Full Throttle | Aetherdrift | Art by Benjamin Ee
23, Jan, 25

Aetherdrift Brings Blazing-Fast Mono-Red Cards To The MTG Table

Let's kick it into turbodrive!

If there’s one thing Magic: The Gathering hasn’t been lacking over the past year, it’s good Mono-Red support. Pretty much every set in 2024 introduced a broken card for the color, leading to a slew of hyper-aggressive decks dominating in both Standard and Pioneer. Based on the spicy Mono-Red cards we’ve seen revealed for Aetherdrift so far, this trend looks set to carry into 2025.

The bar set last year by cards like Heartfire Hero and Slickshot Show-Off is very high indeed. That said, this is a set all about speed, so we could well see the needle edge into dangerous territory power level-wise. If you’re a fan of drawn-out Control games, this upcoming Standard may not be the meta for you.

Marauding Mako

Marauding Mako
  • Mana Value: R
  • Rarity: Uncommon
  • Type: Creature – Shark Pirate
  • Stats: 1/1
  • Card Text: Whenever you discard one or more cards, put that many +1/+1 counters on this creature.
    Cycling 2 (2, Discard this card: Draw a card.)

Of the Mono-Red Aetherdrift cards we’ll be looking at today, Marauding Mako is easily the one with the most multi-format potential. In Standard, it will pair very nicely with Fear of Missing Out and rummage spells like Bitter Reunion. These are cards that already see play in aggressive strategies, so slotting Mako in shouldn’t be difficult. A one-drop with the potential to grow continuously throughout the game is no joke, as Heartfire Hero has taught us. While Mako lacks the ability to burn the opponent upon death, it makes up for it with Cycling.

Standard aside, Marauding Mako could also make a real splash in Pioneer. Not necessarily in Aggro decks, which don’t tend to run discard effects, but rather in Rakdos Midrange. This is another list that plays Fear of Missing Out as well as the mighty Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, both of which can grow Mako well. An aggressive creature like this may not seem like the best fit for a Midrange list, but it can grow to Midrange size fairly quickly. Cycling also gives it more play in the late game.

Even more excitingly, many are eyeing Marauding Mako as a potential addition to Hollow One decks in Modern. These decks typically max out on Burning Inquiry, Faithless Looting, and Goblin Lore, all of which can make Mako absolutely terrifying as early as turn two. Hollow One usually runs Flameblade Adept in the one drop slot right now, and Mako is definitely comparable. It lacks Menace, which is unfortunate, but it grows permanently and increases its toughness too. Having Cycling itself also enables some desperate discard plays if your rummage spells don’t line up right, which is something Adept can’t do.

Count On Luck

Mono Red Aetherdrift Count on Luck
  • Mana Value: RRR
  • Rarity: Rare
  • Type: Enchantment
  • Card Text: At the beginning of your upkeep, exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn.

Next up we have Count on Luck. This is by far the simplest of the new Mono-Red Aetherdrift cards we’ll be looking at today, with just a single line of text. At the beginning of your upkeep, you Impulse draw a card. That’s all she wrote. Despite this simplicity, however, there is potential here in multiple MTG formats.

By now most of you will have noticed the striking similarities between this card and Phyrexian Arena. Both are three mana enchantments that draw you a card on your upkeep, after all. Count on Luck doesn’t cost you life, but it also doesn’t let you keep the card if you don’t play it, and it has a more intensive mana cost. For that reason, I’d probably put Count on Luck slightly below Arena in terms of power level.

Phyrexia Arena is currently Standard-legal, but it doesn’t see any real play. That was true before it was power crept by Unholy Annex, too. For that reason, I really don’t have high hopes for Count on Luck in Standard. It is in a totally different color to Arena, but the triple red in the cost means you’re likely only playing this in pure Mono-Red, which is too fast to bother with something like this.

Continuing down that chain of logic, I don’t expect to see Count on Luck in Pioneer or Modern, either. Where it will almost certainly see play is in Commander. With slower games and better mana, this card can more easily fit into one of your early turns. It can also play into the numerous ‘casting cards from exile’ synergies in the format, like Passionate Archaeologist and Flaming Tyrannosaurus.

Full Throttle

Mono Red Aetherdrift Full Throttle
  • Mana Value: 4RR
  • Rarity: Rare
  • Type: Sorcery
  • Card Text: After this main phase, there are two additional combat phases.
    At the beginning of each combat this turn, untap all creatures that attacked this turn.

Speaking of Commander, the last of our Mono-Red Aetherdrift spoilers for today feels very much designed for that format. Full Throttle is a flashy six mana sorcery with a huge, Timmy-friendly effect. It grants you two additional combat phases, which by itself is pretty exciting. We’ve seen effects that grant one extra combat phase before, but stacking more than one is very rare. Anzrag, the Quake Mole is the only recent card that comes to mind in that regard.

On top of that, Full Throttle also untaps your attackers at the start of each extra combat. Many extra combat cards don’t do this, forcing you to add in extra cards to really take advantage of them. Getting the untaps built-in is a big deal for this reason. This card effectively triples your combat damage for a turn, as well as any attack triggers you have set up. The potential for total blowout turns and flashy combos is huge here.

That said, Full Throttle is still a six mana sorcery. These days a card like that basically needs to say ‘you win the game’ on it to be playable. Full Throttle certainly can work like that with the right board state, but a lot of the time it will feel underwhelming for the cost.

That’s why I mentioned Commander earlier. I think that’s the only format where an effect like this can really shine. As cool as it is, it’s just far too slow everywhere else. There may be some fringe Standard possibilities in some kind of Overlord of the Boilerbilges Combo deck, but for the most part, I see this one mainly making moves in multiplayer.

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