Station in MTG: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Last updated on July 22, 2025

Infinite Guideline Station | Illustration by Piotr Dura

New Magic sets often promise to push the boundaries of what’s possible on Magic cards with new mechanics. Some of these are wholly unique, while others build upon established templates and ideas.

The station mechanic from Edge of Eternities (EOE) falls into the latter category, and it adapts many of the ideas seen on vehicles and broadens them to function in a familiar yet rather unique way. Let’s delve into the nitty-gritty of the station mechanic and see how we can apply it to our next space-faring adventure!

How Does Stationing Work?

Wurmwall Sweeper | Illustration by Hardy Fowler

When you control a permanent with station, you can activate its station ability by tapping an untapped creature you control to add charge counters equal to its power to the stationed permanent. You can only do this as a sorcery.

Permanents with station have a variety of abilities that depend on the number of charge counters on them.

Permanents with station only care about the number of charge counters they have. Other kinds of counters like keyword counters or +1/+1 counters don’t enable the abilities marked on the cards. The charge counters can come from any source; this includes cards like Coretapper and Moxite Refinery that put charge counters on permanents and effects like proliferate that increase the number of counters on permanents.

The History of Stationing in MTG

Stationing was introduced in 2025 with the space opera set Edge of Eternities. Station abilities appear on two permanent types: lands with the planet subtype and artifacts with the spacecraft subtype. Stationing evokes the effort put into refueling/repairing spacecraft and terraforming planets in the form of charge counters; with enough time spent sowing, you have rewards to reap.

Whether we see station, spaceships, and planets return post-EOE is questionable. The flavor of planets and spaceships is tied so intimately to EOE’s space opera setting that I struggle to see their place in a traditional Magic set, but there’s no reason we couldn’t see station templated onto lands and artifacts with different subtypes—say, something like “Land – Wilderness” that depicts an untamed landscape or something.

Is Station an Activated Ability?

Yes! Station is an activated ability, as indicated by the colon before the cost and the lack of a term like “when” or “if” that would indicate a triggered ability.

That said, the abilities a station card gains as you station it vary. Some have activated abilities, like Adagia, Windswept Bastion, but others gain triggered abilities, like Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought. Some spacecraft only gain keywords, like Extinguisher Battleship.

Can You Station with a Creature That Has Summoning Sickness?

Yes! The stationed permanent is what taps the creature, not the creature itself, and station doesn’t specify that you can only station a creature without summoning sickness (the way enlist does, for example). You can tap any untapped creature you control, with or without summoning sickness.

Can You Station at Instant Speed?

No, you can’t station at instant speed, as the station ability specifies “station only as a sorcery.”

However, this doesn’t mean there are no ways to enable the abilities on a stationed permanent at instant speed!

The abilities on spacecraft and planets, including those that make a spacecraft a creature, only check the number of charge counters on the permanent, not their source. If you can add charge counters at instant speed with cards like Coretapper or Vorel of the Hull Clade, or with proliferate effects like Experimental Augury, you can gain access to the abilities on your stationed card whenever you like.

Can You Station with More than One Creature?

No. Vehicles can be crewed with as many creatures as you want, but stationing specifies that you only “tap another creature,” so you must station with one creature at a time. However, you can station creatures as many times as you like in a turn, so you can utilize your entire board; you just have to do them one at a time, at sorcery speed.

Can a Spacecraft Station Itself?

No. Spacecraft can’t station themselves, as they specify that you must “tap another creature” to station them.

Can You Still Station a Spacecraft After It Becomes a Creature?

Yes, you can still station a spacecraft after it becomes a creature. While no spacecraft currently rewards you for exceeding the number of counters it takes to make them into a creature, cards other than the spacecraft might benefit from getting tapped, like Kilo, Apogee Mind or Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero.

Station vs. Crew vs. Mount

Station is obviously quite similar to the crew mechanic associated with vehicles and the saddle mechanic given to mounts; vehicles notably established the template for these “tap a creature to make this permanent better” kind of mechanics. Mounts are terrible, so we won’t talk about them anymore, but the difference between station (specifically stationing spacecraft) and crew deserves a little thought.

These are fairly different mechanics that share the common theme of making summoning sick creatures do more than blocking by empowering a different permanent. Of the three, vehicles seem strongest, because they offer much more immediate value. Switching between being a creature and noncreature permanent provides a shocking amount of utility, as sorcery-speed removal—including most board wipes—can’t destroy vehicles. And since you can crew at instant speed, you can make your vehicle into a blocker in response to a removal spell on a real creature.

Of course, the station mechanic has its own benefits. Once you make your spacecraft a creature, it remains that way forever—no more tapping required. You don’t need to compromise between blocking with a creature or a vehicle since you have both. You can even animate a spacecraft without any creatures in play, provided that you have noncreature means of adding and/or proliferating charge counters. Those methods also get around Stony Silence and similar effects, whereas a vehicle becomes a brick.

Gallery and List of Station Cards

• Adagia, Windswept Bastion
• Atmospheric Greenhouse
• Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought
• Debris Field Crusher
• Entropic Battlecruiser
• Evendo, Waking Haven
• Exploration Broodship
• Extinguisher Battleship
• Fell Gravship
• Galvanizing Sawship
• Hearthhull, the Worldseed
• Infinite Guideline Station
• Inspirit, Flagship Vessel
• Kavaron, Memorial World
• Larval Scoutlander
• Luman-Class Frigate
• Pinnacle Kill-Ship
• Rescue Skiff
• Sledge-Class Seedship
• Specimen Freighter
• Susur Secundi, Void Altar
• Susurian Dirgecraft
• Synthesizer Labship
• The Eternity Elevator
• The Seriema
• Uthros Research Craft
• Uthros Scanship
• Uthros, Titanic Godcore
• Warmaker Gunship
• Wedgelight Rammer
• Wurmwall Sweeper

Best Station Cards

Evendo, Waking Haven

You might say that 12 charge counters to enable Evendo, Waking Haven is a lot… but it’s Gaea's Cradle. That’s incredibly busted, even if you need to spend a few turns tapping creatures, and acknowledging that the mana ability has a mana cost to activate. It’s fantastic, especially considering that this is at worst a tapped Forest.

Exploration Broodship

Exploration Broodship isn’t quite as powerful as proper Exploration since it can't fuel super explosive starts. The second ability more than makes up for that because it makes this spacecraft into a recursive powerhouse that you aren’t unhappy to draw on turn 10. I expect this to see plenty of Commander play.

Extinguisher Battleship

Extinguisher Battleship is a fascinating colorless board wipe that handles most creatures, and it destroys another problematic permanent like a planeswalker. It’s a very effective finisher, especially considering that most creatures large enough to station it ought to survive 4 damage.

Infinite Guideline Station

Infinite Guideline Station’s primary utility appears to be as a commander under the EOE rules change, and it’s a fine one. It’s your generic 5-color value pile commander that rewards you for controlling multicolored permanents. It’ll tickle some players' fancy, and is admittedly quite powerful, especially with flicker effects to make more Robots.

Lumen-Class Frigate

A 2-mana Glorious Anthem is honestly a pretty fine Magic card, and Lumen-Class Frigate takes that further by eventually becoming a decent threat that breaks through a stalled board state. The utility looks pretty great here.

The Seriema

Three mana to tutor for a legendary creature is pretty reasonable, especially if that creature’s something like Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd that flickers The Seriema for more triggers. Toss in a strong protective ability stapled to an oversized body, and you have a decent card.

Uthros Research Craft

It’s simply busted to draw a card whenever you cast an artifact, and that’s more than enough to consider Uthros Research Craft one of the best spacecraft. But it even serves as a nasty beater, and you only really need to station this spacecraft once to start extracting maximum value. Also, it’ll be a lovely stroke of flavor to give the fully online research craft just enough power to station Uthros, Titanic Godcore solo.

Uthros, Titanic Godcore

Uthros, Titanic Godcore will never be quite as broken as Tolarian Academy, but it still looks quite powerful. I’ve seen boards that station this with two Construct tokens. And we can’t forget that blue houses many of Magic’s proliferate abilities and more than a few untap effects.

Wrap Up

The Seriema | Illustration by Sergey Glushakov

I was admittedly suspicious of station at first glance given how badly Wizards did the first time they attempted to copy vehicles, but I’ve come around. They do something distinctly different with a similar template; I especially appreciate the planets as interesting lands, and I wouldn’t mind seeing station come back around in the future, even if it has to undergo some flavor contortions to fit into its next set.

What do you think of stationing? Would you like to see Wizards keep working within the vehicle design space, or would you prefer spaceships were just vehicles themselves? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!