Last week, I started showing off Aetherdrift's vision design handoff document, the document that's created at the end of vision design to give to Set Design. Everything below is the actual document save for the text in boxes, which is commentary from me.

Enjoy!

Energy

Aether Skiff {1}{U}
Artifact — Vehicle
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, you get {E} (an energy counter)
Pay {E}: CARDNAME becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.
Crew 2
3/3

Poker {R}
Creature — Devil
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, you get {E}.
Pay {2/e}: CARDNAME gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
1/2

Energized Pack {2}{G}
Sorcery
Kicker — Pay {2/e}{G/e}
Create a 3/3 green Beast creature token. If this spell was kicked, create an additional one of those tokens.

A key component of racing is fuel, and energy does a great job of capturing that from a mechanical perspective. Plus, we're trying to create enough energy cards for older formats like Commander.

While the majority of our focus is on Limited, Standard, and Commander, we do think about the impact of design decisions on other formats, especially things like reusing mechanics that don't have a prominent role in older formats.

The Vision Design team decided to approach energy in a different way than we have before. Here are the key differences:

Energy is an alternate cost rather than a resource on a separate track – The Kaladesh block used energy as a resource that didn't mingle with any other, forcing players to go all in if they wanted to play energy. In "Tennis," most energy costs have a secondary cost you can pay as an alternative, usually mana. We even made some new hybrid energy/mana symbols: {2/e} and {e/m}, with m being a color of mana. This strategy of energy allows you to splash it easier. Think of it more as a means of saving mana than a different resource.

Energy can be used as a kicker cost – Besides the new symbol, energy kicker is our new twist on energy for the set. All the kicker costs have an alternate mana option.

We are stingier about providing energy – In Kaladesh and Aether Revolt, energy was too easy to stockpile. In "Tennis," our goal is to provide a lot of cool energy outputs but less energy sources. This way, we have a lot of control in formats like Limited and Standard while allowing exciting things to happen in larger formats where you can add energy cards from "Tennis" to the higher energy-acquisition cards already in those formats.

There are ways to remove/steal your opponent's energy – For the Kaladesh block, we made the decision not to mess with the opponent's energy, which ended up restricting our ability to give the players tools to fight it if it got out of control. "Tennis" has adopted the strategy that we can make cards that directly interact with the opponent's energy. It also plays nicely into the flavor of teams sabotaging one another.

Energy is the least important of the three pillars, although we do think it adds a lot to the set.

I'm not surprised energy was cut. The note we got about complexity at the Vision Design Summit made it clear the set had a bit too much going on. I do hope we find a place for energy to return in a premier set, though. A lot of the things we tried here were effective, and I'm eager to put them to use in a future set. As history shows, I'm patient when it comes to finding a home for energy.

Speedy

Speedy(Permanents with crew, flash, and/or haste are speedy.)

King of Speed {2}{W}
Creature — Human Pilot
Speedy creatures you control get +1/+1. (Creatures with crew, flash, and/or haste are speedy.)
3/2

Motion Blur {1}{U}
Enchantment
Flash
Speedy creatures you control can't be blocked by non-speedy creatures.
Speedy permanents you control can't be the target of sorcery spells. (Permanents with crew, flash, and/or haste are speedy.)

Mad Max {1}{R}
Creature — Human Warrior
Whenever a speedy creature you control attacks, CARDNAME deals 1 damage to target opponent. (Permanents with crew, flash, and/or haste are speedy.)
2/1

Now we get to the smaller mechanical themes. Speedy is a batch mechanic that connects creatures and Vehicles with crew, haste, and/or flash together under the flavor of being fast. The set wanted cards to interact with Vehicles (and creatures with crew steed) for Limited, but this batch allows us to give older formats more resources to build decks and allows us to make haste and flash, both mechanics that normally don't matter past the first turn, have a mechanical purpose later in the game.

If this ends up being a bit too much, Set Design can revert these cards back to just caring about crew and make this more of a Limited mechanic.

Which is exactly what happened. Speedy is a good example of a mechanic that's flavorful but just isn't carrying enough weight to make the cut. My favorite part about it is that it turned haste and flash from virtual keywords (i.e., only mattering the turn you play the creature) to keywords that could matter later in the game. I also get why we split apart saddle from technically being crew. Sets that want to care about both can spell it out, and it tends to add words in places where saving text isn't as important.

"Traveling"

Spectator Blimp {3}{W}{W}
Artifact — Vehicle
Flying
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, you gain 1 life for each differently named land you control.
4/4

Traveling Rogue {1}{U}
Creature — Naga Rogue
Whenever CARDNAME attacks, scry 1. As long as you control four or more lands with different names, CARDNAME gets +1/+0 and can't be blocked.
1/3

Toski's Traveler {G}
Creature — Squirrel
Landfall — Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, CARDNAME gets +1/+1 until end of turn. If you control four or more lands with different names, instead put a +1/+1 counter on it.
1/1

Traveling is an unnamed theme that cares about how many lands you control with different names. We noticed that lands captured the sense of travel, so we built a small mechanic around caring about having differently named lands. Most the cards that care have a threshold of four (it's possible that's not the right number) where they turn on, but we do have a few scaling cards in the set as well. The big concern about this mechanic is that it might just be too easy to accomplish, especially in Constructed, meaning that the bonuses couldn't be that big. This is a theme that could easily be cut if space is needed for other stuff or if it's just too hard to balance correctly.

Traveling is a good example of a what R&D calls a "greedy" mechanic. Being greedy means the mechanic asks a lot of a set's structure. For example, for traveling to be relevant in Limited, we must be willing to ensure the set's nonbasic as-fan is high enough, which basically means you need a bunch of nonbasic lands at common. If the set doesn't already have that need, it's too big of an ask, so this mechanic is one that can only be used when the rest of the set is providing the needed structure for other reasons. I know we make sets that can support it, so I can imagine us using it one day, but Aetherdrift was not that set

Another strike against traveling was that it is what we call a "tracking" mechanic, which means the player has to spend mental resources caring about what state it's at. The set already had start your engines! and energy doing that. At one point in set design, Yoni made a play aid that looked like a dashboard with a speedometer and a fuel gauge. The speedometer tracked your speed in the race, and the fuel gauge tracked your energy.

Back-Up Mechanics

Because we recognize that a few of the mechanics above may be difficult to execute, we came up with some back-up mechanics that could be swapped in if anything above had to be cut. These are below, ordered by most to least useful for the set.

Vision Design's job is to help Set Design be as successful as possible. One of the ways to do that is to overdeliver. We tend to do that in two ways: One, we often hand over a file with more than it needs. Sometimes that's an extra mechanic or two. Sometimes that's fleshing out a mechanic with more executions than are necessary. This allows the Set Design team to eliminate things without the need of a new mechanic. Two, we usually list a bunch of mechanics that we tried but didn't make the cut. If multiple mechanics are cut, the Set Design team now has some options to consider as replacements.

Encourage

Encourage — Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, ____.

Driving Buddy {1}{W}
Creature — Human Pilot
Encourage — Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, it gains first strike until end of turn.
2/2

Pit Goblin {2}{R}
Creature — Goblin
Encourage — Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, it gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
2/2

Loxodon Sponsor {3}{G}
Creature — Elephant Pilot
Encourage — Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, it gets trample until end of turn.
3/3

This ability is basically exalted from Shards of Alara but more open-ended, so you can grant abilities other than +1/+1. This mechanic plays nicely with Vehicles, as often the strategy is to tap multiple creatures to attack with one big Vehicle. Because we're tweaking it, it will allow us to get a new name, something generic (as I'm sure we'll use it again) that sounds good with racing. We like the flavor of it representing teamwork, which would reinforce all the teams in the set.

Tweaked exalted is a popular mechanic. It's been in several vision designs. It gets used a bunch, but normally at a low enough volume that it doesn't need an ability word. I do believe the right set will come along for it one day.

Tour

Tour (Look at the top card of your library, if it's a land, you may exile it and repeat this process. Then draw a card.)

Eager Scout {1}{W}
Creature — Human Scout
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, tour. (Look at the top card of your library, if it's a land, you may exile it and repeat this process. Then draw a card.)
2/2

Attentive Hawk {2}{U}
Creature — Bird
Flying
When CARDNAME deals combat damage to defending player, tour. (Look at the top card of your library, if it's a land, you may exile it and repeat this process. Then draw a card.)
1/1

Attentive Hawk {2}{U}
Instant
Target creature gets +3/+3 and gains trample until end of turn. If it deals combat damage to defending player, tour. (Look at the top card of your library, if it's a land, you may exile it and repeat this process. Then draw a card.)

Tour is a keyword action that lets you draw a card but allows you to skip drawing land if you don't want to. It could be used like cycling on cards with narrower effects or just in places where you might normally draw a card. We like that it conveys a sense of seeing places, which plays into the larger theme of the race. We probably wouldn't do tour and "touring," as they tap into a similar flavor.

I do like the flavoring of all the lands you see as places you're visiting. I'm skeptical of this mechanic, as the inconsistency of the draw plays an important role, so I'm not sure you'd want to do this at a high enough volume to warrant a keyword.

Racer

Racer N (When an opponent has lost N life in a turn, this creature completes the race.)

Dedicated Racer {1}{W}
Creature — Human Pilot
Racer 3 (When an opponent has lost 3 life in a turn, this creature completes the race.)
When this creature completes the race, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
2/2

Flying Ace {3}{U}
Creature — Human Pilot
Racer 3 (When an opponent has lost 3 life in a turn, this creature completes the race.)
When this creature completes the race, put a +1/+1 counter on it and draw a card.
2/2

Hot Shot {2}{R}
Creature — Human Pilot
Haste
Racer 3 (When an opponent has lost 3 life in a turn, this creature completes the race.)
When this creature completes the race, put a +1/+1 counter on it and deal 1 damage to any target.
3/1

Racer is a fallback if Set Design decides to get rid of the race. This is a smaller version that only cares about the final leg of the race, which was the most interesting part of it. It gives you a single task to permanently upgrade your card, usually with +1/+1 counters, but it can generate other effects as well.

Sometimes this list of extra mechanics includes what we call a "fallback" mechanic. A fallback mechanic is designed to fill a void if another specific mechanic in the set must be removed. We understood start your engines! might be a bit too much, so we designed something simpler if needed.

Pick a Gear

Pick a gear (As this enters or you attack, pick high gear or low gear.)

Speed Racer {2}{R}
Creature — Goblin Pilot
Pick a gear (As this enters or you attack, pick high gear or low gear.)
High Gear – This creature gets +2/+0.
Low Gear – This creature gets +0/+2.
2/2

Cheaty Fellow {3}{B}
Creature — Zombie Rogue Pilot
Pick a gear (As this enters or you attack, pick high gear or low gear.)
High Gear – This creature gets lifelink.
Low Gear – This creature gets menace.
3/3

Focused Driver {2}{W}
Creature — Human Pilot
Pick a gear (As this enters or you attack, pick high gear or low gear.)
When you shift into high gear, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
When you shift into low gear, you gain 2 life.
2/3

This is another racer-themed mechanic that could replace the race. Some creatures have pick a gear, which allows you to shift between two states. It's possible those two states are similar (+2/+0 and +0/+2) or entirely separate depending on the creature. It's also possible picking a gear triggers an effect.

We do love modal effects. For most sets, we look to see if there's a way to flavor modal effects, and we did like the idea of choosing a gear. This was another fallback mechanic for start your engines!

Racecar

Racercar (2, Exile CARDNAME from your hand: Create a 3/2 Vehicle token with crew 1. You may cast this spell from exile if that token dealt combat damage to an opponent. Activate only as a sorcery.)

Study the Car {3}{U}
Instant
Draw two cards.
Racecar (2, Exile CARDNAME from your hand: Create a 3/2 Vehicle token with crew 1. You may cast this spell from exile if that token dealt combat damage to an opponent. Activate only as a sorcery.)

Sabotage the Enemy {1}{G}
Instant
Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
Racecar (2, Exile CARDNAME from your hand: Create a 3/2 Vehicle token with crew 1. You may cast this spell from exile if that token dealt combat damage to an opponent. Activate only as a sorcery.)

Giant Truck {6}{R}
Artifact — Vehicle
Trample
Crew 5
Racecar (2, Exile CARDNAME from your hand: Create a 3/2 Vehicle token with crew 1. You may cast this spell from exile if that token dealt combat damage to an opponent. Activate only as a sorcery.)
8/8

Racecar is a mechanic like cycling where you can trade in your card for another resource, in this case a Vehicle token. If there's a need to cut down on the total number of Vehicles, this mechanic would allow you to raise the as-played number while still having a more normal spell count.

This falls into a subset we call "cycling" mechanics, where you can trade an unneeded card in your hand for another resource. While we didn't use this mechanic specifically, the 3/2 artifact Vehicle token with crew 1 did make it into the set.

In Conclusion

I'm quite proud of all the work the Exploratory Design and Vision Design teams did (along with the Creative team) to create a multiplanar racing set. I know this set is being handed off a little bit higher on the complexity level than an average set, so I'm interested to see what the Set Design and Play Design teams do with it. If you have any questions about anything in (or not in) this document, please come talk to me.

Thanks,
Mark Rosewater

"And we're off!"

With that, we come to the end of the document. As always, I'm eager to hear your thoughts on it or on Aetherdrift itself. You can email me or contact me through any of my social media accounts (X, Tumblr, Instagram, Bluesky, and TikTok) with any feedback.

Join me next week for a look at the history of Vehicles in Magic.