Which Mono-Color is the Most powerful and why?
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Jan. 23, 2026, 2:41 p.m. by theNeroTurtle
My favorite is Black, but I feel like Green is the most powerful.
Why?
In EDH I feel like it has the most Ramp potential. Therefore, you are dropping large stuff sooner than everyone else early to midgame.
What are your thoughts? What color is the most powerful and why?
theNeroTurtle says... #3
legendofa, great points. I didn't even think to put them in an ordered ranking. I have already said green. My favorite is black because I think it is the most well balanced and has a lot of thematic stuff that you can do that is more interesting to me than any other of the options that other colors can do (ie; tribes, mechanics, alt-wins, etc.).
- , 2. , 3. , 4. , 5. .
I love black for other reasons too, one of which is being able to tutor for any single thing rather than the card type limitations that the other colors do. But, as I said I think the speed of green puts it at number one.
I too think it is a bias for me as well. Although my favorite color is black, the color wheel on TO suggests I mainly play green. Go figure.
January 23, 2026 5:35 p.m.
- Blue, 2. Green, 3. Black, 4. White, 5. Red. No I will not explain and no this is not up for debate
January 23, 2026 5:48 p.m. Edited.
theNeroTurtle says... #5
vishnarg, lol. When you know, you know. at least you got green close to the front. Thanks for throwing in a say.
January 23, 2026 6:05 p.m. Edited.
DarkKiridon says... #6
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
White's removal is better than green and it's card draw is also slightly better now. It also keeps getting more overrun effects. Like come on.. ooh look at me, my creature is bigger, like who cares, and green's card draw is creature and board based. Best one is Guardian Project. I love green though don't get me wrong, haha.
I still hate blue most of the time, but whatever. I use it as a support color. You'll never catch me making a mono-blue EDH deck.
Poor red, :(
January 23, 2026 7:15 p.m.
Blue is crazy strong, there's so many good commander choices and so many different ways to build decks, control, combo, everything in between. They also have the best artifact synergy by far which is the best card type. Plus it's the only mono color that can counter other combo's, obviously you have access to so many free counterspells, and plenty of good non free ones too. I mean just look at the top 15 blue commanders on EDHREC, almost all of them can be devastatingly good and/or annoying to go against. And imo, green is a close 2nd because of the ramp effects, they're all good. Green is very flexible as is blue. Black is definitely 3rd imo and a bit overrated in this thread, although, perhaps Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER Flip changes things a bit. He's the only black commander that might make blue and green decks weak, but for the first 10 years of the existence of EDH, I definitely think it was blue followed very closely by green.
January 23, 2026 7:27 p.m.
hyalopterouslemur says... #8
has the best card draw, and as a consequence of early Magic's design philosophy (Basically, every color could do anything but some colors would suck at it; the exception is blue, which could even be demonstrably better at it than the color that's supposed to be best at that thing, e.g. Prodigal Sorcerer existing.) you can find a good card to do just about anything you want.
has all the mana accel. People are surprised by mana dorks being so powerful, but do you doubt Bloom Tender or Devoted Druid or Kami of Whispered Hopes? In addition, green card draw can sometimes be even better than blue; I've drawn ten cards (and gained 12 life) off Shamanic Revelation before. (Which, I suppose I could do with Distant Melody, minus the lifegain.) Green also has the best recursion, and, yeah, green can tutor creatures; Birthing Pod, Chord of Calling and Green Sun's Zenith all exist.
is next. It has the best tutors, including the only universal tutors in the game. (Yes, I know about Prototype Portal. Does anyone use Prototype Portal?) It has some good boardwipes, unlike green and blue. (Just put a Sword of Light and Shadow on one of your creatures and then activate Pestilence over and over.) While black's card draw leaves something to be desired—I still play Phyrexian Arena in Stax decks and practically nowhere else—the ability of black to pay life in exchange for things is at double strength in a 40-life format.
is fourth. Basically, the only thing white has going for it is boardwipes, though experimenting with white card draw is nice; just remember, "once per turn" applies to your turns as well.
is, to be candid, red doesn't really impress me at all. It has some boardwipes. some spot removal, but even when I'm playing multiple colors, it feels like I'm including red only because my Commander is red, and I want to justify having enough mountains to reliably cast from command zone.
January 23, 2026 8:09 p.m.
theNeroTurtle says... #10
vishnarg, when it comes to power of a color, I don't personally think commanders mater all that much. I have a few decks where the commander is only a support character rather than building the deck around the commander, which happens a lot (ie; mana dorks or sky, etc.). But you are right... blue is so annoying to non-blue players. I have two mnon-blue decks and they are both aggressive on the "nope" side of things. Even if I don't need to, my favorite part about being a blue player is leaving two islands untapped. The looks you get. LOL
January 23, 2026 8:43 p.m. Edited.
theNeroTurtle says... #11
hyalopterouslemur, man... red is taking the heat. Black is my favorite. Green to me is the strongest due to ramp as you pointed out. I am big on tribal and I prefer to black tribes. My favorite is the Dauthi.
Any time I have a splash of red, I really do want to play Lightning Bolt just because I feel like you are supposed to. I never do.
January 23, 2026 8:50 p.m. Edited.
DarkKiridon says... #12
I mean, I will say this. Red has had some interesting legends lately that I keep coming back to and thinking about, such as Tannuk, Steadfast Second and Gogo, Mysterious Mime.
January 23, 2026 8:58 p.m.
theNeroTurtle says... #13
DarkKiridon When it comes to red commanders, I want to build an aggressive Zo-Zu the Punisher deck... but as much as I search for cards, nothing is coming to fruition. He just seems like he has potential.
I personally feel like the main downside to red is removal. It is almost all only artifact removal. That is helpful, but not helpful enough. And cool, haste is nice. But, haste has kind of become and every color thing if you build the deck right.
Since red is getting so much hate, what do you think is its best attribute?
January 23, 2026 9:06 p.m. Edited.
Red's all about the big group slug damage. City on Fire, Impact Tremors
, Blasphemous Act, Descent into Avernus, Repercussion, Manabarbs, that sort of thing.
It's also good with creature aggro, with Krenko, Mob Boss, Purphoros, God of the Forge, and Tannuk, Steadfast Second as popular options.
Red's best strength is hitting fast and hard for ridiculous amounts of damage.
January 23, 2026 9:27 p.m. Edited.
DarkKiridon says... #15
I haven't played Modern in so long and I don't know anything about Standard but I do believe Red is stronger there hence why Vivi Ornitier got canned. Red is fast and explosive hence "haste" being strongest there. It's the best burn color for good reason. The best at creating treasures. It's loot/rummage draw makes for an interesting game in my opinion depending on the type of deck as well as exiling cards from the top and playing them later. You got Krenko, Mob Boss as the top red commander for good reason but take him out quick enough, I believe the deck collapses. I have not gone against him in EDH so what do I know, lol. Say what you will about blue being the best but pair it with red and it's annoying. There's a Bria, Riptide Rogue deck in my pod and I hate it. Leave it alone for long enough and it'll get ya.
Red is also the primary color in my Dragon's Approach deck and it's one of my favorites.
Long story short. I don't hate red but in my honest opinion, it's a solid support color for sure.
January 23, 2026 9:31 p.m. Edited.
I should mention total board clearing and land denial for red. Obliterate, Jokulhaups, and Worldfire make sure everything's gone. Blood Moon, Ruination, and Impending Disaster make sure nobody can do anything about it.
January 23, 2026 9:34 p.m.
DarkKiridon says... #17
Red also has a handful of it's own rituals. Jeska's Will and Mana Geyser off the top of my head.
January 23, 2026 9:38 p.m.
theNeroTurtle says... #18
DarkKiridon legendofa, I would say... multi combat phases. still not good enough apparently. at the bottom for pretty much everybody.
January 23, 2026 9:40 p.m. Edited.
theNeroTurtle Yeah, I said green was linear in my evaluation. Red is super linear. If you're playing casual, you can add in Warp World-type chaos, but for it being the "strongest", red only really has big damage on offer. Attack, deal some noncombat damage, throw down damage multipliers, attack again.
Red's been cresting in Standard now for a good while, and it's a big chunk of the top tier of Modern. But EDH just isn't the most powerful place for it.
January 23, 2026 9:59 p.m.
theNeroTurtle says... #20
legendofa, yeah... I don't have the money to keep up with standard. Wish I did. In EDH it is a great assist color. I run red... but it is always a very small plash to support the commander's color wheel or the deck theme and never has anything to do with color power.
January 23, 2026 10:17 p.m.
My hot take:
The most powerful mono-color in EDH is Red and I don't think it's even close. NOT because Red is inherently great (in fact, I 100% agree with all the points made above, showing Red generally at the bottom). But because Red has the most busted mono-color Commanders.
Do we want to build an S-tier mono-color cEDH deck? Then we're on Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh, Etali, Primal Conqueror Flip, Magda, Brazen Outlaw, or Ral, Monsoon Mage Flip.
Mono-White, -Blue, and -Green don't show up to the party until high-A tier (Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful, Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator, and Lumra, Bellow of the Woods), and Mono-Black finally arrives in mid-A, with Gwenom, Remorseless and Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools.
I fully acknowledge this is kind of a weird way to answer the question. But the fact remains: If we want to build the most powerful mono-color deck in Commander today, we're building in Mono-Red :-)
January 23, 2026 10:45 p.m.
(Oops missed K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth as another mono-Black in mid-A)
January 23, 2026 10:52 p.m. Edited.
theNeroTurtle says... #23
clayperce, great points. this is not a "sway the point" statement. Just my take. power in color for edh, the commander options are not relevant. I run four decks where the commander is not really that relevant. A mana dork, or a tutor option, etc.
I have been debating Magda, Brazen Outlaw though.
January 23, 2026 11 p.m. Edited.
theNeroTurtle says... #24
clayperce, one of the reasons I like playing commanders not truly related to the deck is to be unassuming. With a lot of commanders that you play against, you already know what is going down just by who they are playing. I like to go against the grain. Play something competitive, but keep them guessing... at least until they have played against it a few times. LOL
January 23, 2026 11:16 p.m.
Oh derp. Etali and Ral aren't Mono-Red (I totally ignored their flip sides). I think that's the sign it's time for me to head to bed :-D
January 23, 2026 11:20 p.m.
I think that Green is the most powerful all-around colour in Commander. Multiplayer games are even more of a resource management challenge than MtG usually is, and Green is the most efficient at giving you more of the resources that you need. You are usually facing down three opponents worth of resources that can all potentially be turned against you so the faster that you can get to a state where you are drawing more than one card a turn, putting more than one land a turn into play, and casting more than one card a turn, the better off you are. Green's ability to ramp better than any other colour unlocks multiple and more powerful plays faster than the other colours. That's a very significant advantage in a format where mass land destruction is generally shunned outside of the most competitive tables.
Backing it up, Green has a bunch of strong card draw options. Guardian Project, Beast Whisperer, Sylvan Library, Greater Good, Toski, Bearer of Secrets, Ohran Frostfang, and Return of the Wildspeaker are just some of the options that jump to mind.
Green is very capable of spamming a bunch of tokens into play, giving it an option for rapidly increasing its resources on board.
Craterhoof Behemoth and, to a lesser extent, Triumph of the Hordes are some of the more notorious non-combo ways to close out a game.
When you are mostly using creatures as your win conditions Green actually has some pretty strong tutors in cards like Worldly Tutor, Eldritch Evolution, and Shared Summons among others.
Where Green falls short is in its creature removal options. Fight effects are its main options but it does get Beast Within as a general answer to most things while Lignify and Song of the Dryads can actually be strong ways of neutralizing annoying commanders for extended periods of time. It has plenty of great ways for dealing with artifacts and enchantments though, so no issues there.
Other colours may be able to do particular things better, but Green does lots of things well on top of its inherent advantage at ramping. Other colours may be able to use mana rocks to try to keep up but green has access to those as well. That ramping ability is what tips green into first place over Black for me.
January 24, 2026 5:02 a.m.
theNeroTurtle says... #27
SaberTech, I put green first also. In EDH it just ramps and draws too quickly for the other colors. You should do a full ranking of all of the other colors as well. So far everyone but one person has put red in last place. My favorite color is black, but the TO color wheel says I mostly play green.
January 24, 2026 12:13 p.m.
theNeroTurtle I agree with the rankings that you gave further up.
-
Second Place: Black - Has a wide variety of ways to remove creatures, is very versatile in the other effects available to it, and has the best tutor spells. Not many options for dealing with artifacts and only slightly better at dealing with enchantments.
-
Third Place: Blue - Lots of powerful spells. Counter magic is the best option to prevent combos or protect your own. Very good at drawing cards. It's heavily reliant on mana rocks to ramp though, and leaving mana up to counter spells can reduce your mana usage efficiency. Counterspells also run into the 1-for-1 issue in multiplayer, letting your other two opponents get a leg up.
-
Fourth Place: White - Best board wipes. Lots of tax and hate bear effects. Good protection with cards like Grand Abolisher and Silence. An improving list of ways for the colour to draw cards.
-
Fifth Place: Red - Used to actually be pretty bad in commander, but I don't actually think it is anymore. It has a solid place at higher competitive levels for the low-curve combo options and burst mana that it can provide. It can also dig into its library far better than it used to, even if effects like Thrill of Possibility or Commune with Lava aren't the same sort of better card advantage that other colours get.
At the higher power levels where games go quicker Red doesn't suffer as much for its minimal ways to set up a board that generates repeatable card advantage. It has a harder time in the lower brackets where it has to deal with its combo options being restricted on top of dealing with longer games.
January 24, 2026 12:50 p.m.
theNeroTurtle says... #29
SaberTech, I have already said it but I think the best attribute red has is multi combat. And now adays attrition for many players is not even a consideration. so...
January 24, 2026 12:56 p.m.
plakjekaas says... #30
The rock-paper-scissors nature of Magic makes it an image problem more than a power problem for red imho. What red does best looks scarier on board and life totals than what blue and black are doing with all their cards in hand. Green goes big and stomps along and is usually very demoralized and slowed down when a boardwipe happens. White is the one nobody likes because it will police the board and make you rebuild. But red is usually just in a hurry to reduce life totals. Red barely wins games because red is the most percieved threat that is dealt with the earliest by the other players, because of the noticable pressure it brings to the table.
Is the most powerful color the color that wins the most games? Because most games I play are won by decks that look the weakest while the game progresses, gathering resources while others spend them. But then the strength of the color is looking weak enough so that others are dealt with before you... is that powerful? Sounds more like endurance than power to me.
January 24, 2026 1:07 p.m.
theNeroTurtle says... #31
plakjekaas, I love the paper, rock, scissors analogy.
Red "always" being the perceived threat therefore taken down before it can do much in my opinion is not so. I think it is just the slowest. I agree, once it is doing what it does you will wish it wasn't.
The look weakest thing... I like that a lot, which is why I play several commanders that are only a support to the deck rather than highlighting the build mechanics (mana dorks, spot tutors, scry effects, etc.). Once people have played against it enough to know what is going to happen it's not quite the same, but I like being the surprise player.
January 24, 2026 1:17 p.m.
theNeroTurtle I think that Red has a bit more going for it than just that. I would chuck multiple combat steps under the "damage amplification" umbrella alongside effects like Torbran, Thane of Red Fell and Fiery Emancipation.
Over the past couple of years Red has received more cards that ping opponents when a creature enters, making goblin spam more deadly.
Red is also the primary colour for Goad effects, which gives it an interesting control angle that it can play.
The banning of Dockside Extortionist was a real blow to Red though.
January 24, 2026 1:21 p.m.
theNeroTurtle says... #33
SaberTech, you mentioned goblins. I think that is one major thing that red is lacking... tribal power. All of the other colors have a myriad of tribes that you could build around. Zombies, soldiers, merfolk, treefolk, etc. Red is lacking so hard there.
January 24, 2026 1:25 p.m. Edited.
Red might be lacking in a variety of supported tribal options but Goblins are exactly slouches. Krenko, Mob Boss decks are often a menace in any games they get played in. You can also build a somewhat glass-cannon goblin storm deck with Zada, Hedron Grinder as your commander.
January 24, 2026 1:32 p.m.
theNeroTurtle says... #35
SaberTech, goblins are fun, but variety is more powerful. The only winnable tribe I've personally seen in red are goblins. The number of other mono colored winnable tribes out there is insane. And red only has one... and now more recently in cEDH, dwarfs.
Not enough to be considered a power color.
January 24, 2026 1:35 p.m.
DarkKiridon says... #36
Krenko is #4 on EDHrec for a reason, haha. Dragons and Vampires are the only tribes ahead of that. Only because Eminence is broken.
January 24, 2026 1:35 p.m.
theNeroTurtle says... #37
DarkKiridon, i think when talking color power and "tribes", the question would be which colors have the most tribes with consistent win potential. Yes, goblins and dragons are strong... but, Commanders do not constitute color power to me.
dragons are slow. Keep that in mind.
January 24, 2026 1:38 p.m. Edited.
theNeroTurtle Red may only really have Goblins as its major tribal options, but Goblins have enough support to be very effective at what they set out to do. I think that any other sort of low-curve aggressive tribe that fits into Red would just be a pale imitation of what goblins can already do.
Maybe mono-red dragons could be given more support. Improving Red's "big" tribe would at least give an option that feels different for Red to play. However, dragons are already supported better as a multi-colour tribe.
January 24, 2026 1:57 p.m.
DarkKiridon says... #39
More dwarf support too could help. I do associate dragons in red, but they definitely are more better as multi-colored. I know Magda, Brazen Outlaw is probably one of the top red cedh commanders and I don't know what's in those lists but I'm sure more typal support could boost her in casual.
January 24, 2026 2:07 p.m.
theNeroTurtle says... #40
SaberTech, I agree 100%. However, more options... more strongy. too few options.
January 24, 2026 2:14 p.m.
theNeroTurtle says... #41
DarkKiridon, most powerful red card "in my opinion" is Sneak Attack. You have something on the table or a creature that allows ETB to hit a player for creature power and then you swing it at them... 10 or 16 damage for one mana is brutal.
legendofa says... #2
I'd personally pick black. It's got the core of removal, draw, and (a little) ramp, it has efficient creatures at all sizes, and it can play combo and control equally well, and aggro when it needs to. It might not be the best at everything EDH wants, but it's good enough at everything, with no major soft spots.
Red and white have historically had problems with the pacing of EDH, and while they've made huge strides, the format still emphasizes their weaknesses and moderates their strengths.
Blue and green are a little too specialized, in my mind. Green's been getting more interaction and blue's been getting more win pressure, but I think they're still behind black in versatility and well-roundedness. Strong support colors, but green is too linear and blue struggles with closing out games.
So I would rank their ability to be monocolor EDH as 1. , 2. , 3., 4. , 5. . This is, of course, heavily subject to my preferences and biases.
January 23, 2026 5:23 p.m. Edited.