Commander Staples to Upgrade Any Deck (and the Best Ones to Proxy First)

If you’ve ever looked at your Commander deck and thought, “why does this feel like it’s running in wet cement,” you’re not alone. Most of the time it’s not your theme. It’s not your commander. It’s the boring stuff you skipped. The commander staples. The ramp, draw, interaction, and mana base cards that keep your deck from tripping over itself.

This article does two things:

1. gives you a clean, practical list of commander staples you can use to upgrade almost any pile of MTG cards
2. tells you which upgrades have the biggest gameplay impact per dollar, so you know what to proxy first (especially if you don’t feel like paying real-card prices for a card you just want to test)

And yes, staples can feel “same-y.” But if your deck can’t cast spells on time or keep up on cards, your cute synergy engine is just going to die holding a handful of five-drops.

How to think about commander staples (impact per dollar)

When i say “impact per dollar,” i’m talking about upgrades that show up in real games right away. Not theoretical value. Not “this is strong if it lives for eight turns.” I mean cards that:

• Fix consistency (you cast your commander on time, hit land drops, stop flooding out)
• Swing games (one card meaningfully changes the board or the card economy)
• Fit lots of decks (not only one tribe or one commander)
• Scale in multiplayer (4-player Commander rewards engines and flexibility)

This is why the best commander staples are usually in four buckets: mana, cards, answers, and “don’t die.”

The boring truth: consistency upgrades win more games than “spice” upgrades

You can build a fun deck with weird pet cards. That’s fine. But most decks run better once they hit some basic benchmarks:

• enough ramp to start playing ahead of the table
• enough card draw to avoid top-deck mode
• enough interaction to not auto-lose to the first scary permanent
• enough board wipes to reset when things get out of hand
• enough protection to keep your plan alive for one more turn cycle

If you want a quick mental model: start by fixing “can i play Magic?” before you fix “can i do my cool thing?”

Also, if you’re newer to Commander rules stuff (like commander damage), this guide on Trinket Kingdom is worth a quick skim: Commander Damage in MTG: What It Is and How It Works. It clears up a lot of table arguments.

Commander staples list: the foundation upgrades that fit almost anywhere

Here’s a practical staples list grouped by what they do. You don’t need all of these in one deck. Use this like a menu, not a commandment.

Mana and ramp staples (so you actually cast your spells)

Colorless and multicolor ramp

• Sol Ring
• Arcane Signet
• Fellwar Stone
• Mind Stone
• Thought Vessel
• Talisman cycle (Talisman of Dominance, etc.)
• Signet cycle (Azorius Signet, etc.)

Green ramp staples

• Nature’s Lore
• Three Visits
• Farseek
• Cultivate
• Kodama’s Reach
• Sakura-Tribe Elder

High-power ramp (not always cheap, but huge)

• Smothering Tithe
• Dockside Extortionist
• Jeska’s Will

If your deck feels slow, ramp staples are usually the first fix. They also make your “fun cards” show up sooner, which is kind of the point.

Card draw and advantage staples (so you don’t run out of gas)

Staple engines

• Rhystic Study
• Mystic Remora
• Esper Sentinel
• Sylvan Library
• The One Ring (if your deck can support it)

Budget-friendly draw that still does work

• Phyrexian Arena (slower, but steady)
• Read the Bones
• Fact or Fiction
• Painful Truths (great in 3+ colors)
• Skullclamp (absurd in token decks)

If you’re upgrading, card draw is where you feel the “oh wow” moment fastest. Your deck stops doing that thing where it spends turns 6 to 10 drawing one card and sighing.

Targeted removal and interaction staples (so you don’t die to one permanent)

White

• Swords to Plowshares
• Path to Exile
• Generous Gift

Green

• Beast Within
• Krosan Grip

Red

• Chaos Warp
• Vandalblast

Black

• Feed the Swarm (important because black struggles with enchantments)
• Toxic Deluge (also a wipe, but plays like “removal for everything”)

Blue

• Counterspell
• Swan Song
• Negate (simple, effective)
• Cyclonic Rift (technically a wipe, but plays like a one-sided reset)

Interaction is one of those things you only notice when you don’t have it. If your meta is even mildly tuned, you want answers that hit multiple permanent types.

Board wipes (because Commander boards get stupid)

• Blasphemous Act
• Farewell
• Austere Command
• Damnation
• Cyclonic Rift (overload)

You don’t need six wipes. But you probably want a couple that match your deck’s plan. Creature decks like wipes that leave them ahead. Control decks like wipes that clean everything.

Protection staples (keep your engine alive)

• Lightning Greaves
• Swiftfoot Boots
• Heroic Intervention
• Teferi’s Protection
• Flawless Maneuver (especially if your commander is often in play)

Protection is a quiet power multiplier. The best feeling in Commander is when someone aims removal at your key piece and you just say “nope” and keep going.

Tutors (the “make my deck act like it has 4 copies” package)

• Demonic Tutor
• Vampiric Tutor
• Enlightened Tutor
• Worldly Tutor
• Mystical Tutor

Not every table loves tutors. But from a pure upgrade standpoint, they add consistency and let you find your exact answer when the game gets messy.

Mana base staples (your deck gets smoother, not flashier)

Start with:

• Command Tower
• Exotic Orchard
• City of Brass / Mana Confluence (if you want the clean 5-color painland plan)
• Pathways, check lands, pain lands, and bond lands (depending on budget and colors)

Then, if you’re 3+ colors and want the real consistency jump:

• Fetch lands
• Shock lands
• Triomes

Mana upgrades rarely “win on the spot.” They just make your deck stop losing to itself. Which, honestly, is a great upgrade.

Don’t forget graveyard hate (the sneaky staple category)

This is the one a lot of players skip, then they lose to the graveyard deck and act surprised.

Easy includes:

• Bojuka Bog
• Scavenger Grounds
• Soul-Guide Lantern
• Nihil Spellbomb

The best commander staples to proxy first (biggest gameplay impact per dollar)

Now the good part. These are the commander staples that tend to be expensive in paper, but they also upgrade your deck immediately. If you’re picking a short list of “proxy first” upgrades, start here.

1) Fast mana that changes the whole pace of the game

Proxy-first picks:

• Mana Crypt
• Ancient Tomb
• Mana Vault (deck-dependent, but often strong)

Why these first: games are decided by who gets to deploy threats and engines first. Fast mana doesn’t just ramp you. It changes your whole turn structure.

2) Multiplayer card advantage engines (the “i always have cards” package)

Proxy-first picks:

• Rhystic Study
• Mystic Remora
• Esper Sentinel
• The One Ring (if it fits your deck’s curve and plan)

Why these first: Commander is a card economy format. If you draw 10 more cards than the table over a game, you usually win unless you misplay badly or get teamed up on (which happens, fair).

3) The premium “stop losing” interaction that saves games

Proxy-first picks:

• Fierce Guardianship
• Deflecting Swat
• Teferi’s Protection
• Cyclonic Rift

Why these first: they let you survive the one turn that would otherwise end you. Also, they protect your win attempt when you finally go for it.

4) Treasure and mana explosions that scale with opponents

Proxy-first picks:

• Dockside Extortionist
• Smothering Tithe
• Jeska’s Will

Why these first: these cards get better in real Commander games because opponents bring artifacts, enchantments, and hands full of cards. They punish the table for existing.

5) The “i need the right card right now” tutor package

Proxy-first picks:

• Demonic Tutor
• Vampiric Tutor
• Enlightened Tutor (especially if you rely on artifacts or enchantments)

Why these first: tutoring is consistency, and consistency is power. If you’re upgrading a deck, tutors often feel like you upgraded the whole list, even though it was just a few cards.

6) Mana base upgrades for 3+ color decks (proxy these before you buy them)

Proxy-first picks:

• Fetch lands in your colors
• Shock lands that match those fetches
• Triomes if you’re 3 colors and want fewer awkward hands

Why these first: you feel it every game. Fewer tapped lands. Fewer hands where you can’t cast your early plays. More games where you actually curve out.

If you want to stay budget but still punch up, this internal article is a fun complement to staples: Cheap MTG sleepers that counter popular Commander strategies. Sometimes the best upgrade is a 50-cent card that ruins someone’s whole game plan.

What to buy instead of proxying (cheap staples that are still elite)

Not every staple needs to be a proxy. A lot of the best “foundation” cards are genuinely affordable, and you’ll use them forever.

If i were building a starter staples box for Commander, i’d just buy copies of:

• Sol Ring
• Arcane Signet
• the Signets and Talismans in my colors
• Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Beast Within, Chaos Warp
• Cultivate, Kodama’s Reach, Farseek (if green)
• Counterspell, Swan Song (if blue)
• Blasphemous Act (if red), Farewell (if white), Damnation (if black)
• Command Tower, Exotic Orchard
• Bojuka Bog and Scavenger Grounds

These are the commander staples that quietly fix decks without needing a second mortgage.

A simple upgrade order that keeps you from wasting money

If you’re upgrading a deck and you don’t want to overthink it, do it in this order:

1. Fix mana (ramp and lands)
2. Add draw engines (you need cards to play)
3. Add interaction (so your plan survives)
4. Then add spice (the fun theme cards you actually came here for)

Proxy-first choices usually live in steps 1 to 3 because those are the upgrades you feel in every single game.

Conclusion

Commander decks don’t usually need “more power.” They need fewer non-games. More hands that function. More turns where you’re doing something meaningful.

That’s what commander staples do. They raise the floor. And if you want the best upgrades per dollar, proxy first the expensive staples that change pace, draw you extra cards, and protect your win attempts. After a few game nights, you’ll know exactly which upgrades are worth buying for real, and which ones were just “cool in theory.”