Hey everyone!

I’m finally back in Michigan after spending four days in Nashville and five days in Santa Clara, California. It feels good to be home; back-to-back trips can wear me down. The Pro Tour in Nashville had some highs and lows, but I’m happy with my overall result. Today I will give you a quick rundown of the event as well as what I like for Standard after Grand Prix Montreal (spoiler: Aetherworks Marvel).

Last Minute Preparation

I sent a dumpy list of Aetherworks Marvel to T HIll the week before the Pro Tour that featured Glorybringer and Bristling Hydra in the main deck. He was concerned with drawing Ulamog and not having ways to cast it. A very valid concern because having one in your hand is worse than a mulligan because your marvel activations are weaker.

There also wasn’t any library manipulation which meant you were either a combo deck or beatdown and had little control over the game plan. Bounty of the Luxa was suggested and I eventually listened. It ended up playing much better than expected and I was hooked. There were many hardcasted Ulamogs on turn seven in practice games. I wanted to tune a deck with this idea for the Pro Tour.

A couple days leading up to the Pro Tour is also a good time to investigate what other teams have discovered for both Standard and draft. Once interviewing some acquaintances on what they’re playing we quickly realized Aetherworks Marvel was going to be the talk of the tournament. Nobody found a consistent deck that can beat Marvel so many players opted to join the energy menace.

There was a red herring a couple days before the Pro Tour — Flash. We spotted the deck 5-0 in a league and it looked like it would crush Aetherworks Marvel. It could be a potential breakout deck, but I thought it looked weak against aggressive decks such as Zombies and Vehicles. It turned out about ten players showed up with the deck which is a small percentage out of four-hundred competitors. I would have been more afraid of this deck showing up in droves if it effortlessly beat Marvel, but it was clear they were sacrificing other matchups, and that isn’t acceptable. Even if the pilots expected Marvel to be 30% of the field that leaves seven other potentially rough matchups during the tournament.

The Deck

The Ann Arbor contingent all settled on the same Aetherworks Marvel list. This always makes me feel good about my choice if we all play the same list because our logic is sound. Everyone had a hand in making this deck great.

Here’s what we registered:

Temur Aetherworks ? Amonkhet Standard | Kyle Boggemes

• Creatures (16)
• 4 Rogue Refiner
• 4 Servant of the Conduit
• 4 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 4 Whirler Virtuoso

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

• Instants (4)
• 4 Harnessed Lightning

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Baral's Expertise
• 4 Attune with Aether

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Bounty of the Luxa

• Artifacts (8)
• 4 Aetherworks Marvel
• 4 Woodweaver's Puzzleknot

• Lands (22)
• 1 Island
• 2 Mountain
• 4 Forest
• 1 Sheltered Thicket
• 2 Lumbering Falls
• 4 Aether Hub
• 4 Botanical Sanctum
• 4 Spirebluff Canal

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Manglehorn
• 3 Dispel
• 2 Negate
• 1 Confiscation Coup
• 4 Aether Meltdown
• 1 Dissenter's Deliverance
• 1 Baral's Expertise
• 1 Bounty of the Luxa

Buy This Deck

The bounty plan was good for me in the mirror match over Tireless Tracker. Aetherworks Marvel comes under attack from Manglehorn and Negate so I can cast the creature on turn seven by removing the flood counter.

It was suggested by Brian Demars to add Sphinx of the Final Word in the sideboard as a way to combat Control. I wanted Dispel because it works very well with Bounty of the Luxa. On turn four you can jam Aetherworks Marvel or Chandra on their Glimmer of Genius turn. Turn five can be followed up with Bounty and Dispel backup. When you play Bounty on turn five that means the flood counter is removed on turn seven to cast the Ulamog.

Manglehorn was very impressive in the sideboard as a way to kill opposing Aetherworks Marvel and causing them to enter the battlefield tapped. I blew up a couple clues and Woodweaver's Puzzleknot during testing in the mirror, too. Confiscation Coup can steal Aetherworks Marvel and it’s even more effective when they enter the battlefield tapped. Manglehorn can also be sided in against Mardu Vehicles as it kills many of their permanents and blocks early threats. They have to stay aggressive because Ulamog is too powerful of an end game.

Overall, I would say Bounty was great and Chandra underperformed. This is because Zombies was the aggro deck of choice and the -3 wasn’t amazing. The lords allowed surprise damage to kill Chandra from otherwise favorable board positions. It doesn’t play well with Glimmer of Genius because they both cost 4 mana so it can’t be included in every list.

Baral's Expertise had a wide range of results. Some games it closed quickly thanks to the tempo advantage and others it was the only spell in my hand so I was just treading water. Once I cut the Chandras they get less exciting as well. The expertise worked well within this particular list and not in general. I would only play them when combined with 4-drops that generate traction.

Now that you have a good idea of the deck I was wielding let’s get to the tournament!

Day 1 Draft

I ended up with a medium deck in a pod with two other players on the same archetype. isn’t a popular archetype so this was unexpected. This was a strange pod and ended up losing to Frank Lepore’s great Zombies deck in round one. Off to a great start.

Losing the first round in a close match against a great deck was heartbreaking, but there was some hope. I expected to be demolished so maybe my deck wasn’t so bad after all. It’s important to keep a positive attitude because playing against named pros is a common feature of the Pro Tour. You will lose a lot, but that’s all right. A great finish involves losing a whopping five times! My goal is to get six pro points which requires a 10-6 record to lock Silver.

The next two rounds fared better for me as I was paired against two of the weaker decks at the table. A 2-1 finish after the draft was a total trainwreck was very exciting as my Limited performance is typically weak.

Day 1 Standard

The first part of Standard also began terribly for me. I was paired against Pro Tour champion, Martin Dang, playing Aetherworks Marvel. None of this is the bad part yet. I lose Game 1 to Dunkin Doughnuts thanks to a long line and a single staff member handling everything. He worked as fast as he could, but it wasn’t a good situation.

It’s never a good feeling to start a portion of the event with a game loss for something so silly. I pull myself together, but then get beaten down again by facing an early Ulamog blowing up my lands. After a lot of grinding and some whiffs by Martin I manage to win that game. The match ends in a draw, but I feel good about how I played the games. I battled some games of the mirror against Max McVety before the Pro Tour because I knew this would be a key matchup and that paid off.

I face four non-Marvel decks in the rest of day 1 that is headlined by Brad Nelson on Mardu Vehicles. Zombies and Flash were the other unique archetypes I faced during Day 1 and managed to defeat them all! The fact that I beat Flash was a bad look for the archetype because the deck was designed to crush Marvel.

Day 1 ends with me at my second-best finish in my twenty-one Pro Tours at 6-1-1. I feel great given some of the weird draft signals and the game loss.

My Day 1 performances typically go pretty well and the wheels fall off due to not being able to sleep. The team rounds out the day with dinner at the Frothy Monkey for one of the best sandwiches I have ever eaten. They also had a local creme ale that topped off a great day. I enjoy beer and Nashville certainly didn’t disappoint.

Day 2 Draft

The first round starts off right with a win against Monsters featuring two Scaled Behemoth.

Now the wheels start to fall off as I only got about two hours of sleep. My mind was racing all night which meant I didn’t catch many Zs.

Michael Majors and Yuuya Wantanabe were my next two opponents. I didn’t draw enough lands in Game 3 against Majors which spiraled things out of control. Yuuya’s deck had two Drake Havens in skies, which can already be a troubling matchup for . It was a blowout and I ended draft 2 with a 1-2 record. Sad!

Day 2 Standard

I felt very fortunate to end day 1 of Standard at 4-0-1, but things fell apart quickly. The first match on the day featured two games where I didn’t see Aetherworks Marvel. Sometimes that happens in a deck that relies heavily on a single card.

The next match didn’t pan out either, with a mulligan to five followed by a stumble game versus another deck.

My lack of sleep bites me in the next round as I play horribly against Mardu Vehicles, but managed to win in embarrassing fashion. I’m still live for cash if I win the next two rounds because Pro Tours offer the large cushion of losses.

I face Tomoharu Saito on Mono-Black Zombies and get dismantled quickly. The Zombies matchup isn’t bad, but the draws didn’t come together again. I get a concession in the final round from Florian Koch as he wasn't close to Silver. This was much appreciated as playing Magic was very difficult for me as the wheels were long gone.

My final record was 9-6-1 which was good for 5 pro points. This puts me at 16 for the season and 3 more for showing up to the next Pro Tour in Japan on a Silver invite and 4 Grand Prix slots remaining to get the final point. Since I work full-time as a financial analyst, I dedicate enough time to reach Silver, but Gold is too much of a commitment for me. Pro Tours are very fun and I want to continue qualifying for them.

Aftermath

Aetherworks Marvel continued to dominate at Grand Prix Montreal and I wouldn’t stray from playing the deck. Glimmer of Genius allows you to create a more consistent plan of spinning the marvel each game.

Here’s what I would register at my next Standard event which is inspired by Kevin Jones and Yuuya Wantanabe:

Temur Aetherworks ? Amonkhet Standard | Kyle Boggemes

• Creatures (11)
• 1 Torrential Gearhulk
• 3 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 3 Whirler Virtuoso
• 4 Rogue Refiner

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Chandra, Flamecaller

• Instants (12)
• 1 Negate
• 3 Censor
• 4 Glimmer of Genius
• 4 Harnessed Lightning

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Sweltering Suns
• 4 Attune with Aether

• Artifacts (8)
• 4 Aetherworks Marvel
• 4 Woodweaver's Puzzleknot

• Lands (22)
• 1 Island
• 2 Mountain
• 4 Forest
• 1 Lumbering Falls
• 2 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
• 4 Aether Hub
• 4 Botanical Sanctum
• 4 Spirebluff Canal

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Manglehorn
• 2 Dispel
• 2 Negate
• 1 Confiscation Coup
• 2 Radiant Flames
• 1 Torrential Gearhulk
• 2 Tireless Tracker
• 2 Shielded Aether Thief

Buy This Deck

Zombies is a very powerful deck and needs to be respected. I mentioned not wanting to sweep the board because of Servant of the Conduit and Whirler Virtuoso so moving away from the creature plan leaves room for Sweltering Suns and Chandra, Flamecaller. Shielded Aether-Thief works well with sweepers because they need to overextend to attack through the 0/4. Sweltering Suns cycles so it makes the maindeck while Radiant Flames has versatility and is easier to cast in the sideboard games. Remember that Radiant Flames doesn’t synergize with Aetherworks Marvel; it will deal 0 damage when cast for free.

Shrine of the Forsaken Gods is the replacement for Bounty of Luxa. I want to make it easier to cast Ulamog. The shrine can also cast other colorless spells — Aetherworks Marvel and Woodweaver's Puzzleknot. Yuuya played one at Pro Tour Amonkhet and Paul Dean played two at Grand Prix Montreal. I think this land will be the way of the future.

Manglehorn is great in the mirror so I want a third copy. Max McVety Top 8ed Grand Prix Montreal with Vehicles so it’s possible for it to win when the competition forgets it exists. I want to have the extra hedge against Heart of Kiran.

Tireless Tracker is in the board because Bounty doesn’t synergize with Glimmer of Genius. It provides an additional traction engine against Control and Flash, if it is still playable.

Even if you don’t want to spin a wheel every round it’s important to get a lot of practice against Marvel because this deck isn’t going anywhere.

That’s all I have for this week. Thanks for reading!

—Kyle