Vehicle

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Vehicle
Artifact Type
(Subtype for artifact cards)
Introduced	Kaladesh
Last used	Final Fantasy
Rules	Crew X
Storm Scale	2
Scryfall Statistics
cards
token creation cards
artworks

Vehicle is an artifact type introduced in Kaladesh. It was also used in Aether Revolt and quickly returned in Ixalan block and Dominaria. Afterwards, they became deciduous.

Description

Vehicle cards have a special bronze and grey blocked card frame and a power/toughness printed in a bronze-colored box. However, vehicles don't have power or toughness unless they become creatures.

Most artifacts with this subtype have the crew keyword, which allows them to temporarily become artifact creatures. Living Metal allows Vehicles to become artifact creatures without being crewed, but are only creatures on their controller's turn. Creatures with the Pilot type have an ability that allows them to crew Vehicles with a higher crew cost or buff vehicles crewed by them.

If the effect of turning your Vehicle into an artifact creature doesn't specify its power and toughness, the printed power and toughness on the Vehicle are used. Other effects may turn a Vehicle into an artifact creature, but specify its power and toughness. In that case, use the specified power and toughness. They'll override whatever's printed on the Vehicle. There's no connection between the Vehicle and the creatures that crew it once the crew ability is activated, though the game will track the creatures that activated the crew ability, like with Subterranean Schooner. Blowing up the Vehicle won't affect the crew and vice versa.

Vehicle is an artifact type, not a creature type. A Vehicle that's crewed won't have any creature type. However, because it retains its artifact type, it will be an Artifact Creature - Vehicle.

History

Development of the vehicle frame

The vehicle card frame

Before the introduction of Vehicles, Magic had a long history of experimenting with cards representing an object that creatures can travel in and/or ride, ranging from Pirate Ship (Alpha) to Skyship Weatherlight (Planeshift).

The Vehicle card type was first previewed on the card Ovalchase Dragster at PAX West 2016.

While the Vehicles of Kaladesh looked like futuristic cars and flying aircraft carriers, they were re-imagined for Ixalan as pirate ships. Kaldheim used Viking longboats for some, and mythological inspiration for others.

With their appearance in Ixalan, Vehicles became deciduous. They generally appear at Uncommon or higher rarities. While there were six Vehicles in Ixalan, from 2018 to the end of 2020 there were only six vehicles total. The Weatherlight of Dominaria features a normal power/toughness box instead of a bronze inverted-color one. This change was connected to the new Legendary card frame. War of the Spark featured the first colored Vehicles, representing war machines. Kaldheim and Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty returned with more Vehicles with their themes, with some new common Vehicles.

Dermotaxi in Modern Horizons 2 is the first Vehicle without Crew, as it has a unique form of determining its size. That said, the only real reason it is a Vehicle is to support the "taxi" pun, as it would be functional without the Vehicle structure. Honeymoon Hearse in Crimson Vow is a more faithful representation of the "uncrewable Vehicle", incidentally with the same cost (tapping two untapped creatures). Weatherlight Compleated is another uncrewable Vehicle for flavor reasons: the former Vehicle is corrupted into a semi-biological cyborg, and with enough carrion (i.e., death triggers) will move under its power.

Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty printed the most Vehicles in one set (13, two more than Kaladesh's 11), the first black and multicolored Vehicles, and also introduced the concept of Mechs into the Magic Multiverse (e.g. Surgehacker Mech). These are giant robots or machines controlled by people or kami. In Magic they have the Vehicle type, and they support a Vehicle-typal strategy. While mech-like objects were seen prior in Invasion block (e.g. Void (Invasion), Urza's Rage (Invasion), Power Armor), these were mostly relegated to lore and had no mechanical aspects.

While Kaladesh had identifiable cars amongst their Vehicles, they had an "experimental design racecar" aesthetic; in contrast, Streets of New Capenna used its early 20th-century style to print conventional cars like limousines, jalopies, and buggies. Strangely, most of them use glowing purple magic rather than wheels, which would make them closer to mildly futuristic hovercars. Design-wise, the set brought the first two variably-sized Vehicles, one of which referred to its power off the battlefield (via Scavenge).

For the Transformers product, the Legendary Vehicles were given a new unique keyword Living Metal, which makes them artifact creatures during their controller's turn. Due to having this instead of Crew, the designs lean towards smaller creatures at a rate, compared to the norm of Vehicles being large for their cost. Several three-color vehicles were also printed.

Despite the set's focus on war machines, vehicles were explicitly excluded from the design of The Brothers' War to maintain the set's retro feel.

Lita, Mechanical Engineer (Jumpstart 2022) created the first Vehicle tokens, which are distinctly named "Zeppelin".

In 2025, Aetherdrift had a heavy Vehicle theme, with 41 printed, nearly all of them colored, as well as the first Equipment Vehicle being printed. The second Vehicle tokens were created by two cards, and new Pilot tokens that also support mounts were made. Some vehicles in the set have non-crew abilities that turn them into creatures as well. A handful do so permanently through an Exhaust ability.

Rules

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (July 25, 2025—Edge of Eternities)

Vehicle

An artifact subtype. Vehicles can become artifact creatures. See rule 301, “Artifacts,” and rule 702.122, “Crew.”

From the Comprehensive Rules (July 25, 2025—Edge of Eternities)

• 301.7. Some artifacts have the subtype “Vehicle.” Most Vehicles have a crew ability which allows them to become artifact creatures. See rule 702.122, “Crew.”
  • 301.7a Each Vehicle has a printed power and toughness, but it has these characteristics only if it’s also a creature. See rule 208.3.
  • 301.7b If a Vehicle becomes a creature, it immediately has its printed power and toughness. Other effects, including the effect that makes it a creature, may modify these values or set them to different values.

Notable vehicles

Avishkar

• Aetherwing
• Heart of Kiran
• Hope of Ghirapur
• Skysovereign

Dominaria

• Golden Argosy
• Weatherlight

Duskmourn

• The Last Ride

Ixalan

• The Belligerent
• The Indomitable

Kaldheim

• Esika's Chariot
• The Omenkeel

Kamigawa

• Shorikai

Kylem

• Valor's Flagship

Rath

• Predator

Ravnica

• Parhelion
• Parhelion II

Universes Beyond

Doctor Who

• Bessie (Card)
• RMS Titanic (Card)
• Type 40 TARDIS (Card)

Fallout

• The Prydwen (Card)

Final Fantasy

• Blackjack (Card)

The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth

• Grond (Card)

Gallery

• 
  3D model of a Kamigawan nezumi cyberbike.
• 
  3D model of a Kamigawan nezumi cyberbike.
• 
  3D model of a Kamigawan nezumi cyberbike.
• 
  Vehicle concept art for Aetherdrift.

Vehicle tokens

Token name	Color	Type line	P/T	Text box	Source	Printings
Vehicle		Artifact — Vehicle	3/2	Crew 1	Chandra, Spark Hunter Mu Yanling, Wind Rider
The Blackjack		Legendary Artifact — Vehicle	3/3	Flying Crew 2	Setzer, Wandering Gambler
Nalaar Aetherjet		Artifact — Vehicle	X/X	Flying Crew 2	Pia Nalaar, Chief Mechanic
Zeppelin		Artifact — Vehicle	5/5	Flying Crew 3	Lita, Mechanical Engineer

Test cards

Token name	Color	Type line	P/T	Text box	Source	Printings
Desert Vehicle		Artifact Land — Desert Vehicle	4/4	: Add . Whenever this token or a Gamer you control becomes tapped, remove an hour counter from this token. Then if it has no hour counters on it, each opponent loses 1 life, you gain 1 life, and put eight hour counters on this token. Crew 2	The Bus Runner
Vehicle		Artifact — Vehicle	0/0	Flying This creature gets +1/+1 for each Bear you control. Crew 2	The Bear Force Pilot The Bear Force Pilot Runner
Brute Suit		Artifact — Vehicle	4/3	Vigilance Crew 1	Brutal Command

Trivia

• Only 17 Vehicles have been printed without Crew.
  • Thirteen Universes Beyond Transformers, who all have Living Metal instead.
  • Four Magic IP Vehicles — Dermotaxi; Honeymoon Hearse; Tangle Tumbler; Weatherlight Compleated.