Aetherdrift/Trivia

Aetherdrift

 

Commander decks

 

Card comparisons

 

Box Toppers

 

Trivia

 

Art Series

 

MaRo's Aetherdrift Teaser

Mark Rosewater gave his traditional teaser for Aetherdrift with the following hints.

First up, here are some things you can expect:

• 13/13 Vehicle with Crew 2 that costs one mana to cast — The Last Ride
• Mechanic called Start your engines! — Introduces speed to the game.
• Three planeswalkers native to one of the worlds visited and one non-native gets a desparked legendary creature version
  • Native: Basri Ket (Basri, Tomorrow's Champion); Samut (Samut, the Driving Force)
  • Non-native: Daretti (Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer); Mu Yanling (Mu Yanling, Wind Rider)
• Cycle of vanilla legendary creatures — The Tyrants (Sundial, Dawn Tyrant; Caelorna, Coral Tyrant; Kalakscion, Hunger Tyrant; Tyrox, Saurid Tyrant; Terrian, World Tyrant)
• Cat and Dog Mounts — Gloryheath Lynx and Alacrian Jaguar (cats); District Mascot (dog)
• An old God returns and new Gods are introduced — Hazoret (old); Ketramose, Sab-Sunen (new)
• New Lotus — Radiant Lotus
• Cycle of multicolored Gearhulks — Brightglass Gearhulk (), Oildeep Gearhulk (), Pyrewood Gearhulk (), Coalstoke Gearhulk , Riptide Gearhulk ()
• Numerous mechanics from the worlds visited get cameos — Embalm (Cursecloth Wrappings); Exert (Basri, Tomorrow's Champion)
• New Vehicle artifact token — 3/2 Vehicle artifact with crew 1 for Chandra, Spark Hunter and Mu Yanling, Wind Rider.

Here are snippets of rules text you’ll see:

• “This creature saddles Mounts and crews Vehicles using its toughness rather than its power.” — Interface Ace
• “Whenever you draw a card, each opponent mills two cards.” — Aether Syphon (at max speed)
• “Other Dinosaurs you control get +1/+1.” — Regal Imperiosaur
• “Whenever a player casts a spell they don’t own,” — Gonti, Night Minister (they get a Treasure)
• “: Add for each Goblin you control.” — Howlsquad Heavy
• “During turns other than yours, this Vehicle is an artifact creature.” — Midnight Mangler
• “Whenever you activate an exhaust ability, draw a card.” — Rangers' Refueler
• “Put any number of permanent cards from your hand onto the battlefield.” — Redshift, Rocketeer Chief
• “Whenever you attack, if a Pirate and a Vehicle attacked this combat,” — Fearless Swashbuckler
• “Creatures you control have base power and toughness 6/6 and are Oozes in addition to their other types.” — March of the World Ooze

Here are some creature type lines from the set:

• Creature – Seal Pirate — Howler's Heavy
• Creature – Lizard Berserker — Gastal Thrillseeker
• Creature – Insect Archer — Webstrike Elite
• Creature – Kor Pilot — Canyon Vaulter
• Artifact Creature – Robot Turtle — Spikeshell Harrier
• Creature – Ape Druid — Fang-Druid Summoner
• Creature – Zombie Cat Knight — Risen Necroregent
• Creature – Vedalken Ranger — Sabotage Strategist
• Creature – Dinosaur Dragon Mount — Dracosaur Auxiliary
• Legendary Creature – Aetherborn Rogue — Gonti, Night Minister

Finally, here are some names in the set:

• Adrenaline Jockey — Minotaur Pilot
• Flood the Engine — Aura
• Gas Guzzler — Vampire Rogue
• Maximum Overdrive — Instant
• Pedal to the Metal — Instant
• Road Rage — Instant
• Roadside Assistance — Aura
• The Speed Demon — Demon
• Spin Out — Instant
• Syphon Fuel — Instant

Miscellaneous

Set

• During vision design the initial three planes chosen for the set were Avishkar, Amonkhet, and Ikoria.
  • The Arc Planning team had a cool idea for Ikoria in a future set and requested the plane be swapped out of Aetherdrift.
• Design considers Aetherdrift to be a bottom-up set design.
• Despite being first printed in Outlaws of Thunder Junction, the Saddle mechanic and Mounts were first designed for Aetherdrift as a way to represent the racing teams using non-vehicle modes of transport.
  • The original version was a variant of crew called "crew steed".
• During vision design, Energy was meant to represent Aether, the fuel and technology of Avishkar. It was ultimately cut from the main set when it proved to complicated in an environment that also included crewing Vehicles, Start your engines!, and Exhaust. Knowing that players had been asking for a return to Avishkar, and a big part of the demand included energy, the mechanic was moved into the Living Energy Commander deck.

Worldbuilding

• The names "Captain Howler" and "Endriders" were initially just placeholder names written into the set's worldbuilding guide by Miguel Lopez. The creative team decided to keep them through to print.
• Pyrewood Gearhulk is an in-universe memorial to Wrenn, who became famous as the savior of the Multiverse after her sacrifice.
• Race announcer Vnwxt was originally designed as the tutorial guide for Magic SpellSlingers.
• The "Aetherdrift" is described as a blended space somewhere between aether and reality.

Cards

• The Aetherspark is the first eternal-legal Planeswalker card to have a second card type printed on its type line — Artifact.
  • This possibility was foretold with the Mystery Booster 2 test card Luxior, Ignited.
• Deathless Pilot's playtest name was "Crash Test Mummy".
• Demonic Junker is referencing the Christine trope (possessed old car that murders people).
• The art for District Mascot and Bestow Greatness form a mini-story.
• Guardian Sunmare has the same markings as Crested Sunmare.
• The five Gearhulks expand on the Gearhulk Cycle from Kaladesh.
• Gilded Ghoda — Ghoda is the Hindi word for horse. The name was inspired by indian children's song.
• Hour of Victory is a reference to the Accounting of Hours.
• Hulldrifter is a twist on Mulldrifter but does not share its evoke functionality as Nulldrifter does.
• The Last Ride is a vehicular version of Death's Shadow.
• Each of Loot, the Pathfinder's exhaust abilities is a reference to one of the Limited Edition Alpha boons, hinting at Loot's significant age and power.
  • is a reference to both Dark Ritual and Black Lotus. It has been colorshifted to be appropriate in the modern color pie.
  • is a reference to Ancestral Recall.
  • is a reference to Lightning Bolt.
• Marketback Walker is a reference to Hangarback Walker and Walking Ballista.
• Mindspring Merfolk and its Exhaust ability is a reference to Mind Spring.
• Monument to Endurance shows the newfound hope in Amonkhet's future by referencing the Monuments cycle from Amonkhet but with the mechanical twist of turning things lost (i.e. discarded) into new resources.
• Repurposing Bay is a colorshifted Birthing Pod for artifacts.
• Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied alternates between drawing two cards and being able to attack, recalling how Bounty of the Luxa alternates between drawing a card and adding mana.
• Spikeshell Harrier is a visual and mechanical reference to the Spiny Blue Shell of Mario Kart. It reduces the Speed of the first place racer.
• Transit Mage is part of the mega cycle that started with Trinket Mage in Fifth Dawn.
• Unstoppable Plan casts Dramatic Reversal every end step. Jace features in the art again but with a new series of backing characters.
• Wizened Mentor's name, art, and ability is a reference to Harsh Mentor, with flavor text suggesting his death and mummification made him more lenient.
• Rover Blades features the unique combination of Vehicle and Equipment subtypes on a black-bordered card.
  • This combination was seen earlier on the test card Unicycle, that referenced an ongoing discussion on Blogatog whether it was a vehicle or an equipment.
• Valor's Flagship's cycling ability is reminiscent of Decree of Justice's.
• The binary code flavor text of the borderless Voyager Glidecar translates to "fly".