Get in Gear With Magic’s Wild New Racing Set

Magic: The Gathering has played with dozens upon dozens of genres and moods over its long history—but “racing” and “sci-fantasy card game” aren’t exactly the first things that come to mind when you think of potential mashups. That’s changing in Magic‘s next major expansion, and we’ve got a look at some of the new cards lining up at the starting block.

Centered around a multiversal racing tournament, Aetherdrift is built around the plane in Magic‘s vast cosmology formerly known as Kaladesh (recently renamed to Avishkar ahead of Aetherdrift‘s release due to controversial interpretations of its inspiration from Hindi), as 10 racing teams vie for success across the planes as they race in the Ghirapur Grand Prix, a glitzy celebration of Avishkar’s history of underground racing offering a fascinating top prize: the Aetherspark, a mysterious device that theoretically holds the power to let its wielder use the powers of a Planeswalker, even if they lack the latent power to be one. But to even nab a chance at getting the Aetherspark, you’re going to need a ride—and Aetherdrift has plenty to offer in its new cards, such as Possession Engine, which you can check out below in all its variants!

Magic: The Gathering – Aetherdrift Preview: Possession Engine

As you can see in the preview above of Possession Engine (with borderless alternate art as well as matching gold-trimmed “booster fun” variants), the Vehicle subtype for artifact cards will have a major role in Aetherdrift. While vehicles have appeared in Magic before, now many of them in Aetherdrift come with a new mechanic, Crew, abilities activated tapping a certain number of untapped creatures you control with total power greater than the required number. In Possession Engine‘s case, having the right amount of crew will let you target one of your opponents creatures, stopping them from being able to either attack or block as long as it’s in play.

Magic: The Gathering – Aetherdrift Preview: Marshal’s Pathcruiser

Crew isn’t the only new mechanic coming in Aetherdrift that’s tied to the racing theme—sometimes a racer has to go all out in one desperate measure to try and get a leg up, and that comes in the form of Exhaust. Exhaust abilities can only be used once, and their high cost usually comes with a potentially high reward. As you can see in our preview of Marshal’s Pathcruiser above, its Exhaust ability lets it swap Artifact subtypes from Vehicle to creature (which would allow it to be used as crew for other Vehicles), and beef up its stats with two extra +1/+1 counters.

You’ll be able to see these cards, and many more, in action when Magic: The Gathering – Aetherdrift hits shelves starting February 14.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.