While it won't be the first set released in 2025 – Innistrad Remastered beat it to shelves by a few weeks – Aetherdrift marks Magic: The Gathering's first brand-new expansion of the year. Continuing the trend of new sets experimenting with different genres, Aetherdrift features denizens from MTG's many in-game worlds coming together for a massive plane-spanning race called the Ghiraphur Grand Prix.
Wizards Of The Coast finally gave players a green light to see multiple new cards from the set during a livestream earlier today, along with a few interesting new race-themed mechanics sure to quench the need for speed during your next Magic: The Gathering session. There's a lot to race through, so let's put the pedal to the metal with the full preview.
(That's the last of the racing puns, promise!)
New mechanic - Exhaust
Aetherdrift will introduce two new mechanics to the world of Magic: The Gathering: Speed and Exhaust.
Exhaust is pretty straightforward: If a creature has an Exhaust ability, that ability can only be used once while the creature is in play. If the creature is bounced back to hand, sent to the graveyard and resurrected, or acts as a Commander in a Commander deck, the Exhaust ability can be used again when the creature re-enters the battlefield.
The best – and perhaps most eye-popping – example of Exhaust lies in a card featuring the newest mascot to join the MTG ranks. This is Loot, the Pathfinder!
- Loot, the Pathfinder (Legendary Creature - Beast Noble)
- Costs two generic, one green, one blue, and one red mana to cast
- 2 power/4 toughness
- Double strike, vigilance, haste
- Ability 1: Exhaust - Pay one green mana and tap Loot to add three mana of any one color.
- Ability 2: Exhaust - Pay one blue mana and tap Loot to draw three cards.
- Ability 3: Exhaust - Pay one red mana and tap Loot to deal 3 damage to any target.
Loot is an absolute powerhouse here. His three Exhaust abilities all echo some of the most iconic cards in Magic's history, with the red ability mimicking Lightning Bolt, the blue ability aping Ancestral Recall, and the green ability channeling Black Lotus – only without discarding Loot on activation. Furthermore, as mentioned before, if Loot is your commander, every time you summon the little scamp from the Command Zone, you will gain or regain access to them every time. That is some wild, wild stuff from this cute little Loot.
New mechanic - Speed (Start your engines!)
Speed has a bit more to explain, but the concept quickly makes sense. Some cards in Aetherdrift contain the text "Start your engines!," which will begin your speed count at 1 speed. For the rest of the game, whenever an opponent loses life on your turn, you gain 1 speed level up to a maximum of four – once there, cards with Max Speed in their text box will offer an enhanced ability. Speed can never be reduced or lost, and once you're at 4 speed, you'll stay there for the rest of the game.
A great example of cards that benefit from the Speed mechanic is the card game debut of a fan-favorite character from the mobile MTG game Spellslingers; here's Vnwxt, Verbose Host!
- Vnwxt, Verbose Host (Legendary Creature - Homunculus)
- Costs one generic and one blue mana to cast.
- 0 power/4 toughness
- Start your engines! (If you have no speed, it starts at 1. It increases once on each of your turns when an opponent loses life. Max speed is 4.)
- Ability 1: You have no maximum hand size.
- Ability 2: Max Speed – If you would draw a card, draw two cards instead.
Getting to top speed with a Vnwxt waiting in the wings is a huge deal, as once you're there, the one-eyed announcer gives you double the card draw any time you reach for your pile as long as he's on the battlefield. Give him some big creatures to keep him alive, and watch the card draws roll in as the match continues.
The race teams
Ten separate racing teams are part of the Aetherdrift set, and each one is aligned with one of the ten color pairs found within Magic: The Gathering's color pie. The teams keep to a particular theme, from Red and Green's penchant for damage to Black and White's sacrifice fodder.
The list of factions and alignments is below:
- Blue/White: Guidelight Voyagers
- Blue/Black: Speed Demons
- Black/White: The Champions Of Amonkhet
- Red/Green: Goblin Rocketeers
- Green/White: Alacrian Quickbeasts
- Black/Red: The Endriders
- Blue/Red: Chordatan Keelhaulers
- Black/Green: The Speedbrood
- Red/White: Cloudspire Racing Team
- Green/Blue: Aether Rangers
Each team will see its captain and signature vehicle turned into a Magic: The Gathering card, and there are a few worthy creatures to keep an eye on. One notable example is the head of the Goblin Rocketeers, Redshift, Rocketeer Chief:
- Redshift, Rocketeer Chief (Legendary Creature - Goblin Pilot)
- Costs one red and one green mana to cast
- 2 power/3 toughness
- Vigilance
- Tap Redshift to add X mana of any one color, where X is Redshift's power. Spend this mana only to activate abilities.
- Exhaust - Pay 10 generic, one red, and one green mana: Put any number of permanent cards from your hand onto the battlefield.
Redshift seems small at first, but if he's allowed to hang around and gain power via +1/+1 counters or one-off spells like Giant Growth, you could be able to empty your hand of all creatures, artifacts, and enchantments with a single activated ability.
Redshift's signature vehicle is the Rocketeer Boostbuggy:
[IMAGE]
- Rocketer Boostbuggy (Artifact - Vehicle)
- Costs one red and one green mana to cast
- 3 power/2 toughness
- Whenever this Vehicle attacks, create a Treasure token.
- Exhaust – Pay three mana to make this vehicle become an artifact creature and add a +1/+1 counter to it.
As the name suggests, this vehicle provides a much-needed boost to both your mana pool and, when the time is right, its own potency. That Exhaust ability means it can turn into an artifact creature without even needing someone to Crew it, and that extra body on the board could be a huge boon in the right situation.
That's everything you need to know about what's coming in the core Aetherdrift set! Check out our sister site MTG Salvation for more on Aetherdrift, including all the new cards, alternate art treatments, and Commander deck inclusions as they're announced.