As a fan of tribal and theme decks, I was really let down when Smuggler’s Copter took over standard and pushed out most two and three drop creatures. With the ban getting rid of Copter and Emrakul I felt as if I had a chance to brew some fun, somewhat budget decks for the new standard.



Aetherborn are a race of thrill seeking adventurers who must use their time wisely. An aggressive black deck that will not hesitate to sacrifice resources to push advantages.

Creatures

4x Gifted Aetherborn

3x Metallic Mimic

4x Syndicate Trafficker

4x Vengeful Rebel

4x Weaponcraft Enthusiast

3x Yahenni, Undying Partisan

2x Gonti, Lord of Luxury

4x Midnight Entourage

Instants

4x Fatal Push

Enchantments

4x Hidden Stockpile

2x Midnight Oil

Land

4x Aether Hub

4x Concealed Courtyard

2x Plains

12x Swamp

Sideboard

3x Authority of the Consuls

2x Collective Brutality

3x Declaration in Stone

2x Noxious Gearhulk

3x Restoration Gearsmith

2x Yahenni’s Expertise





Creatures

Starting with a 2 mana slot we have Gifted Aetherborn, Metallic Mimic, and Syndicate Trafficker. These cards are a fun start, but rely on the rest of the deck to stand out. Gifted Aetherborn is a the best standalone card, and Metallic Mimic strengthens the curve, while Syndicate Trafficker represents a pesky threat that can become more than a nuisance.

The three drop Aetherborn are the stars of the show with Vengeful Rebel, Weaponcraft Enthusiast, and Yahenni, Undying Partisan. Vengeful Rebel is the most straightforward of the creatures. If you can activate Revolt then you have a nifty kill spell on a 3/2 body. Weaponcraft Enthusiast is a very tricky card in the deck. a 2/3 for 3 mana is not super exciting, but if you can buff it to a ¾ or further he can be entertaining. The real gem of this card is making servos for Hidden Stockpile and chump blockers. Lastly Yahenni, Undying Partisan is a powerful sacrifice outlet, and once your opponents creatures start dying can get fairly out of control.

The last two creatures are Gonti, Lord of Luxury and Midnight Entourage. Gonti gives the deck information and can steal valuable cards. If he did not have deathtouch it would be difficult to justify his inclusion. Midnight Entourage on the other hand is a real lord of the deck, and can make cards like Yahenni and Hidden Stockpile a wealth of card advantage.





To clarify what Gonti does, “ When Gonti, Lord of Luxury enters the battlefield, look at the top four cards of target opponent’s library, exile one of them face down, then put the rest on the bottom of that library in a random order. For as long as that card remains exiled, you may look at it, you may cast it, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any type to cast it.”

Instants

Fatal Push is the only instant that this deck is really looking to push. Grasp of Darkness is also a strong option, but Push is easier to cast and destroys most threats that Grasp hits.

Enchantments

This is the very interesting part of the deck. Hidden Stockpile lets us continuously hit revolt and scry triggers. While not straight forward, you can name servos on Metallic Mimic and generate 2/2s. An additional synergy is with Weaponcraft Enthusiast, and in this line of play servos can provide a formidable token line. Midnight Oil is a card that we can play very late, and never intend on discarding to. For a deck that can burn out, a one sided Howling Mine lets the deck continue pressure once it runs out of a hand. Drawing two lands can be a rough turn, but at that point in the game you should be able to scry through a few draws and avoid 2 lands

Land

Aether Hub and Concealed Courtyard come to no surprise. Hub lets the deck keep a few easier hands with colored mana and flexibly get white when needed. Swamps let us play our cards as do the plains. I did not want to muddle the land base with lands than enter tapped and left Shambling Vents out, but I can very well see siding in a few, even a playset, for some basics.

Sideboard

The sideboard is designed to abuse the strong situational white cards. Authority of the Consuls prevents opponents from comboing out and is harder to interact with than Thalia. Declaration in Stone deals with tokens and spiders as needed. Restoration Specialist allows the deck to adapt to a longer game plan and more aggressive trading.

The other two cards are to use efficient removal for specific situations. Collective Brutality is strong against early game tempo and removal for selfless spirit and can pull valuable tempo removal from an opponent. Yahenni’s Expertise is a card that fights our own plan, but when strong it can allow for a swing of board states. Dropping an uncontested Yahenni immediately puts pressure back on the opponent after wiping the board.





Important Lookouts

The deck can adapt to a slightly slower game plan, but all of the cards are susceptible to Spell Queller. Being able to power through with a kill spells (Fatal Push is premium in this situation) will decide games. Against Gideon the deck can generate a large number of thopters which can quickly gum up the board. As for Green Black strategies Grim Flayer lines up fairly poorly against Gifted Aetherborn, and can force your opponents to slow down more than they want. Ishkana will be tricky to play with, but cards like Declaration in Stone and Authority of the Consuls will give you enough time to find a strong solution.





For more statistics about the deck follow this link:

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/standard-aether-revolt-aetherborn/







Thanks for reading up on the tribal aetherborn from Aether Revolt. If you find any success with this list of one like it send me a message and tell me how it went!

