Aetherdrift release week is upon us, which, hopefully, means some big shake-ups across various Magic: The Gathering formats. This is never guaranteed, of course, but so far things are looking good. We’ve already seen a Gruul Exhaust deck take second place at a major Standard event using plenty of new cards. On top of that, flavor of the month Esper Pixie has started incorporating some new Aetherdrift cards, too.
Esper Pixie has been picking up a lot in recent months, with variants cropping up in Standard and beyond. Seeing the deck get new tools already is an incredibly encouraging sign, and may even push it to the top of the Standard metagame. In any case, it’ll put more power in the hands of something that isn’t Gruul Prowess: always a positive, in my book.
Aetherdrift Pickups For Esper Pixie
There are a few key Aetherdrift cards that Esper Pixie is experimenting with right now. Two of these, Grim Bauble and Momentum Breaker, are absolutely perfect fits. For the uninitiated, Esper Pixie is all about playing cheap permanents with enters effects and bouncing them to your hand to replay for value. Up until now Hopeless Nightmare and Nowhere to Run have been the best possible hits, but Bauble and Breaker present compelling alternatives.
Grim Bauble is a straight-up removal spell in the early game. -2/-2 is enough to deal with most problematic early creatures, including Heartfire Hero, Spyglass Siren, and Mosswood Dreadknight. It even hits both Draconautics Engineer and Afterburner Expert in Gruul Exhaust, in case that deck sticks around. Nowhere to Run fulfilled a similar role for the deck in the past, but Bauble coming down a turn earlier is a huge deal against Aggro. I imagine many lists will run both, in any case.
Or maybe they won’t as the next big addition to the deck from Aetherdrift is Momentum Breaker, an alternative two-mana removal piece on an enchantment. While this isn’t targeted removal it does force a sacrifice, which makes it better than Nowhere to Run against anything over three toughness. It also has that lovely modern Magic touch of forcing a discard if there’s nothing to sacrifice. This makes the card something of a mix between Hopeless Nightmare and Nowhere to Run, and therefore a great piece for the deck.
While you can mostly ignore the sacrificed abilities on these two cards, they are still great to have in a pinch. Bauble’s ability, in particular, can be great for clawing your way out of a tight spot later on in the game.
Piercing The Veil
As good as Bauble and Breaker are, they pale in comparison to the other major addition to Esper Pixie from Aetherdrift. I’m referring, of course, to Spell Pierce. This simple piece of countermagic looks innocuous enough, but it’s actually likely the best Standard card in Aetherdrift overall. Naturally, that makes it a great fit in any deck playing blue, including Pixie.
In the crucial early turns, Spell Pierce is effectively a one-mana Negate. This is a juicy deal indeed, letting you pull way ahead in terms of tempo and take over the game. Esper Pixie is already a deck that thrives on removing its opponent’s options for cheap. This gives the deck another way to do that, while also protecting your key win conditions like Kaito from removal later on. Spell Pierce is an easy addition to the main deck and an even easier one to the sideboard.
It’s early days right now, but we’re already seeing all three of the above cards crop up in Esper Pixie. Ryan Hayes played both Bauble and Spell Pierce out of the sideboard in their first place list for Sundays Standard RCQ. We also saw both main deck and sideboard copies of Breaker and Bauble in Fujiwara Koichi’s top eight list from a Japanese event yesterday.
These cards are in the mix, in other words, and I only expect them to see more use as Aetherdrift releases fully and becomes more readily available. They just match the deck’s playstyle perfectly and, going by the numbers, it’s a great deck to be playing right now.
Over The Top?
No matter where you check, Esper Pixie is looking strong going into Aetherdrift Standard. MTG Goldfish lists it as the most popular deck in Standard right now, while MTG Decks has it at a more conservative third place. In any case, it’s a clear tier one deck with a lot of play against the rest of the current field.
These new additions from Aetherdrift only push this further. Gruul Aggro/Prowess remains a dominant force in the metagame, and Bauble helps you fight it early and stay in the game. Breaker helps too in this regard, removing creatures in a way that can’t be avoided via combat tricks. Aggro is a crucial gatekeeper that every Standard deck needs to overcome right now, and these new tools give Esper Pixie better ways to do that.
If you’re not playing against Aggro, chances are you’ll be up against Midrange instead. Dimir Midrange, most likely, given how far Golgari has fallen lately. In this matchup, Spell Pierce is an absolute godsend. Dimir tends to win games on the strength of its early interaction and disruption, and Spell Pierce lets you get in there and disrupt them right back. It can also counter Kaito, the deck’s biggest threat, which is fantastic. Of course, Dimir Midrange will likely start running Spell Pierce as well, so be prepared for counter wars when this matchup arises.
It’s too early to call anything for sure, but right now Esper Pixie is looking like a favorite for Aetherdrift Standard. It was already an excellent deck before, and it gets some brilliant new pieces that play very nicely against the other meta decks at the moment. I’d pick these cards up now before they enter ‘Mythic Uncommon’ territory price-wise.
