Blue has a reputation in Commander. The moment you leave two Islands untapped, everyone at the table starts wondering what you have in your hand. Maybe it’s a counterspell. Maybe you’re about to draw a pile of cards. Or maybe you have absolutely nothing and you’re just enjoying watching everyone second-guess their decisions. That’s part of what makes blue so much fun.
Blue is great at controlling the pace of a game, drawing cards, protecting important pieces, and finding answers when things start getting out of hand. While every blue deck is different, there are a handful of cards that can fit comfortably into a huge variety of Commander strategies.
That doesn’t mean you should automatically put all ten of these into every blue deck you build. Think of this list more as a starting point when you have a few empty slots and aren’t quite sure what you’re missing.
1. Counterspell
Counterspell isn’t fancy, but it doesn’t really need to be. For two blue mana, you can simply counter a spell. No extra conditions, no additional costs, and no hoops to jump through.
Commander games are full of spells that can completely change the game if they resolve. Board wipes, combo pieces, enormous creatures, and game-ending enchantments can all be stopped for just two mana.
There are plenty of other counterspells worth considering, but there’s a reason the original is still one of the easiest ones to recommend.
2. Cyclonic Rift
Sometimes you need to remove one problem. Other times, you need everyone else’s board to disappear. Cyclonic Rift can do either.
Early in the game, you can use it as a two-mana bounce spell to get an annoying nonland permanent out of the way. Once you reach seven mana, Overload turns it into something completely different, returning every nonland permanent you don’t control to its owner’s hand.
It doesn’t technically destroy anything, but that’s often beside the point. An overloaded Rift can clear the way for an attack, interrupt several opponents at once, or buy you the turn you need to take control of the game.
Just don’t expect the rest of the table to be particularly happy about it.
3. Rhystic Study
You probably already know the question.
“Are you going to pay the one?”
While this enchantment does cost a shiny penny regardless of which printing you choose, having at least one of these in your collection is something to boast about. Rhystic Study is one of blue’s most recognizable Commander cards for a reason. Whenever an opponent casts a spell, you get to draw a card unless they pay an additional mana.
One trigger might not seem like much, but Commander usually gives you three opponents casting spells. Those triggers can pile up quickly.
Even when your opponents consistently pay, Study is still doing something useful by making their spells more expensive. When they don’t, you’re getting the cards.
Either way, this works in your favor.
4. Mystic Remora
Think of Mystic Remora as Rhystic Study’s strange little cousin that can sometimes be even more ridiculous.
Whenever an opponent casts a noncreature spell, you may draw a card unless that player pays four mana.
That’s a much harder tax to pay, especially during the first few turns of a game. Drop Remora early, and you may draw several cards before you’ve done much of anything else.
The downside is cumulative upkeep (paying an additional 1 mana each turn to keep it out), so keeping it around gets progressively more expensive. Fortunately, you don’t necessarily need it to stay forever. If one blue mana draws you four or five cards before you let it disappear, you’ve already gotten a great deal.
5. Pongify
Blue isn’t exactly famous for destroying creatures. Apparently turning them into an Ape is a different story.
For just one blue mana, Pongify destroys a creature and prevents it from being regenerated. Its controller gets a 3/3 Ape token in return. In most Commander games, that’s a trade you’ll happily make.
Turning someone’s giant Eldrazi, combo creature, or value engine into a vanilla 3/3 is usually about as close to creature removal as blue is going to get for one mana.
6. Rapid Hybridization
Rapid Hybridization works almost exactly the same way. Pay one blue mana, destroy a creature, and its controller gets a 3/3 Frog Lizard. A 3/3 creature usually isn’t going to scare you nearly as much as whatever you destroyed.
Running both Pongify and Rapid Hybridization gives blue decks access to surprisingly efficient creature removal without taking up much room in the deck or requiring you to leave much mana open.
7. Reality Shift
Reality Shift gives blue another useful way to deal with creatures, but this time the creature gets exiled instead of destroyed.
Commander has plenty of creatures that players actually want in their graveyard. Destroying them might only temporarily solve the problem. Exiling them makes getting that creature back considerably more difficult.
Your opponent does get to manifest the top card of their library, but that’s often a small price to pay for permanently getting rid of something dangerous.
Why consider it: Exile-based creature removal in a color that doesn’t get much of it.
8. Brainstorm
Brainstorm looks simple: draw three cards, then put two cards from your hand back on top of your library.
And technically, that’s exactly what it does.
The fun starts when you combine it with ways to shuffle your library. Fetch lands, tutors, and other shuffle effects let you put unwanted cards back on top and then shuffle them away.
It can also protect important cards from certain hand disruption, set up the top of your library, or help you dig for an answer at instant speed.
Brainstorm isn’t automatically amazing in every blue Commander deck, but decks that can take advantage of its additional tricks can get a surprising amount of mileage out of a one-mana instant.
9. Propaganda
Sometimes the best way to survive an attack is simply to make attacking you inconvenient.
Propaganda makes each creature attacking you cost its controller an additional two mana.
Against one giant creature, that might not accomplish much. Against token decks and other go-wide strategies, however, the cost adds up fast.
An opponent who wants to swing twenty creatures your way suddenly needs forty mana just to declare the attack.
They could pay it.Or they could attack the person sitting next to you for free.
Commander players have been known to appreciate a bargain.
10. High Tide
Our last card is a little more deck-dependent, but it can be incredibly powerful in the right mono-blue deck.
High Tide costs just one blue mana and makes every Island produce an additional blue mana when tapped for the rest of the turn.
If you have six Islands, for example, High Tide can effectively turn those lands into twelve blue mana for the turn.
Things get even crazier when you start combining it with cards that untap your lands.
Unlike some of the other cards on this list, High Tide isn’t something I’d automatically throw into every deck containing blue. But in mono-blue, where most or all of your lands can be Islands, it becomes much more interesting.
Conclusion
The important thing is figuring out what your particular deck actually needs. A deck that’s already packed with counterspells probably doesn’t need five more just because they’re considered staples. The same goes for card draw and removal.
Staples are useful because they’re reliable options, not because they’re mandatory.
And if you leave two Islands untapped while everyone else argues about whether you have Counterspell?
There’s no rule saying you have to tell them.
Leave a Reply