If you want to take control of the battlefield and cast powerful spells in lieu of creatures, then blue is the color for you. Its the chosen color for Magic the Gathering players who want to build control decks. What it lacks in raw power, it more than makes up for with crafty instants and sorceries, and is by far the best card drawing color in the game.

Budget commanders are the ones you can grab for around six dollars or less. There will always be the expensive staple commanders for each color, but if you’re not looking to spend a heap of money (which we all know is very easy to do in the commander format) here are some budget options to consider for mono-blue.

10 NARU MEHA, MASTER WIZARD

Naru Meha kicks off this list and like a lot of blue commanders, she is all about instant and sorcery spells. She has flash and her ability is that whenever she enters the battlefield you can copy target instant or sorcery spell you control and choose new copies for the copy.

Although her ability is limited to her entering the battlefield, there are plenty of spells you can cast that let you exile your own creature cards and return them to the battlefield such as Ghostly Flicker. This deck will be loaded with counter spells that take control of what your opponent plays and when they can play it.

9 PADEEM, CONSIL OF INNOVATION

Padeem, Consil of Innovation is a relatively cheap commander that helps protect your artifacts and powerful artifact creatures. As long as Padeem is in play, all artifacts you control have hexproof. Additionally, at the beginning of your upkeep, if you control the artifact that has the highest converted mana cost, you can draw a card

You can load up this deck with other Veldalken cards like Veldalken Archmage, Chief Engineer and Grand Architect that synergize with your artifact cards. There are also loads of cards, like Foundry Inspector, that make artifacts you cast cost less mana, to help you get out any big artifact creatures you have.

8 KAHO, MINAMO HISTORIAN

Kaho, Minamo Historian is a wizard that you’re likely to find in some wizard tribal decks, but not often as the commander. However, its tutor-esque ability allows you to search your deck for three instant cards and remove them from the game when Kaho comes into play. You may then pay X mana and tap Kaho to play a card with converted mana cost X removed from the game without paying its mana cost.

One really cheesy move with this card is pairing it with Nexus of Fate for an infinite combo. It’s a very specific combo, but if you want to go the infinite turn route, this is a commander to do it with.

7 MUZZIO, VISIONARY ARCHITECT

Muzzio, Visionary Architect, if you couldn’t guess from the name, is another blue commander based around artifacts. By tapping and paying four mana, you look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the highest converted mana cost among artifacts you control. You can then reveal an artifact card from those and put it onto the battlefield.

There are just so many artifact cards that work well with blue, that you don’t need to have any specific build. You can add a mix of powerful artifacts that give you mana such as Thran Dynamo or artifact creatures like the super powerful Memnarch, which you can play for no mana.

6 BRAIDS, CONJURER ADEPT

As far as commanders go, Braids, Conjurer Adept is a very friendly one. It doesn’t make anything harder for your opponents; in fact it makes thing easier. Braids puts an effect on the battlefield where, at the beginning of each player’s upkeep, that player can put an artifact, creature or land card from their hand into play.

The reason this card makes such a great commander is because you will be prepared to drop high mana cost cards for free, but your opponent won’t. Building a deck while knowing this allows you to put in huge creatures, like some of the monstrous eldrazi cards, and play them for free.

5 TEFERI, MAGE OF ZHALFIR

Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir is the kind of card that defines what blue is all about, which is taking control of the flow of the battlefield. While in play, creature cards you own that aren’t on the battlefield have flash. You could use this ability to play creatures like Spellseeker when you’re in dire need of a specific instant to counter your opponents.

On top of that, Teferi’s second ability makes it so your opponents can only cast spells anytime they could cast a sorcery. So during your turn, as long as Teferi is in play, you have a free ride to play whatever you want.

4 AZAMI, LADY OF SCROLLS

Azami, Lady of Scrolls, leverages one of the primary strengths of blue decks, which is card drawing. A 0/2 wizard for five mana looks like a dud at first glance, but in a wizard tribal deck, Azami is a beast. By simply tapping an untapped wizard you control, you can draw a card. It’s a simple ability, but drawing cards is incredibly important, and it provides a pretty consistent strategy. There’s no guessing about what an Azami deck is going to do.

It goes without saying that blue has a plethora of instants and sorcery spells you can load into this deck to protect your wizards and control the battlefield. Apart from that, toss in some strong wizards  like Galecaster Colussus whose ability also utilizes tapping untapped wizards you control.

3 SAI, MASTER THOPTERIST

Sai, Master Thopterist, combines two of the strategies we’ve seen in this list so far: artifacts and card draw. While its in play, whenever you cast an artifact spell, you create a 1/1 colorless thopter artifact creature token with flying. Using this mechanic along with cards that have the Improvise or Metalcraft will significantly decrease the cost of some spells you’ll want to cast.

On top of that, you can also pay one island, one generic mana and sacrifice two artifacts to draw a card. With lots of token generators available, Sai among them, you can be sure to have the sufficient sacrifice outlets to make sure your hand doesn’t run dry.

2 BARAL, CHIEF OF COMPLIANCE

Baral, Chief of Compliance is a nightmare opponent for any Magic: The Gathering player. It has been jokingly referred to as the “Chief of Nope” because of its ability to consistently counter spells, over and over and over. For an incredibly low casting cost of two, Baral makes instant and sorcery spells you cast cost one less to cast. This means that low cost counters such as Disdainful Stroke, Negate and Arcane Denial will only cost one island to cast. So with three mana, you could counter up to three of your opponents’ spells during their turn.

It’s also a great commander for getting cards you don’t need out of your hand. When a spell or ability you control counters a spell, you can draw a card for the cost of discarding one card. If your opponent knows how to play with Baral, you won’t get to do much playing at all.

1 TALRAND, SKY SUMMONER

There are a lot of mono blue decks out there with Talrand, Sky Summoner as the commander, and with good reason. It’s ability lets you create a 2/2 blue drake creature token with flying whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell. This means you can almost completely negate creatures in your deck because you’ll be creating multiple each turn with this ability.

One great thing about Talrand, is that with or without it on the field, your deck will still work. Use your instant and sorcery spells to control the tempo of the game while unassumingly gathering a flock of drakes that can block and then swing for damage when you’ve stripped your opponent’s side of the field bare.

NEXT: Top 10 Strongest Mono-Black Commanders In Magic: The Gathering