Over the past week, we have been absolutely bombarded with spoilers. From the full reveal of the MTG Fallout Commander decklists to the various previews for upcoming sets including Modern Horizons 3 and Outlaws of Thunder Junction, there’s a lot to keep track of.
With regards to MTG Fallout, one of the more intriguing mechanics that the MTG design team focused on was energy counters. Energy is a bit of a weird mechanic where, much like Poison counters, you simply track how many energy counters you have over the course of the game. From there, you can use your energy to maximize various payoffs, such as Aetherworks Marvel. Up to this point, cards that reference energy counters have not been overly abundant in the world of MTG.
However, now with the Science! Commander Precon from MTG Fallout available, we have a strong legendary Creature payoff to lead an energy-themed EDH deck in the form of Dr. Madison Li as well as a multitude of strong enablers. Today, we are going to take a look at some of the stronger energy enablers that are capable of producing lots of energy with minimal resource investment needed. These recent spoilers have the potential to help supercharge your energy payoffs when maximized.
Automated Assembly Line
Automated Assembly Line is a neat card in the sense that it is both an energy enabler and payoff in one. For two mana, you get to make all of your Artifact Creatures into energy producers whenever they deal combat damage to the opponent. This works exceptionally well with cards that create evasive Thopters.
As such, cards like Thopter Spy Network provide consistent fuel for Automated Assembly Line. Unfortunately, Automated Assembly Line doesn’t generate energy for each Artifact Creature that deals combat damage though, so going super wide with something like Thopter Foundry isn’t necessary.
Beyond its triggered ability, this card also has an activated ability that lets you create 3/3 Artifact Creature tokens. Just like Whirler Virtuoso, this can come in handy to make a wide battlefield. Additionally, you can generate infinite tokens with Gonti’s Aether Heart and Decoction Module in play if you have three energy counters stored up.
All you have to do is make a single token, which will net you three more energy in total to make a token again and repeat the process. With enough energy in the chamber, you can then pop Gonti’s Aether Heart, take an extra turn, and attack with all of your tokens.
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Brotherhood Scribe
Next in line, we have Brotherhood Scribe. Brotherhood Scribe is quite a strong card assuming you have Metalcraft online, which is not a difficult task to accomplish. Then, at minimum, you can generate an energy and pump your whole squad once each turn. This alone is pretty strong if you are going wide with tokens, but your Creatures can get even larger if you have separate ways to net energy counters.
Importantly, Brotherhood Scribe’s activated ability is not restricted to Sorcery speed, and its triggered ability can trigger multiple times each turn each time you generate one or more energy counters. With regards to the activated ability of Brotherhood Scribe, cards like Seedborn Muse can be quite powerful in a multiplayer Commander game, letting you generate lots of energy each turn cycle.
The combination of abilities on Brotherhood Scribe even allow you to provide an infinite buff to your other Creatures in conjunction with Agatha’s Soul Cauldron in play and Devoted Druid in your graveyard. By exiling Druid with Cauldron and putting the +1/+1 counter on Scribe, Scribe will gain Druid’s ability to untap itself. From there, you can tap to make an energy, growing Scribe and your other Creatures.
Now untap Scribe putting a -1/-1 counter on it and tap to generate more energy. Because this will keep growing Scribe to ultimately cancel out the power and toughness loss from Devoted Druid’s ability, you can repeat this process, ending up with infinite energy and a huge board to attack with.
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HELIOS One
In a similar vein as Brotherhood Scribe, HELIOS One gives energy-focused decks a reliable way to keep gaining energy over the course of the game. What’s nice about this card is that, this time, the ability comes on a Land that taps for mana. As such, it is a little less vulnerable to removal and, because you can always just use it to tap for mana, the opportunity cost of putting it in your deck is very low.
On turns where you have extra mana lying around, though, you can start getting your energy counters up. Once again, Seedborn Muse and the like work perfectly with HELIOS One, letting you gain multiple energy counters each turn cycle.
Beyond that, you can also sacrifice HELIOS One in a pinch to blow up a problematic non-Land permanent. In a dedicated energy deck, this combines nicely with Crucible of Worlds to start mowing down your opponents’ scariest cards.
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Electrosiphon
Finally, we have Electrosiphon. This is a very simple card in design, but in practice, is an excellent addition to energy decks that can cast it. If you can counter a spell with high mana value, you end up with a huge reward in the form of energy counters. If you really want to go further down the rabbit hole, you can set up situations where you cast a card with a large mana value that has a cost reduction, then counter your own spell to end up with a ton of energy.
For example, with enough Artifacts in play, casting Metalwork Colossus, holding priority and countering it yourself to net 11 energy counters isn’t unreasonable. After all, you can always bring back Colossus again. Clearly, though, this is more of a corner case scenario, and using it as a traditional Counterspell will suffice.
For a while, we’ve had some powerful cards like Aetherworks Marvel to sink energy into, but a lack of ways to generate energy counters in the first place has made things tough for Commander players. As such, the Science! Commander deck in particular is a welcome addition. These spoilers should certainly provide a lot of assistance in energy creation, so if that’s your jam, you’re in for some nice upgrades.
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