By Jeremy Rose
Welcome back to Foxy Gaming’s Best of EDH series! We will be going through the top card, by card type, in each color and colorless when appropriate. This is our sixth entry in the series, and it will be discussing artifacts, specifically artifacts that are not Equipment. To see our previous entry, which discussed planeswalkers, click here!
The cards on this list are the type of cards to start causing players to pack more artifact removal in their decks just in case they end up across from one. We start with the most powerful non-equipment artifacts, but we have also left out mana rocks and other fast mana artifacts as many of those tend to be the best artifacts in Commander without much room for debate.
DISCLAIMER: This list is based on Foxy Gaming’s playgroup and the cards we see, run in our decks, and get donked by week in and week out. Our playgroup tends to play in the six to eight range on the power level scale, so keep that in mind as we go through our list. If you and your playgroup see different cards or value some differently than we do, we would love to hear about it so please leave a comment letting us know what you think!
Bolas’ Citadel
Rare is the game in which a player resolves Citadel and does not proceed to win. This card is absolutely insane. The mana cost is restrictive, to be sure, but the payoff for that investment is one of the best game winning cards in the format. Commander’s 40-point life total is a huge boon to this card as well, allowing for much more leeway in terms of the associated life cost. Citadel is one of the most versatile artifacts in the format since it just allows you to play your deck at a rate that is as mana efficient as it gets – free. Combine this with shuffle effects or top deck manipulation and you’ll be able to keep digging and casting spells to your heart’s content.
One thing that is often forgotten, but can be relevant in the late game, is the last ability on Bolas’ Citadel: you can tap it and sacrifice 10 nonland permanents to have each opponent lose 10 life. While that is certainly not the most impressive thing this card does, it’s worth being aware of so that you don’t end up sitting around trying to find a way to win when you already have one on board.
This card is easy to build around in that it does not ask much of you in the deckbuilding process, but it also is just so generically powerful that I can’t think of many black decks that wouldn’t benefit from its inclusion.
Vedalken Orrery
The Josh Lee Kwai Special, Orrery has gained fame (or perhaps infamy) due to the Command Zone’s ringing endorsements of this card. Such endorsements are well deserved. Orrery allows for a very powerful turning of the tables and opens up opportunities and options that can’t be offered by too many other cards.
Outside of just being able to cast creatures and sorceries and such at instant speed, this card allows you to hold your answers or responses to your opponents’ cards until the very last second and use all the information at your disposal to make those decisions. For a player who is later in the turn order, this card gets rid of that disadvantage and allows them to place themselves in the turn order where they please. Vedalken Orrery is one of the most versatile cards in the format and improves the power level of most decks it gets played in.
Aetherflux Reservoir
I have a hard time believing this card was printed with Commander in mind or maybe even consideration. Aetherflux has gotta be in the top five list of cards that I have lost the most games to. It only requires 50 life, which is already only 10 more than our starting life total, and it HELPS you get there. All it requires of you to start getting you closer to that magic number is for you to cast spells or, you know, play Magic: the Gathering. It’s not a big ask for what it will end up doing for its controller.
There are some obvious ways to abuse this card as well. Storm decks, or even just any spellslinging decks, as well as lifegain decks both make this card start Death Star lasering players even faster and easier. There also some sweet combos with lifegain stuff that make this card go infinite and win almost on the spot, not to mention how crazy things can get with a Bolas’ Citadel out as well. Aetherflux Reservoir should be a kill on sight target and one that you play more evasive removal, even less efficient cards like Krosan Grip, to protect yourself from getting blown up trying to save the table from it.
Birthing Pod
There are a few archetypes in Magic that get their name from specific cards, like Stax being derived by the card Smokestack, and those cards tend to be real powerhouses. Birthing Pod is one of those cards. Pod decks are built around this card and usually have ‘chains’ that allow for the tapping and untapping of Birthing Pod until the player reaches a win condition, often something involving Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and some way to untap those permanents (like Felidar Guardian or Deceiver Exarch). There are decks built around Birthing Pod in just about every format it’s legal in, and it has been banned in some for its powerful synergies.
The best part of Pod, in my opinion, is how good it is in decks that are not built around it as a combo piece. Being able to tutor for a key creature or one with a great ETB effect can be just what you need sometimes. It slots great into creature decks and adds consistency to ones that aren’t specifically tribal oriented. It also helps fill your graveyard with targets for reanimation spells or Commanders built around that strategy, like Meren of Clan Nel Toth. Overall, Birthing Pod is a busted card in and out of Pod decks and is one of the most powerful artifacts ever printed.
Sensei’s Divining Top
The phrase “In response, I Top.” has become a meme in my playgroup due to how annoying Top can sometimes be to play against. It can be time consuming and boring for the other players around the table, but it is certainly good. I personally think that Sensei’s Divining Top is one of the most poorly designed cards in Magic due to its tendency to make gameplay slow and non-interactive, but that is by no means a knock on its power level.
Top is very abusable with shuffle effects and top deck manipulation, it also goes great with the aforementioned Bolas’ Citadel. Top is colorless so it can slot into decks that can really use the extra help to have that card selection, but it also is so generically powerful that it is still played in decks that don’t need that extra help.
In a singleton format like Commander, tutors are premium cards. Not just card tutors, but land tutors like Rampant Growth or fetch lands as well. Top synergizes very well with cards that shuffle your library and there is a significant amount of those in Commander due to its singleton nature. There are certainly decks that don’t need Top and should maybe run something else, but Top is good in just about everything and played a lot in our format.
This concludes the first part of Foxy Proxys’ list of best artifacts in Commander! What artifacts do you and your playgroup think fit on this list? What artifacts do you think we highly overrated? Let us know in the comment section below and be sure to stay tuned for our next entry in the series!
Jeremy Rose is a relatively new Magic player, having only started in Battle for Zendikar. When he's not being a filthy, filthy blue player, he enjoys jamming fun games with his friends. He's also a lifelong martial artist and a professionally employed teacher. He sometimes paints minis adequately. Find out more about him on his Twitter @jermytrose.
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