
3 Fulminator Mage
And there is our Temur Marvel deck in Modern, which plays out in much the same way as its Standard counterpart. Step one, get a Marvel out by turn four with at least six Energy. Step two, spin the Marvel. Step three, find one of our Emrakuls, and wreck our opponent’s day so much that they cannot win. Nice and simple. There are arguments to be made for the inclusion of more Modern staples, such as Lightning Bolt over Harnessed Lightning. But in order to have enough Energy on turn two, we want to keep the Energy producers up to a maximum. If your local meta is very aggro centric, you could include Defenders such as Wall of Roots, in order to steam the bleeding, or some counter spells if you keep going up against more combo or control heavy decks. So long as you stick to the game plan you could even change some of the colours. Maybe swapping out Red for Black to include some hand attack, or White for some more direct removal. Experiment, go wild.
So, what do you think? Are you going to hold on to your Aetherworks Marvel? Modern is in a really great place at the moment, with a wide selection of decks and archetypes. This may just be the time to try adding a new deck to the format, and maybe Temur Marvel is that deck. Anyway, let us know your thoughts on the Marvel, we would love to hear if anyone has had any success with it already in Modern. And if you want to support please like and share, it really does help. But until next time, Good Luck and Have Fun.
