Last year was huge for Magic: The Gathering fans, with Bloomburrow, Duskmourn, and Outlaws of Thunder Junction amongst a roster of licensed Universes Beyond IPs, each bringing their own signature flavour to the game. From the fluffy and cute to assassins galore or haunting horrors fit for any draft, it was pretty hard not to find a set you vibed. Wizards of the Coast definitely shows no sign of slowing down for 2025, either. Amongst a bursting roster of sets being teased, including Final Fantasy and Marvel, it’s time we race into our debut set for the year – Aetherdrift!
Racing into Magic: The Gathering Aetherdrift, it’s already an immediate change of aesthetics and design to the 2024 roster of sets. Oozing petrol-powered beasts and explosive art, the set sees players relying on their wits to crew vehicles, racing opponents to victory and the grand prize – the Aetherspark. The multiversal road rage in Aetherdrift will see players embracing the racer fantasy as they zoom through opponents’ life totals.
As themes go, I’ll admit Aetherdrift has been a thrill yet I do feel like it’s not quite my speed – literally. The set lacks that anchor to a plane like previous sets last year. Aetherdrift blasts across Avishkar, Amonkhet, and Muraganda with no signs of slowing down, which, while exhilarating, leads to the set feeling somewhat of a mishmash of sci-fi racers, Mad Max death machines and lumbering creatures. Though we see familiar characters, it’s really impossible to get lost in the setting despite the artwork being as incredible as ever. Where Duskmourn played out that haunted house theme with tension and references, the big high-speed race across the multiverse just doesn’t hit the same way for me. It was hard for me to see the theme in this set as more than just a glossy lean into racing.
Aetherdrift, of course, focuses on game mechanics, which up the ante of that racing feeling the set just begs you to buy into. Vehicles are the absolute stars of this set with so many to choose from. The Crew mechanic sees artefact vehicles transformed into artefact creatures when players tap any untapped creatures equal to or greater than the vehicle’s crew power level. The crew effect remains till the end of the turn. This does at least add weight to the racers, but it does also lead to some situations where you’re missing creatures to crew the vehicles, given that they are so common through the set.
Start Your Engines is where Aetherdrift really starts to get fast, though. Once activated, the speed level starts at 1, and players gain more speed when opponents lose life once per turn. Max Speed players can access special abilities on cards, such as casting from the graveyard, giving creatures Lifelink, or even forcing opponents to mill two cards when you draw a card. I really enjoy how Start Your Engines motivates players to hit players early on to achieve those speed abilities. With the right combo, like having Trample, so you scrape opponents with any unused power.
Exhaust is the other mechanic prevalent in the Aetherdrift set. These are special abilities players can activate only once. If the card leaves the battlefield and returns, its Exhaust ability is able to be activated again. Unlike Start Your Engines, the Exhaust ability feels like a ‘break glass in case of emergency’ ability, good for when your back is up against the wall.
Cycling is also utilised in the set, allowing players to discard cards from their hand and draw a new one – all for the cycling cost. This did help me find creatures and lands, though it’s a slippery slope unless you’re able to recoup those lost cards when you need them most.
It’s incredibly hard not to once again appreciate at least what this set wants to be. From bikes to rockets and an array of racers in between, Aetherdrift feels like a set right out of an action movie with that signature Michael Bay flare. Yet, as a set, there is an interesting concept here that just doesn’t quite hit the finish line. Seeing the MTG multiverse come together for a big grand prix-style race is a spectacle, yet the reality is an overflow of vehicles to choose from. It would’ve been welcomed to see the set build out the interactions further in the cards and the accompanying lore.
While Foils and full-arts are back in force, there’s a new treatment driving through the set. Literally dripping in gold, first-place foils see cards shown off with a gold foiling that is very decadent. These are very rare, however, only being available in special box topper packs that require players to purchase full boxes of play and collector boosters to have a shot at pulling a random basic land and a rare or mythic from Aetherdrift. I really dislike this forced rarity that only some players can access.
The Living Energy Commander precon is an energy deck that powers artifact creatures with the energy counters you amass. As synergies go, it’s one of the strongest I’ve played with, provided you can keep track of your triggers! Typically, energy decks aren’t my thing for this reason, yet Living Energy is packed full of artefacts and creatures that juice up that energy gain easily. That energy comes in handy with the deck’s main commander, Saheeli, Radiant Creator, letting you utilise some excellent artefact creature token clones of target permanents. The drawback, though, is that these only last till the next end step. Making copies of cards that give you energy when they enter does alleviate that spend. When playing the deck, you notice instantly just how many things gain you energy, so if you’ve avoided the synergy, this deck makes it look easy.
Where Living Energy falls short, though, is that it doesn’t really engage with the mechanics of Aetherdrift. The Start Your Engines and Exhaust abilities aren’t present in the deck, leaving the energy synergy feeling fairly removed from the racer theme of the set. While thropters and other vehicles appear, they aren’t nearly as common in the deck as you might expect.
While MTG Aetherdrift hasn’t been a hit for me, it does feel like I was at least along for the ride with this set. With Vehicles galore, art-wise, there’s a lot going on here as the race explodes through every aesthetic you could dream of. There’s a lot to take in across the set, but it costs that anchor to the set narrative. While the art oozes that thrill and card mechanics shift gears to really give it that juice, it’s hard to really appreciate how the big Grand Prix-style race theme is. If your decks are craving some zoom, though, this set certainly has some sick rides and aesthetics to drift through!
The Magic: The Gathering – Aetherdrift is available now.
