(Whirler Virtuoso | Art by Lake Hurwitz)

Joules and Joules of Energy

Welcome to Too-Specific Top 10, where if there isn’t a category to rank our pet card at the top of, we’ll just make one up! (Did you know that Primal Prayers is the only card that allows you to cast creature spells from your hand with energy?)

With the back-to-back energy focuses of Fallout and Modern Horizons 3, there has been a lot of focus on energy decks over the last year, and I've noticed something: Energy decks are terrible at using their energy.

All these new Jeskai energy commanders are very good at making energy, but none of them really use very much of it. Satya, Aetherflux Genius will typically make a token of a creature that creates energy and come out gaining more energy than he puts in, even if you decide to keep the creature. Liberty Prime, Recharged only takes up two energy a turn, and you can immediately net that back even as you pay it due to its vigilance and it's sacrifice ability. Dr. Madison Li is the best set up to use more energy than she makes, but all too often you find yourself needing to go aggro or draw a card for less energy because you don't have a juicy enough artifact in your graveyard, or simply because that's what the game calls for at that moment.

So, how can we solve this problem?

Top 10 Energy Payoffs

There's an easy list to do here that I don't think has been done, and it's simply the ten most played energy cards from across all five colors.

Top 10 Energy Cards

1. Volatile Stormdrake
2. Chthonian Nightmare
3. Gonti's Aether Heart
4. Guide of Souls
5. Aether Hub
6. Aetherworks Marvel
7. Decoction Module
8. Demon of Dark Schemes
9. Lightning Runner
10. Glimmer of Genius

You'll note a similar problem throughout this list. Like most energy cards, every card on this list makes energy, and then gives you a way to spend it. At the same time, however, most make more energy than they'll want to use immediately, and only give you a single chance to spend said energy. Now look, I'm not against surpluses. I've got a savings account, and I've only been pulling $2000 a month out of it while putting in $200 for a couple years now, I'm sure everything's going swimmingly. Stocking up all that energy, though, what is it worth if you're not spending it? Nothing!

In other words, we need a Magic: The Gathering. A Warhammer. A classic car. A combat robot. We need a hobby that no matter how much money energy we sank into it, there would always be more to spend. A Bottomless Pit, if you will.

Criteria: Cards which allow you to pay energy for an effect that has an effect if it is activated multiple times, that does not result in just more energy (get outta here, Aethertide Whale!), and is repeatable in the same turn with a cumulative effect (get outta here, Hightide Hermit!). As is tradition, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.

Now that ought to get us there! Let's see what repeatable activated abilities we can spend unlimited energy on!

10. Bristling Hydra

(1,765 Inclusions, 0% of 2,191,290 Decks)

While there are certainly more interesting things to do with our dozens of energy counters than to put them all in one basket, Bristling Hydra is nonetheless something you can spend energy on, repeatedly. While it still wouldn't be anywhere near my first choice, I do like the hexproof here. After all, if you're going to make a huge Hydra that folks are probably going to have to remove at some point, you'd better at least protect it!

9. Aetherwind Basker

(1,988 Inclusions, 0% of 2,191,290 Decks)

You know, I'm starting to see why green energy decks didn't catch on, and I don't think it's necessarily just the complete lack of dedicated energy commanders. I mean, Agent Frank Horrigan, Roalesk, Apex Hybrid, and Atraxa, Praetors' Voice are all right there. No, I think it's because the green energy cards do two things, and only two things: Make a ton of energy, and then spend that energy to make creatures bigger. While that's all well and good for limited, and even Standard play, it's just not enough to make for an interesting Commander deck.

8. Architect of the Untamed

(2,480 Inclusions, 0% of 2,191,290 Decks)

Okay, I take it all back. Thank you, Architect of the Untamed, for doing the more interesting thing and making huge creature tokens instead of making existing creatures huge. It's a small distinction, mind you, but it does make all the difference.

The only problem? Energy decks on the whole are not lands decks, and don't really have the room to be such. In other words, while the payoff here is great, it's expensive at eight energy for a 6/6, and it's unlikely to help pay for much of that. Don't get me wrong, this is exactly what we asked for, and if I was making an energy deck with green in it, this card would be in the deck. I also just think it's yet another reason to be kind of underwhelmed by the green energy options.

7. Scurry of Gremlins

(3,366 Inclusions, 1% of 517,635 Decks)

Now this is what I'm talking about! Four mana for two tokens, who knows how much energy, and an ability that makes all your creatures meaner and hasty? We're short a "trample" for this being the energy deck's finisher, but it's passing close. Scurry of Gremlins does a ton in both the early and late game, and if you can manage to find a means to get your creatures through for damage, it's very possible that it will just finish out games for you. Exactly the sort of effect we're looking for, and easily the best card on this list so far.

6. Consulate Surveillance

(3,898 Inclusions, 0% of 2,152,632 Decks)

I know many are enthusiastic about energy, and I am too. If I may suggest that some folks have gotten out over their skis on this one, however? Consulate Surveillance would be playable at this cost if it prevented damage to your creatures and such, but it doesn't. It's the classic Circle of Protection, which no version of, not even Story Circle, has ever been playable in Commander. Even in battlecruiser, people have better things to do with their cards and mana.

So... You surely have better things to do with your cards and energy, correct?

5. Aethergeode Miner

(4,458 Inclusions, 0% of 2,147,683 Decks)

I've always loved Aethergeode Miner, but I do wonder a bit if that love is misplaced. Don't get me wrong, it's a fine 3/1 for two that gets you two energy. That part is more than worth doing, as is using its ability to get it out of trouble when the combat its swinging into doesn't go the way you expected. Aethergeode Miner's blink ability has always seemed to promise much more than that, however: The ability to repeatedly blink a creature is usually very strong, and often even results in infinite combos. And to be clear, Aethergeode Miner is involved in several combos, just none of them are very good.

The problem is that it's very easy to blink Miner over and over again, but there aren't very many support cards you can find room for in an energy deck that care about it. I myself have even dabbled in an energy deck that cared about blink specifically, and found Aethergeode Miner very uninspiring. The reason is that energy creatures tend to have enter-the-battlefield effects (ETBs) that make energy, so it's beneficial to blink them. That means that it's pretty safe to focus on blink effects or reanimate effects or anything else that will take your existing energy creatures and abuse their existing ETBs. Why then would you make space for cards that will tack an ETB onto Aethergeode Miner?

In shot, the Miner is fine as an energy producer. As a payoff, the juice is just not worth the squeeze.

4. Electrostatic Pummeler

(4,659 Inclusions, 0% of 4,696,789 Decks)

We left green behind, but still there are creatures abounding that want to use your energy to pump themselves. Electrostatic Pummeler might be the best of them, however. At three generic mana, it comes down early and gets you three energy, which you're already happy about. From there it can hang around for a while until your energy gets out of control, at which point it lets you swing in and utterly destroy blockers, or get through and spend all of your available energy doubling its power again and again. That's right! We've found yet another one of those cards that will test your knowledge of old video gaming consoles.

It takes a bit to get past the archaic oscilloscope and Atari days, but once you're sporting a Nintendo Entertainment System's worth of bits on your Electrostatic Pummeler, things look pretty good. Spend three more energy to make it a Super Nintendo, and you're feeling fine. Leave Nintendo behind for a Sega Saturn briefly, and you're stoked with your copy of Sonic 3D Blast. The real fun though? The real fun begins with your Pummeler's triumphant return to the Nintendo 64. Just try and give it trample somewhere along the way too, okay?

3. Rex, Cyber-Hound

(Helms 646 Decks, Rank #1,257; 5,568 Inclusions, 1% of 647,172 Decks)

As much as I like Rex, Cyber-Hound as a commander, I'm not actually sure how good a payoff it is outside of that arena. It's one thing to have a deck entirely set up around milling yourself and creatures with brutal activated abilities, but in the 99 you're relying on your opponents to have those killer activated abilities just lying around. That seems like an unlikely occurrence, so I'm a bit confused as to why folks are going so heavy on Rex in the 99, while he's not very popular in the command zone. Maybe it's just folks taking their medicine and including ways to exile other's graveyards, but knowing Commander players, I'm dubious.

If you're not just using him as a bad Aethergeode Miner, however, I do really like Rex. He's a fun commander that does something very unique for Azorius, a color combination that is badly in need of uniqueness.

2. Whirler Virtuoso

(7,089 Inclusions, 1% of 1,072,295 Decks)

And we've arrived. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Scurry of Gremlins, and Electrostatic Pummeler is some good old-fashioned "do the thing" kind of fun. When it comes to energy payoffs, though, Whirler Virtuoso is where it's at. Three energy for a Thopter, over and over again as you fill and drain the battery, all attached to a three-mana body that gives you three energy when it comes into play. This is just what you want to be doing.

So, why isn't it at the top?

1. Automated Assembly Line

(7,821 Inclusions, 1% of 1,023,576 Decks)

Why, because Fallout made a better version, of course! Automated Assembly Line took what Whirler Virtuoso started and built a whole kingdom out of it. The two work best when together, of course, but there are also tons of new artifact creatures that care about energy, both in the Fallout precon and throughout Modern Horizons 3, and even a little bit back in Kaladesh. In fact, that's what pushes Automated Assembly Line over the top. Its energy ability is so good that it sees play outside of energy decks, taking artifact creature and Servo/Thopter decks and throwing routine Robot generation at them. If you can manage to swing three artifact creatures at three players successfully, you'll be making a 3/3 every turn, which feels pretty darn good for two mana. If you are in the energy deck, however, then this is just a threat that has to be removed, preferably on the stack, before you make 10 beefy Robots that will define combat for the rest of the probably very short game.

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Honorable Mentions

First off, as always when it comes to a list that's specific enough that it can feasibly be finished out, let's do exactly that.

11. Multiform Wonder
12. Longtusk Cub
13. Peema Aether-Seer
14. Emissary of Soulfire
15. Primal Prayers
16. Spontaneous Artist

While I personally would love it if Morphling copycats like Multiform Wonder saw a bit more play, it's understandable that they don't in this day and age. What did surprise me here was the green contingent. Longtusk Cub is cheap, efficient, and can become an absolute threat in energy decks. While green is no longer the in vogue color for energy, it is still surprising to see other green cards above this. Nowhere near as surprising as it is to see Primal Prayers at the bottom of all these cards, only ahead of a four-mana haste enabler. Folks, this is a one-sided Aluren, one of the most broken cards ever printed. It lets you cast creatures at instant speed, for energy, most of which in an energy deck will get you more energy. There should be green energy decks specifically being created to play this card, and it's sitting at 918 inclusions. It's mind-boggling!

Of course, repeated activated abilities isn't the only way to spend your excess energy. There's also just single activated abilities that use a lot of it!

Top 10 High Energy Payoffs (Require Six or More Energy)

1. Gonti's Aether Heart
2. Aetherworks Marvel
3. Lightning Runner
4. Aethersquall Ancient
5. Roil Cartographer
6. Era of Innovation
7. Salvation Colossus
8. Stone Idol Generator
9. Architect of the Untamed
10. Aethertorch Renegade

While we've already seen some of these in the top ten energy cards, it's worth highlighting just how much Aetherworks Marvel is the best card in any given energy deck, along with just how good Lightning Runner can be. With that said, for me this list begins with Aethersquall Ancient, which while expensive, is the threat that I have seen win energy decks the game time and time again. A 6/6 flier that can bounce the board every turn while also putting your own creatures that give you more energy back in hand is just something that has to be dealt with. Further down the list is the other big threat in the new energy colors that is worth paying out the high energy bills for, Salvation Colossus. While eight mana can be a bit unwieldy, eight energy to grab it out of the graveyard for a turn for an alpha strike is easy to arrange, and will have huge results if you've got a developed board. Finally, all those other options are great and all, but it's hard to beat some good old-fashioned burn to the face. Aethertorch Renegade can make that happen if you've got a lot of energy laying around, which you very well might if you've found a way to take advantage of its four energy for three mana efficiency on more than one occassion.

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Nuts and Bolts

There always seems to be a bit of interest in how these lists are made (this seems like a good time to stress once again that they are based on EDHREC score, NOT my personal opinion…), and people are often surprised that I’m not using any special data or .json from EDHREC, but rather just muddling my way through with some Scryfall knowledge! For your enjoyment/research, here is this week’s Scryfall search.

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What Do You Think?

We're more than six months out now from the energyfest that was Fallout and Modern Horizons 3, and I know I for one have seen quite a few of the decks in the wild. How do we think that's going?

And finally, what is your favorite energy payoff? Can you do it repeatedly, or is it all in one big bang?

Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you at the table that appears to be... hovering?

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