Aetherdrift

Magic: The Gathering

Aetherdrift is the 103rd Magic expansion and was released on February 14, 2025. It is a multiplanar twist on the racing genre.

Aetherdrift is the 103rd Magic expansion and was released on February 14, 2025. It is a multiplanar twist on the racing genre.

Set details

The set was first teased during the 2023 Announcement Day panel at Gen Con where it was revealed that it would feature a Death Race across three planes. Two of the featured planes are planes from premier sets that have not been revisited since their debut (Avishkar and Amonkhet). The third plane is an existing location that has never been featured as a premier set before. Mark Rosewater calls it a "travelogue set". While the mechanics are more focused on the race, the individual card designs are more focused on the scenery.

The death race idea had been in discussion for over a decade. It was the Omenpath idea (travel through multiple worlds) that finally helped it get made. Some of its inspirations were Death Race 2000, Speed Racer, Wacky Races, and The Fast and the Furious. The genre entails not just a race where people race cars, but there is activity where people sabotage one another. Winning is as much about removing the competition as being the fastest.

Aetherdrift contains 291 regular cards (91 commons, 100 uncommons, 60 rares, 20 mythic rares, 20 basic lands), and includes randomly inserted traditional foil versions of all cards. The regular set includes full-art "Driver's Seat" basic lands (#271-276). Alternate card frames have a different card number than the original version. Borderless cards are #292-376 ("revved up" is #292-332) and extended art cards are #377-396. Japan Showcase cards in traditional foil are #397-406 and in fracture foil #407-416. Promo cards are numbered #417-426. Yellow borderless first-place foil cards are #427-516. Yellow borderless "Revved-up" cards (featuring a racer and their ride) are #517-531. First-place foil borderless "rude riders" (showing off the racing machines and racing steeds) are #532-545 and the 8 mythic rare borderless "Graffiti Giants" cards (five Gearhulks and three Amonkheti Gods in graffiti style) are #546-553.

Storyline

Aetherdrift follows Chandra Nalaar as she competes in the Ghirapur Grand Prix, a death-defying interplanar circuit race across Amonkhet, Avishkar and Muraganda. The racers come from near and far, the competition is fierce and the stakes are high, as her objective is the incredible prize only given to the race's champion: the Aetherspark.

The set is the third in the Dragonstorm Arc. The cards that represent the Story Spotlights in Aetherdrift are:

MagicStory

Marketing

Aetherdrift is available in Play Boosters, Collector Boosters, two Commander decks, the Aetherdrift Bundle and the special "Finish Line" Bundle. The booster box for Play Boosters is reduced from 36 to 30 boosters.

Play Boosters may contain DFT #1–375 and SPG #84–93. A foil mythic borderless Graffiti Giants card appears in <1% of the boosters. Collector Boosters may contain DFT #1–276, #292–416; #DRC 1–4, DRC #21–36 and SPG #84–93. Japan Showcase cards and Serialized Aethersparks appear in <1% of Collector Boosters. First-place foils appear only in Box Topper packs, which are included in Aetherdrift Play Booster boxes, Collector Booster boxes, and Finish Line Bundles.

The special "Finish Line" Edition of the Bundle consists of two Collector Boosters and six Play Boosters. It includes five full-art "Driver's Seat" basic lands in "first-place foil". It also includes one "first-place" foil Box Topper pack, five stickers (one for each mana color), a checkered flag oversized spindown life counter, and three extended alternate art Bundle promo cards.

Special Guests

Aetherdrift features 10 Special Guests (SPG #84-93). These may be found in Play Boosters and may be played in Limited games. You'll find a non-foil Special Guests card in 1 out of 64 Play Boosters (1.5%). Traditional foil Special Guests cards can be found in Collector Boosters (4.2% to replace the traditional foil Booster Fun rare or mythic rare card). The Special Guests for this set have cards and illustrations hand-picked by the Secret Lair team. These unique treatments are designed to embody the multiplanar chaos of Aetherdrift.

Japan Showcase

Aetherdrift features 10 Japan Showcase cards (DFT #399-TBA). Each card has been reimagined by Japanese artists and illustrators and have a special frame and style that pays homage to Japanese hobby shops. Unlike Special Guests they use the standard Aetherdrift set code and expansion symbol (). Japan Showcase cards appear only in Collector Boosters. In Japanese Collector Boosters, Japan Showcase cards will always be in Japanese. In non-Japanese Collector Boosters, they will appear in English two thirds of the time and in Japanese one third of the time. One-in-ten Collector Boosters will have a Japan Showcase card (9% traditional foil, 1% fracture foil).

Box Toppers

Aetherdrift Booster boxes each include a 2-card Box Topper pack containing 1 of 10 "first-place foil" full-art basic lands and 1 of 127 first-place foil cards.

Headliner

The Headliner for this set is The Aetherspark, which also will show up in a Serialized version.

Events

Prerelease: February 7 – February 13, 2025
MTG Arena Release: February 11, 2025
Magic Academy Events: February 14 – April 3, 2025
Standard Showdown: February 14 – April 3, 2025
Friday Night Magic: February 14 – March 28, 2025
Commander Party: February 21–27 / March 14–20, 2025
Store Championship: March 8–30, 2025

Promos

Prerelease: a stamped card that can be any rare or mythic rare of Aetherdrift.
- The seasonal dark-frame promos are: Tune Up, Gastal Raider, Marauding Mako, Skyserpent Seeker, Voyage Home.
Buy-a-Box: alternate art Lifecraft Engine.
Bundle promo: alternate art .
Store Championship: alternate art Deep-Cavern Bat (participation), Preacher of the Schism (Top 8), and Virtue of Persistence (winner).
Commander Party: retro frame Rishkar's Expertise.
Standard Showdown: Lightning Strike with Cowboy Bebop crossover art.

Tokens, emblems and markers

Aetherdrift has 12 tokens, an emblem, and a marker.

1/1 Pilot creature with "This token saddles Mounts and crews Vehicles as though its power was 2 greater." for Back on Track; Cloudspire Coordinator; Country Roads; Defend the Rider; Foul Roads; Reef Roads; Risen Necroregent; Roadside Assistance; Rocky Roads; Valor’s Flagship; and Wild Roads.
1/1 Cat creature with lifelink for Basri, Tomorrow's Champion.
2/2 Zombie creature for Cryptcaller Chariot; Embalmed Ascendant; Hour of Victory; Risen Necroregent and Zahur, Glory’s Past.
4/4 Dinosaur Dragon creature with flying for Draconautics Engineer.
1/1 Goblin creature for Howlsquad Heavy.
3/3 Elephant creature for Autarch Mammoth; March of the World Ooze and Stampeding Scurryfoot.
1/1 Insect creature for Aatchik, Emerald Radian.
1/1 Servo artifact creature for Nesting Bot.
1/1 Thopter artifact creature with flying for Broadcast Rambler; Haunt the Network; Nimble Thopterist; Rangers' Aetherhive and Thopter Fabricator.
Treasure artifact for Gilded Ghoda; Gonti, Night Minister; Monument to Endurance and Rocketeer Boostbuggy.
3/2 Vehicle artifact with crew 1 for Chandra, Spark Hunter and Mu Yanling, Wind Rider.
Emblem for Chandra, Spark Hunter.
Start Your Engines! // Max Speed double-faced helper card.

Themes and mechanics

Vehicles are a big feature in the set. Mounts and saddle also return from Outlaws of Thunder Junction.

A major mechanic, acting as a resource, is Speed, controlled primarily by the Start your engines! ability. Your speed starts at 1, and it increases by 1 the first time an opponent loses life on each of your turns. The maximum possible speed is 4, and many cards reward achieving max speed.

A new keyword action is Exhaust, which appears on activated abilities of permanents of various types. A given exhaust ability can only be activated once.

Cycling returns to act as a smoothing mechanic, and synergizes with some cards in the set that reward discarding cards or having a full graveyard.

Cameo mechanics from Kaladesh block and Amonkhet block, as well as synergy with vanilla creatures (referencing Muraganda Petroglyphs), are all present in small amounts to flavorfully accent the planes on which the race is staged.

Card types

Aetherdrift introduces the Seal creature type. Robot is used for the first time in-universe. This is because the Guidelight Voyagers are all made fully of metal and animated by programming, rather than magic like most Constructs.

Limited archetypes

Aetherdrift features the following limited archetypes. Each color pair represents a team participating in the Ghirapur Grand Prix for the Aetherspark. Among the teams are Goblins, Insects and Zombies. They are not all divided by creature type. The division is much more about mood and tone, with a number coming from a specific plane.