Highlights

  • Losheel, Clockwork Scholar - Protect your artifact creatures and draw cards for each one you bring onto the battlefield.
  • Karn, Silver Golem - Turn noncreature artifacts into creatures for surprise attacks and blocks.
  • Alibou, Ancient Witness - Use artifact creatures aggressively, deal damage, and scry based on tapped artifacts.

Artifacts are an integral part of Magic: The Gathering, especially within the Commander format. Often providing static abilities and helpful utility in numerous fashions, artifacts are vital to keeping a Commander deck running smoothly.

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While you would be hard-pressed to find a Commander deck that does not run any artifacts at all, there are numerous commanders who incentivize you to run a significant amount of artifacts due to the synergies provided by their respective commanders. So, today we're going to delve into the strongest and most viable options you have to choose from when constructing an artifact-based Commander deck.

Updated on November 30, 2023 by Ryan Hay: Artifacts are one of the oldest archetypes in Magic and its never going to go away and has all the potential to get better with ever release. Some Commander decks are niche, working around a specific theme, or just an overall powerhouse packing all the strongest cards into a single deck. This time around the Myr commander Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch joins the list, along with the planeswalker hating Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender, as well as half of the Brother's War duo, Mishra, Eminent One.

29 Losheel, Clockwork Scholar

Keep Your Metal Automatons Safe

Losheel, Clockwork Scholar

A mono-white artifact commander, Losheel is a 2/4 for three mana that incentivizes the use of artifact creatures. Preventing all combat damage that would be dealt to artifact creatures under its owner’s control, Losheel decks can be quite aggressive with their artifact creatures with very little risk.

Additionally, Losheel notably comes along with card draw, allowing you to draw a card once per turn when an artifact creature enters the battlefield under your control for the first time each turn.

28 Karn, Silver Golem

Animate Your Own Army

Karn, Silver Golem

For those looking to build an artifact deck completely devoid of color, running nearly entirely artifacts, Karn, Silver Golem is a solid choice. One of the big appeals of Karn is that it allows you to utilize a significant number of great utility artifacts without needing to worry about including creatures within your deck.

This is because, for one mana, Karn can be used to convert one of your noncreature artifacts into a creature until the end of the turn, with that artifact's power and toughness being equal to its mana value. This means that, not only can each utility artifact at your disposal be used to attack your foes, but they can also be used to block, taking opponents by surprise and becoming creatures at instant speed.

27 Alibou, Ancient Witness

Artifacts Wait For No One

Alibou, Ancient Witness

Alibou, Ancient Witness is a Boros (red/white) commander that allows artifacts to be used in an aggressive manner, dealing direct damage to opponents and permanents while allowing artifacts creatures to be used with additional immediacy. A 4/5 Golem, Alibou provides all other artifact creatures you control with haste. This allows them to attack the turn in which they were played, and it also provides artifact-based mana dorks such as Myrs to be used the turn they were cast, significantly improving their value.

While haste is nice, Alibou states that, whenever you attack with one or more artifact creatures, you can deal X damage to any target and scry X where X is the number of tapped artifacts you control. Not only does this synergize well with mana rocks and other artifacts with activated abilities, but it simultaneously functions as damage-based removal, a means of closing out a game, and a means of digging through your deck for key cards.

26 Syr Ginger, The Meal Ender

No Planeswalker Is Safe

MTG: Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender card

Revenge corrupts the soul but in this case, Syr Ginger, The Meal Ender, will go to any lengths to take justice into her own hands. If any opponent has a planeswalker out, Syr Ginger gains trample, hexproof, and haste, which are all amazing keywords to throw on your commander, especially for one that only costs two mana. The downside, is that the poor little Syr Ginger is a fragile 3/1, sounds like someone forgot to chill the dough for a bit before baking.

You can even the odds a bit by giving Syr Ginger +1/+1 counters anytime an artifact you control goes into the graveyard, while also getting a scry trigger too. Throw a bunch of Treasure tokens into Syr Ginger and you have a brutal attacker that can rush down your opponents. Worst case scenario, if your opponents sneak out a removal spell aimed at Syr Ginger, you can sacrifice it like a Food Token to gain life equal to its power.

25 Sai, Master Thopterist

Generate Tons Of Value From The Command Zone

Sai, Master Thopterist

A straightforward option for a mono-blue artifact Commander, Sai Master Thopterist is a commander who converts artifacts cast into additional value through the creation of tokens. Whenever you cast an artifact, you create a flying 1/1 Thopter artifact creature token.

These tokens are quite useful and evasive due to their flying. They can accumulate damage over the course of the game and can also serve as blockers when needed. Additionally, when paired with cards such as Ashnod's Altar, these tokens can be cashed in for large sums of mana that can be used to cast important and impactful spells to help close out games.

24 Mishra, Eminent One

The Meek Stone Unleashed

Mishra, Eminent One card from mtg

The other side of The Brothers' War is Mishra, Eminent One, a cruel and powerful artificer who will go to any lengths to secure power for himself. This combat focused commander turns your perhaps normally passive artifacts into creatures, letting them use them to oppress your opponents.

Mishra makes tokens of a noncreature artifact you control on your combat step, turning it into a Mishra's Warform and giving it 4/4 stats and haste. That token only sticks around for the turn, sacrificing itself at the next end step, but does let you double up on all sorts of artifact cards with oppressive abilities.

23 Emry, Lurker Of The Loch

Broken Things Still Have Value

Emry, Lurker of the Loch

A unique artifact commander who utilizes the graveyard much more than her contemporaries, Emry, Lurker of the Loch can be tapped in order to let artifacts be cast from your graveyard. This synergizes with her ability that mills you four cards when she is cast, providing more artifacts to dig out of the graveyard.

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Additionally, Emry possesses the immensely useful capability of reducing her own mana cost by one mana for each artifact you control. As this ability also reduces Commander Tax, Emry will almost always be cast for a single blue mana. Emry's graveyard capabilities work well in conjunction with artifacts that can sacrifice themselves to gain a benefit, as Emry can repeatedly return these artifacts to play and accrue value.

22 Glissa, The Traitor

Death Becomes Value

Glissa, the Traitor

Similar to Emry, Glissa, the Traitor is a low costed commander who is capable of returning artifacts from your graveyard. However, while Emry returns artifacts by tapping, Glissa does so each time a creature controlled by an opponent dies. With the correct setups and deck construction, this can often allow Glissa decks to return numerous artifacts from the graveyard in a single turn rather than the more restricted approach found in the aforementioned Emry.

For extra flair, Glissa comes equipped with the potent combination of first strike and deathtouch, meaning she is very difficult to best in direct combat. This allows Glissa herself to serve as a consistent means to doing away with opponents' creatures.

21 Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter

The Machine Churns Out More And More

Jan Jansen, chaos crafter

Printed in Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur's Gate, Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter puts a unique spin on artifact commander decks, serving as a Mardu (black/red/white) option for the archetype and incorporating elements of aristocrats decks into the mix. A 3/3 Gnome Artificer with haste for three mana, Jan has two activated abilities, each of which manipulate your resources in different ways. On one hand, Jan Jansen can be tapped to sacrifice an artifact creature in order to create two treasure tokens. On the other hand, it can be tapped to sacrifice a noncreature artifact, then creating two 1/1 Construct tokens.

Always netting you one permanent, this creature synergizes in incredible fashion with artifacts that provide benefits when they leave the battlefield — such as Ichor Wellspring — and artifacts that can recover other artifacts from the graveyard — such as Myr Retriever. For those looking for an artifact commander that can flexibly shift your resources based on the current board state, Jan Jansen may be for you.

20 Daretti, Scrap Savant

A Planeswalker Who Knows The Value Of The Graveyard

Daretti, Scrap Savant Magic: The Gathering card overlaid over artwork.

Daretti, Scrap Savant is a commander capable of utilizing the graveyard and recurring artifacts. However, unlike other commanders that return artifacts to your hand, Daretti is capable of putting them into play at the cost of a sacrificed artifact.

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A planeswalker, Daretti possesses other useful abilities that help bring an artifact strategy together, such as the ability to discard unneeded cards to draw more options. Additionally, high-cost artifacts can be discarded this way and put directly into play by Daretti's previously mentioned ability.

19 Lita, Mechanical Engineer

A Seedborne Muse For Artifacts, What Could Go Wrong?

Lita, Mechanical Engineer card and art background

A great option for a mono-white artifact commander, Lita, Mechanical Engineer is an efficient card that allows each of your artifact creatures to provide an additional layer of value. A 3/3 with vigilance for three mana, Lita states that you untap each other artifact creature you control during your end step.

Though this can effectively provide each of your artifact creatures with a benefit comparable to vigilance, it more notably allows you to activate tap based activated abilities of artifact creatures twice per turn rather than just once. This allows already useful abilities such as that of Steel Overseer to be made all the more powerful.

18 Arcum Dagsson

Surprise! It's Exactly What I Need!

Arcum Dagsson

A consistent and useful tutor, Arcum Dagsson is able to sacrifice artifact creatures in order to search your library for any noncreature artifact and put that card directly into play.

This repeatable ability is incredibly powerful, as high cost artifacts such as Darksteel Forge can be accessed incredibly early in a game despite their high mana costs by sacrificing something as insignificant as a 1/1 Servo token.

17 Jhoira, Ageless Innovator

If Only There Was Some Way To Untap Her...

Jhoira, Ageless Innovator MTG

Jhoira is a great commander because, alongside being cheap herself, she allows you to cheat artifact cards into play for every turn she remains on the battlefield. This forces your opponents to expend their removal on Jhoira early in the game lest they see you unload a handful of artifacts onto the table.

Eventually, Jhoira will stick and begin to stack up those valuable ingenuity counters. If you happen to have an artifact in hand equal to the ingenuity counters Jhoira has on herself each turn, you can cheat out 12 mana worth of artifacts in less than a handful of turns. If that isn't great value, we don't know what is.

16 Urza, Prince Of Kroog

A Cunning And Sometimes Cruel Mind

Urza, Prince of Kroog

This version of Urza is ideal if you enjoy comboing off and creating infinite mana as well as infinite creature tokens. There are a couple of different cards that allow for this outcome, including Powerstone Shard, Thousand-Year Elixir, Myr Battlesphere, Ashnod's Altar, and more.

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Urza is also good for allowing additional triggers of enter the battlefield effects thank to his token fashioning ability. Lastly, the lord-like +2/+2 bonus Urza provides to artifact creatures incentivizes you to go as wide as possible. If you've ever wanted to stand at the head of your very own endless robot army, here's your chance.

15 Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter

Take Your Deck Up To 11

MTG - Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter

Though the vast majority of commander decks look to make use of colored mana, for those inclined to build a colorless artifact deck, Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter is a solid artifact commander that can offer both flexibility and offensive value. A legendary Thopter for three mana that has the added benefits of flash and flying, Liberator allows you to cast artifacts and colorless spells at instant speed, effectively serving as a Vedalken Orrery that is consistently available due to it living in your command zone.

Seeing as Vedalken Orrery is a Commander staple that allows you to reactively cast any of your spells when your opponents would least expect it, this is an excellent benefit that shouldn't be taken lightly.

Though granting instant speed to your entire deck is already a stellar boon, Liberator even gains +1/+1 counters as you cast larger spells over the course of a game. This ability pairs well with Liberator's flying keyword and means that it can serve as a solid offensive asset as well.

14 Shorikai, Genesis Engine

A Combo Machine

mtg shorikai, genesis engine full card and art background

Vehicles are a unique type of artifact that, while not creatures by default, can temporarily become creatures if their crew cost is paid. Shorikai, Genesis Engine is an impressive vehicle-based artifact commander that allows you to make the most out of vehicles whilst consistently digging through your deck. A Vehicle itself that totes a clause stating that it can be your commander, Shorikai's one mana activated ability allows you to draw two cards and discard a card, creating a 1/1 Pilot token in the process.

As these Pilots can crew vehicles as though they had a power of three, they can be a great resource that allows vehicles to be crewed with ease. Shorikai can reliably generate one of these tokens each turn, and they can even be converted into additional card draw or mana through the use of a Skullclamp or Ashnod's Altar respectively.

13 Oswald Fiddlebender

Birthing Pod But For Artifacts

Oswald Fiddlebender

Released as part of Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, Oswald Fiddlebender has shaped up to be an incredible commander option for artifact decks. A white creature for only two mana, for an additional one white mana, Oswald can be tapped to sacrifice an artifact.

When this is done, you search your library for an artifact with a mana value equal to that of the sacrificed artifact plus one, putting that card directly into play. This can reliably give you access to many of the strongest and most synergistic artifacts in your deck, even replacing artifact tokens with useful one mana artifacts like Sol Ring.

12 Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle

Whoops, Here's Your Deck

Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle

A severely underrated mono-white commander with a great deal of combo potential, Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle was released in the legend heavy set of Dominaria. A white 2/2 with flying for four mana, Teshar allows you to return any creature with a mana value of three or less to the battlefield whenever you cast a historic spell.

As historic spells include artifacts, the use of artifact creatures and cards that reduce the mana cost of artifacts allows for incredible combo potential. If you enjoy recursive lines and fielding cards from your graveyard, look no further than Teshar for your artifact commander.

11 Imotekh The Stormlord

The Fury Of The Necron

MTG Top 10 Warhammer 40k Commander Imotekh the Stormlord

Yet another source of infinite creature tokens, Imotekh brings a noticeable Warhammer flavor to your Commander deck. Imotekh has the distinction of being the best mono-black artifact commander despite being printed quite recently in the Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks.

While Imotekh's creature token ability might seem difficult to trigger upon first sight, black is the color for causing cards to leave your graveyard thanks to its bevy of reanimation effects. Although Imotekh's second ability looks pretty underwhelming all things considered, menace often ends up being much better than you might usually imagine, as it forces opponents to make awkward blocks or take decent chunks of damage.

10 Alela, Artful Provocateur

Turn Your Artifacts Into Two-For-Ones

mtg alela, artful provacateur full card and art background

Originally released as a commander of a Throne of Eldraine Brawl Deck, Alela is an excellent Esper (white/blue/black) artifacts commander who allows every artifact you cast to provide additional offensive value. A 2/3 for four mana with flying, deathtouch, and lifelink, Alela creates a 1/1 flying Faerie token whenever you cast an artifact or enchantment.

This commander even further weaponizes these tokens by providing all creatures you control with flying and an additional plus one power. If you're interested in a go-wide artifact strategy, you will have a tough time doing better than Alela, especially considering her access to three different colors of mana.