50 Powerful Commander Cards Under $1

The most common misconception about Commander is that you need expensive cards to compete. While Rhystic Study, Cyclonic Rift, and Smothering Tithe are powerful, there are dozens of cards under $1 that perform almost as well in the right deck.

This list covers 50 cards across all five colors (plus colorless) that cost less than a dollar and consistently overperform. Prices fluctuate, but these cards have been reliably cheap for years due to frequent reprints.

White (8 Cards)

1. Swords to Plowshares (~$0.75) - One white mana to exile any creature. The life your opponent gains is irrelevant in a format where players start at 40. Reprinted heavily enough to stay near the $1 mark.

2. Generous Gift (~$0.50) - Three mana to destroy any permanent. The 3/3 Elephant token is a small price for such flexibility.

3. Austere Command (~$0.75) - Modal board wipe that lets you choose which types of permanents to destroy. Hit creatures and enchantments while keeping your artifacts, or vice versa.

4. Return to Dust (~$0.25) - Four mana to exile two artifacts and/or enchantments. If cast during your main phase, it exiles both. Excellent value.

5. Unbreakable Formation (~$0.25) - Protects your creatures from board wipes with indestructible and gives them +1/+1 counters if cast during your main phase.

6. Sram, Senior Edificer (~$0.50) - Draws a card whenever you cast an Aura, Equipment, or Vehicle. Auto-include in Voltron decks.

7. Mentor of the Meek (~$0.25) - Pay {1} to draw a card whenever a creature with power 2 or less enters under your control. Excellent in token strategies where the triggers stack up fast.

8. Sun Titan (~$0.75) - Returns a permanent with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard when it enters and attacks. Recurring value engine.

Blue (8 Cards)

9. An Offer You Can't Refuse (~$0.25) - One blue mana to counter any noncreature spell. Your opponent gets two Treasure tokens, but stopping a game-winning combo or board wipe is worth it.

10. Negate (~$0.25) - Two mana to counter a noncreature spell. Stops combos, board wipes, and game-winning spells.

11. Pongify (~$0.50) - One blue mana to destroy a creature. The 3/3 Ape token is worth it when you are removing a 15/15 or a combo piece.

12. Reality Shift (~$0.25) - Two mana to exile a creature. The manifested card from the opponent's deck is almost never relevant.

13. Brainstorm (~$0.50) - One mana to draw three and put two back. Incredible card quality improvement, especially with shuffle effects.

14. Fact or Fiction (~$0.25) - Five cards revealed, opponent splits them into two piles, you choose one. Usually draws you three cards and puts two in the graveyard (which can also be useful).

15. Arcane Denial (~$0.50) - Two mana to counter any spell. Your opponent draws two cards next turn, but you draw one. Net card advantage over Counterspell in some situations.

16. Into the Roil (~$0.25) - Two mana to bounce any nonland permanent. Pay the kicker cost of two more to draw a card. Flexible and cheap.

Black (9 Cards)

17. Go for the Throat (~$0.50) - Two mana to destroy a nonartifact creature. Efficient and rarely misses.

18. Feed the Swarm (~$0.25) - Two mana to destroy a creature or enchantment. Black's only real enchantment removal and it is extremely valuable because of that.

19. Sign in Blood (~$0.25) - Two mana, draw two cards, lose two life. Can also target an opponent at low life as a finisher.

20. Night's Whisper (~$0.50) - Same as Sign in Blood but cannot target opponents. Slightly more consistent.

21. Read the Bones (~$0.25) - Three mana, scry 2, draw two, lose two life. The scry makes this better than raw draw.

22. Victimize (~$0.25) - Three mana, sacrifice one creature, return two creatures from your graveyard to the battlefield. Insane value in graveyard-based decks.

23. Dread Return (~$0.25) - Four mana reanimation spell with flashback (sacrifice three creatures). Two modes of recursion on one card.

24. Fleshbag Marauder (~$0.25) - Three mana, each player sacrifices a creature. Hits hexproof and indestructible creatures that targeted removal cannot touch.

25. Zulaport Cutthroat (~$0.50) - Two mana, drains opponents by 1 whenever a creature you control dies. One of the best aristocrats payoffs.

Red (8 Cards)

26. Chaos Warp (~$0.50) - Three mana to shuffle any permanent into its owner's deck. Red's most flexible removal spell. The random flip off the top is a real downside but rarely matters.

27. Blasphemous Act (~$0.50) - Deals 13 damage to each creature. Almost always costs just one red mana because of how many creatures are typically on the battlefield.

28. Vandalblast (~$0.50) - One mana to destroy one artifact, or five mana (overload) to destroy all artifacts opponents control. Both modes are excellent.

29. Faithless Looting (~$0.25) - One mana, draw two, discard two. Flashback for three mana. Excellent card quality in graveyard decks.

30. Light Up the Stage (~$0.25) - One mana (spectacle), exile the top two cards, play them this turn or next. Incredible card advantage for aggro decks.

31. Wild Ricochet (~$0.25) - Four mana to copy a spell and change its targets. Counter a Counterspell, copy a Time Warp, steal a removal spell. Always a blowout.

32. Reckless Impulse (~$0.25) - Two mana, exile two cards, play them until end of next turn. Clean, efficient impulse draw.

33. Cathartic Reunion (~$0.25) - Two mana, discard two cards as an additional cost, draw three. Excellent card filtering in graveyard strategies or when you need to dig for answers.

Green (9 Cards)

34. Cultivate (~$0.50) - Three mana to find two basic lands, one to the battlefield tapped, one to hand. Ramp and color fixing in one card.

35. Kodama's Reach (~$0.50) - Identical to Cultivate. Run both.

36. Beast Within (~$0.50) - Three mana to destroy any permanent. The 3/3 Beast is worth the flexibility.

37. Nature's Claim (~$0.25) - One green mana to destroy an artifact or enchantment. The 4 life your opponent gains is irrelevant.

38. Rampant Growth (~$0.25) - Two mana to search for a basic land and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Simple, effective ramp.

39. Reclamation Sage (~$0.25) - Three mana 2/1 that destroys an artifact or enchantment when it enters. A creature that also handles problems.

40. Timeless Witness (~$0.25) - Four mana to return any card from your graveyard to your hand, with eternalize as a bonus. A budget version of Eternal Witness with upside in the late game.

41. Beast Whisperer (~$0.50) - Four mana, draw a card whenever you cast a creature spell. In creature-heavy decks, this draws 3-5 cards per game cycle.

42. Return of the Wildspeaker (~$0.25) - Five mana, draw cards equal to the greatest power among creatures you control, or give non-Humans +3/+3 until end of turn. Both modes are powerful.

Colorless (8 Cards)

43. Sol Ring (~$0.75) - One mana for two. The most played card in Commander for good reason.

44. Arcane Signet (~$0.50) - Two mana rock that taps for any color in your commander's identity.

45. Mind Stone (~$0.25) - Two mana rock that can sacrifice for a card draw in the late game when you no longer need ramp.

46. Commander's Sphere (~$0.25) - Three mana rock that taps for any color and can sacrifice for a card. Slightly worse than Mind Stone but more flexible colors.

47. Thought Vessel (~$0.50) - Two mana rock with no maximum hand size. Great in decks that draw a lot of cards.

48. Swiftfoot Boots (~$0.50) - Equipment that gives hexproof and haste. Protects your commander while letting it attack immediately.

49. Skullclamp (~$0.75) - Equipment for one mana, equip for one mana. Gives +1/-1. When equipped to a 1/1 creature, it dies and you draw two cards. Arguably the most powerful equipment ever printed.

50. Reliquary Tower (~$0.25) - Land that taps for colorless and removes your maximum hand size. Free inclusion in any deck that draws lots of cards.

Building on a Budget

These 50 cards represent a toolkit that can go into almost any Commander deck. For under $25, you could buy all 50 and have staples for multiple decks.

The key insight for budget deckbuilding is that card efficiency matters more than card power. A $0.25 Rampant Growth that ramps you on turn two is better than a $30 staple that you drew on turn ten. Build your deck around consistently doing the right things at the right time, and you will compete with decks that cost ten times as much.

For more budget building strategies, check out our full guide on budget Commander deck building. And to build a full deck from these cheap staples, try Manacove with a budget constraint and see what the AI puts together.