Aetherdrift Draft Guide

Get your wheels on the starting line and your foot on the accelerator, because it’s time for Card Kingdom’s Aetherdrift Draft Guide!

The expectation for this vehicle-heavy set was that it would be a lightning-fast race to finish off your opponent… but in reality that’s only half true. It’s certainly an unforgiving competition though, so make sure you read on to familiarize yourself with this high-speed environment before your rubber meets the road.

SHAPE OF THE FORMAT

The most obviously unique aspect of drafting Aetherdrift is the prominence of vehicles (and to a lesser degree, mounts). There’s enough of them that virtually every deck will play at least one, and the average is probably closer to three. Decks actually leaning into vehicles as a theme could play more than twice that number!

Luckily, vehicles are close enough to normal creatures that once you’re used to accounting for crew costs in your combat math, even having this many around doesn’t interfere with baseline Limited gameplay. Vehicles show up in every color and rarity, but what’s interesting is how differently each archetype can leverage them. Black’s vehicles are almost more like sorceries which leave behind a cheap permanent to sacrifice (literally or through trading in combat), while white’s are cheap, efficient building blocks in a wider artifact army.

Beyond the vehicular aspect, the other mechanics in this set all relate to the idea of speed, velocity, and going fast. My blog from last week covered this interesting set design in more detail – but suffice to say that there’s a lot of cycling, and a lot of incentive to commit resources to the board whenever possible.

AND THEY’RE OFF AND RACING!

However, I think the most surprising aspect of Aetherdrift Limited is how long the games can be. There’s not conclusive data in just yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the average Draft game for this set is a couple turns longer than for most recent formats.

You could choose to look on this outcome as evidence the speed-centric set mechanics have missed their mark. But Limited Magic isn’t a drag race – it’s a head-to-head destruction derby. If two drivers put their foot down and try to drive as fast as possible through each other… at the very least they’re going to both lose a lot of speed before getting to their destinations.

That has been closer to my experience over this first burst of Aetherdrift drafting. It absolutely feels like you’re racing, in the Magic sense where both players are attacking on their turns and trying to push damage at the same time. But if someone starts to clearly fall behind in that race, they are naturally going to start looking to block, and trade cards, and slow the tempo down until they can stabilize.

The max speed mechanic is genuinely interesting to play with, but it also creates another incentive for opponents to play conservatively from the start of the game, lest that random point of damage on turn two lead to some nasty payoff later on.

To be clear, I am glad that Wizards made sure to provide a wealth of strong defensive tools and good blockers as a guard against these aggressive, snowball-style set mechanics. I hated New Capenna and Karlov Manor for how unbalanced their offense/defense paradigm was, and I think Aetherdrift could very easily have fallen into the same foibles without its Caelornas and Interface Aces.

But it has certainly led to a world where it is hard work to try and build up max speed even when you curve out, and aggro decks without strong rare finishers have only a limited window to find their last points of damage before the tables are turned.

Perhaps that’s why it’s the most defensive-oriented, combat-agnostic archetypes which seem the most powerful and hotly-contested in my pods. The average power of creatures and removal is high, and there seems to be a lack of combat tricks or defensive counterspells which could set up devastating early blow-outs. So as we get into the two-color archetypes and their themes, just remember: Aetherdrift as a race is less sprint and more marathon.

ARCHETYPE BREAKDOWN

Aetherdrift Limited follows the classic two-color archetype structure, and I would expect nearly every deck to be in two colors, often with a small splash. There are actually three colors attached to each of the main mechanical themes, but the set’s mediocre fixing makes it hard to pull off a true three-color deck. 

Still, if I notice which theme I’m leaning towards with my two-color draft early on, then I’ll try and at least pick up any dual lands that bridge me to my third color as a high-priority pick, to keep my splashing options strong.

WU: AFFINITY MIDRANGE

Every color combination is playing artifacts in this set thanks to the vehicles, but none of the others care about those artifacts quite as much as UW. The color combo is clearly defined by access to four excellent scales-with-number-of-artifacts cards below rare: three excellent finishers (Guidelight Synergist, Gearseeker Serpent, and Memory Guardian) and the game-turning draw spell Voyage Home. 

Oftentimes drafting a good UW deck will be as simple as grabbing every one of these cards you see, and then rounding out with some copies of Interface Ace and Voyager Quickwelder to help bridge into that powerful late-game. Your goal is to clog up the board with stats to discourage attacks, then chip away with your big evasive beat-stick of choice until the race is won. The best color to splash here is likely black, since the UB artifact support synergies work perfectly alongside the UW ones.

WB: ATTRITION AGGRO

First off, I just want to shout out the flavor of this color pair and the “Amonkhet Champions” race team it represents. Mummified zombies (including zombie cats and birdfolk) driving magic-powered undead chariots in a race against Mad Max war rigs and space robots? The vibes are incredible – and you’ll need to hang onto that for a moment because I’m here to tell you this archetype just does not seem to be supported like a real deck you can succeed with. 

The closest thing the set has to a repeatable sacrifice outlet below rare is Wickerfolk Indomitable, and that is the only one. Likewise these colors only have a single non-rare which can spit out multiple tokens (Risen Necroregent) and it can only make one per turn in your end step. That feels unconscionable for a set where one of your “signpost uncommons” is modelled after Blood Artist, and the other is a reanimation spell that’s biased towards recurring cheap things! 

All you really have in WB is the lesser pieces of Esper’s artifact themes, and some great removal. I think that to end up in this pair you need to be getting excellent cards quality in both these colors specifically, AND not have any good blue cards to slot in.

UB: ARTIFACT CONTROL

In a set where attacking consistently is difficult and board stalls are common, having a gameplan which ignores blockers is one of the greatest luxuries. I think this is why UB is the deck every drafter seems hellbent on getting into – I haven’t seen either of its uncommons passed to me before pack three in over 10 drafts!

I don’t think all UB decks are automatically that much stronger than the rest. But if you do manage to stack up multiple Haunt the Network and enough removal to stymie any big threats, it can be as easy as locking up the board and waiting to draw into lethal artifact-based pings. If you don’t have enough firepower that way, then the ever-reliable Gearseeker Serpent gives you a second source of unblockable inevitability.

Black doesn’t have the best overall commons, but Engine Rat, Grim Bauble and Wreckage Wickerfolk do an excellent job of gumming up the early game. Cyclers, surveillers and Risky Shortcut should do enough to help you dig towards your wincons – or you can dip into white for the excellent Voyage Home and some additional on-theme threats.

WR: PILOT AGGRO

In my experience RW has been by far the best pure aggro deck in the format, relying on a few specialized uncommons and the wealth of strong 2- and 3-drops in these colors. Cloudspire Coordinator in particular seems to be just as high-ceiling as Haunt the Network, while (currently) being much easier to draft – a stream of free Pilot tokens is extremely impactful for this format and this archetype.

You’ll get best use out of your pilots (token or nontoken) by drafting both mounts and vehicles, but the overlap with UW artifact synergies means your vehicles are definitely the stars of the show. Being able to pump them up with Daring Mechanic and Reckless Velocitaur or give them keywords with Lotusguard Disciple and Canyon Vaulter will help you maintain the aggression even if the opponent starts to build up a board. Interface Ace is an amazing pickup for any vehicle-centric draft and will help you on both offense and defense.

Pedal to the Metal is a much better proposition than other combat tricks, due to how well First Strike can flip the combat math when you’re multi-blocked. You can splash either blue for artifact synergy or green for pilot synergy here – if you take the latter splash, Defend the Rider is another amazing trick.

UR: LOOTER TEMPO

These sky-pirates bring another very fun and novel archetype to Aetherdrift Limited, with the potential for hand-dumping aggression, measured control, or any tempo in between. Generally, the success and pace of your games will be determined by when you draw your discard payoffs, which let you go from “cycling to go deeper” to “cycling to win”. Magmakin Artillerist, Marauding Mako, Scrounging Skyray, and even Push the Limit (if you have enough vehicles to loot away and can survive to turn seven) are the crux of this archetype.

Obviously it’s a good idea to take cycling cards even more aggressively than you would otherwise – most of them are great spells anyway. But UR has enough ways to discard and draw that I’d be more worried about my draft ending up short on removal.

Red’s cheap burn spells are maybe the worst they’ve ever felt in Draft, between the vehicle interactions and how big the creatures you need to kill are. You should definitely still take the first copy or two, but I think it’s also necessary to look for less conditional answers like Flood the Engine and Trade the Helm. Crash and Burn and Gastal Blockbuster are decent pinch-hitters.

WG: MOUNT AGGRO

WG is in a somewhat confusing position with its mechanical themes. Green is the only color with more mounts than vehicles (white has equal numbers) and mounts seem to be the unique element that sets this pairing apart. But literally every mount support card in this set is also a vehicle support card, and vehicles also benefit from all white’s great artifacts-matter synergies. So you’ll end up picking both like in RW, but with a slight bias to vehicles if you grab a few Guidelight Synergist or Voyager Quickwelder.

One thing the higher mount count does offer is the chance to be straightforwardly aggressive early, and specifically to go wide. Not having to tap down potential attackers to crew (unless the saddle bonuses are worth it) makes it easier to force through damage on the ground, or to hold some blockers in reserve for the opponent’s turn. 

There’s some good long-game potential here: siege away with Unswerving Sloth, pump the team over the top with Veteran Beastrider and Daring Mechanic, or lean on your significant air force to whittle down their life points. But I still think your best plan is to grab as many Run Over and combat tricks as possible and push hard from the start – the buffs from saddling have a way of forcing opponents into risky multi-blocks you easily exploit.

RB: ATTRITION MIDRANGE

Like RW, this color pair is being billed as an aggro deck, specifically around the “max speed” mechanic. But as we covered above, max speed doesn’t really make your deck better at establishing aggression – it rewards you for already being able to do that. And if you can’t effectively push damage throughout the early-to-midgame (perhaps because your opponent played a 0/8 on turn two), then your most consistent gameplan for enabling your max speed cards is non-combat pings.

All of this means that RB falls back into its familiar, grindy “force trades and keep opponents from having enough creatures/cards to make choices” gameplan. This slower pace is actually reflected in the card design – your big uncommon payoffs for max speed are four- and five-costs that generate a resource advantage over time. 

Secondary payoffs include a double-red mana dork to bridge you to six-drops, and a hasty lifelinking five-mana flyer to help make comebacks. I really don’t think this should be considered an aggro archetype! Just draft as much removal as possible, and then lean towards whichever sub-theme presents itself: Hour of Victory can help make niche plans like Push the Limit more consistent, and you have good pieces to splash green (for graveyard stuff) or blue (for artifacts) with a few dual-lands.

BG: GRAVEYARD MIDRANGE

Our GB self-mill-and-reanimator deck is in the running for Aetherdrift’s deepest and most consistent Draft archetype, making this a nice fallback lane if you find yourself lacking direction in the back half of pack 1. Just start taking anything which mills or cares about graveyards, as well as excellent removal like Spin Out and Run Over, and you’ll have a playable pile in no time. The actual reanimation spells are nearly optional – they’re expensive enough that unless you’re recurring some busted rare, you’re not likely to see a huge immediate swing in board state.

What will get you an exciting tempo advantage is milling a bunch of cards into the yard by turn four and dropping a big Ooze Patrol and discounted Chitin Gravestalker! If you look at these cards as your payoffs (along with the insane card advantage of a fully-utilised Rise from the Wreck) you can build your gameplan around curving out, offering trades wherever possible, and overpowering the foe with your deeper reserves of big bodies.

There’s a lot of overlap with RB and WB attrition plans there, and I think both of those make excellent splashes. White does also help out with the reanimation theme, as Tune Up turning Thundering Broodwagon into a full-time creature for four mana does actually elevate that gameplan quite a lot.

UG: EXHAUST RAMP

The exhaust mechanic is spread fairly evenly across blue, red, and green, and the amount of specific synergy makes me consider this to be the format’s true three-color deck. But RG or especially UG also have the potential to stand alone, if that’s where most of your exciting cards are. A big part of this is Skyserpent Seeker, which does everything you could possibly want from a two-drop and can also win the game in combination with Elvish Refueler.

There are other very fun engines to play with as well (Rangers’ Refueller plus Elvish Refueler) but you don’t need to be as all-in on the unique mechanic stuff as say, UB. At a certain point this is just the deck with the biggest creatures and the best mana sinks, so if you’re able to find enough removal to stop your opponent’s best punches you’re probably going to out scale them in the long game. Blue in particular has some great defensive cards to help buy time while you ramp: Midnight Mangler, Caelorna, Coral Tyrant, and Howler’s Heavy (which I draft primarily as a combat trick).

Removal is again a slight issue as it is for blue across the format, and if you’re already having trouble stabilizing the slightly clunky cost of Flood the Engine means it may not do enough to plug that gap. Ride Down becomes even more priority as a result, and is often worth picking over anything but a good rare. 

RG: EXHAUST AGGRO

Like WB, I don’t know that I really believe in this as an archetype – especially in the way its been positioned. “More aggressive exhaust deck” is just a bit of an oxymoron, since you basically never want to trade your creatures before exhausting their abilities, and the costs of those abilities are usually significantly higher than the actual creature cost. I suppose in theory the exhaust abilities are meant to act like built-in combat tricks, where you can hold up mana through combat and then play something second main, but most of the time they don’t grow your creature enough to really change the math on blockers.

Instead, you end up having your goblin army stand around and discourage combat until you’re able to upgrade them, hopefully with a discount from Boom Scholar. Running vehicles can give you something aggressive to do in the meantime, and with enough combat tricks, burn spells, Run Over and Burner Rocket I can actually see some builds where you can consistently force through early kills. But the exhaust cards don’t really help with that (other than Greenbelt Guardian), and so I think you can basically consider “RG Aggro” and “Temur Exhaust” to be distinct archetypes. At least they’re both viable choices – which speaks to the overall card quality of green in particular this set.

IF YOU’RE NOT FIRST, YOU’RE LAST

It seems like a trend of late, but Aetherdrift has seemed to me a particularly brutal Limited set in terms of how fast the games can turn on you and how bad some of the draws can be. Wizards clearly had some good ideas on how to offset the inherent issues of a such a high vehicle count, but you are still going to be somewhat more likely to have draws where you can’t stick an actual creature card to the board and the opponent just runs you over while a vehicle or two idles uselessly on the sideline. Guidelight Matrix can only do so much once you start falling behind that badly.

However, the games in this set have felt more consistently close and competitive than in a lot of other formats, with fewer bombs that completely rip the game apart and a solid suite of removal to contest those which do. Even in the spots where my deck just blows up on the starting grid, I’ve found it only makes me more determined to dust myself off and get back behind the wheel for another round.

Hopefully, reading this draft guide has filled you with a similar need for the speed only Aetherdrift Limited can provide. I’ll see you all out there on the track – but only in my rear view mirror!

BONUS ROUND

Thanks for reading all the way to the end – here’s the top common/uncommon picks to look out for in Pack 1 which can fit into any archetype:

WHITE: Ride’s End, Interface Ace, Daring Mechanic, Gallant Strike, Detention Chariot

BLUE: Caelorna, Coral Tyrant, Trade the Helm, Diversion Unit, Midnight Mangler, Flood the Engine

BLACK: Spin Out, Chitin Gravestalker, Pactdoll Terror, Hellish Sideswipe, Wreckage Wickerfolk

RED: Pedal to the Metal, Endrider Spikespitter, Crash and Burn, Lightning Strike, Dracosaur Auxiliary

GREEN: Run Over, Earthrumbler, Defend the Rider, Greenbelt Guardian, Hazard of the Dunes

ARTIFACT: Aetherjacket, Ticket Tortoise, Scrap Compactor, Rover Blades, Marshal’s Pathcruiser