Discovering Avishkar and Aetherdrift in 2025
This week's Weekly MTG Twitch stream revealed some upcoming changes to the plane of Kaladesh as well as news about the upcoming expansion Aetherdrift.
Kaladesh is now Avishkar
The plane of Kaladesh is recognized by many players as the plane of steampunk-esque invention, and the home of planeswalker (and ex-Standard-infinite-combo-maker) Saheeli Rai. In today's stream, Wizards of the Coast reveals that the plane of Kaladesh's name will change to "Avishkar" moving forward in set and card name releases. According to Wizards of the Coast:
"Here's what our consultants said. When we created the original Kaladesh set, we chose the word "kala-" (kalā, kah-LAH) as a word that can mean "tomorrow" or "art," combined with "-desh," meaning "home" or "country." Unfortunately, the term "kala" (kālā, KAH-lah) can also be associated with the meaning "black," and often carries derogatory colorist and racist connotations when applied to a person."
The name Avishkar was a choice made from Hindi words that best described the plane's appetite for invention:
"Together, we selected Avishkar, from the Hindi word "aavishkar" meaning "invention." The consultants vetted the name and its spelling, and the decision was made."
For those interested in the lore connotations for the name change, Wizards offered this concise explanation:
"Another decision was whether we'd want to go back and change the lore so that this plane was always named Avishkar. We chose not to go that route. The canon is this: This setting was, in fact, historically named Kaladesh before this time in the continuity, but its name has now become Avishkar due to in-world story events...We have not changed historical terminology in past products or cards. The name of the set Kaladesh remains Kaladesh, Kaladesh Remastered will still be searchable as Kaladesh Remastered, and past cards like Invasion of Kaladesh or Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh will keep those names. We will not use the term "Kaladesh" anymore going forward except to refer to past products or the time in the storyline when Avishkar bore its previous name."
For more information on this name change, as well as further lore regarding the changes, please visit Wizard's Planeswalker's Guide to Aetherdrift.
New Aetherdrift Commander Decks
Currently, we have two Commander decks to look forward to with Aetherdrift's release, one blue, red, and green (Temur) deck, and one white, blue, and black (Esper) deck. We can expect spoilers for these decks to start following January 21st, 2025.
Each Commander deck contains:
- 1 Ready-to-play 100-card Commander deck with:
- 1 Traditional foil face commander with borderless art
- 1 Traditional foil featured commander with borderless art
- 10 Double-sided tokens
- 1 Collector Booster Sample Pack
- 1 Reference card
- 1 Deck box
Collecting Aetherdrift
Releasing on February 14th, 2025, Aetherdrift promises to be an exciting, inventive return to Avishkar in the form of the Ghirapur Grand Prix. Players will surely see vehicles, machinations, and more exceptional inventions from the minds of Avishkar's residents. For now, we have a sneak peek at some products you can expect for Aetherdrift's upcoming release, along with some legality notes regarding Commander cards and Special Guests.
Aetherdrift products
- Play booster boxes (30 boosters), with one foil box topper
- Collector boosters (12 boosters)
- Bundle (9 boosters)
And a new "Finish Line Bundle" containing the following:
- 6 Aetherdrift Play Boosters
- 2 Aetherdrift Collector Boosters
- 20 Basic lands
- Includes 15 traditional foil basic lands
- Includes 5 first-place foil basic lands
- 3 Finish Line Bundle promo cards
- Each is a traditional foil extended-art card with new artwork.
- 1 First-place foil Box Topper
- 5 Stickers
- 1 Oversized spindown die
- 1 Aetherdrift card-storage box
Changes to play booster boxes starting in Aetherdrift
Wizards of the Coast's notes on Aetherdrift's release legality:
- Aetherdrift (DFT) is a Standard-legal set.
- Aetherdrift Commander (DRC) and Special Guests (SPG) are Commander-, Legacy-, and Vintage-legal sets, and individual cards are also legal where already available in other formats.
- Aetherdrift Play Boosters contain cards from DFT and SPG. These cards are playable in Aetherdrift Draft and Sealed when opened from Play Boosters.
MSRPs for Aetherdrift will be set as follows:
- Play Booster: $5.49
- Collector Booster: $24.99
- Commander Deck: $44.99
- Bundle: $53.99
- Finish Line Bundle: $79.99
Key Dates:
- The Magic Story Podcast: Racing into Aetherdrift: January 10
- Aetherdrift Story: January 13-20
- Debut and Previews Begin: January 21
- Full Card Image Gallery: January 31
- Aetherdrift Prerelease Events: February 7-13
- MTG Arena Release: February 11
- Tabletop Release: February 14
- Magic Academy Events: February 14-April 3
- Standard Showdown: February 14-April 3
- Commander Party, Round 1: February 21-27
- Aetherdrift Store Championship: March 8-30
- Commander Party, Round 2: March 14-20
Drifting into the future
As we get closer to true spoiler season for Aetherdrift and Innistrad Remastered, stay tuned for more articles detailing any changes or products.
