What to expect from
MTG Aetherdrift
Learn more about the latest Magic release: Aetherdrift
The Ins and Outs of the ‘Drift
Author: Ben Guilfoyle
My grandfather drove motorbikes all his life. I remember being a kid and seeing this mild-mannered, slim, old man climb onto a yellow BMW S 1000 RR. He turned into a different man. His town held a bike show every year. The machines would parade down the street in a great convoy. You had vintage bikes, well past their prime but kept ticking by a loving owner. Others were sleek machines for pure speed.
Probably not comfy, but they’d get you across the countryside quickly! Fast, slow, barely functional, it didn’t matter. All of them had a story to tell. This is how Chandra felt seeing Pia and Daretti working on their rocket car for the Ghirapur Grand Prix. In the heat of the Amonkhet desert, they made it work.
Magic decks have that same quality. Sit down against Edgar Markov, Captain Rex Nebula, and Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver you’ll know these are three different decks, players, and game plans. With the release of Aetherdrift, I find myself returning to the decks on my shelf. What kind of deck builder am I?
With the first new set of 2025 let’s take a look at what’s in store. I will break this article into a couple sections. Feel free to jump around to the section most relevant to you! I will discuss the main set and Commander precons in this article. But first, the major set mechanics for those that don’t know!
Aetherdrift Mechanics
This set features a handful of effects from Magic’s history, but I’ll cover the major ones below. This should give you some flavor for what the set has to offer.
Vehicles & Mounts
Vehicles and Crew have become regular mechanics over the years. They do not show up in every set.
So, here’s a quick reminder:
Vehicle is an artifact subtype. It has power and toughness, but it is not a creature. This means you cannot attack or block yet.
Crew is a mechanic printed on most vehicles. It is written as Crew N.
This means, “Tap any number of untapped creatures you control with power N or greater: This permanent becomes an artificial creature until end of turn”. Some cards have effects on them that trigger when a vehicle becomes crewed. For example: Mobilizer Mech. The full crew rulings can be found under 702.122 in the Comprehensive Rules.
A neat trick to be aware of with crew:
You can crew a vehicle using a creature affected by summoning sickness.
A creature’s activated ability with the tap symbol or the untap symbol in its activation cost can’t be activated unless the creature has been under its controller’s control continuously since their most recent turn began. (CR 302.6)
In the case of crew, the ability belongs to the vehicle, not the creature being tapped, and secondly, crew does not use the tap symbol in its wording. This is similar to how Grand Architect and Springleaf Drum work!
Consider this: You play a vehicle on turn two and a creature on turn three. Knowing this ruling means you can crew and attack using the vehicle straight away on turn three!
Mounts and Saddles are similar to Crew. Mount is a creature type, just like Wizard, Human, or Skeleton. Mount creatures will have a “Saddle N” ability. If you tap N power worth of creatures, the Mount will become “Saddled”. Being Saddled does not do anything on its own. You do not need to Saddle a Mount for it to attack. But, Mounts will usually have an additional ability if it is saddled. The same tricks we mentioned for Crew apply to Saddle.
Cycling
Cycling is an all-time favorite mechanic of mine! I am delighted to see it return.
A card with cycling can be discarded for its cycling cost. Then you draw a card. Pretty simple, but its power lies in the flexibility. A card with cycling is never a bad card. You either play the card for its normal cost or if it’s bad in the current situation, just cycle it!
Some cards also come with bonus effects when they are cycled. Valor’s Flagship is a huge vehicle if you have lots of mana. Or for X2W you can discard it, draw a card, and create X 1/1 Pilot tokens!
There are so many benefits to cycling and any bonus effects that come with it! Cycling is instant speed, so you can hold up mana and bluff. If you have an effect like Valor’s cycling ability, it can let you surprise opponents during combat with blockers!
Cycling abilities are not the same as casting a spell. These effects cannot be interacted with using Counterspell. Your opponent would need a more niche answer like Stifle to try to stop you.
Finally, if all else fails, you can take a shot in the dark to draw a better spell for the current situation!
If cycling appeals to you, check out Rhet-Tomb Mystic in the Eternal Might precon. It gives all your creatures cycling. Use this to put big monsters in the graveyard, and then copy them with Hashaton, Scarab’s Fist!
Start Your Engines!
Start your engines! is a new mechanic that requires a little bit of tracking. Similar to things like The Initiative or The City’s Blessing. When you play a card with Start your engines! if you do not have any speed, your speed becomes one. Once on each of your turns, you gain one speed whenever an opponent loses life. When you have four speed, you reach Max speed.
In short, you need to make an opponent lose life throughout four turns to achieve max speed. There are various cards with bonus effects if you have max speed. Your speed can be tracked using a Start your engines! helper card. But, like The City’s Blessing this is not a permanent. It is just a status that you now have. This means speed will persist for the game.
I like this mechanic for its inevitability. You only need to play one card to start increasing your speed. Additionally, speed maxes out at four.
Once you have four speed, you do not need to think about tracking it anymore.
Compare this to something like Day/Night from Crimson Vow. That mechanic required never-ending tracking for all players across multiple turns. Speed is a much cleaner style of mechanic.
Many cards in the set have low mana value with the potential for a big effect late in the game! Mendicant Core, Guidelight is a glorified vanilla creature at first. But, once you reach max speed, they let you copy artifacts! In Commander, this could be a big deal! Cast Mendicant Core turn two. You now have one speed. If someone kills it, you can continue to build up speed and recast Mendicant Core once you have max speed.
We also have a handful of simple cards that get a late-game boost thanks to speed. Starting Column is a three mana artifact that taps for any color. It has Start your engines! and once you have max speed, it can be sacrificed to draw two cards and discard one. This is a great use of the mechanic. A three mana rock is perfectly fine on its own, and the late-game value is an awesome way to give you some card selection.
My favorite use of this mechanic is in the “Raceway cycle”. These lands all have a bonus effect at max speed. I am particularly fond of Amonkhet Raceway granting creature’s haste. This is a great inclusion if you need hasty lands outside of red! If you have some flex slots in your land base, give these a try!
Exhaust
Exhaust is a pretty simple concept. Any activated ability with the Exhaust keyword can only be used once.
That's once in the entire game! In this regard, it is very similar to the Monstrosity mechanic from Theros. But, Exhaust has a much wider reach than +1/+1 counters! Loot, the Pathfinder is the flashiest use of exhaust. They have three incredibly powerful Exhaust abilities. Draw three cards, add three mana, and deal three damage! Pairing Loot with Ghostly Flicker effects allows you to re-use the exhaust abilities. In the eyes of the game, when Loot re-enters the battlefield it's a new distinct creature that has not been exhausted!
Other Exhaust abilities provide a way for cards to scale or become relevant in the late game. Redshift, Rocketeer Chief can be a mana dork for abilities in the early game, and a mana sink late game for its own ability.
In general, I am not impressed with Exhaust as a buildaround effect. However, they are definitely powerful options to supplement established strategies.
New Commanders
Aetherdrift has plenty of new Commanders. You can of course play these in the 99 too. But, let's focus on the ones that work best in the command zone.
Hashaton, Scarab's First
Hashaton is one of the best riffs on a "reanimator" commander I have ever seen. While Hashaton does not reanimate exactly, they do want you to discard cards and return a copy of them to play. Three mana is a modest cost to pay. I'm surprised Hashaton does not exile the card it copies. This could lead to cruel play patterns where you have a 4/4 token and then reanimate the original a turn later.
Hashaton works incredibly well with cycling spells, a core mechanic of Aetherdrift. I am particularly fond of Vizier of Sands and Cloud of Faeries to get a rebate on the mana spent. Alternatively, land-cyclers like Troll of Khazad-dûm can help smooth your early turns, while being effective beaters on their own.
Speaking of discarding, let's get a proper engine going! The Pauper darling, Tortured Existence is incredibly powerful in this deck. For one mana, you can discard a creature to return a creature to your hand. Discard a card, make a token, and return another creature. Rinse, repeat, over and over!
We can also discard cards the old-fashioned way. Looting effects such as Jace, Vryn's Prodigy let cards flow into your graveyard consistently. Jace and Hashaton are instant-speed effects. Hashaton's tokens enter the battlefield tapped. Consider playing powerful enter the battlefield effects to leverage this powerful ability to full effect.
Kolodin, Triumph Caster
Kolodin is the latest and greatest vehicle/saddle commander! Vehicles and Mounts you control have haste. Whenever a Vehicle or Mount enters the battlefield under your control, it becomes crewed/saddled. Vehicles have been around a bit longer than mounts. I suspect Kolodin will mainly see play as a vehicle commander. Maybe as more mounts are released, he will be a good mount commander too!
As it stands today, there are some incredibly aggressive lines you can take with Kolodin. There are lots of vehicles with difficult crew costs that Kolodin can enable. Colossal Plow becomes a mana rock that deals damage! Kolodin is awesome with high mana vehicles too. Parhelion II swings for huge damage and brings some tokens with it!
I love the idea of Kolodin as a flicker commander. Flicker or Felidar Guardian can be used to re-crew a vehicle with Kolodin in play! Some Vehicles/Mounts have powerful enter the battlefield triggers. Flicker and Vehicles are an unusual mix, but if that appeals to you, definitely give Kolodin a try!
New Cards for the 99
These cards are my top picks to include in your main deck. Some are generic catch-alls, and others are specialist cards that only some decks will want.
Let's jump in!
Brightglass Gearhulk
We have a new cycle of gearhulks! Brightglass is such a powerful value piece. When it enters, you search for two cards. The zero/one mana restriction is real, but it still leaves a lot of room for powerful plays!
Playing the Hulk on turn four and searching for Ancient Den and Sol Ring is a great way to accelerate ahead on Mana in subsequent turns!
Alternatively, search for a mana sink! Paladin's Class is an awesome pickup. It's one mana but can be leveled up for extra value. You could also go full combo mode and search for Walking Ballista or it's new brother Marketback Walker.
Webstrike Elite
This one might just be my personal bias. I love cycling cards with extra abilities! This bug is dead simple. Cycle it for XGG to destroy an artifact or enchantment with mana value X. I think this will create plenty of gotcha moments.
Destroying a five cost artifact for seven mana is a tough pill to swallow, but it is very hard to interact with! Additionally, you're getting to draw a card. In many games, you can cycle this to destroy something small and continue with your life. Other times it could be the perfect answer against a blue player with too many cards in hand!
The Aetherspark
There's no chance I skip over this one. The Aetherspark looks like a fever dream! Let's break it down. It is an artifact, planeswalker, and equipment. This is the first time we have seen an artifact planeswalker. Maybe Karn will get an errata at some point!
The Aetherspark like any other planeswalker has three loyalty abilities. You can treat it like you would a Chandra or Jace. Unlike Chandra, this will die to an Abrade.
When you activate its first ability, The Aetherspark behaves more like traditional equipment. It becomes attached to a creature and will become unattached if the creature ever dies.
The passive ability makes it so The Aetherspark can no longer be attacked directly (like normal planeswalkers). It also gains loyalty counters wherever the equipped creature deals combat damage on your turn. This gives The Aetherspark its true power. This is a card advantage machine if you can attach it to the right creature! With a beefy enough creature, you will always be able to draw two cards!
While it looks intimidating, The Aetherspark is a powerful piece of card advantage available in colorless. I look forward to trying this out Voltron decks. I am also incredibly curious about what shenanigans I can get up to with Trazyn, the Infinite using this thing! I think I am in for some rules nightmares!
Old Classics
It's not just new cards, Aetherdrift has some awesome reprints too! This is a great chance to pick up some classics at a discount. Here are some of my favorites! I am sticking mostly to the precons as the main set did not have much that excited me in this category.
This deck focuses on energy and artifacts. It has wide appeal with many of its reprints. Academy Ruins is one of my favorite lands of all time. Being able to repeatably return an artifact is a great deal for only two mana. This card costs €10 - €20 on a good day. Try to snap some up while you can!
Living Energy also comes with Retrofitter Foundry. A Vintage Cube favorite, this card does it all! You can usually find this one for €10 - €15.
If you prefer big beaters this deck also features Triplicate Titan and Elder Gargaroth! I would be happy playing these two in any deck with mana to spare! This duo goes for almost €10 and €20 respectively!
Between these four cards, you've nearly got your money's worth! The other 96 cards aren't too shabby either!
Eternal Might has some excellent reprints too. However, they are a bit more niche. The deck focuses on Zombie synergy.Rot Hulk is a huge reprint. It was originally printed in the Magic Game Night product and more recently as a Futuresight border in Mystery Booster 2.
Suffice it to say this card has not seen a lot of prints. With this precon, it has its first mass-market reprint. I hope this will let more players get their hands on Hulk. It's Game Night edition is trending at €20. Mystery Booster versions are closer to €10. Maybe this precon can push it closer to €5.
Similar to Academy Ruin, this deck has Unholy Grotto. It returns a zombie from your grave to the top of your deck. I will be honest, I never heard of this card until this precon. With a €10 price tag and only two printing in Onslaught and The List now might be a nice time to grab it for any zombie deck!
Finally, a Commander classic, The Scarab God. This is a consistent community favorite. I love this one for how it can stand alone as a zombie commander or a reanimate commander. I have been meaning to pick this one up for my Volo, Itinerant Scholar/Scion of Halaster deck! The Scarab God regularly hits the €10 mark. They are worth having for your deck or as a nice rebait if you want to rework the precon into something else.
Treatment & Availability
Before signing off, let's examine the card variants available. If you're buying singles, they might as well look their best!
Extended Art
Extended Art has been seen many times before. This time, it is on 20 cards. It is a subtle treatment, but some cards use it to great effect. Mu Yanling, Wind Rider uses the entirety of the space to depict the wind flow in the piece. Unstoppable Plan feels a bit cramped in its original art. The extended version lets the art breathe more. Finally, Spectacular Pileup has blasts of color in every direction. Taking a minute to zoom out and see more of the piece sells the scope of the explosion!
Revved Up, Graffiti Giants, Rude Riders
There are 41 vehicles with Revved Up art. These feature gorgeous pieces from artists like Michael Ivan (Marshals' Pathcruiser), and DeathBurger (The Last Ride). One thing all these versions have in common is their sense of momentum. These artists use bold colors and sharp angles to convey that sense of urgency. This ties in nicely with the graffiti motif seen in many of the pieces.
The set also contains eight Graffiti Giants. These depict the five dual-color gearhulks and the Amonkhet gods of the set. The vibrant colors read big and clear. High contrast does a lot of heavy lifting to make them stand out.
They look like a sticker placed on the wall. I love that the background of all these pieces is a wall. It helps sell these pieces as graffiti you might find on a random street. Coalstoke Gearhulk is the most obvious. It uses the brickwork to break the Hulk into several little pieces. Brightglass Gearhulk does this too. However, it uses brickwork to sell the symmetry of the piece.
One last bit of flavor on these cards is artist tags. You can see on Ketramose, the New Dawn several signatures on the piece. Perhaps belonging to the artists, contributors, or the tags of other nearby artists.
14 cards are available in the Rude Riders style. The art style on show here reminds me of the cutesy exaggerated features of old school Micky Mouse, but distorted with 300 Km/h speed. CatDirty's Fearless Swashbuckler feels like something out of Wacky Races. Meanwhile, Wojtek Łebski's Bloodghast is horrific. The creature's eyes rolled back as it gave way to the speed. The solid color backgrounds on these cards are a testament to the artist. They can make these pieces feel impossibly fast without the aid of the background. It puts every ugly detail in the spotlight. I love it.
Borderless
We have 21 borderless cards. These depict a legendary creature or the Verge cycle of dual lands. The art style here is more "traditional" than the previous art styles, but they are gorgeous in their art. Mark Poole making a return for Samut, the Driving Force is one of my favorites. She's posed like an athlete on the starting blocks. The art and mechanics are marred perfectly!
Crowd favorite Richard Kane Ferguson also makes a return with Gonti, Night Minister. Richard has had a consistent style that makes his art stand out a mile away. Justine Jones gives a great rendition of Far Fortune, End Boss. They have a style featuring bold lines and color. I could have seen her style being included in the Revved Up vehicles.
Japan Showcase & Fractured Foils
There are ten cards available in Japan Showcase. They can also come in a Fractured Foil version.
The art of Salvation Engine reminds me of Jet Set Radio with its bright colors. This is Mai Minamiura's first magic card. I cannot wait to see more of their work. SH11NA's Mimeoplasm, Revered One calls to classic Japanese monster movies.
The Ooze carrying a dinosaur is a playful detail to sell the creature's size. The fractured foil treatment doesn't look great in photographs. I would recommend looking up a video if you have not seen these cards before. They sort of look like stained-glass or glitter. Instead of one big shiny layer on the card, there is instead a mosaic made of hundreds of little foil pieces.
First-Place Foil
Ninety cards come in "First-Place Foil". These cards feature gold borders and backgrounds. The art itself can be the normal, Graffiti Giants, Revved Up, or Rude Rider versions. These cards are found exclusively in Box Toppers when you buy a booster box. There is no unique art for First-Place Foil. This is just as new border on existing art from the set.
Special Guest
Special Guests make a return in this set. Here, the Secret Lair team worked on these cards to deliver some outstanding art. I love cards that use different artistic mediums. Galvanic Blast is a diorama! The artist made this little scene and photographed it for the card art! If you enjoy this art style as much as I do, Laura Plansker originally featured this art on her Secret Lair!
The Aetherspark
The Aetherspark has a treatment all to itself. It can be found in a Serialized version with unique art. It is beautiful, but I cannot imagine you will see many of these in the wild. Like with previous serialized cards, there are 500 out there!
If all of that was a little confusing (don't worry it was for me too) you can use this little quick reference to help! It shows you where each card type can be found.
Conclusion
Aetherdrift is shaping up to be an exciting race through the multiverse!
I adore artifact sets. Original Mirrodin and Kaladesh have shown us how powerful artifacts can be. Returning to the decks on my shelf, this set has me returning to Captain Rex Nebula. A crazed pilot that isn't afraid of a couple scratches! I'll be enjoying everything Aetherdrift brings to Rex.
Let us know what decks you're coming back to thanks to Aetherdrift!
Check out Three For One Trading for sealed boxes and singles as the set releases!
About the Author
Ben Guilfoyle started playing Magic in 2015. They love to research the design of Magic. Why was this card banned? Could this silver border card actually see play? Cards that push the limits of design is what excites them. You can usually find them playing cube. This ties into their second passion: numbers. With a background in physics and statistics, they love to get in the weeds when building decks. Crunching numbers is their specialty.
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