Magic: The Gathering Aetherdrift Prerelease Guide
The newest set of Magic: The Gathering, Aetherdrift, is right around the corner. With pre-release events starting this weekend, we wanted to give you some tips and tricks to help you win the Ghirapur Grand Prix.
It's All About Speed - Aetherdrift’s Main Mechanics
Aertherdrift brings two brand new mechanics to Magic: The Gathering, as well as three returning mechanics, all related to speed and racing. We can’t have a race without Vehicles, and we also see the return of Mounts that can be saddled. Cycling also takes a prominent role, and I enjoy the wordplay here of having a cycling race or a cycling team. The two brand new mechanics debuting in this set are Start Your Engines and Exhaust!
Start Your Engines!
The most prominent new mechanic introduces the concept of Speed and Max Speed. Similar to how Daybound and Nightbound would come into effect once the first Daybound or Nightbound card was played, you begin tracking your own personal Speed once you play your first Start Your Engines card. Playing a card with this mechanic sets your Speed to 1 and during your turn whenever an opponent loses life you increase your Speed by 1. This effect only triggers once a turn. Many cards will have effects that care about having Max Speed, which is when you have reached a Speed level of 4.
Exhaust
Exhaust will signify an activated ability on a card that can only be activated once. The most notable Exhaust card we’ve seen so far is Loot, the Pathfinder. Loot has 3 different exhaust abilities and each one can be activated only once. However, should Loot leave the battlefield and re-enter, or a new Loot is played, those Exhaust abilities may be activated again as that is a new Loot in play.
Vehicles and Mounts
Vehicles and Mounts make their return in Aetherdrift. Vehicles are artifacts that also have a Power and Toughness stat line. These Vehicles are often accompanied by the Crew ability, that allows the controller to tap any number of creatures they control with total power equal to or greater than the crew number. Doing so will turn the vehicle into an Artifact Creature until end of turn, which will allow it to attack and defend as a regular creature. Because Crewing doesn’t contain the Tap symbol, creatures that still have summoning sickness may still crew vehicles.
Mounts are very similar to Vehicles and they are joined with the Saddle mechanic. Unlike Crew, you may only Saddle at Sorcery speed. Mounts, contrary to vehicles, are already creatures and may attack and defend even when not saddled. Mounts often have bonus effects when saddled and can make them quite formidable.
Cycling
Cycling is the final card effect that joins Aetherdrift’s race-themed lineup and represents speed in a different way. When a card has Cycling, you make pay the Cycling cost printed on the card and discard it to draw a new card. This effect is the strongest when you draw very expensive late-game pieces but really want to find a more immediate threat or answer. Many cards have bonus effects when cycled, as well as synergising with card effects that trigger when players draw or discard cards.
Alex Kivitz
Alex Kivitz
Aetherdrift Teams - Limited Colour Archetypes
Aether Rangers (Simic)
Representing the green-blue colour pair, are the Aether Rangers led by Spitfire and Pia Nalaar. When constructing a limited deck using the Simic colours, you will want to focus on ramping and accelerating your mana to then pay for big Exhaust costs. Cards like Rangers’ Aetherhive and Rangers’ Refueler provide good payoff for activating Exhaust abilities. Team Captain Spitfire, also known as Sita Varma, Masked Racer exemplifies that Exhaust can also mean X-haust.
Champions of Amonkhet (Orzhov)
The black-white colour pair is represented by the Champions of Amonkhet racing team, led by Zahur and Basri Ket. This colour pair utilizes the new Start Your Engines mechanic and aims to hit Max Speed as soon as possible. The deck is very low to the ground and plays aggressively early on by going wide. It can then close out games with cards like Embalmed Ascendant which provides a Zulaport Cutthroat life draining effect at Max Speed. Zahur, Glory’s Past is an amazing two-cost that keeps up board pressure when at Max Speed.
Cloudspire Racing Team (Boros)
Led by Kolodin and Chandra Nalaar, the Boros colour pair specializes in being aggressive and having a lot of vehicles. Be on the lookout for Cloudspire Coordinator as a signpost to play the red-white color pair, it creates Pilots for all your Mounts and Vehicles that enter the turn you activate and they crew/saddle as if their power were 2 greater. Cloudspire Captain really helps strengthen your board, and if you see Kolodin, Triumph Caster, you know you’re in for some very fast games.
Guidelight Voyagers (Azorious)
The Guidelight Voyagers are represented in the Blue White colour pairing and are a collection of automatons all led by a machine known as the Mendicant Core. As a collective of machines, the Guidelight Voyagers are an artifact-focused deck that has a subtheme of Affinity for artifacts. We see cards like Voyage Home providing card advantage and sustain and swinging in with evasive threats like Memory Guardian. Mendicant Core, Guidelight himself gets more powerful for each artifact you control and allows you to copy artifact spells you cast.
Speed Demons (Dimir)
Representing the Blue Black color pairing and originating from Duskmourn, the Speed Demons are led by Winter and the eponymous Speed Demon. The playstyle of the Speed Demons is very control-centric and goes for some late-game finishes. Haunted Hellride makes blocking even your smallest attackers a nightmare for your opponents, and Haunt the Network can suddenly swing losing games into your favour. Winter, Cursed Rider himself protects your ever-increasing amount of artifacts and can be used to clear your opponent’s non-artifact creatures.
Goblin Rocketeers (Gruul)
Daretti makes a comeback leading this red-green speed team. The goblins specialize in utilizing powerful Exhaust abilities to help their early aggressive creatures scale into the mid to late game and push through that final bit of damage. Boom Scholar is one of the the signpost cards of the Goblin Rocketeers, discounting your exhaust abilities and giving your creatures trample to push through stalled boardstates.
Co-captain Redshift, Rocketeer Chief is generously stated for a two-cost vigilance in the early game and can help pay for your expensive exhaust abilities, even having quite the powerful one himself. Howlsquad Heavy can help you take advantage of the many goblins in the archetype and use them to additionally pay for big exhaust effects.
Alacrian Quickbeasts (Selesnya)
The dynamic duo of Alacria and her quickbeast Lagorin lead this white-green racing team. The Alacrian Quickbeasts are all about synergising Mounts, Vehicles, and their riders. Veteran Beastrider exemplifies this best by untapping not only the mounts but the riders as well and also is a mana-sink to buff your board when needed. Caradora, Heart of Alacria searches your library for a Mount or Vehicle and increases the amount of +1/+1 counters put on your creatures or vehicles. Ideally, Caradora finds her partner Lagorin, Soul of Alacria, when Saddled puts +1/+1 counters on up to two target Mounts and/or Vehicles.
Speedbrood (Golgari)
Aatchik leads the black-green Speedbrood swarm. This faction really looks to utilize recursion and to become almost a graveyard value engine. The Speedbrood aims to get big stats on board earlier than normally possible as well as trigger powerful “on enter” effects multiple times. Broodheart Engine affords consistent card selection early on and for four mana bring back any creature or vehicle from your graveyard to the battlefield. Debris Beetle has a strong on enter effect and great stats at all stages of the game, being another great recursion target. Carrion Cruiser is another great piece that allows you to return any creature or vehicle back to your hand, allowing you to bring back your biggest threats to keep up the pressure.
Keelhaulers (Izzet)
Kari Zev and the red and blue Keelhaulers are the main Cycling faction of the set, utilizing both the discard and draw game actions to inflict big damage in quick bursts. Marauding Mako is a great example of a payoff for cycling, buffing itself when you discard a card. Fearless Swashbuckler further accelerates you through your deck using a Pirate subtheme in the Izzet colours as well. And with all this drawing a discarding, Co-captain of the Keelhaulers Captain Howler, Sea Scourge rewards you by buffing your creatures and drawing you even more cards.
Endriders (Rakdos)
And last but not least, we have the black and red Endriders led by Far Fortune. The Endriders focus on going fast and reaching Max Speed as soon as possible. It is an aggro deck that pumps out damage quickly before slower decks can attempt to regain control. Gastal Thrillseeker is likely one of the best enablers of Max speed as it deals damage when it enters, getting you to Speed 2 on turn two. Because getting to max speed is so important, Apocalypse Runner giving a creature unblockable is so valuable, on top of being a massive 6/5 Vehicle for four mana. Far Fortune, End Boss is another great way to guarantee speed increases and at Max Speed the additional damage can end games out of nowhere.
Start Your Engines!
If you want to look at the full list of cards, you can find them here in the Aetherdrift Card Image Gallery. Prerelease events will be running from February 7th and the full release of the set is February 14th. Good luck racers and we hope to see you all at your local game stores and on the Prerelease podium.
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