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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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Andy "Icky" Ferguson is a long time limited grinder, with his first draft in 1999 at the age of 11. 22 years later, you can still find him streaming drafts, achieving the top ranks, including rank #1 5 months of 2021. Seasoned member of the Draft Lab squad and appointed "zen master", Andy lives by the motto; "lose and learn, learn and win".
