Key findings
- Monochrome commanders can be strong in Commander, such as Light Paws or Emperor’s Voice for fast Voltron decks.
- Strong mono-blue Urza, Lord High Artificer decks can quickly gain importance through mana generation and free spells.
- K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth offers powerful mono-black gameplay with life payment instead of mana costs for spells.
The Commander format is one of the most popular ways to play Magic: The Gathering. Your Commander determines what colors you can play in your deck. Monochrome Commanders may seem weaker because the card pool is more limited, but some monochrome Commanders are some of the best in the format.
There are many mono-colored commanders for each color in Magic. However, not all of them are created equal. Some are not intended to be commanders and are more for constructed balance, while others are very powerful and can dominate the game.
6 White: Lightpaws, Voice of the Emperor
The Queen of Voltron
Light-Paws, Emperor’s Voice is one of the most popular Voltron commanders (decks that give a creature various permanents to give it huge stats). Light-Paws decks use Auras because it can give you two Auras for the price of one straight from your library.
What makes Light Paws so powerful is its durability. There are plenty of fantastic low-mana auras that give Light Paws both protection and evasion, making it very easy to attack your opponents unhindered. Since Light Paws itself only costs two mana, it’s very easy to cast it on the first turn.
Usually, the biggest downside to Voltron decks is the long setup time, which leaves you defenseless, but because Light-Paws is so fast, you can easily take them all out with Commander damage before they even have a chance to set up.
5 Blue: Urza, Lord High Artificer
Convert artifacts into mana
Urza, Lord High Artificer is such a strong commander that even intentionally weaker Urza builds are probably still better than many other decks someone can play. Urza decks play a lot of artifacts, and all of those artifacts are turned into mana dorks with Urza’s activated ability. You can use all of those artifacts to cheat any card at the top of your library and cast it for free.
The strength of Urza, Lord High Artificer is how quickly it can get out of control. There is so much artifact support in Magic and most of it is colorless, so it’s hardly a disadvantage that Urza is monocolored. The sheer amount of mana generation and free spells that Urza allows you to do can be obscene and can easily allow for a ton of infinite combos to win the game in one turn.
4 Black: K’rrik, son of Yawgmoth
Complete dominance
K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth is fantastic in any black deck, so having him as a Commander is one of the best things you can do for a mono-black Commander deck. Since K’rrik converts all black mana in casting costs to Phyrexian mana, you can always pay life instead of mana to cast a ton of spells in one turn.
K’rrik can come into play very early, since you traditionally only need to generate four mana and can pay for the rest with life.
One of black’s greatest attributes is paying life to use effects. Black is also a great life gain, so you can offset the life you lose when casting spells with K’rrik to ensure you don’t use up too much of your life. Since you start with 40 life, you have plenty to cast spells with life instead of black mana, and with the number of tutors black has access to, you can hit your win conditions very easily.
3 Red: Krenko, mafia boss
The Goblin Horde is coming
As you might expect from Mono Red, the best Mono Red commander is one that is very aggressive – one of Red’s greatest attributes. Krenko, Mob Boss, becomes an avalanche bringer very quickly, as each activation of Kreno gives you double the number of Goblins you control. Goblins are eager to flood the battlefield quickly, and will often sacrifice themselves to generate mana to deploy more Goblins.
There are many haste enablers both in red and specifically for Goblins that allow you to use Krenko’s effect the turn it hits the battlefield. With a haste enabler on the battlefield, you get a guaranteed Krenko activation before it can be removed when it hits the battlefield. After just a few activations of Krenko’s effect, you’ll likely have enough Goblins to strike out and win the game in just one combat step.
2 Green: Marwyn, the breadwinner
Care elves, get more
Elves are one of the strongest creature types in Commander, with Marwyn, the Caretaker being one of the best commanders for Elves and the best when it comes to mono-green. Elves’ main trait is to generate a lot of mana and flood the battlefield, allowing Marwyn’s ability to give him huge stats and generate a ton of mana.
Marwyn can enter the battlefield very easily, allowing you to use his triggered ability quickly while you deploy more and more Elves.
Marwyn, the Caretaker can provide mana in one turn, so you can potentially play your entire hand with just one activation of his ability. Because Elves have so much ramp and cheap creatures, you can set up a huge battlefield to then cast other spells that give them stat buffs.
The explosiveness and long-term value are what make Marwyn such a good mono-green commander and set him apart from the rest.
1 Colorless: Zhulodok, Void Devourer
Color of the Eldrazi
While technically colorless, it still has the properties of a monocolored commander, which is why it’s listed here. Colorless commanders mean you can only play colorless cards, with Zhulodok, Void Gorger being the best option.
Most of the best colorless cards cost a lot of mana to play, and Zhulodok gives them all double cascade, meaning they bring two other spells for free, giving you three spells for the price of one.
If Zhulodok manages to stay on the battlefield, you can rest assured that you’re probably winning the game. Casting spells for free is fantastic, especially if you generate enough mana to cast more than one spell with a mana value of seven or more. Only colorless spells cascade, but since you’re playing a colorless commander, all of your spells will be colorless anyway, so this restriction hardly matters.
