Against the Odds: Haunted Lotus (Standard)
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Against the Odds! This week, we kick off our exploration of Aetherdrift Standard with a deck built around what I think just might be the most busted card from the set: Radiant Lotus! Our deck's goal is simple: live long enough to get eight artifacts on the battlefield, sacrifice them all to Radiant Lotus, dump all of that mana into Boommobile, and win the game on the spot! If that doesn't work, we happen to have a backup combo that also wants eight artifacts on the battlefield in Haunt the Network with Cursed Recording to drain the opponent out of the game! How broken is Radiant Lotus in Aetherdrift Standard? Let's get to the video and find out!
Against the Odds: Haunted Lotus
The Deck
Our deck today has two plans, both of which want eight artifacts on the battlefield, although our primary plan is Radiant Lotus with Boommobile. Radiant Lotus is an absurd card, essentially turning every artifact we have on the battlefield into copies of Black Lotus. This means that if we can get eight artifacts on the battlefield, we can sacrifice them all to make 24 mana, which is just enough to win the game with Boommobile! We spend four of our 24 mana on Boommobile, which will give us back four mana for abilities, putting us back up to 24 mana. We then can dump it all into Boommobile's exhaust ability to throw 21 damage directly at our opponent's face to win the game!
Our backup combo involves Haunt the Network and Cursed Recording. I wanted Haunt the Network in the deck anyway since it adds two artifacts to the battlefield and gains us a bunch of life to help us stay alive long enough to set up the Radiant Lotus combo. (Plus, the drain from Haunt the Network lets us kill with Boommobile with fewer artifacts on the battlefield to sacrifice to Radiant Lotus.) Once I decided we were playing Haunt the Network, it made sense to toss in Cursed Recording as a backup combo plan. With eight artifacts, we can cast Haunt the Network to drain for 10 (thanks to the two new Thopters upping our artifact count); then, the second Cursed Recording copy will resolve to drain for 12 more, giving us 22 total damage to win the game!
The rest of the deck is about two things: staying alive long enough to get up our Radiant Lotus combo and getting as many artifacts as possible on the battlefield to support our combo kills. All of our removal happen to be artifacts, including Grim Bauble, Chainsaw, Tithing Blade, Braided Net, and Bumbleflower's Sharepot.
We've also got a bunch of artifacts that can add multiple artifacts to the battlefield. Treasure Map is an artifact that can flip into three Treasure tokens. Collector's Vault can make a Treasure each turn while looting, while Thran Spider gives us a blocker that adds a Powerstone.
Speaking of artifacts that make artifacts, the final notable card in the deck is Transmutation Font. While it is a bit expensive at five mana, it can make an artifact—a Blood, Food, or Clue—each turn once we get it on the battlefield, making it a great way to up our artifact count for Haunt the Network and Radiant Lotus. Then, we can activate its second ability and sacrifice three artifact tokens with different names to tutor combo pieces like Radiant Lotus or Boommobile directly onto the battlefield!
Wrap-Up
Record-wise, we ended up a bit under a 50% win rate, although I don't put a ton of weight on early-access-day records. While the deck is probably middling in terms of its competitiveness, it can do some absolutely spectacular things! Radiant Lotus was absurd—it turns out that it's pretty easy to get eight artifacts on the battlefield to make enough mana to win the game. And Haunt the Network might be one of the biggest sleepers from the set, with it regularly draining for five or 10 to help us stabilize. Keep Haunted Lotus in mind if you like combo decks and artifacts. While the deck probably won't win a tournament, it is super fun to play and does some crazy things!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
