The 33 Best Red Artifacts in Magic Ranked

Last updated on September 18, 2023

Embercleave | Illustration by Joe Slucher

Red thrives in the realm of artifacts. It’s one of the best colors at putting them into play for cheap and for scrapping and salvaging them over and over for crazy value.

So let’s look at 33 of the best red artifacts in the game. This order reflects my opinions mixed with information on deck performance from all formats where these spells are played.  The top-ranking options tend to be excellent across various formats (including, but not limited to Commander) while lower-ranking options tend to find homes in fewer decks. If you’re looking for some of the best artifacts for your brews in Red, you’re in the right place.

Ready? Let’s go!

What Are Red Artifacts in MTG?

Bearded Axe | Illustration by Ovidio Cartagena

Artifacts are a permanent type in Magic that have all kinds of synergy across archetypes. To qualify, a card needs to meet two criteria: it's red, and it’s an artifact on at least one of its faces.

Red has some of the strongest artifact synergies in the game. Commanders like Daretti, Scrap Savant showcase their affinity for moving them between the battlefield and graveyard. The equipment subtype is also in its wheelhouse, specifically alongside white. A lot of what red wants comes down to aggression and attacking, so many of its top artifacts empower or reward taking risks and throwing your creatures around. Another major element of the color is Treasure. Artifacts that want to see other artifacts enter or leave the battlefield play great with red Commander staples like Dockside Extortionist and Goldspan Dragon.

#33. Blazing Sunsteel

Blazing Sunsteel starts out the list as a big payoff for damage-based interaction, pairing particularly well with effects like Chain Reaction and Blasphemous Act. Its equip cost is a bit steep, but if you’re in the “stop hitting yourself” archetype or if you’re a dedicated equipment deck that can cheat on costs, this can be a great fit for a big splashy damage option.

#32. Bearded Axe

Bearded Axe marries the themes of dwarf tribal with equipment and vehicle card types in a way I find beautifully thematic. This is a shoo-in for any deck looking to regularly cast Reckless Crew like Jor Kadeen, First Goldwarden because it makes you the dwarves and auto-equips this to one of them.

#31. Lavabrink Floodgates

Mana rocks that blow up on their own aren’t necessarily staples, but Lavabrink Floodgates is a blast to play with. It probably wants to be considered close to a board clear, and go in decks that want to keep creatures specifically off the board. It often feels like a rock you can tap once the turn you cast it and once in your next upkeep, after which it explodes to bring whoever’s board is scariest in line. Sometimes everyone won’t want a board clear, and democracy will leave it acting like a Sisay's Ring, which is an entirely reasonable card.

#30. Wand of Wonder

When you have a Wand of Wonder on the table, you feel good. It represents the best instant or sorcery on top of any of your opponent’s library for 4 mana, and sometimes you get extras should you roll well. Eight mana for a single activation is a lot more manageable when its split over two payments of four, and while it may not be the spikiest card on the planet, sometimes you’ll stumble into a Temporal Trespass and win the game out of nowhere.

#29. Dragonspark Reactor

If you’re here, you’re looking for red artifacts; Dragonspark Reactor is for you if you plan on getting a lot of artifacts. It plays particularly well in decks that dump tons of Clues and Treasures on the table to charge up a single blast to take a player out. With cards like Brass's Bounty and Ancient Copper Dragon alongside a Xorn this can easily shoot for 20+ damage in a single shot.

#28. Urabrask’s Forge

Red likes to spawn tokens to charge in and recklessly die. Urabrask's Forge plays with this perfectly. You want to have it on the table early or to have ways to ramp up the oil counters, but this little card can produce 5/1s or larger hasty trampling tokens you can sacrifice to Fling or Deadly Dispute for bonus value. Decks like Samut, Vizier of Naktamun can take advantage of its keywords while Lagomos, Hand of Hatred and other aristocrats want it for the creature to sacrifice each turn.

#27. Fiendlash

Fiendlash is similar to Blazing Sunsteel in its damage reflection but is cheaper to equip and can only hit players. Typically, that’s where you’re trying to put the damage. An indestructible Stuffy Doll with this equipped can result in knockouts out of nowhere with a Star of Extinction.

#26. Chandra’s Regulator

Red surprisingly has a good number of red planeswalkers that care about boosting up other red planeswalkers like Chandra, Acolyte of Flame, making the color appealing for superfriends decks. You can go in on that theme even harder with Chandra's Regulator. Even without a Chandra in play, it offers you repeated looting to get rid of mountains for better stuff. With a Chandra like Chandra, Hope's Beacon or Chandra, Awakened Inferno, you can go absolutely nuts.

#25. Reinforced Ronin

Reinforced Ronin does lots of little things many red decks care about. For one mana you have a once-a-turn artifact/creature cast, enters the battlefield, and leaves the battlefield trigger, which many decks care about. Paired with green this can draw you cards with The Great Henge and other staples. In just red, it plays great alongside cards like Terror of the Peaks and Warstorm Surge as a small amount of additional incidental value. If you don’t need any of those synergies, its channel is basically cycling.

#24. Hoard Hauler

Treasures are great, and people play a lot of artifacts. These two facts make Hoard Hauler have great amounts of potential when you can crew it. Trample makes pushing through damage a breeze, and when it connects it can generate boatloads of mana from non-green decks looking to make extra mana themselves. It gets bonus points in Depala, Pilot Exemplar as a vehicle that curves out after your commander!

#23. Combustible Gearhulk

The Gearhulk cycle all are pretty solid cards in their own right, and while Combustible Gearhulk isn’t the best of the cycle, it still can be a beating. Cards like Goblin Welder make its cost a lot less pressing of an issue after looting it away with something like Faithless Looting. And by pointing its trigger at the lowest health player, you’re getting better and better chances of getting three cards on a 6/6 first strike. That’s some value. This is a great option in decks running big artifacts and ways to cheat them in.

#22. Komainu Battle Armor

Reconfigure opens up flexible game plane for equipment decks, and Komainu Battle Armor shows this off well. You don’t want to pay its equip cost when you can help it, making it work better in decks like Bruenor Battlehammer. The damage trigger can be brutal; goading all creatures leads to a lot of damage getting thrown around. If you’ve ever witnessed a well-timed Disrupt Decorum, you’ll know just how powerful a mass goad can be, and this one is repeatable.

#21. Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind

Do you want to know what’s scarier than The Ur-Dragon? Giving an Ur-Dragon haste a turn early, which is exactly what Carnelian Orb of Dragonkind offers you. Haste is a powerful keyword that can help take games out of nowhere; having it on a mana rock is excellent. You want to be dedicated to dragons to consider this, but given how popular the creature type is, this card deserves a mention.

#20. Orb of Dragonkind

The power 1 mana makes really can’t be understated. Orb of Dragonkind costs one mana less than the Carnelian version. While it doesn’t offer your dragons haste, it does color fix for you alongside having a mode to sacrifice it to go digging for a dragon. Having a way to find more cards when you have enough mana is a major upside on rocks like Mind Stone. While not as ubiquitous because of the tribal limitation, this Orb is probably a bit better than Mind Stone in the decks that can use all of its abilities.

#19. Vulshok Factory

Vulshok Factory struggles to compete with the cheaper mana rock options. However, in decks that want to proliferate, like superfriends, having a potential massive body in the late game on your early ramp is great. That body has haste, too. Many tables fire off a board clear and feel safe, only to be reminded that your factory with 7 charge counters does more than just make mana. I’d recommend trying to play ample 1 mana ramp pieces to get this down as fast as possible. You really want at least a 5/5 or bigger from this for it to be worth it, but it’s floor isn’t that bad.

#18. Boots of Speed

Some commanders need haste. Boots of Speed gives haste for just two payments of 1 mana. Cards with attack triggers can rarely wait a rotation of the table and feel like they’re having a big impact on the game; getting your Combat Celebrant attacking the turn it comes down for cheap is critical. I’d consider running this alongside the iconic staples Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves if your entire strategy revolves around getting attack trigger-based creatures on the table and swinging.

#17. Rabbit Battery

Rabbit Battery does everything the speedy boots do, but it’s also a 1-mana creature with haste. The card type matters a lot for equipment decks that need both equipment and things to equip. Being both in a single package is excellent, especially with how critical haste is to decks that want to attack with equipment like Akiri, Fearless Voyager. It can be sacrificed as a creature or artifact for the archetypes that care about each respectively, and it’s an effect most attacking decks want.

#16. Glittering Stockpile

Glittering Stockpile is somewhat similar to the factory mentioned earlier, but crucially its payout is way better for more decks: more mana. You still want to play it early and get the counters on it proliferated up, but instead of a big dumb X/X with haste at the end of your journey, you can get a big burst of mana to fuel game-winning turns. Storm decks looking to ramp up into a splashy turn with a Storm-Kiln Artist can need every bit of mana they can get. A 3-mana rock that can produce 5-mana once can set you off chaining rituals and drawing cards to eventually blow up the world with a finishing X spell like Crackle with Power.

#15. Ruin Grinder

Ruin Grinder fits best in artifact-based strategies that want to cycle it early, fish it out with a Trash for Treasure, then sacrifice it again with a Krark-Clan Ironworks with a Scrap Trawler in play and pay a visit to value town. The draw/discard matches this archetypes gameplan beautifully, often giving you a way to get clunky, expensive artifacts stranded in your hand to the graveyard while drawing you up to a fresh seven.

#14. Hammer of Purphoros

We’ve already seen haste appear multiple times; Hammer of Purphoros gives the entire team haste. Fervor isn’t a card I’m crazy about, but Fervor isn’t an artifact. Artifacts have bonus synergies that discount cards with artifact affinity. Artifacts can be pulled out the graveyard way easier in red with effects like Scrap Mastery. Hammer can take advantage of these synergies while giving commanders like Osgir, the Reconstructor a way to tap the turn it comes out and its tokens haste to immediately attack.

#13. Two-Handed Axe

I’m a major proponent for commander damage; Two-Handed Axe can just spontaneously get somebody with a kill out of nowhere. An adventure that gives double strike is risky because if your target gets removed you lose the axe side as well. But sometimes you attack with an 11 power Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, hear no blocks, and end that player's game on the spot. On the battlefield, the axe plays great with other double strike effects because it doubles the damage being dealt differently. Normally, double strike is rough to run into multiple times, but if you already have something like Avatar of Slaughter out, this axe still adds a ton of power to your creatures.

#12. Goldhound

Goldhound is a humble common that sees cEDH play for good reason. Extra mana early can set you up for success. Getting as much mana on the table as fast as possible can give you a small window to win before anyone can stop you. While one extra mana once may not seem like a lot, in play it can help you achieve four mana or more on turn two, which can cascade in far more mana when people don’t have the resources to manage. It’s keywords also make it great at carrying equipment; I think more decks benefit from including it because it does a lot of small, useful things and comes out early.

#11. Hexplate Wallbreaker

Isshin, Two Heavens as One and Wulfgar of Icewind Dale both showcase the “attack triggers” archetype. Hexplate Wallbreaker gives you more combats for more shenanigans. Not only is this a great fit for decks that just want more combats, it comes with a token and is an equipment– two relevant abilities specific strategies want. Those strategies also tend to win through combat, making the extra combat on each of your turns brutal to deal with, as even a creature board wipe won’t remove the threat of double combats in the future.

#10. Battlemage’s Bracers

Battlemage's Bracers does a fair impression of Illusionist's Bracers. The costs are shuffled around a bit, and in exchange for having to pay for the ability copy, it grants the equipped creature haste. Commanders like Dynaheir, Invoker Adept and Feldon of the Third Path want as many ways to duplicate activated tap abilities as possible. One extra mana per activation is incredibly affordable. For the commanders that tap, this is an easy inclusion.

#9. The Reaver Cleaver

Treasures are here to stay, and The Reaver Cleaver is interested in giving you lots of them. It often can pay for itself with a single attack, sometimes two or threefold. The initial costs and risks of getting it into play and on something are the major hurdles holding it back, but in decks with Brass Squire or with commanders that can equip for free like Shagrat, Loot Bearer, this card is disgustingly powerful.

#8. Lizard Blades

They may not seem that scary, but Lizard Blades is the exact kind of card I want in my equipment decks. Like the little rabbit before it, these blades can carry equipment while being equipment. Double strike doubles the bonuses most equipment tends to give, and damage triggers also double up with this. Even beyond equipment decks, these blades make Fireshrieker look embarrassing, and plenty of decks want to give their stuff double strike for cheap. Why not do it with a creature for your creature-based bonuses that also is an equipment?

#7. Breya’s Apprentice

Breya's Apprentice has a lot going for it; it’s an artifact that comes with a Thopter friend, can sacrifice artifacts (which has value on its own), and can be a bit of extra damage, or more importantly, extra cards. It isn’t outwardly the most powerful card in the world, but a lot of artifact-based red decks find it an easy inclusion. It’sIts efficiency has even earned it a home in Legacy Painter.

#6. Twinshot Sniper

I’m honestly surprised just how much play Twinshot Sniper, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty’s Flametongue Kavu, sees in competitive Commander and other Eternal formats. It turns out having Shock attached to a 2-mana channel has a ton of upside and makes it an interesting option for decks like Modern Living End and Fires of Invention Pioneer lists. It’s flexible and answers a surprising amount of relevant utility creatures. And while it won’t be a perfect fit at every table, having a nearly uncounterable Shock on an artifact creature can be just what you need to shut down Tymna early or deal with that Oracle of Mul Daya before it gets further out of hand.

#5. Cursed Mirror

By far the best 3-mana red rock is Cursed Mirror. It enters and becomes a hasted copy of whatever the scariest thing on the battlefield is and copying any spooky enters the battlefield trigger. Sometimes you’ll just choose a  Wood Elves and go get a free Forest. Other times you can copy an Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and punch for a ton while annihilating the Ulamog player in spite. It has a high floor and an even higher ceiling.

#4. Slicer, Hired Muscle

Slicer, Hired Muscle has made a splash in cEDH as one of the most efficient methods of aggression the format has ever seen. It gets passed around the table, comes out as early as turn 1, and can wrack up easy damage on each player's turns. It pairs great with stax effects (which I’d recommend talking about in a rule 0 conversation if you want to play any version of this commander) to keep unfair decks from winning out of nowhere while you smash in with brutal damage turn after turn.

#3. Harnfel, Horn of Bounty

Birgi, God of Storytelling is a messed-up Magic card. Harnfel, Horn of Bounty is also a messed-up Magic card, and it’s the backside of the storm engine. It can turn every card in your hand into two temporary exile cards which is sometimes exactly what you need to get a bit more gas on one explosive turn to take over a game. In decks like Prosper, Tome-Bound or Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald, it generates value as you cast the exiled cards.

#2. Experimental Synthesizer

As a humble common, Experimental Synthesizer does what many other powerful commons do: it generates just a bit too much card advantage for its cost and thus is excellent. You don’t have to sacrifice it to its ability for the second card, making it work disgustingly well with cards like Deadly Dispute and Krark-Clan Ironworks. It has left a major impact on the Pauper format, and in Commander, it can be a close equivalent to Preordain and other cantrips with upside in decks that are able to pop it without needing to pay the 2 and a red for the samurai.

#1. Embercleave

Embercleave ends games. Usually, it comes in right before damage and turns a non-lethal attacker into a game-ending trample double-striker. Where most instant speed, typically 2 mana double strike tricks are temporary, this is an equipment that sticks around for many turns to come, and if unanswered, threatens to swiftly drop opponents like flies. Flash, +1/+1, double strike, trample, at instant speed, for just RR if you’re attacking with a measly four creatures. Early, you’re happy to just use it as a trick to eat a blocker, and late you’ll knock somebody out with commander damage accidentally.

Wrap Up

Harnfel, Horn of Bounty | Illustration by Eric Deschamps

These red artifacts are sure to pack a punch at your next FNM or game night. Heaters like Embercleave and Slicer, Hired Muscle are sure to become must-answer threats, while little value options like Experimental Synthesizer bring a bit more value and streamline your gameplans in classic commanders like Feldon and Daretti.

Whether you’re exploring Boros equipment or just want some extra goad goodness, picking up some of these artifacts will at minimum embolden your collection with trade pieces somebody will want for a deck they’re brewing. Some of the lower-ranked options need some help to fit perfectly into a list, like equip cost discounts or niche archetype support, but each and every artifact can majorly empower the decks it’d show up in.

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