Top 5 Best Colorless MTG Cards in cEDH

(Mana) rock your world.

One of the key appeals of competitive EDH is being one of the few places where you get to play truly unfair cards all shuffled into a pile together. Some of the most powerful spells in history are colorless mana rocks, cards that power your game plan forward for a cost that is usually trivial, if not nonexistent. Now that we’ve reached the “Best Colorless cards” article, I can finally talk about these wonderful tools that keep cEDH decks humming. Pretty much all decks get to play them, they turbocharge any turn when you draw them, and some of them make just about any hand an attractive keep. It would be a bit of fun too if there was anything but mana rocks to talk about here, but come on. We all know what cEDH is – it’s the land of the powerful artifacts, specifically those that let me cast my commander on turn one and Rhystic Study on turn two.

5. Chrome Mox

Chrome Mox

Double Masters, Mythic

Sliding into fifth place is the free mana rock that perhaps comes with the greatest cost – Chrome Mox. Getting the opportunity to play a free accelerating spell is extremely powerful (that will be a common theme with the top of this list) but comes with a card disadvantage-based downside – you have to exile a (non-artifact) card permanently to make any mana at all. To make it a little worse, Chrome Mox will also only make the color of the card imprinted upon it. The color and card limitations can make this a difficult card to use correctly, demanding you make the correct choice early and hope that it doesn’t come back to bite you. This major downside often makes this the worst late game top-deck of the bunch too, making it a dead piece of cardboard if you have nothing else in hand or are full up on spells you’re wanting or needing to use. However, in an opening hand, locking up fast mana for the whole game is too good to pass up, making this card a must play in plenty of cEDH decks regardless. 

4. Jeweled Lotus

Jeweled Lotus

Commander Masters, Mythic

Jeweled Lotus, yeah, it’s here at number four! That may surprise a bunch of you and honestly I’m a bit shocked it ended up lower too – but don’t worry, I have my reasons. First and foremost – what makes Jeweled Lotus good? Getting three mana of any one color in return for zero invested is… incredible. This can, of course, only be spent on casting your commander, but we’re playing EDH! The commander is the point!

Market Price: $39.76

Market Price: $16.32

With your legendary creature of choice in play, the game plan you’ve built around said selection will come together quicker than you thought imaginable. It’s so good that when Jeweled Lotus first was released onto the cEDH scene through Commander Legends, it quickly consolidated what commanders people were most interested in playing. A card that Jeweled Lotus could put into play on its own or with the help of just one extra mana were suddenly much more attractive – while those that it was comparatively bad at casting (i.e. three color, three-cost cards or six-cost cards) fell more out of style. The most ironic thing about this now, years removed, is that Jeweled Lotus still isn’t that great at helping us cast what may be considered the “best” commanders in cEDH. You don’t need it for Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh, it only helps a little bit with Tymna the Weaver, it powers out Kraum, Ludevic’s Opus but that could be called a plan C at best. Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy includes it just because it helps cast him the second (or third… or fourth) time. Captain Sisay and Najeela, the Blade-Blossom sure appreciate it, though! It’s limit to commander casting only (not accelerating your whole game plan) and its shocking, slow fade away from some of the most powerful decks we have is what has landed Jeweled Lotus lower on the list than I first anticipated – but it’s still a dang good card. 

3. Mox Diamond

Mox Diamond

Stronghold, Rare

Another bad top-deck with a card disadvantage based downside, Mox Diamond manages to hop over the venerable Jeweled Lotus and Chrome Mox for one reason and one reason only – it makes mana of every color. However, in many situations the need to discard a land instead of exile a spell can be an even bigger downside than having to exile something. Especially late in the game, this can make Mox Diamond a true dead top-deck, as you probably would prefer to play a land that you draw rather than exposing yourself to upping Dockside Extortionist’s Treasure count or getting blow out by a Culling Ritual, Collector Ouphe or other painful effect. Mox Diamond is still so dang powerful that it overcomes these downsides to be one of the best rocks in the format. The fact that it fixes your mana for you cannot be overstated, especially the higher your color count in your deck goes. When your deck is playing three colors, the fixing is nice. When you’re playing four or five, it’s often a lifesaver. Mox Diamond, oh, how I love you.

2. Sol Ring

Sol Ring

Commander: Murders at Karlov Manor, Uncommon

Sol Ring is the iconic mana-producing artifact that you can play in Commander. If it weren’t so ubiquitous from the start, it very well may deserve to be banned on a pure power level. Heck, if it had been more pricey on the advent of the format itself, it may have been banned alongside the Power 9 for cost and accessibility concerns. However, since it escaped banning long ago, it has become the poster child that enables and signifies much of what EDH is to many people – casting their big, silly stuff easily and quickly. Sol Ring gets games moving… and boy, in cEDH games does it cause some action.

Market Price: $44.32

There are few turn one plays more featured than a Sol Ring, unlocking the potential to immediately run out an Arcane Signet or Fellwar Stone, a cheap commander or even a Rhystic Study when paired with another zero-cost mana rock. Even if you don’t have an immediate follow-up play on turn one, getting to untap and have four mana (assuming you only have Sol Ring and two land drops) is a massive advantage that any cEDH deck will snowball into something intense. The best part of Sol Ring is that while its so powerful and so helpful, it still manages to remain at or under $5 each due to constant reprints. I love you, Sol Ring. No matter what Charles says, I’ll play you in every deck.

1. Mana Crypt

Mana Crypt

Double Masters, Mythic

Is this a surprise to anyone? Was this list a foregone conclusion before I started? Well, if you had another choice for #1, I am fairly confident in telling you you’re wrong. Mana Crypt is all the upside of Sol Ring (makes two colorless mana in return for little investment) but the cost is free! It costs no mana and gives you two colorless immediately! I am confident in saying there is no other card I’d rather see in my opening hand – and a heck of a lot of my Demonic, Vampiric and Enlightened Tutors are used to grab this unreal card. The downside, and boy is it a minor one, is that it does deal an average of 1.5 damage to you per turn… which in the grand scheme is nothing short of criminally nonexistent. Mana Crypt is also a card that probably could have ended up banned in another time – if it was cheaper and therefore more accessible and in more decks in order to become a problem.

That’s Every Good Card!

After what feels like forever, I’ve successfully named the best cards of every color, the best gold cards and even the best colorless cards here on TCGplayer. What started out as a silly listicle idea ended up being a fun task for me to tackle that had me thinking deeply about the format that I love to play the most. I hope you’ve enjoyed following along as I’ve chipped away at them! As always, if you think I got one wrong, don’t hesitate to tell me.