Aether Revolt

Aether Revolt

Card comparisons

Planeswalker decks

***Aether Revolt*** is the 73rd *Magic* expansion, and the second in the Kaladesh block. It was released on January 20, 2017, and is a small expansion.

## Set details

*Aether Revolt* contains 184 cards (70 commons, 60 uncommons, 42 rares, and 12 mythic rares) and includes randomly inserted premium versions of all cards. Ten additional cards are found in the set's planeswalker decks (2 mythic planeswalkers, 2 rares, 2 uncommons, 2 commons, and 2 common dual lands). These are numbered #185/184 to #194/184. Some *Aether Revolt* booster packs contain a Kaladesh Invention. The expansion symbol of the set is a Far Eastern-inspired floral motive representing the "leaking spire," the symbol of the Renegades.

### Storyline

A revolt takes place on Kaladesh. Led by Pia Nalaar and aligned with aether-pirates, essence-drainers, and weaponsmiths, the Renegades have seized control of large portions of Ghirapur. They seek to overthrow the authority of the Consulate. The Consulate responds with increased security and surveillance, the seizure of unregistered inventions, the monitoring of aether distribution, and the enforcement of a city-wide curfew. The Gatewatch and Ajani Goldmane support the renegades, while searching for the nefarious planeswalker Tezzeret.

#### Story Spotlight cards

*Aether Revolt* contains five Story Spotlight cards, used to showcase key moments in the story.

* Consulate Crackdown depicts the Consulate's continued seizure of inventions.
* Pia's Revolution depicts the rebellion against the Consulate led by Pia Nalaar.
* Disallow depicts Baral's taunting of Chandra Nalaar in an attempt to lure her away from the rest of the Gatewatch.
* Battle at the Bridge depicts the final battle between Tezzeret and Liliana Vess.
* Dark Intimations foreshadows the upcoming role of Nicol Bolas in the story.

### Marketing

*Aether Revolt* is sold in 16-card booster packs (one card being a marketing card), two planeswalker decks, and the *Aether Revolt* bundle. The booster packs feature artwork from Ajani Unyielding, Tezzeret the Schemer, and Maulfist Revolutionary.

#### Kaladesh Inventions

*Main article: Kaladesh Inventions*
*Kaladesh Inventions* are premium foil cards with a special Kaladeshi card frame and a separate expansion symbol. They are not part of the set but can be found in some booster packs. Kaladesh Inventions are all artifacts, include all new art and flavor text set on Kaladesh, and appear slightly more often than premium mythic rares. These cards are playable in any limited format where they are opened and in any constructed format where they are already legal. Thirty Invention cards appeared with *Kaladesh* and 24 in *Aether Revolt*.

#### Prerelease

Prerelease Events took place on January 14, 2017.

#### Promotional Cards

* Prerelease: a stamped card that can be any rare or mythic rare from the set.
* Launch promo: Quicksmith Rebel
* Game Day: full-art Trophy Mage
* Game Day (Top 8): full-art Yahenni's Expertise
* Buy-a-Box: Scrap Trawler

#### Tokens/emblem

*Aether Revolt* features 3 tokens and 1 emblem.

1. 2/2 Gremlin creature for Gremlin Infestation and Release the Gremlins
2. 2/1 Legendary Monkey creature named Ragavan for Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
3. Artifact named Etherium Cell for Tezzeret the Schemer
4. Emblem for Tezzeret the Schemer

*Aether Revolt* boosters also include cards to place energy counters on.

## Themes and mechanics

Vehicles and Energy counters are carried over from the previous set. A theme of mana cost X or less is also present with numerous cards allowing for casting, returning or tutoring such cards.

There are two new named mechanics:

* Improvise — a keyword ability that enables you to pay generic mana cost with the help of your artifacts. Each artifact you tap after you're done activating mana abilities pays for .
* Revolt — an ability word that checks if a permanent you controlled left the battlefield this turn.

### Mega cycle

 Five artifacts that have an activated ability require a color, one for each color.

### Pairs

*Aether Revolt* has five mirrored pairs.

 Skyship Plunderer ()

## Reprinted cards

* Conviction, first printed in *Stronghold*
* Negate, first printed in *Morningtide*, last seen in *Conspiracy: Take the Crown*.
* Shock, first printed in *Stronghold*, last seen in *Duel Decks: Speed vs. Cunning*.
* Prey Upon, first printed in *Innistrad*, last seen in *Conspiracy: Take the Crown*.

### Common to Uncommon

* Ornithopter, first printed in *Antiquities*, last seen in *Magic 2015*.

### Uncommon to Common

* Tranquil Expanse (Planeswalker decks), first printed in *Oath of the Gatewatch*.
* Submerged Boneyard (Planeswalker decks), first printed in *Oath of the Gatewatch*.

### Functional Reprints

* Ghirapur Osprey is a functional reprint of Dawn Gryff, Shadow Glider, and Wild Griffin (except for creature type).
* Ravenous Intruder is a functional reprint of Atog (except for creature type).
* Frontline Rebel is a functional reprint of Bloodrock Cyclops (except for creature type).
* Precise Strike is a functional reprint of Kindled Fury.
* Prizefighter Construct is a functional reprint of Glass Golem (except for creature type).

## Notable cards

* Mechanized Production is an alternate-win card.
* Gonti's Aether Heart is a unique extra turn spell on a permanent.
* Exquisite Archangel can prevent its controller from losing the game, similar to other angels like Platinum Angel.
* Frontline Rebel's flavor text is an oft-misquoted or modified line (using "will you" rather than "who will") from the song "Do You Hear the People Sing?" from the musical "Les Miserables", a notable anthem of the revolution.
* Chandra's Revolution and Pia's Revolution, although unconnected mechanically, share a single art piece by Clint Cearley and have a matching name and flavor text.
* Dark Intimations forshadows a Nicol Bolas planeswalker card in the Amonkhet block.
* Fatal Push is a powerful removal that saw tournament play - notably for Modern, which filled the strange gap in which Black had the weakest removal in the format compared to Lightning Bolt and Path to Exile. With fetchlands making Revolt fairly trivial, the ability to remove almost all the powerful two-drop creatures at a mana profit revived Black as a color.
* Indomitable Creativity is a powerful variant of Polymorph style effects that can target artifacts, transmute multiple permanents, and be played at instant speed. This unique power led to it being the key piece in eponymous combo decks in Modern that decks played almost no creatures other than a few instances of the best in the format, like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, and could use spells like Prismari Command and the land Dwarven Mine to create tokens to transmute. Once Archon of Cruelty was printed, the format began dominating Modern and winning many tournaments. Variants have appeared in formats like Pioneer and Historic that play creatures like Torrential Gearhulk and Velomachus Lorehold.
* Heroic Intervention is a powerful protection spell for decks built around powerful permanents and wide boards of creatures. It sees competitive play in Pioneer and Explorer and is also a heavily played card in the casual Commander format.
* Whir of Invention is an artifact tutor with improvise. It has strong similarities to Chord of Calling in terms of both design and strength and is a key component in Modern decks built around Urza, Lord High Artificer colloquially called "Whirza" decks.
* Disallow was a counterspell of choice for Standard control decks thanks to its flexibility in targeting activated and triggered abilities.
* Hope of Ghirapur has a unique effect similar to Silence and has seen play in Pioneer, particularly in decks built around Ensoul Artifact which can turn the Hope into a 4/4.
* Kari Zev's Expertise is a Threaten style card that saw play in Red Deck Wins in both Standard and Pioneer. In addition to being able to steal many of the dominant Vehicles in those formats like Smugglers' Copter, it also provides significant tempo compared to other Threaten effects.
* Spire of Industry is a powerful multicolored land for artifact decks in Modern, Legacy, and Vintage.
* Scrap Trawler became part of an infamously complicated and powerful combo in Modern alongside Krark-Clan Ironworks and Myr Retriever to near infinitely loop low mana value artifacts and eventually generate enough mana to win the game by looping Pyrite Spellbomb Because the combo was so powerful but also so complicated as to be difficult to understand and take substantial amount of time and clicks to execute, the Ironworks was banned in Modern in 2019.
* Trophy Mage is the second card to reference Trinket Mage, with the second being Treasure Mage.
* Winding Constrictor is a key card in the eponymous deck in Standard and Explorer, Golgari Constrictor, which is built out of ways to use its counter-increasing effect. The deck also makes use of Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, a powerful card advantage engine that gets even better with the Constrictor, as well as Aethersphere Harvester, an aggressive creature that can also stabilize its controller against aggro starts.
* Gifted Aetherborn was one of the best two-drop black creatures for midrange decks in Standard and Pioneer.
* Implement of Combustion sees play in Pauper Burn decks built around artifact synergies. These decks can sacrifice the Implement to effects like Kuldotha Rebirth and use it to enable Galvanic Blast.
* Sram, Senior Edificer is a card advantage engine for Aura-based aggro decks in Pioneer.
* Kari Zev, Skyship Raider is a Red Deck Wins staple for decks in Standard and Pioneer, and her monkey token partner inspired the infamous Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer from *Modern Horizons 2*.
* Renegade Rallier has seen play in a variety of decks like midrange and creature toolbox decks in Modern and Fires of Invention decks in Pioneer.

### Banned and Restricted cards

* Felidar Guardian, as part of the Saheeli Rai combo, received the dubious honor of being the first card in 18 years (since Memory Jar in *Urza's Legacy*) to be emergency banned, after the release of *Amonkhet*. Unlike Memory Jar being banned shortly after release, Felidar Guardian received a ban at the end of the week of the regularly scheduled ban window, suggesting a level of public outcry influenced the policy.
* Rogue Refiner was one of the two chosen Energy sources (the other being Attune with Aether) to be banned to weaken the Temur Energy deck after the release of Ixalan, as its midrange shell was stronger than anything else in the format. Being a cantrip, a curve-relevant body, and coming with two energy meant it often converted into two or more cards easily.
* Paradox Engine is a powerful combo piece and value engine that can easily win the game in a deck built around artifacts that tap for mana and other effects. It has seen some competitive play in formats like Modern and Legacy but is most notable for being banned in the casual Commander format in 2019, mostly because it combos so easily with cards like mana rocks and mana dorks that were already played in nearly every deck in the format.
* Walking Ballista was considered a fair midrange card that doubled as a clean infinite-mana win condition, and hence a powerful pivot plan for many decks. It was banned from Pioneer in August 2020 as part of a combo deck cleanup, as it already had a combo with Heliod, Sun-Crowned, forcing ramp and infinite mana decks to work harder to win. Similar concerns likely contributed to it being removed from Kaladesh Remastered, effectively making it also banned from Historic. In addition to its success in Pioneer, it was a staple in aggro decks in Standard and has made a massive impact in Modern, Legacy, and Vintage thanks to artifact synergies and the Heliod combo.
* When the Brawl format was created in 2018, Baral, Chief of Compliance immediately began dominating tournaments on Magic Online with the ability to make every counterspell powerful. After winning six out of the top eight slots in the first two Brawl Challenges, Baral was quickly banned from the format.

## Card comparisons

*Main article: Aether Revolt/Card comparisons*
## Preconstructed decks

*Main article: Aether Revolt/Planeswalker decks*
Aether Revolt has two planeswalker decks:

## References

1. ↑ Product information
2. ↑ Wizards of the Coast (May 16, 2016). "Announcement Day". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
3. ↑ Blake Rasmussen (January 5, 2017). "Exclusive Cards in the *Aether Revolt* Planeswalker Decks". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
4. ↑ Wizards of the Coast (January 6, 2017). "*Aether Revolt* Release Notes". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
5. ↑ ***a*** ***b*** ***c*** Blake Rasmussen (2016-12-05). "Aether Revolt Packaging, Promos, and Planeswalker Decks". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
6. ↑ Gavin Verhey (January 9, 2017). "*Aether Revolt* Prerelease Primer". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
7. ↑ Blake Rasmussen (January 6, 2017). "The Tokens of *Aether Revolt*". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
8. ↑ Trick Jarrett. (January 7, 2017.) Yes, and so will Kaladesh boosters in pre-prelease packs. Community Manager's Twitter account.
9. ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 2, 2017). "A Revolting Development (and Design), Part 1". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
10. ↑ Matt Tabak (January 2, 2017). "*Aether Revolt* Mechanics". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
11. ↑ Ben Hayes (January 3, 2017). "Leading *Aether Revolt*". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.
12. ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 9, 2017). "A Revolting Development (and Design), Part 2". *magicthegathering.com*. Wizards of the Coast.