Welcome back to a catalogue of the best Artifacts from each year of Magic: The Gathering. Part one covered the first half of Magic, from 1993-2010, so if you missed it, get caught up on part 1 here..

Like last time, this list isn't specific to one format but is instead a look at each card's history and impact on competitive formats like Standard, Modern, and Legacy, and on casual formats like Commander. These cards will also largely be evaluated on how powerful they are today, but along the way there will be shout-outs and honorable mentions for cards that were great during their times or didn't quite make the cut.

The Best Artifact From Each Year of Magic (2010-2026)

• 2011: Birthing Pod
• 2012: Shardless Agent
• 2013: Whip of Erebos
• 2014: The Chain Veil
• 2015: Sword of the Animist
• 2016: Smuggler's Copter
• 2017: Walking Ballista
• 2018: Mox Amber
• 2019: Bolas's Citadel
• 2020: Jeweled Lotus
• 2021: Esper Sentinel
• 2022: Kappa Cannoneer
• 2023: The One Ring
• 2024: Simulacrum Synthesizer
• 2025: Cori-Steel Cutter
• 2026: Resonating Lute

Without further ado, let's get back to it.

2011: Birthing Pod

The rest of the Scars of Mirrodin block was released in 2011, and like the other Artifact-focused sets on the list, it introduced some heavy hitters. Mirrodin Besieged contained Sword of Feast and Famine and Blightsteel Colossus, both of which are iconic Commander powerhouses, and Phyrexian Revoker, which became a great competitive sideboard card. New Phyrexia, however, upped the game with Standard and Modern staples like Batterskull and Phyrexian Metamorph, while also giving Commander players a fun Artifact combo piece in Unwinding Clock.

This set is most known for introducing the incredibly unbalanced Phyrexian Mana mechanic, which allowed players to pay life instead of mana on certain spells. This mechanic would show up on many of the best cards in the set, including Birthing Pod. Birthing Pod costs three generic mana and a Phyrexian Green mana, meaning it essentially costs three mana and two life. It has an activated ability for one generic mana and a Phyrexian Green mana that allows you to sacrifice a Creature to search your library for another Creature with mana value equal to one plus the sacrificed Creature's mana value and put it directly into play.

Being able to pay life instead of mana to both cast and activate Birthing Pod made it an insane toolbox card and value engine, able to consistently find either answers for a specific matchup or even your combo pieces.

Birthing Pod saw a ton of play in Standard while it was legal, but Modern is the format where it really shined. It made Creature-based combo decks very consistent and allowed midrange decks to play one-of answers to all the best archetypes in their main deck. It was eventually banned in Modern for these reasons, and because Magic designers were tired of designing cards around it. For these reasons, it was a pretty easy pick for the best Artifact of 2011.

2012: Shardless Agent

After 2011, Magic designers pulled back on Artifacts for a few years, and 2012 to 2015 were all relatively quiet on the Artifact front. There weren't many great Artifacts printed in 2012, but the three contenders for best of the year are all iconic in their own rights. Baleful Strix is a beloved Artifact Creature that sees a ton of play in Commander and Grafdigger's Cage was a staple of sideboards for years as an answer to graveyard decks and decks that cheated Creatures into play. Both cards are strong, but the number one honor has to go to Shardless Agent.

Originally printed in Planechase 2012, Shardless Agent is a 2/2 Artifact Creature that costs 1GU and has Cascade, which means that when you cast it, you reveal cards off the top of your library until you hit a card with lesser mana value and cast that card for free. It was a fine card when it was printed, but being part of a supplemental set meant it didn't see much competitive play for years. It saw a bit of play in Commander, but its true power was revealed when it was reprinted in 2021's Modern Horizons 2, which made it legal in Modern.

Cascade had been a powerful deck archetype in Modern for over a decade at that point, with players using three-mana Cascade cards like Violent Outburst and Ardent Plea to cast Living End and Crashing Footfalls for free. Shardless Agent became a go-to card for those decks, allowing them to cut Ardent Plea and focus on just three colors. When Violent Outburst was banned in 2024, it became the premier Cascade card in those decks. It still sees a ton of play today, even with the recent unbanning of Violent Outburst, and as long as those Cascade decks are good, it will continue to see play.

2013: Whip of Erebos

2013 didn't have too many Artifacts break out in competitive formats, so this year's ranking is largely composed of Commander cards. Burnished Hart, Strionic Resonator, and Bident of Thassa are all very popular and powerful in Commander, but the best card of the year has to be the one that also had some success in Standard.

Whip of Erebos costs and is both an Artifact and an Enchantment. It gives all your Creatures Lifelink and, if you pay another to activate its tap ability, it can bring a Creature from your graveyard back to play with Haste until the end of the turn, with the typica .

This card primarily sees play in Commander, where both abilities are great. There are surprisingly few cards that give your entire board Lifelink without limitations, but the Whip does that while providing extra graveyard value. It was also a good card while it was in Standard, seeing play in the mono-Black decks that ruled Standard during the Theros era.

2014: The Chain Veil

2014 was a big year for Enchantments thanks to Theros block, but it was another quiet year for Artifacts. Coercive Portal and Perilous Vault saw a bit of Commander play for being colorless board wipes that could go in any deck, Masterwork of Ingenuityis still a popular card today as a way to copy the best Equipment cards in an Equipment deck, and Obelisk of Urd is a solid anthem for decks focused on a particular Creature type. There wasn't a ton of competition though, so The Chain Veil takes first almost by default.

First printed in Magic 2015, The Chain Veil is a four-mana Artifact that lets you pay four generic mana and tap it to get an additional Loyalty Ability activation on each Planeswalker you control until the end of the turn, and if you didn't activate a Loyalty Ability by your end step, it deals two damage to you. In dedicated Planeswalker decks, this card is absurd, allowing you to bypass one of the major downsides of Planeswalkers to get extra value from them each turn.

It can also be untapped to get more activations out of it, which also gives it some combo potential with Planeswalkers like Teferi, Temporal Archmage and Tezzeret, the Seeker. Both Planeswalkers have abilities that can untap The Chain Veil, so if you have enough mana you can keep activating them and your other Planeswalkers until you run out of mana or, in the case of Teferi, run out of Loyalty. It is a staple of Planeswalker decks in Commander and sees play in decks helmed by Planeswalkers like Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes or Estrid, the Masked.

2015: Sword of the Animist

There may not have been many competitively viable Artifacts in 2015, but this year saw the first printing of many Artifacts that would end up being great in Commander. Thought Vessel and Pyromancer's Goggles are two mana rocks with big upsides and Hangarback Walker gives Artifact decks and +1/+1 counters deck an on-demand army. The best Artifact of the year goes to a card that has a home in nearly every Commander deck: Sword of the Animist.

This two-mana equipment has an equip cost of two generic mana and gives the equipped Creature +1/+1. It also allows you to search your library for a basic Land and put it into play tapped when the equipped Creature attacks. Sword of the Animist is powerful because it gives every Commander deck a piece of Land ramp, regardless of color identity. Green decks can ramp out Lands as much as they want, but this card helps non-Green decks keep up.

2016: Smuggler's Copter

After a four-year drought, 2016 brought Artifacts back to the forefront, but it may have been an overcorrection. This was the start of the FIRE Design era, where cards were pushed and bans were more frequent. This was also the first year since 2012 to have a set devoted to Artifacts, Kaladesh, which produced some of the strongest Artifacts since the original Mirrodin block.

Bomat Courier and Scrapheap Scrounger were everywhere in Standard, Panharmonicon is an incredibly popular Commander card created an entire new genre of card, Aetherflux Reservoir is a popular combo finisher in several formats, and Skysovereign, Consul Flagship has been an important piece of one of Pioneer's best decks since the printing of Greasefang, Okiba Boss in 2022. Two Artifacts stand above the rest, however, and the runner-up for the top spot is Aetherworks Marvel.

Aetherworks Marvel is a four-mana Artifact that gives you an Energy counter whenever a permanent you control is put into a graveyard, then lets you pay six Energy and tap it to cast a spell from the top six cards of your library for free. Energy turned out to be a very strong mechanic, and Aetherworks Marvel was eventually banned in Standard for being too good at casting Eldrazi like Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger on turn four. Aetherworks Marvel wasn't the only Artifact printed this year that needed to be banned in Standard.

Just a few months prior, Smuggler's Copter also got banned in Standard, a two-mana 3/3 vehicle with Crew 1 and Flying that allows you to draw and discard a card whenever it attacks or blocks. It may seem a bit tame by today's standards, but back in 2016, this was a four-of in nearly every Standard deck that played Creatures.

The Copter was an efficient body, could go in any deck thanks to it being colorless, dodged Sorcery-speed removal, and filtered your hand for you even if you used it to block. All of these factors led to it getting banned in Standard. Two years later it would be one of the first cards banned in the newly created Pioneer format for the same reasons, although it would eventually be unbanned as the format became more powerful.

2017: Walking Ballista

While 2017 saw the second half of the Artifact-focused Kaladesh block, this year's best Artifacts were spread across many of its sets. Heart of Kiran saw a bunch of play in Standard, Hammer of Nazahn is one of the strongest equipment cards in Commander, and Hollow One sees play as far back as Vintage, because even if the card just has okay stats and no on-board abilities, a free spell is a free spell.

Paradox Engine almost got the number one spot for being so strong and so miserable to play against that it was banned in Commander, but it's hard to argue against Walking Ballista. This card is a 0/0 Artifact Creature with a mana cost of XX that enters with X +1/+1 counters. You can pay four generic mana to put a +1/+1 counter on it or remove a +1/+1 counter from it to deal one damage to any target.

Meant to be a modern version of 1994's Triskelion, this card is notorious for being played unfairly. It is a combo player's dream, giving you a way to turn infinite mana into an instant win or going infinite with many cards, like Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Heliod, Sun-Crowned.

The infinite combo with Heliod eventually got it banned in Pioneer, where the combo was too strong during the format's early days. Even if it isn't going infinite though, the ability to shut down Creatures in a +1/+1 counter deck or a Proliferate deck makes it a back-breaking card on its own. Finally, because it's colorless, it can go in any deck, which can provide a boost to color identities that usually have trouble removing Creatures.

2018: Mox Amber

After eight years, fast mana is back! Mox Amber is a Legendary zero-mana Artifact that taps for one mana of any color among Legendary Creatures and Planeswalkers you control. Of all the fast mana on this list it might be the weakest, as its wording means that it doesn't produce mana unless you control a Legendary Creature or Planeswalker, but it is still very strong. It is strongest in Commander, a format built around Legendary Creatures, where it almost doesn't have a downside at all.

Although they didn't quite take the top spot, Damping Sphere, Helm of the Host, and The Immortal Sun were all in the running too.

Mox Amber has also seen some play in Pioneer, where it has been a key part of multiple combo decks. It was partially responsible for the banning of Kethis, the Hidden Hand during the format's first year and, in 2023, it created a new combo deck when Rona, Herald of Invasion was printed in March of the Machine.

2019: Bolas's Citadel

There were many options for the best Artifact of 2019, and while it was easy to pick the best one, the rest deserve some recognition. Arcane Signet is in nearly every Commander deck, Colossus Hammer created an entire Modern archetype that saw tournament success for years, and Parhelion II is the backbone of one of Pioneer's best combo decks.

There are even some cards that needed to be banned in various formats, like Arcum's Astrolabe in Modern and Legacy, Lucky Clover in Standard, Golos, Tireless Pilgrim in Commander, and Mystic Forge, which is restricted in Vintage. These cards were titans in their formats, but Bolas's Citadel stands tall as the best Artifact of 2019.

Bolas's Citadel has the most restrictive mana cost of any card on this list with a mana cost of . For most decks, however, this cost doesn't matter, and even if you were to hard cast it, the effect is well-worth the effort. It allows you to look at the top card of your library whenever you want and play that card by paying life equal to its mana cost. You can also tap it and sacrifice 10 nonland permanents to deal 10 damage to each opponent.

This card is simply insane. It combines three things that are always really good in Magic: trading life for resources, casting spells without paying mana, and playing cards off the top of your library. This is an incredibly scary card in Commander, where life totals start at 40 and decks are full of big, splashy, game-ending spells. Because it's so powerful and can lead to long turns, it is on the Game Changers list in Commander. It also sees some play in Vintage, where you can get it down quickly using fast mana or Tinker and combo off.

2020: Jeweled Lotus

This year had fewer options than 2019, but the good cards from 2020 are still heavy hitters. Soul-Guide Lantern is one of the best pieces of graveyard hate in the game, The Ozolith gives +1/+1 counters decks some much-needed resilience, and Chromatic Orrery is a splashy card that enables more shenanigans in casual formats. The best card of the year is one that every Commander player knows: Jeweled Lotus.

Jeweled Lotus is the Commander-specific version of Black Lotus, being a zero-mana Artifact that sacrifices itself to add three mana of any one color, but that mana can only be spent on your Commander. This card made a big splash when it was revealed, and for the next few years it would prove to be one of the strongest cards in Commander.

As it turns out, allowing players to cast their Commanders several turns early and jumpstarting their game plan gave them a huge advantage, even if the odds of drawing Jeweled Lotus early were low.

2021: Esper Sentinel

While there were no Artifact-focused sets in 2021, Modern Horizons 2 produced many powerful Artifacts. Honorable mentions include the 10 artifact dual lands, which see a lot of play in Pauper, Academy Manufactor, one of the best cards to include in a Food, Clue, or Treasure deck, and Thought Monitor, which sees play in Affinity decks as far back as Legacy. All these cards ail from that set, as does the best Artifact of the year.

Designed to be a White take on Rhystic Study, Esper Sentinel is a 1/1 Artifact Creature for one mana that draws you a card when an opponent casts their first spell each turn and doesn't pay mana equal to its power. This card saw a lot of hype when it was printed, as this was a time when White didn't have nearly as much card draw as the color has today.

It quickly proved itself in Commander, but it also ended up being really good in Modern, especially in the Hammer Time deck. The deck is less popular today than when Esper Sentinel was first printed, but it still has legs.

2022: Kappa Cannoneer

It was difficult to pick a number one Artifact for 2022. Not because of a lack of options, but because there were many great options and almost all of them were about equal in terms of power and playability.

The Reaver Cleaver, Cyberdrive Awakener, Canoptek Scarab Swarm, and Portal to Phyrexia are all strong cards in Commander, Lion Sash and Unlicensed Hearse are both excellent pieces of graveyard hate that have seen quite a bit of play in 1v1 formats, and Reckoner Bankbuster was the most-played card in Standard for months before needing to be banned from the format. Bankbuster was a close second place, but number one is going to go to the card that sees play in several formats: Kappa Cannoneer.

Kappa Cannoner is an Artifact Creature that costs with Improvise, meaning you can tap other Artifacts you control instead of paying its generic mana cost. Then, it's a 4/4 with Ward that gets a +1/+1 counter & becomes unblockable whenever an Artifact you control enters.

In practice, this is often a one or two mana 5/5, since its ability triggers when it enters. It is also almost always unblockable, and is very hard to remove thanks to the high Ward cost.

It was originally printed in one of the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Commander precons but immediately found a home in eternal formats like Legacy and Vintage, where it became an unstoppable finisher for Artifact decks. It served a similar purpose in Commander, and to this day it is a card you never want to see played against you in all three formats.

In 2024, the Kappa got a second life when it was reprinted in Modern Horizons 3, unleashing it onto another competitive format. Now, in addition to its Legacy, Vintage, and Commander play, it is also a staple of Affinity, one of the most popular decks in the format at time of writing.

2023: The One Ring

This may have been the easiest decision on the entire list. Agatha's Soul Cauldron was a menace in Standard before the banning of Vivi Ornitier and still sees play alongside Yawgmoth, Thran Physician in Modern. Roaming Throne didn't end up breaking Commander like many predicted but is still a powerhouse in any deck built around a specific Creature type. These cards are great, but nothing compares to the number one Artifact of 2023: The One Ring.

If you've played Modern or Commander in the past three years, you're probably very familiar with The One Ring. Printed in The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth, it was designed to be as powerful in Magic as it was in its source material, and in that regard, it was a resounding success. This four-mana Artifact has Indestructible and gives you Protection from Everything when it enters, as long as you cast it. Then, you can tap it to put a Burden counter on it and draw cards equal to the number of Burden counters on it, but at the beginning or your upkeep, you lose life equal to the number of Burden counters on it.

Like many cards before it that rely on life loss as a limiting factor, this downside doesn't really matter when the advantage is drawing enough cards to make a Blue player shed a tear. It became an immediate staple in Modern and Commander, where you could use it defensively to get a turn of safety and then tap it every turn to outdraw your opponent(s).

It was particularly devastating in Modern, where the card advantage could completely swing games and was difficult to interact with thanks to it being Indestructible. You could also chain copies of The One Ring, with each subsequent copy you played resetting the number of counters and giving you yet another turn of Protection.

Like in the source material, The One Ring eventually proved to be too strong and had to be destroyed. In the case of Magic, that meant being banned in Modern and added to the Game Changers list in Commander. Today, it can primarily be found in higher-power Commander decks, it also sees some play in Legacy, Vintage, and Canadian Highlander, where fast mana and ramp like Tron lands or Mishra's Workshop can get it into play early.

2024: Simulacrum Synthesizer

2024 was another year where there weren't many contenders for the top Artifact of the year, but the competition amongst the finalists was fierce. Vexing Bauble and Cranial Ram, two lower-rarity cards from Modern Horizons 3, were high on the list due to their impact in eternal formats.

Cranial Ram has the very rare accolade of being pre-banned in a format, as there were fears about it breaking Pauper like its predecessor, Cranial Plating. Vexing Bauble also caused a ton of problems in Legacy and Vintage, where its ability to shut down free spells like Force of Will for just one mana made it a staple. It would eventually be banned in Legacy and restricted in Vintage for this reason. Finally, Pre-War Formalwear from Fallout also saw some success in eternal formats like Legacy and Canadian Highlander, where it could recur key cheap threats and make them stronger.

Despite the power of those three cards, the best Artifact of 2024 is Simulacrum Synthesizer. Hailing from Big Score it costs three mana, lets you Scry two when it enters, and creates a Construct with power and toughness equal to the number of Artifacts you control whenever another Artifact with mana value three or greater enters under your control. These types of Constructs have been notoriously powerful on past cards, and Simulacrum Synthesizer can make them easily.

When nearly every Artifact you play also comes with a big Creature, you can overwhelm your opponents very quickly. It sees a lot of play in Commander as a win condition for Artifact decks and saw quite a bit of Standard play throughout 2024 and 2025 before the format sped up.

2025: Cori-Steel Cutter

There were several contenders for the best Artifact of 2025. Buster Sword, The Soul Stone, and Hearthhull, the Worldseed are very good Commander cards, Brightglass Gearhulk is a strong toolbox card in Standard, and Monument to Endurance gives discard decks in multiple formats a solid win condition and value engine. Monument to Endurance came close to taking the top spot thanks to its incredible performance in Standard, but the best Artifact of the year should be the one that broke out in multiple formats.

Cori-Steel Cutter is an equipment that costs and has an equip cost of that gives the equipped Creature +1/+1, Trample, and Haste. It also has a Flurry ability that makes a 1/1 Monk with Prowess whenever you cast your second spell each turn, then equips the Cutter to that token.

It seemed innocuous during spoiler season, but it was an instant hit in Standard. As it turns out, a two-mana card that makes lots of Creature tokens can quickly spiral out of control, especially when you play multiple copies. The card applied pressure very quickly, and a combination of the Cutter and Monstrous Rage significantly sped up the entire Standard format. The card would be banned in Standard just a few months after its release and recently got banned from Pioneer for the same reasons.

2026 (so far): Resonating Lute

We are now five months into 2026 and have already had three sets released, but so far there haven't been many strong Artifacts. Lorwyn Eclipsed had Chronicle of Victory, a powerful card advantage engine and anthem for typal strategies and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had The Ooze, which can exile cards from graveyards and put +1/+1 counters on your Creatures. Resonating Lute from Secrets of Strixhaven is the pick for the year so far though.

This Artifact costs , allows you to tap your lands for two mana of any one color to cast Instant and Sorcery spells, and can be tapped to draw a card if you have seven or more cards in your hand. The lute is an incredible ramp spell for spellslinger decks and gives any decks playing Red and Blue something those colors don't often get: a mana doubler. Drawing extra cards if you're ahead is icing on top. The card has already seen success in Standard, where it helps Jeskai Control decks play Jeskai Revelation as early as turn 5, and in Commander.

Conclusion

And, with the second half complete, that does it for the full list of the best Artifact from each year of Magic's history. This was a huge undertaking, but hopefully you learned a thing or two about some of the game's history and strongest cards. If you missed the first post of this series, you can check out part 1 here.