Mox OpalMox Opal | Art by Volkan Baga

Colorless Commander decks at one point felt very limited in what they could do. Eldrazi titans littered battlefields with their fallen foes, but it felt like that was all it could ever be for a while.

Now, thanks partially to Vehicles, Spacecraft, and Universes Beyond (UB) becoming fertile grounds for new colorless card designs, deckbuilding for colorless Commander decks has never been more diverse. Whatever the Bracket, colorless is gradually becoming a more plausible color identity to play with.

So what does Magic's unofficial sixth color bring to the table?

The Before Times

Colorless couldn't move for a time beyond the general game plan of dumping your hand of rocks as early as possible to then resolve some big Eldrazi before your opponents could reasonably gather defenses. There were Traxos, Scourge of KroogTraxos, Scourge of Kroog or Karn, Silver GolemKarn, Silver Golem Voltron strategies that were very interesting, but even many of those decks relied on giant spaghetti monsters as a backup plan.

Beyond that, colorless decks weren't all that popular. Even with an interesting Voltron strategy, colorless decks often played the same game every time they shuffled up. There's very little interaction within colorless decks, even more so before UB and similarly powered eternal sets like Modern Horizons.

What colorless had in mana production, it desperately lacked in removal, card draw, defensive interaction, and most of the other vegetables colored decks inherently are abundant in.

Ugin, the Spirit DragonUgin, the Spirit Dragon and All Is DustAll Is Dust were effectively the only two board wipes worth running. Gruesome SlaughterGruesome Slaughter was technically playable, but when most of the creatures were 8+ mana to cast, it was highly unreliable.

Hoping to draw cards before you cast a Kozilek, the Great DistortionKozilek, the Great Distortion? It was possible, but you often needed to jump through too many hoops to make it worthwhile. While there are a lot of small artifacts that replace themselves like Chromatic StarChromatic Star and a good handful of lands that'll net a card or two like Arch of OrazcaArch of Orazca, the more advantageous draw effects like Mind's EyeMind's Eye were too slow.

If you wanted something quicker, you'd need to bargain with a Howling MineHowling Mine, Font of MythosFont of Mythos, or Mikokoro, Center of the SeaMikokoro, Center of the Sea, at which point you might as well just stick with the slower payoffs instead of furthering the distance between you and your opponents.

Because of this lack of interaction and a pretty linear game plan, most colorless experiences wound up either ending with throwing masses of Eldrazi at your opponents or folding to a single VandalblastVandalblast.

However, that's not the case anymore. Despite there still being a lack of diverse interaction pieces, colorless players have been slowly improving at doing everything just a little bit better.

Jack of All Trades

It's true that colorless decks often don't precisely master any one thing when other colors specifically excel at one or two particular strategies. However, what colorless generally lacks in mastering is made up for in being able to do just about anything. Just don't look at how many resources it'll cost.

Draw sources like The VisionThe Vision or Palantír of OrthancPalantír of Orthanc, as unremarkable as they may be in other situations, are significant aids that shore up one of colorless's biggest weaknesses.

Null Elemental BlastNull Elemental Blast is an exceptionally humorous addition to the elemental blast design cycle since no one expects the Syr Ginger, the Meal EnderSyr Ginger, the Meal Ender Voltron deck to counter someone's commander.

Ultima, Origin of OblivionUltima, Origin of Oblivion and Karn, Legacy ReforgedKarn, Legacy Reforged lean into colorless's greatest strength that is mana production, leaving the rest of the deck to focus on deciding what's worth such vast amounts of mana production.

Speaking of which, it's still a good choice to dump mana into Eldrazi, but they're not the only payoffs colorless can choose from anymore. Galactus, Devourer of WorldsGalactus, Devourer of Worlds, Krang, Utrom WarlordKrang, Utrom Warlord, and The Walls of Ba Sing SeThe Walls of Ba Sing Se all compete with precious card slots when determining which payoffs are best.

What better way to make room for flashier cards than to have one card do everything you'd ever need in a colorless deck? That's right, we're talking about Kozilek's CommandKozilek's Command.

Not only does it do just about everything a colorless deck wants to do, it does everything exceedingly well! Point removal, card draw, and generating creature tokens all at instant speed are all a very rare commodity colorless decks often need to bend over backwards to find.

We've seen more playable colorless cards for Commander released in the last three years than ever before. While many of these cards help to strengthen colorless strategies, what can we expect from future designs?

Oh, the Places We’ll Go

To be honest, I believe the stronger the cards are printed within a colorless identity, the more powerful all of Magic design will be. Put simply, if a colorless card is designed to be legal and playable in every deck imaginable, and these designs are being pushed to be faster, stronger, etc., then so too will every deck.

This goes beyond just granting one color a very powerful yet color-bent ability. Whenever green gets another Craterhoof BehemothCraterhoof Behemoth effect or blue gets a fancier CounterspellCounterspell, these cards typically elevate specific strategies rather than supercharging an entire color identity's viability.

But when colorless gets a new The One RingThe One Ring, everyone feels it because it's not just colorless that gets powercrept.

The same can go for colorless cards that are designed for more color-specific strategies such as Conjurer's ClosetConjurer's Closet, or cards that are designed to be good in any color like Roaming ThroneRoaming Throne.

We can get away with giving every deck flashy abilities like miracle from Molecule ManMolecule Man or a convenient finisher like Summon: BahamutSummon: Bahamut for a time, but there will be a time when the next FantasticarFantasticar warps Commander just as much as it's warped other formats, like Legacy.

As much as I love Kozilek's CommandKozilek's Command, it's likely to either be rivaled, if not overshadowed, within the next five years with the sheer volume of playable colorless cards being printed nowadays.

Additionally, now that legendary Vehicles and Spacecraft are eligible commanders, there are stranger and unforeseen ways new inanimate commanders will inevitably warp the game players will be required to account for.

I'd wager these future deigns will be as problematic as eminence abilities or commanders that avoid commander tax. Not necessarily broken or hated, but could easily be made to be so.

There's not much we players can do about this, but it's important to recognize. Constraints breed creativity, and I often like to think of colorless as being the most restrictive color identity to build a competent yet enjoyable deck with because it needs a lot of hoops to make a strategy worthwhile, whatever the Bracket.

But what do you think? How do you feel about colorless commander decks? What's your experience with building/playing against colorless decks? Do you think stronger colorless commanders will impact Commander at large?

I hope this article was an interesting dive into where colorless as a color identity rests for now. Find me on Bluesky at @ajwicker4.bsky.social. I'd love to hear from you and what your thoughts are.

Tune in next time to continue this deep dive into the Bracket system and more Commander Philosophy!