Iron Spider, Stark UpgradeIron Spider, Stark Upgrade | Art by Kevin Glint

Welcome to Too-Specific Top 10, where if there isn’t a category to rank our pet card at the top of, we’ll just make one up! (Did you know that MonoskelionMonoskelion is the only artifact creature you can cast for two mana that doesn't die when you remove its last counter from it to deal one damage to any target?)

You know what would be cool? Playing Steel OverseerSteel Overseer in the command zone. You know what would be even cooler? Stapling card draw onto it!

Eh, why not throw in vigilance, too? There's no question that Iron Spider, Stark UpgradeIron Spider, Stark Upgrade has been pushed, and that's good. We need that kind of thing when it comes to colorless commanders.

All that said, this deck at first glance is a pretty easy build: Put in a bunch of artifact ramp, a bunch of artifact creatures, and a bunch of artifact untappers. Bing bang boom, you're drowning in cards.

But what else can you do with all those +1/+1 counters?

Top 10 Colorless "Remove a +1/+1 Counter" Cards

Criteria: Colorless cards that can remove a +1/+1 counter to activate an ability that results in more than adding the same amount of counters somewhere else. As is tradition, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.

10. WorkhorseWorkhorse

(5,020 Inclusions, 0.07% of 6,744,692 Decks)

Six mana is on the expensive side, but when you're playing Thran DynamoThran Dynamos you're untapping with Voltaic KeyVoltaic Keys, it's not unachievable. That's especially true when the card can immediately pay for all but two of it.

In other words, WorkhorseWorkhorse can be a fine dork for us, especially with a horde of other artifact creatures to remove counters from while Workhorse pays for Iron Spider's draw costs.

9. PentavusPentavus

(8,465 Inclusions, 0.13% of 6,744,692 Decks)

Going wide is the name of the game with Iron Spider, so having a card that can directly translate counters into artifact creatures is going to snowball out of control quickly.

Or it would, if PentavusPentavus didn't cost seven mana to start with. Still, this will be a great finisher in the late game, providing hordes of Thopters Pentavites to make huge and swing over the top with.

8. Etched OracleEtched Oracle

(6,454 Inclusions, 0.10% of 6,744,692 Decks)

Used to be, Etched OracleEtched Oracle was a card that you'd just have to skip right over with a colorless commander, as the rules stated that you couldn't make any color of mana outside your commander's color identity. The rules have changed, however, so now it's at least worth looking up what's possible, right?

Top 10 Colorless Cards That Can Create Colored Mana (That Cost Under $10, Because Otherwise This is Just a cEDH List)

1. Exotic OrchardExotic Orchard
2. Fellwar StoneFellwar Stone
3. Chromatic LanternChromatic Lantern
4. Ornithopter of ParadiseOrnithopter of Paradise
5. Decanter of Endless WaterDecanter of Endless Water
6. Patchwork BannerPatchwork Banner
7. Spire of IndustrySpire of Industry
8. Forbidden OrchardForbidden Orchard
9. Relic of LegendsRelic of Legends
10. Springleaf DrumSpringleaf Drum

Well, it turns out that it's an extremely mixed bag. While the top of the list is easy enough and has no downsides for us insofar as Exotic OrchardExotic Orchard and Fellwar StoneFellwar Stone, after that it turns into a smorgasbord of three mana rocks that we want little to do with, often ones that would also want us to tap our commander for things other than putting +1/+1 counters on things.

Which might be enough if Oracle wasn't completely useless without access to colored mana. But it is, so I think we'll be passing today.

7. Arcbound ReclaimerArcbound Reclaimer

(13,564 Inclusions, 0.20% of 6,744,692 Decks)

Arcbound ReclaimerArcbound Reclaimer is on the expensive end of Modular creatures, but given how deep in the artifact sauce we are, I think the upside is worth it.

Even better, we don't even really have to wait on the downside of the artifact going to the top of our library, as with two mana and two counters, Iron Spider will grab it immediately. Slam dunk.

6. HexavusHexavus

(13,877 Inclusions, 0.21% of 6,744,692 Decks)

Where we love PentavusPentavus because it can go wide into out commander that will then let us go tall, HexavusHexavus keeps all the (+1/+1) counters to itself. That means that our six mana investment can get got by a single removal spell, and that means that I'm just not for this one.

5. Cryptic TrilobiteCryptic Trilobite

(15,459 Inclusions, 0.23% of 6,744,692 Decks)

You will not find many bigger fans of Cryptic TrilobiteCryptic Trilobite than me, but we have an issue here: It's not an artifact, which means that it won't get +1/+1 counters from our commander. That means we either have to pay into it for several turns, or rely on it coming in with a ton of counters at a horrid double-X rate. All of which means it's probably better to pass on this one, even if it can remove a single counter to pay for our commander's draw ability.

4. Mindless AutomatonMindless Automaton

(20,345 Inclusions, 0.30% of 6,744,692 Decks)

And here we have the other obvious inspiration for Iron Spider, outside of Steel OverseerSteel Overseer. The difference? Mindless AutomatonMindless Automaton doesn't have to pay to remove its two counters to draw a card, and it notably can only remove its own counters. That downside aside, this is a great backup commander if you have any other means of stacking counters on it, which, let's be honest, we will.

3. TriskelionTriskelion

(26,006 Inclusions, 0.39% of 6,744,692 Decks)

Let's be honest, every single one of these 26,000 inclusions is trying to combo with TriskelionTriskelion, and that is just not the power level we're trying to operate at. We'll leave this one on the sidelines.

2. Crystalline CrawlerCrystalline Crawler

(26,304 Inclusions, 0.39% of 6,744,692 Decks)

Just when I thought we were done considering the whole "make colored mana in our colorless deck" thing, here comes Crystalline CrawlerCrystalline Crawler. This one, however, is far from useless if you don't have access to colored mana, both tapping to put a counter on itself and also living if it comes in with zero counters. All of which adds up to this being an easy include, although we'll probably skip on more or less everything that isn't free when it comes to things that make colored mana.

1. Walking BallistaWalking Ballista

(173,722 Inclusions, 2.58% of 6,744,692 Decks)

While you can still combo with Walking BallistaWalking Ballista, its more efficient cost has a lot of decks playing it that aren't trying to do that.

While it may raise an eyebrow and illicit some questions from a table when you plop it down, unlike TriskelionTriskelion, it's fairly easy to convince folks that you're just a +1/+1 counter deck doing +1/+1 counter things. And Ballista will do those things excellently alongside Iron Spider plopping down multiple counters on it a turn.

Just be careful saying you "don't play any infinite combos" here, because I guarantee you if given enough time, mana, and cards that care about +1/+1 counters, you will find a way to ping a table to death.

Honorable Mentions

While both SuncrusherSuncrusher and SpincrusherSpincrusher exist to round our list of cards that can remove +1/+1 counters for effects, neither is noteworthy unless you're really into the Legends canon of the Star Wars universe.

That just leaves the already mentioned MonoskelionMonoskelion, which I would like to highlight again because I do think that it deserves a lot more play than the 2,000 inclusions it's currently rocking.

Outside of that, though? There's nothing left to mention except the other thing you're going to need to make Iron SpiderIron Spider into a monster: Lots and lots of artifact untappers.

Oh, and I suppose there's the decklist, too, huh? Seems worth mentioning.

Iron Spider, Stark Upgrade Commander Deck List

This deck is fast, efficient, and closes out games in a hurry if your commander is ever allowed to live. Which brings me to the two downsides: One, a smart table is never going to let your commander live. Two, this deck is going to eat table time. Putting out two dozen counters a turn is just what it wants to do, and it wants to do it by repeatedly tapping and untapping your commander with various activations and triggers. Put all that together, and unless you're well practiced with your triggers and fast with your dice, you're just going to end up taking long turns.

With that said, if you are a person who enjoys their Johnny nonsense where doing a thing causes a thing to thing so you can do the thing, then you'll enjoy this deck. Just... please goldfish with it. A lot. And maybe ask the table to help you out with the dice, just to help out with the idle hands.

Nuts and Bolts

There always seems to be a bit of interest in how these lists are made (this seems like a good time to stress once again that they are based on EDHREC score, NOT my personal opinion…), and people are often surprised that I’m not using any special data or .json from EDHREC, but rather just muddling my way through with some Scryfall knowledge! For your enjoyment/research, here is this week’s Scryfall search.

What Do You Think?

It has not escaped my attention that I've created yet another colorless deck where I just tap and untap artifacts, a phenomenon I'm fairly well aware that I'm addicted to no matter what power level I'm playing at. With that said, it's gotta be better than just another Eldrazi deck, right?

And finally, what is your favorite cards that remove counters? Can you play them in colorless? Do they work well with Iron Spider?

Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you at the table that appears to be rapidly spinning around in circles while growing and shrinking and... making more tables that are doing the same?

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