Some Commander cards are popular because they're powerful. Others are popular because they make your deck work.

Commander staples are the cards that show up repeatedly because they just work. These are reliable, format-tested pieces that fit into a wide range of decks and solve problems almost every Commander player runs into: bad mana, empty hands, scary threats, you name it.

Today, we're going to be talking about the latter: the best MTG Commander staples that fix your mana, draw cards, answer threats, and keep you from ever falling behind in your next game.

Top 10 MTG Commander Staples

The cards we're looking at are not always the flashiest cards in a deck. A lot of them look unassuming at first glance:

1. Fetch Lands
2. Chaos Warp
3. Counterspell
4. Farseek / Nature's Lore / Three Visits
5. Orcish Bowmasters
6. Farewell
7. Smothering Tithe
8. Rhystic Study
9. Arcane Signet
10. Sol Ring

But that's what makes these cards what they are. Commander is full of mana-intensive haymakers, convoluted infinite combos, and Commanders that may need three to four turns before they get a chance to shine.

Now that we've covered what Commander staples are and what they do, let's take a closer look at the cards themselves and explore what makes them staples of the Commander format:

10. Fetch Lands

First up are Fetch Lands. These are Lands that sacrifice themselves to search your library for specific Land types.

The obvious upside here is mana fixing. In a multicolor deck, Fetch Lands help you consistently find whatever you are missing, especially when paired with Shock Lands, Triomes, Surveil Lands, Eldraine Lands, or even the original Dual Lands, if you've got it like that.

There are plenty of budget-friendly Lands out there that will get the job done, and not every table needs perfectly optimized mana, but Fetch Lands are a great high-powered staple if you have them in your collection or are optimizing for competitive play.

These Lands make your deck smoother, more consistent, and better at doing what it was built to do.

Remember, smooth and consistent mana will often be the difference between actually getting to play a game of Magic and sitting there with three Islands and a grip of non-Blue spells.

9. Chaos Warp

Red has many strengths, but dealing with noncreature permanents is certainly not one of them.

And that's why Chaos Warp is such a big deal.

For two generic and one Red mana, Chaos Warp shuffles a permanent into its owner's library. Then that player reveals the top card of their library and, if it is a permanent, puts it onto the battlefield.

Sometimes you remove an opponent's Smothering Tithe, and they reveal a Basic Land, which is an excellent outcome.

Other times, you remove a Rhystic Study, and they reveal a Consecrated Sphinx, at which point everyone at the table simultaneously accuses you of kingmaking of the highest order.

Still, the inherent risk behind Chaos Warp will always be worth it because this card does something that Red desperately needs: it provides an answer to Enchantments, Planeswalkers, Commanders, Artifacts, Creatures, and practically anything else that doesn't die to a Lightning Bolt.

8. Counterspell

Commander can get pretty complicated at times.

Someone casts a spell with three paragraphs of text. Someone else then responds with a triggered ability. Then, another player activates an ability in response to that. Before we know it, the first player will probably ask the table if it's cool to rewind to the last end phase because they forgot to play a Land that they desperately need to cast:

For , you get to counter target spell. It's a simple, elegant effect that fits almost any strategy.

Counterspell is one of the cleanest answers in Magic because it does exactly what you need it to do with no strings attached: "I say no to your spell."

In Commander, "no" is often the most powerful word at the table.

7. Farseek / Nature's Lore / Three Visits

Farseek, Nature's Lore, and Three Visits are some of the best Green ramp spells in the format because they do not just get Lands. They get useful Lands.

Their real appeal is that, like Fetch Lands, they can also effortlessly grab cards with the Basic Land type, including Shock Lands, Triomes, Surveil Lands, and even the original Duals.

Getting ahead on mana is already strong, but getting ahead on mana while making sure your colors actually work is even better.

Anyone who has played enough multicolor brews knows the pain of having five Lands in play and still somehow not being able to cast their commander. Luckily, this tragedy can all be avoided at the low price of .

6. Orcish Bowmasters

For , you get a 1/1 Orc Archer with Flash. When it enters the battlefield, and whenever an opponent draws a card except the first one that they draw during the draw step, Orcish Bowmasters deals one damage to any target. Then you Amass Orcs 1.

Commander is filled to the absolute brim with extra card draw, ensuring this card has ample opportunities to provide value.

The real strength of Orcish Bowmasters is that it does several jobs at once. It picks off small Creatures, pressures life totals, and it even gets to grow Orc Army tokens to pressure life totals even more down the road.

Oh, and the Flash; let's not just gloss over that tidbit. There is never a real need to slam down a Bowmasters preemptively and warn everyone to play fair.

5. Farewell

There are board wipes, and then there is Farewell.

For , Farewell lets you choose any number of modes: exile all Artifacts, all Creatures, all Enchantments, and/or all graveyards.

What makes this card so strong is its sheer flexibility. You do not have to choose every mode:

• If you are ahead on Artifacts but behind on Creatures, you can keep your mana rocks and clear the board.
• If an Enchantress deck is getting out of hand, you can wipe all Enchantments while leaving your Creatures alone.
• If the graveyard player has spent the last six turns carefully stocking their yard with goodies, you can exile all graveyards, leaving them, quite literally, dead in the water.

With all that said, Farewell gives White decks one of the cleanest, most flexible reset buttons in the format, and even when it annoys the table, it usually does exactly what you need it to do.

4. Smothering Tithe

For , Smothering Tithe gives White decks something they historically needed badly: explosive resource generation. White already has plenty of answers, board wipes, protection spells, and mana-efficient fair Creatures.

What it has not always had is an efficient way to keep up with Green ramp or Blue card draw, and Smothering Tithe helps bridge that gap by giving you a pile of Treasures, all at your opponents' expense.

And because Commander is a multiplayer format, this Treasure production often gets out of hand rather quickly. Remember, in a typical four-player pod, you have three opponents drawing a minimum of one card per turn cycle. This means, in the worst-case scenario, that's potentially three free mana from your four mana investment in just one turn cycle.

Two mana can be quite a lot. Paying it even once feels terrible. Paying it every time you draw feels like you're actively throwing the game, even more so if your other opponents are opting to not be as responsible as you.

As such, most opponents will often be inclined to do what Commander players do best and deal with the problem later. It will usually be too late by then.

3. Rhystic Study

For , Rhystic Study says whenever an opponent casts a spell, you may draw a card unless that player pays .

The real strength of Rhystic Study is that it does not need your opponents to make terrible plays for you to benefit. It only really needs them to play normal Magic. It's just that every single game action they make now comes with a tiny tax attached. Over time, if left unpaid, those tiny taxes inevitably become a huge pile of cards.

And even when your opponents do pay the , you are still getting value.

After all, if they spend mana to stop you from drawing, that's one less mana for them to use per Rhystic Study trigger. Compound this tax over multiple turns, and they might as well just stop playing altogether.

2. Arcane Signet

Arcane Signet fixes your mana at a premium rate.

For , Arcane Signet taps for one mana of any color in your Commander's color identity.

The reason Arcane Signet ranks so highly on this list is its universality. Almost every Commander deck wants early acceleration and mana fixing. Arcane Signet does both in one fell swoop.

And none of this is to say that other mana rocks are not useful.

Fellwar Stone is probably the closest contender, and in plenty of games, it will feel almost just as good. But the difference is that Fellwar Stone still relies on your opponents at the end of the day.

For example, if you play it before anyone else has Lands (i.e., a turn one Ancient Tomb), it can't even produce mana. Similarly, if the table is on colors you are not, it may not reliably produce the colors that you desperately need.

Arcane Signet does not ever care about what your opponents are playing or what turn it is. It just taps for all the colors you need, every single time.

1. Sol Ring

Here it is, the card that has allowed for hundreds, if not thousands, of unreasonable opening hands.

Sol Ring costs and taps for two colorless mana, making it one of the few cards in the game that can generate more than it costs.

The reason Sol Ring is the number one MTG Commander staple is rather simple: it can go in almost every deck and makes almost every deck intrinsically better:

• Aggressive decks can use it to deploy their bigger threats early.
• Control decks can use it to develop mana while also leaving mana open for interaction.
• Artifact decks can use it as both ramp and Artifact synergy.
• Big-mana decks can use it to, well, get bigger pools of mana.
• Casual decks can use it because it comes in every pre-con and it feels incredible.
• High-power decks can and will use it for all the reasons above. Take your pick.

It also has one of the highest floors of any card in the format. Draw it early, and it can completely push you a full step ahead of the table. Draw it later, and it can still help pay for Commander Tax, activated abilities, mana-intensive spells, or even Smothering Tithe triggers.

Sol Ring is unquestionably at its most disgusting on turn one, but "slightly less broken later" is not exactly a downside.

Some players feel like this card is way too powerful, but it's easily part of the core identity of the format at this point.

Sol Ring is ridiculous, but it is also familiar. It is one of the first cards new Commander players learn about, one of the easiest staples to include, and one of the most iconic cards in the format.

You can build a Commander deck without Sol Ring.

You also can eat soup with a fork.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, the best MTG Commander staples are the cards that help your deck do what you want them to do more consistently. They fix your mana, keep cards flowing, answer problems, and buy you enough time to employ the strategy you built around.

You do not need every staple in every deck, and you don't want to trim out all your fun pet cards just to make your list more optimal. But once your deck has enough staples, everything else tends to get a lot easier.

Start with the staples, tune around your Commander, and then start every game with a Sol Ring. It's just that simple.