Hello and happiest of days to each of you folks! I hope you are getting ready for a MTG gaming filled day! Today I am looking at my top commons for all casual MTG Formats like Commander, multiplayer, Highlander, Five Color, and then Pauper and Peasant will lead. I was on the Peasant Selection Panel for a while, so this is very key to me. In order to make this list they need to have been printed as a common in real life not online reprints. Make sense?

Alright, let's get this fun thing started!

Honorable Mention #1. (#16. Overall) - Rolling Thunder

This studly double-Red cost X common sorcery is the best Blaze ever printed at common. You can divide X damage any number of ways for any number of targets! Kill off planeswalkers, dorks, and players with aplomb. This defines flexible X spell stuff and then will kill a group of foes with infinite or big mana from things like Gaea's Cradle or untapping your lands too.

#15. Bonder's Ornament

Let's start with ramp and card draw with this colorless Mana Rock! For three mana to drop you can tap it make any mana and then tap it with four to draw, but your foes with one will also get their draw on too. Love this thing's power loads!

#14. Crop Rotation

This one-mana Green tutor instant is so good it was Restricted in Five Color. You sac a land when you cast it and then drop any land onto the battlefield! Note a few reasons it's here. First, it arrives untapped and ready to be used. Second it can get any land, not just basic, so it's mana positive, get that Gaea's Cradle, Tolarian Academy, Cabal Coffers or Urborg which ever half you don't have, Academy Ruins for recursion or Nykthos. Hope you can see why it's here on my list!

#13. Priest of Titania

This 2-drop common defines the Elf Archetype! Sure it's just on a 1/1 body easily answered, but once you untap you easily make enough mana to win with its tap for mana equal to all of the Elves - not just yours mind, and her too. Nasty good and she is in the same set as Gaea's Cradle to abuse going wide for mana so keep it up while winning!

#12. Tortured Existence

This amazingly awesome one-drop mono-Black enchantment is next! You can activate it for one mana too and then swap a dork from your hand with one in your graveyard! So, this is a Survival of the Fittest for the graveyard, which you can use early to discard things to pricey for play for early stuff that dies. Love this much!

#11. Ponder and Brainstorm

Everyone enjoys his pair restricted in Vintage that dig or draw three and then put two back. They define cheap digging on the first turn, growing storm counts, trigger Spellslinger stuff like Guttersnipe and tons mores! Enjoy this fun little duo much!

#10. Viscera Seer

Another 1-drop Black thang hits! This has an on-curve 1/1 body and then a free sac engine for any dork from itself to tokens. And you'll scry 1 when you do for deck knowledge. I just think this is probably Black's best common dork - love it loads, you will too I am sure from just sacking your stuff when you are exiled or about to die after chump blocking to digging for the perfect answer! I adore this in many Black brews, but especially in Aristocrats and Sacrifice matters brews!

#9. Mulldrifter

Everyone's favorite Blue dork with a value thing happening. This five-drop splashable flying 2/2 with evoke and then when it ETBs you are up cards for 2! This is just great in all of the places, from Good Stuff to Combo to Midrange.

#8. Mana Elves

Next are all of the 1-drop 1/1 Mana Dorks that tap for a mana from the classic above to Fyndhorn Elves to Avacyn's Pilgrim. I adore this first-turn ramp on-curve dorks that you cannot break down or embrace more since this is reliable first-turn ramp like Sol Ring. Drop them Turn 1, and then any three-drop the next turn! Adore them all up and down the block.

#7. Rampant Growths

Next up are this cycle of two-cost sorceries that ramp a land tapped like the above two. The first does it for basics, some later ones like Farseek do allow nonbasics with that card type. Again, cast them on the second turn and you'll have a four-mana play and unlike the Elves they cannot be killed, although they cannot also swing, block a lethal on you or grab a piece of equipment and they aren't 1st turn plays either.

#6. Suture Priest

This 2-drop mono-White Common with a smaller 1/1 body is next and it'll turn your creatures that arrive to gain a life and then your foe's will lose a life for theirs, so that's great as a win-con or just generally too.

#5. Decanter of Endless Water

This is the best common Manalith variant to my mind. It arrives untapped and ready to be used and like Reliquary Tower or Spellbook you don't have to discard in the end step. It's great to skate in all of the various formats that care about it and most decks that want to keep cards or options in hand will adore this, other than Aggro or stuff. Get your Decanter on!

#4. Counterspell

Ah yes, this later commonalty shift from Uncommon in Alpha is next! It's the best counter outside of the pricy Mana Drain. I always toss it into most of my Blue Brews first since unlike Negate or Mana Leak that splash you can counter anything! I prefer this to Force of Will too since that's card disadvantage - not great in multiplayer. Get it and run it and they stop folks from messing with your stuff or winning with a combo.

#3. Sakura-Tribe Elder

My second favorite ramp effect is this! Alluded to above, this two-drop Green common dork just has a 1/1 body, but you can sac it for no mana or tapping to Rampant Growth! You can chump block and then sac and then get it, attack and then sac later, do it at instant speed EOT. Or if not needed just grab an Equipment and then swing!

#2. Cultivate AND Kodama's Reach

Could there be another duo here at the two spot? Nope! They cost three, are sorcery speed, get two basics, one tapped and then the other to you hand to fix two colors at once and then count as card advantage too! Only one card could be greater! When you see it you...might...agree. We'll see.

#1. Maze of Ith

Here's the thing, Maze of Ith was printed as a common in The Dark. Yupper! But it was printed at a lower rarity than other commons and was just one/sheet. It's listed on stuff like Gatherer as an uncommon, but it wasn't. Earlier sets had weird rarities save Legends. You had Uncommon 3s that appeared three times and Uncommons 1 just once. Today, we call U1s rares but they weren't and U3s uncommon and they were. In one 8 or 12 card booster pack you could get one of each, or two of one or the other. In my first The Dark booster I got Witch Hunter today marked as rare U1 and Ball Lightning another rare U1 and then Maze too in a common. It was a common, and if you consider that, then this is my clear Number One since it shuts down all combat damage you would take from something.

There we go! Note that Strip Mine and Rhystic Study were printed as commons but aren't here because the first is unfair in duals and to one person to their manabase and then the latter unfair in casual multiplayer to their manabase too. You want to let folks play the game, right? Those stop them from doing so. Enjoy!