MTG Aetherdrift previews are here, and somewhere amongst this traffic jam of weird and wacky vehicles, engines revving and car horns awooga-ing, lurk two cards we’re very excited to see: The Aetherspark and Chandra, Sparkhunter.
That’s right, this set has multiple MTG planeswalker cards, as Wizards of the Coast steps away from its target of sticking with just one per set. You can take a look at both below, starting with what might just be the strangest we’ve ever seen.
The Aetherspark is Magic: The Gathering’s first ever equipment planeswalker. One of the first cards teased for this MTG set, when we saw its typeline we were intrigued, but now we’ve have a chance to check out all its abilities, we’re a little scared.
What’s worth knowing first about The Aetherspark is it plays with very different loyalty calculations to other walkers. Apart from its +1 power, its effects are extremely expensive. But it also gains loyalty extremely quickly, adding counters whenever the creature wielding it deals combat damage. It doesn’t need to hit a player either so, short of a removal spell, there’s not much you can do to stop it ticking up.
The Aetherspark also can’t be attacked when it’s equipped to another creature, making removing this planeswalker through combat pretty tricky. You’d need to remove the creature holding it, then hit hard and fast to take the card out before it goes off.
As for what The Aetherspark can actually do, its basic mode is equipping a creature and giving them a +1/+1 counter – nothing too absurd about that. At five loyalty, you can use it to draw two cards, and at ten, you can gain a stonking ten mana. The card draw ability should be easy enough to activate on The Aetherspark’s second turn, but that mana gain effect, while trickier to pull off, looks potentially busted.
Where will this card see play? Where won’t it? I see The Aetherspark serving as a repeatable source of card draw in some decks, and a big ramp spell in others. In mono-green stompy decks for instance, it shouldn’t be hard to activate The Aetherspark’s -10 ability pretty swiftly, at which point you can convert all that mana into a spectacular finish.
Thinking about it a little more, all that you need to get The Aetherspark to ten loyalty is a four power creature that can attack without dying. That’s not too hard to pull off in any colors, so perhaps this card will be turning up all over the place as a wincon in multiple MTG formats.
Now moving on to everyone’s favorite red-headed pyromancer. Chandra is switching up from her usual focus on elementals and burn damage, and here cares all about artifacts. Her +2 ability is a loot effect, letting you sacrifice an artifact or discard a card to draw.
Her other powers are mainly vehicle-related. A +0 ability makes a 3/2 vehicle token with Crew 1, and she has a static ability that ‘animates’ a vehicle at the beginning of combat, giving it haste. This of course means you can attack with her token right away, regardless of whether you have the means to crew it. It also means you can play a big five or six mana vehicle on following turns, and animate it without having to tap your board.
How strong Chandra, Sparkhunter will be in Standard will be is going to largely depend on the density of good vehicle cards in red. I can see how she’d be good at applying pressure, but it seems difficult to protect her. Still, in a race, the time your opponent takes off from hitting you to take her out could make all the difference.
Finally, Chandra’s ultimate ability is very intriguing, creating an emblem that turns any artifact into a lightning bolt. While it’s not pie in the sky, requiring only two upticks, I’m not sure we’ll see this pulled off that often in Standard. It may have strong potential in Commander though – just imagine this in an EDH deck built around treasures!
Of these two cards, The Aetherspark certainly looks like the more impactful. Perhaps I’m just looking at the best possible scenario for the card, and it’ll fail more often than it succeeds, but I’m genuinely a bit worried about it.
Stay up to date with what’s going on in Magic: The Gathering with our guides to the MTG release schedule and the best MTG Arena decks.
Source: Wargamer
