Basri Ket | Artwork by Kai Carpenter
16, Jan, 25

Aetherdrift Is Looking Like A Typal MTG Set In Disguise

Is this secretly a second Bloomburrow?

As of right now, we’re only five days away from the official debut of Magic: The Gathering’s next mainline set, Aetherdrift. Based on what we’ve seen so far, the core themes of the set appear to be racing, Vehicles, and the multi-plane travelogue idea. Nestled amongst these obvious themes, however, are hints at a potential secret. Dig a little deeper, and there’s evidence to suggest that Aetherdrift could be an MTG set with a typal twist.

This would hardly be unusual. Just last year saw the release of Bloomburrow, after all, one of the most successful typal sets of all time. The fact that this hasn’t been established in the marketing for the set so far is interesting, however. Either we’re clutching at straws here, or there’s more to Aetherdrift than Wizards has let on.

Could Aetherdrift Be A Typal MTG Set?

Lifecraft Engine | Aetherdrift
  • Mana Value: 3
  • Rarity: Rare
  • Type: Artifact – Vehicle
  • Stats: 4/4
  • Card Text: As this Vehicle enters, choose a creature type. Vehicle creatures you control are the chosen creature type in addition to their other types. Each creature you control of the chosen type other than this Vehicle gets +1/+1. Crew 3

Where exactly is the idea that Aetherdrift could be a typal MTG set coming from? There are a few key pieces of evidence. First and foremost, the card Lifecraft Engine. This is one of only four cards we’ve seen from the set so far, tasty-looking basic lands aside.

While this card is clearly a support piece for Vehicles, as well as being a Vehicle itself, it’s also a generic typal lord effect for any type you choose. Based on this alone, one could easily extrapolate that creature types will be important across Aetherdrift as a whole. Particularly since this was one of the earliest cards revealed, and the only one previewed via a story article. It’s also the Buy-a-Box promo for the set, and it’s getting a sweet Borderless treatment too. Why would Wizards place so much emphasis on a card that wasn’t indicative of the set’s overall themes?

On the other hand, the presence of an effect like this is hardly a guarantee of further typal support. Wizards likes to give every set multi-format relevance as much as possible. Generic typal support cards are fantastic for Commander, so Lifecraft Engine could well just be an isolated case included for that reason. For a past example of this, just look at Metallic Mimic. This is another generic typal support piece originally printed in Aether Revolt, a set with no overarching typal theme.

The fact that none of the other cards revealed so far support a typal plan is also a knock against this theory. Granted we’re working with a pool of four here, so a pinch of salt is necessary. That said, we’ll need to delve a bit deeper to make a convincing case here.

Hints Or Red Herrings?

Aetherdrift MTG Typal Goblins

The second major piece of evidence we’ll be looking at is Mark Rosewater’s traditional set teaser article. As those who follow Magic closely will know, this is a piece Rosewater puts out before previews for each new set, hinting at the cards and mechanics to come. If we look through the Aetherdrift edition, there are multiple hints that it could well be a typal MTG set.

Some of these are fairly cut-and-dry hard evidence. In the section showing off rules text for upcoming cards, a few are explicitly typal support pieces. One card features the line “Other Dinosaurs you control get +1/+1,” for example, while another has “Tap: Add R for each Goblin you control.” There’s also a good bit of cross-typal action. “Whenever you attack, if a Pirate and a Vehicle attacked this combat,” will make fans of Edward Kenway very happy indeed.

There are also subtler typal clues, such as the rules text “Creatures you control have base power and toughness 6/6 and are Oozes in addition to their other types,” and the confirmation that the set will feature “Cat and Dog Mounts.” The latter seems flimsy, but Cat is a creature type that got fresh support as recently as Foundations. There’s a solid argument to be made, in other words.

Again, these examples don’t guarantee that the set will have a typal focus. Hobgoblin Bandit Lord featured in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, after all, and that wasn’t a typal set. These could easily just be one-offs included to make Commander players happy. It’s worth noting also that the types they cover, Dinosaur, Goblin, and Pirate, all have a good amount of support in Standard already. These could just be small additions to top up those decks.

Links In The Lore

Aetherdrift MTG Typal Lore

If you’re still unconvinced, the last place we can look to support our ‘Aetherdrift is a typal set’ theory is the MTG Story articles for the set. Delving into the lore is a great way to get some advanced insight into a set, after all. So far we’ve seen six such articles and two Planeswalker’s Guide pieces. That’s a lot of material to sift through, and a fair bit of it supports our typal theory.

The most pertinent information here comes from the breakdown of the ten racing teams in the set. This is found in part one of the Planeswalker’s Guide. We’ve already had confirmation that these will all be two-color factions, and the extra information in the Planeswalker’s Guide implies that some will represent specific types as well. The Aether Rangers is made up of “Humans, Elves, Vedalken, and Dwarves,” for example. The Goblin Rocketeers, naturally, is a Goblin faction.

Having 10 two-color typal factions sounds an awful lot like Bloomburrow; a very successful set from last year. Mark Rosewater has addressed this topic on Blogatog, noting that the teams “are not all divided by creature type.” That said, even if only some of them are it could still push Aetherdrift into the category of ‘typal set.’

There’s further evidence in the story articles, too. We see mentions of factions outside of the race, like the Zombie-led Chitin Court. We also see the new art of Basri Ket surrounded by Cats. There are plenty of hints that Aetherdrift won’t just be a Vehicle set, but a typal one as well. Of course, this is all just speculation for now. We’ll know for sure when previews get underway next week.

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