As is always the case in the lull between preview season and Prerelease, MTG players are currently figuring out where the new cards from Aetherdrift are going to fit. In terms of Standard, things are tricky since the mechanics of the set are oddly slow. This makes Aetherdrift’s success in Standard far from guaranteed since its metagame is dominated by hyper-fast Aggro and Midrange. On the other hand, Aetherdrift features some of the best Commander cards we’ve seen in a hot minute.
Some of these cards are the kind of fun, splashy effects you’d expect from the ‘anything goes’ format. Others are legitimately powerful cards that have appeal elsewhere too. Whether you’re planning to build one of Aetherdrift’s powerful new Commanders or just updating your existing decks, these cards deserve consideration for a spot in the 99.
5 | March Of The World Ooze
- Mana Value: 3GGG
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Type: Enchantment
- Card Text: Creatures you control have base power and toughness 6/6 and are Oozes in addition to their other types.
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, if it’s not their turn, you create a 3/3 green Elephant creature token.
March of the World Ooze is definitely the Aetherdrift card that screams Commander the loudest. It’s a pricey enchantment with a difficult mana cost, but one that can easily take over the game if left unchecked.
Making all of your creatures 6/6 at a baseline is a terrifying ability. Cards like Craterhoof Behemoth and Overrun have long been popular in the format, and this does something very similar. Granted it doesn’t provide any kind of evasion, but there are other ways to achieve that. Getting a buff like this, permanently no less, is very exciting indeed.
The more exciting part of March for Commander is the token production ability. With three opponents in the mix, the chances of someone interacting outside of their own turn are high. Each time someone does, you get a 3/3 that immediately becomes a 6/6 thanks to March. Even with the prevalence of board wipes in the format, that’s a big advantage for your opponents to overcome. Though the artwork here is just a tease for now, the text makes this one of the best Commander cards in Aetherdrift.
4 | Spectacular Pileup
- Mana Value: 3WW
- Rarity: Rare
- Type: Sorcery
- Card Text: All creatures and Vehicles lose Indestructible until end of turn, then destroy all creatures and Vehicles.
Cycling 2 (2, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
Given how out of hand some Commander board states can get, it’s no surprise that board wipes are a staple of the format. Most sets add one or two new options into the mix, but Spectacular Pileup is a particularly distinguished entry.
Hitting Vehicles as well as creatures is mostly just flavor text, but hitting Indestructible creatures is a big deal. The keyword has become a lot more common in recent years, rendering more traditional board wipes ineffective. Pileup gets around this issue with ease, at a rate that’s about what you’d expect for a board wipe anyway.
On top of that, Pileup also gets Cycling for just two mana. Players often underestimate just how much value Cycling adds to a given card, particularly a situational one like this. If you don’t need to clear the board when you draw Pileup, you can just trade it in for another card instead. Cycling alone makes this one of the better white board wipes in Commander, and there’s some serious competition on that front.
3 | Riptide Gearhulk
- Mana Value: 1WWUU
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Type: Artifact Creature – Construct
- Stats: 2/5
- Card Text: Double Strike.
Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
When this creature enters, for each opponent, put up to one target nonland permanent that player controls into its owner’s library third from the top.
The majority of Aetherdrift’s new two-color Gearhulks feel designed for Commander in some way, but Riptide takes the cake. Hitting one nonland permanent for each opponent brings to mind Sylvan Primordial: a card so good it was actually banned in Commander.
Riptide isn’t quite that good, of course as it can’t remove lands, and it doesn’t ramp you in the bargain. What it does do is offer perhaps the best kind of removal outside of straight-up exile. Putting cards back into your opponent’s deck means you won’t have to deal with them for a while. If they use a shuffle effect like a Fetchland, you might not need to deal with them at all. Hitting any nonland is huge, too, letting you deal with huge creatures and utility enchantments alike.
Removal aside, Riptide is also just a terrifying threat on the board. Prowess and Double Strike rarely come bundled together for good reason. This can clear the way with its enters effect, then go for a lethal swing with a few Auras or combat tricks. Blue/white are also probably the best colors for artifact support in general as if any more reasons were needed to name this one of the top Commander cards in Aetherdrift.
2 | Monument To Endurance
- Mana Value: 3
- Rarity: Rare
- Type: Artifact
- Card Text: Whenever you discard a card, choose one that hasn’t been chosen this turn —
• Draw a card.
• Create a Treasure token.
• Each opponent loses 3 life.
Monument to Endurance isn’t your typical MTG value engine. Most cards in this category don’t ask you to discard your other cards in order to function, for one. Most also lack Monument’s sheer flexibility and power, however, so swings and roundabouts.
All three modes on Monument are great, with card draw and Treasure generation obviously being fantastic in pretty much any scenario. The burn isn’t to be underestimated either, since it hits all three opponents for a total of nine damage overall. The most important thing to note here is that Monument triggers once for each card you discard, not when you discard one or more cards. This means Faithless Looting can get you two of these abilities for just one mana, for example.
You can get extra value out of Monument by discarding on your opponent’s turns, too. Throw in instant speed outlets like Tortured Existence and Noose Constrictor, and you can easily churn through your deck and set up the mana you need for a game-winning combo. The potential here is huge, especially with the Eternal Might precon bringing discard back into vogue for the format.
1 | Brightglass Gearhulk
- Mana Value: GGWW
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Type: Artifact Creature – Construct
- Stats: 4/4
- Card Text: First Strike, Trample.
When this creature enters, you may search your library for up to two artifact, creature, and/or enchantment cards with mana value 1 or less, reveal them, put them into your hand, then shuffle.
The best of the Aetherdrift cards for Commander, and very likely the best card in the set overall, (sorry Aetherspark) is Brightglass Gearhulk. Because of the singleton nature of the format, tutor effects are in high demand in pretty much every deck. Brightglass Gearhulk tutors for not one but two cards, with a reasonable body attached, for just four mana.
Sure the cards need to cost one mana, but that’s hardly a major restriction. At an absolute minimum, this can grab you Sol Ring and a mana dork to accelerate you into the late game. Most decks will have more specialized targets, however. You can grab Skullclamp for a draw engine, Insidious Fungus for artifact and enchantment removal, or even Concordant Crossroads to power a combo later. No matter what kind of deck you’ve built, chances are it’ll contain at least a few great targets for Brightglass to grab.
For that reason, I can really see this card becoming a super-staple in every Selesnya Commander deck going forward. As long as you’ve got a solid manabase in place to hit that cost, there’s no reason not to run such a powerful tutor in your deck. All of that goes double if you have ways to blink or reanimate the card, too.
