Magic: The Gathering has played with dozens and dozens of genres and moods over its long history, but “racing” and “sci-fi card games” aren’t exactly the first things that come to mind when we think potential mashups. This changes Magic‘s next major expansion, and we get a look at some of the new cards lined up at the start.
Centered around a multiversal racing tournament, Ethereal Drift is built around the plane in Magicthe vast cosmology of the formerly known as Kaladesh (recently renamed Avishkar before Ethereal Driftrelease due to controversial interpretations of its inspiration from Hindi), as 10 racing teams battle for success through the planes at the Ghirapur Grand Prix, a glitzy celebration of Avishkar’s underground racing history offering a fascinating first prize: the Aetherspark, a mysterious device that theoretically holds the power to let its wearer use the powers of a Planeswalkereven if they do not have the latent power to become one. But to have a chance at getting the Aetherspark, you’ll need transportation…and Ethereal Drift has a lot to offer in its new cards, like Possession Engine, which you can check out below in all its variations!
Magic: The Gathering – Ethereal Drift Overview: Possession Engine
As you can see in the preview above of Possession engine (featuring borderless alternate artwork as well as matching, gold-trimmed “booster fun” variants), the Vehicle subtype for artifact cards will have a major role in Ethereal Drift. While vehicles appeared in Magic before, now many of them Ethereal Drift come with a new mechanic, Crew, abilities activated by tapping a certain number of untapped creatures that you control with a total power greater than the required number. In Possession EngineIn the case of, having the right number of crew will allow you to target one of your opponent’s creatures, preventing them from being able to attack or block while it is in play.
Magic: The Gathering – Ethereal Drift Preview: Marshal’s Pathcruiser
The crew isn’t the only new mechanic arriving Ethereal Drift this ties into the theme of racing – sometimes a racer has to pull out all the stops to a desperate extent to try to get a head start, and this comes in the form of exhaustion. Exhaustion abilities can only be used once, and their high cost usually comes with a potentially high reward. As you can see in our preview of Marshal’s Pathcruiser above, its escape ability allows it to swap artifact subtypes from a vehicle to a creature (which would allow it to be used as crew for other vehicles), and buff its statistics with two additional +1/+1 counters.
You will be able to see these cards, and many others, in action when Magic: The Gathering – Ethereal Drift hits shelves starting February 14.
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