Commander without Color Identities

Introduction

My friends and I have made a few Commander decks with some unique twists. For example, we all created a deck where we could pick any card to be our commander. I made a Tamanoa group slug deck and I love it to pieces. Anyway, now we’ve decided that it would be neat to create a deck where we remove the color identity rule of Commander. This rule states that the color identity of a card (which is it’s color and any pips in it’s textbox) must be within your Commander.

For example: if Syr Konrad, the Grim is your commander you can run most black cards, but Damn has white pips in its textbox so it’s not allowed in the Syr Konrad deck. But, what if Damn was allowed? And what if cards that don’t have any black in them are allowed? That is kind of the idea of this twist.

I want to go through a few commander that I think would become stronger with this twist, and perhaps some cards that are interesting that can go with it. There are a lot of commanders that are already in their best color for a certain effect or they have little to no extra synergies outside their normal color identity. These would still benefit from removing the color identity restriction, for example running Cultivate in literally every single deck. But I just want to go through the unique changes and some thoughts that I have. With that, let’s get started!

Power Boost for Everyone

I wanted to go through a few cards that are just good almost no matter what the deck is. Basically, cards that are staples and can’t be run by every deck due to the color identity restrictions but now they can!

White Cards

For most of these I expect to look at the top cards in that color on EDHRec. Anyway, white allows access to some good removal spells, like Swords to Plowshares and Generous Gift. Or, on the other side of the spectrum, some really good protection in the form of Teferi’s Protection. And one card that is also very popular and very strong is Smothering Tithe.

Blue Cards

Obviously, blue being blue, a few of the strongest, most popular cards are counterspells. Including Counterspell! But Fierce Guardianship is a very good counterspell too. And there is technically a strictly better counterspell than Counterspell, Mana Drain, which is very powerful. Then we have the most powerful boardwipe in the EDH format, if you manage to cast it: Cyclonic Rift. And then we have a hated card but also a very popular and powerful one too: Rhystic Study, which can let you draw a lot of cards if your opponents are tax evaders.

Black Cards

Black has some access to some powerful cards, like for example Dark Ritual, one of the cards in the Boon cycle. Village Rites is here more as a representative of all the cards in black that allow you to sacrifice your own creatures and other stuff for value, Village Rites just so happens to be a very powerful card with this type of effect. And after you’ve sacrificed your creatures (or milled/discarded) them, black is the color for Reanimate-ing them. And if you want to look for a specific card, then black is your color because it has the most general tutors, like Demonic Tutor.

Red Cards

Red has a lot of cards that deal direct damage, for example Blasphemous Act as a boardwipe or Lightning Bolt for direct damage. There are a lot more cards that deal damage to either creatures or players, like Impact Tremors is also very popular. Chaos Warp is obviously also very strong, it is almost the same card as Generous Gift or Beast Within which are also strong removal cards. Another card that is good for every deck that can run it is Deflecting Swat, because protecting your stuff is always good.

Green Cards

Green is a very good color to add to any deck simply for all the ramp it has, either the land-ramp with Cultivate, Farseek or Rampant Growth. There is also creature ramp of course like Birds of Paradise and Llanowar Elves. Ramp is very good, especially land ramp as, in most EDH games, those will never leave the battlefield after. Then there’s of course all the creature synergies, like Beast Whisperer will allow a mono-red deck with a lot of creatures to keep going. The Great Henge is also a great card for a lot of non-green decks. There is of course also a green staple in Heroic Intervention which is a good spell to protect your board in almost all cases, and Beast Within also requires a shoutout here because it is a very good removal spell for any permanent.

White

I’m getting all these commanders from EDHRec, just picking a color and idly scrolling through the Commanders of that color until I find something that might be better without color restrictions. I want to almost immediately break one of the rules I set for myself to introduce another one! Apart from the commanders that become much stronger I also want to discuss the top commander of each color and for white that commander, at the time of writing, is Giada, Font of Hope.

Giada, Font of Hope

My first thought while looking at Giada is: I don’t think this commander gets much better. Of course getting more support from all the other colors, ramp from green, removal from black, draw from blue, and extra aggro support from red, is extremely good. But the commander is already pretty strong and most other decks also gain this generic power boost. My second thought was searching for angels we couldn’t run before and there are a few interesting ones.

Powerful Angels

We have a few very powerful angels. Aurelia, the Warleader adding an extra combat could be game changing if you’re attacking with a bunch of angels. Shalai, Voice of Plenty is good protection for you and your board, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight straight up doubles your damage output, and Sigarda, Font of Blessings is actually a very good Angel typal card. All in all, nothing that is too crazy but certainly good. These next angels are more specifically for this deck.

Counter Synergy Angels

Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice is a crazy card because your entire board just keeps growing, at every end step you can add a bunch of counters to a board that should already be full of counters. And an insane blocker and attacker of course. Metropolis Angel is also pretty good: getting to draw a card on each attack. At first I thought that Shalai and Hallar was crazy for this deck but actually, it’s a nonbo. The counters aren’t placed on the Angels, they enter with them on so Shalai and Hallar won’t trigger from those sadly.

Typal Synergy

Some final cards I want to talk about, which are also good in any other Typal deck, are Kindred Discovery allowing all your Angels to cantrip on enter and whenever they attack. This card can draw you a lot of cards. Reflections of Littjara is crazy because doubling up on all your Angels can get out of hand really fast, because Giada also doesn’t care whether it is a token or not this card is amazing and will allow so much more damage and synergy and counters. Raise the Palisade is a very good typal boardwipe and Patriarch’s Bidding is a very good recursion spell for typal decks.

Light-Paw, Emperor’s Voice

Light-Paws, Emperor’s Voice is the second-most popular mono-white commander at the time of writing but I thought she would get a pretty cool boost so I thought I would mention some cards and interactions that might be interesting. First of all, and I didn’t know this, but I was wondering what happened with her ability if you searched for a card that doesn’t enchant a creature? It turns out, it doesn’t attach and juts stays in your library. Which makes a lot of sense but still handy to know if you’re building a deck for her or playing an already-built deck.

One-mana Auras

I was looking through Auras that are now allowed and a few caught my eye. These cards are good on their own but getting to combine them is even better. Wild Growth for example, has a neat interaction where you ramp, and you can get a creature aura for Light-Paws. Rancor can help get through blockers, Kaya’s Ghostform is good protection from removal and Curiosity is a nice reward for when you do manage to hit your opponents. But, one thing that all these Auras have in common is that they can get Ethereal Armor, an incredibly good card for an Aura deck and very powerful.

Other Auras

And, apart from the normal upgrades, there are also a few auras that really help, most of which are in green so I guess even just adding green to Light-Paws would have made her a lot stronger. Bear Umbra is very good because it is both protection and incredibly good ramp, while Ancestral Mask can pump a creature a lot and Strong Back can pump Light-Paws and make it a lot easier to enchant her with more Auras.

Blue

Urza, Lord High Artificer

I don’t want to talk a lot about Urza, Lord High Artificer because Urza is already in it’s best color and there is not a lot that the other colors offer him except for the default power boost.

First of all, Urza gains access to a very good removal spell for their deck: Dispatch. Getting to exile something for one mana because if you don’t have three artifacts on the board at all times as an Urza player, you’re doing it wrong. Reckless Fireweaver is a good effect if you’re throwing down a lot of artifacts but I don’t think you can just throw it in any Urza deck, you’d have to build around it at least a little bit. Hellkite Tyrant is good because you could win with his last line and stealing your opponents’ artifacts is very oppressive. And Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain is absolutely crazy. With just Jhoira and Urza each artifact cantrips and instantly taps for one blue mana. That could lead to an enormous storm turn, especially if there is a Foundry Inspector or similar out.

Braids, Conjurer Adept

Now, Braids, Conjurer Adept is quite a fun card, I should know as I made a deck with it. There are a bunch of very powerful creatures that would absolutely love to be in a Braids deck.

ETBs

I’d like to look at some ETB effects. Apex Altisaur for example is just straight up a 10/10 beater but can also destroy a ton of creatures when it enters by constantly fighting until death or until you’ve decided it’s enough. Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant is very strong if you can put it down with Braids because you can then empty your hand of the rest of the creatures. Atraxa, Grand Unifier is great card advantage and a very good body with a lot of keywords. Terastodon can even destroy whatever your opponents throw down if their cards are noncreatures and otherwise just remove the three greatest threats or remove nothing and it’s just a vanilla 9/9.

Powerful Creatures

Then we have some very powerful creatures, like Absolute Virtue which makes it very hard for our opponent to do anything to us as all damage from them is prevented. Avacyn, Angel of Hope makes all our stuff indestructible so we can attack or block without any problems and is just an overall very powerful card. A card that Braids can only dream of, Progenitus just can’t be stopped once it hit that is just a 4 turn clock for someone you choose, can’t be stopped or removed. It’s a crazy card that doesn’t guarantee a win but certainly helps you getting there. And Koma, Cosmos Serpent is also an insanely powerful card, being able to pump out a ton of tokens and using those to protect Koma.

Artifacts

Braids can put more stuff on the board than just creatures: lands! I’m kidding, those are not very useful as you can play those anyway, but there are a few powerful artifacts. Most powerful artifacts are colorless so this is not one of the categories that gets much more powerful, like creatures. But it’s still very strong. Like The Great Henge which you could also play after getting some strong creatures but if you don’t have those yet you can prepare for them with The Great Henge. Parhelion II is a very strong vehicle that is often cheated out in Greasefang, Okiba Boss decks and the two Angels it generates make it very powerful. And Bolas’s Citadel is a favourite of mine but also very strong if you can cheat it out and then pay a bunch of life for a bunch of big creatures.

Black

K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth

For K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth I first wanted to see what kind of cards there are that have a lot of in their mana cost. Apart from that I tried to find some cards that have in other places.

A Lot of Black Mana

After some searching there are just a handful of cards with three or more in their mana cost. These are the most powerful four of them: two Ultimatums in the form of Eerie Ultimatum and Cruel Ultimatum. They are very powerful as you can play these if you have the right colors the turn after you play K’rrik. For Eerie you could mill in the first few turns, then pop off when you cast it for just 4 mana. Cruel can shut down an opponent in they are getting ahead and costs just one life to discount 3 mana due to the lifegain. There are also Ruinous Ultimatum, Emergent Ultimatum and Brilliant Ultimatum but these get less of a discount but are still strong. Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God is a very good card and getting the discount is huge as it is over half his mana cost and it is just a good planeswalker.

Black Abilities

Now let’s look at a few cards with some activated abilities. I wanted to look at cards that have at least two black in their activated abilities and to be honest I’m quite disappointed. Stormscape Master is a funny card because of how weak it is, as is Tsabo Tavoc even though it might have some uses it is way too expensive. And for Olivia Voldaren she doesn’t benefit that much and Frodo, Sauron’s Bane isn’t even a good enough card to really use. It can be upgraded when you play it with 10 life but with that amount of life you can do way better. All in all, Blood Celebrant is still the best activated ability in a K’rrik deck.

Lifeloss = Lifegain

A card that came to mind is Children of Korlis. It is quite good in this deck as you can have one insane crashout turn and then gain all the life back for just one . Tainted Sigil is similar, but you’ve got to pay more mana, but you could gain more life than you originally started your turn with.

Lifeloss Matters

From the Children of Korlis I looked at the tags it has and from that looked through some cards with the life-loss-matters tag. From there I found these quite good cards. Willowdusk, Essence Seer can put a lot of +1/+1 counters on K’rrik or some other creature. Greven, Predator Captain can become very big with all the life you’ll lose. But, most importantly, Rowan, Scion of War is very strong. K’rrik reduces all the black mana costs and Rowan reduces all the colorless mana costs. It is quite powerful, being able to absolutely abuse both of these cards. Of course, K’rrik can be in a Rowan deck and that would be very strong too, perhaps a neat deck idea.

Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker

Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker seems to become much stronger with more colors. There are a ton of colors that add a lot of strong 1-powered creatures and getting them back is very good. And because Shirei triggers at each end step some of these cards can generate crazy value. The first card that popped in my head is Sakura-Tribe Elder, which is an amazing card in this due to being able to be sacrificed once per turn. It adds an extra land drop to each turn it’s crazy.

One-Power Ramp

As I’ve explained Sakura-Tribe Elder is crazy because it allows Shirei to get so many lands, that does mean that if you want to utilize him to his full extent, you’ve gotta have enough basics. Wood Elves is very similar but it finds any Forest, meaning a few triomes are allowed, or any other lands with a Forest subtype. But Wood Elves does require you to have some sort of sac outlet, because if you don’t have that you can’t reliably get rid of it each turn. Wild Cantor is very strong as it gives you an extra mana each turn and that will be very useful for paying for some activated abilities of other cards later. Impulsive Pilferer is just a better Wild Cantor, if you have a sac outlet. If you don’t Wild Cantor is much better. Farhaven Elf is of course very similar to Wood Elves, but just for basics. Cloud of Faeries is quite interesting as it can generate mana, like Wild Cantor but by untapping lands and it also requires a sac outlet to work. Finally, in the ramp category is Aftermath Analyst, which could ramp a lot, but also has a small chance of not doing that so play at your own risk.

One-Power Removal

There is quite some good removal in the 1-power creature category. Like for example Haywire Mite, it can exile an artifact or enchantment and gains you 2 life each time it dies, which means you can have a pretty good lock on the table with this. Caustic Caterpillar is not limited to noncreatures and destroys instead of exiles. Cards like Judge’s Familiar and Cursecatcher are also great because it forces our opponents to basically pay extra mana for their instant and sorceries as, if they don’t, the spells will get countered. You can use them as you’re expecting a more dangerous spell, or just keep them behind, always looming… Next we have Siren Stormtamer which is quite good for protection if you can leave the mana open for it. Glen Elendra Archmage is quite insane as you can kind of loop it with Shirei and it’s persist ability. Sac it once, it comes back, sac it twice it comes back at end of turn.

I also wanted to take a look at some f(r)ogs: Spore Frog and Kami of False Hope are obviously quite good in this regard. But I think that being able to activate Children of Korlis each turn is also quite strong and should be a staple in any Shirei deck that breaks the color identity rule.

One-Power Protection

These are some cards that are great because you can sacrifice them to protect Shirei. Selfless Savior gives indestructible, Benevolent Bodyguard gives protection and is probably the best version of this effect and Alseid of Life’s Bounty costs one mana to sacrifice but that can be easily gotten with all the one-power ramp.

One-Power Damage

I was curious about some burn options as I recalled that Mogg Fanatic was a card and would also be pretty useful in this deck. And if it isn’t useful, it is at least fun! As with being able to repeatedly activate Mogg Fanatic, Fanatical Firebrand and Frostling means that our opponents can have no one-toughness creatures as we can almost always kill them. If we have multiple of these cards, say, both Mogg Fanatic and Fanatical Firebrand on the battlefield, suddenly no 2-toughness creatures can exist either. It also complicates blocking and attacking for our opponents as, if they would just about survive it we could turn the tide. The final card I want to mention is Bloodfire Dwarf (which is an awesome name), it can be quite devastating to some decks our opponents could run.

One-Power Card Advantage

One way to get card advantage is by drawing cards of course, this can be done with Baleful Strix and Spirited Companion and Coiling Oracle also sort of draws a card. And of course Imperial Recruiter being able to repeatedly find a creature in the deck that we need is incredibly strong, especially because a lot of cards I’ve mentioned are 1 or 2 mana which means that if Imperial Recruiter can get going we can quickly expand the board with a lot of creatures we’ve tutored for.

One-Power Tokens

There are a few cards that create tokens when they enter, like Mogg War Marshal, which also makes a token when it dies much like Blisterpod and Doomed Traveler. There are a few more cards like this but these give the general idea. To be honest I’m not sure if these are that good; getting tokens is good of course, but just one each turn? Ok that’s still very good, if not at least for blocking but I don’t know if this can generate a win. Deep Forest Hermit however, that one is crazy. Being able to create 4 tokens every 3 of your turns or once each player’s turn if you have a sac outlet is absolutely bonkers. If you’re going this route then Deranged Hermit is basically a second Deep Forest Hermit.

ETBs and LTBs

There are also a few cards, like Soul Warden or Prosperous Innkeeper that would benefit from this deck too, also seeing the other creatures enter and you could gain a lot of life with this. Apart from that you also have a lot of death trigger cards, like the in-color Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat. Or the now-accessible Cruel Celebrant or Moldervine Reclamation which can draw you a lot of cards. All in all I think removing the color identity rule for Shirei opens a lot of options.

Red

Krenko, Mob Boss

Apart from the obvious typal synergies there are also a few Goblins that might be good for a Krenko, Mob Boss deck.

Ramp Goblins

So, we have a good goblin that makes a lot of other Goblins cheaper in Goblin Anarchomancer and a goblin that actually makes all Goblins cheaper in Frogtosser Banneret. Goblin Anarchomancer is a really good ramp card but both of these are good for this deck as being able to pump out Goblins is very important for this deck. And Warren Soultrader functions as another Skirk Prospector but for a little more life as a trade-off that it is any color and it is an artifact if there are some synergies for that.

Make Goblins Even Better

Sling-Gang Lieutenant is a good card for converting Goblins directly into damage plus it comes in with two Goblin friends. Grumgully, the Generous makes all Goblins 2/2’s when they enter which makes a combat plan much more viable, and Ankle Shanker helps with that too as if it attacks, all Goblins become very hard to block.

Good Goblins

Then we have just a few Goblins that are good in general, like Murderous Redcap which can pick off a few smaller creatures. Or Vexing Shusher which can help with getting Krenko to resolve or other important cards. And of course Vial Smasher the Fierce is a popular commander and for good reason as it’s effect can deal a lot of damage.

Plargg and Nassari

I had quite a struggle with finding a red commander that would benefit from all this and then I found Plargg and Nassari, which would also benefit from the increased card quality from all your opponents. If your opponents have stronger cards, then Plargg and Nassari will also be much better.

Exile Synergies

There are a few cards that are great in this deck, especially with the exile of Plargg and Nassari each turn. So, I looked for some cards that have synergy with exile cards. Like Prosper, Tome-Bound which will even exile some cards itself, but also generates two Treasures if Prosper and Plargg and Nassari are both on the field. Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald will also create two 2/2 Wolf tokens each turn. These cards would also be nice to have in each others decks, so if you’re building a Prosper deck without color restrictions, add Faldorn, and vice versa. The War Doctor can deal a lot of damage, with a full table it gets 4 time counters on each of your turns so that can get out of hand very quickly.

Theft Cards

Now, if we’re depending on Plargg and Nassari for theft, that’s fine but there are also some good cards we can play to steal even more cards. Let’s then look at a few cards that can steal your opponents cards. Like Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness or Gonti, Lord of Luxury, both cards that steal stuff on ETB. Villainous Wealth can be used to steal a lot of cards all at once and Thief of Sanity can be a consistent card stealer. Also, because of the 5-color manabase, now using stealing cards that don’t manafix are also a lot more useful!

Green

Fynn, the Fangbearer

Obviously, any deathtouch creature will improve a Fynn, the Fangbearer deck.

Flyers

Flyers are a lot harder to block, meaning Fynn will get a lot more triggers and your opponents a lot more poison counters.

Tokens

Tokens are also great, with Ophiomancer getting a deathtouch attacker each turn is absolutely crazy and Vault of the Archangel can be a great finisher.

Conclusion

Therefore all in all, it is quite a power boost to all commanders and the less colors you have, the better! This has been in the works for a while as it was quite a big analysis and therefore it might seem rushed in some places. If I eventually choose a commander I will probably write an article about the deck but for now this is it.