Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Card Elements and Roles 2a. Cockroach Cards 2b. Gorilla Cards 2c. Pigeon Cards 2d. Rattlesnake Cards 2e. Spider Cards 2f. Plankton Cards 2g. Combinations 3. Colour-Hosers and Alternate Wins 4. Artifacts and Various Colours 5. Land and Artifact Mana Sources 6. Synergy and Strategy 7. Sample Decklists 8. Multiplayer Artifacts You Need To Own 9. Dealing With Artifact Pwnage 10. Conclusion
1. Introduction
Artifacts were always intended to be universal tools in the game of Magic, able to be added to virtually any deck you choose. Have you got a multiplayer deck? If you do (and if you're reading this, the odds are high!), you've got room for artifacts in it. So once we step into the multiplayer realm, how do we know what makes a good artifact inclusion for a deck? Let's explore!
Thanks to Mirrodin block, Scars block, and the Esper shard of the Shards block, it is nowadays entirely possible to build a competitive artifact-based multiplayer deck. Along with discussing the best artifact cards available, this guide will give you some artifact-based multiplayer strategies to befuddle your playgroup with.
This guide doesn't include Eldrazi or Karn Liberated . Yes, they're colourless. Yes, they're awesome fun. No, they're not artifacts. I'll leave them for someone who wants to write the Guide to Multiplayer Colourless.
2. Card Elements and Roles
Okay, so obviously, there are piles and piles of artifacts (as of time of writing this, try 1254 on for size)! To break these up, let's stick to Anthony Alonghi's method of referring to a card's function, as we've seen in other guides, and mention the better ones under each grouping.
2a. Cockroach Cards
Like cockroaches in real-life, Cockroach cards are hard to kill. Just when you think you've got rid of them, they're back again, annoying you once more. In terms of Magic, we're looking for things here that are hard to kill or recurse well.
We can break this down further into four categories: Hard To Kill Am I impossible to get off the table. Or even indestructible? Spoiler:Show
Darksteel Plate . Makes any old creature unpiffable. Etched Champion . Protection from all colours = how am I meant to kill this thing, again? Karn, Silver Golem . A defensive house, with an excellent repeatable ability. Myr Servitor . Not again! Make them go away! Scarecrone . Artifact recursion and card draw in one. Play two, and they'll be in play for eternity.
Constant Do I have a continuous effect? Spoiler:Show
Ankh of Mishra . Extremely annoying to play against (and with, unless you plan for it). Blood Clock / Umbilicus . Sensational next to Warped Devotion, full of combo goodness. Bottled Cloister . Interesting repeatable card draw. Is good with Ensnaring Bridge. Caltrops . Constant creature damage on attack. Good with Tamanoa. Chalice of the Void : Shuts down all spells of a given CC. Gets even better in multiplayer. Cloud Key . Makes stuff more cheaper. Crawlspace . Lock-down defense that makes people look elsewhere. Often makes opponents swing at each other, rather than you. Ensnaring Bridge . Locks the game up. Great in creatureless decks, and with hand-emptiers like Grafted Skullcap. Etherium Sculptor . The rest of your artifacts made cheaper. Ethersworn Canonist . Nonartifact lockdown for the rest of the board. says "I'm suddenly unpopular"! Fluctuator . Spawned an entire broken Living Death deck with cycling creatures. Grafted Skullcap . Extra cards, combos well with Ensnaring Bridge and Null Brooch. Iron Maiden . A Black Vise for all your opponents (not an 80s metal band). Krark's Thumb . It's silly, but it's effective. Four Fiery Gambits in a row FTW! Lodestone Golem . Four of these, four Sculpting Steels, a lot of opponents who want to punch you in the face. Meekstone . Fatty lockdown. Great with Icy Manipulator and friends. Mesmeric Orb . Let's mill everyone at once! Mindlock Orb . Good lockdown card, shuts the game down next to Maralen of the Mornsong. Noetic Scales . Unexpectedly good creature control, especially in discard decks. Null Rod . Vintage/Legacy-level ability lockdown. Painter's Servant . Broken with Grindstone. Useful in plenty of other ways, too. Phyrexian Metamorph . A fantastic alt-Clone that has no end of uses. Pithing Needle . Targeted lockdown is good tourney sideboard material. Multiplayer? Who knows. Portcullis . Locks the game's creature base while it's out. Has to be dealt with. Psychogenic Probe . Decks have been built around this effect, with surprisingly good results. Sculpting Steel . More people = more artifacts = more targets to copy. Skullcage . Puts the clamps on your opponents' hands. Smokestack . Has always been good. Now I want to partner it with It That Betrays. Thrumming Stone . The card adored by Relentless Rats decks. Trinisphere . It's always been painful to play against. Multiplayer just spreads the love further. Wheel of Torture . Black Vise for everyone. Winter Orb . Land lockdown for the table. Still unfun to play against after 15 years!
Repeatable Can I keep activating multiple times? This includes equipment, which can obviously be re-equipped on multiple creatures, especially after the initial one dies. Spoiler:Show
Altar of Dementia . Wins the game if left alone. Turns your creatures into rattlesnakes as the game goes on. Ashnod's Altar . A combo piece for so many infinite combos that we've lost count. Birthing Pod . An interesting repeatabale creature tutor that is still being broken in new ways. Citanul Flute . The gold standard of creature tutors when it comes to artifacts. It's fetching the best creature out of your deck every turn if you have the mana. Crystal Ball . And it is one! Dragon Arch . Creature-sneaking for gold cards. Loved by the Invasion/Planar Chaos dragons. Grindstone . Was just annoying. Until they printed Painter's Servant. Isochron Scepter . Has spawned decks. Very very good, though not much fun with Orim's Chant imprinted! Kill Switch . Excellent control, but not for an all-artifact deck! Krark-Clan Ironworks . Another combo-enabling mana source. Kusari-Gama . When it's equipping something big, it forces your opponent to roll the dice. Lightning Greaves . Exceptionally versatile, and annoyingly hard to stop. Liquimetal Coating . So simple, and yet the cornerpiece of so many potential combos. Mimic Vat . Still being broken in new and exciting ways. Recursable with things like Gravedigger. Mirari . Brutal in an MBC deck with Corrupts flying about. Mirrorworks . Oh the Johnny possibilities! Sundering Titan... artifact land... keep going! Mystic Compass . Cheap and completely inocuous. Can colour-screw an opponent, enables landwalk, especially with Elvish Champion. Panoptic Mirror . Why do people only ever want to imprint Time Stretch? Soulscour is much more fun! Phyrexian Altar . Sacrifice outlet that produces coloured mana. Planar Portal . Got ? You've got the best card in your deck. Each turn. Proteus Staff . Produces some entertaining game situations. Can turn your weenies into bombs. Prototype Portal . Insane with artifact lands imprinted. The possibilities are endless. Quicksilver Amulet . Creature-sneaker of the highest order. Rings of Brighthearth . A very good combo-enabler. Loved by guys with good activated abilities. Scroll Rack . Possibly the best library manipulator of the bunch. Sensei's Divining Top . Fetchable by Trinket Mage. Great with Counterbalance. Skullclamp . Exceptional card draw, usable over and over. Soul Foundry . Your bomb creature, recopied every turn. Staff of Domination . Utility, thy name is Staff of Domination. Steel Overseer . Triskelion loves his new friend. Swiftfoot Boots . The new hexproof Greaves. Lets you throw more equipment on top where Das Boots couldn't! Sword of Body and Mind , War and Peace , Feast and Famine , Fire and Ice , and Light and Shadow . They're all good in their own ways, and they're all repeatably beefing things. Tangle Wire . Excellent lockdown control, especially when you can bounce it. Nasty with proliferate. Temporal Aperture . An underrated permanent-sneaker. Thopter Foundry . Creature generator that loves being next to Sword of the Meek. Thousand-Year Elixir . Creature haster that elves love. Umezawa's Jitte . And you thought it was just bonkers in tourneys. Voltaic Key . There's hardly a limit on what it can untap. Well of Lost Dreams . Excellent card draw in a deck with life gain. Whispersilk Cloak . Repeatable shroud and unblockability for your nastiest creature? Hmm... Zuran Orb . Still excellent situational lifegain after all this time.
Recursive Can I keep coming back over and over? Do I help other things recurse? Or am I a good recursion target? Spoiler:Show
Blasting Station . Give me the creatures, I give you infinite damage. Clone Shell . Basically a 2/2 that usually replaces itself with something better when it dies. People are probably still discovering the best combos with this guy. Cloudstone Curio . The poster child for janky recursive combos. Limited only by your imagination. Crucible of Worlds . Makes your lands recursive. Broken with Terramorphic Expanse, among others. Deathrender . Recursable with several creatures, and probably capable of producing infinite combos. Elixir of Immortality . Deck recursion and lifegain rolled into one beautiful card. Makes Feldon's Cane look like n00b fodder. Esperzoa . Best friend of artifacts with enter-the-battlefield abilities. Grinding Station . Give me the artifacts, and I'll do the milling. Junk Diver . Get two and a sacrifice outlet, and stand back. Myr Galvanizer . Two of these, a mana myr, maybe a Viridian Longbow... good times. Myr Propagator . Exponential Myr, particularly next to its friend the Galvanizer. Myr Reservoir . Recurses your dead Myr and then recasts them for you. Nim Deathmantle . The more I play this, the more combos stick in my head. Makes your creatures hard to remove. Infinite combo with Composite Golem. Salvaging Station . Re-use all those cool things Trinket Mage fetched for us. Scythe of the Wretched . Put it on a creature that deals blanket damage, and get out of the way. Sharuum the Hegemon . And if there are two... Skull of Orm . Still one of the few enchantment returners, and still useful. Sphinx Summoner . Excellent target for Master Transmuter and other recursers. Summoning Station . Infinite Pincher token combos abound. Sword of the Meek . Was pretty good, and then they printed Thopter Foundry.
2b. Gorilla Cards
Gorilla cards, as the name suggests, are the big, dumb facesmashers. The ones you lay on the table, and then pump your fist and scream "FTW!" - opponents are either dealing with them straight away or their time on this earth is limited.
Arcbound Overseer . Loves proliferate, too! Arcbound Ravager . Helloooo Raffinity. While obviously not quite as good in multiplayer, Ravager still makes an awesome beatstick in the right deck. Bosh, Iron Golem . A creature that comes with its own sound effect. : BOSH! Eater of Days . If you can survive the two turns, you'll have fun. Or if you drop Torpor Orb first. Filigree Angel . It's a 4/4 flier, and it usually gives you a pile of life in the process. Fun with Master Transmuter. Leveler . Well, you're either swinging now, or you're playing Endless Whispers or Torpor Orb. It's not rocket science! Lodestone Myr . Death by Myrtrample. Magister Sphinx . It's a flying beatstick, and it handles that lifegain player in the corner before it's even swung. Master of Etherium . The lord for artifact creatures. Myr Battlesphere . Katamari Damacy for the win! Phyrexian Dreadnought . The card that made Stifle worth $10+. Psychosis Crawler . Nothing is subtle about hating on an entire MP table everytime you draw a card! Razormane Masticore . It's probably the worst Masticore. And even then, it's a 5/5 for that can remove threats (i.e. it's darn good). Reaper King . Hi! I'm playing Scarecrows! All your permanents will be leaving now! Sen Triplets . Straight up neuters people. Much more viable in multiplayer, but will be an obvious threat. Sharding Sphinx . A fat, flying beatstick that generates a following of thopters. Sensational in multiples.
Door of Destinies . A fixed Coat of Arms that only affects you (and is therefore a true gorilla). Engineered Explosives . Almost targeted colourless removal. A legacy and vintage staple. Eternity Vessel . Already obviously good. Nasty with proliferate or Energy Chamber. Goblin Cannon / Rocket Launcher . The damage is limited only by the size of your mana pool. Helm , Shield , and Sword of Kaldra . Each alone is good. Together, they're bats. Jester's Cap . Remove an opponent's three biggest threats. Jester's Mask . Target opponent wants a new hand. Jester's Scepter . Badly disrupts one player. The bane of a Relentless Rats deck. Legacy Weapon . There are few sweeter words on an artifact than "Exile target permanent". Magistrate's Scepter . Four turns for the price of three! Mindslaver . OK, done. Can I recurse it now? Nevinyrral's Disk . The classic reset, especially in black or red decks. Unstoppable next to Darksteel Forge. Oblivion Stone . An interesting take on the Disk. And an excellent budget reset. Orochi Hatchery . When X=20, your opponents know what's happening next. Oh, and it uses charge counters. Phyrexian Processor . Again, when X=20, your opponents know what's happening next! Plague Boiler . Another interesting Disk variant that you can try and set yourself up with. In-colour with Glissa, the Traitor. Platinum Angel . And it flies, too. Platinum Emperion . Great, so long as you're not playing the $10 fetch lands! Powder Keg . A slow-to-ramp reset. Ratchet Bomb . A better, easier-to-cast Powder Keg. Scourglass . A Disk variant that you can work to your advantage. Snake Basket . I've made 200+ snakes before. How about you? Worldslayer . Let's find ways of resetting the board over and over and over!
2c. Pigeon Cards
In real life, pigeons are fed better when there are more people around. They naturally flock to places where there are heaps of people with heaps of food. Likewise, Pigeon cards like hitting up the nine-player free-for-alls. These are usually the obvious "good in multiplayer" cards, benefiting from there being multiple opponents. Spoiler:Show
Beast of Burden . Is phat in multiplayer. Bonehoard . Potentially huge with the extra graveyards it has in MP. Great with mill. Brass Herald . Affects all creatures of the chosen type, so is sensational in 2HG or Emperor with everyone playing the same tribe. And good card draw to boot. Fellwar Stone . The more opponents there are, the more likely it is to tap for any colour. Mind's Eye . By far the best artifact card drawer for multiplayer. Up there with Rhystic Study. Paradise Plume . Life gainer in the league of Soul Warden in multiplayer. Sun Droplet . Once you get into the multiplayer arena, this makes you almost unkillable. One of the best pigeon artifacts.
2d. Rattlesnake Cards
We all know the famous "Don't tread on me" rattlesnake. Rattlesnake cards work in the same way - they say "Stay away, I'm dangerous" to your opponents. Spoiler:Show
Aether Spellbomb . Fetchable by Trinket Mage. Recursable with Academy Ruins. Card draw. Bounce. Combo. Combo. Combo. Basilisk Collar . Nothing says "keep away" like deathtouch. Everything else makes the Collar gold. Brittle Effigy . I've got and an itchy tapping finger... don't make me do it! Dispeller's Capsule . Rattlesnake artifact and enchantment removal. Fetchable with Trinket Mage. Executioner's Capsule . As per Dispeller's, for creatures. Farsight Mask . Hurt me and I get cards. Helm of Possession . Once again, the threat of theft. Null Brooch . Forces your opponents to stall. Especially good with Grafted Skullcap. Predator, Flagship . Underrated creature remover that also makes your guys evasive. Pyrite Spellbomb . The red damage version of Aether Spellbomb, and just as good. Quietus Spike . Nothing says "block me" like "I'll halve your life if you don't". Snow Fortress . A criminally underrated wall that can take out attackers before it even needs to block. Sunstone . A long-forgotten repeatable fog. Tidehollow Strix . Flying and deathtouch = good defense. Triskelion . Already a good deterrent, before you start putting it next to things like Immaculate Magistrate.
2e. Spider Cards
Spider cards spin a pretty web for your opponents, and then let them fly into it. They make your opponents pay for their uninformed decisions. Usually, these take the form of instants, so there aren't too many artifacts that fall into this category. Spoiler:Show
Darksteel Sentinel . The Sentinel's flash makes it produce some awkward blocks for your opponent, and gives you a solid body afterwards. Grifter's Blade . It's a small surprise, but it's still a surprise.
2f. Plankton Cards
Ah, plankton. Where would whales be without it? Likewise, we can't have a whale of a time without Plankton cards - cards that allow everyone to feed off them or gain benefit. These are the cards that make you everybody's friend (at least until you start swinging at them). Spoiler:Show
Anvil of Bogardan . At least no-one cares until you drop a Megrim. Blinkmoth Urn . Along the lines of Mana Flare. Free mana for all. Just make sure you get the most! Extraplanar Lens . Mana Flare for a given land. Font of Mythos . Cards! Cards! Cards! Gate to the Aether . Another of those "everyone plays stuff for free" cards. Gauntlet of Might . A red player's best friend. Gauntlet of Power . A *insert colour here* player's best friend! Genesis Chamber . Everyone gets a Myr! Heartstone . Usually Sliver Queen's best friend, but benefits everyone. Wish they'd reprint it. Helm of Awakening . Making everyone's stuff cheaper since 1996. Horn of Greed . Cards for the table. Someone needs to put this in a landfall deck! Horn of Plenty . Cards for all. Howling Mine . Cards for all. Infinite Hourglass . It's utterly bonkers, and it turns the game on its head. Konda's Banner . One or two of your opponents suddenly like that legendary guy a whole lot more. Memory Jar . At least it helps everyone until you drop a Megrim. Mycosynth Lattice . Who cares what colour your lands are now? Just have fun until I drop Memnarch! Tangleroot . Green mana for everyone. Just make sure you're the one playing elves. Teferi's Puzzle Box . Lets everyone cycle through their decks, for better or worse! Temple Bell . A new variant on Howling Mine.
2g. Combinations
Often, cards can be a combination of the above categories. In reality, a lot of the very best cards are going to be those that serve a dual purpose. So a lot of the bomb artifacts you want are going to be in this list, achieving two very separate purposes for you at the same time. Spoiler:Show
Cockroach/Gorilla: I'm big, dumb, and I just hang around! This includes hard-to-kill gorillas, continuous effects that win the game, and bomb equipment. Spoiler:Show
Akroma's Memorial . Let's see... if you can't rid of this in the next couple of turns, every single one of my creatures turns into Akroma? Yeeeaaah... Argentum Armor : Watch me! If the creature I've equipped attacks, I can piff it! And I'm still around after that! Behemoth Sledge . Essentially a repeatable Armadillo Cloak. Nothing subtle about that! Blightsteel Colossus . Indestructible and kills in one swing. Can we ask anything more? Cranial Plating . Repeatable house-maker in an artifact deck. Darksteel Colossus . The prototype indestructible gorilla. Currently out of Standard, but still getting snapped up by casual players like the hero it is. Darksteel Forge . An "FTW" for artifact decks. This + Mycosynth Lattice + Memnarch = a slow drawn-out death for all of your opponents, one by one. Darksteel Juggernaut . Almost as good as a Colossus. If only it had trample! Eldrazi Monument . All my creatures indestructible, you say? Glassdust Hulk . Surprisingly big, repeatably unblockable, and you can cycle it to boot. Goblin Charbelcher . People have built decks that allow this to go off for lethal. Over and over. Inkwell Leviathan . An untargetable facesmasher. Fun to drop with Quest for Ula's Temple. Loxodon Warhammer . The N00bstick, so named because any ol' n00b can smash face with it over and over. Lux Cannon . Subtle, it is not. Repeatable, it certainly is. Mage Slayer . You're probably putting it on another gorilla, too. Like Charnelhoard Wurm. Masticore . Legendarily good. Regeneration makes it harder to kill, and you know it's going to sweep your board eventually. Memnarch . He's going to take your stuff, and yet he's big enough to leave a dent still. Molten-Tail Masticore . Is it as good as the original? You be the judge. It's close. Mycosynth Golem . Accelerates your deck, and is still a respectable body in itself. Sphinx of the Steel Wind . Has taken Darksteel Colossus's throne as best artifact finisher. Extremely hard to kill, is a big flying body, and has the adorable combination of vigilance and lifelink.
Erratic Portal . Use it on your opponent's creatures when they tap out, or on your own if there's benefits involved. Forcefield . It's old, expensive, and a threat of complete lockdown to your opponents. Gorgon Flail . Inexpensive, cheap to cast, and frightens people off over and over. Grafted Exoskeleton . As above, minus the cheap to cast bit! Grim Poppet . Adores proliferate, underrated creature removal. Icy Manipulator . One of the originals in this category. Excellent control. Kuldotha Forgemaster . No-one's broken this yet, but I suspect it's due. Its ability has the potential to be very good in multiplayer environments. Spine of Ish Sah . Recurses and sits in your hand, threatening to take the next big threat on the table. Who cares if it costs ? It's repeatable colourless removal! Stuffy Doll . Impossible to kill, last thing you want blocking your gorilla.
Cockroach/Spider: You just fell for the trap! Again! Spoiler:Show
Cryptic Gateway . Tribal creature-sneaker that works instantly. Raging fun with Dragons and other fat tribes. Master Transmuter . I've seen it swap a thopter token for a Darksteel Colossus. In response to an attack. Repeatable recursion, saves itself too. Vedalken Orrery . Turns every nonland card of yours into a potential trap.
Cockroach/Plankton: I'm repeatable, and everyone loves it! Spoiler:Show
Contagion Clasp : Throw those -1/-1 counters around. Well, your opponents at least have a chance of enjoying what you proliferate. Contagion Engine : The Clasp, squared.
Gorilla/Pigeon: I'm big, dumb, and I love having people around! Spoiler:Show
Arcbound Crusher . Sure, he's little when he comes out. But if you're playing him, you're playing him in an artifact deck, and he's getting big fast. And he loves other people playing artifacts too. Sphinx Sovereign . It's already a flying monster. When it nails everyone for three life at end of turn? That's just gold. Sundering Titan . Not only is it huge, it's also less likely to be taking your own lands in this environment. And then there's Master Transmuter...
Gorilla/Rattlesnake: I'm big, dumb and frightening! Spoiler:Show
Chimeric Mass . Becomes the beatstick you want on command, and can get very, very big. Ethersworn Adjudicator . Sits and threatens, and people forget it also happens to be a 4/4 flier. Magma Mine . It's amazing how you get ignored once it's past four counters or so. Steel Hellkite . It's massive, flying and pumpable. And if I let it through, it's taking a bunch of my permanents with it? Time Bomb . As per Magma Mine, makes you invisible once it gets a decent number of counters. Triskelavus . It's a 4/4 flier already. And then it starts behaving like a Triskelion. Or a Tetravus. Wurmcoil Engine . Fat, deathtouching, and reproduces on death. Now I want to recurse it!
Gorilla/Plankton: I'm big and dumb, and everyone loves me! Spoiler:Show
Coat of Arms . I've now got ten 10/10s! Hang on... what did it give you? Oh...
Pigeon/Rattlesnake: I'm scary and I'm bothering the whole table! Spoiler:Show
Norn's Annex . The new gold standard in multiplayer defense. Has the potential to completely shut out non-white decks and token decks from attack. Nullstone Gargoyle . Forces the whole table to stall. And given it's a 4/5 flier to boot, that can be handy. Thought Prison . Stall and pain for the whole table if you choose well.
Pigeon/Plankton: I'm affecting the whole table, and I like having more people around. Spoiler:Show
Storm Cauldron . Well, they love the "two lands a turn" bit. They're probably not so keen on the rest. Infinite with Fastbond and Glacial Chasm. Can stall the board.
Rattlesnake/Spider: I'm scary, and I trap people. Spoiler:Show
Sunforger . When you pay , people know it's going to be bad. They just have no idea how bad.
3. Colour-Hosers and Alternate-Wins
There are only a couple of obvious colour-hosers and alternate wins that come in artifact form.
The colour-hosers, while few in number, are nonetheless interesting and fun to play with. Spoiler:Show
Naked Singularity is not so much a colour-hoser as an "everyone not playing artifacts" hoser. This plus Eon Hub in an all-artifact deck is a guarantee of hate. Quicksilver Fountain is a blue mage's way of hosing every non-blue player.
And while not an artifact itself, special mention should be given to Ritual of Subdual , which turns all mana colourless while it is out. This helps the game play heavily to the favour of the artifact player (especially with Eon Hub out), but will get them hated on fairly quickly!
The alternate win-conditions provided by artifacts were disappointing and hard to pull off until Mirrodin Beseiged came out. Now, it's death by Blightsteel Colossus poisoning. And two other impossible options. Spoiler:Show
Darksteel Reactor is an alt-win that will earn you no friends. Let's put a twenty-turn clock on all of my opponents and see if I can last that long! Door to Nothingness is nigh-on-impossible to activate once, let alone enough times to remove all of your opponents. It's harder to use effectively in multiplayer, as it's going to frighten more people. Poison Decks are now completely viable in multiplayer thanks solely to Blightsteel Colossus . Unblocked, it's an insta-gib. Previously, we were limited solely to Serpent Generator , Corpse Cur , Ichorclaw Myr , Necropede and Vector Asp as artifacts capable of dealing poison counters. There is also Grafted Exoskeleton , which is perhaps the only other decent artifact-based alt-win - throw Grafted Exoskeleton on something large and evasive and go to town (hmm... Sphinx of the Steel Wind looks even better all of a sudden...).
4. Artifacts and Various Colours
White These days, white is the colour of Equipment and artifact protection. While there are a few other fun things we can do here, Equipment is probably our focus when playing a white artifact deck. Spoiler:Show
Elspeth, Knight-Errant is your planeswalker of choice, potentially giving you a permanent Darksteel Forge effect for your artifacts (among other good stuff).
Blue Blue is the key artifact colour. Want to build an artifact-heavy deck? Chances are that the one colour you're running in the background is blue. With its powerful tutors and artifact-related power abilities, it has been the colour of artifice since the very beginnings of Magic. Spoiler:Show
Arcum Dagsson will turn your artifact creature fodder into non-creature artifacts (thopters for Darksteel Forge, anyone?).
Black Black has little interaction with artifacts, usually just forcing people to sacrifice them rather than actually working with them. The majority listed here will reward you for playing artifacts, or punish your opponents for killing them. Spoiler:Show
Beacon of Unrest will repeatably recur artifacts (or creatures, and out of opponents' graveyards too).
Red Red is expert at destroying artifacts. Working with them? Not so much its strong point. Most of the red cards of note will allow you to sacrifice artifacts for your own benefit. Spoiler:Show
Barrage Ogre throws your artifacts at other people's faces.
Bazaar Trader passes your artifacts around. Here, have this Bronze Bombshell!
Goblin Welder plays swapsies between battlefield and graveyard.
Green While green is very good at destroying artifacts, or rewarding you for having opponents play artifacts, it has little synergy with artifact-heavy decks. Spoiler:Show
Hypergenesis can drop your expensive artifacts into play quickly.
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy will work well in an artifact-heavy deck where you want multiples of certain cards on the table.
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas is fun, sure, but nowhere near as good as Tezz 1.0 in a heavy artifact deck.
5. Land and Artifact Mana Sources
Land Of the handful of lands that work well with artifacts, some are famous, some are banned or restricted, and some are rarely going to hit a multiplayer table. Spoiler:Show
Tolarian Academy has to be the gold standard here. It spawned a meta-dominating tourney deck, and saw several cards restricted. In an artifact-heavy deck, it is an exceptional accelerant. Making it an artifact itself, and then untapping it constantly... that's where it starts getting evil.
In any other format, Mishra's Workshop would probably be listed first. Only because of the longer play time in multiplayer does it lose out here. It's still sensational.
12-Post (4 Cloudpost s, 4 Glimmerpost s, 4 Vesuva ) is possibly the best potentially budget solution available to those working an artifact deck at a kitchen table. It's such effective mana ramping that Cloudpost has been banned in Modern.
Academy Ruins allows for some excellent recursion of artifacts, and is particularly good with the Spellbombs in a Trinket Mage toolbox deck.
Artifact Mana Sources As we know, there are also plenty of artifact mana sources or enablers around. Let's look at the most effective options here. Spoiler:Show
Basalt Monolith . Good mana source, breakable with Voltaic Key. A budget Grim Monolith.
Black Lotus . It's a few grand a copy for a reason.
Expedition Map . While not a stone in itself, it fetches your best non-basic land (usually Academy Ruins first, so you can do it again). Trinket Mage finds it, too.
Fellwar Stone . It's old, but it deserves mention as it becomes that much better in multiplayer.
Gilded Lotus . The card that made people play Twiddle again.
Grim Monolith . Basalt Monolith, bigger, better and just as combo-able.
Lion's Eye Diamond . At first, people thought losing your hand was too big a disadvantage. And now it's a Vintage staple.
Lotus Bloom . The suspended Lotus. You've got a three-turn wait, and it's still awesome.
Lotus Blossom . Possibly the worst Lotus, and yet still underrated.
Lotus Petal . The best common ever printed, period.
Mana Vault . Another of the mana artifacts that drove the Academy deck.
Metalworker . Insanely good mana producer that is worth over $10, and yet still worth every cent.
Mox Diamond . Almost as good as the original Moxen.
New in Scars block, this keyword lets you benefit from having three or more artifacts in play. You're obviously going to be more successful when using 0cc artifacts and artifacts with Metalcraft themselves. To this end, Mox Opal fits both of these categories, and in this regard is probably worth its high price tag. The Mirrodin artifact lands and Memnite are also good 0cc artifacts that fit well. Etched Champion and Rusted Relic are good artifact creatures with Metalcraft abilities. There are several archetypes in Scars Block Constructed that focus on dropping numerous metalcraft artifact creatures next to Tempered Steel .
Esper was without a doubt the most powerful shard in the Shards block. People were purposely drafting it in Limited. And if that's happening, you know it's powerful down to the common level. Firstly, you're almost certainly playing , so Arcane Sanctum s are in, along with some other mana fixing. Esper certainly gives us numerous ways to win: We can play creature beatdown with Master of Etherium , Sphinx of the Steel Wind , Inkwell Leviathan and Sharding Sphinx .
At the common/uncommon level, Etherium Sculptor , the Capsules and Tidehollow Strix all see heavy play in multiplayer environments, and are well worth investing in.
This synergy is all about exploiting Darksteel Forge . Traditionally, the trick is to get the Forge out early (via Tinker or something similar), and then play Nevinyrral's Disk or a similar artifact-based reset. The indestructibility granted by the Forge will allow it to stay out and continually reset the board. From here, you are limited only by the tools you have at your disposal to win.
Another alternative is to equip an indestructible creature with Worldslayer and get an unblocked swing in with it. From there, you are resetting the board every turn.
Finally, this can also be achieved by imprinting Soulscour on Panoptic Mirror , but trust me when I tell you that this takes much longer to set up, and is much harder to protect!
The classic Academy deck has been known to work in multiplayer environments, but it's obviously harder to do - there will be more disruption, and more targets. The deck drops Tolarian Academy first turn along with a pile of mana artifacts. Mox Opal is ripe for this deck format now - the original used Lotus Petal alone. Throw in Mana Vault , Voltaic Key , Tinker , Sol Ring and Grim Monolith , and chances are good that you have an Academy capable of producing at least once you've played your hand out. Then you cast Windfall and fill your hand up again. The idea is to eventually pick your deck up, cast Mind Over Matter , throw out the non-kill cards to MoM to untap the Academy continuously, generate a heap of mana, and Stroke of Genius or Braingeyser your opponents for the kill.
If your playgroup uses the Vintage or Legacy restricted list as a basis for your deckbuilding (as a lot of groups do), this deck is a lot harder to pull off these days. Vintage-wise, at time of writing, Mana Vault , Lotus Petal , Sol Ring , Tinker , Windfall and the Academy itself are all Restricted. Legacy has banned Tolarian Academy altogether!
Board controllers like Triskelion and Grim Poppet adore being used in this capacity. Triskelion in particular can machine gun the whole board quickly in a well-rounded deck.
Finally, any blanket artifact damage probably likes being next to proliferate, as it inevitably uses counters. This includes Armageddon Clock , Time Bomb and Magma Mine among others.
Station decks are possibly the ultimate Johnny artifact deck. They're full of expensive, synergistic cards that go infinite together, pieced around the four Stations from Fifth Dawn - Blasting Station , Grinding Station , Salvaging Station and Summoning Station . Obviously, there are many, many ways of sending these infinite. The usual Station deck will seek to accelerate the Stations out quickly using artifact mana and/or Tinker-like spells, and provide a fair bit of sacrificial fodder for recursion.
Equipment decks make for a pretty good n00b starting point when it comes to multiplayer artifact decks. The concept is simple - get Stoneforge Mystic or Stonehewer Giant out early, and fetch the awesome equipment out of your deck one-by-one. Lightning Greaves and Leonin Shikari are important additions to this deck - they ramp up the trick factors exponentially and keep your opponents guessing. The New Phyrexia 'War of Attrition' event deck is an excellent starting point for this archetype, giving you access to some of the cornerstone cards for a decent budget.
Other deck strategies can be based around a single artifact: Spoiler:Show
Expedition Map fetching Academy Ruins . Recurse the Map over and over again, pulling the best land out of your deck each time.
7. Sample Decklists
These decks are mostly taken from our glorious Multiplayer forum, or are recommendations of interesting builds from forum members. If you're going to spread the love elsewhere on the Internet, remember to credit the deck's designer (it's good form, you know)!
And so we come to the cream of the crop. The cards in these lists represent the cards that send artifact decks to the next level in multiplayer environments. We know them, we love them, we house people with them. If you don't own copies, go get them now!
Blightsteel Colossus . Kills with one unblocked swing, and nigh on impossible to kill. I'd still take Sphinx of the Steel Wind as the #1 finisher, simply out of fun, but this an excellent alternate option.
Darksteel Colossus . Until recently, the best artifact finisher money could buy. Hint: it's still up there, even if it doesn't have infect.
Darksteel Forge . Can make your entire deck virtually bulletproof. Needs to be answered, and it is difficult to do so.
Elixir of Immortality . Rendered 5-10 cards superseded when it was printed. Excellent long-game deck recursion, and budget to boot.
Etherium Sculptor . It's easy to find, and it puts artifact-heavy decks on the table fast.
Isochron Scepter . Utility, repeatability... it's got it all. Limited only by casting cost and imagination, it will find its home in a large variety of decks.
Lightning Greaves . Haste and shroud is a deadly combination. Being able to do it over and over is gold.
Lotus Petal . Probably the best common ever printed. The corner of many combos, and the bringer of coloured acceleration. Great Metalcraft enabler, too.
Master Transmuter . It protects, it recurses, it accelerates. Simply too good in too many departments.
Masticore . Still one of the best uses for bunches of mana. Can clean a board in record time, and hang around in the process.
Metalworker . Provides mana acceleration that is brokenly good. Not budget, but will not disappoint if purchased.
Mind's Eye . By far the best artifact card draw available. Exponentially good in multiplayer.
Nevinyrral's Disk . The classic reset. Some would argue that it is still the best artifact reset available. Certainly still red and black's best answer to enchantments.
Norn's Annex . Propaganda and Ghostly Prison have been multiplayer defensive staples. The Annex builds upon it, along with the added advantage of being an artifact.
Sharding Sphinx . Produces too many resources and potential further threats. Two or more on the table will see things exploding.
Sol Ring . We could have power nines in this list, but budget and availability is always a consideration in a casual environment like multiplayer. Sol Ring is probably the best of the rest - has a price tag that at least doesn't give you a heart attack, and is easy enough to find, especially since being reprinted in From The Vault:Relics as a shiny.
Academy Ruins . Simply excellent recursion. Keeps those threats hanging around.
Argivian Restoration . An old card that a lot of people have forgotten, but quite simply the best one-shot recursion available.
Leonin Abunas . Makes an artifact deck almost as bulletproof as Darksteel Forge. Combos well with Whispersilk Cloak.
Leonin Shikari . Adds that extra danger factor to an equipment deck. Suddenly everything is a bigger threat, harder-to-kill, and a greater deterrent.
Soulscour . Simply the most fun a multiplayer artifact deck can have with nine mana.
Stoneforge Mystic . Gets equipment decks swing quickly and early. Available for a relative budget price in a New Phyrexia event deck.
Tezzeret the Seeker . The planeswalker artifact decks wanted, and now dropping in price.
Tinker . Restricted or not, swapping an artifact land for a Colossus on Turn 3 never gets old.
Tolarian Academy . Quite simply the best accelerant money can buy for an artifact deck, even at $30 a copy. Even one copy is worth it.
Trinket Mage . Utility extra-ordinaire, and highly available for a budget price.
Vedalken Archmage . Can put an artifact deck on the table in record time.
At the end of the day, this list will always be subjective. For a good idea of the artifacts that are seeing day-to-day use in the decks of forum members, follow this link to a previous discussion on the most useful artifacts in the multiplayer environment. It will give you a good idea of the variation between various playgroups, and the varying levels of success some people have had with certain cards.
Probably the most disruptive thing an artifact player can come up against is repeatable targetted artifact destruction. Arguably the nastiest cards allowing this to occur are Aura Shards and its little Sliver brother - these can take an artifact deck to pieces in a very short period of time. Really, the best defence against this by far is Darksteel Forge , as Aura Shards can do nothing against it. Secondly, some of the white cards that shroud your artifacts (e.g. Leonin Abunas , Indomitable Archangel ) will also provide all the protection you need. While these are creatures, and can therefore be removed fairly easily, they provide a complete lock with Whispersilk Cloak .
Then there is blanket destruction - the artifact sweepers like Shatterstorm and Creeping Corrosion . Decks relying heavily on artifact lands are particularly vulnerable to these effects (a Meltdown will make them cry for the measly cost of ). While Darksteel Forge still does its job in these situations, shroud will get you nowhere - this is usually a cleanup and recovery job. Fortunately, there are still plenty of options here - Open the Vaults , Roar of Reclamation and Second Sunrise will deal with the situation quickly, while Argivian Restoration and other reclaimers will fetch your biggest loss back quickly. You can also make people pay for sweeping you via Disciple of the Vault - the promise of pain is a good way of preventing these things from happening!
Finally, there are the artifact hosers. While these are not often seen on the multiplayer table, they do exist, and if your playgroup is particularly artifact heavy, you should probably be ready for them. Molder Slug is possibly the worst of these, forcing gradual sacrifice of your resources - at least as a creature, the Slug can be removed (e.g. Executioner's Capsule , Brittle Effigy ) or dealt direct damage (e.g. Masticore , Tower of Calamities ). Other, more subtle hosers like Hum of the Radix require a little more preparation and resources to get rid of. At the end of the day, there will always be situations that we cannot prepare for or handle - and it's then that we wheel out Nevinyrral's Disk and other board reset alternatives!
10. Conclusion
It's entirely possible to school an entire multiplayer board with deck consisting of close to 100% artifacts nowadays. Give it a shot in your own playgroup and raise some eyebrows! Try some of the cards mentioned above out in your decks, play some of the decks mentioned, and enjoy yourself!
Want more? Samot administers The Artificers' Group here on the Wizards forums. Join in and talk artifice with the gang.
There's also that untested Bosh deck that I made the other day (posted in the Bosh thread). My decks tend to only go through minor tweaking after testing, though, so it should honestly work about as well as it's supposed to. I'll post it here:
I'm both selfish and rational. I'm scheming, secretive and manipulative; I use knowledge as a tool for personal gain, and in turn obtaining more knowledge. At best, I am mysterious and stealthy; at worst, I am distrustful and opportunistic.
Before they banned the format out of existence, I was a proud supporter of Modern.
Mass atifact hate isn't really used in my meta. By all means, it should be, given the popularity of artifact decks (2 modular decks and an Esper deck are among some of the most played by three different players), but nobody other than myself have shown any interest in them, going for more general forms of removal (ie, creature removal). The most artifact hate that I've seen from other players is Viridian Shaman . As a result, I'm pretty safe in running artifact lands, since, at worst, I'll only be down one or two during the entire course of the game.
I'm both selfish and rational. I'm scheming, secretive and manipulative; I use knowledge as a tool for personal gain, and in turn obtaining more knowledge. At best, I am mysterious and stealthy; at worst, I am distrustful and opportunistic.
Before they banned the format out of existence, I was a proud supporter of Modern.
I'm both selfish and rational. I'm scheming, secretive and manipulative; I use knowledge as a tool for personal gain, and in turn obtaining more knowledge. At best, I am mysterious and stealthy; at worst, I am distrustful and opportunistic.
Before they banned the format out of existence, I was a proud supporter of Modern.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
deck.
