Aetherdrift brings powerful new MTG Brawl Commanders focused on Vehicles, Mounts, and graveyard synergies. With mechanics like Start Your Engines!, these Commanders enable aggressive, high-speed gameplay. Let's dive in on what the best are!
What are the best commanders from Aetherdrift?
Aetherdrift brings powerful new mechanics, including Start Your Engines, to Magic: The Gathering Arena, along with a fresh wave of legendary creatures perfect for Brawl and Historic Brawl. If you're looking for the best Aetherdrift commanders to build around, here are the top five picks:
- Far Fortune, End Boss – A high-impact finisher with a game-changing ability.
- Samut, the Driving Force – Speed and aggression define this powerful leader.
- Kolodin, Triumph Caster – A powerful rider that boosts Vehicles and Mounts..
- Loot, the Pathfinder – A value-driven engine perfect for resourceful decks.
- Aatchik, Emerald Radiant – A graveyard Brawler with explosive potential.
Each of these commanders brings unique strengths and deck-building possibilities, let’s dive into them along with the best cards to pair them with.
Far Fortune, End Boss
Far Fortune, End Boss is the standard-bearer for the new mechanic, Start Your Engines!, which encourages aggressive play and pairs excellently with haste creatures like Gingerbrute or Ragavan. These creatures synergize particularly well with the newly introduced Raceway lands, such as Muraganda Raceway, to reach Max Speed more quickly.
Beyond that, remember that increasing speed only requires your opponent to lose life, making cards like Grab the Prize, Razorkin Needlehead, and Hellrider extremely powerful—even if your creatures don't deal combat damage directly.
Notably, Hazoret, Godseeker is a perfect partner for this Commander, helping your creatures push damage for just one mana and applying immense pressure once you've reached Max Speed.
Samut, the Driving Force
Samut, the Driving Force is another great option for a Start Your Engines! Naya Commander. This one reminds me a bit of Jetmir, Nexus of Revels, as both share the same color identity and provide a static ability that pumps creatures.
However, unlike Jetmir, Samut also reduces the cost of your noncreature spells based on the amount of Speed you have, which can be incredibly useful with spells like Song of Totentanz, Finale of Devastation, and Secure the Wastes.
Since you can easily build around a token-based strategy, creatures that generate more tokens—like Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon or Adeline, Resplendent Cathar—become even more valuable, as they are also major threats if left unchecked.
Meanwhile, cards like Enduring Courage and Purphoros, God of the Forge are must-haves to push your token strategy even further.
Kolodin, Triumph Caster
When it comes to this set's main theme, Kolodin, Triumph Caster is the best Commander for Historic Brawl if you want to build a powerful deck around Vehicles and Mounts.
Some Vehicles, like Skysovereign, Consul Flagship and Smuggler's Copter, are already strong on their own, but with Kolodin, you can maximize their value by allowing them to attack immediately upon entering the battlefield, triggering their potent "on attack" abilities right away.
Other Vehicles, such as Weatherlight Compleated, Colossal Plow, and Surgehacker Mech, can be difficult to crew, but Kolodin helps bypass this limitation, letting you deal significant damage much earlier than your opponents might expect.
Beyond just Vehicles, Kolodin's ability to grant immediate aggression also benefits Mounts, making cards like Calamity, Galloping Inferno and Guardian Sunmare even more impactful. With the right synergies, you can create an explosive game plan that constantly pressures opponents.
Loot, the Pathfinder
One of the most exciting Commanders from Aetherdrift that is sure to see major play in Historic Brawl is Loot, the Pathfinder, thanks to its diverse set of activated abilities—most notably, the ability to draw three cards for just one mana.
Of course, you need to pay five mana upfront before casting Loot, but the reward is well worth it. The downside? Exhaust abilities can only be activated once per turn. However, there are ways to bypass this limitation.
For example, you can bounce Loot with cards like Displacer Kitten, Essence Flux, or Thassa, Deep-Dwelling, allowing you to reuse its Exhaust abilities repeatedly over multiple turns.
An added benefit of running these bounce effects is that other synergistic cards become even more powerful. For instance, Dour Port-Mage lets you draw additional cards whenever Loot is bounced, while Terror of the Peaks turns each bounce into direct damage to your opponents.
All in all, Loot, the Pathfinder is a fun and flexible Commander to brew around in Brawl, but building the right shell requires some creativity. And as a surprise—I've got a sample decklist I've been working on!
Aatchik, Emerald Radian
Lastly, Aatchik, Emerald Radiant is a powerful graveyard-based Commander for Brawl, capable of generating significant value from creatures that fill the graveyard, such as Satyr Wayfinder and Overlord of the Balemurk.
These cards help fuel Aatchik’s token creation when she enters the battlefield, making them key pieces in the deck.
Since you'll be sending plenty of cards to the graveyard, reanimation spells like Reanimate and Unearth are must-haves, ensuring you can bring back key threats efficiently.
Additionally, creatures like Six and Wight of the Reliquary serve as excellent toolbox options, allowing you to abuse graveyard synergies even further.
With the right support, Aatchik, Emerald Radiant can be an incredibly resilient and explosive Commander, making her a fantastic choice for graveyard-centric Brawl decks.
Which new commanders from Aetherdrift are worth building around?
Outside of the ones I mentioned, some other Commanders are worth building around to explore this set theme. For example, Redshift, Rocketeer Chief, Sita Varma, Masked Racer, and Winter, Cursed Rider are solid options to explore Exhaust, an ability that can be used only once, but it's very powerful, worth spending your mana on.
Since cycle returns as an additional ability for this set, Commanders like Captain Howler, Sea Scourge can be really fun to brew on tempo decks, along with cards like Flameblade Adept and Drake Haven.
Additionally, others like Gonti, Night Minister, or Ketramose, the New Dawn are worth building around as the former has high synergy with MTG Arena mechanics like Heist on cards like Grave Expectations, while the latter works very well with keywords such as Delve.
How do the new commanders compare to older ones?
Since Aetherdrift is a highly thematic set centered around Vehicles and Mounts, the Commanders printed in this set stand out from others. They introduce a wide range of options for building around these mechanics and artifacts, which were previously less supported.
Additionally, due to power creep, these dedicated Commanders are quite powerful and synergize exceptionally well with other legendary creatures like Miriam, Herd Whisperer, Sram, Senior Edificer, and Astor, Bearer of Blades, among others.
Thanks for reading!