The 45 Best 1-Mana Artifacts in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 12, 2026

Sol Ring | Illustration by Nana Qi

Artifacts are frequent fliers on Magic's ban lists, largely because they’re incredibly strong and often ubiquitous; most artifacts are colorless cards, so any deck can leverage Paradox Engine or The One Ring.

In Magic, many of the best cards cost the least mana, and that’s as true for artifacts as instants or the best creatures. Today, I delve into the depths of 1-mana artifacts to sort out the genius from the garbage so you know what to play and what to pass.

What Are 1-Cost Artifacts in MTG?

Mana Vault | Illustration by Christine Choi

This one’s rather what it says on the tin: 1-cost artifacts cost exactly 1 mana. These cards have a range of effects, which have only deepened as Wizards began printing artifacts that cost colored mana more frequently.

The highlights are cheap cantrips, mana production, and graveyard hate, though some of these cards are interactive spells. We even have some threats and strong equipment! In general, you want your mana to be an investment that generates card advantage or has a meaningful impact upon the board.

#45. Skateboard

Cheap equipment that provides haste is always on my short list in equipment decks. Ask the me from 2003 when Mirrodin first came out, and I never would have thought Skateboard would earn a slot, but here is this deserving city equipment.

#44. Rust Harvester

Call it trauma from Spikeshot Goblin, but I see Rust Harvester as both graveyard hate and removal and a dangerous robot.

#43. Commander’s Plate

Commander's Plate can be valuable in the right deck, but I’ve found that’s a relatively narrow range of decks. The Plate has diminishing returns based on your commander’s color identity, and it faces stiff competition from Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots, which provide similar protection from spot removal while being more generally useful. I can see playing this in mono-colored lists, or 2-colored lists with commanders that want to attack, but you shouldn’t play this just because it references your commander.

#42. Executioner’s Capsule

Executioner's Capsule comes at a poor rate compared to cards like Bitter Triumph, but it overcomes this in decks that care about having a critical mass of artifacts or can recur it with cards like Emry, Lurker of the Loch and Salvaging Station.

#41. Mishra’s Research Desk

Mishra's Research Desk simply has lots of decent text. The double cantrip gives you plenty to do with your mana, unearth pairs nicely with red’s discard-based card advantage, and the exile works with impulse draw synergies. It touches enough synergies that many red decks can consider it.

#40. Masterwork of Ingenuity

You need to be an equipment-dedicated deck to even consider Masterwork of Ingenuity. Much of its value lies in Commander, which encourages abusing using equipment like Argentum Armor, though it’s tempting to play it alongside Batterskull for a bit of combo.

#39. Dire Flail / Dire Blunderbuss

This super-Bonesplitter kicks up the power level of the Mirrodin masterpiece with craft, making Dire Flail a far from embarrassing card at higher power levels. You need a high concentration of artifacts to leverage Dire Blunderbuss, but that’s a relatively low bar to meet.

#38. Dusk Rose Reliquary

Ward goes a long way towards making this Oblivion Ring variant playable. I like Dusk Rose Reliquary like I like Bone Shards, as a removal spell that’s useful when on-theme in a sacrifice deck and weak outside that narrow synergy space.

#37. Sewer-veillance Cam

Sewer-veillance Cam has OK abilities on the surface, but the combo potential is hidden behind its machinery. Here is one version of the combo, Cam + Goblin Welder + Mishra's Bauble. Bauble needs to be in your graveyard, Welder needs to be able to , and Cam must be on the battlefield. When you activate Welder you basically swap the other two between the graveyard and battlefield for at least infinite artifact ETBs and leaves the graveyard triggers. For more on the sewer-veillance and welder combo, check out Draftsim's news article.

#36. Candelabra of Tawnos

Candelabra of Tawnos can be absolutely cracked as a combo card. You either need lands that tap for more than 1 mana like Tolarian Academy or cards like High Tide or Heartbeat of Spring that force your lands to produce more mana for it to work, but this provides more than enough ramp to warrant a build-around.

#35. Vexing Bauble

A humble artifact that cracked Legacy and Vintage like a walnut, Vexing Bauble helps Commander players combat the free countermagic that dominates high-powered and competitive EDH tables. It also works as a sneaky meta call if your local pods favor cascade strategies and Etali, Primal Conqueror.

#34. The Rack

Perhaps Magic’s cruelest win condition, decks deploying The Rack win with a slate of discard effects like Raven's Crime and Liliana of the Veil that empty your opponent’s hand to prevent them from playing Magic while this drains them out. Even as far as control strategies go, this one’s evil (and can be a great budget build as it’s often mono-black).

#33. Rabbit Battery

Rabbit Battery might be the best Raging Goblin ever seen because it’s not a dead card later in the game; giving a fresh threat haste and a stat boost adds a terrifying amount of pressure.

#32. Clockwork Percussionist

I thought Clockwork Percussionist was a cute if bland play on a childhood toy when I first saw it in Duskmourn, just another reference in a Magic set filled with cheap gags. While I maintain that critique of its flavor, the card has proven surprisingly powerful as a way to chip in for early damage before sacrificing it to something like Gut, True Soul Zealot for an extra card in addition to whatever your sacrifice outlet provides.

#31. Colossus Hammer

Colossus Hammer hit the card pool as a meme, then Modern players began wrecking face with hammer-wielding Ornithopters. Any strategy looking to cheat equip costs with spells like Sigarda's Aid and Hammer of Nazahn want this card due to its immense power boost and insignificant mana cost.

#30. Exploration Broodship

You want to station the Exploration Broodship up to 3+ charge counters as soon as possible to let it help you ramp as much as Exploration. As a great reward for getting to 8+ in the mid-game, the big flier and card advantage can be quite good. Just check out the synergy with cards that bring in a land with their ETB: Summon: Fenrir, Topiary Stomper, and Ulvenwald Hydra.

#29. Ghost Vacuum

A sideboard staple in Standard, Ghost Vacuum’s a pretty nifty hate card that doubles as a threat by dumping a bunch of Spirit tokens with strong abilities into play. That utility makes it useful for long, grindy games and probably appealing for Commander.

#28. Meekstone

Meekstone can be a Commander player’s best tool to combat the big, flashy creatures that the format encourages playing. Running this means your deck can’t use big creatures, but the right commander overcomes this—for example, cards like Niv-Mizzet, Parun or The Locust God that rely on noncreature or small creature win conditions.

#27. Lavaspur Boots

Formats like Modern have adapted Lavaspur Boots due to the overwhelming power of giving creatures like Constructs and Kappa Cannoneer haste. Ward ’s more than just flavor text, too; this is an excellent cheap artifact.

#26. Portable Hole

Portable Hole is an excellent removal spell for artifact-centric decks in older formats like Modern and Legacy where efficiency’s in such high demand that 3 mana counts as incredibly expensive.

#25. Dragonfire Blade

Dragonfire Blade is easy to equip with most commanders, and lots of removal spells are monocolored. Plus, that extra toughness helps deter damage-based removal to make this a nicely rounded equipment with lots of applications.

#24. Peter Parker's Camera

Peter Parker's Camera is a great rate for copying abilities. If you need another roll of film, proliferate or artifact recursion often do the trick.

#23. Shadowspear

Shadowspear sees widespread play in decks running Urza's Saga as a ubiquitously strong artifact to tutor with the final chapter. Slapping this on a Construct’s nearly impossible to race, and removing hexproof and indestructible comes up surprisingly often.

#22. Currency Converter

As a cheap artifact that creates more artifact tokens, Currency Converter excels with cards like Urza, Lord High Artificer and Thought Monitor. The card filtration gives you plenty to do with your mana, and I enjoy the synergy with cards like Collective Brutality and Inti, Seneschal of the Sun.

#21. Skrelv, Defector Mite

Skrelv, Defector Mite looks like the Wish version of Mother of Runes and Giver of Runes, but it manages to carve itself a unique space. While it’s not as strong as those cards, its typing as a legendary artifact creature makes this white artifact more appealing for certain archetypes.

#20. Expedition Map

Expedition Map looks clunky as a 3-mana tutor for a land, but that’s a surprisingly worthwhile investment so long as the lands you find are sufficiently powerful—that often means Gaea's Cradle or Tolarian Academy in Cube or Tron lands in Constructed, though it also helps assemble Dark Depths combos. Once you have a deck that warrants this card, you can even look to more situational utility lands like Blast Zone and Bojuka Bog.

#19. Pithing Needle

Pithing Needle’s a perfect answer to a narrow selection of cards. Planeswalkers are near the top of the list, but it also stops Shadowspear or Lavaspur Boots, prevents Urza's Saga from making tokens, and shuts down Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker—and those are just a handful of the situations it works in.

#18. Aether Spellbomb

Aether Spellbomb boasts the flexibility key to modal cards. Neither a 2-mana Unsummon nor a 2-mana cycle are exciting, but both options on one card makes this worth playing.

#17. Pyrite Spellbomb

Pyrite Spellbomb and Aether Spellbomb are obviously quite similar, so deciding which was stronger was complicated; Pyrite Spellbomb gets the edge because it has all the upsides of its Aether cousin while serving as a win condition in combo decks.

#16. Retrofitter Foundry

Retrofitter Foundry is one of the best mana sinks you can play for 1 mana. It works best with cards like Sai, Master Thopterist and Whirler Rogue that create Thopters for upgrading purposes, but it’s perfectly fine to spend excess mana on and even works as an infinite mana outlet.

#15. Experimental Synthesizer

The little two-for-one that could, Experimental Synthesizer’s among my favorite cards that came out in recent memory. It just does so much. Pauper decks use it alongside Galvanic Blast and Kuldotha Rebirth for a powerful midrange deck while formats with higher card rarities can feed it to the likes of Gut, True Soul Zealot or Broadside Bombardiers for insane value.

#14. Haywire Mite

Haywire Mite has a host of uses, namely answering The One Ring—which doesn’t matter in Modern now but is still very relevant in Cube and Commander. In addition to that necessary service, I appreciate this in aristocrat decks that squeeze lots of value from a small creature dying to kill something.

#13. Nihil Spellbomb

Nihil Spellbomb gives black decks a handy bit of graveyard disruption that does its thing and replaces itself; it’s not much, but it’s honest work, and it’s much better than graveyard hate that puts you down a card.

#12. Soul-Guide Lantern

Soul-Guide Lantern gives you an interesting choice when it comes to your graveyard hate: Do you simply take one card from them and a card for yourself, or commit the entire card to obliterate the opponent’s graveyard?

The correct answer depends on the matchup and situation, so I can’t really answer the question. But like all the cheap artifacts we’ve looked at that offer the choice between a decent effect and a cantrip, I like this one quite a bit, even if it lives in the sideboard.

#11. Amulet of Vigor

Amulet of Vigor is a busted Magic card. We all know about the power of Amulet Titan decks, but the power extends further: Anything that comes into play tapped typically does so as a balancing mechanism, which this card strips away.

#10. Springleaf Drum

Springleaf Drum helps affinity decks pop off by turning cards like Ornithopter and Memnite into mana dorks while adding a cheap artifact to the board. In the realm of Cube and Commander, I’ve found it pairs nicely with token decks as they tend to have extra bodies to tap.

#9. Chromatic Star + Chromatic Sphere

The power of Chromatic Star and Chromatic Sphere’s quite sneaky, but the combination of color fixing and cantripping makes them very useful. Tron’s a great example of a deck that leverages them, both to convert its 7 colorless mana into relevant colors and tear through the deck to assemble the combo.

#8. The Ozolith

I find The Ozolith mindboggling, almost like a magic trick; reading the card, I never see the power, then I blink and my opponent has a Walking Ballista with 50 counters and kills me thrice over. It’s a nasty card that enables amazing plays.

#7. Relic of Progenitus

Relic of Progenitus comes out on top when discussing artifact-based graveyard hate thanks to the combination of a complete wipe when you crack it and a steady stream of disruption while it sits in play. It doesn’t make you choose between drawing a card and exiling graveyards, making it better than Soul-Guide Lantern, and I generally run this in decks without black for Nihil Spellbomb. It’s also an acceptable main deck card in artifact-themed decks because it just replaces itself.

#6. Esper Sentinel

One of the best tax cards of recent memory, Esper Sentinel throws a massive wrench at any player looking to jam a bunch of noncreature spells. Andrea Mengucci put it best when he said on stream: “I can’t let my opponent draw off Esper Sentinel or I lose the game.”

#5. Arcum’s Astrolabe

Arcum's Astrolabe looks unassuming enough that you might be surprised to discover it’s banned in Pauper, Modern, and Legacy. The reason for this is quite simple: This card ignores the fundamental rules of Magic.

Specifically, it disregards the mana system by providing near-perfect fixing, allowing decks to play four or five colors with little trouble. The cantrip element also plays into this; running a playset of Astrolabes makes your deck far more consistent, plus it punishes removal because you always end up on cards.

#4. Sensei’s Divining Top

Sensei's Divining Top grants nearly unparalleled control over the top of your library while resisting most removal thanks to the cantrip ability—which also helps get to those relevant spells faster. Toss in its role with a variety of infinite combos, and you have one of the strongest artifacts ever printed.

#3. Skullclamp

Skullclamp is one of the most terrifying cards you can face in a game of Magic. A good Skullclamp deck generates so much card advantage that it seems insurmountable—which is likely the cause of its many bans. The best way to leverage this card is with token producers like Grist, the Hunger Tide and Third Path Iconoclast that keep the tokens flowing.

#2. Mana Vault

In many cases, Mana Vault functions like a ritual that costs you a bit of life—though the speed with which you can win after powering out cards like Otharri, Suns' Glory and similarly huge plays outweighs this. But it also works alongside cards like Voltaic Key and Tezzeret the Seeker to produce an immense mana advantage that drowns your opponents.

#1. Sol Ring

I’m consistently astonished at the existence of Sol Ring as just a stellar card that provides an incredible mana advantage. It might not be as much as, say, Mana Vault or Black Lotus, but getting that payoff continually makes this far easier to leverage. Untapping with a Sol Ring is one of the best starts you can have towards winning your average game of Magic.

Best 1-Cost Artifact Payoffs

Magic has a handful of direct payoffs for 1-cost artifacts. Brightglass Gearhulk and Queen Kayla bin-Kroog top the list as powerful spells that generate a burst of card advantage using these artifacts. Tezzeret, Cruel Captain is one of the best ways to search for them.

We can’t forget the stellar land of Urza's Saga, which develops threats while finding a variety of cards—I like it best alongside a toolbox of answers like Pithing Needle and Relic of Progenitus. Trinket Mage, Reshape, and Dizzy Spell excel at finding these cards as well. Sun-Blessed Healer and Delivery Moogle dig them up for repeat use.

There are also more general rewards for running lots of cheap artifacts. Cards like Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain and Kappa Cannoneer handsomely reward you for littering the battlefield with random cards.

Cheap artifacts are also essential to a variety of combo decks, including anything that touches the cards Krark-Clan Ironworks or Paradoxical Outcome.

Wrap Up

Sensei's Divining Top | Illustration by Michael Sutfin

One-mana artifacts often conceal incredible power behind their slim mana costs; the card type includes multi-format staples and some of the strongest artifacts ever printed. Within that range of power, you can find any number of strong artifacts to add to your decks.

What’s your favorite 1-cost artifact? Between Nihil Spellbomb, Soul-Guide Lantern, and Relic of Progenitus, which is your favorite graveyard hate? Let me know in the comments or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and thank you for reading!