Magic: The Gathering - Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer Commander Deck Guide

Stranded on Avishkar after losing his Spark, Daretti, one of Magic: The Gathering's most famous Goblins, soon fell in with the Goblin Rocketeers, a group that worship the BOOSTGOD! by building rocket cars to reach their deity through sheer, unmitigated velocity.

As co-captain and chief engineer of the Goblin Rocketeers, Daretti is right at home among other, less careful Goblin Artificers. As the head of a Commander deck, he gets to put all the scrapped artifacts in your graveyard to good use to build a value engine and race to victory.

Sample Decklist

Commander
Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer	Creatures (26)	Anger	Bosh, Iron Golem	Canoptek, Scarab Swarm
Feldon of the Third Path	Foundry Inspector	Goblin Engineer	Goblin Welder
Goldspan Dragon	Karn, Legacy Reforged	Metalwork Colossus	Meteor Golem
Myr Battlesphere	Phyrexian Triniform	Professional Face-Breaker	Scrap Trawler
Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer	Slobad, Iron Goblin	Solemn Simulacrum	Steel Hellkite
Threefold Thunderhulk	Treasure Nabber	Triplicate Titan	Wurmcoil Engine
Xorn	Sorceries (7)	Faithless Looting	Pirate's Pillage	Reforge the Soul
Scrap Mastery	Seize the Spoils	Sundering Eruption // Volcanic Fissure	Instants (7)	Demand Answers	Fling	Kazuul's Fury // Kazuul's Cliffs
Seething Song	Unexpected Windfall	Untimely Malfunction	Artifacts (21)	Cursed Mirror	Darksteel Forge	Embercleave
Fellwar Stone	Glittering Stockpile	Ichor Wellspring	Lightning Greaves
Liquimetal Torque	Mind Stone	Mox Opal	Mycosynth Wellspring
Portal to Phyrexia	Prized Statue	Ruby Medallion	Silver Shroud Costume
Sol Ring	Stonespeaker Crystal	Swiftfoot Boots	The Reaver Cleaver
Thought Vessel	Enchantments (2)	Sneak Attack	Planeswalkers (1)	Lands (35)	Darksteel Citadel	Fomori Vault	Geier Reach Sanitarium
Great Furnace	Inventor's Fair	Mikokoro, Center of the Sea	Miren, the Moaning Well
Mountain (20)	Myriad Landscape	Power Depot	Rogue's Passage
Scene of the Crime	Treasure Vault	Urza's Cave	War Room

The Commander

Daretti, formerly a Planeswalker, is desparked and stranded on Avishkar. This version of the Goblin Artificer costs four colorless and one red mana. His power is always equal to the highest mana cost among artifacts you control, so it can range from zero to 16 (if you add Draco to the decklist).

While Daretti's variable attack means you can attack to win with commander damage, his real draw is his second ability: When Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer enters or attacks, you can sacrifice an artifact to bring another artifact into play from your graveyard. This allows you to cheat out expensive artifacts, and to re-trigger enter and leave effects like those on Solemn Simulacrum.

In addition to wanting lots of enter and leave effects, Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer plays nicely with other Goblin Artificers like Goblin Welder and Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer, which also call for sacrificing artifacts. Daretti paired with any of these can create a wonderful value engine that allows you to effectively flicker artifacts like Wurmcoil Engine and Threefold Thunderhulk.

How To Build The Deck

Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer allows you to cheat out big, expensive artifacts early, but only if you can get them into your graveyard. This deck leans into the draw and discard mechanic common in red, so that you can set up big pieces like Myr Battlesphere while digging for mana rocks, land, and strategy enablers.

In order to give Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer (and Karn, Legacy Reforged) the maximum benefit, include plenty of expensive artifacts. The game plan isn't to cast them, but it's a good idea to have as many cheap mana rocks as you can find, as well. If nothing else, they're cheap targets for Daretti to sacrifice.

With mana rocks, Goblin Welder and Goblin Engineer can be mana-positive while dumping good Daretti targets back into your graveyard.

To keep the deck from falling apart without the commander, the decklist includes a few backup options. Daretti, Scrap Savant allows you to dig for cards, but also replicates his desparked-self's ability to reanimate artifacts. Goblin Welder and Goblin Engineer do the same, although Goblin Engineer is limited to artifacts that cost three or less.

Finally, since Treasure tokens are so easy to make, there's a minor Treasure theme, as well. These tokens can be used to bank mana for later, when Daretti can't attack safely, or sacrificed to bring more important artifacts into play from your graveyard.

Ramp

Red is a poor color for ramp, but there are plenty of artifacts that both produce mana and give you targets for Daretti. The standard mana rock package of Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, and other staples is a must-have, but there are also a few stand-out ones you might not use in other decks.

Cursed Mirror can enter as a copy of any creature for one turn, including gaining characteristics like that creature's mana value and triggering that creature's enter effects. The deck contains lots of big creatures and enter effects, so you can easily use this to fetch lands, make creatures and Treasure, or swing for extra damage.

Glittering Stockpile makes one red mana per turn, but also accumulates stash counters that can lead to a big payoff later. Normally you lose your mana rock in the process of redeeming those stash counters, but with Daretti you can repeat the effect.

Stonespeaker Crystal is a little pricey at four mana, but it provides two generic mana per tap, and you can sacrifice it to exile one or more graveyards. That exile effect is enough to make it worthwhile, but Daretti and Goblin Welder allow you to reuse it whenever a player starts rebuilding their graveyard.

Effects that allow you to ramp when a card enters or exits are also powerful, since they can be easily repeated. Solemn Simulacrum, for example, provides a basic land when it enters and a fresh card when it dies. This can be repeated at regular intervals, including using Goblin Welder to reanimate it to block and Die Again: Troll Game Ever immediately.

Mycosynth Wellspring has a similar enter effect as Solemn Simulacrum, except that you get the land in your hand so that you don't miss a land drop. This effect repeats when it's destroyed or sacrificed, which makes it an ideal target to sacrifice for Daretti's ability.

Prized Statue works the same way as Mycosynth Wellspring, except that it creates Treasure instead of searching for land. If you play it and then sacrifice it, the effect pretty much pays for itself, allowing it to act as a mana bank, or you can reanimate it to Treasure over and over.

Treasure Nabber may not seem like a mana source, but it can get wild if your opponents don't take care of it immediately. Each time an opponent taps a Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, or any other artifact for mana, you gain control of that artifact through your next turn. That means you can untap and use their artifact, and then sacrifice it to Daretti to get your own artifacts out!

Draw

Most of the card draw included in the decklist is the type of red-specific effect that allows you to draw a couple of cards after discarding others. These allow you to discard the bombs that you want in your graveyard, like Triplicate Titan, setting yourself up for success later while gaining new cards in the process.

Demand Answers is the simplest version of this effect. For two mana, you discard one card and draw two. Faithless Looting is one mana less expensive, but requires you to discard two cards, putting you at a net loss of one card unless you cast it with flashback.

Other cards, like Unexpected Windfall, also give you Treasure tokens which you can use as sac fodder or save for mana later. Pirate's Pillage, Big Score, and Seize the Spoils have similar effects with minor variations, allowing you to discard cards and create Treasure all the time.

Academy Manufacturer and Xorn both increase the artifact payoff from these spells, and Goldspan Dragon doubles their mana production.

Since mono-colored decks don't need much mana fixing, there's room to add some draw lands to the mana base. Geier Reach Sanitarium follows the same draw and discard pattern as the spells discussed above, but also produces colorless mana.

Mikokoro, Center of the Sea is another legendary land that you can use for a little extra draw when you don't need the mana. Like Geier Reach Sanitarium, it comes into play untapped and makes each player draw a card for two mana, but without discarding afterwards.

In most mono-colored decks, War Room is an easy addition. For three mana, it allows only you to draw a card, not giving your opponents anything. It does cost one life, which is a fair price in mono-red.

Finally, another reliable sac outlet is Ichor Wellspring. Like Mycosynth Wellspring allows you to fetch a land, Ichor Wellspring allows you to draw a card when it enters and leaves the battlefield. As long as an opponent doesn't counter it, it will more than replace itself, and you can reuse it over and over again with your Goblin Artificers.

Bombs

Daretti has the ability to bring any artifact into play from your graveyard, so you can feel free to include several big, expensive beaters. In fact, since Daretti's power equals the mana value of your most expensive artifact, it's important to include several big guys!

Metalwork Colossus is the most expensive artifact in the deck, costing 11 generic mana. It gets cheaper if you have noncreature artifacts, but that doesn't change the printed value, which is what Daretti cares about. It also allows you to sacrifice other artifacts if it's in the graveyard, which means you can potentially cast and sacrifice it multiple times per turn.

Bosh, Iron Golem is a little lower at eight generic mana, but it has an ability that allows you to sacrifice artifacts to deal damage equal to their mana value to any target. With lots of expensive artifacts and lots of ways to get them back, this can be a game-changer.

Metalwork Colossus will be free if you have Bosh and another artifact or three in play, allowing you to sacrifice it, use its ability to return it to your hand, cast it for free, and repeat.

As a 6/6 with first strike, Combustible Gearhulk is a heavy hitter. But when it comes into play, either you draw three cards or an opponent risks being hit with a burn roulette. If they don't allow you to draw three cards, you instead mill three, growing your valuable graveyard. Then it hits them for damage equal to the total mana value of those cards, which maxes out at 29 damage.

Karn, Legacy Reforged has power and toughness equal to the most expensive artifact you control, so at the minimum he's a 5/5. He grows larger with any of the more expensive artifacts, and also makes mana each upkeep based on the highest mana value.

Using Daretti and the other Goblin Artificers to flicker Portal to Phyrexia, it can be a board wipe that gets around indestructible and gives you your opponents' most dangerous creatures to play with. If your opponents aren't running any useful creatures, it still serves as an extra way to reanimate your own artifact creatures, which were selected especially for graveyard synergy.

Extra Value Metals

Creatures that create other creatures are great in any deck. Not only are they resistant to board wipes, if you build to take advantage of them, you can flood the battlefield with useful creatures!

Wurmcoil Engine is the one probably most familiar to players. It's a 6/6 Wurm with deathtouch and lifelink, and when it dies it splits apart into two 3/3 Wurms, one with deathtouch and the other with lifelink. You can sacrifice it, get two 3/3 Wurms, and then immediately reanimate it, even using one of its offspring to reanimate it.

Triplicate Titan has a similar effect, splitting from a 9/9 Golem with flying, vigilance, and trample into three 3/3 Golems, each with one of the three abilities. Phyrexian Triniform functions the same way, but trades its combat keywords for encore 12, which allows you to copy it from the graveyard, but only one time.

Threefold Thunderhulk rounds out the value engine pieces, but not by resisting removal like the other three. This one creates three 1/1 Gnomes when it enters and attacks, which allows you to make a small army of Gnomes through recursion.

The Thunderhulk also acts as a sac outlet, allowing you to put important Daretti targets like Wurmcoil Engine into your graveyard for just two mana while simultaneously growing the Thunderhulk and, by extension, your Gnome army.

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