Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice | Illustration by Nijimaarc
Sometimes the best card in your deck isn’t the one you draw. It’s the one you can search for!
That’s especially true for auras. Whether you’re trying to turn your Voltron commander into an unstoppable killing machine, shut down an opponent’s creature, or put a particularly nasty curse on an opponent, finding exactly the right aura makes a huge difference.
And while Magic has plenty of generic tutors, there are also cards dedicated specifically to finding auras, curses, and runes. Some are excellent Commander staples, others are extremely specialized, and a few are pretty underwhelming.
Let’s see which aura tutors are worth searching for!
What Are Aura Tutors in MTG?
Tallowisp | Illustration by Ron Spears
Aura tutors are Magic cards that let you search your library for an aura card, either putting it into your hand or directly onto the battlefield.
Auras are a subtype of enchantment that attaches to another object or player. Unlike regular enchantments, auras have an “enchant” ability that specifies what they can attach to. For example, Rancor enchants a creature, Abundant Growth enchants a land, and Curse of Opulence enchants a player.
Tutors are cards that look for other cards in your library. Aura tutors, as you may expect, search specifically for auras.
For this ranking, we’re also including tutors that search for two particular auras: curses (which enchant players, usually making their life miserable), and runes (a subtype of auras introduced in Kaldheim). The aura subtype doesn’t inherently make something a curse or rune, though. Those are additional subtypes, and cards that search specifically for a curse or a rune won’t tutor other auras.
For this ranking, we’re following a fairly strict definition:
- The card must specifically search your library for an aura, curse, or rune. It can search for other types of cards as well, such as equipment, but the aura type must be explicitly mentioned.
- We’ll leave out generic enchantment tutors, like Enlightened Tutor, and generic tutors like Demonic Tutor,
- A true tutor must search your entire library. Cards that only look at the top few cards don’t count, nor do cards that only retrieve auras from your graveyard.
- The tutor can put the aura into your hand or directly onto the battlefield. Both count, and some of the most powerful cards in this ranking don’t require you to cast the aura at all.
Since there are so few cards in our category, we’re ranking every single one!
Honorable Mention: Demonic Tutor
This black sorcery belongs to an extremely exclusive club: Magic cards that are so famous that a mechanic is named after them. This is why “tutor” means “search for a card” in Magic: All the way back from Alpha, and to this day one of most powerful cards from cEDH to Vintage, the tutor: Demonic Tutor.
We’re leaving generic tutors out of our ranking because, well… they are a lot better than specialized aura tutors. The truth is, if you absolutely need to find an aura for your deck to click, then Demonic Tutor (and several other generic tutors) are better than anything in our ranking today.
But, since we’re specifically ranking auras, we’ll just give the GOAT an honorable mention here.
Honorable Mention: Enlightened Tutor
Same as above: Truth be told, some enchantment tutors are much better than anything that we’ll find in our ranking today. But, as with the GOAT, we’ll give Enlightened Tutor and generic enchantment tutors just a nod.
#19. Runeforge Champion
Runeforge Champion is a 3-mana creature that searches your library or graveyard for a rune card when it enters. It also lets you cast rune spells for just , regardless of their normal mana costs.
That’s a pretty good package if you’re building around runes! The sad part is that there are not that many good runes, and our Champ here can’t find any other type of auras.
#18. Tallowisp
Tallowisp is another very specialized tutor: it searches for an aura that enchants a creature (so it won’t get you a curse, or Abundant Growth since it enchants a land).
It’s slow since you need a spirit or arcane spell for the tutor effect. But it’s a repeatable effect, which gives it a pretty high ceiling. In a spirit typal deck that also cares about auras, you can get awesome value out of this little fellow.
#17. Runed Crown
Another rune tutor that would be very solid if it could get you any aura, not just runes: Runed Crown searches not just your library, but also your hand or graveyard, and puts the rune into play attached to Runed Crown. And since all the original runes draw a card when entering, you get a cantrip out of the deal!
Like Runeforge Champion, if WotC ever prints a new batch of good runes, then Runed Crown would jump much higher in this ranking.
#16. Totem-Guide Hartebeest
Totem-Guide Hartebeest is pretty simple: Put it in play, you tutor for any aura in your deck and put it into your hand. Gets the job done, but there are considerably better (and cheaper!) aura tutors further up our ranking.
#15. Boonweaver Giant
At 7 mana, Boonweaver Giant is one of our most expensive tutors. But it searches your hand, graveyard, or library for an aura, and puts it directly on the battlefield attached to our giant monk.
Small caveat: The aura must be able to enchant Boonweaver Giant. You can’t pull a trick like fetching a curse from your library, or fetching Abundant Growth.
#14. Auratouched Mage
Auratouched Mage is a slightly cheaper alternative to Boonweaver Giant, although it only searches your library (while the giant also looks into your graveyard or hand).
It also has a subtle insurance clause: If somebody removes Boonweaver Giant before it ability resolves, then the aura doesn’t changes zones. But if somebody removes Auratouched Mage before its ability resolves, you get to move the aura to your hand.
#13. Bitterheart Witch
Innistrad’s Bitterheart Witch is one of the rare black tutors in our ranking. It also has a death trigger (rather than an ETB), and it specifically looks for curses.
It’s useless for other types of auras, but if you’re playing expensive curses, cheating them into play with Bitterheart Witch is a great play!
#12. Shrine Steward
Shrine Steward costs the same amount of mana as Totem-Guide Hartebeest, but since it’s colorless it fits any deck. It can also tutors shrines, giving it a bit more flexibility.
#11. Sun-Spider, Nimble Webber
Marvel’s Spider-Man brought us Sun-Spider, Nimble Webber, a 4-mana legendary creature that searches for an aura or equipment card when entering.
It costs even less than Shrine Steward, although being an Azorius () card means it fits into a lot fewer decks.
#10. Three Dreams
Most tutors find one card. Three Dreams finds three! It has the caveat that they have to be three different auras, but that naming restriction hardly matters in a singleton format like Commander.
You don’t get a body with this tutor, but getting three cards out of one spell is excellent card advantage.
#9. Curse of Misfortunes
If you’re planning to make somebody’s Commander game thoroughly miserable, Curse of Misfortunes is an excellent place to start: this black enchantment is a repetitive curse tutor (it triggers in each of your upkeeps), and it puts them in play at no extra cost.
The big drawback is that you have to wait until your next upkeep for the first tutor. But if your deck revolves around curses, few cards provide such consistent tutoring.
#8. Invasion of Theros / Ephara, Ever-Sheltering
Invasion of Theros is an interesting case: It’s a battle, and besides auras you can tutor gods and demigods when you put it into play.
Its creature side, Ephara, Ever-Sheltering, doesn’t have any tutor effect itself, but it does have a clear synergy with auras: It draws a card whenever another enchantment enters under your control. Since auras are enchantments, that makes Ephara an excellent payoff in a deck that plans to cast plenty of them.
#7. Sovereigns of Lost Alara
Sovereigns of Lost Alara was a very strong Standard card when it was legal, even winning a Grand Prix. It’s nowhere near as strong in Commander, but it’s still one of the better aura tutors: With Sovereigns in play, any of your creatures that attack alone will tutor an aura and put it in play, enchanting the attacking creature.
In you’re playing a commander like Rafiq of the Many or Bruna, Light of Alabaster that wants to attack with a single, enormous creature, then Sovereigns of Lost Alara is a perfect fit.
#6. Heliod’s Pilgrim
Heliod's Pilgrim is another “let’s keep it simple” aura tutor: Play it, search for an aura, put it in your hand. Any aura, no extra hoops to jump, and a clear improvement over Totem-Guide Hartebeest since we’re just paying .
#5. Axgard Armory
Axgard Armory has an angle that no other aura tutor in this ranking can offer: It’s a land! The activation cost is definitely not cheap, and you’ll have to wait a turn since it enters tapped, but you can tutor for both an aura and an equipment with the same activation, potentially getting two cards!
#4. Open the Armory
Open the Armory is the gold standard for dedicated aura tutors: to search your library for any aura or equipment card and put it into your hand.
As noted earlier, it’s definitely worse than the granddaddy of tutors, Demonic Tutor (that can get any card), or the best enchantment tutors like Enlightened Tutor. But if we’re going with a strict “tutor that specifically targets aura” definition, Open the Armory is as straightforward as it gets.
#3. Kellan, the Fae-Blooded
In 60-card formats, Kellan, the Fae-Blooded is much better than Open the Armory: The Birthright Boon adventure is exactly like Open the Armory (same cost, speed, and rules text), but you also get to play Kellan, the Fae-Blooded afterward (or instead of, if you prefer).
In Commander, though, the Boros color identity makes Kellan, the Fae-Blooded less flexible than Open the Armory. And that’s not a small factor for an aura tutor: Pretty much all the most popular aura commanders (like Eriette of the Charmed Apple, Killian, Decisive Mentor, or Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice) run white, but almost none of them are red.
#2. Light-Paws, Emperor’s Voice
Speaking of aura commanders, here’s Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice! This is one of the most popular mono-white commanders, and basically goes: “I’ve heard you like auras, so how about we tutor an aura whenever you cast one or put one into play?”
Like some of the aura tutors we’ve seen, the catch here is that the aura needs to be able to enchant Light-Paws, so you can’t tutor for a curse, or auras that don’t target creatures. The other catch is that the tutored aura’s mana value has to be equal to or lower than the one you’ve just cast.
#1. Federation Resupply
Our best aura tutor is also the newest: Federation Resupply from Star Trek. And, yeah, this is what power creep looks like. Federation Resupply is a textbook case of strictly better: Costs the exact same as Open the Armory, but you can also tutor a spacecraft, and you can cast it again from your graveyard thanks to beam me up.
In short, you get to tutor twice, and bouncing a creature isn’t necessarily a drawback: If you return something like Heliod's Pilgrim to hand, you can cast it again and get yet another tutoring effect.
Best Aura Tutor Payoffs
Plenty of cards reward you for having auras in play, including some of the best aura commanders, Eriette of the Charmed Apple and Killian, Decisive Mentor. Another of the best aura commanders is actually an aura tutor itself: Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice.
And there there are tons of payoffs in Magic for playing enchantments. In fact, “enchantress” is MTG lingo for “cards that draw when you play an enchantment”, and some of Magic’s most popular commanders are enchantress commanders, like Sythis, Harvest's Hand .
There’s no specific payoff for aura tutors, though, in the sense of “cards that specifically reward you for tutoring an aura”. In fact, there aren’t payoffs for tutors in general, or cards that do something beneficial whenever you search your library.
The reverse is not true, though! There are quite a few nasty cards that either reward you when your opponent tutors something (like Archivist of Oghma does), or punish your opponents when they search (like Ob Nixilis, Unshackled does). Keep those in mind if you’re playing tutors!
Wrap Up
Three Dreams | Illustration by Shishizaru
Auras are among Magic’s most versatile enchantments, and having a tutor to find exactly the one you need can make all the difference.
White dominates this particular category, and the best options like Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice, Open the Armory, and Federation Resupply tend to be mono-white.
Which aura tutors are you playing in your Commander decks? And what are your favorite auras to search for? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord, and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter, The Daily Upkeep.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this deep dive into Magic’s best aura tutors, and good luck out there!
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