Last updated on March 4, 2025
Wish Good Luck | Illustration by Raymond Swanland
The latest Alchemy set has been fully spoiled, releasing on MTG Arena today in fact. We wonโt be covering the entire set proper, but instead want to focus on cards that could as well have been printed in paper! Thatโs right, not every โdigital onlyโ card feels all that digital, and many of these are cards that wouldโve been neat to open in paper. But before delving into the strange cards present in Alchemy: Aetherdrift, one must first ask the questionโฆ
Does Anyone Actually Care about Alchemy?
This is the elephant in the room question whenever Alchemy comes up! If youโve ever checked X/YouTube comments for Alchemy spoilers, it never takes long before you encounter someone heckling the very format itself. Despite this, WotC continues to churn out mini set after mini set of Alchemy cards, and is likely making at least some profit from doing so as well. Their last official populations were as follows:
Alchemy isnโt exactly a top format, but even ~13% play is a massive haul when you consider how negative online word of mouth usually is! This was from over a year ago though, so itโs possible numbers could be down a bit. Many players often end up playing Alchemy only when forced to via competitive events, which usually comes in the form of Historic (which has Alchemy cards) rather than Alchemy proper.
Reminder: Alchemy Isnโt Standard
One important thing to remember about Alchemy is that it uses a faster rotation model than current Standard. Alchemy players have already said goodbye to Dominaria United, The Brothersโ War, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, and March of the Machine. So if you do end up trying any of these cards, the games should have a different character to them for several reasons.
Alchemy: Aetherdrift Cards That Couldโve Made Paper
As stated above, the focus for this article is Alchemy cards that could have easily been printed in person. And Deviant Skytech could 100% have been printed in paper, and likely wasnโt due to archetype concerns rather than power level. Blue just wasnโt supposed to have powerful speed payoffs like this, for the most part. There is absolutely nothing here that could not have appeared in paper Magic, so blue speedsters should be disappointed!
Bail Out is an interesting protection spell of sorts that is also scalable, and a pretty devastating response to a Day of Judgment. Itโs also another card that could have easily be printed in paper, as nothing about this says digital only at all! These kind of effects usually donโt see too much Standard play, but Bail Out likely wouldโve seen at least a little had it been printed in paper, and almost certainly wouldโve been a Commander hit.
Hereโs a personal favorite of the set, and the biggest loss for a paper Magic player! Subgame cards like this are just fun, as youโll find yourself asking lots of questions whenever itโs cast:
โShould you just choose the best creature? But what if your opponent expects you to? Is it possible for you to save your best thing by outwitting them? But what if they know this? Butโฆโ
The same goes for your opponent too, as itโs not entirely obvious how they should choose either! Note that while this kind of card is definitely easier to execute digitally, thereโs nothing in the design that would be impossible in paper. Youโd just need to write down the choice privately, then have the players exchange that. In fact, Speedbrood Stalker is suspiciously close to Negan, the Cold-Blooded, which is in fact a paper Magic card.
This design space could also encroach paper one day, though itโs unfortunately possible to forget who the starting player was! As for the card itself, Unforgiving Overtake being a sorcery is kind of a bummer, as this is just Fell rate even when you get the discount. The 2 life damage is a nice bonus, but canโt quite make this better than your average Go for the Throat. One thing you could always try is maxing out on โwerenโt the starting playerโ effects like this, and choosing to draw in general!
Goblin Crash Pilot can deal a lot of damage in a hurry with Vehicles, and particularly shines with something already disposable like Gastal Thrillroller. Vehicles have been rather disappointing in Standard so far, so it would have been nice to have more cards like this in the main set. And once again, nothing about this is digital only either!
The Moose isnโt loose, as thereโs nothing loose about a 3/3 for with such strong upside! This is a shoe-in for Mounts.dek in Alchemy, and also has the raw rate to see play in all kinds of other creature decks.
Of course, this is approaching traditional Alchemy territory, where the card doesnโt work in paper, but easily could have with one small tweak. Youโd just need to change โseekโ to the templating Skyserpent Seeker uses. Itโs a shame thatโs not the case, as Mounts.dek is another archetype that feels cool but ultimately underpowered relative to this strong Standard.
If you can keep the creatures flowing, this is absurdly large equipment that isnโt too expensive to play/equip. Ideally youโll have lots of trample and lifelink to justify your time spent growing and moving this around. All it takes is a handful of guys to make this comically large, so expect good things from this one. This one couldโve worked in paper if intensity were swapped out for โbeast countersโ or some way to track the Amuletโs size that was more localized. Weโve seen this change before with the comparison to paperโs Minthara, Merciless Soul to Alchemyโs Minthara, the Absolute.
This is yet another card that couldโve made the original Aetherdrift set, and wouldโve given artifact decks a much desired boost. Manlands that turn on at the start of combat are unusual, but hardly too difficult for paper players to understand. The manland is also a minor draw to the card; itโs mostly just artifact Wastes!
Sala, Deck Boss is cool exhaust support card that falls outside of the two dominant color pairs for the mechanic (GR/GU). Nothing about this card couldnโt have been done in paper, but UR was too busy discarding to support something like this. Even if this was printed though, itโd likely just be eating Nowhere to Runs unfortunately! And as a commander itโd miss out on pivotal green exhaust support like Boom Scholar and Elvish Refueler.
Start your engines! hasnโt really seen any Standard play, so itโll be up to Tsagan, Raider Warlord and other SYE! cards can get there in Alchemy. This is quite the payoff for maxing out on top of an already acceptable base rate, and also acts as a โlordโ of sorts for first/double strike. The design isnโt the most intuitive were it a paper card, but it still could have been printed here given the lack of digital-only touches.
The final card is a decent little value generator that shows off Chandra and Nissaโs budding relationship. This is also yet another card that is mechanically appropriate for paper, but outside its color pairโs identity in the set. Food + Treasure + a Vehicle is a weird little trio, but donโt forget that all three are artifacts, making this very impressive with artifact matters cards. Thereโs not much of that in RG proper though, so Wish Good Luck seems powerful but difficult to use.
Alchemy: Aetherdrift drops on Arena today with a 30-card expansion to the main set, draftable in its own Alchemy queues separate from Traditional/Premier drafts. There are plenty of digital-only mechanics smattered across the set, but itโs just strange to see so many designs that couldโve worked in paper not grace the hands of Magic players. Oh well, guess itโs time to boot up the old proxy printer!
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