Karn, Silver Golem (Original Art)

Karn, Silver Golem is a five-mana 4/4 Legendary Golem Artifact creature from Urza’s Saga (1998), that gets -4/+4 until end of turn whenever it blocks or becomes blocked. For (1): target noncreature artifact becomes an artifact creature with power / toughness equal to its mana value until end of turn. Karn’s ability to animate artifacts made it useful in older formats as a win condition in Stax-style decks, and a way to turn lock pieces into real threats. It also has a combo potential with a few notable cards e.g. Karn + Mycosynth Lattice to animate opponent’s lands, then kill them by “0-mana creatures can’t survive damage” tricks. When paired with Liquimetal Coating, it turns anything into an artifact to animate, protect, or destroy through combat. During early type 2 (Standard), Karn, Silver Golem was part of Kai Budde’s 1999 World Championship-winning Red-Artifact “Wildfire” deck. This deck focused on generating large amounts of mana with artifacts like Grim Monolith, Thran Dynamo, Worn Powerstone, Fire Diamond and Voltaic Key to cast powerful creatures like Masticore and Covetous Dragon, often wiping the board with Wildfire. Karn saw a lot of play in the early 2000’s in Workshop (MUD) decks. He could animate Smokestack, Tangle Wire, and other artifacts to attack or increase pressure. Today, he’s not competitively played anymore in Vintage, as newer cards like Karn, the Great Creator have replaced him. In Premodern, Karn is currently played in decks like Welder Tinker / UR Stax, Covetous Wildfire, and MUD Stax builds. Karn is most commonly seen in Commander / EDH – where he serves as a mono-colorless commander, enabling all-artifacts decks or as a utility creature in commanders like Kozilek, the Great Distortion. Karn, Silver Golem is not on the Reserved List.