The 37 Best Artifact Commanders in Magic Ranked

Last updated on April 30, 2024

Galazeth Prismari | Illustration by Raymond Swanland

Artifacts are one the strongest card types in Magic. Many artifacts are frequent fliers on banlists, and some of Magic’s most powerful sets like Mirrodin and Kaladesh are associated with artifacts. They offer incredible flexibility since any deck can play most artifacts because they’re often colorless.

So, how can you exploit such a powerful card type in Commander? The first step is determining how you want to make use of artifacts. Do you want to go wide with an army of artifact creatures? Cheat massive artifacts like Darksteel Reactor or Blightsteel Colossus into play? Or dominate the table with stax?

I’m ranking all the best artifact commanders to help make this choice easier!

What Are Artifact Commanders in MTG?

Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain | Illustration by Brad Rigney

Artifact commanders in MTG are legendary creatures that care about artifacts in some way, either in quantity or by helping you get them into play. Pretty much anything that wants you to or that benefits from you playing lots of artifacts in your deck works as an artifact commander.

For this list I only included commanders that care about artifacts in a general sense. Plenty of commanders care about artifact subtypes like Treasure or equipment, but that level of specificity bogs down a list that looks to make the most of artifacts at large.

#36. Bosh, Iron Golem

Bosh, Iron Golem is a classic commander, but a little over-costed. This commander has game-ending potential since it can throw artifacts at your opponents like ballistic missiles, but it takes a lot of mana to get to that point.

Bosh can be an excellent outlet for infinite mana if you can find infinite artifacts to go with it, and it's also just a large artifact you’ll always have access to for decks that care about that.

#35. Malcator, Purity Overseer

Malcator, Purity Overseer is a commander that’s all about tokens. Malcator is a great commander for a Splicer theme, the Splicers being cards like Blade Splicer and Wing Splicer that also make Phyrexian Golems.

This commander wants to go wide with cards like Tempered Steel closing things out with the army of tokens you amass by letting artifacts hit the battlefield.

#34. Armix, Filigree Thrasher

It can be tricky to gauge the value of partners solo, but Armix, Filigree Thrasher is a fantastic enabler for artifact decks trying to do things with their graveyard. It’s a free discard outlet that’s also removal. Armix gets to control the board, which also helps it keep attacking to discard more cards on future turns.

Counting artifacts in play and the graveyard helps this card scale fantastically. Once you’re a few turns in, it should have no trouble killing almost anything your opponents play.

#33. Sanwell, Avenger Ace

Sanwell, Avenger Ace demonstrates the style of white commanders caring about artifact creatures. This cheap, aggressive commander draws you cards as long as you have a high vehicle or artifact creature count. Sanwell getting protection from combat damage does a lot to make this card playable. Its card draw is also a pretty interesting ability.

Attacking is the easiest way to tap Sanwell, but you could also tap it to crew a vehicle and get the opportunity to play something on another player’s turn, as the ability ignores timing restrictions.

#32. Keskit, the Flesh Sculptor

Keskit, the Flesh Sculptor gives you a way to sacrifice artifacts for fun and profit, the profit being some fantastic card draw. Getting the best two of three cards is almost always better than just drawing two cards, and the third goes into your graveyard.

Black is great at using the graveyard, so this is practically drawing three cards by sacrificing three artifacts. Keskit can be incredibly strong with the right partner.

#31. Rebbec, Architect of Ascension

Rebbec, Architect of Ascension is a boon to any partner pairing playing with artifacts. It's a solid option for offense and defense. 

Spreading protection across your team enables attacks while making it almost impossible for your opponent to interact with your board without dealing with this card first. The strategy gets tied together with something like a Mycosynth Lattice or Liquimetal Torque to turn Rebbec into an artifact so it protects itself.

#30. Slobad, Iron Goblin

Bosh’s best friend Slobad, Iron Goblin is the kind of commander who cares about having big artifacts. Converting artifacts into mana is a great deal for decks that maximize it.

It also works well with red’s artifact synergies, which focus on repurposing scrapped artifacts with cards like Trash for Treasure.

#29. Dalakos, Crafter of Wonders

Dalakos, Crafter of Wonders looks like an equipment commander at first glance, and that's something it’s good at. But its ramp ability gives it so much more potential. Tapping for two mana lets you jump from turn three to turn six just by untapping, and you’ll always have access to that kind of power.

This commander churns out artifacts quickly and works well with cards like Mystic Forge and The Reality Chip that let you play cards off the top of your library.

#28. Drafna, Founder of Lat-Nam

Blue gets interesting artifact commanders with Drafna, Founder of Lat-Nam kicking things off with a mana-intensive value engine. The first ability not only helps to fuel the second but gives you instant-speed protection for important artifacts.

The copy ability costs a lot of mana, but blue artifact decks are great at ramping, and the ability can copy early mana rocks to produce additional mana to copy big spells later. Drafna is a great commander to double up on all your important artifacts.

#27. Lita, Mechanical Engineer

Lita, Mechanical Engineer does its best impression of Unwinding Clock, and it’s a pretty good mimicry. It gives some defensive power to a deck looking to attack. Its activated ability helps to force through damage in the late game.

This card works very well with artifact creatures that tap for mana like Palladium Myr since you can tap the Myr in response to the end-step trigger and untap it for a burst of mana at the end of the turn.

#26. Trazyn the Infinite

Another commander begging to enable combos comes from the Warhammer 40k deck. Trazyn the Infinite was aptly named because this commander goes infinite with ease once you’ve filled your graveyard with artifacts.

An easy combo is Pili-Pala with anything that allows your commander to tap for two mana or more, like Sol Ring or Palladium Myr for infinite mana, which you can then use to win with the abilities of Walking Ballista. And this entire combo is one Buried Alive from happening!

Black has plenty of ways to put specific cards in the graveyard from your library, enabling quick combo kills.

#25. Padeem, Consul of Innovation

Another way to protect your artifacts is with hexproof from Padeem, Consul of Innovation. This commander also gives you plenty of card draw.

Most commander decks that aren’t artifact-focused only run a few mana rocks, so they’ll have artifacts with a mana value of three of four tops. It’s easy to play something bigger than everything else in a deck dedicated to putting massive artifacts into play.

#24. Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient

Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient gives red its own combo commander. It’s almost like artifacts lend themselves well to being combo pieces. Kurkesh pairs well with cards like Voltaic Key and Manifold Key to generate infinite mana with rocks like Gilded Lotus that tap for multiple colored mana.

There are plenty of artifacts to get tons of value from copying, like Kuldotha Forgemaster and Magistrate's Scepter.

#23. Alibou, Ancient Witness

Alibou, Ancient Witness is another aggressive artifact commander that enables powerful attacks by giving your creatures haste. It gives your opponents little to no breathing room, especially if you can power out something like Blightsteel Colossus early. It’s worth noting that Alibou doesn’t need to attack for its triggered ability to work, and it counts all your tapped artifacts, not just creatures.

You can tap a bunch of mana rocks then attack with something meaningless like a Thopter to deal a bunch of damage to something and dig through your deck to find your finishers.

#22. Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter

Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter gives all the aristocrats players an entry point to artifact decks. This card works great with cards that care about artifacts dying like Disciple of the Vault and Marionette Master.

It works just as well with red effects that care about them coming into play, like Reckless Fireweaver and Hedron Detonator. Jan Jenson is a great commander if you want to pelt your opponents down one point of damage at a time.

#21. Meria, Scholar of Antiquity

The only green artifact Commander to make the list, Meria, Scholar of Antiquity is an interesting take on artifacts in a color pairing that’s often more interested in destroying artifacts than using them. This card is great with artifacts like Winter Orb and Static Orb because you can tap them on the end step before your turn so you aren’t affected while your opponents can’t play the game.

#20. Imotekh the Stormlord

Imotekh the Stormlord helps black get aggressive with their artifact creatures. Giving menace to your biggest and best artifact creatures is nice, but making artifact creature tokens is what you want this card for.

You can trigger this ability easily in black, using reanimation spells or rebuying artifact creatures with effects like Phyrexian Reclamation.

#19. Anrakyr the Traveller

Anrakyr the Traveller is a devastating commander to untap with. Paying life instead of mana is a deal black mages have happily taken for decades, and it’s no less powerful here. Getting to put a Portal to Phyrexia or Bolas's Citadel into play well ahead of schedule while still having all your mana is incredibly powerful.

Since Anrakyr lets you cast the spells from your hand or graveyard, you even get to set it up with all of black’s powerful tutors like Entomb and Vampiric Tutor, or you can replay the artifact if your opponent destroys it.

#18. Sydri, Galvanic Genius

Sydri, Galvanic Genius is a fun engine enabling powerful plays. You can always make your artifacts into massive beaters, but there’s plenty of fun here. Many of this card’s tricks come from making an artifact into a creature then giving it lifelink and deathtouch.

It works well with Aetherflux Reservoir, letting you kill the table with just over fifty life. It’s also fun with cards that damage creatures like Caltrops or Staff of Nin.

#17. Sharuum the Hegemon

Sharuum the Hegemon is a Commander classic offering powerful graveyard interactions. You can establish a simple infinite loop with this and a Phyrexian Metamorph or Sculpting Steel that wins through any number of means like Disciple of the Vault or Urza, Lord High Artificer.

You could also play a fairer gameplan and bring back massive artifacts like Myr Battlesphere or Portal to Phyrexia over and over by flicking Sharuum with cards like Conjurer's Closet.

#16. Urza, Chief Artificer

Urza, Chief Artificer can overtake a game with just a few turns. Producing free Constructs is incredibly powerful since they grow huge, but giving them menace makes it hard for your opponents to block.

This commander is also hard to deal with thanks to affinity for artifact creatures. The cost reduction makes this 6-mana commander feel much more like a 4-mana commander that doesn’t care much about commander tax.

#15. Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant

Card draw in the command zone is always welcome, so you’re happy to see Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant come down often and early. This is a very expensive commander, but affinity for artifacts helps make it accessible since it lowers commander tax.

The card draw ability is flexible and lets you cheat on mana. This card is great in a red artifact deck trying to power out big artifacts quickly because early mana rocks work incredibly well with big spells with affinity for artifacts.

#14. Karn, Legacy Reforged

Construct tokens have long been dubbed Karnstructs because they debuted on Karn, Scion of Urza, and we’ve finally got a Karn that grows with your artifacts. This is a great commander to go all the way into mono-brown and play nothing but artifacts, using top-end payoffs like Mycosynth Lattice and Darksteel Forge.

#13. Sai, Master Thopterist

We didn’t leave artifact creatures behind, as Sai, Master Thopterist shows. This value engine generates tons of Thopter tokens to take over the skies. It's effective with various artifact loops you can establish in blue to generate infinite Thopters.

The tokens can also be defensive pieces in a long game, providing chump blockers and a source of card draw.

#12. Losheel, Clockwork Scholar

Losheel, Clockwork Scholar is another fantastic option for players who want to get aggressive with their artifact creatures. Keeping attacking artifact creatures safe from combat damage enables incredibly powerful attacks and forces your opponents to make hard decisions since they can only chump, never trade, in combat.

The card draw is the icing on the cake. It’s easy for a dedicated deck to enable it, and flash shenanigans even let you get card draw on your opponents’ turns.

#11. Oswald Fiddlebender

Who doesn’t love a good Birthing Pod in the command zone? With Oswald Fiddlebender as your commander, you can ramp up your artifact curve for the low cost of one mana. You can convert early artifacts like Mycosynth Wellspring or Ichor Wellspring into combo pieces like Rings of Brighthearth and Basalt Monolith.

#10. Emry, Lurker of the Loch

Emry, Lurker of the Loch is another combo commander for artifacts. It works particularly well with Mirran Spy and other cards that let you untap your creatures to establish loops with cards like Lotus Petal or Mishra's Bauble.

This commander also lends itself well to a grindy gameplan. Getting to recast your best artifacts every turn makes it hard for other decks to disrupt you without killing Emry. Even if they do, its cost-reduction ability makes replaying it incredibly easy.

#9. Daretti, Scrap Savant

Daretti, Scrap Savant is a great commander to use all those artifacts you rummage and loot away. It’ll fill the graveyard itself to enable its powerful -2 ability. Turning dinky little artifacts like Ornithopter into big hitters like

Triplicate Titan helps mono-red decks power through their opponents. If you ever get the emblem, your opponents are in for a world of hurt.

#8. Muzzio, Visionary Architect

Muzzio, Visionary Architect is one of blue’s commanders that care about large artifacts.

Once you get something expensive in play, either honestly with mana or with some cheats with something like Master Transmuter or Show and Tell, Muzzio dumps plenty more artifacts into play. You’ll always want X to be at least four when activating this card because anything less has a poor chance of hitting something relevant.

#7. Alela, Artful Provocateur

Alela, Artful Provocateur converts your artifacts into fliers that beat down in the air. This ability is similar to Sai, Master Thopterist, but it takes it up a notch. Alela works well with artifacts that help draw cards like Bident of Thassa and Skullclamp that benefit from having a swarm of small creatures in the air.

You can also get a lot of mileage from artifacts that care about creatures of the same type, like Adaptive Automaton and Coat of Arms.

#6. Galazeth Prismari

Unsurprisingly, this commander that taps artifacts for mana works well with the cards we’ve looked at in other commanders with the same ability, like Winter Orb.

This commander’s mana is restricted to instants and sorceries, but there are plenty of powerful effects to spend it on like Comet Storm, Transcendent Message, and Crackle with Power. These are perfect storm colors, so cards that generate Treasure can also work with Galazeth to end the game in a single explosive turn.

#5. Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle

The best white artifact commander is easily Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle. You don’t need artifacts to get the historic trigger, but Teshar has found a home as the commander for white artifact-combo decks that pair Teshar with cards like Myr Retriever and Blasting Station to establish all kinds of powerful infinite loops to take out a pod of players at once.

#4. Breya, Etherium Shaper

One of the first 4-color commanders ever printed, Breya, Etherium Shaper is a walking combo engine. It goes infinite itself with a Nim Deathmantle and Ashnod's Altar but has the perfect color combination to enable any of the artifact combos we’ve already looked at.

This isn’t a commander to play fairly, but one to stack with tutors and combos.

#3. Arcum Dagsson

Another great commander for cheating artifacts into play is Arcum Dagsson. It's a devastating commander to untap with since it turns something minute like Memnite or Silver Myr into something obscenely powerful like Portal to Phyrexia for free!

It also works well with cards like Liquimetal Torque. You can turn an opponent’s creature into an artifact and force them to sacrifice it. This commander is a great way to remove commanders in blue, though you’ll have to hope that that player isn’t running many artifacts of their own.

#2. Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain

Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain is another incredible combo commander. Much like Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle, Jhoira doesn’t need to go with artifacts but works best with them.

It’s a Cheerios-style commander, making ample use of 0-mana artifacts like Mishra's Bauble and Spellbook to draw a bunch of cards before bouncing them back to your hand with Retract or Paradoxical Outcome to do it all over again. Jhoira is a storm commander in the truest sense.

#1. Urza, Lord High Artificer

It’s no surprise that Urza, Lord High Artificer tops this list. This commander comes in with a powerful Construct token and turns all your artifacts into Mox Sapphire. More importantly, it’s an incredible combo and stax engine.

This card does so much work with artifacts like Winter Orb and Static Orb that prevent your opponents from playing the game while letting you play your entire deck to snag an easy win once you’ve found a way to generate infinite mana.

Best Artifact Commander Payoffs

Artifacts are so good and universal that it’s hard to say what the payoffs are. Artifacts are great at producing mana, with cycles of mana rocks like the Signets and Talismans being EDH staples. Beyond that, the kind of payoffs you want depends on what the commander you pick does.

We can very broadly group the above commanders into three categories: artifact creatures, cheating mana costs, and combo commanders. Let’s look at some payoffs for each category.

Commanders that care about artifact creatures need a high count of those but need some support. Cards like Tempered Steel that buff your artifact creatures are great. If you care about your artifact creatures dying, cards like Skullclamp and Disciple of the Vault do a lot of work. There are also a handful of good board wipes like Their Name Is Death and Organic Extinction that artifact-creature heavy decks can use like Plague Wind to devastate the opponents and keep their board state up.

Decks looking to cheat big artifacts into play need big artifacts worth cheating into play. Cards like Solemn Simulacrum and Meteor Golem often aren’t worth the effort; you need things like Blightsteel Colossus or Portal to Phyrexia. You’ll also need to get a bunch of mana rocks to support these big artifacts if you can’t get your commander or another engine online.

Artifact commanders trying to combo off need some specific cards, but there are broad pieces you can look for. A colorless combo any deck can run is the combination of Wurmcoil Engine, Nim Deathmantle, and Ashnod's Altar to make infinite tokens and infinite mana. Walking Ballista is a great outlet for any artifact deck that makes infinite mana. Look for cards that can repeatedly untap themselves and or sacrifice things for free, like Blasting Station and Ashnod's Altar to establish combos, since free or close to free is important for many loops.

Commanding Conclusion

Bosh, Iron Golem | Illustration by Brom

It doesn’t take a lot of work to break artifacts. It’s a card type with tons of support throughout Magic’s history and contains some of the game’s strongest cards. While there are staple artifacts you see in all sorts of decks, there’s also a lot of diversity in play style.

Different artifact commanders care about different things. Some are aggressive, others controlling, and some combo off quickly. Picking the right artifact commander is about picking the playstyle you enjoy the most and dedicating yourself to it. If it can be done in Magic, you can probably do it with artifacts.

What’s your favorite artifact commander? Do you play with any artifacts? Let me know in the comments below, or over on the official Draftsim Twitter.

Stay healthy and have fun!