Implementing Aether Revolt

The full spoiler for Aether Revolt is now available, which means it's time for yet another set review for Standard Pauper. In the mean time, I want to highlight some of the more interesting Commons here on my blog over the next couple weeks.

Like Kaladesh, Aether Revolt has a few different cycles at Common. Cycles are always interesting to me in that they typically not only highlight something important about the set but also demonstrate some of the fundamental differences in the color pie. Today, I want to look at the Implement cycle from Aether Revolt.

The Implement cycle is a great example of a nice clean design. Each of the five cost are cheap artifacts that can be sacrificed for a single colored mana to produce an effect, and each one replaces itself with a new card once it's been sacrificed. They also play quite nicely with the Revolt mechanic, since this gives you a reliable and cheap way to trigger it on your turn. But how good are they?

The three that cost only a single mana to cast (Combustion, Ferocity, and Improvement) are clearly the weakest of the bunch. Doing a single point of damage to your opponent or gaining a measly 2 Life is no where close to being a card's worth of value, and even with the cantrip ability these are pretty bad. Implement of Ferocity is a little better, since paying 2 mana to put a permanent +1 / +1 counter can actually make an impact on the board state. But unless you've got some significant Artifact or sacrifice synergies, this probably still won't make the cut.

Implement of Malice costs an additional mana to cast, and does net you card advantage, since you've spent a single card to force your opponent to discard a card and you've drawn another card at the same time. This is essentially a half-strength Mind Rot cantrip, which might be an interesting Sideboard choice in a deck that, again, has some Artfact or sacrifice synergies. But again, this is too minor and situational to see much play.

Implement of Examination is clearly the best of the five, which is why is costs three mana to cast rather than just one. Here's you're essentially paying an extra mana for Divination, but you can hold off paying that extra mana in order to coincide with other relevant abilities. And unlike some of the other Implements, you can sacrifice this at Instant speed, making it a decent option for a Blue Control deck that wants to hold up removal or permission spells during your opponent's turn. Given you have the right deck to maximize its synergies, Examination is probably worth considering in the main deck.

What do you think of this cycle? What are your thoughts on how this set will impact Standard Pauper? As always, your comments are appreciated. See you next time.