Colorless · Color Identity
Colorless in Commander: History, Playstyle and Best Commanders
A colorless commander is the tightest deckbuilding restriction in the format: no card in the deck may have a single colored mana symbol anywhere on it. What is left is artifacts, Eldrazi and lands, and it is a real deck.
Colorless is the empty color identity, the one every deck's cards can be played in and almost nobody builds. The 32nd identity: no colored cards at all, Wastes for lands, and Eldrazi at the top.
Also called C, No colors, Eldrazi.
Where the Name Comes From
No name and no colors. The empty color identity, and the 32nd of 32.
Colorless is the identity nobody plans for and the reason the count is 32 rather than 31: color identity is a set of colors, and the empty set is a legal one. For most of Magic's history that was academic, because a colorless legendary creature that anyone wanted to build around did not exist.
Rise of the Eldrazi in 2010 changed that by printing three enormous colorless legendary creatures, and Battle for Zendikar in 2015 built out the rest of the space, including Wastes, the first and only colorless basic land, printed in Oath of the Gatewatch specifically because colorless-mana costs needed a basic land to support them. The archetype has been quietly viable ever since, and it is genuinely unlike anything else in the format.
All 32 color combinations and where each name came from →How Colorless Plays
The deckbuilding rule is stricter than most people expect. A colorless commander's identity is empty, so every card in the deck must have an empty color identity too: no colored mana symbol in the cost, in the rules text, or anywhere else. That rules out far more than it sounds: any artifact with a colored activated ability, any land that taps for colored mana, and every dual land in the format.
What is left is a surprisingly complete deck. Artifact ramp is entirely colorless, so the deck accelerates as well as a green one; artifact removal, Eldrazi with enormous cast triggers, colorless utility lands and the format's best equipment are all legal. The mana base is Wastes plus a large number of colorless utility lands that most decks cannot afford to play, which is a real advantage rather than a consolation.
The weaknesses are specific and severe. There is no counterspell, no board wipe worth playing, no way to gain life and no card draw that does not cost mana. Everything the deck does is expensive, and its answers are colorless artifacts that any deck could play, which are simply less efficient than a real removal spell. A colorless deck wins by ramping past everybody and casting things that end the game on resolution.
What It Does Well, and What It Doesn't
Strengths
- Artifact ramp is fully available, so the deck accelerates as hard as a green deck.
- Colorless utility lands are free to play here, which no other identity can say.
- The Eldrazi are among the most powerful creatures in Magic and are all castable.
- Immune to color hosers, color-based removal and anything that names a color.
Weaknesses
- The strictest card pool in the format, one colored mana symbol anywhere disqualifies a card.
- No counterspells, no board wipes and no lifegain. All interaction is expensive artifacts.
- Card draw costs mana every time, so the deck is always paying for its resources.
- Almost no way to answer an enchantment cheaply, and few efficient answers to anything.
Best Colorless Commanders
The command zones that define the identity rather than the ones winning this week: the pips beside each name are its color identity, which is what it lets you play in the other 99.
Commander Spotlight
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth ↗
Draws four cards when it is cast and shuffles itself back in from the graveyard, so it can never be answered permanently. Ten mana, and a colorless deck really does get there.
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger ↗
Exiles a permanent on cast and mills twenty on attack. Indestructible and unanswerable by most decks once it lands.
Karn, Silver Golem ↗
Turns any noncreature artifact into a creature until end of turn. Old, cheap, and the basis of several combo lines.
Traxos, Scourge of Kroog ↗
A 7/7 for four that untaps whenever you cast a historic spell. Enormously efficient in a deck made almost entirely of artifacts.
Hope of Ghirapur ↗
A one-mana flier that sacrifices itself to stop an opponent casting noncreature spells for a turn. Small, cheap, and it recurs endlessly with the right artifacts.
Emrakul, the Promised End ↗
Costs one less for each card type in your graveyard and takes control of an opponent's next turn. The most game-ending thing a colorless deck can cast.
Frequently Asked Questions
What can a colorless Commander deck play?
Only cards whose color identity is empty: no colored mana symbol in the mana cost, the rules text or anywhere else on the card. In practice that means artifacts, colorless creatures such as the Eldrazi, and lands that produce no colored mana. An artifact with a colored activated ability is not legal, and neither is any dual land.
Are Wastes a real basic land?
Yes. Wastes is a basic land that taps for one colorless mana, printed in Oath of the Gatewatch in 2016 because the colorless mana symbol needed a basic land to support it. It has no basic land type, which matters: cards that fetch a Forest or a Plains cannot find one.
Is a colorless deck actually competitive?
It is viable rather than competitive, and the ceiling is real. The deck ramps as fast as anything in the format and casts creatures nobody can answer, but every one of its interaction pieces is an artifact that costs more than the equivalent spell, and it has no counterspells, sweepers or lifegain. Against a table that lets it ramp, it wins; against one that pressures it early, it does not have the tools to stabilise.
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