That the race itself was a bunch of formerly isolated planes trying to wield soft power over each other now that they're connected was such good worldbuilding.
Looking through the Aetherdrift cards while trying (and failing) to work on an assignment for one of my classes, and like, I'm sorry, that set was an all-caps BANGER. In retrospect, Aetherdrift was a really ambitious Magic set, especially in it's theme, variety, and art direction