I've been playing around with Aetherstorm Roc and like where I've ended up. I don't typically make decks that have 0 spells in them, but I've found that this particular setup has more than enough ways to spend mana during either player's turn. The Roc is the main source of almost everything, but the rest of the deck can sustain itself without it. I sort of wish that I had better ways of protecting or resurrecting them than being able to return them to my hand but for this first build I'm sticking to the factory. Literally. This thing loads up on artifacts and their effects which I feel good about since there isn't a way to mass destroy artifacts that aren't creatures.
Plan A is to control your opponents creatures with the Roc by building him up with counters and tapping your opponents creatures and also tapping them down with Deadlock Trap. Simple enough, clear away blockers to let the aerial damage through. The rest of the deck allows for a lot of +1/+1 counters to present themselves and energy to sustain both abilities so it's a perfectly viable strategy. It's a nice bonus that Deadlock traps Planeswalkers too, so you don't even have to worry about attacking them. Your opponent can't use their abilities in response to the Trap because they can only be used at Sorcery speed, so all you have to do is tap it down during their upkeep or draw step before they can use it and it's locked down until end of turn. They already can't be used during your turn so it's basically going to shut them down until they can destroy your trap. That draws heat away from your other artifacts that will be causing even more mayhem for your opponent. Quite the conundrum. I like it.
Plan B is to repeatedly create servos that also grow in size and numbers and eventually just mow over your opponent. Mana and energy can be used together to create an endless amount of tokens (at least a few every turn) so eventually you should build up enough to plow through. Chief of the Foundry and Master Trinketeer make these little 1/1 servos a force to be reckoned with.
The biggest boosts to energy come from the Roc itself every time a creature hits the table on your side just like Decoction Module, and having the two together is pretty burly. It's especially nice if you also have a Fabrication Module because each instance of energy gained gives you a +1/+1 counter. You could either spread these around or stack them up onto the Roc. It could grow up to be a 15/15 or larger by turn 5 when it's ready to attack. Not bad. The only downside to this is that you have to do it all during the declare attackers phase. You could spend 3 mana to add an energy from the Fabrication Module to get the ball rolling either after defenders are declared or even while defending yourself, but since you have to spend mana to make counters and servos you just wouldn't be able to be explosive. It really comes down to how quickly your opponent can establish a blocker in the air (well at least two since you are going to be tapping one of them), if at all.
Turn 1: Land, Animation Module
Turn 2: Land, Decoction Module
Turn 3: Land, Fabrication Module
Turn 4: Land, Aetherstorm Roc, the energy from itself puts a +1/+1 counter on it with the Fabrication Module and so does the energy from the Decoction Module so it is a 5/5.
Turn 5: Aether Hub, the energy puts a +1/+1 counter on the Roc from the Fabrication Module making it a 6/6. Use 2 of the energy when declaring the Roc as an attacker to put another +1/+1 counter on the Roc making it a 7/7. Then, in response to that use the Animation Module and spend one mana to put a servo on the board. That triggers an energy gain from the Roc and the Decoction Module which then triggers the Fabrication Module twice. Putting those two +1/+1 counters on the Roc makes it a 9/9 and allows you to spend two more mana for two more servos. Those trigger the Roc and the Decoction Module twice each giving 4 more energy. That triggers the Fabrication Module yet again to add four more +1/+1 counters to the Roc making it a 13/13. You would have two more mana left to spend on the Animation Module to add two more servo again triggering the Roc and the Decoction Module for four more energy and then four more counters from the Fabrication Module. The Roc that started combat as a 5/5 is now a 17/17 and it left five servo tokens and eleven energy in it's wake. Next turn you get to do it all over again and might even have a 6th mana to gain a total of 12 more counters and making the Roc a 29/29. Not bad. Of course you could have spread all those counters around to your Servo tokens for a wider assault. That may be perfectly viable too, making spot removal less effective and a board wipe more difficult to achieve (if it's based on damage or -x/-x).
Let's assume that the Roc gets shot down with some kind of removal (it will). Plan B has already started because you have all those Servos. Now you can gain energy for basically any other reason like Aether Hub or just using the Fabrication Module to gain an energy which will add a counter to a servo and then can create another servo with the Animation Module which will trigger the Decoction Module which triggers the Fabrication Module again. It all runs on mana and is only limited by your mana pool. That's where the Hedron Crawlers and Hedron Archives come in handy, to keep the machine churning out tokens and counters. The Master Trinketeer and Chief of the Foundry do a nice job here with their Anthem effects to make those servos 2/2's, 3/3's, or up to 6/6's if for some reason you manage to get all 5 of them on the board.
Energy is a huge byproduct of this process that allows you to use the Roc and Deadlock Trap every turn and clear the way of several creatures. The other very important place to dump this energy is Consulate Surveillance. Emrakul coming your way? No big deal. Just tap it down or prevent all of it's damage. Got Gearhulk trouble? No big deal. Just tap it down or prevent all of it's damage. Got car trouble? Call AAA. Or, you could tap it down or prevent all of it's damage. Surveillance reminds me of Story Circle, classic stall tactics.
This deck can take off with or without all of it's working pieces, but if you manage to get at least one copy of the Modules out that Bird will do a lot of work. I love how one compliments the other and is really like building an assembly line factory.
The two Plan C options that fit incredibly well in the Sideboard are Electrostatic Pummeler and Metalwork Colossus. The Colossus can be played for very little mana because of all the non-creature artifacts, and the Pummeler drinks energy like nobody's business so it can hit like a truck. I tried to make room for them in the main deck, but I just wasn't getting the other pieces quite often enough when I lowered their numbers so they had to go.
And there it is, another complicated energy deck that I think maximizes the effectiveness of Aetherstorm Roc. I think hitting your stride with this would be very satisfying, but Plan A is certainly delicate when playing against targeted exile and removal. Spreading wide with Tokens is definitely harder to contend with, but then you have to worry about board wipes and cards like Declaration in Stone. I'm not sure what could be done to remedy that, but every deck has it's own kryptonite.
Thanks for reading, let me know how you would use Aetherstorm Roc differently or if you like what I've come up with here. It's a unique creature that is doomed to never see the light of day once Energy cycles out of Standard.
