The Oxford Thesaurus An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms - artificen.

1) skill, cunning, trickery, craft, craftiness, artfulness, guile, duplicity, deception, chicanery, underhandedness, shrewdness, slyness, wiliness, trickiness: He used artifice to get control of the firm. 2) stratagem, device, manoeuvre, trick, contrivance, wile, ruse, subterfuge, expedient, contrivance, Colloq dodge: They were deluded by artifices to cheat them out of their money.