Hello and welcome to the starting line! It’s time to turn those engines over, kick it into high gear and screech away from your opponents with Aetherdrift! We’ve got new vehicles, mounts, gods and of course legends.
We’re off! A reminder though that at the time of writing new cards are still being spoiled, so be sure to stay on track and don’t let them whizz by without a good look!
VEHICLES (AND MOUNTS) MATTER
With a set entirely focused on a single race and the prize on the line (the Aetherspark), vehicles take first place for things that interact with them. So far, many cards have something to do with them, whether that’s making them creatures without crewing or giving them other bonuses. A cycle of lands called Roads can even give you a pilot token to help you pay for crew and mount abilities.
Vehicles themselves seem to become better and better as we go along. Some are even calling back to older cards, like The Last Ride to Death’s Shadow. Others do odd things for a traveling compartment, like Lifecraft Engine giving you vehicles a creature type as long as those vehicles are creatures. Others have nifty abilities, like Apocalypse Runner allowing some damage through for another creature.
Basically, if you’ve waited a while for more vehicles with bells and whistles attached, you’ve come to the right set.
THE AETHERSPARK
The first legendary artifact planeswalker equipment. Well, the first artifact planeswalker equipment. Legendary I guess doesn’t count. Still, now any creature you have can potentially have planeswalker abilities. This is also the first artifact you can attack directly when not equipped, which is kinda odd. It definitely feels like a quasi-sentient entity (which makes even more sense if you read that story of its creation).
As for the rest of the card, it is equipped the same way any equipment would be to a creature by paying a cost. This one just happens to be a loyalty ability for +1. While you can activate the other abilities on the card without it being equipped, it usually needs to be equipped to a creature to increase its loyalty counters efficiently (besides proliferate or other effects). All you have to do is deal some combat damage. Not the easiest thing to do every time you need some more counters, but one good hit could set you up for a good chunk of mana or help you dig for an answer or win condition.
There are probably some combos it can be a part of too, but I like the simplicity of the design not being outright broken or outrageous.
NEW GODS*
KETRAMOSE, THE NEW DAWN
One of the new Amonkheti gods, Ketramose has the same clause as his older kin: he can’t attack or block without some condition met on the card. Specifically for him, seven or more cards must exist in exile somewhere. They don’t have to be your cards luckily, and in White and Black we have plenty of ways to exile things. While it might take the god a turn or two to wake up but it shouldn’t be much of an issue.
Unlike his kin, he has more than one key word ability. Of course, he’s indestructible, but also has lifelink and menace. Not a bad combination of abilities, and certainly good on defense. Offensively Ketramose is fine as well, but can be chumped all day.
Lastly, he is a card draw engine as long as you exile stuff during your turn. You also lose life when doing so, but there are still combos to be had to draw an entire deck. First to mind for me is abusing Prestons and Fiend Hunter, but there are plenty of others. Just be sure to gain that life back so you don’t knocked yourself into the afterlife of the game.
SAB-SUNEN, LUXA EMBODIED
Another new Amonkheti god, Sab-Susen does exactly what it says in the name, being a great Bounty of the Luxa impersonator. It’s not a one to one comparison though, it’s flavor. Unlike the card Bounty of the Luxa, this god gives two cards if the conditions are met, or can attack or block if the other condition is met. Here, the means counters (Simic, duh). If she has an odd number of counters during your first main phase after adding a +1/+1 counter, you get the cards. If she doesn’t, likely she can attack.
While the card draw can trigger only once per turn, it does draw you two cards and the counter can be easily manipulated in Simic to have her also be able to defend or attack. Speaking of, her abilities are Indestructible, Reach and Trample. I’d say she makes for a better beater than Ketramose, and has the stat line to back that up. I also think they would be a part of and lead different kinds of decks. Both new gods have my interest piqued..
HAZORET, GODSEEKER
Lastly, Hazoret isn’t a new god, but the last surviving god of the Amonkheti pantheon from before the hours of devastation Nicol Bolas set in motion (the Scarab and Locust gods were already transformed into something else by then). She has changed compared to her last two representations, perhaps representing both the mechanics of the block and her development as a repentant god to her people.
She, like before, has indestructible and haste. Red god is Red. However, her ability to attack or defend comes tied into the block mechanic (which I’ll review in a bit): Start Your Engines and Speed. Start Your Engines gives you speed, which starts at 1. You can gain a maximum of 4 speed, and it can only be gained if you have an opponent lose life during you turn, usually through attacking. This makes it a very aggressive mechanic. You have to mhave the max speed for Hazoret to be able to smack stuff.
Kazoret is here for it though. Her ability allows your little guys to get in there and make some chaos happen. She also comes down to the table earlier than the other gods and with an oversized stat line as well. With a little bit of burn thrown into a deck, she can be online quickly. As far as Commander is concerned, I’m not sure she’d lead a deck, but she could enable a few cards within one. I imagine this card will be much more at home in other formats, and if speed takes off she will be sought after.
NEW MECHANICS
START YOUR ENGINES
I just described this for Hazoret, but as a refresher: A card with Start Your Engines gives you speed, your speed starts at 1, and you can gain up to a maximum of 4 speed. You gain speed whenever an opponent loses life during your turn. This is easy in Commander, BUT it only increases once during your turn, so hitting everyone for damage doesn’t make it immediately 4 speed. Similar to City’s Blessing, this doesn’t go away once you have any level of speed, so it just stays around and helps you fuel different kinds of effects, like Samut, the Driving Force’s bonuses.
EXHAUST
This mechanic is something similar to Exert, but the effect can only be used once and is generally more powerful. A good, simple example of this is the new Loot, the Pathfinder. He essentially has Dark Ritual but paying Green, Ancestral Recall and Lightning Bolt printed on him.
However, each ability can only be used ONCE PER GAME. This is what exhaust means. A powerful effect available to you on a card, but it can only be fired off once.
Granted, if you can sacrifice and bring back the card or blink a creature like Loot, they become a new game object and you can use the abilities again (cEDH is already looking at Loot), but outside of things like that one shot is all you get.
COMMANDER DECK LEGENDS
Along with all this cool new info, we also got a look at the legends in the Commander decks. I remember in my last article that picking up Archfiend of Ifnir and Astral Slide might be a good idea, but until we know the lists we can’t know if that will pan out.
My prediction for the White, Blue and Black deck is that those will, but onto the legends themselves.
SAHEELI, RADIANT CREATOR
This new Saheeli adds Green to her usual Blue and Red and is the face of the Temur energy deck. She also of course rewards you for casting artifacts, but brings the creature type artificer along for the ride (loves to collab I bet). The reward is an Energy Counter.
With that energy building up, you can then use it at the beginning of combat on your turn to create a token of a creature you control for that turn. It gets sacrificed at the end of the turn.
Not a bad ability, really. Might even have a way to go infinite with enough energy and multiple combats (there is a new multicombat spell in the set to boot as well!). Still, your netting a second copy of your best creature, and I do happen to like doing this with Balor in my Xyris deck using Esix.
Overall, a good legend that isn’t busted on her own but can be built that way as a deck I think.
PIA NALAAR, CHIEF MECHANIC
Momma Nalaar here likes to get things done. Send in some nice automatons, servos or thopters and grab some energy from the confrontation. If you happen to have some energy laying around at the end of your turn, you get a Pia Nalaar custom Nalaar Aetherjet token sized to your liking.
I think Pia here is the more tame design of the two legends, again without knowing the deck.You can only get two energy from her max and that’s it you can hit someone. You can get a big flyer out of her at the end step, or a small one, to keep the energy humming along.
Now, her being less up front powerful, in my personal opinion, is not something to scoff at. A deck built around producing energy will have ways to use and abuse it, and having a flyer is not inconsequential a lot of the time in a game of commander. Plus, there are artifact synergies to consider as well. If Pia does have something over Saheeli, its’ that you get to keep the token for other shenanigans later.
TEMMET, NAKTAMUN’S WILL
Strong, strong Varina Lich Queen inspired in my opinion. Probably viable in a build with her at the helm and vice versa. Temmet is a fairly simple design and lets you know what you should be doing. Get in the fight, gain some cards, lose some cards, buff typal Zombie.
This could easily lead a deadly swarm at your opponents just by using a wheel effect on your turn, or some draw in response to the attack. It also buffs Temmet himself since he’s a zombie, making commander damage a real threat with Menace and Vigilance to help gain access to opposing faces.
Despite his simple design, you could build a number of different decks, like zombie kindred, tron, cycling, madness (sorta), reanimator, etc.
HASHATON, SCARAB’S FIST
Another zombie for the zombie deck and its secondary commander, Hashaton here also wants things to be pitched into glorious unlife, those things being specifically creatures. You then may perform a Scarab God impression by paying 2 and Blue to create a 4/4 zombie version of the pitched creature. What’s cool about that is there isn’t any exiling involved, leaving the revenant creature open to use later.
Another simple design, but also one that has a lot of potential to get things going. Pitching a large creature to an ability somewhere to get it just for 2U seems really good, even if you only get a 4/4 body. There are multitudes of good enter abilities that this could help get down early in a game too, like the Overlords from Duskmourn or static effects like Avacyn. It could also abuse tokens synergies ala Junkwinder and Anointed Procession.
THE FINISH LINE
That’s the race for now. I’ve only gone over some of the more pointed and obvious things about Aetherdrift, so be sure to keep checking those spoilers.
For cards, not the back of cars.
Until next time, race safely.