Artifacts are one of the cornerstones of Magic The Gathering's Commander format. While there are plenty of artifacts available in the game, a special kind of artifact exists: artifact creatures.
Artifact creatures still count as artifacts, but have power and toughness like regular creatures, and can block and attack as such. While they are more susceptible to removal, they also can take advantage of all the cards that benefit creatures. There are plenty of powerful artifact creatures, with many of them being one or even fewer colors, making them playable in a majority of decks regardless of color identity.
10 Solemn Simulacrum
Solemn Simulacrum is a staple of decks that can not run many ramp spells, usually ones that do not run green. When it enters the battlefield, you get any basic land onto the battlefield.
Solemn Simulacrum makes a nice blocker as well, as when it dies you can draw a card. You can even force this if you have a sacrifice outlet. It's colorless, allowing any deck to play it. Though it costs four mana, that's not a hard amount of mana to reach in Commander. It provides a hefty bit of advantage for being just one creature.
9 Silent Arbiter
Silent Arbiter is a unique artifact creature as it is a very good Stax piece. It prevents more than one creature from attacking or blocking each combat. It has a solid toughness as well, making Silent Arbiter a solid blocker as well to take advantage of its ability.
Silent Arbiter is a fantastic inclusion in Voltron decks, which want to load up on a creature with boost effects. This makes it so not only does Silent Arbiter hardly affect you, but ensures that the opponent won't put your main creature in danger by blocking with more than one creature.
8 Phyerxian Metamorph
Phyrexian Metamorph is a unique artifact creature in that rather than entering the battlefield as itself, it will enter as a copy of any creature on the battlefield. This isn't exclusive to your own, allowing you to get a copy of a powerful creature an opponent controls.
It even essentially only costs three mana, as the phyrexian mana lets you pay two life instead of a blue for it. It does make the copy into an artifact creature, but in the right deck, this is an even greater plus to an already powerful card.
7 Sen Triplets
Though Sen Triplets is a fantastic commander, if you're in Esper (white/blue/black) colors, you will want to be including Sen Triplets inside of it. It's one of the most popular Stax pieces, completely shutting off an opponent from playing during your turn. Not only that, you can even play cards out of their hand as if you owned them.
Sen Triplets is specific in the decks that can play it, but being able to ensure someone that can interact with you can't makes it a worthwhile inclusion outside of the command zone.
6 Ethersworn Canonist
Ethersworn Canonist is a card that shuts down anything but artifact spells. So long as it's on the battlefield, only one nonartifact spell can be cast. It only costs two mana to cast, allowing Ethersworn Canonist to hit the battlefield early to start affecting the board right away.
In the right deck, Ethersworn Canonist won't hurt you at all if you're playing a lot of artifact spells, including artifact creatures. The effect resets every turn, and that means it ensures you won't be having to have a counterspell war with another player.
5 Blightsteel Colossus
Blightsteel Colossus costs a hefty 12 mana to cast, but in decks that can easily cheat out big mana creatures, it's fantastic. It has an 11/11 statline, as well as having both trample and infect, which lets it take a player out with just one attack if they can't block ten of the damage.
Blightsteel Colossus when combined with cards with Ninjitsu makes for a terrifying situation. It even has indestructible, meaning only exile and bounce removal will work against it. If Blightsteel Colossus is ever put into the graveyard, it's simply put back into the deck, which in turn helps you from ever milling out your deck for certain combos.
4 Rug Of Smothering
Rug Of Smothering is a counter-card to just about any deck that is using combos. Commander has many ways to go infinite, allowing for games to end quickly by casting certain spells over and over again.
However, Rug Of Smothering helps to shut this down. Since the opponent loses a life for each spell they cast that turn, this can lead to a ton of burn damage really fast. Unless the combo is gaining life, odds are they aren't going to be able to complete it without burning themselves to a loss.
3 Spellskite
Spellskite is a fantastic artifact creature that forces it to be taken care of, less an opponent wants to lose out on an ability. For just two life (or one blue mana), you can change the target of any spell to Spellskite.
This is not once per turn, allowing it to be used repeatedly. It only costs two mana to cast, making it very easy to bring out. Since it lets you change the target or a spell or ability, creature-based combos can be completely shut out, or used as protection from a removal spell if you want a different creature to stick around.
2 Academy Manufactor
Academy Manufactor is a staple in all token decks. Whenever a Clue, Food, or Treasure token is made, one of each is made instead. All of these tokens are easy to make, allowing you to quickly flood the battlefield with them.
Many one mana spells will make at least one of those tokens, allowing you to make the rest. Since Treasure tokens are so useful, Academy Manufactor allows you to make more much easier. If you're playing a deck that wants as many tokens or artifacts on the battlefield as possible, Academy Manufactor is a must-include.
1 Esper Sentinel
Not only is Esper Sentinel the best artifact creature, but it is also one of the best white creatures for Commander in general. White can struggle with drawing cards, and that's something that Esper Sentinel helps out with.
Whenever a noncreature spell is cast, you can draw a card unless the caster pays mana equal to its power. Since Esper Sentinel only costs one white mana, you can play it on turn one, allowing you to start taking advantage of it early and getting a lead in card advantage. If you can grow Esper Sentinel's stats, it makes it even harder to pay for the tax, almost guaranteeing you'll be able to draw the card from its trigger.