Welcome to 2025 and the first new Magic: The Gathering set for the year, Aetherdrift. Well, kinda the second, if we’re counting Innistrad Remastered which was released less than a month ago on the 24th Jan. But that doesn’t have any new cards in it, so I’m going to rule myself correct on a technicality and move on.
Aetherdrift is the latest in a string of sets from Wizards of the Coast that is designed around a bit of a gimmick – in a similar vein to last year’s Murder Mystery, Villain-centered Wild West Heist, and Haunted House, this year we’re getting treated to a Death Race.
I was initially dubious about this theme, but I’ve been enjoying Aetherdrift a lot more than I thought I would.
I won’t go over the story in detail because, as with other sets from last year, it’s reasonably self-contained and doesn’t contribute much to the overarching story arc. I strongly recommend checking it out for yourself though here. Generating clicks on the website is one of the best ways to ensure that WOTC continues to invest in the storyline. But a quick summary:
The Death Race has been made possible by the OmenPaths, openings between the Planes of the MTG Multiverse, allowing more than just Planeswalkers to move between the Planes. Hosted by the former Plane of Kaladesh (now known as Avishkar), the race plots a course through the planes of Amonkhet and Muraganda before finishing back at Avishkar. The prize? Something probably most keenly sought by former Planeswalkers keen to restore that missing part of themselves – The Aetherspark, an artificial Spark. And our favourite Gruul friends are in on the action – Chandra is keen to be part of that action and win on behalf of Nissa.
The Aetherspark, a Planeswalker Equipment, is not a card I ever expected to see in a Magic set. It’s certainly a unique and new direction for card design. The overall consensus on the internet so far is mixed, though most seem to feel it’s underpowered compared to similar resource-generating equipment like Sword of Fire and Ice. I think they’ve pulled off the execution quite well; it’s interesting and useful without being overpowered, which can always be a concern with artifacts.
Mechanics! No, not that kind
With its racing-themed focus, Aetherdrift introduces a significant emphasis on vehicles, making up 41 out of the 291 cards in the set. This marks a dramatic increase, considering there were only 124 vehicles across all previous Magic: The Gathering expansions before Aetherdrift’s release. To accommodate this surge in vehicles and prevent them from becoming ineffective in limited formats, the set incorporates the deciduous Cycling mechanic, allowing players to dig for new cards if they aren’t getting enough creatures to support the vehicle count.
Speed is a new mechanic activated by the “Start Your Engines!” keyworded ability, which sets your speed to 1 the first time you play a permanent with the keyword. Once your speed reaches 1, you can increase it by 1 each turn when an opponent loses life, up to a maximum of 4. While accelerating from 1 to 3 doesn’t do much, hitting max speed unlocks additional abilities on certain cards.
The other new keyworded ability is Exhaust, which was almost named Turbo until WOTC decided to reserve that word for future sets. Exhaust offers a once-per-game bonus and generally comes with some kind of counter to help indicate that the ability has been used.
Alongside the vehicles in the set, you’ll find other racing-related content, like the Pilot creature type, which generally gives bonuses for using the creature to crew a vehicle and Mounts, initially introduced to Magic in last year’s Outlaws of Thunder Junction.
Art Was ‘ere
The set has sparked… diverse reactions regarding its artwork. While there are some fantastic individual pieces, I’m probably more on the side of not liking the overall aesthetic. Part of the problem lies in the fact that the race covers three separate planes, and has ten distinct racing teams, each with a unique visual style.
The colour palette for the set is bright and oversaturated, so it is all pretty chaotic, particularly the graffiti-inspired styles (Rude Rider, Revved Up and Graffiti Giants, see below for examples of each). I particularly struggle with cards that have insufficient visual clues to the card colour in the art or background. Borderless cards can often suffer from this problem too, though the borders usually help.
The foiling techniques can be problematic as well. Fractured foil Japan Showcase cards have been around for a while now, but I’m still glad I’m not the target market for these cards. They’re very hard to read. The new first-place foil cards look better in real life than in the online pics, but they’re a bit of a shock to the system as well.
At the end of the day though, having a wide variety of art is good, because it allows people to buy cards that appeal to them.
The graphic showing where you can find particular art styles showcases just how many variants there are in the ‘booster fun’:
My first driving lesson
So what’s it like to play? The Melbourne media release event was held on the same evening as the Pre-release, at Plenty of Games in the CBD. I was fortunate enough to get an invite to try out the set for myself.
I think in some ways my reservations about the artwork and aesthetics had given me low expectations, so I was impressed with how things played out.
Building a sealed deck was reasonably simple, though I possibly had an advantage in having followed the card reveals and having a decent idea of what everything did. The new keyword abilities, “Exhaust” and “Start your Engines!” made sense and were fairly easy to understand.
With the set so focused on vehicles, I found myself at times struggling to get sufficient creatures to crew them. Part of the problem there was that we only played a single multiplayer game, and I ran into a bit of a glut with some of my bigger vehicles. But all around, it was a good evening. Getting to try out new Magic: the Gathering is always a lot of fun, and Aetherdrift definitely makes the grade.
Big thanks to Plenty of Games for hosting us on the night.
Magic: The Gathering – Aetherdrift is available now in all good gaming stores.
About the Author
Ric Bullock
he/him
Ric is a board game afficiando who has been playing Magic: The Gathering for way too many years.
