Image courtesy of Wizards of the Coast
Welcome, all, to the post-race celebration. The prize is finally here; reach out and grab it. But be wary of what could happen! Hello, I am the newly rebranded Command Zoe (Kuh-mand Zo- ee), formerly MonkeyInATopHat, and today I am here to take a look at MTG’s newest MacGuffin and think up some fun ways we could put it to use. So let’s take a look at the prize, The Aetherspark.
When this card was first revealed, it didn’t have most of its text shown. All we knew was that it was both an equipment and a planeswalker. Now, if you follow me at all on my socials, you’ll know I’ve been playing a lot of formats that let you have different types of cards in the command zone. So the idea of having an equipment as my commander instantly drew my attention. This is similar to two formats I’ve been having a blast with, Arsenal and Pendragon. One of my goals is to bring some of the tricks I picked up brewing for those formats to Brawl.
Strengths of The Aetherspark
So what is strong about this card? Why should I use it as my commander in Brawl?
What instantly jumps out at me is the ultimate ability that lets me add ten mana for an investment of four. In colorless, there are many things ten mana can do. Eldrazi, Darksteel Colossus, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, and all of the high-cost artifacts are within reach with that much mana.
The next thing I notice is that combat damage to anything gives it loyalty — not just combat damage to players. This means whatever it’s equipped to just needs to hit big. It doesn’t need evasion, trample, or even to survive that hit.
I also don’t want to miss the middle ability. Two cards is a lot, especially considering if you equip it to something with five power, you could minus-two every turn.
Weaknesses
Now, I need to temper expectations, because it’s not all mana and card draw. The first very obvious weakness is color identity. Colorless doesn’t provide the easiest card pool to build with. There’s very little interaction, and the themes and strategies are broad and watered down.
The Aetherspark is also vulnerable to many different types of interaction. Its dual type means it falls to both artifact and planeswalker hate-cards. It might not be able to be attacked while equipped, but that doesn’t stop it from getting Lightning Bolted. It’s quite reliant on combat damage, so it’s weak to Fog and protection effects. All of this needs to be considered when building.
Staple Cards for The Aetherspark
Creatures
Excellent outlets for that ten mana:
Help you ramp to your commander and then provide a creature for it to equip to:
Have such powerful colorless or artifact synergies that you should consider them no matter which direction you take the deck:
- Syr Ginger, The Meal Ender
- Liberator, Urza’s Battlethopter
- Glaring Fleshraker
- It That Heralds The End
- Foundry Inspector
- Jhoira’s Familiar
- Nettlecyst
Card Advantage
We get pretty powerful card advantage effects. A fuller hand means more cards to spend all that minus-ten mana.
Interaction
Single target removal is hard to come by in colorless. This is about as good as it gets:
- Null Elemental Blast
- Kozilek’s Command
- Invasion of Ravnica
- The Mightstone and Weakstone
- Boom Box
- Ugin, the Ineffable
Here are the board wipes we get in colorless. They’re better than nothing:
Other Powerful Synergies
The Chain Veil is maybe the most important card you can put in any The Aetherspark deck. Letting you activate twice is a strong effect that you cannot find with any other colorless cards. It is the card I am the most excited to pair with it. I must find a way to ultimate twice in one turn with it. That is my Aetherdrift goal.
What Other Commanders and Strategies Want The Aetherspark in Their 99?
Extra combats are going to pay out with The Aetherspark. It can accumulate a ton of counters very quickly if you can hit multiple times with it. This goes for double strikers as well. Just imagine getting both for a second — mmmmm, dopamine.
To go alongside some of those, check out these out as well:
Equipment-synergy decks are going to love this card. They can move The Aetherspark onto a creature the turn it comes into play so that it doesn’t need to plus-one the first turn you play it.
Other powerful equip effects will go over well with it, such as Sigarda’s Aid and Stoneforge Mystic. It can be tutored out by any search effects that work on equipment cards, like with:
In green I see two very interesting ways to build. The first is to get an absolutely enormous creature, then attack with it to put a ton of counters on The Aetherspark all at once. The other is to try to synergize with counter-doublers to make the counters you do get count extra. Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider‘s strategy really benefits from the redundancy of additional doublers like Doubling Season and Innkeeper’s Talent, so be sure to check them out.
The repeatable card draw on a net -1 per turn should probably be enough to get there before you run out of counters. Gaining six life a turn off your commander means it doesn’t hurt at all either.
Super-friends is a deck that naturally might want to play this card. They already have Urza Assembles the Titans and Oath of Teferi that let The Aetherspark activate twice. Any deck that is already running them will definitely get a boost. Even if they don’t have creatures in their 99, many planeswalkers will make tokens it can be equipped to.
So Like — What’s the Prize for the Next Race?
I cannot wait to get The Aetherspark into my hands and play with it. Furthermore, I am excited to see what other cards get revealed from Aetherdrift that might be good with it. Follow me on all the socials and tell me how you plan to use it in your decks! If you want more Brawl content, check out my deck tech for Grixis Extra Turns.
