After a bit of a delay for other coverage, I’m back with more floating mana than ever! If you missed our first article on the series where we go over a bit about our criteria and what exactly mana rocks are, check that out here. Today we’ll be continuing our dialogue around draining your diamonds for diabolical deeds with a discussion on some of the remaining 3-cost mana rocks you can use in the Commander format. We’ll wrap up all of the cards in this category that generate colored mana that we haven’t covered yet.
We’ll be using a rating scale to discuss these cards and how they rank up against others in this category:
S: The only reason you wouldn’t include this is personal choice, other synergy, or budget.
A:Â Always a solid choice, or is overwhelmingly good in a specific archetype.
B:Â Generally a good pick, can work well in most decks or very well in others with synergy.
C: Good in niche situations or specific decks, but might be outclassed by other picks if you don’t have specific synergy with it.
D: Generally outclassed by other picks. Only playable in very particular niches or if you just like the card and it fits your deck’s theme.
Replicating Ring
This one is a super win-more card, but it’s kind of hilarious to jam in any deck that wants to play the long con. Realistically this reads “get 8 Manaliths if this can stay on the board for 8 of your upkeeps.” The issue is that Commander games will rarely last long enough without a sweeper for this to come into play, and if you’re wasting time using counter manipulation to get this… is that really worth it?
Rating: C, if you naturally can manipulate the counters with little effort it’s not too bad.
Skyclave Relic
I’m a sucker for flexible mana rocks, and this one is a pretty solid option for decks that don’t need to come out swinging too aggressively. It realistically reads as a Darksteel Ingot that you can pay 6 to make a psuedo-3-mana generating rock. It’s really solid for being both flexible and durable, and while I think it’s definitely not fantastically competitive with some other options in both the three drop and six drop range respectively, the ability to always have access to both options is pretty huge.
Rating: B, I quite like it in decks that want big mana but don’t have great ramping color options.
Sonic Screwdriver
Similar to the other screwdriver, this has a lot of utility stapled on, but a reminder that any ability you use effectively blocks you from readily generating mana with this, so the opportunity cost of, say, the last ability, is really like 4 mana.
You know what else is 4 mana to make something unblockable but sees play? Rogue’s Passage, and while that has a lower opportunity cost by nature of being a land, this has the fantastic addition of letting you potentially ramp harder off other mana-positive rocks (or combo out in the right deck) as well as get some card selection in a pinch. I realistically like this the most for decks where you really need to get key creatures in safely every now and then with the unblockable effect, but artifact decks can definitely leverage this even better.
Rating: B
Spectral Searchlight
I don’t have a ton to say here, but it deserves a callout to those odd grouphug strategies that don’t have green and want to still be able to hand off mana and cut deals with other players. It’s still super niche but worth remembering.
Rating: G, for group hug gaming.
Spinning Wheel
This is a card you can play in this game. 5 mana is absolutely absurd for this, I’d rather play pretty much anything over this, including Manalith just because that at least lets you flex on people a bit.
This card costs literal pennies though, so it does deserve a shout for being basically free for ultra-budget decks while still technically being better than Manalith-adjacents.
Rating: D
Staff of Compleation
I think this card’s pretty underrated actually. You need to be playing something that either benefits from the life loss or has a nice way to recoup this, but it has some real value potential if you can. It’s got a lot less combo potential than it’s counterpart Staff of Domination, but for a multi-purpose utility card it’s got some really potent effects stapled on. I actually really like this just as a way to flexibly ramp and get value when you don’t need the mana, even whacking your own stuff can be handy if you have no reliable way to otherwise.
Rating: I really want to give this an A because I think it’s really good in decks that can use both the “shoot your stuff” and Proliferate effects well, but I think it’s sitting comfortably at a B since it’s got a lot of boxes to check to make the best use of it without dumpstering your life total.
Starting Column
Meh, this is a good enabler to Start Your Engines early off if you care about that, but the scenarios where you often want to sacrifice mana rocks are when you really need them late game in a pinch, and this requires 4 turns to even get to that point.
Rating: D
Strength Bobblehead
I think this is one of the weaker bobbleheads, and while it’s ceiling is decent enough it feels pretty bad to get there, and I definitely wouldn’t play this if you aren’t going all in on them
Rating: D
Sunbird Standard / Sunbird Effigy
Wait, this card is also like two cents? I can totally see merit for this in budget 5 color decks that go big on mana, if you exile 5-colors with this it becomes a 5/5 with decent stats that can attack and still tap for 5 mana, that’s not too shabby! It’s still brutally niche and pretty outclassed, but I think the use case is there for budget decks.
Rating: D, but if you’re trying to build budget 5c Dragons for some reason, it’s an option.
The Celestus
Dearest gentle reader, you will not play this card if you don’t already have night and day in your deck as a mechanic. Forcing the table to use this mechanic is absolute torture, so unless you want to play group slug (whole group slugs you in the face), please leave this with the Werewolves.
Rating: D, for Don’t touch unless dogs.
Vessel of Endless Rest
Honestly not the worst thing in the world, being able to snipe a key recursion card from someone’s graveyard isn’t awful tied to some ramp. The issue is mostly just that it’s pretty mid ramp on top of pretty mid graveyard hate, so unless you’re really starved for it or you need to make sure something of your own doesn’t get exiled and is better off getting tucked in your deck, it’s probably staying at home.
Rating: D
Vexing Puzzlebox
Let’s look at this assuming you don’t have any dice rolling first. If you roll just off tapping this and you roll average over a chunk of turns (~10.5ish charges per turn off napkin math) and you aren’t manipulating the counter generation, it should take 9-10 taps of this to get the free artifact, which would require you to tap it again anyway, so give or take 11 turns. Let’s say you are chucking other dice with it, that means you can realistically cut that in half by each source you’re rolling (assuming you aren’t rolling really hot or cold), and importantly enabling any other dice-relating shenanigans you have.
Point here being, I think this is solid in a deck that has other sources of dice rolling as repeatable tutors stacked onto a ramp piece is just silly, but the cost of trying to get this done without other dice rolling is pretty bad. In my opinion, that makes this a really well designed archetype-oriented card, and I’d jam this in 100% of dice rolling decks just because you can spike your rolls sometimes and just get some crazy early tutoring straight to the board.
Rating: B, it’s exclusive to dice-rolling decks, but boy, it’s aces there.
That’s a wrap for all of our colored mana producing rocks! We still have a few more things in the pipeline for this series, so stay tuned for more!
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