Last updated on December 12, 2024
Saheeli Rai – Illustration by Willian Murai
Little do we know about Aetherdrift just yet, but one thing seems certain: the next Standard set, coming to Magic in February 2025, will add more energy cards to the game.
As revealed by the official Collecting Aetherdrift article last Tuesday, the upcoming Aetherdrift MTG set will have two Commander preconstructed decks – one of them being Living Energy:
- READY, SET, CHARGE!—Join artificer extraordinaire Saheeli to stockpile energy, then charge up your artifact creatures for a big finish with this Red-Green-Blue Aetherdrift Commander Deck
- 2 FOIL BORDERLESS COMMANDERS—Every Aetherdrift Commander Deck includes 2 Traditional Foil Legendary Creature cards featuring Borderless art
- INTRODUCES 10 COMMANDER CARDS—Each deck introduces 10 never-before-seen Commander cards to Magic: The Gathering
- COLLECT SPECIAL TREATMENT CARDS—Each deck also comes with a 2-card Collector Booster Sample Pack containing 2 alternate-border Aetherdrift cards
- THRILLING MULTIPLAYER BATTLES—Commander is a multiplayer way to play Magic, an epic, free-for-all battle full of strategic plays and social intrigue
Living Energy is described on Amazon as “Join artificer extraordinaire Saheeli to stockpile energy, then charge up your artifact creatures for a big finish with this Red-Green-Blue Aetherdrift Commander Deck,” pretty much confirming that the mechanic is back.
While there's some disappointment that the Aetherdrift precons don't seem to focus around vehicles, Commander players with a penchant for energy counters seem very happy with getting their first Temur commander (not to mention the third energy EDH precon in less than year, after Fallout‘s Science! and Modern Horizons 3‘s Creative Energy).
“At least it's Temur rather than Jeskai,” noted redditor u/VoiceofKane, echoing a large number of similar comments. “Finally getting an energy commander in the colours it always should have been in in the first place.”
But if energy is a cornerstone mechanic of one of Aetherdrift‘s Commander precons… does it mean it will also be present in the main set?
Energy Back in Standard?
Players's concerns about energy being a broken mechanic are not misplaced. As MTG's Head Designer Mark Rosewater admits, “We missed on the right power level in our first outing with the mechanic,” which ended up too powerful during Kaladesh. And Modern Horizons 3 took the miss much farther: two months ago, Modern Energy was more popular than any banned deck in that Magic format; today, the large majority of the most-played cards in Modern are staples in the Energy deck.
Saying that Energy (along with Sauron's favorite piece of jewelry) dominates Modern is an understatement.
Will Aetherdrift unleash it in Standard, though?
According to its Amazon description, the Living Energy EDH precon will introduce 10 never-before-seen Commander cards – way too few to sustain the deck's main theme, so it's a fair bet that it'll need more energy cards.
Those could very well be reprints from the original Kaladesh, Modern Horizons 3, or Fallout, and it's not impossible for a precon to focus on a mechanic that is absent from the main set (like, for example, Duskmourn‘s Miracle Worker focusing on the miracle mechanic).
But, on the other hand, Modern Horizons 3‘s Creative Energy precon shows the exact opposite trend, with energy being a core mechanic both in the precon and in the main set.
And we have a lot of Universes Beyond Standard sets in the coming years, in which high-tech gadgets are the norm and where energy would fit the flavor perfectly – Tony Stark's Heart as an Izzet artifact, anyone?
Third Time's the Charge
Saheeli, Filigree Master – Illustration by Aurore Folny
It's clear now that WotC very much intended to buttress the energy archetype in Commander, now giving it its third EDH precon in less than a year and putting Saheeli in charge of leading the energized Temur hordes.
It's also clear that WotC miscalculated the mechanic's power both in Standard the first time, and currently in Modern – energy broke both formats, and it's a safe bet that it will get some Modern bans next Monday either to energy cards directly or to other cards in their decks.
But Magic's Standard format has been stellar since WotC shifted to a three-year rotation schedule, both in variety and in balance. If they do bring energy back to Standard, there's good reason to expect they'll calibrate it properly this time.
Keep your chargers ready, though!
Note: this post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to make a purchase, you’ll help Draftsim continue to provide awesome free articles and apps.
Follow Draftsim for awesome articles and set updates:
Add Comment