Tempered Steel is one of those cards players keep asking about. Here is, in plain words, what its official text says, the rulings published by Wizards of the Coast, and the combos players actually run.
Official card text
Artifact creatures you control get +2/+2.
Complete guide
Tempered Steel is a powerful anthem enchantment that specifically empowers your mechanical army. By granting a significant +2/+2 bonus to artifact creatures, it turns even the smallest tokens into formidable threats on the battlefield. This white enchantment is a staple for any deck looking to capitalize on the synergy between artifacts and aggressive combat.
A Static Boost for Machines
Tempered Steel provides a static ability that continuously modifies the power and toughness of all artifact creatures you control. Unlike triggered abilities, this effect does not use the stack; it is true for as long as Tempered Steel remains on the battlefield. It affects both creatures that are naturally artifacts and non-artifact creatures that have become artifacts through other game effects.
Timing and Lethal Damage
It is crucial to remember that this bonus is tied to the enchantment's presence on the board. If Tempered Steel is destroyed, the +2/+2 bonus vanishes immediately. According to official rulings, if your artifact creatures have taken nonlethal damage earlier in the turn, they might die if the removal of Tempered Steel reduces their toughness below the amount of damage already marked on them.
Synergistic Strategies
To maximize Tempered Steel, you should aim to flood the board with cheap artifact creatures or tokens. Because the bonus is a flat +2/+2, it is most effective when applied to multiple small units rather than a single large one. It also applies to artifact creatures that enter the battlefield after Tempered Steel is already out, ensuring your reinforcements are immediately ready for war.
Interaction examples
Ghalma the ShaperWhen Ghalma the Shaper attacks, its triggered ability goes on the stack. Upon resolution, you conjure a copy of Tempered Steel into your hand and create a 1/1 colorless Myr artifact creature token. Once you cast that Tempered Steel, the Myr token—along with Ghalma the Shaper herself if she has been made an artifact—receives a permanent +2/+2 boost, turning the 1/1 Myr into a 3/3 threat.
Smothering TitheWhile Smothering Tithe creates Treasure tokens, these are normally just artifacts, not creatures. However, if you use another effect to animate those Treasures into creatures, Tempered Steel will immediately grant them +2/+2. This turns your mana generation engine into a source of combat power.
Ghostly PrisonIf your opponent controls Ghostly Prison, you must pay {2} for each creature you wish to attack with. Tempered Steel makes this tax more efficient; since each of your artifact creatures is now significantly larger (+2/+2), the mana spent to attack with them provides a much higher potential for damage compared to attacking with unbuffed 1/1 or 2/2 creatures.
Guide written with AI from the official text and rulings. Official English text prevails.
How it works : Tempered Steel
Original English text — Wizards of the Coast / Scryfall
- #1· Wizards of the Coast
Because damage remains marked on a creature until the damage is removed as the turn ends, nonlethal damage dealt to artifact creatures you control may become lethal if Tempered Steel leaves the battlefield during that turn.
No other card is named in this ruling.
Popular combos
Real combos played by the community, sorted by popularity.
Colfenor, the Last Yew + Tempered Steel + Memnite + Ornithopter
- 1Tap Blasting Station, sacrificing Memnite to deal 1 damage to any target.
- 2Colfenor triggers, returning Ornithopter from your graveyard to your hand.
- 3Cast Ornithopter.
- 4Ornithopter enters, triggering Blasting Station untapping it.
- 5Tap Blasting Station, sacrificing Ornithopter to deal 1 damage to any target.
- 6Colfenor triggers, returning Memnite from your graveyard to your hand.
- 7Cast Memnite.
- 8Memnite enters, triggering Blasting Station untapping it.
Memnite + Tempered Steel + Altar of Dementia + Underworld Breach
- 1Cast Underworld Breach.
- 2Activate Altar of Dementia by sacrificing Memnite, milling yourself for three.
- 3Cast Memnite by exiling three cards from your graveyard that are not Thassa's Oracle.
- 4Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have no cards in library.
- 5Cast Thassa's Oracle.
- 6Resolve its enter the battlefield trigger.
Interactions with other cards
These cards' text mentions Tempered Steel.
Related cards and tokens
Legal formats
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