AEther Vial

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Mikeymike

Guest
AEther Vial - 1
Artifact (U)
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a charge counter on Æther Vial.
T: You may put a creature card with converted mana cost equal to the number of charge counters on Æther Vial from your hand into play.

Let me tell you, I really like this card. I'm pre-adding it to my Power Conduit deck. Its important to note that it never loses its counters.

Ignoring combos for a second, this is what this card essential does:

- It allows you to largely ignore color dependent CC (Fangren Firstborn for instance, or off color creatures)
- Its nearly uncounterable (only Stifle can counter it, which is a bad play b/c you can just try it again next turn)
- (Best use) it allows you to play creatures as instants, after sorcery speed removal
- It allows you to somewhat fight off mana screw (either lack of land screw or color screw), as it is method for dropping your threats into play without the appropriate resources.

Dropped early, it builds a huge tempo advantage for your creature based deck.
Example in an Aggro-green build:
Turn 3 (Vial has 2 counters) - Hard Cast Sword of Fire & Ice. On opponent's EOT, drop Viridian Zealot
Turn 4 (Vial has 3 counters) - Equip Zealot, keep mana open for Zealot. They do what they will on turn, on their EOT, you Drop Troll Ascetic)
Turn 5 (Vial has 4 counters) - Equip Troll maybe, or cast something for 3 (keeping 2 mana open for Zealot). On opponent's EOT, drop a Fangren Firstborn

Combo wise, it is another card that makes Power Conduit extremely strong. The Conduit can add counters early, and remove counters late according to what is in your hand.

It is also a strong option for toolbox style 187 builds, running bounce (Umbilicus, Erratic Portal, Crystal Shard)

In a creature-based deck it essentially gives you a 3rd main phase to cast creatures on your opponent's turn, all for the cost of 1 mana.

I think this will prove itself to be a very strong card
 
O

orgg

Guest
...and it's Un Common. Not Rare, Un-Friggin'-Common.

Difficult to believe, really.

I'm beginning to get worried that Mirror'd Den is going to be another Urza's block. Affinnity's already really good, right now.
 
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BigBlue

Guest
One liability is that it only puts creatures who's converted cost EQUALS the counters - so once you've put the 4th counter on it is unusable for 3 CC creatures...

you have to find a number to be comfortable with and stick with it.

Not to rain on your parade because it does look like a neat disintegrate/naturalize target otherwise... You need to play with your guardian beast...
 
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BigBlue

Guest
With 2 counters . . . and the Erratic portal - it becomes an unbeatable Discard machine with the Discard rat... In response to your draw I'll activate my vial for the Rat's. after discard use the portal/shard to bounce back the rat... combined with a counter or two they are in real trouble... One mana using 3 cards which are symbiotic with other things in a deck means no fun...
 
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Mikeymike

Guest
Originally posted by BigBlue
Not to rain on your parade because it does look like a neat disintegrate/naturalize target otherwise... You need to play with your guardian beast...
My parade was ruined a long time ago when the Kermit the Frog balloon lost 3 handlers and ended up smashing into Podunk High marching band, but I digress...

I definitely see your point, but being that it is a turn 1 cast I feel like it builds up quite well with the natural mana curve of a creature heavy deck, making it strong in the early game. Mid/late game it still fares well, as you can choose to either A) build up counters until you match the CC of your token big-boy or B) stablilize your charge counters to match the median CC of the majority of your dangerous critters.

Also, since you want this as a turn 1 cast you are probably running 4x, you can then cast another later in the game to meet the CC of you lower CC creatures.

Beyond that, that is where the combo aspects of AEther Vial and, say Power Conduit/Coretapper come into play.

You have to admit, that is a heluva an ability to attach to a 1CC uncommon that can be played in any color.
 
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BigBlue

Guest
Don't get me wrong - I'm a creature lover - and this artifact is just plain great for that... But I wanted to point out that it does have the limitation of only one valid CC at a time.

I play mostly MP - where it'd almost always have a very short lifespan.
 
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Mikeymike

Guest
As do I. Would you be willing to try this over Belbe's Portal or Quicksilver Amulet? (Not trying to be a pest, just curious).

You know what'd be fun, letting it stick on 4 counters, then when they try to Naturalize/Orim's Thunder/Etc. you drop Leonin Abunas in response.
 
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train

Guest
I personally like the idea of the surprise effect...

"*Poof!*, Hey look - there's a fattie!!!..."
 
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