Deck Archetype
Artifacts: The Commander Archetype, Explained
Artifacts are the only card type that every color can play, which makes this the one archetype where the commander picks the colors rather than the strategy doing it.
Artifacts: Built around a critical mass of artifacts and the payoffs that count them.
What Artifacts Decks Actually Do
Artifact decks assemble a critical mass of artifacts and run payoffs that count them, recur them, or turn them into something else. Because artifacts are colorless, the deck's actual engine (the mana rocks, the equipment, the cost reducers, the sacrifice loops) is available regardless of what is in the command zone.
In practice there are two lanes that share a lot of cards. Artifact aggro plays cheap artifacts and creatures that grow with the count, closing games quickly. Artifact value plays cost reducers and recursion, chaining artifacts into more artifacts until something in the pile is lethal. Both benefit from artifacts being the most re-buyable permanent type in the format: a graveyard full of them is a resource, not a loss.
The Artifacts engine
Three steps that feed each other, which is what makes it a deck rather than a pile of cards sharing a theme.
- 1 Play cheap artifacts Most cost one or two mana, and several cost none at all.
- 2 The next costs less Foundry Inspector takes a mana off everything that follows.
- 3 The count pays out Cranial Plating and Steel Overseer scale with how many you have.
Each artifact makes the rest of the deck cheaper and bigger.
Which Colors Fit Artifacts
The honest answer is that the artifacts themselves are colorless and the colors are chosen for what they add on top. Blue is the strongest partner. It has the best artifact-specific card advantage and the cheating-into-play effects. Red brings recursion and treasure, white brings equipment and mass recursion, black brings tutors and sacrifice payoffs, and green brings ramp and, unusually, the format's best artifact removal. Colorless is a real option: several strong commanders let a deck run no colors at all.
Top 10 Artifacts Cards
The cards that define the archetype rather than the ones winning this week. If you are building artifacts for the first time, these are the effects to understand before anything else.
Urza's Saga ↗
A land that makes a Construct scaling with your artifact count and then tutors a cheap artifact. Enormous value from a land slot.
Foundry Inspector ↗
Artifacts cost one less. Cost reduction is what turns a hand of artifacts into a single explosive turn.
Cranial Plating ↗
Plus one power per artifact you control, with a black-mana equip at instant speed. The archetype's classic one-hit kill.
Steel Overseer ↗
A counter on every artifact creature each turn. Slow to start and unbeatable if ignored for three turns.
Goblin Welder ↗
Swaps an artifact on the battlefield for one in a graveyard, free, every turn. Recursion and disruption at once.
Krark-Clan Ironworks ↗
Sacrifice any artifact for two mana. The engine behind most artifact combo loops in the format.
Mystic Forge ↗
Play artifacts off the top of your library. In a deck that is mostly artifacts, this is drawing several extra cards a turn.
Wurmcoil Engine ↗
Six-mana lifelink and deathtouch that leaves two tokens behind. The fair, unglamorous card that stabilises boards.
Scrap Trawler ↗
Returns a cheaper artifact whenever an artifact you control dies, chaining into itself across a sacrifice loop.
Unwinding Clock ↗
Untaps all your artifacts on every player's turn, turning tap abilities into four activations per round instead of one.
Top 10 Artifacts Commanders
Ten command zones that support the strategy, spread across the color combinations it lives in. The color identity shown is what each commander lets you play in the other 99.
Commander Spotlight
Urza, Lord High Artificer ↗
Taps artifacts for mana, makes a Construct on entry, and digs into your library. Arguably the strongest artifact commander printed.
Breya, Etherium Shaper ↗
Four colors, a free Thopter pair, and three modal abilities. The most flexible artifact command zone in the format.
Osgir, the Reconstructor ↗
Exiles artifacts from the graveyard to make two copies. Turns every dead artifact into two live ones.
Emry, Lurker of the Loch ↗
Self-mills and casts artifacts out of the graveyard each turn, at a cost that drops as your artifact count rises.
Sharuum the Hegemon ↗
Reanimates an artifact on entry, which with a clone effect is one of the oldest combos in Commander.
Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain ↗
Draws a card for every historic spell you cast. Card advantage that scales directly with artifact count.
Shorikai, Genesis Engine ↗
A vehicle commander that makes a Pilot and loots every turn without ever attacking.
Daretti, Scrap Savant ↗
A planeswalker commander whose whole kit is discarding artifacts and returning them, with an emblem finisher.
Arcum Dagsson ↗
Tutors any artifact from the library each turn by sacrificing an artifact creature. Ruthlessly consistent, and famously divisive.
Karn, Silver Golem ↗
Animates your noncreature artifacts, and being genuinely colorless lets the deck run every colorless land and artifact in the format.
What to Watch Out For
Artifact removal is the most commonly played removal in Commander after creature removal, and mass artifact destruction hits this deck harder than a board wipe hits most. Green and red both have one-sided sweepers for artifacts specifically. Spread your value across enough permanents that no single Vandalblast is a concession, and keep some recursion so the sweeper is a setback rather than an ending.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an artifact deck in Commander?
An artifact deck runs a high concentration of artifacts and cards that reward that count: cost reducers, creatures that grow with the number of artifacts, and engines that sacrifice and return them. Because artifacts are colorless, the strategy can be built in any color combination.
What is the best color for artifacts in MTG?
Blue, for the strongest artifact-specific card advantage and cheat-into-play effects. Red is close behind for graveyard recursion and Treasure. That said, artifact decks exist in every color, and colorless commanders like Karn, Silver Golem support a deck with no colors at all.
Are mana rocks part of the artifact archetype?
They overlap but are not the same thing. Almost every Commander deck plays mana rocks; an artifact deck plays them and also counts them, so a Sol Ring is both acceleration and a payoff trigger. A deck is only really the artifact archetype when cards care how many artifacts you control.
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