Wizards of the Coast has revealed their first new Magic: The Gathering set of 2025. The latest set, Aetherdrift, brings a unique spin to the popular card game: a massive fantasy racing grand prix spread across three different planes. One of those planes is an old favorite with a changed name.
The Aetherdrift Announcement
In an official blog post, Wizards of the Coast lets players know what they can expect in Aetherdrift. The set will revolve around ten racing teams competing in The Ghirapur Grand Prix, the most high-stakes racing competition in the Magic: The Gathering multiverse.
The race will go through three different planes: Avishkar, Amonkhet, and Muraganda. Furthermore, the ten teams featured are as diverse as the premise suggests. They include The Speed Demons, whose vehicles are powered by demonic spirits, the Mad Max-coded Endriders, the chaotic Goblin Rocketeers, and the shark-people group known as The Keelhaulers.
As for the grand prize waiting the lucky winner, it is an artifact of power known as the Aetherspark, which can potentially grant the user the power of a Planeswalker.
But among all of this worldbuilding and lore is that one of the planes isn't a new one, but an older one under a different name: Avishkar. It was originally known as Kaladesh, the Indian fantasy-themed setting from Magic's history.
So why the change? The in-universe explanation is the plane was named after the Avishkar Assembly, a newly appointed democratic governing body which rose to prominence after overthrowing its monarchal Consulate government which the Phyrexian Invasion weakened. This ties the world to the events of an earlier set, March of the Machine.
The real world explanation is a bit more complicated. In a separate blog post, Wizards of the Coast explains that the name Kaladesh carried unfortunate connotations in some Hindi dialects. Given that the setting is heavily inspired by India, it was an issue that had to be addressed.
According to their consultants, the name Kaladesh can be read as "kala-" meaning "tomorrow" or "art" and "-desh" meaning "home" or "country." On paper, this sounds fine. But, "kala-" can also be associated with the meaning "black" which carries colorist and racist connotations.
The new name, Avishkar, was also the result of this consultation. It comes from the Hindi word, "aavishkar" which means "invention." All earlier cards from earlier Kaladesh sets will still be referred to as such, but all cards released in the future will be called Avishkar.
Aetherdrift will be available worldwide February 14, 2025.
