Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Oviya, Automech Artisan!

Oviya is four mana 1/2 that gives each creature that’s attacking one of your opponents has trample, and for a green and tap you may put a creature or Vehicle from you hand onto the battlefield and if you put an artifact onto the battlefield this way you put two +1/+1 counters on it.

While green is well known for being able to cheat creatures into play, what’s more interesting for me is how much this benefits artifacts over creatures. I understand that since this was for Aetherdrift they wanted to push Vehicles, but there are more possibilities in this being a solid artifact creature cheat engine.

The goal of the deck is to get big artifact creatures onto the battlefield in order for them to come in and attack for big damage. Essentially we are shortcutting a big green strategy by making it a big artifact creatures strategy with green to supplement it.

Since we have access to a color, we can broaden our horizons on which artifact creatures we can use, starting with ones that can provide a utility.

Cradle Clearcutter can be put onto the battlefield using its Prototype ability to be able to tap for one green mana since it taps for its power, but if we can cheat it into play with Oviya then it can tap for five green mana since it was cheated in with Oviya.

While looking at green specific artifact creatures, a lot of them are cheap small creatures that can get onto the battlefield without the help of Oviya, but a decent number of them care about how big their power is and that does work well with Oviya.

For example, Twitching Doll is a two mana artifact creature that can add mana of any color and add a nest counter on itself, but can also sacrifice itself to create a number of 2/2 Spider tokens with reach equal to the total number of counters, any counters, it had on it.

Tanuki Transplanter can make green mana that stays around until the end of turn equal to its power when it attacks, and can be Reconfigured onto a creature to give that creature the ability, meaning any big creature we attach it to can add a ton of green mana that doesn’t go away, but can also gain us a decent amount of mana when it attacks because it gets bigger if we cheat it out with Oviya.

Iron-Claw Crusher gives an attacking creature +X/+0 where X is its power when it attacks, Boulderbranch Golem gains us life equal to its power when it enters, Rootwire Amalgam can sacrifice itself to make a Golem artifact creature token with three times its power, and Rust Goliath becomes a 12/12 with reach and trample.

There are even generic artifact creatures that have benefits with how big their power gets, Threefold Thunderhulk entering with three +1/+1 counters at base and when it enters or attacks we make a number of 1/1 Gnome artifact creature tokens equal to its power.

Oviya does also expand our options into also being able to cheat Vehicles in, and there are plenty of Vehicles we can play and get a benefit from.

Dodgy Jalopy is a Vehicle who’s power is determined by the highest mana value among creatures we control, which can be pretty high if we have been cheating some big artifact creatures into play, plus the additional two +1/+1 counters from Oviya can make it pretty big.

If we are aiming for a bit more utility, and one that synergizes well with Oviya, then we can also use Thunderous Velocipede, which gives other Vehicles and creatures we control an additional +1/+1 counter on it if its mana value 4 or less, otherwise entering with three +1/+1 counters.

Lumbering Worldwagon can help us ramp by getting us more basic lands when it enters or attacks, Earthrumbler can become an artifact creature if we exile an artifact or creature from our graveyard, and Esika’s Chariot can make some Cat tokens to help crew the Vehicles when it enters and can make a copy of a token we control when it attacks.

As far as other Vehicles we can use to get some benefit from, we have plenty of colorless ones to pick. Smuggler’s Copter can be used early on to help us draw into what we need while being very evasive, Unlicensed Hearse to get rid of some problematic cards from our opponents graveyard, and Thundersteel Colossus to get a big body in with a low crew cost and also happens to have haste.

Now comes the tricky part, making sure our creatures can attack as soon as possible in order for us to win the game.

Runadi, Behemoth Caller was a card I had no idea existed, but was so glad to find because while we may not get their first ability to trigger often because of us cheating our creatures into play and not casting them, the second ability of giving creatures we control with three or more +1/+1 counters haste is easy enough to fulfill.

Oviya already gives artifact creatures we cheat in two +1/+1 counters, so we have cards like Hardened Scales to give creatures we control gain an additional +1/+1 counter when they get one or something more effective like Branching Evolution to give creatures we control twice that many counters instead, we can have huge creatures we control get massive and can attack instantly.

If we don’t have Runadi in play, then we can have Saryth, the Viper’s Fang give our creatures some solid benefits, hexproof if they are untapped and deathtouch if they are tapped, and with Oviya giving creatures that attack our opponents trample can help get even more damage through since all we need is to assign one point of damage to an opponent’s blocking creature and have the rest go face, and can untap another target creature or land we control as well.

Steel Overseer is also great in getting our artifact creatures even bigger since we can tap it to give each artifact creature we control a +1/+1 counter. Combine that with Saryth then we can get so many more counters on our creatures.

Oviya is an engine Commander in that she is the centerpiece of the deck who helps us get our deck to work as intended. Her being able to buff artifacts we control that come in makes her an interesting way to combine a big green playstyle and a big artifact playstyle.

Of course she is subjected to removal, she has no inherent protection, and she needs to survive a turn in order to activate her ability, but I do think that she can be a sneaky good Commander that your opponents would least expect. Plus, if we happen to be playing with someone who wants to give their creatures trample, we can convince them to leave Oviya onboard so they can get damage in.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual