Quick Links
Energy counters are an unusual resource inMagic: The Gathering: Unlike mana, energy doesn’t drain between turns or phases, and unlike Treasures and Gold they can’t be stolen by opponents or used to fuel effects like affinity. Long neglected as a mechanic, energy has experienced a renaissance thanks to a pair of preconstructed commander decks and fresh support in Modern Horizons 3.
Players looking to exploit energy in their commander decks will be faced with hard choices in both the command zone and the 99, but you can get a jump-start with this guide to energy commander decks.
What Is Energy?
Energy is a secondary resource mechanic; like poison, radiation, and experience counters,energy counters are placed on a player rather than on a permanent. This makes them difficult to interact with outside of cards that use energy as a resource, allowing you to pay energy for specific effects such as card draw, direct damage, and even extra combat phases.
Compared to the nearly 30,000 Magic cards in print,there’s only a tiny number of cards that interact with energy countersin any way. Thankfully this simplifies building an energy deck since you won’t need to choose between hundreds of cards.
Choose Your Commander
If you look at a list of cards that directly reference or interact with energy counters, you’ll see a pattern; Red, white, blue, and colorless all have about the same number of cards, while green has about half that number, and black halves it once again. You’ll also find thatthere are only a handful of creatures eligible to be your commanderwho interact directly with energy counters, and all of them fall within the Jeskai (red, white, and blue) color identity.
Some additional commanders can interact with energy counters indirectly through effects such as proliferate, but this guide will focus on more direct interaction.
Red
The Motherlode, Excavator is the only mono-colored legendary creature that generates or uses energy counters.It generates energy counters equal to the number of nonbasic lands an opponent controlswhen it comes into play, and then allows you tospend four energy to destroy a nonbasic landand make nonflying creatures unable to block each time it attacks.
Despite having a strong effect and good late-game energy production, the fact that the energy generation is a one-shot deal, combined with the lack of significant effects in red to return creatures to your hand or flicker them, means thatThe Motherlode, Excavator is a poor choice for the command zone, but a good choice for the main deck.
Azorius (White/Blue)
Rex, Cyber-Hound is the only good representative of the Azorius color pair. If you can make him unblockable he’ll reliably generate two energy each time he deals combat damage to an opponent while also filling their graveyard with cards he can use his second ability on:Rex can pay two energy to exile a creature card from any graveyard, gaining all abilities of creatures exiled this way.
This ability can be really powerful,potentially allowing Rex to both remove combo pieces from the game and provide you access to combo piecesfrom your opponents' and your own deck.
Because of the way Rex, Cyber-Hound’s second and third abilities are worded, he can continue to use abilities of exiled cards even after leaving play.
Jeskai (Red/White/Blue)
Dr. Madison Li provides a lot of support for energy decksthat focus on artifacts, providing both energy production whenever you cast an artifact spell and provides artifact recursion at the cost of five energy. She also provides another source to draw cards and an inexpensive way to buff your creatures, making her incredibly versatile.
Dr. Madison Li is also a great example of an optional commander; while she makes your deck better, it runs perfectly well without her in play. You won’t feel like you’ve been set too far back if she gets sent back to the command zone, and since she isn’t a major threatshe’s likely to hang around for a while generating energybefore someone finally takes her out.
Liberty Prime, Recharged lends itself to more of a Voltron build;Three hits are enough to remove an opponent through commander damage, even through small blockers, and that can be reduced through equipment like Plasma Caster and Razorfield Ripper, which will help pay its cost to attack.
Liberty Prime also provides a little card draw and energy generation, but only at the cost of other artifacts. Still, there are plenty of ways to create artifact tokens to feed the machine, if you’re willing to build into his abilities.
Satya, Aetherflux Genius copies other creatures you control and generates energy, but you’ll need to pay energy equal to that creature’s mana value to keep it. This ability canbring in extra copies of threatening creatures like Aethersquall Ancient, or you canuse it for energy generationby copying creatures who also generate energy when they enter the battlefield.
Building aroundSatya will require a little more considerationfor creatures with triggered effects when they enter or leave the battlefield, but can pay off big when done well.
Building Your Deck
Building andplaying an energy deck requires a little more attention than other archetypesbecause you’re introducing an extra resource to manage. Not only do you need mana to cast your spells and activate some abilities, but you also need to generate and keep track of energy to activate other abilities.
Many of the cards that require energy to activate abilities also produce energy when you play them, albeit less than you’re likely to need. Some produce energy as a triggered ability, such as when they attack or deal damage, and in Jeskai, you’ve also got access to a lot of effects to exile and return permanents to play, providing you with opportunities to get energy multiple times.
Ramp
In addition to the standard mana rocks (Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, the Talismans, etc), energy decks can benefit from two mana rocks that also generate energy. Both are a little slow to run in non-energy decks, but their energy production finds them a place in this archetype.
Solar Transformer costs two generic mana, the same as Mind Stone and Arcane Signet, but comes into play tapped;this drawback is offset by the production of three energy counterswhen it comes into play, and the ability to filter energy into any color of mana. This last ability shoudn’t be used in most games, but it can come in clutch when you need one more mana of a specific color.
Conversion Apparatus costs three colorless, which makes it slow for most peoples' taste, especially since it only produces colorless mana. However, you can use it toturn three generic mana into three energy counters, or three energy counters into three manain any combination of colors.
This is an excellent card to have in play just in case you’ve got three mana available at the end of your last opponent’s turn so that you can bank it as energy before you untap.
Draw
Energy decks also have a handful of unique draw options, primarily in red and blue; a few spells, such as Tune the Narrative, willreward you with energy as a bonus effect. These spells have a normal effect that’s beneficial in most decks of their color, such as drawing one card for one mana, but instead of getting to scry first like you would with the more popular Opt, they provide you with energy, which only benefits energy decks.
Izzet Generatorium provides a fairly reliable card draw sinceit can simply be tapped to draw a card if you’ve spent at least four energyin a given turn. Energy budgets can be tight, but the Izzet Generatorium also helps out by providing an extra energy counter every time you gain energy;in some cases, this doubles your energy production, while in others it simply provides a small bonus that can quickly add up.
The Bespoke Battlewagon can help to set up Izzet Generatorium by providing an outlet tospend three energy to draw a card,and if you don’t need the draw, you may instead tap to gain two energy (three with Izzet Generatorium in play!) or tap and pay two to tap another creature. In a pinch you can even turn it into a creature to attack or block!
The red side of the color pie also offersa wide variety of impulse drawoptions, an alternative to standard draw in which instead of placing a card in your hand you exile it and have a limited time to play it before it’s gone forever. Synth Eradicator offers one such impulse draw source, exiling the top card from your library every time it attacks;if you want to play that card, you can play it until the end of the turn,and if you don’t, you can decide to keep it exiled and get two energy counters instead.
If you can afford to skip your land drop in the first main phase, do so. If Synth Eradicator exiles a land card, you can play it in your second main phase as your land drops for the turn.
Amped Raptor acts like a two-for-one, giving you a 2/1 body with first strike and another spell from the top of your library if you’ve got the energy to pay for it.Unlike Synth Eradicator, Amped Raptor cannot exile lands for you to play later, but it can put cheap nonland artifacts into play. Using it to play your Sol Ring nets you a mana boost at the same time it earns you more energy!
Wheel of Potential allows you toexile your hand and draw cards equal to the energy spentwith it but gives all of your opponents the same option. Unfortunately, this means you cannot use Wheel of Potential to force your opponents to exile their hands and draw zero cards, but it gives you the option of drawing a lot.
If you pay at least seven energy into Wheel of Potential,you also get to play the cards that you exiled form your handuntil the end of your next turn, allowing you to treat this like a direct draw.
Energy Production
Most of the cards that use energy also produce energy, allowing you to generate and spend it as you go, but it’s also a good idea to have some ways to stockpile energy for later use.
Like the Bespoke Battlewagon, Consolate Turret can be tapped to produce energy counters, making itthe only dedicated energy rock. This is an excellent option to keep charging up your energy reserves at the end of an opponent’s turn to be able to get a bigger payoff later, and the turret can also turn three energy into two damage to a player; this isn’t a great return, but it is an option.
Similarly,HELIOS One is the only land capable of producing energyoutside the one you get when Aether Hub enters the battlefield. Since it doesn’t enter the battlefield tapped and also produces colorless mana, this is an important inclusion in any energy deck; however, it also has one more ability: HELIOS One can be sacrificed to destroy a nonland permanent with a mana cost equal to the amount of energy you spend on this ability.
With so many effects producing energy,look out for the cards that increase the energy producedby all effects. Izzet Generatorium adds one energy to all energy you gain, doubling the production from some sources, and Aether Refinery doubles all energy production.
If you control both Izzet Generatorium and Aether Refinery, be sure to order the effects so that you increase your energy production by one and then double it.
The Payoff
After you’ve amassed a huge collection of energy counters, what is the payoff? Razorfield Ripper rewards you for collecting ever more energy counters,increasing in power and toughness based on how many are in your reservewhen it attacks. It can also be reconfigured into an equipment and attached to another creature with trample or other evasion to give them the same benefit.
Other cards, such as Blaster Hulk, give you an outlet to spend energy; when Blaster Hulk attacks, you’ll have the option tospend eight energy for eight damage, distributed any way you choose. You can use this to wipe out potential blockers, eliminate larger threats, or burn your opponent in the face.
If you need more time to seal the deal, Gonti’s Aether Heart canturn those eight energy counters into an extra turn. That’s on top of providing you with plenty of energy, as it gives you two energy counters any time you play or create an artifact.
It’s relatively easy to engineer Lightning Runner to generate eight energy each time it attacks, which you can then pay to untap all of your creatures and take an extra attack step,leading to infinite attacks. Equipping a Plasma Caster while you control Aether Refinery is the simplest way, but you can also use Satya to copy creatures with energy-producing attacks and ETB triggers.
Sample Decklist
This decklist is provided byJesus “Hispanic at the Disco” Garcia, cohost of the Brewing with Conviction podcast. It combines the best parts of both the Science! and Creative Energy precons, while supplementing both with additional cards, making it relatively easy to build and modify.
Sphinx of the Revelation
Wrath of the Skies
