Quick! Look Over Here While Everyone is Distracted by MH3
While we’re still in preview season for Modern Horizons 3, a set that will no doubt have an impact across various formats and majorly influence the prices of many cards, let’s not forget that Wizards has plans announced for future adventures through next year. We know we’re going to Bloomburrow and Duskmourn later this year, but I’m perhaps most excited for what we’ll get with the “Tennis” Expansion set to release in Q1 of 2025. This is also known under the working title of “Death Race,” and per Mark Rosewater at Gen Con 2023, is bound to be a rip-roarin’ adventure across three planes in the style of Death Race 2000, Wacky Races, Speed Racer, and The Fast and the Furious. While almost nothing is known about the set, we can be certain there will be one thing - lots and lots of Vehicles. So strap on your seatbelts as we take a look at some cheap Commander pickups to snag before more information about “Death Race” is revealed to try and get ahead of the curve.
With the set so far in the distance, and Wizards reprinting anything that remotely sees any play, it’s wise to keep this list as cheap as possible, especially considering how we have basically no real in-depth information on the set. So while something like Lita, Mechanical Engineer could be great in a Vehicle deck, it’s already $13 as is, and the potential gains that could come from picking these up for a racing-themed set are negated by potentially greater losses that a reprint would bring.
It’s a Bird, it’s a Plane, it’s a… Shark?
One thing we know is that in order to drive the many Vehicles that are likely to be introduced in this set, you’re going to need a crew, and assembling one of these is one of the more irksome aspects of putting together a Vehicle deck. If you're mostly running noncreature permanents, one of the best ways to put together said crew is to guarantee you get some creatures on the field when you cast Vehicles, and while there are a variety of ways to accomplish this, my favorites have to be Chrome Host Seedshark and Shark Typhoon.
Yes, for some reason in Magic: The Gathering, Sharks belong in the sky (looking at you, Shabraz, the Skyshark), and I’m not going to argue the logic because these cards are so unique and impactful… and the concept is admittedly pretty cool in itself. Both of these cards operate in the same way, guaranteeing you get a creature on the field to crew your Vehicles as you cast them, but what separates them from the Third Path Iconoclasts of the world is how strong the creatures in your crew will be. Sure, getting a 1/1 is great, but if you have a Vehicle with Crew 7 it's not going to be much help; Shark Typhoon and Chrome Host Seedshark will get you fatter bodies to throw into your rides more consistently. And while Chrome Host Seedshark requires a bit more setup, it has a much lower mana cost and actually works in your favor if you’re in a board wipe-heavy meta or playgroup - your tokens from Shark Typhoon will die to a wrath effect, but the eggs from the Seedshark will not, and you’ll be free to animate them and ride into battle to your heart’s content the following turn. Seedshark will run you about $3, surprisingly the same price as Shark Typhoon, which is down to its absolute cheapest due to a Commander reprint in Thunder Junction - a steal considering it was around $17 two years ago.
| Chrome Host Seedshark | | |
| Chrome Host Seedshark (Extended Art) | | |
| Shark Typhoon | | |
| Shark Typhoon | | |
| Third Path Iconoclast | | |
For similar reasons as the Sharks just mentioned, Kykar, Wind’s Fury is amazingly synergistic with Vehicles and is sure to be a hot commander if some decent rides are printed in Jeskai colors. While the tokens Kykar creates are 1/1, their ability to sacrifice themselves to create mana after crewing Vehicles allows you to keep a level of solid forward momentum in a deck archetype that might otherwise run into walls. The Commander Masters reprint absolutely obliterated the price of this, so whether you think it’s worth picking up a stack and hoping it somehow rebounds with Death Race or you just think you’re going to try the deck out at some point - at $0.35, now is the best time to pick this one up.
But what if, for whatever reason, you don’t have access to any of these cards? In that case, might I recommend Displacer Kitten, which guarantees that if you only have one creature, even if it’s just the Kitten itself, you can repeatedly crew other Vehicles as long as you’re casting noncreature spells. So you could, for example, crew a Vehicle with a creature, then cast another Vehicle which flickers said creature, so they can crew again, and so on and so forth. Displacer Kitten can even provide a bit of evasion under the right circumstances - if someone tries to Path to Exile it or another creature under your control, you can just cast any noncreature spell to flicker and make their target invalid, allowing you to avoid removal while repeatedly crewing. Honestly, since Paradox Engine is banned, Displacer Kitten is the closest thing we have to a replacement, and while it’s definitely not as ubiquitously good, it has some versatility and deserves a nod. Its price tag of $8 is far higher than anything else on this list, but it’s fully deserved and is also the cheapest it has ever been and likely will be, considering it’s useful in a variety of builds and we won’t see a reprint soon due to it being a D&D character.
| Kykar, Wind's Fury | | |
| Kykar, Wind's Fury (Foil Etched) | | |
| Kykar, Wind's Fury (Borderless) | | |
| Displacer Kitten | | |
| Displacer Kitten (Extended Art) | | |
Other Pickups
There are other ways to get your Vehicles up and running besides crewing with big creatures, however, and that’s where Astor, Bearer of Blades comes in. A criminally underused card from Dominaria United, Astor is great at the helm of a deck, or even just in the 99. He reduces the cost to crew down to a single power, alongside reducing equip costs and providing you with the ability to dig for a solid Vehicle every time he enters the battlefield. Hell, imagine this alongside Displacer Kitten - buddy, now that’s a stew you got goin’. In a similar vein, Kotori, Pilot Prodigy reduces the crew cost of Vehicles you control to two and provides some combat benefits as well, though out of the two I definitely think Astor has more utility. Both of these have stayed dirt cheap since their original, and only, printings, so besides moving sideways they quite literally have nowhere else to go but up. I might not go out and grab stacks of these, but if you need to round out trades between now and this set’s release and see either of these in a binder, they may not be the worst pickups.
And finally, I want to give a short, quick shout-out to Mech Hangar, one of a handful of extremely budget yet effective Vehicle-centric cards from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. It goes without saying, but this should be considered an auto-include in any Vehicle deck as a way to ensure your Vehicles always have some way to animate themselves, even if you control no other creatures at the moment. For less than a quarter, this is an easy pickup. And while it’s not going to completely warp games, there are absolutely instances where it can come in clutch to help a win. So why not grab one?
| Astor, Bearer of Blades | | |
| Astor, Bearer of Blades (Textured Foil) | | |
| Mech Hangar | | |
In Conclusion
With the exception of the colorless Mech Hangar, all these recommendations fall under Jeskai colors, and I’m excited to see what WIzards does with this upcoming set in green and black to make them just as useful in Vehicle strategies. Until then, this is what we’re working with, and I think the above cards are great to be on the lookout for between now and then. And much like a souped up dragster barreling through various planes, life comes at you fast… before you know it we’ll be caught up in our own Death Race at Wizards’ hands. And when that time comes, don’t you want to be prepared?
Further Reading:
The History of MTG Finance
