commander · Saheeli, Radiant Creator
Living Energy (DRC).
A Temur artifacts deck from Aetherdrift that turns energy counters into copies, thopters, and free spells. Saheeli, Radiant Creator banks energy off your artifacts and spends it to clone your best permanent every combat.
The Commanders
Living Energy is the Temur artifacts deck from Aetherdrift, and it runs on a resource most Commander decks ignore: energy. You bank energy counters by casting artifacts and Artificers, then spend them on effects that would normally cost real mana. The deck plays a long game, stockpiles counters, and cashes them in for board presence you never paid for.
Saheeli, Radiant Creator is both the engine and the payoff. Every artifact or Artificer spell you cast hands you an energy counter, so the deck fills its reserve just by doing what it wants to do anyway. At the start of combat you pay three energy to copy any permanent you control as a 5/5 with haste. Copy a Solemn Simulacrum for the ramp and the trigger, copy Combustible Gearhulk to burn someone out, or just make a hasty 5/5 body when you need to close. The copy dies at end of turn, so you get the enters-the-battlefield value and a swing every single combat.
Key Cards
Nissa, Worldsoul Speaker
Nissa turns your land drops into fuel. Every land that enters gives you two energy, and she lets you pay eight energy instead of the mana cost for any permanent spell. Pair her with the fetch lands and ramp the deck already runs and you generate energy faster than you can spend it. Drop a land, get two counters, then cheat out a six-drop artifact for free. She is the card that makes energy feel like a second mana pool.
Aetherworks Marvel
Marvel banks a counter whenever any permanent you control dies, then taps and spends six energy to dig six deep and cast something for free. In a deck with sacrifice fodder and expendable tokens, the counters pile up fast. Once you have a full reserve you can fire it every turn, and there are plenty of expensive bombs here worth hitting. It is a slower Aetherflux Conduit that asks nothing of your mana.
Aetherflux Conduit
The Conduit is the deck's ceiling. Every spell you cast gives you energy equal to the mana you spent, so a big turn refills your reserve in one go. Bank fifty and you draw seven cards and cast your whole hand for free. That number sounds absurd until Nissa and a couple of rituals get going, and then the game usually ends on the spot. Even when you cannot reach fifty, the energy it generates feeds everything else.
Sai, Master Thopterist
Sai builds a flying army out of your artifact count. Every artifact spell makes a 1/1 Thopter, and he turns spare artifacts into cards with his sacrifice ability. He gives the deck a plan B that does not need energy at all: go wide with fliers, then convert the board into fuel or draw when the clones and bombs get answered. He also feeds Aetherworks Marvel every time you sacrifice.
Thopter Spy Network
As long as you control an artifact, the Network makes a Thopter every upkeep, and your artifact creatures draw you a card whenever they connect. That is a steady stream of bodies and cards for a single enchantment. The fliers chip in damage, block anything on the ground, and refill your hand without asking you to spend a thing. It keeps the deck moving through the mid game while the bigger engines come online.
Panharmonicon
The deck is packed with artifacts and creatures that trigger when something enters, so doubling those triggers is a real payoff. Solemn Simulacrum fetches two lands, Combustible Gearhulk fires twice, and every Saheeli copy counts as an artifact entering. Panharmonicon rewards you for the copies and blink effects the deck already leans on, and it quietly turns fair value into unfair value.
How to Play
Early on you want a mana rock and a land drop or two so your energy reserve starts filling. Get Saheeli or Nissa down by the mid game and the deck takes off: Nissa banks energy off lands while Saheeli banks it off artifacts, and suddenly you are copying permanents and casting spells for free. Use the Thopter engines to hold the ground and keep drawing while you build toward a big Aetherflux Conduit or Aetherworks Marvel turn. Your best combats come from copying a bomb with Saheeli, so hold three energy going into combat once she is on the board. The deck grinds when it has to and explodes when the energy piles up, so protect your engine pieces and let the reserve do the work.
