The preview season for Aetherdrift is finally over. The set, which focuses on an interplanar race between Amonkhet, Avishkar, and Muraganda, brought back characters like Chandra Nalaar. The set reuses mechanics like Vehicles, but also experiments with some abilities that haven't appeared in Standard in over 20 years, like Affinity.
For Modern, Aetherdrift offers some useful options, like Ketramose, the New Dawn, which is worth testing in the newly born Orzhov Vial and also in Psychic Frog lists, which have been adopting a splash of for Pest Control lately.
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Other highlights include cards of varying rarities, from the mythic Brightglass Gearhulk and its toolbox versatility to the uncommon Marauding Mako that can make Hollow One decks even more aggressive.
The Ten Best Aetherdrift Cards for Modern
10 - Demonic Junker

Demonic Junker is a removal that counts towards Affinity and, by itself, triggers Simulacrum Synthesizer and other cards that care about high mana values while having a good enough body for their cost, but needing to tap creatures to crew it is counterintuitive to everything Affinity has historically tried to do, and therefore is unlikely to find a home in Modern without some concessions.
9 - Repurposing Bay

Repurposing Bay is a Birthing Pod for artifacts and can find ways to generate powerful interactions, especially with Affinity cards like Sojourner’s Companion and similar ones to search for eight-mana bombs like Sundering Titan or Cityscape Leveler.
I believe these combinations are too slow for Modern and decks with this theme would benefit more from playing Simulacrum Synthesizer in the three-mana slot, but a Birthing Pod is still a Birthing Pod.
8 - Memory Guardian

Memory Guardian is an upgrade of Somber Hoverguard that is now also an artifact, in addition to having Affinity. Yes, like the cards above, it interacts with Simulacrum Synthesizer and other Affinity permanents, but with the bonus of being a pitch for cards like Force of Negation, or even a permanent that we can sacrifice for Flare of Denial.
7 - Transit Mage

Just like in Timeless, Transit Mage is a potential inclusion in Mono Blue Goblin Charbelcher lists because it finds the key card of the combo while being fodder for Flare of Denial and pitch for Force of Negation.
We can consider including it in other artifact-based lists, but most of those decks don't want to pay for a tutor that puts cards in hand when they have Whir of Invention in the format.
6 - The Aetherspark

It's hard to imagine The Aetherspark having much of a place in Modern without cheating its mana costs and/or generating so much colorless mana that is an easy cost to overlook, so it's a card that has two possible homes around two other cards: Karn, the Great Creator and Stoneforge Mystic.
Some Eldrazi Ramp variants have adopted a Karn toolbox for specific answers against various matchups, and in that case, it would be possible to use a copy of The Aetherspark to draw two extra cards before or after each combat since all Eldrazi tend to attack for more than five damage, making it an attrition tool.
In Stoneforge Mystic lists, it's likely that this equipment would be paired with Colossus Hammer in Hammer Time and/or other cards that could take advantage of it in combat to generate the same effect as drawing two cards each turn after equipping it.
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In both cases, it's essentially a tool for attrition, and I'm skeptical about how much Eldrazi needs a card like The Aetherspark to have more momentum in the game, or how much Hammer Time wants an artifact that does very little on its own in its original game plan - In both cases, this new card feels a bit win more, but a Planeswalker Equipment is something new in Magic, and we need to be careful about how we measure Planeswalker effects that fit any creature and have a high loyalty boost.
5 - Radiant Lotus

The Krark-Clan Ironworks at home, Radiant Lotus costs more than its predecessor and its ability requires more precise timing to work in Modern since it taps to sacrifice artifacts and generate excess mana that will be reused in an “Eggs” strategy with Faith’s Reward and similar.
The possibilities of Radiant Lotus can go beyond the classic Eggs to try other interactions with Karn, the Great Creator and other cards with high mana value to make artifact-based archetypes burst quickly in the game - this may not be the best card in Aetherdrift for Modern, but it is certainly the one that players will spend the most time trying to make work, and if they can, we better prepare our stocks of Tishana’s Tidebinder and similar effects.
4 - Marauding Mako

The home for Marauding Mako has a name and a surname: Hollow One. In times past, Flameblade Adept was a staple of the archetype for its damage potential with Burning Inquiry and Faithless Looting as early as the second turn, and Marauding Mako grants this same potential permanently with +1/+1 counters.
Having a 4/4 on the board attacking on turn two while your Burning Inquiry brought another 4/4 on the board with Hollow One and possibly a +2/+2 pump and Haste on it with Detective’s Phoenix is enough to win some games for free; thus this card is either a potential staple for this archetype, or deserves a few slots moving forward.
3 - Marketback Walker

Marketback Walker can complement the threat package of Hardened Scales decks, where it doubles as a source of card advantage when sacrificed with several +1/+1 counters to Arcbound Ravager and in games where we want a carrier for those counters that punishes the opponent for using removals like Fatal Push.
Potential staple, and you can check out our more detailed analysis of it for Standard, Pioneer, and Modern here.
2 - Brightglass Gearhulk

Brightglass Gearhulk is one of those cards that is very powerful in a vacuum, but may struggle to find a place in Modern.
Its main obstacle is the cost which prevents it from entering some lists that, perhaps, would be interested in it to search for cards like Mox Opal or even the famous line of Colossus Hammer and Sigarda’s Aid or Shadowspear. These decks normally have Urza’s Saga, and casting four colored mana in a Saga list is a challenge - in fact, Gearhulk can find two Urza’s Saga and put them in its owner’s hand as well.
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Other relevant targets for oit include the combination of Guide of Souls with Ocelot Pride, or Cauldron Familiar with Witch’s Oven if any player still uses this combo in some form in Modern, hate pieces like Chalice of the Void and Engineered Explosives, Ghost Vacuum, among others.
The fact that Brightglass Gearhulk is a green creature also makes it a target for Green Sun’s Zenith, which can give it space as a one-of in Amulet Titan lists to fetch two copies of Amulet of Vigor, or the combination of Amulet of Vigor and Expedition Map to fetch Tolaria West and, with it, pull Summoner’s Pact for Primeval Titan, not to mention the possibility of using it as a complementary threat and one-of in decks with Birthing Ritual, or even with Karn, the Great Creator if a list with appears and has an easy time paying its mana costs.
Versatility defines this new creature, and while it has some challenges to overcome to reach the Modern Metagame, it has a lot of potential to emerge in some archetypes.
1 - Ketramose, the New Dawn

Ketramose, the New Dawn has a dozen interactions in Modern that make it both a powerful threat for a low cost and a constant source of card advantage. Some notable examples include the interaction of Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd and Ephemerate with ETB effects on Orzhov Vial that have already made it a competitive archetype in Modern, and Ketramose fits perfectly into this archetype, despite not being found by Recruiter of the Guard.
Other interactions include Solitude with Ephemerate, or the combination of Psychic Frog with Ketramose that make it easier to reach the threshold of seven cards in exile for it to transform into a creature, or even the interactions of Graveyard Trespasser with it that can guarantee a slot in decks like Esper Oculus, since it also benefits from the additional cost of Abhorrent Oculus.
The combination with Psychic Frog also allows Ketramose to show up Goryo’s Vengeance lists, which use the full package of Frog, Solitude and Emperor of Bones, all cards that can interact with this new deity.
Conclusion
That's all for today!
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!
Thanks for reading!
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