One of the racing teams competing for the Aetherspark in Aetherdrift is the Speedbrood, a species of insects that have such a strong connection with speed itself that they literally transform into vehicles upon achieving their version of enlightenment. Well, that means they're well represented as a draft archetype in DFT and we're able to take advantage of it and ultimately build a pretty slick Standard deck that can hang in best-of-one (BO1) pretty well, even if it would likely falter in games two and three if we tried it in BO3. The Win Conditions Our primary finisher is Aatchik, Emerald Radian, which gives us a gigantic board state just for entering the battlefield, and each insect we have suddenly pings our opponent upon death. This makes blocking them a challenge and almost guarantees they'll give you the chance to push damage. Obviously, for us to get Aatchik's enters-the-battlefield (ETB) trigger to maximum value, we'll need to run lots of artifacts and creatures in our deck, along with ways to fill the graveyard. More on that below.

Now This is Pod Racing Aetherdrift has a number of fun build-arounds and one that saw relatively heavy play during the early access Streamer Event this past Wednesday was Repurposing Bay. Repurposing Bay reads like if you take the two classic powerhouses Birthing Pod and Tinker and smashed them together into a single card, so of course we had to find ways to break it. Below is a breakdown of the 60-card main deck I landed on after playing in the event. As the meta shifts on the ladder, this will likely be tuned, but I think it gives us a great starting position.

Aetherdrift is right around the corner, and I'm anxiously awaiting the cards dropping on Arena so we can begin brewing all kinds of crazy vehicular nonsense. Like a kid the night before Christmas, however, I feel the need to distract myself a bit from the excitement so I don't absolutely pop. To do so, I've put together a classic Brawl commander that I, somehow, hadn't played before and put some energy into creating a fun experience that can win some games. I present to you: Milldrotha. The Commander

Aetherdrift is right around the corner, and I know I'm excited to get my hands on the new cards. I know the wildcard grind on Arena can be hard, though, so I want to focus on some commons and uncommons that I think will work well in Standard and give you an opportunity to enjoy some of that new set feeling without breaking your wildcard bank. Nesting Bot Start your engines! It is a mechanic that requires you to establish it early, so any deck that wants it will want lands or one-drops with the ability. Nesting Bot gives you that while also having a death trigger that nets you a fresh creature. It's very similar to Crawling Chorus or Infestation Sage, which are both perfectly good turn one plays, but it can also be hit by Gleeful Demolition. This uncommon checks a ton of boxes for a very low price.

Aetherdrift is right around the corner and spoiler season is in full swing! So let's do a rundown of the cards that have caught my eye so far and discuss the impact they might have on Standard. As always, this set is full of high-cost bombs that will likely only see play in Commander, so I don't plan to discuss those. As much as I love casual jank, the purpose of this discussion is cards that could be used to boost existing archetypes or ones that could introduce new archetypes to the format that can compete with the likes of Dimir Midrange and Esper Pixie. The Spoilers Okay, hear me out, merfolk aren't a deck in Standard at the moment and have not been for some time. Cards like Deeproot Pilgrimage and Vodalian Hexcatcher are amazing merfolk payoffs we've been sitting with for some time and even newcomers like Floodpits Drowner are seeing play. The curve-out for merfolk decks has been lacking, and trying to play an aggressive/tempo strategy without strong one-drops is challenging to say the least. While Mindspring Merfolk isn't playable outside of merfolk, it drops on turn one and represents a late-game threat that can close a game. If nothing else, this is a huge upgrade over Mistway Spy.

You've probably heard loudmouth streamers (like myself) espousing that Standard is healthy and in a good place right now. But what does that mean? Those exact same streamers will load up the ladder and immediately complain about specific cards they see (yep, still me). Is the format being healthy not synonymous with the players enjoying themselves? Surely that doesn't make any sense. So how can these two contradictions exist so passionately, sometimes even within one individual? Defining Healthy

An all-in combo deck existed prior to rotation that leveraged Breach the Multiverse, Conspiracy Unraveler, and Repository Skaab to easily mill out both players and pass the turn to your opponent's mill loss. The combo died when Repository Skaab rotated this past fall because Standard wasn't left with a way to recur Breach the Multiverse consistently, but that loop was a favorite of mine and I decided to tackle a build using lots of those same pieces but with less emphasis on combo-killing the opponent and more on the power and value you can set up with the shell. The Core Engine Breach the Multiverse is a powerhouse card that allows you to access some of the most powerful creatures in the entire game while also giving you massive information on your opponent's deck. The card is excellent in metas where opponents are likely to bring good creatures and/or planeswalkers to the game so you're getting value coming and going. Even creature-light decks in today's meta carry a few copies of Overlord of the Mistmoors or sometimes Atraxa, Grand Unifier, so we should be safe here. The dream is an opponent who runs Jace, the Perfected Mind, which has been known to happen.

Today's deck is going to look a lot like Domain decks you've seen in the past, but with a janky twist. Instead of Zur, Eternal Schemer, Overlord of the Mistmoors, or Atraxa, Grand Unifier, we're going to play Doubling Season in Standard. Since the core of the deck is full of known powerhouse cards, why bother messing around with a top end that's been proven? Well, it started as a goofy experiment to see if we could make Doubling Season work in Standard, but after playing it for a while on the ladder, I can confidently say there are some games (especially the mirror) where the extra power of Doubling Season, Doppelgang, and Three Blind Mice The Card Draw and Ramp