‘Magic: The Gathering Aetherdrift’ — a mechanically coherent, thematically messy set vrooms ahead – WBUR News

AdvertisementA 1980s horror mashup. Cowboys, outlaws and renegade “cactusfolk” at high noon. A polymath detective ripped from “Sherlock Holmes” solving the murder of a ghostly syndicate boss.“Magic: The Gathering” is no stranger to high-concept pastiche — but since 2024, fans have cruised through a virtually nonstop carnival tour. Formally releasing Feb. 14, “Aetherdrift” — by turns “Mario Kart,” “Mad Max” and “Twisted Metal” — slams headlong into nearly every racing trope imaginable.I’ve been playing this trading card game since its comparatively sober origins in the 1990s, when “Arabian Nights” was the closest it came to crossing over with other “intellectual property.” While I often champion the campy and absurd, I’m on the fence about the visual cacophony of “Aetherdrift.”With its cute robots, shark-men and whizbang goblins, it resembles 2017’s “Unstable” — a set marketed as a joke, far from the hallowed “Magic” canon. That product felt like a welcome reprieve from serious stories about eldritch abominations and sinister Elder Dragons. Now that looniness has become the norm, it feels as thematically shallow as lucrative tie-ins with “Assassin’s Creed” or “Spider-Man.”“Aetherdrift” does share another thing with “Unstable,” however — a surprising depth as a draft format. Gamemaker Wizards of the Coast invited me to test it this week through a “Magic: The Gathering Arena” digital preview. While riotous fusions may undercut the set’s visual identity, the same philosophy applied to mechanics produces dizzying results.Start your engines!“Magic,” fundamentally, is a race. You win when you’ve ticked your opponent down to zero life — or when they’ve run out of a deck to draw. “Aetherdrift” provides one more way to quicken this process. Cards with “Start your engines!” (yes, the ‘!’ is in the rules text) start in first gear and then notch up the first time an opponent loses life on your turn. The fourth gear (which you reach in a minimum of three turns), grants you “Max speed” and benefits ranging from the paltry to game-winning.Sometimes, “Max speed” merely enables you to exile creatures from your graveyard to draw cards. Sometimes it gives you a free 2/2 zombie every turn. Other times, it transforms a modest aggressor like Burnout Bashtronaut into a time bomb. While White-Black versions of the deck overwhelm with tokens and generate steady value, Black-Red iterations can kneecap you by turn five — trust me, I’ve lost more times to Gastal Thrillseekers and Mutant Surveyors than I’d care to admit.AdvertisementPerhaps foolishly, I’ve gravitated to the other marquee mechanic: “Exhaust.” Most creatures with the mechanic as well may sport the “Monstrous” keyword from “Theros”: Once, and only once, you can pay a hefty mana-cost to buff them up with +1/+1 counters. But Blue-Green Exhausters often come with more exciting effects.Skyserpent Seeker has seduced me into this archetype three times. It’s small, but good on offense, great on defense, and can supply two lands from your deck for the low, low Exhaust cost of 4 mana. Unfortunately, it can still struggle to win the race, even when paired with the excellent Ranger’s Aetherhive and Elvish Refueler. While I want to relive mana-rich heights of the Quandrix archetype from “Strixhaven,” “Aetherdrift” doesn’t offer as many payoffs for the greedy.The set does, however, boast other tweaks and evolutions. “Aetherdrift” abounds in innovative vehicles and even reprises the “Affinity” mechanic that once terrorized competitive play. Mummified zombies and Egyptian-style Gods from “Amonkhet” return, which I’ll eagerly stuff into my Mythology-inspired cube. The set might be a mixed bag, but it’s got enough tricks to stave off my cynicism.But such wary optimism may not hold as “Magic” careens through a year defined by crossovers with “Final Fantasy,” “Spider-Man” and even “Spongebob.” Talk to me again when we’ve reached 2025’s finish line.James Perkins Mastromarino Producer, Here & NowJames Perkins is an associate producer for Here & Now, based at NPR in Washington, D.C.More…AdvertisementAdvertisement

Source: https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/02/07/magic-the-gathering-aetherdrift