Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Golbez, Crystal Collector
Golbez, Crystal Collector
Legendary Creature — Human Wizard · {U}{B} · Black/Blue commander
Whenever an artifact you control enters, surveil 1.
At the beginning of your end step, if you control four or more artifacts, return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. Then if you control eight or more artifacts, each opponent loses life equal to that card's power.
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What Golbez, Crystal Collector actually does
Read off the card by the same engine the Forge and Analyzer use — this is the mechanical classification, not a summary.
- Triggered ability · etbWhenever an artifact you control enters, surveil 1.
- Triggered ability · end_stepAt the beginning of your end step, if you control four or more artifacts, return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. Then if you control eight or more artifacts, each opponent loses
What a Golbez, Crystal Collector deck needs
Plays as ETB value. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.
- artifacts (its text counts them)
- creatures and permanents entering every turn — cheap bodies, blink and recursion (its trigger fires on each one)
- drain and life-loss payoffs (the damage is not combat damage)
- self-mill, discard and recursion (the graveyard is a resource its text reads)
The Golbez, Crystal Collector deck plan
The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.
- 12× Life loss that is not combat damage — each opponent loses life, repeatably
- 22× A permanent of the exact NON-creature type the commander counts — artifacts for an artifact commander, enchantments for an enchantress
- 16× A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- 6× Put your own cards into your graveyard as a resource
- 6× Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
- 5× Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- 9× Find the exact card the plan needs
- 2× Answer a spell or ability before it resolves
- 1× Answer a whole board at once
Best cards for Golbez, Crystal Collector
Ranked by an engine that reads what each card does — its real cost, its delay and how reliably it works — rather than counting how often other people play it.
Life loss that is not combat damage — each opponent loses life, repeatably
- Zulaport Cutthroat2 mana
- Leechridden Swamp0 mana
- Marionette Apprentice2 mana
- The Meathook Massacre2 mana
- Mirkwood Bats4 mana
- Ayara, First of Locthwain3 mana
- Bastion of Remembrance3 mana
- Bontu's Monument3 mana
A permanent of the exact NON-creature type the commander counts — artifacts for an artifact commander, enchantments for an enchantress
- Chrome Mox0 mana
- Everflowing Chalice0 mana
- Lotus Petal0 mana
- Mox Amber0 mana
- Mox Diamond0 mana
- Mox Opal0 mana
- Lion's Eye Diamond0 mana
- Ornithopter0 mana
A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- Orcish Bowmasters2 mana
- Accursed Marauder2 mana
- Baleful Strix2 mana
- Solemn Simulacrum4 mana
- Cauldron Familiar1 mana
- Thousand-Faced Shadow1 mana
- Fleshbag Marauder3 mana
- Plaguecrafter3 mana
Put your own cards into your graveyard as a resource
- Takenuma, Abandoned Mire0 mana
- Stitcher's Supplier1 mana
- Ripples of Undeath2 mana
- Emry, Lurker of the Loch3 mana
- Eden, Seat of the Sanctum0 mana
- Port of Karfell0 mana
- Tomb Fortress0 mana
- Millikin2 mana
Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
- Displacer Kitten4 mana
- Conjurer's Closet5 mana
- Gossip's Talent2 mana
- Thassa, Deep-Dwelling4 mana
- Nephalia Smuggler1 mana
- Voyager Staff1 mana
- Jill, Shiva's Dominant // Shiva, Warden of Ice3 mana
- Deadeye Navigator6 mana
Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- Reality Shift2 mana
- Pongify1 mana
- Rapid Hybridization1 mana
- Resculpt2 mana
- Defile1 mana
- Tragic Slip1 mana
- Infernal Grasp2 mana
- Fatal Push1 mana
Find the exact card the plan needs
- Entomb1 mana
- Demonic Tutor2 mana
- Diabolic Intent2 mana
- Vampiric Tutor1 mana
- Imperial Seal1 mana
- Demonic Consultation1 mana
- Grim Tutor3 mana
- Tainted Pact2 mana
Answer a spell or ability before it resolves
- Mindbreak Trap4 mana
- Fierce Guardianship3 mana
- Force of Negation3 mana
- Force of Will5 mana
- Flare of Denial3 mana
- Pact of Negation0 mana
- An Offer You Can't Refuse1 mana
- Arcane Denial2 mana
Answer a whole board at once
- Toxic Deluge3 mana
- Damnation4 mana
- Bontu's Last Reckoning3 mana
- Sickening Dreams2 mana
- Crypt Rats3 mana
- Extinction Event4 mana
- Endemic Plague4 mana
- Desynchronization4 mana
Combos with Golbez, Crystal Collector
Known combos from Commander Spellbook that Golbez, Crystal Collector is a piece of, and how many decks list them.
- Golbez, Crystal Collector + Repository Skaab + Time Warp11 decks
- Golbez, Crystal Collector + Thran Vigil + Arcbound Reclaimer + Unshakable Tail9 decks
- Golbez, Crystal Collector + Repository Skaab + Temporal Manipulation6 decks
- Golbez, Crystal Collector + Repository Skaab + Walk The Aeons5 decks
- Golbez, Crystal Collector + Repository Skaab + Capture Of Jingzhou4 decks
- Golbez, Crystal Collector + Copy Catchers + Mycosynth Lattice + Krark-Clan Ironworks2 decks
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