I noticed during an Aether revolt draft the other day that basically all vehicles are designed as just hyper-efficient creatures with a drawback. With one exception, they all just play a role in combat, and thats it. By far, my favorite vehicle design was Cultivator's Caravan because it bucks this trend. Its useful as more than just a weird creature. Realizing all this, I decided to try my hand at some new vehicle designs that would hopefully be more interesting than the vanilla fair we were given.
Ghoulcaller Cruiser 3
Artifact - Vehicle [U]
Crew 2 t : Each player puts the top card of their library into their graveyard.
Ghoulcaller Cruiser's power is equal to the number of creatures in your graveyard.
*/3
Artisan Express 5
Artifact - Vehicle [U]
Crew 4 2 : Target artifact creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
6/4
Mobile Ballista 5
Artifact - Vehicle [R]
Crew 3 t, sacrifice an artifact : Mobile ballista deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
7/3
...Let me know what you all think. I've never really designed vehicles before, so I'm not sure about the numbers on all these.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
- Manite
Well, the point of vehicles design is that they should give players a reason to crew them, which is why there are so few of them with tap abilities. Too many keyrune-esque vehicles would discourage players from crewing (non-vigilance) vehicles on their own turns because using them defensively would maximize their abilities.
For example, Mind's Flight doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Sacrifice cantrips make sense on mana rocks like Mind Stone because it gives you something to do when you have enough mana. There really aren't many situations to use that sacrifice ability unless you're chump blocking with it. A 3/2 flying body screams "attack with me" and would be useful at all stages of the game except when you don't have a board state. Even without the sac ability, this common would probably be on par with Renegade Freighter.
Vehicles that crew themselves are another design that Wizards minimized intentionally because the point of the entire subtype is to be an alternative take on equipment, a point that becomes muddled when you have tons of them that effectively have living weapon. Fleetwheel Cruiser at least encourages players to crew it normally in the turns following. I mean, why print vehicles that don't need creatures when you can just print regular artifact creatures instead?
Mind's Flight - Flying makes this quite good in limited, so (C) doesn't seem right. Given that every creature you have in limited will have 2 power, it's effectively just a "free" bolt to the face for 2. Too strong for limited, too weak for constructed.
Autonomous Patrol - Great design. Give it Fabricate 1 though.
Roving Road Block - Icy Manipulator + Vehicle is more or less Mana rock + vehicle (Cultivator's Caravan), so sure. I'd make it more obvious it's icy though... IE, Icy plus a 4/4 for 5 with crew 3 or something.
Clown Car - I'd be more interested if it created 1 token and needed 2 to crew. Also, costing issues.
Ghoulcaller Cruiser - This feels rare, could probably cost 4, should target, should have P+T = # in your card, and should probably have deathtouch or some other keyword.
Artisan Express - Interesting. I'd rather see this as a more moderately costed, smaller "pump" vehicle. Maybe make it target a vehicle creature only?
Mobile Ballista - Here's one that should have a low p/t and only be able to work when it's crewed. Cost would need to be adjusted accordingly.
Overall quite a few interesting designs. I sure hope we see Vehicles seeing a bit more exposure, like equipment, soon.
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Mind's Flight 2
Artifact - Vehicle [C]
Crew 2
Flying
t, sacrifice Mind's Flight : Draw a card.
3/2
Autonomous Patrol 3
Artifact - Vehicle [C]
Crew 1
When Autonomous Cruiser enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature token.
2/3
Roving Road Block 5
Artifact - Vehicle [C]
Crew 3
1, t : Tap target artifact or creature.
5/5
Clown Car 5
Artifact - Vehicle [U]
Crew 2
6, t : Create two 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature tokens
5/5
Oracle's Barge 3
Artifact - Vehicle [U]
Crew 1
t : scry 1.
2/3
Ghoulcaller Cruiser 3
Artifact - Vehicle [U]
Crew 2
t : Each player puts the top card of their library into their graveyard.
Ghoulcaller Cruiser's power is equal to the number of creatures in your graveyard.
*/3
Artisan Express 5
Artifact - Vehicle [U]
Crew 4
2 : Target artifact creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
6/4
Mobile Ballista 5
Artifact - Vehicle [R]
Crew 3
t, sacrifice an artifact : Mobile ballista deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
7/3
...Let me know what you all think. I've never really designed vehicles before, so I'm not sure about the numbers on all these.
- Manite
For example, Mind's Flight doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Sacrifice cantrips make sense on mana rocks like Mind Stone because it gives you something to do when you have enough mana. There really aren't many situations to use that sacrifice ability unless you're chump blocking with it. A 3/2 flying body screams "attack with me" and would be useful at all stages of the game except when you don't have a board state. Even without the sac ability, this common would probably be on par with Renegade Freighter.
Vehicles that crew themselves are another design that Wizards minimized intentionally because the point of the entire subtype is to be an alternative take on equipment, a point that becomes muddled when you have tons of them that effectively have living weapon. Fleetwheel Cruiser at least encourages players to crew it normally in the turns following. I mean, why print vehicles that don't need creatures when you can just print regular artifact creatures instead?
Autonomous Patrol - Great design. Give it Fabricate 1 though.
Roving Road Block - Icy Manipulator + Vehicle is more or less Mana rock + vehicle (Cultivator's Caravan), so sure. I'd make it more obvious it's icy though... IE, Icy plus a 4/4 for 5 with crew 3 or something.
Clown Car - I'd be more interested if it created 1 token and needed 2 to crew. Also, costing issues.
Oracle's Barge - interesting design. Seems quite strong.
Ghoulcaller Cruiser - This feels rare, could probably cost 4, should target, should have P+T = # in your card, and should probably have deathtouch or some other keyword.
Artisan Express - Interesting. I'd rather see this as a more moderately costed, smaller "pump" vehicle. Maybe make it target a vehicle creature only?
Mobile Ballista - Here's one that should have a low p/t and only be able to work when it's crewed. Cost would need to be adjusted accordingly.
Overall quite a few interesting designs. I sure hope we see Vehicles seeing a bit more exposure, like equipment, soon.