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Karn, the Great Creator

Legendary Planeswalker — Karn

Activated abilities of artifacts your opponents control can't be activated.
+1: Until your next turn, up to one target noncreature artifact becomes an artifact creature with power and toughness each equal to its mana value.
−2: You may reveal an artifact card you own from outside the game or choose a face-up artifact card you own in exile. Put that card into your hand.

CMC
4
Mana cost
{4}
Color identity
C
Rarity
rare
Set
Magic Online Promos
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#1936
Buy on TCGplayer
Karn, the Great Creator card art
Karn, the Great Creator shuts off every artifact your opponents control the moment it enters — mana rocks, combo pieces, utility artifacts, all dead — while giving you a wish effect that fetches any artifact from outside the game. The cost is a four-mana planeswalker with no immediate board protection, but pairing it with Mycosynth Lattice turns that static ability into a total mana lockout, and in artifact-heavy shells like Osgir, the Reconstructor the toolbox alone justifies the slot.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Karn, the Great Creator carries two restrictions worth knowing: it's banned in Pioneer, where the Mycosynth Lattice lock proved too consistent and too fast for the format to answer, and it's restricted in Vintage, meaning one copy per deck in the format where the wish ability accessing a power-nine sideboard was the obvious concern. Commander gives it a pass on both counts — the singleton rule and the four-player table naturally dilute the lock's speed, and the wish ability is pointed at a single-card toolbox rather than a tuned sideboard full of broken artifacts. It remains fully legal in Modern and Legacy, where it sees real competitive play.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Osgir, the Reconstructor

Osgir, the Reconstructor

32.2% of decks · synergy 0.31

Osgir, the Reconstructor is an artifact recursion engine that constantly cycles pieces in and out of the graveyard, and Karn, the Great Creator turns that flow into a wish toolbox — fetching whatever artifact the situation demands and then letting Osgir reanimate it later.

02
Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant

Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant

30.9% of decks · synergy 0.29

Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant cheats artifacts into play for free, so having Karn, the Great Creator in the list means any artifact in your sideboard is effectively a free spell waiting to happen once Karn is on board.

03
Daretti, Scrap Savant

Daretti, Scrap Savant

26.7% of decks · synergy 0.25

Daretti, Scrap Savant turns discarded artifacts into recursive value, and Karn, the Great Creator adds a wish layer that lets Daretti decks find the exact missing piece — lock component, combo enabler, or silver bullet — without crowding the mainboard.

04
Karn, Legacy Reforged

Karn, Legacy Reforged

38.9% of decks · synergy 0.23

Karn, Legacy Reforged generates mana based on the highest mana value artifact you control, making it trivial to cast Karn, the Great Creator on curve and then use the static ability to neutralize opposing artifact mana while the wish digs up the relevant payoff.

05
Memnarch

Memnarch

24.2% of decks · synergy 0.21

Memnarch wants everything to be an artifact so it can steal permanents, and Karn, the Great Creator's Mycosynth Lattice line hands Memnarch exactly that — every permanent on the board becomes a valid target at once.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Current pricing data for Karn, the Great Creator isn't available in this snapshot, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for a live number before buying. Historically it has settled in the $10–20 range across various printings, with reprints pulling the price down noticeably each time — worth confirming which printing you're targeting before committing.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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