Aetherdrift on MTGO
Posted on Feb 04, 2025
Time to rev up 2025 with a multiplanar challenge through Avishkar, Amonkhet, and Muraganda! Aetherdrift (set code DFT) debuts on Magic Online next Tuesday, February 11 at 10 a.m. Pacific time (18:00 UTC)!
The downtime to add this set to MTGO will happen tomorrow, February 5, from 9 a.m. to approximately 12 noon Pacific time (17:00-20:00 UTC). Be sure to follow our social media outlets (Discord, BlueSky and more) to keep real-time tabs on this release.
Features of the upcoming couple months include the debut of the regular set Draft Bundle, an extra-shiny Premium Booster, and more …
Draft Bundle Goes Evergreen
Aetherdrift marks the debut of the Draft Bundle, the not-so-distant cousin of the Holiday Bundle that featured Vintage Cube drafts for a discount. Here’s the low-down on this new promo package …
Thie idea is “Buy 3, Pay Less” – plus get an avatar! The Draft Bundle will sell for $32.00 USD in the MTGO Store starting next Tuesday. That represents a $4 savings off buying Event Tickets to cover those events.
The Draft Bundle contains three Draft Entry Tokens which can be used to enter the Aetherdrift Draft League during its first two weeks, plus this set’s avatar exclusive to this product: Vnwxt, Verbose Host!
Neither the Bundle nor its contents are tradeable. There are some key differences with this Bundle when compared to the Holiday version:
- Events: These Tokens are only for the Draft League, not single-elimination.
- Expiration: Draft Entry Tokens must be used in the first two weeks of League play – they expire Wednesday, February 26 at 10 a.m. PT. Unused Tokens will be removed at that time and are non-refundable!
- The Bundle will leave the store on Tuesday, February 25
Go For the Gold - First-Place Foils
The coolest feature of this set has to be the Gold First-Place Foil treatment on all rares and mythics in the main set of Aetherdrift – including on Booster Fun and Special Guest cards – as well as several cycles of basic lands. It’s a dazzling celebration of multiplanar settings, characters, and vehicles! Check it out:
The Golden Booster
Each Golden Booster contains two First-Place Foils: a land card and a nonland card. These mirror tabletop’s Box Topper packs.
On Magic Online, you’ll find Golden Boosters in two places once DFT is on sale next Tuesday:
- A devoted slot in Treasure Chests – 1 in 20 Chests will contain a Golden Booster!
- After next Tuesday, Treasure Chest are planned to change over again on March 12.
- Additional prizes for First Place finishers in selected Scheduled Events until the release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm:
- Duel Commander Trial 16 – 3 for 1st Place
- Constructed Format Challenge 32 – 5 for 1st Place
- Limited Challenge 32 – 5 for 6-0 finish
- Constructed Format Challenge 64 – 10 for 1st Place
- Qualifiers/Super Qualifiers/Showcase Challenges – 20 for 1st Place
Golden Boosters are not planned to be sold in the MTGO Store – they're intended to be prizes only.
How to Collect and Play Aetherdrift
Play Boosters
Each DFT Play Booster will sell for $3.99 USD in the MTGO Store starting on Tuesday at 10 a.m. PT and contains 1-3 rare/mythics.
For this set, the composition is:
- 7 regular commons
- 1 in 64 Play Boosters will have a common replaced by a Special Guest card
- 3 regular uncommons
- 1 regular rare or mythic
- 1 regular wildcard – that is, a non-foil of any rarity
- 1 foil wildcard – a foil in every pack!
- 1 land – standard-frame, tap-dual, or Driver POV showcase, all in either regular or foil
Premium Boosters
The MTGO-exclusive Premium Booster returns with a tinge of GOLD! As usual, we have changed up quantities and pricing for this set.
The 10-card Aetherdrift Premium Booster will sell for $6.99 USD in the Store starting next Tuesday. This time, we are stuffing as many different Booster Fun treatments into a single pack as possible!
Here’s the layout – each Premium booster contains 5 rares/mythics and at least 8 foils (1 or 2 of which will be GOLD):
- 2 foil uncommons
- 2 foil commons
- 1 land – either a GOLD First-Place Foil Driver POV or (unique to Premium Boosters) Panoramic full-art, or a normal foil tap-dual or Driver POV showcase
- 1 foil rare/mythic (regular frame)
- 2 regular Booster Fun rare/mythics
- Can be main set or Commander
- Can be Booster Fun (Revved-Up Racer, Graffiti, or Rude Riders), Borderless, or Extended-Art
- 1 foil Booster Fun rare/mythic
- Includes the same set as above plus Japan Showcase Fracture Foils and headliner The Aetherspark!
- 1 GOLD First-Place Foil rare/mythic
- Can be main set or Booster Fun (including Special Guests)
Aetherdrift Commander
This set has two new Commander decks for you to enjoy (set code DRC) – each deck features ten brand-new cards plus a suite of reprints. The decks will sell for $29.99 USD each in the MTGO Store starting next Tuesday. They are:
- Living Energy (green-blue-red)
- Eternal Might (white-blue-black)
Booster Fun
We’ve got even more premium styles coming your way with this set, and the fun in the boosters is extra-awesome with the incorporation of foil masking tech Frame Refactor Article that makes these cards truly premium! Here’s a breakdown of where you can find each series of special treatments in this set:
Treatment |
Play Booster |
Premium Booster |
Treasure Chest |
Japan Showcase |
|
Fracture FOIL |
Regular |
Borderless – Main Set (Revved Up, Rude Rider, Graffiti, etc) |
Yes |
Yes |
Regular |
Bundle & Buy-a-Box Promos |
|
|
Regular |
Extended-Art Main Set |
|
Yes |
|
Extended-Art Commander |
|
Yes |
Yes |
Headliner – The Aetherspark |
|
FOIL |
FOIL |
Special Guests |
Regular |
Regular |
FOIL |
In response to previous feedback, we are holding Extended-Art Main Set cards out of the first Treasure Chest cycle.
Event Updates
Alternate Play Schedule
Here’s a look at the schedule of events coming up between now and Tarkir: Dragonstorm. Each description mentions if the Draft is Phantom – cards won’t be added to players’ collections in Phantom events. All transitions take place at 10:00 a.m. PT (18:00 UTC until March 8, 17:00 UTC after) unless otherwise noted.
- February 11-26 – Aetherdrift Limited is center stage for these two weeks.
- February 26-March 5 – Time for a couple Flashback drafts … first up Modern Horizons 3 Phantom Draft.
- March 5-12 – For the first time, The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth® (Phantom)
- March 12-April 2 – The Vintage Cube will be back with another refresh for a single 3-week run. (Phantom)
- April 2-8 – Before leaving Avishkar and Aetherdrift behind, we’ll make a return trip to the plane’s original format – Triple Kaladesh (Phantom)
Commander Corner
Commander Backlog
There’s only three cards that are coming off the Backlog this time, as we prioritized card bug fixes over new card creation before and after the holidays. Extended-Art versions of these cards will appear in Treasure Chests starting next Tuesday:
Additions from Commander Backlog |
Kaima, the Fractured Calm (NEC) |
Lethal Scheme (NCC) |
Storvold, Frost Giant Jarl (KHC) |
Single Card Story: Lethal Scheme
There’s a certain popular card in that group that was a long-sought dragon finally slayed by our Cardset team. Lethal Scheme was deemed impossible to code for a long while after its debut in 2022 due to the method of how the connive ability was processed.
A glimmer of hope showed up a year later when Explore was re-worked for The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Ultimately, a second year passed before a combination of fresh eyes and veteran minds could crack the code and get this favorite out to fans!
Sometime next week after DFT goes live, we’ll revert the contents of the Ahoy Mateys and Hail, Caesar decks to their original lineup with Lethal Scheme included. After that happens, accounts that purchased those two specific digital decks with the card swapped out will be granted a regular-frame copy of Lethal Scheme for each deck purchased.
Witherbloom Witchcraft Commander Deck On Sale Tomorrow
The black-green representative from the Commander 2021 suite of pre-con Commander decks, Witherbloom Witchcraft, will finally join the MTGO Store tomorrow following downtime. Led by Willowdusk, Essence Seer (the final card in the deck to get picked up by our Cardset squad), this deck will sell for $29.99 USD.
Magic Online Players Rewards (MOPR) Update
Here’s what is coming up in MOPR. Don’t forget to check your account for MOPR packs granted yesterday based on January play and spending. Note that cards that were originally aimed for MOPR back in December will show up in packs during the month of February.
The grant on March 3 covers February activity. It will feature all of Innistrad Remastered’s common and uncommon Retro cards in foil.
Then on April 1 (no foolin’), we’ll reward March play and spending with Aetherdrift’s common and uncommon Revved Up racers, plus the cards in the Promo Pack, all in foil.
For more information on earning Player Rewards, click here.
Treasure Chest Update
Treasure Chests will update when DFT goes on sale next Tuesday – be sure to watch our Twitter/X (@MagicOnline) and our Discord channel to confirm this before opening Chests.
For full details on the changes to come, check out the information page when it updates later this week. Many of your Booster Fun favorites will be available via the Treasure Chest –see the chart above.
After next Tuesday, the next Treasure Chest update will occur on Wednesday, March 12.
Avatars
After a one-set hiatus, we have a new set of Avatars to show you!
New accounts created between next Tuesday and the release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm will receive the Brightfield Glider avatar.
The emergence of the Bundle avatar means there will not be Treasure Chest avatars going forward.
Finally, Prestige avatars return! As usual, you get five points for each Competitive trophy you earn in Leagues and one for each Friendly trophy. At the end of the season (when Tarkir: Dragonstorm releases), you'll earn every avatar for which you qualify.
Earning at least five points gets you the uncommon Gonti, Night Minister avatar.
Earning at least 20 points nabs you the rare Far Fortune, End Boss avatar.
Earning 40 points or more rewards you with the mythic rare Mu Yanling, Wind Rider avatar.
Odds and Ends
- Aetherdrift will be redeemable. Redemption Tokens are planned to go on sale in the Store following downtime on Wednesday, March 13. Stay tuned to the Weekly Announcement Blog at com for details.
- As a reminder, physical foil redemption sets are no longer available. You can redeem a full digital set of either regular or premium Aetherdrift cards to get a regular physical set. Full details can be found here.
- Gold First-Place Foils cannot be redeemed for physical cards.
- Constructed and Limited events will rotate to DFT versions of the same event on release day, so make sure you complete any Leagues before the set launches.
- Reprints in Aetherdrift that are entering a format won’t become legal until the new Leagues kick off next Tuesday.
- The refreshed New Account Kit with DFT commons will be available next Tuesday when DFT goes on sale.
- The Account Upgrade Kit, Collection Upgrade Kit, and Commander Workshop will not be updated with this set.
It’s a new year, and we're glad you're here. Whether you're a new player, a returning veteran or just here for this awesome new set, there's a place for everyone on MTGO. Good luck, have fun, and we'll see you on the battlefield!