Is Embraal Gear-Smasher good in Commander?

Embraal Gear-Smasher

Creature — Human Warrior

, Sacrifice an artifact: This creature deals 2 damage to each opponent.

CMC: 3
Mana cost
Color identity: R
Rarity: common
Set: Aether Revolt
Price: $0.14
EDHREC rank: #22410

Embraal Gear-Smasher turns artifact sacrifice into direct damage — each artifact you feed it pings a player or planeswalker for 2, which adds up fast in the right shell. The cost is real: it needs a tapped artifact every time, so it rewards dedicated artifact-heavy builds rather than casual good-stuff lists, but alongside Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator the triggers compound quickly.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

Format	Verdict
commander	legal
legacy	legal
modern	legal
pioneer	legal
standard	not legal
vintage	legal
pauper	legal
oathbreaker	legal

Commander is where Embraal Gear-Smasher does its best work, specifically in artifact-sacrifice decks that generate disposable tokens — Treasure, Clue, and Food producers turn it into a damage engine that scales with the table's life totals. In Pauper it's legal but faces stiff competition for the sacrifice-payoff slot and the 2 damage per artifact rarely closes games fast enough at common power level. Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Pioneer are all legal on paper, but Embraal Gear-Smasher is far too slow and conditional to see meaningful play in any of them.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

15 decks