Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Kolodin, Triumph Caster!

Kolodin is a two mana 2/3 that gives Mounts and Vehicles we control haste, and whenever a Mount we control enters it becomes saddled until end of turn and whenever a Vehicle we control enters it becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.

Kolodin is a very specific Commander that looks to have us want to play a ton of Vehicles and a ton of Mounts in order to get the most out of each of them since many of them have some sort of ability when they attack or deal damage.

The game plan thus becomes simple, we play a decent number of each of these and the goal is to have our Mounts and Vehicles enter to deal a ton of damage, and have some back up ways to get the Mounts saddled and our Vehicles into artifact creatures.

Since our goal is to make use of Vehicles and Mounts, it makes sense that those are our starting points.

Consulate Dreadnaught is normally a not so great Vehicle to have come in because even though it is one mana to cast and has 7/11 for its stats, it is normally held back by the fact that it has a Crew cost of 6. Thankfully with Kolodin in play, we can have a massive one mana body that can come in early and deal a lot of damage.

Colossal Plow is also a solid choice of Vehicle to cast in the early game since when it attacks it makes three white mana and gains us 3 life and the mana doesn’t disappear until our end step, all for the low low cost of two mana.

Smuggler’s Copter lets us draw a card then discard a card when it attacks or blocks, Careening Mine Cart makes a Treasure when it attacks, and Night Scythe makes 2/2 black Necron Warrior artifact creature tokens whenever it attacks.

We can also look to the bigger more mana intensive Vehicles to help us close the gap like Parhelion II which when it attacks it makes two attacking 4/4 Angel tokens with flying and vigilance, Thundersteel Colossus to be a 7/7 trample and creature, and Salvation Engine to give our other artifact creatures +2/+2 and when it enters it brings back an artifact from the graveyard to the battlefield.

Mounts don’t have the depth of support that Vehicles do, but there are still some cool options for us to choose from like Dracosaur Auxiliary, which has flying and haste and when it attacks it deals 2 damage to any target.

Brightfield Mustang untaps itself and gives itself a +1/+1 counter when it attacks while saddled, Bridled Bighorn makes a 1/1 Sheep creature token when it attacks while saddled, Gila Courser exiles the top card of our library and lets us play it until the end of our next turn, and Bounding Felidar gives all other creatures we control +1/+1 counters when it attacks and we gain 1 life for each of those creatures.

The next thing that we need to look for are other support cards for our Mounts and Vehicles.

Alacrian Armory is a way to give creatures we control +0/+1 and vigilance, but more importantly at the beginning of combat on our turn one target Mount or Vehicle we control becomes saddled if it’s a Mount or becomes an artifact creature if it’s a Vehicle.

Road Rage is a damage spell against creatures or Planeswalkers that scales with the number of Mounts and Vehicles we control plus 2, which considering the volume of each that we are planning to play, it can definitely deal with most creatures and Planeswalkers.

We also have access to some decent lands in Country Roads and Rocky Roads, which add white and red respectively and enter tapped unless we control a Mount or a Vehicle and can each sacrifice themselves in order to create a 1/1 Pilot token that can saddle Mounts and crew Vehicles as if its power were 2 higher.

Frontier Seeker lets us look at the top five cards of our library and puts either a Plains or a Mount in our hand, Reckless Velocitaur gives any Mount it saddles or Vehicle it crews +2/+0 and trample until end of turn, and Peacewalker Colossus can turn a Vehicle into an artifact creature until end of turn for only two mana while also being a three mana 6/6.

In terms of getting our Vehicles crewed automatically, then we also have access to Chandra, Spark Hunter, whose passive ability turns a Vehicle we control into an artifact creature at the beginning of combat on our turn, a +1 to sacrifice an artifact or discard a card to draw a card, a 0 to make a 3/2 Vehicle with crew 1, and a -7 that makes an emblem that deals 3 damage to any target whenever an artifact enters under our control.

Now we need ways to help us close out the game, and since we are playing aggressively we are most likely going to be losing a lot of our things, so recursion and immediate retaliation are going to be important.

One Last Job is a modal way for us to return a creature, a Mount or Vehicle, or an Aura or Equipment from our graveyard to the battlefield, with the Aura or Equipment being attached to a creature we control, which the ones we are most likely going to cast being the second mode and the first mode on occassion.

If it reaches the end game then one of the best recursion pieces we have access to is Push the Limit, which returns all Mounts and Vehicles from our graveyard to the battlefield, sacrificing them at the beginning of the next end step, and all Vehicles we control become artifact creatures until end of turn and all creatures we control gain haste until end of turn.

As far as helping us reach the final bit of damage, Start Your Engines is a way for us to make use of Vehicles that we happen to have in play already to turn them into artifact creatures and give creatures we control +2/+0 until end of turn to help eek out that last bit of damage.

If we are searching for as much number gain as possible, then Lifecraft Engine will be one of our best bets for a cheap way to get our Vehicles and Mounts more power since we choose a creature type (Mount) and Vehicles we control become that creature type in addition to their other types and each creature we control of that chosen type, except Lifecraft Engine, gain +1/+1.

We can also apply other typal anthem effects like Banner of Kinship, which enters with a fellowship counter equal to the number of creatures we control of a declared creature type and creatures we control get +1/+1 for each fellowship counter on it.

Kolodin is a very straightforward Commander with a straightforward game plan which is very hard to deviate from. If he were just one or the other then we would have a bit more flexibility, but since he is just one we are stuck in the one lane.

This can also be a boon for us because we have access to certain cards that work really well for us, especially if we start getting damage done early. It’s one of the harder aggro decks to get to win, but it is one that can definitely come out of nowhere.

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

Peace!

From, J.M. Casual