The 32 Best White Tutors in Magic

Last updated on March 6, 2024

Enlightened Tutor (Judge Gift Promo) | Illustration by Aaron Miller

Topdecking the perfect card at the perfect time to turn a game around in an apparently unsalvageable situation is possibly one of Magic’s best feelings. But MTG is a game of strategy, and we can’t leave everything to chance. Tutors are one of the best ways to think ahead, and this goes double for Commander decks where the right card has a much smaller chance of showing up.

Every color has access to some kind of tutor. Black is the only one that has universal tutors like Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor, while every other color has ways to search for specific card types that are usually related to that color’s strengths.

White tutors specialize in enchantments (with special focus on auras), equipment, small creatures, planeswalkers, and basic Plains. These all make perfect sense with the way white plays its strategies.

But what are the best among them? Let's find out!

What Are White Tutors in MTG?

Land Tax | Illustration by Chuck Lukacs

Tutors are cards that allow you to search through your library for either any card, or a specific type of card. White tutors usually let you search for things like enchantments, artifacts, planeswalkers, or Plains.

Your criteria for what can fit into a list of the best white tutors may vary. I mostly chose mono-white cards, but I also let a couple multicolored cards slip in. I purposely left out multicolored cards that are too specific or tribal like Sliver Overlord and Tiamat.

#32. Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer

Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer is a more-than-decent tutor. It basically allows you to tutor and cheat another creature onto the battlefield by paying its mana value.

Rocco's main drawback is the need of 3 mana to cast it and the fact that you need to pay the full cost of the creature to tutor it onto the battlefield.

#31. Search for Glory

Search for Glory suffers from being too specific in some contexts. Being able to tutor a legendary or saga card at sorcery speed for 3 mana is good enough, but it’s far from great.

This card shines in snow-focused decks since it allows you to tutor for permanents in the deck and gains you life for casting it.

#30. Three Dreams

The cost for Three Dreams is pretty steep and it goes at sorcery speed, but being able to get three different auras into your hand in a deck focused on them can be extremely useful. It’s essentially a limited but pretty useful card.

#29. Auratouched Mage

Auratouched Mage falls on the weaker end of this list thanks to its high mana cost. That said, it still allows you to tutor an aura onto the battlefield enchanting it, so it can prove pretty useful if played right.

#28. Zur the Enchanter

Zur the Enchanter is similar to Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer in that it has a 3-colored mana cost that makes it harder to cast. It’s still a great tutor for enchantments since you can tutor them onto your battlefield, and it activates every time it attacks.

I’ve seen EDH decks built around it, and they work really well when they’re focused on low-cost enchantments.

#27. Stonehewer Giant

Stonehewer Giant has a pretty large casting cost, and you need to wait for another turn until you can start using it as a tutor. But once you can get going it's a solid repeatable tutor for equipment that also brings them directly onto the battlefield and attaches them to one of your creatures.

#26. Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice

There’s a recurring joke that if a card has a convoluted and long rules text then it’s a card for Commander. Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice is definitely a card for Commander. The effect on this card is pretty useful in aura decks in EDH, but quickly falls short in non-singleton formats.

#25. Arena Rector

Arena Rector was a fun callback to another amazing card that I’ll mention further down the road. If you know anything about planeswalkers then you know that sending one from your library straight to the battlefield can be an insanely powerful effect.

#24. Yasharn, Implacable Earth

You’ll arguably have better ramp than Yasharn, Implacable Earth thanks to the green side if you’re playing a Selesnya () deck, but it's still a decent way to tutor two basic lands into your hand. It’s also worth mentioning that Yasharn’s static ability can be game-winning against the right decks.

#23. Steelshaper’s Gift

Steelshaper's Gift is simple and to the point. A single mana to tutor an equipment card is efficient and consistent, even if it’s only good in equipment decks.

#22. Open the Armory

Open the Armory is basically the same as Steelshaper's Gift, but you can also tutor auras if you need them for an extra mana. I prefer Open the Armory overall because of its versatility, but specialized decks probably prefer Steelshaper's Gift.

#21. Ranger-Captain of Eos

Ranger-Captain of Eos’s tutor effect would be pretty underwhelming in any of the other colors, but white tends to play strongly into having overwhelming amounts of small and cheap creatures with useful effects. You get a pretty great card when combined with its decent stats and its Silence effect.

#20. Kor Cartographer

The tutor effect on Kor Cartographer shows up repeatedly on white tutors. White is one of the worst colors in terms of ramp, but there are still plenty of cards that let you search your library for either a Plains type or just a basic Plains. They’re decent ramp effects, but usually pretty limited in how they work.

Kor Cartographer is a good example of that. Its main advantage is that the Plains you fetch doesn’t have to be a basic land, so you can go for dual lands without much problem.

#19. Knight of the White Orchid

Knight of the White Orchid is basically Kor Cartographer, but mostly better. It depends on your opponents having more lands than you to tutor, but the land you fetch comes into play untapped. And its mana value is half that of the other card.

#18. Altar of Bone

The thing about Altar of Bone is that it feels like it’s in the wrong colors. It’d make way more sense as a Golgari () or Orzhov () card. But the Altar is still a pretty decent card and can be great in Selesnya decks that play tons of expendable tokens.

#17. Endless Horizons

Endless Horizons is a weird card. On the one hand you can basically tutor all the Plains from your deck and play one of them each turn. This can obviously be a huge advantage, and it can fix your mana base really consistently.

But it also means that you’ve just lost a ton of lands if the card gets destroyed and you have no way to get it back. It’s a high-risk decent-reward kind of card.

#16. Keeper of the Accord

Keeper of the Accord basically aims to keep the playing field relatively fair between you and your opponents. It’s not the greatest tutor per se because it wholly depends on your opponents having more lands than you, but the sheer utility of the card itself still grants it this mid-list position.

#15. Karametra, God of Harvests

Devotion cards are a whole other subject to dive into, but that’s not what we’re here for. Karametra, God of Harvests is pretty solid as an enchantment.

It’s easy to assume that a Selesnya deck plays plenty of creatures, which means having this card on the field keeps your mana base consistent and useful.

#14. Weathered Wayfarer

There’s a repeating theme in white’s land tutors: they don’t usually work towards putting you ahead of your opponents’ mana bases. Instead they keep the field as even as possible.

Weathered Wayfarer is extremely consistent at that. It gives you a way to tutor any land you want from your deck and put it into your hand every turn. The only drawback is that an opponent needs to have more lands than you. It’s a really solid card for any deck that plays white.

#13. Archaeomancer’s Map

Archaeomancer's Map pretty much plays into that same idea I mentioned in the previous entry. It lets you search for two Plains when it enters the battlefield.

More importantly, it also lets you cheat a land from your hand whenever an opponent who controls more lands than you plays a land, which is far from bad.

#12. Sterling Grove

I’ll admit I’m cheating a little here. What puts Sterling Grove in such a high position isn’t its tutor effect (which is still pretty good), but the fact that it gives your enchantments shroud.

Shroud is an absurdly powerful keyword, and giving it to all of your enchantments in an enchantment-focused deck also means giving it to all or most of your creatures. It also tutors for an enchantment if your opponents are about to destroy it.

#11. Recruiter of the Guard

This is basically Imperial Recruiter’s not-as-good cousin. Recruiter of the Guard is still an amazing card and found itself a spot in a ton of taxes-style decks in Legacy. It has a more limited use in EDH, but it’s still pretty solid in white decks to find that low-toughness creature you need.

#10. Sisay, Weatherlight Captain

Sisay, Weatherlight Captain was a more-than-welcome card for legendary creature EDH decks. It makes for a wonderful commander, and one of its strongest points is that it tutors for legendary creatures.

Unfortunately it needs five colors to activate, so it falls into the multicolored side of this list. It’s still a great card though.

#9. Oswald Fiddlebender

Oswald Fiddlebender is a solid addition to any artifact deck out there. It’s no Tinker, but it’s still a great way to turn your artifacts into the cards you need.

#8. Captain Sisay

Captain Sisay has consistently proved to be an incredible card. It basically does the same as Sisay, Weatherlight Captain, but you just need to tap the Captain.

This card is a staple in plenty of formats, and one of (if not the) best tutors for legendary creatures.

#7. Tithe

I’ve already mentioned how white land tutors are usually very focused on how many lands your opponents have. Tithe is no exception, but what puts it on top of most of the others is that you get at least one land.

If your opponents control more lands than you then you get to tutor for two, all at instant speed.

#6. Idyllic Tutor

Another simple and to-the-point tutor. Idyllic Tutor efficiently searches for an enchantment and puts it into your hand, and there are plenty of decks where that single enchantment could change the course of the entire game.

#5. Stoneforge Mystic

Stoneforge Mystic has a long and complicated history in Magic. It was banned in Modern for years thanks to how quickly it managed to stall some games.

This card is an incredible way to fetch any equipment in your deck and cheat it into play. Stoneforge used to be best with Batterskull, but now Kaldra Compleat is another solid option to pair alongside the creature.

This isn’t such a game-breaker in EDH, so it’s relatively safer to play there.

#4. Academy Rector

Academy Rector was banned in my playgroup thanks to Rule 0. I used to run a planeswalker deck that played a ton of high-mana value cards. Academy Rector would invariably search for either Omniscience or Humility into play for free.

Sure, the two enchantments were what actually made the deck broken, but Academy Rector was an incredible way to always have the enchantment I needed on the field for free. Not to mention it can tutor for enchantment creatures too.

Needless to say, Academy Rector can do some pretty powerful things.

#3. Eladamri’s Call

Eladamri's Call is just amazing. Tutoring for a creature at two mana with no drawback is just great, especially when you compare it to other white tutors. Plus you can use it at instant speed.

#2. Land Tax

It’s almost absurd how useful Land Tax can be. This 1-mana enchantment is repeatable card advantage and mana fixing at the same time as long as at least one opponent controls more lands than you.

If you’ve already established a pretty decent mana base you can still thin your deck by putting lands into your hand, which increases the chances of drawing the cards you actually need.

#1. Enlightened Tutor

Enlightened Tutor earns first place by a wide margin. It’s super flexible and comes with few strings attached, which are often negligible depending on the deck you're playing. Sometimes simple is best.

The only real drawback is the fact that you put the card on top of your library instead of in your hand, but you can easily work around that thanks to it being an instant.

Wrap Up

Stoneforge Mystic (Worldwake) | Illustration by Mike Bierek

White tutors are decently numerous and powerful. Almost all of them are reasonable within the color’s archetypes, and they can end up being really good if played or built around right. I try not to use too many tutors in EDH because I like to keep my games varied and changing, but sometimes you just need a way to find the right card before it’s too late.

But that’s enough from me. What do you think? Do you like playing tutors in your decks, or do you hope for good luck? What’s your favorite or most used tutor? Feel free to let me know down below or over on Twitter or Discord.

That’s all from me for now. Have a good one, and I’ll see you next time!