Is there a command to install basic applications on Ubuntu 16.04?
Is creating a script to grab what you want beyond you?
You should only grab the bare minimum set of tools you need, so it's better to create your own minimal set than use a predefined set created by someone else (it'll likely contain packages you don't need)
As @Rinzwind said in comments, your script may also include the removal of default installed packages you don't need (ie. to help achieve the minimal packages your system actually needs).
The fastest solution to install these would be to install the ubuntu-server packageset which has dependencies on these tools and scripts by default. Then you can script the removal of tools you don't need.
However, if you do so, ubuntu-server gets removed (it's a metapackage, it won't break your system if it's removed), and then if you ever run apt autoremove at any point after, those tools will have a chance to be removed since their only dependency point on-system was ubuntu-server
If you don't want to run apt install <packagename> each time, you can combine them in one line
apt install curl nano tmux htop iptables net-tools
Alternatively, if you have a reference server you can use
on the original server
dpkg --get-selections > /tmp/selections.list
on the new server
dpkg --set-selection < /tmp/selections.list
apt-get dselect-upgrade
However, keep in mind this sets all packages !!
So its advised to only do this on the same OS version, i.e. Ubuntu 16.04 to Ubuntu 16.04. If you do this from an old Ubuntu 16.04 to a new Ubuntu 18.04, you will break the new Ubuntu 18.04.