“That which inspires us to our greatest good is also the cause of our greatest evil“
Art:Voyager Quickwelder
by Kenn Yap
White is a very interesting color within the format, and the cards they have within Aetherdrift are no different; White has a lot of things it does really well, but the things that it struggles with, they really struggle with. Aetherdrift has had a strong showing in pretty much all of the colors so far and white is different, while its not an entire list of 10/10’s there is a ton of playable and strong cards. It’s time to focus on one of the best secondary/support colors in magic. Without further ado, let’s get it!
Let’s get straight into it!
Rating for Voyager Quickwelder 10/10:
I am a huge fan of this card. White has a ton of Voltron decks that play a ton of artifacts, and this card fits perfectly as a nice support piece. This card is really good, and white has the cards to protect it and keep it on the field and get those benefits for a large majority of the game. This is an amazing card for white.
Rating for Swiftwing Assailant 6/10:
The only deck that I can see this being run in is Kangee, Sky Warden
but beyond that, I can’t see this getting much use, the max speed effect on this card is really nothing to write home about, and doesn’t do that much. I think this card can be good in and is likely really good in Kangee, but because of that and its limited application only gets a 6/10.
Rating for Spotcycle Scouter 2/10:
Even though I’m not a huge fan of the vehicles within the format, all of the colors in Aetherdrift got one, and white is by far one of the worst; this card is just kind of bad; it doesn’t have great stats and it Scry is just kinda not great. Scrying can be valuable, but outside of a vehicle-focused deck, I really don’t think this card is worth it at all.
Rating for Ride’s End 5/10:
White doesn’t have a ton of removal, so I do think that this will see some play, especially in conjunction with cards like Expel
, but overall, this isn’t great. By white standards, it’s a pretty ok removal spell, but against creatures that have good abilities and tap or attack often, it can be really strong. I like having the option to cast this against anything but five can be quite steep for an effect that other colors do much better. I don’t think this card is super bad, but it is not amazing. That’s for sure.
Rating for Lotusguard Disciple 2/10:
Another rough one: this card would be so much better if it had flash; it just has flying and an ETB, which makes this card so much weaker. I can’t really think of many decks that would want to play this one, I like the effect, and the only possibility I can think of is in a Voltron deck where you want to gain a ton of life and allow us to attack into a bad combat situation but overall I don’t think its worth the slot in the 99.
Rating for Lightwheel Enhancements 5/10:
I like this card without other start your engines cards we can’t take advantage of its second ability but with the prevalence of All That Glitters
and Ethereal Armor
I think this card can be a nice cheap buff and increasing those counts is always really good. I don’t know if this is an amazing aura, but it’s cheap, and I like it.
Rating for Lightshield Parry 6/10:
Lightshield Parry is a classic mono-white cantrip, I was testing this in an aggressive Jeskai shell with Warden of the Eye
and it was pretty decent, I don’t think this is good in a straight-up mono-white deck but in a spell slinger shell in Jeskai or Azorius it can be quite interesting, I really like being able to cycle for some card draw which can be good in one of those color shells to drop a dead card or fish for a counterspell hopefully. This card certainly won’t knock your socks off, but it is not bad at all.
Rating for Leonin Surveyor 3/10:
Leonin Surveyor is just not great, first strike on your turn is fine, but this card really just doesn’t do anything, while white struggles with card draw there is much better card draw than this, I am not a huge fan of this card and can’t think of many decks that would want to run this.
Rating for Interface Ace 9/10:
I’m a huge fan of this card. It’s really good, and it feels like a support piece that could actually make Vehicles and saddles work. I don’t think this card is quite there yet, but it can crew pretty much anything in the format and is a great card. I’m still not fully convinced on Vehicles and Mounts, but if you aren’t playing a white-included strategy, I feel like you are doing yourself a disservice by not including this card.
Rating for Daring Mechanic 8/10:
If mounts and vehicles start to become a good deck in the format, this is a great support piece, while it isn’t great in the early-game it can be crazy in the mid-late game and allow you to take turns where you don’t have anything to do and make them efficient and further your overall gameplan. I like this card a lot, just like all of the vehicle and mount stuff this likely needs more support but at face value this is a very strong card.
Rating for Collision Course 10/10:
This is absolutely my favorite White card from Aetherdrift, this card is really strong, artifact removal and creature removal is something that white isn’t great at, and having both on one card is really strong, while the creature killing is dependent on having a big board with popular strategies like tokens this is pretty easy to achieve. I am all for more white removal as it is one of the color’s biggest weaknesses and one of the main reasons why white is played far less than all of the other colors.
Rating for Broadcast Rambler 9/10:
This is a really strong vehicle. While the thopter really doesn’t matter, this is a really easy-to-crew card that is a huge attacker. This is one vehicle that I think could actually see play outside of just a vehicle-focused deck. This is an insane mid-game attacker that could do a ton of damage and be a true force to be reckoned with in combat. This is one of the few vehicles in the set I actually like.
Rating for Brightfield Mustang 6/10:
Four mana is a really competitive slot in White, and Im not sure how great this card is, on its own or as a mid-late game draw it doesn’t do much, I could see this card working pretty well in a tokens deck but don’t see much application for it outside of that, this is likely an auto-include for Miriam, Herd Whisperer
, but I really don’t think that deck is super strong but hey more cards for them is always nice.
Rating for Brightfield Glider 6/10:
Definitely another card for Miriam, Herd Whisperer; I think this card is pretty good in that deck and not much else; this can be a pretty decent early-game card, and evasiveness is always nice since there isn’t a ton of flyers in the format. I like this card but still am not convinced on either mounts or vehicles.
Conclusion:
Just like all of the other colors, there is a lot of highs, and in whites case, definitely some really low lows, this set’s showing for white feels like most sets, truthfully, a little disappointing while there are a lot of good white cards they are just outshined a ton by existing cards and all of the other colors, additionally compared to most colors white cards seem to be considerably more underpowered leading them to just be underwhelming overall! Stay tuned for blue tomorrow, Tap IN!