The Ultimate Sealed Guide to Aetherdrift

Repurposing Bay | Illustration by William Tempest

Greetings planeswalkers! Aetherdrift Prerelease is right around the corner, so make a quick pit stop here and prepare for your first lap of this new set. With this guide, I aim to cover “Day 0” of the Aetherdrift Sealed format (with an emphasis on Sealed/Prerelease specifically). This is as a companion and “sequel” to two of our other guides:

• Our Ultimate Limited Set Review, which is a long exhaustive breakdown with every single card in the set rated individually.
• Our Best Commons and Uncommons piece, which is shorter and meant to help you identify above-average cards in Limited.

While I’d be flattered if you read those (and encourage you to do so), nothing in this guide requires prior knowledge of either.

We’re off to the races!

Introduction to Aetherdrift

Push the Limit | Illustration by Alexander Mokhov

Aetherdrift is a complicated looking Limited set themed heavily around vehicles. There has never been a Magic set with as many vehicles as Aetherdrift, and the set has the following qualities:

• There are a grand total of 41 vehicles in Aetherdrift; Kaladesh and Aether Revolt, for comparison, had just 19 vehicles combined.
• This jump in quantity is especially pronounced at lower rarities, as the set has nine common vehicles (Kaladesh had three, Aether Revolt had just two).
• Each color pair besides GW has a vehicle signpost uncommon (in addition to another non-vehicle signpost).

Mounts are also back in Aetherdrift and further expand the set’s focus on creatures that are de-facto vehicles. This means you should expect a lot of crewing, saddling, and battling with unwieldy mechanical creatures.

Mechanics

The set also features two new mechanics, plus some returning old ones.

Speed and “Start Your Engines!”

Speed is a new mechanic (and resource) that you’ll start tracking once you resolve a start your engines card. Speed starts at 1 and goes up by 1 the first time an opponent loses life on each of your turns. The maximum speed is 4, and it can only be lowered by an opposing Spikeshell Harrier. Here’s some thoughts on using the mechanic:

• The earlier you play a start your engines card, the sooner you can start picking up speed. Cheap speed cards like Nesting Bot, Burnout Bashtronaut, and Amonkhet Raceway have extra utility due to this.
• Speed is a poor mechanic to dabble in. If you have just two or three speed cards, you may not start tracking speed early enough in the game for them to ever max out.
• This also means that speed cards are great in multiples. Not only are you more likely to start tracking speed faster, but all your cards fundamentally want the exact same thing.
• With an optimal draw and a cooperative opponent, you can reach max speed 2 turns after playing a start your engines card (assuming you have a way to gain speed the moment you start on 1).
• Gastal Thrillseeker is the only card that can both start your engines and gain an immediate lap the turn you play it.
• Once you’ve started your engines, evasive creatures (i.e., Wreckage Wickerfolk, Aetherjacket) and ping effects (i.e., Pactdoll Terror, Magmakin Artillerist) are great ways to safely run more laps.

Exhaust

Exhaust is the only other new mechanic in Aetherdrift, and it’s much simpler to understand than speed. Exhaust abilities function like other activated abilities, but you can only activate them once for that permanent. Some tips for the mechanic:

• If a permanent with exhaust ever leaves the battlefield and returns (from Raise Dead, bounce effects, flicker effects, etc.), you can use its exhaust ability again.
• Exhaust is a core mechanic for two archetypes: RG Midrange, and GU Ramp. There are several cards in the set like Elvish Refueler and Rangers' Aetherhive that care specifically about exhaust, often giving abilities extra value than just what’s on the card.
• If your permanent has a valuable exhaust ability, consider using that ability before your opponent can remove it (i.e., try to play Loot, the Pathfinder with 6 mana instead of 5, to guarantee Lightning Bolt or Ancestral Recall even against Crash and Burn).
• Alongside cycling, exhaust functions as one of the primary mana sinks in Aetherdrift. If you find yourself flooding out, exhaust abilities can still give you something to do with your mana.

Cycling

Cycling should need no introduction, as it’s a classic smoothing mechanic that has appeared in many different sets. It has some particular quirks in Aetherdrift though:

• Cycling makes situationally powerful cards like Fuel the Flames, Trade the Helm, and Stall Out much more playable, as you can cycle them in inopportune situations (or if you need help hitting land drops).
• Cycling (and discard in general) is a key focus for UR in this set, as you can see from cards like Fearless Swashbuckler and Marauding Mako.
• There are some ways to reanimate artifacts in Aetherdrift, like Back on Track, Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer, and Tune Up. These play well with cycling vehicles like Detention Chariot and Thundering Broodwagon.

Archetypes

Source

Like most sets, Aetherdrift features the standard model of 10 Limited archetypes (one for each color pair). There are two signpost uncommons associated with each distinct archetype. I’ll cover these in the most detail in an upcoming Draft guide, but here are my Day 0 thoughts.

WU Artifacts (Value)

Signposts: Guidelight Pathmaker and Voyage Home

WU is the most artifact dominant color pair in Aetherdrift. There are many payoffs for caring specifically about artifacts, including Voyage Home, a beefier Thoughtcast. As WotC’s insert implies, WU isn’t especially aggressive, and it’ll likely be happy to jam up the board with stuff while winning with Thopter beats. Some great commons for this archetype include:

• Voyager Quickwelder
• Guidelight Optimizer
• Hulldrifter
• Gearseeker Serpent

UB Artifacts (Bleeder)

Signposts: Haunted Hellride and Haunt the Network

UB’s artifact theming is lighter than WU’s on the whole, though it does have several strong payoffs. Haunt the Network in particular can do a great Gray Merchant of Asphodel impression, especially alongside Pactdoll Terror. Try to prioritize card advantage, removal spells, artifacts, and blockers. Some great commons for this archetype include:

• Pactdoll Terror
• Grim Bauble
• Hulldrifter
• Midnight Mangler

BR Speed (Aggro)

Signposts: Apocalypse Runner and Gastal Thrillseeker

BR is the “speediest” archetype in the set, though ironically it may not be the fastest! That’s because the speed mechanic itself requires a full 3-4 turns of buildup to get going. You’ll still want to attack early and often though, as this’ll set up your speed cards to take over later in the game. Some great commons for this archetype include:

• Goblin Surveyor
• Streaking Oilgorger
• Goblin Surveyor
• Pactdoll Terror (pings for speed)

RG Exhaust (Midrange)

Signposts: Boom Scholar and Rocketeer Boostbuggy

RG is the faster and more aggressive of Aetherdrift’s two exhaust decks. It’s still firmly a midrange deck though, and it may often play the control role vs faster decks like BR, UR, and RW. Expect to curve out like a normal RG stompy deck, with the exhaust abilities acting as a nice mana sink. Some great commons for this archetype include:

• Prowcatcher Specialist
• Lightning Strike
• Hazard of the Dunes
• Pothole Mole

GW Mounts (Midrange)

Signposts: Lagorin, Soul of Alacria and Veteran Beastrider

GW is focused on mounts in this set, though not to the exclusion of vehicles. This is because every single card that cares about mounts specifically (from Pilot tokens to Cloudspire Captain to Caradora, Heart of Alacria) will also work with vehicles. Feel free to mix and match both (which also makes crewing vehicles easier). Some great commons for this archetype include:

• Brightfield Mustang
• Ride's End
• Venomsac Lagac
• Alacrian Jaguar

WB Speed (Attrition)

Signposts: Dune Drifter and Embalmed Ascendant

WB takes a “we’ll get there when we get there” approach to speed, which is appropriate for an archetype full of zombies! Maxing out on speed certainly has its benefits, but they’re generally less dramatic than RB’s. WB should expect to settle in for a grindy slog, as many of its cards like Embalmed Ascendant play well on congested boards. Some great commons for this archetype include:

• Ride's End
• Swiftwing Assailant
• Engine Rat
• Mutant Surveyor

UR Discard (Aggro)

Signposts: Boosted Sloop and Broadside Barrage

UR is a neat archetype with a novel theme of self-discard. There aren’t many lower rarity payoffs for this (just Magmakin Artillerist), so look for cards like Marauding Mako, Scrounging Skyray, and Monument to Endurance. Enablers are easier to find than payoffs though, as the set features plenty of cards that let you discard. Some great commons for this archetype include:

• Howler's Heavy
• Magmakin Artillerist
• Thunderhead Gunner
• Clamorous Ironclad

BG Graveyard (Value)

Signposts: Thundering Broodwagon and Broodheart Engine

BG was simply described by WotC as “Graveyard.” While appropriate for cards like Broodheart Engine, it’s totally possible to build a solid BG deck with a minimal graveyard theme. Such a deck would likely feel like a “good stuff” build with creatures, kill spells, and card advantage, but little synergy. However, for a more conventional graveyard build, some great commons for this archetype include:

• Chitin Gravestalker
• Spin Out
• Pothole Mole
• Migrating Ketradon

RW Vehicles (Aggro)

Signposts: Cloudspire Skycycle and Cloudspire Coordinator

RW is an aggressive archetype with the most prominent vehicle synergies in Aetherdrift. Cloudspire Coordinator in particular is a very strong signpost, and it may let you get away with a higher vehicle count than normally possible. There are also a couple of other strong payoffs like Road Rage (i.e., Terminate for ). Don’t forget that you can also leverage mount synergies just like GW. Some great commons for this archetype include:

• Spotcycle Scouter
• Broadcast Rambler
• Lightning Strike
• Gilded Ghoda

GU Exhaust (Ramp)

Signposts: Rangers' Aetherhive and Skyserpent Seeker

GU is a durdler’s best friend, and Aetherdrift is no exception! If you like drawing cards and dumping mana into absurd board states, GU has you covered in this set. The goal with this archetype is usually to play some exhaust cards, stay alive, then win later in the game with powerful effects. It’s also the color pair most likely to splash other colors (as in most sets). Some great commons for this archetype include:

• Flood the Engine
• Keen Buccaneer
• Migrating Ketradon
• Veloheart Bike

Set Architecture

Archetype Overlap

One important thing to look for in new Limited sets is what I call archetype overlap. Archetype overlap just means how well 2-color pairs/strategies mesh together. RG and GU, for example, are both built around the exhaust mechanic. They want similar cards, but they may also even splash each other’s best cards! Aetherdrift’s archetype overlap looks like this when fleshed out.

WU and UB are both blue decks focused on artifacts. They want many of the same blue cards, but they get different kinds of support from their secondary color.

BR and WB are both black decks focused on speed. BR tends to not only be faster but also care more about its chief mechanic. However, they both still want many of the same black cards like Mutant Surveyor and Streaking Oilgorger.

I’ve mentioned RG and GU. They’re both green decks focused on the exhaust mechanic, and RG is more proactive while GU is more durdly.

GW and RW are both white decks focused on vehicles, as Aetherdrift was designed in such a way that mounts/vehicles are fairly interchangeable. The few exceptions to this rule are higher rarity cards like Chandra, Spark Hunter.

Lastly, UR and BG are decks that don’t overlap directly with other archetypes. Barring Winter, Cursed Rider, BG is pretty much on its own in terms of its graveyard focus. UR also meshes well with one particular black rare (Cryptcaller Chariot), but otherwise it’s isolated to doing its own thing.

Color Identities

Now that we’ve seen how archetypes overlap, we can better understand each color’s individual identity in this set:

• White cares a smidge more about vehicles and mounts than other colors, and it’s the third most focused on speed. It’s also the only color to have zero cards with exhaust.
• Blue has the most focus on artifacts and a good number of exhaust cards. It’s the second worst color at speed and is only ahead of green because it has two start your engines uncommons (rather than just one).
• Black is the second most speed-focused color, and it also supports artifacts well. Its only exhaust card is Winter, Cursed Rider.
• Red leads the race with the most speed cards of any color. It also has a strong vehicle and pilot focus, second only to white.
• Green has the most exhaust creatures of any color and the second most mounts after white. It has the fewest vehicles, and it’s easily the color least interesting in the speed mechanic.

Removal in Aetherdrift

In new Limited sets, it’s also important to focus on the common removal spells. These will often be what stands between your opponent’s bomb rare and you losing the game, so study them well!

Collision Course is somewhere between soft/hard removal, though it’s plenty “hard” when it comes to killing artifacts. You can build around this by playing cards like Broadcast Rambler and Nimble Thopterist that make extra bodies.

White’s best common removal spell, similar to other variants of this card like Luminous Rebuke. Ride's End exiles and also hits vehicles, making it strikingly efficient and important to play around when you can afford to.

Blue’s Banishing Light, or so it would seem. There really isn’t much enchantment removal in this set (mostly just Broken Wings), so feel free to fire off a Flood the Engine on your opponent’s best stuff. It’s the rare blue removal spell that you could justify splashing in other colors.

Griptides like this aren’t hard removal or anything, but Trip Up still represents a 1-for-1 trade that can often net crucial tempo. Cycling also lets you keep 2-land hands a bit more safely.

Murder that hits vehicles, pretty much. Double black pips is the main limitation to Spin Out, an otherwise premium removal spell. This card will often influence you to be more base black in Sealed than you may have been otherwise.

Five-mana removal is always unexciting, but usually not unplayable. Syphon Fuel throws a bit of lifegain in as a bonus and can also answer some unique threats like Hazoret, Godseeker and Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied that Spin Out can’t.

Four-mana removal, on the other hand, can be somewhat exciting when it’s this unconditional. The only cards that 6 damage misses are a handful of uncommons and two rares, so Crash and Burn is extremely close to a red Spin Out.

Lightning Strike is much more mana efficient than Crash and Burn, and it kills almost every common creature that is 3-cost or less. It can also go face to close out tight games or leverage an early advantage.

Green’s sole common removal spell in this set is a good one, and Run Over may lead to many a blowout over the course of this format. Playing combat tricks against 1-mana Bite Down is a tough sell!

Mana Fixing/Splashing in Aetherdrift

Aetherdrift has a bit more support for splashing than a set like Foundations, and it also has several archetypes that overlap nicely. Your common/uncommon options for splashing in this set are as follows:

Color-Fixing Splashes

I wouldn’t rely on getting many safe attacks, but you should at least be able to trade Gilded Ghoda off while making a Treasure token fairly consistently. Sometimes that’s all it takes to turbo out a Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied in your UR deck!

Manalith on wheels should be one of your go-to cards for making greedy splashes work. The extra potential body and 2 life go a long way towards making Veloheart Bike consistently useful.

Digging three cards deep is only soft fixing at best, though still better than nothing. It’s also nice to know that you can return a land card that was previously milled with Pothole Mole.

Molt Tender can be a Birds of Paradise every other turn, which is plenty good enough for Limited (and even better with mill synergies).

Point the Way is an awkward card that wants you to attack your opponent to earn Explosive Vegetation. Best in a 5-color pile that really needs this kind of thing, particularly if you have some cheap fliers to set this up.

Rocketeer Boostbuggy is an excellent card that can also enable splashes, if you need that sort of thing. You’ll be thrilled to be playing Rocketeer Boostbuggy regardless.

Colorless

Speed Manalith is a little strange, though I’ve already had decks from our draft simulator that would have played Starting Column. It’s best in decks with a speed theme that still have high-end/splashes, though you could play it anywhere that really needs fixing.

Getting Ticket Tortoise to enable your splash takes a bit of finesse, but you’ll feel great if it ever does. This is purely low-end defensive filler, but sometimes you’ve just gotta play whatever you can to hit your 2-drop!

Crew 5 is no joke, so ideally you’ll be capable of for Marshals' Pathcruiser. It gets you 1/5 the way there though (while replacing itself), and it offers a solid payoff for doing so.

Throwing cycling onto Uncharted Haven is pretty generous and makes for a common that I’m never cutting from my decks. Night Market isn’t egregiously powerful or anything, but consistency is always valuable!

The gain 1s are solid Limited fixing in any set. There are no Ajani's Pridemate style cards in this set, so you’re purely playing them for their utility as dual lands (though the +1 life feels nice at least).

Avishkar Raceway (and the other two Raceways) are anti-splashing incentives, so I wanted to mention them here. They aren’t super powerful, but they make your speed decks a bit more consistent, so I imagine that 8/8/1 mana bases will be common.

Other Synergies

There’s plenty more you can do in Aetherdrift than just the big 10 archetypes. Every color has speed cards, for one, and there are some novel payoffs associated with rogue speed color pairs. Another theme in the set is the “vanillas matter” cards associated with Muraganda, specifically Fang-Druid Summoner and the cycle of vanilla legendary creatures. Lastly, there are a couple of wacky build-arounds like Push the Limit and Mimeoplasm, Revered One that don’t quite fit into any other boxes. I’ll have more to say about these after I’ve played the set!

Bomb Rare Checklist

The Ultimate Aetherdrift Limited Set Review touched on more detail than I will here, but I wanted to include a list of the set’s best rares. You should consider splashing most of the (single pipped) rares. These won’t have descriptions, but they’re mostly grouped by the rating I gave them in the Set Review (with a couple of stealthy revisions based on new expectations for certain cards).

Skim this section when you open your pool Friday if you need a refresher!

9s: Best of the Best!

• Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
• Mu Yanling, Wind Rider
• Agonasaur Rex
• Debris Beetle
• Loot, the Pathfinder
• Pyrewood Gearhulk
• Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied
• The Aetherspark (+1 from Set Review score)

8s: Bombs!

• Spectacular Pileup
• Draconautics Engineer
• Riptide Gearhulk
• Perilous Snare
• Thopter Fabricator
• Demonic Junker
• Thunderous Velocipede
• Far Fortune, End Boss

7s: Great Rares

• Cryptcaller Chariot
• Boommobile
• Marketback Walker
• Guardian Sunmare
• Salvation Engine
• Possession Engine
• Cursecloth Wrappings
• Gonti, Night Minister
• Afterburner Expert
• March of the World Ooze
• Aatchik, Emerald Radian
• Brightglass Gearhulk
• Captain Howler, Sea Scourge
• Coalstoke Gearhulk
• Explosive Getaway
• Oildeep Gearhulk
• Lifecraft Engine
• Cavalier of Dawn

Bad Rares

Alas, we can’t all be winners, and neither can these cards. These are the rares you’re hoping not to open this weekend:

• Repurposing Bay
• Unstoppable Plan
• Ketramose, the New Dawn (although it fetches a pretty penny)
• Muraganda Raceway (not “bad”, but kind of a waste of a rare slot)
• Bleachbone Verge and friends (same idea, though probably a bit more useful)

Overall, Aetherdrift is actually shockingly low on trash rares compared to other sets! Most of the mediocre rares in Aetherdrift could still be solid in the right deck, so I’m excited to see how this one plays out.

Building Pools

I used a Mario Kart comparison in my Sealed guide for Foundations, and given the set’s theme, I think it’d be perfect to use again here!  Sealed remains a difficult thing to plan for, as there’s no substitute for having nearly 80 cards you’ve never played with in front of you. Still, I’d like to think I can help you, so let’s go over how to actually approach this.

One important thing to do with new Sealed pools is to evaluate the depth of color you open. Look for these features in each one:

• Power (how many bombs the color has)
• Removal (how many good kill spells it offers)
• Curve (which slots it can fill on your curve, with particular importance given to earlier plays like 2s/3s)
• Synergy (signposts are a good indicator, remember the archetype overlap)

Mario Kart Selection Screen

Building the perfect Sealed deck is about getting as much oomph from all these elements as you can! Given Aetherdrift’s racing theme, that old Mario Kart comparison should work pretty well. Imagine you were looking over a couple Sealed builds and had bars like when you’re building your Mario Kart racer, rating these categories:

• Power level (the more bombs the better)
• Removal (the more Spin Outs and Ride's Ends, the better)
• Curve (lower is generally better, though having some high end is nice)
• Synergy (i.e., Elvish Refueler and a bunch of good exhaust cards in GU)
• Mana (do you have 8+ sources for each primary color, and 3+ for your splash?)

The best deck is the one with the highest overall parameters. If adding a raw splash causes you to play a 7/7/3 instead of a 9/8, it probably isn’t worth it. On the other hand, if your splash can be done off some duals and a Veloheart Bike, the increase in power is likely well worth the slight dip in mana. Experiment with it, and try to keep the basics in mind! If you’re confused, you can always default to multicolor cards you open, especially when you open multiples in the same color pair. This can be a great way to figure out the base of your deck while still splashing the most powerful cards you opened.

Seven Steps for Sealed Success!

Let’s wrap up everything into a nice condensable format.

1. Open your Play boosters and sort your cards by rarity and color. Note any bombs or exceptional cards (and definitely brag to your friends if you pulled well enough).
2. Set weak cards aside, then assess which of your colors are deepest. I’m mostly looking for the best commons/uncommons here, with particular importance given to efficient removal, Hulldrifter, or anything else that’s clearly above average.
3. Start laying out builds and try to include your best cards. Your baseline should be two colors with at least seven sources for each primary color (more is better).
4. Consider colorless costs and whether splashing makes sense for your Limited pool. The best cards to splash are usually single-pipped bombs, removal spells, and sources of card advantage. You may also want to consider signpost uncommons that overlap with your primary color pair’s archetype (i.e., splashing Haunt the Network in WU artifacts).
5. Keep working on your deck, aiming for a good balance of bombs, removal, card advantage, and mana curve. If you’re worried about the clock, you can mitigate time anxieties by having a baseline done early (i.e. “I know I’m playing RW because I opened Kolodin, Triumph Caster, Chandra, Spark Hunter, and Salvation Engine, but I don’t know how to make cuts…”)
6. Settle on a final product, then battle it out. Feel free to change your deck between rounds to fix errors and/or try new things. Prerelease prize payouts are rarely top heavy or anything, so this is a great time to relax and focus on learning the set and having a good time.
7. Don’t forget that you can use Draftsim's Sealed pool generator to practice the set before attending your prerelease!

Victory Lap

Kickoff Celebrations | Illustration by Evyn Fong

And with that, we have run our third lap of Aetherdrift guides! There will be just one more guide coming, which will be my final word on the format. I’ll have to actually play it before I write that one though, so give me a couple of weeks!

Which archetype are you hoping to play at Prelease? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord.

Until next time, may your Prereleases always be packed.