Hello awesome Commander fans. Someone is always dropping some 1/1s down that own the Commander format as well as multiplayer. They are nasty there! What are the best? Today we'll look at my Top Ten for that as well as a few Honorable Mentions to make the cut. We will not be looking at one-drops that are actually 1/2 or 2/1. Just 1/1s. Also we will not be looking at 1/1s that are super secretly 6/6s if you have 30 life. Or Kird Ape technically a 1/1 for one, but actually a 2/3. Also, formats like Standard hits like Basking Rootwalla that dominated in 60 card formats won't be here, and Five Color, Cube, and Pauper are not counted for today's list. We are just looking at 1/1s that cost precisely one mana.Due to how deep this pool, is, we'll be doing 5 Honorable Mentions, so a total of 15 overall.

Since some of these dominate a table and folks often don't want to waste 1:1 removal like Murder and they come online prior to counters, I actually wrote an entire article of ways to handle this genre of dorks. You can find it here.

Honorable Mention #1 (#15 Overall). Rhys the Redeemed

Let's kick this list off with one of the few Commander-eligible one-drop 1/1s! Rhys dominated early play and would have gotten much higher in the earlier days of the format as the ideal Selesnya token leader, since this one-drop can tap with three to make a 1/1 and with 6 to double your tokens. Nasty on a cheap and easily replayable with Commander Tax. Not bad Rhys, not bad!

Honorable Mention #2 (#14 Overall). Quirion Ranger

This thing is run in a massive 34867 decks over at EDHREC, can you can see why? You can bounce a Forest to your hand, once per turn, to untap a dork you control. There are no other brakes on this other than bouncing the Forest and once per turn. Why would this have so many uses in modern Commander where folks like their mana? Great question!

This one-drop 1/1 will do a few things. First of all, if you have a Green Commander that swings, in a Voltron-esque way, this'll untap it to block. Second, if you have a Commander that has a tap ability, this will untap it. Now if you didn't draw a land, you'll make another mana this turn by tapping the Forest and then dropping it again, so it makes mana. Fourthly, if you have something like landfall that's pretty common, this will ensure you'll get it turn after turn. It breaks Exploration and Azusa, Lost but Seeking cards that are often dead after your lands have been dropped.

That's a lot of synergy for this powerful untapper that arrives on the first turn prior to being answered by something like Counterspell. It's an untap engine, and it's an Elf. That means it'll break mana tappers like Priest of Titania that tap equal to your Elf count for another go. See the synergy in this fun powerhouse? I think so too!

Honorable Mention #3 (#13 Overall). Hex Parasite

This is not dominant in online databases, but it's huge when it's in play (it's in my Underused Hall of Fame). It's very powerful and dominates after resolution on the first turn. This artifact Insect can spend Black Phyrexian mana to remove X counters from a permanent and pump its power by that many this turn. What you want to do is pull them off of opposing things to hurt your foe's board position.

The first thing this answers is planeswalkers of all stripes. The second thing this will answer are win cons that put counters on them like Darksteel Reactor and Chance Encounter. The next thing this will answer are opposing things that have +1/+1 counters on them like Triskelion and Spike Weaver and Forbidden Ancient. Then the next thing this will answer are lands with counters on them like Vivid Marsh. Then you can use this with your own counter stuff like cumulative upkeep or Dark Depths. Do I like it? Yuppers Puppers! Run this one-drop Insect!

Honorable Mention #4 (#12 Overall). Hope of Ghirapur

Another one-drop 1/1 Commander-eligible dork, and this one flies! This is here as an amazing option in the 99. You can sacrifice it after you dealt damage to them to stop them from casting non-dorks this turn, so attack, hit them, sacrifice, and then cast your spell you need to resolve this turn. This lasts until your next turn, so that's a whole round they cannot cast non-dorks on as well.

I like it as a Commander since it's a guaranteed one-drop that can easily be recast over and over again with Commander tax to resolve your goods. The best thing to protect in most Commander decks are your Commander, and you are fine sacrificing this to ensure that resolves. Since this is colorless, this feels underplayed since every deck can drop this. I really like this in a Simic Edric deck as a first turn play no matter your lands, and then a few cards from Edric before ensuring that your strong tempo card like Winter Orb or Tangle Wire resolves.

Honorable Mention #15 (#11). Glistener Elf

Sure, the Elf might only be in 12656 decks on EDHREC, but it's a must play in any infect or toxic poison counter alt win deck! This is the only one-drop 1/1 with infect ever printed. When formats have 20 life, this is basically a 2/1 since it'll kill in 10 hits. When they have 40, this is basically a 4/1 since it'll also kill in 10 hits.

With temporary pumps like Giant Growth and permanent ones like Rancor and Bonesplitter, this'll kill very fast against decks before they assemble a defense, and it's -1/-1 counter giving if they block, like Steel Wall, will also die eventually to this. This thing is very strong, and a rare winning condition in the one-drop spot. I would add this to Green Voltron decks that are pumping up their Commander to win with 21 Commander damage as an alternate way to kill in 10.

#10. Caustic Caterpillar

Ah yes, the one-drop with a two-cost sacrifice cost to Naturalize. This is a great adjunct to decks that want a board presence with creatures on the battlefield and then need an instant answer to the problems it answers, not just on your turn like Reclamation Sage.

It's better in shells that have reanimation like Golgari with Meren of Clan Nel Toth or in decks where you have small stuff reanimation like with White's Sun Titan or Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants. It's in tons of decks all over, so it's a definite Commander Staple.

#9. Disciple of the Vault

If you were looking at 1/1 one-drops that dominated Standard? This would be #1 with Affinity. It's very strong here in Commander too, since artifacts heading to any graveyard will shoot a foe for a life. That melds with a later card in my Top Five that also dominates. It'll work on artifact tokens like Treasure (the #2 Archetype on EDHREC.com) or Artifacts (#1). Clues and Blood and Food are great with their sacrificing all up and down for various effects. It's very strong at the fun things!

#8. Spore Frog AND Kami of False Hope

I call Spore Frog "Fog Frog." These one-drop 1/1 are the ones I talked about two spots ago! They are very strong with the dropping, and then, for free, sacrifice them for no mana to Fog for the turn. They are both ideal in decks with recursion in mind, like the aforementioned Caustic Caterpillar. You can attack, grab equipment, trigger things dealing combat damage, and more, and then sac for no mana when tapped out to Fog.

They are very strong since people won't attack you with their team en masse when you have a Fog Frog or Kami or cast temporary combat tricks your way like Overrun effects. It's also in the color of Spirit matters-stuff in Azorius as well as retrievable with Soulshift. That creature type has 10369 decks on its own, the vast majority are combos with White. In fact, this isn't even showing up in the Spirit Archetype at all! (See - Spirit Tribal | EDHREC) Good pair!

#7. Dragonmaster Outcast

One of only a couple of Red 1/1s on my list is this mythic rare. If you control 6 or more lands in your upkeep, you'll make a free 5/5 Dragon token with flying. Note that they do not have haste, so you'll have to wait a turn before flying barring something like Fires of Yavimaya.

I love this in Gruul with the awesome land ramp effects like Rampant Growth, Cultivate and Explosive Vegetation that drop lands fast rather than mana rocks to get this online fast. This one-drop is very strong with the winning, even outside of Green, later in the game. Since you only need one mana to start and no tapping or mana needed, you'll net one free 5/5 Dragon every one of your turns until this is answered or you win. And you can still be casting things while doing this so it doesn't hurt your board position.

#6. Carrion Feeder AND Viscera Seer

This pair of Black one-drop 1/1s are next! They are epic in the same deck, Aristocrats and Sacrifice-Matters. You drop one on turn one and then your self-recursive dork like Gravecrawler with something else. Turn 3? Zulaport Cutthroat or Blood Artist. Turn 4 a Commander with the Zombie type. Sac the one-drop to the Seer or Feeder for free, trigger the Cutthroat to drain a life from all of your foes. Now use all of your Black to cast it over and again. It works well with Carnival of Souls on arrival, as the life lost is answered by the Artist or Cutthroat. See how powerful these are together? And the Feeder can grow to 120/120. Nasty!

Five left! And they are three White creatures, one Green spot and one Red creatures. These are the highest-charting Black cards on our list!

#5. One Drop Mana Elves

They own every format they are legal in. They are the only way to reliably get a three-drop Commander on turn 2. They can be played in Elf decks as well as non with aplomb. After your mana is set, they can chump block a key attack or swing on an empty board. They can pick up all of the equipment early and later. They are amazing with untappers or haste enablers like Thousand-Year Elixir and Seeker of Skybreak or the Quirion Ranger above.

Any three-drop is a second-turn drop with these including the powerful Fires of Yavimaya. They are great everywhere, with the only major downside being that they get caught up in mass removal like Damnation without intending to. So, they are more fragile than mana rocks or lands. That drops them here to my five-spot.

#4. Weathered Wayfarer

It's in a massive 40,786 decks on EDHREC, so you might wonder why this is top 5 material instead of earlier? Note that this is very different than other similar effects like Land Tax - every other White effect gets Plains (Tithe) or basics. But not this! This will net you any land from your deck! Cabal Coffers or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in your Orzhov deck? You got it! Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx? You got it! Gaea's Cradle or Tolarian Academy? You got it! The Urzatron? You got it! Get two mana with Ancient Tomb? You got it! Need to get land removal like Wasteland or Strip Mine? You got it! Need to tutor for an artifact? You got it!

I love using this to draw cards. Not figuratively to get a few lands over a game, but literally with cycling cards. Get the channel lands that have cool discard abilities that impact the battlefield like Boseiju! See why this synergetic partner is in my four-spot? I hope so!

#3. Goblin Welder

Just 46627 decks over at EDHREC? Why can this be my third spot? Because it actually owns a table. You tap it for no mana and then swap an artifact from your graveyard for one in play. Nasty! You can drop this turn 1, and then sacrifice your artifact land on turn 2 for that Faithless Looting-discarded powerhouse. Nasty!

This is so strong that it dominates tables and is one of the few 1/1s for one mana that opponents are comfortable with removing one-for-one. It's a nasty powerhouse when you build around it with Red's discard to draw effects like Cathartic Reunion. It also loves artifacts with both ETB and leaves play triggers like Ichor Wellspring and Solemn Simulacrum. It's broken when it brings back self-sacrificial stuff like Mindslaver or Memory Jar. Shoot or even Commander's Sphere or Mind Stone drawing you cards from your mana rock. Also note that this is awesome with Disciple of the Vault from earlier. That's our highest scoring Red card and non-White card, so two left!

#2. Mother of Runes

Ah yes, Mother of Runes. This simple tap to give your dork protection from the color of your choice has been played in multiplayer ever since it was printed and dominates. It's in 98558 decks, so it's heavily played and a staple of this Commander format. But how? Let's take a looksee!

1. All your creatures basically have hexproof if Mom is untapped since you can tap it if someone targets your dork with Murder or anything else. Nasty!

2. Second, if it's untapped, and you control another untapped dork, people won't attack with just one dork. Why not? Because they will just get chump-blocked and then protected to save it. They will attack with two dorks since one will get chumped and survive but not the other. But if you have similar powers and toughnesses and they lose, they won't. For example, assume that you have a 2/2 with your Mother and I have two 2/2s. Am I going to swing at you, lose a 2/2s and deal 2 to you but not kill your 2/2? Doubtful. I would be down a card. So, she influences attacks and keeps people back.

3. Thirdly, if you have one creature to connect with, and every defender shares a color, you can tap her to give it that color to get in a free hit. This is ideal with a Commander for Commander damage kills.

4. Fourthly, if a damage-based sweeper like Blasphemous Act comes down, you can save one of your dorks by giving it pro-Red!

See how this simple 1/1 will change the battlefield in your favor? That's why she's my second best card in our countdown! What "duh" card is making the top spot?

#1. Esper Sentinel

With a massive 259,262 decks registered with this, it's in an enormous amount of eligible decks and is a powerful adjunct to any of those decks. When your foes cast their first non-dork on any turn, they spend mana equal to this's power or you'll draw a card. It's a one-mana Rhystic Study that works on fewer things.

But the effect scales with the Sentinel's power, so it's better in Equipment and Aura decks where anything as simple as Bonesplitter or Rancor can make the tax unviable for opponents. Like Welder, this is also likely to absorb 1:1 removal since it's so good. Note that this is an artifact for that synergy, or a Soldier in the color of that tribe for things like Daru Warchief. This is also an on-curve taxing effect for that style of deck in Commander called "Hate Bears" which is very popular in some metagames and competitive play. It can fit in Azorius Taxes and Tempo brews too. It's pushed into the next level. The era of this Human Soldier has begun!

Shout out to the Typhoid Rats family that drops on turn 1 and stops attackers, and then the Soul Sister family that drop on turn 1 and then gain a bunch of life by the time they get caught up in a Wrath of God effect. They inspired this article, and would have really made a strong case for Top 5 in a 20-life format, but there just weren't enough spots to drop them in even though Life Gain is the third-most played archetype over at EDHREC. Also, a shout out to the sometimes heavily played Shadowborn Apostle that is the only non-legendary 1/1 for one that you build an entire deck around!