It's that time again. Spoiler season is back in full effect, and this time we get to look at Aetherdrift. I never thought I'd see MTG and Nascar intersect, but here we are.
Let's take a quick look at some of the previewed cards and mechanics, both old and new.
The Aetherspark
Right out the gate, let's look at a new concept: Planeswalker Equipment. This card is extremely interesting and, in some cases, very powerful.
For example, let's say you can play The Aetherspark and activate its +1 ability on a four-power creature. That creature gets a counter, connects for five, and now The Aetherspark has 10 counters. Additionally, it's unable to be attacked, so not only will you have to kill the creature equipped to attack The Aetherspark, but you'll have to have a battlefield presence as well.
After the connect for five, The Aetherspark will conveniently have 10 counters on it, allowing you to cash it in for 10 mana. Combined with mana sinks or whatever else, this could be game over.
That's the best case. The worst case is the creature you try to equip eats removal, and your Aetherspark gets put out by a creature or two on the opponent's battlefield. Unfortunately, I think this will be the most likely scenario, and The Aetherspark will get knocked out far more times than its true purpose is met.
While it's an interesting and innovative design, I think this will go down in history as the first Equipment Planeswalker and not much more than that.
Hazoret, Godseeker
A new version of Hazoret dropped, and with it, another new mechanic called Start your engines!
Start your engines! is an interesting, easy mechanic to understand, but it feels awfully similar to the Ring Tempts or Dungeon mechanic. It works like this: you play a card with Start your engines! You get a speed counter and an additional counter, one per turn, if you're able to damage your opponent during each of your turns. The max speed is 4.
Once you hit max speed, as you can see with Hazoret, you unlock the card's full potential and turn it into a two-mana 5/3 indestructible haste creature.
As-is, Hazoret looks weak. It's best suited in a low-curve aggro deck that can damage the opponent repeatedly and consistently. While it's self-enabling because it can make creatures unblockable, the card is too slow and clunky for the types of decks it would shine in.
I don't think Hazoret has what it takes to see Constructed play, but there's a chance the indestructible body finds its way as a one-of in aggressive low-curve decks that want a two-mana indestructible threat. I could see it happening in something like a Burn deck post-board in specific circumstances where they need a recurring source of damage or something to that effect. In general though, this looks to be far from a staple Mythic.
I don't love the mechanic, but I'll have to play with it a bit to see how I feel.
Loot, the Pathfinder
Loot brings us yet another new mechanic, Exhaust, which I like quite a bit. Exhaust is an activated ability you can only activate once.
With Loot, we get something of a new Dark Ritual but any color mana, an Ancestral Recall, and a Lightning Bolt.
Loot looks powerful. While it's not so good that you need to build around it, if there's already a Temur deck that wants a top-end threat, Loot can fill that role nicely. At six mana, you slam Loot, attack for four, and hold up a Simic dual for example, which can then be used to either draw three cards in the end step or hold up three mana for a potential piece of interaction.
Loot is versatile. This card looks good even at five mana. All cards at this mana cost have to do a lot to see play, but Loot looks strong enough to cross that horizon.
Loot is my favorite card so far in the set, but that's probably because I'm a Boomer who had a lot of fun casting Ancestral Recalls and activating Arcanis the Omnipotent.
Basri, Tomorrow's Champion
Basri, Tomorrow's Champion is next in the long line of power crept Savannah Lions. Basri feels a lot like Usher of the Fallen but a little better. He brings back the mechanic Exert, which wasn't my favorite mechanic at the time, but in retrospect, it was fun to play with since it gave the player some choices on how to use their creature rather than making automatic plays with them.
Basri can attack for two, or when the opponent can mount defenses, and continue producing value-creating Cat tokens. In addition, Basri, as a legendary creature, has a cycling ability to protect the tokens it creates. However, a redundant copy doesn't protect itself.
There's not much to say about Basri other than it is a role player. I'm sure we'll see it in decks in some capacity for the foreseeable future because it's a legendary Savanah Lions.
Basri can be put in mono-white aggro decks, much like you'd see a copy of Kytheon, or in decks trying to exploit Mox Amber. Regardless, Basri will see some play, but it's nothing groundbreaking, just a solid one-drop.
Oildeep Gearhulk
It looks as if we have a new cycle of Gearhulks coming to MTG. While these have varied mana costs, they don't seem that strong yet. Let's look at Oildeep Gearhulk.
Oildeep Gearhulk is only four mana, but specifically, two pips of both blue and back mana make it difficult to cast. It has a similar ability to Vendilion Clique, however rather than putting the card on the bottom of the deck, the chosen card is discarded, meaning it can also be used as a discard outlet in a reanimation-style deck with a self-target while having the ability to interact with the opponent's hand in a meaningful way.
Oildeep Gearhulk's lifelink and ward 1 give it just enough to maybe see some play. Otherwise, it seems weak. Lifelink on a large body, specifically in this color pair, may give it enough utility to combat aggressive decks since Dimir is often low on life gain.
It's possible I'm underestimating how valuable the ability to protect itself is, as you can force your opponent to discard a removal spell they may be holding up. Still, I'm low on Oildeep Gearhulk at the moment.
Gearhulks are fun to play with, and I suspect this cycle will be no different.
The one word I'd use to describe Aetherdrift so far is interesting. The mechanics don't appeal to me, but I'm hoping they're more fun in practice than on paper.
I'm curious about the set's play patterns and overall power level, as there are tons of cards with lots of words already, but none of them have popped yet. I'm sure there are a few sleepers, and next week we'll dig deeper to see if we can find any diamonds in the rough. See you then.
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