Living Artifact
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant artifact
Whenever you're dealt damage, put that many vitality counters on this Aura.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may remove a vitality counter from this Aura. If you do, you gain 1 life.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Fourth Edition Foreign Black Border
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #28182
Living Artifact turns every point of damage you take into a future mana advantage — enchant a Sol Ring or any high-output artifact and the counters stack fast. It's a niche piece that rewards life-loss-heavy or group-slug strategies and goes nowhere in most fair decks.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Living Artifact is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but the formats where it could theoretically see play don't really want it. In Commander, it finds its best home in decks that spend life aggressively — Yawgmoth, Thran Physician or Atraxa, Praetors' Voice shells can accumulate counters quickly, but there are tighter payoffs competing for the same slot. Legacy and Vintage have the card pools to abuse it, yet neither format has shown meaningful interest — the effect is too slow and the artifact dependency too narrow to fit into the combo and tempo decks that dominate both. Living Artifact is a Commander curiosity at best.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Living Artifact isn't currently available, which reflects its position as an old, rarely-traded card with thin market activity. If you're hunting a copy, expect to dig through bulk bins or older collections rather than major singles listings.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.