The 42 Best Red Artifacts in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 29, 2025

Embercleave | Illustration by Joe Slucher

Red thrives in the realm of artifacts. It’s one of the best colors at putting them into play for cheap and for scrapping and salvaging them over and over for crazy value.

So let’s look at the best red artifacts in the game. This order reflects my opinions mixed with information on deck performance from all formats where these spells are played. The top-ranking options tend to be excellent across various formats (including, but not limited to Commander) while lower-ranking options tend to find homes in fewer decks. If you’re looking for some of the best artifacts for your red brews, you’re in the right place.

Ready? Let’s go!

What Are Red Artifacts in MTG?

Bearded Axe | Illustration by Ovidio Cartagena

To qualify for this list, a card needs to meet two criteria: It's red, and it’s an artifact on at least one of its faces.

Red has some of the strongest artifact synergies in the game. Commanders like Daretti, Scrap Savant showcase their affinity for moving them between the battlefield and graveyard. The equipment subtype is also in its wheelhouse, specifically alongside white. A lot of what red wants comes down to aggression and attacking, so many of its top artifacts empower or reward taking risks and throwing your creatures around. Another major element of the color is Treasure. Artifacts that want to see other artifacts enter or leave the battlefield play great with red Commander staples like Academy Manufactor and Goldspan Dragon.

#42. Red Herring

Relax, it’s just a Red Herring. Let’s move on.

#41. Unstable Amulet

There are several red artifacts that play in the energy space, but they’re rarely worth talking about since you either play them in an energy deck or don’t consider them at all. Unstable Amulet’s a bit different: The energy text gives it the means to replace itself at minimum. The real juice here is the cast-from-exile “paradox” text, which adds up damage as you pull spells out of exile. That’s enough to get some decks interested, and all the better if you have extra sources of energy.

#40. Pyrite Spellbomb

My introduction to Pyrite Spellbomb was watching Stanislav Cifka pilot an Eggs deck at Pro Tour Return to Ravnica that basically bored people to death until it won by looping the Spellbomb for game. That’s not the use-case for this egg though, and it’s a fine little 1-drop artifact that either cantrips or Shocks something, Spellbomb-style.

#39. Krenko’s Buzzcrusher

Krenko's Buzzcrusher is fine on most fronts, but not the type of card that makes the cut unless you’re anticipating problematic lands in your format. It’s a bit of a cheat as far as card design goes; the Buzzcrusher was intentionally worded without “target” so it could remove Lotus Fields in Pioneer, but that just feels like a cheesy solution to a hexproof permanent.

#38. Blazing Sunsteel

Blazing Sunsteel is a big payoff for damage-based interaction, pairing particularly well with effects like Chain Reaction and Blasphemous Act. Its equip cost is a bit steep, but if you’re in the “stop hitting yourself” archetype or if you’re a dedicated equipment deck that can cheat on costs, this can be a great fit for a big splashy damage option.

#37. Fiendlash

Fiendlash is similar to Blazing Sunsteel in its damage reflection but is cheaper to equip and can only hit players. Typically, that’s where you’re trying to put the damage. An indestructible Stuffy Doll with this equipped can result in knockouts out of nowhere with a Star of Extinction.

#36. Two-Handed Axe

I’m a major proponent for commander damage; Two-Handed Axe can just spontaneously get somebody with a kill out of nowhere. An adventure that gives double strike is risky because if your target gets removed you lose the axe side as well. But sometimes you attack with an 11-power Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, hear no blocks, and end that player's game on the spot. Once equipped, the axe plays great with other double strike effects because it doubles the damage being dealt differently. Normally, double strike is rough to run into multiple times, but if you already have something like Avatar of Slaughter out, this axe still adds a ton of power to your creatures.

#35. The Spear of Leonidas

The Spear of Leonidas is a package deal with Kassandra, Eagle Bearer, though this legendary equipment does enough on its own to justify it without the Boros () legend. There’s a lot of coverage here between options to pump the equipped creature, create a body, or filter your hand.

#34. Chainsaw

If you want to an extra bit or interaction in your equipment deck but want to maintain synergy density, Chainsaw’s a fine option. It’ll kill something, then stick around to pump a creature by a steadily-growing amount as the game progresses.

#33. Lavabrink Floodgates

Mana rocks that blow up on their own aren’t necessarily staples, but Lavabrink Floodgates is a blast to play with. It probably wants to be considered close to a board clear, and go in decks that want to keep creatures specifically off the board. It often feels like a rock you can tap once the turn you cast it and once in your next upkeep, after which it explodes to bring whoever’s board is scariest in line. Sometimes everyone won’t want a board clear, and democracy will leave it acting like a Sisay's Ring, which is an entirely reasonable card.

#32. Magmatic Galleon

I’m not going to pretend that Magmatic Galleon is some sort of hidden treasure that people should be playing, but as far as casual cards go, this one’s pretty strong. I’d want some sort of vehicle or artifact theme before I consider it, but passively making Treasures as creatures die from burn damage is kind of nice. I especially like that this triggers off interactions you had nothing to do with, like an opponent casting a Chain Reaction and taking out a different opponent’s creature.

#31. Wand of Wonder

When you have a Wand of Wonder on the table, you feel good. It represents the best instant or sorcery on top of any of your opponents' libraries for 4 mana, and sometimes you get extras should you roll well. Eight mana for a single activation is a lot more manageable when its split over two payments of 4, and while it may not be the spikiest card on the planet, sometimes you’ll stumble into a Temporal Trespass and win the game out of nowhere.

#30. Dragonspark Reactor

Dragonspark Reactor is for you if you plan on getting a lot of artifacts. It plays particularly well in decks that dump tons of Clues and Treasures on the table to charge up a single blast to take a player out. With cards like Brass's Bounty and Ancient Copper Dragon alongside a Xorn this can easily shoot for 20+ damage in a single shot.

#29. Brass’s Tunnel-Grinder / Tecutlan, the Searing Rift

Tecutlan, the Searing Rift is an immaculate red utility land, but you have to slog through Brass's Tunnel-Grinder to get there. The artifact’s not embarrassing, helping you shape up your hand the same way you would with Valakut Awakening, but it does little beyond that. Descending’s trivially easy, so I’d expect to have this transform on the third end step after playing it.

#28. Urabrask’s Forge

Red likes to spawn tokens to charge in and recklessly die. Urabrask's Forge plays with this perfectly. You want to have it on the table early or to have ways to ramp up the oil counters, but this little card can produce 5/1s or larger hasty trampling tokens you can sacrifice to Fling or Deadly Dispute for bonus value. Decks like Samut, Vizier of Naktamun can take advantage of its keywords while Lagomos, Hand of Hatred and other aristocrats want it for the creature to sacrifice each turn.

#27. Breya’s Apprentice

Breya's Apprentice has a lot going for it; it’s an artifact that comes with a Thopter friend, can sacrifice artifacts (which has value on its own), and can be a bit of extra damage, or more importantly, extra cards. It isn’t outwardly the most powerful card in the world, but a lot of artifact-based red decks find it an easy inclusion. Its efficiency has even earned it a home in Legacy Painter.

#26. Phyrexian Dragon Engine

I’m not happy to play Phyrexian Dragon Engine unless Mishra, Claimed by Gix was somewhere in the mix. It’s not a bad standalone card, but the chance to meld into Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia is the whole selling point. The Dragon Engine’s not a terrible target for Unearth-style effects on its own, plus its own unearth ability gives it utility from the graveyard.

#25. Reinforced Ronin

Reinforced Ronin does lots of little things many red decks care about. For 1 mana you have a once-a-turn artifact/creature cast, enters the battlefield, and leaves the battlefield trigger, which many decks care about. Paired with green this can draw you cards with The Great Henge and other staples. In just red, it plays great alongside cards like Terror of the Peaks and Warstorm Surge as a small amount of additional incidental value. If you don’t need any of those synergies, its channel is basically cycling.

#24. Komainu Battle Armor

Reconfigure opens up flexible gameplans for equipment decks, and Komainu Battle Armor shows this off well. You don’t want to pay its equip cost when you can help it, making it work better in decks like Bruenor Battlehammer. The damage trigger can be brutal; goading all creatures leads to a lot of damage getting thrown around. If you’ve ever witnessed a well-timed Disrupt Decorum, you’ll know just how powerful a mass goad can be, and this one is repeatable.

#23. Vulshok Factory

Vulshok Factory struggles to compete with the cheaper mana rock options. However, in decks that want to proliferate, like superfriends, having a potential massive body in the late game on your early ramp is great. That body has haste, too. Many tables fire off a board clear and feel safe, only to be reminded that your factory with 7 charge counters does more than just make mana. I’d recommend trying to play ample 1-mana ramp pieces to get this down as fast as possible. You really want at least a 5/5 or bigger from this for it to be worth it, but it’s floor isn’t that bad.

#22. Lizard Blades

They may not seem that scary, but Lizard Blades is the exact kind of card I want in my equipment decks. Like a little rabbit we'll be getting to, these blades can carry equipment while being equipment. Double strike doubles the bonuses most equipment tends to give, and damage triggers also double up with this. Even beyond equipment decks, these blades make Fireshrieker look embarrassing, and plenty of decks want to give their stuff double strike for cheap. Why not do it with a creature for your creature-based bonuses that's also an equipment?

#21. Twinshot Sniper

I’m honestly surprised just how much play Twinshot Sniper, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty’s Flametongue Kavu, sees in competitive Commander and other Eternal formats. It turns out having Shock attached to a 2-mana channel has a ton of upside and makes it an interesting option for decks like Modern Living End and Fires of Invention Pioneer lists. It’s flexible and answers a surprising amount of relevant utility creatures. And while it won’t be a perfect fit at every table, having a nearly uncounterable Shock on an artifact creature can be just what you need to shut down Tymna the Weaver early or deal with that Oracle of Mul Daya before it gets further out of hand.

#20. Boommobile

The main appeal of Boommobile is that it generates enough mana on ETB to go infinite with a blink effect (Deadeye Navigator, Emiel the Blessed) and a way to animate the vehicle (March of the Machines). It’s convoluted enough that it’ll never be a top-tier strategy, but Boommobile’s also just a fine card without an infinite.

#19. Rabbit Battery

Rabbit Battery does Boots of Speed does, but it’s also a 1-mana rabbit with haste. Being an artifact creature matters a lot for equipment decks that need both equipment and things to equip. Being both in a single package is excellent, especially with how critical haste is to decks that want to attack with equipment like Akiri, Fearless Voyager. It can be sacrificed as a creature or artifact for the archetypes that care about each respectively, and it’s an effect most attacking decks want.

#18. Glittering Stockpile

Glittering Stockpile is somewhat similar to the factory mentioned earlier, but crucially its payout is way better for more decks: more mana. You still want to play it early and get the counters on it proliferated up, but instead of a big dumb X/X with haste at the end of your journey, you can get a big burst of mana to fuel game-winning turns. Storm decks looking to ramp up into a splashy turn with a Storm-Kiln Artist need every bit of mana they can get. A 3-mana rock that can produce 5 mana once can set you off chaining rituals and drawing cards to eventually blow up the world with a finishing X-spell like Crackle with Power.

#17. Ruin Grinder

Ruin Grinder fits best in artifact-based strategies that want to cycle it early, fish it out with a Trash for Treasure, then sacrifice it again with a Krark-Clan Ironworks with a Scrap Trawler in play and pay a visit to value town. The draw/discard matches this archetypes gameplan beautifully, often giving you a way to get clunky, expensive artifacts stranded in your hand to the graveyard while drawing you up to a fresh seven.

#16. Cursed Recording

It took me the majority of Duskmourn’s Limited lifecycle to realize this was a reference to The Ring. Watch the Cursed Recording, die in seven days. Clever!

I also think this is highly underrated right now. To summarize, you copy an instant or sorcery each turn for free, but you’re capped on how many spells you can cast. Double Vision for 1 less mana, essentially. The thing is, how many more spells do you really need to cast if you’re doubling them? If you ever get close to the danger zone, bounce it back to your hand, sac it to bargain, or generously gift it to someone else with Blim, Comedic Genius.

#15. Rose, Cutthroat Raider

Junk tokens are pretty good, since they usual equate to just drawing a card. Rose, Cutthroat Raider is small for its cost, but it also creates Junk without ever having to engage in combat itself. The refund on sacrificing Junk makes it more likely you’ll be able to get full value off the cards you exile, and you can even stack up Junk and sacrifice them all in one turn for a huge burst of mana.

#14. Hammer of Purphoros

We’ve already seen haste appear multiple times; Hammer of Purphoros gives the entire team haste. Fervor isn’t a card I’m crazy about, but Fervor isn’t an artifact. Artifacts have bonus synergies that discount cards with artifact affinity. Artifacts can be pulled out the graveyard way easier in red with effects like Scrap Mastery. Hammer can take advantage of these synergies while giving commanders like Osgir, the Reconstructor a way to tap the turn it comes out and granting its tokens haste to immediately attack.

#13. Hexplate Wallbreaker

Isshin, Two Heavens as One and Wulfgar of Icewind Dale both showcase the “attack triggers” archetype. Hexplate Wallbreaker gives you more combats for more shenanigans. Not only is this a great fit for decks that just want more combats, it comes with a token and is an equipment– two relevant abilities specific strategies want. Those strategies also tend to win through combat, making the extra combat on each of your turns brutal to deal with, as even a creature board wipe won’t remove the threat of double combats in the future.

#12. Dowsing Device / Geode Grotto

If you’re playing a deck with artifact creatures and you’re red, you need to try out Dowsing Device. It’s a 2-mana haste enabler on its own, and it throws around extra damage on every artifactfall trigger. Think of it like a Reckless Fireweaver that grants haste to creatures. Sometimes you won’t even want to transform it into Geode Grotto, but you’re up a land if you do, and you get a more concentrated version of the effect that targets one creature at a time.

#11. Battlemage’s Bracers

Battlemage's Bracers does a fair impression of Illusionist's Bracers. The costs are shuffled around a bit, and in exchange for having to pay for the copy, it grants the equipped creature haste. Commanders like Dynaheir, Invoker Adept and Feldon of the Third Path want as many ways to duplicate activated tap abilities as possible. One extra mana per activation is incredibly affordable. This is an easy inclusion for commanders with tap abilities.

#10. Experimental Synthesizer

As a humble common, Experimental Synthesizer does what many other powerful commons do: It generates just a bit too much card advantage for its cost and thus is excellent. You don’t have to sacrifice it to its ability for the second card, making it work disgustingly well with cards like Deadly Dispute and Krark-Clan Ironworks. It's left a major impact on the Pauper format, and in Commander, it can be a close equivalent to Preordain and other cantrips with upside in decks that are able to pop it without needing to pay for the samurai.

#9. Gauntlet of Might

Is Gauntlet of Might worth the $100-200 price tag for a Reserved List card? No, you could just play Caged Sun or something similar instead. But it’s still a mana doubler and anthem in one card, which is powerful enough to take a top slot.

#8. The Reaver Cleaver

Treasures are here to stay, and The Reaver Cleaver is interested in giving you lots of them. It often can pay for itself with a single attack, sometimes two or threefold. The initial costs and risks of getting it into play and on something are the major hurdles holding it back, but in decks with Brass Squire or with commanders that can equip for free like Shagrat, Loot Bearer, this card is disgustingly powerful.

#7. Combustible Gearhulk

The Gearhulk cycle all are pretty solid cards in their own right, and while Combustible Gearhulk isn’t the best of the cycle, it can still be a beating. Cards like Goblin Welder can cheat the casting cost after looting it away with something like Faithless Looting. And by pointing its trigger at the player with the lowest life, you’re getting better and better chances of getting three cards on a 6/6 first striker. That’s some value. This is a great option in decks running big artifacts and ways to cheat them in.

#6. Molten Gatekeeper

I will not apologize for putting Molten Gatekeeper this high on the list. Impact Tremors effects are just very, very good in Commander, and the unearth on this card makes it so much better than counterparts like Witty Roastmaster. Being an artifact also gives it inherent synergies with artifact commanders like Alibou, Ancient Witness or Breya, Etherium Shaper.

#5. Cursed Mirror

Cursed Mirror is by far the best 3-mana red rock. It enters and becomes a hasted copy of whatever the scariest thing on the battlefield is while copying any spooky enters the battlefield trigger. Sometimes you’ll just choose a Farhaven Elf and go get a free basic. Other times you can copy an Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and punch for a ton while annihilating the Ulamog player in spite. It has a high floor and an even higher ceiling.

#4. Legion Extruder

The difference between Legion Extruder on its own and this Big Score card in a dedicated artifact deck is immense. Snipe a small creature and pump out an assembly line of 3/3s for the rest of the game—that’s what you’re signing up for when you slot this in.

#3. Slicer, Hired Muscle

Slicer, Hired Muscle has made a splash in cEDH as one of the most efficient aggressive commanders the format has ever seen. It gets passed around the table, comes out as early as turn 1, and can wrack up easy damage on each player's turns. It pairs great with stax effects (which I’d recommend talking about in a Rule 0 conversation if you want to play any version of this commander) to keep unfair decks from winning out of nowhere while you smash in with brutal damage turn after turn.

#2. Harnfel, Horn of Bounty

Birgi, God of Storytelling is a messed-up Magic card. Harnfel, Horn of Bounty is also a messed-up Magic card, and it’s the backside of the storm engine. It can turn every card in your hand into two temporary exile cards which is sometimes exactly what you need to get a bit more gas on one explosive turn to take over a game. In decks like Prosper, Tome-Bound or Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald, it generates value as you cast the exiled cards.

#1. Embercleave

Embercleave ends games. Usually, it comes in right before damage and turns a non-lethal attacker into a game-ending trample double-striker. Most 2-mana double strike tricks are temporary, but this is an equipment that sticks around for many turns to come, and if unanswered, threatens to swiftly drop opponents like flies. Flash, +1/+1, double strike, trample, at instant speed, for just if you’re attacking with a measly four creatures. Early, you’re happy to just use it as a trick to eat a blocker, and late you’ll knock somebody out with commander damage accidentally.

Best Red Artifact Payoffs

You’d be hard-pressed to find anything that cares about artifacts and cares that they’re specifically red. Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded comes to mind as a god that can cheat in artifacts from hand and might get a boost from your devotion count, but that’s about it.

However, there are plenty of red cards that pay you off for artifacts, so that’s where I’d start. Mechanized Warfare is a small damage amplifier for both red sources and artifacts, and cards like Pyrite Spellbomb and Gauntlet of Might are restricted by color identity, and therefore only fit in decks that can play red cards.

There’s no shortage of red artifact commanders, including Slobad, Iron Goblin, Daretti, Scrap Savant, Krenko, Baron of Tin Street, and Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant. And that’s just looking at mono-red commanders.

Delirium cards might also incentivize you to slot some artifacts into your deck. Red has access to Dragon's Rage Channeler, Fear of Missing Out, Unholy Heat, and Fear of Burning Alive as powerful delirium cards. Pyrogoyf and other cards that care about card types might also make the entries on this list more appealing.

Wrap Up

Harnfel, Horn of Bounty | Illustration by Eric Deschamps

These red artifacts are sure to pack a punch at your next FNM or game night. Heaters like Embercleave and Slicer, Hired Muscle are sure to become must-answer threats, while little value options like Experimental Synthesizer bring a bit more value and streamline your gameplans in classic commanders like Feldon and Daretti.

Whether you’re exploring Boros equipment or just want some extra goad goodness, picking up some of these artifacts will at minimum embolden your collection with trade pieces somebody will want for a deck they’re brewing. Some of the lower-ranked options need some help to fit perfectly into a list, like equip cost discounts or niche archetype support, but each and every artifact can majorly empower the decks it’d show up in.

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Have a great day, and good luck brewing with these excellent artifacts!