With the heavily vehicle-focused Aetherdrift set just around the corner (heh), there's never been a better time to look back at the best vehicles from Limited formats gone by. Despite the relatively short history of the type - they debuted eight years ago in original Kaladesh - and despite usually only having a few cards per set, we have had some format-defining all stars.
A quick word on Smuggler's Copter before we begin. 17Lands Data doesn't go back as far as original Kaladesh, but I'm confident it would have been in contention for best card in the set. It did appear on The List for Murders at Karlov Manor - and it was good enough to make this list based on its win rate - but it felt wrong to include it. I think regular bonus sheets are fine in articles like this, but seeing a specific card on The List was too sporadic to be useful. Still, the fact that Smuggler's Copter was an A+ card in a set it wasn't really in is pretty funny and speaks to its crazy power level.
Weatherlight - Dominaria
An early contender from not long after the Vehicle type was first added to the game. As well as being an integral and beloved part of Magic lore, The Weatherlight was certifiable bomb in its Limited format. A flying 4/5 for four was already good, and a crew cost of three was manageable if unexciting. But in a set full of historic cards, the on-hit ability was often better than "draw a card." The fact that a 4/5 flier is so hard to block meant that you were getting this ability pretty much on demand, as well, and it's no surprise the card had a 61.4% win rate when drawn.
Skysovereign, Consul Flagship - Kaladesh Remastered
We don't have data for original Kaladesh, and Smuggler's Copter wasn't includ-ed in Remastered, so Skysovereign, Consul Flagship takes first in a heavily stacked field. Bear in mind, we're talking about a higher win rate than cards like Aethersphere Harvester and Heart of Kiran. It's par for the course that the debut set for a new mechanic will have some of the most powerful cards that mechanic ever sees, but original Kaladesh block (and the remaster) really prove this truism. Repeatable removal on a 6/5 flier that eats blockers, all for the low entry cost of Crew 3? Yeah. It's easy to see why this was not only the best vehicle in its set, but straight-up the best card full stop.
Esika's Chariot - Kaldheim
The next set to heavily feature vehicles was the next to feature a vehicle that defined Standard during its time and still sees Pioneer play to this day. If you round up, Esika's Chariot had a very nice 69% win rate, and it's easy to see why. The floor on this card is 4 power spread across two bodies. The ceiling is single-handedly winning the game by proliferating every turn while simultaneously attacking for four. The fact that the Crew cost is four is a bit of a joke when you actively want to tap your tokens for it anyway and the card provides its own fuel. If you ever crewed this with one of the 4/4 troll tokens or, heaven for-bid, a 4/4 angel the game felt like it was finished immediately.
Reckoner Bankbuster - Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty
Another nod to Smuggler's Copter here, in the sense that this card was also too good for Standard. While that doesn't always translate to Limited, it certainly did here. Colourless bombs are al-ways going to get a bump from being able to go in any deck, and this one also gets to be good in multiple spots. Good when you're ahead? Goodness, yes. Absurd when at parity? Check. Dragging you back from behind? You bet. This card attacks for four, draws your cards and eventually even makes an extra body. Sure, a 1/1 isn't great, but the fact that it can crew the Bankbuster by itself is a nice little cherry on top of an already delicious cake. Everything it does feels fine on its own, but when you add them all up it quickly gets out of hand.
Magmatic Galleon - The Lost Caverns of Ixalan
What if we removed flying from Skysovereign but made it easier to crew and had it deal more damage? Yeah, turns out it's still incredible. You only get to kill one creature here, but the range of things you can kill is much bigger, meaning that your 5/5 is very likely to be the biggest thing on the battlefield. Crew 2 is almost negligible by that part of the game, so getting into the red zone. Oh, and it makes you some treas-ures, which, in this format, could still be useful even if you didn't have anything to spend the mana on.
A lot of the cards on this list follow familiar trends in the history of limited bombs. Three of the five are colourless, therefore go into any deck. Many of them seem innocuous at first glance but end up being greater than the sum of their parts. Almost all of them feature a repeatable, positive effect. Four out of five require Crew 3 or less, and the only one that needs more kind of pays you off for crewing it, anyway while providing the exact amount of power required for the job. I think the biggest takeaway is that, moving into Aetherdrift very shortly, we should be keeping an eye on vehicles (or saddles) with Crew 3 or less.