UPDATE:This description was made before AER when this was a 4c deck. I have taken the green out completely to make the deck slightly more consistant, and added Renegade Map to replace Attune with Aether, which has its upsides and downsides. The description is still a good way to understand the deck well, just replace:Renegade Map > Attune with AetherFatal Push > Harnessed LightningMetallic Rebuke > Negate
Clip Wings has been taken out as there is no more green, and there's not really a good replacement. I added Transgress the Mind in that slot to combat copycat.
Aetherflux Reservoir is a standard combo deck that aims to reduce the cost of it's artifacts and use Panharmonicon and Paradoxical Outcome to push out a big turn with Aetherflux Reservoir on the field. It can win as early as turn four with a great hand and no disruption. It does well against midrange strategies as they often can't interact well and you can set up at the same time as they can and easily race them, does poorly against control decks, as counterspells can snipe key pieces and leave you with a bunch of artifacts that don't do anything, and is about 50/50 against aggro decks, really depending on how much removal they draw and how many high-toughness creatures they draw.
The deck is fairly cheap, costing around $80 on TCGplayer and just over 20 tix on Cardhoarder. The price can be brought right down by cutting Collective Brutalities, Harnessed Lightning, Fastlands and Aether Hub. Losing Brutality makes your already weak control matchup weaker, Harnessed Lightning means you have more trouble against aggro and Fastlands and Aether Hub mean you can't play a green spell on turn one and a blue/black spell on turn two, but none of the cards are integral to the combo. Taking these cards out reduce the cost to under $40 without postage.
Card choices:
Firstly, the manabase. 18 lands and four colours may look greedy, however, Attune With Aether essentially means you're running 22 lands. Think about it like those Attunes are 4 colour lands that come into play tapped. It's quite acceptable to keep a hand of one green source and two Attunes. With the 8 cantrip artifacts added in, drawing lands is usually not too hard, though you do sometimes get screwed over by it. As for fixing, Prophetic Prism and Attune With Nature makes this a dream. I wouldn't play with too many less basics due to Attune, but I'm not sure if the configuration of 3 Evolving Wilds and 3 fastlands is correct. Blooming Marsh is definitely the best fastland for the deck, as it allows turn 1 Attunes into turn 2 Contraband Kingpin, but two seems to work well enough. It's possible that the third fastland should be G/U, as blue is important to have within the first three turns. The ratio of basics is very skewed by the sideboard. There are four red cards in the main, and seven in the side, three of which are double red, meaning we need to run three mountains. Two could suffice, if a basic had to be cut, a mountain would go for sure. Very rarely will you want to cast more than one green or black spell in a turn, and blue is the colour you want when you're going off, so we run three islands, one swamp and one forest. Another reason for having such a small number of lands in the deck is you really don't want to see excess lands when you're cantripping you're way through the deck, the low land count helps that, along with the thinning from Attune with Nature and Evolving Wilds. Four Aether Hubs are a must in a four colour deck, though they are often only necessary in the first two to three turns. Once you've set up your mana and maybe have a prism in play, the leftover energy often just sits there.
Second, creatures. Contraband Kingpin is the worst creature in the deck in a vacuum, as the ability to dig four cards immediately with the Glint Nest Crane is usually more useful than the long-term advantage the Kingpin gives, plus the Crane is better with Paradoxical Outcome. However, in aggro matchups he is the best of your creatures, being an excellent blocker and helping to find the pieces you need faster. I often board him out in control matchups as the body is often irrelevant and you have time to find your pieces. I am considering adding a fourth to the board in place of one of the red spells. Glint Nest Crane is just an excellent creature, the 1/3 body is a good blocker, it eats selfless spirits and chumps big fliers. It also finds most of your important pieces. What you're looking for with him depends on how much creature removal and artifact removal your opponent has, and what pieces you have. Usually the first thing you want to find is Foundry Inspectors unless you already have 2-3 cost reducers in your hand, later on you will want to find cantrips if you have Reservoirs and Panharmonicons, and Panharmonicons and Reservoirs if you don't. Foundry Inspector and Herald of Kozilek are the grease that keep your wheels turning. And two of them on the battlefield turns your Metalspinner's Puzzleknots and Prophetic Prisms into zero mana cantrips, and they massively reduce the cost of the rest of your artifacts. When Hedron Archive is better than Sol Ring, you know you're doing something right. With two, you can go off fairly easily, more is generally better, but if you have two and scry another, you can often bottom it to search for more cantrips. Winning with only one is not extremely hard, but you have to set up properly over the course of a turn or two. The pros and con's of each one are that Herald of Kozilek has a great body, a 2/4 can block most early threats, but it requires coloured mana, and at minimum costs two. Foundry Inspector is much more fragile at 3/2, blocks poorly and is vulnerable to Fragmentize. The good part is it can be found with Glint Nest Crane, can crew Cultivator's Caravan on it's own, and can have it's cost reduced to zero. Generally you want to play your Heralds before your Inspectors as Heralds decrease the cost of Inspectors, but the opposite is not true. Usually you can board out one of the eight if needed, I take out an Inspector when I really need the blockers or they're running lots of three damage spells, and a Herald when their creatures can get over my Herald and mana will be tight.
Now the real meat: the artifacts.Reservoirs are obviously the most important card in the deck. Barring those games when your opponent takes out all their creature removal and you beat them to death with your 1/3's and 2/4's, you cannot win without it. However, it is not necessarily the first spell you want to play. I would rather resolve Panharmonicon than Aetherflux Reservoir in the early stages, as the Panharmonicon will find you another Reservoir, and Reservoir doesn't do a hell of a lot if you're casting under three spells per turn. Keep in mind that you gain life before your spell resolves, so casting a Metalspinner's Puzzleknot while you control a Reservoir and are at 1 life will not kill you. There are only two copies of Panharmonicon as having more than one in play is a win-more situation, and it's not really necessary to win. I would say that having either a Panharmonicon or Paradoxical Outcome resolve is what you need to win a game. Panharmonicon can whiff, however, but it will draw you more cards that Paradoxical. Paradoxical and Panharmonicon work well in conjuncture, but it's rarely needed where two Panharmonicons or two Paradoxicals are needed. Panharmonicon turns all your cantrips into raw card advantage, along with turning your Glint Nest Cranes into Dig Through Times and your Contraband Kingpins into crazy scrying machines. Keep in mind that Panharmonicon and Aetherflux Reservoir do not interact. Reservoir has an on cast trigger which Panharmonicon does not double. Metalspinner's Puzzleknots and Prophetic Prisms are your cantrips, you want these to cost zero mana as often as possible. You should emphasized usually text cast them as soon as you can, do not wait till you find an Aetherflux Reservoir, as they will help you to find your Reservoir, fix your mana and draw you extra cards. You can always cast them again later with Paradoxical Outcome. The mana artifacts are here because they are good, cheap ramp in the early game and can act as Moxen while you're cantripping through your deck. Personally I like a 2/2 split between Hedron Archive and Cultivator's Caravan. Once you have two cost reducers in play, both are mana neutral, and once you have more they a mana positive. Hedron Archive has a higher ceiling as it ramps you more, and can draw cards if you need them, but sometimes you just need to cast a Caravan on turn 3 and the 5/5 body makes an excellent blocker. These can be sided out, I sometimes take out Archives against aggressive decks, and Caravans against control., when I need the slots.
The instants and sorceries.Collective Brutalities are a recent addition to combat counterspells, as they absolutely destroy this deck by picking off key pieces. They are also good in aggressive matchups, killing Toolcraft Exemplars and the like. This deck likes to be proactive, casting your spells during your turn builds up storm count easier and you will often just want to tap out to set up a bunch of artifacts. I rarely escalate it unless it can kill something and I expect my opponent to have pump spells. These can be easily sided out in matchups without counterspells. Often in aggressive matchups you want to replace them with the red removal in the sideboard. Attune With Aether is the card that allows you to play such a greedy manabase, and thinning you deck is important considering the amount of cards this deck draws. Cast it on turn one if possible, but if the only green source in you hand is an Evolving Wilds, casting it on turn two is fine too. As mentioned, treat it as a land that comes into play tapped.Paradoxical Outcome can get you wins from nowhere, bouncing all you cheap artifacts and drawing upwards of 6 cards will often be enough of win on the spot. Usually you want to cast this on your opponent's end step or after declaring blockers. Don't be afraid to bounce a few of your cost reducers, though I try to keep at least two on board so they don't cost much coming back down. If mana is tight, you probably want to leave your mana rocks on the field, if it's not, bounce them too. Bouncing Reservoirs, again, if you can cast them for one or less, is fine. It's often good to hold up against decks with lots of removal, even if you're only bouncing 2-3 things, saving a Foundry Inspector can often be worth it.
Sideboard:The sideboard is in a state of flux right now, I am considering perhaps between the red spells and Collective Brutalities there are too many removal spells. It's very hard to bring in all 7 red spells and a Brutality and keep the two mainboard without diluting your combo too much.Clip Wings is your answer to Spell Queller, which is your worst enemy. It counters every spell in your deck, you can't Brutality it, you can't Negate it, you can't even kill it in combat without three birds. Clip wings is also nice against Avacyn and probably your most efficient removal spell in the matchups where it can be used. The third Collective Brutality is brought in against decks with counterspells. Anything that applies to the ones in the mainboard applies to this one.Harnessed Lightning and Incendiary Sabotage are how you deal with R/W Vehicles and other fast decks. Your creature base is incredibly good at jamming up the ground, but Depala can push their creatures over yours, and you have no maindeck way to deal with Smuggler's Copters.Negate is a card that this deck doesn't want to play, but has to to further combat counterspells. It is also brought in against decks that rely on non-creature spells to win, like Aetherworks Marvel and Planeswalkers. Padeem is brought in against pretty much any deck with access to Fragmentize or other ways to blow up your big artifacts. Also handy in control matchups as the extra card draw can push you over the edge.
Tips:Keep in mind that you control all your triggers. If you have a Contraband Kingpin and play a Prophetic Prism, you are able to stack the triggers how you like, you can scry first, then draw, or vice versa. Usually scrying first is best, unless you already know what's on top of your library. Also with Panharmonicon you get to stack ALL the triggers how you like. If you don't know whats on top of your deck, resolving triggers as scry, draw, scry, draw is often a good choice.Sequencing is fairly important with this deck, usually you want to play Contraband Kingpin as your first priority on turn 2, unless you need to dig for a third land with a cantrip or Attune With Nature. Glint-Nest Crane is extremely good, but the only thing it finds that you want to have on turn three is Foundry Inspector, and if you get out your Kinpin before any artifacts, you will have more chances to find what you need. On turn three you want to be playing a Herald of Kozilek if possible, and a Foundry Inspector if not.
Mulliganing:The deck does not mulligan super well. I often keep two land hands that have at least two cantrips and some business spells. Missing your third land drop is not the end of the world. Keeping Attune with Aether and two lands is perfectly fine. While a hand with over four lands is not great, I will often keep it unless I know I'm against an aggressive deck or I have nothing but 4 drops. The most important thing to have in your hand is Herald of Kozilek or Foundry Inspector, the more the better.
Feel free to leave feedback, or tell me if anything needs changing. This is my main (and only) standard deck, so I'm always looking to improve it.
UPDATES:Swapped the Brutalities in the main with Hedron Crawlers. Brutality is just not good in a lot of matchups, and it's also not good when I'm storming off. Hedron Crawler makes two land hands much easier to digest, and is free storm count when I'm going off. Brutalities moved to the board, as they are still crazy good against control, removing two red spells.
Replaced a few cards with the release of Aether Revolt:Attune With Aether out, Renegade Map inHarnessed Lightning out, Fatal Push inNegate out, Metallic Rebuke inClip wings out, Transgress the Mind inand changed the lands around as there are no green cards in the deck.
