Aetherdrift - A cEDH Set Review | Commander's Herald

White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | Artifacts & Lands | Allied & Shards | Enemy & Wedges | cEDH | Reprints | Pauper/Budget

A cross-plane death race has arrived to Magic: The Gathering, and you're in it pal! The set is full of high-speed characters and cards, but do any of them clear the bar to get played in the highest octane cEDH decks? In short, it's slim pickings here in a set so focused on its not-that-powerful-mechanics in Vehicles, Mounts, exhaust, & Vanilla-Matters-A-Little-Bit. BUT, we've got a Birthing Pod

for artifacts, Jace's master plan that may trick players, too, some Gearhulks, and plenty more to take a look at, so let's do our last maintenance checks and wait for the green flag!

White

Skyseer's Chariot

This set is very slim pickings for white, at least by my reckoning, with this being the only one that remotely jumped out to me. In a meta full of powerful activated abilities both outside and inside the command zone (Kinnan and Thrasios, I'm looking at you), having access to effects to slow them down becomes more and more attractive.

We don't have a shortage of cards that affect your opponents in this way, but Skyseer's Chariot

being an artifact rather than a creature can dodge some of the removal that destroy similar cards that people have put into their white Stax/Hatebear decks in the past. Play Disruptor Flute

before this though. Hey, if you can get swinging with the 3/3 flying mode too, that can be relevant.

However, if you're really worried about Kinnan and Co., you should be playing stuff like Cursed Totem

first... unless you're playing a commander that desperately needs to use activated abilities itself, in which case, sure, maybe Skyseer's Chariot

(or Pithing Needle

) is the solution to all of your problems.

Blue

Unstoppable Plan

is the baby little Seedborn Muse

that could... maybe. Is it worth the slot in many, or any, blue decks?

Let's break down the benefits -

It's affordable. Three mana, only one of which is a pip, is a relatively low cost for this kind of effect. Obviously, getting to untap all of your nonland permanents on your end step means that that three mana may even be "free," in that you will be untapping your mana rock or dorks used to cast it. Your creatures also have psuedo vigiliance while this is on the battlefield, if that's relevant.
It untaps all of your mana rocks once per turn cycle.
That's it?

There aren't exactly "downsides" to discuss, as the card doesn't have any technical ones, but this does feel like a lot of mana to pay for something that won't even do you the pleasure of untapping your lands along with your nonland permanents. Seedborn Muse

this is not. I've seen people discussing this as a Kinnan-playable; so what, you can activate Kinnan one or two more times? I feel like spending three mana (and a card slot, for that matter) on this in a Kinnan list is simply not worth the small, situational power boost that it could provide.

I think the most real use case for this is in a turbo Necropotence

deck that's looking to win with Flash effects in their own end steps. Those are pretty common these days, right? Dockside Extortionist

being banned has removed one of the easiest "I win" mana sources for these attempts, leaving them desperate for more options than hoping to draw enough additional cheap (or free) mana rocks and rituals off their mass of Necro draws.

Unstoppable Plan

helps with this issue by untapping your existent rocks (which you already have to have in play for this card to be remotely good!), giving you that sweet sweet mana to get a win off with.

This is, of course, assuming a perfect scenario in a genre of decks that already are tight enough on card slots to cut some of the best cards in the format from their 98 because, well, they don't need them. I don't see Unstoppable Plan

making it into anyone's decks, anywhere, a year from now.

Repurposing Bay

While I can't see many people playing Unstoppable Plan

in the far future, Repurposing Bay

is a bit different in there are obvious decks (Tivit, Urza) that will be interested in Repurposing Bay

now, but I also could easily see it being a key roleplayer in a game-winning combo or high-value line going forward as well. Heck, even now, Kinnan decks could include this and Corridor Monitor

to turn any one-mana artifact (of which the deck has no shortage) into a Basalt Monolith

with very few easy interaction points. That'll win games!

However, that is still reliant upon a deck-specific combo; I can see a much more deck-agnostic future for Repurposing Bay

. It is missing an important part of its obvious counterpart in Birthing Pod

- the Phyrexian mana costs - but I can't help but feel that the ability to tutor our a presumptive Very Broken Three-Drop Artifact in the future has to be interesting to SOMEONE! At the end of the day, though, this still is a relatively expensive tool to use; don't we already have Tezzeret the Seeker

Black

Gonti, Night Minister

In a midrange hell world, I love to be attacking my opponents. Gonti, Night Minister

is the perfect kind of card for me (and 2022 Blue Farm Pilots), something that gives me a bit of value for hitting my opponents that I definitely paid too much mana for for the privilege. I did want to give this card a good college look at minimum, though, for those of you like me who are our there.

A 3/4 body for four mana isn't the best and isn't the worst, able to attack on many cEDH boards that are clogged up with smaller value creatures. Once we get attacking, we'll get to steal our opponents' cards and when we cast them we'll get a Treasure, creating a small amount of disruption, card advantage, and mana for ourselves... and for our Ops. That's right: Gonti's effects are available for all players, with the only change being that they can't steal *your* cards.

In addition to the mana cost, this seems to be the death knell for Gonti in my eyes... but man, I still wanna give it a try. Esper Malcolm all-star, anyone?

The Speed Demon

If we're really all in on a Midrange hell, perhaps The Speed Demon

is the cure for our ills. A big, dumb guy with flying and trample, it also is one of the few start your engines! cards on this list. At the end of our turn, we get to draw cards and lose life equal to our speed, which hopefully by the end of the turn we cast this will be two. Five mana, have a huge guy, and draw two cards? Which becomes three cards and then four cards?

A bit slow, perhaps, but if you can resolve it and untap with it it feels like a real meta-buster level of card. But wow, is it still slow. Five mana is a ton for any non-game winning effect in cEDH, especially in a post Mana Crypt

and Dockside Extortionist

world. Heck, people aren't even too happy to try to spend five mana on freaking Ad Nauseam
right now.

A good college try at a huge midrange playable here, but I don't see it making the cut... and at the same time, I wouldn't be surprised if I hear someone singing its praises at the next event that I attend.

Red

Howlsquad Heavy

Red's singular entrant on this list is one of the usual suspects: we've checked the "Is this a Winota card?" box for the article, which also of course raises the question "Are people still looking for Winota cards?" In my heart of hearts, I know the answer is yes, so let's take a look at Howlsquad Heavy

Another entry in the three-drop Goblin that gets out of hand very quickly Saga, this fella gives our other Goblins haste, gives us a token that has to attack every turn, and most interestingly, taps for mana equal to the Goblins we control... if we have max speed. As a quick refresher, the soonest this would happen is on the third turn that one controls Howlsquad Heavy

- basically an eternity of time in cEDH terms - making it not only a weird topdeck but also one that demands consideration of its merits without the awesome mana ability.

If we, rightfully, assume that we will never, ever, get to use that, this card just becomes a worse Goblin Rabblemaster

for most intents and purposes, losing the beating of face upside in return for a slow, slow ability.

Of course, it would be different if we had any other start your engines! cards to get the party started with, but as far as I can tell, that's just not the reality we live in. This mechanic is so, so dang slow.

Green

Webstrike Elite

is a 3/3 with reach; what the heck is it doing on this list? In a vacuum, you would simply never, ever play this card... unless you've been losing to Malcolm a lot recently. Believe me, I saw stuff about this desperate in my time. What I am interested in is the cycling ability, which lets us pay to blow up an artifact or enchantment with mana value , while also drawing a card.

While losing at the "I'm a land and an incredibly cheap naturalize" game to Boseiju, Who Endures

, Webstrike Elite

joins an elite club of cards that can blow up powerful permanents like Rhystic Study

and Underworld Breach

with little to no interaction available to stop it. Are you that desperate? I think some decks and pilots honestly are. Give him a look at least. Drawing a card out of the deal isn't the worst upside either.

Multicolor

Brightglass Gearhulk

The one card from the new-and-very-cool Gearhulk cycle for cEDH applications, Brightglass Gearhulk

can grab a LOT of powerful cards for a range of archetypes, and two of them at the same time at that. A few fetchable options include Walking Ballista

, and Deafening Silence

In fringe decks like Sythis it does as much as grabbing key combo pieces, which feels like a high future ceiling for this card as well. Will we see a card that costs one mana or less in an upcoming set that could combo with another to make Brightglass Gearhulk

as good as a game-winning castable? That sounds cool.

But now, in the present, that will remain a dream. To sound like a broken record in looking at the set, is a massively restrictive mana cost, the type cEDH players are historically overconfident about being able to afford, especially in three-plus color lists. Plus, it ensures that you'll be casting this card at a time when some of its best hits (Mystic & Esper) have already passed their theoretical time of peak return. I'll be keeping an eye out for the cheap combo pieces this big robot demands, but I won't be holding my breath.

Ketramose, the New Dawn

An interesting Orzhov Commander? In my largely milquetoast set? Let's go!!! Ketamose is the long-awaited Orzhov commander that can do the most important thing in the game, draw cards, at a reasonable rate. It's also cheap. Exiling cards from the battlefield or graveyard is fairly easy, taking advantage of traditional white removal spells and weird graveyard hate pieces, such as Planar Void

It immediately and easily becomes the best Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

deck, as she turns off the one downside you have keeping you from churning through your deck: your life total. To top it off, Ketramose is even indestructible, making it tough to remove from the game!

The possibilities here are really cool, enabling a new form of deck to come out of another color pair, hopefully joining the likes of Plagon and Ob Nixilis as paradigm-breaking, unique two-color options.The biggest problem I do foresee here is actually... winning the game. Having a new commander doesn't save Orzhov from its biggest problem: a lack of wincons.

You're stuck with weird Abdel Adrian lines or Lion's Eye Diamond

shenanigans, almost all of which rely upon your graveyard. Wait, weren't we just saying that Planar Void is one of your most important role-players? Uh oh...

Loot, the Pathfinder

Loot, the Pathfinder is the most flexible Food Chain commander we've ever had, simple as. Casting him presents us with several very powerful abilities; I personally like the one that is Ancestral Recall. We can use him in conjunction with the iconic enchantment to draw our entire deck, bolt out the whole table, or make infinite mana for noncreature spells as well.

It's honestly incredible that all of his modes are relevant (though I imagine we're just... killing players with the Lightning Bolt ability every time). There's honestly nothing else to say about Loot: it's an obvious home run which is now the front runner amongst Temur commanders, especially Food-Chain-specific Commanders. This is one I finally might play!

Hashaton, Scarab's Fist

Another absolutely gimme cEDH commander from this set! What gives! Hashaton asks us only to discard cards and pay , and if we do, he'll reward us with a wonderful 4/4 Zombie token as a result. I love the throwback to my beloved God-Pharaoh's Gift and the eternalize mechanic. It turns out there are great creatures in Esper colors that you want to be able to cheat onto the battlefield with a simple triggered ability, such as Nezahal, Primal Tide, Consecrated Sphinx, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, and even Thassa's Oracle!

Cheating a Thassa's Oracle through a triggered ability is a heck of a way to protect it, especially if you want to get really cheesy and win with no interaction possible ever. Put an Angel's Grace on the stack and respond by discarding both Thassa's Oracle and Leveler, then paying the right amount of mana to make Zombie tokens of them. Boom, baby. A little overwrought? Yeah. But this is basically the closest we get to one of the most powerful strategies in other eternal formats: Reanimator! Can we play Psychic Frog in this? Yes! I'm interested.

Hashaton is easily the most interesting commander here, and most obviously powerful while creating new archetype space. Count me in.

Colorless

Lifecraft Engine

Is this a Magda card? I was told it could be a Magda card. I've put it here so that the Magda heads wouldn't be mad at me. Please love me, Magda players. Please.

Checkered Flag

That's all we have, we're coming across the finish line on this crazy set. The theming has unfortunately, and unexpectedly, fallen flat for me, a guy who grew up on the likes of Hot Wheels movies, Speed Racer, and listed Redline as his movie of the year last year. For all of the interesting gameplay concepts contained within, the relatively parasitic mechanics stop this set from making a major impact on the 99 of decks.

Vehicles (and Mounts) are almost never going to be able to make the cut in cEDH decks just from their high creature count demands and mechanics like start your engines! and exhaust are too slow, asking too much and delivering too little. Wow, though, this is one of the most solid commanders I've seen come out of one set in ages. How long has it been since we got three obvious cEDH options like this in one set? It's been some dang time!

I'm hype about it, and I hope you are, too. Now, let's all take a bit of a break after this long, arduous competition. Wait, I'm receiving word that the set hasn't even released ye-