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Depending on what sets end up coming out in the future, Aetherdrift may end up with the title of most vehicles printed in a set for a long time.
Kaladesh, the set where vehicles first debuted, only had 11 and Aether Revolt had a mere eight. So the entire Kaladesh block only had 19 total Vehicles. By comparison, Aetherdrift has an insane 41 vehicles, including a ton at every rarity.
So today I'm going to go over some of the cooler and more unique vehicles in Aetherdrift. Not all of these will be Constructed all-stars - I'm not sure that many of them are that busted or anything - but there are some spicy ones.
Let's begin!
Boommobile
This one is pretty interesting, but then again, a lot of the vehicles in this set are fairly unique. It's hard to evaluate how strong vehicles are as creatures because they're not always guaranteed to be creatures. If you don't have two power to crew this, then it's not a 5/5. But if you do, a 5/5 on the board with a Fireball attached that refreshes the mana spent to cast it with four mana for activated abilities seems pretty good.
Boommobile is tricky to evaluate though. The best time to cast this is obviously the turn you want to Fireball something, so treating this as an expensive X spell that leaves a 6/6 vehicle around seems like a good direction to go in.
Demonic Junker
Typically when you're showing off a card type in a set, you'll have a card of that type that destroyed a creature. Bone Shredder was that card for echo. Shriekmaw was that card for evoke. Demonic Junker is that card here.
This is seven mana, but it also has affinity for artifacts, so ideally not seven mana? If you can get this to cost three to four mana, this ends up being a solid removal spell, especially if you have multiple opponents. If you have a sacrificial creature of your own to target, to make this 4/3 into a 6/5, this shoots way up in value.
The Last Ride
The Last Ride is basically just a Death's Shadow that lets you draw cards and lower your life total for three mana a pop. Death's Shadow was an archetype-defining card, so of course The Last Ride is going to be somewhat popular. While needing a creature to crew this isn't the most ideal, having a built-in way to do the thing that Death's Shadow has always wanted to do, while also giving you a way to draw extra cards makes this look a lot more appealing.
Lumbering Worldwagon
While a crew cost of four seems a little high, the real benefit of this card is that you're paying three mana for a basic land when it comes into play. There are cards that solely do that, but this also ends up being a sizable creature, and lets you get additional lands every time it attacks. If you have a creature you want to use to crew this, your manabase can grow pretty quickly, and the floor for the Worldwagon is almost always going to be four power The best part is that even if it dies in combat, you've likely already got at least two lands into play and traded with either a removal spell or a creature.
Salvation Engine
Salvation Engine is super cool. While the crew cost is fairly high, even if you only have two 1/1 artifact creatures they'll be able to crew this thanks to the buff. This is like a Tempered Steel on steroids, that also becomes a 6/10, and can return any artifact from your graveyard to the battlefield upon attacking. That's kind of insane, especially if you have a way to cheat big, expensive artifacts into your graveyard. I have yet to see this card in any decks, but it does seem too cool not to show up eventually.
Thopter Fabricator
Thopter Fabricator is great. It's essentially a 4/4 flier for three mana that can eventually crew itself with the tokens it creates. In Constructed formats, drawing one additional card on your turn is pretty simple, and drawing two cards on the opponent's turn isn't all that hard either. For a control deck, Thopter Fabricator could be a great win condition all on its own, and if you have multiples in play, they could very likely get out of hand.
Thunderous Velocipede
A 5/5 for three mana is a great rate. The Velocipede also has trample. In addition to that, the Velocipede pumps your other small creatures by +1/+1 and your bigger creatures by +3/+3.
I can just imagine casting this for three mana on turn two, then casting something like a Questing Beast on turn three and attacking with a 7/7. This is one of the vehicles that you don't even really need to crew, because on board it just acts like a powerful Green enchantment. But you can crew it and attack with a beefy boy as well.
Valor's Flagship
Valor's Flagship is a real battleship, and reminds me of Parhelion II, which is likely why it's been seeing play in Greasefang decks in Pioneer. Really though, this is just a Decree of Justice variant that you can still do something with if it's clogging up your hand before you've hit seven mana.
If you do get it into play, you have a pretty beefy starship that doesn't take a lot to crew; only one of the pilot tokens it creates, in fact! How flavorful...
Anyway, thanks for reading and I'll catch ya next time!
Frank Lepore
