The 43 Best Black Artifacts in Magic Ranked

Last updated on October 11, 2025

Entropic Battlecruiser | Illustration by Josiah ‘Jo' Cameron

Colored artifacts are the new standard in MTG to create interesting colored effects for a card type that was mostly generic and many times broken. Black alone has many of them, with over 100 designs now, which is a good time as any to rank them.

From regular artifacts to equipment, vehicles to spacecraft, black has a nice selection. Many of these are staple cards in various Constructed formats, and we have a few legendary black artifact creatures to build around in EDH, too. Without further ado, let’s see what the best black artifact cards in MTG are!

What Are Black Artifacts in MTG?

Barbed Servitor | Illustration by Simon Dominic

Black artifacts are cards with the artifact card type and a mono-black color, though some might have additional colors in their color identity. These artifacts also count as being black spells on the stack or in hand and black permanents in any zone that cares about their color; for example, you can Ringsight for Bolas's Citadel if you control a black creature.

Black artifacts have effects that fall within black’s share of the color pie. You’ll see plenty of ways to pay life for board or card advantage, means of sacrificing creatures for power, and more than a few cards that interact with your graveyard.

#43. Vat of Rebirth

Vat of Rebirth is a little slow, but it’s a great tool for aristocrat-style decks to get graveyard recursion. The 3-mana activation is a little expensive, but you get to do this multiple times a game. Building up four counters is easy alongside Treasure tokens. If the Vat is in play, you can get three of the four requisite counters by sacrificing three Treasures to pay the activation cost.

#42. Blood Fountain

Blood Fountain is an unsuspecting artifact from Crimson Vow that’s found success in Pauper. Producing two artifacts for a single mana is great in any deck trying to leverage cards like Cranial Plating. Since they both sacrifice themselves, they work well with cards like Disciple of the Vault and Marionette Master while giving you a bit of card draw in grindy games. It’s a great piece of artifact decks or graveyard strategies that want to grind out a long game.

#41. Serpent’s Soul-Jar

Serpent's Soul-Jar is one of the most specific cards here since you need to play elves for it to work, but replaying your elves if they die is fantastic. This artifact can serve as protection for pieces like Priest of Titania or Circle of Dreams Druid, but it’s also a great engine. Imagine slapping a Skullclamp onto Elvish Visionary to draw two cards, then immediately replaying the Visionary for another one!

#40. Bag of Devouring

Bag of Devouring offers plenty of slow, steady card advantage. This artifact is at its best with cards that want to sacrifice themselves for value. Edict creatures like Plaguecrafter or Demon's Disciple seem good with this, as are cards like Sadistic Hypnotist sacrificing creatures with solid ETBs to replay.

#39. Salvage Titan

Who doesn’t love a free 6/4? In a world where many basic game actions reward you with Treasure, you'll often get Salvage Titan for free. You can even recur it from a stocked graveyard. If you can find a way to bounce this to your hand, it seems like it could become a powerful combo engine that sacrifices artifacts.

#38. Skorpekh Lord

Skorpekh Lord gives aggressive artifact decks a bit of a lord. Giving +1/+0 isn’t as good as the blanket +1/+1 provided by cards like Chief of the Foundry, but the menace is intriguing. A board full of menacing creatures is tricky to block. Artifact creature aggro tends to lean on fliers, especially 1/1 Thopter tokens. A 2/1 creature with menace and flying is hard to block, so a fleet of them from something like Thopter Assembly or Sai, Master Thopterist spells doom for an opponent.

#37. Sinister Monolith

Bloomburrow‘s Sinister Monolith has some interesting applications. It’s a clock by itself, but you can crack it for a couple of cards when you need to refuel. Hitting each opponent is quite a nice inclusion, too. It’s a solid uncommon, one with a lot of versatility.

#36. Puppet Conjurer

Puppet Conjurer requires you to have access to blue mana and has a blue-black color identity in Commander, but it’s great for sacrifice decks. Making a free expendable token every turn works well with cards that need you to sacrifice multiple creatures, like Whisper, Blood Liturgist or Priest of Forgotten Gods. It even sacrifices the token itself, so you can activate this on the end step before your turn to get a 1-mana trigger for cards like Bastion of Remembrance or Dictate of Erebos.

#35. Wand of Orcus

Every color has a clunky equipment that’s a little overcosted but still works. Wand of Orcus does that for black. Once you get this going, it’s hard to stop since you can equip this to the tokens it makes. Deathtouch lets any creature trade, and it’s hard to have good blocks against a wide board of 2/2 deathtouch Zombies. You’ll want to pair this with fairly beefy creatures, like Doom Whisperer or Ebondeath, Dracolich.

#34. Lucille

Lucille, The Walking Dead version of Gisa's Favorite Shovel, is another piece of equipment that’s a little costly but puts a lot of pressure on the opponent. The combination of menace and forcing your opponent to sacrifice a blocker makes it hard to stop this equipment, especially once you start making Walkers to equip with Lucille after your opponents find an answer to the initial threat. Menace pairs well with black’s deathtouch creatures, like Gonti, Lord of Luxury or Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire.

#33. Armix, Filigree Thrasher

There’s nothing black wants to do more than stacking its graveyard. Armix, Filigree Thrasher turns this into a source of removal. Discarding cards to kill creatures is a great deal in a color that has Reanimate and Necromancy. This effect pairs well with cards that produce multiple artifacts like Blood Fountain and self-mill like Out of the Tombs.

#32. Sphere of Annihilation

Sphere of Annihilation is always a fun effect. It’s a slow wrath that’s vulnerable to interaction but buys time. If you play this on, say, X=3, and nobody has an answer, you stop the entire pod from playing small creatures for a turn cycle while still dealing with that Professional Face-Breaker or Collector Ouphe you were worried about. It also plays well with Shimmer Myr for a surprise wrath and Karn, the Great Creator to recur this ability.

#31. Refurbished Familiar

It’s forgivable if you didn’t realize that Refurbished Familiar is an artifact, but this zombie rat certainly is, and it even has affinity! If you’re making the most of your artifacts, it’s not difficult to get this black artifact creature down to 1 mana, which isn’t bad for a 2/1 flier that makes your opponent discard a card. At the same time, it’s likely not doing much outside of Limited, but in 40-card formats it can be a real headache!

#30. Lychguard

Lychguard refills your hand pretty easily. This creature is great in a deck that wants to fill its graveyard with self-mill cards like Mesmeric Orb. You can mill, mill, mill, then use this to get back legendary combo pieces like Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. It’s also great insulation against board wipes, acting as a mass Raise Dead to help you rebuild.

#29. Netherborn Altar

Trading life for a mana advantage is a familiar deal for black mages. You’re never playing Netherborn Altar outside of Commander. This card is great in decks with expensive commanders that cost 5 or more mana. It’s hard enough getting Trazyn the Infinite or Vilis, Broker of Blood out the first time, before commander tax adds up. The Altar pays the commander tax with 3 life instead of 2 mana, which is an excellent deal to achieve greatness.

#28. Tithing Blade

Tithing Blade was a really nice addition with The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Edict effects haven’t been great for a while, but this is just a little more than that to make it interesting. Late game, you can craft this black artifact with a creature from your graveyard to create a real clock that isn’t particularly easy to deal with. Either half of this probably isn’t up to much, but both on the same card? Sign me up!

#27. Immortal Coil

Immortal Coil is a spicy one. It’s likely too fragile to be good, since you lose the game on the spot to something like Bojuka Bog or Endurance for 0 mana. The upside is an amazing draw engine and protection from damage. You need to really stock your graveyard to make this one work with cards like Mesmeric Orb, Perpetual Timepiece, and Out of the Tombs. Playing this with green seems like a fantastic idea; not only do you get great mill through effects like Hermit Druid and Grisly Salvage, but you can also Nature's Claim your Coil if you’re about to lose to it.

#26. Technomancer

What’s better than getting one reanimation target? Two! The power of Technomancer is it’s always at least a two-for-one. In a deck dedicated to reanimating artifacts (a Sharuum the Hegemon deck would love this), you bring back the Technomancer to snag something else. It can be a big artifact like Noxious Gearhulk or some smaller ones like Myr Retriever and Scrap Trawler to set up a combo.

#25. The Last Ride

This card is the vehicle parallel to Death's Shadow, but one you can have at the beginning of the game since it isn’t a creature, most of the time. At 1 mana, The Last Ride is a cheap way to draw cards every turn, and once you’re low enough on health, even profit from it by having a good attacker. Just having it be a 4/4 or larger is great value, and you can even pump it while drawing cards. Attack with this card as a 6/6, pay 2 life, draw a card, hit them for 8—an interesting pattern overall.

#24. Wurmcoil Larva

You know what’s a good card? Wurmcoil Engine.

You know what’s still a good card? Half a Wurmcoil Engine, which is what you get for 5 mana with Wurmcoil Larva. A great design callback, Modern Horizons 3‘s Baby Wurmcoil may cost almost as much as the bigger, badder, version, but it’s still a fantastic rate for an uncommon.

#23. Blade of the Oni

Blade of the Oni makes excellent use of the reconfigure ability as an early threat that’s hard to block while making late-game beaters that outsize your opponents. The Blade boosts your creature’s base power, making it a perfect option to pair with cards that stack +1/+1 counters on creatures. A 7/7 seems like quite the beater. It’s also fantastic with deathtouch creatures, forcing your opponents to put their entire board in front of a monster that kills up to five creatures.

#22. Barbed Servitor

Barbed Servitor is a really interesting design. The most interesting way to use this black artifact is to find some way to remove the suspect designation from it. Then it’s a black Stuffy Doll. The card draw ability is pretty nice, too, although not how I’d choose to use it.

#21. Trazyn the Infinite

Trazyn the Infinite’s strength is all in the name, baby. Much like Necrotic Ooze, there’s only one reason to play this card: Find a way to go infinite. About a billion mana rocks go infinite with Pili-Pala in your graveyard, including Sol Ring, Basalt Monolith, Worn Powerstone, and really anything that taps for 2 or more mana. Throw in a Walking Ballista and Trazyn takes out all your opponents in one go.

#20. Mask of Griselbrand

Mask of Griselbrand wants you to sacrifice some big creatures for big card draw. The Mask works alongside cards like Soldevi Adnate that reward you for sacrificing large creatures. Since the equip cost is high, it’s not worth sacrificing creatures with 2-3 power; you want to hit with an 8/8, gain a bunch of life, and draw enough cards to make Griselbrand proud.

#19. Chronomancer

Chronomancer embodies elegance through simplicity. It’s not much, but it’s a cheap sacrifice outlet to get artifacts like Ichor Wellspring or Spine of Ish Sah into your graveyard while drawing a card. Any artifact deck that wants to get artifacts into the graveyard is more than happy to play something this cheap and repeatable.

#18. Executioner’s Capsule

Executioner's Capsule isn’t fancy, but it’s an effective tool in decks that recur artifacts. It pairs nicely with cards like Scrap Trawler, Lurrus of the Dream-Den, or Muldrotha, the Gravetide to repeatedly destroy creatures. It takes a small effort to get this card’s value, but it’s worth it.

#17. Dalek Drone

If there’s one thing Dalek Drones are known to do, it’s exterminate! And that’s exactly what they do with this card from Doctor Who. It’s a nice upgrade on Ravenous Chupacabra and does a lot of work to remove a specific threat. I think we have a pretty nice Cube inclusion, here!

#16. Pact Weapon

Pact Weapon does tons of work. It’s a free discard outlet once it’s in play to send things like Archon of Cruelty to the graveyard for easy reanimation. If you’re already playing with big creatures, there are some tricks you can use like Academy Ruins or Jace, the Mind Sculptor to keep a huge spell like Emrakul, the Promised End on top of your library for maximum pumps. Also, getting a Dark Confidant trigger every time your random 1/1 attacks provides fine card advantage.

#15. Altar of Bhaal

Altar of Bhaal gives you some repeatable reanimation. The Bone Offering adventure is a fine addition, but I’d want to play this as the Altar and feed it tokens from cards like Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools or Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia that come at a better rate. Then you can start getting your Archon of Cruelty, Noxious Gearhulk, and other great reanimation targets for a small mana investment, and your opponents can’t keep them dead.

#14. Noxious Gearhulk

Noxious Gearhulk is one of my favorite Cube cards. It’s fantastically statted as a threat that swings games. You get a fairly large beater that kills your opponent’s best threat while gaining a bit of life to stabilize you, and this card is hard to block with menace. If your opponent doesn’t have a removal spell, this is often a three-for-one that kills one creature on ETB and two more when they trade in combat.

#13. Demonic Junker

Getting a three-for-one in Commander games is strong, and Demonic Junker will costs 4 mana or less thanks to affinity. Nuking your sacrifice fodder leaves you with a 6/5 crew 2 vehicle, very above rate, and it's way better in artifact decks than Ravenous Chupacabra and friends.

#12. Requiem Monolith

Requiem Monolith lets you draw cards every turn for life, like Phyrexian Arena, but it has more implications. You can put this ability on creatures to manipulate combat, or to deal damage to your creatures. Activate this, draw a card, and then attack with a 3/3 into a 4/4; if they block, they make you draw four more cards at the cost of 4 life. It combos with damage-based sweepers if you don’t care about your life total and desperately need some late-game gas.

#11. Imotekh the Stormlord

Imotekh the Stormlord is another choice for aggressive black artifact decks. A few ways to get artifacts out of your graveyard nets you a ton of board presence. This could be done by reanimating artifact creatures or exiling cards from your graveyard to cards like Immortal Coil. Once you’ve got an army of 2/2s, you can start attacking with tons of menace damage thanks to Imotekh’s pump ability.

#10. Entropic Battlecruiser

With a station cost of 1, Entropic Battlecruiser is already a huge menace on the board, making people lose 3 life for every card discarded. This card sees play in black decks using frequent discard effects like planeswalkers that make players discard every turn, Ravenous Rats, and more. And if you’re playing wheel effects, imagine when your opponents discard 4+ cards and lose 12+ life, just from this card alone.

#9. Necron Deathmark

What puts Necron Deathmark above Noxious Gearhulk? Well, it’s a mana cheaper and has flash. These benefits offer way more flexibility, but the real strength is the mill. You almost always want to mill yourself to fuel all those great graveyard strategies you’ve seen in black. This is often very close to 5-mana kill a thing, make a threat, and draw two or three cards.

#8. Illuminor Szeras

Illuminor Szeras turns a creature into a bunch of black mana, which is a fantastic exchange for black decks. You can sacrifice creatures with great ETBs like Necron Deathmark or Archon of Cruelty to reanimate or pitch cards that want to die like Dross Scorpion. Any card that produces a burst of mana is powerful, especially with many potential synergies.

#7. Tarrian’s Journal

Tarrian's Journal is a nice addition to reanimator decks. It allows you to discard a hand full of fatties then bring them back pretty quickly. It’s a pretty good card draw engine in black before transforming, allowing you to sac some little guys for value, although activating only as a sorcery is a pretty big drawback. There’s probably going to be something printed that’ll make this cave busted in future Magic sets, but I can’t think what it would look like.

#6. The Darkness Crystal

Considering that The Darkness Crystal is part Jet Medallion, the card has some playability. But you also get free graveyard hate, and paying 6 mana returns an exiled creature to your side of the board even stronger, mimicking what Whip of Erebos does in a certain way. You’ll play this for both the static and activated abilities.

#5. Anrakyr the Traveller

Cards that let you pay life instead of mana are always powerful. Anrakyr the Traveller needs to attack, but you’re rewarded with cards like Portal to Phyrexia and Bolas's Citadel for free. Since Anrakyr checks the graveyard, your opponents struggle to remove these threats, and you can tutor for them with cards like Entomb.

#4. The Grim Captain’s Locker

The Grim Captain's Locker does a pretty good impression of Underworld Breach. While it’s not as good as that, mainly due to the mana cost, it has some advantages over it, like escaping your expensive stuff from your ‘yard for only 4 mana. It’s different enough to be an interesting design, while still calling back mechanically to a busted card from a few years ago. This black artifact is a really sweet design, and one that shouldn’t be overlooked.

#3. Whip of Erebos

Whip of Erebos is the best black artifact for anybody reanimating creatures. You only get one shot at the creature since it gets exiled, but that’s a fair trade-off with haste and often enough when paired with something with great attack triggers like It That Betrays. Lifelink is also a relevant clause that makes it impossible for your opponents to win a race against this card.

#2. Wishclaw Talisman

Wishclaw Talisman has become one of my favorite Commander cards. A Demonic Tutor you donate to another player is a powerful effect that opens avenues for bargaining and deals. It’s also a great Cube card for combo decks betting on their ability to close the game in a single turn, or hoping that their best cards are better than their opponents'.

#1. Bolas’s Citadel

Bolas's Citadel, perhaps the best card that lets you play from the top of your library, is an incredible black artifact. Even putting the combos with Sensei's Divining Top and Aetherflux Reservoir aside, the value is obscene. You often pay 10 or more life to cast four or five spells, giving yourself a solid lead. It’s a premium option for decks trying to cheat artifacts into play with cards like Tinker and Goblin Engineer.

Best Black Artifact Payoffs

Of course, a lot of payoffs in black are already on the list proper, but there are plenty of cards in black that care about artifacts without being artifacts themselves! If you’re building a deck around black artifacts, you’ll want to pay attention to these cards.

Disciple of the Vault is a card that was once the scourge of Pauper in artifact decks until it was banned. It’s still not bad in other Magic formats, and it’s particularly good in black decks that regularly want to sacrifice artifacts. Marionette Apprentice is a Magic card that does Zulaport Cutthroat type things, but it also includes artifacts, which is huge! Not to mention it provides a second body/artifact itself. Agent of the Iron Throne is a step up from Disciple of the Vault because it counts creatures and hits every opponent.

In a similar vein, power up Marionette Master to maximize the benefits of sacrificing your artifacts.

If you’re struggling to get artifacts from the battlefield to the graveyard, look no further than Defiant Salvager. Unlimited sac outlets are great, and this is one of the better ones for artifacts. Not only does it trigger the cards mentioned above with ease, but it also grows itself nicely with +1/+1 counters along the way. Umbral Collar Zealot is a nice-statted 3/2 for 2 mana that also sends artifacts to the bin.

Braids, Arisen Nightmare lets you profit from sacrificing your black artifacts after they served their purpose, with the added benefit of forcing opponents to do the same, or you’ll draw some cards. Lich-Knights' Conquest allows you to mass sacrifice artifacts if needed, or if you have a loaded graveyard.

Wrap Up

Imotekh the Stormlord | Illustration by JB Casacop

What do you get when you pair one of the most broken card types in Magic with a color known for using life and its graveyard to cheat things into play? Tons and tons of value. Black’s recursive elements often make it hard for your opponents to interact with some of these pieces, while others go over the top of them.

Most black decks benefit from using these cards to cheat on mana costs and recur or cast powerful threats for free. What are your favorite black artifacts? Do you play Bolas's Citadel? Let me know in the comments or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay healthy and stay safe!