Counting The Ways To Win (AER Standard) (Standard MTG Deck)

Drana, Liberator of Malakir loves two things. +1/+1 counters and lots of creatures to put them on. I have been building decks with her since she was spoiled, but this might just be the best one yet as it cares about counters and tokens.

The main key piece of this deck besides Drana herself is Animation Module, alowing her counter trigger turn into an ever increasingly large servo army to crush the opponent with. Other synergies include Fretwork Colony with the aforementioned Module, as those cards together make a convincing image of Bitterblossom. There is as slight delirium subtheme, as the Grapple with the Past and Vessel of Nascency help me find these key pieces that I need to win.

There's a lot of updates with Aether Revolt, so any advice is greatly appreciated!

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Updates Add

Aether Revolt Update! — Jan. 6, 2017

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With the full spoiler coming out today, there are a LOT of cards that either need to be reconsidered for the deck, or new cards that should deserve a position within the deck. Here are my inital thoughts on each card that I think is particualry notable, but would love input from anyone!

Card Thoughts Show

A+ Tier Level Cards

Winding Constrictor is an efficiently costed creature that makes every other aspect of this deck better. It synergyzes with Drana, Nissa, any Snowball card, and Endless one. I don't know how many copies will make it into the deck, but this seems like a shoe-in. Also snek!
Fatal Push. This is one of the best removal spells potentially ever printed. This is going to be an automatic include.
Verdurous Gearhulk has only gotten better with the constrictor and more +1/+1 matters cards. It had only barely not made the cut previously, and has gotten better.

Great Cards but need a spot to fill

Rishkar, Peema Renegade in the absolute worst case scenario is a 3/3 for three that is a mana dork. Which is already fine. His abilities work well with the rest of the cards in the deck, and allows me to use my more expensive mana sinks in the late game far more effectively.
Natural Obsolescence seems like a good sideboard card, as it's a very efficient answer to the various expensive artifacts that will be popping up that Natural State can't answer and costs less than Appetite for the Unnatural.
Gifted Aetherborn should be called Vampire Aetherhawk. Two mana for a 2/3 lifelink deathtouch is incredible, and only gets better with +1/+1 counters being put on him through the various sources in this deck. This card looks real great to me, but the lack of inherent synergy potentially either puts it in the sideboard or out of the deck.
Yahenni, Undying Partisan is a great card to play on turn four after playing a turn three Drana. However, thanks to cards like Grasp of Darkness, the sheer power of the card may mean that it would be a sideboard only card unfortunately.
Metallic Mimic takes a little bit of work to be amazing, but with the new cards being revealed, I may have a creature type subtheme emerge. And at worst, I can always name "servo" as my creature type to make all of them better.
Walking Ballista Is an alternative win condition for the deck, as I can stack up counters and then remove them to burn my opponent out, but the amount of removal in standard right now makes this game plan far less favorable.
Untethered Express is effeciently sized with a low crew cost, that also helps me make more creatures with an module on the battlefield. However, I need to be conserned with the amount of creatures I have by default to crew this vehicle.

Might just barely make the cut but probably not

Foundry Hornet While I would fairly get the trigger off of its ability, I feel that unless the meta shifts drastically, the effect of the ability is too small to be worth playing and the body that it comes with is unremarkable.
Ironclad Revolutionary has a nice and relavant trigger that I would be able to fairly reliably trigger, but I believe costs too much for the effect and my curve.
Narnam Renegade is very good as a 1 drop deathtoucher that occasionally has synergy with the rest of my deck. However, I think the revolt trigger is not reliable for my deck, and I haven't needed a deathtoucher in the format yet.
Scrounging Bandar is a very solid two drop, as it allows me to transfer those counters that build up to creatures that need them more, but my two drop slot is a bit crowded, and I feel has less of an impact compared to many other cards.
Ridgescale Tusker simply is outclassed by other cards already in the deck as the ability requires me to have a board presence when I cast it, which is unreliable and I have other copies of this same effect.
Lifecrafter’s Gift, similar to Ridgescale Tusker, is amazing when I have a board full of creatures, and excedingly bad when I don't. I already have many effects very similar to the one generated here, so the redundancy is not entirely needed.
Rishkar's Expertise is mainly here because it works amazingly with Rishkar himself as well as Verduous gearhulk. However, the varience on this card means it needs to be heavily considered.

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Revision 22 See all

(7 years ago)

+2	Blossoming Defense	main
-2	Endless One	main
+1	Grasp of Darkness	main
-3	Vessel of Nascency	main
+2	Walking Ballista	side

Top Ranked	Achieved #32 position overall 7 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 1 Mythic Rares 17 - 6 Rares 16 - 6 Uncommons 8 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.32
Tokens	Clue, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Plant 0/1 G, Servo 1/1 C, Spider 1/2 G, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Saved Decks, Nice, Want to try, Liked Decks, Interesting Standard Decks, My Standard, Aether Revolt Awesomesauce, Kaladesh decks, Aether Revolt Standard, Pay attention
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