Welcome back to part 2 of the Modern Horizons 3 Commander deck upgrades. The main set for MH3 has produced some absolute powerhouse cards intending to shake up the formats. This will impact Commander, and we will have to see for the other constructed formats, but there are some definite hits. The commander decks are no different. In this blog, we will be covering Creative Energy.
Table of Contents
Deck Overview
It looks like Wizards have leaned into the Energy mechanic, as this is the second set with an Energy deck. Universe Beyond: Fallout has the Science! deck. Another Jeskai (Red, White and Blue) Energy based commander deck.
Creative Energy has a different spin on it, though. While Science! focused on an artifact sub theme, Creative Energy, with Satya, Aetherflux Genius, isn't as dependent on the energy and could even be fully rebuilt not to have any other energy cards. Just becoming a value deck and abusing enter the battlefield and leaves/dies effects. A reasonably cost effective method to upgrade this deck would be to grab the Science! deck and mash the two together to form an amalgamation. I would personally run either Satya or Liberty Prime, Recharged as the commander. However, I would prefer Satya depending on the artifact count, as you could run out of energy stranding Liberty Prime. However, if you already have Science! and made some modifications. I would take a close look at the deck list, as Creative Energy has a number of good reprints that were common upgrades to the fallout deck. In that case, I would recommend just picking up singles, as these MH3 commander decks come with the premium price tag associated with ‘masters’ sets.
Let's get the Creative Energy going and ‘power’ up the deck. I will preface that a number of the upgrades will be from the Universe Beyond: Fallout set. This is mostly due to the limited number of sets with the Energy mechanic. With the Kaladesh block being the other sets. I will take this second to direct you to my previous blog on upgrades for the Science! deck. Take those with a pinch of salt, though, as they lean towards “artifacts matters” cards. Although many proliferate cards will still work well in this deck, I'm trying to avoid doubling up. For these upgrades, I will try to keep with the energy theme but go with more independent uses and just value with the enter the battlefield (ETB) triggers.
Upgrade 1
For the first swap, I want to remove Grenzo, Havoc Raiser and put in The Motherlode, Excavator. This can produce a lot of Energy, especially if you are playing against the other precons in this set. They mostly have non basic mana bases (around ¾ of the total land base), but Creative Energy has around half.
Just a couple of things to note. Firstly, this is a legendary creature, so you will only get to keep 1 if you copy with Satya unless you run something like Mirror Box for extra trickery. Secondly, if you are copying it, you won't get the attack trigger from the copy. This is because of the way Satya is worded. It is putting the creature onto the battlefield, where it is already attacking. This is standard wording. See Kaalia of the Vast. Although you can select who the copy attacks, it isn't locked into attacking the same target as Satya. I am cutting Grenzo, Havoc Raiser. While I do like the Goad mechanic to force attacks and clear the way. The second choice isn’t a great fit in this deck. Energy is a very parasitic mechanic, by that, I mean it only really works with itself and a few other abilities, such as proliferate. This means you will unlikely hit a card that works with this deck's theme. That's why Grenzo is getting the chop.
Upgrade 2
The next card I am adding is Behemoth of Vault 0. This brings me to the first honourable mention of Meteor Golem.
This one is a close one between the two. But I will first explain how I evaluate cards. I first look at the best case, which would be Satya on the table for both of these, then casting these to copy them. With Meteor Golem, you get an initial destroy, then a second one with the copy. No fuss, no mess. This beats out the Behemoth, requiring you to pay energy into it to get the same effect. Although, a 6/6 trampling body is nothing to sniff at. This leads me to the second part. How I evaluate a card, which I think is more important. What is the floor of the card? How is it when you are top decking and have no other resources? Let’s look at both cards in this state. Meteor Golem is still solid, coming down and removing a problem permanently, but then you are left with a mediocre body. Behemoth of Vault 0, as I stated earlier, is a 6/6 trampling body with additional energy gain to set up future cards. The main downside is you don't get the destroy effect until after it dies. This can be stopped by exile effects which have become more prevalent. This is why I have the two cards close. The energy gain that can synergise with other effects is the main thing that pushes Behemoth. But I wouldn't fault you for putting in Golem instead.
I am removing Whirler Virtuoso. This was a powerhouse in the standard energy deck in the Kaladesh block. It feels underpowered. You must pay 3 energy into it to get a 1/1 flying creature. While this can add up and did end games in standard, there is a big difference between having 1 opponent at 20 life and 3+ opponents at 40 life each. Those 1/1s just aren't going to cut it.
Upgrade 3
The third card I am adding is Grey Host Reinforcements. This has a very low floor, a 4 mana, 1/1, flying creature with ward 3. But mostly, you can exile at least a few creatures to get it bigger. This one is similar to the card Canoptek Scarab Swarm, but I went with the Grey Host due to the higher likelihood of creatures being in graveyards over artifacts and lands. However, having an army of 1/1 flying creatures is preferable to having a single larger body. The main reason for adding this card in, though is to have mass graveyard hate that you can repeat via the commander's copy ability.
To make room for the Grey Host Reinforcements, I am taking out Aethersphere Harvester. This is a very mediocre card. It gains you a couple of energy on ETB, which is nice, and the ability to give itself Lifelink is also a bonus. However, you are only going to be getting 3 life, which is unlikely to swing things for you. I would rather have a larger body in Grey Host Reinforcements with the added benefit of the graveyard hate built in.
Upgrade 4
It's back to the Fallout universe for the next card, Electrosiphon. Although I can easily see this having an interesting in-universe printing as it doesn't need to have a name change; it is just new art. This one is a throwback to an older, more powerful card. Mana Drain. But instead of adding mana, you get energy. This is similar to many cards in MH3 as they are ‘fixed’ versions of usually reserve list cards that are strong. I don't have anything else to add about Electrosiphon. It just fills a role in terms of interaction while having a relevant benefit adding to your energy.
Coveted Jewel is coming out. This can be a good card, but it is also a risky one. You do all the work to ramp up to 6 mana to get this out, but then have it stolen. If it's taken by a token player and they have blockers. Then you are not getting it back. Just giving them a free 3 mana to use each turn. I prefer to use this in Flicker style decks, with cards like Displacer Kitten, to abuse the draw 3 when entering the battlefield.
Upgrade 5
Tezzeret’s Gambit is an okay card. It gives card draw and proliferates. It is lacking in this deck, as you will only have the Energy to proliferate reliably. With it not being a creature, you can’t copy it with the commander. Unlike Thought Monitor, which is the next card to be added. This is one of those value cards I am adding; just drawing cards when it enters the battlefield. The main reason for using this card over something like Mulldrifter is the Affinity for Artifacts ability, giving Thought Monitor a nice discount. This would likely reduce the cost down to 2 or 3 mana with the number of artifacts that this deck has.
Upgrade 6
Combat Celebrant is a powerful card in its own right with the potential to get multiple combats. Several different cards do have similar style effects, such as my next honourable mention:
Port Razer also had a reprint as a special guest in Outlaws at Thunder Junction. If you were lucky enough to pull a copy, you can slide it into Creative Energy.
I chose Combat Celebrant over Port Razer for a couple of reasons. The first is the cost. Combat Celebrant is 3 mana. It’s right on curve to be cast on turn 3 and then on the following turn into Satya, Aetherflux Genius. With haste on Satya, you can start to clone the Combat Celebrant. Time to break down the combo.
1. When you attack with both Satya and Combat Celebrant, exert the Celebrant. Now you have 2 triggers to resolve. Have Satya trigger resolve first by making a token copy of Combat Celebrant. Then, the original Combat Celebrant exert trigger will resolve, untapping both the token Combat Celebrant and Satya. While also giving an extra combat step. Ensure you're attacking a player who can't kill the token or Satya.
2. Now you have an untapped Combat Celebrant token and Satya. Repeat the attack triggers in step 1, but this will untap the original Combat Celebrant and the second newly made token.
3. Now you have as many Combat Celebrant tokens as you can make before your opponent dies, and hopefully enough to win.
The other reason for using Combat Celebrant is that it's an exert trigger and doesn't require you to connect with your opponent like Port Razer, so you can use tech cards like Dolmen Gate to keep your creatures alive until you get a critical mass. Dolmen Gate is an underused card in Commander. While it doesn't go in every deck, it allows you to attack with Satya to get the clone trigger off freely. I will add this to my secret 11th card, and I'll let you work out what to remove in its place.
I am dropping 2 Plains, one here and one for the next card. 38 land with 14 mana rocks or ways to get lands (Solemn Simulacrum, etc.) is much. I get why Wizards did this. It's to make sure players don't have non games by getting mana screwed. But the inverse is true as well. Getting mana flooded can happen, and this deck doesn't have the highest curve, so shaving land is fine. However, I could be wrong, as I have yet to fully playtest this deck. From experience, 36 land and around 10 ramp cards covers you for most decks.
Upgrade 7
Panharmonicon is the next card I'm adding. There is little to say about this card. It does what it does well. It won't end games by itself but can enable it. Getting double ETB triggers will let you accrue so much value throughout, setting you up for a big finish. It could be through doubling Moonshaker Cavalry trigger, although this doesn't need much help to end games.
Upgrade 8
Speaking of doubling up on stuff, Twinflame is the next card being added. This has had a similar card printing with Molten Duplication. While being able to copy artifacts is nice, I’d rather have the versatility of copying more creatures with the strive mechanic on Twinflame. Once again, this lets you get more value from your ETB triggers. Can you see a theme I have for these upgrades?
Aethergeode Miner, this is an oddball card to be here. I get it. It's a cheap card to be cloned with Satya, Aetherflux Genius. It only costs the energy you get off the trigger to keep around. This is where it falls off for me. Firstly, Aethergeode Miner's energy trigger is on attacks, so you don't get any value from the copy immediately. The second part is it's a 3/1, so a slight breeze will kill it. I would rather copy other bigger effects with the commander than Aethergeode Miner.
Upgrade 9
I avoid adding cards from the release set, as the price of these cards can be all over the place due to speculation and hype. But Wrath of the Skies seems reasonably priced and fits into this deck. On the surface, it's a wrath (something that clears a board), but you can control what gets to stick around. Where this fails is against big mana decks like Eldrazi decks, as it's going to take a lot of energy to remove it. But it can be a very cheap wrath at 2 Mana and even get artifacts and enchantments. This card also has a secret mode, purely using it to gain energy while not paying any energy to wrath. On this note, due to the way Satya clones, all of the tokens made through this won't be destroyed as they will have the same converted mana cost (CMC) as the original card. You can test the copies as though you have a fresh copy of the card, so it won't copy any counters or equipped equipment, aura, etc. Although tokens that aren't copies suck as Scion tokens have a CMC of 0 and will be destroyed.
I do like Skyclave Apparition, but I feel like its home is in the 60 constructed formats. Most of the threats you need to answer are higher than 4 mana. The best use for this is to either stop early mana rocks, though it requires you to have it near the start of the game or take out a token as you give nothing back. While having it on a creature for copying is nice, having a full wrath in Wrath of the Skies works better.
Upgrade 10
The final card I am adding is some spicy tech. At first glance, you might miss why I'm adding it due to the wall of text.
Take a minute and see if you can work the relevant line of text for this deck…
The ‘can't be sacrificed’ line is hidden in the middle of the text. The intended use for this is to stop your opponents from being able to sacrifice the creature when you give it to them with the second ability. However, we can abuse this for our own gain. As Satya's ability only causes you to sacrifice the token copy at the end step, this allows you to equip an Assault Suit to the token in the second main phase and then, when the ability tries to get you, to sacrifice it. Assault Suit says no. This also has the additional benefit of the intended use of Assault Suit, giving the creature to your opponents to beat each other up.
Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer, is the final card I am cutting. This one was harder to sort out, but I needed to make room for it. Making the Myr tokens every turn is nice. The problem comes with it only copying them after they are already on the battlefield. So, no ETB triggers. The other part is that they are created at the start of combat, so you can't even turn them into copies of a creature you want to clone with Satya. Brudiclad is a good card. It just needs a better home than Creative Energy.
Final Thoughts
Out of the box, Creative Energy is a good deck. It has a game plan, and the cards fit with it. It has some fat to trim, which is sometimes good. Only some decks have to be super optimised otherwise, we would all end up playing the same sort of decks. Which is one of the reasons I like to play EDH. You can sit down to a game and get a different experience every time. If you want to try optimise this deck though, do it. In this blog, I went for more value and enter the battlefield triggers. You could go bigger on the energy and funnel it into a different payload than the commander. Or go super tall and try to make an army of huge treats. For some other ones, see the list below. I hope to see you in part 3 of this series, where we will look at Tricky Terrain. Good luck, and remember to have fun in your games.
PS. All the card prices were accurate at the time of writing.
Extra Upgrades
If you’re looking to spend that little bit extra on the deck, then here are some suggestions you can also include:
Fancy picking up the Creative Energy commander deck? Shop Modern Horizons 3 and all things Magic: The Gathering here at Gathering Games.
