The 50 Best Artifact Sac Outlets in Magic Ranked

Last updated on February 18, 2024

Breya, Etherium Shaper | Illustration by Clint Cearley

Clink! Clang! Beep Boop?

That’s the sound of artifacts whirring and buzzing as they make their way to your graveyard. Scrapyard, rather. Why exactly would they be on their way to the artifact afterlife? Vandalblast, sure. But perhaps they’re just being fed to some sacrifice outlet, scrapped for the greater good.

Today we’re wading through heaps of metal and machinery to hand-select the best artifact sacrifice outlets in Magic, the ones you’ll want for all your artifact-recycling needs.

Mind the loose rusty screws, will you?

What Are Artifact Sacrifice Outlets in MTG?

Oswald Fiddlebender | Illustration by Steven Belledin

In general, an “artifact sacrifice outlet” is any card that sacrifices an artifact, hopefully for a beneficial effect. As usual though, I’m going to be a bit more pedantic with my definition. I don’t just want sacrifice effects, I want sacrifice outlets, which in my opinion are effects that can sacrifice multiple permanents, either all at once or over time. One-shot spells like Deadly Dispute are great, but they won’t make this list for that reason.

I also want to highlight cards that have the express purpose of sacrificing artifacts, so I’m ignoring cards that just sacrifice any type of permanent without specifying what type. In other words, I want to see the words “sacrifice” and “artifact” somewhere in the card text.

My pickiness doesn’t end there. I’m looking for ways to sacrifice any artifact I control. I could have included cards like Retrofitter Foundry and Scarecrone, but didn’t since they aren’t really what people are looking for when they seek out artifact sac outlets.

Repeatable, specific, and universal. Those are my keywords for this list. Oh, and we’re focusing on Commander folks. It’s my area of expertise, and to be fair, the best artifact sac outlets in Constructed are also mostly well-represented in 100-card formats, too.

#50. Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist / Lucas, the Sharpshooter

Goad is a great tool for Commander, but having that be the payoff for a sacrifice effect on a card that doesn’t actually create any artifacts itself is a bit of a head-scratcher. Some of the other “friends forever” legends create artifact tokens, so I guess that’s the reason behind the design on Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist / Lucas, the Sharpshooter.

#49. Bosh, Iron Golem

Bosh, Iron Golem has a pretty attractive textbox, but that mana cost is hard to stomach in the 2020s. It’s a great target to cheat into play, but otherwise it’s a bit too cumbersome to consider.

#48. Clan Crafter

Quick mention for Clan Crafter. Backgrounds are customizable enough that they’re mostly all useful when paired with the right commander, though this one probably wants a partner that explicitly cares about or creates artifacts.

#47. Megatron, Tyrant / Megatron, Destructive Force

I hate the Transformers cards with a passion hot enough to just put Megatron, Tyrant on the list out of due diligence and move on with my life. Actually, I suppose Megatron, Destructive Force is the sac outlet, but let’s not linger.

#46. Flamewar, Brash Veteran / Flamewar, Streetwise Operative

Flamewar, Brash Veteran is much better than this position suggests, but it’s also a Transformers card so it’s exhausting to read and therefore gets a nod of recognition from me and nothing else. Flamewar, Streetwise Operative’s kind of a cool bike, I guess. Anyway, moving along.

#45. Molder Slug

I like Molder Slug in theory, but it’s much less effective in a meta filled with seemingly infinite Treasure generation. It’s also symmetrical, so it hinders your ability to develop with artifacts. Still, land this early enough and you’ll likely see it at least gobble up a few mana rocks.

#44. Grinding Station

Grinding Station’s usually a sign of something unfair happening, often in tandem with Emry, Lurker of the Loch. You can certainly use it fairly to just sacrifice artifacts and fill up your graveyard, though it’s a bit lacking as a once-per-turn effect in that regard.

#43. Kuldotha Forgemaster

Slower than a bike with no wheels, Kuldotha Forgemaster’s a former powerhouse that took a huge hit before the turn of the decade, when Magic really started speeding up. You basically need Lightning Greaves equipped or another haste effect to make use of Forgemaster, though it can obviously do some powerful things if it does get to activate its ability.

#42. Mondrak, Glory Dominus

Mondrak, Glory Dominus is actually a very powerful card, I’m just slotting it in low because it’s kind of obtuse to consider it an artifact sac outlet. I mean, it fits the description, but it's just that Mondrak sees extensive play because of how good it is as a token doubler. If you’ve got a deck that uses Mondrak expressly as a means to sacrifice artifacts, I’d love to see it!

#41. Senator Peacock

Mrs. Peacock from Clue, eh? Just roll with it I suppose. Senator Peacock doesn’t actually sacrifice artifacts; it turn your artifacts into clues that can then sacrifice themselves and draw cards. That’s a roundabout way of saying “sac an artifact to draw a card,” but I’m giving it points for ingenuity.

#40. Street Urchin + Makeshift Munitions

I waffled a bit on whether to include Street Urchin, Makeshift Munitions, or both. They’re functionally the same in many situations, so let’s just lump them together. Munitions is always active while it’s on board, but Street Urchin can be placed in the command zone. Pushes and pulls, advantages and disadvantages.

#39. Trading Post

I used to go to bat for Trading Post, but it’s showing its age. Cycling through a bunch of different modes makes it just as flexible as ever, but the upfront cost really hurts it. It’s still in business for the time being, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I close up shop sometime in the future.

#39. Arcbound Ravager

Former scrouge-of-Standard Arcbound Ravager is a free, instant-speed sac outlet for artifacts, though the payoff is pretty tame in Commander. It’s a lot like Carrion Feeder for artifacts; you use it as a sac outlet, but you’re not that interested in its onboard implications.

#38. Throne of Geth

Proliferating needs to be something useful before Throne of Geth becomes desirable. That’s not something that overlaps with sacrificing artifacts that well, but it’s a great way to bump up charge counters. You can always sac the Throne to itself if you don’t mind making Geth stand for a bit.

#37. Filigree Vector

All the same stipulations as Throne of Geth but with the set-up built in. Filigree Vector was custom-made to work with Incubator tokens, but there are plenty of other homes for it.

#36. Audacious Reshapers

Audacious Reshapers is basically Madcap Experiment repurposed as a tap ability. That means it’s repeatable, but it’s also affected by summoning sickness. It’s a bit of a juggling act too, since you might get lucky and flip something right away or dig deep and chop your life total in half. Best to save this one for the heavy artifact decks.

#35. Hedron Detonator

Hedron Detonator’s mostly used as a redundant copy of Reckless Fireweaver or Ingenious Artillerist, though worse than those cards since it only hits one opponent at a time. Still, the ability to cash in artifacts for impulse draws is nice added value to this type of card.

#34. Tawnos, Solemn Suvivor

I’m not reading all that again, so just trust me that Tawnos, Solemn Survivor is decent. “I’m happy for you though, or sorry that happened.”

#33. Dire Blunderbuss

Dire Blunderbuss is the crafted version of Dire Flail, which itself is just Bonesplitter with a color restriction. Transforming Blunderbuss isn’t free, but doing so rewards you with a pretty strong equipment, one that slings around other artifacts to start taking out opposing threats.

#32. Dockside Chef

Unimpressive, but inoffensive. Dockside Chef is cheap to cast and can sac itself if necessary. Otherwise, it’s just a completely average sac outlet for artifacts and creatures.

#31. Threefold Thunderhulk

Threefold Thunderhulk is more of a +1/+1 counter card than a sac outlet, but I wanted to touch on it. Cool take on Myr Battlesphere that creates its own fodder and spits out even more over time. Also, Gnomes.

#30. Thopter Foundry

There’s nothing wrong with Thopter Foundry as a way to sacrifice artifacts for value, but its main appeal is its combo potential with Sword of the Meek. That’s not an infinite combo, but it does create a Thopter and gain a life for every mana you’re able to pay.

#29. Fain, the Broker

Fain, the Broker has the same cyclical design as Trading Post where each mode fuels the next one in line. It’s squarely in the middle in terms of power, but turning spare Treasure and Blood tokens into 2/1 fliers isn’t half bad.

#28. Nyssa of Traken

I imagine Nyssa of Traken is pretty good, though I’m still testing the waters with the fairly fresh Doctor Who cards. Doctor’s companion gives it some added flexibility, and it’s a way to cash in Clues and Treasure without spending mana.

#27. Chronomancer

Chronomancer is kind of the quintessential artifact sac outlet. Not the strongest, but basically exactly what you’d expect from a card in this category. Sac an artifact, draw a card. Unearth is just bonus text, and not particularly useful here.

#26. Herald of Anguish

Much like Mondrak, Glory Dominus, Herald of Anguish is a much stronger card than others ranked above it, but the actual sacrifice effect is just middling. It’s the improvise plus discard effect stapled to a 5/5 flier that really makes it appealing for artifact decks.

#25. Bartolomé del Presidio

Bartolomé del Presidio from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is hopefully a promising sign of things to come. Free to use, sacrifices artifacts and creatures, and all at instant speed? It’s basically everything you can ask for on a sac outlet.

#24. Braids, Arisen Nightmare

Powerful card, though not one that necessarily specializes in artifacts. You can certainly use Braids, Arisen Nightmare as an artifact sac outlet, and to good effect, but it’s just a bit limited when you get to do that.

#23. Time Sieve

You’re usually either going infinite with Time Sieve or probably not playing it at all. It’s often seen with the usual suspects like Tivit, Seller of Secrets and Thopter Assembly, which make enough artifacts each turn to take infinite extra turns with Time Sieve.

#22. Laurine, the Diversion

I’m assuming you’re partnering Laurine, the Diversion with Kamber, the Plunderer, but Laurine’s pretty impressive as a solo act. A 3/3 first striker plays well on offense and defense, and sacrificing artifacts to goad creatures can get ugly. Plus, Laurine becomes a cantrip if you’re running Kamber in your 99 (and vice versa).

#21. Breya’s Apprentice

Don’t worry, we’re getting to Breya, but their apprentice is doing a stand-up job. Breya's Apprentice is a bread-and-butter card. Never the most powerful play in your deck, but never too disappointing to have around either.

#20. Ayara, Widow of the Realm / Ayara, Furnace Queen

Ayara, Widow of the Realm rewards you for sacrificing high mana value artifacts. That calls to mind cards like Spine of Ish Sah, though you can use this as a value engine with cheaper artifacts, too. You might not even want to transform into Ayara, Furnace Queen since that cuts you off of the sacrifice ability on the front.

#19. Arcum Dagsson

If sacrificing a Servo token to put Portal to Phyrexia into play sounds appealing, Arcum Dagsson can do that for you. You can also roll the dice and force an opponent to sacrifice an artifact creature; fingers crossed they don’t have something scary to search up.

#18. Lich-Knights’ Conquest

You might actually be able to tell me just how well Lich-Knights' Conquest has been performing. My guess is the sheer number of Food and Treasure decks out there make this card awesome, but I haven’t encountered it much thus far.

#17. Daretii, Scrap Savant

I used to think Daretti, Scrap Savant would top a list like this, but I’m pushing it down a bit. Still effective as a Goblin Welder in planeswalker form, but planeswalkers are harder to keep on board than they’ve ever been, so you have to get immediately value out of Daretti or risk losing it before it’s impacted the game.

#16. Goblin Welder

While we’re on the subject, Goblin Welder is one of the most straightforward ways to cheat a big artifact into play, assuming you can get the desired target to reanimate in the graveyard first. There’s some set-up involved, but the payoff is usually there, and Goblin Welder can even fiddle around with opponents’ artifacts depending on their setup.

#15. Broadside Bombardiers

The design on Broadside Bombardiers is intriguing. It’s an interesting use of the boast mechanic, and it can sacrifice artifacts or creatures. At the very least you can toss away an artifact token to deal 2 damage, and sometimes you’ll scrap something like a Meteor Golem to absolutely bludgeon something instead.

#14. Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast

Now that I’m thinking about it, the similarities between Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast and Grist, the Hunger Tide are kind of uncanny, except the whole static ability on Grist thing. At any rate, this Daretti can sac an artifact a turn to pop an important permanent while the +1 spits out more sac fodder. It’s a planeswalker with an immediate impact on the board, even if it’s attacked down the very next turn.

#13, Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter

Is this a Yu-Gi-Oh! card? Because Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter has a pendulum effect with its sacrifice abilities. One sacrifices creatures to make non-creatures while the other flips that script, with each one netting resources over time. You could also just focus on one ability and either ramp ahead or go wide, or just go infinite with a number of convoluted combo pieces.

#12. Bag of Devouring

I enjoy playing with Bag of Devouring, aside from the fact that it forces me to carry around a d10. Minor annoyance aside, it’s a sac outlet that eventually returns the sacrificed permanents to your hand, provided you’re sacrificing non-tokens and you roll high enough.

#11. Tarrian’s Journal / The Tomb of Aclazotz

Tarrian's Journal can’t be activated at instant speed, but it’s free to use on your turn. It’s debatable how often you’ll actually want to transform it into The Tomb of Aclazotz, especially if the sac outlet is important to keep around. Discarding your hand can be rough too, but ramp and a reanimation ability might be worth the cost.

#10. Keskit, the Flesh Sculptor

Generic partner is always going to bump a card high up on a ranked list. Keskit, the Flesh Sculptor can be played as a creature or artifact sac outlet (or some hybrid of the two), but give it enough fodder and Keskit ensures your hand stays stocked with cards.

#9. Oni-Cult Anvil

Oni-Cult Anvil isn’t as effective in Commander as some Constructed formats, but the incremental edges it provides add up over time. Lifegain and damage, token generation, and a sac outlet is a decent package of abilities for a 2-mana card.

#8. Oswald Fiddlebender

It’s my understanding that Oswald Fiddlebender is a cEDH-viable commander, but not being too familiar with the highly competitive side of Commander, I’m going to ignore that aspect of the card. Oswald Fiddlebender‘s plenty good in casual settings, turning value artifacts into a chain of progressively more powerful permanents, Birthing Pod style.

#7. Sai, Master Thopterist

Sai, Master Thopterist can engineer an entire army of 1/1 flying Thopters on its own, and that’s without even taking the sacrifice ability into account. I’d say there’s about a 25/75 split on how useful the sacrifice effect is versus the token generation, but it all comes together for a highly synergistic engine.

#6. Ruthless Technomancer

Throw that disco ball up and I too become something of a Ruthless Technomancer. Ahem. Anyway.

Technomancer can turn a creature into a massive pile of Treasure, which can either be used to ramp or filtered into the reanimation ability. And yes, it combos with any sac outlet and a Dockside Extortionist, but I’m really not looking to get on my Dockside soapbox today.

#5. Metalwork Colossus

If an artifact sac outlet is an essential part of your deck and not just a value include, I urge you to try out Metalwork Colossus. It’s a bit unique how it works since it activates from the graveyard, but that makes it a very difficult sac outlet to interact with. You can respond to its own sac effect by activating it again before it returns to your hand, which lets you sac any number of artifacts in multiples of two all at once. Also, sometimes it’s just a 0-mana 10/10.

#4. Gut, True Soul Zealot

Gut, True Soul Zealot’s another once-per-turn sacrifice outlet, but converting artifacts you don’t need into 4/1s with haste and menace is truly degenerate. The damage adds up incredibly fast, and you’re often sacrificing artifacts like Ichor Wellspring for value. And if Gut’s your commander, you get to pair it with a background of your choice, likely one that generates tokens for Gut.

#3. Breya, Etherium Shaper

Breya, Etherium Shaper is just as good as it’s ever been. You can pair Breya with one of several infinite combo engines, usually ones involving Nim Deathmantle, or you can play it the fair way by just slamming three bodies on board and using the activated abilities to threaten creatures and life totals.

#2. Osgir, the Reconstructor

Part artifact sac outlet, part artifact “reanimator”, Osgir, the Reconstructor takes a multi-faceted approach to Boros () artifact decks. It plays exceptionally well with cheerios like Lotus Petal, which get you to the amount of mana needed to start doubling up on some of your more powerful artifacts. Sacrificing a Wurmcoil Engine and then creating two additional copies sounds kinda nice, right?

#1. Krark-Clan Ironworks

Well, it’s Ashnod's Altar for artifacts. Not sure what else we expected at #1. Krark-Clan Ironworks is just as broken as its creature-sacrificing sister, and it features in just as many artifact-centered combos. The output might not seem as impressive if you’re using it without anything intentional in mind, but who’s running KCI as a fair card anyway?

Best Artifact Sacrifice Outlet Payoffs

Level one of sac outlet payoffs is finding cards that trigger when you sacrifice something or when a permanent dies/goes to the graveyard. Think Mayhem Devil, Marionette Master, or Ravenous Squirrel.

The next step up usually involves sacrificing artifacts for value, often tied with recursion effects to keep your engine rolling. Cards like Mephitic Draught and Mycosynth Wellspring provide value on the way in, then sit around waiting to be sacrificed for a bonus trigger. Sacrificing cards like this gives you the benefits of your sac outlet while providing card advantage.

Tons of artifact combos revolve around cards in your graveyard, with sac outlets like Krark-Clan Ironworks and Grinding Station facilitating loops with cheap artifacts like Myr Retriever and Lotus Petal.

Some Disassembly Required

Krark-Clan Ironworks | Illustration by Tim Hildebrandt

Well, I hope you enjoyed digging through this rusty scrapyard of artifacts with me. Might want to go get your tetanus shots updated sometime soon.

Artifact sac outlets aren’t hard to find, and they come in different styles and flavors, with different payoffs depending on the type and quantity of artifacts you’re looking to toss away. This is a pretty extensive list of cards, but there are plenty more out there. If I missed a sac outlet that caught your attention, let me know in the comments below or over in the Draftsim Discord.

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