I posted this in Dudibus's star wars thread but I liked the idea so I thought I'd pull it out and see what I can do with it. Salvage is a keyword that goes on vehicles to reflects them needing some extra work, and it looks like this:



basically you can have some of your creatures help put the thing back together if you don't want to pay the full mana cost. the first card I made with it was this:

Old Junker-
Artifact-Vehicle
Salvage (You may cast this vehicle for its Salvage cost if you also pay its Crew cost.)
Crew 2
5/5

which feels like a pretty straightforward common, but I'm curious if there's much more design space here so I'm gonna try making some. honestly I think the main thing to do with it is just, like, make vehicles that work on their own and include Salvage as an option, so let's start there.

Whipperwillow Cab-
Artifact-Vehicle
Salvage
Whenever Whipperwillow Cab attacks, target creature that crewed it this turn attacks as well.
Crew 4
3/5

Tightwind Lancer-
Artifact-Vehicle
Salvage
Haste
At the beginning of your end step, return Tightwind Lancer to its owner's hand.
Crew 1
5/3

Odsgad's Beast-
Legendary Artifact-Vehicle
Salvage
Trample, menace
Crew 6
All the builders on Steelpoint Street knew to never knock too loud on Odsgad's door.
10/10

of course, we can also do kicker-like stuff:

Refurbished Engine-
Artifact-Vehicle
Salvage
When Refurbished Engine enters, if it was salvaged, put two +1/+1 counters on it.
Crew 2
4/4

Bonegear Chariot-
Artifact-Vehicle
Salvage
Lifelink
When Bonegear Chariot enters, sacrifice a creature that was tapped to cast it.
Crew 3
6/5

I dunno. I'm not hitting on any super exciting designs but I do think it's a solid workhorse mechanic that could make a vehicle-based set more interesting. feel free to play around with it if you've got something better.

Unshackled Harvester
Artifact - Vehicle

Salvage
When ~ enters, it deals 2 damage to each untapped creature.
Crew 2

"Duck! And try not to look like corn!"

5/3

Ramshackle Roller
Artifact - Vehicle
Salvage
You may salvage ~ from your graveyard.
Crew 2
[5/5]

I doubt it needs much more than to be an alt-cost, like you point out. I suppose you could do the "this is better if cast with an alt cost" thing, but that's usually for more expensive costs.

Anyways, for whatever reason, this gave be the following idea (maybe I'm just obsessed with the common keywords):


Salvage is a better name for this than jump to hyperspace was, but it sounds like it should be recovering the vehicle from the graveyard. Soup up would work if it wasn't... soup. (Just discovered where that came from; thought for sure it would be supe.) Maybe Rig?