Aethersphere Harvester MTG Card
2017-01-20 - Number 142
2017-01-20 - Number 142s
2020-11-12 - Number 218
2024-06-14 - Number 280
| Card sets | Released in 4 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 3 |
| Rarity | Rare |
| Type | Artifact — Vehicle |
| Abilities | Crew,Flying |
| Power | 3 |
| Toughness | 5 |
Text of card
Flying When Aethersphere Harvester enters the battlefield, you get (two energy counters). Pay : Aethersphere Harvester gains lifelink until end of turn. Crew 1 (Tap any number of creatures you control with total power 1 or more: This Vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.)
Cards like Aethersphere Harvester
Aethersphere Harvester stands out in the realm of vehicle cards in Magic: The Gathering. When examining this artifact vehicle, Heart of Kiran comes to mind, both requiring a crew cost of one. However, Aethersphere Harvester offers lifelink, an ability that gives it an upper edge by improving player life totals with each hit. Unlike Heart of Kiran, which demands a higher power from its crew, Harvester is more user-friendly, accepting any creature, regardless of power.
Another related card is Smuggler’s Copter, widely appreciated for its lower crew cost and the loot ability, facilitating card selection by discarding and drawing. Nevertheless, Aethersphere Harvester holds its ground with its energy reserve, allowing it to gain lifelink multiple times, supplying both offensive and defensive advantages. Considering Skysovereign, Consul Flagship, its higher crew cost and attack-triggered ability to deal damage cater to a different strategy than the Harvester’s approach of steady lifegain.
Each vehicle card brings unique aspects to the table, but Aethersphere Harvester carves a niche for itself with a balance of resilience, accessibility, and the potential to shift the tide of the game through consistent lifegain.
Cards similar to Aethersphere Harvester by color, type and mana cost
Decks using this card
MTG decks using Aethersphere Harvester. Dig deeper into the strategy of decks, sideboard cards, list ideas and export to play in ARENA or MOL.
| # | Name | Format | Archetype | Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Boros Dwarves | Pioneer | Boros Dwarves | Pioneer Preliminary 2023-12-19 (1) |
Card Pros
Card Advantage: With its ability to filter through the deck and possibly crew itself using smaller creatures, Aethersphere Harvester enhances your card utility, ensuring you get more value out of each played creature.
Resource Acceleration: Its moderate crew cost facilitates faster deployment compared to other vehicles, letting you speed up your board presence and apply pressure efficiently. This can shift the resource balance in your favor as your opponents struggle to keep pace.
Instant Speed: While not an instant itself, Aethersphere Harvester synergizes well with creatures that have flash, allowing you to strategically hold back threats and crew it at instant speed, keeping your adversaries guessing and your options open.
Card Cons
Specific Mana Cost: Aethersphere Harvester requires both generic and energy resources, which necessitates an energy-focused deck or adjustments to ensure you have the necessary energy counters to utilize its abilities effectively.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: Sitting at a three mana value of one generic and two colorless, while not exorbitant, can still be a significant early-game investment. Decks aiming for a quick tempo might find this cost restrictive compared to other vehicle or creature options that can apply pressure or offer utility more immediately.
Discard Requirement: While Aethersphere Harvester does not have a discard requirement itself, operating within a framework that leverages energy may require you to include additional pieces that synergize with that mechanic, potentially causing a tighter constraint on deck-building and hand management.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Aethersphere Harvester is a dynamic asset in a vast array of decks, particularly those needing resilient threats or life gain. Its flying ability allows it to soar over ground-based defenses while its crew cost remains low, making it a seamless fit in vehicle-centric or energy-based strategies.
Combo Potential: With the ability to accrue and utilize energy counters, Aethersphere Harvester can synergize with other energy mechanics. It also plays well with cards that boost artifact prowess or that bank on life gain for their own combos.
Meta-Relevance: In a meta with aggressive creatures, Aethersphere Harvester offers a robust defense through its lifelink capability, turning the tide of races. This tool is particularly potent in formats where its efficient cost and flexible utility challenge an array of common threats.
How to beat
Aethersphere Harvester stands out in MTG as a formidable vehicle card with flying and lifelink, a tough combination for many decks to tackle. With its ability to gain energy counters and use them to grant lifelink to itself, pilots of Aethersphere Harvester can often find themselves at an advantageous position, gaining life while chipping away at their opponent’s life total from the air. But like all cards, Aethersphere Harvester is not unbeatable.
One strategy to beat Aethersphere Harvester involves employing removal spells that target artifacts or that don’t rely on dealing damage, such as Disenchant or Abrade. These allow you to bypass the Harvester’s protective flying ability and remove it from the battlefield regardless of whether it’s crewed or not. Furthermore, cards with the “reach” ability, or creatures with flying can also serve to block Aethersphere Harvester effectively, potentially turning the tide of aerial combat in your favor.
To summarize, overcoming the challenge posed by Aethersphere Harvester requires a focus on artifact removal or flying denial, effectively grounding the threat and preventing your opponent from gaining the upper hand with this powerful vehicle card.
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Aethersphere Harvester MTG card by a specific set like Aether Revolt and Aether Revolt Promos, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.
For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.
Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.
Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Aethersphere Harvester and other MTG cards:
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- eBay
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
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- MTG Mint Card
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- Card Hoarder Magic Online
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Printings
The Aethersphere Harvester Magic the Gathering card was released in 4 different sets between 2017-01-20 and 2024-06-14. Illustrated by Christine Choi.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2017-01-20 | Aether Revolt | AER | 142 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Christine Choi | |
| 2 | 2017-01-20 | Aether Revolt Promos | PAER | 142s | 2015 | Normal | Black | Christine Choi | |
| 3 | 2020-11-12 | Kaladesh Remastered | KLR | 218 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Christine Choi | |
| 4 | 2024-06-14 | Modern Horizons 3 Commander | M3C | 280 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Christine Choi |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Aethersphere Harvester has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Historicbrawl | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Explorer | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
| Timeless | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Aethersphere Harvester card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2017-02-09 | Energy counters are a kind of counter that a player may have. They’re not associated with specific permanents. (Other kinds of counters that players may have include poison and experience.) |
| 2017-02-09 | Energy counters aren’t mana. They don’t go away as steps, phases, and turns end, and effects that add mana “of any type” to your mana pool can’t give you energy counters. |
| 2017-02-09 | If an effect says you get one or more , you get that many energy counters. To pay one or more , you lose that many energy counters. Any effects that interact with counters a player gets, has, or loses can interact with energy counters. |
| 2017-02-09 | Keep careful track of how many energy counters each player has. You may do so by keeping a running count on paper, by using a die, or by any other clear and mutually agreeable method. |
| 2017-02-09 | You can’t pay more energy counters than you have. |
| 2017-02-09 | multiple instances of lifelink on the same creature are redundant. |
| 2017-02-09 | is the energy symbol. It represents one energy counter. |
| 2017-09-29 | Any untapped creature you control can be tapped to pay a crew cost, even one that just came under your control. |
| 2017-09-29 | Creatures that crew a Vehicle aren’t attached to it or related in any other way. Effects that affect the Vehicle, such as by destroying it or giving it a +1/+1 counter, don’t affect the creatures that crewed it. |
| 2017-09-29 | Each Vehicle is printed with a power and toughness, but it’s not a creature. If it becomes a creature (most likely through its crew ability), it will have that power and toughness. |
| 2017-09-29 | For a Vehicle to be able to attack, it must be a creature as the declare attackers step begins, so the latest you can activate its crew ability to attack with it is during the beginning of combat step. For a Vehicle to be able to block, it must be a creature as the declare blockers step begins, so the latest you can activate its crew ability to block with it is during the declare attackers step. In either case, players may take actions after the crew ability resolves but before the Vehicle has been declared as an attacking or blocking creature. |
| 2017-09-29 | If a permanent becomes a copy of a Vehicle, the copy won’t be a creature, even if the Vehicle it’s copying has become an artifact creature. |
| 2017-09-29 | If an effect causes a Vehicle to become an artifact creature with a specified power and toughness, that effect overwrites the Vehicle’s printed power and toughness. |
| 2017-09-29 | Once a Vehicle becomes a creature, it behaves exactly like any other artifact creature. It can’t attack unless you’ve controlled it continuously since your turn began, it can block if it’s untapped, it can be tapped to pay a Vehicle’s crew cost, and so on. |
| 2017-09-29 | Once a player announces that they are activating a crew ability, no player may take other actions until the ability has been paid for. Notably, players can’t try to stop the ability by changing a creature’s power or by removing or tapping a creature. |
| 2017-09-29 | Vehicle is an artifact type, not a creature type. A Vehicle that’s crewed won’t normally have any creature type. |
| 2017-09-29 | When a Vehicle becomes a creature, that doesn’t count as having a creature enter the battlefield. The permanent was already on the battlefield; it only changed its types. Abilities that trigger whenever a creature enters the battlefield won’t trigger. |
| 2017-09-29 | You may activate a crew ability of a Vehicle even if it’s already an artifact creature. Doing so has no effect on the Vehicle. It doesn’t change its power and toughness. |
| 2017-09-29 | You may tap more creatures than necessary to activate a crew ability. |