Hey everyone, Aetherdrift is here, and after a few days of spoilers we are already seeing a lot of awesome cards that are going to have an impact on several formats. In order to talk about as many cards as possible, I’m going to cover the cards spoiled so far in this article, and then cover the cards spoiled after this in another article next week.
I’ll mostly be looking at this cards from the perspective of Standard, Alchemy, and Pioneer/Explorer, as those are the main formats that I play, but I may shout out a card for Limited or another format.
Unlike my set reviews, where I talk about the cards that I think will make a splash in competitive play, this article will cover any cards that stick out as both competitive players and just sweet cards.
Let’s dive right in!
Verge Lands
Let’s get this one out of the way. We get enemy color verges coming in Aetherdrfit, making the mana in Standard even better. Verges are a weird land cycle, because technically you could have 20 of them.
For example, Bleachbone Verge always taps for Black and sometimes White, but they could print a card that is the inverse, where it always taps for White and sometimes Black. That said, let’s call the verge cycle complete, since we have one for each color pair now. Time will tell if they decide to print more.
The verges from Duskmourn have proven to be great lands for Standard, Alchemy, and even Pioneer, and I expect these to do the same. I am especially interested in these in Alchemy, since in Alchemy we only have the enemy colored fastlands, so enemy color pairs are going to have much better mana moving forward.
Basri, Tomorrow’s Champion
Basri, Tomorrow's Champion is a powerful aggresive white creature. While a 2/1 for one isn’t super exciting these days, Basri has a great ability to keep it relevant even after it is outsized. Making a 1/1 every other turn keeps the pressure on, and the cycling means that extra copies of this legendary creature don’t get stuck in your hand.
While the text about cats may seem like you need to play Basri in a cat deck, and you absolutely should, you don’t need to. Even if Basri makes just a couple of cat tokens, extra copies can be cycled to protect those tokens from a sweeper or spot removal.
Bulwark Ox
Bulwark Ox is a great two drop in a mount deck, a counter deck, or just a white aggro deck. A 2/2 for two mana is fine on curve, but the fact that it has saddle 1 means that any creature you play afterwards can saddle it up and then it can get going.
You could either pump up the ox itself if you need to get through larger blockers, or spread the love around to make use of its sacrifice ability to protect your board from sweepers.
Voyager Glidecar
Voyager Glidecar is a powerful one drop vehicle, although it has some competition in Standard with Warden of the Inner Sky. What Voyager Glidecar has going for it instead, is that when it enters you get to scry 1, and with crew 1, any creature you play is going to be able to turn it into a 2/3 to start beating down.
When you do have a lot of creatures in play, it is easy to turn into a large flying threat, just like Warden of the Inner Sky. So which is better? Well, probably Warden of the Inner Sky just because it can tap itself to its abiltiy, gets to scry multiple times, and can have a presence on the board even when you have no other creatures.
All that said, in an aggressive vehicle deck, which is absolutely possible, Voyager Glidecar is a great option to consider.
Thopter Fabricator
Thopter Fabricator is a fun and powerful card for a deck drawing a lot of extra cards. Its fine as a 4/4 flying vehicle with crew 2 for three mana, but has all that upside of making thopter tokens whenever you draw your second card each turn.
I am excited to give it a try in a couple of decks, maybe including cards like Mischievous Mystic, Thopter Mechanic and/or Zimone and Dina.
Bloodghast
Wow, what a reprint. Not only is Bloodghast coming to Standard and Alchemy, but also to Pioneer/Explorer as well, and I’m sure that Historic and Timeless players are excited for it as well!
Not only does Bloodghast play well in silly graveyard decks alongside cards like Prized Amalgam, but in a format like Standard it is a great creature to sacrifice, or to use to crew vehicles, there are so many options with a card that just keeps coming back.
Get your exile removal ready, because Bloodghast is sure to make an impact on every format.
Cryptcaller Chariot
Cryptcaller Chariot is not quite Esika's Chariot upfront, but it is a powerful engine as the game goes on. Cycling returns in Aetherdrift, and Cryptcaller Chariot is the perfect payoff for all of those cycling cards, making plenty of 2/2 zombies to crew the chariot itself.
Although the zombies are tapped, mostly to prevent surprised blockers when you cycle cards on your opponent’s turn, you still will want to cycle cards on your opponent’s end step so you can untap and use those zombies right away to crew vehicles or attack.
A 5/5 with Menace for four mana is quite powerful, and if you get a couple of zombies out of it then you are going to be very pleased.
Momentum Breaker
I hope you weren’t getting tired of This Town Ain't Big Enough because it got another sweet toy in Momentum Breaker. Those self bounce decks already sometimes play Tithing Blade, and Momentum Breaker is that but better, because it can take a card out of the opponent’s hand when they have nothing in play to sacrifice. It can also snipe vehicles which is pretty cool.
This is a card that makes good use of the new Start Your Engines! mechanic, as it is can sit in play for several turns and then sacrifice to gain three or four life.
The Last Ride
The Last Ride is a sweet callback to Death's Shadow, as a 13/13 for one mana, and with just crew 2 you can easily get in with it. However, you do need to get your life total down pretty low to start attacking.
The real meat and potatoes of this card is in the activated ability to draw a card and lose two life for three mana. While that isn’t a super great cost for this effect, it can help you win out in grindy matchups.
I’m sure there will be some deck that wants this, although it being legendary does make it worse in multiples.
Hazoret, Godseeker
A 5/3 Indestructible, Haste for two mana?? Okay, so not quite, but Hazoret, Godseeker is great in an aggressive creature deck. It you can play her after a one drop, you can easily tick up to two on your engine scale, meaning you are just two turns away from attacking or blocking with Hazoret.
The other sweet part of this card is letting you get in for damage with one of your small creatures to help you get your engine up higher. So if you are trying out a dedicated Start your Engines deck or just an aggressive creature deck, Hazoret, Godseeker could be what you are looking for.
Marauding Mako
Marauding Mako is just a 1/1 for one mana, but it does grow every time you discard a card, making it great for an aggressive cycling deck if that comes into existence. It also has cycling itself, making it a fine top deck in the late game, and great for that cycling deck since it is both a payoff for cycling and has cycling itself.
Cloudspire Coordinator
Cloudspire Coordinator calls back to Veteran Motorist, a 3/1 for two mana that scries two when it enters and then has a bonus associated with vehicles. Cloudspire Coordinator is a lot better though. In a dedicated vehicle deck this could be making a token every turn. That token can then be used to crew those vehciles.
This is really powerful because usually a 3/1 has trouble attacking after the first couple of turns in the game, so usually you would use a card like Cloudspire Coordinator to crew the vehicles itself, but because the token it makes can crew as though it had three power you really aren’t losing anything by using its abiltiy.
If there is some sort of dedicated mounts or vehicle deck, Cloudspire Coordinator is going to be a key player in it.
Fearless Swashbuckler
Fearless Swashbuckler is fine as a 3/3 haste for three, and granting your vehicles haste is a nice upside. The real power here letting you Brainstorm (sort of) whenever you attack with a pirate or vehicle.
This is great for you cards that care about you drawing cards and your cards that care about you discarding cards. It is also just a source of card advantage, and when you are seeing that many cards you are going to have an easier time finding the cards you need.
I’m not sure if Fearless Swashbuckler will have a home, but it just has so many potential synergies to make use of, that I wouldn’t be surprised if it found a home somewhere.
Ketramose, the New Dawn
Ketramose, the New Dawn has great stats as a 4/4 with meance, lifelink, indestructible for three mana, although you can’t attack or block with it without a bit of extra work. If you can turn it on then it is both a great attacker and blocker thanks to lifelink and indestructible.
While previous gods with a condition to attack or block can have those conditions un-met, such as Hazoret, the Fervent if you draw a few cards, you can’t remove cards from exile (in Standard or Alchemy) meaning that once Ketramose is on, he is on.
So the question is, how do we best make use of his other ability to fill up the exile zones and draw cards? There are a few easy ways, like Agatha's Soul Cauldron but it will take a bit of brewing before we are ready to make the most of him.
Kolodin, Triumph Caster
Kolodin, Triumph Caster is a great enabler for a vehicle or saddle deck, turning all of your somewhat clunky vehicles or mounts into powerful haste threats. Giving all of those cards haste, getting the saddled abilities, and not needing to tap creatures to crew vehicles lets you put a lot of pressure on opponents.
In an aggressive vehicle or mount deck, Kolodin is sure to keep the pressure on your opponent.
Mendicant Core, Guidelight
In a dedicated artifact deck, Mendicant Core, Guidelight is going to easily be a huge threat, and because its an artifact it doesn’t die to Go for the Throat, and with just two other artifacts in play it won’t die to Cut Down either.
The real trick with this card is finding ways to get to max speed as fast as possible. Once you are able to start making copies of all of your artifacts you are going to be able to quickly overwhelm your opponent.
There are plenty of tools in Standard, Alchemy, and Pioneer to make an aggressive Azorius artifact deck, so I think that Mendicant Core could find a home fairly easily.
Zahur, Glory’s Past
Zahur, Glory's Past is fine as a 3/2 for two, but it has a lot of other things going for it. First, you can sacrifice another creature to surveil one, which is fine, it would be a lot better if you could activate more than once per turn, but between your turn and your opponent’s turn you can sacrifice two creatures each turn cycle.
Once you hit max speed, then you are really cooking, because then every time you are sacrificing you are getting a 2/2 zombie out of it as well. This also gives you wrath protection, as even if all of your creatures die you will get an equal amount of zombies.
The main reason I think that Zahur could have a home is because of Bloodghast. You can sacrifice it, play a land, bring it back, and then sacrifice it again on your opponent’s turn. The surveil itself can also help find those copies of Bloodghast and put them into the graveyard..
So we’ll see if a sacrifice deck of sorts comes together, but regardless Zahur should be a fun card to play around with.
Marketback Walker
Marketback Walker is the next in the line of XX artifacts. In recent memory we have had Hangerback Walker and Walking Ballista, and Marketback Walker is different that the previous two.
Four mana to put on a counter is a fine mana sink later in the game, but there are plenty of other ways to add counters to creatures for cheap, and growing it bigger and bigger is going to make it ever the sweeter when it finally does pop and draw you a bunch of cards.
If you don’t have other ways to add counters, you are going to look at usually casting this on turn four for X=2, although it is fine on turn two at X=1, as it is fine chump blocker that replaces itself early, and if it sticks around it can grow bigger.
Wrapping Up
Aetherdrift spoilers are really just getting started but I just couldn’t wait to start talking about them. We still have plenty of cards to be revealed over the next week, so I’ll be back next week to talk about any sweet cards that come out.
Even though only half or less of the cards have been revealed, there were still plenty that I didn’t have a chance to talk about, so what cards are you excited about?
Once the whole set is out we can start brewing and evaluating the set from a competitve stand point, so look out for those articles in the future as well. And as always, best of luck in all of your matches and see you next time!
