The 41 Best Artifacts for Commander in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 28, 2024

Sensei's Divining Top | Illustration by Michael Sutfin

Artifacts, like creatures, enchantments, and lands, are among the first permanent types in MTG – there are 47 artifacts in the Alpha edition.

And they’re as evergreen as the other types, present in every Magic set since.

What's more: some of the most powerful cards printed in Alpha are artifacts, including six of the Power Nine spells, and Commander‘s most widely used card, Sol Ring.

Let's take a look at these permanents from the point of view of the multiplayer format and find out which are the best of the best!

What Are Good Artifacts for Commander in MTG?

Helm of the Host | Illustration by Igor Kieryluk

Artifacts come in all shapes and sizes and provide all sorts of different effects – it's nearly impossible to define in general what makes a good artifact for any specific format.

What most (but not all) artifacts have in common is their colorlessness. And being colorless means that they can fit into literally every EDH deck.

This has an interesting effect: While many good artifacts are worse at what they do than the best colored card with a similar effect, said artifact is often amazing in decks without access to that color.

For example, there are a ton of better ramping effects than Burnished Hart. But those better spells tend to be in green, while blue has almost none.

In a way, good artifacts are a bit like the proverbial one-eyed person in the land of the blind: while their effect may be not amazing when compared with the best colored cards, that effect is great on the opposite side of the color pie.

Not all artifacts are colorless, though, and the best colorless artifacts are good enough to be a powerhouse everywhere.

Honorable Mentions: Many, Many Mana Rocks

Commander decks are chock-full of mana rocks – it's not too far of a stretch to say that its deck-building rules are “all decks must include one commander, one Sol Ring, one Arcane Signet, and 96 other cards.”

For that reason, with just a couple of exceptions, I'll leave mana rocks out of this ranking.

#41. Static Orb

Static Orb is one of the saltiest cards of all time, which is enough to earn a spot in our list. One of the most well-known stax effects in MTG, Static Orb slows your opponents' down to a crawl while effects that allow you to tap artifacts right before your untap step allow you to leapfrog ahead of the competition.

#40. Embercleave

Having flash and an auto-equip clause, Embercleave is more of a combat trick than a traditional equipment. Buffing a creature's power while providing trample and double strike is a good way to deal horrific amounts of combat damage to your foe.

#39. Umezawa's Jitte

Umezawa's Jitte is a powerhouse in Legacy and strong enough to have been preemptively banned in Modern from the first day of that format.

This equipment is a great way to shut down aggro decks: Umezawa's Jitte gains you life, gets rid of small creatures, and overall makes combat a nightmare for your opponents.

Note that Umezawa's Jitte gains counters whenever it deals combat damage to any target (not just players).

#38. Vedalken Orrery

Well, what do you know… it appears that being able to cast everything at instant speed is kinda neat!

If you ever thought: “Gee, how I wish this creature/equipment/enchantment had flash,” now it does thanks to Vedalken Orrery.

This great utility artifact only works on what you cast – abilities that work at sorcery speed (like equipping, for example) are still in slow mode.

#37. Mirage Mirror

Mirage Mirror can turn into pretty much anything on the field save planeswalkers and battles. It provides not just flexibility and redundancy, but it's also a royal pain to deal with: Most forms of removal are useless against some specific permanent type, letting Mirage Mirror dodge the harm.

For example, if your foe aims Swords to Plowshares, Mirage Mirror can always turn into a land.

Once its ability resolves, Mirage Mirror can't keep shape-shifting until end of turn, though. That's to say, whatever it turns into won't have Mirage Mirror‘s ability.

#36. Primal Amulet / Primal Wellspring

Double-faced cards that transform into a land is one of Ixalan's specialties, and Primal Amulet / Primal Wellspring is among the best of them.

Primal Amulet is a bit too expensive for the effect this artifact provides, but we're really here for the other side of the coin: Primal Wellspring is just a fountain of value for spell-slinging decks, on top of its mana-fixing properties.

By the way: although Primal Wellspring only copies an instant or sorcery, you can use the mana to pay for any type of spell.

#35. Winter Orb

As we saw above, Static Orb proudly sits among the top three or four saltiest cards in Commander… which, according to Winter Orb, are just rookie numbers.

Winter Orb is, along with Stasis, the card that EDH players hate the most. And given its colorless nature Winter Orb is a lot more common.

Not many decks can play this artifact without shooting themselves in the foot – but those that can leave their competition fuming and unable to catch up.

#34. Isochron Scepter

Isochron Scepter is one of the best imprint cards, and it enables all sort of broken combos, from infinite mana with Dramatic Reversal to infinite turns.

#33. Altar of Dementia

Although Altar of Dementia can target any player, and it works well in decks that focus on milling your adversaries. Where this artifact really shines is in decks that treat their graveyard as a resource.

Above all, Altar of Dementia makes sure that whatever you need ends up there. Each of your creatures that your opponent removes advances your self-mill plan, and you can even dodge exile or pacifism effects for creatures that you may want to reanimate.

 Altar of Dementia is also a great sacrifice outlet for any deck that needs one, of course.

#32. Academy Manufactor

Good things come in threes, they say, and Academy Manufactor ardently agrees!

This assembly-worker does what artifacts do best: It lets your other cards be the stars of the show while they provide support. For a very affordable mana cost and no matter if you're going for Food, Clues or Treasure, Academy Manufactor provides it plus the other two, keeping you well-stocked with life, cards and mana.

#31. Helm of the Host

A staple in competitive EDH decks and one of the best equipment in MTG, Helm of the Host is great in Voltron decks. Whenever sending your wincon forth into the fray feels a bit risky, just send a clone to do your Voltron's job!

#30. Seat of the Synod

Seat of the Synod may not look like much at quick glance, and nobody could fault you for thinking it's just a fancy island. This artifact being a land means that you don't need mana to put it in play. And since you don't have to cast it (because it's a land, so you can play it directly), counterspells can't stop it. This makes it strong enough to be banned in Modern.

Seat of the Synod is a house in blue artifacts-matter decks or decks that rely on affinity for artifacts.

#29. The Ozolith

There are a gazillion cards that put counters onto permanents, but cards that move those counters around aren’t so common. Green and artifacts tend to have the most options in this regard, and The Ozolith is among the best of the best.

Notice that The Ozolith works wonderfully with counter-doubling effects: each time the counters move (first from creature to Ozolith, then from Ozolith to creature) the doubling effect triggers.

Also note that the second ability works on any target (not just yours) so you can hurl “negative” counters from The Ozolith to an enemy creature. If one of your creatures has a -1/-1 counter or a finality counter, The Ozolith can toss it to any other creature on the board.

On the negative side, The Ozolith tends to be a fairly expensive single to pick up.

#28. Baleful Strix

It's a creature! It's a bird! Is the flying cantrip-of-death, the Baleful Strix!

Few cards are as flexible as this amazing 2-drop, and it always comes in handy. Its main drawback is its Dimir color identity, which limits its Commander usage to + decks.

#27. Wayfarer's Bauble

Cheap to play, provides ramp and fixing, has synergy in sacrifices-matter decks…. Wayfarer's Bauble will never be flashy or eventful, but every Magic deck needs to build its mana curve ASAP, and this Bauble allows you to do just that.

#26. Blackblade Reforged

Blackblade Reforged has a pretty unique “legends matter” clause: there are only two equipment cards with an “equip legendary” ability, the other being Ace's Baseball Bat.

Blackblade Reforged is a bit unwieldy if your deck doesn't have a high enough density of legendary creatures, but if you do it makes sure your creatures grow huge.

#25. Idol of Oblivion

If you're in the market for a card-drawing artifact and your deck has a way to generate tokens, Idol of Oblivion is a solid draw engine. Notice that it works at instant speed, so you can activate it during your opponent's turn.

And once you've got enough cards in hand you get a big bad Eldrazi token to punch foes with!

#24. Strionic Resonator

Strionic Resonator is a great ability doubler – it only applies to triggered abilities, but unlike other cards that provide a similar effect (like the infamous Panharmonicon) it works on any triggered ability.

#23. Shadowspear

Indestructible or hexproof are really annoying keywords to deal with if enemy creatures happen to have them.

But worry not: with Shadowspear, they won't.

This is one of the very few ways to remove them both, and you get to do so in one fell swoop and from all opponents. Best of all, remember that activated abilities on the equipment work even while the equipment is unattached. You can activate Shadowspear‘s second ability at any time, even if you don't have creatures under your control.

#22. Vanquisher's Banner

Vanquisher's Banner is fairly specific and only creature-heavy typal decks want it. But those that do want it badly: making every creature of the chosen type bigger and giving you an extra card when cast is just crazy value.

#21. Whispersilk Cloak

Here's a keyword that has stood the test of time. Even though shroud has been mostly replaced by hexproof, some cards that provide shroud to your creatures are fairly popular in Commander.

Whispersilk Cloak also makes its wielder unblockable, making it nigh-impossible to remove outside of using board wipes, or spending two removal spells (one to remove the artifact, the other to remove the creature).

Its main drawback is the same reason why WotC phased out shroud in favor of hexproof: nobody can target the creature with shroud, not even its controller. Which means that a shrouded creature won't be able to receive auras, targeted buffs, or other equipment (since equip is a targeted ability).

#20. Expedition Map

If you are new to Magic, Expedition Map may not look like much. Why spend 3 mana and a card to find a land?

Isn't this card worse than Wayfarer's Bauble, since Bauble puts the land in play and this Map just puts it in your hand?

The thing is, lands make Magic go round – and what makes Expedition Map special is that it can fetch any land, no strings attached (whereas Expedition Map only looks for basic lands).

That by itself makes Expedition Map a multi-format staple and close to auto-include in any combo deck that has some land as one of the pieces of its puzzle.

#19. Panharmonicon

A card so iconic that its name is the nickname for cards that provide a similar effect (and there are tons of those), Panharmonicon brought the “triggers trigger twice” concept to Magic.

Since the wording can be a bit of a mouthful: Panharmonicon works with any of your creatures with an enter-the-battlefield effect, even the one you've just played. For example, if your Eternal Witness enters the battlefield with Panharmonicon in play, you get to return two cards from the graveyard.

You don't have to control the creature that enters the battlefield, though. Panharmonicon only asks you to be the controller of the permanent with the triggered ability, so Authority of the Consuls triggers twice whenever your opponent puts in play a creature.

Also, unlike Strionic Resonator, in this case nothing gets copied. Panharmonicon makes the triggered ability to trigger another time, which means that you get to make all the choices (including a different target, if you want) for the second trigger.

#18. Ornithopter of Paradise

Like Birds of Paradise, but more expensive. “More expensive” isn’t a very good selling point, I admit, but Ornithopter of Paradise is colorless so you can fit it in any deck, and that's a solid pitch.

Providing fixing, ramping, and a flying chump-blocker (that can turn into an attacker if your deck packs enough buffs), this thopter is a great team player for any mana-hungry deck.

#17. The One Ring

You may have heard of Sauron's favorite piece of jewelry: The One Ring from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth and has had a huge impact in tons of different formats, from Modern and Arena-exclusive Historic to Legacy and even Vintage.

As a rule, drawing cards is tempo-negative. Rather than advancing your board state or messing with your opponent's, you’re spending resources to get cards you hope you can play later.

The One Ring‘s power lies in drawing you cards while also buying you time – for a full turn, you get protection from everything and prevent your foes from going for the kill during that window.

#16. Foundry Inspector

A 3/2 for is horrible, of course. But paying less mana for anything you play is usually very good, and if your deck is jam-packed with spells with generic mana costs (like most artifacts) then Foundry Inspector is one big steal of a deal, making it a multi-format staple that even sees competitive play in Vintage.

#15. Aetherflux Reservoir

Aetherflux Reservoir is one of the most flexible lifegain cards in MTG, since you can fit it in any deck and works with all types of spells. As such, it's another multi-format staple that sees play from Pioneer to Legacy, and of course Commander.

It shines in decks with lots of cheap spells (the effect is cumulative during each turn), providing both an enabler and a payoff for lifegain synergies.

#14. Swiftfoot Boots

Haste is an amazing keyword, and the mere threat of your next big beatstick having it is enough to make foes think twice about attacking you or tapping out. Having Swiftfoot Boots in play forces your opponents to play slower even if you have nothing else on the board.

Of course, once you have a real threat, giving it hexproof turns it into a nightmare to deal with (unless your foe is savvy enough to pack a Shadowspear, of course!).

#13. Sword of the Animist

One of the best swords in Magic, Sword of the Animist is amazing for any deck that needs to ramp. That tends to be green decks, but Sword of the Animist fetches any basic lands, so it works with any color identity.

Also note that it triggers on attack (it doesn't need to connect a successful hit), letting you get value immediately after equipping.

#12. Burnished Hart

Burnished Hart is a mana dork with a few extra steps.

While it doesn't provide the flexibility that Expedition Map does (the Map can fetch you any land, while the Hart only looks for basic lands), Burnished Hart puts those two lands on the board and is itself a body that can chump-block and save you some life.

#11. Bolas's Citadel

Not all artifacts are colorless – with in its casting cost, Bolas's Citadel only fits the most dedicated of swamp-loving decks. That's the price to pay to play with what's arguably the best black artifact in MTG, and a great way to generate card advantage.

Bolas's Citadel works very well with Aetherflux Reservoir, since even though you pay with life when you play a spell off the top of your library, you’re still casting said spell and getting the Reservoir's lifegain.

#10. Herald's Horn

Like Vanquisher's Banner, Herald's Horn only fits in creature-heavy typal decks – but indeed fits like a glove in those.

Herald's Horn‘s second ability provides, again like in Vanquisher's Banner‘s case, a form of card advantage. But it's the first ability where the big difference is: for decks that play cheap creatures, a mana discount is huge, making this artifact one of the best typal support cards out there.

#9. Lotus Petal

Lotus Petal is basically “we have Black Lotus at home”, but it’s nevertheless powerful enough to be restricted in Vintage and a powerhouse in Commander. If you need a quick mana boost or a bit of fixing, Lotus Petal has you covered.

#8. Lightning Greaves

Shroud is a useful enough keyword that two equipment in this ranking grant it!

What sets Lightning Greaves apart, and arguably makes it much better than Swiftfoot Boots, is its equip cost: . While strictly speaking Lightning Greaves isn’t an auto-equip equipment, in practice it usually is.

Bear in mind that shroud prevents all players (even you!) from targeting the creature, so you won't be able to target auras or other equipment to whoever wields Lightning Greaves.

And you can't simply unequip equipment!

You can equip a second creature and thus detach Lightning Greaves from the first, but if you have only one creature you can't just make it “drop” the equipment.

On the other hand, while shroud works similarly to hexproof, it's a different keyword. Effects that remove hexproof (like Shadowspear) won't affect shroud.

#7. Ashnod’s Altar

Ashnod's Altar is arguably the best sacrifice outlet in all MTG, and its sac payoff makes it an amazing combo piece. Classifying it as a mana rock would be selling it very, very short; labeling it “crazy good” doesn't do it enough justice.

#6. Jeweled Lotus

If Lotus Petal is “we have Black Lotus at home,” Jeweled Lotus says “home is where our commander is,” and it's a must-have for competitive EDH decks that need either a lot of mana, a lot of fixing, or both.

Printed only in Commander Legends and Commander Masters, Jeweled Lotus is among the priciest cards in this ranking.

#5. Solemn Simulacrum

No, Solemn Simulacrum isn’t as powerful as other cards this high up, but it's so popular and well-loved that, yeah, I'm giving it the fifth spot. After all, humble team players who are always willing to let other cards shine should themselves get the spotlight from time to time!

And what a team player Solemn Simulacrum is: ramps, fixes, chump-blocks, and draws you two cards during its steadfast service – it truly does it all.

#4. Esper Sentinel

Esper Sentinel is for artifacts what

Rhystic Study is for enchantments: one of the best sources of card advantage in the multiplayer format.

Arguably the best card draw effects that white has access to, Esper Sentinel does have the limitation of its color identity and thus lacks the flexibility of colorless artifacts that fit into any deck – but as long as your commander doesn't hate plains, you can't go wrong with this studious Sentinel.

#3. Mana Crypt

I grouped the majority of mana rocks in the Honorable Mentions to save space, but Mana Crypt is so much like cheating that it really doesn't fit into any shape of “honorable”. Banned everywhere save Commander and Vintage (where it's restricted), Mana Crypt is a slam-dunk for any deck that can afford it.

#2. Skullclamp

Another artifact so powerful that it has been awarded the honor of a ban in Modern and Legacy, Skullclamp is a beast in any deck that can generate an abundance of X/1 creatures, like with Bitterblossom.

Giving a -1 health debuff (and thus killing!) your own creatures is actually a worthy sacrifice in this case, letting Skullclamp draw you two cards for – the best rate this side of Ancestral Recall!

#1. Sensei's Divining Top

One of the best colorless cards in Magic, Sensei's Divining Top is only playable in Commander and Vintage while banned in Legacy and Modern.

Deceptively powerful, Sensei's Divining Top doesn't provide card advantage in the strict sense of the word. But by providing unrivaled card filtering, being extremely hard to remove due to its “tuck myself into the library” ability, and its potential for infinite combos that let you draw your whole deck (with Mystic Forge and Foundry Inspector, for example) all make it one of the coolest artifacts you can mess around with.

Best Artifact Payoffs

The main selling point of colorless artifacts is that they fit every deck, regardless of which colors you're playing.

While there are better typal spells than Vanquisher's Banner or Herald's Horn, or better ramping effects than Burnished Hart, those better spells tend to be tied to a color identity and can only be played with commanders that match that identity. Colorless artifacts, on the other hand, can be played in any EDH deck and that's one of their main payoffs: flexibility.

On top of that, some artifacts are specifically built for flexibility regardless of not only your mana base or color identity but also your deck's strategy. Solemn Simulacrum can pull its weight in nearly every conceivable deck; there may be better cards you may prefer to have, but it's very rare that Solemn Simulacrum is actively bad. Or as another example, Jeweled Lotus lets you cast your commander ASAP regardless of what your deck is trying to accomplish.

In other words, more often than not artifacts work as enablers of your main strategy and buttress whichever weak spot your deck's color identity may have.

That's not to say that there aren't some commanders and strats that are always delighted if you play artifacts!

Commanders like Urza, Lord High Artificer, Emry, Lurker of the Loch, or Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain have their artifact synergy written right there in their text.

And decks that care about such keywords as affinity for artifacts, metalcraft, or the craft (with artifact) mechanic introduced in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan will be happy the more artifacts you have.

Wrap Up

Skullclamp | Illustration by Daniel Ljunggren

And that's our ranking of the best artifacts for Commander, minus most mana rocks.

Bear in mind that artifacts' main thing is flexibility and it's perfectly possible that we've left out the exact tool you need for a job that your deck's colors just won't do. Take a look at Scryfall and see if you find what you need, in case it's not in our ranking today.

If you have any comments, feedback, or further questions about these token generators, do drop us a comment or stop by the Draftsim Discord for a chat.

And may the artifacts be with you!