Improvise is one of the most exciting mechanics to come out of Aether Revolt. It doesn’t have the same obvious applications as a mechanic like revolt, but there are a lot of efficient artifacts and other incentives to play artifacts. Surely something exciting can happen when you start assembling all of the pieces. Let’s take a look at what CharlesJaceNorman came up with:

Grixis Improvise - Aether Revolt Standard | CharlesJaceNorman,5-0 Standard League

• Creatures (10)
• 2 Maverick Thopterist
• 4 Bastion Inventor
• 4 Herald of Anguish

• Instants (7)
• 3 Unlicensed Disintegration
• 4 Metallic Rebuke

• Sorceries (1)
• 1 Reverse Engineer

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Tezzeret's Touch

• Artifacts (15)
• 1 Prophetic Prism
• 2 Implement of Combustion
• 2 Key to the City
• 3 Cogworker's Puzzleknot
• 3 Renegade Map
• 4 Servo Schematic

• Lands (23)
• 2 Island
• 2 Mountain
• 4 Swamp
• 1 Smoldering Marsh
• 2 Sunken Hollow
• 4 Aether Hub
• 4 Spire of Industry
• 4 Spirebluff Canal

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Contraband Kingpin
• 1 Unlicensed Disintegration
• 2 Aethersphere Harvester
• 2 Release the Gremlins
• 2 Tezzeret the Schemer
• 3 Negate
• 4 Fatal Push

Buy This Deck

The improvise cards start off with Maverick Thopterist, which is a reasonable way to stabilize the board when you’re behind. Then you get to ramp into Bastion Inventor, which functions as a pseudo Serra Avenger - a cheap threat with upside that can’t be played on the first few turns of the game — and Herald of Anguish, a powerful top end spell that can absolutely take over the game.

On top of all of that, you’ve got Tezzeret's Touch, which can apply enormous pressure and value. You can suit up a Prophetic Prism or Cogworker's Puzzleknot to generate all kinds of value and either apply pressure or hold down the fort while you work your way up to the more powerful improvise spells in the deck.

One exclusion from this particular list which may merit consideration in the future is Fireforger's Puzzleknot. This is a card that can interact with some aggressive starts but, more importantly, allows you to have on-board interaction with the Saheeli Rai combo, since Saheeli has to go to one loyalty. There’s all manner of other interesting artifact choices that could be considered, as well as the possibility of going a little bigger with maindeck Tezzeret the Schemer.

All told, this is an exciting deck that pushes a lot of the themes we haven’t really seen out of Kaladesh Standard just yet, and I can’t wait to see if it’s got the speed or resiliency to keep up with the other big decks in the format as the metagame continues to develop.