Spacecraft is a new artifact subtype, closely tied to the station keyword. Both were introduced with Edge of Eternities. In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about them, including:
- What are spacecrafts in Magic?
- How do you “crew” spacecrafts?
- How does station work?
- And more!
There’s a lot to explain, so why don’t we jump right in?
How Do Spacecrafts Work in MTG?
Spacecrafts are artifacts that aren’t creatures, even though they come with a power and toughness box. They feature a keyword ability called station, which lets you turn them into creatures and unlock extra abilities.
To station, tap an untapped creature you control. (At sorcery speed.) If you do, put X charge counters on the spacecraft, where X is the tapped creature’s power.
Each spacecraft has a circle with a number on its left side. Once it has at least that many charge counters, it becomes a creatures and may also unlock additional abilities.
This might seem a bit complex, so let’s take a look at an actual card.
Example
Here’s The Seriema, a powerful rare spacecraft for three mana.
When it enters, you get to search your library for a legendary creature card. Afterwards, The Seriema stays in play, but it isn’t a creature. That whole bottom rectangle with “flying” and “granting indestructible” is also ignored.
The number 7+ in the circle tells you that it needs at least seven charge counters to become a 5/5 flyer, which protects your other legendaries.
So, if you have a 7/7 in play, you can tap it, put 7 charge counters on The Seriema, and it becomes a creature right away. You could also tap a 3/1 and then a 4/2 to get to 7 charge counters.
Of course, you could also do this over the course of multiple turns. Charge counters stay on the spacecraft, so there’s no need to activate it in a single turn.
How Does Station Work in MTG?
We’ve already explained how station works with spacecrafts, but this keyword can also appear on another card type – lands with the planet subtype.
These lands don’t become creatures with enough charge counters, instead they only unlock an extra ability. The whole “stationing process” works pretty much the same, though. You tap a creature, and put X charge counters on the planet, where X is the creature’s power.
Example
Evendo, Waking Haven is a planet land with station ability.
You can play it at any time you could play a land, and it comes into play tapped. Afterwards, you’re able to tap it for a single green mana. Additionally, you can also tap creatures to station it. For each creature you tap, you put charge counters on Evendo equal to its power.
Once it gets to 12 or more charge counters, it unlocks a powerful mana ability. You pay a green mana and tap it to get a green mana per creature you control. That’s a lot of work, but at least you get a Gaea’s Cradle out of the deal. (Albeit the Wish version of the card.)
MTG Spacecrafts & Station – FAQ
We’ve covered the basics of these mechanics, but there’s more edge cases, special scenarios and details to explore. At least some of those are covered in the following answers. Now, if you still won’t find what you’re looking for, leave a comment below, and we’ll get back to you.
It remains stationed as long as there are enough charge counters on it.
Yes, you can. Due to the recent rule change both legendary vehicles and legendary spacecrafts can now be commanders.
Vehicles are crewed, while spacecrafts are stationed. Crew works until the end of turn, while spacecraft remains stationed until there are enough charge counters on it. Crew requires a minimum amount of power to be tapped, that’s not the case with station.
No, they don’t. The second ability on lands doesn’t exist in other zones.
Yes, they do. They don’t care about specific charge counters, so something like Coretapper or Culling Dias can be useful.
Conclusion
That’s all about the spacecraft rules. You should now have a good idea of how it works, and hopefully, you’ll be able to use it to your advantage.
If you’d like to open some spacecraft cards for you collection, you can order a Play booster box on Amazon.
Until next time, have fun and may you always control enough creatures to help you turn on your spacecrafts.
The only thing I wanted to know is if the charge is consumed on using the ability, but it wasn’t explained
Good question. The charge counters aren’t consumed as part of activating the ability. They stay around as long as the station / planet remains in play – unless a card specifically removes them. (With something like Vampire Hexmage.)
Can you tap a creature with summoning sickness to add charge counters?
Yes, you can. This allows you to use creatures with warp for stationing.
What happens if a spacecraft like e.g. Dawnsire becomes a creature by another effect, like Tezzeret, Cruel Captain’s ultimate? Does the spacecraft get the effect printed on its creatures textbox? And what happens when the spacecraft becomes a creature through its station ability, after it is a 0/0 Robot with 3 +1/+1 counters?
Great question! Here’s a quote from EoE release notes:
“If an effect causes a permanent with station to become a creature by some means other than having the appropriate number of charge counters on it, it won’t use any power and toughness values printed in its text box. Instead, it will use whatever base power and toughness was set by the effect that made it a creature.”
So, let’s say a spacecraft has 0 charge counters, and you target it with Tezzeret’s ultimate. It becomes a 0/0 Robot with 3 counters and no additional abilities. Later you station it, so it gets the appropriate number of counters. At this point it unlocks the new abilities, but doesn’t get the power/toughness from the spacecraft’s stats box. Instead, it remains a 0/0 with three counters.
Does the effect of spacecrafts stacks?
For example, dawnsire sunstar, when It has 10+ counters It unlocks the ability of 100 dmg. When It gets 20+ counters It has flying.
If I get It yo 20+ counters, does It carriles the preview ability of the 100 dmg or only has flying?
Yes, the effect “carries over”.
If I were to use an ensoul artifact effect would the spacecraft retain all the abilities on the card? Some space craft have additional abilities when you add counters before becoming creatures.
The spacecraft would become a 5/5. This wouldn’t unlock any of its abilities. However, you could still crew it. If it gets to the appropriate number of charge counters, it unlocks those abilities. However, it power and toughness remains 5/5, no matter the spacecraft’s stats.
If a spacecraft has two stationing abilities, like the dreadnaught or Entropic Battlecruiser. Do the first station abilities go away when you get to the second station abilities that make it a creature? Entropic Battlecruiser has a +1 that cost a player 3 life when they discard. Then at +8 it says on attack to discard a card or if you can’t then lose 3 life. So once a players hits the +8 does the first effect still apply (minus 3 life when a player discards)?
Good question. Short answer: all abilities still apply.
A bit longer answer: The first ability works as long as there’s 1 or more charge counter. The second ability (and power and toughness) works with at least 8 charge counters. So, if there are 8 counters on the Entropic Battlecruiser, both conditions are met, and all abilities are unlocked.
What happens if I station a spacecraft (like Inspirit, Flagship Vessel) to become a creature (at 8+) and then using something like the Moxite Refinery to remove those charge counters, is it still a creature or do I have to “re-station” it?
You’ll have to “restation” it, it’s no longer a creature and loses abilities.
What happen if you copy a Station ability with let say Rings of Brighthearth? Can you add the same amount of charge counters on another target like Lux Cannon?
No, since the ability doesn’t target, you can’t add the counters to something else. You’d just add more charge counters to the same artifact.
So if I station a spacecraft and my opponent reduces the power of the creature I tapped to stain the spacecraft before the ability resolves does to affect the number of counters that get placed on the spacecraft?
Yes, it does. Say, you tap a 3-powered creature, and you opponent reduces its power to 1. Only a single charge counter will be put on the spacecraft. However, if its power is negative zero counters will be put on spacecraft — you won’t need to remove them.
Does summoning sickness apply to Stations the same as it does with vehicles?
Say I cast a station and put enough charge counters on it the same turn, making it a creature. Can I attack with it same turn as well?
It applies to stations too. Unless a spacecraft has haste (like Galvanizing Sawship), it can’t attack on the turn it’s played.
One interesting interaction to keep in mind. Before a spacecraft is stationed, it’s a noncreature artifact, so it isn’t affected by summoning sickness. Thus, you can tap The Eternity Elevator for mana on the turn you play it. However, if you station it in that same turn, you can’t no longer tap it — as it’s now a creature and affected by summoning sickness.
Eternity Elevator doesn’t become a creature when it is stationed so it won’t have summoning sickness unless you made it into a creature the turn it is played by another effect.
Thanks for pointing this out, I somehow completely missed that the card doesn’t have power/toughness box. In that case, my previous comment only works if Elevator is made a creature some other way.
If I copy I spaceship that has been fully charged, is the copy a creature too or do I need to charge it?
You need to charge it too.