If you’re looking for a Tune Up, look no further! I’ll be breaking down every Aetherdrift card to get you a head start with the new set! For those interested, J2SJosh is still in my basement, and he has been rewarded for good behavior! Keep up the good work, basement buddy!
5.0: Disgustingly powerful and basically unbeatable. Either answer it the turn it comes down or just pack up your cards. (Gruff Triplets, Virtue of Persistence, The Eternal Wanderer)
4.5: Incredible bomb that still gives your opponent a slim chance. (Virtue of Loyalty, Imodane's Recruiter, Realm-Scorcher Hellkite)
4.0: Great rare or the absolute best uncommons and removal. (Faunsbane Troll, Gumdrop Poisoner, Talion’s Messenger)
3.5: Great role filler or removal that you never cut. (Candy Grapple, Hearth Elemental, Torch the Tower)
3.0: Good playable that I’m basically never cutting. (Shrouded Shepherd, Spellscorn Coven, Sharae of Numbing Depths)
2.5: Decent playable and the bar I hope nearly every card in my deck to reach. (Evolving Wilds, Archon's Glory, Flick a Coin)
2.0: Mediocre filler that normally is your 20-23rd card(s). (Mintstrosity, Ice Out, Grabby Giant)
1.5: Replaceable, overall bad filler. Could also be decent sideboard cards. (Titanic Growth, Scarecrow Guide, Territorial Witchstalker)
1.0: Bad filler. Gets cut most of the time. (Dark Tutelage, Kindled Heroism, Impact Tremors)
0.5: Very unhappy to main deck this, but maybe it has fringe sideboard applications. Cards that “could” be situationally decent, but bad in most situations. (Smothering Tithe, Rhystic Study, Mana Flare)
0.0: Unplayable in every possible situation. They rarely print cards this bad these days. (Hew the Entwood, One with Nothing)
Aether Syphon
Rating: 1.0 // 5.0
This is a very slow card for what looks to be a faster format. This could be a great sideboard option for a control deck mirror match.
Bounce Off
Rating: 2.0 // 5.0
Unsummon looks very good in this vehicle heavy format. You can also bounce some of your own permanents that have significant ETB effects.
Caelorna, Coral Tyrant
Rating: 2.0 // 5.0
There has never been a card quite like this in limited. It seems like an amazing creature for control decks, as well as 4-5 color decks heavy in blue. This guy buys tons of time, and is difficult to get off the battlefield.
Diversion Unit
Rating: 2.5 // 5.0
This is solid for any blue deck. A cheap evasive creature, that can throw a wrench in any of your opponents early game instant/sorcery plans.
Flood the Engine
Rating: 2.5 // 5.0
One of blues only “reliable” removal spells. It’s great at shutting down problematic vehicles or creatures that tap effects historically missed, as it takes away all of there text as well.
Gearseeker Serpent
Rating: 2.5 // 5.0
This card was a staple for blue decks in KLD, and it looks like it will be here as well. It should cost around 5 on average, and can be used as a finisher in games that go late.
Glitch Ghost Surveyor
Rating: 2.0 // 5.0
Blue really doesn’t care about speed all that much, but assuming your other color(s) do, this is a decent Wind Drake, that doubles as a good self-mill target.
Guidelight Optimizer
Rating: 1.5 // 5.0
This is a fine artifact filler card, that likely won’t contribute all too much outside of pairing it with Memory Guardian, which makes for a nice turn 2-3 sequence.
Howler’s Heavy
Rating: 2.0 // 5.0
This is an awesome trick, especially if you get to kill an opponents creature during combat + draw a card. The vanilla 3/4 body as option 2, is really cool design, and gives a sweet boost to existing iterations of the card like Take the Fall.
Hulldrifter
Rating: 2.0 // 5.0
An artifact homage to Mulldrifter, this is solid for most blue decks, though can be a bit on the slow side.
Keen Buccaneer
Rating: 2.0 // 5.0
5 mana for a 3/4 + loot leaves a bit to be desired, but the fact that you can break it up over turns is much stronger than it may look. It’s a bit slow for modern limited, but overall seems like a solid octopus pirate.
Memory Guardian
Rating: 2.5 // 5.0
This will cost 4 a good amount of the time, but when it costs 2-3, it feels very powerful. 3/4 is a good statline this set for flyers, and should beat most things that fly.
Midnight Mangler
Rating: 1.5 // 5.0
Another iteration of a blue 2 drop 3/3 psuedodefender, like , or Backstreet Bruiser. This is playable if you need early defenders, but it’s pretty far from exciting.
Mindspring Merfolk
Rating: 2.5 // 5.0
This is essentially a suspended Mind Spring. Your opponent can choose to kill it at any point, but the effect is certainly powerful. This is the sole merfolk of the set, so don’t get too excited for the +1/+1 counters.
Mu Yanling, Wind Rider
Rating: 3.5 // 5.0
This is a very powerful draw engine, assuming you have vehicles. It also pairs nicely with bigger vehicles, giving them flying will end games pretty quickly.
Nimble Thopterist
Rating: 2.0 // 5.0
A decent enough creature, providing a flying artifact that can ping your opponent, contribute to crew/affinity, or just chump block. Splitting the 4/3 worth of power between the two creatures, seems good enough.
Possession Engine
Rating: 4.0 // 5.0
Even though you can’t attack/block with the creature you steal, it’s activated abilities can still be used, as well as using it to crew vehicles.
Rangers’ Refueler
Rating: 3.0 // 5.0
If paying 4 mana to turn this into a 4/4 and draw a card isn’t appealing enough, the static ability on this card can give you significant card advantage the longer this stays on the battlefield.
Repurposing Bay
Rating: 0.5 // 5.0
This really requires a lot of artifacts, and a curve that makes sense with them. That’s not a luxury most drafts can afford, but I wouldn’t say to avoid trying the card altogether.
Riverchurn Monument
Rating: 3.0 // 5.0
I can see this winning lots of games, but it can also do nothing when your on the back foot. This is an inevitable threat your opponent has to deal with (or win before they mill), when played in the early-mid game. It can also win games on the spot during the late game, when you exhaust it the turn you play it to mill the remainder of your opponents library.
Roadside Blowout
Rating: 2.5 // 5.0
This is really good for blue decks trying to slow things down. It won’t be often that this will cost 1, as you are often trying to bounce more expensive things.
Sabotage Strategist
Rating: 2.5 // 5.0
This is another blue card that’s great at slowing games down, especially against smaller creatures. If you live long enough to exhaust it, the game should end shortly after.
Scrounging Skyray
Rating: 2.5 // 5.0
An incredible cycling payoff in the early game, an can be cycled away if you top deck it outside of that.
Skystreak Engineer
Rating: 1.5 // 5.0
This pilot is a bit weak as it can’t crew much and only pings for 1 most of the game.
Slick Imitator
Rating: 2.5 // 5.0
Blue may be a bit unreliable at getting max speed, but the activated ability is incredibly powerful. You will often see this guy becoming a second copy of a Gearseeker or Hulldrifter.
Spectral Interference
Rating: 2.0 // 5.0
While not quite Essence Scatter, it’s pretty close in this set. It should counter most of your average opponents deck for 2 mana, which seems very good.
Spell Pierce
Rating: 2.0 // 5.0
This is another powerful counterspell option, likely hitting vehicles most of the time.
Spikeshell Harrier
Rating: 2.5 // 5.0
A big upgrade in power and toughness from existing iterations of this creature like Peerless Ropemaster, or Academy. Also slowing your opponents speed down, can be very relevant, especially if they are at max speed.
Stall Out
Rating: 1.0 // 5.0
I’m not a big fan of not permanently addressing an opponents creature, but this does cycle when things don’t line up. I still wouldn’t recommend this card.
Stock Up
Rating: 2.0 // 5.0
This is on the slower side, but an incredible upgrade from Divination. I would just be careful about how much defense you have when playing copies of this card.
Thopter Fabricator
Rating: 3.5 // 5.0
This is a pretty insane cycle/draw 2 payoff. It also happens to be a 4/4 flyer with a cheap crew cost.
Trade the Helm
Rating: 2.5 // 5.0
Shrewd Negotiation got a huge upgrade here, now able to target creatures and having the ability to cycle. It’s a an extremely powerful effect when it lines up, and the fact it has cycle when it doesn’t makes it far less risky to run.
Transit Mage
Rating: 2.5 // 5.0
There are a total of 28 cards in this set that this can fetch. Within blue, this will most likely be fetching Hulldrifter, Memory Guardian, or Spikeshell Harrier.
Trip Up
Rating: 2.5 // 5.0
A classic piece of blue removal, that works well when targetting expensive threats. Cycling is a relatively small boost, as it will be rare that you want to actually cycle this.
Unstoppable Plan
Rating: 0.5 // 5.0
I can’t really think of many instances to advocate for this being in your deck. I would’t advise anyone try it.
Vnwxt, Verbose Host
Rating: 2.5 // 5.0
Blue decks don’t seem to mind having an 0/4 two drop, so it’s not too big of a sacrifice to put it in your deck. Once you start deploying some flyers, your one sided Howling Mine starts to look very threatening.
Waxen Shapethief
Rating: 2.5 // 5.0
Overall, this is a very flexible card. It will most often copy an evasive threat, giant creature, or random bomb at instant speed. If none of that lines up well, you can cycle it.
Top 3 Blue Commons:
Gearseeker Serpent Spectral Interference Hulldrifter
Blue has a really high density of good cards this go around. It has access to some good control oriented cards that can really slow the game down. There are also a good balance of evasive threats and defensive creatures. I’m definitely vibing with blue this set, but stay tuned – we’re reviwing black next!
Lose and Learn, Learn and Win!
