Budget Commander staples by color

A staple is a card that's good in almost any deck that can play it. You don't need expensive staples to have a strong, smooth Commander deck. Most of the cards that do the real work, the ones that make your mana, refill your hand and deal with threats, have been printed many times, often in preconstructed decks, and are usually inexpensive.

This guide lists those cards by color. For each color you'll find ramp, card draw, removal and a couple of role-players, with a line on what each one does and why it earns a slot.

How this list was chosen

• Reprinted often. Every card here has had several printings, many of them in Commander precons, so copies are easy to find and usually inexpensive. Prices change, so check before you buy.
• No banned cards, and no Game Changers. Game Changers are cards Wizards of the Coast flags as especially powerful. Decks in brackets 1 and 2 can't play any of them, and bracket 3 decks can play up to three. Nothing below is on the official list as of this writing, so these cards keep your deck where you want it. See Commander brackets explained for how the brackets work.
• Useful in many decks. These aren't build-around cards. They fit wherever their colors do.

You won't play all of these, and you shouldn't. A good deck still needs cards that support its own plan. Think of this list as the reliable backbone that holds the rest of the deck up.

Colorless: every deck can play these

Colorless cards fit any color identity, which is why you'll see them in so many decks.

Card	What it does	Why it's good
Sol Ring	: taps for two colorless mana	The strongest mana rock in the format, in nearly every precon. Not a Game Changer, but some casual groups ask you to leave it out; check at the pre-game talk.
Arcane Signet	: taps for any color in your commander's identity	Fixing and ramp in one cheap card.
Fellwar Stone	: taps for any color an opponent's land could make	In multiplayer, it almost always makes your colors.
Mind Stone	: taps for colorless; later, pay and sacrifice it to draw	Ramps early, turns into a card late.
Wayfarer's Bauble	: pay and sacrifice it to put a basic land onto the battlefield tapped	Land ramp for decks without green. A real land is harder to destroy than a rock.
Solemn Simulacrum	: 2/2 that fetches a basic land when it enters and draws a card when it dies	Ramp, a body and a card, all in one.
Lightning Greaves	: equipped creature has haste and shroud; equip	Protects your commander from targeted removal and lets it attack right away.
Swiftfoot Boots	: equipped creature has haste and hexproof; equip	Like Greaves, but you can still target your own creature.

One warning on Lightning Greaves: shroud also stops your spells, like Auras and pump spells, from targeting the creature. In a deck that wants to target its commander, Swiftfoot Boots is the better pick.

White

White's strength is efficient removal, especially board wipes. Its ramp is thin, so lean on the colorless rocks above.

• Ramp: Knight of the White Orchid. A 2/2 first striker that puts a Plains onto the battlefield untapped if an opponent controls more lands than you. In a four-player game, that's usually true.
• Draw: Welcoming Vampire. A 2/3 flier that draws a card the first time each turn that one or more of your other small creatures (power 2 or less) enter. Excellent in token decks.
• Draw: Mentor of the Meek. Pay to draw whenever another small creature of yours enters. It works every time, not just once a turn, if you have the mana.
• Removal: Swords to Plowshares. One white mana: exile a creature. Its controller gains life equal to its power, which rarely matters in a 40-life format.
• Removal: Path to Exile. One mana: exile a creature, and its controller may fetch a basic land. Giving an opponent a land early hurts more than late.
• Removal: Generous Gift. Destroys any permanent, at instant speed. The owner gets a 3/3 Elephant token, a small price for removing their best card.
• Removal: Return to Dust. Exiles an artifact or enchantment, or two of them if you cast it during your main phase.
• Board wipes: Wrath of God or Austere Command. Wrath destroys all creatures. Austere Command lets you choose two of: all artifacts, all enchantments, small creatures (mana value 3 or less) or big ones (4 or more), so you can often wipe their board and keep yours.
• Role-player: Darksteel Mutation. Turns a creature into a 0/1 indestructible Insect artifact with no abilities. Because the creature stays on the battlefield, it's a great answer to an opposing commander: it doesn't go back to the command zone to be cast again.

Blue

Blue draws cards and stops things. It has almost no land ramp, so blue decks rely on mana rocks.

• Draw: Fact or Fiction. Reveal five cards; an opponent splits them into two piles and you choose one. You usually get two or three good cards, at instant speed.
• Draw: Pull from Tomorrow. An instant: draw X cards, then discard one. Cast it at the end of the turn before yours with all your spare mana.
• Selection: Preordain, Ponder and Brainstorm. One-mana spells that dig for the card you need. They don't add cards to your hand on their own, but they smooth out your draws.
• Counter: Counterspell. Counter any spell for . Simple and flexible.
• Counter: Arcane Denial. Counter any spell for . Its controller may draw up to two cards later and you draw one, so save it for spells that really matter.
• Counter: Negate. for any noncreature spell, which covers board wipes, combo pieces and other counterspells.
• Removal: Rapid Hybridization and Pongify. One mana: destroy a creature, and its controller gets a 3/3 token. Trading a commander or a big threat for a vanilla 3/3 is a great deal.
• Removal: Reality Shift. Exiles a creature; its controller manifests the top card of their library as a face-down 2/2.
• Role-player: Archmage of Runes. Your instants and sorceries cost less, and each one you cast draws a card. A strong engine for any spell-heavy blue deck.

Countering spells in a multiplayer game is about choosing your moment. If you're unsure how counterspell timing works, see The stack and priority.

Black

Black has the best card draw in the format, paid for with life, and plenty of cheap creature removal. Like blue, it ramps mostly with rocks.

• Ramp and draw: Deadly Dispute. Sacrifice an artifact or creature: draw two cards and make a Treasure. Sacrificing a creature that's about to die anyway turns removal into value.
• Draw: Phyrexian Arena. At the beginning of your upkeep, draw a card and lose 1 life. An extra card every turn for the rest of the game.
• Draw: Read the Bones. Scry 2, then draw two and lose 2 life. Card advantage and selection in one.
• Draw: Midnight Reaper. Whenever one of your nontoken creatures dies, draw a card (and take 1 damage). Turns board wipes into refills.
• Removal: Infernal Grasp. Instant: destroy any creature, and you lose 2 life.
• Removal: Go for the Throat. Instant: destroy any creature that isn't an artifact.
• Removal: Feed the Swarm. Destroys a creature or an enchantment an opponent controls, which is rare for black. You lose life equal to its mana value.
• Role-player: Village Rites. One mana, instant: sacrifice a creature, draw two. Cast it in response to removal or a steal effect, and you get two cards instead of nothing.
• Role-player: Blood Artist or Zulaport Cutthroat. Each time a creature dies, drain 1 life. Blood Artist triggers on any creature and targets one player; Zulaport Cutthroat triggers only on your creatures but hits every opponent. Either one turns a board wipe into a chunk of life loss.

Red

Red's tools are Treasure tokens, card draw that makes you discard or exile first, and damage-based removal. It also has some of the best answers to artifacts.

• Ramp and draw: Big Score and Unexpected Windfall. Discard a card to draw two and make two Treasures. The Treasures can pay you back right away or save up for a big turn.
• Draw: Thrill of Possibility. Instant: discard a card, draw two. Turns an extra land or a dead card into something useful.
• Draw: Reckless Impulse. Exile the top two cards; you can play them until the end of your next turn. Two mana for two cards, including lands.
• Removal: Chaos Warp. One of red's few answers to any permanent: its owner shuffles it into their library, then reveals the top card and puts it onto the battlefield if it's a permanent. Sometimes they hit something good, but your problem is gone.
• Removal: Abrade. Instant: 3 damage to a creature, or destroy an artifact.
• Removal: Lightning Bolt. 3 damage to any target for one mana. Kills small creatures, utility creatures and wounded planeswalkers.
• Artifact removal: Vandalblast. One mana destroys an artifact you don't control. For , it destroys every artifact you don't control, and only theirs.
• Board wipe: Blasphemous Act. 13 damage to every creature. It costs less for each creature on the battlefield, so on a crowded Commander board it often costs only a few mana.
• Role-player: Fiery Confluence. Choose three modes, repeating if you like: 1 damage to each creature, 2 damage to each opponent, or destroy an artifact. A small board wipe, artifact removal or 6 damage to each opponent to finish a game.

Green

Green ramps better than any other color, and its removal covers artifacts, enchantments and even any permanent.

• Ramp: Rampant Growth. Two mana: put a basic land onto the battlefield tapped.
• Ramp: Nature's Lore. Two mana: put a Forest card onto the battlefield untapped, so you can use it right away.
• Ramp: Farseek. Two mana: fetch a Plains, Island, Swamp or Mountain card. In a multicolor deck it fixes your colors, and it can find dual lands with those land types.
• Ramp: Cultivate and Kodama's Reach. Three mana: one basic onto the battlefield tapped, and one into your hand. Fixing, ramp and your next land drop.
• Ramp: Llanowar Elves and Sakura-Tribe Elder. Llanowar Elves taps for from turn two. Sakura-Tribe Elder can block, then sacrifice itself for a basic land.
• Draw: Harmonize. Four mana: draw three cards. Plain and reliable.
• Draw: Garruk's Uprising. Gives your creatures trample and draws a card whenever a creature with power 4 or greater enters under your control.
• Draw: Return of the Wildspeaker. Instant: draw cards equal to your biggest non-Human creature's power, or give your non-Humans +3/+3 to win a combat.
• Removal: Beast Within. Destroys any permanent at instant speed. The controller gets a 3/3 Beast token.
• Removal: Nature's Claim. One mana, instant: destroy an artifact or enchantment. The 4 life it gives them rarely matters.
• Removal: Krosan Grip. Destroys an artifact or enchantment with split second, so nobody can sacrifice it or protect it in response.
• Role-player: Reclamation Sage. A creature that destroys an artifact or enchantment when it enters. It also leaves a 2/1 body behind.
• Role-player: Eternal Witness. Returns any card from your graveyard to your hand, such as the removal spell you just used.

Multicolor and lands

If your commander has two or more colors, these are worth a look:

• Signets and Talismans. Each two-color pair has a Signet (, tap: add one mana of each of its two colors) and a Talisman (taps for colorless, or for one of its colors at the cost of 1 damage). Both are cheap two-mana rocks that fix your colors.
• Growth Spiral (green-blue). Instant: draw a card and put a land from your hand onto the battlefield.
• Assassin's Trophy (black-green). Destroy any permanent an opponent controls; they get a basic land.
• Anguished Unmaking and Utter End (white-black). Exile any nonland permanent.
• Despark (white-black). Two mana: exile a permanent with mana value 4 or greater, which covers many commanders and most big threats.
• Mortify (white-black). Destroy a creature or an enchantment.
• Putrefy (black-green). Destroy an artifact or a creature.
• Terminate (black-red). Two mana: destroy a creature.
• Kolaghan's Command (black-red). Choose two: return a creature card from your graveyard, make a player discard, destroy an artifact, or deal 2 damage.

For lands, a few cheap ones show up in deck after deck: Command Tower in every multicolor deck, Path of Ancestry for tribal decks, Exotic Orchard in multiplayer, Evolving Wilds and Myriad Landscape for fixing, Rogue's Passage to make a creature unblockable, and Bojuka Bog to exile a graveyard. Mana bases for Commander covers how many lands to play and which ones to choose on any budget.

What to cut to make room

Every staple you add replaces something. Good candidates to cut:

• Cards that don't support your plan. A fine card that has nothing to do with what your commander does is the first to go.
• Expensive cards with small effects. A six-mana creature that just attacks is worse than a two-mana spell that draws two cards.
• Narrow removal. A spell that only kills tapped creatures, or only fliers, is often stuck in your hand. Swap it for one of the flexible answers above.
• Slow mana. Three-mana rocks that enter tapped, and too many lands that enter tapped.
• Too many of one thing. If you have five board wipes and three card-draw spells, rebalance.

Keep your deck's identity. If your commander wants creatures, don't cut creatures to fit in more removal. Cut the worst creatures and the worst noncreature spells.

How to use this list

1. Count what you have. A typical deck wants about 10 ramp cards, 10 card-draw cards, around 8 pieces of targeted removal and 2 or 3 board wipes. Deckbuilding by the numbers explains why.
2. Fill the gaps first. If you have 5 ramp cards, add ramp before anything else.
3. Pick for your deck. A token deck wants Welcoming Vampire; a deck full of big creatures wants Garruk's Uprising.
4. Change a few cards at a time and play a few games, so you can see what helped.

If you're starting from a preconstructed deck, Upgrading a precon on a budget walks through the process step by step. If you're building from scratch, start with Building your first Commander deck.

Build it on Podtable

In the Podtable deck builder, add these cards to your deck and check the mana curve and price as you go. Then test your deck in a free game against the AI before taking it to your table.

Next: Card advantage, ramp and tempo explains why these three roles matter so much, and Commander archetypes helps you choose staples that fit your strategy.