Like a sleek racecar whizzing through a corner, Aetherdrift Prerelease has come around much faster than expected. Starting tonight, Local Game Stores around the world will be hosting this fan-favorite event, giving you a chance to test drive the new cards early. While Prerelease is a casual event, it’s always nice to end the night with some prizes. To that end, we’ve put together a list of the best Aetherdrift cards for Limited.
A few caveats before we begin. We’ll be sticking to commons and uncommons here, since those will make up the bulk of your decks in Sealed and Draft. We also won’t be covering colorless or multicolored cards. In general, colorless cards are just filler, and multicolored cards are always great if you can play them. There aren’t too many tough decisions there; the mono-colored cards are where the real Limited skill element comes in.
White
White is pretty much always solid in Limited since it’s one of the best colors for removal, similar to black. This remains true in Aetherdrift, where it gets access to some of the best Limited cards in the set.
To start with what white does best, the common slot features a few viable removal spells. Ride’s End is our pick for best of the bunch, exiling both creatures and Vehicles at instant speed. It’ll cost just two mana a lot of the time, but even at five, you’ll be happy to cast this. Collision Course is a solid common alternative, but it’s a lot more conditional.
For more proactive plays, Leonin Surveyor feels like the best card in the Surveyor cycle. All five of these are common creatures that start your engines and exile themselves from your graveyard later to draw a card. These are generally underwhelming for the cost, but Leonin Surveyor is a 2/2 with First Strike on your turn. This makes it great as an early attacker, and therefore great for building speed.
Moving up to uncommon, the standout white card in our eyes is Detention Chariot. This is a chunky, easy-to-Crew Vehicle that can deal with pretty much any problem on entry. It’s on the pricey end for sure, but Cycling for just one mana more than makes up for that. This is a stellar card both early and late.
Blue
Blue is probably the weakest color for Aetherdrift Limited overall, but there are still some nice cards here. Flood the Engine is a fantastic removal piece, shutting down any creature or Vehicle for just three mana. Unlike most blue cards like this, it also removes abilities, which is a huge deal. Aetherdrift has a lot of artifact hate, but only two cards that answer enchantments, so chances are this’ll stick around too.
Blue also gets to enjoy the delights of Howler’s Heavy at the common slot. Four mana for a 3/4 is pretty reasonable at a baseline, but what’s really exciting here is the Cycling ability. Giving an opposing creature (or Vehicle!) -3/-0 is basically a combat trick, and getting to draw a card in the bargain is great for just two mana. To top it all off, Seal Pirate is a truly fantastic type line.
Moving up to uncommon there are a ton of great situational options for blue. Scrounging Skyray and Slick Imitator can both do work in the right deck. Stock Up is also one of the best uncommon draw effects we’ve seen in a while. That said, we have to give the edge to Spikeshell Harrier here. A chunkier Man-o’-War is very much playable in 2025, and the speed reduction can be devastating against those using the mechanic.
Black
Like white, black is generally a safe bet in any Limited environment due to its quality removal alone. In Aetherdrift this is supplemented by some other very powerful Limited cards, making black one of the best colors in the set for Sealed.
To get the removal out of the way, Spin Out is your best option by far at common. This is essentially Hero’s Downfall but more relevant to the set, since it hits Vehicles instead of planeswalkers. You get a great rate here, and it’s instant speed too. Grim Bauble and Syphon Fuel are also great common removal pieces, but they’re less reliable than Spin Out.
A surprising standout for black at common is the one-drop Engine Rat. It looks underwhelming at first, but it’s actually very well-positioned in Aetherdrift specifically. A 1/1 with Deathtouch is often able to get through in the early game, which in Aetherdrift will help raise your speed. The mana sink ability does the same in the late game.
Speaking of speed, our uncommon pick for black is Risen Necroregent. if you can get to Max Speed by the time this comes down, it totally takes over the game. a 5/4 for five is solid by itself, but an endless stream of 2/2 tokens is hard to beat. This is a great top-end finisher for any deck running Max Speed cards.
Red
Aetherdrift feels very red-coded in terms of aesthetics. It’s appropriate, then, that red is one of the best colors in the set for Limited. It gets plenty of removal, as well as aggressive threats that make building speed a breeze.
Dynamite Diver is one of the most versatile red commons in Aetherdrift. It Crews and Saddles like a three drop, which plays very nicely with the abundance of Vehicles in the set. It can also ping the opponent when it dies, thus helping to build speed. Throw in synergy with Goblin support cards like Howlsquad Heavy and you have a card that covers pretty much every theme Aetherdrift has.
For a less flashy common pick, Lightning Strike never fails to get the job done. Two mana for three damage at instant speed is always good enough, and this version even comes with some sweet new art to enjoy. This is one of the biggest reasons to go red in Sealed, in all honesty.
Up at uncommon, red has plenty of goodies, including wild finisher Push the Limit and top-tier removal piece Outpace Oblivion. That said, for our money, the best of the bunch is Dracosaur Auxilliary. A 4/4 with Flying and Haste for six mana is a solid deal, and will end plenty of games in short order. Getting to turn your useless ground troops into free Shocks every turn is massive, too. This is one of the scariest threats in the set, and it feels very close to a rare in Limited.
Green
Green continues its proud traditions of big creatures and fight spells in Aetherdrift, making it an excellent fit for the huge pool of Vehicles and Mounts in the set. Down at common, Stampeding Scurryfoot is an excellent investment for just one mana. It’s only a 1/1 at first, but later it puts a total of 5/5 in stats into play once you hit Exhaust. Until then, it can just Crew or Saddle.
There are a number of good fight spells in Aetherdrift, but bite spells are even better. Run Over is a bite effect that costs just one mana on a Mount or Vehicle, but don’t get caught up on that. Biting at instant speed is fantastic in green, so even at full price, this is excellent. Throw in a few Mounts to take it from A to S tier.
At uncommon, Autarch Mammoth looks absolutely insane to us. A 5/5 and a 3/3 for six mana is already well above rate for Limited. This thing just keeps pumping out value turn after turn if left unchecked, however, which takes its stock even higher. The 3/3 it creates initially makes that Saddle 5 easier than it looks, and even if you never use it, this is a big problem for your opponent to deal with. This might be the best non-rare Limited threat in the set, honestly.
