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Lifesmith

Creature — Human Artificer

Whenever you cast an artifact spell, you may pay {1}. If you do, you gain 3 life.

CMC
2
Mana cost
{1}{G}
Color identity
G
Rarity
uncommon
Set
Scars of Mirrodin
Price
$0.11
EDHREC rank
#29143
Buy on TCGplayer
Lifesmith card art
Lifesmith turns every artifact you cast into a life payment — pay {1} when the artifact resolves and you gain 3 life, which is a fine rate but a strictly optional one you have to remember to activate. It's a two-mana do-nothing until you cast artifacts, and in Commander that conditional lifegain rarely justifies a deck slot unless your gameplan generates enough artifacts to make the drip meaningful.

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

Lifesmith is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but seeing play in none of them competitively. In Commander it finds its best home in artifact-heavy decks — think Breya, Esper Sentinel chains, or anything that casts a dozen artifacts per game — where the cumulative lifegain can stabilize against aggressive pods. In Legacy and Modern, two mana for a 1/1 that requires additional mana investment per artifact is far too slow; the formats move before Lifesmith's triggers add up to anything. Oathbreaker mirrors the Commander case: it's playable in artifact-storm shells but cut for more impactful options at the same slot.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.11 bulk tier

At $0.11, Lifesmith is deep bulk — buy it out of a commons box or a dollar bin without a second thought. Bulk artifact payoffs with this narrow a condition don't appreciate, so treat it as a free inclusion or skip it entirely.

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Sources

Mentioned

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