Aetherflux Reservoir in modern?
Modern forum
Posted on Sept. 9, 2016, 1:38 a.m. by Ragon_Wolfbane
I've heard a couple of things about Aetherflux Reservoir in terms of EDH and some Modern play. Yet I wanted to focus on the latter rather than the former.
So far I've heard two major statements about the card:Storm alternate win if grapeshot doesn't go off.Soul Sisters because the large amount of life gain in their decks simply begs for this card to be abused in some way as an alternate win condition in case you can't bash through with massive creatures or small tokens.
That said I wanted to know if this card does have a place in them, but also there is one other angle I want to look at this deck from.
Phyrexian Unlife and Angel's Grace are strong cards and played in Ad Nauseam so why not in a shell that also works with Aetherflux Reservoir?
Play a deck with these cards in it, even if it is Soul Sisters, and have Aetherflux as a means to simply close out a game rather quickly.
In fact you can even go further with U-Tron, using your Platinum Angels to keep yourself alive while also playing out this card. Also a great part about the card is that you do not have to sacrifice it. So if they respond to the trigger of the effect by trying to kill your Platinum Angel then you simply put a trigger of its ability on the stack atop their own.
I'd like to hear some thoughts. The deck ideas may be janky or simply not as efficient, but I feel this card holds more potential than simply another funny EDH card.
EpicFreddi says... #3
Putting it in a storm deck wouldn't help either because the 4cmc is just too high.
September 9, 2016 3:59 a.m.
4 cmc is a bit too high for both of those decks. Some soul sisters has tentatively run Ranger of Eos but it can be risky because the deck is designed to cast 1 and 2 drops
September 9, 2016 5:12 a.m. Edited.
RuneRebellion says... #5
Platinum Angel and Phyrexian Unlife really are great combos with Aetherflux Reservoir... I mean you don't need to go to 51 life that way but can win at just 50 life! That's seems pretty great to me
September 9, 2016 6:21 a.m.
UpperDeckerTaco says... #6
I can see this being busted in EDH though. Go infinite on life, then kill all your opponents? Seems ballsy
September 9, 2016 7:29 a.m.
UpperDeckerTaco says... #7
I can see this being busted in EDH though. Go infinite on life, then kill all your opponents? Seems ballsy
September 9, 2016 7:29 a.m.
I'm confused. How does Angel's Grace and Phyrexian Unlife help Aetherflux Resevoir?
September 9, 2016 9:31 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #11
In EDH you have the benefit of Tainted Sigil and Sydri, Galvanic Genius for the multiplayer kill but in modern those effects won't do anything without first getting to 51.
That's the hard part.
Now, that being said there are two VERY easy infinite life combos in G/W; Feeder + Thune and Melira + Finks + sac outlet.
I could see this as a way to "replace" Murderous Redcap (read: run along with it so as to not get blown out by some kind of Slaughter Games effect) in Abzan combo.
September 9, 2016 9:54 a.m.
FatherLiir says... #12
I first saw it and my thought was the Meleria/Ghostafenza combo deck that we don't call Pod anymore for banning reasons. I think the idea of gaining 4242 life and then dealing that much damage is tempting but 4 mana is a hefty price in modern, I'm not saying it's A deal breaker but I also don't know if it would be worth with a lot of artifact hate in most SBs just for affinity match ups.
September 9, 2016 11:17 a.m.
I believe Storm (likely with some minor adjustments) is the best home for this card. Rituals can help power it out and you don't have to combo the turn you play it. It is conveniently worded such that each spell played after it gives life equal to your storm count, regardless of when the reservoir came down.
It also mitigates the effects of fizzling when you are going off. Casting 6 spells and then fizzling still nets you 21 life which should buy a couple turns to try again with Past in Flames. And let's not even get into how insane it is in multiples.
September 9, 2016 11:43 a.m.
LoneCrusader says... #14
The biggest problem I can see with the card, aside from the 4 cmc and clunky nature of the combo, is that you are still susceptible to the same sideboard hate that people already pack for affinity. It's fun in EDH, but not playable anywhere else I don't think.
September 9, 2016 12:31 p.m.
Harashiohorn says... #15
If storm doesn't run Harness the Storm because of the CMC and dilution I don't think Aetherflux Reservoir is going to run either. You can run the card in an Ad Nauseam Shell, but part of what makes Ad Nauseam so strong is that it relies as little as possible on permanents, and can win at instant speed, which Aetherflux Reservoir cannot. That being said I suppose you could run it off the sideboard or something to that effect in Ad Nauseam. Mono-U tron should not run Aetherflux Reservoir,its tempting at first, but that deck just doesn't cast that many spells in a turn, and needs to be playing cards that win the game, not stall it out. Inventor's Fair on the other hand could be great in Tron decks in general, or terrible, but Sanctum of Ugin leaves a lot to be desired. Anyway, back to the card at hand, Aetherflux Reservoir is going to be insane in EDH, but will struggle a lot in modern because of the afore mentioned fact that every deck in modern is already packing artifact hate because of affinity, and most of that hate (Ancient Grudge, Stony Silence, Creeping Corrosion) wreck this card too. Its kind of like what happened to thopter foundry when it got unbanned, it was a decent deck but people are already packing more than enough hate for it already, which more or less killed it.
September 9, 2016 4:22 p.m.
Besides literally every Modern deck running some sort of artifact hate on the sideboard, Jund runs Kolaghan's Command in the main (and Jund currently accounts for nearly 10% of the metagame, according to mtgtop8). Not to mention Spellskite, Leyline of Sanctity and Pithing Needle, all popular SB cards that people often use to hose non-artifact decks, also happen to be great against Aetherflux Reservoir.
It's not happening. Not a chance.
September 9, 2016 4:43 p.m.
please check out my deck, its works fairly well for what it is. please comment suggestions
Sergal says... #2
I like where you arw going with your idea to put it in a phyrexian unlife combo deck, but that just wont work. Even though the card says that you dont lose the game for having 0 or less life, that does not mean that you can pay life that you do not have. There is a big difference between losing life and paying life. You can lose more life than you have, but you cannot pay more life than you have. In order for you to use the reservoir's ability, you have to have 50 or more life.
September 9, 2016 2:04 a.m.