All 34 Pilot Cards in Magic Ranked

Kotori, Pilot Prodigy | Illustration by Aaron J. Riley

Vehicles have been in Magic for the better part of a decade, and they now have a parallel in mount creatures. Crew and saddle keyword abilities mean that you’re tapping creatures to animate vehicle artifacts and to improve your mounts’ performance, so you’re always turning a bunch of cardboard sideways in these kinds of decks.

With vehicles came pilots, but there are a lot fewer pilots than there are vehicles. There’s no pilot typal support, but does that mean the creature type as a whole is a dud? Or is it just a very specialized group of cards?

Fasten your seatbelts! I’ll take you to the pilot. All of them, in fact.

What Are Pilots in MTG?

Speedway Fanatic | Illustration by Slawomir Maniak

Pilots are a creature type, a class that’s paired with a race like human, elf, or goblin. Some pilots that come to us from MTG sets like Kaladesh, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, and Aetherdrift often have abilities that modify how or care about when they crew a vehicle, and post Outlaws of Thunder Junction pilot creatures are likely to have an ability that interacts with how they saddle mounts.

I’m mostly weighing these creatures for Commander potential, so feel free to tell me which lower ranking pilots you use in Cube, Standard, and other Magic formats below!

MTG Arena exclusives like Dragonfly Pilot and Experimental Pilot aren’t considered in this ranking.

#34. Skystreak Engineer

Meh. Skystreak Engineer really doesn’t do much for you. It’s a 2-mana flier, and you have an exhaust ability that can give it two +1/+1 counters. It can’t crew that many vehicles on its own without outside help or through counters, though.

#33. Pacesetter Paragon

Nothing too spectacular here. Pacesetter Paragon has an exhaust ability, one that gives it double strike temporarily. Leave enough mana open to cover that on your opponents’ turns, and you might discourage them from attacking you. Might.

#32. Goblin Test Pilot

I used to have so many copies of this Dragon’s Maze wizard. And yes, it’s a pilot now thanks to an erratum to its Oracle text. Goblin Test Pilot plays into a chaos theme, in the sense that you can activate its ability, but you can’t choose its target. I can recommend it or flavor and the lulz, but I can’t seriously recommend it.

#31. Deathless Pilot

Self-recursive creatures are never bad, and Deathless Pilot gives pilots and vehicles one of their own. Fine, but inessential.

#30. Golden-Scale Aeronaut

This pilot uses March of the Machine’s backup mechanic to give a creature a +1/+1 counter and flying when it enters. Or, it enters with a counter and does nothing else. Golden-Scale Aeronaut is certainly a common, but if you want a 5-mana white creature with backup, you want Boon-Bringer Valkyrie.

#29. Reckless Racer

Reckless Racer rummages when it taps, whether that’s to attack, convoke, crew, saddle, etc. Not much to say here since March of the Machine gave us an improved version of this.

#28. Reckless Velocitaur

Now here’s a minotaur that I don’t actually want in my minotaur deck, at least until I get an incentive to turn that into yet another vehicle deck. Reckless Velocitaur makes vehicles and mounts attack more effectively with a lil power boost and some trample.

#27. Speedway Fanatic

If your vehicle deck needs a haste enabler, you could do worse than Speedway Fanatic. You can tap it to crew a vehicle each turn, but it suffers from the same problem that many other pilots do: At 1 toughness, it’s hecking squishy.

#26. Adrenaline Jockey

This minotaur is a deterrent against decks that want to cast spells on their opponents’ turns… so it’s basically the opposite of what Azorius () was doing in OTJ Limited. Four points of burn damage with unlimited triggers adds up, and Adrenaline Jockey incidentally benefits from having exhaust permanents in play.

#25. Dynamite Diver

Yet another Goblin Arsonist, this time with vehicle/mount text. One-drop creatures like Dynamite Diver that ping when they die are always somewhat interesting, especially if you can maximize them by sacrificing and reanimating them while adding an Impact Tremors to the mix.

#24. Renegade Wheelsmith

It’s always fun to “help” your opponents to make their blocking decisions, no? Renegade Wheelsmith prevents an opposing creature from blocking, which is very useful against decks that run a lower creature count. Vehicles and mounts are the obvious way to tap this pilot without attacking, but you could also use it in a convoke deck to achieve a similar purpose.

#23. Veteran Motorist

I don’t hate it. Veteran Motorist scries when it enters, so it’ll give you value even if its 1 toughness leads to a quick death. The buff this pilot gives a vehicle that it crews pairs nicely with any anthems or artifact creature lords you might be running.

#22. Canyon Vaulter

Evel Knievel, eat your heart out. When you’re a Canyon Vaulter, you can fly whatever vehicle or mount you please. Mono-white is probably the best singular color this card could be since it fits in with vehicles and mounts from many different MTG sets.

#21. Captain Rex Nebula

When people complain about novels in our rules text, this is the kind of card they mean. Captain Rex Nebula can turn your creatures, enchantments, artifacts, planeswalkers, and battles into vehicles, which can get really interesting if you decide to be silly with it. You’ll want all your vehicle support cards in this deck, though strangely you probably won’t want too many proper vehicles.

#20. Grey Havens Navigator

Many of the elven LTR commanders can use Grey Havens Navigator as a 3-drop in their curve, though I consider it more of a budget placeholder that you’ll want to improve on. Galadriel of Lothlórien and other elf/scry builds love a flash creature to trigger their abilities on opponents’ turns.

#19. Graham O’Brien

This human pilot is a payoff for casting cards from exile, which makes a lot of sense for a card from the Doctor Who release. Graham O'Brien’s Food token generation isn’t game breaking or anything, but you can slot this into a lot of builds and it won’t hurt you. Folks aren’t using Doctor’s companion to play this out of the command zone much, though.

#18. Gearshift Ace

Gearshift Ace is another Kaladesh creature that grants a keyword ability to a creature when it crews a vehicle. First strike is great since it affects your creature’s ability to survive combat, and its dwarf creature type gives you an incentive to run it in a dwarf deck. I’m sure Depala is hanging around somewhere….

#17. Hangar Scrounger

I love the idea of Hangar Scrounger in a Depala deck. Using it to crew vehicles gives you some rummaging, and the backup ability means that one of your other creatures can rummage in its place the turn that it comes down. It’s almost a reprint of Reckless Racer at lower rarity but with worse power/toughness, though backup helps you to get value from it the same turn that it enters more consistently.

#16. Ovalchase Daredevil

You can assemble some pretty elaborate four-card combos with Ovalchase Daredevil. They mostly involve using this pilot with a discard outlet, usually one that generates utility tokens like Food tokens or Blood tokens. In Commander, you’re most likely going to run this in a deck built around a card with a very long name indeed: Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar.

#15. Commander Sofia Daguerre

An enters ability like this is just begging for some blink strategies. Commander Sofia Daguerre targets legendary permanents, which should often mean opposing commanders. But you can use it to destroy lands, remove enchantments, and get rid of planeswalkers, among the many legendary permanents you may encounter. It’s both powerful and niche, so this pilot isn’t ubiquitous or anything.

#14. Cloudspire Coordinator

I declare shenanigans. Or at least dwarf erasure. Cloudspire Coordinator has the same mana value and power/toughness as Veteran Motorist, and it has the same scry ability too! But rather than buffing one creature that you crew, this pilot can recruit a whole squadron of Pilot tokens. Token doublers and Impact Tremors, anyone?

Note that it cares about the vehicles that entered, so you can sacrifice a vehicle for value the same turn it enters and still have it count towards this activated ability.

#13. Cloudspire Captain

Mounts and vehicles now have a dedicated lord. Cloudspire Captain can also crew and saddle more vehicles than its base power allows, quite in line with pilot abilities.

#12. Kitsune Ace

If Kitsune Ace were released today, it would probably have a “this ability only triggers once per turn” rider. For 2 mana, do you want this or a Gearshift Ace?

#11. Sanwell, Avenger Ace

Sanwell, Avenger Ace’s triggered ability lets you tutor from among the top six cards of your library for your next artifact or vehicle. You’re playing them from exile, so your favorite paradox payoffs work with it, as do your artifactfall triggers. Not much of a white commander, but it does well supporting other vehicle commanders, no doubt.

#10. Hotshot Mechanic

Basically a Pilot token with 1 more power. All decks need their cheap creatures, and I’m giving Hotshot Mechanic a lil rankings boost for being a fox.

#9. Interface Ace

Here’s a robot I’m probably going to use to upgrade all my vehicle decks. Interface Ace crews with its toughness, and you can tap it twice to crew a primary vehicle and a sidecar. A lot of tidy work for a 2-drop! As with all artifact creatures, the rub is that it can’t tell the difference because a Doom Blade and a Naturalize.

#8. Redshift, Rocketeer Chief

Redshift, Rocketeer Chief is a mana dork, but for abilities. Vigilance means you can attack with it then tap it during your second main phase for mana. There’s plenty of goblin lords if you want to boost its power that way, but you can also surround it with a +1/+1 counter shell. The exhaust ability is so enticing, since it lets you dump all kinds of expensive permanents onto the battlefield… and a bunch of lands so that you can cast whatever you have left.

#7. Kolodin, Triumph Caster

Super Haste Enabler Deluxe. With Kolodin, Triumph Caster, you don’t need creatures to crew your vehicles or saddle your mounts, at least the turn that they come in. A 2-mana creature like this is a strong support piece, but you can always run it as a Boros commander ().

#6. Depala, Pilot Exemplar

One of the few legendary dwarves that care about the other dwarves in your deck, Depala, Pilot Exemplar also supports a vehicle-based strategy. Your vehicles get a +1/+1 buff when they’re animated, and you can sink some mana into Depala’s ability to pull dwarves and vehicles from your deck to your hand. Fairly one-directional if you’re building this as your commander, but its vehicle abilities make it good in the 99 elsewhere.

#5. Greasefang, Okiba Boss

You’re playing artifactfall abilities in your Greasefang, Okiba Boss deck, right? This rat pilot turns your graveyard into value by reanimating a vehicle every combat. This is a nice deck to be cycling Valor's Flagship, and Demonic Junker’s enters ability is useful when you trigger it over and over to take out some of your opponents’ most fearsome creatures. Good Orzhov commander, decent role-player.

#4. Aeronaut Admiral

Not all decks are prepared to handle an attack that’s all fliers. That’s why dragons, angels, demons, and many creature types that are mainly flying creatures can be tough to handle. Aeronaut Admiral gives flying to all your vehicles. Cue Ride of the Valkyries.

#3. Elvish Mariner

Now here’s a pilot that doesn’t play quite in the same space. Elvish Mariner is definitely an elf from Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth. It scries when it attacks, which then triggers its other ability to tap nonland permanents. You can affect how your opponents block, but you can also tap utility artifacts and any mana rocks to prevent activations. If you have scry cards and abilities that you can activate on your opponents’ turns, it gets even better!

#2. Mu Yanling, Wind Rider

Fliers matter when you’re playing Mu Yanling, Wind Rider: They give you cards when they deal combat damage to a player. The mana value is about right for this effect, though a bit intense on the blue for it. The enters ability has me wondering about building a vehicle focused blink deck, though that definitely feels like a Bracket 1 or Bracket 2 deck at best. You can ignore the vehicle text in a fliers deck if you just want the card draw, though.

#1. Kotori, Pilot Prodigy

Kotori, Pilot Prodigy is one of the most popular vehicle commanders, though that’s likely because it was the face commander of its own Commander precon. It’s also an important support piece for vehicle commanders that are at least white and blue, and granting lifelink and vigilance to an artifact creature (probably a vehicle you’ve crewed) can be really good. Even something as simple as a Colossal Plow can do good work, especially if you get Aeronaut Admiral out.

What Are Pilot Tokens?

Pilot tokens are creature tokens that some cards from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty (ex: Born to Drive), Neon Dynasty Commander (ex: Shorikai, Genesis Engine), and Aetherdrift (ex: Cloudspire Coordinator) generate.

NEO and NEC Pilot tokens have the ability, “This creature crews Vehicles as if its power were 2 greater.” DFT pilot tokens add the “and saddles mounts” text.

What Color Are Pilot Tokens?

All Pilot tokens that you can generate as of Aetherdrift are colorless.

Are There Any Pilot Commanders?

As of Aetherdrift, there are 10 legendary pilot creatures that can be your commander. They are:

• Captain Rex Nebula
• Commander Sofia Daguerre
• Depala, Pilot Exemplar
• Graham O'Brien
• Greasefang, Okiba Boss
• Kolodin, Triumph Caster
• Kotori, Pilot Prodigy
• Mu Yanling, Wind Rider
• Redshift, Rocketeer Chief
• Sanwell, Avenger Ace

Commander Sofia Daguerre is the only legendary pilot that can be your Pauper commander, but there are many other uncommon pilots that can do the trick.

Wrap Up

Sanwell, Avenger Ace | Illustration by Josu Hernaiz

And that’s our crash course on pilots in Magic! It’s a bit of a strange, catch-all type for creatures that drive all kinds of vehicles. They aren’t quite evergreen, but I expect to see them any time we get a lot of vehicles, or any time it might make sense from a story perspective.

Which pilots do you play, and in which decks and formats? What do you expect to see from pilots in future sets like Edge of Eternities? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord.

Until next time, don’t forget to do a circle check before you hit the road!