Ten of My Favorite Commander Artifacts

Hey folks, I was on vacation for the past two weeks, so I got super-lazy and didn't write anything. Lo siento.

Well, this week I was going to write about one of my favorite Commander cards, but while tinkering with it I remembered that I have a lot of favorite Commander cards! So, I decided to make up a top ten list of my favorite artifacts to use in my favorite format! Yay? If you are not familiar with Magic: the Gathering's Commander format, find out more here: https://magic.wizards.com/en/content/commander-format

Most of this article assumes that you know all about it!

10 Platinum Angel

I got my first one of these in a tournament at the Magic 2010 pre-release and I pulled three mythics. I won one game while at -33 life and I have a bit of a soft spot for it now. In constructed formats, I have copied this with another card on this list (Prototype Portal) as well as Mirrorworks and couldn't lose the game because I could block all day and no one was packing board wipes. Portal evades even that most of the time by making the tokens after the wipe. Ah fun.

8 Ice Cauldron

When introduced to the myriad lines of text on this card back when I first started playing, I was a bit baffled and crinkled my nose at it. Since then, I have used it in my Malfegor demon commander deck and it has been a - dare I use the term? - godsend. The deck relies heavily on dumping creatures in the yard, via mass discard and resurrecting them with Living Death-type effects (L.D., Patriarch's Bidding, Living End, etc.). The Cauldron exiles a card from your hand, protecting it from discard, but also allows you to spend mana over two or more turns to cast spells in my case for those chubby lil demons that need extra mana-love to cast.

8 Mirror of Fate

It exiles your library!?! WHAT?!?! I know, but similar to Doomsday, it sets up your victory by giving you the next (up to) seven cards in the order that you need them. The drawback? You have to target up to seven face-up cards in exile that you own. That could be a tall order, but there are plenty of cards that exile your cards for you, including Manipulate Fate, Mystic Forge, Bag of Holding, etc. It also has some cool interactions with abilities like Flashback, Imprint, Delve, et al. For added mischief, cards like Alrund's Epiphany and Gonti's Aether Heart could lead to infinite turn shenanigans with artifact graveyard recursion (the Mirror goes to the graveyard and is not exiled when used). There could also be some weird red decks that use the "until your next turn" exile effects and/or maybe Saheeli Rai. The possibilities are...well...infinite?

7 Sundial of the Infinite

This mostly runs cover for opponents using EOT effects during another player's turn. They have to be a lot cagier about casting spells with this little toy on the table and I have taken advantage of many a slow-witted opponent by countering their card-draw spell or effect at the end of my turn. It is also used heavily with your own effects that exiles or sacrifices a permanent at your EOT. Being a one-of in a deck makes it harder to build around, but using Obeka as your commander makes it more consistent.

6 Semblance Anvil

I have found this to be an unusually helpful card as it drops the mana value of spells of the imprinted card's type, like when you exile an artifact creature, it lowers the generic cost for artifacts and creatures. Being colorless itself, it is especially effective in almost any deck where a majority of spells are two or higher mana value and a good percentage are artifact creatures (or even enchantment creatures!).

5 Prototype Portal

This one is fun when paired with low-cost artifacts that have interesting effects. For instance: Isochron Scepter! Two or three Scepters with different imprinted abilities are pretty useful. Being one-in-99 can be a problem though, so spread the artifact love a bit and think of copying Sol Ring, Expedition Map, or even Powerstone Shard! "What about Doubling Cube?" Like I've never done that...

4 Ingenuity Engine

This is one of my newer acquisitions, I thought, "seven mana?!?!" but in commander that is pretty much nothing and now there are piles and piles of treasures and clues that make this thing a beast. Pair it with a lot of impact six-cost spells and it is house.

3 Ring of Ma'rûf

Not many folks have one of these (I got mine in a $500 stack of Arabian Nights rares I bought from a guy I worked with back in 1996), but of late is relatively inexpensive for a reserved list card from Arabian Nights (in the $140-$160 range non-graded). In casual games it is fun to use to get something that is relevant, *or* to get something objectionable to your friends such as a banned card. A little expensive to use without help from the Mishra's Workshop, but still quite amusing to see the expressions on their faces when you go grab an Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars game made by Decipher and simply declare yourself the winner because...reasons. It says fetch a card from outside the game, it doesn't necessarily mean a Magic card! Set yourself some goals like Prototype Portalling it and grabbing all seven Dragonballs from Ani-Mayhem.

2 Skyship Weatherlight

Having trouble setting up some nifty artifact or creature goals? The Weatherlight is a colorless search engine! Plus, once the cards are all drawn from it, bounce or blink it to do it again! It also exiles face up cards so the olde Mirror of Fate can see and grab them. I use this in a Karn, Silver Golem commander deck as one of my four general search cards (Karn, the Great Creator, Ring of Ma'rûf, and Mangara's Tome being the others), but it works in almost any deck that runs creatures or artifacts, now it can even search for some lands (thanks MH2 for the bridges)!

1 Portcullis

I love this card because it almost shuts down token decks (in most cases), and absolutely punishes most creature-based decks. Being a player who plays few if any creatures most of the time, this and Aligned Hedron Network as well as a few scattered board wipes keep the creature population to a minimum. Other benefits are: 1) this is colorless and 2) Once it is out, if you spot remove opposing creatures and replace them with your creatures, it keeps opposing creatures (including most commanders!) from hitting the table. I use it in several decks because I usually have a way to get rid of it when it's time to crush faces and it helps keep me alive until then. Plus, man-lands avoid this interaction altogether!

Honorable Mention: Mangara's Tome

There are precious few colorless search engines and the Tome helps maintain consistency by doubling that number. Being a reserved list card doesn't hurt either. This is a card that fits in pretty much any deck, and ones that can draw multiple cards per turn could potentially benefit more for a while. The book helps you search your library for five cards that your opponent can't see, then randomizes them and only allows you to put them into your hand in lieu of a draw. Still not too bad. Skyship Weatherlight is a little more focused, but the variable number of cards and the tap to get the card could potentially be more useful. Personally I've found the Tome to be slightly less useful than the Skyship as I usually only search for two or three artifacts, to reduce randomization and the threat of removal.

You may have noticed that I didn't include any commanders in my list, it is because I wanted to focus on the funky supporting cast rather than the lynchpin of the decks. While choosing your commander (or general for the EDH players), it behooves you to select one that best utilizes the wild nature of these card choices.

I mentioned my Karn, Silver Golem commander deck which is colorless as you can guess. I will probably write about that and some of my other commander decks another time though.

I went over these cards as sort of an homage to the brilliant minds that have shaped this game over the years. Even with so many powerful cards pummeling formats, there are always a few that even the most experienced player has to go, “lemme read that card.” And you get to watch as he or she mouths the words as they read with a perplexed expression. I’ve been that guy, “I’ve seen that card, but I never read it before…”

Hopefully, I can stay productive and launch another story next week. Til then, try to keep cool.