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The first Magic: The Gathering set of 2025 is zooming into view and if the MTG Aetherdrift Commander decklist teasers are anything to go by, there’s quite a lot for EDH players to get excited about.
As is the case with any of the best card games, Magic: The Gathering reveals are always hotly anticipated. We’ve been privy to a few MTG Aetherdrift spoilers already, but the two Commander precon releases from the set are only getting their first taste of the spotlight now.
You’ll have to wait just a tad longer to get a complete picture of the Aetherdrift Commander decklists, as they're not set to drop until tomorrow, January 23. In the meantime though, the MTG team have given us Face Commanders and Alternate Commanders to mull over.
The four Aetherdrift Commanders revealed include those from Living Energy (a Green-Blue-Red deck that seems focused on leveraging energy counters) and those from Eternal Might (a White-Blue-Black deck which appears to prioritise Zombie Typal play and reanimation mechanics).
Saheeli, Radiant Creator serves as the Face Commander for Living Energy and provides an ability similar to that of Satya from Modern Horizons 3. This card allows you to use energy to copy permanents that can swing big for a single turn before being destroyed. The transience of these copies is a bit of a bummer. However, you don’t even have to attack on your combat phase to trigger this ability, the copies are all 5/5s, and Saheeli is a pretty reliable cog in an energy engine. So, all this more than makes up for that fact.
Living Energy’s Alternate Commander is Pia Nalaar, Chief Mechanic. This Commander leans hard into an Artificer play style (i.e. a board chock full of artifacts) and her variable energy cost ability allows her to really grow in power as the game progresses. While Pia Nalaar, Chief Mechanic would be right at home in any Artificer deck you might decide to build, it’ll be key to see what kinds of artifact creatures are in the Living Energy decklist to judge the feasibility of this as the Commander within the precon.
Energy is a resource that has undergone a bit of renaissance in the last year of Magic: The Gathering. While it first made a splash with the Kaladesh expansion in 2016, there was distinct lack of love for the mechanic until its reappearance in Universes Beyond: Fallout and Modern Horizons 3 in 2024. Following on from that trend (and considering that Aetherdrift takes place in the plane formerly known as Kaladesh), it makes a whole lot of sense that we would see that familiar lightning bolt making a regular appearance on upcoming MTG Aetherdrift cards, especially across the Living Energy decklist.
On the other hand, Commanders from the Eternal Might precon seem firmly planted in another plane featured in Aetherdrift's story: Naktamun. This magical pastiche of Ancient Egypt is abound with mummies and other kinds of mythical monsters, but for the sake of clean categorization and typal integration, the creature type that these fall under is Zombie. This allows for a deck with crystal clear Zombie typal design and a reliance on reanimation mechanics.
While Temmet, Naktamun's Will (the Face Commander) is no doubt a formidable card with the capacity for powerful synergies, the Alternate Commander is a great choice to take the helm in my opinion. If you're playing any deck looking to strategically discard cards and especially if your gameplan involves reanimating back from the graveyard, Hashaton, Scarab's Fist is a tempting choice that's worth throwing in your Command Zone.
To start, Hashaton, Scarab's Fist has a two-mana cost, which is ideal for those who like to get their Commander out early in the game and continually return them to the battlefield despite being increasingly bogged down by Commander Tax. Once Hashaton is on the field, he provides a transformative creature-copying ability that not only aligns the copy token with the zombie type but also makes it a 4/4 for just three mana.
Of course, this new addition to your Zombie army has all the same abilities and effects as the card it’s copied from too. Meanwhile, the original creature isn’t exiled but instead goes to your graveyard to lie in wait for their reanimation. The only real downside is that your copy is tapped when created but as soon as you get to untapping it, you can start to cause some havoc.
Time will tell what other key game pieces are included in the MTG Aetherdrift Commander decklists and how they’ll bolster the different playstyles of Living Energy and Eternal Might. However, what we have seen so far offers a pretty strong indication of what we can expect, as well as delivering insight into which Aetherdrift Commander precon you might want to pop in your basket when the set releases next month.
Looking for what to play next? Check out our guide to the best board games. If you're stuck on getting a full party of players together, our choices for the best two player board games have got your back.
