Not sure if we got the proper first look at the set but always I start these when I feel like we have enough to talk about (and when I have the free time).
Aetherdrift is an vehicle focused set as well as the first set to try and feature more then one planes as a focus* with three planes being featured here; Kaladesh Avishkar, Amonkhet and highly hinted at Muraganda. These three planes will feature a "death race" where the prize is the aetherspark (which likely gives the weirder the powers of a planeswalker).
There are 10 teams each based around the 10 color draft pairs** which include; a goblin team, an insect team and a zombie team. Not all teams will be speices based rather tone and some from certain planes (with zombies hinted at being from mummies from Amonkhet). Chandra is one of the co-leader of a team and wants to get the spark for Nissa.
Saheeli is also here.
The 10 teams;
The Aether Rangers from Avishkar led by Nia and Spitfire.
The Champions of Amonkhet from Amonkhet led by Zahur and Basri.
The Speed Demons from Duskmourn led by Winter and "the speed demon".
Cloudspire Racing Team from Kylem led by Chandra and Kolodin.
The Endriders from Gastal led by Far Fortune.
The Alacrian Quickbeasts from Alacria
The Guidelight Voyagers from an unnamed plane led by
The Goblin Rocketeers from an unknown plane led by Daretti and Redshift.
The Speedbrood from a plane that can't be pronounced led by Aatchik.
The Keelhaulers from an unknown plane led by Captain Howler and Kari Zev.
*vs coresets and MoM
** this is not meant to be a faction set rather since WOE great success at having each draft pair focus around a fairy tale they decided they want to try that again with as many sets they can such as seen in Duskmourn with most of the evil toys where RW and played with the 2 or less theme.
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Comments in the featured art Reddit thread indicate that Duskmourn got at least one racer in (see the background of one art piece and some concept art). Not sure how the monster truck made it out of the House, though...
The GB team is probably called The Brood, see the flavortext of Earthrumbler.
I would say that the team Daretti helps is called Rocketeers (Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer), and is probably RB (his previous color identity and the fact that his card works with graveyard).
Private Mod Note
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100% Vorthos Spike and Storyline Expert
Former Fact Prospector of the Greek Alliance.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
-Sita Varma is clearly from Kaladesh and gonna guess part of the UR team. Not sure if she will be speedster, her card name doesn't hint at that, calling her a driver, but her art makes her look like one so I'm also lumping in a guess that we will see Samut and few other speedsters who will be part of the race with no vehicles or mounts just running it with their own legs.
-On that note I'm gonna guess Basri might show up desparked. We haven't gotten him in stories yet and if one part of the desparking was to get more (ex) planeswalker character into the lore (like we saw with Duskmourn) then it would be nice to get him featured along with Daretti.
-Sitas art also shows that the very Duskmourn looking truck from the concept art made to the final set. Wild guess but maybe Val possessed Winter will pop up as the race forced to try and get a the aetherspark to make planes hopping easier.
-Far Fortune and her team I'm gonna guess is from Gastal. The story lead said we where gonna see some characters from there and it would make sense that a Mad Max like refernce would come from there as what we saw of Gastal it is mostly wasteland. Gonna guess they likely are the RB team.
-Aatchik and the Brood I'll guess are from Muraganda and are GB.
-Caradora points there to be mounts in the set (as seen with her riding a giant bat). Not sure what planes she might be from if from any known ones.
-Gonna guess the zombie team will be mostly if not all Amonkhet mummies and will be WB.
-Guessing a reason Chandra is also doing this is as hinted as Duskmourn I think Nahiri has somehow sealed Zendikar off from omenpaths so Nissa is still cut off from getting home. Wondering if Nissa will show up or not.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
we got somethings from the world building weeklymtg now
Not sure if this is the first time in history but they are renaming a plane Kaladesh is being renamed Aviskhar.
(to Explain right away with Translations in play Kaladesh translates to Dark/black country and i think you know where this is going from that translation, and Aviskhar translates to Invention")
Anyway Remember Niv-Mizzets project that was completed as of Duskmourn? well Avishkar is essentially Challenging the Alpha for that project (they wanted to do that too.)
Believe it or not but Amonkhet is the plane who's hosting this race in the first place, and with bolas gone they are making amonkhet on their own freedom now, and now their logo will be lotus's
and long and behold the third plane known but never visited is........Muraganda so we will be seeing Citiziens/creaturse/enviroment of this plane and im pretty sure this includes Dinosaurs and Oozes, So this is likely where are Bug Folk are coming from, this plane is not really involved in the race weird, but the only tip bit we got is theres a moon thats falling,
finally the Aetherspark is basically the Grandprize of the race...ofcourse and onee thing was said......its a spark of a walker who lost a spark and is likely alive. anywagers its either nissa spark? (hence why chandra is racing for it?) or Bolas spark?
and for … we might get Shark Kindred legend since one team is all Sharkfolk
But this is absolutely the team we need to point at for major lore… thr speed demons
A set of lights on the long and lonely road. The last thing a poor creature wandering the asphalt might see. A lone silhouette warbling in the setting sun's heat, half-mirage, half-stygian steel. Is it death, or something worse? There's no way to know unless it catches you, and you don't want that to happen.
These are the Speed Demons, a group of possessed racers and their tormentors who drive specter-haunted vehicles, led by the eponymous demon that allows their excursions from their homeworld. The Speed Demon itself races among the possessed and the damned as a demonic minder, the tormentor of the team captain, Winter. Winter is a survivor of Duskmourn who has been granted temporary leave by Valgavoth, the archdemon of the plane, to try and win the Aetherspark for reasons, of course, of Valgavoth's own. If Winter (or a racer on his crew) wins, he might be granted his freedom. If he fails, however, the Speed Demon will ensure Winter is dragged back to Duskmourn to face Valgavoth's wrath.
Winter's prospects look stark, save for one ace in the hole: Loot, a young beast with an uncanny ability to navigate the Omenpaths. Winter and the Speed Demon hold Loot captive and plan to take advantage of his abilities in the race.
And to time travel to chapter 6 of Duskmourn
Valgavoth has Loot as a Hostage and can read minds you you bet he has the map in loots head that Jace found.
So with this you know dang well why Valgavoth wants the aetherspark, so the house can get started on other planes.
-Kaladesh is now known as Avishkar. There is thread detailing this.
-This is the second time this race has happened. It is a death as in its dangerous not so much that it tries to kill you/losers will die. First race was huge and ended up being messy so this year the race is smaller.
-There are 10 main teams but there will be minor league racer teams as well.
-This race evolved from a criminal based night race on Avishkar.
-The Consulate was on shakey power after the revolt and despite trying to reform it ended up fully falling post- Phyrexia with a new governement in charge, the Avishkar Assembly. This new times is also the in universe reason for the plane name change.
-Avishkar is using this race and other means like trade and banking to "soft power" their way into post-Omenpaths multiverse. This both to proect Avishkar from outside forced as well as Avishkar to gain power since it is not in a postion to wage war or forcefully take over other planes.
-Amonkhet still stands the Luxa has finally become clean once more and two new gods; Ketramose and Sab-Sunen have emerged. This brings Amonkhet gods back to five. Not sure if we will see a full cycle of the gods but this lines them back up to a cycle if they want too.
-Amonkhet is exploring what post Bolas world looks like. The mummies who where hinted at gaining more intelligence seems to have done so and are part of Amonkhet society outside of controlled slaves.
-Muraganda fully confirmed. Muraganda has no team in the race. We will def be getting a bigger at the plane we have never seen before such as the falling moon shards that races will have too look out for along with dinosaurs and oozes. Muraganda has been mostly developed thought we will only see some of it in this set. We will also see the sapience peoples of the plane.
-Aetherspark is untested but believed to have been made pre-phyrexia and notes on it have been lost. Believed to be a lost spark from a planeswalker. Prize from last year is a secret.
-Saheeli is showing up as a commander and I'm guessing she is ambassador between Avishkar and Ixalan hence also gaining green.
-We have our ten teams;
"Returning Planes" teams
The Aether Rangers from Avishkar led by Nia and Spitfire (a masked folk hero). Made up of the peoples of Avishkar.
The Champions of Amonkhet from Amonkhet led by Zahur, a mummied Leonin from pre-Bolas era and Basri. Made up of the living and undead of Amonkhet.
The Speed Demons from Duskmourn. Led by Winter and "the speed demon" given temporary leave by Valgavoth to try and win the Aetherspark. Winter has an edge using Loot. Made up of possessed racers and monster of Duskmourn.
"New planes";
Cloudspire Racing Team from Kylem led by Chandra and Kolodin. Chandra picked this team over her home planes team thinking this would be better chance to win the spark for Chandra.
The Endriders from Gastal led by Far Fortune. Leaving behind the wasteland plane of Gastal, many people from their inducing many of this team found gas and oil, found in abundance in Gastal is less known elsewhere.
The Alacrian Quickbeasts led by Caradora and Lagorin from Alacria. They are riders bound to magical sapience beasts with Caradora and Lagorin not bounded originally but forced to for the race.
Unknown planes
The Guidelight Voyagers from an unnamed plane. They are a most made of a machine hive mind and want to try to return home. I'm guessing they are from the "Edge" as in Edge of Eternities.
The Goblin Rocketeers from an unknown plane led by Daretti and Redshift. Mostly gobin worshipers of the BOOSTGOD who believed they lauvhed their the multiverse into Avishkar. Daretti is a benefactor of theirs and was also stranded on Avishkar.
The Speedbrood from a planes that can't be pronounced led by Aatchik. Mostly bugfolk who wish to become speed itself.
The Keelhaulers are from unknown plane led by Captain Howler, the Keelhaulers and Kari Zev. Mostly made of sharkfolk also displaced over by an omenpath, with some other fishfolk and pirates from Avishkar.
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
A quote found in Wizards's "Collecting Aetherdrift: A First Look" article:
"Someone will remember me, she thinks. Someone will know I was right. And when they find the Aetherspark, my spark, they'll do something amazing with it."
—"The Dashing and the Desperate," K. Arsenault Rivera
The Aetherspark's spark is already indicated to be from a female planeswalker. I have a feeling that planeswalker is not one we already know.
From the Planeswalker's Guide, Part 1:
Muraganda, despite hosting part of the Ghirapur Grand Prix, does not have any team in that race.
Amonkhet has sprouted 2 new gods since we last looked: Ketramose and Sab-Sunen. Guess we'll only learn about them later. The Scarab God always seemed like a solid fellow less likely to be aggressive all the time, but perhaps the Locust God has reverted to a (rather hungry) fertility god without Nicol Bolas's influence?
The Ghirapur Grand Prix is stewarded, championed, and probably funded by Gonti. I guess that Aetherborn feels more pressure to conduct legitimate business now, eh?
The plane's name got changed from Kaladesh to Avishkar by (a high enough percentage of) its rebel forces after they finally toppled the Consulate right after the Phyrexian Invasion.
Teams are from these planes/forces:
Avishkar (led by Pia Nalaar)
Amonkhet (signed a Leonin mummy from the pre-God-Emperor era)
Kylem (signed Chandra)
The non-plane "Mendicant Core" (filled with robots, a plant for Eternity's Edge?)
Duskmourn (led by the Speed Demon and Winter - Winter has temporary leave from Valgavoth and may be partially possessed by him, they still have Loot hostage)
The non-plane goblin worshippers of the BOOSTGOD (implied to not be from Fiora, recruited Daretti anyway)
Alacria (a new plane, has big, sentient beasts)
The non-plane Speedbrood (from a new plane with an untranslatable name; notably ride their old comrades in a system slightly reminiscent of StarCraft Dragoons)
The non-plane Keelhaulers (from an unknown plane with lots of Chordatan sharkfolk, goblins resemble Ixalani ones, recruited Kari Zev and Ragavan)
Gastal (has the deserts and wastelands worthy of its scorpion dragons, along with gasoline, crude oil, and implied natural gas)
I'm definitely getting some mixed vibes from this set already.
Like, I actually think the way they're revamping Kaladesh by integrating the name change is really solid, and there are actually REASONS given for there to be a plane-spanning grand prix, as opposed to "We, haven't done MTG Mad Max yet, let's do MTG Mad Max!". I can definitely commend them for taking what could easily be a real stretch of a setting and putting some thought into it to make it work.
That said... some of the teams are REALLY verging into Un-set territory in terms of zaniness. The Avishkar, Amonkhet, and Kylem factions all make solid sense. The new plane with Quickbeasts makes sense mechanically, since it allows Mounts and Vehicles to both play in the same space. Even the Duskmourn faction makes sense having Winter and Loot, although calling them the "Speed Demons" and having them drive what appears to be hearse from The Munsters is a bit on the nose.
But... Street Sharks? Goblin Rocketeers who worship THE BOOSTGOD and TOTALLY aren't just the Goblin faction from the Unstable set? A straight up post-apocalyptic "Hey, let's do MTG Mad Max?" team? It's almost like they got halfway through worldbuilding and just said, "ah, screw it, let Rosewater play Wacky Races with the rest of it, we're probably not doing another Un-set for a while, let him have his fun."
That said... some of the teams are REALLY verging into Un-set territory in terms of zaniness. The Avishkar, Amonkhet, and Kylem factions all make solid sense. The new plane with Quickbeasts makes sense mechanically, since it allows Mounts and Vehicles to both play in the same space. Even the Duskmourn faction makes sense having Winter and Loot, although calling them the "Speed Demons" and having them drive what appears to be hearse from The Munsters is a bit on the nose.
But... Street Sharks? Goblin Rocketeers who worship THE BOOSTGOD and TOTALLY aren't just the Goblin faction from the Unstable set? A straight up post-apocalyptic "Hey, let's do MTG Mad Max?" team? It's almost like they got halfway through worldbuilding and just said, "ah, screw it, let Rosewater play Wacky Races with the rest of it, we're probably not doing another Un-set for a while, let him have his fun."
It's the continued trend from Murders of Karlov Manor. It's tropes above all.
However, Maro has already talked about how they consider that approach to be too much (based on player feedback), so they might cut down on it a bit. But due to the delay between working on a product and it going live, expect this change of mindset to start affecting sets next year, not earlier. And even then, MtG loves tropes too much and most players don't give a damn about worldbuilding and story, so don't expect them to turn it down all the way.
I
But... Street Sharks? Goblin Rocketeers who worship THE BOOSTGOD and TOTALLY aren't just the Goblin faction from the Unstable set? A straight up post-apocalyptic "Hey, let's do MTG Mad Max?" team? It's almost like they got halfway through worldbuilding and just said, "ah, screw it, let Rosewater play Wacky Races with the rest of it, we're probably not doing another Un-set for a while, let him have his fun."
I don't mind the sharkfolk as much as they have popped up somewhat before so I like we are getting some origins and minor lore for them.
Do we know if the teams are 2 or 3 color? I can't make heads and tails out of the teams if they're two-color.
They are roughly two color this is not a faction set or a typal set so how the teams shake out will likely be looser. Using WOE as example (since this the set they started to do it in) we had the giant character from Jack in the Beanstalk being UGR while the Jack draft deck was based around just UG and we had Rowan who RB while not being part of the Piped Piper draft deck. So I think thats where to put our gauges at vs a Ravnica or Tarkir coming up.
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Well I’m starting to think Loan shark and Bigfin Bouncer were plants for these sharkfolk both could be the home of the sharkfolk/sea creatures team plane
and the voyager team could be from the space area of mtg “the edge”
and we got two new gods in amonkhet so that’s absolutely no way we’re not getting a cycle of the second round of amonkhet gods in Aetherdrift.
oh and I can easily theorize why we have two new gods instead of four
part 1 is Ketramose and Sab-Sunen and are the replacements for Rhonas G and Oketra W
part 2 is The locust god and The Scarab God likely finally have their heads on straight and back to their old selves (they took way longer because they were brain washed the most by bolas)and they will likely be taking the places that Kefnet U and Bontu B were in
Ok, getting slightly more optimistic about this set, not gonna lie. Amonkhet being a more flourishing world again (finally) is actually a bit heartwarming, though I need a bit more details on that (hopefully in part 2 of the Planeswalker's Guide). I am excited for the new gods (and maybe the Scarab and Locust Gods being fully redeemed) and seeing Basri Ket again (maybe finally getting some character development? :D)
I also like how they handle the reasons for the name change of Kaladesh and the reason for this entire Grand Prix endeavor, feels almost like something taken from real life politics (from what I remember the olympic games (as one of the first international competitions in world history) were also both used as a platform for diplomacy, soft power gain and even political conflict and started out way more localized).
Now, I actually don't mind the silliness of some of the teams, most are also perfectly reasonable within the established multiverse: Goblins loving speed and explosives (especially rockets) has been a common theme, and they were always one of the "sillier" species (I really like that they worship a literal speed god in this case). The only extremely trope-y team seems to be the Gastal one (which is absolutely just Mad Max), but I do find the idea that their plane (implied to be a bit of an older one) actually has crude oil and gas, while those are not available in most other (and far younger) planes for obvious reasons.
Valgavoth certainly seems to make his move fast, though I question him letting Loot go with Winter and the speed demon (ok, that name is also a bit groan worthy ngl) as a hostage, unless he already got most of what he needed out of him. Vraska and Jace better step up as parents soon!
Overall, if they want to be a bit more silly, then doing it in this kind of set is fine, but I hope they are careful with how they handle Amonkhet and Ashkavir in this one, neither should lose its identity to the racing.
Listening to the worldbuilding stream was actually quite nice. It's good to see how much thought they put into the why's and how's of the race, even going as far as (roughly) outlining a first race the year ago that we'll likely never see. The politics, the effects on the larger multiverse. It kind of gives me hope.
It's too bad none of this will matter when whoever decides "more cowboy hats!" because everyone loves tropes right???
Also Miguel has such a smooth voice, I could listen to him for hours.
Oh by the way I know the amonkhet gods will get a cycle again in the set because it just hit me just now.
the non eternalized versions of them had “*legend name* can't attack or block unless *condition is met*”
I bet they will do this again for the second round of amonkhet (Egyptian) gods infact it’s a vehicles matters set the key is they can crew the vehicles even when the condition is not met yet so they will have a use if the condition is not met.
Okay, having read both guides, here some assorted opinions:
- Not a big fan what they did with Muraganda. I wish they had just retconned the flavour text and artwork (the antelopes) of Petroglyphs and/or find an extraplanar origin for them and made Muraganda into a truly primordial world based on the era of dinosaurs and before. You could have titanic dinosaurs of the mesozoic, humid carboniferous swamps filled with insects and amphibians, ancient oceans populated with ammononites and trilobites etc. There would be oozes which are collections of single-celled organisms, playing into the idea of the primordial soup; and the only mammals are small rodent-like critters living in burrows or in trees. There would be no settled civilizations, only paleolithic hunter gatherers. While I do enjoy worlds with history, I think Muraganda was the one plane where it was a mistake to do so. And turning it into Zendikar 2.0 is especially frustrating.
Also, the saurids are literally the saurian people from Warhammer.
- I find the mingling of living and undead on Amonkhet fascinating. It should create a very unique society, though I cast doubt MtG will ever be able to explore it in depth (more cowboy hats!).
- My prediction regarding the color of the gods: Hazoret remains in R. Sab-Sunen is GU and Ketramose (am I the only one who keeps reading Moses?) would be WB. This way all five colours are represented in the Naktamun pantheon. It also makes sense with their aspects. Hazoret is the only surviving god and was there when Amonkhet regained its freedom. Sab-Sunen represents the Luxa which has always been associated with green-blue. Meanwhile Ketramose is said to have been born from the determination of both the living and the dead. Further, he embodies (among others) endurance, which is usually associated with black.
- I hope the remaining two insect gods don't turn out to be evil. I'd like the idea that, with Bolas gone, they retreat from Naktamun, unwilling to endanger its people, but too corrupted by Bolas to meaningfully interact with them.
- The elphant shaped ooze has a Garruk look-alike silhouette inside of it. Pretty sure it's not Garruk, as the axe doesn't fit, but it's weird there's someone in there anyway.
- I will say, the worldbuilding guide and the stream have won me over with Avishkar being one of the three planes. They do have a pretty good reason and existing infrastructure to do it and given the motivation, it makes sense that Ravnica and Capenna might not want to join, or wouldn't even be asked by Avishkar, likely considering them their rivals. Still not sold on Amonkhet and Muraganda though. I'm pretty sure there's much better candidates. Especially Muraganda is an odd fit, because there's not even any spectators on the plane. Who are you projecting your soft power unto?
- Speaking of motivation for the Grand Prix: The whole political tangle with Avishkar, Ravnica and potentially even Capenna honestly is so much fertile ground for so much story. It's a shame MtG will never have the scope to truly explore it. Or even the want, as they want to keep their planes separate, but realistically what would happen is a colonization boogaloo, where the more advanced (technologically and infrastructurally) planes would colonize and vassalize the less developed planes. The irony that an indian plane would be a major colonizer (even if just culturally) in this scenario does not escape me.
- Not sure why they decided to add mounts to this race. Doesn't really vibe with the whole "deathrace" aesthetic, but whatever.
- Wish they had kept the goblin team multi-planar, basically having all the goblins from all over the multiverse unite. The technology leader could be an izzet goblin, while the logistics leader could be a Kyren, thus giving the team just enough competence to not have their racers explode before the start signal. Instead they pulled the goblins from Babloxia or whatever the un-plane is called. Eyeroll.
- The other racing teams are interesting, though I wish they had gone with more known planes, than playing the "randomly deposited on Avishkar and decided to race" card like four times.
- If you look at the art of the first guide, there's loxodon in several Avishkar images. I wonder if they were always native but never shown, or if they are new arrivals.
More details from the Planeswalker's Guide, Part 2:
Basri Ket is indeed a member of Amonkhet's racing team
The Locust and Scarab Gods have retreated for the time being but seem to have a "Chitin Court" set up
Sab-Sunen is the "mother of the Luxa" and controls its floods, frogs, and seemingly the local weather - she is frog-headed
Ketramose is the "lion of dawn", and he also covers hope, solidarity, endurance, the peasantry, and the future and its promise
The undead pharaohs of long ago worship(ped) the Scarab and Locust Gods
Amonkhet is said to have demigods
Muraganda's moons indeed shattered to pieces after its previous plane-spanning civilization collapsed (possibly the Fomori in their previous glory days? The Guide doesn't say the civilization was native to Muraganda)
Muraganda is not taking the Ghirapur Grand Prix taking place on it kindly and is hinted to have a Roil equivalent
The Saurid Autocracy of Muraganda is filled with (non-avian) dinosaur-folk
There are Fang Druids in Muraganda (apes and humans)
Muraganda also has the Telu-Set, humans from the ruin Telu (did the Telu civilization even come from Muraganda, or did they invade a la the Fomori?)
Muraganda has scar witches, territorial ghosts that came from old Muraganda and consult "veiled walkers" and deadgods(!)
Muraganda also has Dawnchaser Pilgrims (monotheistic, non-animistic, slight Abrahamic religion reference?) and Wandering Scribes (monastic order of an unknown religion)
Aetherdrift is an vehicle focused set as well as the first set to try and feature more then one planes as a focus* with three planes being featured here;
KaladeshAvishkar, Amonkhet and highly hinted at Muraganda. These three planes will feature a "death race" where the prize is the aetherspark (which likely gives the weirder the powers of a planeswalker).There are 10 teams each based around the 10 color draft pairs** which include; a goblin team, an insect team and a zombie team. Not all teams will be speices based rather tone and some from certain planes (with zombies hinted at being from mummies from Amonkhet). Chandra is one of the co-leader of a team and wants to get the spark for Nissa.
Saheeli is also here.
The 10 teams;
The Aether Rangers from Avishkar led by Nia and Spitfire.
The Champions of Amonkhet from Amonkhet led by Zahur and Basri.
The Speed Demons from Duskmourn led by Winter and "the speed demon".
Cloudspire Racing Team from Kylem led by Chandra and Kolodin.
The Endriders from Gastal led by Far Fortune.
The Alacrian Quickbeasts from Alacria
The Guidelight Voyagers from an unnamed plane led by
The Goblin Rocketeers from an unknown plane led by Daretti and Redshift.
The Speedbrood from a plane that can't be pronounced led by Aatchik.
The Keelhaulers from an unknown plane led by Captain Howler and Kari Zev.
WU-
WB-
UB-
UR-
BR-
BG-
RG-
RW-
GW-
GU-
Also some art featured as part of the cosplay demo at Magic con Vegas 24
https://www.reddit.com/r/mtgvorthos/comments/1gls2n7/aetherdrift_artwork_from_the_cosplay_competition/
*vs coresets and MoM
** this is not meant to be a faction set rather since WOE great success at having each draft pair focus around a fairy tale they decided they want to try that again with as many sets they can such as seen in Duskmourn with most of the evil toys where RW and played with the 2 or less theme.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I would say that the team Daretti helps is called Rocketeers (Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer), and is probably RB (his previous color identity and the fact that his card works with graveyard).
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
-Sita Varma is clearly from Kaladesh and gonna guess part of the UR team. Not sure if she will be speedster, her card name doesn't hint at that, calling her a driver, but her art makes her look like one so I'm also lumping in a guess that we will see Samut and few other speedsters who will be part of the race with no vehicles or mounts just running it with their own legs.
-On that note I'm gonna guess Basri might show up desparked. We haven't gotten him in stories yet and if one part of the desparking was to get more (ex) planeswalker character into the lore (like we saw with Duskmourn) then it would be nice to get him featured along with Daretti.
-Sitas art also shows that the very Duskmourn looking truck from the concept art made to the final set. Wild guess but maybe Val possessed Winter will pop up as the race forced to try and get a the aetherspark to make planes hopping easier.
-Far Fortune and her team I'm gonna guess is from Gastal. The story lead said we where gonna see some characters from there and it would make sense that a Mad Max like refernce would come from there as what we saw of Gastal it is mostly wasteland. Gonna guess they likely are the RB team.
-Aatchik and the Brood I'll guess are from Muraganda and are GB.
-Caradora points there to be mounts in the set (as seen with her riding a giant bat). Not sure what planes she might be from if from any known ones.
-Gonna guess the zombie team will be mostly if not all Amonkhet mummies and will be WB.
-Guessing a reason Chandra is also doing this is as hinted as Duskmourn I think Nahiri has somehow sealed Zendikar off from omenpaths so Nissa is still cut off from getting home. Wondering if Nissa will show up or not.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
To keep it gentle wizard May have made a oops with one of the pictures shown off
Not sure if this is the first time in history but they are renaming a plane Kaladesh is being renamed Aviskhar.
(to Explain right away with Translations in play Kaladesh translates to Dark/black country and i think you know where this is going from that translation, and Aviskhar translates to Invention")
Anyway Remember Niv-Mizzets project that was completed as of Duskmourn? well Avishkar is essentially Challenging the Alpha for that project (they wanted to do that too.)
Believe it or not but Amonkhet is the plane who's hosting this race in the first place, and with bolas gone they are making amonkhet on their own freedom now, and now their logo will be lotus's
and long and behold the third plane known but never visited is........Muraganda so we will be seeing Citiziens/creaturse/enviroment of this plane and im pretty sure this includes Dinosaurs and Oozes, So this is likely where are Bug Folk are coming from, this plane is not really involved in the race weird, but the only tip bit we got is theres a moon thats falling,
finally the Aetherspark is basically the Grandprize of the race...ofcourse and onee thing was said......its a spark of a walker who lost a spark and is likely alive. anywagers its either nissa spark? (hence why chandra is racing for it?) or Bolas spark?
https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/planeswalkers-guide-to-aetherdrift-part-1
I SEE MOUNTS!
and for
But this is absolutely the team we need to point at for major lore… thr speed demons
And to time travel to chapter 6 of Duskmourn
Valgavoth has Loot as a Hostage and can read minds you you bet he has the map in loots head that Jace found.
So with this you know dang well why Valgavoth wants the aetherspark, so the house can get started on other planes.
My wifi is out and doing this on my phone so no write up of the video yet/anything there that wasn't in the guide;https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/planeswalkers-guide-to-aetherdrift-part-1
Wifi is back so here is the video link and ill share info I find interesting mixed with the planeswalker stuff;
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2323319334
-Kaladesh is now known as Avishkar. There is thread detailing this.
-This is the second time this race has happened. It is a death as in its dangerous not so much that it tries to kill you/losers will die. First race was huge and ended up being messy so this year the race is smaller.
-There are 10 main teams but there will be minor league racer teams as well.
-This race evolved from a criminal based night race on Avishkar.
-The Consulate was on shakey power after the revolt and despite trying to reform it ended up fully falling post- Phyrexia with a new governement in charge, the Avishkar Assembly. This new times is also the in universe reason for the plane name change.
-Avishkar is using this race and other means like trade and banking to "soft power" their way into post-Omenpaths multiverse. This both to proect Avishkar from outside forced as well as Avishkar to gain power since it is not in a postion to wage war or forcefully take over other planes.
-Amonkhet still stands the Luxa has finally become clean once more and two new gods; Ketramose and Sab-Sunen have emerged. This brings Amonkhet gods back to five. Not sure if we will see a full cycle of the gods but this lines them back up to a cycle if they want too.
-Amonkhet is exploring what post Bolas world looks like. The mummies who where hinted at gaining more intelligence seems to have done so and are part of Amonkhet society outside of controlled slaves.
-Muraganda fully confirmed. Muraganda has no team in the race. We will def be getting a bigger at the plane we have never seen before such as the falling moon shards that races will have too look out for along with dinosaurs and oozes. Muraganda has been mostly developed thought we will only see some of it in this set. We will also see the sapience peoples of the plane.
-Aetherspark is untested but believed to have been made pre-phyrexia and notes on it have been lost. Believed to be a lost spark from a planeswalker. Prize from last year is a secret.
-Saheeli is showing up as a commander and I'm guessing she is ambassador between Avishkar and Ixalan hence also gaining green.
-We have our ten teams;
"Returning Planes" teams
The Aether Rangers from Avishkar led by Nia and Spitfire (a masked folk hero). Made up of the peoples of Avishkar.
The Champions of Amonkhet from Amonkhet led by Zahur, a mummied Leonin from pre-Bolas era and Basri. Made up of the living and undead of Amonkhet.
The Speed Demons from Duskmourn. Led by Winter and "the speed demon" given temporary leave by Valgavoth to try and win the Aetherspark. Winter has an edge using Loot. Made up of possessed racers and monster of Duskmourn.
"New planes";
Cloudspire Racing Team from Kylem led by Chandra and Kolodin. Chandra picked this team over her home planes team thinking this would be better chance to win the spark for Chandra.
The Endriders from Gastal led by Far Fortune. Leaving behind the wasteland plane of Gastal, many people from their inducing many of this team found gas and oil, found in abundance in Gastal is less known elsewhere.
The Alacrian Quickbeasts led by Caradora and Lagorin from Alacria. They are riders bound to magical sapience beasts with Caradora and Lagorin not bounded originally but forced to for the race.
Unknown planes
The Guidelight Voyagers from an unnamed plane. They are a most made of a machine hive mind and want to try to return home. I'm guessing they are from the "Edge" as in Edge of Eternities.
The Goblin Rocketeers from an unknown plane led by Daretti and Redshift. Mostly gobin worshipers of the BOOSTGOD who believed they lauvhed their the multiverse into Avishkar. Daretti is a benefactor of theirs and was also stranded on Avishkar.
The Speedbrood from a planes that can't be pronounced led by Aatchik. Mostly bugfolk who wish to become speed itself.
The Keelhaulers are from unknown plane led by Captain Howler, the Keelhaulers and Kari Zev. Mostly made of sharkfolk also displaced over by an omenpath, with some other fishfolk and pirates from Avishkar.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
The Aetherspark's spark is already indicated to be from a female planeswalker. I have a feeling that planeswalker is not one we already know.
From the Planeswalker's Guide, Part 1:
Muraganda, despite hosting part of the Ghirapur Grand Prix, does not have any team in that race.
Amonkhet has sprouted 2 new gods since we last looked: Ketramose and Sab-Sunen. Guess we'll only learn about them later. The Scarab God always seemed like a solid fellow less likely to be aggressive all the time, but perhaps the Locust God has reverted to a (rather hungry) fertility god without Nicol Bolas's influence?
The Ghirapur Grand Prix is stewarded, championed, and probably funded by Gonti. I guess that Aetherborn feels more pressure to conduct legitimate business now, eh?
The plane's name got changed from Kaladesh to Avishkar by (a high enough percentage of) its rebel forces after they finally toppled the Consulate right after the Phyrexian Invasion.
Teams are from these planes/forces:
Like, I actually think the way they're revamping Kaladesh by integrating the name change is really solid, and there are actually REASONS given for there to be a plane-spanning grand prix, as opposed to "We, haven't done MTG Mad Max yet, let's do MTG Mad Max!". I can definitely commend them for taking what could easily be a real stretch of a setting and putting some thought into it to make it work.
That said... some of the teams are REALLY verging into Un-set territory in terms of zaniness. The Avishkar, Amonkhet, and Kylem factions all make solid sense. The new plane with Quickbeasts makes sense mechanically, since it allows Mounts and Vehicles to both play in the same space. Even the Duskmourn faction makes sense having Winter and Loot, although calling them the "Speed Demons" and having them drive what appears to be hearse from The Munsters is a bit on the nose.
But... Street Sharks? Goblin Rocketeers who worship THE BOOSTGOD and TOTALLY aren't just the Goblin faction from the Unstable set? A straight up post-apocalyptic "Hey, let's do MTG Mad Max?" team? It's almost like they got halfway through worldbuilding and just said, "ah, screw it, let Rosewater play Wacky Races with the rest of it, we're probably not doing another Un-set for a while, let him have his fun."
It's the continued trend from Murders of Karlov Manor. It's tropes above all.
However, Maro has already talked about how they consider that approach to be too much (based on player feedback), so they might cut down on it a bit. But due to the delay between working on a product and it going live, expect this change of mindset to start affecting sets next year, not earlier. And even then, MtG loves tropes too much and most players don't give a damn about worldbuilding and story, so don't expect them to turn it down all the way.
I don't mind the sharkfolk as much as they have popped up somewhat before so I like we are getting some origins and minor lore for them.
They are roughly two color this is not a faction set or a typal set so how the teams shake out will likely be looser. Using WOE as example (since this the set they started to do it in) we had the giant character from Jack in the Beanstalk being UGR while the Jack draft deck was based around just UG and we had Rowan who RB while not being part of the Piped Piper draft deck. So I think thats where to put our gauges at vs a Ravnica or Tarkir coming up.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
and the voyager team could be from the space area of mtg “the edge”
and we got two new gods in amonkhet so that’s absolutely no way we’re not getting a cycle of the second round of amonkhet gods in Aetherdrift.
oh and I can easily theorize why we have two new gods instead of four
part 1 is Ketramose and Sab-Sunen and are the replacements for Rhonas G and Oketra W
part 2 is The locust god and The Scarab God likely finally have their heads on straight and back to their old selves (they took way longer because they were brain washed the most by bolas)and they will likely be taking the places that Kefnet U and Bontu B were in
I also like how they handle the reasons for the name change of Kaladesh and the reason for this entire Grand Prix endeavor, feels almost like something taken from real life politics (from what I remember the olympic games (as one of the first international competitions in world history) were also both used as a platform for diplomacy, soft power gain and even political conflict and started out way more localized).
Now, I actually don't mind the silliness of some of the teams, most are also perfectly reasonable within the established multiverse: Goblins loving speed and explosives (especially rockets) has been a common theme, and they were always one of the "sillier" species (I really like that they worship a literal speed god in this case). The only extremely trope-y team seems to be the Gastal one (which is absolutely just Mad Max), but I do find the idea that their plane (implied to be a bit of an older one) actually has crude oil and gas, while those are not available in most other (and far younger) planes for obvious reasons.
Valgavoth certainly seems to make his move fast, though I question him letting Loot go with Winter and the speed demon (ok, that name is also a bit groan worthy ngl) as a hostage, unless he already got most of what he needed out of him. Vraska and Jace better step up as parents soon!
Overall, if they want to be a bit more silly, then doing it in this kind of set is fine, but I hope they are careful with how they handle Amonkhet and Ashkavir in this one, neither should lose its identity to the racing.
It's too bad none of this will matter when whoever decides "more cowboy hats!" because everyone loves tropes right???
Also Miguel has such a smooth voice, I could listen to him for hours.
the non eternalized versions of them had “*legend name* can't attack or block unless *condition is met*”
I bet they will do this again for the second round of amonkhet (Egyptian) gods infact it’s a vehicles matters set the key is they can crew the vehicles even when the condition is not met yet so they will have a use if the condition is not met.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/planeswalkers-guide-to-aetherdrift-part-2
the new gods are shown here their animals are a lion and a frog
- Not a big fan what they did with Muraganda. I wish they had just retconned the flavour text and artwork (the antelopes) of Petroglyphs and/or find an extraplanar origin for them and made Muraganda into a truly primordial world based on the era of dinosaurs and before. You could have titanic dinosaurs of the mesozoic, humid carboniferous swamps filled with insects and amphibians, ancient oceans populated with ammononites and trilobites etc. There would be oozes which are collections of single-celled organisms, playing into the idea of the primordial soup; and the only mammals are small rodent-like critters living in burrows or in trees. There would be no settled civilizations, only paleolithic hunter gatherers. While I do enjoy worlds with history, I think Muraganda was the one plane where it was a mistake to do so. And turning it into Zendikar 2.0 is especially frustrating.
Also, the saurids are literally the saurian people from Warhammer.
- I find the mingling of living and undead on Amonkhet fascinating. It should create a very unique society, though I cast doubt MtG will ever be able to explore it in depth (more cowboy hats!).
- My prediction regarding the color of the gods: Hazoret remains in R. Sab-Sunen is GU and Ketramose (am I the only one who keeps reading Moses?) would be WB. This way all five colours are represented in the Naktamun pantheon. It also makes sense with their aspects. Hazoret is the only surviving god and was there when Amonkhet regained its freedom. Sab-Sunen represents the Luxa which has always been associated with green-blue. Meanwhile Ketramose is said to have been born from the determination of both the living and the dead. Further, he embodies (among others) endurance, which is usually associated with black.
- I hope the remaining two insect gods don't turn out to be evil. I'd like the idea that, with Bolas gone, they retreat from Naktamun, unwilling to endanger its people, but too corrupted by Bolas to meaningfully interact with them.
- The elphant shaped ooze has a Garruk look-alike silhouette inside of it. Pretty sure it's not Garruk, as the axe doesn't fit, but it's weird there's someone in there anyway.
- I will say, the worldbuilding guide and the stream have won me over with Avishkar being one of the three planes. They do have a pretty good reason and existing infrastructure to do it and given the motivation, it makes sense that Ravnica and Capenna might not want to join, or wouldn't even be asked by Avishkar, likely considering them their rivals. Still not sold on Amonkhet and Muraganda though. I'm pretty sure there's much better candidates. Especially Muraganda is an odd fit, because there's not even any spectators on the plane. Who are you projecting your soft power unto?
- Speaking of motivation for the Grand Prix: The whole political tangle with Avishkar, Ravnica and potentially even Capenna honestly is so much fertile ground for so much story. It's a shame MtG will never have the scope to truly explore it. Or even the want, as they want to keep their planes separate, but realistically what would happen is a colonization boogaloo, where the more advanced (technologically and infrastructurally) planes would colonize and vassalize the less developed planes. The irony that an indian plane would be a major colonizer (even if just culturally) in this scenario does not escape me.
- Not sure why they decided to add mounts to this race. Doesn't really vibe with the whole "deathrace" aesthetic, but whatever.
- Wish they had kept the goblin team multi-planar, basically having all the goblins from all over the multiverse unite. The technology leader could be an izzet goblin, while the logistics leader could be a Kyren, thus giving the team just enough competence to not have their racers explode before the start signal. Instead they pulled the goblins from Babloxia or whatever the un-plane is called. Eyeroll.
- The other racing teams are interesting, though I wish they had gone with more known planes, than playing the "randomly deposited on Avishkar and decided to race" card like four times.
- If you look at the art of the first guide, there's loxodon in several Avishkar images. I wonder if they were always native but never shown, or if they are new arrivals.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DKFQ7Q38/ a book based on Lusitanian Mythology