( Kolodin, Triumph Caster | Art By: John Stanko )

One often needs the fastest car and a steely resolve to win a race. We might not be racing for The AethersparkThe Aetherspark, but we are racing to see who can finish first in a game of Commander.

There are a ton of great commanders in the upcoming set Aetherdrift, but one that emphasizes putting the pedal to the metal is

Buckle up as we hit the Muraganda RacewayMuraganda Raceway and pump up the volume on our interplanar radio while we listen to Country RoadsCountry Roads.

Today, I will be your driver, and like always, my name is Nick. This deck might not be about family, but get ready to Start Your EnginesStart Your Engines and enjoy another Tech The Deck.

Pit Crew

The first step to having a good racing team is having a good pit crew along for the ride. And what better way to introduce the crew than by talking about the commander of the deck, our crew chief, Kolodin, Triumph CasterKolodin, Triumph Caster?

Why is Kolodin in charge of this deck over other classic vehicle cards like Depala, Pilot ExemplarDepala, Pilot Exemplar? To me, Kolodin is very special and interesting.

The ability to allow any vehicle (or mount) that enters to become crewed (or saddled) is a great way to get around the most annoying parts of a deck that wants to run vehicles (or mounts).

But sometimes, people want to cause problems for our crew chief, who must rely on the team he has assembled to help win the race.

First up, the former crew chief of the vehicle archetype is Depala, Pilot ExemplarDepala, Pilot Exemplar. She allows us to drive a bit beefier of a machine thanks to giving all vehicles +1/+1 and can allow us to dig deeper into our deck whenever she becomes tapped.

This means we do not even have to attack with Depala, and thanks to having three power, she does a good job at driving most of the vehicles we have at our disposal.

Astor, Bearer of BladesAstor, Bearer of Blades, has some text that is thoroughly irrelevant to us in this deck. What they do have is a great way to grab whatever vehicle in the top seven cards of our deck and take some of these hard-to-handle machines with large crew requirements and simplify them so that anyone or anything in our deck can sit nicely behind the wheel.

The best racers out there owe much of their success to a group or sometimes one single Hotshot MechanicHotshot Mechanic. This card looks unassuming, but once the other racers (our opponents) catch on to how vital Kolodin is to this deck running smoothly, a one-drop creature that can crew anything costing Crew 1 - Crew 4 can keep our wheels turning.

Occasionally, a driver might face a tough choice of which car to take for a spin around the track. That is when Interface AceInterface Ace comes in to save the day.

This creature allowed you to crew up two vehicles simultaneously on all your turns. If the worst part about this card is that I can only crew one car on another racer's turn, they are welcome on my crew any race day.

High Octane Racing

A part of racing that is never discussed is that sabotage is one of the greatest dangers to a racing team—sabotage in the form of our opponents sending our vehicles to the scrapyard, aka... the graveyard.

When that happens, we have a few ways to get our team back on track. The first thing to do is to give one of our vehicles a bit of a Tune UpTune Up.

After we do some work, we will never need to get behind the wheel of that vehicle ever again.

If our entire garage gets sent to the junkyard, then as a crew, we only have one option: cross the finish line first. That one trick is to Push the LimitPush the Limit on what we know as racing.

All joking aside, this is an all-star card in this deck. Mass reanimation is something that many decks look for when constructing their 99.

On top of bringing all your vehicles and mounts back to the battlefield, it turns them into creatures and gives all creatures you control, NOT just the ones you got back, haste for a turn.

Finally, if we get stranded on the mid-race track, we must remember to re- Start Your EnginesStart Your Engines.

If we find ourselves without a crew to drive, pilot, or steer any of our various vehicles, this card will let them run wild. The +2/+0 is a nice bonus that I won't scoff at.

Cards We Run So We Don't Crash

A good racer must know that being out on the track can get dangerous. But the first thing a racer needs to be aware of is how much life they have left to use for fuel. To help with this, we run Armed and ArmoredArmed and Armored to let us surprise our opponents with a massive board of blockers or as a way to finish them off at instant speed.

It will be no surprise to us that our vehicles will be the first thing that the rest of the table attempts to get rid of, and rightfully so.

So we need some ways to protect them from a removal spell. I choose to outfit the pit crew with Blacksmith's SkillBlacksmith's Skill and Clever ConcealmentClever Concealment. These allow us to save key vehicles or the entire fleet from our opponents' attempts to slash your tires.

Sick Whips

The most important part of the deck outside of our commander is our litany of vehicles and the "mods" we have for them. The deck runs 27 vehicles, and instead of talking about each and everyone, I will show off a few of my favorites.

To me, Reaver TitanReaver Titan is one of the most underrated vehicles in the game. It's a massive 10/10, blasts everyone for five damage on the attack, and is hard to get off the board thanks to its Void Shields.

Understandably, it was not a card many people would have seen because it was in Warhammer 40,000 Commander. At Crew-4, this card is reasonable even if we do not have Kolodin on the board, but it gets so much better when he is.

Another vehicle from a Universes Beyond Commander product, this time courtesy of Doctor Who, the Midnight Crusader ShuttleMidnight Crusader Shuttle makes an opponent face a villainous choice.

Either option will give them one less blocker to try and stop us with, but they at least get to decide if they loan us a creature or if it gets sent to their scrapyard instead.

A Vehicle that cares about Mounts, Mobile HomesteadMobile Homestead might not significantly damage our opposition, but it will help us keep playing on a curve and not go off the track as we take another left turn at high speeds.

Cheap and efficient is the game's name with this mobile home, and sometimes, that's just what a good racing team needs.

Lastly, the Mechtitan CoreMechtitan Core is just one of the most fabulous cards around regarding Vehicles. We should have plenty of other vehicles to send inside our deck to do their best impression of a transformer.

The Mods

We only have two modifications that we can give to any of our various "rides" in this deck. Whether it be siege or aerial, the purpose is another way to let a vehicle circumvent the need to be crewed or have a way to function without our commander.

One reason I wanted to take a closer look at this deck outside of Kolodin, Triumph CasterKolodin, Triumph Caster is a card that I thought was junk. That card is Nahiri's ResolveNahiri's Resolve. It might have been the decks that I played or looked at for different articles.

It might have been the standard environment where this five-mana "do nothing" enchantment premiered, or maybe it was a multi-year plant.

I am not sure if I could have made a more perfect card for this deck without making it too strong if I tried.

Pumping our creature's power and giving them haste are two of the most important things when playing an aggressive strategy and, in our case, running an aggressive race.

The timing of when your artifacts return to the battlefield synergizes so well with Kolodin. As long as we can keep our commander alive, the resolve will let us swing with all our Vehicles and Mounts every single turn without needing them to be crewed. It is by far my favorite card for this deck.

Crossing The Finish Line

Sometimes, the best way to win a race is to drive faster than the competition. It's nothing fancy, just good old-fashioned racing. That is precisely what we are trying to do with Kolodin, Triumph CasterKolodin, Triumph Caster behind the wheel.

It is a straightforward RW aggressive strategy, but instead of using creatures in the traditional sense, we are using things like the Thunderhawk GunshipThunderhawk Gunship.

Aetherdrift looks like an exciting set of cards for all commander players, but I want to hear if you share that thought or if you think this set will spin out at the starting line.

Let me know what you think of Kolodin, the set as a whole, or your favorite vehicle, even if it did not make the list. Maybe you feel the deck should focus on Mounts instead.

Either way, let me know, and try not to get run over by a speeding Bomat Bazaar BargeBomat Bazaar Barge or a Spire MechcycleSpire Mechcycle. I have been and will continue to be Nick; this has been another deck we have teched.

Nicholas Lucchesi

Player and lover of all Magic the Gathering formats. Forged in the fires of Oath of the Gatewatch expeditions. Always down to jam games with anyone and everyone. When not playing Magic I am doing something else equally, if not more nerdy.