Mindless Automaton
Artifact Creature — Construct
This creature enters with two +1/+1 counters on it.
, Discard a card: Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
Remove two +1/+1 counters from this creature: Draw a card.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Edge of Eternities Commander
- Price
- $0.14
- EDHREC rank
- #4820
Mindless Automaton trades stored counters for cards, making it a repeatable draw engine in any shell that can load counters onto it for free — the cost is a four-mana 0/0 body that does nothing without support. Under Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate or alongside Wizard Class, that support arrives fast enough that the Automaton becomes genuinely dangerous; without it, you're paying four mana for a paperweight.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate
Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate proliferates every time a colorless creature with counters enters, which means Mindless Automaton enters with extra +1/+1 counters and keeps accumulating them — converting that pile into cards is exactly what the deck wants to do with surplus counters.
Kilo, Apogee Mind
Kilo, Apogee Mind cares about putting +1/+1 counters on artifacts, and Mindless Automaton slots in as both a counter sink and a draw outlet — remove two counters, draw two cards, repeat whenever Kilo reloads the supply.
Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
Mindless Automaton can sacrifice down to a 0/0, die, and return at end of turn under Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker — each loop nets cards and resets the counter engine for the next turn.
Inspirit, Flagship Vessel
Inspirit, Flagship Vessel pushes +1/+1 counters onto crew members, giving Mindless Automaton a steady income stream that it can cash out for cards whenever the hand runs dry.
Zabaz, the Glimmerwasp
Zabaz, the Glimmerwasp adds a counter to every modular trigger, and Mindless Automaton's counter-to-card conversion turns that incidental accumulation into a repeatable draw engine across the modular chain.
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 |
Mindless Automaton is a Commander card through and through — the 100-card singleton format gives it the time and the synergy density to shine, and counter-centric commanders turn it into a legitimate draw engine rather than a slow novelty. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but competes against cantrips and draw spells that cost a fraction of the mana and don't require a setup tax, so it never sees play there. Modern shares the same problem: four mana for conditional card draw is a non-starter in a format that values efficiency above all else. Oathbreaker can support it in the right counter-heavy shell, but the smaller deck size means you'll find the engine pieces faster and the Automaton is more likely to be redundant.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Wizard ClassMindless AutomatonHardened Scales
Infinite card draw; Infinite draw triggers
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
Wizard ClassMindless AutomatonBranching Evolution
Infinite card draw; Infinite draw triggers
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
Wizard ClassMindless AutomatonPir, Imaginative Rascal
Infinite card draw
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
Yawgmoth, Thran PhysicianCrystalline CrawlerMindless AutomatonBranching Evolution
Infinite draw triggers; Infinite looting; Infinite self-discard triggers; Near-infinite proliferate
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
$0.14 bulk tier
At $0.14, Mindless Automaton is pure bulk — you're picking it up for a dime out of a commons box or rounding out a cart. That price is stable; there's no reprint pressure needed on a card this cheap, and its narrow synergy ceiling keeps demand from ever spiking.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.