The 49 Best Blue Artifacts in Magic Ranked

Last updated on August 29, 2025

Phyrexian Metamorph | Illustration by Jana Schirmer & Johannes Voss

Blue: the color of instants and ingenuity. It has some of the greatest artifact synergies in the game based on its love of knowledge and desire to conquer enemies with intellect in the form of complex, powerful, magical machines.

These are my picks for the best blue artifacts for Commander brewing, with some applications in other formats like Pioneer and Modern. If you’re in the market for some of the best of the best artifacts in blue, this one’s for you!

What Are Blue Artifacts in MTG?

Master Transmuter | Illustration by Chippy

To qualify as a blue artifact, a card needs to meet two criteria: It has a blue color identity, and it’s an artifact on at least one of its faces. In fact, blue has some of the best synergy with artifacts out of all colors.

Affinity for artifacts is a mechanic that blue decks use to great effect. It benefits you for having artifacts in play with staples like Thoughtcast making appearances across formats. Improvise is another mechanic that lets you use your artifacts to fuel mana costs, giving you plenty of ways to turn your trinkets into pseudo-mana sources. Blue also has some of the best artifact tutors in the game with options like Tinker, which packs so much power that it's banned in Legacy and Commander and restricted in Vintage.

Commanders like Urza, Chief Artificer and Sai, Master Thopterist bring tons of power to multiple formats with their tendancy to weaponize the cheapest artifacts for more value than is reasonable. Blue wants to cast artifacts, have buckets of them in play, and likes to “animate” them with cards like Rise and Shine, turning humble mana accelerants into 4/4s that can punch hard.

Some major cards to consider when looking at these are the mana value artifact Mages: Trinket Mage, Tribute Mage, Trophy Mage, Transit Mage, and Treasure Mage. These all come with an enters the battlefield trigger to go and find a specific mana value artifact. Any artifact with one of these mana values will be a bit easier to find if you want to get it consistently, making combo pieces particularly potent!

#49. Adaptive Training Post

If you’re playing a lot of instants and sorceries, Adaptive Training Post rewards you with charge counters. Hit three counters and you get to copy your next spell—perfect to double up on powerful draw spells like Ponder or removal like Reality Shift. It’s simple, but it builds toward explosive plays the longer it sticks around.

#48. Riverchurn Monument

Riverchurn Monument is a flexible milling tool that lets you nibble at everyone’s libraries or go big with its exhaust ability—milling each player for the number of cards already in their graveyard. It scales well as the game goes on and it pairs nicely with cards like Fractured Sanity or Maddening Cacophony to empty decks fast.

#47. Curie, Emergent Intelligence

Curie, Emergent Intelligence is a clever little robot that lets you draw cards equal to its base power every time it hits an opponent. That’s already nice, but it gets better—you can exile another nontoken artifact creature you control to make Curie a copy of it that keeps the card draw ability. Imagine if you copy something like Wurmcoil Engine or Steel Hellkite and then cash in on both combat damage and utility.

#46. Jetfire, Ingenious Scientist

Jetfire, Ingenious Scientist wants to be in a deck built entirely around artifacts with +1/+1 counters. This makes it an interesting commander but definitely leads it to struggle to find inclusions in other decks, as blue isn’t typically known for being a strong +1/+1 counter color. Anytime you can convert some element of a card repeatedly into mana you’re probably able to do some nuts stuff; Jetfire decks can take artifact discount effects and pair them with Stonecoil Serpent and self-bounce effects to combo off pretty easily.

#45. Deluxe Dragster

The only things holding Deluxe Dragster back from earning a higher slot on this list is its cost and lacking haste. Casting spells like Cultivate and Swords to Plowshares for free on a near-unblockable 4/3 can put you far ahead if left alone. Five mana is a bit pricey, but it can easily recoup its cost with just one or two attacks. Getting it to connect without haste can be tricky, though.

#44. Folio of Fancies

Mill isn’t always the most viable of Commander strategies. Folio of Fancies, however, has the potential to end games when paired with cards like Forced Fruition. It can easily mill 10-20 cards at a time, plus it acts as a place to put a ton of mana with effects like High Tide to get hands full on its own. It wants you to build towards it to make it as efficient as possible, but plenty of group hug decks want as many of these effects as they can get. The fact that it acts as a win condition as well is all upside to me.

#43. Robe of the Archmagi

We see a lot of cards like Concentrate that draw three cards for 4 mana.  Robe of the Archmagi can be a 4-mana way to draw three cards every turn so long as you have an evasive shaman, wizard, or warlock to stick it on. Burakos, Party Leader fits the description, making it an obvious possibility with a blue background. Balmor, Battlemage Captain is a cheap evasive wizard that can easily connect over and over, as is Adeliz, the Cinder Wind. If you can ever connect with this more than once and aren’t paying 4 to equip, it’s excellent, and these decks likely can make that happen.

#42. Spellskite

Spellskite is a classic blue control piece that lets you redirect spells and abilities to it: Just pay blue mana or 2 life. It doesn’t matter what the spell or ability was targeting, as long as Spellskite can legally be a new target. It’s amazing to protect your key pieces from removal or to mess with combat tricks. It fits into basically any blue deck as a form of soft protection.

#41. The Everflowing Well / The Myriad Pools

The Everflowing Well mills two and draws two on entry, which gives you value upfront. But if you meet the descend 8 condition (eight or more permanents in your graveyard), it flips into The Myriad Pools, a legendary land that adds blue mana and lets you copy permanent spells temporarily. Great synergy with graveyard decks or artifact piles that fill the yard quickly.

#40. Winged Boots

While they’re no Swiftfoot Boots, Winged Boots provide ward 4 and flying for just 1 to equip. This tends to pair best with cards that already have haste and are looking for protection and evasion. Pako, Arcane Retriever comes to mind as a hasty threat you want to be attacking with while keeping it out of danger. These boots suit the doggo up and get it safely into the skies to fly over blockers and start knocking players out.

#39. Mask of the Schemer

Cards that say “draw X” on them are very spooky; they represent tools to draw ludicrous numbers of cards. Mask of the Schemer is no exception. While conniving means you have to loot away however many cards you draw, this can still suit up a 9/9 to dig you nine cards deep. Even on just a 2/2 or 3/3, you’re looking at a lot of cards every turn with the mask. It can grow the target, making future hits loot even more cards, and it plays beautifully in decks like Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer that can take further advantage of the discarded cards.

#38. Sicarian Infiltrator

On its surface, Sicarian Infiltrator seems a bit expensive; a 3-mana 1/2 that draws a card isn’t making the biggest splash in the world. Squad takes this card and puts it close to Mulldrifter territory. It flexibly casts as a 3-, 5-, and 7-mana spell, all of which can trigger enters the battlefield effects. Paired with a Panharmonicon, you’re doubling each creature’s draw trigger.

Having multiple artifacts increases your total count for mechanics like affinity and lets you tap additional artifacts to improvise spells like Universal Surveillance. All of this comes together to make this Infiltrator do a lot of work in a variety of decks, as the squad mechanic has a ton of power baked into it.

#37. Imposter Mech

The best clones in Magic tend to be cheap. Imposter Mech costs just 2 mana, and it can enter as a copy of any creature an opponent controls. Sometimes, it being a vehicle even works in its favor as it helps you dodge sorcery-speed removal.

It can also just be a crew 3 version of an It That Betrays. Being limited to opponents' creatures makes it a bit of a “good stuff” card, but it has a high impact in many games and has a bit of extra synergy as a 2-mana artifact you can discount with Foundry Inspector or draw a card from with a Sram, Senior Edificer.

#36. The Temporal Anchor

The Temporal Anchor slots into any deck looking to scry often as a massive card draw engine. Six mana isn’t cheap, but when you're using Kenessos, Priest of Thassa to scry big fish to the top of your library, you get to keep whatever other cards you see with the Anchor. The only major limiting factor is needing to cast the spells on your turn, so if you’ve got counters you’d like to hold up on the other players’ turns, you’ll probably want to keep those on top.

#35. Corridor Monitor

Corridor Monitor is a combo piece, and not much else. In Prime Speaker Vannifar, it gives you a creature that costs 2 that untaps Vannifar when it comes in that can then be sacrificed to get your 3-mana creature that untaps Vannifar, and the chain continues. Jhoira, Ageless Innovator’s first tap can put this into play.

The Monitor untaps Jhoira, letting it tap again, this time being able to slam a 4-mana artifact into play, also potentially continuing the chain. This works for decks like Arcum Dagsson, Drafna, Founder of Lat-Nam, and any other artifact-based commander with a tap ability. If you can use the artifact or creature card type and want to untap something as much as possible, you should consider this little guy.

#34. The Key to the Vault

Equip The Key to the Vault to a creature and watch your deck explode with potential. When that creature connects, you get to look at a bunch of cards, exile one, and cast it for free. It’s like your own personal Etali, Primal Storm. Works great on evasive creatures and in decks that manipulate the top of the library.

#33. The Water Crystal

The Water Crystal is a dream for blue spellslingers. It makes all your blue spells cheaper and cranks up your opponents’ mill pain by adding four extra cards whenever they’re milled. On top of that, it can force a big mill burst equal to your hand size. Stick this in a control or mill-focused commander like Bruvac the Grandiloquent and enjoy drowning your enemies in cards.

#32. Blue Mage's Cane

Blue Mage's Cane is a quirky piece of equipment that comes with a body and turns any creature into a wizard with extra toughness and a spicy attack trigger. Whenever it swings, you get to exile an instant or sorcery from your opponent’s graveyard and copy it—then cast it for just . That’s a solid value play, especially in spell-heavy metas. Pair it with evasive creatures or something like Invisible Stalker for reliable triggers.

#31. Five Hundred Year Diary

Five Hundred Year Diary is an excellent payoff for having Clues around, and it’s a clue itself. This legendary artifact enters tapped, but it can generate a lot of mana in a single turn. Think of it as a tapped Hedron Archive that you can use to generate some mana and cash in for a card later.

#30. Subterranean Schooner

Subterranean Schooner saw a little play in small creature decks, like UR pirates in Standard. This vehicle is easy to crew by smaller creatures like Spyglass Siren or Goblin Tomb Raider. The best part of this card is that you get to explore with the creature that crewed it, which is a good way to overcome a major vehicle weakness.

#29. Research Thief

Research Thief takes the Coastal Piracy effect blue loves and marries it to artifact creatures on top of being on a 3/3 flying body with flash. On its own, you have a tool to hold up interaction on your opponents’ turns with something to do should you not need to fire off your Spell Swindle, and you’re left with a 3/3 flier that draws cards when it connects. Other times, you can flash this in after no blockers are declared for your three Thopters, getting a surprise three cards when they hit.

#28. Inkwell Leviathan

Shroud on a 7/11 trampler makes Inkwell Leviathan a sticky, chonky attacker. Despite its age, reanimator strategies still fall back on this difficult-to-interact-with beater for wins. It's a bit less threatening in Commander because it has a lot more life to beat through, but if you’re in the market for a big creature to cheat into play that has a decent chance of sticking around to attack for a few turns, Inkwell does that for you.

#27. Unctus, Grand Metatect

What makes Unctus, Grand Metatect such a powerful artifact is how it makes every blue creature you control become a looter whenever it taps. This combos with cards that untap and tools to make creatures tap for mana. For example, with a Leech Bonder equipped with a Paradise Mantle you can tap it for mana, loot, then pay for its untap with the mana it made. This lets you functionally loot through your entire library.

Even without these combos, when every attacking blue creature loots for you, you’re getting incredible card selection made even more valuable in discard or graveyard-based strategies.

#26. The Magic Mirror

Whereas The Great Henge and Embercleave see tons of Commander play, The Magic Mirror is far less popular. But it should get more love than it currently gets. Plenty of decks do a great job dumping instants and sorceries in the bin by casting or milling them, standouts including Kess, Dissident Mage and Vohar, Vodalian Desecrator.

These decks typically want as much action as they can get. The Mirror comes down in the mid-game and ramps up fast, often drawing your four or five cards a turn by the end of the game, and not usually running you more than 3-4 mana to get in play. Counter-modulating commanders (namely Chisei, Heart of Oceans) even have tools to get it to a number you want and keep it there for upkeep after upkeep.

#25. Witching Well

Witching Well’s strength is tied to the value that comes with it being a 1-mana artifact. Decks like Urza, Lord High Artificer want as many of these cheap artifacts as they can get to transform into Mox Sapphires.

The scry helps top deck manipulation effects or “top deck matters” effects like Mystic Forge and Future Sight. The extra scry and 4-mana draw two options put this 1-mana artifact over its Silver Raven counterpart. It’s easy to fish out with Scrap Trawler and Emry, Lurker of the Loch. It’s just a useful little artifact!

#24. Encroaching Mycosynth

Mycosynth Lattice has a pretty negative connotation that comes with it because normally its best use case is transforming your opponents’ lands into artifacts and pairing them with Karn, the Great Creator to prevent them from tapping for mana. Encroaching Mycosynth is a cheaper way to get a similar effect, but only applies to you. Commanders like Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy can build around this effect to produce comically large gremlins every turn. It doesn’t just slot into any blue artifact deck but has the kind of effect that can enable wacky loops to end games.

#23 Sharding Sphinx

Blue tends to be a bit weak on the game-ending effects, but Sharding Sphinx gives you a snowballing win condition in the air. It takes a while to build your Thopter army on its own, but with just two or three other attackers, over two or three turns you can create tons of pressure in the air that will bring games to a close.

#22. Mindlock Orb

Are you tired of people tutoring for their best cards to combo off? Are fetch lands out of your budget, and you want a way to punish them? May I introduce you to  Mindlock Orb, a simple 4-mana artifact that cuts off all library searching. It’s an artifact version of Ashiok, Dream Render. This kind of effect should be brought up prior to a game during a Rule 0 conversation because some decks (specifically land-based ramp decks) can’t function with it on the table. If your playgroup is cool with these kinds of effects, though, this orb can be a great tool to have access to.

#21. Esoteric Duplicator

Decks like Breya, Etherium Shaper or Mishra, Eminent One rely on sacrificing artifacts to get value, and you get even more value with Esoteric Duplicator. Paying 2 mana more each time you sacrifice an artifact to get a token is a good value proposition. This card works wonders with self-sacrificing tokens, and you can even make this blue card work with itself. Four mana, draw a card, get another one.

#20. Cryptic Coat

Cryptic Coat cloaks a card with protection and evasion, and you can repeat the process for 5 mana total. You get card advantage every turn by doing this; it’s like manifesting with buyback. It also gives unblockability, so this card is devastating when you hit a strong creature. And your opponent will think that it’s just a land before you flip it into something powerful.

#19. Mindlink Mech

Mindlink Mech has an interesting puzzle element to it; it wants to be crewed by creatures with a great damage trigger that can’t easily get in on their own. It also pairs well with cards that do something equal to their power on damage but have low power. Examples include Cold-Eyed Selkie and Cephalid Constable, both of which can come down after the Mech and immediately crew it and attack. Even crewing passive effects that you want more of at once like a Kami of Whispered Hopes can result in huge turns. Imagine crewing this with a Nyxbloom Ancient the turn you cast it!

#18. Ichormoon Gauntlet

Proliferate plus planeswalkers has been a tried-and-true strategy for superfriends decks to employ to get to game-ending ultimates. Ichormoon Gauntlet not only lets every one of your planeswalkers proliferate, increasing everyone’s loyalty, it also gives counters when you cast any non-creature spells. Some non-planeswalker decks that look to stack counters on a single creature, like Vadrik, Astral Archmage, might find the second half is enough to help you storm off and justify inclusion.

#17. The Blackstaff of Waterdeep

The Blackstaff of Waterdeep is a dirt-cheap way to transform any non-token artifacts you have on the table into threats. It's been relevant in Pioneer, and while not the perfect fit for many commanders, decks like Katsumasa, the Animator and Sydri, Galvanic Genius that want to transform rocks into creatures can have a blast with this efficient little legendary staff.

#16. K-9, Mark I

K-9, Mark I sees some play in EDH thanks to the doctor’s companion mechanic. Being able to let its time lord doctor partner attack consistently is very strong, and some doctor cards really want to attack often, like The War Doctor or The Fourteenth Doctor. Plus, you get to add blue to these commanders who don’t have access to the color. It’s also very cheap and versatile as a 1-mana commander.

#15. Crystal Skull, Isu Spyglass

Here’s your blue kind-of Mystic Forge, and it even generates blue mana. Crystal Skull, Isu Spyglass fits into so many decks, and it even allows you to play legendary lands from the top of your library, of which there are quite a few. But you’ll need some commitment on this one – like replacing an Island with a Minamo, School at Water's Edge, and so on.

#14. The Lunar Whale

With The Lunar Whale, you get a flying vehicle that lets you peek at the top of your library anytime. Even better, if it attacks, you can play that top card—great for pseudo-card draw in blue. Crew 1 makes it easy to use, and it plays really well with cards that manipulate the top of your deck like Sensei's Divining Top or Mystic Speculation.

#13. Simulacrum Synthesizer

Simulacrum Synthesizer made some waves in Standard artifact decks, and even in other formats. It’s hard to deal with an artifact that makes other artifacts as you keep playing them, especially in best-of-one matches, or against mono-black, that doesn’t deal with them at all. This card makes “Karnstructs” and works in any blue/x artifact deck.

#12. Mindsplice Apparatus

Flash takes Mindsplice Apparatus from a slow, clunky discount effect to a flexible mana accelerant I’m eager to play in most of my Izzet decks. If you’re already playing Goblin Electromancer, a 4-mana version of it that isn’t on a body has a lot of value on its own. What’s more, you don’t have to forgo holding up interaction for possible problems down the road, nor do you need to risk sorcery-speed interaction to destroy it before it can even get in play. Flash is a powerful keyword, especially in blue, and this Apparatus takes full advantage of it in archetypes that love playing instants.

#11. Master Transmuter

Master Transmuter is usually a kill-on-sight kind of creature. If you get to untap with it, you could sneak any giant 10-mana or more artifact into play for just a blue mana. On top of that, if it has haste or is just no longer summoning sick, one blue mana protects it from most interaction because it can return itself as part of its activated ability’s cost. If you want to play scary win conditions like Blightsteel Colossus, this card is a great tool to cheat them in.

#10. Master of Etherium

Master of Etherium has a rich history in Constructed formats where its lord effect paired with its massive size made it a huge threat for cheap. Commander decks built to produce cheap artifacts can make it comically large. Blue also has no problem giving their team evasion with cards like Wonder to help get it through chump blocks, too. If you’re already playing cards like Hangarback Walker and Arcbound Ravager, Master of Etherium can likely put in work for your deck.

#9. Bident of Thassa

Four mana is a great rate for a mass card draw effect, which is exactly what Bident of Thassa can be in the right lists. If you’re already attacking with evasive, cheap creatures, this is an extra tool to pay off those attacks. Its tap ability shouldn’t be understated either because it paves the way for less evasive creatures by reducing potential blockers, resulting in even more cards!

#8. Cyberdrive Awakener

You'll need to eventually convert all these blue artifacts into a win. That’s where Cyberdrive Awakener comes into play. It transforms all your noncreature artifacts into 4/4s with flying. That includes every Treasure, Clue, Food, and mana rock. With the right kind of artifact support, this is usually transforming four or five artifacts into 4/4s for an easy 20 damage in the air out of nowhere. If your opponents don’t account for it, you can steal a lot of games out of nowhere by just building up some dinky little baubles before transforming them into an army in the blink of an eye.

#7. Etherium Sculptor

Artifacts being predominately colorless makes their discount effects particularly busted when put together with little 1-mana colorless artifacts alongside draw triggers. Etherium Sculptor gives you this while also being an artifact that can synergize with all the artifact synergies we’ve talked about so far. You definitely want most of your deck to be artifacts to justify playing this, or have other built-in combos in mind to include it, but in the decks where it's powerful, Etherium Sculptor enables insanely early wins.

#6. Torrential Gearhulk

Torrential Gearhulk shines brightly in Eternal formats like Pioneer as a Snapcaster Mage that doesn’t have to pay to flashback the spell. This card gets even better in Commander, where the instants are even bigger. Flash makes it easy to pull out of nowhere while holding up interaction or other instant speed effects. When your 5/6 body comes with a free Cryptic Command stapled to it I’m very happy, and even more so if it’s a Sublime Epiphany or Discontinuity.

#5. Kappa Cannoneer

Commander cards have a history of making big splashes in Legacy; Kappa Cannoneer is one such example. Improvise makes it incredibly easy to cast. It comes with built-in protection and is usually completely unblockable. With almost no effort, this incidentally chunks people for 7 or more.

In Commander, a format where you’re able to use Bootleggers' Stash to dump 12 Treasures onto the battlefield pretty easily, this turtle starts halving people’s life totals from 40 as early as turns 5 or 6. If anyone wants to stop it, they’re usually paying an extra 4 mana to try. Add commanders like Sai, Master Thopterist or Breya, Etherium Shaper who like producing lots of artifact tokens and you’ve got a recipe for turtle-based destruction.

#4. The Reality Chip

The Reality Chip takes a card I have a ton of fondness for, Future Sight, and improves it further by giving you a way to split up the costs of getting it into play. It's a powerful combo piece alongside Sensei's Divining Top and one of the many artifact spell discounters (like Etherium Sculptor). Decks that care about what’s on top of their library find casting it incredibly easy. Most decks with blue could put this in if they’ve got any creatures laying around and find it’s providing great value for its cost. The Reality Chip is cheap, flexible, and powerful, all contributing to a glowing recommendation.

#3. Midnight Clock

Midnight Clock was the first big 3-mana rock outside of Coalition Relic and Worn Powerstone to make a major impact on the Commander format. It turns out that having a Timetwister on a mana-producing artifact is great in lots of decks. You typically get three rotations of the table to plan for the wheel, letting you get the most out of each and every card in your hand and leading it to act as both mana and card advantage in a convenient, flavorful package.

#2. Thought Monitor

Affinity for artifacts has been a mechanic that’s warped formats since its printing. Thought Monitor, for some reason, needed to exist to make the archetype even stronger in Modern. In Commander, you’re usually paying just for it with your artifact lands and a handful of mana rocks. Its mana cost is usually an upside for cards like Scrap Trawler, and it loves to be brought in and out of the battlefield with blink effects.

#1. Phyrexian Metamorph

Where Thought Monitor is one of the best artifacts for the artifact archetype, Phyrexian Metamorph transcends archetypes as a blue staple. Three mana and 2 life to copy an artifact or creature is a rate too good for many decks to pass up.

It can copy your creatures and artifacts, making it great in decks with powerful engine pieces you want multiples of, but can also copy your opponents’ stuff that you’d like on your side of the board. This is probably one of, if not the best clone effect in the game, and can find its way into any deck and perform well in most Commander pods.

Best Blue Artifact Payoffs

There are a few standout blue cards that shine as artifact payoffs and deserve a mention. Kappa Cannoneer is a powerhouse in any artifact-heavy deck thanks to an improvise ability that helps you to cast it faster, a ward ability that makes it hard to remove, and a triggered ability that gives it +1/+1 counters and unblockability every time an artifact enters. It grows fast and hits hard—basically a finisher wrapped in turtle armor.

Emissary Escort may look unassuming with its 0/4 stats, but it gets stronger the bigger your other artifacts are. In a deck full of beefy or high mana value artifacts, this little robot can turn into a real beatstick for just 2 mana. Plus, it’s a solid blocker early on if you need time to set up.

Then there’s Edgar, King of Figaro, who rewards you for going wide with artifacts by drawing you a bunch of cards when it enters the battlefield. On top of that, its unique coin flip ability guarantees your first flip is a win each turn, which opens the door to fun synergies with cards like Krark's Thumb.

Repurposing Bay acts like a mini artifact tutor chain. You can trade up your board by sacrificing an artifact and grabbing another one with a slightly higher mana value straight to the battlefield. It’s not flashy, but in decks built around toolbox effects or value artifacts, this can quietly set up game-winning plays.

Wrap Up

Midnight Clock | Illustration by Alexander Forssberg

From card advantage to cheating on mana costs, these blue artifacts can do it all. While they tend to shine brightest in dedicated artifact decks, many have plenty of opportunity to make big splashes in blue decks across a wide range of strategies.

Hopefully, these artifacts can help you make some spicy brews that will shake up the table. Lower your curve by adding in a Moonsnare Prototype, or beef up a spellslinger deck’s power with Mindsplice Apparatus!

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Have a great day, and good luck brewing with these excellent artifacts!