The 56 Best Artifacts for Commander in Magic Ranked

Last updated on July 6, 2026

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 Makes Artifacts Good 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 powerhouses 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 97 other cards.”

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

#56. Wayfarer's Bauble

Cheap to play, provides ramp and fixing, has synergy in artifact sacrifice 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.

#55. 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.

#54. Embercleave

Having flash and an auto-equip clause, Embercleave is more of a combat trick than a traditional equipment. But it's still one of Magic's best red artifacts: 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.

#53. 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, though that's since changed.

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 Jitte gains counters whenever it deals combat damage to anything (not just players).

#52. Vedalken Orrery

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.

#51. Primal Amulet / Primal Wellspring

Double-faced cards that transform into a land are 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.

#50. 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.

Along with Stasis, Winter Orb is the card that EDH players hate the most. And given its colorless nature it's 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.

#49. 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.

#48. Final Fantasy Crystals

Final Fantasy introduced a cycle of 4-mana artifacts with cost reduction, a static ability, and an activated ability:

• The Darkness Crystal
• The Earth Crystal
• The Fire Crystal
• The Water Crystal
• The Wind Crystal

Though some Crystals are stronger than the others, each is broadly playable, especially in mono-colored decks that make the most use of the cost reduction.

#47. Excalibur, Sword of Eden

You have to be a legendary creature deck to leverage Excalibur, Sword of Eden well—while any Commander deck can technically use it because they have at least one creature to equip it to, you really want this to be free, and you want multiple potential wielders. Those hoops are well worth jumping through for such a power boost; at the very least, the equipped creature becomes The Abyss while dissuading your opponents from attacking you.

#46. Altar of Dementia

Although Altar of Dementia can target any player, 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. It's also a great sacrifice outlet for any deck that needs one, of course.

#45. Ghost Vacuum

Running graveyard hate in Commander always feels rough. Dedicating a slot to it kind of sucks, but somebody has to be responsible and stop The Scarab God from reanimating Toxrill, the Corrosive and similarly disgusting threats. And if you have to run graveyard hate, which you do, Ghost Vacuum does it pretty well. You don’t need to play it against a dedicated graveyard deck, either; creatures will die during a Commander game, so it becomes a threat itself with enough time.

#44. 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.

#43. 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!

#42. Cybermen Squadron

Cybermen Squadron is excellent top-end for artifact creature decks. It has an admittedly narrow use case, but tripling your attack force ends games quickly, and it helps generate long-game advantages with cards like Solemn Simulacrum and Baleful Strix.

#41. Bender’s Waterskin

Three-mana rocks need to do something in excess of making mana because 2-mana rocks are so efficient; for Bender's Waterskin, that “something” is untapping itself repeatedly. In a four-player game, this produces 4 mana each turn cycle. You need lots of cheap spells to take advantage of that since it only makes 1 mana at a time, which typically translates to cantrips and spellslinger; imagine playing Vivi Ornitier and casting an Opt variant thrice before your next turn.

#40. 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, 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.

#39. 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 this works wonderfully with counter-doubling effects: Each time the counters move (first from creature to Ozolith, then from Ozolith to creature) the doubling effect applies.

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, this artifact tends to be a fairly expensive single to pick up.

#38. Nexus of Becoming

The Big Score’s Nexus of Becoming is just a good value engine. You generally get at least one trigger, plus it opens the door to really interesting synergies with cards like Nesting Dovehawk and Padeem, Consul of Innovation that affect themselves when converted into tokens or artifacts.

#37. 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.

#36. Cosmic Cube

Cosmic Cube rewards aggression with additional cards cast for free. It’s very similar to Sunbird's Invocation but colorless and better protected thanks to ward.

#35. Banner of Kinship

Banner of Kinship is an excellent support card for typal strategies that go wide, like elves and goblins. It doesn’t work in all typal strategies, however; dragon decks don’t really care about this because their creatures are already large and they generally stick to a few big threats. But if you’re going wide, this becomes an uber-anthem that’s worth exploiting.

#34. Simulacrum Synthesizer

Simulacrum Synthesizer churns out Construct tokens better than any card in Magic, at least in Commander. Any artifact deck would love a crack at building so much board presence, and it’s one of the strongest artifacts to copy due to how well it stacks.

#33. Blackblade Reforged

Blackblade Reforged has a pretty unique “legends matter” clause: There are only a handful of cards with the “equip legendary” ability, this being the first.

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.

#32. Ravenous Robots

Ravenous Robots aids any deck that wants to go wide with artifacts. Making every artifact you cast into two works great with many cards, from Karnstructs and Reckless Fireweaver that need lots of artifacts to cards like Trash to Treasure and Skullclamp that need sacrifice fodder.

#31. The Seriema

A side effect of Magic design focusing on Universes Beyond and Commander is that more creatures than ever are legendary; you can find a legendary variant of practically every effect. That makes the tutor on The Seriema increasingly relevant, and it can only get better as more decks become a legendary toolbox by happenstance.

#30. Idol of Oblivion

If you're in the market for a card-drawing artifact and your deck has multiple ways 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!

#29. 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.

#28. 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.

#27. Chronicle of Victory

No one's stopping you from holding onto Vanquisher's Banner, but it's wild how much the extra mana on Chronicle of Victory gives you. The keywords make all the difference, allowing you to dominate combat while also staying gassed up on cards.

#26. Pinnacle Emissary

Pinnacle Emissary has crept into multiple formats as a super cheap Thopter engine. When blue-red plays with artifacts, it typically cares about a mass of them for cards like Urza, Lord High Artificer or Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer, so getting two artifacts for every one you cast is worth the investment.

#25. 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).

#24. Expedition Map

If you're 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 Wayfarer's Bauble 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 a specific land as one of the pieces of its puzzle.

#23. Mjölnir, Hammer of Thor

In a format all about splashy plays, cards that double something are always welcome. Mjölnir, Hammer of Thor has more than a few potent applications. The equip worthy ability hardly matters when you consider the commanders it works with, like Arabella, Abandoned Doll and Slicer, Hired Muscle.

#22. Burnished Hart

Burnished Hart is a mana dork with a few extra steps. While it doesn't provide the flexibility that Expedition Map does, Burnished Hart puts those two lands on the board and is itself a body that can chump-block and save you some life.

#21. The Ten Rings

The Ten Rings is costly and slow, but neither of those traits render a card unplayable in Commander. There are plenty of ways to cheat this into play or simply cast it with an abundance of mana, in which case you get exceptional card draw. As long as you get that first trigger and draw four or five cards, you’re in good shape.

#20. 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 keeping it around. 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 puts you up two cards during its steadfast service – it truly does it all.

#19. Patchwork Banner

Another 3-mana rock that's worth the mention, Patchwork Banner gives your team a little power boost. This card fits into any typal strategy as both a support piece and mana ramp—it does everything those decks could want.

#18. Herald's Horn

Herald's Horn is yet another rock that only fits in creature-heavy typal decks – but, as one of the best typal support cards, it indeed fits like a glove in those.

The Horn's second ability provides a form of card advantage. But the big difference is in the first ability: For decks that play cheap creatures, a 1-mana discount is huge.

#17. 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.

Modern Magic revolves around enters-the-battlefield abilities, so it makes sense that doubling those triggers is worth your time, even if the set-up cost is pretty high to get this 4-mana “do-nothing” rolling.

#16. 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.

#15. The Aetherspark

The first ever artifact planeswalker, The Aetherspark slots into most decks interested in combat. The best ability is certainly the card draw considering how easily you should get it. Remember, the creature doesn’t need to deal combat damage to a player, just to anything, so you should have no trouble amassing enough loyalty to draw four or more cards. I imagine The Aetherspark’s -10 will enable some busted turns, but the card draw seems like the best mode.

#14. 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.

#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 this equipment fetches any basic lands, so it works with any color identity.

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

#12. Roaming Throne

Though I detest this sort of ubiquitous power creep, I can’t deny Roaming Throne’s sheer power. Ostensibly designed as a typal card, it fits into any deck that wants to copy its commander’s triggered abilities, and it does so without fuss since it’s colorless, has a perfectly on-rate body, and has built-in protection with ward. There’s no downside, just free ability copying, which means there’s also nothing interesting to speak of here.

#11. 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 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.

#10. The Infinity Stones

An indestructible mana rock that enters untapped and has an activated ability that makes it as relevant on turn 8 as turn 2 is a recipe for a busted card, and that’s the template Wizards has given the Infinity Stones. Currently, we only have The Mind Stone and The Soul Stone, but these are already two of the best mana rocks in their colors. I struggle to see later iterations straying from this template or being worse.

#9. Aetherflux Reservoir

Aetherflux Reservoir is one of the most flexible lifegain cards in MTG, since you can fit it in any deck and it 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.

#8. 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!).

#7. Lotus Petal

Lotus Petal is basically “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.

#6. 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-attach equipment, in practice it usually is.

#5. Ashnod’s Altar

Ashnod's Altar is arguably the best sacrifice outlet in all of 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.

#4. 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 off the top of your library.

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.

#3. 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 effect that white has access to, Esper Sentinel does have the limitation of its white 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.

#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 toughness 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. 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 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 opponents', 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 – you get protection from everything for a full turn and prevent your foes from going for the kill during that window.

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 prefer to run, but it's very rare that Solemn Simulacrum is actively bad. Or as another example, Jeweled Lotus (used to) let 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 for 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! Legends 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.

Some of the best ways to reward yourself for filling your deck with artifacts are sacrifice synergies. Cards like Krark-Clan Ironworks and Trash for Treasure love eating artifacts, while cards like Esoteric Duplicator, Ichor Wellspring, and Servo Schematic reward you for sacrificing them.

Another niche payoff for artifacts are artifact creature payoffs. Cards like Losheel, Clockwork Scholar, Krang, Utrom Warlord, and Steel Overseer reward you for filling your deck with artifact creatures or cards like Pinnacle Emissary that create artifact creature tokens.

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 can't handle. Chances are, there's a colorless artifact out there to fill that role.

If you have any comments, feedback, or further questions about these EDH artifacts, do drop us a comment or stop by the Draftsim Discord for a chat. And check out The Daily Upkeep newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest MTG news.

And may the artifacts be with you!