HELIOS One | Fallout | Art by Brian Valeza
31, Jan, 25

The Best Budget Upgrades For Aetherdrift's Living Energy Commander Deck

Give your energy levels a serious boost!

As is often the case with modern Magic: The Gathering Commander precons, Aetherdrift’s Eternal Might deck is causing some serious secondary market shake-ups right now. Cards like Bone Miser and Tortured Existence are making huge gains as people scramble to optimize this popular deck. Meanwhile the set’s other precon, Living Energy, is going relatively unnoticed. What this means is that now is a great time to grab budget upgrades for Living Energy.

While eyes are elsewhere, you can still pick up a ton of excellent Energy staples on the cheap. There’s no guarantee this window will stay open forever, mind you. All it takes is a few content creators hyping the deck and we could see similar spikes over in Energy town. If you’re planning to pick up Living Energy any time soon, then consider grabbing these cards along with it. At their current prices, all five can be had for around a dollar in total.

5 | Rush Of Inspiration//Crackling Falls

Rush of Inspiration Crackling Falls
  • Rush of Inspiration
  • Mana Value: 1R/UR/U
  • Rarity: Uncommon
  • Type: Instant
  • Card Text: Draw two cards. Then discard a card at random unless you pay EE (two energy counters).
  • Crackling Falls
  • Type: Land
  • Text: Crackling Falls enters tapped. Tap: Add U or R.

Building a good manabase can be an incredibly expensive proposition, especially in Commander. Thank goodness for Rush of Inspiration, then, a stellar budget upgrade which provides Living Energy with a powerful MDFC land for just $0.14.

Unless you’re a totally new player, you’re probably well aware of the virtues of MDFC lands. Running these cards lets you meet your land quota while reducing your chances of a dead draw in the late game. Rush is a particularly good example, too, since you can always make great use of a draw spell. The two Energy cost to avoid the discard is trivial in this deck, so this is really just an instant-speed draw two with a color fixing land on the reverse.

We’ve seen MDFC lands get pricey before, even the enters-tapped ones. Bala Ged Recovery is about $5 right now, for example. Given how great Rush of Inspiration is in Energy decks, I could see it going a similar way if Living Energy picks up. With that in mind, $0.14 is a small price to pay for this beauty.

4 | Aether Refinery

Aether Refinery
  • Mana Value: 4RR
  • Rarity: Rare
  • Type: Artifact
  • Card Text: If you would get one or more E (energy counters), you get twice that many E instead. Tap: You get E, then you may pay one or more E. If you do, create an X/X black Aetherborn creature token, where X is the amount of E paid this way.

In addition to its plethora of main set Energy support, Modern Horizons 3 also had a Commander precon dedicated to the archetype. This was probably the least popular of the four on offer, which is great news for us as it means we can pick up some power pieces for pennies on the dollar.

Aether Refinery is probably the best of these for Living Energy. Six mana is steep, but once it’s out Refinery doubles your Energy generation, which is massive. Now cards like Rampaging Aetherhood can spiral out of control even quicker than usual. Doubling all your smaller Energy gains adds up too, and leaves you with tons of fuel for outlets like Nissa, Worldsoul Speaker and Territorial Aetherkite.

All these synergies are great, but Refinery also functions just fine on its own. It taps for two Energy a turn, and can cash any amount of Energy in for a chunky vanilla token when needed. Cards that serve as both resource generators and outlets are typically great picks, and Aether Refinery is no exception. At just $0.22 a copy right now, it’s an easy addition to make to your Living Energy precon.

3 | HELIOS One

Living Energy Budget Upgrades HELIOS One
  • Rarity: Rare
  • Type: Land
  • Card Text: Tap: Add C. 1, Tap: You get E (an energy counter). 3, Tap, Pay X E, Sacrifice HELIOS One: Destroy target nonland permanent with mana value X. Activate only as a sorcery.

Modern Horizons 3 wasn’t the only release to support an Energy theme in 2024. Fallout also had a dedicated Energy precon, featuring a ton of excellent Energy cards for Living Energy to pick from. For my money, HELIOS One is up there with the best of them.

Lands have a famously low opportunity cost for inclusion in your deck, even colorless lands like this one. This means it’s easy to just slot this in, perhaps replacing a basic or another colorless land like Treasure Vault. Once it’s in, HELIOS One provides two very nice effects. It filters your spare mana each turn into Energy, and it converts your Energy into removal for any nonland permanent.

Spot removal is typically a weak addition to a Commander deck since it’s a multiplayer format. Getting spot removal on a land like this is another story, however. Having the option to answer pretty much any problem in the late game, on a card that cost you nothing to run in your deck, is fantastic. It may be a bit clunky, but flexibility is king in Commander and HELIOS One has it in spades. It’s also only $0.27 right now, which makes it one of the best budget upgrades for Living Energy.

2 | Primal Prayers

Living Energy Budget Upgrades Primal Prayers
  • Mana Value: 2GG
  • Rarity: Rare
  • Type: Enchantment
  • Card Text: When Primal Prayers enters, you get EE (two energy counters). You may cast creature spells with mana value 3 or less by paying E rather than paying their mana costs. If you cast a spell this way, you may cast it as though it had Flash.

Wading back into the waters of Modern Horizons 3 one more time, Primal Prayers was undoubtedly one of the most hyped Energy cards from the set. Similarities to Aluren got players’ combo engines running, but in the end the card never amounted to much in any format. This means we can grab a copy for Living Energy for a paltry $0.23.

What does Prayers bring to the deck? The potential for some seriously explosive early turns, that’s what. There are a ton of great creatures that cost three or less in the stock list, like Rogue Refiner and Whirler Virtuoso. Getting these out for just one Energy, at instant speed no less, is fantastic. This is doubly true since those creatures generate Energy of their own, allowing for potent chains.

Primal Prayers does fall off a lot in the late game, but it’s so powerful early on that it more than makes up for it. You can bury your opponents in tempo, or make surprise blocks thanks to the Flash it offers. If you’re running Pia Nalaar, Chief Mechanic as your Commander you can even drop her for free too. For its current low price, Primal Prayers is a major speed boost for Living Energy.

1 | Synth Eradicator

Living Energy Budget Upgrades Synth Eradicator
  • Mana Value: 2R
  • Rarity: Rare
  • Type: Artifact Creature – Synth Soldier
  • Stats: 3/3
  • Card Text: Haste. Whenever Synth Eradicator attacks, exile the top card of your library. You may get EE (two energy counters). If you don’t, you may play that card this turn. Tap, Pay EEE: Synth Eradicator deals 3 damage to any target.

Closing things out we have an absolute corker from Fallout’s Science precon, Synth Eradicator. This guy does it all: he swings in with Haste, he ‘draws’ you cards, he generates Energy, and he throws around Lightning Bolts like there’s no tomorrow. It’s shocking to see such a powerful Energy support card available for just $0.14, but here we are.

The flexibility here is really the kicker. Choosing between an extra card and two Energy each turn is a fine rate for three mana, especially since Eradicator gets attacking right away. That cost also means you can drop him for free via Primal Prayers, if you decide to pick that up too. Three Energy is also a very easy cost for this deck to pay, which means that last ability will be online most of the game. Tapping to deal with an annoying utility creature or burn out an ailing player is excellent stuff.

It’s hard to think of a better addition to Living Energy, and at $0.14 this is a true budget upgrade among budget upgrades. If you’re planning to try the deck out, do yourself a favor and sub in this scintillating Synth as soon as possible.

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