New Planeswalker Equipment Pushes Card Type Boundaries

Last updated on January 21, 2025

Unnamed Card Art | Illustration by Benjamin Ee

The mysterious “Legendary Artifact Planeswalker – Equipment” known as “The Aetherspark” was one of the first cards revealed from Aetherdrift, and today Wizards finally showed off how it works! The Aetherspark is the first legal card to be both an artifact and a planeswalker, as well the first to be both an equipment and a planeswalker.

It can be easy to get intimidated with something like this, but it's not so bad if you take it slow and break the card down piece by piece.

How Does The Aetherspark Work?

While “Legendary Artifact Planeswalker – Equipment” sounds complicated, the rules text for The Aetherspark looks refreshingly simple in practice. Here's how each ability works:

Passive

As long The Aetherspark is attached to a creature, The Aetherspark can't be attacked and has “Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage during your turn, put that many loyalty counters on The Aetherspark.“

Understanding this passive is the first step to making sense of The Aetherspark. The passive establishes two important things:

• If The Aetherspark is attached to a creature, it can no longer be attacked (though it remains a planeswalker).
• Once The Aetherspark is attached to a creature, said creature can generate loyalty counters for it when that creature deals combat damage. The amount of loyalty you gain will be equivalent to the damage dealt.

But how do you equip The Aetherspark? Let's find out…

+1 Loyalty Ability:

Attach The Aetherspark to up to one target creature you control. Put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.

This is a simple yet essential +1 ability that clearly establishes how to equip The Aetherspark onto your creatures. Once per turn, you can equip The Aetherspark by adding a loyalty and choosing a creature to equip. That creature will get a bit stronger too, in the form of a permanent +1/+1 counter. Note that because this ability says up to one target creature, you can still +1 this for loyalty even with no creatures out.

-5 Loyalty Ability:

Draw two cards.

Doesn't get much more straightforward than this! Drawing cards offers a nice loyalty dump after you've had The Aetherspark out for a few turns. One important thing to remember is that (as a planeswalker) The Aetherspark will be put into a graveyard if it hits 0 loyalty. Thus this ability (and the next one) will often depend on connecting in combat with whatever creature is wearing The Aetherspark.

-10 (Ultimate) Loyalty Ability:

Add ten mana of any one color.

Ten mana, you say? This is a clear reward for connecting with The Aethersparked creature a couple of times, and could easily lead to absurd game-winning sequences. It's a powerful way to go over the top, though drawing cards will often be the safer choice.

How Will The Aetherspark Play Out?

In practice, the primary gameplay loop for The Aetherspark seems to be equipping it, connecting with the equipped creature, and cashing it in for extra cards or a huge burst of mana. Though it looks powerful, it seems quite vulnerable to interaction, as your opponent will have many counterplay options:

• Removal spells like Go for the Throat seem great against The Aetherspark. While they can't kill it directly, getting rid of the creature wearing it prevents extra loyalty acquisition and leaves The Aetherspark vulnerable to attack.
• Blockers are less ideal as a solution, though temporarily holding off the creature wearing The Aetherspark can at least delay a potential snowball.
• As an artifact and a planeswalker, The Aetherspark is directly vulnerable to a number of removal spells like Loran of the Third Path or Hero's Downfall.

So, Is The Aetherspark Any Good?

Even after three decades of MTG, card evaluation is still a challenge to this day! Without committing to any hard predictions, an early prognosis for this card seems to be:

Limited

The Aetherspark looks like a bomb rare in 40-card formats. Unless Aetherdrift has an abnormally high number of Shatter effects, this is an incredibly powerful snowball card that can go in just about any deck. When playing against it, be sure to look for “any target,” “nonland permanent,” “artifact,” or “planeswalker” on your removal spells!

Standard

Standard is fast and full of great removal like Go for the Throat, so The Aetherspark is unlikely to succeed if thrown into any random deck. Its best hope is likely alongside something like Saiba Cryptomancer, which could safely leverage this very powerful equipment.

Pioneer/Modern/Legacy

Since The Aetherspark looks like a rough sell in Standard, its odds in Eternal formats seem markedly worse. Perhaps people will try it with Stoneforge Mystic in Modern as a fun-of. Given its unique mix of card types though, it's also possible there's some busted combo with it that's just waiting to be discovered!

Commander

The Aetherspark looks excellent for Commander, which is a popular format for equipment in general. This is an awesome card to build around, as there are numerous options for searching it, connecting with it, etc. The scale and length of Commander games also plays well with its -10 ability, as the huge burst of mana is perfect for “EDH plays.”

Has There Ever Been a Card Like this Before?

You may be surprised to learn the answer is actually “yes,” though only if you count a card from Mystery Booster 2! Luxior, Ignited may as well have been a beta test for The Aetherspark. Luxior, Ignited seems weaker than The Aetherspark in numerous ways:

• Luxior lacks the “can't be attacked when attached” passive, so it can always be attacked.
• It has a dismal starting loyalty (1) compared to The Aetherspark's 4, which compounds its innate vulnerability.
• It's less versatile than The Aetherspark, as it has no true “ultimate” ability and can't get value outside of combat.
• -2'ing will either shrink Luxior's sizing bonus or outright kill it, given how little loyalty you will often have with it.
• Lastly, it lacks The Aetherspark's combat passive, so you can only gain one loyalty a turn with it.

Terrible card or not, Luxior, Ignited walked so that The Aetherspark could run! Overall, The Aetherspark is just a very sweet looking card, and one that is sure to have people trying it out. Planeswalkers have hit a bit of a lull in recent years, but this card and the Chandra from the same set might be a sign of great designs to come.