Karn wants a deck that makes huge amounts of mana for giant spells. It also suits a deck that fills the table with artifacts that make mana and draw cards.
Mana cost
Colorless
Power / toughness* / *
RarityMythic
Karn's power and toughness are each equal to the greatest mana value among artifacts you control.
At the beginning of your upkeep, add for each artifact you control. This mana can't be spent to cast nonartifact spells. Until end of turn, you don't lose this mana as steps and phases end.
Picked for what they do in Karn's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Karn's color identity.Mana ValueThe total amount of mana a card costs, all added up. A card costing two generic and one green has a mana value of three. Wizards renamed this from "converted mana cost" in 2021, so older cards and articles may still use the old name.Open the full glossary
explain how Karn works in tricky situations. They come from Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic.RulingThe official answer to how a card works in a tricky situation. Most rulings are written by Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic, and a few are notes from Scryfall, the card database Magic players use. A ruling explains a card. It does not change what the card says.Open the full glossary
Wizards of the Coast12 May 2023
Karn's last ability isn't a mana ability, even though it adds mana. It uses the stack and it can be responded to. Use the number of artifacts you control as the ability resolves to determine how much mana to add.
Wizards of the Coast12 May 2023
The ability that defines Karn's power and toughness works in all zones, not just the battlefield. As long as Karn is under your control and still an artifact, its own mana value will count. In most cases, it'll be at least 5/5.
Wizards of the Coast12 May 2023
The mana produced by Karn's last ability can be spent on anything that isn't a nonartifact spell. This includes casting artifact spells, paying costs to activate abilities of both artifact and nonartifact permanents, paying ward costs, and so on.
Color identityEvery color of mana symbol on a card, in its cost and in its rules text. Your commander's color identity sets the limit for your whole deck: every other card has to fit inside it. A deck led by a green and white commander cannot play a card with any blue in its color identity.Open the full glossaryBig ManaBig Mana decks build up far more mana than usual, then spend it on huge spells. Some are X spells, which have X in their cost and get stronger the more mana you put in.Open the Big Mana pageMana StorageKeeps mana from disappearing at the end of a step or turn, or makes a burst of mana last until end of turn. Normally unused mana empties as each step ends; these cards let you save it up for something enormous. Kruphix, God of Horizons, Omnath, Locus of Mana, UpwellingOpen the Mana Storage pageRampAn effect that accelerates your mana, giving you a reusable mana source beyond the usual one land per turn. Cultivate Rampant GrowthOpen the Ramp pageBig ManaProduces several mana at once from a single source, rather than the one extra mana most acceleration gives you. That surplus is what lets a deck cast something enormous far ahead of schedule. Compare Ramp, which is a reusable source you build up over time, and Burst Mana, which pays out once and is then gone. Cabal Coffers, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Savage VentmawOpen the Big Mana pageGame ChangerCards that warp the game disproportionately around themselves, requiring immediate answers.What the brackets meanArtifactsAn artifacts deck fills the battlefield with artifacts, cards like Sol Ring that stay in play and keep working turn after turn. Played together, they give you extra mana and extra cards. A handful of keywords turn up on artifacts again and again. Equip means you pay a cost to attach an Equipment such as Swiftfoot Boots to one of your creatures. If that creature dies, the Equipment does not go to your graveyard with it. It stays on the battlefield, and you can pay the cost again to attach it to another creature. Crew means you tap your own creatures with enough total power between them to turn a Vehicle such as Smuggler's Copter into a creature until the end of the turn. A Treasure is a token you can sacrifice (put into your graveyard on purpose) for one mana of any color. A token is a game piece that a card makes, not a card from your deck, and Pitiless Plunderer is one card that makes Treasures. Affinity makes a spell like Frogmite cheaper for each artifact you control. Unearth brings a card like Combat Courier back from your graveyard for one turn, and then it is exiled. Modular creatures like Arcbound Ravager enter with +1/+1 counters and pass them to another artifact creature when they die.Open the Artifacts pageArtifact PayoffRewards you for having artifacts: counting them, triggering off them, or getting cheaper as you play more. Urza's Saga, Mox OpalOpen the Artifact Payoff pageStat ScalingA creature whose power and toughness count something, so it grows as the game goes on. It might count lands you control or cards in your graveyard. Craterhoof Behemoth, Psychosis CrawlerOpen the Stat Scaling page
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for each artifact you control. This mana can't be spent to cast nonartifact spells. Until end of turn, you don't lose this mana as steps and phases end.
Open the full glossary
