What it does
Start your engines! is an ability from Aetherdrift that gives you a "speed" counter the first time it resolves. Your speed starts at 1 and can increase (up to a maximum of 4) whenever an opponent loses life on your turn, or when one or more of your creatures deal combat damage to a player. You can only gain speed once per turn, no matter how many trigger conditions are met. Once you have speed, you have "max speed" when your speed reaches 4, which unlocks powerful effects on cards that care about it.
The big nuance: speed only goes up once per turn, and only certain events raise it—general damage and life loss to opponents during your turn. Many players forget speed persists across the game and never resets downward.
In Commander, with three opponents, you'll often hit max speed quickly, but the speed-4 payoffs are typically modest, making it a flavorful but rarely build-defining mechanic.
Iconic cards with Start your engines!
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