Thanks to Commander’s singleton nature, tutors are among the best tools you can use to improve your consistency. For the many Commander decks that need to see specific cards, tutors function as a second copy of anything you might need. This has, understandably, made tutors very popular in Commander, encouraging Wizards of the Coast to print tons of them. Thanks to the onslaught of new cards, it’s not uncommon for some older tutors to become forgotten over time.
This occasionally causes some MTG tutors to have a resurgence when the card gains some unexpected attention. Thanks to a new video from prolific MTG YouTuber Rhystic Studies, players are paying even more attention than usual to Whir of Invention, an extremely powerful artifact tutor spell.
Whir of Invention MTG
Whir of Invention offers a rare opportunity to put an artifact of your choice from your deck directly into play. Unfortunately, this doesn’t come cheap, as you will need to sink the artifact’s mana value into Whir’s X mana cost. This makes tutoring for game-winning artifacts like Blightsteel Colossus extremely expensive.
Fortunately, for some archetypes, Whir of Invention offers a workaround with Improvise. This makes Whir of Invention extremely effective in artifact token decks like Food and Treasures, enabling the card to use what are usually one-time resources as additional mana. This similarly allows Improvise to repurpose one-time Cheerio cards like Lotus Petal and Mishra’s Bauble into effectively free mana.
Thanks to the prevalence of these artifacts in combo decks, it’s extremely easy for Whir of Invention to tutor up a game-ending enabler. Krark-Clan Ironworks, for example, can sacrifice all of the small artifacts you used to Improvise Whir of Invention, creating tons of mana to end the game.
Common cEDH Applications
While cheap artifacts can be used to help push Whir of Invention to surprising heights, you don’t need those cards to make it work. In Commander’s higher-level brackets, fast mana is extremely abundant. With cards like Dark Ritual and Grim Monolith running amok, it’s rather easy to sink a ton of mana into Whir of Invention in an early turn.
Alternatively, in Urza, Lord High Artificer decks, Whir of Invention can be used to set up the infamous two-card combo using Urza and Winter Orb. Thanks to Urza tapping your Orb for mana, you’ll shut down your opponent’s lands while keeping yours untapping as normal. Wan Shi Tong, Librarian decks, on the other hand, can utilize Whir of Invention to assemble parts of an Agatha’s Soul Cauldron combo involving Walking Ballista. Outside of these Commanders, this card is commonly used to find popular artifact untapping tools like Unwinding Clock and Clock of Omens to set up absurd sequences.
All of that said, Whir of Invention’s most common use in cEDH is to tutor out hate pieces to target opposing strategies. Finding Grafdigger’s Cage or Weathered Runestone turns off any Underworld Breach win attempts from your opponents. Cursed Totem can shut off decks that rely on activated abilities of creatures, while Defense Grid can set up a win attempt by turning off free interaction.
Non-Commander Applications
Thanks to Whir of Invention’s flexibility and consistency, this card has become an all-star in any Commander deck with an artifact subtheme. Beyond this, it also makes a common appearance in Modern in the Mono-Blue Belcher deck. By finding Lotus Bloom, it can create immediate combo kills utilizing Goblin Charbelcher, Tameshi, Reality Architect, or even another copy of Whir of Invention.
Between Modern and Commander, it’s clear that Whir of Invention can be a format-defining card. That said, it doesn’t see play everywhere. Pioneer can’t use the card efficiently, and older formats like Legacy and Vintage have more efficient tools. Despite this, as far as Commander goes, Whir of Invention remains one of the most efficient artifact tutors that players can use.
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