Depala, Pilot Exemplar has one of the most restrictive tribal abilities of any commanders in EDH... or at least one of the oddest as far as deck building is concerned.
Fortunately, she also has very few targets for this ability, you can't NOT utilize her ability if she's the commander of your deck (otherwise you'd be better off running a different commander), the ability very rigidly restricts your card pool to accommodate "tribal deck-density" is concerned, and she gives you a very unique reward for choosing her:
Card Draw in Boros
So I've went ahead and compiled all of her legal targets to put the limitations of playing a Depala deck into perspective.
Optimizing a deck for her is a lot easier to digest as a result, but at the same time, the setback of having to play with some of these cards means making her powerful enough to survive in EDH a whole new challenge.
If you want to learn more about why playing with Dep has justifiable upside, how to best build around her, and why you'd play this deck over other, more powerful Aggro decks in EDH, keep reading.
If not... well... ignore how much time I clearly put into the paragraphs below... (it was roughly an hour)
Also I excluded anything like Dwarven Mine from the list, because no matter how Dwarfy that card may be, it obviously can't be picked up by Depala. There's only a handful of cases like these, and realistically they all suck, so don't worry about maybe missing out on some secret Dwarven gems just because they don't qualify for Depala's ability.
Maybeboard = Legal Target, but not legal to play in a Depala EDH deck.
What Depala's ability means is that, even though we can technically play with ANY White/Red cards across all of Magic's history, a large portion of your deck (roughly 30+ cards) is already pre-restricted into a VERY small cardpool of options. Paying 3 mana for 1 card draw isn't ideal by EDH standard. But it is in Boros, it is very consistent, and it allows you to dump your hand super fast knowing that you'll get an inevitable refill whenever you run out of stuff to play and yo have nothing else to dump your mana into anyways. This offers a unique solution to Aggro decks running out of gas in such a big-mana format like EDH. While she may not offer as explosive of a game plan as Krenko or Purphoros, in turn, Depala grants you a very unique and satisfying sense of durability that can let you pull out sneaky wins from nowhere even if games go long and a couple board wipes have happened.
Being the Boros Dwarf player who looks to be blown out by board wipes, Threat Assessment is wildly in your favor. Even if you dump your hand and have a threatening board state, it's not gonna last forever, and you sometimes need to hold back a good number of power if something more aggressive than yourself puts you into a blocking position (something Vehicles aren't very good at in a multiplayer format). It's not that you RELY on pity to win games, but there's still legitimate benefit to looking innocent so that other player start fighting more with each other, softening themselves up so you can sneak in a finishing blow. Not to mention, Vehicles inherent non-creature nature gives your aggro deck a unique edge against most Wrath effects for surprising resiliency. Top that off with Depala's aforementioned reload potential, and you can ramp to oblivion, play out creatures super recklessly, and be perfectly fine in the late-game (Albeit you DO have to remember that the more Dwarves you have, the less there are in the deck for Depala to grab, so her ability does gradually become less useful over extreme amounts of time)
You can play with more chunky vehicles, only using small dwarves for crew, or go all in on the low CMC hand-dumping plan prioritizing, relying on Depala to give you a refill and putting up threats using either Artifact Tribal or Dwarf Tribal aggro tools depending on which Tribe your iteration of the deck leans in more towards, although I recommend an even balance of both.
What is that balance you say? Not a damn clue. The deck is funny and cool since it's so unique, but it's also not the most powerful thing in the world, and I haven't quite figured out how to optimize it, since there are a couple different ways you can focus your strategy. (Being as this is one of the only "dual tribal" decks out there, you can't just rely on classic creature-tribe EDH staples like Urza's Incubator, because you find out pretty quickly that Vehicles not having a creature-type makes those Tribal effects pretty inefficient at times)
So what I've done here is compiled EVERY possible target Depala has for ability to figure this out.
Like I said, you can't NOT use her ability as your commander, and as you'll see on this list, Dwarves have been thrown in the dumpster and forgotten about by WotC for almost two decades, meanwhile Vehicles are a very new card type. That means, unlike most decks in EDH where the sky is the limit and every optimized deck starts to look the same by running all the EDH staples, Depala is the opposite, because in order to optimize her, you probably have to throw out some staples to accommodate her weird deck building requirement. Urza's Incubator, a Tribal powerhouse for Goblins and Dragons, is a perfect example of what makes Depala different.
With all that in mind, here's what Depala DOES have going for her if you're looking to optimize her weird style of "Resilient Vehicle-Dwarf Aggro" in EDH.
The entire collection is quite cheap, and there are PLENTY of cards here that obviously would never be playable in EDH, so I'm gonna try and mix and match these guys in the deck over time, treating this list as one big, massive sideboard in a way.
Oh, and you "could" use:
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Basalt Monolith + Zirda, the Dawnwaker type combos to get infinite mana
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Use that mana by tapping Depala, Pilot Exemplar and putting all your vehicles and dwarves from your deck into your hand
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Continue to use that mana to play out Fleetwheel Cruiser, Ovalchase Dragster, andThundering Chariot onto the field at the same time (all of whom are the only Vehicles as of 2020 with have Haste and Trample)
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Then, so long as you have 1 White mana to spare, you'll also have Mirror Entity in your hand, who you can now play and continue to pump infinite mana into so all creatures on board get infinitely huge... including the ones you'll always have with trample and haste, so in theory you can always take out all three of your opponents in one combat step from out of nowhere. Boots that give haste can turn ANY creature with trample into a kill-card, or even flying can do the trick in a lot cases as far as getting the damage through is concerned.
BUT there are a few problems with this combo to say the least. If you can't give Depala haste, you can only dump mana into her if you have a vehicle on board, which makes the combo a bit inconsistent if the idea is that you can win out of nowhere... because you can't if someone is controlling you out of the game. Speaking of which, the combo wincon you have is one based on combat damage. If a fog effect, Teferi's Protection, or any non-Prison anti-combat effect keeps your vehicles from swinging in, or god forbid single target removal, counterspells and instant speed board wipes, your whole plan is ruined. That's A LOT of ways to get interacted with in the middle of your wincon, and with Boros not being known for its countermagic, there's little you can do but hope this doesn't happen.
All in all, while it's a cool way to play Depala, and something I'll definitely look into trying out in the future (because what is a deck builder if you don't explore ALL aspects of The Force, even the dark ones), I definitely don't think you'll win more as a combo deck than with the aggressive resilient-y creature shell. You could "try" keeping the combo in as a mini-package for your aggro deck, but with the combo version of this deck is already severely set back by having terrible tutors in Boros colors, so it would be near impossible to pull it off unintentionally.
IF ZIRDA COULD BE A COMPANION WITH DEPALA THAT WOULD BE SO COOL!!! (But she can't. Because even though ALL Vehicles, Mirror Entity, AND Basalt Monolith all have activated abilities, AND Zirda is weirdly a Boros card of all thing, Depala herself technically only has a triggered ability. But could you imagine!? Depala could grab all your pieces, you'd always have Zirda in your Companion zone, so all you'd have to do would be to find Monolith and assemble your infinite mana engine and you could win on the spot whenever you wanted!... with all the aforementioned interruptibility issues the combo already struggles with, but that doesn't mean the combo wouldn't still be infinitely easier to pull off!)
But hey! Maybe if you're a hardcore Dwarf fan, maybe you could have TWO Depala decks, one of each strat, they look nearly identical for most of the 99, use the same sleeves and deck box, and your playgroup won't know for sure which one you're playing until it's too late! (kidding, but it's an idea)
I guess that concludes my massive analysis of Depala as a general on the whole.
TLDR: Here's your detailed menu of options you should be running at least 30+ of in any Depala deck.
(Unless you're the Vehicle Combo deck I mentioned, in which case ignore this entire thing. You only need to run the combo pieces Depala fetches, and the rest of your deck should focus on consistently assembling and protecting that combo)
