2024 is now officially in the rear view mirror and it's time to instead focus our attention on what lies ahead. Last year was full of all kinds of interesting, and perhaps controversial, Magic: the Gathering expansions. With a couple of months having past since the release of both Foundations and Duskmourn: House of Horror, it's almost time for us to be getting our first look at the next set for Standard: Aetherdrift.

In case you haven't seen or heard anything about the upcoming set, Aetherdrift is set to be Magic's take on a death race sort of set in search of something called the Aetherspark. Early promotional images showed things like Chandra on a motorbike, desparked planeswalker Daretti as a pit worker, and a notable checkered flag set symbol. Right out of the gate, it was clear that we'd be getting all the classic tropes from classic race car shows to the likes of Akira (as referenced in the above key art) and Mad Max.

Finally, we got some additional information toward the end of the year. Shortly before Wizards of the Coast employees went on their annual holiday sabbatical, a WeeklyMTG stream was held to provide a first look at Aetherdrift. Only this time, rather than showing off a bunch of cards as they usually would, they focused instead on the worldbuilding aspect. This included tidbits on the planes we were visiting as well as the racers participating in the event.

Some of the biggest news involved the likes of us returning to Amonkhet, visiting Muraganda properly for the first time, and most notably the renaming of Kaladesh to Avishkar as we returned there also. Updates on each plane were provided, showing how Aviskhar thrived since the events of Aether Revolt and March of the Machine, becoming one of the new superpowers in a post-omenpath multiverse. Amonkhet was also shown to be healing and the mummies of the world gaining more agency in the goings on of the plane.

While most of this information is cool, it doesn't necessarily provide any insight to the set itself with no cards previewed except the basic lands. Or perhaps it does! You see, not only did Wizards show off the world, they also showed off the initial product images for the set, which revealed the two upcoming Commander decks for the set. One of them, Eternal Might, seems to be focusing on the mummies of Amonkhet with embalm and eternalize while the other, Living Energy, focuses on the energy mechanic of Avishkar.

Uhhh... wait, what?

That's right, energy is coming back once more with Aetherdrift... in Commander, anyways. However, could this portend a return to the feared mechanic once again in Standard? I think it's certainly a possibility given Commander decks of the past. Let's look at some from just this year alone.

Of all the Standard sets released in 2024, we got a grand total of 16 Commander decks. Of those 16, I'd say roughly 11 of them followed some aspect of the mechanics or themes of the overall set. This could maybe be 12 depending on how you count the Miracle Worker Duskmourn: House of Horror precon, as that one does have an emphasis on the set's enchantments theme. To me, though, it feels like it's much more about playing up the miracle theme instead, and so I count it a bit more as its own thing.

Here's a small rundown of the decks that do follow the set's theme:

• Death Toll (Duskmourn: House of Horror) - Delirium
• Jump Scare! (Duskmourn: House of Horror) - Manifest Dread
• Family Matters (Bloomburrow) - Offspring
• Squirreled Away (Bloomburrow) - Squirrels, foraging
• Desert Bloom (Outlaws of Thunder Junction) - Deserts
• Grand Larceny (Outlaws of Thunder Junction) - Crimes via stealing
• Most Wanted (Outlaws of Thunder Junction) - Outlaws
• Quick Draw (Outlaws of Thunder Junction) - Crimes via Izzet spellslinging
• Blame Game (Murders at Karlov Manor) - Suspecting (and goading)
• Deadly Disguise (Murders at Karlov Manor) - Face-down cards, focus on disguise/cloak
• Deep Clue Sea (Murders at Karlov Manor) - Clues and detectives

Each of these follows some aspect pretty closely. Family Matters expands the offspring mechanic of Bloomburrow more widely, both Grand Larceny and Quick draw focus on committing crimes with Outlaws of Thunder Junction, and Deadly Disguise really plays up the face-down element of Murders at Karlov Manor. Heck, some that even do it badly - like Duskmourn's Death Toll - still put the focus clearly on the mechanic or theme even if the execution is ultimately somewhat poor.

A few are a little more vague, with Desert Bloom being a good example. Deserts are hard to do on their own and weren't a particularly major element to the set mechanically, but had some minor relevance on a few cards like Desert's Due and Outcaster Greenblade due to most of the non-basic lands in the set being deserts. Instead, this deck goes more all the way and also takes more of a Lands.dec approach to how the overall list is Constructed. Doing this lets them provide more support to the set theme or mechanic than they could with the set itself proper.

Now let's look at the ones that didn't quite use the set's major themes:

• Endless Punishment (Duskmourn: House of Horror) - Group Slug
• Miracle Worker (Duskmourn: House of Horror) - Miracle (with enchantments)
• Animated Army (Bloomburrow) - Animating artifacts and enchantments
• Peace Offering (Bloomburrow) - Group Hug
• Revenant Recon (Murders at Karlov Manor) - Surveil and Reanimation

Most of these are much more about the overall theme or vibe of the plane they come from, but don't necessarily line up with the set's mechanics or core themes. For example, the Endless Punishment deck fits with Duskmourn's horror theme via inflicting pain and torment on others. Conversely, Bloomburrow's Peace Offering lines up with the more homely vibes of that set by leaning into the group hug element a little more. Revanant Recon takes the minor theme of surveil in the set and expands it, though as surveil is a deciduous mechanic as is, it was less a major mechanic of the set and more a tool to get more use out of the collect evidence mechanic.

Some sets lean into the themes prevalent in the core Standard release more than others, while some ignore it almost entirely. If we go back just a little bit further and look at The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, for example, all four of those decks had practically nothing to do with the main set at all. Because it was more of a backdrop set for the underground world theme as opposed to the traditional Ixalan most players had come to know and love, the commander decks sought to remedy this. As a result, each of the decks focused on one of the plane's four main creature types, thereby calling back to the original block and showcasing the world in a different way.

So then, this begs the question: are the Aetherdrift precons going to follow a bit more closely to the themes of the main set or rather take the LCI approach and showcase the mechanics of the planes' original releases? Personally, I'm actually thinking it's going to be a bit of both.

It's already been hinted that the mechanics of the set are going to be themed more around the race itself. However, there's a couple of worthwhile notes to make in this regard. The first is that Amonkhet's mummies make up an entire team of racers, so it makes sense for embalm/eternalize to play some role in the set itself. Additionally, energy can be used (thematically, not so much mechanically) as a means to fuel the racer vehicles, so it makes sense to return to it here, even if we're utilizing other mechanics as well.

That having been said, what's the concern about a potential return to energy in the first place? It's clear Wizards has been toying with the mechanic quite a bit lately, after all. We first saw it return in the Science! Commander deck for Universes Beyond: Fallout last year. Then a few months later, it came back as a major theme in Modern Horizons 3 in both the main set and also the preconstructed Commander deck titled Creative Energy. While the implications for Commander haven't been so bad, they've proven rather detrimental for other formats over the years.

Most recently, if you've played any Modern since the release of Modern Horizons 3, chances are you've had to battle your way against some kind of Energy deck. Even simple designs like Galvanic Discharge and Static Prison have proven incredibly potent, but the even bigger threats like Wrath of the Skies can cleanly decimate players. This strategy was so prevalent, it even led to Amped Raptor being banned out of the format and still the Boros and Mardu variants are among the best things you can be doing in the format.

Modern isn't the only Constructed format that's had problems with energy either. Standard was famous for dealing with energy as a problematic mechanic several years prior during the original release of the Kaladesh block in 2016 and 2017.

Initially the power of energy was somewhat muffled by the power of Smuggler's Copter, the Azorius Flash and Golgari Delirium decks, and then Felidar Guardian/Saheeli Rai combo decks. With those decks either removed from the equation or toned down, this led to Energy decks completely dominating the metagame. This first led to something being done about Aetherworks Marvel, which created high variance games that weren't fun for anyone. A few months later, more energy cards were banned to take the Temur Energy deck down a notch or two.

What's surprising is just how innocuous several of these cards look at first glance. I don't think there's any argument that something like Amped Raptor can be very problematic when cascade has proven to be an issue in the past, but there's something to be said for many of the other cards. In a typical Magic world, cards like Attune with Aether are just bad. No one looks at Lay of the Land, or even a Lay of the Land that also gains you 2 life, and says, "yeah, that's a good card." The slow build incremental play of the entire mechanic feeds into itself making it that much more dangerous. Galvanic Discharge (and the earlier Harnessed Lightning) are great examples of this, because if you use less than three energy, you save more for later on a more substantial effect - like possibly another Galvanic Discharge to hit a bigger creature.

The fact that when it comes to Constructed formats (and not Commander-exclusive releases) we're 2 for 2 on energy being a problem is what has some players worried. Would only one set's worth of energy push it over the edge though? Perhaps all it takes is one seemingly innocuous card to push the Energy decks in Modern over the edge but it doesn't lead to any problems in Standard or it could just break everything.

Who knows, maybe it's just that myself and others are just reading a little too much into this and we see no new energy cards in Standard at all. Maybe instead, the focus is solely contained within the Commander precon to just give those decks a little more oomph like Universes Beyond: Fallout and Modern Horizons 3 (the precon at least) sought to do. Whatever the case, though, it's going to be interesting to watch as Aetherdrift previews kick off in a few weeks' time. I for one just hope we leave energy firmly in Standard's past.

Paige Smith

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