Here it comes! Here comes Aetherdrift! The most daredevil group of daffy drivers to ever whirl their wheels on Avishkar is off to the races, and we’re here to make sure that everybody has a fun, fair time on the multiversal track. We’ve compiled a list of cards to look out for and why, as well as how to remedy any issues that may come up. Are you ready to judge a quarter mile at a time? Well then… start your engines!
Four cards have one or more triggers that upgrade to a Warning when missed:
“Whenever a player casts a spell, if it’s not their turn, this creature deals 4 damage to them.”
Symmetrical effects tend to be great when you benefit from them and pretty rough when you don’t. In this case, forgetting to take 4 damage when you happen to Shock something on your opponent’s turn is pretty shockingly detrimental. The player will earn a Warning.
“Whenever a player casts a spell they don’t own, that player creates a Treasure token.”
Another symmetrical effect! This one is less likely to come up than Adrenaline Jockey above, but it’s possible. If an opponent casts a spell they don’t own, Gonti’s controller needs to point out they get a Treasure token.
“[Return all Mount and Vehicle cards…]. Sacrifice them at the beginning of the next end step.”
Generally speaking, any time you put permanents onto the battlefield from anywhere, keeping them around is better than not. While this spell lets you push through some damage, sacrificing all the Mounts and Vehicles it brought back is pretty clearly detrimental, so forgetting to do so earns a Warning. Note that since this delayed trigger undoes a zone change, the remedy never expires.
“[put target creature card with mana value 4 or less from a graveyard onto the battlefield …]. At the beginning of your next end step, exile that creature.”
Much like Push the Limit, getting rid of the thing we just brought back is pretty detrimental – especially now that it has all those shiny keywords on it. Even though the creature is exiled instead of going back to the graveyard, this still counts as “undoing a zone change,” which means the remedy doesn’t expire here, either.
Six notable cards have a trigger that does NOT upgrade when missed:
“When this creature enters, all other creatures get -2/-2 until end of turn.”
“But wait, this affects your own creatures as well. Doesn’t that make it bad?” Well… it’s maybe a downside, sure, but not enough to make it generally detrimental. As mentioned in Bloomburrow Missed Triggers Guide regarding Sunspine Lynx, the card’s controller is in a much better position to control exactly when this trigger happens. It’s reasonable to assume someone casting this is casting it because of the trigger, so there’s no Warning if they somehow miss it.
2. Carrion Cruiser, Dredger’s Insight, and Ooze Patrol
“When [this] enters, mill…”
Each of these cards directly benefits from the cards you mill in some way. Because of this, missing one of these triggers will not earn the player a Warning.
3. Speed Demon
“At the beginning of your end step, you draw X cards and lose X life, where X is your speed.”
Drawing cards is pretty widely considered a great thing to do in Magic, even if you have to lose some life to do so. While missing this trigger never upgrades to a Warning, it may be worth investigating a bit if the drawn cards or loss of life would have put the player in a particularly precarious position.
“[Exile up to one target artifact or creature]. Return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control at the beginning of the next end step.”
“Exile and return later” sort of effects don’t usually meet the threshold to be generally detrimental. The overwhelming majority of the time, a player casting Explosive Getaway will exile one of their own creatures to keep it from dying or to generate some value from it re-entering. A player who misses this trigger will not earn a Warning. Once again, since the delayed trigger undoes a zone change, the “window” for that trigger never expires; the artifact or creature is guaranteed to return to the battlefield once the error is noticed.
Other notable cards and mechanics:
“When this Vehicle enters, scry 2.”
Triggers that tell a player to scry or surveil are technically “missable,” but the resolution is simply that they chose to leave the cards on top of the library.
2. Detention Chariot and Perilous Snare
“When [this] enters, exile [something] until [this] leaves the battlefield.”
Unlike perennial all-star Oblivion Ring, cards using this template don’t have a trigger that returns the exiled card. If a player forgets to return the exiled object to the battlefield, handle that as a Game Rule Violation instead, not a Missed Trigger.
3. Flood the Engine and Silken Strength
“When this aura enters, tap enchanted permanent.” and “When this aura enters, untap enchanted permanent.”
Ah, yes, this set’s mandatory Blue Aura That Taps Something… Wait a second, what’s this green card doing here? Turns out, as far as fixes are concerned, pretty much the same thing! If a player forgets one of these triggers and doesn’t take the appropriate action on the enchanted permanent, we fix it by resolving that action immediately, no matter how long it’s been since the point of the error.
“When you next activate an exhaust ability that isn’t a mana ability this turn, copy it.”
You may notice that Pit Automaton’s Oracle text differs from its printed text, per Aetherdrift release notes. Without this change, Pit Automaton would have triggered when you activated e.g. Loot, the Pathfinder‘s first Exhaust ability, but then not do anything since mana abilities can’t be copied.
I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted. That’s all we’ve got for Aetherdrift. Join us next time when we return to Tarkir for Tarkir: Dragonstorm!