Rounding out the Fallout pre-cons is Science!, a Jeskai deck featuring high technology and new cards utilizing one of Magic’s most powerful alternate resources that has not returned in quite some time, Energy.
First we’ll take a brief look back at Energy and what made it absurdly busted when it was first printed. Then we’ll take a look at the new Science! deck and examine if it looks too good to be true.
Does this look like a Banned card?
It may be hard to believe, but both Rogue Refiner and Attune with Aether were so format warping that they were banned in Standard. Temur Energy was simply too good at the time.
The concept of Energy was, at its core, excellent. Making a card have a fractional additional value represented in Energy made sense. Balancing a one mana card versus a two mana card could be tricky. Energy tried to bump a card effect by half a mana or a quarter of a mana. That was the idea. at least. However, it proved far better than expected.
By providing scaling, Energy made many cards like Harnessed Lightning and Confiscation Coup fight way outside of their weight class for too little mana. At the same time, you had beaters like Longtooth Cub which was a completely legitimate threat and also Whirler Virtuoso that could alternatively go wide. Now let us return back to the future with Science!
The goal of Every Advanced Civilization, Free Energy
With over 30 artifacts and artifact creatures, Dr. Madison Li has plenty of fuel. A commander that is an automatic Haste enabler while adding Trample and an additional +1/+0 thrown in is decent. Add card draw and recursion to the total package for only three mana, and you’re looking at something very functional.
The deck also features some massive artifact helpers in the form of reprints of Panharmonicon and Mystic Forge, so the value never ends. With powerful synergy from everything in Science!, could another commander possibly hope to compete with Dr. Li?
How About a Super Robot?
Dr. Li is not the only source of Energy for Science! and because of that you could consider running Liberty Prime, Recharged as your commander instead. Certainly it’s a powerful option.
An 8/8 Haste Trampler can easily take out a single player quickly. While it does require Energy to attack or defend, Liberty Prime also has an interesting mechanic revolving around Vigilance. Declare an attack, pay two, tap and sacrifice an artifact, generate two Energy to pay for your attack. So you have the option to have vigilance if you already have Energy. Alternatively, you can sacrifice one of the many tokens the deck generates for fuel.
The upside to sacrificing is drawing additional cards, and it’s a good upside to have. There are tons of fellow Robots and Synths to help your game plan but Shaun, Father of Synths can give you another non-Legendary copy of Liberty Prime to absolutely demolish someone. Further big synergy comes from Nerd Rage, the best new Divination in a while. At seven cards in hand, Liberty Prime can attack, sac and draw. You can go to 10 cards in hand and end someone with an 18/18 trample Liberty. Freedom baby, freedom.
Of all the Fallout decks reviewed, this is the one that has a true option between either commander. Sure it will certainly play differently depending on which one you’re using but many of the cards are multi-purpose.
One Drink to Rule Them all
Certainly the iconic drink of the apocalypse, Nuka-Cola is a mainstay of the Fallout series. It’s no surprise that Nuka-Cola Vending machine would be a useful card, but it’s borderline crazy when you look back at all the Food producing cards recently printed. In Science! itself it’s going to give you additional artifact tokens that you can use to sacrifice to Liberty and the total count of said artifacts are very important for Sentinel Sarah Lyons. We consider Nuka-cola Vending Machine the best card in the whole set!
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Sit, Fetch, Play Dead
Think of one of the handful of powerful cards from Wilds of Eldraine. A card that has shown up in multiple formats Agatha’s Soul Cauldron is part of many possible game ending combos. Rex, Cyber-Hound has a built in Cauldron effect, a mill engine to get more targets and sorcery speed graveyard hate all in one. Agatha’s incredible as-is, and Rex has an even better version. Because he gets all activated abilities of cards that he exiles, not just Creature abilities, he is more flexible. Rex is already in white, so the popular infinite combo of Walking Ballista and Heliod, Sun-crowned works. Because he can get enchantment, land, and artifact abilities in addition, he can do so, so much more. Finally, as an Energy generating artifact creature, Rex is perfectly at home in Science!
The Latest two mana Clone
We have Phantasmal Image and Flesh Duplicate from the Doctor Who set, so two mana Clone cards exist. However, in both cases, there are significant drawbacks and those “true” two mana copying creatures are exceedingly temporary. While Synth Infiltrator is technically five mana, the Improvise keyword alongside artifacts and artifact tokens means that more often than not you are going to pay as little as two mana. While Phyrexian Metamorph is likely better at three mana and two life because it can target artifacts as well, the Infiltrator is pretty close. Science! has quite a few legendary creatures, so it may copy the best creature on the board that isn’t yours. Still, it looks exceedingly playable.
Furthermore, the deck has Curie, Emergent Intelligence which can copy one of your creatures for two mana, while also exiling it. In this case, you can pick something that was going to be removed anyways while still keeping a copy. It’s a different take on the Cloning angle and one that may end up better than you think.
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Energy Mana Drain
Science! has plenty of ways to make one or two mana at a time, and even has an excellent land in HELIOS One to generate one Energy each turn. What if you want to make a pile of Energy all at once? Your best bet is in Electrosiphon. Not only are you countering a threat or board wipe but you’re also going to get a pile of Energy.
Unlike Mana Drain, you get the Energy immediately and don’t have to wait until your next turn. For three mana, a counter is not unplayable and the upside here has tremendous potential. You can time it with Vault 112: Sadistic Simulation so you have a huge Energy reserve for the third chapter effect which is the most direct way to turn Energy into the best card. While it does not feature a huge paragraph of text, the simplicity of Electrosiphon is its strength. No matter when you use it, you’re going to get extra value.
But There are so Many More
Each Fallout deck includes 40 new cards on average. While we’re not quite at the Doctor Who level of 50 new cards, we’re well over most Commander sets. Consider that Lord of the Rings had just 20 new cards per deck. Most other Commander decks are 15 or 10. Science! blends with an archetype that has been super powerful in the past and everyone knows artifacts are good. Will this deck resurrect Energy for multiple formats, and will it make Energy a viable choice in Commander? We’ll explore that more in the coming weeks with a play review and upgrade guide.
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