The Speed Demon
Legendary Creature — Demon
Flying, trample
Start your engines! (If you have no speed, it starts at 1. It increases once on each of your turns when an opponent loses life. Max speed is 4.)
At the beginning of your end step, you draw X cards and lose X life, where X is your speed.
Caution is for those who falter.
5 / 5
- Set
- Aetherdrift (DFT #105)
- Rarity
- Mythic
- Mana value
- 5
- Released
- 2025-02-14
- Artist
- Helge C. Balzer
- EDHREC rank
- #6,408
- Colour identity
- Finishes
- Nonfoil, Foil
- Served from
- Local database
Commander bracket
Derived from card traits, not a ruling — bracket rules turn on how a deck intends to use a card. Bracket rules
EDHREC
Combos
Not part of any combo on Commander Spellbook.
Commander recommendations
Top synergy 50
Played far more in this commander's decks than elsewhere.
- Muraganda Raceway
- Amonkhet Raceway
- Avishkar Raceway
- Momentum Breaker
- Gas Guzzler
- Hour of Victory
- Racers' Scoreboard
- Creeping Bloodsucker
- Psychosis Crawler
- Starting Column
- Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber
- Gixian Puppeteer
- Twilight Prophet
- Consuming Corruption
- Exsanguinate
- Thought Vessel
- Gastal Raider
- Whip of Erebos
- Reliquary Tower
- Starving Revenant
- Risen Necroregent
- Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
- Vilis, Broker of Blood
- Withering Torment
- Venser's Journal
- Basilisk Collar
- Dread Presence
- Noxious Gearhulk
- Bontu's Monument
- Qarsi Revenant
- Vampire Nighthawk
- Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
- K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth
- Bloodthirsty Conqueror
- Enduring Tenacity
- Gray Merchant of Asphodel
- Archenemy's Charm
- Nighthawk Scavenger
- Decanter of Endless Water
- Risky Shortcut
- Ardyn, the Usurper
- Scrawling Crawler
- Crypt Ghast
- Mutant Surveyor
- Witch's Clinic
- Crypt Incursion
- Changeling Outcast
- Exquisite Blood
- Infernal Grasp
- Wayfarer's Bauble
Most included 50
Highest share of decks running them, distinctive or not.
- Swamp
- Sol Ring
- Muraganda Raceway
- Amonkhet Raceway
- Gray Merchant of Asphodel
- Dark Ritual
- Jet Medallion
- Arcane Signet
- Avishkar Raceway
- Momentum Breaker
- Crypt Ghast
- Reliquary Tower
- Gas Guzzler
- Exsanguinate
- Feed the Swarm
- Thought Vessel
- Hour of Victory
- Withering Torment
- Cabal Coffers
- Consuming Corruption
- Creeping Bloodsucker
- Bontu's Monument
- Psychosis Crawler
- Racers' Scoreboard
- Bojuka Bog
- Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber
- Toxic Deluge
- Starting Column
- Twilight Prophet
- Defile
- Reanimate
- Gixian Puppeteer
- Lightning Greaves
- Whip of Erebos
- Swiftfoot Boots
- K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth
- Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
- Infernal Grasp
- Imp's Mischief
- Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
- Vilis, Broker of Blood
- Dread Presence
- Phyrexian Arena
- Sign in Blood
- Solemn Simulacrum
- Gastal Raider
- Ayara, First of Locthwain
- Mind Stone
- Cabal Stronghold
- Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
Format legality
Rulings
- 2025-02-07
A player “has max speed” if their speed is 4.
- 2025-02-07
Each player tracks their speed (or lack thereof) separately. Increasing your speed has no effect on whether another player has speed.
- 2025-02-07
If an effect needs to know what a player’s speed is and that player doesn’t have a speed, their speed is considered 0.
- 2025-02-07
Start your engines! isn’t a triggered ability. Increasing your speed to 1 is something that happens as a state-based action as soon as you control a permanent with the ability. Notably, this includes gaining control of a permanent with the ability that another player controls.
- 2025-02-07
Your speed doesn’t change until a spell or ability says so, such as the inherent triggered ability that cares about opponents losing life during your turn. Notably, losing control of permanents with start your engines! doesn’t affect your speed.
- 2025-02-07
“Max speed — [ability]” means “As long as you have max speed, this object has [ability].” If the granted ability functions in a zone other than the battlefield, the max speed ability does too.