Curving out is super important in Commander, and having good one-mana plays to drop at the start of the game or as a way to use up excess mana can work really well. Investing in these one-drops can pay dividends.
THE BEST ONE-DROPS IN COMMANDER
First, we need to get some things out of the way. There are some one-drops that are universally good, and some that are good in specific archetypes. I don’t want to cover these cards in detail here, as they could be features in almost any article about one-drops.
As such, Sol Ring is a given. It’s card #0 on the list, right? Shadowspear is similar, in that I’d advocate its use in basically any deck. Similarly, while Commander’s Plate is a fantastic card – and one that works with white’s equipment synergies nicely – it’s not applicable to every white Commander deck, and it can be featured in way more decks than just white ones.
We also need to clarify here what a one-drop is in the context of this list. We’re talking nonland permanents – cards that get put onto the board as you’re curving out.
Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile and Ephemerate are all fantastic one-mana white cards, sure, but they’re not one-drops as far as this article is concerned. You’re not playing them on Turn 1, and you’re (almost) never using them to use up excess mana when you, say, play a three drop on Turn 4.
It also means that a fantastic one-mana play like Flickering Ward isn’t suited to this list either – you’re not playing it on its own as you curve out. You need a creature in play, and preferably an Enchantress to get your card draw going.
With that out of the way, let’s get going.
10 BEST ONE-DROPS FOR WHITE COMMANDER DECKS
10. GUIDE OF SOULS
This could easily have been Soul Warden or Soul’s Attendant, but what makes Guide of Souls so strong in white decks is the ability to jump your creatures and turn them into Angels, permanently. You lose out on gaining life for everyone else’s creatures entering, but you more than make up for that in being able to turn your otherwise walled-off utility creatures and curve-outs into actual threats. It’s a hell of a lot for one mana.
9. SERRA ASCENDANT
Serra Ascendant is an absurdly powerful one-drop thanks to being designed before Commander was properly conceptualized as the format it is today. In constructed, getting to 30 life while your opponent is attacking you is quite difficult. In Commander, it’s… well, it’s online straight away. You have a one-mana 6/6 Flying Lifelink creature on Turn 1. That’s kinda insane.
The reason why it’s not higher on the list is because it puts a massive target on you, and unless you can back it up with aggressive plays immediately, it’s either eating removal, or you’re going to be attacked a lot.
8. PIP-BOY 3000
If there’s one thing that white tends to struggle with, it’s having explosive turns, and making the most out of available mana. Pip-Boy lets you untap up to two target lands – one of which could be your Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Your creature only needs to attack and not even connect, and if you don’t have anything to spend the extra mana on, you can instead grow the creature or dig for better cards. It kinda does it all, and shores up a lot of white’s weak areas.
7. SIGARDA’S AID
How many equipment do you need to be playing for Sigarda’s Aid to be worth a slot? A great question, and I believe one that could be “fewer than 10” if your Commander is a low drop like Giada, Font of Hope. White still loves to use equipment to get the job done, and reducing the amount of mana you spend on equip costs is how you keep the tempo in your favor.
6. SKRELV / MOTHER OF RUNES / GIVER OF RUNES
It’s very hard to pick the “best” of these one drops, but I am increasingly leaning toward it being Skrelv in quite a few decks. If you’re running a lot of Auras or colored Equipment, Skrelv starts to creep ahead of these other two thanks to it not forcing you to detach all of those attached Auras and Equipment if the color you want protection from matches.
The Toxic 1 is basically never relevant, except when it comes to politics, because people will be way more afraid of Skrelv than Mom. Respect your Mom, guys.
5. RECONNAISSANCE
Reconnaissance lets you remove creatures from combat if they’re going to get walled and killed by a blocker, which is pretty nice. That’s not all it does, though, so to find out more, let’s look at a version with more reminder text.
There is an “end of combat” in which you can activate this, right after combat damage. In this way, you can essentially give your board Vigilance for the low-low cost of a single mana. That’s pretty nice, and something a great deal of white decks want.
4. BENEVOLENT BODYGUARD
When I look at my white decks, I see way more Benevolent Bodyguard than I see Mother of Runes. The reason for that is simple; I run a lot of white reanimator decks. Benevolent Bodyguard’s protection doesn’t require mana to activate, and it also doesn’t require it to not be summoning-sick (or have haste). While it is a one-time use, it can be recurred in a myriad of different ways by the right reanimator cards, making it quite the workhorse.
3. LAND TAX
Land Tax is incredible. If you just look at it as an “every upkeep, you get to draw three cards”, it sounds crazy, but that’s kinda what this is. Yes, those cards are always basic lands, and not gas… but that’s fine. It’s more than fine. You get to hit your land drops, you have cards to discard to effects (and perhaps recur with others), and you’re thinning your deck to ensure that subsequent draws have a higher chance of being spells than lands.
If you’re playing your deck right, you probably get at most three triggers from Land Tax before you end up ahead on lands (either from ramping, or from others missing land drops). Nine cards for one mana is a great deal.
2. ESPER SENTINEL
Esper Sentinel is the defacto white one-drop, and for good reason. It nets multiple extra cards for free while slowing down other decks who want to be diligent about paying taxes. You can’t get much better than this – which is a good and a bad thing. While I’m still slamming it every chance I get, folks have gotten wise to it now… which is why it’s not in pole position today.
1. SKULLCLAMP
While it’s true that nothing is certain life aside from Death and Taxes, the card draw on Esper Sentinel is far from certain. That’s why you pack a Skullclamp in your back pocket, kid.
Skullclamp remains one of the most busted draw engines in all of Magic, and in white decks in Commander, it shines brightest. You have a host of ways to make one-toughness tokens, from Cats to Spirits to Soldiers to Spirits that don’t have flying. You can rely on your own gameplan way more than someone potentially giving you cards off of Esper Sentinel, and for that reason, Skullclamp remains the best one-drop for white decks in Commander.
END STEP
Today we covered the best one-drops if you’re playing a white deck in Commander. Dropping some of these cards on Turn 1 can set you up for success, so you should definitely consider adding them to your builds. Next time we’ll look at another color. Let us know which one you want to see.
Kristen is Card Kingdom’s Head Writer and a member of the Commander Format Panel. Formerly a competitive Pokémon TCG grinder, she has been playing Magic since Shadows Over Innistrad, which in her opinion, was a great set to start with. When she’s not taking names with Equipment and Aggro strategies in Commander, she loves to play any form of Limited.