The 22 Best Colorless Tutors in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 13, 2026

Urza's Saga | Illustration by Titus Lunter

Magic is a game of variance, and searching for a specific card you want in a given moment can turn the tide of the game in your favor. The first MTG card with this effect was Demonic Tutor, and since then “tutoring” is part of the Magic slang.

Today I’m looking at the best colorless cards in Magic. Colorless tutors are ranked based on their relevance in the decks they’re in (and, since they are colorless, all decks can use these); a lot of the cards in this ranking see Eternal play of some sort.

Let’s get into it!

What Are Colorless Tutors in MTG?

Tezzeret, Cruel Captain Illustration by Chris Rahn

“Tutor” is MTG lingo for an effect that lets you search for a certain card and put it on top of your library or into a different zone, usually your hand or battlefield.

Some tutors get any type of card, like Demonic Tutor, while others let you search for a creature, instant, or land. Tutors are important because they raise the consistency of a deck, or the possibility of a certain combo to work as intended.

I’m only ranking colorless tutors today. In the context of the Commander format these are tutors that have a colorless color identity and can be played in your Kozilek, Butcher of Truth EDH deck as well as any colored decks.

Honorable Mention: The Fetch Lands

The Onslaught and original Zendikar fetch lands like Polluted Delta and Scalding Tarn are among the best cards in all of Magic. You could call the fetch lands a colorless tutor effect since they search for a land with the respective type and put them on the battlefield. We've got an entire list dedicated to land tutors, so let's avoid listing out too many mana-fixing lands here.

#22. Realmbreaker, the Invasion Tree

Sneaking in at the bottom is an artifact with an over-the-top search ability that doesn't come up very often, but is absolutely sweet when it does. Realmbreaker, the Invasion Tree mimics the expensive activated ability on The World Tree, except instead of fetching gods, it searches up every Phyrexian in your library and puts them all directly into play!

#21. Maze’s End

Originally printed as the gate’s win condition in Dragon’s Maze, Maze's End can tutor different gate lands from your decks. It’s tutoring and mana fixing all in one. Magic has around 30 different gates now and plenty more gates-matter cards, so this just gets better.

#20. Gate to the Afterlife

Gate to the Afterlife was a very powerful card in its Standard format. It’s only here on the list because it’s not a flexible tutor since it only gets God-Pharaoh's Gift. Together those two cards make for a nice reanimator deck, provided you have enough self-mill.

#19. Vexing Puzzlebox

If you're not playing with dice-rolling cards you can skip Vexing Puzzlebox entirely, but this is certainly a staple of that archetype, which continues to get support across various sets. There are enough cards that roll d20s and cards that let you roll with initiative (Barbarian Class, for example), that the dream is actually a reality here. The artifact you're planning to search up is entirely up to you, but this is more than achievable in decks built around die rolls.

#18. Planar Portal

Painfully slow, but hey, we’re talking colorless tutors, so any deck can play Planar Portal. You basically get a tutor effect every turn, so play this in your big mana artifact decks to search for bombs and win conditions.

#17. Ring of Three Wishes

Ring of Three Wishes is 1 mana cheaper than Planar Portal on cast and activation, so it’s a little better but still slow. To make up for it there’s a limit of three activations, which is usually enough when it gets going.

#16. Transmutation Font

This Big Score mythic piles up various trinkety artifact tokens, then lets you cash in three different types of tokens to tutor up an artifact and plop it directly into play. It's extremely slow, in the same vein as Tamiyo's Journal at 5 mana, but the payoff is pretty substantial. You'll obviously want to supplement it with other ways to create artifact tokens so Transmutation Font doesn't have to do all the work on its own.

#15. Kuldotha Forgemaster

Kuldotha Forgemaster was played in Vintage Shops deck as a way to sacrifice cheap artifacts like Lotus Petals and Moxen to get beefy artifacts like Blightsteel Colossus. Nowadays we get lots of EDH Treasure-themed decks to play the Forgemaster and other cool, cheap artifacts to interact with as well as artifact lands, so it’s easier to tutor for a big artifact if needed.

#14. Planar Bridge

Take Planar Portal’s design and put the card straight onto the battlefield. Planar Bridge is worse if you’re tutoring for instants or sorceries, but it’s the best choice if your targets are big and expensive.

#13. Sanctum of Ugin

Sanctum of Ugin is one of many colorless designs that lets you tutor a big creature since it’s Eldrazi-themed. The opportunity cost to put this in your deck is slow since it’s a colorless land with no downside.

#12. Conduit of Ruin

Conduit of Ruin is a big Eldrazi that makes it so that your next draw step is the big creature you just tutored for. But you put the tutored card on top of your deck, so there’s no card advantage.

#11. Scrapyard Recombiner

Scrapyard Recombiner allows you to Tinker for a construct. You actually put the construct into your hand, but it’s similar.

What constructs can you get with this? The Kaladesh Gearhulks are all constructs. You can get Gate Colossus for your gates-matter deck, and Myr Battlesphere or Walking Ballista as well.

#10. Inventors’ Fair

Inventors' Fair is a card that was very good in its Standard format and has seen a bit of Modern play in affinity decks. You gain some life and can tutor for an artifact later in the game.

#9. Pyre of Heroes

Pyre of Heroes provides you with a mini Birthing Pod effect, available to all colors. It’s a typal card that saw play in a previous Standard format in angel and cleric decks, and excels in Commander decks.

#8. Maelstrom of the Spirit Dragon

Tarkir: Dragonstorm‘s Maelstrom of the Spirit Dragon is mostly used as five-color land in The Ur-Dragon Commander decks, since you really need a deck full of dragons for it to shine.

But if dragons are your jam, Maelstrom of the Spirit Dragon‘s tutor ability is just perfect.

#7. Tamiyo’s Journal

Tamiyo's Journal produces tokens of the Clue variety, which allow you to pay and draw extra cards. Investigating every turn means that you can choose between drawing two cards a turn or sacrificing three Clues to tutor for any card. It’s better if you have more Clue support, especially in Simic () colors.

#6. Eye of Ugin

Eye of Ugin was fine when it was designed since the Eldrazi were all very expensive, so casting them for 2 mana less was acceptable power-level wise. Enter the Battle for Zendikar block with cheaper Eldrazi, and the card became a powerhouse.

It’s nice to reduce the cost of Eldrazi you’re willing to cast and be able to tutor for a big creature, all in the same package.

#5. Ugin, Eye of the Storms

Most tutor abilities are something you want to use to find your wincon. Ugin, Eye of the Storms takes that to the extreme: its ultimate ability is arguably the best tutor effect in all of Magic… and probably wins you the game on the spot, no matter the boardstate!.

The good ol' dragon sees lot of competitive play in UrzaTron decks in Modern, and in casual Commander it's often in the 99 of Zhulodok, Void Gorger decks.

#4. Tezzeret, Cruel Captain

Strong enough to make the cut into both cEDH decks and competitive Vintage decks, Edge of Eternities‘ Tezzeret, Cruel Captain‘s tutor targets are very specific (artifacts that cost 1 or less), but you get a repeatable tutor ability. And let's be honest, 1-mana artifacts are often the best!

#3. Expedition Map

One of the main enablers for Urza/Tron decks, Expedition Map is one of the few cards in Magic that lets you search for a nonbasic land, which is key for the deck to function. You get a nonbasic land tutor that any deck can play, so this fixes your mana and gives you useful nonbasic lands if you need.

#2. Karn, the Great Creator

Karn, the Great Creator has been a defining part of many formats, earning it a banning in Pioneer and restricted status in Vintage.

It disables enemy artifacts and can tutor for any artifact, provided that it’s in your sideboard. That makes it more of a wish than a traditional tutor, but it has that feel when you build an entire deck around it. There's a reason people call the sideboard a “Karn-board” when running this card. Unfortunately, it’s a no in EDH since the format doesn’t have sideboards.

Karn usually tutors for silver bullet artifacts like God-Pharaoh's Statue, Ratchet Bomb, Pithing Needle, and Walking Ballista. It's interactions with Mycosynth Lattice and Liquimetal Coating that really pushed it over the top.

#1. Urza’s Saga

Urza's Saga is so dominant in lots of formats and keeps popping up on best-of lists. This colorless enchantment land allows you to tutor an artifact with mana value 1 or less, which include Mishra's Bauble, Expedition Map, Relic of Progenitus, Colossus Hammer, and more.

Urza's Saga’s flexibility is what makes it very good at dominating so many Eternal formats.

Wrap Up

Ugin, Eye of the Storms (Zendikar) | Illustration by Joshua Raphael

Well, that’s all for me today on colorless tutors. Colorless cards can do almost anything in Magic, though with a lower efficiency than other colors to avoid breaking the color pie. Big Eldrazi monsters are themed to be colorless, so these typically tutor big creatures and other artifacts.

What colorless tutors do you play in your format of choice? Did I miss any important ones? Let me know in the comments below or in the official Draftsim Discord.

Stay safe folks, and until the next one!