Commander Staples 101: The Cards You’ll See at Every Table

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Sol Ring: One mana for two colorless is simply outrageous. It turns four-drops into turn two plays and keeps you a full lap ahead of slower decks.
Arcane Signet: Two mana, fixes any color in your commander’s identity, untapped next turn. It’s the Toyota Camry of rocks: not flashy, annoyingly reliable.
Command Tower: Not ramp, but the default land in multicolor decks. When your mana base just works, your deck feels like a genius built it.
Fellwar Stone and the Ravnica Signets/Talismans: If your table is even slightly colorful, Fellwar Stone taps for what you need. Signets and Talismans are the 2-mana play that gets you to the part of the game with real fireworks.
Cultivate and Kodama’s Reach: Fix a color, hit your land drop, and bank another for next turn. In green, these are just time management tools with pictures.
Nature’s Lore and Farseek: Two mana to fetch real duals or typed lands untapped is the grown-up mana play.

Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves: Haste plus hexproof or shroud means your commander actually gets to do commander things.
Heroic Intervention: One of the few ways green says “no.” Turning your board indestructible and hexproof blows out wipes and targeted removal.
Teferi’s Protection: Phases you and your stuff out like you never even showed up to the fight.

Rhystic Study: The social experiment disguised as a card draw engine. People promise to pay the one, then mysteriously forget on meaningful turns.
Smothering Tithe: Converts everyone else’s draw into your treasure.
Skullclamp: Converts tiny creatures into two cards apiece. Token players know the joy.
Phyrexian Arena and Guardian Project: Slow, steady sources that keep you fueled.
Beast Whisperer and Esper Sentinel: Turn normal plays into value. Sentinel in particular taxes greedy noncreature decks every single turn cycle.

Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile: One mana answers that feel illegal until you remember they’ve been doing this since forever.
Beast Within and Generous Gift: Point at anything and turn it into a polite 3/3.
Cyclonic Rift: Aims the reset button at everyone except you.
Austere Command: Modular sweep that lets you keep your stuff and remove what actually matters.
Toxic Deluge: Efficient, scalable, and doesn’t care about indestructible.

Demonic Tutor and Diabolic Intent: Find the exact card you need.
Enlightened Tutor and Worldly Tutor: Instant-speed setup for engines and finishers.
Eternal Witness and Regrowth: Your second copy of the good stuff.

Craterhoof Behemoth: Counts how many friends you brought, then ends the conversation in one breath.
Torment of Hailfire: A group exercise in choosing your least bad option.
Expropriate: Extra turns and permanent theft in one package.
Dockside Extortionist: Prints red mana like it’s a government program.

Respect one-mana interaction. If you’re committing your key creature, plan for someone holding Swords to Plowshares like a fire extinguisher.
Track open blue mana and count to seven. Cyclonic Rift is always looming.
Manage treasure and card taxes. If Smothering Tithe or Rhystic Study is out, pay when it matters.
Use timing windows. Sorcery-speed sweepers like Austere Command reward you for pressuring life totals.

Staples exist because they make games smoother and decisions cleaner. Learn what they do, respect what they change at the table, and then tune your ninety-nine so you’re not just playing good cards, you’re playing the right ones for your plan.

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