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Living Energy is one of the two preconstructed Commander decks released inMagic: The Gathering’sAetherdrift set. This Temur (green/blue/red) deck is heavily focused on the energy counter mechanic, with both options of commander utilizing them to some degree.
Living Energy can do a whole lot, with a lot of ways to quickly amass a large amount of energy counters. With the excess of energy counter support cards, the deck has some solid upgrade choices as well to improve the power of the precon. Precons are generally weaker power than more tuned decks, but Living Energy is great right out of the box if you don’t want to go the upgrade route.
Commander: Saheeli, Radiant Creator OR Pia Nalaar, Chief Mechanic
Architect of the Untamed
Pia and Kiran Nalaar
Servant of the Conduit
One with the Machine
x6 Forest
x5 Island
x5 Mountain
Vineglimmer Snarl
Yavimaya Coast
The decklistcontains one planeswalker, 27 creatures, six sorceries, five instants, 20 artifacts,two enchantments, and38 lands. Most of the deck is either artifacts, or creatures that generate energy counters or support artifacts themselves.
Key Cards
Saheeli, Radiant Creator
The face commander for the precon,Saheeli, Radiant Creatoris agreat way to amass energy counters quickly. With how many Artificers and artifacts are in the deck,you’ll generate a ton of energy counters quickly just by playing your deck.
While Pia Nalaar, Chief Mechanic is a solid commander, Saheeli, Radiant Creator is the stronger of the two options to lead the deck.
There are multiple creatures you want to make copies of, withthe best targets being the ones that give you energy counters when they enter the battlefieldto make up for the energy counters spent on Saheeli’s effect.
Pia Nalaar, Chief Mechanic
Pia Nalaar, Chief Mechanicis the alternative commander of Living Energy. While it does use energy counters as a part of its primary game plan, Pia Nalaar ismore about creating Vehicle tokens of varying power.
With Living Energy, you’ll always have a big well of energy counters, whichallows the Vehicle token to be given massive statswhen you do make it. The crew cost of the Vehicle is very small,allowing your weak utility creatures tocrew the Vehicles.
Nissa, Worldsoul Speaker
Nissa, Worldsoul Speakeris one of theeasiest ways to get energy counterswithout doing much heavy lifting. Aland entering the battlefield will net you two energy counters. Since you’re in green, putting more than one land on the battlefield in one turn is trivial.
There aren’t many ramp cards in the Living Energy precon (only Explosive Vegetation puts lands onto the battlefield), so if you opt to upgrade the deck, adding a basic ramp package is highly advised.
Once you have a ton of energy counters, you cancheat out any permanent by paying eight energy counters. If Nissa is your only source of energy counters,just four lands equate to a free permanent(if you don’t use the energy counters for anything else).
Aetherflux Marvel
Being able to cast spells without paying mana costs is fantastic, andAetherworks Marvelis one of the best ways to do that in Living Energy. For justsix energy, you can cast a spell for free off the top six cards of your library. There are no limitations to the card you cast, and can even be done at instant speed to surprise an opponent.
The token copy that Saheeli, Radiant Creator makes is sacrificed at the end step. This is a permanent going to the graveyard, so Aetherworks Marvel will net you an energy counter, refunding you an energy counter from the three used to activate Saheeli.
Aetherworks Marvelcan activate its effect the turn it enters, letting you get the value off of it right away. Since it’s colorless, you don’t even need to worry about being able to generate any specific kind of mana.
How To Play The Deck
Living Energy isall about amassing a ton of energy counters and using them for a plethora of powerful effects. There’s no shortage of ways to spend energy counters in the deck, and can be used tocast spells for free, create creatures, copy permanents,and topump up the stats of creaturesto name a few.
Energy counters are put on you as a player. This makes it incredibly hard for your opponents to interact with them at all, as very few cards can remove counters from a player.
Abig downside of Living Energy is the base creature suite is rather weak. There aren’t a ton of creatures that are very threatening. However, cards likeArchitect of the UntamedandElder Gargarothcannet you some useful creature tokens. Thebest way to get threatening creatures is making Vehicle tokens with Pia Nalaar, Chief Mechanic.Saheeli, Radiant Creator’s token copies are 5/5, though those don’t stick around.
Theprimary win condition of the deck is generating a ton of value and winning the game through a large battlefield presence. Energy counters have a ton of utility, which lets you do a wide variety of things depending on the current gamestate.Do not be afraid to invest your energy counters, as you will be able to get them back both easily and quickly.
Upgrades
Izzet Generatorium
Izzet Generatoriumis a great way to make all your energy token generators give a little bit extra. With how much Living Energy makes energy tokens,being able to use Izzet Generatorium’s draw effect is very easy to accomplish.
Pia Nalaar, Chief Mechanicis a great way to ensure you use enough energy counters to activate Izzet Generatorium since you may opt to pay four, and get a 4/4 Vehicle token in addition to the card being drawn.
Aether Refinery
Aether Refinery doubles up on all energy counters you get. This rapidly ramps up on your energy counter production, with just one trigger giving you enough energy counters to use most of your effects.
It is optional to create tokens with Aether Refinery. you may tap it to just get an energy counter, which will give you two thanks to its static ability. This is a great way to easily gain energy counters without investing anything.
Aether Refineryoffers a great way to create powerful tokens. The power and toughness of the token depend on how many energy counters you use for Aether Refinery’s effect, and you’ll want to invest a fair bit to verify the token is a threatening one.
Conversion Apparatus
Conversion Apparatusis a very useful mana rock for any energy counter-based deck, with Living Energy being no exception. It eitheracts as a colorless mana rock, or turns three energy counters into three mana. Alternatively, you canuse it to turn three mana into energy counters.
If you are really stretched for colored mana, you may useConversion Apparatus to make three energy counters to later use with its other effect to turn that into colored mana.Most of the time you want to use Conversion Apparatus' effect to make energy counters, but in a pinch, you might need it for mana.
