Magic Untapped takes a look back at Aether Revolt, the first half of the two-set KLD block.
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Video Transcript:
Aether Revolt, the second half of Magic: The Gathering’s Kaladesh block, released January 20, 2017. The 73rd expansion for the collectible card game, the set brought with it 184 cards to game and concluded the Kaladesh portion of the Gatewatch story arc.
<SOT: Maro>
As mentioned, the set represents the second half of the Kaladesh storyline. If you haven’t seen the first half, you can check it out by watching our Kaladesh video. You can find it in our retrospectives playlist.
Go ahead. We’ll wait…
Pfft…..we’re not waiting!
Now, on with the Aether Revolt story summary!
In order to return order to the city of Ghirapur after the chaotic end to the invertors’ fair, Dovin Baan, the vedalken planeswalker tasked with quelling riot and revolution by the planeswalker, Tezzeret, used his power within Kaladesh’s consulate to enact a mandatory curfew, strict limitations on access to aether, and other Orwellian “big brother” types of surveillance and enforcement.
The Gatewatch – planeswalkers Gideon, Jace, Nissa, Chandra, and Liliana – along with renegade sympathizers Ajani Goldmane and Saheeli Rai are trying to evade consulate detection while coming up with a plan of action.
Meanwhile, an aetherborn named Yahenni is searching around for someone to spend their last few hours with as the magically-created, hedonistic aetherborn race don’t have a very long lifespan. Who Yahenni finds is their friend and caterer, Nivid, as he’s being brutalized by a consulate officer after being caught making some graffiti.
Wanting to save their friend, Yahenni feels something swell from within him and he grabs the officer by the neck, stealing the literal life force from him, both saving their friend and prolonging their own lifespan for just a little bit longer.
Determined to put this new life draining power to use in assisting the renegades, Yahenni pays a visit to the crime boss aetherborn, Gonti.
Gonti agrees to help and points Yahenni in the right direction, but under one condition: He must inform the renegades about an impending attack upon them from the consulate – an attack that Gonti himself will arrange. The crime lord hopes that them deflecting this attack will shock the renegades into action and give them the courage they need to take on and defeat the consulate.
Yahenni agrees to Gonti’s terms. He then quickly locates the Gatewatch and, as instructed, warns the renegades about an impending consulate attack which the renegade forces easily handle. Yahenni then takes the Gatewatch back to his penthouse for them to use as a base of operations while they figure out their next move.
That next move wouldn’t come until weeks later thanks, in part, from moving from safe house to safe house, assisting the renegades where they can. But, as far as figuring out what Tezzeret is up to, they haven’t made much progress.
In fact, Gideon started to wonder if they should even be on Kaladesh to begin with as he was uncomfortable being in the grey area between figuring out what Tezzeret’s plans are and interfering with the plane’s politics.
Plus, each member of the Gatewatch seem to have their own primary goals. Chandra wants to take down the consulate. Jace and Liliana want to stop whatever Tezzeret is doing. Nissa was there to support Chandra. But what of Gideon? Was he just along for the ride?
Gideon’s concerns were interrupted by a bit of good news as Saheeli catches back up with the group saying that she knows where Tezzeret has been since the chaotic end to the inventors’ fair a number of weeks prior. He’s been holed up in his private workshop in the consulate spire working on… something.
Chandra, acting on impulse, wants to blast into the place full-bore, but it was quickly pointed out that the place is likely heavily guarded and that Saheeli’s artificer friend, Rashmi, is likely there as well after having been kidnapped by the consulate. Saheeli wants to make sure her friend gets out alive.
In the end, the crew decide on an infiltration-and-extraction operation where Liliana and Saheeli would slip in and attempt to rescue Rashmi and see if they can figure out what Tezzeret is up to.
Meanwhile, up in the spire, Tezzeret is working Rashmi and the other kidnapped inventors to the bone. His main focus is Rashmi’s matter-transporting device, but it just isn’t working quite right yet – it keeps malfunctioning.
In their latest attempt to get it to work correctly, her planar bridge device glitches and, just for a moment, Rashmi gets a glimpse of the vastness of the blind eternities – the realm between realms that planeswalkers and a few other beings use to move from plane to plane. Then, just as quickly as it brought her in, the machine spits her back out and onto the workshop floor just as Tezzeret enters the room.
Thanks to this latest malfunction, a fuse is blown and the machine inoperative for the time being. Tezzeret is less than amused about it.
Rashmi tells him of the amazing worlds she had a glimpse of through the machine but Tezzeret, being a planeswalker, was unimpressed and acted rather condescending towards the artificer.
Rashmi then realizes the power her invention has and that a person like Tezzeret would likely not use it for good. Under the guise of repairing the machine, she instead sabotages it assuming that, eventually, Tezzeret’s pride would drive him to use the machine personally.
And that’s pretty much what happens next.
Tezzeret fires up the planar bridge device for another test and, instead of moving its payload elsewhere, it drops it directly into the spire, breaking a large window near Rashmi’s location. From there, she jumps to the street far below.
She doesn’t make it very far down the spire, though, as she lands on what she thinks is a consulate airship of some sort. What it is, in reality, is one of Saheeli’s constructs in disguise as Saheeli and Liliana were surveying the tower for their upcoming rescue mission.
Right place, right time.
Rashmi was now safe. Now, the person with the most intimate knowledge of what Tezzeret is up to is working personally with the renegades.
As for the renegades, their next move is taking over the aether hub. With control of the hub, they would be able to reroute aether away from the spire and Tezzeret’s project and back to the city’s neighborhoods and sectors. They’re also hoping to use some of the aether to power a new skyship they’re working on to better counter the consulate’s forces.
As they’re working on how they’d pull it off, the renegades are approached by an aetherborn on behalf of Gonti. The renegades had little in the way of tools, ships, and aether. Gonti had plenty of all three.
In the interest of “public service,” the crime lord lent his services and supplies to the renegades in the hopes that, should they succeed, the consulate crackdown will end and he can resume his criminal empire’s operations.
With this new backing, the renegades went to work with some of Gonti’s aetherborn infiltrating the inside while the renegades worked from the outside. Eventually, Sram, the edificer in charge of the hub, surrendered so long as his workers (whom were engineers, not soldiers) would not be harmed. Pia agreed and the hub fell into renegade control.
Some power gets rerouted away from the tower and back to the city at large and some to the special project Rashmi had been working on for the renegades – a skyship that would become known as Heart of Kiran – named after the man who came up with the original design for the ship many years ago: Chandra’s father, Kiran Nalaar.
Chandra, meanwhile, was moping. She’s had a rough month or so.
She’s finally come back home only to discover that her mother’s alive, then had a run in with the very man whom tried to kill her, almost got poisoned to death in a gas chamber, and the city she grew up in is now in a civil war. And all she wants is a hug from her mother who is now too busy running the renegade forces to spare a moment for even that.
So, yeah. She’s moping.
Gideon, though, takes a moment to have a heart-to-heart with her. After the conversation, Chandra is feeling much better and the two of them have a big hug.
That’s exactly when Nissa walks into the room. Embarrassed at being caught hugging Gideon in front of her, Chandra kind of freaks out for a moment. Her embarrassment is cut short, though, as a voice booms from outside yelling her name.
It’s the voice of the Chief of Compliance, Baral.
Tezzeret and Baan wanted to retake control of the hub, but doing so would be difficult with so many planeswalkers there to defend it. So, they enacted a plan that would lure them out one-by-one, thus greatly weakening the renegade’s defenses there.
To that end, Baral begins taunting Chandra about the events that took place years ago that claimed the life of her father and how, really, it’s all her fault. It didn’t take much for Chandra to explode into a fiery ball of rage. She took the bait and chased after Baral, Nissa chasing after her.
Gideon, wanting to go after Chandra as well, felt it better that he stay behind to command the renegade’s defenses as consulate gearhulks began advancing on the facility.
With assistance from Baan in an airship above, Baral led Chandra to an alleyway where he turned and confronted her once she had caught up. Initially, the fight went well for Baral as his counter magic easily handled the pyromancer’s attacks. When Nissa caught up, though, Baral wasn’t prepared for a second planeswalker and things swung in their favor.
Baral was extracted from the alley by means of a consulate craft and the attention shifts back to the aether hub, which was by now already under attack.
Landing on the roof, Baral awaited Nissa and Chandra’s arrival. Once there, he was once again able to easily counter their magic and take control of the situation hoping to, once and for all, finally kill the pyromancer.
Things were once again going poorly for the two planeswalkers with the action stopping only briefly as Oviya Pashiri intervened as she and Ajani were helping renegade survivors flee into the Heart of Kirin. Baral, annoyed, ordered one of the consulate turrets to focus an attack on her specifically. The cannon struck true, seriously wounding the woman.
All the while, Baral taunted Chandra and reminded her once again of all of the things he did in tormenting her from killing her father, burning down a village of innocents, and more. And there was nothing she could do about it.
Or was there?
Chandra was prepared to go full nuclear; consequences be damned.
Nissa, though, talks Chandra down and, instead, uses her own magic to summon forth an elemental that knocked Baral out.
When the Chief of Compliance came to, the battle was over and it was Dovin Baan and not Chandra nor Nissa standing over him. Baan had seen and heard the entire encounter and he was not happy.
Not because Baral was bested, but because, in his official report years ago, the Chief of Compliance had lied, stating that Chandra caused an inferno that burned the village down, killing many, and the many attempts he had made on Chandra’s life over time.
Baan had Baral immediately arrested for murder, attempted murder, and falsifying public record with the intent of obscuring crimes committed.
Meanwhile, while all of the action at the aether hub was going down, Jace was elsewhere in Ghirapur assisting a teenage pirate named Kari Zev stealing and sabotaging aether shipments and the like from consulate ships.
As for the renegades, they were able to gather enough aether from the hub before losing control of it back to the consulate to power the Heart of Kiran. Problem is, while they had their one ship, the consulate had many. And the most powerful of the lot was Skysovereign.
There was no way the Heart of Kiran could compete with a behemoth like that. What the renegades needed was a diversion.
Jace, of course, had a plan.
He assigned Kari to fly her nimble little ship, the Dragon’s Smile, through the blockade of smaller ships surrounding the Skysovereign and cause as much confusion and chaos as possible to disrupt the consulate ships’ formation.
Once that’s done, Jace would create a fleet of illusionary ships to trick the Skysovereign and its accompanying fleet, thus allowing the Heart of Kiran to pass by unscathed.
The plan goes into action and everything is going swimmingly save for one minute detail: The Heart of Kiran wasn’t airborne at the time.
With the Heart not on its way, Ravi was afraid for her own well being. As cunning as she was, though, she saw an opening.
She jettisoned her stolen aether payload, detonating it as it fell. The explosion lured a skywhale in from a nearby pod she had spotted.
Hungry to consume the aether, the large skywale came barreling down into the cloud of released aether and, subsequently, collided directly with Skysovereign – knocking it violently and causing it to capsize.
And with a “whale, would you look at that,” Skysovereign was no longer an issue and the Heart of Kiran, now airborne, was able to pass through unscathed.
The renegades final plans now in action, they work to disrupt and disable the various turrets protecting the consulate’s buildings, thus allowing a special thopter built by Sahiri and Rashmi known as the Hope of Ghirapur to fly in. Outfitted with a special aether-disrupting detonation device, the goal was to fly in and detonate the thopter, taking the planar bridge out with it.
Of course, Tezzeret would need to be distracted to pull the plan off. That part was left to Liliana, someone Tezzeret knows rather well.
Everything seemed to be going to plan, except for when it wasn’t.
As the Heart of Kiran was closing in on its target, a noticeable explosion rocks the skyship.
Chandra goes below deck to investigate and finds Dovin Baan on board, having blasted a hole through the ship’s hull. He was inspecting the vessel as well as the special thopter within.
The vedalken planeswalker cracks open the thopter’s hull and removes the aether-disrupting device from within.
Chandra hurls a torrent of flame at him, but he simply planeswalks away before even a singe could reach him.
Desperate as things have suddenly turned for the worst, the pyromancer climbs inside of the thopter. If nothing else, she’ll sacrifice herself and become a living bomb.
Gideon, whom had followed her below decks, witnessed this and tried to stop her. Chandra refuted him, though, saying it’s the only option left.
Knowing he wouldn’t be able to stop her, Gideon chose instead to go with her in the hopes that his talents for invulnerability could save her life in the end.
As for Liliana, she had little issue ascending the spire and locating Tezzeret (thanks in no part to the small legion of zombies she had raised along the way).
The Agent of Bolas, at first, was surprisingly accepting at Liliana’s presence, thinking that his master, Nicol Bolas, had sent her to check on his progress.
The warmth of the moment wouldn’t last – especially upon Liliana learning that he’s in cahoots with the dragonic planeswalker.
Using the power of the Chain Veil, Liliana sends bolts of energy directly at Tezzeret. While Tezzeret had little issue deflecting the attack, it did leave an opening for Liliana’s few remaining zombies to knock him down and pin him to the floor.
Now partially subdued, Liliana presses him for the location of Bolas. Tezzeret replies with a name. The name, though, wasn’t of a place. Rather, it was of a demon – one of the four demons that still held Liliana’s damning contract: Razaketh.
For Liliana, that meant that Bolas, quite possibly, was on the plane of Amonkhet.
Satisfied with this information, Liliana was about to finish Tezzeret off for good before she noticed out the corner of her eye the incoming Hope of Ghirapur. She quickly ducked for cover behind a reinforced wall just in time for the thopter to make a massive impact directly into the workshop with a massive inferno following immediately.
Once the flames had died down and the dust cleared, all that was left in the wreckage of the workshop was Liliana, Chandra, Gideon, and the ruined remains of the planar bridge device.
Tezzeret, however, was nowhere to be seen.
Unbeknownst to the Gatewatch, before Liliana had even reached the artificer planeswalker, he had already extracted from the device its core, grafting it directly into his own artificially-enhanced body – essentially becoming the planar bridge device himself.
As for his wherabouts, it’s anyone’s guess.
As for the rebellion itself, with Tezzeret and Baan missing and Baral incarcerated, it only took a couple of weeks for the conflict to end with the old consulate being on the losing side.
New leadership would then take over for the old guard with Pia Nalaar taking on the role of Consul of Allocation.
Legislative reforms were written, passed, and enacted, and a new era on the plane of Kaladesh was set into motion.
Yahenni, the aetherborn who had helped the Gatewatch a month prior, felt his lifeforce finally coming to an end. He threw one last lavish party, then dissapated.
Nissa took time to teach Chandra to meditate as a means to calm her fiery-hot temper.
Chandra finally had some time to spend with her mother as the two worked on a memorial for Kiran. The pyromancer told her mother all about her being a planeswalker and of the worlds she’d visited, but professed a preference to stay on Kaladesh from here on out.
As much as Pia loved having her daughter around, though, she knew it wasn’t the right fit for her and encouraged her to continue going out and experiencing all the vast multiverse had to offer her.
As for the Gatewatch, Ajani joins the team.
“Until all have found their place, I will keep watch.”
Now, they had a new responsibility to deal with: Stopping Nicol Bolas and whatever grand schemes he may have already set into motion.
Save for Ajani, who stays behind to find more allies and perform some reconnaissance, the group is headed to Amonkhet, but that’s a story for a different video.
However, there’s still more to tell in terms of Aether Revolt as a set.
With set design led by Mark Gottlieb, development by Ben Hayes, and art direction being headed up by Mark Winters, Aether Revolt continued many of the themes of its predecessor, Kaladesh. This includes the new artifact subtype, vehicle, as well as the energy mechanic.
Newly introduced with the set are two mechanics that make their debut: Improvise and Revolt.
Improvise is a keyword ability that lets you tap your artifacts to help you pay for spells.
<SOT: Maro>
As for revolt, it’s an ability word that cares about whether or not a permanent you control had left the battlefield previously that turn.
<SOT: Maro>
Aether Revolt also features six cycles. Perhaps most notable among them are:
- Experts, mono-colored rare legendary creatures that each represent a story character.
- Expertises, a cycle of rare sorcery cards that have an on-color effect and also allows for the casting of a free spell from one’s hand that costs no more than one mana fewer than the mana cost of the expertise spell, and;
- Implements, a cycle of artifacts at common that each have an activated sacrifice effect and lets you draw a card when they’re put into the graveyard.
The set also finished off a mega-cycle of rare color-specific artifacts with two of the cards – Scrapheap Scrounger and Bomat Courier – appearing in Kaladesh and the other three – Peacewalker Colossus, Merchant’s Dockhand, and Lifecrafter’s Beastiary – appearing in Aether Revolt.
As for individual cards of note, Aether Revolt has a number worth mentioning despite the set’s relatively small size. This includes:
- Baral, Chief of Compliance, a popular and powerful commander in EDH that plays well into control builds. The card is banned in Magic’s 60-card Brawl format;
- Disallow, a flexible counterspell that can counter not just spells, but also activated and triggered abilities;
- Exquisite Archangel, a card that can prevent you from losing the game;
- Felidar Guardian, a card that received an emergency ban thanks to amazing synergy with the Kaladesh card Saheeli Rai that can go infinite and win the game;
- Gifted Aetherborn, still considered one of the best black two-drops in Magic thanks to it being an aggressively-costed 2/3 with lifelink and deathtouch;
- Gonti’s Aether Heart, an extra-turn granting permanent that cares about energy;
- Heroic Intervention, an aggressively-costed protection spell that sees play in Pioneer, Explorer, Commander, and elsewhere;
- Hope of Ghirapur, an artifact creature that can prevent players from playing non-creature spells;
- Mechanized Production, an alternate-win card that cares about artifacts;
- Paradox Engine, a powerful combo piece that’s seen play in Modern, Legacy, and Commander before being banned in the latter in 2019;
- Scrap Trawler, a key component in the powerful combo that powered the Krark-Clan Ironworks deck that won multiple Magic Gran Prix events;
- Spire of Industry, a powerful multi-colored land that sees play in a variety of formats;
- Walking Ballista, an artifact creature that proved to be quite powerful thanks not just to its scalable body, but also its ability to deal direct damage. Thanks to various combos that deal with +1/+1 counters, such as with the card Heliod, Sun-Crowned, the card is banned in Pioneer;
- Whir of Invention, an artifact-tutoring spell that’s a key component in Modern “Whirza” decks along side the Modern Horizons card, Urza, Lord High Artificer.
As for promotional cards, prerelease participants were given a foil, date-stamped rare or mythic rare from the set. Quicksmith Rebel is the set’s launch promo. Game Day participants received a full-art Trophy Mage with top-eight finishers also being given a foil, full-art Yahenni’s Expertise. Scrap Trawler is the set’s buy-a-box promo.
And speaking product, Aether Revolt was available is traditional booster packs, a bundle, and two planeswalker decks – this time around featuring Ajani, Valiant Protector and Tezzeret, Master of Metal.
As for the set overall, Magic: The Gathering Head Designer, Mark Rosewater, had this to say about it:
<SOT: Maro>
So, what are your thoughts on Aether Revolt? Is it a revolutionary Magic set for you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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