The 15 Most Valuable Darksteel Cards

Darksteel Colossus | Art by Carl Critchlow

Hey, everyone! Welcome to part two of my coverage of original Mirrodin block! Last time, I wrote about the 15 most valuable cards in the eponymous first set, Mirrodin. Today, we're moving on to the small set Darksteel (DST). This set continued Mirrodin's heavy, heavy emphasis on artifact cards, with a small twist: you'll find several indestructible artifacts here with — you guessed it — "Darksteel" in their names. Did any of these resilient permanents make this list? Let's find out!

15. Skullclamp

Market Price: $5.81

We're kicking things off with a card so menacing to both 1/1 creatures and opponents that it's banned in Legacy and Modern. Fortunately for cardboard sadists and card advantage enthusiasts, you can still play it in Commander, where it sees play in over a million decks, and Cube, where it helps token- and creature-heavy aggressive strategies some staying power. Bennie Smith over at EDHREC.com included this in his list of 10 best uncommons in Commander.

Famously, Magic: The Gathering's head designer Mark Rosewater admitted that the busted Equipment fell through development's cracks when it was changed from giving +1/+1 to +1/-1 late in the playtesting process. The latter ability is technically worse, anyway; who'd want to kill their own creatures?

14. Arcbound Reclaimer

Market Price: $6.46

This 0/0 that is actually a 2/2 is a member of the Never Been Reprinted Club, but it still sees a smattering of play in Commander decks led by Zabaz, the Glimmerwasp, Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate, and Marchesa, the Black Rose.

Putting an artifact you recur from the graveyard on top of your deck is definitely worse than having it in hand, but modular is the type of ability you need critical mass of, and you can even assemble an infinite combo with Reclaimer, so it has its uses:

13. Darksteel Reactor

Market Price: $6.77

I've covered a few alternate win condition cards so far in this column, and I've learned two things about them. First, they tend to be in and around the set's most valuable cards rankings, probably because they're so unique and can have entire decks built around them. Second, they tend not to be reprinted much. Sure enough, Reactor has only been reprinted once on paper, in the Edge of Eternities Commander product, where it works really well with its deck's headliner, Kilo, Apogee Mind. Twenty turns to win the game seems like an eternity, sure. But Commander is chock full of powerful proliferate and counter augmentation effects, like Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus, Zimone, Paradox Sculptor, and Vorel of the Hull Clade.

If you're really impatient, and don't mind jumping through some pretty significant hoops, you can count to 20 all at once with Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought and Resourceful Defense:

12. Savage Beating

Market Price: $7.37

When this card isn't spending its free time being named with Pithing Needle as a way to make opponents salty when victory is well out of reach, it's actually killing them in combos with Magar of the Magic Strings, Surge to Victory, Spellbinder, and more.

It also recently made an appearance in Bennie Smith's The Thing deck tech on EDHREC. It's absolutely on-theme and can turn a combat step into a quick clobberin'.

11. Shield of Kaldra

Market Price: $8.01

I am reminded of the economics concept of complementary goods, things that go well together and that usually go up in demand and price together. Kaldra's armor set is a great example, with Sword of Kaldra making Mirrodin's most valuable cards list and this shield hanging in there with Darksteel's luminaries.

If you're playing one, you're probably playing the whole set. Or, put a little more accurately, if you think the concept of suiting your commander up with a full set of armor like they're in Diablo II is appealing, then you're definitely running the trio. I'd wager we'll see Helm of Kaldra in Fifth Dawn's top 15, especially since that's the one that pays you off for having all three pieces in play.

10. Myr Matrix

Market Price: $8.63

This shines in pretty much one archetype only: Myr! It's pretty good there, which explains why it's in nearly 60% of EDHREC user submitted decks with Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch at the helm. It actually spiked when they were printed in Phyrexia: All Will Be One Commander. Its play rates in other decks are pretty low, making this the perfect example of a one-hit wonder and NBRC member that will hold on to its value for a while. It does combo with Intruder Alarm and Mana Echoes, giving it extra punch in Urtet decks.

9. Sword of Light and Shadow

Market Price: $9.16

I love playing a Sword in my Cube decks. They protect my aggro threats from commonly played removal and threaten to bury opponents in card advantage and value while making your attacks better. EDHREC players love wielding some light and shadow, too, seeing as this is in almost 70,000 decks. It's most commonly played in Equipment-themed decks led by brawlers like Ezio Auditore da Firenze, Syr Gwyn, Hero of Ashvale, and Cloud, Midgar Mercenary.

Bennie Smith ranked it 4th in the mega-cycle of swords here. I agree, but I do wonder if Sword of Wealth and Power deserves a place on the list, given that it's a great riff but one that doesn't appear to have originated on Mirrodin like the others. Seems like I love a good nitpick, too.

8. Geth's Grimoire

Market Price: $9.36

Throwing the book at opponents in 60-card formats seems like far too slow a way to advance your game plan, especially in 1v1 games. It doesn't affect the board, and you need discard effects to make it go brrr and fill your hand. With Premodern not an option for Darksteel cards with updated borders, it's once again up to Commander to house the Grimoire. Fortunately, it's the ideal format for discard decks, with Kefka, Court Mage, Tinybones, Bauble Burglar, Tergrid, God of Fright, and many more utilizing this well. It's a pretty common edition... er, addition to these decks.

It's also a bit of a collector's item, having only been reprinted in The List. If you're interested in building your own library, DougY has you covered with his ranking of colorless "book" cards.

7. Nemesis Mask

Market Price: $10.69

Darksteel is an artifact set, though you wouldn't know it just from reading this list, would you? Like many of the cards on this list, Mask is strong role-player in certain Commander builds, including Voltron decks with commanders that relish facing blockers, like Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer, whose release coincided with a price spike, Maarika, Brutal Gladiator, and General Marhault Elsdragon.

You can also make this do work by equipping it to something with deathtouch, like any of Shelob, Child of Ungoliant's Spiders or something already holding a Basilisk Collar. Killing all your opponents' creatures is cool and all, but I love how Anti-Venom decks can take advantage of cards you don't often see in the format, like Valor Made Real or Repentance, to make himself terrifyingly gigantic.

6. Arcbound Ravager

Market Price: $17.37

I started playing MTG in 2010, which feels like ages ago now, but was still too late to see Ravager, Disciple of the Vault, Thoughtcast, and Shrapnel Blast wreak havoc on Standard, enough to get multiple cards from that deck banned in 2005.

I have, however, seen this absolute Kirby of a card hoover up opponents' boards in Modern Affinity and Hardened Scales decks. These strategies are still powerful in 2026, and, given that Ravager also sees play in Commander, you've got a pretty valuable and iconic card on your hands!

5. Trinisphere

Market Price: $25.08

Who needs Premodern to prop up your value when you're practically a staple in Modern, Legacy, and Vintage? Not Trinisphere, which is one of the best artifacts you can keep in your sideboard to tutor up with Karn, the Great Creator in various flavors and formats of Tron decks, which harness the mana generation power of Urza's Mine, Urza's Power Plant, Urza's Tower, and baby of the bunch Urza's Workshop when it's legal.

It hates on aggro and combo decks alike, slowing the game down to a snail's pace — or whatever the equivalent of that is in blisteringly fast Vintage — to let you cast monsters the nature of which are also dictated by format. Emrakul, the Promised End or Ugin, Eye of the Storms is usually enough to get you over the line in Modern, for example.

4. Panoptic Mirror

Market Price: $25.49

Once banned in Commander, Mirror returned to the format last year and picked up a ton of value in the process. It's never been reprinted, so you're going to have to dip into Darksteel to assemble infinite turns with Time Warp, Temporal Manipulation, Expropriate, and other extra turn effects.

It's still a Game Changer, though, so keep that in mind when pulling out your Obeka, Splitter of Seconds deck, just to name an example of a good home. Alex Wicker has written some illuminating articles about playing with Commander brackers over on EDHREC.

3. Darksteel Forge

Market Price: $36.76

Seeing play in almost 100,000 EDHREC decks is a good place to be for a nine-drop that isn't a creature you can Reanimate. What you can do with it, though, is build your own Super Plague Wind:

I'd also call it a staple in various artifact decks like the aforementioned Urtet, Karn, Legacy Reforged, and Urza, Lord High Artificer. Giving your board immunity from Wrath of God, Creeping Corrosion, and other board-clearing effects just makes this a great inclusion, especially when its steep cost is mitigated by commonly played mana-generators, like Thran Dynamo, Basalt Monolith, Everflowing Chalice, and more.

2. Mycosynth Lattice

Market Price: $39.25

What did I say about complementary goods? Forge and Lattice do see a lot of play together in Commander, though I'd venture to say that it is a little easier to make Plague Wind-esque combos work with the latter, since it's cheaper and it boasts a two-card combo with Vandalblast. It also locks opponents out of the game with Karn, the Great Creator, which gets you into a high bracket but certainly rewards you for your ruthlessness at that level.

And, while Forge sees more play in Commander, based on EDHREC data, it's Lattice with the greater cross-format appeal, showing up with Karn in Vintage (where Karn is restricted) and Legacy. I used to get absolutely wrecked by the one-two-punch out of Tron decks in Modern, but Lattice was banned there in 2020.

1. Sword of Fire and Ice

Market Price: $39.36

Protection from blue and red may not be as big of a benefit as the shield Sword of Light and Shadow offers, but its other abilities make it the more powerful sabre in Commander. Gaining three life helps in specific archetypes, but getting to draw a card and potentially snipe down a utility creature trumps a Raise Dead. Still, you're likely to be slotting both into your Equipment decks, and, sure enough, EDHREC data shows they're played together in almost 50% of decks.

SoFI has been reprinted multiple times, including as a Kaladesh Invention, a Double Masters mythic rare, and a Bloomburrow Special Guest, but its iconic status as one of the best Equipment of its generation and its broad utility help earn its place at the top of this list.

Darksteel and Recreation

Despite being a small set, DST has proven to be a powerful one, contributing cards to formats from competitive Modern and Vintage to... often also competitive Cube and Commander. Sure, none of these cards breached the $100 mark, but that just means more players get to run them in Commander decks!

What's your favorite card from Darksteel that didn't make the list? Let us know! I'll catch you at Fifth Dawn.