MTG Commander Cosima / Omenkeel Vehicles Deck Tech

[@stalkerstomper3304]

I love the open discussion and thoughts about different strategies and building ideas. Great stuff! I really enjoyed it.

[@spencerworks]

I can not begin to explain to you how excited I am to crew this deck!

[@whitebearbest]

I'm using this list as a jumping off point, loving the idea. AFR has new possible includes with The Blackstaff of Waterdeep and Mimic.

[@EPICLYFATALERROR]

I like the options. Rough commander to make good but really cool with lots of potential

[@frionelhero]

With kamigawa neon dynasty and it's precons out, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on upgrades with the vehicles and support on this deck. I've been wanting to make this jankiness more viable in a typical casual 6-7 game.

[@thecommandersbeacon1158]

Definitely the new vehicles in NEO would power Cosima / Omenkeel up quite decently. But I also wonder if it'd be better to swap the Commander to Katsuma, the Animator? Katsuma would buff up your vehicles over time, and could reasonably 'crew' them with enough mana investment. You'd of course lose the 'steal your opponents' lands' effect of The Omenkeel, but to be honest, I'm not sure there was much support for this effect anyways. And even with a creature like Katsuma in the Command Zone, the deck could still run very few creatures and make use of most of the creature-hate effects. That said, Katsuma probably wouldn't be quite as janky or unusual as The Omenkeel. But what do you think? Would it be better to swap the Commander to Katsuma, or do you prefer The Omenkeel?

[@sheldonadams2847]

Retrofitter Foundry seems really good. You can make a token with portcullis outing response. Pendrils Veil is amazing

[@frionelhero]

Very clever!

[@frionelhero]

So I built this deck with some slight changes, but it doesn't really perform as well as I'd like. If you don't mind me asking, why do you prefer using bounce spells like Into the Roil, Blink of an Eye, Depart the Realm, and Expel from Orazca over removal spells like Ravenform, Pongify, Rapid Hybridization, and Curse of the Swine? Also, now that more sets are out, what do you think of Stuffed Bear, Mimic, Ebony Fly, The Blackstaff of Waterdeep, and Hall of Storm Giants? Lastly, for a non-budget version of this deck, would you recommend Rhystic Study, Cyclonic Rift, and Sea Gate Restoration? And what would be the first cards you would cut to make room for these better cards (and the newer cards I listed earlier)?

[@thecommandersbeacon1158]

Thanks for the awesome feedback! I used bounce spells like Into the Roil for synergy with some of the creature hate pieces (e.g. Overburden, Portcullis). But you have a good point, and some of those more permanent answers (Ravenform, Pongify, etc) may make the deck feel better. I think most of those suggestions are pretty good. I like Stuffed Bear or Mimic over some of the weaker animate-able artifacts the deck currently uses - like Chimeric Sphere or Darksteel Brute. Mana cost is one of the primary criterion I used to evaluate these cards - the more it costs to animate, the harder it'll be to use it when you need it. For that reason, I'm not so sure about Hall of the Storm Giant. It's just too much mana to animate, and you don't need a creature that big to crew your vehicles. That said, I also haven't tested it, and maybe Hall of the Storm Giant is just a nice beater all on it's own, and you don't need any vehicles with it at all? I really like Ebony Fly. 4 mana is a lot to animate it, but since it's also a 2-mana rock, I think it's worth it. I'm not sure about The Blackstaff of Waterdeep. On one hand, it's really efficient and re-usable. On the other hand, you might get your vehicles stuck as creatures when you don't want them to be. Instinctually, I think it's probably worth it, but I wouldn't know for sure without playtesting it. For upgrades, I would recommend taking out some of those weaker animate-able artifacts - Chimeric Sphere, Darksteel Brute. Chronatog Totem is pretty bad and could be easily swapped for Ebony Fly. And I think all of those higher-budget cards you mention would probably make the deck function more smoothly. I typically trade out cards based on their function. E.g. Chart a course > Rhystic Study Blink of an eye > Cyclonic Rift

[@architectofdreams73]

The main problem with Vehicles is if you want a vehicle centric deck, as mentioned, you need creatures which generally means less room for vehicles. Vehicles can't function without creatures to crew them, so there is that issue. Not only can they be destroyed with anti artifact spells which tend to run rampant in Commander, but also as creatures with creature removal. They have a third weakness in that they need creatures to be crewed, so if someone is playing with heavily removal or the rest of the players are playing creature removal, this becomes problematic. Another problem attached to vehicles is that if you arent running into creature removal, most likely you are facing creatures that typically are bigger than your crewed vehicles or can just chump block them. Also tapping down your creatures to crew your vehicles which also tap unless they have vigilance, makes it that much harder to have blocks available. Putting in low impact creatures just to crew the so-so vehicles seems like a bad idea, but using impactful creatures to crew your vehicles really begs the question, why use vehicles at all? There is a very small amount of vehicles even worth using at all. This idea of using man lands is interesting for sure. Making it a bit more difficult to deal with the creatures that would be crewing your vehicles. I really think there needs to be more support for vehicles that isn't just Boros. But they have to be careful with making too powerful ones. Having colored artifacts is a decent answer and we do need more blue Vehicles as there are only 2 I believe. There should be a flip card like this for vehicles that really jacks up the power behind vehicles. Like maybe lowers the crew cost or makes it zero even wouldn't be too powerful I don't think.

[@wurdofwizdumb1928]

Yup… luckily stuff like this isn’t meant to be powerful. It’s meant to be fun and interesting