Magic: The Gathering head designer Mark Rosewater teased that there would be four desparked planeswalkers in the new set Aetherdrift. Already, three of them have been uncloaked, but now the fourth has had their card revealed too, and it’s a huge surprise.
The final MTG planeswalker who no longer has the power to jump between worlds is Mu Yanling, from the little-known Magic: The Gathering plane of Shenmeng. Though predominantly a hydromancer, this blue walker usually has cards related to flying, and that’s not changed here.
Her new card – Mu Yanling, Wind Rider – lets you draw cards every time a flying creature deals damage to an opponent. She also gives all your vehicles the flying keyword, and creates a craft of her own.
With her only main set appearance before this being in Core Set 2020, we would never have expected her to make her real debut in the racing set Aetherdrift. But that’s not the only reason she wasn’t on our predictions list…
This reveal is going to serve as a huge relief for anyone who feared Garruk would have his spark stripped away from him in this set (or possibly a disappointment, for those who wanted him to receive a creature card).
We had reasons to think that – while the other members of the Lorwyn Five still maintain their sparks – Garruk was about to lose his, and would be that fourth and final desparked planeswalker. Despite being one of the first planeswalkers ever made, he’s been relegated to side character status for many years and, crucially, appears as an easter egg in Aetherdrift card art.
Of course, we have nothing confirmed one way or another on how many actual planeswalker cards Aetherdrift will introduce, so this grizzled green planeswalker might still show up, loyalty counters and all. However, we’ve already had two spoiled so far – Chandra, and the very exciting looking Aetherspark – so a Garruk appearance is looking less and less likely.
In case you need reminding, the other desparked planeswalkers in Aetherdrift turned out to be Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer; Samut, The Driving Force; and Basri, Tomorrow’s Champion – that last one a planeswalker about as dim in our memories as Mu Yanling.
There was some confusion when Rosewater claimed that three of the four would be native to one of the worlds in the set. Garruk’s home plane is unknown, so I half-expected a retcon revealing he was originally from Muraganda – the primal world does seem his style. But it turned out Rosewater had simply forgotten Daretti was native to Fiora, not Avishkar (he’s head of design, not lore, so we’ll let him off).
Take a look around Wargamer.com to find all the biggest news on Aetherdrift – from new Commanders to alluring frog gods. And if you don’t yet know the full timeline for 2025, you’ll want to read our MTG release schedule guide.
Source: Wargamer
