The One RingThe One Ring | Art by Veli Nyström

Activated abilities are woven intrinsically into the fabric of Magic. They appear most prominently on lands, but there's so much more that we can do besides just making mana with this sort of ability.

In this article, I'll go over the 10 most powerful non-mana activated abilities in Commander. While Birds of ParadiseBirds of Paradise might have been able to make this list, there's just too many strong mana dorks out there!

This article would be too homogenous if I included mana abilities. Let's jump right into it, and see what Commander's best activated abilities can do (other than provide us with a bit of extra mana)!

Top 10 Non-Mana Activated Abilities in Commander

10. Carrion FeederCarrion Feeder - 4.31% Inclusion Rate

This may be the first item on our list, but I'm already cheating! I'm using Carrion Feeder as a stand-in for other low-mana-value free sacrifice outlets, like Viscera SeerViscera Seer and Umbral Collar ZealotUmbral Collar Zealot.

These creatures enable on-demand triggers from Blood ArtistBlood Artist-style effects, let us draw tons of cards with Morbid OpportunistMorbid Opportunist, and so much more.

These sac outlets can hit the board early, and provide consistent value throughout the game. Plus, decks that run cards like this often have enough recursion to ensure that important permanents stick on the board.

There's 75,348 Aristocrats decks in EDHREC's database as of the time of writing, and almost all of them make good use of Carrion Feeder and Co.

9. Agatha's Soul CauldronAgatha's Soul Cauldron - 1.13% Inclusion Rate

Just as every deck needs ramp, removal, and card advantage, they also need graveyard hate. Most every Commander decks uses the graveyard in some way these days, whether they're flashing back a copy of Sevinne's ReclamationSevinne's Reclamation or reanimating an Archon of CrueltyArchon of Cruelty.

Having an easy way to address threats that originate from the bin is key to success in Commander these days. Agatha's Soul Cauldron lets us exile a card from a graveyard once per turn cycle, and even gives us a +1/+1 counter on a creature if we exile a creature.

That ability would be fine on its own, but Agatha's also enables some fantastic combos. We can pair this powerful graveyard hate piece with Walking BallistaWalking Ballista, Devoted DruidDevoted Druid, or Kiora's FollowerKiora's Follower to rocket our way towards victory.

Check out this page on Commander Spellbook to see a full list of the cards that Agatha's Soul Cauldron goes well with!

This card's colorless identity means it should be in more decks. But, its high price tag has likely kept it out of many lists! While this artifact likely won't ever reach the ubiquity of Bojuka BogBojuka Bog, a reprint or two would likely send its price down and its inclusion rate up!

8. Goblin EngineerGoblin Engineer - 2.68% Inclusion Rate

This two-drop lets us fetch any artifact into our graveyard on ETB. Then, by paying just , we can bring a low-cost artifact back from the graveyard! This is particularly strong with Time SieveTime Sieve, Esoteric DuplicatorEsoteric Duplicator, and Grinding StationGrinding Station.

We can also draw a few extra cards with Cryogen RelicCryogen Relic, fetch up some mana with Mycosynth WellspringMycosynth Wellspring, or even grab the perfect equipment for a given game state like ShadowspearShadowspear. The point is that Goblin Engineer can do it all! This Goblin is flexible enough to find a spot in this top 10.

7. Otawara, Soaring CityOtawara, Soaring City and Boseiju, Who EnduresBoseiju, Who Endures - 16.2% and 18.7% Inclusion Rates

These lands are part of a cycle of "channel lands" from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty that let us discard them from our hand to gain some effect. While there are three other lands that released alongside Otawara and Boseiju, they pale in comparison.

Both of these cards let us remove a permanent from the board at a reasonable mana cost, but they have a slightly more important trait that has landed them on this list: their effects are extremely hard to counter.

Because these lands utilize activated abilities to remove permanents, traditional CounterspellCounterspells can't affect them once they're on the stack.

Opponents would need to use StifleStifle to stop these lands' effects from resolving, and it's rare for Stifle to be in Commander 99s these days.

So, these lands' channel abilities are all but guaranteed to resolve. Plus, if we don't need to remove anything, we can just play Boseiju and Otawara as lands!

6. NecropotenceNecropotence - 5.11% Inclusion Rate

This enchantment has long been one of the most powerful cards in all of Magic. Necropotence lets us turn life directly into card advantage à la Yawgmoth's BargainYawgmoth's Bargain, but with the drawback of forcing our discarded cards into exile.

It's great to use this card to refill our hand at the end of each turn, paying seven or so life to go back up to our maximum hand size. But if we pair Necropotence with a flash enabler like High Fae TricksterHigh Fae Trickster, we can pour a ton of life points into this enchantment's activated ability and utilize all of our fresh cards in our end step. This is a neat way to win the game, and is a relatively common play pattern in Bracket 5 pods.

5. Wishclaw TalismanWishclaw Talisman - 5.05% Inclusion Rate

Two of the strongest things that a Commander player can do are tutor and politic. This artifact lets us do both!

Paying and another to search our library for a card and place it into our hand is slightly more expensive than I'd like. The going rate for this sort of effect is (see Demonic TutorDemonic Tutor). But, paying extra in a separate installment isn't so bad.

We also get to make deals with our opponents as we pass the Talisman around the table. We can give this artifact to a player in exchange for a promise that they not fetch up a card that hurts our board state, or in exchange for a promise that they look for a removal spell to get rid of an on-board threat.

Commander is just as much about playing the people as it is playing the cards, after all!

4. Sensei's Divining TopSensei's Divining Top - 4.45% Inclusion Rate

Drawing cards is one of the most important game actions that a Commander player can take. With more cards in hand, there are more ways that a player can affect the board state, either by developing a threat of their own or by removing an opposing threat. While drawing cards is good, though, drawing the right cards at the right time is arguably even more important!

This one-drop artifact lets us do just that. By changing the order of the top three cards of our library we can ensure that we hit land drops and draw removal at the right moment.

Sensei's Divining Top even lets us draw one of the top three cards of our library in a pinch, which may give us access to interaction when we need it most.

Like other cards on this list, Top is also part of some fantastic combos. Our friends over at Commander Spellbook have put together a pretty comprehensive list.

3. Krenko, Mob BossKrenko, Mob Boss - Leads 40,160 Decks

The first Commander game I ever played was against Krenko. I was playing an unmodified preconstructed deck, and a friend of mine pulled out a fully optimized Krenko deck to mess with me. It's truly a miracle that I kept playing Magic after that incident...

But, that aside, Krenko is a super strong card. He doubles the amount of Goblins that we've got on the field, which gets out of hand quite quickly.

If we can untap Krenko a few times in a given turn, we can turn five Goblins into 10, 10 into 20, and 20 into 40! That's enough to wipe out a player in one go. Krenko is also part of several combos, most prominently featuring Thornbite StaffThornbite Staff.

As a quick note, I didn't include Marrow-GnawerMarrow-Gnawer here because of the lower amount of support that Rats have gotten when compared to Goblins. Marrow-Gnawer is still a fantastic card, it's just not quite as good as Krenko!

2. Yuriko, the Tiger's ShadowYuriko, the Tiger's Shadow - Leads 30,998 Decks

Paying extra every time we recast a commander is for chumps! Yuriko lets us dodge commander tax with a super powerful ninjutsu ability. Yuriko pilots tend to fill their decks with cheap, evasive creatures like Faerie SeerFaerie Seer and Ninjas like Mistblade ShinobiMistblade Shinobi.

This allows them to get their commander onto the field on turn two, and start drawing cards while taking big chunks out of opposing life totals.

While ninjutsu itself isn't such a crazy ability, stapling it to a commander with a game changing combat damage trigger is amazingly strong.

Pilots can pay just to get their commander back onto the field without opponents being able to do much to stop them! All this has led Yuriko to stardom in Bracket 5, where she sits firmly as a tier 2 cEDH deck.

1. The One RingThe One Ring - 8.06% Inclusion Rate

Any list of the best activated abilities would be incomplete without The One Ring. It's among the premier card draw engines in Commander, up there with Rhystic StudyRhystic Study and Mystic RemoraMystic Remora, and it can go in any deck!

This legendary Artifact lets us draw progressively more cards throughout the course of the game, at the cost of just a bit of life. But, in our 40-life format, that life point penalty is negligible.

It's neat that The One Ring protects us from all harm for a turn. Putting this artifact on the stack will certainly draw the ire of our opponents, so it's nice that we're protected for a bit. It's also great that this artifact is indestructible, letting it dodge traditional removal like VandalblastVandalblast.

Wrapping Up

I've almost certainly missed a few gems. There's more than 6,000 cards with activated abilities in Commander, making it nearly impossible to pick the perfect top 10.

I thought about including Hermit DruidHermit Druid on this list, for example. Its ability costs just , and can allow us to dump dozens of cards into our graveyard.

But this creature asks us to build a deck with few basic lands, which can be a tall order for decks that need access to two or more colors of mana. I also considered adding Kenrith, the Returned KingKenrith, the Returned King.

This five-drop does a little bit of everything, but none of his abilities are overwhelmingly powerful enough to land him a slot in this article. He's still a great commander, though!

Finally, I gave a second look to Sneak AttackSneak Attack. This enchantment lets us cheat the mana costs of big creatures very well, but its applications are somewhat narrow outside of "stompy" decks.

With all that said, what are some of your favorite cards with activated abilities in Commander? If you feel that they deserve a slot in this list over one of my picks, please do let me know in the comments below!