Edge of Eternities has some clear themes that could offer powerful support to existing tier two Standard strategies. The focus on Landfall in this set is looking good for the recent Mono-Green aggro deck that’s putting up results in recent tournaments. Artifact strategies also appear to be getting massive upgrades from Edge of Eternities.
Simulacrum Synthesizer decks in Standard have been borderline viable for quite some time. Creating massive constructs for putting a mana value 3 or higher artifact into play is an incredible deal, especially when paired with cards like United Battlefront. Some recently confirmed Edge of Eternities leaks may be pushing artifact strategies even further across various competitive formats.
Pinnacle Emissary
After being leaked a little while ago, Pinnacle Emissary has been officially confirmed as an Edge of Eternities rare this morning. At first glance, Pinnacle Emissary is interesting, but just fine, for the most part. Creating a flurry of artifacts is interesting for Modern Affinity and 8-Mox strategies, but might be a bit pricy at three mana.
The real magic with Pinnacle Emissary is its Warp cost. One mana is incredibly cheap for a temporary effect like this, changing the script for its playability in multiple formats. In Standard, Pinnacle Emissary notably triggers Simulacrum Synthesizer for just one mana. This alone merits the card for consideration.
As if that wasn’t good enough, things go a step further. Instead of Pinnacle Emissary being a temporary boon via its Warp cost, you can immediately turn this creature into something permanent. Repurposing Bay can sacrifice Pinnacle Emmisary for a four-mana artifact, triggering Simulacrum Synthesizer an additional time. Popular choices are Thousand Moons Smithy, which will create another Construct, or Boommobile if you’re looking for a combo finish. Even if you don’t have any other artifacts in play, which is incredibly unlikely, this little combo puts 18 Power’s worth of creatures into play as long as you find the Smithy. Pinnacle Emissary will even trigger Simulacrum Synthesizer a second time being cast for its full value.
Ridiculously, Pinnacle Emissary doesn’t stop there, either. This card creates some powerful boards when utilized with another Edge of Eternities card that has a lot of players excited.
Expanding Further
Tezzeret, Cruel Captain has created a lot of split opinions among MTG players. Some players believe that this card will see widespread play across different formats, including formats as powerful as Vintage, while others believe it will simply become an ubiquitous Commander tutor for Sol Ring, and little more.
Pinnacle Emissary gives Tezzeret a really good chance of seeing play in some competitive formats. Tezzeret, notably, gains a Loyalty counter every time an artifact you control enters. He doesn’t care if the artifacts are tokens or not, which is unusual for an effect like this.
This means that, with Pinnacle Emissary in play, Tezzeret, Cruel Captain will be gaining two Loyalty counters for each artifact you cast. This means that, after resolving Tezzeret, you only need to play two artifacts to use his Ultimate. One of those artifacts can even be Pinnacle Emmisary’s Warped cost, as another artifact will get Tezzeret to exactly seven.
Tezzeret’s Ultimate scales particularly well with Emissary, as well. You can power up the Drone tokens it creates, making them 4/4 Fliers. You can even target the same card turn after turn, creating a massive Drone that pressures the opponent if you don’t have other options.
Honestly, Tezzeret and Pinnacle Emissary have a better chance of shining together in older formats like Modern, where there are lots of powerful zero-mana artifacts for fast starts, but the potential for these cards is still strong in Standard. Tezzeret can be cheated into play via United Battlefront as well, further strengthening his potential in Simulacrum Synthesizer decks.
Deepening Red for Synthesizer Decks
Right now, Similacrum Synthesizer decks in Standard are primarily Azorius. The good news is that, thanks to what cards are rotating, as well as the specific Shock Lands coming into Standard, Jeskai has a lot of support. That said, we may need a few more red cards to merit adding another color to the deck. Warmaker Gunship may not look like much, but it’s the exact type of card that these Simulacrum Synthesizer decks are interested in.
The Station cost of this card sucks. The good news is that we don’t care about that at all. We’re here for the removal effect that triggers on entry. Warmaker Gunship serves as a removal spell that can be hit by United Battlefront and triggers Simulacrum Synthesizer, creating another token. You can stack triggers in a way where Gunship has the maximum amount of artifacts possible in play to take something out. Since this card doesn’t need to stick around for any reason, you can quickly get rid of it with Repurposing Bay for additional Synthesizer triggers from more useful artifacts.
Outside of exactly this context, however, Warmaker Gunship sucks. This is an overcosted removal spell in a majority of decks. It’s only in decks with very specific synergies, like Simulacrum Synthesizer ones, that a card like this shines.
Even More Support on the Horizon
As far as Simulacrum Synthesizer goes, these are the most interesting cards we’ve seen in Edge of Eternities, but that doesn’t mean other artifact support pieces won’t see play somewhere. These have a better chance of seeing play in different archetypes, formats, or creating new decks altogether.
One thing that seems exceptionally clear to us, however, is that Pinnacle Emissary will likely fit into multiple existing strategies, from Standard all the way to Modern. Don’t be surprised if this card starts seeing tons of play in the future.
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