Artifacts occupy a strange place in Magic, playable in any deck regardless of color, which makes them a natural fit for a themed reprint box. From the Vault: Relics, released August 27, 2010, was the third volume in the series and the first built around a card type rather than a creature type or historical concept.
Fifteen artifacts, all in foil, spanning mana rocks, utility pieces, and genuine format staples, filled the box on release.
As the series' third entry, Relics proved the From the Vault format could work just as well for a mechanical theme as it did for the creature-focused Dragons volume before it.
Here's the full card list and why several of these artifacts remain relevant well over a decade later.
The fifteen cards are Aether Vial, Black Vise, Isochron Scepter, Ivory Tower, Jester's Cap, Karn, Silver Golem, Masticore, Mirari, Mox Diamond, Memory Jar, Nevinyrral's Disk, Sol Ring, Sundering Titan, Sword of Body and Mind, and Zuran Orb. Nine of the fifteen received new, alternate art for this printing.
The set spans multiple artifact subtypes, from equipment like Sword of Body and Mind to mana rocks like Sol Ring and Mox Diamond, giving the box real range within its single theme.
Colorless artifacts fit into literally any deck, which made this volume broadly useful in a way a single-creature-type theme couldn't match. Any player, regardless of what colors they build around, could find a genuinely playable card inside.
That universal appeal is part of why Relics remains one of the more commonly cited volumes when new players ask where to start with the series.
Sol Ring is the single most iconic card in the box, a nearly automatic include in Commander decks across every color combination for its unmatched mana acceleration. Aether Vial, meanwhile, is a defining piece of multiple Legacy tribal archetypes, letting creature-heavy decks deploy threats without tapping mana at all.
Sword of Body and Mind represents the Equipment subtheme within the box, a genuinely powerful protection and evasion piece across multiple formats.
Commander players benefit the most from this volume, since Sol Ring alone is close to a staple include in nearly every deck built for the format. Legacy tribal deck builders also find real value in Aether Vial specifically.
Because the theme crosses so many deck styles, Relics tends to have broader appeal than more narrowly-scoped volumes like Realms or Angels.
Relics was produced in a single limited print run back in 2010 and has never been reprinted as a complete boxed set since. Individual cards, especially Sol Ring, have seen numerous separate reprints in other Commander products, but never in this exact From the Vault foil treatment.
That makes original Relics foils a specific, non-repeated printing for series completionists even though Sol Ring itself remains widely available elsewhere.
Relics lands in the middle tier of the full series ranking, elevated by Sol Ring's universal playability but balanced against a few more niche inclusions like Jester's Cap. Its broad cross-format usefulness still makes it one of the more approachable volumes for new collectors.
See our complete ranking of all ten sets for a full comparison against Dragons, Legends, and the rest of the series.
The box splits fairly evenly between mana-producing artifacts like Sol Ring and Mox Diamond and utility pieces like Sword of Body and Mind and Isochron Scepter. That mix gives ramp-focused and equipment-focused decks both a reason to pick up the same box.
Few other From the Vault volumes manage to serve two genuinely different deckbuilding goals this evenly within a single fifteen-card theme. That balance is a big part of why Relics remains one of the more commonly recommended entry points into the series for new collectors, regardless of which specific colors or archetypes they usually build around, since colorless artifacts fit into any deck without a mana-base concession of any kind whatsoever being required.
It released on August 27, 2010, as the third volume in the series.
Sol Ring, a near-staple mana rock in Commander decks across every color combination.
Yes, it remains a key piece of multiple creature-based Legacy tribal archetypes.
Fifteen artifacts, spanning mana rocks, equipment, and utility pieces.
An artifact-heavy deck built around this volume deserves display-quality protection for its key pieces. A one-touch magnetic holder shows off a Sol Ring or Aether Vial foil while keeping it fully protected.
For a full set of fifteen, a rigid magnetic case keeps every relic safe between games.
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