‘Magic: The Gathering’ Is Off To The Races With The ‘Aetherdrift’ Set
by Anton Kromoff
Welcome to the table,
I’ve been playing Magic: The Gathering for the vast majority of my life. It was first introduced to me by older kids at Boy Scouts. While scouting was a strange trip we can get into another time, one of the biggest things it gave me was access to other people who shared a love for goblins, gargoyles, demons, and dice. That, along with little bits of cardboard made a kid who could not walk feel just a little bit more normal.
Magic: The Gathering was a thing I could do that let me play with other people on a somewhat level playing field. Like Dungeons & Dragons, even if my cards were scavenged from trash cans and stuff people in the early days of the hobby were just throwing away, it was not just the card, but the ability to figure out how to use them that mattered at the table. And I could spin a 60 card stack of chaos into a win condition with the best of them.
While I don’t have a ton of people to play with anymore, I still try and keep up with the new sets as they drop. The lore, the art, the collectability, Magic is just a hobby that fits so fundamentally into the webwork of who I am as a person. So I was delighted to recently be invited to come hang out with some of the MTG team and learn about a new incoming set at the first Magic: The Gathering press briefing of 2025.
The new set is called Aetherdrift. It feels very much like Speed Racer meets high fantasy in all the right ways. The meta is that there is a grand prix that is pitting the various denseness of the various planes and neighboring worlds against each other. They compete for a chance to win The Aetherspark, a type of planeswalker spark possessed by a very small number of sentient beings across the multiverse. When activated, it allows the individual to become a planeswalker with the ability to travel between different planes of existence.
There is a vast menagerie of racing teams that represent the different colored MTG decks. Each has a ton of personality and some really fantastic new art treatments that make the whole “got to go fast” vibe of the set come into brilliant perspective.
There will be “gold foil” version of cards that give them an enhanced look setting them apart from other foil cards in this and previous sets and really nailing home that winner feel. There are also Rude Rider variants that hearken to classic hot-rod inspired art. Everything has this brilliant “fast” feel and it comes across in all layers of this set.
You will be able to score this set in boosters, collectors boosters, a Bundle and a Finish Line Bundel both with a D20 life counter. Every play and display booster comes with a land in gold foil that is a driver seat land, or full art racetrack land so that is exciting as these lands, honestly all the lands from the set, are jawdroppingly beautiful.
There are also Two Commander Decks coming with this set. The first is Eternal Might that runs with white, blue, and black mana. The deck is set up to be a slow burn, as you build you undead mummy army while utilizing Temmet, Naktamun’s Will , and Hashaton, Scarb’s Fist.
The second commander deck is Living Energy that runs off green, blue, and red mana. It’s a deck lead by Saheeli, Radiant Creator and Pia Nalaar, Chief Mechanic. This deck is all about making energy and big creatures to smash opponents quickly.
As soon as I get my hands on some of these cards and can play a few games I will report back. I feel like there is some serious fun to be had here between the new meta story, the new mechanics, and the stunning art that is floating around in the core and chase cards of this offering on this run.
You can preorder now at this link and expect the sets to start hitting shops in early February.
Until next time, I’m also just stoked because this set has a pink paint goblin wheelchair character and a goofy looking shark man. You can sell me on pretty much anything if either of those factors are involved but when you get both together you have created a delightful experience for old Anton.
