Aetherdrift was an extremely profitable set for our beloved Goblins, especially with the addition of four great creatures in Burnout Bashtronaut, Greasewrench Goblin, Draconautics Engineer, and Howlsquad Heavy. These are already seeing play in both Standard and Pioneer formats, leading Goblins to sporadic results in competitive Magic and paving the way for ever more diverse variations. However, I like to surprise you, and today I would rather not talk to you about either format, also because there is something else that has caught my attention and that was secretly released along with Aetherdrift. I say “secretly” because it's not a regular card present in the set but an addition in its Special Guests. I am talking about Chrome Mox!

We're already in the midst of the Tarkir spoiler (dragon) storm, with the new set headed to MTG Arena on April 8th and the release date set for the 11th. While we are receiving new cards daily , a little at a time, all the new mechanics that will be part of this set have already been revealed, and we can therefore already start taking a look at them! Tarkir: Dragonstorm is structured into five tricolor clans, and each of them is attributed a new identifying mechanic, in addition to two new generic ones that you can find everywhere.

It's already been a week since Alchemy: Aetherdrift hit MTG Arena, and after having had the chance to try them out a bit, let's see what seems to be the best cards in the set! Of the 30 cards it is composed of, I selected the 8 most interesting for the Alchemy format, giving them a rating and classifying them, just as I did for the previous Alchemy sets: Bloomburrow and Duskmourn. The following cards are already seeing play, maybe even only sporadically and partially, but this does not mean they are the only ones, given that I had to leave out some others of approximately the same level.

This week, MTG Arena's Midweek Magic event might have been a little more special than usual for some, because we finally got to try out Standard Pauper! I have always found Pauper (commons only) and Artisan (commons and uncommons only) extremely interesting and stimulating for several reasons that I can summarize as follows: They are fresh and new, and it’s not possible to netdeck the strongest lists right away, thus creating an unexplored metagame and leaving room for inventiveness and creativity like the Magic of the past.

With the tabletop prerelease already underway and the digital set coming to MTG Arena on February 11, it's time for our usual guide to Aetherdrift's limited archetypes! I've already written a couple of articles on Aetherdrift about the introduction of the 10 racing teams and the limited mechanics, which can be considered as a supplement to this, and I'll leave them here in case you want to delve deeper.  

Aetherdrift has finally been fully spoiled, and with the upcoming prerelease starting February 7th, let's take a look at what's up in the new set! As usual, I will show you each of its color pairs for Limited, but not in this article, because here I will focus on the mechanics and keywords you will encounter. Aetherdrift is a racing competition between 10 teams and takes place across three planes. This is beautifully reflected not only in the design of the cards but also in their abilities and keywords, which we can divide into three groups, perfectly in line with the key elements of the set:

While we're not done with Goblins in Explorer just yet, let's take a look at their current state in Standard, where they have seen some major upgrades in recent months with the release of Foundations! Aetherdrift is coming soon, and it's good to check how playable Goblins are in the format, also for an easier evaluation of the new ones that are about to come out, increasing the card pool (for those who aren't following the spoilers, in Aetherdrift there will be an entire racing team made up of Goblins, which will cover the Gruul colors). At the moment I think there are two main ways to build our favorite tribal in Standard:

We're one month away from Aetherdrift, the first Standard-legal set of 2025, which will be released everywhere starting February 14. Even though the spoiler season hasn’t started yet (we only know four cards at the moment), we can already take a first look at what awaits us: where the set is located, what the plot is, who the characters are, and what the ten color pairs are based on. So, let's dive right in! Aetherdrift Storyline