The first Magic: The Gathering set released in 2025 is ‘Aetherdrift,’ which seems to target either Fast & Furious, Death Race or F1 fans. It’s what MTG fans have begun to call a “hat set,” meaning it’s Wizards of the Coast trying to do something new or wear a hat they usually wouldn’t. It’s something they’ve been exploring more in the last couple of years — have a look at last year’s murder mystery and cowboy set as other examples. But I feel those sets succeeded in their themes; Aetherdrift has left me feeling underwhelmed.
The tagline for Aetherdrift is ‘All Gas. No Brakes. Hot Cards.’ But a set with as banger of a tag as that needs a set filled with banger cards to back it up, which is what Aetherdrift is missing. The most exciting card in this set is ‘The Aetherspark,’ which is the first-ever artifact equipment Planeswalker card, and because of that, it’s exciting for anyone to open. I think the card itself is okay, but not as powerful as some other equipment you can put in your Commander decks. I’m sure to see this showing up in players’ decks.
But my problem is that outside ‘The Aetherspark’, a glowing orb, there are no exciting or chase cards that are vehicles of any sort. Sure, there are some new gods, lands, and an adorable ‘Loot, the Pathfinder,’ which are cards I’d be excited to open. But when a set is about a race across three planes, not having a single vehicle on my radar as something I’d want to open, or even some art I could appreciate, has left me feeling like Wizards has failed to optimise on the theme of the set here.
The story in Aetherdrift involves a race called the ‘Ghirapur Grand Prix,’ which is held across three planes: Avishkar, Amonkhet, and Muraganda. The prize for winning the race is the aforementioned ‘Aetherspark,’ which has the spark of a Planeswalker. Whoever wins can use this to turn someone into a Planeswalker. Chandra enters to turn Nissa back into a Planewalker, but the Amonkheti team ultimately wins the race with a bunch of zombie hippos, which is cool. Alongside Chandra Nalaar, Nissa Revane and Loot mentioned above, the story also includes Jace Beleren and Vraska, Pia Nalaar, Chandra’s mother, as well as another ex-Planerwalker, Dareetti.
MECHANICS IN AETHERDRIFT
Two new mechanics were introduced in Aetherdrift, with another three returning.
START YOUR ENGINES
The main mechanic in Aetherdrift is ‘Star your engines,’ which is found across all colours in the set. It reads as follows: 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.
You’ll then find cards with abilities that activate once you reach ‘Max Speed.’ Or cards that have different states depending on your level of ‘Speed’. You can’t drop speed either, and it’s not something that can be interpreted. You’re gaining speed as ‘Start Your Engines’ is on a hard when it enters, and whether you damage an opponent in turn.
EXHAUST
Exhaust abilitiles on cards allow you to give a boost, quite often in the form of +1/+1 counters, but only once a turn. It’s like using NOS for boost of energy.
VEHICLES & MOUNTS
Unsurprisngly, there are vehicles and mounts in this set, as you need something ot race in or on. Vehicles will have a ‘Crew X,’ reading where you must tap any number of creature you control to equal the power of X and you then turn the vehicle into a creature until the end of the turn.
Saddle works very similarly, but it can only be done on your turn and as sorcery, so there are no last-minute blocks coming from saddles, but there could be from vehicles.
CYCLING
The final returning mechanic is ‘cycling,’ which is an alternative cost you can play on cards to discard it, and draw a card instead. It’s a great mechanic whenever it shows up in sets, especially for Limited Formats, as it helps you feather through your deck to find solutions.
PLAYING AETHERDRIFT
As much as I have found the overall set, the thematically be a bit of a letdown. I have enjoyed playing the set more. However, if you’re not a fan of crewing artifacts or saddling up creatures, that’s what decks are going to be made of. This has made draft decks feel significantly slower-paced than some recent limited formats.
Most players, especially those playing green, build some engine that leads to their win. There’s also some fun to be had in creating a red deck win if you can get some of the right cards, mainly some goblins, but it’s nowhere near as potent as some other RDW versions in other limited formats recently.
WRAP-UP
@explosionnetwork Aetherdrift bundle opening! #MTG #MTGAETHERDRIFT ♬ original sound – Explosion Network
Aetherdrift feels like a quick stop-off at the races, a slight distraction from the larger story in the background. But with ‘Tarkir: Dragonstorm’ being the next set and the final in the ‘Dragonstorm Arc,’ we should set both a pick-up in exciting new cards and thrilling art direction in the next set. I remember drafting the ‘Khans of Tarkir’ block, and it was a lot of fun, with Ugin and plenty of dragons, all of which are going to be a part of the next set.
Ultimately, as the first new release in 2025, this set feels like it’s simply warming up the engines for Tarkir: Dragonstorm rather than being its own epic race.
[Thanks to Wizards of the Coast for sending over some of the new set to get my collection started.]
