While Aetherdrift is a perfectly fine Magic set, well-designed and with lots of interesting cards, it's just not the set for me. I do wish to stress that it doesn't seem suffer from the same problems as Outlaws of Thunder Junction and Murders at Markov Manor, but the flavor still doesn't resonate with me, and the limited mechanics disinterest me.

What renewed my love for Magic was Innistrad Remastered, which might go down as one of the best limited environments I've played. I loved it so much that I'm planning on making my first ever set cube — namely, Innistrad Remastered Set Cube — with a few tweaks to better suit the needs of a set cube and refine some of the few issues I have with INR.

If it wasn't for Innistrad Remastered, I would hardly have been playing Magic these past few months.

Still, there are some great designs in Aetherdrift, especially ones that bolster the now so-frequent-it's-not-even-incidental discard. I'm talking of course about Marauding Mako and Monument to Endurance, which join the likes of Ivora, Insatiable Heir and Inti, Seneschal of the Sun.

I've also cut the Verge cycle of lands, mostly for real estate reasons, but also because they've proven to be a bit of a mental burden. While great, they are hardly worth the complexity they add to the board and the draft in this cube.

Aetherdrift also adds a lot to the artifact package, with five colorless artifacts, including The Aetherspark itself, which is proving to play a lot like a discount The One Ring, at least according to initial testing results.

Innistrad Remastered inspired me to replace The Huntsman's Redemption with Eldritch Evolution, a much more straightforward and powerful version of the effect. I'm also considered adding Young Wolf, though I decided against it because it doesn't work well with the +1/+1 counters theme green usually ends up playing.

Lastly, the odd card in this update — I am adding Eidolon of Astral Winds. I am well aware it's not near the power level of my other white 3-drops, but it's worth to have a few "live the dream" synergistic cards, and I think even at base rate the Eidolon is a perfectly fine card. The only issue is I don't play enough O-Ring variants in White, but this isn't something that actually bothers me.

Honorable Mentions

• Peema Trailblazer and Territorial Aetherkite are two new energy cards that look interesting; sadly, although I now run a good amount of energy-producing cards, these two don't seem powerful enough to make the cut. I do hope that I am proven wrong, especially about the Aetherkite, but I don't want to add cards just to support a parasitic mechanic and end up misleading my drafters.

• Three other exhaust cards also almost made the cut — Skyserpent Seeker, Loot, the Pathfinder, and Draconautics Engineer. In fact, there's a real chance I add the Engineer with the next update.

• There were also a few mounts — District Mascot and Guardian Sunmare — but the lack of a printing with reminder text for Saddle really soured me on both of them.

• A few of the "Start your engines" cards also piqued my interest, but I decided against them because the mechanic won't work well outside of the context of Aetherdrift limited or constructed formats — Hazoret, Godseeker, Howlsquad Heavy, Perilous Snare, and especially Burnout Bashtronaut, which I think is the only card with that rules text that's reasonable enough to include on its own without a whole package.