Crew be like Ramp
Standard forum
Posted on Jan. 19, 2017, 9:20 a.m. by Argy
I was having a discussion the other day about having to Crew Vehicles.
The other person was positing that having to Crew a Vehicle with more than one Creature was inefficient.
I played Vehicles all of last season and I learnt fairly quickly that, while you had to be able to do stuff with your other Creatures, and have at least one other Win Con, if you built your deck right it was often the Vehicles that garnered you the win.
Thinking about it some more, if you told a Green player in the past that they could tap two Elvish Mystics on Turn 3 in order to get a Flying 4/4 with Vigilance, they would probably consider that a good deal.
Even better if you said that the 4/4 had Haste.
In my scenario Inventor's Apprentice, Speedway Fanatic, Scrapheap Scrounger, or some of the cheaper Dwarves would be used in place of Elvis Mystic (thankyou very much).
I think a lot of issues that people have with Vehicles is that they haven't learnt the value of them, like they have with using mana dorks.
On Turn 5 I can deal 3 damage to a Creature/Planeswalker and the next turn, if I turn two of my other Creatures sideways ("tap" them), I get a Flying 6/5 that deals 3 damage to a Creature or Planeswalkers every time it attacks?
I'd call that value.
The biggest issue with Vehicles is losing your Crew members. With stuff like Scrapheap Scrounger, Wandering Fumarole, and/or Counter spells in the mix you can offset that.
Come at me.
VEhicles are pretty much new-fangled Equipment with a different way to pay equip costs. Equipment upgrades weaker creatures. The inefficiency part of vehicles for me comes when you have to do it every turn.
Also, Heart of Kiran's crew cost is a bit high for just 2 elvish mystics. Also, if you had 2 elvish mystics, you could cast Archangel Avacyn Flip on turn 3 for pretty much the same 4/4 flying vigilance.
January 19, 2017 9:43 a.m.
Since most vehicles have their power at twice the crew cost, deciding to crew a vehicle is deciding to go tall instead of wide. Basically, instead of playing two 2/2s, you play a 2/2 and a vehicle that swings for 4.
It's just a different playstyle, one that is totally viable.
January 19, 2017 10:38 a.m.
I will say though, that if you build your deck correctly, you can Crew your Vehicles with only one Creature.
Or one land.
So that 6/5 I spoke about is getting Crewed by a two drop 3/2 Creature.
UpperDeckerTaco says... #2
I think you're taking a stance that is incomparable. Ramp accelerates your deck to be faster. Crew just allows you to attack for slightly more damage (sometimes) or for value. But in all honesty, it is only good against decks that cannot go wide or decks that play a lot of removal (especially sorcery speed removal). It is actually inefficient to use more than 1 or 2 creatures to crew a vehicle. Think about it, you are tapping almost your complete team to attack with 1 creature that, if it suffers the fate of a removal spell, you almost got time walked and left yourself open to an attack. Whereas in a ramp shell, you accelerate your board turn after turn after turn. Basically, think of it this way, if you had to tap more than 1 creature to attack with 1 creature, that's not efficient. Especially if that one creature doesn't have evasion or game breaking abilities.
January 19, 2017 9:36 a.m.