Uncommon cards tend to be the real sleeper hits of most MTG sets. Sure, the explosive bomb mythics may be exciting, but everyone knows those cards are going to be powerful. Even build-around rares like Samut, the Driving Force have obvious and expected homes in Commander. Uncommons, however, are often swept under the rug as players look toward the more traditionally exciting offerings.
In Aetherdrift, however, it seems that a handful of uncommons are getting the rightful respect they deserve. Sure, it might just be a slow day for spoilers right now, but these cards each have genuine potential. One card in particular looks like a scary automatic upgrade to one of the best decks in Standard right now
Momentum Breaker
If you’ve been playing Standard recently, you will have undoubtedly come across an Esper Pixie deck or two. While this archetype is no longer as dominant as it once was, it’s nonetheless a potent tier one archetype. Thanks to Momentum Breaker, this deck may soon move up in the Standard rankings once Aetherdrift is released.
On the surface, Momentum Breaker does a very similar thing to Tithing Blade. For two mana, each one of these cards forces your opponent to sacrifice a creature, which is the main use case. Momentum Breaker, however, has so much more potential that these cards are hardly even in the same ballpark.
For starters, Momentum Breaker can also hit Vehicles, which is no bad thing. If this ability is relevant, your opponent is forced to make a difficult decision about what to sacrifice. Even if your opponent has no vehicles, it still hits creatures just fine, so it’s all upside. For even more upside, Momentum Breaker is good even when there aren’t creatures on the board.
At the very worst, Momentum Breaker will force your opponent to discard a card. While this doesn’t have the life drain found on Hopeless Nightmare, it’ll still deny your opponent resources. The only question lingering around Momentum Breaker is what gets cut to put it in existing decks.
Unfortunately, that’s quite a difficult question to answer since both Esper Pixie and Dimir Bounce lists are incredibly lean. Potentially cutting a couple of copies of Go for the Throat is viable, but having targeted removal is a godsend. Theoretically, Momentum Breaker could replace Nowhere to Run in the main board, but that carries heavy risk.
Ultimately, Momentum Breaker may end up relegated to only appealing in the sideboard. At least it’s an upgrade over Tithing Blade if nothing else.
Defend the Rider
Much like Momentum Breaker, Defend the Rider is nothing new in Standard. We’ve had Tyvar’s Stand since Phyrexia: All Will Be One, and that card is arguably better. There’s even Royal Treatment, too, which provides lasting value. That being said, Defend the Rider still provides some useful utility that makes it worth talking about.
Obviously, the main ability to give something Indestructible and Hexproof is invaluable for a big stompy deck. Since not everything has Ward nowadays, sometimes your massive creatures need a little extra protection. Having extra options to provide this for just one mana is always nice. The real kicker here, however, is that Defend the Rider doesn’t just care about creatures.
Admittedly, this ability won’t always be hugely relevant, since creatures tend to get the job done. Should you be ramping up to Portal to Phyrexia or Omniscience, however, you now have an option to protect these cards. You’ll also be able to protect your Planeswalkers like Vivien Reid if you’re playing any.
Beyond this primary use case, Defend the Rider can also create one of the nifty new Pilot tokens. Once again, it’s unlikely this ability will be hugely relevant outside of Aetherdrift Limited. This token could potentially help to crew Thunderous Velocipede, but protecting that card’s ability is likely worth more than attacking with it.
Ultimately, while Defend the Rider does have some potential over existing protection options, it currently lacks a home. Mono-Green still isn’t popular in Standard, even with Llanowar Elves being legal. Due to this, Defend the Rider might not end up seeing much play outside of Commander unless a deck breaks out in Standard.
Molt Tender
Last but not least on our round-up of exciting new Aetherdrift uncommons, we have a callback to an absolute monster. At first glance, Molt Tender looks like Deathrite Shaman 2.0, but in reality, they’re just Deathrite Shaman at home.
Unlike the infamous Return to Ravnica icon, Molt Tender can only exile cards from your own graveyard. This new version also doesn’t have any extra abilities either to drain your opponent or gain life. Instead, all you get is the ability to mill yourself, which can be very relevant.
Despite being a significant downgrade from Deathrite Shaman, Molt Tender still looks like a fairly powerful card. As SwissherMontage notes on Reddit, it’s a better ramp engine than Gilded Goose, which still sees some play today. Rather than having to rely on rather expensive food tokens, you can just utilize what’s in your bin.
Through this lens, even the tap-to-mill option isn’t half bad, since it’s cheaper than Guilded Goose’s food generation. With this in mind, there’s a very real chance that Molt Tender ends up seeing play in Standard and beyond. At the very least Molt Tender is another extra tool that might finally help push Mono-Green decks over the edge.