DimirLegendary Creature — Human WizardGolbez, Crystal Collector
Mana value2Rank#4,548
The Commander
Whenever an artifact you control enters, surveil 1.
At the beginning of your end step, if you control four or more artifacts, return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. Then if you control eight or more artifacts, each opponent loses life equal to that card's power.
Guide
Gameplan
Golbez is a 2-mana Dimir artifact engine: flood the board with artifacts (especially cheap and token-generating ones), surveil to fill your graveyard and smooth draws, then every end step recur a creature and drain opponents for its power once you hit eight artifacts. You build a wide artifact base, grind value through repeated recursion, and close with reanimated bombs or incremental life loss.
Strengths
- Cheap, repeatable card advantage via end-step creature recursion plus surveil filtering each artifact ETB
- Surveil synergizes with graveyard payoffs, delve, and reanimation strategies
- Only two mana, so it comes down early and rebuilds easily after removal
- Artifact density supports treasure/token ramp and strong artifact synergy payoffs
Weaknesses
- Needs four (and ideally eight) artifacts online before the engine truly matters, so it's slow to start
- Heavily dependent on hitting artifact counts; a board wipe or artifact hate (Vandalblast, Bane of Progress) sets you way back
- Dimir lacks efficient artifact-recursion redundancy compared to other engines
- Recursion only returns creatures to hand, requiring extra mana to recast — can be grindy and clunky
Key Cards
- Sword of the Animist — Cheap artifact that ramps and counts toward your artifact thresholds.
- Mind Stone — Artifact ramp that triggers surveil and cantrips later, advancing both halves of Golbez's text.
- Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer — A reanimation target whose token-doubling plus treasures rapidly pushes you past eight artifacts.
- Myr Battlesphere — Enters making four tokens, instantly spiking your artifact count to enable the drain.
- Trading Post — Repeatedly makes Goat and treasure tokens to maintain artifact thresholds and recurs creatures.
- Gilded Goose — Generates Food artifacts to fuel counts and ramp while surveil smooths your draws.
Upgrade Path
Add fast artifact ramp and token producers (Sol Ring, Treasure makers, Myr Battlesphere) to reliably reach eight artifacts earlier, and lean into reanimation targets with high power and ETB value. Tighten the manabase with duals and add efficient interaction (counterspells, removal) plus protection for Golbez; high-end builds can incorporate artifact-token combos or Brudiclad to explode counts and close fast.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Repeated end-step life loss from recurring high-power creatures while at eight+ artifacts
- ▸Reanimating and recasting a finisher like Sheoldred or Massacre Wurm for incremental drain
- ▸Going wide with artifact tokens and swinging or using sacrifice/aristocrat drain
- ▸Artifact-based combo finishes (e.g. Brudiclad token armies)
Archetypes
- Artifacts — His entire text keys off artifact ETBs and total artifact count, rewarding a dense artifact shell.
- Reanimator — End-step recursion plus surveil self-mill lets you bin and rebuy huge creatures for value and drain.
- Aristocrats — The eight-artifact life-loss trigger and recurring sacrificial bodies pair well with drain and sac outlets.
- Tokens — Treasure, Myr, and Servo token makers flood artifact counts and create wide boards.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BU), by popularity.
