[deck] Aether Bug

[Lolidk]

I made this beast about a week ago on Reddit with a user who's name escapes me. He did most of the work for it, but I decided to post in on the source so I can get all of your opinions and suggestions on it. Any help is appreciated!


Artifacts:

4 Aether Vial


Creatures:

4 Deathrite Shaman

3 Leovold, Emissary of Trest

4 Baleful Strix

1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest

1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy

2 Vendilion Clique

3 Tarmogoyf

4 Grim Flayer

1 Dryad Arbor (could also be put under land)


Instants:

4 Brainstorm

4 Force of Will

3 Abrupt Decay

Sorceries:


4 Cabal Therapy

1 Unearth


Lands (WIP, need help):

2 Verdant Catacombs

2 Misty Rainforest

2 Bayou

3 Wasteland

2 Underground Sea

2 Tropical Island

1 Island

2 Forest

1 Swamp

(No sideboard yet)


Card Choices:

Aether Vial - this is the engine of the deck. Vial lets us put almost all of our deck onto the battlefield, a turn at a time. Most of the time, you'll want to leave it on two counters, exceptions would be if you have an Edric or leovold in hand.

Deathrite Shaman - This is legacy, we're playing black, we're playing green

Abrupt decay - see, "Deathrite Shaman"

Leovold, Emissary of Trest - The inspiration for this deck. I personally love everything about this card. It denies your opponents cards, winning combo matchups, and it turns all your opponents kill spells into 2-for-1s.

NOTE: Leovold is at its best when it's 'vialed in with an opponents brainstorm on the stack

Edric, Spymaster of Trest - another creature I just really wanted to find a place for in legacy. Can draw a disgusting amount of cards when it's good, but sits in your hand when it's bad. Might be too cute for legacy, only running one. If anyone could justify putting some more in and telling me what to take out, I'd be really happy

Jace, Vryn's prodigy - A Merfolk Looter that flips into a Snapcaster Mage. This deck desperately needs to fix it's draws, although Jace just might not be good enough. Like Edric, it's only strong enough for a one-of. Unlike Edric, I don't have a personal attachment to this card so I don't mind cutting it or keeping it at one

Unearth - Rebuys a creature that was put into our 'yard. Good value card, often not great. Only a one-of

Grim Flayer - Essentially a Sylvan Library that we can Vial in. Fixes our draws, pumps itself and improves Unearth.

Baleful Strix - It's a creature, is blue, and it has deathtouch. Probably our second best card to Vial in after Leovold. Best thing to do is to Vial it in before blockers and kill the biggest attacker

Cabal Therapy - We have essentially no game against fast combo. Cabal therapy (combined with luck and skill) can help improve our matchup. Also, we have a lot of creatures which help make the therapy better

Vendilion Clique - helps against combo, if you can cast it before you die. Also is a creature with flying and a non-zero power. Can also fix your draws if you're unafraid of what your opponent has

Force of Will - It's legacy and we need and improved game against combo

Brainstorm - I thought about writing "brainstorm" in this section and moving on. It really doesn't need any explanation.

Tarmogoyf - it's a large, vanilla beater. We have to win the game somehow

Dryad Arbor - this one is a little bit of a risk. The idea is to Vial it in on the first turn on the game but in order to do that, you'd have to have another land, Aether Vial, and the Arbor all in your opener. The deck is rather color intensive too, so Arbor ends up causing some weird draws because it only taps for one color. Not sure if it's worth including, but it seems sweet as a one-of

The strategy:

I haven't played this deck much. A lot of the pieces are expensive and I'm not sure I'd want to invest in it if I'm unsure of whether or not it's actually good. In fact, one of the only games I played was against a person that joined a legacy que with pauper infect, and never realized that my deck wasn't pauper legal. Even made mention to how they were new to "pauper/modern"

Anyway, the deck is built around Aether Vial. In fact, it's probably over reliant on it. Most hand without an Aether Vial have to be shipped back, as they're usually too slow. However, there is Deathrite Shaman to help support this. Also considered GSZ so I could get arbor t1 to help speed up. Even though Vial is the deciding factor of a lot of hands, some hand will have Vial and all spells. They can't be kept either.

Most of the time, unless you have Edric or Leovold you'll want to keep Vial on 2. From what I've seen, there's not really much else to say

Tell me what you think about the deck! Any criticism is appreciated. The deck is still very much a work in progress and I'd love if you could help me make it more competitive. Thanks!

EDIT: I would also like to make another name for the deck, but it's not a main focus

[slave]

Edric, Spymaster of Trest

In my experience, this guy works best in a deck full of evasive 1-drops to snare you a full grip constantly, think a deck something like this (this deck is not my idea BTW). The idea is to turn your creatures sideways every turn until you draw into Throng or Warp - cast Throng for it's Prowl cost, or Time Warp - and just peck into a win without letting your opponent untap.

4x Edric, Spymaster of Trest
with a lot of 1-drop flyers;
4x Faerie Miscreant
4x Judge's Familiar
4x Mausoleum Wanderer
4x Triton Shorestalker
2x Wingcrafter

22x Land

4x Notorious Throng
4x Time Warp

4x Other Counter?
4x Force of Will

Obviously this isn't legacy focussed, this is a casual deck, but this is more where I see Edric fitting, as I just see Edric as a bit too slow, and probably a bit cute for legacy play.

[ESG]

I haven't played this deck much. A lot of the pieces are expensive and I'm not sure I'd want to invest in it if I'm unsure of whether or not it's actually good.

You should proxy up the deck and test it. That's an easy way to figure out problems and solutions without having to own the cards. Any pile of bulk commons can become any proxied Legacy deck.

Your idea seems like it has some promise, but the mana is untenable. I count 42 nonlands, 18 lands (3 of them Wasteland, so they aren't really lands, and 1 Dryad Arbor, which is basically in the same boat), excessive basics, and no Ponder to help dig on Turn 1 for a second land. There are also only four fetchlands, so your Deathrite Shamans are going to be heavily dependent on your opponent having fetches of his or her own. Aether Vial is clearly the backbone, but the deck is going to struggle if it doesn't turn up or gets countered or destroyed. Dryad Arbor's presence usually hinges on Green Sun's Zenith, which isn't in your list. I don't think you're going to live the dream of Vialing it in as much as you're going to encounter having it as your only land in a seven-card or a six-card hand.

I would start with adding a few more fetchlands, cutting the Dryad Arbor, and adding a couple more duals. I suspect that Edric lacks enough support (fliers, mainly) to be worth the slot. I would turn him into another land.

[ironclad8690]

I think phyrexian revoker has a place here too, mainly to combat miracles and Liliana of the veil. I think a mishra's factory or two might be good as a mana sink, and I also think we just want some jittes to randomly draw and suit up a dude. I might like some number of scooze as well, with vial we can be using out mana for exiling stuff. Glissa might be worth some slots too, both for insane combat and rebuying fallen strixes and aether vials. Maybe recurring nightmare could work too. Man, there's a lot of stuff you can do with this.

[Lolidk]

I think phyrexian revoker has a place here too, mainly to combat miracles and Liliana of the veil. I think a mishra's factory or two might be good as a mana sink

I think revoker would probably be better in the sb than the main, I'd have no idea what to take out for it is the main reason. As for factory, the deck is quite color restrictive and I don't know how well it could support a colorless land. The same thing would go for scooze. We don't have enough green sources in our deck to support it, and it would probably just be better in the sideboard

Glissa seems sweet though, in a lot of the games I played I felt as though the three drops were rather underwhelming and glissa might be sweet to try.

Jitte would be sweet, but I don't know if there's room for it. Frequently the deck will have a force of will and no blue card, or a Vial and no creature. Jitte, while being incredible as a card, might not fit this deck

Nightmare just seems like too much of a mana investment, for not enough payoff. And again, it's a noncreature and a nonblue. But I agree that this strategy has a lot you could do with it

[ironclad8690]

I've been thinking about it more, and I want to try a few other cards too. Shifting things around to try and make room for it all.

One idea is a more faerie centric list with spell stutters and cloud of faeries. Maybe edric would have a home in this list.

Another idea is to put coiling oracle for max value.

Scryb ranger is another card I would like to try. So many options. Fauna shaman could be sweet with all the recurring gy shenanigans.

[ironclad8690]

If glissa is out and baleful strix trades with something, you can return that same strix to hand right?

[Lolidk]

If glissa is out and baleful strix trades with something, you can return that same strix to hand right?

Yes

[Lolidk]

I've been thinking about it more, and I want to try a few other cards too. Shifting things around to try and make room for it all.

One idea is a more faerie centric list with spell stutters and cloud of faeries. Maybe edric would have a home in this list.

Another idea is to put coiling oracle for max value.

Scryb ranger is another card I would like to try. So many options. Fauna shaman could be sweet with all the recurring gy shenanigans.

I do like the idea of coiling oracle, and make sure you send me that faerie/Edric list when you're done!

[Finn]

Vial and Arbor in the same deck is a dream of mine, but I have never found the right shell to run it in. You can cast turn 1 Aether Vial and then Vial in a Dryar Arbor while it has zero counters for an extremely fast start. You may want to experiment with up to three Arbors to test this.

Good luck. Cool idea.