Artifacts are possibly the most powerful type of cards in all of MTG. Black Lotus and the moxes are all part of this genre, as well as many other amazing cards. This list is all about those powerful and useful artifacts that you can drop on the first turn for only one mana. There are many amazing cards on this list and some that just barely didn’t make it, so if your pick didn’t make it, please feel free to comment and let me know! Let’s take a look into these powerful cards and see just why they’re the best!

#20 Chromatic Star

Here’s a card that gives you the colored mana you need. It’s useful for decks that are five colors and doesn’t just give you mana. You also get to draw a card! That’s just a little bonus for you.

#19 Feldon’s Cane

This is one of the first MTG cards I ever owned. A kid on the school bus gave it to me and I thought it was awesome. I didn’t understand what it was, but it was awesome. Anyway, as it turns out, this card is awesome. It saves you from being milled at least once. Also, there are a few ways to combo with it. It’s a nice card for only one mana, and that’s why it made the list!

#18 Shuko

Well, this card may seem like an odd choice to some, but think about it. This card can be used for a few combos that require you to make something the target of a spell or ability an infinite number of times. There are several combos for infinit life with this card. And I guess it’s nice to have a card that can give something +1/+0 for only one mana and can be moved around on the field.

#17 Meek Stone

This card is for all those decks that revovle around swarming your opponent with little 1/1’s. It makes it so that big creatures don’t untap. It’s pretty powerful and appeared most recently in Seventh Edition. So, really not that recently at all! However, this card will likely see a reprinting in the near future. You can build a deck around it.

#16 The Rack

A nice card for a discard deck. If you’ve got your opponent down to having no hand then this card is three damage to them during their upkeep. That’s a pretty nice effect. There’s a rumor that this card is going to be reprinted in MTG 2010, but we’ll have to wait and see! It’s a card you can drop early in the game that let’s your opponent know they better watch out. They’re going to be without a hand sooner or later.

#15 Dead-Iron Sledge

This card is great offensively and defensively. It can turn a 1/1 into a monster and also can be used to scare someone away from blocking something you control. It’s a very interesting card and one of my favorite equip cards from Mirrodin.

#14 Cursed Scroll

Hmmm… This card… I hate it. Now, if you’re asking why this card is on the list, then you’re in the same boat as me! I checked around for combos with it and etc., but I couldn’t find anything. So, I didn’t want to put it on the list, but it retails still at around $10.00! Why? I’m not sure. I mean, it can be two damage a turn, but it doesn’t seem that reliable or efficient. It’s not the worst card ever, but it doesn’t seem like it should be on this list. If you can explain why this card is awesome to me it would be much appreciated. It just seems to be one of those things that’s eluded me about MTG.

#13 Liar’s Pendulum

This card allows you to draw a card every turn. Name a card that’s not even in your deck, and you get a card a turn. You do have to reveal your hand, but that’s not too bad as long as you’re confident that you can win.

#12 Black Vise

Some may think that this card should be switched in rank with The Rack, however I disagree. The Rack was recently reprinted in Time Spiral and there are many cards like it (in the sense that there are many cards that penalize a player for discarding cards or having none in their hand). However, cards that deal damage to a player based on having too many cards in their hand are much more hard to find. This card also has not been reprinted since Fourth Edition, making it a little more special. It’s a cool card also because it can do any amount of damage to a player, while The Rack can only ever do three.

#11 Sensei’s Divining Top

This card allows you to arrange your future draws for only one mana. It also can be used to draw one of those cards right away (at the cost of losing this card for a turn). It’s really strong and can really help you draw into what you need to win. It’s certainly one of the more useful Kamigawa cards.

#10 Executioner’s Capsule

This card is awesome because it’s a Dark Banishing, but an artifact version! You can play it at the beginning of a game and save it for later or do it all in one turn. It’s very useful because it’s an artifact! There are many ways to bring it back and use it again, while spells that bring instants and sorceries back from the graveyard are hard to find and sometimes hard to use. This card is the only colored artifact on the list, but it certainly deserves its place.

#9 Candelabra Of Tawnos

This card is pretty much only useful for infinite mana combos. If you’ve got a land that produces a little extra mana then it can be used to gain an extra two or three mana a turn, but it’s all about the infinite combo. It is an incredible card, but because it’s use is very limited it only comes in at number nine. It is quite a famous card though.

#8 Pithing Needle

This card disables a combo. That’s what it’s all about. It can also be used to stop little cards that do things like add mana or deal damage, but it’s really about taking an opponent’s combo out of the picture. It’s a great card for tournaments when it’s time to get serious!

#7 Library Of Leng

Before cards like Reliquary Tower, this was the card to have! It’s still powerful today though because it keeps you from discarding cards when your opponent forces you to. You have the option of putting the discarded cards on top of your library. That’s pretty useful!

#6 Votaic Key

This card was recently taken off the restricted list! It’s a pretty amazing card, even when not used with cards like Mana Vault and Grim Monolith. There are a lot of good artifacts that are fun to use more than once a turn. This is one card that I feel will soon go back on the restricted list. However, only time will tell. I can tell you this though, this card is great.

#5 Aether Vial

This is a card you play at the beginning of a game that can spell doom for an opponent. You can get a lot more creatures out with a card like this. Free creatures are incredible! Of course, they have to have a converted mana cost equal to the counters on Aether Vial, but that’s nothing to make a big deal of. This card is still good today and retails around $5.00. Anything that’s more than five years old and still sells for that much is good. Not to mention, it’s only an uncommon!

#4 Skullclamp

This card is really cool because of how fast it went on the restricted/banned lists! It can be comboed in many many ways and has ridiculous power. It’s one of the best examples of a card that the MTG staff should have realized was a little too powerful (especially for an uncommon!). It’s a piece of MTG history and is quite amazing.

#3 Grindstone

This card can mill an entire deck. It’s possible, though not probable. However, it can usually mill a lot! It’s one of the best mill cards ever printed and is still sought after today.

#2 Sol Ring

Two mana for the price of one? Well, this card is incredible. Some may say it deserves the number one spot, but I feel it falls short. It’s one of the most powerful mana accelerating cards in MTG and is another card that won’t ever be reprinted. It’s part of several combos, but perhaps not as much as the next card.

#1 Mana Vault

This card adds three mana to your mana pool for only one! It’s an artifact version of Dark Ritual! It can be used more than once, but this card is really about a first turn win. It’s an incredible card and another that appears on the restriced list (just like the last card). Just by reading what it does, you can tell it’s one of the older cards that existed before the MTG staff realized how powerful it really was. It’s a great card and the best one drop artifact of all time.