The Speed Demon

Legendary Creature — Demon

Flying, trample

Start your engines! (If you have no speed, it starts at 1. It increases once on each of your turns when an opponent loses life. Max speed is 4.)

At the beginning of your end step, you draw X cards and lose X life, where X is your speed.

Tokens

• Start Your Engines!

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Standard Brawl	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (5)

TheVectornaut on Fast Demons

1 month ago

I'm not sure what format this is intended for so I'm sorry if any of my suggestions aren't legal. Most decks aiming for big demons opt for reanimation over other turbo out options, but I think you can make it work for a casual deck. I like Quicksilver Amulet for instance and I think you could also consider Heartless Summoning, Ancient Cellarspawn, or Crypt Ghast. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx makes Coffers slightly worse but I can't imagine it being a bad inclusion with so many black pips. Another option would be to include more demons in the low mana range so that you have some board presence early. Some that came to mind are Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire for tutoring, Master of the Feast if you want to lean into a Underworld Dreams/Orcish BowmastersGC plan, Desecration Demon for stats and potential board denial, and Nightmare Shepherd for removal insulation. Really though, if you want more consistency, the best thing you can do is add more copies of your best cards. This does incentivize picking a clear direction and you don't want to consolidate too much here lest you get too low on unique names for Contract. If I was building this, I think I'd go to 4 copies of Spawn of Mayhem and 2-4 The Speed Demon with a focus on dealing damage or life loss to get their relevant triggers. Changeling Outcast is perfect for this so I'd up them too. Removal like Smallpox or the safer Geth's Verdict can incur life loss, and I do recommend upgrading from Sorin's Thirst and Cremate anyway. Fatal Push, Dismember, and Feed the Swarm are all options with varying strengths and weaknesses. That's just one direction too. You could just as easily build around foretell with Dream Devourer and some symmetry-breaking Damnations, Rite of Consumption effects with overstatted guys like Abyssal Persecutor, or pure devotion with Gray Merchant and Bloodletter alongside tools like The Meathook Massacre or Leyline of the Void. If you pick the handful of demons you enjoy playing the most and run more copies, you'll have more games actually playing with them and can save your tutors for emergencies more often.

Optimator on Moocifer Rising

7 months ago

Forsaken Wastes

Roiling Vortex

Manabarbs

Demonic Counsel

Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls might be mandatory.

The Speed Demon draws a ton of cards

Coward_Token on Ob Nixilis Demon Tribal

7 months ago

Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire and The Speed Demon are some other potential candidates for the helm, and are good in the 99 too

Argy on Long Black

11 months ago

I’m not trying to do Max Speed with this deck.

That’s because I really want to play The Speed Demon while my Speed is at 1 or 2.

If it is 4, that card kills me very quickly.

I initially had The Speed Demon as my Captain, but the life loss was too much to bear.

---

This deck is the third in a series of decks StuBi and I are going to play at home.

The other two are Good Luck, Babe and Well Good Luck, Babe

We are calling our Commanders Captains, to stick more with the Aetherdrift theme.

It seems that I am going to need to buy some more cards for this deck, as it can’t beat the others. I’m not going to dip into Bloomburrow, as I don’t like that set.

---

As for how I’ve been, I found out a year ago that I am autistic, which has really shaken my life up. I was 56, at the time.

It has made me quite housebound, and I lost a lot of confidence.

I prefer Magic that isn’t competitive these days. StuBi and I have fun with a Jumpstart Battle Box that I built, and the Doctor Who Commander decks.

I wouldn’t have bought any more cards, but I have waited to go back to Kaladesh and play with lots of Vehicles forever.

That made Aetherdrift right up my alley. I absolutely love the set symbol, while I hate the ones for Kaladesh, and Aether Revolt.

Many of my friends I used to see at my LGS have moved on, which made the prerelease not quite as fun. At least StuBi came along, and we had a good time comparing cards we had opened.

I enjoyed my first match, but the two others were awful. The last bloke just Milled me 4 cards on each of his turns. Kind of depressing to watch all your good cards go straight into the bin.

So yeah, ups, and downs.

Gidgetimer on Tips for the prerelease

1 year ago

Overall, great tips. I do disagree about the Start Your Engines mechanic though. If you get the right cards it can absolutely win you the game. It isn't enough to turn a bad card good, but it can turn a good card great. (Disclaimer: I did pull The Speed Demon and it might warp my perception.)

Also, the statements "You must Crew your Vehicles prior to Combat, if you are going to attack with them." and "You cannot move to Combat, then Crew your Vehicles, then declare them as attackers." are wrong. Crewing is instant speed and can be done on the beginning of combat step. There is only one beginning of combat trigger in the set and it already auto Crews a vehicle, so it is of little use in this set. But in a format where you can play Citadel Siege alongside vehicles, the Siege trigger might change what you can Crew and how.