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This past week, I was on a bit of a "staycation" since my wife had vacation from work. We spent the days going out with our kids and touching grass. Upon getting back into the swing of things, I was excited to see a twist on a format where my feelings were lukewarm. Last week, I wrote about how Dragonstorm Limited had so much potential but, for a couple of small design reasons, was an average Limited experience—at least from my perspective. I gave Aetherdrift a similar final ranking. Despite expecting to hate Aetherdrift, it ended up being average or slightly above average due to some creative and fun design. However, once the Alchemy cards were introduced, the set was incredibly enjoyable for me. It's not an all-timer, but I didn't grow bored with the set. I'm the type of person who loves Alchemy because I like playing with and against powerful cards in Limited, so I'm biased. You can usually beat the best cards printed if you play well and bury your opponent with good play, drafting, and decision-making. Solving those complex games is my favorite part about Limited. Alchemy provides more weapons to overwhelm my opponent while giving them more cards that are so powerful it's hard to find ways to beat them. But what can I say, I love the challenge. In Aetherdrift, you were often able to identify the open lane, but there was still a shortage of powerful cards. You'd often be in the right place at the wrong time. Dragonstorm had the opposite problem. Its main issue, as illustrated last week, was that archetypes lost their identity because the synergies are too soft, and any player can take any card and shoehorn it into their deck due to the amount of mana fixing. There are a lot of powerful cards, but you never saw them after your first couple of picks. Adding more powerful cards to the mix won't solve it and may just exacerbate the issue. I spent some time drafting the set, and while Alchemy didn't solve the issue, it improved the format, though not by a substantial amount. Adding more powerful cards at least led to some interesting decisions. Take a look at my first deck that I managed to trophy with: There's only one Alchemy-specific card in Desert Cenote, a strong land, but all my spells are from the normal set. However, my deck is still incredibly powerful. I had some tough picks between some good Alchemy cards and other broken rares, and I ended up taking the cards from the base set. I floated tons of powerful Alchemy cards, which overall leads to more decks looking like soupy sealed decks. They added some obscenely powerful cards. While that isn't super fun to play against, it's always fun to have a draft here and there where you run over the competition because you ran hot. That's a feeling we all chase playing this game, and I'm fine with that experience existing, even if I'm on the other side. We're not playing chess here. I wish they'd get back to rebalancing some of the cards and adjusting the format. For instance, in a set like this, once they see what's going on, I wish they'd take more chances and use some of these suggestions to spruce up the format: remove the monuments and Evolving Wilds, and add more double pip, powerful, cheap cards to push people in the direction of being more focused on a tribe rather than scooping up every gold card. This set would have been a good one to rebalance, even if WotC didn't devote a ton of resources to the cause. If they gave me an hour or two, I could come up with some ideas that would have made the format play out differently without ruining the experience. Regardless, you apply the same rules that you'd apply to normal Dragonstorm. You need removal, you want to shoot for high-powered cards, and card advantage is still king. Yes, Teval, Arbirter of Virtue is a strong card, and while I drew it almost every game, it rarely did more than a normal uncommon solid five-drop and nearly always died. Maybe I connected with it in combat once, but it's doubtful. You're still taking the bombs and powerful gold cards early and following up with whatever removal or fixing is available. The latter half of the pack is when you fill out the curve with cheap creatures and whatever small stuff you need. There's no strategy shift. While there are some cards that are difficult to beat, the format is still fun and interesting. It just won't last as long because you're often pushed into these multicolor decks since there's a massive power level difference between the worst and 10th-best cards in your deck, unlike a typical draft format where it's a more marginal power level differential. Alchemy does freshen up the format, gives you some more things to think about, and has a few more fun draft-arounds to reinvigorate the experience if you've grown bored of drafting midrange multicolor Dragon decks. You can draft those decks, but at least you have a few new fun toys to play with too. If you grow bored of a Limited format, you can stop playing it, or you can jump back into Alchemy to see if it makes something click for you. It often does for me. Many players these days are old school and don't like "fake" cards, but the cards are interesting and exciting in many cases. You'll see the most powerful cards you could imagine and some of the best-designed cards. For instance, Desert Cenote is so well-designed that I can't help but appreciate the card. Skip the set if you hated Dragonstorm Limited, especially if you thought it was too bomb heavy. If you thought it was fun and just got bored with it, you should try Dragonstorm Alchemy and see if it freshens it up for you. I'll continue to play this format for the next week or so, but I'm invited to the MTGO creator program, so I may check out some MTGO formats. Whatever I choose to do, I'll see you soon.

I was hyped coming into this set, and for what it's worth, I enjoyed Dragonstorm Limited in the honeymoon phase. There were flashy cards and lots of choices in the drafts and games. My enjoyment started to plateau early, and the fun decreased at an accelerated rate. I thought about why and poked around to see if others enjoyed the format, but other people shared my sentiments. I haven't been losing or anything. My win rate of 72% in best of one is unusually high for the earlier parts of the format. That said, my sample is small, and I'm just pointing out that I'm not being biased because I can't figure out the set. In fact, I feel like I figured the format out in my first few drafts. Dragonstorm Limited feels like an underpowered cube or battlebox. It's a pile of fairly powerful cards and mana fixing. What are the issues with the format? While the set looks and feels cool, the experience doesn't expand beyond the name. Most decks become piles of dragons and 4-5c decks. We aren't spending time analyzing archetypes, as most of the archetypes as designed fall flat. We just want to accumulate good interaction, bombs, and cards that are strong on rate. The best synergies are dragon-themed, and in most cases, you can shoehorn the powerful engine uncommon dragon enchantments into any dragon deck. This brings me to the next problem, and perhaps the catalyst for all of these issues, which is the mana fixing. The mana fixing in this set is too good. Give me less mana fixing. Just looking at commons, we have a cycle of common dual lands, Evolving Wilds, Dragonstorm Globe, Sagu Wildling, and one of the most underappreciated cards in the set, Embermouth Sentinel. If you're desperate, there's also a cycle of Devotees to smooth your mana. To go on a slight tangent about Sentinel, while it doesn't scale into the game well, playing a 2/1 on turn two and setting up mana for the rest of the game is ideal in this set, which has been solid for me in an absence of fixing. Back to that fixing, once we look at uncommon, we get a cycle of tri-lands and the monuments, which are all strong. Playing four colors in this set is a free throw. You can expect to do it in basically every draft unless you draft the only other archetype available in my eyes, which is a base white aggressive deck. This is generally Boros, but you can end up with a BW shell as well. Regardless, it's flavors of Mardu, sometimes splashing the third color and sometimes not. Some people would argue that one problem with the format is the rares. The format has a relatively flat power level throughout uncommons and commons. Some are better than others, but there are smaller margins in how much better one three-drop is than another, for example. At least it feels that way, with rares being the reason why. It's not that the rares are too strong, but it circles back to the fixing - anyone can play any rare they open, much like sealed decks. You're usually not cut off from playing rares you see, as you can always find the fixing later for it. This means you're not able to find yourself in the right seat and get hooked up with solid rares late in packs. You just play what you open. This gives the format more of a sealed deck vibe where you look at the rares and gold uncommons you've accumulated and then your lands. The only difference is that you can draft a mana pool you want rather than hoping it aligns. What could have been done differently? My number one complaint would be the mana fixing issue. The solution is to simply remove some of the fixing. I'd start with Evolving Wilds and the monument cycle. Further steps may be necessary, but by at least making the fixing not "free" and colorless, you can push people into certain archetypes and inspire them to draft a tribe. I'd replace the monument cycle with some gold cards to push people further into the tribes of Tarkir rather than giving them another tool to play everything. Flurry, counters matter, and self-mill are all softer synergies that never pop off. Temur's purpose is, I guess, because big creatures matter. It doesn't feel like it has a core mechanic. While the set mechanics are cool, they don't line up into archetypes well. That would be the next fix. I'd implement mechanics that aren't creature-focused, as they usually fall apart. Creature-focused set mechanics that involve multiple creatures in play or similar often fall apart because good drafters can interact with the right creatures at the right times. It sounds cool to play three creatures, pump them all with +1+1 counters and what not, but the reality is combat happens, your opponents play removal, and then you don't have useful ways to utilize these extra counters. On the other hand, in some cases they can't interact with your creatures and the game quickly ends. Self-mill should have some sweet payoffs, flurry should have more uncommons or rares that push the mechanic, and all of this stuff should replace fixing, so people have to choose which lane to move into when drafting. Additionally, we need to have cool draft-arounds in most sets. Maybe not every set, but decks like Push the Limit, Spider Spawning, and even Zenith Flare were fun ways to draft. Hidden archetypes like this let you draft to feast on opponents in the early days and famine later when the archetype is contested. Those are some of the most enjoyable draft experiences, and there isn't anything like it in Dragonstorm. While it's a delicate thing to balance, it pushes the draft formats over the top for replayability. In fact, I'd put the companions in this camp, as they bring you down this unique path that is fun to draft and play. Focusing less on fixing and more on the actual Limited synergies would give the drafter real, meaningful choices and fix the format to a degree. These set mechanics could work well, but they forgot to put the reasons to focus on those mechanics in the set. A few solid uncommon designs could push this set into great territory, but they're absent. Dragonstorm Limited is an average five out of ten set, and the potential for this set to be something much more than that was squandered. I will still play the set until Final Fantasy hits us, but a set I thought I'd play for hundreds of drafts wore off on me after about ten, and I don't feel the urge I normally do to immediately join the queue when I'm done. That's the end of my rant today. We'll be back next week with some more wholesome Siggy content.

Dragonstorm finally hit the digital shelves, and I've spent some time watching and playing the format. It's a breath of fresh air after an unexciting Aetherdrift Limited format. Aetherdrift was fine but not one we'll remember. So far, I'm quite pleased with Dragonstorm Limited. The gameplay and draft experience are interesting and exciting. There's a lot of room to bounce around, and especially on Arena, it's easy to get into five-color decks. I caution that this may not be replicable in stronger draft pods. It may hurt you to try drafting powerful four-color or more soup decks when events like the Arena Open roll around, as the powerful cards and fixing will be more heavily contested. I'm eager to see how that all plays out. I've noticed that the set is grindy, but you can die quickly if you stumble around too much. Cheap interaction is excellent, and removal is important. Generally, games get bogged down at some point, and it's all about keeping the largest threats in play. Small creatures tend to get picked off. I've played quite a few games where my opponent puts a plethora of 2/2s into play but all that mattered was what was going on in the skies. Between large creatures, lots of reach, and tons of value creatures, the board can quickly stall out. The set, truly, is about the dragons. Top-end is exceptionally easy to get because of the omen mechanic. From common to rare, there are a lot of late-game options, and some players aren't making relevant adjustments in their picks. There's so much good top-end that your normal solid-rate common top-end isn't good enough unless it's coming attached with a cheap cantrip omen. I don't have enough reps yet to be sure, but my suspicion is that the fixing is better than usual, so you should also slightly downgrade lands and such in pick orders. This is especially true in softer draft pods like you'll find in an open setting on Arena. We have the common dual lands, Evolving Wilds, tri-lands, and monuments at uncommon. There's also your typical green fixing, as well as a Manalith with upside. While the format is grindy, you want to play to the board early and often and set yourself up for the grind. In general, I want my two-drops to scale into the game better than usual or, at the very least, solve a problem the deck is facing. For example, if fixing is off, I'm happy to play a copy or two of Embermouth Sentinel. Its ability to ramp in the midgame is relevant, but ideally smoothing your mana and curve on early turns sets you up to play any kind of game. There is no shortage of playables, so jumping around early in the draft is highly recommended. Take the best cards and figure it out later. If you start in Sultai, it's not that hard to pivot into Jeskai after a few picks. I like to start in two colors but specifically enemy colors, so that I get gold cards. You can easily play a base UG deck splashing both Sultai and Temur gold cards. There aren't many actual mana sinks in the format. Instead, they're replaced with value cards and two-for-ones. Because of this, I like blue thus far. Blue has a lot of value cards that keep cards flowing and make it difficult to run out of gas. Spending mana is important. If you take turns off, it will be difficult to come back because there's so much value in the set that it snowballs quickly. Try to make sure you draft a plan for long games. As I said before, the best commons are removal. I think Piercing Exhale is overrated, despite my chat telling me otherwise. There's a lot of recency bias from this effect because of Run Over, which was legitimately great. Piercing Exhale costs more mana, as Run Over often costs only a single mana, and it doesn't kill everything. The format is more about grinding, so I want my removal to always kill the biggest creature or have it castable early, so I don't get run over. Having to play tapped lands, drop a creature, have it stick, and then kill an opposing creature is too much setup. That's not to say I won't play it, but my experience so far has been lukewarm. Here are a couple of decks I've drafted. This looks like a typical early-in-the-format Sultai deck. I recognized the open lane and got paid with a variety of Sultai gold cards. One thing I like about the monuments and Embermouth Sentinel is I can get away with playing 16 lands if I have a couple because both cards don't want you to be flooded. I like my curve nice and lean, but I want enough value to also have inevitability if possible. I won all of my games in the air by stabilizing the ground and going to the skies. I think most blue decks will win this way, while Abzan and Mardu will win by being lower to the ground. The other deck I took a screenshot of is also Sultai. This one is more focused on putting stuff in my graveyard. This deck is exceptionally good. There is a lot of synergy and power, and it's consistent thanks to Gurmag Nightwatch setting up my midgame. Worthy Cost is out of place, but my deck had so much value and a variety of renew creatures that will serve me better in the graveyard in the middle of the game. Having access to an exile effect is relatively decent. I'm enjoying Dragonstorm Limited. This format will likely have a lot of ebb and flow as people adjust pick orders and we stop wheeling great gold uncommons and lands. I will be back with a more informed opinion next time. For anyone going to Denver for the Spotlight event, this is a set you'll enjoy and should work on since there's a lot of value to be gained with reps. The 17lands data will be harder to parse in a set like this. Personally, I can't wait for my matches to end so I can hop back into the queue. The drafts are exciting, and the games are tight.

At this point we have all of the card pool of Tarkir: Dragonstorm. The set is nothing short of a home run in my eyes. Original Khans of Tarkir was a beloved set in the community, and I hope the hype translates to the cards seeing a ton of play. We had a B&R announcement this past week and Standard remains unchanged. Let's hope Tarkir can shake it up enough to keep Domain and the Mice in check. Let's take a look at some more interesting cards from Dragonstorm. Sinkhole Surveyor Sinkhole Surveyor looks solid. While it's not quite a Bitterblossom, as some have liked to call it (because it doesn't create fliers) it does have snowball potential since it could run away with the game on its own. It's a bit durable for a two-drop with three toughness and can get out of Lightning Strike range in a single attack if you choose. I think Sinkhole Surveyor has excellent potential in all kinds of strategies, as it's a good solid card that can work with various synergies but also does tons of work on its own. Sinkhole Surveyor should find a home in Standard, but it may end up playing out well enough to fit into any black midrange deck playing creatures. Voice of Victory Voice of Victory is remarkably similar to Sinkhole Surveyor. It has the same converted mana cost and stats, but Voice of Victory loses flying and gains the ability to shut off opponent casting spells during your turn. This card looks devastating against various control decks. It's a must answer if you're trying to play at instant speed, and it clocks the opponent quickly as it attacks for three damage on its own. It will even scale more with anthem effects as it creates multiple tokens. Voice of Victory is a must play in white aggro decks if they exist in the format. The best and most overlooked part of this card might be the potential surrounding play patterns. Reactive decks will be looking to kill your two-drop. Unfortunately, if you play Voice of Victory on two into removal, your opponent can't cast their removal until their own turn, which eats their mana and removal spell, thus opening the door for your next threat. Voice of Victory could see play across all formats because of its stat line, mana cost, and ability to create tokens. I'm excited to see how this card pans out because it looks extremely strong and like the set's best white card. Songcrafter Mage People are excited to play Songcrafter Mage, a spinoff of Snapcaster Mage. Songcrafter Mage has a couple of advantages over Snapcaster Mage, mainly being that while Snapcaster Mage plays better with cheap spells, you can play with cheap or expensive spells with Songcrafter Mage because of how Harmonize works. As an incredible tempo play, the most obvious spell we may see Songcrafter Mage targeting is This Town Ain't Big Enough. Snapcaster Mage can tap itself to reduce the mana cost of anything it targets by three, but that provides a window of counterplay for the opponent, which may make this card more tricky to play with than it looks on the surface. If I were to cast it targeting an expensive spell, like Sublime Epiphany, to start a chain creating more copies of this, and I have the available three mana I'd need, the opponent can cast removal on the Songcrafter Mage with the ability on the stack, making my targeted Epiphany uncastable and breaking up my entire turn. Songcrafter Mage is a strong card that has the potential to see play in a variety of formats, but it is important to remember how the stack works when casting it and play carefully. There's no doubt Songcrafter Mage sees play if there's a home for it in a Temur deck, but in today's Standard there are no guarantees on any strong cards. In a bloated Standard, there are so many awesome cards that some just won't see play. Those with more restricted costs like Songcrafter Mage need a good home to see play, rather than being a card that needs to be built around. Road of the Endless Song Speaking of Temur Cards, let's talk about the Elephants in the room. Roar of the Endless Song looks gross from the perspective of a Limited player. It is a lot of card for five mana, producing two giant creatures and giving you a chance to deal 20 damage in one attack phase with the two Elephants. While this card looks strong, it will only play well in back and fourth interactive games since it's easy to kill the tokens with various bounce effects, such as This Town Ain't Big Enough. Oddly enough, it also works well with This Town Ain't Big Enough, so I'm interested to see if this could be the top end in a deck with both Songcrafter Mage and This Town Ain't Big Enough. As far as the cycle of Sagas in the set, this looks to have the most potential, as the others are a bit bland. I'm interested to see if Roar has what it takes to break into a fast and powerful Standard format. Kheru Goldkeeper Kheru Goldkeeper is potentially the most breakable card in Dragonstorm. Kheru's stat line and renew ability are not very desirable, but its ability to create untapped treasures whenever any card leaves graveyards during your turn can be explosive and create some potential loops with a variety of cards. Specifically, creatures that enter the battlefield from the graveyard for a single mana, such as Gravecrawler or similar with any kind of sacrifice outlet. Kheru Goldkeeper looks like it could be broken, but I have doubts that it will amount to anything, as it seems like a lot of setup is necessary. The body is vulnerable, and it has an issue against various graveyard hate. All of that rolled into a four-drop might be too much despite how broken it could be. Personally, I think a lot of time will be spent on this card, and it will likely amount to nothing, at least for now. Kheru Goldkeeper likely won't live up to the hype. Perennation There's a cycle of powerful mythic rares across each clan. None of them look bad, but they're all expensive. I could see any of them getting played depending on the contexts of the format. The most raw power amongst these cards is Perennation. Perennation allows you to set up any permanent in play that doesn't permit interaction. Hexproof and indestructible is the hurdle to push through. It's likely better to target a non-creature permanent, as cards like Sunfall won't be able to pick it up. Omniscience comes to mind as a potential target, but there are others, as well. Atraxa is the most obvious target. If we see any of this card, that is the likely spot it will find. Unfortunately for Perennation, it's expensive and easily interacted with on the stack or with any graveyard hate, so its best home would be in a midrange deck as the only card that cares about your graveyard and likely in low numbers as a value add, rather than a build-around. I wouldn't rule out that you can build around this since graveyard hate can be circumvented by cards like Leyline Binding, but the spell being so expensive and easy to counter makes that strategy more difficult to execute. I won't be surprised to see a few copies of this powerful reanimation spell roaming around, but I doubt it's a serious contender in competitive formats, even with the scary keywords of hexproof and indestructible. This will wrap up my Constructed review for Dragonstorm. While the set looks powerful, Standard is big and unchanging, so it takes a lot for cards to see play. Without another cycle of dual lands to help three-color decks, it might be a challenge for any of these cards to see play immediately. However, in the long run, we'll get more dual lands and these cards will become more castable. If these cards aren't seeing play immediately, it might be a good time to pick them up cheap before the mana issues are fixed. Next week we should be able to play Dragonstorm Limited, and I'll focus my attention on that. This looks like it has potential to be a Limited all-timer and I can't wait to crack open my first packs.

While we don't have the full contents of Tarkir: Dragonstorm, we're in the homestretch. The hits kept coming as previews continue to roll out. Dragonstorm is shaping up to be one of the most high-powered Standard sets I can recall seeing. Let's take a peek at some more potential bangers. Rot-Curse Rakshasa Rot-Curse Rakshasa is an interesting take on Decayed, and it's a design we haven't seen before. A two-mana 5/5 is pushing the boundaries, but this is more of a Ball Lightning than a creature. It can't block, only gets to attack once, and so on. There's a variety of ways to take advantage of this creature staying in play despite not blocking or attacking. We could use it to crew a vehicle or sacrifice to an effect that looks at power or toughness. Even as a Ball Lightning, it has the ability to Renew and decay your opponent's creatures, which blasts through blockers at no cost. Rot-Curse Rakshasa could come in handy postboard when an opponent has a large creature sideboard plan. It's worth noting this is a demon, which is an upside for a card like Unholy Annex but a downside against Baneslayer Angel if that situation arises. To top it off, you don't need to cast Rot-Curse Rakshasa to get value. If you discard it to another effect, you'll still have this powerful renew effect at your disposal, which would pair nicely with a card like Fable of the Mirror Breaker. You produce a goblin token when Fable enters, discard this little demon when you untap, and can immediately renew on a blocker pushing your goblin through. Rot-Curse Rakshasa is solid, and I expect to see it on the battlefield in competitive environments. I'm excited to try this one out. Dragonlogist Augur of Bolas saw Standard play, and while Dragonologist is one mana more, it provides a better effect. It can find your top-end dragon and protect it once it resolves through hexproof. You're playing blue if casting Dragonologist, which means you can keep protecting your top-end with counter spells or patiently set up before you attack and expose the dragon. For instance, if you put multiple dragons into play over the next few turns, your opponent may not have a window to interact with both dragons at once, giving you a massive tempo advantage if you chew up your opponent's mana. Dragonologist looks extra nice when paired with a dragon with vigilance, such as Shiko, Paragon of the Way, by casting an excellent spell from the graveyard, which protects Shiko and allows more card advantage. I hope we see this sequence regularly in Standard. This is the small-ball, grindy Magic I love and have been missing. I'm looking forward to trying out Dragonologist. It has a shot in Standard and will almost certainly be a Commander staple. Scavenger Regent Scavenger Regent doesn't look that good, and I doubt it will see much play. So, why am I looking at it? Scavenger Regent does one thing that scares me. It can, in some circumstances, be a win condition on its own without ever having to attack. While it's not many decks, and this is more hypothetical, it's possible that with enough card draw, or the ability to mill yourself to a small or non-existent deck, you could cast a damnation effect every turn of the game until your opponent runs out of cards. This is the exact kind of effect I would have liked to see avoided on an omen, as it creates potentially bad incentives. Nexus of Fate was a massive problem when it was printed in Standard, and shuffling in this type of effect could be problematic. It's more likely that we rarely, if ever, see this card again, however, it's not too bad on rate and maybe sneaks in somewhere regardless. I'm not a fan of Scavenger Regent's design, but it's likely much ado about nothing. Cori-Steel Cutter Cori-Steel Cutter is a twist on Living Weapon. The equipment doesn't play out well in Constructed. The reason is mostly that they're so easy to out tempo. Adding this flurry ability to Cori-Steel Cutter provides a cheap threat that delivers value over the course of the game, similar to a card like Young Pyromancer, however, Cori-Steel Cutter doesn't have easy interaction. You need to be able to interact with an artifact, and if you can't, it will keep supplying prowess tokens. Cori-Steel Cutter looks custom-made for a low-curve, aggressive deck, specifically a burn deck that utilizes the prowess but also a deck that can play multiple spells a turn and pressure the opponent. It's worth noting that it will also trigger on the opponent's turn, making more traditional Izzet Prowess-type shells an interesting place for this equipment, as you can go wide quickly with cantrips and deal a lot of burst damage off of multiple prowess creatures. Cori-Steel Cutter is a great Standard card, and we'll potentially see it in other eternal formats given its cheap mana cost and synergies with other cheap cards, which there are more of as the format gets older. Mistrise Village Weirdly, we have yet to see any dual-land cycle in Dragonstorm, but we have this land cycle of lands that produce one color and come in untapped if you control other basic types. Mistrise Village has received a lot of buzz. While I see that this could be a powerful card in a Commander format with much longer games where mana is more abundant, this card seems merely fine to me in competitive formats. Adding an additional mana to your spell's cost is not optimal. Generally, the important turns against a deck with a lot of countermagic are early turns when you can't afford to activate this without falling behind. That doesn't make this a bad card in a vacuum, but even lands have opportunity costs these days. Depending on the format, you have options like creature lands, Otawara, Castle Vantress, just to name a few. While I suspect Mistrise Village will see play, it will likely be in small numbers and not warp the format that much. The best home for a card like this is likely a deck that's trying to resolve one massive threat that single-handedly can end the game. A deck that could benefit from this printing is Indomitable Creativity, my favorite deck that I've played in years. Being able to push that through countermagic seems like a reasonable spot for Mistrise Village. Mistrise Village will likely see a lot of play in small numbers in a variety of formats but might not impact deck building or matchups as much as some people think. It's not busted nor bad. It's just another solid utility land option in a world where we have so many. Severance Priest Severance Priest combines Elite Spellbinder and Skyclave Apparition. Its stats are fine, and its ability is interesting, but ultimately I'm not a fan. It will be excellent in certain matchups, like a combo deck with limited creature interaction, but in a normal interactive Magic game, leaving behind any kind of meaningful token when this creature dies is too big of a downside. You can proactively exile two- and, maybe, one-mana spells, but you'll often be in a tough spot if this creature dies and you exile that scary four-drop. We're not putting this in our deck to take nothing, and while the option is always there to not take anything, that's not a ringing endorsement either. That's not to say Severance Priest is completely unplayable. I will need hands-on experience with the card to make a judgment. I could see it being excellent in an aggressive Abzan deck that closes the door quickly. That deck style in this color combination is harder to come by these days. As a three-mana spell, this card works with Collected Company, so there may be a home for it in eternal formats where combo decks are more plentiful and CoCo decks need more permanent ways to interact with the opponent's hand. This is a tough one to gauge, but my hunch is that its downside is too large and we won't be seeing much of Severance Priest. Rakshasa's Bargain Rakshasa's Bargain is another solid card-advantage spell that would see play regardless of other interactions since it's essentially an instant-speed Stock Up with the additional upside of putting some cards in the graveyard. Rakshasa's Bargain synergizes well with one of the best cards they've printed in years, Up the Beanstalk. Between these two cards, you don't need much else to keep cards flowing, producing a powerful card-advantage engine. There's no doubt in my mind Rakshasa's Bargain will see heavy play in this kind of shell. I'm curious if the printing of this card cycle is what gets Up the Beanstalk banned in formats like Standard and Pioneer. People can overhype interactions, but the Rakasha's Bargain and Up the Beanstalk duo will likely be a difficult engine to ignore because both cards are extremely good individually, as well. Rakshasa's Bargain offers so much selection, provides a way to dump specific cards in the graveyard, and fuels delve, all at an efficient cost at instant speed. This is one of the best cards from one of the best sets I've seen in a long time. That will wrap it up this time, but there are so many more cards I want to look at, and we still have a few cards left to preview. I'm excited to see how the set shapes out, and we'll continue to look at what the set has to offer.

We had a lot of previews for Tarkir: Dragonstorm. I had my eyes set on Final Fantasy and completely forgot Dragonstorm was in between. I must say, they are not playing around, and Dragonstorm is shaping up to be one of the more powerful sets in recent memory. So many cards jump off the table at me that it's going to be hard to not leave some out over the next few weeks. Let's look at some cards that stood out to me for one reason or another. We'll start by addressing the spirit dragon in the room, Ugin. Ugin, Eye of the Storms Ugin, Eye of the Storms is a remarkably powerful card. There are no two ways about it, they wanted this card to be good. At 7 mana you get to exile an opponent's threat even if the spell doesn't resolve. If it does resolve? There are so many varied board states, and it will have a big impact on any of them. Let's say the opponent has nothing on the battlefield and you exiled their only threat. Ugin can tick up loyalty by drawing extra cards. If it takes a full card to kill Ugin after that, it was still a 3 for 1, and that's the best-case scenario for the opponent. On a battlefield with multiple threats, we can add colorless mana, play a colorless spell from our hand, and use its static ability to neutralize any existing colorful threats. The most obvious home for this card would be in a Modern Tron deck, but the card would be bad in mirrors, potentially leading to some mixing and matching of Ugins and Karns, as Karn can exile land and colorless threats, and Ugin cannot. Ugin wants you to support it with other colorless cards, so it will be interesting to see which, if any, shells it fits into in Standard. I would be surprised if we don't see it in Standard since it's an incredibly powerful card. Ugin is a slam dunk to see play somewhere. I hope we see it do a lot of work in Standard because this is the exact type of card that is fun to play with and interesting to build against. Taigam, Master Opportunist Taigam stood out for the exact opposite reason of Ugin. Taigam, while a cool card, is fairly weak. The best kinds of interactions I can see with Taigam are playing it with three mana, casting a Treasure Cruise, and trying to play a long attrition battle. Taigam can't be used in a combo deck, as getting value in four turns isn't enough. If you want value with Taigam, you need to settle in for a long, grindy game. It's a creature that plays better in a midrange or control deck, but even then, waiting four turns for the additional value it provides is too long. Magic games aren't long enough to support that wait, and we're better off playing a two-drop that can have an immediate effect. While flurry is a new mechanic name, it's not really a new mechanic since we've seen this kind of ability before. Taigam is a miss for me. I'd like to see some toning down of the suspend counter, but even three turns are likely too long. Two is probably the sweet spot where I can see this card seeing some play. Maybe it gets too strong then, but I doubt it. Teval Arbiter of Virtue Teval is an interesting creature. Teval has beefy stats with lifelink. Against some decks that are unprepared for it, Teval can run away with the game without casting any other spells. On the other hand, its ability to give all your spells delve could lead to some disgusting turns if you fill your graveyard while finding ways to gain life. Imagine casting this and then using 7 life and 7 cards in the graveyard to cast an Ugin. There are many other powerful play patterns you could adopt with this creature, even something like chaining Stock Ups. Teval has a place in Standard, at least as a creature that can survive cards like Witchstalker Frenzy. It has so many ways to go that it will see play somewhere, even if it's just for its stats as a bigger Baneslayer. Shiko, Paragon of the Way Speaking of Stock Up, it looks as if Stock Up's stock is, indeed, up. Shiko, Paragon of the Way pairs well with the broken card selection spell. Curving Stock Up into a resolved Shiko into another Stock Up is enough of a card engine to never run out of spells. Shiko's stats are nothing to sneeze at either as a sized-up Serra Angel. Shiko isn't a card that wins the game on its own like an Ugin or Teval, but it allows you to play a longer, grindier game in any matchup. In creature matchups, it can be like Nekrataal by copying a card like Get Lost. On empty boards, it generates raw card advantage or copies a permanent you have in your graveyard like another creature. Shiko is the kind of card that was a slam dunk to be good a decade ago. While it is quite good, Jeskai will have to be a color trio worth playing for it to see play, as it's on par with what I expect out of a good card these days. Winternight Stories Winternight Stories seems really strong. While it's just a dressed-up Compulsive Research, it seems strong combined with a card like Hollow One, or any other creatures, especially if they return from the graveyard like perhaps Bloodghast, a recent addition to Standard. Chaining harmonize and the original spell in a single turn is powerful and could lead to explosive turns. Winternight Stories could be a card for Phoenix, but I'm not interested in taking a turn off from attacking to draw more cards. Harmonize is a cool ability that I hope we see on more impactful cards. I suspect Winternight Stories will only see play in decks that play cards from the graveyard, or alongside something like Hollow One. It seems like it could be potent in those styles of decks. I'm interested to see if anything shakes out. Marang River Regent Omen is a weird and obnoxious new mechanic. While the idea of it is reasonable, shuffling every time you cast one seems tedious. Imagine a control deck that wins by looping omens to not deck or something of that nature. It's not that big of a deal since your deck will likely have few omens. Standard has few shuffle effects, so the concept is perplexing. Marang River Regent is not a super strong card, but it doesn't look terrible. It's an instant-speed sift that, in the late game, turns into a massive threat that can stabilize the board. It's a solid card that could see play in a control deck that doesn't want to waste deck slots on actual threats. Omen is an interesting mechanic, but I don't see many previewed cards as constructed powerhouses, so we'll have to wait and see if anything stands out when Tarkir is fully released. For now, Marang River Regent looks like the best of the bunch I've seen. At first look, this set looks incredibly powerful, and there are more than a dozen other cards that I'm excited about. We'll dive more into those next week and continue looking at this powerful set beyond that. I'm excited to try this set in Limited, as the original Tarkir was one of my favorite Limited formats and the format of my first PT T8, which I'm feeling nostalgic for those days. See you next week with more preview reviews.

This past weekend, we saw Breach dominate the Modern RC. Modern is in a broken place, which was obvious the second they unbanned Mox Opal. Mox Opal was bound to break something and will likely continue to do so. Banning Mox Opal would be an egregious mistake at this point because of the card's high expense and it would ruin consumer confidence. Now that the cat is out of the bag, we shouldn't try to put it back in, so Underworld Breach has to go. Limited, however, has been saved! Aetherdrift Limited went from zero to hero with the inclusion of Alchemy cards. For me, Aetherdrift Limited had a big hill to climb from the start. A set designed around the theme of racing is the antithesis of what I admire in my favorite Limited environments. Racing might be thematic, but it's not my cup of tea if shown in actual gameplay. While I don't want formats to be super slow, I like games' texture to feel somewhat controllable and be more about interacting and setting up synergies. It emulates the power fantasy from your favorite video game. You build your character up so all the pieces come together, and you see the result in the gameplay. When we're just attacking with above-average stat creatures and ending games as quickly as possible, we never fully see all the cool things a set offers. Aetherdrift Limited surprisingly didn't feel too fast. In fact, it had a fairly nice pace. It is interactive, has mana sinks that matter, and plays a vital role in how games play out. Despite this, Aetherdrift missed the mark on synergies coming together in a cohesive matter. Some cards didn't fit any theme, and the mechanics didn't have a ton of overlap. Exhaust and vehicles aren't a cohesive overlap and work poorly together. Exhaust is an awesome mechanic. It adds a powerful one-time use ability on cards at the cost of usually a lot of mana and gives you more options in games. However, when combined with vehicles, it creates these scenarios where you can't spend too much mana that doesn't affect the battlefield. Rather than working together, in many cases, they contradict each other. The same is true with cycling. If your play on turn two is to cycle and on turn three you play a vehicle, then you've spent too much mana with nothing in play that can block or attack. We live in a Magic world where you can't go too long without affecting the battlefield unless you have a massive comeback spell to cast. It's fine if you have a sweeper to follow up or something that puts multiple creatures in play, but these effect types are rares or mythic rares, which you don't have very often, so you can't afford to have your cards working against each other. Since overlapping synergies don't support each other and can work against each other, you can't have bricks in packs or the synergies will end up lackluster. You won't have the redundancy you need to make, say, your UR Discard work, even when your color pair or seat is open. This is largely a reason why green outperforms other colors. Green creatures are so good, and the removal in Run Over is adequate. The power level ends up lower because the synergy rares that are supposed to be focal points end up less powerful than usual, and the core of deep green commons doesn't need any help, but many of your Izzet cards will need help for instance. How did Alchemy fix this? In the original Aetherdrift, you'd draft a color pair like Azorius and would get maybe one gold uncommon and all the commons you want to set up a nice affinity deck, but the payoff wasn't there. With Alchemy, we get to remove a common from the pack and add, in most cases, a rare power-level card. Not only are the payoffs landing in the right seats because people are fighting over a stronger card pool, but the payoffs end up getting there more often because you have a high enough power level in your synergistic decks. You're not often drafting around your first pick, and you can pivot during a draft since your deck can still be strong through the alchemy cards. Vanilla Aetherdrift didn't feel like there was much room to find your lane. If you don't take that one strong payoff early, then it's too late. With what almost amounts to an extra rare per pack now, it makes it easier to navigate the draft without wearing blinders. I noticed a lot of my Twitch community is reluctant to pick up Alchemy because it's garnered a bad name for itself. People are hesitant to change, and Alchemy cards are seen as inorganic because the experience isn't replicated on paper. I embrace Alchemy, as it's a way to change our play experience when our current play becomes stale. Maybe the execution isn't perfect, but in the case of Aetherdrift Limited, I went from almost completely dismissing the format to being excited to open packs. My decks almost always end up fleshed out. If I find the open seat, my decks improve my game plan rather than being a pile of creatures and removal without true synergy. A small thing I noticed is cards like Road Rage, Grim Bauble, and Lightning Strike underperformed. They're still solid cards, but they weren't nearly as high in the pick order as they'd be in a more traditional Limited environment, which has flipped with the addition of Alchemy. Many Alchemy cards are powerful two-drops that have snowball potential, so the value of a cheap removal has gone up. It's not about sticking to the first big threat anymore. You need to properly draft and build your deck to handle more powerful threats, which creates value from solid cards that are closer to filler than first-picks. While the world may be focused on what needs to get banned in Modern, my focus is on enjoying a fresh, new Limited environment. More people should give Alchemy draft a try. It made the set above average and made me love it when I only tolerated it before. Aetherdrift Alchemy is higher powered, but it solved almost all the balancing issues, as you don't feel too far behind drafting a non-green color pair anymore. If you're a Limited lover, you should give it a chance since it's a lot more fun than I expected.

This past weekend we witnessed a dear friend of mine, Matt Nass, hoist the trophy and become our new Pro Tour champion. Matt has wanted this for quite some time, and I couldn't be happier for him. Matt's truly one of the nicest people you'll ever meet and one hell of a Magic player. Matt's weapon of choice? Domain Overlords. I've not played much Standard, but from watching the event, Domain looked to be the best deck. It seemed to have a decisive advantage against midrange decks. While it was slated as an underdog against red, beating decks like red aggro has always been easier than formulating a plan to beat midrange decks. You simply need to buy time, have some life gain, and give yourself the opportunity to live long enough to develop your game plan. I played with various red decks in the past. They're very strong when they draw well, but red aggro decks have a serious issue with flooding out once they face pushback. Prior to this event, I saw multiple people clamoring for a This Town Ain't Big Enough ban, which seemed ridiculous. There are plenty of strategic ways to go over the top or underneath a deck like Pixies, as we saw Domain do often. I expect to see a lot of Domain at the tables in the near future, so if you're playing Standard, make sure you're prepared to play against it. My favorite part of every Pro Tour is watching the Limited portion. This PT, we saw two of the best to ever do it: Javier Dominguez, our reigning world champ, and Ben Stark, one of the best to ever open a booster pack. I learned a lot watching them draft, but not in the way you may think. I would have drafted differently in both of their seats, which is not uncommon for this set, but watching it made me realize this is not a format to hedge your bets. Both players did poorly in their drafts. In retrospect, it's easy to say, "I would have done better," but the best thing you can do is learn from their perceived mistakes and figure out where they went wrong. Javier found his open lane, but he pushed against the grain for too long. As early as pick two, I would have taken an Explosive Getaway that he neglected and embraced my position as a control or midrange deck. Many people have sworn off Getaway, but the card has been nothing but absurd both for and against me. Its win-rate data is low because of its color combination, and it is a card that requires setup. One thing data won't show you in Limited is that proactive cards will have inflated win rates since they require almost no thought to use correctly. I play my over-statted four-drop creature, attack three times, and the game ends. Removal, and especially cards like Explosive Getaway, will have lower win-rate data because they require a game plan and can't win the game on their own. It requires you to use all your other cards correctly, whether that is holding off on either casting removal or making a trade, or by letting yourself fall behind early. The plays with a card like Getaway aren't scripted. There's nuance to how each game will play out, and it's up to you to solve that puzzle. Good players can leverage that a lot better. Regardless, both players ended up in the correct lane. I just would have ended up embracing what was coming rather than pushing back. If I've learned anything in this format, it's that synergistic decks don't come together often, and you're mostly trying to piece together a midrange soup deck. Basically, you're drafting what looks like a sealed deck. I probably shouldn't write about certain allegations having not seen them myself, but you can't go on Magic Twitter right now and not see people accusing various players with deep runs of making some beneficial mistakes. Whether these mistakes were intentional or not is up to the judge and their opponents to decide. I personally haven't seen anything too out of the ordinary. That said, it's up to the judges to enforce these things. I can say that judges are more standoffish than they have been in the past. In my last paper PT Top 8, I was pressured to play faster on multiple occasions. Every turn I was involved in was more complicated than what my friend Matt had in front of him on the final turn of the tournament. We've said it for years, but there needs to be consistent guidelines in slow play. I am not calling out Matt since he was rightfully exhausted after a long day in the office, was playing the last game to become PT champion, and didn't want to mess up the math. I'm fine with and encourage that leniency. However, it needs to be consistently addressed. Every time I watch my friends battle at the Pro Tour, it gives me a little bit of the fire. It makes me happy that we have so many online competitive outlets with stakes these days. While the Pro Tour itself is too much of a time commitment for me at the moment, we now have more ways than ever to play Magic at home. I'm happy for Matt. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy or better counter. This weekend we have the Arena Open. While I have a busy weekend planned, including celebrating my 42nd birthday, I will try to at least fire a bullet or two. I'll see you at the tables.

Aetherdrift Limited has been out for a decent amount of time. While I'm enjoying the set more than I thought I would, the format has some issues. The recipe for success is not a widely kept secret. Green seems to be outperforming every other color. Outside of green, the colors are well-balanced. I would put white in last place, though it's not unviable by any means. Let's get into why green is so dominant. The worst green cards in the set are a pair of commons, Silken Strength and Alacrian Jaguar . Alacrian Jaguar is a playable but unexciting five-drop. I'm not ashamed to play it in the absence of other top-end, but it's just passable. Every other green card in the set either has its uses or is actively good. This also includes gold cards. Top-to-bottom green is super deep. On top of that, green arguably has the best removal spell in the format at common, Run Over . Run Over paired with any number of vehicles or Venomsac Lagac is a one-mana removal spell. It can be risky using punch cards, but it's more than made up for with Run Over's efficiency. Green also has the best removal. Creatures are the real issue with balancing green. It's not new that green has the most powerful creatures. In fact, a feature of green is the above-curve creatures that can attack and block well. The issue is that green creatures can be raced with evasion, especially with efficient interaction to back it up, and green tends to have weak interaction. There are a lot of green creatures with reach in Aetherdrift. Migrating Ketradon and Hazard of the Dunes , two of green's best common creatures, have big bodies with reach to boot. Both of these creatures are also bigger than most of the creatures in the format. It's hard to get into combat against a green deck once a single copy of these two cards sticks. Hazard of the Dunes has trample and reach, and it outgrows nearly every creature in the format with its exhaust ability. It can literally do it all. If I were balancing the format, I'd remove one of the two abilities, likely reach, and see how things played out. Removing reach from this one common could better balance the format. Hazard of the Dunes does a lot of heavy lifting and helps carry green into the territory of dominance. Green has additional reach creatures at all rarities, and you can main deck Broken Wings reliably in this format, as there's an abundance of artifacts in every color. Every single green rare is good, and some are great. This includes gold cards. In a world where rares are more available thanks to a new booster pack structure, cutting off green is rewarding because it's almost always good to see a green rare. It's probably not news to you, but games in this Limited format often go long. There's a lot of resource exchanging and board stalls, so it's important that you have ways to spend mana later in the game. Because of the exhaust mechanic, green has quite a few ways to spend mana. In long games, mana sinks aren't the only deciding factor in how a game is going to end. The depth of your cards will help decide too, right? If you have a few bad underrate cards and you get to the bottom of your deck, then you've seen those cards. If they aren't lining up properly, you'll get overpowered. Green's depth allows it to win those longer games because even the two-drops at common play well in the mid and late game, specifically Beastrider Vanguard and Venomsac Lagac. Green's creatures play offense and defense effectively, allowing green to win fast or prolonged games. So far there have been a few ways to approach beating green decks, but it's not easy. The most reliable way I've been beating green is by decking them, otherwise known as good old-fashioned mill. Aether Syphon is my pick for the sleeper card of the format. I'm happy to first pick it in an otherwise weak pack and hopefully find another copy or a copy of Riverchurn Monument , which is one of the set's best cards, yet I get it late in pack one sometimes. I love to draft around Aether Syphon with a lot of cheap evasive creatures like Skystreak Engineer to get to max speed and slowly grind out the opponent. Sweepers is another way I've been losing with, and am able to beat, green. Green needs to play to the board, which is what it does best. In doing so, they're usually susceptible to the sweepers of the format. Cards like Spectacular Pileup and even Explosive Getaway can give green issues. These are rares, but rares are more common these days thanks to play boosters. Aetherdrift Limited is still fun, but I'm curious to see how it is at the Pro Tour, in pod. It's a unique balance situation where we have a strong color but a reasonable balance outside of that. I love blue, black, and red when I can get these colors. I'm lukewarm on white, but it can come together. I need more time to diagnose how to approach this format in best-of-three, as all my play has been best-of-one. I suspect things will change a little, but mana sinks will likely become more important. I'll work more on solving Aetherdrift Limited this week, so hopefully, next week, I can go over some draft coverage from the Pro Tour and give my thoughts on the approach of the broadcasted drafters. I can't wait to get into it. See you then!

Aetherdrift is officially here! I finally have my first drafts under my belt, and I've been pleasantly surprised by the format. My initial reaction was that it would likely be too fast, punishing, and, as far as flavor is concerned, boring. Combat slugfests lead to a monotone design where cards don't work together and synergies never truly come together. Make no mistake, Aetherdrift comes across as a fast, tempo-oriented format, but there's still a heavy incentive to focus on the "thing" you're doing. You still want your cards to help each other, and you still need to follow strong fundamentals. Vehicles require you to play combat exceptionally well. You need to know when to block and when to press your advantage. Often, the best play is to trade off your vehicle as soon as possible to unlock the creature that you need to crew it. Interaction is important, especially cheap interaction. Cards like Bounce Off and Road Rage are premium because one-mana interaction can be used to break up your opponent's fast starts or press your tempo advantage on the play. They're important and versatile cards. Vehicles, much like equipment or auras, can be stranded without ways to utilize them. For this purpose, it's important to contextualize the board and how the game is likely to play out. If your opponent is short on creatures and overloaded with vehicles, killing that random 2/2 isn't just killing a 2/2, it's likely shutting down a larger creature because the opponent has vehicles left outside of combat on each turn. It feels like there's a lot of value to be gained in the games more so than in drafts. The signpost uncommons, especially the gold uncommons, are potent within their archetypes. Picking up a late gold uncommon is a strong indication that the archetype is open and it's almost always worth jumping in if you can manage. I don't recall being this impressed with so many uncommons so early. Haunt the Network, Emabalmed Ascendant, and Veteran Beastrider are all examples of cards that vastly outperform a normal signpost gold card. The set is new, so I've only drafted one day. Here are a couple of my first decks. This Dimir Affinity deck was my first deck. I was skeptical of the finished product, but I got a trophy in my first draft. Haunt the Network hard-carried in combination with lots of early damage from Diversion Units. Cheap fliers have more value in this set than usual because of the max speed mechanics. This was my best deck but not my best record. I only managed a 4-3 record with this masterpiece. One of my losses was when I disconnected in the middle of turn 2 before I could play my land and came back to the opponent with three lands and two creatures in play, so I just scooped. Loot is strong, and I'd take it over any non-rare p1p1. There's some merit to taking other single-color rares over it, but in general, just slam Loot. I like this archetype as long as red remains underdrafted, which is what it feels like at the moment, though it's early. I heard rumblings of red being a weak color, but it seems fine and potentially very good. The biggest thing I learned from drafting this archetype is that you want strong top-end to close out with your early game, but both are important. This is another Izzet with a splash deck that was almost as good as the last and performed even better. Transmit Mage is alongside some strong tutor targets in Cryptcaller Chariot and Possession Engine. The Engine was my best card outside of maybe Thopter Fabricator, but Cryptcaller never got to impact games. I only drew it deep into games with an empty hand. It seems like it would be strong to play on curve, but it does have that issue. Bounce Off was impressive in this deck, as I had a lot of ways to pick up extra cards, and the tempo play was more valuable when I could recover the lost cards while having the ability to overpower the opponent later. Izzet was open today, and I brought the boom with the Boommobile on multiple occasions, but overall the deck was not great. This deck lacked ways to pick up extra cards and needed to draw a nice mix of lands and spells while also curving out nicely. I won about half my games with this deck. In almost every game, I was struggling to stay alive and trying to find ways to chip in my last few points of damage with a Magmakin Artillerist or a top-decked Lightning Strike. I didn't learn much from this draft, seeing that it was the third time I drafted Izzet on my first day of drafting. However, I did learn not to forget that my Adrenaline Jockey is a symmetrical ability while casting a Road Rage on my opponent's turn at four life. I'll blast more Aetherdrafts for the next few weeks. As a Limited-focused player, I'll be sure to clue you in on the tips and tricks I pick up along the way. So far I'm enjoying the format far more than I thought I would, which is a relief because I thought I was going to struggle to fire up the queue with this format.

We finally have the full list of Aetherdrift, and there's quite a bit to look through. This week, I'll finish my analysis of some cards that stand out, and we will move on to Limited next week. A few cards caught my attention in the final rollout. Let's take a look. Spectacular Pileup I usually don't bother reviewing the latest wrath effect, as they're generally tame, boring, and not that good in a modern Magic setting. However, Spectacular Pileup changes how these things function. One of the major upsides of vehicles was how they were insulated from sweeper effects and, in some cases, targeted removal until you were prepared to activate them with the ability to defend them with a protection spell. Spectacular Pileup destroys this advantage. It also has cycling, so you can put it in your deck without fear of drawing a dead card. While there's no evidence Spectacular Pileup will see much play, it will in a world where vehicles are successfully integrated into a Standard setting. For instance, would Esika's Chariot have had nearly as big an impact if Spectacular Pileup was available? We don't know for sure, but now we have a tool to use if that type of situation were to arise again. Sunfall is probably the best five-mana wrath effect we've seen. It's still legal, so it would be hard to see that falling out of favor in decks that want that effect, but that could change in a world where removing vehicles matters. It's nice to have access to a tool like this, even if it's not a Standard staple. Salvation Engine Salvation Engine is an interesting card. It's a massive vehicle with a demanding crew cost, but the ability to put additional artifacts in play, including other copies of itself, is quite powerful. I've seen this mentioned in the same breath as Tempered Steel. We don't have the same type of support in Standard at the moment, and Magic is in a place where a Tempered Steel-type deck probably wouldn't pass the bar. It's possible over the next couple of years that we end up in a situation where a card like Salvation Engine can make a massive impact. For now, Salvation Engine is too clunky and doesn't have enough support. It has potential in a perfect storm situation, but I'll leave it on my wait-and-see list. Radiant Lotus People were clamoring for ways to break this six-mana artifact. As far as I know, it likely won't happen. Radiant Lotus is too expensive. While there are various ways to cheat it into play, it requires a lot of other cards to be functional. We need artifacts in play and a payoff while dodging interaction. The ceiling for a card like this is incredibly high in a solitaire-style game. In a game with heavy interaction, Radiant Lotus is likely to only see play in a more casual setting. There's a world where enough artifacts are printed that there's a cohesive plan for Radiant Lotus, but in any of those worlds, I still see the type of interaction we have available in Standard and beyond to keep anything like that in check. Radiant Lotus is a miss for me competitively. I'm sure it will be a fun card to build around and play with in a more casual setting. Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer I'm struggling with this version of Daretti. It's currently my favorite or second favorite "character" in MTG, so I don't know if I'm being biased, but Daretti looks like it could end up being powerful. Trash for Treasure on a stick has some serious potential. While the graveyard has become easy to interact with in modern Magic, Daretti can cheat a massive artifact into play from the graveyard, and it's a hard-hitting threat. The obvious first possibility is with Valor's Flagship where you can cycle it and put it into play on turn 5 with Daretti and give you a 7-power body to boot. We even have a mana rock with cards like The Iren Crag to ramp out a start like this. I'm sure there are more creative ways to utilize Daretti, but Daretti pops out as a card that could be worth building around. As the Standard format grows, it will only have more potential. I'm excited to see if Daretti has a shot at seeing competitive play, and my hunch is it will happen. Repurposing Bay It's easy to gloss over Repurposing Bay as another Birthing Pod reprint, but it has potential. Repurposing Bay's activation cost is the most prohibitive part of the card, but Repurposing Bay has one thing Pod doesn't, which is redundancy protection. An additional copy of Bay can be sacrificed to move up the ladder. Because of that, you can do things like sacrifice an Ichor Wellspring to find a second copy, then sac the original copy to get a four-drop. Chains like this could produce some kind of powerful combo or loop. While I'm certainly not Matt Nass, I'm sure the Denver boys will be cooking with this one. While Repurposing Bay is likely not a Standard card, I could see it having an impact on formats like Pioneer or, potentially, Modern. I'm intrigued by this, and while I'm not a Modern buff these days, I'm interested to see what people cook up with Repurposing Bay given Birthing Pod's track record and the abundance of broken artifact support you get these days. Cryptcaller Chariot Cryptcaller Chariot hasn't gotten a lot of buzz, but it looks interesting as a potential sleeper. While it's designed to go with cycling in the set itself, looking into a format like Pioneer, we have ways to trigger the Chariot, including cycling, channeling, Blood Tokens, Fable of the Mirror breaker, and the list continues. It's an outside shot, but Cryptcaller Chariot is worth a try in a variety of formats to generate value while using game mechanics we were already using in decks like Rakdos Midrange. The fact that Cryptcaller Chariot is four mana is the only thing holding it back, since it seems like a powerful engine in older formats and in interactive archetypes. I have my eye on Cryptcaller Chariot as a sleeper pick for Pioneer and potentially Standard. Overall, I'm underwhelmed by Aetherdrift. The vehicle is one of my all-time least favorite mechanics because it tends to impact Limited where it becomes hard to block when you're forced to block an oversized vehicle on the draw or you cast a vehicle you can no longer block, so the normal patterns of Limited don't hold up. Regardless, I'm excited to see how and if Aetherdrift will have a major impact on Standard and curious to see if my opinion about vehicles will change after playing with them in this set in Limited. Next week, I will move on to a Limited review of this set. Perhaps I'll start digging a little deeper into Limited Archetype analysis over the next few weeks. We'll have to see, but I'm excited to get started.

Last week, we took our first look at Aetherdrift cards and focused on mechanics. Now, we'll take a closer look at what Aetherdrift has in store for us. Let's start those engines! (Truly sorry, had to get it out of my system.) Chandra, Spark Hunter Let's start with Chandra, a unique vehicle-focused planeswalker. Within the confines of the format, Chandra looks great because Aetherdrift is extremely vehicle-dense, however, when we take into account larger-than-usual Standard formats, it looks like a massive miss for Standard playability. Chandra's 0 ability produces a mediocre vehicle. Because it's a vehicle and not a creature, it can't immediately block to protect Chandra without another vehicle in play. I would have liked to see Chandra's triggered ability keep the vehicle a creature until the next turn, so you had the ability to protect Chandra with said vehicle. As designed, this feels like a card that will be relatively playable in Limited and perhaps a cool build-around for a format like Commander, but in Standard, you will lose so many sets of cards if your deck is focused enough on vehicles where Chandra could be good. Chandra feels like a big miss, which is OK, but I wouldn't get too excited about her prospects in any format at the moment. The Last Ride The Last Ride is obviously a vehicle spinoff of Death's Shadow. I suspect The Last Ride will also be the first ride with this card because it doesn't seem to fit anywhere. Most of the value in this card will be its ability to turn the corner out of nowhere or play good defense when your life total is low. Three mana is a lot for the draw effect. I don't see a home for this, as it won't do anything a majority of the game and it will have been sitting in play long enough for the opponent to game plan around when it can attack. I could see The Last Ride having an impact in Limited, especially if the format is short on mana sinks. Outside of that, I don't see it having a home. It's not a build-around like Death's Shadow since it requires reducing your life total incredibly low and asks you to crew it. I don't have high expectations for The Last Ride, which I say as a massive Death's Shadow enjoyer. Marauding Mako Maraudin Mako is one of, if not the , best card in the set. This is a one-mana card that works well in so many red archetypes, such as Blood Tokens, Fable of the Mirror Breaker, any Faithless Looting deck, and the list goes on. Maybe Hollow One will have a resurgence with Marauding Mako in the mix? Mako is a one-drop that will scale well into the game, and it still cycles if you draw copies that don't have an impact in the middle of the game. This one-drop will demand an answer immediately in the right deck, allowing for two-, three-, and four-drops to get into the mix unscathed. Marauding Mako is sure to be played somewhere, and I'm excited to pick up a Constructed deck and try it out. Count on Luck Count on Luck is a nice upgrade to the Outpost Siege effects in past Mono Red decks. Four mana was too much, and historically, players would often sideboard an additional land when bringing these effects into their decks because they were usually too clunky. Magic has sped up since those days, and now we get a cost-reduced version that I suspect will see play out of the sideboards of Mono Red decks in grindier match-ups. Count on Luck isn't anything new. It's just a new, more restricted mana cost, and it will likely see some niche play at the least. It's a solid addition since the Outpost Siege effects have mostly fallen out of favor. At a more competitive cost, we may get to see Count on Luck bring back raw card advantage for Mono Red players. Transit Mage I'm only highlighting Transit Mage because it completes the cycle of Trinket Mage effects. Transit Mage seems to hit a sweet spot of mana costs for a lot of cards people would sometimes Fabricate for. We've had cards like KCI, Aetherworks Marvel, Paradox Engine, and others covered by this Mage, so I wouldn't be surprised to see Transit Mage as a piece in some artifact combo deck that wants a piece like this but can't take a turn off to tutor for it. The 2/2 body may provide enough breathing room to get your engine going! It's a cool card, as I always love seeing a many-years-long cycle built on and potentially finished. Kolodin, Triumph Caster Kolodin, Triumph Caster looks excellent as a build-around. A creature that can essentially saddle every saddle and crew every vehicle is a real build-around piece. I could imagine a deck with Kolodin and other saddle creatures able to crew vehicles, so they aren't left stranded if Kolodin dies. Kolodin has an efficient enough body that this could be a possibility and perhaps even make Chandra a potential player. Fundamentally, vehicle decks seem like they can't be efficient enough to compete, as the base of the deck relies on having creatures like Kolodin in play. When one piece of the house of cards falls, the entire thing may collapse on itself. Vehicles won't function without creatures, and the creatures will mostly be too watered down without high-powered vehicles. This will often leave you in a position where if someone interacts with one single piece of removal, you end up getting another card stranded for a turn or multiple turns. Kolodin helps with some explosive potential, but even with Kolodin and Chandra, the vehicles aren't powerful enough to make these cards competitive in Standard. Kolodin seems like an excellent commander if you want to build a vehicle deck since you'll always have access to an essential piece. Outside of that, and I hope I'm wrong, I suspect Standard will remain midrange-soup decks for some time, and cool mechanics will often be left on the wayside because sets are one and done with little additional building on any one set's core mechanics. Afterburner Expert Afterburner Expert is a potentially powerful card if you're able to self-mill well enough and have a few support exhaust cards. A 4/2 for three isn't a great rate, but not much blocking goes on in Constructed, so it's serviceable if you can exploit the ability for it to return. Afterburner Expert in multiples will result in a potential chain of them bouncing each other back and forth. While this is clunky, it's possible there could be something in a deck with enough self-mill and interaction. Because exhaust is an instant ability and Afterburner Expert comes into play untapped, you can bring these back into play during the opponent's turn to block with them. This will slow the game down and allow you to continue to build a potential army of experts. I suspect Afterburner Expert is asking too much for what it provides, but it's interesting enough to think about and discuss. Afterburner Expert is a potential sleeper. Mulling over what I've seen of green cards, there's not much I'm too excited about, so green mages may have to work with what we have. Marketback Walker Last but not least this week we have Marketback Walker. Marketback Walker is one of my favorite cards previewed thus far. While I don't think it's in the same category as Walking Ballista or Hangarback Walker where it's going to see play across the board, it may end up in more decks than expected because of its flexibility. What most excites me about Marketback Walker is how well it works with a card like Arcbound Ravager. I could envision an Affinity deck with our newly returned Mox Opals where we can churn through the deck by turning every artifact into another counter to put on the walker and essentially drawing through the deck. We throw a Hardened Scales on top of that, and it feels like we can draw the entire deck in the first few turns of the game. Marketback Walker is ripe for exploitation. I'm certain we'll see players trying to put these pieces together, as there are numerous ways to dump counters onto it, sacrifice it, and keep a chain going. As I'm finishing up this review, we have about two-thirds of the set previewed. I'm not that impressed, but there are a few cards I'm excited about getting my hands on, so we'll have to see what transpires as the set gets fully spoiled. I don't think I'll enjoy this Limited set much because I enjoy formats where blocking is a reasonable venture. Much less of that happens in formats with vehicles. I'd expect games to end quickly in this format, but that's something that we'll see and talk about later. I'll see you next week, likely reviewing more Aetherdrift. See you then.