The 44 Best Artifact Planeswalkers in Magic Ranked

Last updated on May 19, 2026

[REPLACE CARD]Daretti, Scrap Savant[/REPLACE] | Illustration by Dan Scott

For those who are just dipping their toes into Magic, planeswalkers can be some of the most striking and challenging cards to learn about. Their design and layout are so different from your basic Magic card, but they almost always feature some awesome art of a powerful character.

Planeswalkers can do all kinds of things, but one of their most interesting interactions is with artifacts. Many planeswalkers mention artifacts in passing, especially with removal abilities, but other planeswalkers seem made to play with artifacts.

It’s time to list all planeswalkers that interact with artifacts in some way. Spoiler: Among others, it’s a who’s who of Tezzeret cards.

What are Artifact Planeswalkers in MTG?

[REPLACE CARD]Teferi, Time Raveler[/REPLACE] | Illustration by Chris Rallis

If you want to be strict about it, artifact planeswalkers in Magic are planeswalkers that are designed to synergize with artifacts. Maybe they generate artifacts, or maybe they animate your artifacts.

But that feels limiting. There are about 40 planeswalkers that mention artifacts including simple artifact removal abilities. Removal isn’t the main point, but all planeswalkers that mention artifacts are here because I’m a completionist at heart. Gotta catch ‘em all!

#44. Vivien Reid + Freyalise, Llanowar’s Fury + Nissa, Ascended Animist

[REPLACE CARD]Vivien Reid[/REPLACE]’s removal ability costs 3 loyalty and hits an artifact, enchantment, or flier. Boo, hiss. [REPLACE CARD]Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury[/REPLACE]’s removal costs only 2 loyalty, but you can’t use it to bug-zap any fliers. [REPLACE CARD]Nissa, Ascended Animist[/REPLACE] removes artifacts and enchantments for 1 loyalty, but that makes sense especially if you don’t use this green planeswalker’s compleated ability and cast this for its full price/full loyalty.

#43. Grist, Voracious Larva / Grist, the Plague Swarm

[REPLACE IMG]Grist, Voracious Larva[/REPLACE][REPLACE IMG]Grist, the Plague Swarm[/REPLACE]

[REPLACE CARD]Grist, Voracious Larva[/REPLACE] needs a little help to become [REPLACE CARD]Grist, the Plague Swarm[/REPLACE], but that might cost little to no mana, so for the grand total of , and -2 loyalty, Grist can get rid of a pesky artifact, not bad for a black and green planeswalker that can turn around and build up lots of insects.

#42. Vraska, Relic Seeker

The removal still costs 3 loyalty, but at least you get a treasure. Thanks, [REPLACE CARD]Vraska, Relic Seeker[/REPLACE]!

#41. Ajani, Strength of the Pride

My brain doesn’t like looking at [REPLACE CARD]Ajani, Strength of the Pride[/REPLACE] and seeing the 0-loyalty ability below the -2, but I can see why it technically makes sense. The 0-loyalty ability also requires that you have 15 more life than your starting total, but you get to trade Ajani in to exile each artifact and creature that your opponents control.

#40. Chandra, Spark Hunter

[REPLACE CARD]Chandra, Spark Hunter[/REPLACE] gives you a free, fully crewed vehicle with a decent way to draw cards. Chandra is crafty with the tools, what can I say.

#39. Ajani, Nacatl Pariah / Ajani, Nacatl Avenger

[REPLACE IMG]Ajani, Nacatl Pariah[/REPLACE][REPLACE IMG]Ajani, Nacatl Avenger[/REPLACE]

[REPLACE CARD]Ajani, Nacatl Pariah[/REPLACE] needs to transform into the planeswalker from Modern Horizons 3, [REPLACE CARD]Ajani, Nacatl Avenger[/REPLACE] and use its ultimate, sure the ultimate is easy to achieve at -4, but there are some opponents that won’t have any artifacts. This Ajani might fare better on other rankings, but not for artifact interaction, especially when your opponent gets to keep their best one.

#38. Valki, God of Lies / Tibalt, Cosmic Imposter

We only care about the [REPLACE CARD]Tibalt, Cosmic Imposter[/REPLACE] face for today, and we also only care about the -3 loyalty ability. That’s a lot of text to be ignoring. Tibalt removes artifacts, and exile is a good place to put them. I think I hear [REPLACE CARD]Karn, the Great Creator[/REPLACE] laughing in the wings.

#37. Teferi, Timebender

[REPLACE CARD]Teferi, Timebender[/REPLACE] is only here because its first loyalty ability untaps an artifact or creature. It certainly is a card.

#36. Teferi, Time Raveler

[REPLACE CARD]Teferi, Time Raveler[/REPLACE] is such a punishing card. But it’s built for stax, not artifacts. It bounces artifacts. But that’s all. Salute and move on.

#35. The Eternal Wanderer

[REPLACE CARD]The Eternal Wanderer[/REPLACE] offers you a slow-blink ability that can hit an artifact, which isn’t bad if you’ve got artifact-fall strategies going. I could see it being used to (slowly) move around auto-attaching equipment or remove the charge or oil counters from an opposing artifact.

#34. Tamiyo, Compleated Sage

[REPLACE CARD]Tamiyo, Compleated Sage[/REPLACE] interacts with a few artifacts, but that’s not really the strategy it fits into. You can tap down an artifact or creature for positive loyalty, and the ultimate gives you a [REPLACE CARD]Tamiyo's Journal[/REPLACE] token. It’s an artifact, but it plays into drawing cards and casting spells. I guess you could use the -X ability to exile and copy an artifact, too.

#33. Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting

The artifact synergies here are limited, although [REPLACE CARD]Vraska, Betrayal's Sting[/REPLACE] is a really good card. I mean, it can put an opponent at death’s doorstep with just its ultimate ability. The proliferation of the first ability synergies with some artifacts, but that’s not why it’s there. Same for the ability that turns stuff to [REPLACE CARD]Treasure[/REPLACE]. No, you’ve got something else up your sleeve if you’re running this Vraska.

#32. Tezzeret, Master of Metal

Here’s why next to nobody plays [REPLACE CARD]Tezzeret, Master of Metal[/REPLACE]: You can get a souped-up version of its -3 ability on [REPLACE CARD]Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge[/REPLACE] as a positive loyalty ability. The ability to take control of all artifacts and creatures an opponent controls is interesting, but the card itself is redundant given the better Tezzerets out there.

#31. Tezzeret, Cruel Machinist

When it comes to artifact animation, I like permanent effects more than temporary effects. Especially when it’s making me 5/5s! [REPLACE CARD]Tezzeret, Cruel Machinist[/REPLACE] gives you a temporary 5/5 for 0 loyalty, and the ultimate lets you put “any number” of cards onto the battlefield as 5/5s. Blue is known for its ability to draw cards, so I could see wanting to try to get that off after having drawn a boatload of cards.

#30. Elspeth, Knight-Errant

You’re less likely to run [REPLACE CARD]Elspeth, Knight-Errant[/REPLACE] with a bunch of artifacts because its other abilities pump out tokens and give your creatures perks, but the fact that its emblem includes artifacts among the permanents it makes indestructible is just so good. No planeswalkers, though, huh?

#29. Dovin, Grand Arbiter

[REPLACE CARD]Dovin, Grand Arbiter[/REPLACE] pretty much “just” pumps out [REPLACE CARD]Thopter[/REPLACE] tokens, if you’re looking for artifact synergies. The evasive flying Thopters can help to pump up Dovin’s loyalty, which is a nice bit of internal, card-level synergy.

#28. Tezzeret the Schemer

Despite how all its abilities play into artifacts, [REPLACE CARD]Tezzeret the Schemer[/REPLACE] from Aether Revolt doesn’t excite me much. I appreciate that the -2 ability is balanced so that it can either turn one of your creatures into a glass cannon or remove an opponent’s creature. [REPLACE CARD]Etherium Cell[/REPLACE]s feel like a precursor to [REPLACE CARD]Treasure[/REPLACE], and the artifact animation on that ultimate ability is permanent rather than temporary. This is fine.

#27. Nahiri, the Harbinger

Not much to write home about here. [REPLACE CARD]Nahiri, the Harbinger[/REPLACE]’s ultimate is the most useful part if you’re focused on artifacts yourself, letting you search for an artifact or creature. -8 loyalty feels like a lot to tutor something that’ll just come back right to your hand unless you’re using killer ETBs and ability doublers.

#26. Dack Fayden

[REPLACE CARD]Dack Fayden[/REPLACE] plays around in the “yoink!” sphere of Magic with two abilities that let you take control of your opponents’ toys. The -2 ability lets you steal artifacts, but the ultimate’s emblem lets you steal anything that you target.

#25. Saheeli, Filigree Master

A Brothers’ War planeswalker that cares about artifacts. Shocking, [REPLACE CARD]Saheeli, Filigree Master[/REPLACE]! The anthem-emblem that also offers cost reduction is the most attractive part to me, and it doesn’t seem unreasonable to get there.

#24. Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

You can almost draw a straight line between Tezzeret designs that have an ability that plays around with people’s life totals. [REPLACE CARD]Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas[/REPLACE] has it on an ultimate ability, but the overall mana value and the loyalty cost of that ability don’t feel too high. It’s fine, but it remains outclassed by the best Tezzerets.

#23. Dovin, Hand of Control

I was having a Magic hiatus around War of the Spark, and the uncommon planeswalkers that don’t have built-in ways to gain loyalty took a while to make sense to me. [REPLACE CARD]Dovin, Hand of Control[/REPLACE] gives your artifacts some cost reduction, which is good enough to almost make me never use the loyalty ability.

#22. Saheeli Rai

Copying stuff is always fun, which is why I like what [REPLACE CARD]Saheeli Rai[/REPLACE] is going for. Artifacts with good ETBs like [REPLACE CARD]Meteor Golem[/REPLACE] are some of the better artifacts to pair with this Saheeli card. The “different names” stipulation on the ultimate ability doesn’t matter much if you play Commander and other singleton formats.

#21. Kaito, Dancing Shadow

The combination of abilities is intriguing. You could, in theory, return the [REPLACE CARD]Drone[/REPLACE]s you get from [REPLACE CARD]Kaito, Dancing Shadow[/REPLACE]’s third ability (I hesitate to call it “ultimate”) to your hand so that you can use another loyalty ability. Sure, the token ceases to exist, but if it dealt combat damage to a player, it got you a second loyalty ability for your turn, and its “leaves the battlefield” trigger took more life from your opponents while giving you some as well. That’s a lot of work for a lil Drone to get done, huh?

#20. Nahiri, the Lithomancer

[REPLACE CARD]Nahiri, the Lithomancer[/REPLACE] gains points among artifact planeswalkers for the fact that it can be your commander. In terms of artifact synergies, this card is equipment focused. The [REPLACE CARD]Stoneforged Blade[/REPLACE] token is so good between its 0-mana equip cost and the abilities it gives to its wielder.

#19. Ugin, Eye of the Storms

[REPLACE CARD]Ugin, Eye of the Storms[/REPLACE] takes advantage of artifacts that count as colorless spells and turns them into fantastic late game plays.

#18. The Aetherspark

[REPLACE CARD]The Aetherspark[/REPLACE] is a quirky one to play with and mainly makes this ranking because it is an artifact itself, and has widely useful effects.

#17. Karn, Scion of Urza

[REPLACE CARD]Karn, Scion of Urza[/REPLACE] is another token producer, although this one grows with your artifact base. Karn comes in with enough loyalty to activate that ability twice, and all that for 4 mana!

#16. Urza, Planeswalker

You have to meld [REPLACE CARD]Urza, Lord Protector[/REPLACE] and [REPLACE CARD]The Mightstone and Weakstone[/REPLACE] to get to [REPLACE CARD]Urza, Planeswalker[/REPLACE], but it qualifies for the list! The fact that you get to choose two abilities per turn is just bonkers, and three of the five (!) loyalty abilities deal with artifacts. Do you want cost reduction, [REPLACE CARD]Soldier[/REPLACE]s that are artifact creatures, or a board wipe that leaves planeswalkers and artifacts alone? Decisions, decisions. The 7-8 mana investment (depending on sequencing) to cast the two component cards, plus the 7-mana, sorcery speed meld ability it takes to get here are the main factors that draw Urza, Planeswalker back.

#15. Vronos, Masked Inquisitor

Listen. [REPLACE CARD]Vronos, Masked Inquisitor[/REPLACE] is a good card. But its only contribution to artifact strategies is pumping out a [REPLACE CARD]Construct[/REPLACE] token. But what a construct it is! 9/9, vigilance, indestructible, and unblockable? Yikes. Its first ability can help to protect your other planeswalkers, so that’s neat.

#14. Dakkon, Shadow Slayer

Leave it to Modern Horizons 2 to give us one of the few planeswalkers with a scalable starting loyalty. [REPLACE CARD]Dakkon, Shadow Slayer[/REPLACE] is best used late in the game if you’re specifically aiming for artifacts. The ultimate ability is your path to play artifacts without paying mana or bringing them back from your graveyard, but a +1 loyalty ability is a slow way to get there if you drop this the moment you have three lands.

#13. Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast

You shouldn’t be surprised that a Daretti card mentions artifacts a bunch, and while these abilities all work well together, I’m not sure where I’d use [REPLACE CARD]Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast[/REPLACE]. The [REPLACE CARD]Construct[/REPLACE] tokens have defender, which makes for good chump blockers and sacrifice fodder. Token doublers in these colors are barely a thing, too. It’s the ultimate ability that really has an impact. Getting three artifactfall and creaturefall triggers (you can grab artifact creatures, after all) all at once can give you all kinds of value.

#12. Saheeli, the Gifted

[REPLACE CARD]Saheeli, the Gifted[/REPLACE] is a solid option for an artifact commander that just happens to be a planeswalker. The ultimate ability copying all of your artifacts can be devastating, especially if your deck is filled with removal ETBs. You’re less likely to use this planeswalker as part of the 99, though.

#11. Tezzeret, Cruel Captain

[REPLACE CARD]Tezzeret, Cruel Captain[/REPLACE] is great with artifacts, and easy ticks up the loyalty counters. Free untaps each turn and a tutor you can use right away are all great aspects to this easy to cast Tezzeret.

#10. Karn, Living Legacy

In terms of artifact synergies, how much better can you get than a Karn planeswalker? [REPLACE CARD]Karn, Living Legacy[/REPLACE] gives you powerstone tokens that must be used with artifacts, and the emblem you get from the -7 loyalty ability lets you add more tapping utility to all your artifacts. Such pinging.

#9. Tezzeret, Artifice Master

The best part about [REPLACE CARD]Tezzeret, Artifice Master[/REPLACE] is the emblem that you can get with its ultimate. Emblems are such a recurring theme today…. Sure, it lets you grab any permanent, but imagine all the bomb artifacts you could be digging out of your library at each of your end steps.

#8. Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset

Hey, a Teferi that actually works well with artifacts! Neat.

[REPLACE CARD]Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset[/REPLACE] can help to get a prize artifact into your hand more quickly, tap an opponent’s artifact, untap your own…. And ultimately, you get an emblem that allows you to untap your permanents, artifacts included, during your opponents’ turns. All in good time, I love that [REPLACE CARD]Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset[/REPLACE] comes from the set that introduced daybound and nightbound.

#7. Tezzeret, Betrayer of Flesh

[REPLACE CARD]Tezzeret, Betrayer of Flesh[/REPLACE] checks so many boxes. Four abilities, one static and three loyalty-based. All care about artifacts. The artifact animation is permanent. You get cost reduction on activated abilities. Meanwhile, the other abilities affect your draw ability. So much blue goodness here, no notes.

#6. Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge

*Stefon voice* This planeswalker has everything.

No seriously, [REPLACE CARD]Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge[/REPLACE] does a little bit of everything. Artifact recursion, a damage/lifegain combo, and it can bring a bunch of artifacts from the top of your library to the battlefield. Oh, and it gives affinity for artifacts to your creatures and planeswalkers. Dimir colors () aren’t exactly my first thought for artifacts, then I remember that [REPLACE CARD]Missy[/REPLACE] and [REPLACE CARD]Davros, Dalek Creator[/REPLACE] are Grixis (), just to start.

#5. Karn, the Great Creator

Being a colorless planeswalker is a massive advantage for [REPLACE CARD]Karn, the Great Creator[/REPLACE], letting it slot into virtually any deck you’d like. Its static ability prevents your opponents from activating their artifacts, which includes all those pesky tokens we’ve been accumulating. Your first thought with Karn’s first ability is to animate one of your own artifacts, but you could also animate one of your opponents’ tokens or cheerios for an insta-kill. 0-MV makes a 0/0 artifact creature, after all.

The fact that Karn comes in with enough loyalty for two activations of its ability that pulls your artifacts out of exile or from outside is pure silliness.

#4. Saheeli, Sublime Artificer

[REPLACE CARD]Saheeli, Sublime Artificer[/REPLACE] is good more for its versatility than its specific abilities. It’s quite at home in a superfriends deck with [REPLACE CARD]Commodore Guff[/REPLACE], but artifact creature commanders like [REPLACE CARD]Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy[/REPLACE] and [REPLACE CARD]Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer[/REPLACE] also find these abilities useful. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The actual loyalty ability is almost secondary to the spellslinging [REPLACE CARD]Servo[/REPLACE] production.

#3. Tezzeret the Seeker

Another Tezzeret that plays around with artifacts, [REPLACE CARD]Tezzeret the Seeker[/REPLACE] is mono-colored, which means it fits into more homes. Untapping two artifacts can be all kinds of powerful depending on the abilities you’re looking to activate again, and being able to trade X loyalty counters for an artifact in your library is flexible tutoring. Animating your artifacts en masse into guaranteed 5/5s makes a sizeable army out of [REPLACE CARD]Treasure[/REPLACE], [REPLACE CARD]Clue[/REPLACE]s, and [REPLACE CARD]Food[/REPLACE].

#2. Oko, Thief of Crowns

Oh, Oko *sighs*.

The abilities on [REPLACE CARD]Oko, Thief of Crowns[/REPLACE] all play around with artifacts in some way. The first ability gives you food tokens, its +1 loyalty can target artifacts, and its ultimate is an artifact or creature swap. That’s… a lot. Like this broken multicolor planeswalker can animate the [REPLACE CARD]Food[/REPLACE] you make by turning them into elk, and it’s not an “until end of turn” ability. And swapping control of permanents is the kind of chaos that my internal gremlin simply adores.

#1. Daretti, Scrap Savant

How about another artifact planeswalker that can be your commander? At first blush, [REPLACE CARD]Daretti, Scrap Savant[/REPLACE] only has two abilities that play into artifacts. But remember! You can discard artifacts to its first ability. Like the other Daretti, your best artifact-fall effects are helpful here.

You don’t have to use Daretti as your commander, though. There are plenty of mono-red commanders that can make use of this planeswalker, not to mention plenty of other fun multicolor options like [REPLACE CARD]Megatron, Tyrant[/REPLACE], [REPLACE CARD]Osgir, the Reconstructor[/REPLACE], and [REPLACE CARD]Alibou, Ancient Witness[/REPLACE].

Best Artifact Planeswalker Payoffs

[REPLACE CARD]Vronos, Masked Inquisitor[/REPLACE]’s first ability can help to protect your artifact planeswalkers when it’s not your turn. [REPLACE CARD]Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge[/REPLACE] gives your planeswalkers affinity for artifacts.

Artifacts and planeswalkers are perfect fits for proliferation. [REPLACE CARD]Atraxa, Praetors' Voice[/REPLACE] and [REPLACE CARD]Surge Conductor[/REPLACE] make artifacts with charge counters like [REPLACE CARD]Astral Cornucopia[/REPLACE] and [REPLACE CARD]Everflowing Chalice[/REPLACE] a lot better and help to keep your planeswalkers’ loyalty growing. I wonder if there’s an Atraxa deck that leans hard into this.

[REPLACE IMG]Hourglass of the Lost[/REPLACE][REPLACE IMG]Excalibur, Sword of Eden[/REPLACE]

You don’t need to go hard on proliferation for [REPLACE CARD]Hourglass of the Lost[/REPLACE] to grabs lots of artifacts and planeswalkers from the graveyard. This mana rock has serious late game potential that decks with artifact planeswalkers can exploit. Artifacts and planeswalkers also share the historic trait, which means that they fit into historic matters themes. Lovely cards like [REPLACE CARD]Excalibur, Sword of Eden[/REPLACE] care about both such permanents.

Special Category: Best Equipment Planeswalker

[REPLACE IMG]Nahiri, the Lithomancer[/REPLACE][REPLACE IMG]Luxior, Giada's Gift[/REPLACE]

[REPLACE CARD]Nahiri, the Lithomancer[/REPLACE] puts tools to work like none other, as in makes sure you have a wielder, cheats one into play, or just makes one, it’s a glorious equipment planeswalker.

Before you read another article, check out this shiny artifact that cares about planeswalkers: [REPLACE CARD]Luxior, Giada's Gift[/REPLACE]. This epic equipment removes the planeswalker-ness of your permanent and you retain access to the abilities. A cool perk is that if you have a planeswalker that animates itself like [REPLACE CARD]Gideon Blackblade[/REPLACE] or [REPLACE CARD]Sarkhan the Masterless[/REPLACE] into a creature with base power and toughness, those counters work exceptionally well.

Wrap Up

[REPLACE CARD]Oko, Thief of Crowns[/REPLACE] | Illustration by Yongjae Choi

There are so many planeswalkers that have multiple versions that actually care about artifacts (not you, Vraska). Daretti, Saheeli, Tezzeret, and Karn all have some really interesting options if you lean into artifact builds. The current MTG story arc will show us who, if any among our favorite artifact planeswalkers still have their spark, but it’ll be neat to see if any artifact planeswalkers join the ranks of some of these awesome cards.

Which artifact planeswalkers do you run in your decks? Have you built an Atraxa artifact deck? Let me know in the comments below or over on Draftsim’s Discord.

Until next time, happy card hunting!