Extinguisher BattleshipExtinguisher Battleship by Danny Schwartz

Edge of Eternities explores the stars and pushes the bounds of what planes and genres Magic calls its own. I’m talking aliens, wormholes, plasma beams. And most importantly, Spacecraft.

Lots of Spacecraft.

But Spacecraft need crews, much like Vehicles. And that’s where the new “station” keyword comes into play.

Introduced in the new set to represent the crew within your space-faring craft, station as a keyword rhymes with crew - metaphorically, that is. While it'll most definitely be overrun by token swarms and cheap creatures, it’s a mechanical representation of the effort it takes to pilot a spaceship.

What’s the Crew Mechanic?

Crew is a keyword Vehicles use, allowing you to tap creatures to convert said Vehicle from an artifact into an artifact creature until end of turn. The Vehicle will indicate a listed number and the combined power of all the creatures you tap to crew your Vehicle must equal or exceed that number.

BoommobileBoommobile has crew 2, meaning you would need to tap at least two power’s worth of creatures to turn it from an artifact to an artifact creature. It has some other abilities that it can use regardless of if it’s being crewed, but it can dip in and out of being a creature quite easily.

Below are some other examples.

How Is Station Different From Crew?

Station is an evolution of the crew mechanic. Just like in crew, each station ability will have a number indicating its station threshold. However, you don’t need to do it all at once.

One of the major differences between station and crew is that station tends to have much higher thresholds. But to compensate for this, tapping creatures adds charge counters to the Spacecraft equal to its power. Upon having enough charge counters to equal or exceed its threshold, the Spacecraft permanently becomes a creature.

Assuming it doesn’t lose the charge counters, that is.

Often, a Spacecraft that reaches its station threshold will become an artifact creature and gain some special ability. Sledge-Class SeedshipSledge-Class Seedship becomes a flying creature that lets you cheat out creatures every time it attacks.

Meanwhile Wurmwall SweeperWurmwall Sweeper has an enter-the-battlefield effect as an artifact but otherwise just transforms into a modest flyer.

There’s More Than Ships

But sometimes, a card with station doesn’t transform into an artifact creature at all! Each color has a land associated with it with the new subtype Planet. Each of these also has the station keyword but doesn’t convert it into an artifact creature.

Evendo, Waking HavenEvendo, Waking Haven simply gains a second, higher-scaling means of mana generation. Fitting for green! And doubly so given you’ll likely have multiple creatures on the board by the time you can fully station it.

Adagia, Windswept BastionAdagia, Windswept Bastion allows you to copy your artifacts or enchantments. Quite useful, but a far cry from converting into something such as Dawnsire, Sunstar DreadnoughtDawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought.

Why Does This Matter?

You can only station at sorcery speed. This is true for Spacecraft as well as Planets.

This, functionally, makes Spacecraft worse than Vehicles. Yes, Station is a semi-permanent effect by adding power counters, but it lacks speed and flexibility - two things that a extremely important for a commander.

Spacecraft as Commanders

Truthfully, I wouldn’t be as harsh to station if it weren’t the core mechanic of Spacecraft, a new veritable fleet of commanders.

Legendary Spacecraft or Vehicles that turn into artifact creatures are now valid commanders, which is an absolutely lovely change. If you want to make a deck with only Vehicles and Spacecraft, you can do that!

But suddenly, Spacecraft have to compare themselves to other commanders. And while I won’t bring up meta-defining commanders such as Atraxa, Praetors' VoiceAtraxa, Praetors' Voice... commanders which can’t function at instant speed simply can’t keep up.

And it doesn’t even have to be focused on instant-speed effects to be viable.

Bristly Bill, Spine SowerBristly Bill, Spine Sower allows you to add a +1/+1 counter to a creature on a landfall trigger. While this is typically reserved for your turn, fetch lands such as Evolving WildsEvolving Wilds mean this can trigger outside of your turn.

Similarly, the ability to spend five mana to double the +1/+1 counters on your creatures is always useful, but can upend entire tables if used at the proper time.

Spacecraft Cannot Station the Same Way

Even if you have untapped land and a Spacecraft on the board, you can’t Station them to get a last-minute defender or activate an integral ability. If one of your legendary creatures is going to be destroyed, you can’t station The SeriemaThe Seriema in a rush to save that creature.

Spacecraft are forced into the role of slowly-growing artifact while simultaneously trying to act as a commander. The fact Spacecraft and Planets allow you to invest in them and then they actually have built-in dividends is a great idea! But they can only grow at sorcery speed while the vast majority of effects occur at instant speed.

Call that niche. Sure.

But it’s also demonstrably more inflexible than many non-Spacecraft commanders out there. And given that one of the big pushes of Edge of Eternities is Spacecraft commanders, that’s a failure of the mechanic.

No Response

Given that station is at sorcery speed, it can’t respond effectively to being altered by an opponent. Similarly, your Spacecraft won’t ever be able to be involved in any “surprise” plays.

There are multiple ways to remove counters from other permanents, many of which trigger or can trigger during combat. If a player is defending with a Galvanizing SawshipGalvanizing Sawship that has three charge counters on it, being attacked by Etched SlithEtched Slith or FerropedeFerropede could simply remove the defender.

That doesn’t sound too bad, but now expand that to if your commander Inspirit, Flagship VesselInspirit, Flagship Vessel has eight charge counters on it. If it loses a counter, not only do you lose a blocker, but your other artifacts no longer have hexproof and indestructible.

Where you simply… can’t respond. At least not until your next turn.

You might have access to other means of protecting your Spacecraft such as counters or Equipment. But the same could be said for other commanders. They have the same strengths of being protected by other spells without the weakness of relying on charge counters.

And that isn’t even to mention other, more total and instantaneous counter-removal.

Station Should Be Instant

That title’s the core of it. Station as a mechanic is an interesting evolution of crew that ultimately causes Spacecraft to falter their landing, particularly given their status as commanders.

Being able to utilize entire ships as your commanders are cool! And the ability to invest in these multi-turn projects is both an incredible fantasy as well as a tie-in for great plays.

But it’s too slow. It’s not able to interface with your opponents in the same way other commanders can and is completely countered by, ironically, counter removal.

Station being at sorcery speed for Planets, though, seems reasonable. Not only does it make sense from a flavor-perspective that an entire planet would be much more effort to station, but lands simply aren’t as active out-of-turn than artifacts, creatures, or artifact creatures.

Or commanders.

Another Perspective

Perhaps you’re feeling more favorably on the station tag? Or you agree with my criticisms, but just feel the need to examine what exactly the pros of this slower, planned-out version of the mechanic might be?

In either case, check out this counter-argument by Roman, which goes over why station being sorcery might not be the worst thing after all. And perhaps why the pros of it might outweigh the cons I listed here.

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