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Marionette Master

Creature — Human Artificer

Fabricate 3 (When this creature enters, put three +1/+1 counters on it or create three 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature tokens.)
Whenever an artifact you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, target opponent loses life equal to this creature's power.

CMC
6
Mana cost
{4}{B}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
rare
Set
The Brothers' War Commander
Price
$2.97
EDHREC rank
#1400
Buy on TCGplayer
Marionette Master card art
Marionette Master drains opponents for each artifact that hits the graveyard — stack enough tokens or a Nim Deathmantle loop and the table dies in one turn. The six-mana cost is real, but in artifact sacrifice shells like Prosper, Tome-Bound it pays for itself the turn it lands.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Prosper, Tome-Bound

Prosper, Tome-Bound

72.0% of decks · synergy 0.66

Prosper, Tome-Bound generates a Treasure on every exile trigger, and Marionette Master turns each of those Treasures into a life-loss event the moment they're cashed in — the deck was already spending artifacts, now it kills people for it.

02
Gyome, Master Chef

Gyome, Master Chef

52.9% of decks · synergy 0.50

Gyome, Master Chef churns out Food tokens by the handful, and Marionette Master converts every sacrifice into a drain trigger, turning a life-gain engine into a win condition without adding a single extra card.

03
Vazi, Keen Negotiator

Vazi, Keen Negotiator

50.7% of decks · synergy 0.48

Vazi, Keen Negotiator hands out Treasure to opponents, then takes it back — Marionette Master punishes the whole table each time those tokens get sacrificed, closing games that might otherwise stall into a political draw.

04
Ashnod the Uncaring

Ashnod the Uncaring

46.4% of decks · synergy 0.45

Ashnod the Uncaring doubles activated abilities on artifacts and creatures, which means a single sacrifice outlet can fire Marionette Master's drain trigger twice per artifact — a fast path to lethal at a table that isn't ready for it.

05
Teysa, Opulent Oligarch

Teysa, Opulent Oligarch

46.6% of decks · synergy 0.45

Teysa, Opulent Oligarch generates a stream of tokens on opponents' turns, feeding both sacrifice fodder and political leverage; Marionette Master converts that stream into a clock that pressures everyone at the table simultaneously.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Commander is where Marionette Master lives — artifact sacrifice is a deep archetype in the format, life totals start at 40, and the Fabricate clause means it arrives with its own fodder. In Modern and Pioneer it's too slow and too narrow; dedicated drain strategies have cheaper, more redundant payoffs that don't cost six mana. Legacy and Vintage could theoretically support it in artifact shells, but the competition at that mana value is brutal and those formats rarely want a creature this fragile. Oathbreaker can work if the signature spell enables sacrifice at instant speed, but the 40-life default makes Marionette Master's drain triggers feel smaller than they do in Commander.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

45 decks
Eirdu, Carrier of Dawn // Isilu, Carrier of TwilightViscera SeerMarionette Master

Eirdu, Carrier of Dawn // Isilu, Carrier of TwilightViscera SeerMarionette Master

Infinite LTB; Infinite ETB; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite death triggers; Infinite scry 1; Infinite lifeloss

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Price Context

Current price

$2.97 cheap tier

At $2.97, Marionette Master sits in the sweetspot where you're not paying a premium and you're not settling for a budget substitute — it is the card. Prices at this tier tend to be stable for workhorse pieces in established archetypes, so pick it up when you need it without overthinking the timing.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

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