One of the most exciting themes coming out of Kaladesh is vehicles. There aren’t a ton of cards that can be reasonably compared to vehicles, which makes it difficult to figure out exactly how good they’re going to be. The theme has been pushed pretty hard, as can be demonstrated by cards like Start Your Engines and Veteran Motorist. Smuggler's Copter is clearly the most efficient of the se cards, and is pushed hard enough to be a defining card in several aggressive archetypes. The big question is: what does the rest of the deck look like?

White-Red Vehicles - Kaladesh Standard | Kent Ketter

• Creatures (21)
• 4 Depala, Pilot Exemplar
• 4 Thraben Inspector
• 4 Toolcraft Exemplar
• 4 Veteran Motorist
• 3 Selfless Spirit
• 2 Pia Nalaar

• Spells (15)
• 4 Smuggler's Copter
• 3 Declaration in Stone
• 3 Fleetwheel Cruiser
• 3 Harnessed Lightning
• 2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship

• Lands (24)
• 6 Mountain
• 10 Plains
• 4 Inspiring Vantage
• 4 Needle Spires

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Weaver of Lightning
• 3 Galvanic Bombardment
• 3 Skywhaler's Shot
• 4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 2 Fragmentize

Buy This Deck

Ken Ketter’s take on the archetype combines aggressive creatures like Toolcraft Exemplar with the awesome value engine of Depala, Pilot Exemplar. This kind of combination gives you the ability to put up a real fight in most kinds of games, whether you need to get out ahead of your opponent early on or need to play a slower game where you try to slough your way through a plethora of removal spells.

That said, vehicles have a number of interesting advantages over traditional creatures. They function sort of like creature lands in that they are immune to traditional removal on your opponent’s turn. That gives you a sort of built in resilience to sweepers and some spot removal. It also gives any follow-up threats you have pseudo-haste, since they can crew vehicles and chip in damage the turn they enter the battlefield.

The exact choices for which vehicles are exciting enough to play with is interesting as well. Smuggler's Copter is easy, as it’s enormously efficient and helps smooth out your draws. Fleetwheel Cruiser is almost too efficient not to play. Skysovereign, Consul Flagship is a little interesting here. It’s been awhile since aggro decks have really wanted to go all the way up to five. Stormbreath Dragon and Thundermaw Hellkite were both pretty good reasons, and Skysovereign, Consul Flagship seems to be following in their footsteps. This is a card that can help stabilize the board as it comes down and then allow you to continue to dominate the combat step, particularly in conjunction with first strike creatures like Toolcraft Exemplar.

This ability to apply early pressure combined with midgame attrition and two of the most efficient removal spells in the format in Harnessed Lightning and Declaration in Stone make this deck a terrifying force to be reckoned with. It is neither the fastest deck in the format nor the most resilient, but it is a powerful combination of the two. That makes this deck an exciting quantity to watch over the coming weeks.