Starting Column

Mana cost: {3}
Type: Artifact
Set: Aetherdrift #244 (common)
Price: $0.25 USD

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.)
{T}: Add one mana of any color.
Max speed — {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw two cards, then discard a card.

Starting Column has 1 printing, first in Aetherdrift (2025). EDHREC ranks it #8,176 among Commander cards. It appears most in Samut, the Driving Force decks (3,069 on EDHREC). It has 6 official rulings.

Legality

commander: legal
legacy: legal
vintage: legal
pauper: legal
modern: legal
pioneer: legal
standard: legal
brawl: legal

Commanders that run Starting Column most

Deck counts from EDHREC.

Often played with Starting Column

Cards that show up in the same decks on EDHREC.

Rulings

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: 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.
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: Each player tracks their speed (or lack thereof) separately. Increasing your speed has no effect on whether another player has speed.
2025-02-07: A player “has max speed” if their speed is 4.

Printings

Aetherdrift #244