Get Geared Up! Your Quick-Start Look at Aetherdrift.
I’ll be honest at first when I heard that a “death race” set was coming out I thought this set might have best been branded as an Universes Beyond set. I mean vehicles, ok yes but racing? Well after the spoilers, and doing some deep dives I was pleasantly surprised that not only the cards but the story does deeply fit inside the Magic the Gathering Universe. It brings together 3 Planes, tons of new and returning characters from across the universe and adds in the excitement of new mechanics & abilities while refreshing and returning some old ones. As a child of the 1970’s I just have to add that some of the alternate artwork is absolutely stunning and brings me back to the days when people had custom vans and cars all painted up with airbrushed flames and fantastical scenes on them… but I digress.. Let’s keep our eyes on the road and our hands up on the wheel, and put the hammer down on finding out about Aetherdrift!
Aetherdrift is the first Standard-legal set of 2025 and it highlights ten racing teams from across the Magic the Gathering Multiverse as they compete in The Ghirapur Grand Prix that spans three different planes, Avishkar (formerly Kaladesh), Amonkhet, and Muraganda. The races are brutal no hold barred and the racers will do anything to win the Aetherspark, the race's grand prize. Follow along as Chandra pushes it to the max to win the Aetherspark for her romantic partner Nissa. As you may recall Nissa lost her power during March of the Machine, and rumour has it the Aetherspark contains the power to restore her!
Set Mechanics:
Cycling:
It’s the return of one of my favourites. Paying a couple of mana to ditch (discard) a dead card in your hand to draw another card. I love how Aethdrift has taken it a bit further with some of the cards like Webstrike Elite for example. You can cycle Webstrike Elite for XGG , but when you do “When you cycle this card, destroy up to one target artifact or enchantment with mana value X” . Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. Discard it, draw, AND get a bonus effect!
Embalm:
The embalm mechanic works like a reusable zombify. It targets a creature in your graveyard at sorcery speed, you pay the embalm cost (equal to the creatures mana cost) exile it from the game, it makes a copy of it that’s a White Zombie Token in addition to its other types and it has no mana cost.
Energy:
Energy isn’t new but it still kind of feels like it is. Its back again in Aetherdrift in a big way and ready to charge up your deck! Just remember that energy counters aren't mana. They don't go away as your steps, phases, and turns end, and effects that add mana "of any type" can't give you energy counters. Some spells and abilities say that you "may pay" a certain amount of {E}. You can't pay that amount multiple times to multiply the effect. You simply choose whether to pay that amount of {E} indicated on the card as the ability resolves.
Exert:
The Exert mechanic gives you an extra effect that comes at the cost of your creature staying tapped one extra turn. In this example with Basri, Tomorrow’s Champion you get a 1/1 White Cat Token with Lifelink.
Exhaust:
You may only activate each exhaust ability only once. Each one has its own cost and some cards have multiple exhaust abilities, like Loot, the Pathfinder.
Saddle:
Saddle makes its return to the scene and it brings new abilities to its mounts and your game like buff for mounts and creatures, or token generation like with Autarch Mammoth.
Start your Engines & Speed (Getting to Max Speed!):
Racing… well it’s about going fast. Aetherdrift has added mechanic to the set that bring just that …SPEED! It starts with cards that have the "start your engines!" keyword ability. The first time in a game that you control a permanent with start your engines!, your speed becomes 1. This happens as a state-based action, so players can't respond after the permanent has entered but before your speed becomes 1.
Once you have a speed of 1 or greater, there is a new triggered ability that can occur for you during the game. That ability is "Whenever one or more opponents lose life during your turn, if your speed is less than 4, your speed increases by 1. This ability triggers only once each turn."
Once your speed reaches 4, you have "max speed" and can't increase it any higher. Many cards, especially those with the start your engines! ability, also have other abilities that care about whether you have max speed. These are usually written as "Max speed — [ability]," which means the card has [ability] only if you're at max speed. There are also other types of abilities that reference max speed or current speed.
Vehicles & Crew:
You can’t have a race driven set without vehicles and crew, so of course we see them in Aetherdrift. I mean it just makes sense as Kaladesh (now Avishkar) is when vehicles first appeared in the meta.
Extra Cool Things:
Just thought I’d take a few moments to mention a few other cool things about this set.
Gearhulks: They’re back! Legendary artifact creature constructs in allied colours that have abilities that align to those colours, and have powerful ETB effects.
Legendary Vanillas: One of each of the 5 colours, no abilities, yet scary! (Do I Dare Make a Commander Vanilla Deck???)
Gold Bordered Beauties: New "first place" foil treatment “gold-like”.
The Prize: The Aetherspark in all its glory!
The Dash to the Finish!
Ok race fans, we’re on the final lap and the checkered flag is just ahead. Don’t stop now take your own test drive of Aethrdrift and pick up some packs at the Tower. As for me I’ve got to get back to my daydreams of the 70’s and of how to make wincons with Vanilla Commanders… 😉
