MTG’s Aetherdrift Feels Worse Thanks To Universes Beyond

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home February 15, 2025 8 Views 7 Min Read
MTG's Aetherdrift Feels Worse Thanks To Universes Beyond



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Summary

  • Aetherdrift is a disappointing ‘hat set’ that struggles to deliver memorable cards with low power.
  • In a year filled with crossovers, Aetherdrift’s irreverence highlights the need for more impactful in-universe sets.
  • Not every set needs to be full of wink-wink nudge-nudge.

It’s tough not to feel down on Magic: The Gathering’s Aetherdrift. While I wasn’t especially excited for a racing-themed set, I also wasn’t as vehemently against it as some corners of the community. It returns to three settings I enjoy, features characters I love, and boasts more than a few cards that catch my eye.

But Aetherdrift feels like a set Wizards doesn’t have the room to release any more. In a year dominated by crossover sets, having a release this irreverent and self-aware stings more than it ever would have before.

A Race To The Bottom

Haunted Hellride by Olivier Bernard.
Haunted Hellride by Olivier Bernard

Aetherdrift is the latest in a long line of what the community derisively calls ‘hat sets’. A set that heavily plays into tropes of a genre it doesn’t normally explore, we’ve had a lot in the last year, with the underwhelming Murders at Karlov Manor and Outlaws of Thunder Junction tackling murder mystery and Westerns respectively, before Duskmourn came along a few months later to put its own spin on modern horror.

The newest set takes on all things racing, with everything from Wacky Races to The Fast and the Furious to Nascar being lampooned. The result is a set that has an unfortunate mix of a very out-there visual theme and fairly low power, forgettable cards. It’s not bad – the limited environment is fun, and the story was far better than it had any right to be – but it is definitely more along the lines of Karlov Manor and Thunder Junction than the better-received Duskmourn.

Rangers' Aetherhive by Josiah Jo Cameron.
Rangers’ Aetherhive by Josiah Jo Cameron

In any other year, Aetherdrift would have been an awkward whiff that we got over quickly before moving on to bigger and better things. For instance, a few years ago we had Streets of New Capenna toy with art deco aesthetics in a gangster-ridden world. Like Aetherdrift, it wasn’t a bad set, it just didn’t live up to the smash-hit all-timer status of the two sets sandwiching it, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and Dominaria United.

New Capenna is actually one of my favourite planes in Magic, but it’s hard to deny the set itself was a bit naff.

Every Magic Set Needs To Count

Bulwark Ox rude rider

Aetherdrift is unfortunate, as it’s launching at a time where every in-universe Magic set needs to be a certified banger. Last year, Wizards announced that half of all releases will now be Universes Beyond crossovers, and this year will see Final Fantasy, Spider-Man, and absolutely definitely not Avatar: The Last Airbender get fully fledged sets.

Universes Beyond is already pushing the envelope on what a Magic set can look like, so for an in-universe one like Aetherdrift to also do it and not stick the landing feels like more of a wasted opportunity than when New Capenna or the 2021 Innistrad sets flopped.

Ezio Auditore da Firenze by Luisa J. Priessler
Ezio Auditore da Firenze by Luisa J. Priessler

Universes Beyond is here to stay. Head designer Mark Rosewater has said time and time again that crossovers are the best-selling products, and the crossovers we’ve already had have ranged from the good Assassin’s Creed and Doctor Who to the incredible Lord of the Rings and Warhammer 40K. I have no problem with Universes Beyond being here, but the few in-universe sets we still get need to be better than Aetherdrift.

In 2018, Wizards did away with the block model that grouped up releases to have a good chunk of the year spent on a single setting. Instead, we went to the three-and-one model, which gives each set its own self-contained story in a different world. Part of the reason for this was a setting players didn’t resonate with would no longer swallow up a whole year, and instead we’d be somewhere new in a matter of months.

Boommobile by Alexandr Leskinen.
Boommobile by Alexandr Leskinen

By having half the year be crossovers, the same problem is back. We may only be with Aetherdrift for one set, but it now takes up a much higher percentage of in-universe Magic content, and it feels like a harder pill to swallow.

We have three in-universe releases this year. One of them has already been lost to Speed Racer references, and it’s possible (or, more pessimistically, likely) that Edge of Eternities will lose itself in the sauce of space-faring Star Trek and Star Wars nods. That leaves Tarkir: Dragonstorm as the only set this year we can be reasonably confident won’t feel like Ernest Cline’s barfed all over it.

Please, Stop Experimenting And Just Give Us Zendikar

Zendikar Rising key art by Piotr Jura, showing floating islands.
Zendikar Rising key art by Piotr Jura

The sad fact of the matter is Wizards has put itself in a position where it can’t afford to experiment with its settings anymore. The Magic multiverse is explored too infrequently for those sets to then be imagining how Formula 1 would look on Muraganda. We need less Streets of New Capennas and more Dominaria Uniteds – sets that take tried and true settings and do them justice.

Wizards has had too many misses over the last year for it to be spending precious time adapting another oddball genre, when it could just be taking us back to Tarkir, Ravnica, or Dominaria. It means we’re less likely to get excellent new settings like Bloomburrow or the reimagined Kamigawa, but until the crossover hype dies down and Magic can get back to its own multiverse, it’s a price I’m hoping Wizards is willing to pay.

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