Who Needs Colors? A Guide to making Colorless Decks

In Commander, you have six choices in color identity when it comes to Mono-deck building. While most think of the five colors of the color pie, you also have Colorless. Colorless commanders are unique in that they, well, don’t have colors. This makes deckbuilding more restrictive and unique, which makes it far more interesting. Colorless has plenty of its own staples, and has some staple cards that are just completely useless in a Colorless deck.

Cards That Don’t Work

Before we get into staples and the like, first, you should know which cards that just don’t work in Colorless decks. As the name implies, Colorless is not a color. This means that any card that refers to adding a mana of a color in your commander’s color identity does not work. So, if you’re building a Colorless commander deck, you won’t want to include cards such as Arcane Signet, Command Tower, and Path of Ancestry. These cards are functionally worthless and won’t actually do anything for you on the battlefield.

Colorless Lands

Colorless Commander decks function the same as other commanders. You cannot run lands that don’t fit into your commander’s color identity. Luckily, there are colorless basic lands thanks to Wastes.

Nonbasic lands are much more common for Colorless commander decks. Many of your decks will use Colorless mana, so you need permanents that can actually generate Colorless mana properly. Colorless mana and generic mana is not the same, so if a permanet adds , then that can’t be used to pay Colorless costs.

The strongest cards by far are the Urza lands (Urza's Mine, Urza's Power Plant, and Urza's Tower). These provide Colorless mana, and can provide some extra mana for no extra cost. Likewise, Urza's Cave can tutor for any of these Urza’s lands, and Urza's Workshop can add a ton of Colorless mana. If you’re building a Colorless decks, you want to put as many Urza lands in your deck as possible.

Utility lands sometimes use only being able to make Colorless mana as a downside. But, in Colorless decks, that just makes them strictly better than basic lands. Crystal Grotto and The Grey Havens give you a free scry, and Hidden Grotto and Conduit Pylons offer surveils. You can use Mirrex, Fountainport, and Abstergo Entertainment for utility effects as well.

A lot of lands let you make more than one Colorless mana. Shrine of the Forsaken Gods is a strictly better Temple of the False God. For Eldrazi decks (which are the most common Colorless creature), Eldrazi Temple is a tribal version of this effect, with Eye of Ugin giving a blanket discount. If you can imprint, Ugin's Labyrinth is great as well.

Mana Rocks

Mana rocks that make Colorless mana are plentiful. So while there are a few staples you mis out on, there are a handful that become stronger. Sol Ring is just as strong as ever. Mana rocks that can generate more than one mana are excellent, making cards like Thran Dynamo, Hedron Archive, and Worn Powerstone much stronger.

Colorless decks tend to have a very high mana curve, so you want a higher-than-average number of mana rocks in your deck. Even “average” mana rocks like Thought Vessel and Mind Stone are great to ramp into your better mana rocks quicker. One of the best is Everflowing Chalice. At worst, you can tap it for one mana, but if you have a lot of mana to dump into its multikicker, it can become a very juicy mana rock that can generate a ton of mana. These can all be played on the turn they enter, making them even more useful

Colorless Staples

Colorless decks have a lot of very useful cards. In many cases, Colorless decks have a very high mana curve. This makes Forsaken Monument and Ugin, the Ineffable very useful for making it easier to cast your high mana value cards. Once you get Darksteel Monolith on the battlefield, you get to cast any Colorless spell for free. Ultima, Origin of Oblivion can turn lands into lands that can only make Colorless mana, and makes all your lands for an extra colorless mana.

In Colorless decks, you actually have multiple ways to make one-sided board wipes. All is Dust exiles all colored cards, leaving only Colorless cards behind (which your entire battlefield is). Ugin, Eye of the Storms turns every Colorless card being cast into removal for most permanents that will be on your opponents’ battlefields. Once Ugin, the Spirit Dragon‘s effect can exile all colored permanents if you have loyalty to spend on its ability.

There are even ways to double up on your Colorless spells and abilities. Echoes of Eternity is one of the best cards for Colorless decks, as it doubles any triggered effects or makes a copy of Colorless spells when you cast them. It does a lot while being rather easy to cast. Mystic Forge is a fantastic utility card since it lets you play Colorless spells from the top of your library. If you have mana to spend, Abstruse Archaic can copy an ability from any Colorless source. Colorless effects are great, especially the ones attached to the Eldrazi, so these are very good abilities to copy.

The Eldrazi

It’s hard to talk about Colorless deckbuilding without talking about the Eldrazi. Eldrazi is a creature type of all Colorless creatures generally defined by their large stats and casting costs. It is important to note that some Eldrazi cards have devoid (meaning they don’t have a color), such as Basking Broodscale or Eldrazi Displacer. However, even though these don’t have colors, they still have a color identity since a mana cost appears on their card. So, you cannot play these in a Colorless commander deck.

Eldrazi cards tend to help make it easier to cast other Eldrazi. Conduit of Ruin is one of the best since it’ll tutor for another high-mana value card, as well as discount your first creature spell each turn. Glaring Fleshraker creates tokens that can generate Colorless mana whenever you’re casting Colorless cards. These don’t have to resolve, so you still get the token even if that spell gets countered. Although the discount isn’t huge, even minor ones are helpful, such as the discount found on It That Heralds the End.

And now for the big dogs, the legendary Eldrazi. These cards are often feared at any Commander pod, and for good reason. If you cast them, odds are you’re going to get so far ahead of your opponents they won’t be able to catch up. Emrakul, the World Anew can just steal all creatures a player controls with no downside (except destroying your battlefield if it ever leaves the battlefield). Kozilek, Butcher of Truth has annihilator 4, so every time it attacks whoever you’re attacking has to lose four permanents (more if the trigger is copied by another permanent). With a hand of different mana values, Kozilek, the Great Distortion can counter anything an opponent tries to play. Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger gets rid of any two permanents, and can quickly get rid of your opponents’ decks with just one attack.

Colorless Commanders

Now that you know all the Colorless staples, let’s look at a few different Colorless decks. Even if you don’t use any of these, they’re a good baseline to know the kinds of things that Colorless decks are capable of. We’ll look over three distinct archetypes and commanders to show off the full range of what Colorless decks can do.

Eldrazi (Zhulodok, Void Gorger)

Zhulodok, Void Gorger is easily the best commander for Eldrazi decks. It was the face of the Eldrazi precon for a reason. It converts all your high-mana value Colorless spells into cards that give you a 3 for 1. Cascading twice, especially with high mana values, is incredible, and a great way to cheat out extra Eldrazi spells that might be expensive such as Ulamog, the Defiler and Emrakul, the World Anew.

Eldrazi decks are very slow, so you need a lot of mana quickly to get to all of your primary spells. As such, utilizing cards such as Urza's Incubator, The Eternity Elevator, and Everflowing Chalice are much more vital to the strategy. If you’re playing Eldrazi for your Colorless deck of choice, you will be public enemy, so set up as quickly as you can before you’re taken out before you ever have the chance to.

Eldrazi have a ton of very strong triggered effects. So, you want Echoes of Eternity on the battlefield ASAP. Likewise, you want to cast Abstruse Archaic quickly as another ability copy but requires it to be able to tap itself. Roaming Throne naming Eldrazi is often a game-ending combo. All of these effects stack with one another, so all being on the battlefield is backbreaking for your opponents with the right triggers.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. The one downside with Eldrazi decks is that they carry a high price tag. Eldrazis are very powerful, and as such, very costly.

Artifacts (Karn, Legacy Reforged)

Many artifacts are Colorless, so one option for a Colorless commander is Karn, Legacy Reforged to lead a Colorless deck. Karn, Legacy Reforged cares about the mana value of artifacts you control, and adds mana to your pool the more artifacts you have. To help make the most out of your mana, discounting permanents such as Jhoira's Familiar and Foundry Inspector are quite useful.

For the most part, your creature suite consists of artifact creatures. This lets you use the mana generated from your commander to cast them. Steel Overseer is the best support card as a way to put +1/+1 counters on all your artifact creatures. Iron Spider, Stark Upgrade can do this too, but can’t be copied like Steel Overseer can. To help keep your artifacts protected, Krang, Utrom Warlord gives them a ton of keywords, including indestructible.

With all of your cards primarily being artifacts, there are a lot of utility cards you can take advantage of. Unwinding Clock is the best, as it lets you get aggressive with your creatures and untap them so you can still use them as blockers. So long as you have mana to spend (and you should, thanks to Karn, Legacy Reforged), Mirrorworks is great at creating copies of all your best artifacts. When it comes to your best enablers, Mirage Mirror and Chrome Dome can make copies of them to get extra value from their effects.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. Artifacts are one of the “easy” choices when it comes to building Colorless decks since they naturally go together.

Voltron/Sacrifice (Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender)

Voltron refers to decks that are primarily focused on one creature. In this case, it’s Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender. Its ability benefits from artifacts leaving the battlefield, so there is a sacrifice theme as well. You want to load up your commander with cards like Eldrazi Conscription and Trailblazer's Boots to make it hard, if not impossible, to block.

The deck wants sacrifice outlets so that you can put artifacts in the graveyard without spending mana. Krark-Clan Ironworks is the best for this, as it turns that artifact into mana. To help another creature grow in stats, Arcbound Ravager can be used as an outlet. Technodrome turns any artifact into draw power, and starts with a solid statline to use as a blocker.

You need outlets, but you also need enablers creating sacrifice fodder. Treasure tokens are the best to create, as these benefit you and get sent to the graveyard to trigger your commander. Coin of Mastery lets you make a Treasure token just by tapping it. Similarly, Collector's Vault and Nuka-Cola Vending Machine are both great token generators that need a few extra hoops to jump through. Another free artifact creator is Transmutation Font, which can also act as a tutor for any artifact.

A sample decklist can be viewed below. The deck wants to put Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender on the battlefield and take advantage of its effect while you dig through your deck.

In Conclusion

Colorless decks are a fun challenge to build. In Commander, colors are more important than in any other format. So, restricting yourself to not being able to play any is a fun take on deckbuilding. You play a lot of cards you wouldn’t see otherwise, and don’t play cards that every other Commander deck tends to play.

There aren’t too many options when it comes to Colorless commander decks. There are only a bit over 30 Colorless commander options, and some just don’t work well as a commander in general. However, Colorless commander decks can put in a lot of work. Weirdly, they tend to be on the pricier side, but if you can manage, they’re a ton of fun to play.