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Aether Refinery

Artifact

If you would get one or more {E} (energy counters), you get twice that many {E} instead.
{T}: You get {E}, then you may pay one or more {E}. If you do, create an X/X black Aetherborn creature token, where X is the amount of {E} paid this way.

CMC
6
Mana cost
{4}{R}{R}
Color identity
R
Rarity
rare
Set
Modern Horizons 3 Commander
Price
$1.05
EDHREC rank
#5022
Buy on TCGplayer
Aether Refinery card art
Aether Refinery turns every artifact token your board generates into a rebuy trigger — at three mana, that payoff arrives early enough to matter. Satya, Aetherflux Genius decks run it in over 70% of lists for a reason: stack enough token production and Automated Assembly Line becomes your reload button every combat.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Satya, Aetherflux Genius

Satya, Aetherflux Genius

70.3% of decks · synergy 0.64

Satya, Aetherflux Genius triggers Aether Refinery on every attacking token copy she creates, turning a single swing into a hand-refill and a board-rebuild simultaneously.

02
Saheeli, Radiant Creator

Saheeli, Radiant Creator

62.7% of decks · synergy 0.61

Saheeli, Radiant Creator floods the board with artifact token copies, and Aether Refinery converts that token density into card advantage at a rate few three-mana artifacts can match.

03
Dr. Madison Li

Dr. Madison Li

57.3% of decks · synergy 0.51

Dr. Madison Li generates artifact tokens as a core function of her game plan, making Aether Refinery a natural draw engine that scales directly with how fast her board develops.

04
Liberty Prime, Recharged

Liberty Prime, Recharged

50.5% of decks · synergy 0.44

Liberty Prime, Recharged produces artifact tokens as combat fuel, and Aether Refinery ensures each wave of tokens replaces itself — keeping gas in hand through the long game.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Aether Refinery is a Commander card through and through — the multiplayer game length and token-heavy artifact strategies that define the format are exactly what it needs to generate meaningful value. In Legacy and Vintage, where it's technically legal, the three-mana setup cost and dependency on a token board make it far too slow to see serious play. Commander is the only format where Aether Refinery earns its slot, and there it can be genuinely powerful in the right shell — artifact token decks with reliable attack triggers will draw multiple cards per turn cycle.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$1.05 cheap tier

At $1.05, Aether Refinery sits in the easy-include tier — the kind of card you pick up without budgeting for it. It sees heavy play in Satya builds and holds that price on demand rather than scarcity, so it's unlikely to crater.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

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