Depala and her Dwarven friends are tired of being looked down on, just because they're short! The time to rise up is now! And what better way than with the equivalent of a game of Mario Kart! It's Wacky Races time, start your engines!
Dwarven/Vehicles Tribal
17 of the 30 creatures in the deck are dwarves and there are 13 Vehicles, just shy of a third of the deck. Most of the creatures themselves aren't that big, With Gisela, Blade of Goldnight being the largest individual creature, but with only 3 vehicles that have a base power lower than 4 (and all of those have some measure of evasion), your Vehicles are largely going to be your biggest guns. Creatures are smaller intentionally to take advantage of Meekstone or
Marble Titan
, only 13 creatures in the deck will have to worry about their ability to stop power 3+ creatures from untapping, while your Vehicles stop being creatures at the end of the turn they're crewed, so they do untap and are ready to be re-crewed the next round.
Depala, Pilot Exemplar buffs both Dwarves and Vehicles (while creatures) by +1/+1 and can basically scry both of them into your hand for a bit of mana when she crews. She's on a three-drop, so even if she gets knocked out, she stays affordable a bit longer than some Commanders
Metallic Mimic becomes a creature subtype of your choice when it hits the board and then gives a +1/+1 counter to his new tribe members once they hit the board, but since Vehicles technically aren't creatures until they've been crewed they wouldn't get the activation trigger, so Dwarf the Mimic.
Chief of the Foundry gives a flat +1/+1 to other artifact creatures, but at 2/3 he isn't too big to untap from Marble Titan's ability, making him a great crew member.
Sram, Senior Edificer helps your card draw by letting you pull one for every time you cast a Vehicle (there's 13) or Aura (there's 3). It technically works with Equipment too, but this deck doesn't run any, so...
Dwarven Driller
is an old Dwarf and a good Dwarf. Tap to force an opponent to Sac a land or get timmed for 2. Beyond that, he can always be used to crew, but those 2 damages every time you tap for the ability add up.
Duergar Mine-Captain
has a flexible casting cost and a good power for crewing, but his real strength is in his ability. If you have enough mana, he can single-handedly crew an entirely field of Vehicles WHILE buffing everything that attacks by +1/+0 for every time you've untapped him. Hell, you could untap him too, so he could get in on the action, and then HE'D get buff for attacking too!
Aeronaut Admiral
while he doesn't get Dwarven tribal buffs and would get kneecapped by Marble Titan, that wont stop him from giving Flying to your Vehicles.
Demolition Stomper
gets more unblockable, you get flying trains, flying racecars, flying ballista, flying
Peacewalker Colossus
, flying everything!
Veteran Motorist is cheap, scrys for 2 when he hits the field, buffs anything he can crew by +1/+1, and can crew all but 3 Vehicles on his own. Seems pretty self-explanatory.
Hanweir Garrison makes more crewing weenies on an attack, and melds with
Hanweir Battlements
to make the unsettling mass that is Hanweir, the Writhing Township, doing the same thing as the Garrison, just doing a better job of it with his 7/4 power, trample, haste and 3/2 twin spawn.
Marble Titan
keeps all creatures with power 3 or more from untapping during the untap step, but that doesn't stop Vehicles since the stop being artifact creatures at the end of the turn and turn back to normal artifacts, which DO untap. Lather, re-crew, repeat. While he can potentially slow you down if your board if your weenies have gotten too big to untap, he can still give you some breathing room in multiplayer games. If you need to remove him, there's always Caught in the Brights, or you could swap it with Meekstone from the sideboard if you want the same card, except as a cheaper artifact instead of a 3/3 White creature, which does make it slightly easier to remove on your own, but probably does the same for everybody else.
Vehicles
We got an AT-AT, we got Angry Trains, we got a dang Gundam and Airships and Racecars, oh my!
Extra Combat Rounds and Double Damage
Everyone likes having extra combat rounds and doing double damage, except for everyone on the receiving end. Gisela, Blade of Goldnight and Insult / Injury both get you twice the damage and stack with each other, giving potentially quadruple damage on a turn, while Gisela cuts incoming damage by half. Insurrection, Relentless Assault, Aurelia, the Warleader, and Combat Celebrant all get you extra combat phase, and two of them get you extra main phases for gravy. Every time you untap your creatures, you get more chances to crew up more vehicles, and therefore bigger beat-sticks. If someone tries to stop you by getting in a field wipe, you can use the ability on
Legion's Initiative
to avoid it, and smack them hard in return when your field returns thanks to Warstorm Surge.
