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.
Golbez is a 2-mana Dimir artifact engine: flood the board with artifacts (especially cheap and token-generating ones), surveil to fill your graveyard and smooth draws, then every end step recur a creature and drain opponents for its power once you hit eight artifacts. You build a wide artifact base, grind value through repeated recursion, and close with reanimated bombs or incremental life loss.
Cheap, repeatable card advantage via end-step creature recursion plus surveil filtering each artifact ETB
Surveil synergizes with graveyard payoffs, delve, and reanimation strategies
Only two mana, so it comes down early and rebuilds easily after removal
Artifact density supports treasure/token ramp and strong artifact synergy payoffs
Needs four (and ideally eight) artifacts online before the engine truly matters, so it's slow to start
Heavily dependent on hitting artifact counts; a board wipe or artifact hate (Vandalblast, Bane of Progress) sets you way back
Dimir lacks efficient artifact-recursion redundancy compared to other engines
Recursion only returns creatures to hand, requiring extra mana to recast — can be grindy and clunky
Generates Food artifacts to fuel counts and ramp while surveil smooths your draws.
Add fast artifact ramp and token producers (Sol Ring, Treasure makers, Myr Battlesphere) to reliably reach eight artifacts earlier, and lean into reanimation targets with high power and ETB value. Tighten the manabase with duals and add efficient interaction (counterspells, removal) plus protection for Golbez; high-end builds can incorporate artifact-token combos or Brudiclad to explode counts and close fast.
Legendary Creature — Human Wizard
