Magic: The Gathering – 32 Best Artifact Commanders

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 October 18, 2024, by Ryan Hay: You can't go wrong with a good artifact deck and three newer legendary creatures join the archetype with some powerful and diverse deck designs. You get the artifact creature master with Urza, Chief Artificer, the gargantuan The Capitoline Triad, who fuels historic synergies and encourages you to play massive artifacts, and then Imskir Iron-Eater keeps your artifacts going with a strong draw effect when it comes into play.

If you want some inspiration for your next deck, keep on reading about these strong artifact decks.

32 Losheel, Clockwork Scholar

Keep Your Metal Automatons Safe

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.

31 Karn, Silver Golem

Animate Your Own Army

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.

30 Alibou, Ancient Witness

Artifacts Wait For No One

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.

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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.

29 Syr Ginger, The Meal Ender

No Planeswalker Is Safe

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.

28 Sai, Master Thopterist

Generate Tons Of Value From The Command Zone

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.

27 Mishra, Eminent One

The Meek Stone Unleashed

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.

26 Emry, Lurker Of The Loch

Broken Things Still Have Value

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.

25 Glissa, The Traitor

Death Becomes Value

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.

24 Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter

The Machine Churns Out More And More

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.

23 Daretti, Scrap Savant

A Planeswalker Who Knows The Value Of The Graveyard

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.