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If you want to get anywhere inMagic: The Gathering’ssci-fi expanse of The Edge, you’ll need a spacecraft. Maybe it’s a small shuttle zipping across the sky, or maybe it’s a larger space station full of traders and intrigue. Regardless, you’ll need to assemble a crew to get things running, and that’s where the station mechanic comes in.
Stationing allows you use your creatures' power to charge up a permanent, giving it extra, often game-winning, abilities. Before you set off on your journey into the stars, maybe refer to the owner’s manual and get acquainted with how to station your ships first?
What Is Stationing?
Station is anactivated abilitythat can be mostly found onSpacecrafts and Planet lands. If you’re familiar withVehicles’crewingor Mounts’saddling, stations will feel awfully familiar, albeit with a few important differences.
Every card that can be stationed will have additional text at the bottom of the card, alongside a number. This is thenumber of charge counters needed to enable that line, which can be put onto the card by tapping creatures. Each creature you tap for a station will adda number of charge counters equal to the tapped creature’s powerto the permanent - meaning if you tapped a 5/5 to station, you’ll addfive charge counters.
This is the key difference between stationing and earlier mechanics like crewing and mounting. Charge countersremain on the permanentfor as long as it remains in play, and so you can spread stationing outover multiple turnsif you need to. Any card that interacts with counters will also interact with these charge counters, makingproliferating or using counter doublersa viable way to fully charge up a station card faster.
Once a card with a station ability has the required number of counters, it willremain active for as long as it has those counters. You don’t need to station creatures every turn to turn it on - once Wurmwall Sweeper has four or more charge counters on it, it’ll remain a 2/2 with flying.
If the counters are removed and a station card falls below the prerequesite, it willimmediately change backto its base form.
The second major difference between stationing, crewing, and mounting, is thatstationing can only be done at sorcery speed. This means you’re able to only do it onyour main phase when the stack is empty.
How To Use Stationing
When assessing station cards that require you to jump through hoops to get their maximum impact, likeBattles and Planeswalkers. In other words,the cheaper effects are more important than the final ones.
For instance, while The Eternity Elevator can eventually make you a whopping 20 mana, you’re going to need to bestationing it a lotto get it online. Instead, treat it like the five-mana mana rock it is; it’s good, but not the utterly busted card it may seem. On the other hand, Wurmwall Sweeper lets you surveil two for just two colourless mana, which isa great tradeoff.
As tapping creatures comes from the cost of the station ability itself, you cantap creatures that have summoning sickness.
Also consider how quickly you can station it. A big effect like The Eternity Elevator’s or Infinite Guideline Station’s is potentially game-ending, but there is every chance they’llbe removed before you get the chance. On the other hand, a card like Extinguisher Battleship or The Seriema have more modest charge costs that could be achieved injust a couple of turns.
Tapping creatures also has other payoffs that may make station cards just a small part of your payoff. Having a quick way to tapKona, Rescue BeastieorKilo, Apogee Mindis always handy (and, in the latter’s case, can thenproliferatethose charge counters for even more profit), even if you’re not expecting to make use of a station card’s abilities.
There is one big exception to this, though, and that’sPlanet lands. Land cards are much, much harder to remove than an artifact like a Spacecraft, and so a land with a big abilityis more likely worth playing, especially if you get it out in the early turns. Dropping an Uthros, Titanic Godcore on turn one gives you lots of time to tap creatures not doing much else, safe in the knowledge your land probably isn’t going to get blown up any time soon.
You should run more land destruction, purely to counter cards like Uthros and Susur Secundi, Void Altar.
The Best Cards With Station
It’s tempting to get sucked into the explosive power of Spacecraft and Planets. If you’re wanting to take command, these are the cards you’re going to want to work with.
Inspirit, Flagship Vessel
The face card ofEdge of Eternities' Counter Intelligence Commander deck, the Inspirit is an easy card to cast, and even easier to charge up to its first ability. From there, you have a way to put counters on any creature or other station card each turn. Unfortunately, itcan’t charge itselfthis way, but it’s still a handy ability for such a low cost.
The fully charged ability is even better,giving all your other artifacts hexproof and indestructible. Again, it doesn’t protect Inspirit, but it only needseight charge counters to work, making it surprisingly easy to achieve quickly - especially when you’re already buffing creatures with +1/+1 counters.
Evendo, Waking Haven
Green’s entire identityis having big, stompy creatures ready to bash your opponents' skulls in, which makes the otherwise high charge counter cost of 12 or morestartlingly achievable. And, as mentioned,lands are harder to interact withthan Spacecraft, making this an almost inevitable threat in just about any green deck.
Once it’s online, you’ll be able to make more green mana than you’ll likely ever need, throwing out more and more creatures and spiraling out of control. Provided you have enough creatures, it alsogoes infinite with two cards: Wakeroot Elemental and SIlvanus’s Invoker, because the one thing your mono-green Commander deck needed was a way to get more mana.
The Seriema
One of the cheapest Spacecraft available, the Seriema only needs three mana and seven charge counters to be fully online. Even if you don’t have the creatures to charge it, its enter trigger lets you search for a legendary creature and put it into your hand. In Commander this could be just about anything, while in Standard you’re likely wanting to grab something likeArahbo, The First Fang, thanks to it making a 1/1 that’s buffed up to a 2/2 when it enters to immediately charge it up to four counters.
White goes wide with lots of tokens, so use them to charge up The Seriema to make a 5/5 flier that makes your legendary creatures indestructible when they’re tapped. The Seriema really speeds up aggress, making this little tugboat of a ship something to be feared.
