Mono Blue Staples come in all kinds of styles. The color has access to a ton of different options for many of Commander’s best effects. There is a reason that Blue is widely considered to be one of, and arguably the best, color in the format. Here, we’ll overview all the best Mono Blue staples so you know what cards you should pack in your Mono Blue decks. In some cases, these Mono Blue staples are so good, they should be included in every deck that can play them. From counterspells to draw power, let’s get into it.
Looking for a Mono Blue Commander? Deekah, Fractal Theorist is a great one, and we have an article going over that you can check out this way.
Mono Blue Staples: Counterspells
Blue is the color of counterspells. This helps you prevent problem permanents from ever hitting the battlefield. It is also a way to cut someone off from a win condition. Generally, you only want to play counterspells that cost two or less mana. Otherwise, you have to hold back a bit too much in order to have mana up to actually counter anything.
As you probably expect, some of the best counterspells are ones that can counter any spell. Examples of this include the namesake Counterspell, as well as Arcane Denial and Mana Drain.
Moving on to more specific counterspells, both An Offer You Can't Refuse and Negate can counter any noncreature spell. Flusterstorm has the potential to counter multiple spells on a stack, and Mental Misstep can counter any spell with 1 CMC or less (something very common in cEDH games). You can use Muddle the Mixture as either an instant or sorcery counterspell, or as a tutor for extra utility. Swan Song and Strix Serenade can catch a variety of different spell types too for just one mana.
Lastly, we have free counterspells. These are the best since you can catch opponents off guard, thinking their spells are safe when you’re tapped out. Fierce Guardianship, Force of Will, and Force of Negation are all among these. Pact of Negation is free too; though, you have to pay five mana to not automatically lose the game.
Mono Blue Staples: Draw Power
Blue is far and away the best color when it comes to draw power. “Do you pay the 1?” is muttered across hundreds of Commander games every day, given how common Rhystic Study is. Mystic Remora is similar, though much more limited due to the cumulative upkeep and only applying to noncreature spells. Both of these are among the best enchantments in the game, especially in Blue.
In Storm decks especially, Frantic Search is great. It is essentially a free spell, since you untap three lands once it resolves. If a land can tap for more than one mana, it goes mana-positive even. Windfall is a bit of a combo card that pairs well with anything that either prevents your opponents from taking extra draws, or punishes them for them. Similar to Frantic Search, Archmage Emeritus is another common permanent for draw power in decks that play a lot of instants and sorcery spells. For Tribal decks, Kindred Discovery and Distant Melody are both solid options.
Cantrips
A cantrip refers to a card that costs one mana and replaces itself after being cast (usually by drawing a card). These are common in Spellslinger and Storm decks as they’re easy to cast and keep your hand full instead of losing out on any card advantage.
The most common cantrips are Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain, Opt, and Consider. You even have a free one with Gitaxian Probe. Treasure Cruise is not technically a cantrip, but you’re usually casting it for one mana. All of these are very strong and are all interchangeable with one another if you need to make cuts in your decks.
Mono Blue Staples: Removal
Every color has removal options, and Blue is no exception. However, most of Blue’s removal options are returning cards to the hand or to the library instead of destroying them directly. It’s off-color, but Blue does have two cards that can destroy a creature directly (and replace them with a 3/3). These two are Pongify and Rapid Hybridization.
More in Blue’s color pie is exiling creatures to replace them with something else. These kinds of cards are still rare, but get printed every so often. Examples of this kind of card include Reality Shift, Ravenform, and Resculpt. The latter two are Blue’s only ways to fully remove artifacts efficiently, so are good to remember in color pairings where artifact removal is light.
Board Wipes
Blue is not a color that has board wipes, well, good ones. The only great board wipe in Blue is Cyclonic Rift, which is one of the best spells in the entire format. Returning permanents is a big setback for everyone, as they often won’t have enough mana to bring all of them back out, forcing them to be discarded. Much weaker, but decent board wipes in Mono Blue include Curse of the Swine and The Phasing of Zhalfir. The last of which is Mono Blue’s only way to actually destroy all creatures.
Aside from the above, there are a handful of Mono Blue cards that bounce creatures back to the hand. Wave Goodbye can be powerful in decks that have a lot of +1/+1 counter synergies. In certain decks, Whelming Wave can be a one-sided board wipe for creatures. You can survive a combat with Aetherize, but it is very niche in its use. When it works, it works very well, but it can just as easily whiff and just sit in your hand all game.
Mono Blue Staples: Clone Effects
Something that Blue has a lockdown on are clone effects. These are cards that either create a token copy of another permanent or come in as a copy of that permanent. These cards are best used in decks that want multiple copies of the same effect. Spark Double, Irenicus's Vile Duplication, and Auton Soldier are among the best, as they become nonlegendary. This lets you make token copies of these cards without having to ever worry about the legend rule.
There are a ton of other fantastic clone spells. Examples of these are Clever Impersonator, Stunt Double, Mirrorhall Mimic, and Phyrexian Metamorph, which can all copy anyone’s permanent (under their parameters). Phantasmal Image can too, though has a high risk of getting destroyed easily after. Ones that can only target your own permanents are Glasspool Mimic, Mirror Image, Quasiduplicate, and Quantum Misalignment. Once you have creatures to copy, Echocasting Symposium can keep copying creatures every upkeep.
Mono Blue Staples: Tutors
Tutors are cards that can search your library for a card and either put it into your hand, onto the battlefield, or on the top of the library. For instants and sorceries, you have the powerful Mystical Tutor as the best, with Merchant Scroll and Personal Tutor as other solid options. Many of the best instants and sorceries have a mana cost of two or less, making Spellseeker so powerful. Solve the Equation is another way to get an instant or sorcery into your hand.
Blue’s biggest strength when it comes to tutors is how many options there are for artifact tutors. Transmute Artifact is one of the best, letting you sacrifice an artifact to bring any out from your library (but you do need to pay mana for it so it isn’t put into the graveyard right away). For more generic artifact searchers, you haveFabricate and Whir of Invention, which can put one from the library directly onto the battlefield. Arcum Dagsson is so good, it’s played as a cEDH commander for how easy it is to trade cheap artifacts for much more valuable ones in your deck.
Mono Blue Staples: Stax Pieces
Stax pieces refer to cards that slow the game down. Often, this is done in a way to make it harder for players to attack or cast spells one way or another. Blue isn’t the best color at Stax (that title belongs to White), but it is the second best!
Back to Basics stops all nonbasic lands from untapping. If you’re playing Mono Blue, it’s especially strong since most of your landbase will be basic lands. If you like Blood Moon, you’ll love Harbinger of the Seas. It makes all nonbasic lands into Islands, meaning they lose all other mana abilities and essentially just become a Basic Island mechanically (without the benefits of being a basic land). To make it harder for opponents to untap, you have Stasis too.
To slow down opponents, Propaganda can make it much harder for them to attack you, forcing them to pay mana to do so. You can make most permanents your opponents play enter tapped with Frozen Aether. There is more land hate that makes opponents have to decide if they want spells or lands with Mana Breach and Overburden doing that. These two do affect you too, so be wary of that.
Mono Blue Staples: Miscellaneous
The last handful of staples all have various uses, but don’t quite fit into any major category, even if they are just as strong. For example, Hullbreaker Horror is a fantastic control card, capable of bouncing spells and permanents back to the hand. It’s also a staple combo that can easily make infinite mana with any two mana-positive mana rocks. In artifact decks, Etherium Sculptor helps to discount all your artifacts. If you want an easy win condition, Thassa's Oracle is the bane of many cEDH players with how easy it is to win the game with when paired with any card that can get rid of your library (such as Demonic Consultation.
In decks that draw frequently, Teferi's Ageless Insight doubles up all your draws. Formats like cEDH have a lot of searching going on, so Wan Shi Tong, Librarian is a staple in many Blue decks there. If you need a combo-ending spell, Brain Freeze has you covered in any combo that can cast an infinite number of spells. In Blink decks, Peregrine Drake is very common as a way to generate a ton of mana for little investment.
Some other Mono Blue cards aside from Thassa's Oracle can win you the game. Both Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and Laboratory Maniac have the same win condition of winning when you have an empty library. You can win the game with a certain number of cards in your hand using Triskaidekaphile and Twenty-Toed Toad (the latter of which can win with twenty counters on it too).
In Conclusion
Mono Blue has a plethora of very powerful staples you can choose from. Whether you’re in Mono Blue itself or playing a color pairing that has Blue in it, all these cards make for powerful includes. Something important to note is that you don’t have to play every staple in a deck. Sometimes, a deck will be stronger without them and better off playing cards that are more “on theme” for the deck you are playing. For example, an Aggro deck isn’t going to need counterspells, as you don’t want to take turns off to hold that mana up. In a similar vein, if you’re not playing a Spellslinger or Storm deck, you don’t really need to be playing cantrips, since they’re generally not providing any value.
Overall, Mono Blue staples are very powerful. Along with Black, Blue has plenty of very strong cards that are good in just about every deck. In many cases, you are always going to bring in at least a couple of Mono Blue staples in any deck that’s running Blue. There are plenty of powerful Blue cards that didn’t get a highlight in this article; instead, only the best of the best were included that any deck can benefit from adding.
If you want to do a deeper dive into Mono Blue, you can check out our Mono Blue overview article this way.
