Master Thief
Creature — Human Rogue
When this creature enters, gain control of target artifact for as long as you control this creature.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Zendikar Rising Commander
- Price
- $0.11
- EDHREC rank
- #15398
Master Thief hands you a permanent artifact at the cost of keeping a 2/2 alive — a real board impact that scales with whatever your opponent has invested in. It slots cleanly into artifact-theft strategies, but at five mana and zero evasion, it lives and dies by whether you can protect it.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Anowon, the Ruin Thief
Anowon, the Ruin Thief runs a Rogue-tribal engine that rewards hitting opponents and milling their libraries, and Master Thief qualifies as a Rogue while also snagging whatever artifact they'd rather keep — meaning it pulls double duty as a tribe member and a threat-neutralizer in the same slot.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Master Thief sees essentially no play in Legacy or Vintage, where artifact interaction is faster and cheaper and a five-mana creature without immediate protection is a liability. Commander is where it actually gets considered — artifact-heavy pods are common, the theft effect is permanent as long as the creature survives, and Rogue-tribal commanders like Anowon give it a tribal tag to justify the slot. Outside those specific builds, even in Commander it faces stiff competition from cheaper or harder-to-answer theft effects.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.11 bulk tier
At $0.11, Master Thief is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard, not demand. That price is stable precisely because the card sees narrow play, so there's no pressure pushing it up.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.