10 Best One-Drops for Blue Commander Decks

Making sure you have something to do on turn one of a Commander game – or when you have a mana to spare – can really set you up for success. Having access to these great one drops in a blue Commander deck can really up your game. 

THE BEST ONE-DROPS IN COMMANDER

Firstly, we should really talk about the 3/3 Elephant in the room: most of the best one-drops can be played whatever color you’re in.

Artifacts like Sol Ring and Skullclamp are in a league of their own, and tools like Stone of Erech can be amazing for shoring up weaknesses in your deckbuilding. 

Instead, this list is going to focus on what’s available for blue decks. Before we get stuck in, one final clarification.

While one-mana spells like Mystical Tutor, Into the Flood Maw, Swan Song, Pongify, Rapid Hybridization and the like are fantastic one-mana spells in blue decks, they’re not quite the one-drops we’re talking about here. We’re focused on permanents, and we’re focused on spells you can drop early. Outside of cEDH, Mystical Tutor isn’t much of an early spell, and counters and removal reliant on the opponent. 

For the purposes of this list, a one-drop is a nonland permanent you play as you’re curving out (with one exception, which you’ll see as we continue). 

10 BEST ONE-DROPS FOR BLUE COMMANDER DECKS

10. SIREN STORMTAMER

Siren Stormtamer is something of a classic at this point, and saw a lot of play when it was released back in the Ixalan block. Having a 1/1 flyer than can draw cards off of Coastal Piracy is great, especially when it also protects your Commander or key value engine creature.

Pirate and Wizard are two very popular and synergistic creature types, too, which makes this one a home run of a one-drop.

9. WAYFARER’S BAUBLE

While Sol Ring is universal, you want Bauble less in colors that have access to dorks or other ways to ramp. Blue remains the color with the least ramp options that aren’t just artifacts, and the least options when it comes to putting lands onto the table – red can at least use destruction based ramp spells on indestructible lands if it really wants to, and use temporary land ramp too. 

Bauble makes it onto the list here for blue because blue decks often leave mana open. Having a bauble in play gives you something to do if that mana isn’t spent on a counterspell or other instant, making it something of a no-brainer in blue decks. If you’re in blue artifacts matters, it can get even better. 

8. RETRACED IMAGE

While the trend toward linear deckbuilding in Commander hasn’t reached a peak yet to allow Retraced Image to reliably put something in from your hand every game, there is the fact that it will, at base, always allow you to sneak in an extra basic Island, because you will have played an Island before this. It’s a cheeky ramp option in blue, and one of the only ones. 

7. WIZARD CLASS

There are few better plays than a T1 Wizard Class in many casual blue Commander decks. It grants no maximum hand size, gives access to a Divination when you want it, and eventually gives a way to pump the team. It’s a lot of value nestled into one little enchantment.

6. TRAINING GROUNDS

Training Grounds is one of the most powerful one-drop Enchantment cards in the game. If you’re caring about activated abilities at all, then Training Grounds is for you. Whether your Commander is Leonardo da Vinci or Gogo, Master of Mimicry, or whether you’re in other colors as well (shoutout to Kenessos, Kenrith and The Scarab God), getting access to cost reduced abilities can crack a deck wide open.

5. COMBAT RESEARCH

Yes, I can hear the klaxon. Yes, I’m breaking my rule established in the other one-drop articles, in order to name an Aura that requires a creature in play. But I’m doing it, and I’ll do it again if I want to.

Combat Research gets a spot here because of how powerful it is. It combines card draw witha buff and Ward {1}, which is very powerful. This can go on any early creature or Commander, and is a very valuable piece in your toolkit. It’s also on the list because damn, blue has way fewer actual one-drop permanents I want to be playing than other colors. Case in point, our next entry.

4. CANTRIPS IN GENERAL

Ponder. Preordain. Opt. Brainstorm. Consider. Thought Scour. Serum Visions. Take your pick of the dozens of options. Blue decks pack these to trigger Magecraft, trigger token making, trigger card draw and treasure making, trigger double spell turns, and many more. You play them for your main strategy, but you’re also happy to fire one off on T1 when everyone else is playing a tapped land. 

3. GITAXIAN PROBE

There’s one cantrip that tends to shine above the others the sweatier you get, and that’s Gitaxian Probe. You can pay a blue mana for it, or just cast it for free by paying 2 life. Drawing a card and peeking an opponent’s hand who you’re scared of is pretty good, it turns out. 

2. SENSEI’S DIVINING TOP

Given blue has many ways to shuffle the library – not least Soothsaying, which very nearly made this list – it makes cards like Brainstorm viable in many builds. That said, the far-and-away best option here is Sensei’s Divining Top. It’s a combo piece, a value piece, and an otherwise perfect stimming tool for the budding blue mage. 

1. MYSTIC REMORA

Undisputably the King of blue one-drops, Mystic Remora gets better the sweatier your table. Dropping this on T1 or T2 can draw you plenty of cards, and having it out for a decisive turn later in the game can be just as good, as it’ll help you draw into the counterspell you need as someone is popping off. It’s not quite Rhystic Study, but it’s also only one mana.

END STEP

This time we covered the best one-drops if you’re playing a blue Commander deck. We’ve got one more color to go next time – Black. Let us know if we missed any cards you love to play.