The Commander
: Target permanent becomes an artifact in addition to its other types. (This effect lasts indefinitely.)
: Gain control of target artifact. (This effect lasts indefinitely.)
Guide
Gameplan
Memnarch is a mono-blue control commander whose two abilities combine into a brutal theft engine: turn anything into an artifact for , then steal it for . You ramp hard with artifact mana, protect Memnarch, then untap and use big mana to permanently strip every threat off your opponents' boards before closing with overwhelming card and resource advantage.
Strengths
- Permanently steals lands, creatures, planeswalkers — anything — once they're artifacts, which is unmatched board control.
- Mono-blue gives access to the format's best counterspells, card draw, and untap/clone effects.
- Synergizes with artifact ramp, cost reducers, and untappers that turn his pricey abilities into a repeatable loop.
- Theft is permanent and color-agnostic, so he steals from any deck regardless of opponents' colors.
Weaknesses
- A 7-mana, slow, mana-hungry commander that does nothing the turn it lands without protection.
- Abilities are expensive to activate repeatedly without untap or cost-reduction support.
- Huge threat magnet that invites removal, counterspells, and the whole table ganging up.
- Mono-blue lacks efficient creature removal and struggles to interact at instant speed with resolved threats absent the steal engine.
- Vulnerable to artifact wipes and Stony Silence / Karn effects that shut off your mana base.
Key Cards
- Voltaic Key — Untaps Memnarch (when paired with mana rocks) and enables explosive multi-activation turns.
- Power Artifact — Reduces Memnarch's activation costs, making theft and artifact-conversion vastly cheaper to chain.
- Rings of Brighthearth — Copies his steal and artifact-making abilities for
, doubling your theft per activation. - Thousand-Year Elixir — Lets you tap Memnarch the turn he enters and untaps him to fire multiple abilities.
- Unwinding Clock — Untaps all your artifacts each opponent's turn, fueling repeated activations and mana.
- Mind Over Matter — Discard cards to untap Memnarch and mana rocks for near-infinite theft loops.
- Mycosynth Lattice — Turns every permanent into an artifact, so Memnarch can steal anything with just .
- Sai, Master Thopterist — Provides bodies and value as your artifact count balloons, plus chump blockers to protect Memnarch.
Upgrade Path
Lean into untap and cost-reduction pieces — Rings of Brighthearth, Voltaic Key, Power Artifact, Thousand-Year Elixir, and Mind Over Matter — to convert Memnarch into a repeatable engine. Add Mycosynth Lattice to make the second ability steal anything for , then top the curve with strong protection (Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, counters) so he survives to activate. Round out with premium mono-blue draw and ramp like Mystic Remora, Rhystic Study, and fast mana rocks to hit seven mana well ahead of the table.
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
- ▸Stealing every opponent's threats and lands until you grind them out of resources.
- ▸Mycosynth Lattice + untap engine to lock the table by repeatedly stealing all permanents.
- ▸Beating down with a board built entirely of stolen creatures.
- ▸Big mana payoffs like a stolen value engine or a finisher artifact to close the game.
Archetypes
- Control — Mono-blue counters and removal keep you alive while Memnarch slowly dismantles the table.
- Theft / Steal — His core ability permanently confiscates opponents' best permanents — the deck's identity.
- Artifacts — Artifact ramp, cost reducers, and untappers power and accelerate his expensive abilities.
- Combo — Mycosynth Lattice plus untap loops or Mind Over Matter enables locks and overwhelming engines.
Combos
- Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch + Krark-Clan Ironworks + Scrap Trawler + Myr Retriever
→ Infinite colorless mana, Infinite creature tokens, Infinite death triggers
- Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch + Ashnod's Altar + Scrap Trawler + Myr Retriever
→ Infinite colorless mana, Infinite creature tokens, Infinite death triggers
- Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch + Magistrate's Scepter + Coretapper + Myr Galvanizer
→ Infinite turns, Lock
- Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch + Krark-Clan Ironworks + Junk Diver + Myr Retriever
→ Infinite colorless mana, Infinite creature tokens, Infinite death triggers
- Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch + Ashnod's Altar + Junk Diver + Myr Retriever
→ Infinite colorless mana, Infinite creature tokens, Infinite death triggers
Combos via Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (U), by popularity.
