“The pleasure is mine“
Art:Ketramose, the New Dawn
by Maaz Ali Khan
Today is our final rating for Aetherdrift! And it’s a really big one! Today, we are going to be going over and rating the best of the best commanders from Aetherdrift; there is quite a few really fun and unique cards and some absolutely heavy hitters that are going to see a decent amount of play in the format, while we are going to see a few duds remember this is EDH and a commander even if it’s not widely played is still someone’s favorite commander and absolutely deserves to be featured! The final ranking is here; without further ado, let’s get it!
Let’s Get Straight into it!
Rating for the whole lot of these 5/10:
All of these are just kind of unimpressive. With the large amount of power creep within EDH, I don’t think these cards are that great. I can see homes for these and people trying out these decks, so I think they will see a decent amount of play. Overall, I don’t think these cards are super great, but I think they can be a lot of fun, which is pretty awesome.
Rating for Lagorin, Soul of Alacria 8/10:
While I didn’t like this card in our Pauper EDH review, I think this commander is pretty decent for regular EDH and is kind of sleeper-good. There are far more impactful mounts and vehicles at rare and mythic than there are at common, and being able to buff up all of these cards in Selesnya feels quite good since you can pack them into a +1/+1 counters shell.
Rating for Basri, Tomorrow’s Champion 4/10:
I think this is a great inclusion of the 99 for Arahbo, Roar of the World
, but I don’t think this is a great card as a commander; mono-white is in a really bad spot within the format, and this card certainly doesn’t change that. Bad commander, I could see this working in the 99 of a cat-themed deck.
Rating for Pia Nalaar, Chief Mechanic 6/10:
This is pretty much an average commander for me. If you love interesting artifact strategies and energy, then I think that this is the card for you, but overall, I think this one is a little underwhelming. While you can generate a lot of energy, if you can’t keep your commander on the field, you have very little payoff.
Rating for Nissa, Worldsoul Speaker 8/10:
For a mono-green deck, I think this card is pretty good, cards like Evolving Wilds
and Terramorphic Expanse
are extra good in this deck since you can trigger Nissa twice, while I like this card I don’t think it’s great to go all in on energy as I think that’s much weaker than just a stompy deck with Nissa who allows you to get some free stuff every few turns, while there are a lot of strong energy cards worth running like Rampaging Aetherhood
and Peema Trailblazer
I don’t think you should go for the full energy. OVerall I like this commander.
Rating for Saheeli, Radiant Creator 9/10:
I think this card is really strong; being able to copy permanents can be super explosive, especially in Temur. This card doesn’t take much to get going, and with all of the new energy payoffs and all fo the support in Temur this can get pretty nasty, even barely upgraded precon versions of this deck can get pretty nasty, this is a cheap commander with a ton of explosiveness and one of the better ones out of Aetherdrift in my opinion.
Rating for Temmet, Naktamun’s Will 8/10:
While the usage of this card is pretty niche, I think this card is really strong, I think it absolutely usurps zombie commanders like The Scarab God
, and its also pretty awesome that you can run it in Temmet as well, this is the best zombie commander currently in my opinion and adding white is really good for this deck, giving some additional removal as well as some nice finishers like Akroma's Will
very good commander.
Rating for Hashaton, Scarab’s Fist 10/10:
The first 10/10 in the rating is a big one, Hashaton is really strong and allows for some very degenerate plays and lines, being able to discard something like Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
or Void Winnower
can really change the flow of the game, this deck can be really good, and any creature with game-changing abilities can come out early in this deck and wreak havoc, this is a very strong commander and definitely the best of the precons.
Rating for Hazoret, Godseeker 8/10:
A lot of the EDH community is not a big fan of this card, but I think this card is pretty decent for a very aggressive deck filled with some tiny hitters, I love the idea of having a buff package at instant speed so you can make them unblockable and that hit really hard, this is nothing more than a mono-red aggressive commander so it certainly won’t change the world but I think it will be pretty decent at a table full of creature decks and it will definitely make a fun build.
Rating for Sita Varma, Masked Racer 4/10:
Simic is a very strong color combo within the format, and I just don’t think this is a great option, in a perfect world with no removal, this can go crazy, but in reality, most people will not let this stick long enough to activate their exhaust ability, and it makes sense, without their exhaust ability Sita Varma is just kind of bad. This is a win-more commander through and through.
Rating for Winter, Cursed Rider 8/10:
I know I’m going to get some hate for this, but this is one of the best Stax/control commanders we have seen in a long time, are artifacts like Winter Orb
are really hard to kill, and can do a number on our opponents, when they do die we are able to use Winter’s other ability to clear the board, a commander that won’t make you very popular but I think is pretty strong.
Rating for Zahur, Glory’s Past 5/10:
I see the potential here I really do, but I’m just not a big fan of this card and think it falls into the just ok tier, while it can be good when you are at max speed getting there gives you a few turns of this card really doing nothing but surveiling which isn’t very good, I think there are far better Orzhov options for this style of play.
Rating for Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer 4/10:
Five-mana is a tough spot for a color that has almost no ramp to be in; I just don’t think this is a super great card, the only successful builds I’ve seen were straight combo builds and in my opinion the original commander Daretti is far better for that, love seeing an iconic commander come back but not a big fan of this one.
Rating for Far Fortune, End Boss 6/10:
Very cool design, definitely not better than cards like Purphoros, God of the Forge
or Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might // Temple of Power
but I think a really interesting piece of design for Rakdos, I can see the potential here but not sure why would you put this in the command zone over the other two, not a bad card at all and one I’m interested to see how it fares in the format.
Rating for Mu Yanling, Wind Rider 7/10:
This card is pretty decent, in my opinion. I like the hybrid vehicle flying strategy, and being able to draw cards really easily is awesome. I think this commander will remain fringe popular, but I think it can lead to some interesting deckbuilding and a cool card, which is always nice to see.
Rating for The Speed Demon 3/10:
I am just not a big fan of this card. It is a good attacker, but it can’t consistently come out early, and drawing cards and losing life definitely feels like a mono-black ability, but it is quite unimpressive and in some preliminary testing games I did found that keeping on the field, especially against creature decks hurt a decent amount as we approached the late-game, if at max speed how many times do you want to draw four lose four? A miss in my opinion.
Rating for Caradora, Heart of Alacria 9/10:
This is everything you are looking for in a mount/vehicle-focused commander; tutoring and a consistent buff are really good, this card is great for the archetype, and while I don’t think the mount/vehicle is going to take over the format but I think that this is a great card for the archetype.
Rating for Oviya, Automech Artisan 10/10:
This very cool card mono-green commander, combining an interesting politics piece with a really strong ability for us is awesome, this card is really good and one of the best from the set, this card is crazy strong and allows you to drop absolute bombs on the field all while opponents whittle each other down because of your commander.
Rating for Aatchik, Emerald Radian 4/10:
I like this card’s design, but I think it’s kind of too slow. It doesn’t get a ton of benefits for a while and is kind of weak until then. This is more of a sacrifice-focused deck and kind of bad without a ton of payoffs on the board. I think this one is kind of weak.
Rating for Vnwxt, Verbose Host 3/10:
I love this card in the 99, but I think it’s a bad commander. This ability is kind of slow and doesn’t really do much unless you have max speed. It’s a great support piece for a control or card-draw heavy deck.
Rating for Redshift, Rocketeer Chief 7/10:
I think this card is pretty good, and Gruul absolutely has a ton of support, especially with cards like Agatha of the Vile Cauldron
in the format. I think this card is as strong as Agatha, and that card made waves. Additional testing will be needed to see if this card is better than Agatha or just deserves a spot in the 99 of Agatha.
Rating for Mimeoplasm, Revered One 9/10:
The OG Mimeoplasm was quite good, and I think this one is really good. While it does require some setup, it can be pretty broken. I feel like this card is an absolutely insane combo card that just goes absolutely crazy in a lot of situations. The combo pieces being exile is insane as well.
Rating for Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied 6/10
I like the large-focus on card draw that Sab-Sunen has, but not being able to attack and block sometimes really hurts this card for me and pushes it down quite a bit, its also in quite a bad color combo since Simic has so many amazing counters commanders they absolutely don’t need this.
Rating for Gonti, Night Minister 9/10:
Woah, this Gonti is awesome! Black got some true chaos, this is an insnae card with a really crazy effect, I like how much this card shakes up the game and changes the game overall. The created treasure tokens from Gonti also create a mana imblanace and can really make the game go crazy, I’m not sure how good this is card is but I love the design and how much chaos it causes.
Rating for Samut, the Driving Force 9/10:
This is one of the most interesting Naya cards we have gotten in a long time, I love the reduction in non-creautre spells as well as the buff on our creatures, protection is the key here and with good protection spells within our colors we can keep Samut on the field pretty easily, this deck is pretty nuts with big spells in the format like Finale of Devastation
.
Rating for Loot, the Pathfinder 10/10:
Loots gets another really strong card in the format. this card is just a straight-up toolbox card and can be broken in so many different ways on top of that you get a very well-stat’ed creature, Loot really is the whole package and is ready and strong for pretty much all situations, being able to bounce them to reuse their abilities is really nice as well, an absolute banger of a card.
Rating for Mendicant Core, Guidelight 10/10:
This card may seem underwhelming at first, but once you hit Max speed, this card is absolutely insane and gets out of hand so quickly; being able to snowball this quickly can allow for some crazy games and for some crazy combos. This commander is really awesome and one of the best out of the set.
Rating for Ketramose, the New Dawn 10/10:
This card is a card draw machine and can take advantage of some really strong Orzhov cards, this card is an absolute banger, and there is no surprise it is one of the most hyped cards in the set, this thing is just insane in Commander, being able to keep your best of the best in exile until the time is right is really strong. This card is awesome and I expect it to be quite expensive for quite a while.
Rating for Captain Howler, Sea Scourge 10/10:
The flavor and the ability this card is just an absolute win in pretty much every way, this card is really strong, and with how many good mass discard spells there are in red and blue, it can generate a ton of damage and a ton of additional card draw, having the counterspells and protection to back it all up is really good as well. This commander is awesome!
Conclusion:
Thanks for reading to the end! I hope you all enjoyed our final rating for Aetherdrift overall across all of the formats we cover, Aetherdrift has been a really fun set, and while some of the cards are absolutely misses, there are so many hits and great cards that are going to influence the format for a long time. Stay tuned and tap in!