#mtg aetherdrift

Yeah there aren't actually any people living here at all (except for the cactus guys & they don't count) so you don't need to worry about the fact we're doing settler colonialism! Cowboys! You like cowboys right?

There are native american stand-ins here too but they're also coming here from another plane! There aren't any significant differences between them and the white characters, WotC doesn't see race! That's hip. That's Woke™.

Hey look, all those characters you liked from previous sets are here! Why are they here? Uh. Reasons. We put Rakdos in a cowboy hat isn't that quirky

Lore for the set that's about Mario Kart:

Hmm a generic go wide green mythic, seems nea-

Wait

Computer, Zoom and Enhance!

!!!

Are these all supposed to be a part of the Alacrian Quickbeasts delegation? Because why does Lagorin look like the only phantastical beast I've seen here, while all the other white/green mounts are just .... regular animals (sometimes just bigger)? And not just art, but comparing creature types as well

Number 8 - 1,700 decks

Gonti, Night Minister

After spending some time blowing off steam as a cowboy on Thunder Junction, Gonti now returns to Kaladesh (now Avishkar) to serve as the new government's Night Minister, whatever that title is supposed to mean. Despite now being a legitimate politician, Gonti is no less willing to steal your opponents' shit. In fact, they now encourage your opponents to steal from each other as well. Anytime someone hits one of your opponents, that player gets to steal a card off the top of the defending player's deck, and gets a Treasure if they decide to cast it.

Gonti synergizes with cheap evasive creatures that will ensure you can trigger their ability as often as possible, like Changeling Outcast (74% synergy) and Tormented Soul (70%), as well as other theft-synergy cards like Thieving Varmint (70%).

Gonti is currently the 34th most popular mono-Black commander, having already passed their original card in popularity. They stand just behind Samut as the 185th most popular commander this week (236 new/updated decks). Theft as a theme has been done a lot in black recently, with both Rev, Tithe Extractor (#31) from Foundations Jumpstart and Tinybones, the Pickpocket (#27) from Outlaws of Thunder Junction both playing in this space. The main thing Gonti brings to the table now is allowing your other opponents to steal from each other, allowing them to function as a psuedo-goad deck. This seems to be working out for them, as they're poised to pass both in the next few months.