Crafting Deretti, Rocketeer Engineer in Commander: Top Cards & Strategy

Stranded on Avishkar: Daretti’s Journey

After losing his Spark, Daretti, one of the most renowned Goblins in Magic: The Gathering, found himself stuck on Avishkar. Fortunately, he quickly joined forces with the Goblin Rocketeers, a quirky group that fervently worships the BOOSTGOD! by crafting rocket cars aimed at reaching their deity through sheer speed.

As co-captain and chief engineer of the Goblin Rocketeers, Daretti feels right at home among fellow Goblin Artificers. Leading a Commander deck, he utilizes artifacts from your graveyard to create a value engine that propels you toward victory.

Sample Decklist

The Commander

Daretti, once a Planeswalker, is now stranded on Avishkar. This Goblin Artificer needs four colorless and one red mana to summon. His power is determined by the highest mana cost of artifacts you control, which can range from zero to a whopping 16 if you include Draco in your decklist.

Daretti’s variable power means he can potentially win through combat, but his real strength lies in his second ability: When he enters or attacks, you may sacrifice an artifact to bring back another artifact from your graveyard. This makes it easy to cheat in pricey artifacts and allows you to re-trigger enter and leave effects like those found on Solemn Simulacrum.

Pairing Daretti with other Goblin Artificers like Goblin Welder and Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer, enhances the value engine, enabling you to flicker powerful artifacts like Wurmcoil Engine and Threefold Thunderhulk effectively.

How to Build the Deck

Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer excels at pulling big artifacts from your graveyard, but you’ll need ways to get them there first. This deck leverages the red color’s draw and discard mechanics, setting you up for substantial plays with cards like Myr Battlesphere while searching for crucial mana sources and strategy enhancers.

To maximize Daretti’s capabilities, include several pricey artifacts in your setup. The goal is not to cast them; instead, having cheap mana rocks will provide perfect sacrificial targets for Daretti.

Helpful Tip: Utilizing mana rocks alongside Goblin Welder and Goblin Engineer can ensure your mana gains outweigh the costs, putting strong options back into your graveyard.

To keep the deck functional without its commander, a few backup cards are included. Daretti, Scrap Savant can help dig for cards and replicate the artifact reanimation capability. Goblin Welder and Goblin Engineer also have similar recycling abilities, although the latter is limited to artifacts that cost three mana or less.

A minor Treasure theme is also woven into the deck, where you can create Treasure tokens to bank for later use when Daretti isn’t attacking or sacrifice them for getting your key artifacts into play.

Ramp

While red typically lacks robust ramp options, many artifacts can generate mana and serve as targets for Daretti. A solid mana rock suite, including Sol Ring and Arcane Signet, is essential, but also consider underutilized artifacts.

Cursed Mirror can come into play as any creature momentarily, which means it can gain its characteristics and trigger enter effects. This can help you pull lands and generate creatures or Treasure for extra damage.

Glittering Stockpile generates one red mana per turn while accumulating stash counters that can yield significant returns. Daretti can recycle this rock, making its effect reusable.

Stonespeaker Crystal requires four mana but provides two for each tap. Furthermore, you can sacrifice it to exile graveyards, a worthwhile trade, especially since Daretti and Goblin Welder can make it usable repeatedly.

Effects that trigger on the entry or exit of a card are powerful and synergize well with your strategy. For example, Solemn Simulacrum supplies a basic land upon entering and a card when it dies, forming an effective loop with Goblin Welder to bring it back again.

Mycosynth Wellspring functions similarly, fetching a land into your hand upon destruction, making it a premier target for sacrificing with Daretti’s effect. Prized Statue works in the same way but instead provides Treasure, meaning it can cover its own cost when played and sacrificed or reused for more Treasure.

Treasures might not seem like much, but Treasure Nabber can become wild when your opponents tap their own mana artifacts. You can seize control of their artifacts and then sacrifice them to Daretti, effectively ramping up your game.

Draw Mechanics

The deck’s card draw mainly consists of red cards designed for discarding. These let you discard heavier threats, like Triplicate Titan, setting you up for bigger plays while drawing fresh cards.

Demand Answers allows you to discard one card and immediately draw two for just two mana. Faithless Looting is slightly cheaper, but you have to discard two cards, placing you at a net loss unless you use flashback.

Additionally, cards like Unexpected Windfall generate Treasure tokens for future mana use or sacrifice fodder. Other draw spells like Pirate’s Pillage and Seize the Spoils have similar effects, allowing for consistent card generation.

Helpful Tip: Cards like Academy Manufacturer and Xorn can amplify the artifact returns from these spells, while Goldspan Dragon doubles their mana output.

Since mono-colored decks have limited mana fixing needs, consider including some draw lands to boost your foundation. Geier Reach Sanitarium provides a draw and discard effect while generating colorless mana.

Mikokoro, Center of the Sea is another legendary land for a little added draw without the shifting costs. For three mana, War Room enables you to draw a card just for you, a worthy trade-off for one life in mono-red.

Bombs

Daretti has the power to bring any artifact in your graveyard into play, so filling your deck with big, impactful artifacts is advisable. Including heavy hitters is crucial since Daretti’s power aligns with the mana value of your most significant artifact.

Metalwork Colossus, the most expensive artifact in the deck, costs 11 generic mana. It can be cheaper with noncreature artifacts in your graveyard, but Daretti’s priority remains on the printed value. Additionally, you can sacrifice other artifacts while it’s in your graveyard, potentially allowing for multiple casts and sacrifices in a single turn.

Bosh, Iron Golem costs eight mana but has an ability that allows you to sacrifice artifacts for damage equal to their mana value. With plenty of expensive artifacts available, this ability can turn the tide of the game.

Helpful Tip: If you have both Metalwork Colossus and Bosh in play, you can potentially bring Colossus back to your hand and repeatedly cast and sacrifice it.

Combustible Gearhulk stands as a formidable 6/6 creature with first strike. Upon entering the battlefield, your opponents face a tough choice: draw three cards or risk being hit with significant damage based on the total mana value of the milled cards, which can reach up to 29.

Karn, Legacy Reforged matches your highest-cost artifact for power and toughness, starting as a base 5/5. He grows more substantial with any artifacts you have while sucking up mana each upkeep based on the highest mana value.

Using Daretti and your Goblin Artificers, the Portal to Phyrexia becomes a devastating board wipe that can bypass indestructible creatures and lets you control the best threats from your opponents. If no opponents have useful creatures, it still functions to reanimate your artifacts that align with your graveyard synergies.

Summoning creatures that can generate additional creatures can give your deck a solid advantage. They can withstand board wipes, and if built around, they can flood the battlefield with vital allies.

Wurmcoil Engine is a familiar face for players—it’s a 6/6 Wurm that creates two 3/3 Wurm tokens upon death, allowing you to sacrifice it and immediately revive it using one of its offspring.

Triplicate Titan follows a similar principle, splitting from a 9/9 Golem with flying, vigilance, and trample into three 3/3 Golems, each boasting one of those abilities. Phyrexian Triniform mirrors this strategy but trades its attributes for a one-time encore, allowing a single copy from the graveyard.

Threefold Thunderhulk adds more layers to your value engine by spawning three 1/1 Gnomes upon entering and attacking.

The Thunderhulk also operates as a sacrificial outlet, letting you push artifacts like Wurmcoil Engine to your graveyard while expanding your Gnome army for future plays.