The Commander
Ward—Pay 2 life.
Artifacts you control have "Ward—Pay 2 life."
Exhaust — 
, 
, Exile X artifact cards from your graveyard: Each other nonartifact creature gets -X/-X until end of turn. (Activate each exhaust ability only once.)
Guide
Gameplan
Build a resilient Dimir artifacts deck that floods the board with cheap artifacts protected by Winter's blanket Ward, then loop value out of the graveyard until you fire the exhaust ability as a one-sided board wipe. You play a midrange-control game—ramp on artifacts, grind card advantage, and pick the right moment to exile a fistful of artifacts from your yard for a massive -X/-X sweep that leaves your own creatures (and all your artifacts) standing.
Strengths
- Built-in, taxing protection (Ward—Pay 2 life) for both Winter and your entire artifact base makes the board very sticky
- A scalable one-sided board wipe that hits opponents' creatures while sparing your artifact creatures and tokens
- Dimir gives premium removal, card draw, tutors, and graveyard recursion
- Only two mana to deploy, so you start protecting artifacts and building toward the sweep early
Weaknesses
- The exhaust ability fires only once, so a poorly-timed sweep is a wasted plan
- Needs artifact cards in the graveyard, so graveyard hate badly disrupts the payoff
- Ward protects but doesn't stop sacrifice, edicts, or board wipes that don't target
- Color identity lacks efficient enchantment removal and big mana ramp outside artifacts
Key Cards
- Mishra's Bauble — Free artifact that cantrips and naturally feeds the graveyard for Winter's exhaust sweep.
- Urza's Saga — Makes artifact tokens that Winter immediately protects and assembles toward the exhaust count.
- Goblin Engineer — Buries artifacts into your graveyard, fueling the -X/-X ability while tutoring key pieces.
- Emry, Lurker of the Loch — Mills artifacts into the yard and recasts them, doubling as fuel and value for Winter.
- Ichor Wellspring — Cheap card-advantage artifact that loves dying into the graveyard to power the sweep.
- Trading Post — Sacrifices and recurs artifacts at will, stocking the graveyard for an enormous one-sided wipe.
Upgrade Path
Tighten the artifact base around cheap, self-replacing pieces and ways to load the graveyard (Mishra's Bauble, Ichor Wellspring, Goblin Engineer, Emry) so the exhaust sweep is always lethal-sized. Add fast mana (Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, signets) and tutors (Vampiric Tutor, Fabricate, Whir of Invention) to assemble compact artifact combos. Lean into recursion engines like Trading Post and Goblin Welder to make the graveyard a renewable resource and keep your protected board overwhelming.
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
- ▸Grind to a dominant board protected by Ward, then sweep opponents with the exhaust ability and attack
- ▸Assemble an artifact-based combo (e.g., infinite mana or sacrifice loops) for a finishing payoff
- ▸Win through incremental card advantage and evasive Dimir threats while opponents can't profitably interact
Archetypes
- Artifacts (Midrange Value) — Winter protects every artifact you control and turns a stocked artifact graveyard into removal.
- Control — Dimir removal plus a one-sided board wipe lets you stabilize and grind opponents out.
- Aristocrats — Sacrificing artifacts for value also loads the graveyard for the exhaust sweep.
- Reanimator/Recursion — Recurring sacrificed artifacts maximizes graveyard fuel and repeatable value.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BU), by popularity.
