MTG Aetherdrift cards have arrived in Standard, and the set is having a large impact right away. Many well-established archetypes have gotten major improvements from Aetherdrift’s release. Even simple upgrades like Spell Pierce can make a huge difference.
One group of cards that have overperformed out of the gates, though, are the vehicles. The design team clearly pushed a large number of vehicles, as a variety of decks have begun implementing some specific powerhouses.
Today, we’re going to focus on the vehicles that are making their presence felt the most in Standard. Whether you’re playing aggro, midrange, or ramp, there are potent vehicles to help maximize your gameplan. To kick things off, let’s take a look at one that can end the game in a heartbeat.
Gastal Thrillroller in Red Aggro
For fans of assertive red decks in Magic: The Gathering, Gastal Thrillroller is quickly showing signs of being a very strong sideboard option. As a 4/2 with haste, Gastal Thrillroller hits hard the turn it comes down. It conveniently dodges Cut Down and Go for the Throat, and even if the card does die, you can always resurrect it on a later turn for another big attack.
The obvious downside is that Gastal Thrillroller is poor as a defensive card. This coupled with the fact that Gastal Thrillroller lines up so poorly against Burst Lightning and Torch the Tower makes it quite weak in red mirrors.
However, against slower decks like Domain and mono-white tokens, having a beater that dodges Sunfall is hugely important. This card plays a similar role as Urabrask’s Forge, but it piles on damage much faster. Plus, you don’t risk getting absolutely blown out by Authority of the Consuls like you do with Forge. Expect Gastal Thrillroller to be a solid sideboard card for the foreseeable future.
Voyager Glidecar in Boros Convoke
Next, we have another aggressive deck that got a neat vehicle upgrade in Voyager Glidecar. Voyager Glidecar is very cheap and works exceptionally well alongside Gleeful Demolition. Gleeful Demolition provides three creatures at once that can immediately crew Voyager Glidecar and let you start buffing your evasive vehicle.
Voyager Glidecar also provides a target for Gleeful Demolition in a pinch. Before Aetherdrift’s release, most Convoke decks were Jeskai builds, splashing blue for Spyglass Siren as another artifact producer in conjunction with Novice Inspector. Now, between Voyager Glidecar and Nesting Bot, there’s a strong incentive to stick to two colors to have access to a more consistent manabase.
Nesting Bot, another addition from Aetherdrift, is a much stronger option for Convoke than Voyager Glidecar, but players have been experimenting with both.
Thunderous Velocipede in Gruul Delirium
Thunderous Velocipede is our next vehicle, and this one packs a huge punch. In any game that breaks into a board stall, Thunderous Velocipede will completely take over.
In Gruul Delirium shells in particular, Thunderous Velocipede is a nice piece of top end. Getting to make your future copies of Wildfire Wickerfolk even more threatening goes a long way.
Of course, you also get a 5/5 with trample for your troubles, which your primary one-drop in Patchwork Beastie can crew just fine. It adds to your artifact count to even help enable Delirium if you mill over it.
Thunderous Velocipede simply adds a ton of power and toughness to the board at little cost, which is worth the mana investment in a lot of spots. Notably, Thunderous Velocipede is a nice tool in decks that produce tokens, such as Selesnya Collector’s Cage shells. So don’t sleep on this powerhouse.
Lumbering Worldwagon in Domain
Lumbering Worldwagon is an intriguing card that can fill the ramp role for Domain strategies in Standard. As purely a ramp element, it isn’t quite as reliable as something like Heaped Harvest. However, Lumbering Worldwagon makes up for this by being much stronger in the late game.
Any of your Overlords are capable of crewing this vehicle when applicable. Overlord of the Mistmoors produces just enough power among its tokens to crew it even if you cast Overlord for its impending cost. Then, when you attack, you get to search for more lands that make Lumbering Worldwagon larger in the process.
Between this card’s ability to ramp, end games, and attack problematic Planeswalkers like Kaito, Bane of Nightmares, this card pulls its weight. It’s unlikely it’ll show up in huge numbers given that Overlord of the Hauntwoods can fill a similar spot in the curve and is generally a stronger card, but having some redundancy is nice at the very least.
Debris Beetle in Golgari Midrange
Lastly, we have Debris Beetle. Debris Beetle is an interesting card that has a lot of competition in Golgari decks. After all, beating out Sheoldred, the Apocalypse for slots is no easy feat.
That being said, Debris Beetle is incredible on rate. The life drain ability gives you a decent cushion the turn you play it. It has a low crew cost, and as a 6/6 with trample, is incredibly difficult to block down in combat.
Unlike Sheoldred, Debris Beetle is very tough for most decks to remove. As long as you can consistently play creatures to crew it, Debris Beetle will get the job done.
The decklist shown above showcases Debris Beetle’s power to the max, featuring Bloodghast as a recursive creature to crew it. Even in a more traditional Golgari midrange decklist with Mosswood Dreadknight, though, Debris Beetle is a scary card to face down.
Vehicles aren’t always the easiest cards to maximize in Constructed, so seeing all these artifacts make a name for themselves in the first few days is awesome. I’ll be exciting to see how the Standard metagame evolves from here.