If you’re looking for a unique commander to build your next deck around, then look no further than Aetherdrift. This lighting-fast Magic: The Gathering set has tons of great creatures to experiment with, taking old mechanics to new heights with some tricky creatures.
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Every Card Revealed For Magic: The Gathering’s Aetherdrift
Start your engines and take in the fumes with Magic: The Gathering’s Aetherdrift.
Among the legendary creatures in Aetherdrift, there are new mechanics, speedy casting costs, and gods that have never before been seen in the game. If you’re curious about who the top-tier commanders are, we’ve got you covered.
5
Kolodin, Triumph Caster
Do The Akira Slide
Both vehicles and mounts get a huge boost in power when they’re in a deck with Kolodin, Triumph Caster in the lead. This red and white creature costs just two mana, so it is coming down quickly and often, even if your opponents have removal ready for it.
All your mounts and vehicles gain haste with Kolodin out in play, letting them attack the turn they come down, assuming you can crew the vehicles. The other part of Kolodin’s ability is that when either one of those card types enters the battlefield, they automatically become either mounted or crewed, whichever is most appropriate. If you’re able to keep blinking those cards turn after turn, you can keep resetting them so Kolodin automatically sees them enter the battlefield and gets them ready to attack once again.
4
Loot, The Pathfinder
Three Classics Return
There is a lot going on with Loot, the Pathfinder. This little fella costs five mana in all to cast, which is a little higher than what you might expect, but the tradeoff is pretty darn good. Loot comes loaded with three keywords and three abilities, and all of them are great.
Loot gets double strike, vigilance, and haste, making it a massive threat as soon as it comes into play. If you have a little bit of spare mana, you can use Loot’s remaining three abilities to get an incredible amount of value.
You can:
- Spend one green mana to get three mana of any one color.
- Spend one blue mana to draw three cards.
- Spend one red mana to deal three damage to anything.
You have to exhaust each of those abilities when you use them, so it is just a one-time use with each one. However, you can blink Loot or find some other way to reset him so you can keep activating whichever ability you need most.
3
Mendicant Core, Guidelight
Copy Everything
A cheap commander perfect for an artifact-based deck, Mendicant Core, Guidelight is a fantastic little Robot that can do a ton of work in a game. When it comes into play you start your engines, getting you going on the speed track. Once out, Mendicant’s power is equal to the number of artifacts you control, which can quickly spiral out of control with the number of artifacts you can easily generate, especially Treasure tokens.
Hitting max speed means you unlock a new ability for Mendicant. Anytime you cast an artifact spell while you have max speed, you can pay one genetic mana to copy it. If you copy a permanent, that copy automatically becomes a token when it enters, so keep that in mind. You’re going to want to have a healthy amount of cards that can sneak past your opponent’s defenses so you can rev your speed up a bit, so some evasion like flying is perfect for a Mendicant deck.
2
Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied
The Simic God
Luxa itself has come down to join the races, and it has some pretty unique abilities. This God has three keywords, reach, trample, and indestructible, which are all great and can cause problems all on their own. Past those, however, Sab-Sunen can’t attack or block unless it has an even number of counters on it. They don’t have to be just +1/+1 counters, but counters of any kind.
Once your first main phase starts on a turn, you get to put a counter on Sab-Sunen, helping to tick up the God so you can either keep attacking or hold off. If you happen to be on a turn with an odd number of counters on the God, you get to draw two cards, which is huge in Commander.
1
Ketramose, The New Dawn
The Fast And The Immortal
Easily one of the most popular new legendary creatures from Aetherdrift is the white and black god of Ketramose, the New Dawn. This three-mana God has menace, lifelink, and the everpresent indestructible that most other God creatures share. Much like Sab-Sunen, Ketramose can’t attack or block unless there are seven or more cards in exile split across all players.
Once a card moves on from the graveyard or the battlefield straight to exile, you get to draw a card and lose a life, which is a fair trade-off.
The main appeal to Ketramose is that very cheap casting cost and relative ease of exiling cards in your commander deck which means you’ll have the God online more often than now.
Magic: The Gathering
- Franchise
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Magic: The Gathering
- Original Release Date
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August 5, 1993
- Player Count
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2+
- Age Recommendation
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13+
- Length per Game
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Variable