Aether Vial

Artifact

At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a charge counter on Æther Vial.

{T}: You may put a creature card with converted mana cost/mana value equal to the number of charge counters on Aether Vial from your hand onto the battlefield

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (45)

BotaNickill on What is...Human?

1 day ago

Thanks for the Upvote and the Notes and suggestions friend! I'm actually trying to acquire more copies of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben still. I just kinda threw this together with the cards I had so that I could get a feel for the deck. White weenie was a big deal back in the day and I loved playing it, so I'm kinda leaning into that range with this deck being Tribal Human as well, but I also like the idea of Death and Taxes, so I'm a bit unsure where to go with it to make it competitive and still staying true to the tribal theme. It definitely excludes some of the better Tax cards in doing this, but I feel like there is some good human cards that also tax. I'm actually headed to do some playtesting with this right now, so I should have a better idea later. I do have three Aether Vials and I could swap them in as you suggested, I personally would like to see the Esper Sentinel get bigger and to provide a bigger tax. Too bad Crusade is no longer a thing, lol. I do have an Authority of the Consuls but only one. maybe I'll try both for now? Anyways! Thanks again for checking in! Cheers!

Quicksilver on What is...Human?

1 day ago

+1 for stepping out of the box, Death and Taxes is fairly streamlined in modern these days, so anything that's different is always worth looking at. I won't tell you to move in that direction either, but a few notes:
- Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is always a big target for players. Generally you'd want to run 4 so that you're always prepared for the worst. You'd probably be fine with 3.
- Authority of the Consuls > Imposing Sovereign. Yeah with tax you'd be paying the same amount, but it just straight offers more value.
- How often do you put +1/+1 counters on Esper Sentinel? He's still value regardless, with Champion of the Parish and Thalia's Lieutenant, it seems like that's a bit of a theme. If you don't care that much about +1/+1's, maybe keep the lieutenant and replace champion with Aether Vial?

wallisface on UWU

3 weeks ago

Some thoughts:

• 18 lands is extremely low, its a number low-enough to expect seeing a lot of 1-land hands and having to mulligan. Furthermore, you’ll have no chance of casting Higure, the Still Wind or Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni for either their regular or ninjitsu costs. Personally i’d think you’d need at least 23-24 lands.

• you need killspells. Fatal Push feels like a must here to keep your opponent in-check. In general I think you’re running too many creatures and too little interaction.

• I’m very skeptical of Aether Vial in a deck where you’ll often be wanting to Ninjitsu creatures into play instead of using the Vial. Personally I think the deck would be better without this card.

BotaNickill on Ang-Hellic

3 weeks ago

Wow, I hadn't seen that vs of path yet! I just ordered 3 along with 4 of the new Sigarda, and a couple Youthful Valkyrie, which I have been wanting for a while. Now I can build the deck as Orzhov or Selesnya! As far as problems go, I played a Dozen or so rounds on arena last night and the decks I had trouble with had a ton of board wipes and removal/counterspells. And planeswalkers. Or decks that just went off too fast like goblins or slivers or elves. I know Cavern of Souls helps with counterspells but they are outside budget right now, and not on Arena, the Heroic Interventions would help with the board wipes, and in I have those, so there's another point for green! I added my third Aether Vial back in for now, I don't have a fourth yet. Waiting on my Sigarda, Font of Blessings to show up now!

darkmus on Ang-Hellic

3 weeks ago

you're welcome. It does look better to me. I would just add a few things, first of all, I don't know what your playgroup allows but can't you just proxy the canopys and put the real ones in whatever deck you are using ATM? that's what I do with expensive cards.I would have like 24 cavern of souls if I wouldn't, haha. Atraxa's Fall is IMO the most interesting one, but if you want it specifically to deal with Stormbreath Dragon, it shouldn't matter much taking 4, but you may want to consider the instant speed spells since the dragon has haste. I am there with you in the flavor man, I already had playset of vindicates and paths to exile and yet I bought Vindicate and Path to Exile as soon as I knew they existed, hahah. About Aether Vial that's thing either hits t1 or at most t2, or you simply don't want it any more, so normally I would say either 4 copies or no copies. But that's a matter of opinion I guess. 2 Lyras and 2 Thunes is more than ok, I am sure you will find that Archangel of Thune makes your board way more dangerous than Lyra Dawnbringer. To be fair Linvala, Keeper of Silence is there still for flavor but it's probably the weakest card of our side, the next one out If I need something. If you have it, go for it, but I wouldn't recommend expending en them. About the deck itself. 7 instant and sorceries are too much. The more instant/sorceries we have less angels we have to ensure our strategy, hitting our triggers every turn, and maximice both Serra Paragon and Sigarda, Font of Blessings (in case you en up playing it) and well, the most creatures we have the most attacks we make, xD. The thing is pretty much the same as with Shadowspear, you can afford to have 1 of silver bullets in decks like death and taxes or goblins, which have multiple ways to search for your silver bullet. But you dont have any, so 1 offs cards for very especific situations 95% of the times are going to be horrible dead draws that won't help you. While in the matches you want them you are very likely not drawing them. To make a competitive deck you need to focus the deck, what are the biggest threats for your deck? that's what you have to focus one, in this case a few cheated big creatures Archon of Cruelty and permanents that shut us down like Ensnaring Bridge. So prepare for that, for any other more uncommon situation, that's what the side is for. Redundancy es the key to consistency, and consistency is the key to regularly win.Try to focus the deck in what it wants, putting angels in play to trigger our shenanigans. So I would try at most to have just 4 instant or sorceries, the ones that cover our biggest weaknesses, most likely 2 Paths to Exile and 2 of any combination of Vindicate and Anguished Unmaking. Because with 7 you are diluting too much the objective of the deck, while adding 3 or 4 one offs that are going to be death draws more often than not, not even overall useful cards. I explain myself like shit but I think you understand what I meant, xD. well, sorry, too much text, xD. Anyway, let me know when you play if the deck feels better now!

BotaNickill on Ang-Hellic

3 weeks ago

Dude! You have helped a ton! Thanks so much for all the feedback! I Made a few changes for now, and I'll try it out and see how it works. I'm gonna leave the black in my build for now Mostly because I don't have the new Sigarda, Font of Blessings yet, and I can't really afford to buy another playset Horizon Canopy right now. I didn't know about some of those green removal spells so that's good food for thought. I do have a couple other selesnya builds, the bogle deck, and a soul sister deck in Modern, so I'll keep those in mind for those as well. I like the look of Atraxa's Fall. I put the Anguished Unmaking back in because of the awesome angel art, and being a prime reason I went to black in the first place alongside Vindicate. I put the Giver of Runes back in, and two of my Aether Vials. I went back to 2 and 2 of the Thune/Lyra, I only have the 2 Thune, so that will have to do. I slipped the einganjo back in place of the 7th plains. I also stuck the Linvala, Keeper of Silence back into the Sideboard in place of the Go for the Throat I'll try and get some games in now!

darkmus on Ang-Hellic

3 weeks ago

Well, I am still testing Sigarda, Font of Blessings but for now its doing an amazing job, definitely a keep IMO. Both the "card draw" and the protection effects are huge on their own, and combos like a charm with Giver of Runes and/or Shalai, Voice of Plenty to have our stuff pretty much untouchable. Add Heroic intervention in now that we can, and we have a lot of layers of protection. Thats's actually the main difference between our builds, I try to protect our stuff as much as possible (since we can barely draw) while you go a bit more all in in life gain triggers (that's why Thune would work for you even better than for me). I also play angels in historic with coco, I pretty much play angels everywhere I can, xD. I've tried coco before, but I didn't have much positive difference if any in winrate, and restricted me way more in deck building. I have way more fun with this build. I've haven't meet that many Stormbreath Dragons in a while, so I dont really count for them. WG is not the best color to deal with that, but tbh, we gain so much life that on defense a 4/4 hitting us every turn doesn't really worry me much normally. And on attack, amongst Giver of Runes's protection, Righteous Valkyries anthem and the counters from Giada, Font of Hope and Archangel of Thune opponent may have free blocks, but a 4/4 is not killing our angels. Best option to remove it in white is most likely Settle the Wreckage I use 2 of them in and out of the side depending the meta. If you play most games against your buddy with the dragon, black my be the best second color for you, but with what I am testing, Sigarda seems the way to go.She ads so much. I can totally respect flavor, check my list and you will see that in this deck (as said, pet deck, xD) I've burn too much money in lands just for flavor, haha. I used to play 2 Lyra Dawnbringer and 2 Archangel of Thune but slowly Thune took all the places. 90% of times ill rather play Thune than Lyra. She would be even better in your build, and you can stack her since it's not legendary. I don't think that Shadowspear is a good card here, and really bad for want you want from it. You have only 1 and no way to search for it, so you are almost never going to actually be able to use it for what you want, and even when you do, you still need some way to kill Heliod. Since you are playing black, the best option you have to deal with indestructible (arguably the best in the game) is Anguished Unmaking. it will deal with anything but lands instant speed. The 3 life loss is irrelevant in this deck. I tried soul warden and is not good enough, it gives us more lines to have t3 Resplendent Angel trigger and more Thune triggers but other than that, adds almost nothing and mid to late game is a totally dead draw. Quite similar thing happens to speaker, slightly better, the ceiling of that is huge, but the floor is way to low. If you are losing and top deck this, you have lost. Esper Sentinel is a great card up to the mid to late game, while Giver of Runes is always a great draw. And both of them must be answered pretty much t1, if you play t1 giver or sentinel they are taking their Fatal Push before she can tap. If you play speaker or warden, your way more valuable t2 Giada, Font of Hope and Bishop of Wings are taking that push. Amongst Giver of Runes and Esper Sentinel both have their pros and cons, Sentinel give us much needed card advantage and can be played with Sigarda, Font of Blessings ability, while giver protects our stuff or makes it unblackable and is a cleric so she triggers Righteous Valkyrie and against control we may even be able to set our second cavern of souls to cleric to cover all our creatures. In my build, which goes big in keeping our stuff alive to somewhat offset the lack of card draw, she is the best option for sure. And overall I'll say it's the better option, synergizes better with the rest of the deck and she's always great, while Sentinel does nothing against creature decks, and mid to late game they are more often than not going to be able to pay for it. I used to play Serra Avenger when there weren't other 2cmc angels, but she's only good with vial, now we have better options. To me Aether Vial is a must, it ramps use, guarantees a "landrop" and allow us a lot of interesting lines, like triggering Resplendent Angel on opponent turn or use Shalai, Voice of Plenty and Sigarda, Font of Blessings as short of counter spell, amongst many other things. Psicologically is also great, because even if you are tapped out, opponents would be uncertain to attack if you can instant speed a blocker. I haven't tried soul partition, but I dont know if our deck is fast enough to not have whatever they exiled back in play before we can take them. I'll rather pay an extra mana for Anguished Unmaking and have the thing gone for good. Lay Down Arms looks decent, but I dont think it is. The rare creature we are worried about enough to need to remove it tends to be "cheated" in play, like Archon of Cruelty, Primeval Titan or Murktide Regent, and that won't hit those on time. Also the sorcery speed. I'll rather have Path to Exile or Fateful Absence. I don't think neither Legions to Ashes or Temporary Lockdown are good enough for Modern. Legion to ashes does fill a good sideboard slot, but IMO Declaration in Stone is a bit more flexible and cheaper. Ive used it often in the side and its great simply as a removal, and amazing against tokens. Temporary lockdown also hits our stuff, which is a no no. In arena can be good because we care about 3cmc, but it is not here. I do play FNMs and sometimes modern LGS tournaments with this deck (which is pretty much the most "competitive" events I play), because I love it and I want to test and play and win with it, but tbh, the times I really want to do well this is rarely what I play. And yes, I've never had a mirror match in any of those, xD. Or almost ever in years really... I think that covers all, haha.

BotaNickill on Ang-Hellic

3 weeks ago

darkmus! Awesome to meet another Angel Tribal Member! Angels are my favorite tribe in magic! You are just the person I need to talk to! I just checked your build out, and it looks good! +1! I had not seen the new Sigarda, Font of Blessings yet, I'll have to track her down and get some copies. Kinda of a Realmwalker effect going on there, I like it! I was kinda surprised you are running Green and No Collected Company tho? I guess you have 9 Angels that are 4 cmc tho, so maybe not great for your build. I Run this deck as Selesnya CoCo Angels on Arena and have pretty good luck with it, but my Paper Deck I switched to Orzhov for better removal. My bro plays a dragon deck with Stormbreath Dragons and they are kinda hard to get around with all white angels. Thus the black removal spells in the sideboard. Plus my Horizon Canopys are in my Bogle Deck, so, yeah I picked up some Silent Clearings and here we are. That, and I feel like the Godless Shrine goes well with the flavour of the deck. I do have two Archangel of Thune she is one of my Favorite Angels for sure, and I did have them in the deck for a while, I kinda go back and forth with the Ratio, Two Archangel and two Lyra Dawnbringer or 3 lyra and 1 Archangel. IDK. Maybe I'll throw them back in there based on your advise. Shadowspear is there for when I run into a bogle deck or something else that has indestructible like Heliod, Sun-Crowned or whatever. I had the Esper Sentinels in the deck as well as my two copies of Giver of Runes but right now I am testing out having the Soul Wardens and Speaker of the Heavens instead. I tried the Aether Vials along with a playset of Serra Avengers but wasn't too happy with how it played out. I don't have the Cavern of Souls but those would probably be nice. I do like having the Soul Partitions tho, it's pretty decent removal in my opinion, and so is the Lay Down Arms but you have to keep your plains count up to make it consistent. Legions to Ashes I was using to help against my brother's Squirrel deck, but I've also been using Temporary Lockdown in my arena build with some pretty decent success. I actually just saved my own ass with it this morning against a merfolk deck for the W!
Do you play in Modern tournaments with your build? I never really see anyone playing angels outside of Historic on Arena.
Thanks for the advice, the upvote and for sharing your deck! Much Appreciated!