Riptide Gearhulk
Artifact Creature — Construct
Double strike
Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
When this creature enters, for each opponent, put up to one target nonland permanent that player controls into its owner's library third from the top.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- UW
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Aetherdrift Promos
- Price
- $2.90
- EDHREC rank
- #4002
Riptide Gearhulk enters and immediately draws cards equal to the number of artifacts you control, stapling a massive card-advantage engine onto a six-mana 5/6 body — the question is whether your deck can pay that cost and exploit the payoff. In Mendicant Core, Guidelight shells bristling with artifacts, the answer is almost always yes.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Mendicant Core, Guidelight
Mendicant Core, Guidelight is the premier home for Riptide Gearhulk because the commander generates artifact tokens that simultaneously inflate the Gearhulk's draw count and fuel further activations, turning a single ETB into a multi-card refuel.
Sharuum the Hegemon
Sharuum the Hegemon decks run dense artifact counts by default, and Riptide Gearhulk slots in as a payoff that converts that artifact mass into cards — Sharuum can also rebuy the Gearhulk from the graveyard if it dies, resetting the draw trigger.
Yorion, Sky Nomad
Yorion, Sky Nomad blinks permanents for value, and Riptide Gearhulk is exactly the kind of ETB-loaded creature that gets obscene when flickered — every blink cycle redraws a pile of cards proportional to your artifact board.
Kykar, Zephyr Awakener
Kykar, Zephyr Awakener produces Spirit tokens that can be sacrificed for mana, and those token-generating triggers combine with artifacts already in play to push Riptide Gearhulk's draw count well beyond two or three in a typical turn.
Brago, King Eternal
Brago, King Eternal's combat-damage blink applies to all nonland permanents, meaning Riptide Gearhulk gets a fresh ETB trigger every time Brago connects — in a blink-heavy artifact list, that can mean drawing five or more cards a turn.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Riptide Gearhulk does its best work: the format's singleton artifact synergy decks routinely hit the artifact counts needed to make the draw trigger backbreaking, and the 5/6 body survives enough combat to matter. Competitive 60-card formats like Modern and Pioneer rarely want a six-mana creature that does nothing until it resolves, and the formats with faster, leaner threats make it a sideboard curiosity at best. Legacy and Vintage have access to degenerate artifact shells, but those formats' payoff bar is set too high for a vanilla-statted draw engine that doesn't win the game immediately. Standard and Pioneer are theoretically viable homes when artifact synergy decks exist in the meta, though the mana cost keeps it marginal. Treat Riptide Gearhulk as a Commander card that happens to be legal elsewhere.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$2.90 cheap tier
At $2.90, Riptide Gearhulk sits in the cheap tier — low enough to slot into any artifact-synergy build without budget friction. It's a new card without a reprint history to lean on, so the price reflects current supply rather than proven long-term demand; grab it if the deck wants it, but don't treat the price floor as guaranteed.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.