The 20 Best Colorless Mana Dorks in Magic Ranked

Crystalline Crawler | Illustration by Jason Felix

Mana acceleration comes in many forms. You’ve got your classic ramp spells, your extra land abilities, your mana rocks, your cost reduction, but the mana dork is a staple of many decks for a reason. A good mana dork doubles as early board presence and a mana source, so it helps you get ahead in more than one way.

There’re a surprising number of colorless mana dorks that you can use in virtually any deck, some of which have become key pieces of decks beyond colorless Commander decks. But which ones rank above the rest?

Read on to find out!

What Are Colorless Mana Dorks in MTG?

Hedron Crawler | Illustration by Daniel Ljunggren

Colorless mana dorks are creatures with a colorless color identity for Commander purposes that generate mana, in one way or another. Classic mana dorks have a mana ability (they tap to generate mana), while others have repeatable ways to generate Treasure tokens or Eldrazi Scion tokens. While Academy Manufactor fits the bill by that definition, it’s really a payoff for abilities that generate other utility tokens. If you can’t make Food or Clue tokens, this assembly-worker won’t generate Treasures.

One-time abilities are not mana dorks. Even if your deck can reanimate Burnished Hart or flicker Campus Guide, they don’t count as mana dorks.

Cost reduction abilities like Foundry Inspector or Jhoira's Familiar aren’t mana dorks either, but they’re often better and more consistent. Mana filters like Gravestone Strider also aren’t mana dorks unless your can double their mana production.

Honorable Mentions

Okay, let’s keep this tight and rapid-fire.

• Golden Guardian gets a nod because it’s an artifact creature that turns into a 2-mana land. Gold-Forge Garrison also gives you golem tokens.
• Marvin, Murderous Mimic only counts as a mana dork when you have other mana dorks on the battlefield. Love ya, Marv.
• At its base, Pili-Pala is mana-negative, but it’s part of so many infinite mana combos that it felt wrong not the bring it up.
• Tiller Engine accelerates any lands you have that enter tapped.

#20. Foreboding Statue / Forsaken Thresher

Congratulations to Foreboding Statue, winner of the “We Like Round Numbers” sweepstakes. Both sides of this artifact creature generate mana, and it has a weird counter to proliferate with Atraxa, Praetors' Voice. It gained a new home when The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander gave us Tetzin, Gnome Champion.

#19. Automated Artificer

Automated Artificer is locked to artifacts and abilities, which limits its utility. Pit Automaton is similar but more restrictive, but you could do worse if your commander has an expensive activated ability.

#18. Bronze Walrus + Oasis Gardener

Bender's Waterskin has shown us to what extent 3-mana rocks have to do something interesting to be worth playing, and the same is true for 3-mana colorless dorks. Bronze Walrus scries as it enters, while Oasis Gardener gains you some life. Solid, if unexciting.

#17. Scuttlemutt

Scuttlemutt’s main home is the Reaper King scarecrow deck, with the added benefit that it can change a creature’s colors for a turn. That has lots of niche applications: You can turn the tables on an opponent that uses a color-based sweeper, you can allow your creature to block another with protection or fear, and so on.

#16. Kozilek’s Channeler

Eldrazi decks are so greedy for mana, and Kozilek's Channeler is tailormade for the middle to high part of their curve.

#15. Marching Duodrone

“Anyone want to take 2 damage so we can all get some mana?”

Marching Duodrone works best when you can take advantage of the symmetrical nature of its ability, like with Kambal, Profiteering Mayor, Vazi, Keen Negotiator, or Jaws, Relentless Predator.

#14. Scaretiller

I’m mildly surprised that Scaretiller wasn’t reprinted in the World Shaper precon from Edge of Eternities Commander, since its tap trigger would work perfectly with spacecraft to bring back sacrificed lands. Its low power makes it an achingly slow way to add charge counters, but you can play it in vehicle decks, Tocasia, Dig Site Mentor decks, and others as a more synergistic Solemn Simulacrum.

#13. The Warring Triad

The Warring Triad iterates on another milling colorless dork because the milling is part of the cost rather than the resolution. You can use it in group hug decks, but I like the idea in keyword soup decks like Indominus Rex, Alpha or Kathril, Aspect Warper that also use the graveyard.

#12. Metalworker

Its placement on the Reserved List means you probably won’t run into it at a casual table unless there’s proxies, but Metalworker can offer explosive mana bursts if you activate it after you fill your hand with artifacts.

#11. Hedron Crawler

Hedron Crawler is Millikin without the milling. That’s highly reductive, but without those extra words, it mainly sees play in colorless decks rather than self-mill and reanimator decks.

#10. Manakin

Haha get it? It’s called Manakin? Because it gives you mana? And it’s a mannequin? Gosh, I’m easy to entertain sometimes. I’m giving it a slight edge over Hedron Crawler because of that 1 point of power so you can at least fling it if needed.

#9. Crystalline Crawler

Crystalline Crawler’s best home is in multicolor proliferate decks so that you can start off with as many +1/+1 counters as possible. You can remove as many +1/+1 counters as you want without being limited to sorcery speed or on how many times you activate the ability in one turn.

Cryptic Trilobite is similar, but you can only spend its mana to activate abilities.

#8. Spawnbed Protector

Its end step trigger is more important as a recursion ability, but Spawnbed Protector gives you two Eldrazi Scions, so here it goes. A mana value of 7 keeps it from seeing consistent play outside Eldrazi decks, but it’s right at home there.

#7. Karn, Legacy Reforged

Hey, remember Epilogue Boosters? Man, that was a trip.

Karn, Legacy Reforged is rather expensive as mana dorks go, but the mana you get from its upkeep trigger scales well when you can pump out a bunch of artifact tokens.

#6. Walking Atlas + PuPu UFO

While not your typical mana dorks, abilities that drop extra lands into play are powerful, especially in landfall decks. For best results, play Walking Atlas and PuPu UFO in decks with a high land density and enough card draw that you can activate them each turn.

#5. The Myr Tier

There are many myr mana dorks in all color identities, and a pure colorless deck can access Plague Myr, Myr Convert, and Alloy Myr, plus another that’s leagues better than this trio.

#4. Millikin

Millikin is in many self-mill and reanimator decks since it’s both a mana dork and a mill enabler. This construct will never run out of uses as Magic continues to print mana-hungry commanders that want a stocked graveyard.

#3. Glaring Fleshraker

Glaring Fleshraker combines consistent token generation with an Impact Tremors ability, and it has quickly become a staple of colorless decks since its release in Modern Horizons 3. Note that it cares about color, not color identity, so it triggers off devoid spells, too.

#2. Palladium Myr

Mana-hungry decks love a permanent that taps for 2 mana, and Palladium Myr fits in with big Eldrazi and colorless artifact commanders alike. It refunds itself quickly, especially if you open with a dream hand that chains a Wastes into a Sol Ring.

#1. Ornithopter of Paradise

Whaddaya get when you cross an Ornithopter with Birds of Paradise?

Ornithopter of Paradise has so many homes in decks that care about artifacts, artifact creatures, flying creatures, you name it. It’s by far the best and more versatile colorless mana dork that there is.

Best Colorless Mana Dork Payoffs

Artifact creatures have plenty of lords, like Alibou, Ancient Witness as a haste enabler or Cyberdrive Awakener as a flying enabler. Colorless creatures also have lords like It That Heralds the End, or you can copy them with Echoes of Eternity.

Forsaken Monument is a fantastic payoff that serves as an anthem that adds more mana, at least if your colorless mana dork taps for colorless. Glaring Fleshraker also adds extra mana in the form of Eldrazi Scion tokens, and your colorless mana dorks also trigger its pinging ability.

If they’re artifacts, the cheaper colorless mana dorks can become free spells when you stack a Foundry Inspector with a Jhoira's Familiar.

You can reuse myr that are mana dorks if you pump 1 mana into Myr Galvanizer. Scarecrows have a natural place in the 99 of Reaper King decks.

Does Adding “Mana of Any Color” Affect Color Identity?

No, it doesn’t. Color identity only cares about the colors of mana pips in a card’s mana cost and rules text, as well as the colors of the reverse side of a card, when applicable. For a card like Alloy Myr with rules text that states “Add 1 mana of any color”, there are no pips to consider. You can run Alloy Myr in colorless EDH decks, and decks of any color combination that you want.

Note that adding mana of any color doesn’t allow you to produce colorless mana. If you include Alloy Myr or a similar card in a colorless deck, you can only use it to pay for generic mana costs, not the colorless pips. This is also why colorless decks don’t run Command Tower or Arcane Signet; they generate no mana in them.

Wrap Up

Ornithopter of Paradise | Illustration by Raoul Vitale

The best colorless mana dorks have homes in decks of all colors, even when they only generate colorless mana. Many of them are also artifacts, which take advantage of artifact payoffs and synergies. Because we’re talking color identity, they either generate colorless mana, or mana of any color, no in-between.

Which colorless mana dorks do you run in your colorless decks? What about other color identities? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord.

Thanks for reading, and good luck at your next Magic table!