The 34 Best Artifact Token Generators in Magic Ranked

Last updated on February 28, 2024

Trading Post | Illustration by Adam Paquette

Cards that generate tokens in Magic can be very helpful and mana-efficient. Some are great mana sinks that allow you to add to your board state even if you’re short on cards, while others generate a lot of additional value over time. Cards that generate creature tokens can be especially helpful if you’re playing a deck that gets value out of sacrificing creatures. Token generators also work very well for token-themed decks which often have ways to increase their output.

While there are plenty of token generators from across Magic’s different colors and card types, one interesting subgroup to look at is token generators that are also artifacts. These cards are often colorless, meaning they can slot into any of your decks with ease. These also synergize with artifact or historic strategies, and can be especially helpful in colorless decks.

I’m going to go through some of the best artifacts that generate tokens in Magic, so you can decide which ones are right for your deck. I tried to put the cards with a wider use toward the top of the list. This means that some cards that are lower down on the list or not included at all could still be powerful in specific builds. If you have a specific scenario you think makes one of these cards better, or there’s a card you think should be on the list instead, let me know in the comments!

What Are Artifact Token Generators in MTG?

Phyrexian Processor | Illustration by Dave Kendall

The phrase “artifact token generator” is a little ambiguous in Magic. It could mean cards that generate artifact tokens, or it could mean artifacts that are themselves token generators. For this article, I’m talking about the second meaning. These are artifact-type cards that have some method of creating a token. These could be a variety of different tokens, including creature tokens, Treasure tokens, etc.

#34. Honorable Mention: Water Gun Balloon Game

Water Gun Balloon Game introduces a fun minigame for players that can help any of them generate some powerful creature tokens. It also happens to be a great bit of flavor, very accurately capturing the feel of the carnival game it depicts. Unfortunately, the card isn’t legal in any formats, but you can probably convince a Commander playgroup to let it slide.

#33. Wirefly Hive

Wirefly Hive isn’t the most consistent token generator, but it’s a nice mana sink for coin flip decks. These decks typically have a lot of payoffs for flipping coins, so it won’t even matter if you don’t get to keep your Wireflies.

#32. Baku Altar

Baku Altar is a nice tool for a spirit typal deck. Not only will you get a lot of counters on it by playing your spirit cards, but you’ll also get more spirits on the battlefield to synergize with your –.

#31. Nuisance Engine

Two mana is not a lot for a creature token. While the tokens Nuisance Engine creates aren’t very strong, there are still a lot of uses for these tokens. They can be cheap chump blockers, or sacrifice fodder for more powerful abilities.

#30. Treasure Map / Treasure Cove

Treasure Map isn’t a repeatable token generator, but it does have a lot of utility outside of the three Treasure tokens it makes. It’s also a great source of card draw for Treasure decks.

#29. Myr Incubator

Myr Incubator can be a risky play because you’ll have to exile a lot of artifacts from your deck if you want it to have a big impact on the game. That being said, this card could be a big bomb in the right situations, especially in a Myr deck that might have typal support to buff them.

#28. Phyrexian Processor

Phyrexian Processor has the potential to make you a pretty big creature, though not necessarily at a cheap price. It’s good for Commander thanks to the higher starting life total. It’s also a nice tool for a Greven, Predator Captain deck, or any deck that benefits from losing life.

#27. Akroan Horse

Akroan Horse is a very flavorful token generator. It works well in Commander by ingratiating yourself to a few of your opponents and allowing you to get a leg up on a player who might be outpacing the rest of the table.

#26. Bootleggers’ Stash

I debated whether Bootleggers' Stash counted as a token generator. Though it doesn’t make tokens itself, it does allow you the opportunity to make a lot of Treasure tokens with your lands. This card is a great way to essentially store any unspent mana turn to turn, by tapping any unused lands for Treasure.

#25. Cellar Door

Running Cellar Door in a graveyard-matters deck is a good way to both fill your own graveyard and possibly get yourself some zombie tokens. If you’re running scry abilities, you can also fix the bottom of your library to make sure you end up generating a token.

#24. Golden Guardian / Gold-Forge Garrison

Getting Golden Guardian to transform can be a little tricky depending on your build, but it offers a lot of value once it becomes Gold-Forge Garrison. It can help with mana fixing and it can also generate pretty powerful creature tokens if you don’t have any other use for your mana or really need a body.

#23. Myr Battlesphere

Myr Battlesphere can snowball pretty dangerously in a Myr typal deck, or if you have ways to flicker it and repeat its token-generating ability. It can also deal a good amount of direct damage, allowing you to take out players even if they have blockers.

#22. Acorn Catapult

Acorn Catapult can be a good way for squirrel typal decks to generate more squirrel tokens for themselves. It also allows you to ping opponents’ creatures for only one mana, which can be helpful if you just need to deal a little extra damage to a big creature. Giving them a 1/1 squirrel isn’t a bad trade for taking out a 3/1, or finishing off a creature post blocks.

#21. Ancient Stone Idol

Ancient Stone Idol is easy to flash out at a reduced price and is a very powerful attacker or blocker. When it’s removed, it still replaces itself with a token that is almost as good, meaning it’s a lot of value for its mana cost.

#20. Triplicate Titan

Triplicate Titan produces three token creatures to replace itself, meaning unlike other high mana value creatures it isn’t as devastating if this card gets removed. It’s also just a powerful creature in its own right while it’s on the field.

#19. Prying Blade

Treasure tokens can be a very powerful form of ramp, so Prying Blade can be a pretty impactful piece of equipment. This card works really well on creatures with natural protection or evasion.

#18. Wurmcoil Engine

Wurmcoil Engine has very similar benefits to Triplicate Titan, though I think it gets a slight edge due to having deathtouch. This makes the 3/3 blocker you get from it with deathtouch a much more effective blocker than the 3/3s you get from Titan. This card is also cheaper so it’s easier to get out.

#17. Oni-Cult Anvil

Oni-Cult Anvil is a great addition to any Rakdos () sacrifice decks. It can give you a bit of sacrifice fodder each turn as long as you’re sacrificing other artifacts. You can use Oni-Cult Anvil’s ability to sacrifice its own construct token and then immediately replace it, and you’ll also get any other helpful sacrifice or death triggers you have on the board.

#16. Genesis Chamber

Genesis Chamber is a cheap way to start making tokens. This card can be very powerful in a creature-heavy deck but does run the risk of helping out your opponents more than you. Including ways to tap this card at will makes it much more powerful. I play this in my Urza, Lord High Artificer deck so I can keep it tapped down on my opponents’ turns.

#15. Currency Converter

Currency Converter is not only a nice source of looting, but it also allows you to get some value out of any cards you have to discard. As long as you only exile one card at a time, you can control what you get from this card’s second activated ability, or you can just stock up and generate one of two kinds of tokens at random.

#14. Sliversmith

Sliversmith may only make a 1/1, but in a sliver deck any single sliver is going to become very powerful. This token generator will only increase in value throughout the game as your slivers gain more abilities.

#13. Sword of Body and Mind

Mirran swords like Sword of Body and Mind are all pretty solid pieces of equipment due to the protection they offer. This one’s specifically great for generating some tokens and milling a lot of cards from your opponents.

#12. Myr Turbine

Myr Turbine can generate free tokens for you each turn, or even more often if you have ways to untap it. This card also has a nice activated ability for Myr typal decks, but I think it still works well even if you don’t plan to use its second ability.

#11. Animation Module

Animation Module offers cheap token generation which can be activated pretty regularly in the right decks. It has a mini-proliferation ability, which can also help trigger its first ability again.

#10. Monkey Cage

Monkey Cage helps you monkey around when an opponent plays a big creature, or just add to your board when you play your own bombs. In the right decks, you can also get this card back from the graveyard and use it multiple times.

#9. Andúril, Flame of the West

Andúril, Flame of the West gives the equipped creature a decent buff, and can also help make a good amount of spirits. It works really well on creatures with first strike or double strike because the large power increase will make these creatures much harder to block and allow you to generate a good number of tokens. Creatures with evasion are also a good target for this equipment.

#8. Spawning Pit

Free sacrifice outlets like Spawning Pit are very helpful in Aristocrat decks. This card’s also useful in sacrifice-heavy builds because it can create more creatures for you to sacrifice at a pretty low price.

#7. Academy Manufactor

Academy Manufactor increases the output of tokens from your other token generators. This adds a lot of value to any card that creates one of these three types of tokens, especially when Food tokens can be a lot easier to create than Treasure thanks to cards like Sam, Loyal Attendant or Samwise Gamgee.

#6. Summoning Station

Summoning Station is a powerful token generator because it doesn’t cost any mana to activate. In the right deck, this card can be untapped several times throughout the course of a turn, generating a lot of tokens. If you have Mycosynth Lattice and a free sacrifice outlet, you can also untap this card infinitely, gaining whatever benefits you get from sacrificing the tokens infinitely as well.

#5. Idol of Oblivion

There are plenty of ways to ensure that you’re creating at least one token each turn, which makes Idol of Oblivion a solid free-draw engine in the right decks. It can also be used to create a very powerful token if you get to a point where a big creature is more helpful than an extra card.

#4. Birthing Boughs

Birthing Boughs is a token generator that’s helpful in any kind of typal deck. For only 4 mana you can ensure you get the payoff of having a creature of the type your deck is built around, and the token will benefit from any typal support you have out.

#3. Maskwood Nexus

Maskwood Nexus is just a slightly better Birthing Boughs. It costs less to make the same types of tokens, and it essentially gives the rest of your creatures changeling as well.

#2. Horn of Gondor

Horn of Gondor can generate a ton of tokens for very little mana in human decks. It will also help start the process as it generates a free token right when it enters the battlefield.

#1. Trading Post

Trading Post is a very versatile token generator, as it also has a lot of other effects to use if those happen to be more helpful. This card has a little bit of everything and can fit into a lot of different deck types, even if you don’t end up using all four of its abilities.

Best Artifact Token Generator Payoffs

A lot of the tokens you generate with these cards are creatures, so some of the best payoffs are cards that allow you to use creatures as resources, like Blasting Station. These cards also synergize well with cards like Eldrazi Monument because they’ll allow you to make a cheap creature to sacrifice and keep your more powerful options on the board.

Token doublers also synergize very well with any of these cards. Something like Parallel Lives or Doubling Season is going to make any of these cards way more effective by increasing their output.

Wrap Up

Idol of Oblivion | Illustration by Piotr Dura

Many different types of decks can make good use of the various token types available in Magic. Knowing the different options for creating these tokens that can be included in a wider variety of decks is helpful when it comes to deciding what token generators are right for you.

What is your favorite artifact that generates tokens? What is your favorite token generator in general? Do you enjoy token-heavy decks, or do they feel too risky? Let me know in the comments or on Draftsim’s Twitter.

Thank you for reading and I look forward to seeing you on the next article!