The worst part for me currently is why would this interplanar organization allow the Valgolavoth team to officially enter. Seems like letting a plane consuming super-demon have a legitimate chance to win a Planeswalker spark might be a bad idea.
@PleasantKenobi That's the angle I hope they go; the formatting of the guide article makes it seem like they are "official", but maybe I'm just reading too much into it.
I don't think we have a timeline on how long ago the events of Duskmourne story were, but I'd assume Valgavoth isn't-well known at this point, because if he were it would just be too silly that anyone would let that team participate for even a second. It did sound like Winter and co were official participants, but perhaps everyone thinks they're just "regular" demon cultists.
This feels similar to Duskmourne, where the creative team actally did a great job with most of the worldbuilding, but there is always this undercurrent of shallow, focus tested corporate grime over the whole thing. That said, I am excited we get to see some more of Muraganda. It has lost a lot of it's identity I think since Dinosaurs are just a big part of magic now in general even apart from Ixalan. I think there could have still been some potential in showing very early socities living there. While I'm not too hot on the racing theme, I do like the idea of a "compilation set" like this where we visit multiple planes that mabye we wouldn't get to see otherwise. A plane like Xerex for example is really cool but probably wouldn't work too well for a standalone set. They might as well have put in a team of goofy cavepeople with Flintstone cars to match Muraganda, but maybe that was deemed to goofy.
Watching the creative team work incredibly hard to do decent, sensible writing and worldbuilding under the absurd top-down directives of Corporate 'Focus Test Says' is like looking at an exceptionally-painted work of an artist's incredibly grotesque patron.
I actually think Valgavoth allowing people to get out in exchange for a spark makes a lot of sense. He really wants to expand out of Duskmourn and the spark would give him that. Him letting people out and even sparing their lives is not unprecedented either, with the whole cult of Valgavoth and his deal with Winter. I actually want to see what he could do with a Planeswalker spark and how it interacts with his curse.
Although given how closely tied Val is to Duskmourne, it would seem a little strange if the spark device could let him planeswalk without some sort of power boost to it. He's a little bigger that the average person, to say the least.
Exactly what I was thinking! There's a whole history throughout the classic MTG lore of big bads wanting to steal planeswalker sparks in order to escape the plane they're trapped in - Yawgmoth did it, Memnarch did it, somebody else probably did it too idk :P
I've really disliked the implementation of Omenpaths so far, so I'm glad you mentioned that it's cool to see them used as to make this set take place on multiple planes. I feel like it's a good way to showcase them, better than Thunder Junction in my opinion.
So far Omenpaths only seem to make planes feel less internally integral with people from different planes showing up on other planes. Takes away some form of identity
@@davidbronstein2040 Omenpaths could have worked if there were some consistent rules behind them. Making travelling through them a conflict in and of itself could have led to some interesting opportunities. But the hand-wavey "they're completely chaotic and unstable" schtick they've gone with just means they do whatever the writers need them to do at any given time with no further explanation required.
Well, "helping Avishkar grow as a multiversal, interdimensional power" as a reason to host a Grand Prix sure tracks with the sorts of reasons F1 gives for going to real up-and-coming tourist destinations like Azerbaijan, Qatar, Bahrain, Jeddah, and Sochi (that just happen to be willing to pay F1 a small fortune for the privilege of hosting Grands Prix). So that's at least sort of faithful to real life.
Personally I’m disappointed with Aetherdrift because I care a lot about flavor and I like being able to take my fantasy settings seriously. Bloomburrow was super, super cool to me. Duskmourn, Outlaws, and Karlov were disappointing for the obvious costume reasons. I haven’t been playing for *that* long but after experiencing Bloomburrow, I’m sad knowing there won’t be anything like it. Maybe the Tarkir one will be cool.
Seems like an awfully high number of teams to be able to get a significant amount of lore and support cards for each team/color pairing. Remember when Ravnica had to split into multiple sets, just to cover each Guild!
Yeah I felt the same about Bloomburrow. Hard to really support every faction sufficiently with just one set. The sets barely get past establishing their own iconography, especially since cards have so much rules text nowadays.
Wouldnt it had been cool if they were actual colonial powers and the plot of the set was fighting back against the new kaladeshi government? Kaladesh is probably my favorite plane, and I think this would have been a great place to take them in the story. The rebel government has become the oppressors, and now the different planes are fighting back. Unfortunately, that's too interesting for wotc and might offend 1 person on xitter
Places do this. Culture influences. India does it within its local sphere. This Neo colonialism, they aren’t conquering anyone, but using their culture to proliferate influence.
If we are getting this silly in MTG, I wish the Universes Beyond for this set was Fast and Furious so you can give flying to Vin Diesel, to attack "in the air" so the spanish meme "EN EL AIRE" is canon in MTG. EDIT: So my Opponent can respond with "¿¡QUE!?"
30 boosters is a absolute dirty trick ... when I buy boxes I play with them. One-on-one-Sealed with my friends! So 6 x 2 Booster ... with the old Box size you could play three times. With the new size we'll have 6 Booster left ... Guess who is not buying booster boxes anymore ...
As a newcomer who mostly plays Draft and Commander, I’m excited for this fun looking set. I honestly don’t really care about the lore, i just want fun cards.
You will eventually become invested in the lore, and there will come a day when you are piecing the entire timeline together and realize what a shame it was that WotC allowed such a cool ass story to wither into corpo cringe garbage.
Yeah, but Lorwyn and Ravnica don’t sell newcomers. Spiderman and Final Fantasy do. Aetherdrift and Duskmourn are a happy medium, a kind of “best of both worlds”. I’d be more concerned with power creep and the state Standard is in.
I'm out on the current generation of M:tG art direction at the set level. Individual artists are still exceptional. I don't think I'm the target demo any more and that's ok.
I'm really still not sold on it at all. The last 2 years of sets have just felt like WotC trying to do their best Hearthstone impression, and I'd rather they don't. Also, 'problematic' name or not, Kaladesh honestly just sounds way more catchy than Avishkar. Can't see too many enfranchised players actually bothering to train themselves to use the new name instead.
I just hate the fact sparks are something you can just rip from someone and anyone else can in turn use it. Sparks feel like they should be a legit part of someone. You can't just fucking 'surgically' remove or add to someone. So fucking stupid. Sparks/Planeswalkers means so fucking little when it used to be something incredibly significant.
@@TaskMaster5 We're honestly so far past that point, even. There are wormholes everywhere, so the spark barely matters. And when suddenly all dimensions became one, the only thing WotC could think to do with that is "let's have a big race." They have nothing interesting to say about a universe where all reality was suddenly turned on its head, why not give away a spark. lol
This set very much feels like a return to the very mid to poor sets of late such as murders and outlaws and I don’t hold out much hope that it’ll be as fun as DM or as well designed as BB
Murders I can agree, was poor. But Outlaws, aside from a weak theme, was a fun set imo. It had a lot of good and fun cards that slot well into existing decks. Murders on the other hand had both a massive flavour fail, and very forgettable cards. The surveil lands were nice but nothing about the set interests me in the slightest.
@@boringmonkey6958I agree re the cards in outlaws, some good stuff in there. My worry is that even if there are decent cards in the set the new set will share the same weaknesses in terms of theme
Why the hell did they made such a big deal about desparking planeswalkers and creating omenpaths if they are just going to respark the planeswalkers back anyway?
Note: even if Chandra wins this, Nissa won't actually be able to become a planeswalker, just that she'll have a fancy item to let her planeswalk (potentially, it's stated nobody has any idea if the Aetherspark actually works or not, and even if it does how well - it might be a one & done for example. Though like, you can assume that it does). Has the notable features that she'll still be mechanically a creature + can have the item stolen from her.
When your 1/1 dork from the hell dimension stands in front of your opponent’s gigantic war-rig that inexplicably does not have trample: WITNESS ME!!!!!
They took a hit with Karlov Manor already, but considering the amount of time required to create each set it may take a couple of years to correct course anyway.
Eventually every IP will become a karting game. Happened with mario, star wars, crash bandicoot and jak&daxter. It happened even in ARMA 3. I'm suprised it took this long
I think the issue is not enough effort was put into the machinery to make them really stand as vehicles. Chandra's motorcycle is too simple and futuristic for Chandra, why isn't it designed for her to channel her fire into the bike for propulsion? The bike instantly feels closer to her and would likely have a more steampunk visual which has been a staple for her for years.
It's like Mario Kart meets Fortnite, but it's still a turn based card game. I wonder if anyone is gonna make a "racing" format to go with it, and what that would look like? EDIT: I also find it interesting to see how some of the returning planes are recovering after WotC, essentially, blew them up.
Minor nitpick: the reformed Consulate post-Aether Revolt was still unpopular because it didn't do enough to loosen restrictions on Aether - and were completely unprepared for the Phyrexian invasion. The current Assembly that changed the name of the plane and is trying to become a multiplanar center of culture is the result of *another* revolution. The New Culture Collective used underground street racing as a flashy recruitment tactic to entice people to join their resistance to the Consulate, which left them uniquely prepared to serve as recon scouts and search-and-rescue during the invasion. With help from some Renegades from the first revolution, they rode their wave of popularity into a new, more democratic government.
The definatly feels like a Mario Kart thing here, where the big bad Valgavoth is sending his minions to go kart racing with Chandra. ALSO, reminds me of YuGiOh 5Ds. So who knows, maybe it could be good.
Creatively bankrupt set. Now if one of the commander decks from the set was vehicle themed, I would be happy; with the inclusion of additional vehicles in the overall set. I want to play magic to cast magic spells not to open a portal and have a million vehicles run over the opposing magi. Weak. I really hope the person leading creative during this period 2 years ago is out of the loop.
I would appreciate it if UW sets didn't get made into parodies in the future. I am not a fan of this beach epsiode - set for Magic. We are already getting so much UB crap shoved down our throats every other week that it would be a nice refresher to experience a proper 3 set cycle on a single plain with cohesive storytelling instead of these one-of joke sets.
7:43 I think from a farther standpoint this may be Valgavoth trying to get his own spark, possibly trying to use a spark to expand his plane out into other planes? Possibly.
The issue for me isn't the reduced size of the box, cause I was one of those not happy of having the minimum price of a box at 160€ here in France when sets were 125-135 and draft 105-115 ; technically now it goes back to where set boxes were. The issue is that Play boosters have less value than sets : when we had the list there was a fifth chance of having a rare per box, now only 4 and the odds are way less than in sets, not to mention the joke of special guests that not only are so scarce but on top of that most of them are uncommons or commons artificially upgraded to the mythic rarity and so the odds to pull a good one are even rarer. So they just merged sets and draft into one with less value than the former sets, which were the type of boxes I was mostly going for. I used to pull 6-8 mythics in set boxes with 30 packs, it's only been 5-6 max in play boxes so far and I've got quite a few of them. In the end it's just a price increase for less value, with a fake excuse of it being draftable AND having value like sets, when the reason those of us buying set boxes was to get more value and less bulk, which doesn't happen in play boxes. At least when there was draft + set boxes we had the choice, now it's just forced price increase with less value...
"They're a colonial power now, but its ok because there was a revolution, and governments after revolutions in history have always been filled with exclusively good people, so it's good people colonization!"
Really this setting screamed a visit to the plane of Vrynn to me. With all their mage-rings and technology that looks like a phantastic mix with Kaladesh/Avishkar. But, alas, you cannot have it all.
Bold prediction: You will be able to fling a turtle of some kind to destroy a vehicle. Less bold prediction: There will be a Take the Lead mechanic similar to initiative; giving you something if you are 'winning the race'. I hope its not boring or annoying to track. Least bold prediction: The Goblin Admech is gonna be sweet.
I'm legit stoked for the hat(helmet) era to end. It fucking sucks. Also, lol at Pokemon and other cards making Magic look expensive. There's a solution to that that isn't just making the boxes smaller.
With reveals like this I think about stuff like Universes Beyond, specifically walking dead, and wonder if the lesson Wizards learned was not "make more crossovers that fit in Magic", rather the other way around, "make the setting of Magic fit more crossovers"
I dont care what people say, it's incrediblty frustrating and hard to enjoy magic when... HALF the sets are universes beyond, and then when we DO get an "in unniverse" set, it's something silly like fedoras or motorcycles. AND THEN when we do get a proper feels like old magic set it's just a return to an old problematic set like tarkir or lorwyn, beloved, but problematic. AND THEN LORWYN GETS PUSHED BACK FOR MORE UNIVERSE BEYOND!!!!!!! Ya, I'm kind of done caring.....
Im in waiting mode, just playing with what I have, slowly blinging the decks I love, and buying the singles of cards I want and Faeries to add to my Decks/Collection 🧚. In Lorwyn I'll buy at least a Collector box and after that I'll resume my "not buying sealed product if UB or dumb set" stance.
@@SSolemn I'm with you there. I aint buying anything until we get some lorwyn, although right now I'm on an indefinite hiatus due to having to quit my toxic LGS. So that's also saving me a ton of money currently!
Thunder Junction was just a bunch of random people mostly villains there wearing cowboy hats, made little sense, here though there's a reason why we have a random group of people, it's a multiversal race which in itself is pretty rad, thematically on paper it seems silly but I'm kinda down with it
Yep i don’t think I’ll buy anything besides old singles for my commander decks besides the tarkir reprise and the lorwyn reprise unless the tone it down with these unsets, crossovers, and secret lairs
An ideal number of players for draft is 8. So an ideal box size would be 24. A 6 person draft is a minimum. This is just from my experience as someone who drafts rather often at my lgs.
It's probably Nico Bolas's spark. That could be how he comes back to the story front as a bad guy again since he's just in a planer prison right now and no one knows he's alive besides his brother. Plus he had a pretty heavy hand with tarkir history and we are revisiting their next year. If you turn the image of the aether spark upside-down down it actually looks like Bolas's horns with the gem in the middle.
I am a bit warmer after showing the teams, especially the Guidelight Voyagers. The Guidelight I think could be just sci-fi, but I have hopes that there will be more of a magic twist that might make them a bit closer to droids. The first image has a digital tongue sticking out. I know people are worried about the hats thing, but I have a fondness camp, where we can see a tongue in cheek and dedication to a theme. It could risk hitting Unset status, but I think can be saved by striking the balance of still the core of the aspects even if it might look silly at first. Kind of like the Planeswalkers tyrning into animals in Duskmourn.
It's a bit weird feeling, but I think this sort of setting actually works decently well with it being a one-and-done set instead of a 2 or 3 set block. It's a race, so it's supposed to be fast-paced. In terms of hopeful game mechanics, I'm pumped for new vehicle stuff. Also, hopefully a flavorful alternate wincon.
Universes beyond is fun but the issue with it is that they went overboard with it. One or two universes beyond stuff a year would’ve been ideal as it would let Magic still keep its identity. I can’t even tell what Magic is anymore. It’s like fantasy Fortnite at this point.
This almost reminds me of the hot wheel world race movies from the early 2000s, which brings some nostalgia I guess. Not really magic-ish, but it's more palatable than other themes I could think of
The artwork with a small car racing around a gods statue on AKH from the planeswalker guide 2 is my exact feeling about this set: Look at the cool setting we built, so we could contruct a highway through it. Its almost a meta commentary on current magic design, although I doubt that this is intentional. (The second thing I noticed is the "we have this race team, and its headed by [character you already know]. Why? Why can we not establish cool new characters? When did chandra learn to race on a motorcycle?)
I come from a Hindu family, but am Canadian and do not speak any dialect of Hindi. However, I always thought Kaladesh was a reference to The Hindu god Kali. She was also the same sake for Kali Kata (which means Kali’s cut describing the fields in the area in her name) and then become Calcutta under colonial rule and is now Kolkata. In that context, or in the context of Krishna, the word black or darkness is not an insult or colourist but rather one of reverence. The roots of Krishna’s name portray darkness as the path into the light and dark skin as a friendly reminder of a dark skinned person who comes to help goodness in all eras (Krishna is often described as the god of Love and/or Yoga). This is why some gods are often pictured with blue skin, it’s the visual depiction of this metaphor. So, for many ancient and modern Hindus the terms black and darkness are COMPLIMENTS and sacred loving ones at that. Now, chariots are also an important part of Hindu (and Krishna’s) mythology. I’ll have to see how they captured that, but the focus on motor bikes seems weird but perhaps this is trying to neon dynasty India in some way, in which case … I guess I wish the art was more Indian.
I mean it's my two favourite plains with some absolutely stunning art already, I just wish it was like a massive inventors fair or something rather than a race...
Honestly, goofy, high-concept fantasy camp is my favorite type of magic. Especially after like 3 straight arcs about multiverse-threatening uber-baddies. The war is over, of course the planes are gonna try to "have fun" again. I'm more worried about power-creep and "oops we broke a format"-cards than the aesthetics of vroom-vroom go fast.
Maybe it would feel more earned if they'd actually given us some stakes during the big scary events. This just feels like another ass-pull flavor fail.
"Especially after like 3 straight arcs about multiverse-threatening-uber-baddies." The last arc that remotely resembled that description was the Phyrexian invasion arc, which concluded almost 2 years ago with March of the Machines. We have been having these cheap "theme" type sets without a proper story arc for over a year now. So I'm not sure what you mean by your comment.
Ironically this set is the official start of an interplanar conflict between Ravnica and Avishkar, as both planes seek to become multiplanar hegemons. This race is not about fun at all. It's about exerting influence.
And if they had licensed scooby doo for a duskmourne secret lair the way they SHOULD have done it would have been easier to license wacky races for this one
This really feels like a hasbro executive sat in the design meeting for this set to make cross promotional Acton figures. Seriously. Almost all the "factions" feel like saterday morning cartoon comrcials
It feels like previously the Magic team could make the tropes do Magic the Gathering (see the horror references in Innistrad) but now Magic the Gathering is just doing the tropes.
i really hope (hoped if its already set in stone) that they call the set "Avishkar: Aetherdrift" and not just Aetherdrift. There is gonna be a bell curve in people how long it takes people to learn the new name, and making Aetherdrift a subtitle will really help in pushing that curve closer to 0.
Wildcard answer: …honestly, I’ve scratching my memory and I’m surprised I can’t think of an actual autodueling/racing card game? Like, let me build a vehicle, pick the crew and weapons, and fill the deck with special maneuvers and gadgets. First player to complete the course against a deck full of hazards and traps… or to take out the opponent… wins?
Watching magic creators find places for interesting and fun lore in am increasingly dumb universe is fun for me. Duskmorn for being jam packed with cheesy horror member berries had interesting lore with it and I kinda feel the same here.
The worst part for me currently is why would this interplanar organization allow the Valgolavoth team to officially enter. Seems like letting a plane consuming super-demon have a legitimate chance to win a Planeswalker spark might be a bad idea.
Maybe his involvement isn't public.
@PleasantKenobi That's the angle I hope they go; the formatting of the guide article makes it seem like they are "official", but maybe I'm just reading too much into it.
I don't think we have a timeline on how long ago the events of Duskmourne story were, but I'd assume Valgavoth isn't-well known at this point, because if he were it would just be too silly that anyone would let that team participate for even a second. It did sound like Winter and co were official participants, but perhaps everyone thinks they're just "regular" demon cultists.
This feels similar to Duskmourne, where the creative team actally did a great job with most of the worldbuilding, but there is always this undercurrent of shallow, focus tested corporate grime over the whole thing.
That said, I am excited we get to see some more of Muraganda. It has lost a lot of it's identity I think since Dinosaurs are just a big part of magic now in general even apart from Ixalan. I think there could have still been some potential in showing very early socities living there.
While I'm not too hot on the racing theme, I do like the idea of a "compilation set" like this where we visit multiple planes that mabye we wouldn't get to see otherwise. A plane like Xerex for example is really cool but probably wouldn't work too well for a standalone set.
They might as well have put in a team of goofy cavepeople with Flintstone cars to match Muraganda, but maybe that was deemed to goofy.
yeah the Travelogue sets (what maro called it) would be great for introducing new planes that can't fit a full set
This is a weird looking UNset.
What if they did a spinoff mtg series that the story was rated R (the cards would still be pg 13 since its public stuff)
Oh shit, a big RUclipsr watched my video.
@@PleasantKenobi Its the big guy
what's un about it?
@neminem233 ive seen you everywhere in recent vids lol
Watching the creative team work incredibly hard to do decent, sensible writing and worldbuilding under the absurd top-down directives of Corporate 'Focus Test Says' is like looking at an exceptionally-painted work of an artist's incredibly grotesque patron.
While I do think it is dumb top-down directives, I’m not so sure it’s only from the corpos:/
Now this is pod racing!
It's workingh, it's workinggg
Plot twist: The cat from Esika's Chariot enters the race so it can use the aether spark to bring back the other cat.
I actually think Valgavoth allowing people to get out in exchange for a spark makes a lot of sense. He really wants to expand out of Duskmourn and the spark would give him that.
Him letting people out and even sparing their lives is not unprecedented either, with the whole cult of Valgavoth and his deal with Winter.
I actually want to see what he could do with a Planeswalker spark and how it interacts with his curse.
Although given how closely tied Val is to Duskmourne, it would seem a little strange if the spark device could let him planeswalk without some sort of power boost to it. He's a little bigger that the average person, to say the least.
Exactly what I was thinking! There's a whole history throughout the classic MTG lore of big bads wanting to steal planeswalker sparks in order to escape the plane they're trapped in - Yawgmoth did it, Memnarch did it, somebody else probably did it too idk :P
I've really disliked the implementation of Omenpaths so far, so I'm glad you mentioned that it's cool to see them used as to make this set take place on multiple planes. I feel like it's a good way to showcase them, better than Thunder Junction in my opinion.
So far Omenpaths only seem to make planes feel less internally integral with people from different planes showing up on other planes. Takes away some form of identity
@@Schwenne1994 I am quietly hoping that the omenpaths get scrapped soon. It's terrible worldbuilding.
@@davidbronstein2040 Omenpaths could have worked if there were some consistent rules behind them. Making travelling through them a conflict in and of itself could have led to some interesting opportunities. But the hand-wavey "they're completely chaotic and unstable" schtick they've gone with just means they do whatever the writers need them to do at any given time with no further explanation required.
@@ArixOdragcthe latest planeswalker's guide contains some very good worldbuilding and rules for omenpaths. Necessitated by how the race works.
Well, "helping Avishkar grow as a multiversal, interdimensional power" as a reason to host a Grand Prix sure tracks with the sorts of reasons F1 gives for going to real up-and-coming tourist destinations like Azerbaijan, Qatar, Bahrain, Jeddah, and Sochi (that just happen to be willing to pay F1 a small fortune for the privilege of hosting Grands Prix). So that's at least sort of faithful to real life.
@@schraedera and Las Vegas
Personally I’m disappointed with Aetherdrift because I care a lot about flavor and I like being able to take my fantasy settings seriously. Bloomburrow was super, super cool to me. Duskmourn, Outlaws, and Karlov were disappointing for the obvious costume reasons. I haven’t been playing for *that* long but after experiencing Bloomburrow, I’m sad knowing there won’t be anything like it. Maybe the Tarkir one will be cool.
Fuzzy critters is just a costume you like.
have faith
Seems like an awfully high number of teams to be able to get a significant amount of lore and support cards for each team/color pairing.
Remember when Ravnica had to split into multiple sets, just to cover each Guild!
It would be great to return to a block set story style, give us more time to invest in a world and its characters
Yeah I felt the same about Bloomburrow. Hard to really support every faction sufficiently with just one set. The sets barely get past establishing their own iconography, especially since cards have so much rules text nowadays.
@@melephs_capI haven’t heard a single people reference bloomburrows story since it released lol
Very interesting to see the India-inspired plane get turned into a "progressive" colonial power. Once again incredible world building from WotC.
OOF
Left-wing racism strikes again. Malcolm X had a very good point about it.
Wouldnt it had been cool if they were actual colonial powers and the plot of the set was fighting back against the new kaladeshi government? Kaladesh is probably my favorite plane, and I think this would have been a great place to take them in the story. The rebel government has become the oppressors, and now the different planes are fighting back. Unfortunately, that's too interesting for wotc and might offend 1 person on xitter
Places do this. Culture influences. India does it within its local sphere. This Neo colonialism, they aren’t conquering anyone, but using their culture to proliferate influence.
@@williamdrum9899lmao you haven't read a blessed word he said
i feel like this entire set would be better if we were still using blocks instead of just a single set
If we are getting this silly in MTG, I wish the Universes Beyond for this set was Fast and Furious so you can give flying to Vin Diesel, to attack "in the air" so the spanish meme "EN EL AIRE" is canon in MTG.
EDIT: So my Opponent can respond with "¿¡QUE!?"
No lie bro, you are cooking. A Fast and Furious Universes Beyond is the FF we should have gotten.
Vin Diesel, Legendary Creature - Human Rogue Familia
I cannot wait for Baywatch Jace and Vraska!
30 boosters is a absolute dirty trick ... when I buy boxes I play with them. One-on-one-Sealed with my friends! So 6 x 2 Booster ... with the old Box size you could play three times. With the new size we'll have 6 Booster left ...
Guess who is not buying booster boxes anymore ...
As a newcomer who mostly plays Draft and Commander, I’m excited for this fun looking set. I honestly don’t really care about the lore, i just want fun cards.
You will eventually become invested in the lore, and there will come a day when you are piecing the entire timeline together and realize what a shame it was that WotC allowed such a cool ass story to wither into corpo cringe garbage.
Yeah, but Lorwyn and Ravnica don’t sell newcomers. Spiderman and Final Fantasy do. Aetherdrift and Duskmourn are a happy medium, a kind of “best of both worlds”. I’d be more concerned with power creep and the state Standard is in.
Give me that Vin Diesel Secret Lair baby!!!
@@EstimatedAdam The Family Bundle
Nah. Twisted Metal!
I need an enchantment called "When You're Here" that shows Vin Diesel sitting at a picnic table surrounded by piles of breadsticks and salads.
@@johnrobertson1 I'll take the garlic Parmesan foil
Yugioh 5DS fans everywhere getting bricked up when they see this lol. "IT'S ALL CARD GAMES ON MOTORCYCLES NOW, BAAAAAABBBBBYYYYYY!!!!!!!!"
YGOTAS fans scream in a chorus "CARD GAMES ON MOTORCYCLESSS"
If i can love New Capenna, i can find myself loving this set eventually. This feels very Neo-Magic, but honestly, im not mad at it
This is just wacky races
I'm out on the current generation of M:tG art direction at the set level. Individual artists are still exceptional. I don't think I'm the target demo any more and that's ok.
Sometimes it slaps. Other times it's pandering. But at least it still slaps sometimes! Honestly on a card by card basis, it does more that it doesn't
I'm really still not sold on it at all. The last 2 years of sets have just felt like WotC trying to do their best Hearthstone impression, and I'd rather they don't.
Also, 'problematic' name or not, Kaladesh honestly just sounds way more catchy than Avishkar. Can't see too many enfranchised players actually bothering to train themselves to use the new name instead.
My prediction: Nissa wins the spark and absorbs it, only to find out it's Tibalt's spark. Chaos ensues.
Realistically, this is Magic story we're talking about. Of course the spark is either going to be Chandra's or Nissa's.
I just hate the fact sparks are something you can just rip from someone and anyone else can in turn use it. Sparks feel like they should be a legit part of someone. You can't just fucking 'surgically' remove or add to someone. So fucking stupid. Sparks/Planeswalkers means so fucking little when it used to be something incredibly significant.
@@TaskMaster5 We're honestly so far past that point, even. There are wormholes everywhere, so the spark barely matters. And when suddenly all dimensions became one, the only thing WotC could think to do with that is "let's have a big race." They have nothing interesting to say about a universe where all reality was suddenly turned on its head, why not give away a spark. lol
I scoffed at this set initially. But listening to your explanation and run down of the set actually makes me feel pretty good about it. Thanks guy 👍
Its looking better than I expected.
First we had one plane three sets. Then we had one plane one set. Now we have one set three planes. The tictocification of Magic is real
This set very much feels like a return to the very mid to poor sets of late such as murders and outlaws and I don’t hold out much hope that it’ll be as fun as DM or as well designed as BB
Murders I can agree, was poor. But Outlaws, aside from a weak theme, was a fun set imo. It had a lot of good and fun cards that slot well into existing decks.
Murders on the other hand had both a massive flavour fail, and very forgettable cards. The surveil lands were nice but nothing about the set interests me in the slightest.
@@boringmonkey6958I agree re the cards in outlaws, some good stuff in there. My worry is that even if there are decent cards in the set the new set will share the same weaknesses in terms of theme
"BOOST GOD" now I need JDM goblins
Why the hell did they made such a big deal about desparking planeswalkers and creating omenpaths if they are just going to respark the planeswalkers back anyway?
Because committing to a story beat is something companies are fucking allergic to. Got to undo it all ASAP!!!
I call this The Law of Conservation of Absolutely Fucking Everything (TM)
Note: even if Chandra wins this, Nissa won't actually be able to become a planeswalker, just that she'll have a fancy item to let her planeswalk (potentially, it's stated nobody has any idea if the Aetherspark actually works or not, and even if it does how well - it might be a one & done for example. Though like, you can assume that it does). Has the notable features that she'll still be mechanically a creature + can have the item stolen from her.
Desparking planeswalkers into legendary creatures makes them legal commanders 💀
Aetherdrift = the rat race to power creep and maximized profits
When your 1/1 dork from the hell dimension stands in front of your opponent’s gigantic war-rig that inexplicably does not have trample: WITNESS ME!!!!!
If we don’t get a Paul Walker Planeswalker I quit
I hope this set sells so bad that they take a big step back from "fun themes".
They took a hit with Karlov Manor already, but considering the amount of time required to create each set it may take a couple of years to correct course anyway.
It's Sparky, from Arena!
Eventually every IP will become a karting game. Happened with mario, star wars, crash bandicoot and jak&daxter. It happened even in ARMA 3. I'm suprised it took this long
Still no Bloodbornekart tho...
I think the issue is not enough effort was put into the machinery to make them really stand as vehicles. Chandra's motorcycle is too simple and futuristic for Chandra, why isn't it designed for her to channel her fire into the bike for propulsion? The bike instantly feels closer to her and would likely have a more steampunk visual which has been a staple for her for years.
It's like Mario Kart meets Fortnite, but it's still a turn based card game. I wonder if anyone is gonna make a "racing" format to go with it, and what that would look like?
EDIT: I also find it interesting to see how some of the returning planes are recovering after WotC, essentially, blew them up.
How am i supposed to watch a video without the Internet's best beard.
Minor nitpick: the reformed Consulate post-Aether Revolt was still unpopular because it didn't do enough to loosen restrictions on Aether - and were completely unprepared for the Phyrexian invasion. The current Assembly that changed the name of the plane and is trying to become a multiplanar center of culture is the result of *another* revolution. The New Culture Collective used underground street racing as a flashy recruitment tactic to entice people to join their resistance to the Consulate, which left them uniquely prepared to serve as recon scouts and search-and-rescue during the invasion. With help from some Renegades from the first revolution, they rode their wave of popularity into a new, more democratic government.
I like the idea, I'm just burnt on beach episodes. It just doesn't feel like we're building towards anything. We really need a new main villain.
The definatly feels like a Mario Kart thing here, where the big bad Valgavoth is sending his minions to go kart racing with Chandra. ALSO, reminds me of YuGiOh 5Ds. So who knows, maybe it could be good.
Looks like a Hasbo Toy UB set
maybe the gobos are just trying to get back to the Waagh. The red ones go faster!
I’m here for anything motorcycle related.
CaRd GaMeS oN mOtOrCyCLeS!
Let's play card games Yusei
Standing completely still
On
The
Ground
_Yusei wakes up_
Creatively bankrupt set. Now if one of the commander decks from the set was vehicle themed, I would be happy; with the inclusion of additional vehicles in the overall set. I want to play magic to cast magic spells not to open a portal and have a million vehicles run over the opposing magi. Weak.
I really hope the person leading creative during this period 2 years ago is out of the loop.
Aren’t both the decks vehicle themed?
We better get a new version of my favorite character, greasefang
I would appreciate it if UW sets didn't get made into parodies in the future. I am not a fan of this beach epsiode - set for Magic. We are already getting so much UB crap shoved down our throats every other week that it would be a nice refresher to experience a proper 3 set cycle on a single plain with cohesive storytelling instead of these one-of joke sets.
7:43 I think from a farther standpoint this may be Valgavoth trying to get his own spark, possibly trying to use a spark to expand his plane out into other planes? Possibly.
The issue for me isn't the reduced size of the box, cause I was one of those not happy of having the minimum price of a box at 160€ here in France when sets were 125-135 and draft 105-115 ; technically now it goes back to where set boxes were.
The issue is that Play boosters have less value than sets : when we had the list there was a fifth chance of having a rare per box, now only 4 and the odds are way less than in sets, not to mention the joke of special guests that not only are so scarce but on top of that most of them are uncommons or commons artificially upgraded to the mythic rarity and so the odds to pull a good one are even rarer.
So they just merged sets and draft into one with less value than the former sets, which were the type of boxes I was mostly going for. I used to pull 6-8 mythics in set boxes with 30 packs, it's only been 5-6 max in play boxes so far and I've got quite a few of them.
In the end it's just a price increase for less value, with a fake excuse of it being draftable AND having value like sets, when the reason those of us buying set boxes was to get more value and less bulk, which doesn't happen in play boxes.
At least when there was draft + set boxes we had the choice, now it's just forced price increase with less value...
"They're a colonial power now, but its ok because there was a revolution, and governments after revolutions in history have always been filled with exclusively good people, so it's good people colonization!"
I'm definitely skipping this Tokyo Drift set.
Magic has already turned into the TCG equivalent of Funko Pops, I just hope we get some cool cards.
Comet is a more serious character than anything we will see in aetherdrift.
Really this setting screamed a visit to the plane of Vrynn to me. With all their mage-rings and technology that looks like a phantastic mix with Kaladesh/Avishkar. But, alas, you cannot have it all.
'Jump the shark' - I mean odds are that's the name of a card in the set
YES
Bold prediction:
You will be able to fling a turtle of some kind to destroy a vehicle.
Less bold prediction:
There will be a Take the Lead mechanic similar to initiative; giving you something if you are 'winning the race'. I hope its not boring or annoying to track.
Least bold prediction:
The Goblin Admech is gonna be sweet.
I'm legit stoked for the hat(helmet) era to end. It fucking sucks. Also, lol at Pokemon and other cards making Magic look expensive. There's a solution to that that isn't just making the boxes smaller.
Card games on motorcycles?
Bros face is speechless…
With reveals like this I think about stuff like Universes Beyond, specifically walking dead, and wonder if the lesson Wizards learned was not "make more crossovers that fit in Magic", rather the other way around, "make the setting of Magic fit more crossovers"
I dont care what people say, it's incrediblty frustrating and hard to enjoy magic when... HALF the sets are universes beyond, and then when we DO get an "in unniverse" set, it's something silly like fedoras or motorcycles. AND THEN when we do get a proper feels like old magic set it's just a return to an old problematic set like tarkir or lorwyn, beloved, but problematic. AND THEN LORWYN GETS PUSHED BACK FOR MORE UNIVERSE BEYOND!!!!!!!
Ya, I'm kind of done caring.....
Im in waiting mode, just playing with what I have, slowly blinging the decks I love, and buying the singles of cards I want and Faeries to add to my Decks/Collection 🧚. In Lorwyn I'll buy at least a Collector box and after that I'll resume my "not buying sealed product if UB or dumb set" stance.
@@SSolemn I'm with you there. I aint buying anything until we get some lorwyn, although right now I'm on an indefinite hiatus due to having to quit my toxic LGS.
So that's also saving me a ton of money currently!
Thunder Junction was just a bunch of random people mostly villains there wearing cowboy hats, made little sense, here though there's a reason why we have a random group of people, it's a multiversal race which in itself is pretty rad, thematically on paper it seems silly but I'm kinda down with it
That's how I feel
Should have been jayce and the wheeled warriors
Just as I don't buy universe beyond sets, I won't be buing this filler set either.
Yep i don’t think I’ll buy anything besides old singles for my commander decks besides the tarkir reprise and the lorwyn reprise unless the tone it down with these unsets, crossovers, and secret lairs
Man, the idea team must've really loved the old Wacky Races cartoon series
To shrink boxes they shouldve done 18 packs for half the price so drafters would still be able to have an even amount of packs.
An ideal number of players for draft is 8. So an ideal box size would be 24. A 6 person draft is a minimum. This is just from my experience as someone who drafts rather often at my lgs.
@jakynth oh crap ur right
It's probably Nico Bolas's spark. That could be how he comes back to the story front as a bad guy again since he's just in a planer prison right now and no one knows he's alive besides his brother. Plus he had a pretty heavy hand with tarkir history and we are revisiting their next year. If you turn the image of the aether spark upside-down down it actually looks like Bolas's horns with the gem in the middle.
The thumbnail leads me to believe that a Queen Atom must've escaped some Calcium. Looks like we've got a full scale Helvetica Scenario on our hands.
I am a bit warmer after showing the teams, especially the Guidelight Voyagers. The Guidelight I think could be just sci-fi, but I have hopes that there will be more of a magic twist that might make them a bit closer to droids. The first image has a digital tongue sticking out.
I know people are worried about the hats thing, but I have a fondness camp, where we can see a tongue in cheek and dedication to a theme. It could risk hitting Unset status, but I think can be saved by striking the balance of still the core of the aspects even if it might look silly at first. Kind of like the Planeswalkers tyrning into animals in Duskmourn.
It's a bit weird feeling, but I think this sort of setting actually works decently well with it being a one-and-done set instead of a 2 or 3 set block. It's a race, so it's supposed to be fast-paced.
In terms of hopeful game mechanics, I'm pumped for new vehicle stuff. Also, hopefully a flavorful alternate wincon.
Okay, why does a mummy need a helmet? They already scooped the brains out.
I mean, I'd imagine a sapient undead with a hollow head would appreciate not having it cave in during a crash...
@@trevorjamieson8892 Fair. They've already lost enough.
Universes beyond is fun but the issue with it is that they went overboard with it. One or two universes beyond stuff a year would’ve been ideal as it would let Magic still keep its identity. I can’t even tell what Magic is anymore. It’s like fantasy Fortnite at this point.
9:02 The milikiest man in esports acknowledging my karate bugmen??
Honestly making me want to finally get around to designing some custom KR cards
This is like the whole thing with Yu-GI-Oh going full-on 5D's motorcycle rides or something
Except 5D's was revolutionary & far ahead of its time
The art reminds me of Canto Bight.
And now you, too, have to remember that that exists.
I like the wacky themes. This one in particular hits home with me as someone who grew up with Hot Wheels World Race/Acceleracers
Mtg Grand Prix? Duh duh duh duh , MAX VERSTAPPEN
This almost reminds me of the hot wheel world race movies from the early 2000s, which brings some nostalgia I guess. Not really magic-ish, but it's more palatable than other themes I could think of
i used to be able to get a bundle for 35 bucks................ and that had 80 lands and 10 packs..........
Shrinkflation first came to your boxes of breakfast cereal, then your chocolate bars, now your hobby!
@@patches.742 It's not shrinkflation when the price of packs doesn't change and the price of the box scales to the number of packs in it.
The artwork with a small car racing around a gods statue on AKH from the planeswalker guide 2 is my exact feeling about this set: Look at the cool setting we built, so we could contruct a highway through it. Its almost a meta commentary on current magic design, although I doubt that this is intentional.
(The second thing I noticed is the "we have this race team, and its headed by [character you already know]. Why? Why can we not establish cool new characters? When did chandra learn to race on a motorcycle?)
Mayhem Devil has always been my favorite MTG racer
I come from a Hindu family, but am Canadian and do not speak any dialect of Hindi. However, I always thought Kaladesh was a reference to The Hindu god Kali. She was also the same sake for Kali Kata (which means Kali’s cut describing the fields in the area in her name) and then become Calcutta under colonial rule and is now Kolkata. In that context, or in the context of Krishna, the word black or darkness is not an insult or colourist but rather one of reverence. The roots of Krishna’s name portray darkness as the path into the light and dark skin as a friendly reminder of a dark skinned person who comes to help goodness in all eras (Krishna is often described as the god of Love and/or Yoga). This is why some gods are often pictured with blue skin, it’s the visual depiction of this metaphor. So, for many ancient and modern Hindus the terms black and darkness are COMPLIMENTS and sacred loving ones at that. Now, chariots are also an important part of Hindu (and Krishna’s) mythology. I’ll have to see how they captured that, but the focus on motor bikes seems weird but perhaps this is trying to neon dynasty India in some way, in which case … I guess I wish the art was more Indian.
Boost for the Boost God!
Pistons for the Piston Throne!
I mean it's my two favourite plains with some absolutely stunning art already, I just wish it was like a massive inventors fair or something rather than a race...
I feel like they will work some fast and furious stuff in here. Give me dom's charger wizards lol
Honestly, goofy, high-concept fantasy camp is my favorite type of magic. Especially after like 3 straight arcs about multiverse-threatening uber-baddies. The war is over, of course the planes are gonna try to "have fun" again.
I'm more worried about power-creep and "oops we broke a format"-cards than the aesthetics of vroom-vroom go fast.
Maybe it would feel more earned if they'd actually given us some stakes during the big scary events. This just feels like another ass-pull flavor fail.
Mirrodin avenged and Elspeth smite were among the first MoM cards to be spoiled 😂 talk about anti-climatic
"Especially after like 3 straight arcs about multiverse-threatening-uber-baddies."
The last arc that remotely resembled that description was the Phyrexian invasion arc, which concluded almost 2 years ago with March of the Machines.
We have been having these cheap "theme" type sets without a proper story arc for over a year now. So I'm not sure what you mean by your comment.
Ironically this set is the official start of an interplanar conflict between Ravnica and Avishkar, as both planes seek to become multiplanar hegemons.
This race is not about fun at all. It's about exerting influence.
@@scaredycat3146 and that would be a much cooler story if they didn't set the stakes in the absolute basement by having it be about race cars.
This would have made an incredible unset with a strong wacky races theme. Valgavoth's team could have been the equivalent of dastardly and muttley.
And if they had licensed scooby doo for a duskmourne secret lair the way they SHOULD have done it would have been easier to license wacky races for this one
This really feels like a hasbro executive sat in the design meeting for this set to make cross promotional Acton figures. Seriously. Almost all the "factions" feel like saterday morning cartoon comrcials
It feels like previously the Magic team could make the tropes do Magic the Gathering (see the horror references in Innistrad) but now Magic the Gathering is just doing the tropes.
I see I'm in the minority, but I can't wait to get cards from this set. Vehicles!!! ❤️ Ginger girl on the bike ❤️❤️
Peacewalker Colossus go vroom
It’s giving uninspired Wacky Races vibes
i really hope (hoped if its already set in stone) that they call the set "Avishkar: Aetherdrift" and not just Aetherdrift. There is gonna be a bell curve in people how long it takes people to learn the new name, and making Aetherdrift a subtitle will really help in pushing that curve closer to 0.
Oooh i get to crack out an aged meme for aether drift
CARD GAMES ON MOTORCYCLESSS
I hope snidley whiplash and snagglepuss are in this one
The more I see of Aetherdrift, the less excited for it I am. This seems like a filler arch or a gag set we would see like Unfinity.
The box price drama is so performative. They’re actually about 20 cents cheaper per pack as compared to set boxes (in USA).
Wildcard answer: …honestly, I’ve scratching my memory and I’m surprised I can’t think of an actual autodueling/racing card game? Like, let me build a vehicle, pick the crew and weapons, and fill the deck with special maneuvers and gadgets. First player to complete the course against a deck full of hazards and traps… or to take out the opponent… wins?
Waiting for a death race and mad Max promos
Watching magic creators find places for interesting and fun lore in am increasingly dumb universe is fun for me. Duskmorn for being jam packed with cheesy horror member berries had interesting lore with it and I kinda feel the same here.