The bane of every Commander player is never having enough mana.  In our latest rankings, we identify the best artifacts for getting a jump start on the size of your mana pool, and how they can improve your game in other ways as well!

15. Everflowing Chalice

Made more for slower, more control-oriented decks, Everflowing Chalice is great with anything that can add counters, such as proliferate effects.  An eternally growable mana rock can have incredibly high value in the late game, as well as simply being solid acceleration on turn two

What makes it great:

• Flexible mana cost
• Infinite mana potential

14. Decanter of Endless Water

One of two mana rocks that come with the rather important extra clause of giving you no maximum hand size.  While the colored mana is nice, the three mana cost means you’re playing this for the hand size bonus, or not playing it at all.

What makes it great:

• Removes hand size limit
• Provides colored mana

13. Thought Vessel

While not providing colored mana, the removal of the hand size limitation, and the fact that it costs two mana instead of three, make Thought Vessel vastly superior to Decanter of Endless Water.  The ability to come out one turn earlier, and to be cast off of a turn one Sol Ring, is simply too good.

What makes it great:

• Removes hand size limit
• Cheap mana acceleration

12. Fellwar Stone

Most of the two-cost mana rocks have some kind of limitation, whether it’s the signet’s requirement of a mana activation, comes into play tapped, or talismans that cause you to take damage.  Fellwar Stone is cheap acceleration in potentially all of your Commander’s colors that is available right away.

What makes it great:

• Low mana cost
• Colored mana

11. Replicating Ring

Another mana rock more designed for the late game, the potential to turn one source of mana into nine or even more is simply too tempting on the value chart.  Remember, this keeps gaining counters even after you remove the first eight.  The value can keep on coming!

What makes it great:

• Colored mana
• Early and late game value

10. Gilded Lotus

Most mana rocks that tap for three mana have at least some potential value, but Gilded Lotus is the only one that provides mana of any color and stays on the board after the first use.  While the price is high at five mana, the payoff is worth it for those decks with high mana requirements in the late game.

What makes it great:

• Consistent multiple mana source
• Colored mana

9. Coalition Relic

Coalition Relic is unique in that it has the potential to provide multiple colored mana in a single turn for just three mana.  Though you can only get this bonus every other turn, it can still help set up some explosive turns and is great for decks that prefer to leave their options open and cast more on their opponent’s turns.

What makes it great:

• Mana efficient for its cost
• Colored mana
• Can provide multiple colors in the same turn

8. Doubling Cube

While Doubling Cube does not itself tap for mana, being able to double the mana in your pool can, in combination with other mana rocks, provide insane acceleration on early turns into unbeatable board states.  Note that the cost to be paid is removed from the mana pool before the amount is doubled, so to gain any benefit from this you must have at least four mana in your pool after the three mana cost is paid.

What makes it great:

• Great in combination with other mana rocks
• Explosive early mana potential
• Doubles both colored and colorless mana

7. Basalt Monolith

The first of the mana rocks with more realistic infinite mana potential.  Any effect that can infinitely untap an artifact or permanent, as well as anything that reduces the mana cost of its untap activation, means you have infinite colorless mana at your disposal.  This one is lower on the list because it still does cost three, and if you’re not playing ways to abuse it, its mana gains are relatively minor otherwise.

What makes it great:

• Infinite mana potential
• Infinite untaps

6. Commander’s Sphere

Commander’s Sphere makes it high on this list mostly on the strength of its ability to sacrifice itself to draw a card.  The fact that there is no mana or tap cost to this makes it superior to something like Mind Stone, and the fact it can produce any of your Commander’s mana colors means it’s always going to be useful.  Truly an elegant design for the Commander format.

What makes it great:

• Colored mana
• Free card draw

5. Lion’s Eye Diamond

A historically efficient combo enabler, LED, as it’s commonly known among magic players, is still working wonders as a discard engine in Commander.  While it is generally only played in decks that are trying to get cards into the graveyard, its efficiency and zero mana cost continue to make it one of the best mana rocks in the game.

What makes it great:

• Zero mana cost
• Discard enabler
• Combo engine

4. Mana Vault

The amount of drawbacks this card has are almost entirely negated by the simple fact that it costs one mana.  With the amount of untap effects in the game making it easy to get around its lack of a natural untap, Mana Vault can enable some insane turns well before most decks are even getting off the ground.  Turn three Eldrazi, anyone?

What makes it great:

• Vastly undercosted
• Negligible drawbacks
• Massive acceleration on turn one

3. Grim Monolith

The better Basalt Monolith, despite the increase to its untap cost.  While it can’t just keep tapping and untapping itself, the two mana cost is such a massive difference.  The ability to come into play off a turn-one Sol Ring makes Grim Monolith so much more powerful, and the plethora of artifact untap effects means you rarely ever have to pay the full cost to untap it.

What makes it great:

• Undercosted for its effect
• Infinite mana potential
• Early acceleration

2. Mana Crypt

In the early days, the only way to get Mana Crypt was to send in a coupon that you could only get from some of the earliest Magic novels.  Nowadays, Mana Crypt has been reprinted in traditional sets and has become the second-best mana rock in the game, and that is only because it can if left out long enough, potentially kill you.  Otherwise, it’s simply a better Sol Ring, because it’s free!  That’s right, zero mana to play, nothing, nada, it’s just free.  

What makes it great:

• Zero mana cost
• Provides multiple mana

1. Sol Ring

The original, and still the best, there’s a reason that Wizards of the Coast provides a copy of Sol Ring in every single pre-constructed Commander Deck.  It’s simply the most efficient, most widely available mana rock out there.  It has no drawbacks, no restrictions, and has been reprinted so many times that its cost to acquire is quite reasonable, as opposed to Mana Crypt, which is why it’s sitting at number two despite the fact it’s free to play.  There is not a single Commander deck in existence that should not be running Sol Ring and has been considered for banning precisely because of that.  Until it is, however, it is a must-include in every Commander deck, no questions asked.

What makes it great:

• Cheap mana cost
• Provides multiple mana per turn
• Ease of acquisition

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