“Sometimes taking a step forward means leaving a few things behind.”
Art:Hulldrifter
by Alexandre Honoré
Blue is the color everyone loves to hate or hates to love. I’ve never seen a color be so polarizing within the magic community, but it isn’t very surprising; a color that does a lot of things really well and has the most denial and ways to stop opponents within the game is naturally going to be a love or hate situation. Aetherdrifts blue commons definitely do what we all expect blue to do; we have some efficient and strong creatures and some good control elements. I really like this color in Aetherdrift and think it has a decent amount of playable cards that will see play in the format! Without further ado, let’s get it!
Please note: I am going to skip some cards that have been printed a ton like Gearseeker Serpent
although that new art is just beautiful:
Let’s get straight into it!
Rating for Trip Up 7/10:
I like this card and think its a really interesting design, but I am not a huge fan of this card outside of a blink deck; if you use it to remove an opponent permanently, they would never put it on top of their deck! But I really do like this to target our own stuff as a blink spell; more blink spells are always good for Azorius and some other archetypes.
Rating for Stall Out 8/10:
This card is really good, especially in a very creature-heavy format like Pauper EDH currently is, the stun counter can be really good against decks like Voltron that focus on one creature, tapping them down for three turns can be really strong and absolutely take them out of the game. Being able to cycle this card is pretty good too, and is really good in a deck like Lazotep Chancellor
.
Rating for Spectral Interference 10/10:
This card is really good, while it’s a little narrow in what it can target, being able to counter a turn three, four, or five creature that an opponent plays is really good. I can think of a million situations where this card is really good; I especially like this in Izzet decks that are a little aggressive and control decks as well. This is a really good card, and since cards like Mana Leak
see a decent amount of play I think this is a really good candidate for a lot of decks. While Mana Leak can target everything, this is strictly better at a creature-heavy table.
Rating for Skystreak Engineer 4/10:
This card is quite underwhelming. I don’t think it’s very strong at all, just like most flyers that aren’t great. The only possible home for this one is likely Kangee, but I think there are far better options even for that deck. This card doesn’t have much of an impact and is just not that great.
Rating for Nimble Thopterist 3/10:
This card is kind of expensive and I don’t think it will work very well in most decks. Even in artifact-focused decks, I don’t think you would want to play it. If this card cost three, I think it could be pretty decent, but overall, four mana is a steep price, and I don’t think it’s worth it.
Rating for Midnight Mangler 8/10:
I think this is a really cool card, and I think it’s really strong for a control strategy; it can come down quite early and is really good against decks that are trying to be aggressive and chip-in early. I am a big fan of this card mostly as a defensive piece for a control shell.
Rating for Keen Buccaneer 1/10:
The lack of great stats combined with a kind of bad exhaust ability makes this card just not worth it. This one is an absolute miss, and I can’t think of a deck or strategy that would want it. I think this one is just a miss. In a whole set, there’s nothing wrong with a few misses, but this one is really bad.
Rating for Hulldrifter 4/10:
Outside of a solely vehicle-focused deck, I’m not sure who would want this. This is strictly a worse version of Mulldrifter
, and it has really underwhelming stats, and the crew ability is far too expensive. This is a bad one and one that I don’t think will see very much play.
Rating for Howler’s Heavy 9/10:
This card is really good! I like this card a lot, especially in decks like Lazotep Chancellor, but I think this card can be decent in a control shell as well. This card is just strong, while its not a great creature overall, its ability is really good and can help keep you alive or take less damage. I like this card a lot; the art is really cool as well!
Rating for Guidelight Optimizer 9/10:
A mana dork for artifact decks is pretty good, I think this is a good card for a heavy artifact deck and is a great piece to have in the early-game, this card helps you snowball pretty well in an artifact deck since a lot of artifacts generate mana being able to ramp them out early allows you to accelerate your entire gameplan. This is a very strong mana dork for artifact decks.
Rating for Glitch Ghost Surveyor 1/10:
In blue where there is so much card draw cards like this just don’t make the cut and never will, this card is slow, and with cards that are better draw effects at much cheaper rates this card is just bad, not much stats, waiting multiple turns until you even have the opportunity to draw and discard a card, this card is just a huge miss.
Rating for Flood the Engine 10/10:
With cards like Kasmina's Transmutation
, Deep Freeze
and Stasis Field
being strong options in the format to get rid of powerful creatures this card is really good, it has a good cost and good ability and being able to target vehicles can be relevant depending on what your opponents are playing. I’m a big fan of this card and think it will slot very nicely into control decks within the format.
Rating for Bounce Off 9/10:
We are finishing strong with an amazing card for blink decks or control decks. I really like being able to bounce a creature for super cheap, and since it’s only one-mana, it can catch opponents off-guard. This is a strong card, and while I think it will mostly be used in control decks, I think it has a place in some blink decks as well.
Conclusion:
Blue was a really good color from Aetherdrift and, in my opinion has some of the best cards added in the set, the counterspells like Spectral Interference as well as some more controlling pieces like Flood the Engine, Blue has a lot to offer in this set and I think we will see quite a few of these cards being widely played. I hope you all enjoyed this series, stay tuned for our ratings for the commanders from Aetherdrift coming tomorrow! Stay tuned and tap in!