1 walking ballista
2 toolcraft exemplar

2 selfless spirit
2 harnessed lightning
3 veteran motorist
2 honored crop-captain
1 heart of nalaar
2 smuggler's copter

2 thopter engineer
2 depala, pilot exemplar
3 renegade wheelsmith
2 aethersphere harvester
2 cultivator's caravan

2 fleetwheel cruiser
2 sram's expertise
2 start your engines
1 Oketra the True

2 glorybringer
1 angel of innovation
1 skysovereign, consul flagship

23 land:
6 plains
4 mountain
2 needle spires
2 clifftop retreat
1 westvale abbey
1 foundry of the consuls
3 aether hub
2 stone quarry

Mana curve:
X drops: 1
1 drops: 2
2 drops: 12
3 drops: 12
4 drops: 6
5 drops: 4

Note: some of below discussion may not accurately reflect current decklist.

22 creatures plus 2 sram's expertise plus 2 foundry of the consuls equals 26 cards that can potentially pilot a vehicle. Seven of those cards produce multiple tokens for better resilience.

10 vehicles to trigger draws off of Sram, senior edificer, plus a total of 12 dwarfs for Depala, Pilot Exemplar to draw.

8 "removal spells" including 1 fan bringer, 3 wheelsmiths, nahiri, two glorybringers and skysovereign provide removal or ways to push damage through.

Start your engines is this deck's premier offensive play. Other than this card and Nahiri, the Harbinger, every single card in this deck is a creature or a vehicle will benefit. This will usually double the power of your board and give you wider attacks at the same time. For example, lets say you have a 3/2 toolcraft exemplar, a 3/2 renegade wheelsmith, a 1/3 thopter engineer and her 1/1 token, a 3/5 aethersphere harvester and a 5/5 cultivator's caravan. Normally you would crew the vehicles and swing with 3-4 attackers for 11-12 damage. But with SyE, you have 27 power on the board and are simultaneously going wide with 6 attackers.

Although explosive plays are plan "A" the deck is capable of operating differently depending on the matchup. With 4 mythics and 20 rares the individual card quality is high.

Against aggro, Aethersphere Harvester and Cultivator's Caravan provide excellent early blockers. Even if your team is low on synergy, a large number of 3 power blockers plus tokens can also provide for favorable blocks. 11 fliers can provide some evasion if the ground is clogged up. Often though it is reasonable to just take hits until you are prepared to launch an explosive play.

Against control, you have tons of vehicles and crew. Be patient with dropping creatures on the board and rely on your vehicles for damage. Even if you can't get creatures to stick on the board, you simply have so many creatures and tokens that you can win the war of attrition.

Overall it has proved to be a consistent and fun deck. Getting draw and card selection from Motorist, Sram, Depala, and Snuggly Thopter is just bonkers in a shell this aggressive. I have no doubt that the two free scry on motorist have won me games. That said, there are a few slots I am not sure about.

Fan bearer and Nahiri were originally two Glory-Bound Initiate, which in an earlier incarnation of the deck were two Lantern Scouts. I didn't find the lantern scouts that useful because I wanted to use all of my mana for explosive plays. Initiates' weakness of one toughness and exertion are no big deal are bypassed when they are piloting, but I found them rather underwhelming. The two honored crop-captain... I just can't seem to draw them. Basically they seem the best option for two mana 3/xs right now. Inventor's Apprentice is an excellent value and decent blocker, but the key number is 3 power.

If I go up the curve to three drops there are so many tasty options. Thalia, Heretic Cathar is an excellent blocker, big enough to crew, with a very significant ability. I could see giving Master Trinketeer a home in my deck as a singleton lord and mana sink. Pia Nalaar is obviously a great card but I find her abilities too expensive in this deck. I am very frequently playing creatures pre-combat and I can't hold mana open to bluff her pump ability.

Anyway this Boros vehicle deck is very much a home brew, I haven't seen how other people have built similar decks. I hear Mardu is a thing. I will look around and see how other people do this vehicle stuff. I would like to at least try squeezing in one or even two more vehicles, but the card quality is just too low. The 3 CMC spot is already extremely competitive.

3 fatal push

3 censor
2 essence scatter
2 blessed alliance
2 pull from tomorrow
2 grasp of darkness

2 scatter to the winds
3 broken concentration
1 liliana, the last hope
2 anguished unmaking

1 commit // memory
3 cast out
2 glimmer of genius
2 languish

2 confirm suspicions
1 torrential gearhulk
1 sorin, grim nemesis
1 cruel reality

Standard nonbasic lands for UBW, Basics: 3/2/1. 25 lands total.

I think when it comes to deckbuilding I am by far the most confident when it comes to building control piles. Answer everything, take your time, have win conditions that are not too easily disrupted. Simple in principle. But I haven't spent the time on this decklist to say that it is 100% what I want.

Earlier incarnations of my control pile ran big Jace, Ob Nix and Sorin as win conditions, together with four awaken cards. "medium" Lili does not have the raw power of Jace, but she is cheap enough to hit the board much earlier and I consider her a very high value card due to her token killing ability versus aggro. Even if your opponent does not have any x/1s, using her on a two or three power creature will force your opponent to commit more to the board. Plus her ultimate actually will win, I do not consider big Jace's ultimate that amazing. I love Ob Nix but I feel comfortable enough durdling with this deck that I do not require his ability to close down games, he can simply be a dead (5 mana sorcery murder) against decks that get your life total very low.

Gearhulk just has so much value with Confirm and Glimmer. Even if he eats removal, I still consider manlands and awakened lands important parts of this deck's toolkit.

Cruel Reality can die to enchantment removal, but with the cast outs already in the deck I do not consider this a reason not to play it.

Blessed Alliance does not seem to get much love. It is a very specialized removal spell, I think two copies is the right number. Early on it is cheap removal with an EASY CASTING COST unlike grasp of darkness, which is seldom usable on turn 2. Personally I think this card has tremendous value against burn due to the lifegain. It is also an out against Gaea's Revenge, Lumbering Falls, and god spells.

Oh - and planar outburst. Due to the increased number of cheap and flexible answers, I can understand the rationale behind fewer board wipes, but I still like having one copy. Using outburst to Awaken a land is mighty expensive, but you can set up some cool plays like killing Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and his soldier token and coming out ahead.

commit // memory and never // return - the commit side is good, but it is competing against so many other high CMC answers that are excellent. Right now, I want it as a singleton for emergency card draw and as a way of preventing self-mill. Never return- I want to like this card. But I find myself in far too many situations where "never" is the least effective answer in my hand and I do not want to tap out to cast it. I would actually like it better if the front side was "return" and the back side was "never."

For sure I want to test other players decklists and some variants. I still consider this deck a work in progress. I have almost everything unlocked except the third Censor. Playtesting is tough because the deck quality of my opponents is really low, even at rank 40. Very few spiked out lists, lots of jank.

1 walking ballista

1 renegade map
3 fatal push
2 magma spray
2 battle at the bridge

2 Cut // Ribbons
3 harnessed lightning
1 pull from tomorrow

2 dynavolt tower
1 oath of liliana
2 radiant flames
2 never // return
1 liliana, the last hope
1 geistblast

3 glimmer of genius
2 languish
1 chandra, torch of defiance

1 jace, unraveler of secrets
1 ob nixilis reignited
2 dark intimations

1 chandra, flamecaller

Standard nonbasic lands for UBR, Basics: 2/2/2. 25 lands total.

Mana curve:
X Spells: 4 plus ribbons
1 drops: 6
2 drops: 5
3 drops: 9
4 drops: 6
5 drops: 4
6 drops: 1

Mini synergies:
Dynavolt tower: two towers plus
6 cards that create energy directly and the three hubs
25 instants/sorceries, plus five of them can be cast from graveyard.
Planeswalker synergy: 1 oath of liliana + 5 PW + 2 Dark intimations
Battle at the Bridge: Four artifacts to help make this spell slightly more potent. It may not sound like much, but having an X spell dealing damage on curve vs behind the curve is crucial in the early game, later on, you can gain more life or leave mana open for instants.

Gameplay: I am an Esper control player at heart, and this is a pretty big departure. IMO instant speed defines Esper control. Grixis has the tools to potentially play an instant speed control shell, but dealing with troublesome enchantments or artifacts is a major drawback.

Instead this deck has bigger plays that can close the game out faster. Five sweepers plus a number of spells that can extend the range of your sweeps. Five planeswalkers plus the towers plus two ribbons to create threats of a diverse nature that are resilient to standard answers, and you have enough of them to simply force something on the board against universal answers like Cast Out.

Although there are a lot of sorcery speed plays, there should be sufficient instant speed removal to cope with decks like vehicles. 3 fatal push with ballista and a map to trigger on demand revolt. 2 magma spray, 3 harnessed lightning and singletons geistblast and
walking ballista. Moreover, once you land a dynavolt tower, your ability to respond at instant speed will increase dramatically.

The deck has 9 instant speed removal spells, (plus two tower and ballista), 5 sorcery speed board wipes (including big Chandra), 13 sorcery speed removal spells (including planeswalkers), 7 other sorcery speed spells and 4 other instant speed spells. Meh my math is a off by one here, but you get the picture.

Specialist answers: four abilities to exile cards from the GY, three sacrifice abilities, and 5 -x/-x abilities to deal with annoying gods.

Very much a WIP, greatly hampered by the lack of spike decks on Steam.

Oh yeah and I know the Grixis build is kind of jank... I really just wanted to throw Dark Premonition around. I see two more Grixis builds that would be fun. One would use the madness/discard mechanic to squeeze a ton of synergy and value out of the three colors that use this mechanic. Can go creatureless, creature light, or rely on the excellent token production of Drake Haven and From Under the Floorboards. This grixis list I posted is quite weak vs. burn, it just so happens that Floorboards is a great instant speed finisher that also gains you life. Not sure what creatures I would want to include, but Archfiend of Ifnir is practically a perma board wipe against tokens. And Key to the City is a very underutilized instant speed, zero cost discard tool that not enough people use (just a singleton tho). I already have a grixis madness list but I would want to significantly retool it for AMK. Also, never seen a list that uses the madness mechanic of Broken Concentration.

The tricky part about madness has always been finding the right balance of discard enablers and madness cards. I don't know, it may no longer be competitive... AMK hasn't released any good new discard enablers.

2 blossoming defense
3 druid of the cowl
1 evolutionary leap
4 grapple with the past

2 tireless tracker
1 reclamation sage
1 pulse of murasa
2 eldritch evolution

1 Gisela, the broken blade
4 explosive vegetation
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

1 angel of invention
3 arborback stomper
2 planar outburst

1 greenwarden of murasa
1 woodland bellower
1 ulvenwald hydra

2 emeria shepherd
2 bruna, the fading light

11 plains
3 forest
2 canopy vista
2 sunpetal grove
3 aether hub
4 evolving wilds

This is mostly a jank list, but now and then you can pull back from certain defeat with some of the extreme power plays in this deck.

I seem to have a thing for removal-light or removal-less decks. The issue here is that consistently executing the combo takes so many cards that I am afraid to make cuts that would hurt the deck's speed and consistency.

Basically the plan is to ramp while tossing as many cards in your graveyard as you can via Grapple. At this point, there are two ways of executing the combo(s):

With Eldritch evolution - land a five drop creature and upgrade it to any one of the bombs at the top of the curve. The two primary targets are Shepherd and Gisela/Bruna. Bruna needs to be cast in order to enable her resurrection ability. Shepherd is ideal, but you should try to wait to summon her until you can play a land after she hits the board.

Without evolution - use grapple to repeatedly dig and deploy the best stall creature for the scenario. Against control, don't be afraid to play the long game - the more time you spend dropping lands and filling your graveyard with creatures, the more devastating Shepherd will be once you can deploy her.

Evoleap and Blossoming Defense are there in order to prevent your key pieces from being exiled. Exile removes the fun from graveyard shenanigans.

Not much needs to be said about Brisela. Once she is in play, the only commonly used spells that might work against her are cast out and commit. I consider her more of a lock on the game than Ulamog, simply because her massive damage and lifelink allows you to practically ignore what your opponents have on the board.

Shepherd is combo heaven. Even if she dies, this deck has 9 other cards that can bring her back. The key to maximizing her potential is to very carefully deploy lands. You can drop a non-plains to get something back in hand at sorcery speed, or a plains to raise dead. But the best option is evolving wilds - this will give you one raise dead and one zombify at instant speed(!). For this reason, you will often want to grapple evolving wilds.

Ulvenwald Hydra is best friends with Shepherd. He is a "free" zombify target who will fetch you another plains. Not great at pushing damage through but helps to create an overwhelming board position that will help you to stabilize even at low life.

One very fun loop is Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. His -4 ability will immediately send him back to your yard, drop an evolving wilds and hardcast him again, make another emblem, then crack the wilds to put him back on your board a third time. Giving your entire team a permanent +3/+3 in one turn is just the sort of wacky fun you can have with this deck.

You should plan ahead, but do not be afraid to wipe your own board. You can recover faster than your opponents and come back from nothing without much difficulty.

So there are a few directions I could take this decklist, I have tinkered a bit and tried them but I feel the consistency here is key. Here are some alternatives:
1) A pair of Aethersphere harvester and some blisterpods to act as resilient crew/ ramp enablers. Requires 5 card slots, cuts too much into the combo engine.
2) Tragic arrogance and/or Cataclysmic Gearhulk. Expensive enough that it requires cutting fat creatures from the deck. You need the 5 drops to be eldritch evolution targets, I would have a hard time cutting the 6 drops at the top of the curve for this.
3) Removal: Nature's Way, Cast Out, Monstrous Onslaught, prepare // fight. I can see running nature's way for sure - it is removal, but the trample and vigilance will also be tremendous! The other cards are good, but there is just too much competition near the top of the curve IMO.
4)Ccccombo: Crop Sigil and Renegade Rallier. Rallier by himself is exceptional because he doesn't simply return a land to your hand, he can put a land directly into play! Crop sigil helps dig and can be recurred via Rallier or Shepherd. The problem with both cards is that they require even more combo pieces to function: delirium and revolt, respectively.
5)Splash : Pieces of the Puzzle, Kefnet the Mindful. PotP is the best card in the game for flipping cards into your graveyard. And like many ramp decks, it is not uncommon to draw nothing but lands and ramp into nowhere. Kefnet is a marvellous mana sink and his ability also allows us to "re use" plains for the EtB effect. But I don't think this deck can handle the splash, see below.
5)Splash : Nahiri, the Harbinger loves arborback stomper. 5 life when it comes into play, 4 life to send it back to the graveyard. Nahiri can be used to protect your critters from exile. And this deck has the tools to fetch her. Great early blocker. I would probably include Aethersphere Harvester to help stabilize life totals so that her ability can be used. Plenty of other good cards with cost, which is out of the question.

Splashing a third color is extremely difficult due to Emeria Shepherd's need for plains. This deck runs 11 plains plus two canopy vista. It is very easy to make it to 8 mana and have 4 plains already in play plus two in the graveyard. That only leaves you with 5(!). The deck doesn't run any energy generators either, so the hubs are not reliable sources. And we need actual ramp spells, not enchantments, in order to trigger Shepherd.

Overall I would love to squeeze in 2 nature's way, a cast out or two, and maybe some aethersphere harvesters (but do I have enough crew?). But finding the cuts is very tough, advice would be welcome here.