Top 15 Best Tutors for Competitive Commander

This article is about classifying something essential in cEDH decks: the Tutors

Responsible for the consistency, and allowing to search for a specific card, tutors are widely played in cEDH because they work as tools to find relevant cards from the deck, especially in a singleton format with 100 cards.

Tutors will be classified in this article considering their costs, where they place the card, speed (instant or sorcery), and their restrictions (type, etc), in addition to revealing or not the card you searched for.

15 — Demonic Consultation

As a tutor, this card is quite risky in most decks because it exiles the first six cards, even if one of them is the named card, not to mention the card is still revealed.

But it can still function as a one mana tutor, and that's why it's still in this ranking, in addition to being used as a wincon with Thassa's Oracle, and being a great tutor in Food Chain decks, since this wincon uses creatures that can be cast from exile.

14 — Imperial Recruiter / Spellseeker

These creatures are 3 mana tutors who reveal the sought cards but put them in the hand, but each has a restriction: Imperial Recruiter for creatures with power two or less and the Spellseeker for instants and sorceries with a mana value of two or less.

Both cards have been less used lately, but they still have decks they can be played in. After Displacer Kitten was released, spells with good ETBs have become more relevant.

13 — Lim-Dûl's Vault

Lim-Dûl's Vault isn't exactly a tutor, as you're not effectively searching your library, but since Commander's starting life is 40 you can pay to look at the top 5 cards until you find a combination that suits you. It is even possible to loop the deck to place a different combination of 5 cards on top.

It is a tutor to the top, for two mana and at instant speed, however it depends on life and number of cards in the deck to effectively put the desired card on top.

12 — Worldly Tutor

One of the most played green creature tutors, putting the creature on top of the deck at instant speed, basically selecting the next card to draw. It is an efficient tutor, widely used in green archetypes, to guarantee a certain creature - be it a stax piece, wincon, or whatever is necessary.

11 — Neoform

One of my favorite tutors, Neoform works as a one-time Birthing Pod activation, in which you sacrifice a creature to search for one with higher mana value. This card is excellent when you have the Sultai combination, and you have access to dorks in the deck, as it is possible to tap the dork to generate mana, sacrifice it with Neoform and bring a Thassa's Oracle or a Collector Ouphe, for example.

The important thing is that the difference between a creature with mana value one and a mana value two is huge, and the Neoform can still be used on your commander to bring a creature bigger than them.

10 — Wishclaw Talisman

One of the best budget tutors. It effectively costs you 3 mana, and even though it's not a tutor at sorcery speed, it can't be used on opponents' turns either. Because it is a permanent that tutors the card, it's possible to respond to the ability by blinking or bouncing the talisman, thus allowing you to have one more tutor at your disposal.

9 — Imperial Seal

Here's the first one mana tutor on the list, at sorcery speed and to the top of the deck besides costing you two life.

Imperial Seal is by far the worst tutor for the top, in terms of value. Even though it's above Worldly Tutor, it's only in this position because it doesn't have a search restriction, doesn't reveal the card, and has a low mana cost.

Particularly, I don't like to use it, but there is a lack of better tutors to put in place, especially with fewer colors.

8 — Gamble

The most efficient red tutor there is. For one mana, you fetch a card for your hand, but after tutoring the card, you will have to discard a card from your hand at random. That in itself is a big drawback — at best you will lose the worst card in your hand, and at worst you will lose something important to your strategy.

Putting the card in the graveyard isn't that bad, especially with almost every red deck using Underworld Breach, whether for combo or value.

For costing one mana and putting the card into your hand, even if at spell speed and with the other drawback, Gamble is still very relevant, and a tutor included in all lists with access to red.

7 — Entomb

Another one mana tutor, but this one doesn't put it on top of the deck, or in your hand, but in the graveyard.

This is the best graveyard tutor we have, as it's an instant that costs only one mana, widely used in decks focused on reanimating creatures, such as Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Vilis, Broker of Blood, Necrotic Ooze and Protean Hulk.

6 — Enlightened Tutor

A strong and widely used tutor with an incredible versatility. Even though it's a top deck tutor, we can use it on turn one to search for a relevant piece for the game, such as a stax piece, or a mana rock that will speed up your game granting you extra mana.

Not to mention that it can still fetch cards like Rhystic Study, Mystic Remora and Necropotence, making it extremely versatile and efficient, and for these reasons, it is considered the best white tutor.

5 — Tainted Pact

Another forbidden tutor, but even costing an extra mana Tainted Pact is much better than its one mana counterpart.

First, you don't need to name a card, which allows you to decide while exiling. In addition, as long as the basic condition of the Pact is respected, which is to only have one copy of each card, including lands, it doesn't exile cards before starting to search, which can end up harming you.

The biggest advantage of the pact compared to the others in this Top is that it is in instant speed and goes for the hand, which allows you to use it only when absolutely necessary. However, still exiles revealed cards that aren't chosen.

4 — Diabolic Intent

Diabolic Intent requires a density of creatures in the deck so that it's not a dead card in hand, but there is always the possibility of sacrificing the commander itself or some small creature to cast it.

It is a two mana tutor, sorcery, that puts the card in your hand, without restriction and without revealing the card. Very effective and strong, in some cases the additional cost can even be good to give more fuel to a Breach or to remove a stax piece you played that is holding you back more than the opponents, or even kill a Protean Hulk. Anyway, there are many possibilities that can turn this drawback into an advantage

3 — Mystical Tutor

Mystical Tutor is the best restricted top deck tutor. Costing one mana and at instant speed, its restriction is that it can only search for instants and sorceries, which isn't exactly a problem — it allows you to search for counterspells, bounces, other tutors or even a Wincondition, depending on your needs.

It's a limitation that doesn't affect you that much, and the tutor still manages to deliver more than expected.

2 — Vampiric Tutor

Second is the Vampiric Tutor, which has a very similar effect to Imperial Seal. Being a tutor for the top of the deck, which costs one mana and takes away 2 life, the difference between them is in the casting speed, as it has instant speed, allowing you to respond to an opponent's stax piece, cast it before the draw of your turn, or even respond to a trigger that gives you a draw like Kraum, Ludevic's Opus, Rhystic Study or Mystic Remora.

1 — Demonic Tutor

In the first place we have an indisputable Commander Staple and that is the main reference when we think about tutors.

For two mana, at sorcery-speed, you search your deck for a card and put it in your hand, without providing any information to your opponents. It is a card that has been present in Magic since the beginning, released in Alpha and the strongest of its category. No other tutor ever released reaches the level of Demonic Tutor, and its only drawback is that it's a sorcery, but that makes the card less broken than if it was an Instant.

There are other tutors which were considered for this article, but ended up in positions lower than these. If you disagree with a position or would like to suggest other topics, I'm available in the comments!

Until next time.