General [DFT] Aetherdrift

Collect Evidence should have just been called Collect or Research or something, because the mechanic itself is honestly pretty flexible. It also has the big advantage that you don't need extra gameplay trackers, unique tokens, or special frame treatments to reuse it. Mechanics like that feel surprisingly rare in this day and age.

I honestly wonder how different Magic would be if the design team had a hard limit of one new mechanic per set for a few years...
 
I think this will either be some sort of "Vehiclefall" mechanic, or something that cares about when you crew a vehicle. Perhaps it will be an ability word for "whenever you crew this vehicle?" I would say it's for "whenever you crew a vehicle," but I think that is less likely because there are also Mounts in the set. Either way, I think this is a fun space to explore in the Vehicle set!
Could be "whenever you crew a Vehicle OR saddle a Mount"? even though Mounts don't have engines... most of them
 
Investigate's more flexible than you give it credit for, there's at least two examples already where it isn't mystery-themed but makes perfect sense to me at least:
 
I don't actually think Investigate would have been keyworded if Shadows Over Innistrad had been released today: I think a big reason they did it that way was because they had never done a non-creature artifact token as a set theme before other than as a one-of thing in a given set.
 
They gave us a LOT of cards today. Here's some cool stuff and/or things that grognards like us will point and hoot and holler at:
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also they finished the Verge cycle.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
They gave us a LOT of cards today. Here's some cool stuff and/or things that grognards like us will point and hoot and holler at:
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Not gonna lie, Agonasaur does bring out the grognard in me. Like, why? This rate is still unplayable in constructed, and completely and absurdly stupid in limited. Trample too, so you can't even chump block it. You just cry when they drop this turn 4 off of a ramp spell.
 
Wow, looking through today's spoiler, I hate this set even more now than anticipated. Like, I wanna throw up. Sorry for this extreme negativity. But I feel like that's rock bottom. Even Spongebob will feel more at home in mtg.
dude honestly i dont wanna post anything about it in this thread because all i have to do is talk shit lmfao

this guy is cool though he can hang
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Wow, looking through today's spoiler, I hate this set even more now than anticipated. Like, I wanna throw up. Sorry for this extreme negativity. But I feel like that's rock bottom. Even Spongebob will feel more at home in mtg.
Ok

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This is one hell of a 2 drop! The abilities give you options throughout the curve.
Does Exhaust reset when blinked? I assume so since it would be a new copy of the card.

I really dig this card as well! Cool goblin. Hope there's some more exhaust cards on the cleaner side of the spectrum. It's like a delayed sort of kicker etb effect?
 
dude honestly i dont wanna post anything about it in this thread because all i have to do is talk shit lmfao
That's basically where I'm at. I have a lot of nuanced critiques about a lot of the cards, but it doesn't really matter. It can be an L set with a few cards of interest. That'll happen sometimes.

They showed a lot of vehicles today and I don't think that Wizards is very good at designing vehicles. Hopefully we get some more cool artifact synergy cards later. Artifact Pod is a decent example of what we can hope for. It's cool to cheat the MV with affinity.
 
Wow, looking through today's spoiler, I hate this set even more now than anticipated. Like, I wanna throw up. Sorry for this extreme negativity. But I feel like that's rock bottom. Even Spongebob will feel more at home in mtg.
Yeah, I'm not really sure what they're doing with some of the cards in this set. For the last few sets, every other card feels like it's unserious in the same tier as Werebear or Gorilla Titan. The really weird part to me about Aetherdrift is that they did a ton of awesome worldbuilding for Avishkar, Amonkhet, and Muraganda, but then they aren't showing us that in favor of trite stuff like Hulldrifter.

I think some of this perception may be colored by the fact that I just don't like the "Start your Engines!" mechanic. I think it makes players wait a long time before it does anything interesting, and has a higher complexity level than is desirable for something with its overall impact. I wouldn't necessarily call it a bad mechanic (it's basically the "damaging your opponent" version of Ascend), but it's not cool enough to justify its own inclusion outside of something very specific.

Having said that, I think there is still a lot of "normal Magic" in this set. There are a few cards that I think I will probably end up testing or including. The Aetherspark looks especially cool.
 
Not gonna lie, Agonasaur does bring out the grognard in me. Like, why? This rate is still unplayable in constructed, and completely and absurdly stupid in limited. Trample too, so you can't even chump block it. You just cry when they drop this turn 4 off of a ramp spell.
Dude, I love this card; it is the Timmiest card ever. Like, this is one of the cards from today that I know I'm going to seek out and test for my Cube. Uncounterable pump spell that can also be an 8/8 for 5? That's awesome!
 

Chris Taylor

Contributor
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I like this. Little bit of synergy upside, nice payoff, and it's probably smother (fetchlands) in a deck that doesn't care which is a fine floor.

I've been running Ghastly Demise for a while which I like, but I don't love the nonblack restriction and there is something to be said for a 1 mana instant speed killspell that works on people's curve toppers, even if you've gotta put in work for it.

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This is a nice goober. There's a good amount of play to the first ability, and the 2nd ability is a nice post hoc kicker.

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Take me home! West Virginia...
Anyways. That token is hilarious.
This is a fine bailout clause for a land, but this aint it.

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There's a lot of extra text on this, but it's still a Savannah Lions with an ability you can use when it's not attacking, and also cycling.
Your additive distraction may vary, but also maybe this is protecting the odd cat in your cube.

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I'm not on Aristocrats anymore, but a 2 mana no questions asked sac outlet (once per turn sure) plus maybe one day a payoff? I could be interested.
Max Speed being as slow as it is (ironically) means I'd consider this just on the level of like figure of destiny level 3

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Interesting card. 2 mana is a pretty cheap karnstruct but it's always boltable so this is pretty manageable.
Again that max speed thing is almost never going to come up, but it's a really interesting carrot

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Now don't get me wrong: this seems really sweet. The tokens being tapped and grounded (as opposed to drake haven) is a big deal, but also just being a reasonable vehicle goes a long way

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Someone's been waiting for this for years I guarantee it

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Also just to pile on everyone's least favorite baby yoda gremlin, this card makes me laugh in that I see what they were going for, and it doesn't quite land :p
Like yes, my favorite 3 cards from Alpha: Lightning Bolt, Ancestral Recall, and ....Green Lotus?
Also neat that they tried to give him a keyword from each color, ya?
You know, red double strike, and...green haste (okay sure they do that) and blue vigilance? (Shit)
 
As someone who Exhaust should be perfect for (2 and 3 drops with abilities that fill in the mana curve? Those are my jam!)... I dunno. It feels like it's yet another mechanic that adds a memory burden for minimal real advantage - contrast it with kicker, which is generally one-and-done.

Also seems like a big whiplash after . Apparently the deal he struck was "do wacky races for the fear dimmins"? Huh?
 
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This is a nice goober. There's a good amount of play to the first ability, and the 2nd ability is a nice post hoc kicker.
I posted about this guy on Bluesky; I think he's very cool. The sort of thing I wanted from this set lol.

I actually really like Exhaust. It works as a nice midpoint between ETBs and "spellshaper" type effects.

Also, two-drop which makes dragons is one of my favorite genders.
 
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Also just to pile on everyone's least favorite baby yoda gremlin, this card makes me laugh in that I see what they were going for, and it doesn't quite land :p
Like yes, my favorite 3 cards from Alpha: Lightning Bolt, Ancestral Recall, and ....Green Lotus?
Also neat that they tried to give him a keyword from each color, ya?
You know, red double strike, and...green haste (okay sure they do that) and blue vigilance? (Shit)

The third ability is from the same cycle but it is the black one.



Card is kind of cool but also kind of a mess.
 
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