MTG Aetherdrift is the latest in a line of Magic: The Gathering sets that have challenged and upset the tastes of the game's fantasy purists. I can't say I didn't see this coming. After all, it makes total sense that one of the best card games, with a legacy that spans over two decades, would have its share of players who feel fiercely protective of what they feel to be the 'true' spirit of the game world.
Yet that notion of Magic's lore being one founded in High Fantasy is being continually put at odds with the actual content of recent sets, which levies tropes not typically found within the genre. Be it neo-noir detectives, cowboys, or speed racers, MTG's designers have been utterly devoted to bold, genre-mashing experimentation – but as a result, the Magic multiverse is moving forward at pace that has left some sections of the player base behind.
Call these folks nostalgics. Call them cynics. Either way, they are all largely caught up with the same things: the many ways in which Magic: The Gathering's world no longer feels like that of a Tolkien or a Le Guin. For some, there's something almost painfully irreverent about the introduction of symbols of our modern world into MTG. A jumping of the shark, a burning of the history books, whatever phraseology they adopt, the sentiment is the same: screw this.
If you're tuned into the player base, you've likely seen your fair share of criticisms about the perceived mismatch between Aetherdrift's core premise (i.e. race car go zoom) with the established conventions of Fantasy fiction. Or you might have come across those whose bugbears are at an even more micro level, like a recent question levied at Lead designer Mark Rosewater which criticized the MTG Aetherdrift symbol as "standing out in a negative way from other set symbols". This oddly specific sentiment is echoed across a number of Reddit posts in a far less diplomatic way too, with one user, in particular, calling the chequered flag symbol "the worst in years".
Despite what may be your base desire to paint everyone in this camp as just a garden-variety negative Nancy, I reckon it's worth engaging with this sect's arguments to some degree. I mean, at the very least they're worth reflecting on.
Yet with that said, I've found that despite all the huffing around how MTG Aetherdrift deviates from classic Magic in style, I've yet to see anyone latch on to what is probably one of the most significant shifts we've seen in substance. It comes courtesy of one of Aetherdrift's racing teams; the Guidelight Voyagers, who are the first ever of their Creature type to appear in a canon set. That's right – there are robots in-universe now.
Robots have had their time in Universes Beyond sets and other non-canon Magic: The Gathering releases in the past and there are plenty of robot-flavored creatures that have graced cards in mainline sets. Show a random person art of the majority of artifact creatures and you'll likely have them label them some kind of bot. Still, there's a subtle yet important lore distinction between Golems, Constructs, and full-blown typal Robots.
Notably, Rosewater stated that his perception of what distinguishes a Robot from its artifact creature siblings is that it is a non-organic, non-magical, programmed creature that is solely reserved for use in "more modern settings". So, while there are those who've rang death knell of Magic: The Gathering's Classic Fantasy world upon seeing Duskmourn's CRT televisions or Kamigawa's mechs, these all have in-world magical justifications. The real threat has a lot in common with the fears of many real-world tin-foil hat wearers: the robots are taking over. Welcome to the future, old man.
Ahead of the set's release, catch up on everything you need to know about MTG Aetherdrift. For ideas on what to play in the meantime, check out our best board games list.
