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Academy Manufactor

Artifact Creature — Assembly-Worker

If you would create a Clue, Food, or Treasure token, instead create one of each.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{3}
Color identity
C
Rarity
rare
Set
Modern Horizons 2
Price
$7.10
EDHREC rank
#263
Buy on TCGplayer
Academy Manufactor card art
Academy Manufactor turns any token-producing permanent into a tripling engine — every Food, Clue, or Treasure you make becomes three, and the snowball gets out of hand fast. It's the centerpiece of Chatterfang, Squirrel General lists that want explosive mana and clue-draw in the same line, and it's the reason The Cabbage Merchant decks are warping tables at 93% inclusion.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
The Cabbage Merchant

The Cabbage Merchant

92.7% of decks · synergy 0.91

The Cabbage Merchant creates Food tokens on a loop, and Academy Manufactor turns each one into a Food, a Clue, and a Treasure — which means every cabbage is also ramp, card draw, and another trigger waiting to happen. At 93% inclusion, it's essentially a second copy of the engine.

02
Jenny FlintMadame Vastra

Jenny Flint // Madame Vastra

84.5% of decks · synergy 0.81

Jenny Flint // Madame Vastra cares about clues, and Academy Manufactor converts every Food or Treasure trigger in the deck into an additional Clue for free. That's the difference between investigating once and drawing three cards for doing the same thing.

03
Morska, Undersea Sleuth

Morska, Undersea Sleuth

83.5% of decks · synergy 0.78

Morska, Undersea Sleuth wants as many clues as possible to fuel her draw-and-investigate loop, and Academy Manufactor guarantees every non-clue artifact token also produces one. The sheer volume of draw it enables makes it nearly mandatory at 83% inclusion.

04
Samwise Gamgee

Samwise Gamgee

81.2% of decks · synergy 0.78

Samwise Gamgee triggers off Food tokens, and Academy Manufactor makes sure every artifact-token trigger in the deck also generates Food — turning even Clue and Treasure production into life gain and Samwise triggers. It's a force multiplier on an engine that already wants density.

05
Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy

Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy

81.9% of decks · synergy 0.78

Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy scales on artifact tokens entering the battlefield, and Academy Manufactor tripling every token produced means Gimbal's ability fires far more often than the deck's raw token count would suggest. The combination turns modest artifact production into a Gremlin army almost immediately.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Academy Manufactor does its real work — the format's longer games give it time to compound, and the density of Food, Clue, and Treasure producers in the pool means it rarely sits idle. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but sees essentially no play; the formats move too fast and artifact-token synergies don't map onto those metagames. Modern is the one non-rotating format where it has a theoretical home, though dedicated artifact-token decks haven't broken through there yet. For Commander players, treat it as a staple in any deck generating two or more of the three token types.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

20,190 decks
Chatterfang, Squirrel GeneralWarren SoultraderAcademy Manufactor

Chatterfang, Squirrel GeneralWarren SoultraderAcademy Manufactor

Infinite LTB; Infinite ETB; Infinite colored mana; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite death triggers; Infinite lifegain triggers; Infinite lifegain; Infinite card draw; Infinite draw triggers; Infinite Treasure tokens; Infinite Clue tokens; Infinite Food tokens; Infinite creature tokens; Destroy all creatures opponents control; Reduce the toughness of creatures opponents control to 0

View on Commander Spellbook ↗
11,967 decks
Camellia, the SeedmiserPeregrin TookAcademy ManufactorDoubling Season

Camellia, the SeedmiserPeregrin TookAcademy ManufactorDoubling Season

Infinite ETB; Infinite lifegain triggers; Infinite lifegain; Infinite card draw; Infinite draw triggers; Infinite Clue tokens; Infinite Food tokens; Infinite +1/+1 counters on an infinite number of creature tokens; Infinite +1/+1 counters on Squirrels you control

View on Commander Spellbook ↗
11,212 decks
Camellia, the SeedmiserPeregrin TookAcademy ManufactorJaheira, Friend of the Forest

Camellia, the SeedmiserPeregrin TookAcademy ManufactorJaheira, Friend of the Forest

Infinite ETB; Infinite colored mana; Infinite lifegain triggers; Infinite lifegain; Infinite card draw; Infinite draw triggers; Infinite Treasure tokens; Infinite Clue tokens; Infinite +1/+1 counters on an infinite number of creature tokens; Infinite +1/+1 counters on Squirrels you control

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

There's no true budget replacement for Academy Manufactor because nothing else multiplies all three token types simultaneously — the closest analog is Lonis, Cryptozoologist for clue-heavy shells, which converts artifact creatures into clues rather than tripling tokens directly. If the goal is raw token volume rather than the specific tripling effect, Doubling Season does the same job at a much higher price point, making Academy Manufactor itself the budget option in that comparison.

Price Context

Current price

$7.10 mid tier

At $7.10, Academy Manufactor sits in the mid tier — affordable enough to include without agonizing, but priced to reflect how warped its presence is in Food, Clue, and Treasure decks. Given its 80%+ inclusion rates across multiple high-traffic commanders, that price is well-supported and unlikely to drift much lower.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.