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"I'm not really that excited for a new Magic release, and I don't think I'm the only one", says renowned fantasy author Brandon Sanderson in a YouTube video about MTG on his own channel. In it he goes into his concerns over the upcoming MTG Aetherdrift set, and how the company's storytelling choices might be the thing letting them down of late.
Magic: The Gathering is one game that sits on our best card games list for good reason. So of course, the thoughtful Sanderson has been soul searching to understand the root of his apprehension over the upcoming set. "I'm trying to analyse why, because they've had a few sets recently that have really knocked it out of the park", he says. "So why should I not be excited for the upcoming set?"
"They're doing a death race, so it's like Wacky Racers", as he puts it. That's a pretty accurate description of Aetherdrift, which is essentially a racing-themed set that draws on popular vehicular tomfoolery – everything from Mario Kart to the gritty world of Mad Max.
It's one fans have been asking for for some time. And while Sanderson makes it clear he "Thought that their Redwall inspired set was just really cool", he was "very skeptical of their giant slasher haunted house one, but the gameplay was excellent."
I don't think their actual story can ever be as strong through the cards as their environmental storytelling.
Bradond Sanderson on MTG
As far as Aetherdrift goes, his worries seem to be winning out. "One of the things I loved about Magic is they would go to a new plane, you'd explore this new plane and all of its local wackiness – this is the strength of Magic storytelling", he says. "I don't think their actual story can ever be as strong through the cards as their environmental storytelling.
"It's why storytelling in Elden Ring works the way it does, you can tell a really cool world through a bunch of art and occasional little snippets, and watching their characters who are from offworld interact with it" which is something he reckons Magic hasn't quite captured in some of the more recent sets. And perhaps it doesn't need to try to convey stories in the same way because, as an entirely different medium, it should lean on its strengths in environmental storytelling.
In trying to better understand his own doubts, he recalls "The Western set, which [he] really liked". The problem was that the characters seemed to "Just put on cowboy hats, and they started riding horses, and became outlaws." In Sanderson's opinion, it was almost like they were actinging the story out "Like they were on a holodeck."
"It seems to really lose something," especially, he says, when the massive demonic demigod Rakdos the Defiler comes along and is shoehorned into the narrative as the "Bruiser in a heist band."
"It doesn't make any sense at all," Sanderson laments. "And now in [Aetherdrift] they're all just getting on motorcycles and cars and joining in a giant race. It feels like [...] instead of going to a cool place and experiencing that world, they're play-acting," he says.
"Something about it is not clicking with me."
Whether Sanderson agrees with the narratological aspects of Magic's new Aetherdrift set, it's still going into pre-release today, with the full MTG Arena dropping on February 11, and the tabletop release set for Feb 14.
For more suggestions, there's a Magic the Gathering movie in the works, and there are plenty of competitive board games to pick from if you're feeling a change from card games.
