Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #1253 - Artifact Color Pie

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

This podcast explores how each of the colors interacts with artifacts.

I'm pulling up my parking space. We all know what that means. It's time for the drive to work. Why am I in a parking space? Well, so today is the release of the Switch 2 and my son pre-ordered it, but something went wrong with the pre-order. So I had to get up early in the morning to come wait in line to get it, which I did. So I'm starting from the parking lot today, but I promise we will get a

full drive to work. So today's topic is somebody on my blog asked me about what exactly, how do all the colors interact with artifacts? That was the question. So I thought it would be fun to do a full dive into artifacts and the color pie. How do each of the colors interact with them? And so I'm gonna go through a couple categories. This is how I'm gonna look at each color. I will first talk about destruction. I then will talk about the battlefield,

then the graveyard, then the hand and library. So I will talk about the different zones and talk about how each sort of of how the color interacts through those zones With artifacts that is today's topic. Hopefully it sounds like fun. I love talking color pie. So, okay So we're gonna begin with white. I'm gonna go in what we call WU Berg order white blue black red green That's the order that we put stuff in the files and the collector numbers go in that order Okay, so white so let's start with destruction So white is one of three colors that is good at destroying artifacts

Green is primary red and white are secondary we'll get to red and green But anyway white is able to destroy artifacts white can mostly White actually is the one color that can destroy just about anything. One to one weakness is it's not good at targeted land destruction. But other than that, and these days, who's good at targeted land destruction?

But white can destroy multiple things. A lot of the time these days, we tend to do what we call disenchant effects, or naturalize effects in green, where it destroys an artifact or enchantment. But these days because that's kind of narrow, we usually give you a third mode. You destroy artifacts, enchantments, or ritual of flying or some third thing. So white can destroy artifacts. White doesn't tend to destroy multiple artifacts, especially like all artifacts. We usually, white doesn't tend to destroy multiple artifacts, especially

like all artifacts. Green does that, we let red do that, but usually white is pinpoint artifact removal. But it does have the ability to do that. Also in an artifact set, we also could make an arrest variant. Arrest is an enchantment that not only keeps them from attacking or blocking, but can turn off the abilities. And so sometimes we'll make a rest for artifacts, or sometimes it's artifact or creatures, for example. But in an artifact center set,

we can't let white sort of turn off an artifact rather than just it. And also white does have oblivion ring type effects where you can remove something and an artifact set White can target let's say an artifact or a creature for example. So White has a couple of different tools in dealing with artifacts. Technically speaking it also has taxing so it could make you have to tax to keep an artifact or make it more expensive play artifacts and in theory you can do that we don't do tons of that

stuff I mean it's in whites color pie okay so now let's get to the battlefield so um white is I would say secondary behind blue in caring about artifacts blue is number one which we'll get to that in a sec, but white cares about them. It can do a little bit of getting reward for having artifacts. It can do a little bit of rewarding artifacts. Usually what happens is in an artifact set, we'll let white do what it normally does, and then maybe give it a little extra juice. Like, I boost all creatures, but I boost artifact creatures a little bit extra.

You know, that will, in sets with an artifact theme, we can find ways doing white effects that sort of white can have a little extra enhancement. White is top at making tokens. Those tokens could be artifact creatures and artifacts that needs it. So, white tends to make small tokens, but a lot of the time the value of making artifact tokens is there a resource that you can use. And so, making a lot of small 1-1 white tokens that are artifacts can be quite useful. White does have access to a couple of the tokens,

artifact tokens. Obviously white is good at life gains, so white has access to food. White can have a little bit of access to clues. White can get some access. It doesn't do a lot with treasure. We allow white to tax a little bit with treasure, but it's very limited in how much.

White does not get to use treasure much. It more often will make food or maybe make clues, or it will make artifact creatures. It's probably the most common ways to produce artifact tokens in white. And I mean, when in an artifact set, it's with something like metal craft where you care about having a certain number of artifacts in play, white can do that, white can do the threshold one where it just wants an artifact in play.

White is allowed to enhance creatures, so it's allowed to enhance artifact creatures. White also can do a little bit of making things cheaper if it's in the subset that it matters. So, sorry, White, the other thing that White has a lot of synergy with as far as artifacts is, two things, White has a lot of synergy with equipment and can have synergy with vehicles. With equipment, white is just one of the more combat oriented colors along with red and so we basically nowadays we don't do it we do a lot less generic slash colorless artifacts. Colorless artifacts with generic costs. Nowadays a lot more are colored.

White and red tend to be the colors to get more equipment, like colored equipment, because we can be a little more aggressive with that. White also tends to have pilots and things that have some synergy with vehicles. So white is where blue is a little more loves artifacts at whole, white is a little more pinpoint in that it has extra synergies normally with subsets like equipment and vehicles. Okay, let's get to the graveyard. So white is has the ability to get artifacts out of the graveyard both to hand and to the battlefield. White, we've been trying to really, we've been increasing white's access to the graveyard over the last five years and so white really is the color now that, once again, it's not

great at interacting with land, although sometimes we make blanket things. White likes getting small things out of the graveyard, so every once in a while we'll like get a card with a mana value two or less to your hand that does technically hit land, but there's just better things to do with it. So land usually isn't the priority. We never sort of specifically call out land, because White has the least interactions with like getting land and such. I mean some ability to fetch stuff out of the library, especially planes. And white is probably the best color at what I'll call reanimating artifacts. That is, taking artifacts from the graveyard and putting them onto the battlefield. We've been really giving white a little more synergy with black is king of creature reanimation, but we really made white kind of king of non-creature

or non-permanent that aren't creatures, getting those back. White doesn't really do as much with getting spells back. That's another color. But as far as artifacts, white is about as good a color, I would say the best color, of getting artifacts back from the graveyard, like both to hand enter the battlefield Can white care about artifacts in the graveyard it can a little bit?

It's it is second to blue and sort of caring what artifacts I could imagine in a set that had a both Artifact and graveyard theme maybe white could care a little bit about having artifacts in the graveyard White theme. Maybe White could care a little bit about having artifacts in the graveyard. White occasionally will eat the graveyard as a resource and it could eat artifacts out of the graveyard I guess in the right set. Okay let's get to hand in the library. White doesn't do a lot of tutoring for artifacts. It can tutor for specifically equipment and vehicles. And we give white, so when you, what we call Impulsing, which is you look at the top end card of your library and find something, white can search for things in which the larger subset can get you artifacts.

We like sometimes white getting cheaper things and those can be artifacts. So white definitely has some interplay with getting artifacts from the library. Not the best at it, but it has some ability to do it. And if it's very pinpoint stuff like vehicles or equipment, it can do it very well. Okay, that is white. Let's move on to blue. So blue, we'll start with destruction. Blue does not destroy artifacts. Blue can lock down artifacts. It has what we sort of call dehydration effects, where it locks things down. So clearly, it can lock down artifact creatures. It can even lock down artifacts.

But note that unless the artifact has a tap ability, we do let blue every once in a while overwrite abilities, but usually that's on creatures. We don't do it too much on blink artifacts, on non-creature artifacts. So blue does not have a lot of, blue doesn't do destruction effects. So blue really, I mean, blue is not the color on anything that it does well at destruction. But I will say blue does have some answers to artifacts. And so let's segue into the battlefield, and I'll sort of

hit this. Blue can steal artifacts. Blue can copy artifacts. Blue can animate artifacts. Blue has a lot of interaction with artifacts in ways, some of which help you, some of which can hurt the opponent. So blue can't destroy artifacts, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have interaction with artifacts. There's plenty of interaction between copying and stealing and transforming and such.

So blue is number one in what I will call artifact synergy. It's the thing most common to make artifacts cheaper or produce mana that you can catch artifacts with. It can definitely enhance artifacts. It has the ability to turn artifacts into something bigger. For example, a very common like blue effect in an artifact set might be target non-creature artifact or even target, could be a creature, target artifact becomes a five-five flying creature or something, you know, something big that is scary and that it can turn things into that. And it can turn non-creature artifacts into creature artifacts as well.

And in general, if you want to do sort of artifact boosting, blue is the most likely to do sort of artifact boosting, blue is the most likely to do that. White can do a little bit of it on creatures, but blue just does a lot of, I like artifacts. I reward you for having a lot of artifacts. It likes metal craft. It likes threshold one rewards. It just likes rewarding you for playing artifacts.

Like blue's, one of blue's big themes is artifacts represent technology and blue loves technology. So, one of Blue's, I mean, philosophically, Blue is all about wanting to be the best version of itself it can, right? It's all about reaching its potential. And in order to do that, it understands that it needs access to tools and technology. And artifacts represent that tools and technology.

So blue of all the colors is like, if we want to make cards that just interact positively with artifacts, we just have the largest range of things that we can do are sitting in blue. OK, graveyard. So blue used to be able to get artifacts out of the graveyard to hand, if you go all the way back to like antiquities. But we have since moved that out of blue into white. So blue doesn't really get artifacts back from the graveyard anymore. It can get

spells and it's in sorceries, but it doesn't get artifacts. It used to. I mean, we decided we wanted to make white a little more focused on graveyard stuff, and kind of we decided that white wanted to be king of non-creatures in graveyards. White can get at creatures out of graveyards, but it's secondary to black. But it's king of the non-creature stuff, at least the permanents. Blue is really good at getting spells, instance of sorceries out of the graveyard, but that's not today's topic. So there's not a lot of interaction Blue has with the graveyard as far as artifacts. Cannot reanimate.

Doesn't get it back to hand. It doesn't really get artifacts out of the graveyard anymore. In a set with graveyards, maybe you can care about artifacts being in the graveyard because it cares about it. Because it cares about artifacts, if there was a set in which there was an artifact theme in the graveyard theme,

maybe it would care about artifacts in the graveyard, but it doesn't interact with the graveyard much. Then we get to hand and library. Okay, well, blue is king of counter spells. Blue can, for example, counter artifacts. In fact, it's interesting. We have a spell called a null that is an old spell that for one blue mana you can counter an artifact or enchantment. When in original Mirrodin, I actually made a card called malfunction that for a single blue countered an artifact and we ended up turning into a null because they felt even though the in the limited the card was very playable because Mirrodin had a lot of artifacts,

they felt like it could do better than that, so we turned it into a null. Blue can also, it can steal artifacts spells, like as you're playing them. It can copy them as you're playing them. So Blue has a lot of interaction. Oh, and Blue can fetch. It can tutor. It can tutor for artifacts. In fact, it is the best at tutoring for artifacts. So it can go get whatever subs that you want. We also do stuff like transformational stuff where you turn an artifact on the battlefield into an artifact in your deck. So the idea of blue has the largest, just the largest swath of artifact stuff. Meaning if you're gonna make an artifact set, blue has the riches, blue has cares the most, and it has the most

individual things that we can do. Okay, let's get into black. We'll start with destruction. Black cannot destroy artifacts. It is the weakness of black. For a long time it couldn't destroy enchantments either, but we since decided to change that. One of our general rules is that we like for permanents, evergreen permanents exist in all things. We like it, usually three colors that can deal with it. Because creatures are so central and there's so many creatures, all five colors

have some answer to it. Although only three, I would not destroy it, but we do let green do fighting and stuff. But anyway, artifacts has three colors that can destroy it. So that is green, white, and red, as I said. Black is specifically a weakness. Black harnesses the power of death. Well, artifacts don't care about death. So black is, it's one of its areas of weakness. Now that doesn't mean that black can't interact with them.

Black for example can kill artifact creatures, that's fine. Early magic Richard and Alpha made terror that didn't destroy a black creature or an artifact creature because it was the flavor of terror. Like you can't scare a creature that's used to scare you things and you can't scare this creature that has no emotions. And for a while we sort of carried it over like, oh, black's weakness is it can't destroy black creatures, destroy artifact creatures. And eventually we were like,

why can't black destroy artifact creatures? And then why can't black destroy black creatures? Black doesn't care. So we carried that restriction a little longer than we should, although that was years ago. Anyway, black can destroy artifact creatures, no problem, but non-creat creature artifacts is a problem It does not do well

It can't enchant them. It can't punish people for having them You know it can do things where people lose life for having artifacts like it can punish people from artifacts It can't get rid of the artifact Okay, now we get to play oh I forgot real quickly when I was talking about Blue. Blue is king of clues which I mentioned in white but Blue is king of clues. Blue we really are taking treasure away from Blue. We did it in Pirates for a while so Blue shouldn't do it. Blue doesn't do life gains so it's not doing food. It can do blood, I guess, because blood is rummaging,

which blue can loot. OK, back to black. We let black have treasure a little tiny bit. It has to come with some sacrifice. So black, red and green are the colors that have access to colors, so they get it freely. Black has to like to sack something or pay life, or there has to be some additional cost that comes with it but black with those guidelines can do

treasure. Black can make artifact creature tokens all the colors can make artifact creature tokens in a set where it's relevant. Blue is the color that least makes tokens. Black is probably number four but it can. The number one thing about black and artifacts on the battlefield is black is king of sacrificing artifacts. So black is very good at using artifacts as a resource. For that reason, usually we make other colors better at making artifact creature tokens, just because white's

really good at it. So white and black can play together, and white can make the tokens, and black can attack them. Black does have a little bit of, black can have artifact synergies. Black can care a bit about, in the right set, care about equipment a little bit. Black can definitely have some of the synergies that go with

artifacts. But black is definitely one of the colors that has the least. Black and green are the ones that kind of interact the least, at least positively, with artifacts. It does some in artifacts that will lean into strengths for Black strengths. As far as the graveyard goes, we don't let Black reanimate artifacts. We do let Black have a little bit of getting the artifacts back to the hand. We don't do that a lot, and we really tend to do it in artifact-themed sets. And even then, we've been doing it less than we have in the past.

But it's, we do a little bit of a get back a creature artifact. We'll do a little bit of that sometime. But we're doing it less than we used to. And then we get to hand Black and Tutor for anything. So Black is allowed to tutor for an artifact. We would never call out Tutor for an artifact. That's like a blue thing. Meaning we let Black get anything, which can be

artifacts, but we don't ever say Tutor for, Search for an artifact That's just because black black doesn't specifically have blacks role with artifacts is black will use whatever it needs It will use artifacts and it uses whatever it whatever gets it what it wants So it has a little bit of synergy with our facts and artifacts that's we can give it more synergy black loves sacking artifacts and using them as a resource and so it's one of those popular things to do in an artifact set is somebody else tends to provide the resources and black can sacrifice the resources. Okay next up is red. So red we'll start with destruction. Red is number two after

green I would say, just a smidgen head of white. The only reason that red is a little bit head of white is we do mass destruction of artifacts in red. We don't really do mass destructions in white. Red will do stuff that will destroy lots of artifacts. Red still gets common artifact destruction, once again, usually in modes these days, where one of the modes of a

modal effect in common will be destroyed in artifact. Red can blow up artifacts, that's no problem. As far as on the battlefield, red is number one in making treasure. Red also likes blood. Red can do a little tiny bit of clues. It doesn't really do food. But Red like black.

Red is secondary in sacrificing artifacts. So it's good at doing that. Along with white, Red has some synergy with equipment. And we let it do a little bit with vehicles. The case with some pilots in red will do that. Red really likes equipment because red and white tend to be the agro colors and equipment is good in agro and exo. We do create some synergy there. So next segue into the graveyard.

Red is allowed to get artifacts out of the graveyard in one of two capacities. One is it can do it temporarily. Like it can get an artifact out of the graveyard for the turn. It also does something we call heat shimmer, which is it can copy something for the turn, but then it goes away. And it's allowed to heat shimmer for artifacts, so it can do that. The other thing we let Black, I'm sorry, Red do is sometimes we'll let Red get stuff out of the graveyard, artifacts out of the graveyard, onto the battlefield, but usually there's a cost. The most common thing we do is you have to sack an artifact. So it sort of like

turns an artifact from play into something in the graveyard. So Goblin Tinker, Trash for Treasure, that kind of effect where we like letting Red have some ability to sort of mess with artifacts in the graveyard and get them back. But unlike White, which does whole cloth get them back, Red, there's some additional sort of element that comes to it, usually a sacrifice of some part. And then we get to hand in library. Red can tutor for equipment. We don't let it tutor for artifacts at large, but it can get equipment in a vehicle focused out. I

guess maybe you could get it maybe in a vehicle. Okay, I think anything else there in red. Red, like I said, has, red definitely has some synergies with artifacts and we like how it interacts with them. We tend to like where red can have a little more aggression that when using its artifacts, that's where we like equipment and stuff like that. Red can also make artifact tokens. Red's about third in token making and then it's a set that cares. The other thing I will say though is in a set where artifacts matter a lot of times we don't make the artifacts in red because red is sacrificing them we'll make them in like white and then make synergy between them. Although red can do a little bit of artifact

token making. Okay that is red. We move on to green. So green is number one in artifact destruction. So the idea philosophically is green cares about nature and cares about natural things. And it does not like artifice. And so a lot of artifacts, not all artifacts, a lot of artifacts are unnatural to green. Now given we use artifacts to represent objects. There are magical objects that are natural.

So there are things that green likes that are artifacts. If it's a natural item and not changed in some way, that is something that green might be like. I mean, we do make green artifacts. Green is good at blowing things up. Green can blow up multiple artifacts. Green can even up multiple artifacts. Green can even exile artifacts. Green does not like artifacts.

And in fact, one of the challenges of Green is that Green has the least amount of synergies with artifacts. We have found places to do that in sets. Green is number two in making treasure because Green's good at making mana. So in an artifact set, if we want Green to be able to produce artifacts, treasure is a nice way that Green can do that. Green also has food.

Green is number one in making food. So normally with any one set, we usually have one artifact token we're making. So it's not often other than a more more advanced set, we'll have treasure and food. But whatever it is, whether it's treasure or food, Green can make both of those. It can get a little bit of clues. It can get a little bit of blood. Most artifact effects that we've made tokens out of,

Green can at least dabble in in if not be good at. And then OK, so that in play, green is allowed to have a little bit of synergy with artifacts. Because green fills off, it does not like artifacts. We're careful with how much and how we make green interact with artifacts. The one thing is that just because you're good at destroying something doesn't mean you can't like the

things that you destroy. White is best at making enchantments. It's best at destroying enchantments. Although, white philosophically doesn't hate enchantments, kind of like green hates artifacts. It's a little more baked into its philosophy. So on the battlefield there's some token making you can do. It can make token creatures. It's a little better making larger token creatures. So if you want to make larger artifact creatures, that's something

green can do. It can have some synergy with artifact creatures because green is king of caring about creatures. So there can be some synergy with artifact creatures. When we get to the graveyard, green can regrow anything. So that includes artifacts to hand. It does not reanimate artifacts. And we don't call out. You'll never see a green card say return an artifact to your hand.

It'll say return a card in your graveyard to your hand. No, that card can be an artifact. So it does have the ability to get artifacts. But for an aesthetic purpose, we don't call that out specifically. We get to hand, I mean, Green can tutor for artifact creatures, I guess, because it can tutor for creatures. But Green really doesn't have the synergies.

I think in a set where there's just a large focus, we will let Green have access sometimes to metal crafts or things like that. It can have some synergies in sets that really care. Like in Kaladesh, for example, we designed elves that part of the, you know, that artifacts were part of the natural order on Avishkar, so that like, that was acceptable. That not every world is nature and artifice opposites.

There are some worlds mirrored with another world where the element of the nature of the world, the elves of the world had metal in them. So there was a lot of accepting what was natural, can at times have an artificial component. Artifacts is part of that. Anyway, that, my friends, is the color pie on artifacts. I will say that one of the things we've realized over time is it's important that every color have a relationship with all the basic car types. And it's important that every color have both

a positive and negative. Like every color should be able to do something positive with every card type and every color should have, well, I guess not every color should have answers. We like the idea that card types have weaknesses. So, but that said, even black who can't destroy artifacts can, you know, like black can do discard. I know I didn't mention that. Black can do discard, for example. So one of the ways to deal with artifacts is, well, Black can get to them in your hand before you play them. Black can deal with them.

Black can do enchantments that enchant artifacts. It can punish you for having artifacts. It's bad at removing artifacts, but that doesn't mean that it can't have any answers. And so a lot of what happens over time, in early Magic, we sort of pinpointed things. Like these are the two colors that interact with the graveyard.

But then we started doing graveyard sets. Like, well, we have to have things that everybody does something with the graveyard, because it's a graveyard set. So for all the basic car types and zones, themes that we keep coming back to, we really massage the color pie so that it does, you know, as explained today, every color has some interaction with artifacts in a positive way, some interactions in a negative way, and that's just sort of key to a robust color pie.

So anyway, if you guys liked today's podcast, I could do another one of these on other aspects of other car types and such. But anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the talk today. As always, I love talking color pie. But anyway, guys, I'm not at work. So we all know that we all know what that means. It's the end of my drive to work. So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to make a magic Hope you guys enjoyed today's talk and I'll see you all next time. Bye. Bye