Aetherdrift (DFT) Limited Review: Green

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Aetherdrift (DFT) will hold its prerelease events on February 7, 2025, and officially launch a week later on February 14, 2025. Want to learn more about how each card rates in Limited, with recommendations? Then check out this series of DFT Limited reviews!

• For an introduction to the mechanics, see this article: Aetherdrift Mechanics Explained

Rating Scale

5.0: An unconditional first pick that brings you close to winning on its own.
4.5: An unconditional first pick if you are in the right colors; brings a huge advantage.
4.0: Worth first-picking. Great synergy with the color pair’s theme, and can be the deciding card for splashing / switching colors or moving into the color pair.
3.5: The set’s top uncommons and commons, plus other cards of sufficient power. Good synergy with the color pair’s theme, and a key card for moving into the color pair.
3.0: An important card for the color pair’s theme, or another above-average card that you want in your final deck.
2.5: Average. Usually a decent curve filler.
2.0 to 1.0: Below average. You generally lean toward leaving it out, and can use it as filler when necessary, but not too many.
0.5 to 0.0: Unplayable. Basically don’t play it; putting it in only helps you lose.

Ratings

Score: 4.0
Comment: High power while also being able to repeatedly jump back from the graveyard, making it a very hard threat to deal with.

Score: 4.0
Comment: An 8/8 trampler for five mana is simply terrifying, and the three-mana cycling is protection plus a pump with no loss of resources. Both uses are strong!

Score: 2.5
Comment: Vigilance matters a bit more in this set, and a 6/6 body once saddled already counts as big in this set.

Score: 3.5
Comment: On entering it’s already a six-mana 8/8, and on top of that it can keep making more! Unfortunately, the saddle cost is a bit high.

Score: 3.0
Comment: Early on it’s a curve filler, and in the mid to late game it can turn excess mana into resources, which is very strong.

Score: 2.0
Comment: The cost is too high for a combat trick, and it has low flexibility.

Score: 2.5
Comment: This set is an artifact environment, so you needn’t worry about having no targets to kill, and you can put it straight in the main deck.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A very flexible protection spell. Making a person at instant speed to crew a Vehicle can produce unexpected defense.

Score: 3.0
Comment: In an artifact environment you needn’t worry about having no targets, it also gets a boost from the Vehicle/Mount theme, and if you slam it on turn one you have a chance to snowball.

Score: 2.5
Comment: If the first ability does something, consider it a bonus. The second ability can basically grab the thing you most want in Limited. There are some graveyard-related cards (such as Afterburner Expert, Earthrumbler, Loxodon Surveyor), and when you have those cards its priority can go up.

Score: 3.0
Comment: The body is ridiculously good, the pinnacle of the creature war. This set has cycling abilities so you needn’t worry too much about the activation cost, and crewing with three power isn’t too hard either.

Score: 3.5
Comment: Being able to activate the Exhaust effect repeatedly is strategically valuable. At worst it’s four mana each turn for two +1/+1 counters.

Score: 2.5
Comment: Flexible on defense, but not so good the rest of the time.

Score: 2.5
Comment: Although it doesn’t lose you a card on entering, a vanilla creature has to be good enough to play. There’s no need to play a bad vanilla just to fill out your deck.

Score: 3.0
Comment: In decks that value speed, granting trample is very important. In the mid game you can use the Exhaust ability to make its body keep up with the board, which is also a strong ability.

Score: 3.0
Comment: The trample ability helps raise your speed, while reach stops your opponent from using flying creatures to raise theirs. The Exhaust activation cost is a bit high…

Score: 2.5
Comment: It’s just a vanilla. It’s an option to consider in an environment that emphasizes early tempo, and besides, there are other possibilities for synergy.

Score: 2.0
Comment: The worst in its cycle. Sad.

Score: 3.5
Comment: Note! It can search for a land both on entering and when attacking! With normal land drops it’s a 6-power attacker by turn four. It hurts a lot.

Score: 4.5
Comment: On entering it directly boosts the stats of every creature on the board sky-high. It isn’t a five only because of the heavy color requirement.

Score: 2.5
Comment: Being able to cycle it is pretty good, but it’s a real shame this body doesn’t have trample.

Score: 2.0
Comment: Only decks that really need a graveyard would consider it, but this set’s graveyard theme isn’t very obvious.

Score: 2.5 / 3.0
Comment: Without special pairing it may be just a 3/3 on entering, but in Black-Green it can reach a very high ceiling, especially since bodies in this set are generally low.

Score: 3.5
Comment: Giving the whole board trample is useful both for raising speed early and for dealing damage late, and being able to put big creatures / Vehicles onto the battlefield without casting them at instant speed for a low cost can quickly widen the gap between the two boards.

Score: 3.0
Comment: A rare fight spell, and it’s also very efficient at taking down Vehicles.

Score: 2.5
Comment: The only green card that starts your engine on turn one. Being able to activate it without waiting for max speed is quite good, and if you search for a land at speed 2 you don’t lose anything.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A good graveyard-filler in Black-Green decks, but in other color pairs it’s optional.

Score: 3.5
Comment: This body has basically no opponent in the early and mid game. The Dinosaur in the same set is already so big it doesn’t need +1/+1, so just treat it as a high-stat vanilla.

Score: 3.0
Comment: A resource card that at best can be a one-for-four, but in actual play don’t try to squeeze out full value; a one-for-two is already no loss.

Score: 3.0
Comment: One mana (with a chance) + instant + one-sided fight: green’s best creature removal.

Score: 2.0
Comment: The ideal case is to crew a Vehicle with a creature and then attach it to a tapped creature, making two blockers at once. A rather passive combat trick.

Score: 2.5
Comment: Cards in Limited that give a two-for-one are usually not too bad; just treat it as a five-mana 3/3 + 2/2. (The two creatures can also crew/saddle separately.)

Score: 3.0
Comment: What a body… and for only five mana, the strongest vanilla creature.

Score: 4.5
Comment: If it isn’t removed it’s no different from winning, and the stats it adds are ridiculously high. Again I docked 0.5 because of the heavy color requirement.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A decent ramp artifact that can join combat after completing its ramp job. Remember that if you crew with it, summoning sickness means it can’t produce mana the turn it enters.

Score: 2.5
Comment: Deathtouch gives it basic trading ability, and when saddled, attacking greatly lowers the defender’s willingness to block. Block with a four-power creature? A two-drop trading for a four-power creature, that’s a win. Block with two creatures? A one-for-two, even better.

Score: 3.5
Comment: A removal spell that doesn’t lose resources, can’t be countered, and is instant speed, and it can also serve as an early curve play that holds off most fliers. Super strong.

Conclusion

Because of the set’s mechanics (mainly the speed mechanic), I think the pace of this set leans toward the early game, using combat tricks and evasive creatures to reach max speed, and green isn’t very good at either. But if it comes down to competing on bodies and resource quantity, green is very competitive!

This last part has nothing to do with the Limited environment; it’s just something I felt like saying.
I got into Magic: The Gathering during the Aether Revolt era, and coming back after so long to the time I started, I suddenly feel a bit sentimental. As a high schooler when I got into the game, I never would have imagined that one day I’d run a website together with a group of like-minded fellow players (and even work in the related industry), making even the tiniest contribution to the game I love. Looking back over these eight years of playing Magic, I’ve met so many people along the way, and I’m truly grateful to everyone for their company! We’re going to play Magic for the rest of our lives!