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Speed Kills (Balthier and Fran Ultra-Budget)

Commander / EDH Bracket 2 RG (Gruul) Vehicle

clayperce

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Creatures (27)

Card-Advantage (12)

Targeted-Disruption (10)

Tokens (18)

Vehicles (15)

Support (11)

Mass-Disruption (3)

Protection (2)

Commander (1)

Commander: Balthier and Fran

Ramp (15)

Lands (38)

Card-Selection (3)

Grave-Hate (3)

Recursion (3)

Maybeboard

Creatures (3)

Card-Selection (1)

Ramp (1)

Recursion (1)

Support (3)

Grave-Hate (1)

Tutor (1)

Land (2)

Card-Advantage (1)

Vehicles (1)

This is a VERY inexpensive (i.e., aiming for USD $25 and absolutely no more than USD $50) Bracket 2 deck, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

CREATURES

  • Balthier and Fran, of course: I've loved Gruul since I first started playing Magic (waaaaaay back in Revised) and I've loved Vehicles since I first played them (way back in a Kaladesh pre-release). So it's really no surprise that playing Balthier and Fran has seriously been the most fun I've had playing Magic in years!
  • Iron Spider, Stark Upgrade: Vigilance (which allows us to attack and then Tap after Declare Blockers), +1/+1 counters, and Card Advantage? Sweet!

VEHICLES: Lumbering Worldwagon, Mighty Servant of Leuk-o, The Regalia, and Thunderous Velocipede are just sooooooo good!

TOKEN GENERATION AND SUPPORT: Arlinn Kord is really just everything the deck wants in a Planeswalker. My usual play pattern is to 0 her for a Wolf token and then repeatedly +1 her Arlinn, Embraced by the Moon side for trample.

BUDGET UPGRADES: These are all just a little too pricey for our ultra-budget pod, but I'd absolutely run them if I could ...

Creatures:

Support:

Lands: Cragcrown Pathway would be my first add, followed closely by Abstergo Entertainment.

ALTS WORTH CHECKING OUT:

  • I know it's super-flavorful, but I really dislike the artwork on the Smuggler's Copter from Final Fantasy: Through the Ages.
  • The Hot Wheels Aether Drifters Secret Lair Smuggler's Copter is amazing, but all the rule text is on the back, and I hate the thought of having to pull it out of its sleeve for people who are unfamiliar with the card. One of these days, I'm going to pick one up and put the OG card in my token box as a reference, if needed.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions, and please don't hesitate to +1 Upvote if you like the deck!

Cheers!

Shout-outs to ...

Suggestions

Updates Add

Made some MAJOR changes to the deck — Feb. 19, 2026
Edit

CHANGES:

  • Fewer vehicles/more crews: "Vehicle flood" was a real risk in earlier versions, so I took a hard look at the numbers. I wanted a ~70% chance of a vehicle in the opener and 70% chance of having one available on Turn 6 (either because we protected/recurred the first, or because we drew a new one), so the deck now has 15x vehicles + 5x protection/recursion effects (down from 23x + 3x). Additionally, I wanted 3x more crew than vehicles (earlier versions struggled with the crack-back ... this change gives us plenty of creatures to crew vehicles defensively), so the deck now has 45x creatures/token generators (up from 30x).
  • More emphasis on creatures with power 2 and vehicles with crew 2 and 4: Crew 3 proved to be surprisingly inefficient in pervious versions, so I've tried to avoid it as much as possible.
  • Less ramp, in general (and less land ramp, specifically): Earlier versions ramped harder and presented big threats earlier, but struggled to handle the resulting pressure from the table. Shifting to a slower, more defensive posture for the early game seems to be working much better. Dropping land ramp makes us more vulnerable to board wipes of course, but it improves our ability to crew vehicles when needed.
  • Moved from Haste to Trample as the deck's "keyword of choice": Dropping haste effects made the deck seem less threatening to the table, which has been very helpful. Additionally, much of the card advantage in the deck comes from Curiosity effects, and more trample has made all of those effects better.

COMMENTS: Thanks to all who have made comments and suggestions so far! You can find them using the View Archive button below or by clicking here.

Cheers!

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96% Casual

Competitive

Revision 8 See all

(2 weeks ago)

-1 Abrade main
+1 Abstergo Entertainment maybe
-1 Adrestia maybe
-1 Adventurer's Airship main
-1 Anger of the Gods main
+1 Arcane Signet main
+1 Arlinn Kord main
-1 Avishkar Raceway main
+1 Beast Within main
+1 Brightcap Badger main
-1 Burner Rocket main
-1 Chain Reaction main
+1 Chrome Companion main
-1 Commune with Beavers main
-1 Cultivate main
+1 Defiant Survivor main
+1 Deglamer main
-1 Demolition Stomper main
-1 Dowsing Device main
-1 Dynamite Diver main
and 76 other change(s)