Price$2.07 – $9.00
Buy on TCGplayerMystic Forge
Artifact
LegalRank #425
You may look at the top card of your library any time.
You may cast artifact spells and colorless spells from the top of your library.
, Pay 1 life: Exile the top card of your library.
Why is this card good?
Mystic Forge is a colorless card advantage engine that turns your library into a second hand for artifacts. The key is that activated ability: tap, pay 1 life to exile the top card. Combined with cost-reducers, this becomes a degenerate loop.
The classic combo is Mystic Forge + Sensei's Divining Top (recast Top off the library, draw, repeat) plus a mana reducer like Foundry Inspector or a free artifact like Mox Opal/Etched Oracle — you churn through your deck and assemble wins. It's a staple in cEDH artifact and combo decks built around commanders like Urza, Lord High Artificer or Emry.
It also shines in any heavy-artifact deck (Karn, Osgir, Daretti) as raw, repeatable advantage even without the combo — you're effectively drawing extra cards every turn.
Don't play it outside artifact-dense decks. If fewer than ~25 of your cards are artifacts/colorless, you'll exile spells you can't cast and stall yourself.
Related cards
Future Sight
Same top-of-library card advantage, casting any card from top.
Vizier of the Menagerie
Top-of-library creature casting in similar engine role.
Bolas's Citadel
Cast top of library paying life, top-deck advantage engine.
Sensei's Divining Top
Top-of-library manipulation to enable Mystic Forge casting.
Scroll Rack
Filters top card to set up free spells off the top.
Etali, Primal Storm
Top-deck value engine in colorless/artifact decks.
Soul of New Phyrexia
Colorless artifact engine piece in same shells.
Garruk's Horde
Cast permanents from top of library, similar advantage engine.
Printings (14)
Played by these commanders
Ulalek, Fused Atrocity100% of 2
Szarekh, the Silent King100% of 2
Dr. Madison Li100% of 1
Zhulodok, Void Gorger100% of 1
Rulings (6)
- 2019-07-12
Because you never "cast" a land card, Mystic Forge doesn't allow you to play an artifact land from the top of your library.
- 2019-07-12
You must follow the normal timing permissions and restrictions of the spells you cast from your library.
- 2019-07-12
You still pay all costs for a spell you cast from your library, including additional costs. You may also pay alternative costs.
- 2019-07-12
Mystic Forge lets you look at the top card of your library whenever you want (with one restriction—see below), even if you don't have priority. This action doesn't use the stack. Knowing what that card is becomes part of the information you have access to, just like you can look at the cards in your hand.
- 2019-07-12
If the top card of your library changes while you're casting a spell, playing a land, or activating an ability, you can't look at the new top card until you finish doing so. This means that if you cast the top card of your library, you can't look at the next one until you're done paying for that spell.
- 2019-07-12
If the top card of your library has a morph ability, you can cast it face down from the top of your library, even if it's normally not a colorless card.