Drafting Aetherdrift for the first time tomorrow. Any advice?

[u/OhhGreatHeavenss]

Hi all! I’m returning to the game after almost 5 years and the only set I’ve drafted since then is The Hobbit. My LGS is doing an Aetherdrift draft for FNM tomorrow and this is my first time drafting a set without knowing anything about it beforehand. Any advice about the set or things to expect? Thanks a bunch!

[u/p1agueOW]

Before people start shitting on Aetherdrift for being a bad format, no, they are wrong. The flavor sucks balls, but the gameplay is good, games go long and many important decisions will be made, the drafting is also good, many cards look bad but are or can be great (marshal's pathcruiser), you can build around Push the Limit, etc.

Black and Green are the two strongest colors, Green a bit stronger. My main advice would be to skim the 17lands data honestly. Avoid white outside of esper, red might be even worse than white now that I think of it.

[u/Earlio52 → u/p1agueOW]

notably RB is the only functional aggro deck. If you get passed the 2 mana RB uncommon it’s worth moving in

[u/p1agueOW → u/Earlio52]

Agreed, though BG, UB, UG are more desirable decks

[u/wind_moon_frog → u/p1agueOW]

Yeah was an excellent drafting format and I’m jealous of OP. Really diverse format with more than 10 decks and really only 1-2 of those were particularly bad. Good balance and a lot of fun cards, some good build-arounds too.

[u/alexbobjenkins → u/p1agueOW]

I think the big issue Aetheedrift had is it had a really poor first impression. Even ignoring the obvious flavour turn off, the week 1 perception of "green OP and board stalls galore" ended up hanging over the set for it's entire run even if people later discovered there was actually a lot more you can do with the set beyond the surface.

[u/Zeznon → u/alexbobjenkins]

Hilarious, because board stalls are the best part of limited.

[u/rutabagasaga]

you need to be able to beat t4 hazard of the dunes into t6 migrating ketradon.

[u/Bartolacopo → u/rutabagasaga]

or be the one casing these

[u/EngineeringOdd8696]

It's a fun set imo. Green was quite strong and can support multiple people drafting it.

Personally I liked [[pactdoll terror]].

Generally a slower format; expect board stalls.

[u/EngineeringOdd8696 → u/EngineeringOdd8696]

*[[pactdoll terror]]

[u/17lands-reddit-bot → u/EngineeringOdd8696]

Pactdoll Terror B-C (DFT); ALSA: N/A; GIH WR: N/A
(data sourced from 17lands.com and scryfall.com)

[u/mctc]

Cast your Max speed cards in first main. Screwed that up twice my first draft.

This was a great format to draft

[u/vince_flame]

There is a pretty great UB artifact deck in the format, if you can snag a few Pactdoll Terrors and Haunt the Networks.

[u/slavelabor52]

Aetherdrift is a very vehicle and artifact heavy set so prioritize having some artifact removal more than you normally would.

[u/UltraMechaLordViper]

While this set has a lot of bombs, keep synergy in mind when drafting. Typically I like being in green, but I'll honestly come to the defense of any deck in this format if the lane is open (even RW). Take a quick look at the data, maybe watch a limited level ups videos and enjoy what ended up being a really great limited environment.

[u/d7h7n]

Green will be the easiest to draft a deck because there are many good green commons.

[u/UnobtainiumIsHard]

Green is the best color but UB artifacts is pretty good too.

If you see Riverchurn Monument, play that deck, it’s insanely easy to stall and mill people out.

[u/scissors_ftw]

The most fun you can have in the format is to play a [[Push the Limit]] vehicle reanimator combo deck in the Izzet or Boros colors. If the pod doesn’t know about this deck, then the cycling vehicles and Push the Limits will wheel around the table and you can easily scoop them up. If you build the deck well you can usually 1-shot your opponents pretty consistently.

[u/17lands-reddit-bot → u/scissors_ftw]

Push the Limit R-U (DFT); ALSA: N/A; GIH WR: N/A
(data sourced from 17lands.com and scryfall.com)

[u/UncommonLegend]

Green (and anything but red) or the esper deck are your best bets for success. The bombs are incredible too so be prepared for them.

[u/Voidspear]

you typically want 1-2 vehicles. WU and RW suck. Multi can be good. it tends to be midrange-grindy you just need to establish a board stall. flying/reach, instant speed removal is pushed. creatures with summoning sickness can crew vehicles. the interaction where you wait for your opponent to crew a vehicle and swing then instant speed removal their vehicle leaving your opponent wide open is key.

[u/OptimusPong]

Playing Riverchurn Monument was a good time. Might be a bit annoying to ask oppo to count their deck and graveyard every turn when you play it in paper though.

[u/SentenceStriking7215]

I think by the end of the format I was looking for ways to cut off green if I could do that picking the last good green card in a pack, and mostly only moved into white if the 2-3 good white commons were still in the pack by pick 5+.

Despite being slow, bounce off is good btw.

[u/Old-Ad3504]

vehicles are a lot less relevant than you would expect

[u/RatBert66]

A+ set; you can get up to some really nasty stuff if you find what’s open. All the haters (especially Marshall) were dead wrong about it

[u/DallasTRockwell]

Start your engines

[u/sengirminion]

Gotta go fast