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Magic: The Gathering’s Aetherdrift Set Delivers High-Speed Thrills

With the new year in full swing, Magic: The Gathering (MTG) and Wizards of the Coast have revealed Aetherdrift, the first set of the year for its trading card game. As the name suggests, Aetherdrift will be centered around cars and car culture. This can be seen in the new art, commanders, new mechanics, and more.

A High-Speed Narrative

Magic: The Gathering card sets always tell a story for those who may not know. For example, Bloomburrow was about cute critters becoming D&D-like adventures, while other sets like Duskmourn were about surviving eldritch horrors. Aetherdrift will be about racing in a multi-day/multi-planar event called the Geriper Grand Prix. During a press event, Magic: The Gathering’s worldbuilding lead, Miguel Lopez, explained that the race serves more than one purpose in the MTG universe.

“[The Giriper Grand Prix is] a thrilling spectacle that is inspiring to watch and a statement to the multiverse of the new Avishkari government’s ability to manage and coordinate multi-planar logistics.”

Since Aetherdrift relies heavily on the multiverse, the upcoming line will have various locations and characters from all walks of life. The set will have ten teams with multiple color combinations to suit all player styles. Below is a list of all ten teams and a brief description of what they do:

  • Guidelight Voyagers (White and Blue): Built around creating artifacts.
  • Speed Demons (Blue and Black): Built around the ward and hurting other non-artifact creatures.
  • The Endriders (Black and Red): Doing as much damage as possible
  • Goblin Rocketeers (Red and Green): Buffing each other and doing damage
  • Alacrian Quickbeast (Green and White): Built around creating Moutns/Vehicles and buffing one another
  • The Champions of Amonkhet (Black and White): sacrificing creatures/creating zombies 
  • The Speedbrood (Black and Green): Creating tokens and buffing creatures
  • Aether Rangers (Green and Blue): Buffing creatures and creating tokens
  • Chordatan Keelhaulers (Red and Blue): Built around discarding cards to receive buffs and draw more cards
  • Cloudspire Racing Team (Red and White): Inflicting damage and receiving buffs

Stunning Art and Themed Designs

Of course, with a new set comes brand-new art alongside it. Each full art land card will be from a racer’s POV, zooming through various biomes. Senior art director Sarah Wassell explained that they wanted players to have a unique view of the race.

Many of the full-art cards are meant to “Highlight specific teams through drivers and their vehicles,” Wassell said. The main goal was to inspire people and mimic sports posters one would see in a garage.

New Mechanics

Speed 

As a part of the Aetherdrift, Magic: The Gathering is introducing a new mechanic to the game called “Speed.” This will trigger when users play a card with “Start Your Engines” written on it. Once this is activated, their speed will go to one. Gaining speed, however, can be a little more complicated. 

The only way to gain speed is by having an opponent lose at least one life during your turn. On top of that, players can only achieve a maximum speed of four. They’ll be encouraged to reach a maximum speed of four because many Aetherdrift cards will allow them to do a unique action. 

Exhaust

In addition to “Speed,” another mechanic called “Exhaust” will also make its MTG debut. Magic: The Gathering’s executive producer, Max McCal, describes it as a “one-shot mechanic that does something pretty powerful.” The Exhaust feature can only be used once per game, but this can be worked around in various ways, such as the card coming back from the graveyard or if another card happens to have the “Exhaust” keyword on it.

Commander Decks

Aetherdrift will feature two commander decks. The first is the Eternal Might deck, which is White, Blue, and Black and is built around creating hordes of zombies. The other commander deck players can purchase will be Living Energy, which uses green, blue, and red mana. With this deck, players will cast artifacts and use energy to create tokens.

Release Information

Aetherdrift is scheduled to release on February 14. Players can purchase boosters, commander decks, various bundles, and the prerelease pack, like most sets.

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