Craft in MTG: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Pedro Furtado (djorso) November 7, 2023 Collecting, MTG Cards, MTG Rules

Last updated on January 30, 2024

The Enigma Jewel | Illustration by Martin de Diego Sádaba

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan just arrived, and it brought the mechanic craft alongside it. Craft is a really crazy and dense mechanic, with a lot going on. Whether you’re going to the set’s prerelease, or you’re playing Standard on MTG Arena, or even playing one of the set’s Commander precons, you’ll need to know everything that’s going on with craft.

Here’s all the tools you’ll need to craft your understanding of this mechanic, and we’re going through the rules and the best craft abilities out there. Let’s go!

Table of Contents show

How Does Craft Work?

Throne of the Grim Captain | Illustration by Tiffany Turrill

Craft is a mechanic present on double-faced artifacts. It’s like the transform cards from March of the Machine, in that they enter the battlefield with the front face up, and you’ll have to pay a cost to transform it into its more powerful back face. Also, many artifacts with craft do something when they enter the battlefield, and they transform into something more useful later like a strong vehicle, equipment, or artifact creature.

Each card requires different craft materials, as well as a different mana cost. For example, Idol of the Deep King has “craft with artifact ”. That means you can pay , exile it, and exile another artifact either from the battlefield or from your graveyard. When you do, The Idol returns to the battlefield transformed as Sovereign's Macuahuitl, a powerful equipment card. Some craft cards are even more demanding, be it on the mana cost or in craft material requirements. The Enigma Jewel costs only one mana to cast, but its craft cost is and it requires four other nonland permanents with activated abilities as craft materials. Sunbird Standard is a little different, as it requires “one or more” as craft materials. These are one or more permanents of any type, as explained in the reminder text.

As with all Transforming Double-Faced cards, we need to remind ourselves that the card’s characteristics – color, mana value, type – are what’s printed on the front face, and if the card leaves and returns to the battlefield, it returns on its front face. It only has the characteristics of the back face while it’s transformed on the battlefield.

The History of Craft in MTG

Craft debuted in 2023 in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, and is currently exclusive to that set and its associated Commander precon decks. Craft is found mainly in blue, white, and red, with a few cards in green and black, across all rarities. We have 24 craft designs within these sets, and all of them are Transforming Double-Faced cards and artifacts on the front face.

Is Craft a Triggered Ability?

It is not. Craft is not triggered by anything you do in-game. It’s an activated ability.

Is Craft an Activated Ability?

Yes. To craft you’ll need to have the craft card in play and all the required craft materials, and you’ll activate the craft ability by paying the required mana and exiling all the required materials.

Is Craft an Additional Cost?

No. Craft doesn’t affect the casting cost of the card, and it doesn’t need to be paid upfront. You’ll craft when the card is on the battlefield, and in this aspect it’s more similar to mechanics like transform or monstrosity than something like kicker.

Can You Use Tokens for Craft?

You can. Craft usually requires an artifact, but it doesn’t require it to be a nontoken artifact. So, if a card with craft requires an artifact on the battlefield to be exiled, it can be a token, such as a Treasure.

Can You Craft at Instant Speed?

No, you can only craft at sorcery speed. The rules are very clear in this matter.

Does Craft Target?

No, it doesn’t. Craft requires you to choose some permanents, but exiling the card and materials is part of the cost to craft and flip the card.

Can You Exile an Opponent’s Artifact in Response to Craft?

You can’t. Craft won’t allow you to respond since exiling the craft materials is a part of the activation cost. You’ll be able to exile the crafted card after craft resolves and the transformed permanent enters play.

What if You Flicker a Transformed Craft Card?

Flickering a transformed craft card will return it to the battlefield with its front face up. You can still craft it again and transform it on a later turn.

Can You Stifle Craft?

Yes. You can Stifle craft since it’s an activated ability. It will be a huge loss for your opponent since all the craft materials are going to be exiled, and your opponent won’t get to craft the card.

Gallery and List of Craft Cards

Best Craft Cards

#9. Tithing Blade / Consuming Sepulcher

People play Trial of Ambition in decks, and this is as good as or better. Tithing Blade is awesome, and barring synergies with Cartouches, I’d add it to decks that play Trial of Ambition or even replace them in Yorion, Sky Nomad blink decks. Tithing Blade turns into Consuming Sepulcher, which is like Ill-Gotten Inheritance. Add these two cards in a single one and we have edict/life drain in the same card slot. Oh, and it gets better in multiples.

#8. Altar of the Wretched / Wretched Bonemass

Altar of the Wretched is like a Blood Divination, allowing you to sacrifice a creature, draw some cards and mill. It works best with cards that have huge power like Yargle, Glutton of Urborg or even Yargle and Multani. You can then return the card from your graveyard to your hand, or craft it to become Wretched Bonemass which is a Soulflayer-like card. Pair this with white for better results, because you’ll then have access to cards like Boon-Bringer Valkyrie or Avacyn, Angel of Hope for more keywords.

#7. Eye of Ojer Taq / Apex Observatory

Eye of Ojer Taq is at the same time a mana rock that taps to add any color of mana and a way to cheat permanents into play. This can see play in decks that are artifact-heavy or superfriends decks, because after you craft it you can play a card of a given type for free each turn.

#6. Paleontologist’s Pick-Axe / Dinosaur Headdress

Paleontologist's Pick-Axe is a dream card for reanimator decks since you’ll equip a creature and start looting right away. Later, when you pay 5 mana to craft it, you can have a creature become a copy of the best creature in your graveyard.

#5. Unstable Glyphbridge / Sandswirl Wanderglyph

Our 5-mana wraths are artifacts now? Unstable Glyphbridge leaves behind only a creature with power 2 or less, and it’s very good in formats like EDH when you want to wrath the board and leave your small commander around. It also turns into a 5/3 flyer later so you can deliver the beats, and in control decks this card can be a wrath and wincon.

#4. Ore-Rich Stalactite / Cosmium Catalyst

Ore-Rich Stalactite is very strong in red decks aiming to cast instants and sorceries. Spellslinging and control decks will appreciate the extra ramp provided by this 2-mana artifact. The crafted side will not interest all decks, that’s for sure, but you’ll go that route then you’re aiming to cast big, powerful spells to copy like Magma Opus or Dance with Calamity.

#3. Dire Flail / Dire Blunderbuss

I can’t believe WotC finally made an almost strictly better Bonesplitter after all these years. Dire Flail should see plenty of play just for the frontside alone, and if you craft it, it becomes Dire Blunderbuss, an even better equipment. Equip a 4/4, which is now a 7/4, sacrifice an artifact, and deal 7 damage straight to someone’s face? Deal.

#2. The Enigma Jewel / Locus of Enlightenment

The Enigma Jewel is an activated ability build-around for only 1 mana, and it’s very easy to put into your decks and play. Lots of mechanics benefit from The Jewel, including Clue tokens, Food tokens, morph, transform, craft, and more. Commanders like Kenrith, the Reurned King or The Scarab God appreciate the extra mana too. The front side alone’s already good to include in many different decks, and in Standard alone there are already cards that care about activated abilities like Agatha's Soul Cauldron, so it looks like a great build-around card across formats.

#1. Tetzin, Gnome Champion / The Golden-Gear Colossus

Tetzin, Gnome Champion is the craft commander you’re looking for. You’ll mil lots of cards with it, which fuels your graveyard for crafting, gets some card advantage, and when you craft it, you’ll transform Double-Faced artifacts for free. That’s crazy good with difficult-to-craft cards or cards that are cheap but have high craft mana requirements. Also, original Ixalan and Innistrad sets have extremely powerful artifact cards to play with this commander, like Azor's Gateway, Primal Amulet, and Chalice of Life. It’s nice when commanders have open-ended abilities, and this one looks like a good one to build around and go crazy with craft cards.

Wrap Up

Idol of the Deep King | Illustration by Matteo Bassini

I like what I see in the craft mechanic very much, and I’m eager to play with it, both in Limited and Constructed. I believe the best way to evaluate craft card is to look at the front face and see if it’s already good and playable. The crafted side is icing on the cake, and against certain decks that are light on removal or in grindy matchups, crafting a card should give you the edge. Also, craft is open-ended enough to be reprinted in other sets, mainly Commander precons, and of course, that’ll depend on the mechanic’s popularity.

But that’s just me thinking out loud. What do you think about craft cards? Are they going to impact Standard and other Constructed formats, or will it be similar to other mechanics we don’t even remember? Please leave us a message in the comments section below or a tweet at our Draftsim Twitter. Thanks for reading folks, and let’s craft some artifacts!

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Pedro Furtado (djorso)

Pedro started playing Magic way back when in Fourth Edition. After a long hiatus, he now plays mostly MTG Arena Standard and Limited. His biggest MTG regret is trading a bunch of Force of Wills for Serra Angels.