Episode 15: Monsters vs. Mechs

So, naturally, the commander of my deck this week is the biggest Jaeger mech I could find, Shorakai Genesis Engine.

I found this deck on Moxfield.

It's called Buckle Up by Dabmaster2435.

If you want to check it out or any of the other decks, Buckle Up is on our Liked Decks folder on our Moxfield page.

The thing about Shorakai is that it is indeed a vehicle.

Now, I do not have much experience with vehicles.

The only other vehicle I have used as a commander was in my Project Hail Mary deck.

Check out Episode 9, Battles in Space, for that rundown.

Spoilers, I did not use the vehicle function much in that game, user error for sure, but hey, I'm learning, and dedicated to do better this go around.

I will say that that game definitely gave me more knowledge, and I did do more research for this deck, so hopefully it will go more according to plan.

Speaking of which, let's get to the plan.

Shorikai, for those who do not know, costs 2 generic, a white, and a blue mana.

Not too expensive, especially with the potential payout of an 8-8 beast of a mech.

The caveat, however, is that it does indeed take 8 power of creatures to crew.

That means that I have to tap any number of creatures that I control with a total of 8 or more power.

Then, Shorekai becomes an 8-8 artifact creature until the end of the turn.

This may seem pretty steep, but Shorekai has another ability that states that I can draw two cards, then discard a card, and then I can create a 1-1 colorless pilot creature token that cruise vehicles as though its power were two greater, so for a total of three.

For Shorakai, that means I need three of these pilots, or two pilots and at least two power of some other combination of creatures, which seems a lot more attainable.

Okay, so that pretty much is everything about my commander, but what about the rest of my deck? We know from Shorakai I need creatures to crew this vehicle, so there are plenty of creatures in the deck to do that.

There are also a lot of other vehicles in this deck.

Without having much experience with vehicles, this was kind of confusing to me because I was like, how am I going to be able to crew all of these? But, after doing more research, there are plenty of creatures in this deck with varying power, so they can definitely help with crewing some of the vehicles.

Especially because Shorakai, that needs 8 power to crew, even though...

He needs 8 power to crew.

Most vehicles need about 3 power to crew, so potentially just 1 creature.

Plus, there are creatures like Katsumasa, the animator, that have abilities that state if I pay 2 generic mana and a blue mana, until end of turn, target non-creature artifacts I control become artifact creatures and gain flying.