Getting the Zoomies Out - Cardboard Corner does Aetherdrift!

 

Some people might say that in recent years Magic the Gathering has jumped the shark; standard has cowboys and clowns and cellphones, which all feels very alien to the fantasy themes of yesteryear. Speaking of aliens, those will be in standard soon too (we already have their hovership,) and Spider Mans, and Final Fantasies to contend with, but for now, we live in the moment...

And in the moment that is Aetherdrift, the shark jumps you.

Whether you find the wacky racers theming rad as heck or goofy as geck, two things are undeniable; card will go fast, and card will be stronk. So start your engines, put your seat belts on, and get ready for another episode of CARDBOARD CORNER!

To start off our Tour de Multiverse right, let's check out an actual shark. Actual shark "Marauding Mako" is a red one-drop that has a discard theme payoff, which seems to be the Izzet theme this time around. With all the cycling in this set (haha), this feels very first pickable in limited, but also looks like something that could find a home in this funky Modern season we've found ourselves in. Decks that were running Dragon's Rage Channeler and the recently unbanned Faithless Looting might find room for this chompy friend, who can further enable DCR, or become a threat of their own if you're struggling to hit delirium.

"They don't make 'em like they used to."

Since Aetherdrift is a three-plane set, we're likely to see a ton of callbacks to our previous visits to Avishkar (previously Kaladesh,) and Amonkhet, and to the references we've had to Muraganda. Gearhulks were the darlings of Aether Revolt, and now return as two-color colossi who make a huge splash when they land on the board, and then leave behind a big beater to counter any crackback. Pyrewood Gearhulk feels like an Overrun with an insurance policy, just in case you need another turn to maneuver ahead of the pack. The other Gearhulks are also good.

Since this set is all about racing, the design team has cleverly made all of their signpost uncommons either mounts or vehicles, and paired each of them a racer that synergizes to the max!!! I picked these four because of their fetch-abilities, where the search parameters of the fetcher fit their paired ride/rider (referential mechanics often feel overstated, and more at home in other-people's cardgames,) and because the two 2 CMC look spicy as heck for their archetypes (crew/vehicle and egg storm.)

Since we coasted through some archetypes, let's jam mechanics real quick. Aetherdrift has two spicy ones that players are wrapping their heads around. One is "Start your engine," where you're trying to get from speed 1 to speed 4 by having your opponent lose life on your turns. You could ping them, tax them, or smack them with a Bashtronaut. Then when you hit speed 4, you're at Max Speed, which soups up a bunch of the cards in Aetherdrift, making them even more aggro than they already are.

We've also got Exhaust, which is a powerful activated ability that you can only use once. Loot for instance is rocking three of them, which are effectively Rainbow Dark Ritual, Lightning Bold and Ancestral Recall, you know, of the Power Nine? Even though most of these guys are one-trick ponies, they're not though because all of these exhaust-abilities can be reset with blinks and with bounces, meaning that (hype-athetically) you can get multiple uses out of these busted in half effects.) Bazonkers? Yeah, we thought so too.

Narratively speaking, the plane of Muraganda feels like fresh weird, the kind you get at the market at too-early-o-clock in a magical sort of way. Mechanically, making your board tall and punishing anyone who tries to stop you feels primal, so we're awarding points for flavor and for impact. I think my favorite part of this card is how your typal synergies aren't disrupted by the replacement effect, meaning that all of your funky lords can still buff your otherwise oozified creatures!

And now for something completely different! Its a corgi who grows bigger the more its ridden, while also providing repeatable targeted removal of artifacts in an artifact heavy environment! Wowee! Danger has never looked so stumpy!

Having played magic for a number of years (and still being kinda bad at it,) I'm always excited to see old cards return in new forms.

Welcome back Giant Ox, now you can drive 2 cars.

"What if all of your artifacts were giant lotuses?"

"that's insane. You can't put that in standard."

"Its fine. It'll be six mana, which you'll never get to.

"But what about the commander players?"

"Its really not that good. Maybe Yurlock players will use it for the meme?"

"I think you're severely underestimating this card."

"The card makes you count to six. They're Magic players my guy, not calculators! "

This card you give to your friend who likes cats. That's literally how you get them into magic; you just trick them into saying "aw kitty," and then they're contractually obligated to build a commander deck, (no he's not your commander, but Basri's now an autoinclude for all you Rin and Seri shippers out there.)

Remember Death's Shadow? We made it into a car that can help all your other Death's Shadows uh... get shadowier? A fifth copy of the old midrange boogey might come and handy (especially with that manasink enabler,) and see play in the Carson Peske version of the deck, or the newish Rakdos/Hollow One shell. Either way, we love seeing IRL monstertruck Gravedigger make a cute little cameo in this bonkers new set.

Speaking of which, the Ben Stiller is strong with this one. Also, check it out, he's telling the aristocrats joke!

I do like winning games, and with the word artifact in its type line, this card that says "win the game on it" does feel awful fetchable... We're definitely in uncharted territory, but it doesn't feel bad since it sort of passes the test of "does this planeswalker protect itself?" Technically, making the Aetherspark stick to one of your creatures makes the creature the target instead of the planeswalker, until the creature is taken care of, and then you're in the same sitch as if someone had blown up your wolf token or something.

That said, ten mana or two cards are both pretty impactful effects for no mana, and they're repeatable if equipped to the right racer (and if you don't just outright win after that.) So yeah, big thumbs up over here. Radical Dude!

With the dominance of graveyard synergies, its great to see a new play on the Gilded Goose mechanic of "solar beam charge to use Birds of Paradise next turn" except that its actually so much faster than that thanks to it only requiring you to have a thing in your graveyard. Your fetches and early instant/sorceries are like fuel for this freak, and there are very few situations where this feels like a punishment, (looking at you Tarmogoyf and Tokens and friends.)

Finally, we complete the cycle of Mages who find you things between mana values 0 and 6 (see Trinket Mage, Treasure Mage, Tribute Mage and Trophy Mage for the variations on the theme.) This would have been great for fetching The One Ring last year, but since that monster got banned Transit Mage's best target is probably the Goblin Charbelcher in Monoblue Belcher. Probably. But you didn't hear it from me.

And with that we've zoomed through a ton of awesome cards for the upcoming Aetherdrift set, with plenty more on the way (spoiler season ain't over yet!) What are you excited to slot into your deck? How do you feel about gasoline in Magic the Gathering? We don't have a comment section, so tell us when you're in next! And remember, if you're going to jump a shark, you might as well do it in style!

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Ben Doane has been a member of the Pandemonium Team since 2019, and has been playing wargames, rpgs, and tcgs since 2004 and earlier. When not blogging, Ben runs the wargames and mailing departments, and also puts together the store's newsletters. Her current favorite game is the Grand Archive TCG.