EDH Optimizer
Best Commander cards, by color identity
In Commander you do not pick cards: you pick a color identity, and with it a catalogue. Here are the 27 identities with data, what each one does well, its five most-played cards and links to its full list and its commanders.
One color
white cards
White has the best board wipes and the cleanest removal in the format, plus almost all of the table protection. Its historical problem is card draw: modern lists solve it with cheap conditional draw and effects that refill after a wipe.
Most played: Swords to Plowshares Path to Exile Generous Gift Smothering Tithe Esper Sentinel
blue cards
Blue trades raw power for information and time: it draws more than any other color, answers anything before it resolves and bounces permanents. In a four-player game you cannot answer everything, so good blue lists prioritize draw and answers that work against three opponents.
Most played: Counterspell An Offer You Can't Refuse Rhystic Study Arcane Denial Negate
black cards
Black pays life for what other colors cannot do: tutors for any card, unlimited draw and graveyard recursion. It has the cheapest unconditional removal, at the cost of not being able to touch artifacts or enchantments.
Most played: Bojuka Bog Dark Ritual Reanimate Toxic Deluge Demonic Tutor
red cards
Red is the best color for explosive mana, extra combats and artifact removal, and in Commander it has fixed its card-advantage problem with impulse draw. Its direct damage only pays off when it hits all three opponents at once.
Most played: Blasphemous Act Chaos Warp Deflecting Swat Faithless Looting Vandalblast
green cards
Green has the best ramp in the format and the biggest creatures per mana, plus creature and land tutors. Its blind spots are catch-all removal and wipes: almost everything it does needs creatures on the battlefield.
Most played: Cultivate Farseek Beast Within Nature's Lore Rampant Growth
colorless cards
Colorless cards go in ANY deck in the format with no color identity cost, which makes them the most-played cards in all of Commander. These are the artifacts, utility lands and Eldrazi worth running in any list.
Most played: Sol Ring Command Tower Arcane Signet Exotic Orchard Reliquary Tower
Two colors (guilds)
Azorius cards · Azorius
Azorius pairs white removal and wipes with blue draw and counterspells: it is the control identity par excellence. Its challenge is having a win plan of its own, because it can spend the whole game answering and never closing.
Most played: Hallowed Fountain Glacial Fortress Prairie Stream Talisman of Progress Adarkar Wastes
Dimir cards · Dimir
Dimir has the best draw in the format and unconditional removal for anything that is not an artifact or enchantment. It is the natural identity for mill, graveyard value and decks that win with a combo instead of in combat.
Most played: Watery Grave Sunken Hollow Talisman of Dominance Drowned Catacomb Dimir Signet
Rakdos cards · Rakdos
Rakdos turns resources into damage: sacrifice, drain and removal that does not negotiate. It is the most mana-efficient identity in the format, and also the one that struggles most against enchantments.
Most played: Blood Crypt Dragonskull Summit Smoldering Marsh Talisman of Indulgence Sulfurous Springs
Gruul cards · Gruul
Gruul is big mana and huge creatures with extra combats: the identity that deals the most damage per card. It has to watch its interaction, because outside artifact removal it barely has answers.
Most played: Stomping Ground Cinder Glade Rootbound Crag Spire Garden Rockfall Vale
Selesnya cards · Selesnya
Selesnya is the identity of tokens, +1/+1 counters and enchantments: it builds a board faster than the table can clear it and protects it with white. Its weak point is closing the game against an opponent who does not block.
Most played: Temple Garden Canopy Vista Sunpetal Grove Bountiful Promenade Brushland
Orzhov cards · Orzhov
Orzhov pairs black unconditional removal with white wipes and protection, and it is the best identity for sacrifice and life drain. Almost everything it does scales to all three opponents at once.
Most played: Godless Shrine Isolated Chapel Caves of Koilos Talisman of Hierarchy Anguished Unmaking
Izzet cards · Izzet
Izzet counts spells: every instant or sorcery triggers damage, copies or draw, and the identity has every effect that doubles them. It is fragile on board, so it interacts until it assembles one turn that resolves everything.
Most played: Steam Vents Sulfur Falls Shivan Reef Talisman of Creativity Training Center
Golgari cards · Golgari
For Golgari the graveyard is a second hand: fill it, recur it, repeat. It combines green ramp with black removal and recursion, and it is the best identity for sacrifice with big creatures.
Most played: Overgrown Tomb Woodland Cemetery Assassin's Trophy Llanowar Wastes Undergrowth Stadium
Boros cards · Boros
Boros has the best removal and the best equipment, but it is the identity with the least card draw: modern lists make up for it with impulse draw and effects that refill when you attack.
Most played: Sacred Foundry Clifftop Retreat Battlefield Forge Talisman of Conviction Spectator Seating
Simic cards · Simic
Simic is green ramp plus blue draw: the identity that accumulates the most resources without doing anything aggressive. Removal is its problem, so it tends to close with combos or with enormous creatures.
Most played: Breeding Pool Hinterland Harbor Yavimaya Coast Rejuvenating Springs Dreamroot Cascade
Three colors
Bant cards · Bant
Bant has ramp, draw, protection and wipes: it lacks no tool except unconditional removal. It is the identity of value decks that want to reach turn ten with everything under control.
Most played: Seaside Citadel Spara's Headquarters Noble Hierarch Tranquil Landscape Brokers Ascendancy
Esper cards · Esper
Esper is pure control: tutors, counterspells, removal for any permanent type and wipes. It is also the best artifact identity that still has answers.
Most played: Arcane Sanctum Raffine's Tower Void Rend Contaminated Landscape Zur the Enchanter
Grixis cards · Grixis
Grixis has the best draw, the best tutors and the most efficient removal, but it cannot touch enchantments and it leans on the graveyard. It is the classic reanimator and combo identity.
Most played: Crumbling Necropolis Xander's Lounge Relic of Sauron Seething Landscape Oscorp Industries
Jund cards · Jund
Jund trades resources for constant advantage: sacrifice, ramp and removal that hits everyone. It is the most wipe-resilient identity because it rebuys from the graveyard what it loses.
Most played: Ignoble Hierarch Ziatora's Proving Ground Savage Lands Twisted Landscape Korvold, Fae-Cursed King
Naya cards · Naya
Naya builds the biggest board in the format and protects it: huge creatures, tokens, counters and extra combats. Its interaction is limited to nonland permanent removal and wipes.
Most played: Jungle Shrine Jetmir's Garden Annie Joins Up Zacama, Primal Calamity Sheltering Landscape
Mardu cards · Mardu
Mardu is the identity of aggressive sacrifice and total removal: kill anything, reanimate it, sacrifice it again. Its classic gap is ramp, which it covers with artifacts and treasures.
Most played: Nomad Outpost Savai Triome Ruinous Ultimatum Crackling Doom Shattered Landscape
Abzan cards · Abzan
Abzan brings ramp, unconditional removal and protection: the identity of +1/+1 counters and graveyard value decks. It lacks counterspells, so it interacts after things resolve.
Most played: Indatha Triome Sandsteppe Citadel Eerie Ultimatum Deceptive Landscape Murmuring Bosk
Jeskai cards · Jeskai
Jeskai is spells, copies and control: the best spellslinger identity that still has answers. Ramp is its weak point, covered with artifacts and a low curve.
Most played: Mystic Monastery Raugrin Triome Whirlwind of Thought Perilous Landscape Jeskai Ascendancy
Sultai cards · Sultai
Sultai has ramp, draw, tutors and recursion: on paper the most resource-rich identity in the format. In exchange it has neither reliable wipes nor table protection.
Most played: Opulent Palace Zagoth Triome Muldrotha, the Gravetide Foreboding Landscape Villainous Wealth
Temur cards · Temur
Temur (green, blue and red) is big mana with draw and spells: ramp, refuel and finish with one enormous turn. Its gap is creature removal, replaced by bounce and damage.
Most played: Ketria Triome Frontier Bivouac Temur Ascendancy Temur Battlecrier Maelstrom Wanderer
Four and five colors
five-color cards
Five colors has no identity restriction: you can literally play any card in the format. The price is the mana base — half the budget goes into fixing.
Most played: The World Tree Leyline of the Guildpact Morophon, the Boundless Timeless Lotus Tiamat
Frequently asked questions
What is color identity in Commander?
It is the set of colors that appear in a card's mana cost and rules text. Your deck can only run cards whose identity fits inside your commander's: an Orzhov deck (white and black) can run white, black, white-black and colorless cards, but nothing with a blue, red or green symbol — not even in a hybrid or activation cost.
How many cards of each role does a Commander deck run?
A sensible reference for the 99: 36-38 lands, 8-12 ramp sources, 8-10 draw, 8-12 pieces of interaction (spot removal and counterspells) and 2-4 board wipes. The rest is your game plan. EDH Optimizer counts every role when it analyzes your list and tells you what you are missing and what you have too much of.
Do the best cards of a color work in any deck of that color?
These lists are the most-played cards of each identity, so almost always yes: ramp, draw and removal work in any plan. But decks win on synergy, not staples: 30 to 40 % of the list should be cards that push your specific commander and archetype. That is what the commander and archetype guides are for.
Where do these percentages and prices come from?
The percentage is the share of decks in that identity running the card. The price is the cheapest English printing according to Scryfall, and it changes daily. The lists are regenerated with every data update on the site.