Most Color-Imbalanced Decks | EDHRECast 134

It's technically a two-color deck... but there are 60 green cards and only 5 red cards! This week we're sorting through the decks, strategies, and archetypes with the biggest color-skews in the entire Commander format!
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[@diegotejada55]

I'm calling it now, every commander that has green is mostly skewed towards green

[@staren1991]

my Yasova deck is/was actually izzet with about 5 green cards :p

[@Orengi-kun]

rashmi says hi

[@nerdpopeking]

Jarad mostly not green

[@Servbot40]

My Sisay deck is pretty white skewed because... hatebears...

[@PsychoEkan]

Well wizards love printing good green cards.. so yeah

[@54m0h7]

This makes me want to do a deck building challenge. Pick one of these skewed commanders and intentionally build it 90% Red.

[@EDHRECast]

This is an EXCELLENT challenge idea!!!

[@heavenbot]

Jhoira makes it real easy to dig for Bludgeon Brawl!

[@KeroTheInvincible]

I've actually been trying to build an Omnath, Locus of Rage deck. Since Omnath's first ability feeds into his second ability, most resources (including EDHRECast itself) recommend pouring most of the deck into green Landfall. Instead, I want to give it a more Red theme. The idea is to use all the Red cards that summon hasty Elemental Tokens like Force of Rage, or big Red Haste Elementals like Ball Lightning, which also sacrifice themselves for Omnath's second ability. Using enchantments like Fiery Emancipation to get extra damage, and Elemental Bond and Greater Good to draw cards off the "temporary" high power creatures. I love Landfall as a whole, but rather than essentially make the same deck 3 times with a different commander, I want to give each one a different flavour.

[@corvus15]

I was surprised by how much red was pushed out, but then I remembered that the only red cards I play are in my Mono-Red deck

[@__-be1gk]

I like how red is just a tack-on that every commander just tries to ignore

[@rxclxse5751]

Dana roach coming through with cards no ones ever heard of on the cheap. Keep em coming man, gotta snatch these up before they go up in price

[@vantharion]

Lesson here: Green is too good and they should stop printing OP green cards and print more good white and red cards.

[@oliviersoable]

I think there is less than 10 white card that can draw in all magic history. Colorless cards have more draw lol

[@CalastantNight]

We spent all of this time making fun of Green for always being the worst color in the early years. Oh dear has our little Green grown up...

[@Hashbrown1682]

Boros needs love

[@gypsieking3280]

@@CalastantNight yea. When I started in 4th edition, playing 60 card decks. My green red deck would always get smacked by the black/white decks because my friends cracked serra angels and sengir vampires while I got gaea's liege and force of nature. I also had channel/fireball but... Alas.

[@thetogtube2]

Destiny Spinner is a great budget version of A Shepard btw... and it's a 2/3.

[@IsaacFNghost]

I just bought weatherlight captain for my saheeli the gifted pre con deck. Along with It That Betrays :)

[@Servbot40]

My Jhoira deck has only has 2 red cards in it .... /Facepalm...

[@Stinkoman87]

Aside from Hellkite Igniter, the only monored cards in my Jhoira deck are various forms of removal. Granted, it's an artifact deck, so most of the cards are actually colorless.

[@DE3rules]

Yes! This is the kind of data that I love. Great job guys!

[@golgariguy]

A friend of mine built a "creature storm" Nykia deck which is playing 3 red cards, 1 multicolor card and that's it. The rest is all green.

[@primovictorian]

This is my first time watching the video version. Love listening to your podcasts in the car. How come I thought Matt would wear glasses?

[@primovictorian]

Dana looks on point

[@eliakimrodrigues]

This list shows how bad Red is at supporting other colors (in EDH). I believe White is the best support color, and I like that. - Do you want a challenge? Build a Dakkon Blackblade (Esper) landfall deck - no green available.

[@johnbuscher]

Ooooh, use the Dreamscape Artist at least, put in a wayfarer’s bauble, myriad landscape, fetch lands even down to Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse. It’s not too bad.

[@dorsalfin22]

I believe Jake Boss from the command zone editing crew built this exact deck and played it on an extra turns episode. He has had the deck for years and it was really interesting to watch!

[@aarondiers90]

I have to post because nobody has challenged the “vampires were mono black until Innistrad” comment. Garza Zol is a legendary Grixis vampire from Coldsnap, and original Ravnica had two Dimir vampire cards. Let me know if I missed any, but Vampires have been out of mono black a lot longer than that, at least.

[@petersteiman2443]

This isn’t surprising, but well presented. Look forward to the follow up episode next week.

[@hermesthenerd9967]

green is the 100% best color, and there the more stats that come out, the more green wins. its kind of ridiculous.

[@orgazmo686971]

Yes it is - and yes, I do win games.

[@igniteaxiom]

basically this video is that every color scheme that has green, leans towards green. and everything in mardu leans towards black. basically just lean towards the best colors regardless of color scheme. so green first, then probably black, blue, white and red. yes i think white is actually better then red now.

[@happybrain2674]

If you ignore CEDH maybe. Blue is too important there and the best option to have the best chance to interact with most wincons.

[@igniteaxiom]

@SupaFly Supreme yes, stax is one of the things that white is best at.

[@igniteaxiom]

@@happybrain2674 at this point cedh is a completely different format. but yes i agree.

[@gysahlgemuse7208]

Stat Challenge: Pacifism is in 2259 decks. Temporal Isolation only in 223 decks. It has flash and it prevents ALL damage from that creature. Nekusar or Niv Mizziv can still deal damage via triggers with Pacifism on them - with this, it fizzles. No one plays shadow, so that creature basically can't block. Two upsides compared to the other card, same mana cost.

[@BoredOCM]

I got Omnath from my box when Zendikar Rising came out, and I built a so-so commander deck around him, mainly taking the shell from Temur Omnath to new Omnath, but now I'm kind of stuck in what direction I wanna take it. Landfall is just so good and strong with it, however, I feel it could be fun to go in a token/clone direction, but that could be just because Avenger of Zendikar is busted.

[@theearwyrm6105]

Opted to leave my deck as temur omnath. Just seems more consistent

[@connoringram4948]

Elementals are my absolute favorite tribe i think you can make a fun tribal deck. Reanimator is my favorite thing to do and thunderkin awakener plus some lords a flicker wisp an vesperlark and revilark can keep a constant engine going. Theres a clone card cant remember its name but its got retrace and you can clone master of waves with risen reef or thunderkin awakener. Attacking with awakener and gettin back multani for huge dmg or a voice of resurgence and getting its token every turn can add up. Use brought back with the evoke elementals, wayfarring temple can populate titania or omnath tokens or your retrace clones for a 3 mana creature. Wilderness elemental and spawnwrithe are also good 3 mana threats. Thats just one way to make it an aggro attacking feck thats super resilent to board clears and with a bunch of cheap threats and the usual great mana omnath gives you can reload every turn.

[@sawfty691]

I'd like to not buy any Omnaths, lol. Great episode guys!

[@scottcampbell9515]

This has been a fascinating episode. Thank you.

[@davixoff8337]

i put rhythm of the wild in all deck i run green and red.....awesome job with your channel!

[@Lasor4]

Boy was I happy to see Tolsimir in a video! 💚

[@TheStephenation]

I'm a bit surprised. I ran Olivia Voldaren last year. My 99 had 42 colorless cards (lands and artifacts), 24 monoblack cards, 19 monored cards, and 14 blad/red cards. The deck was gimmick to fit some theme and I wouldn't expect it to be an archetypal Olivia list, but there was also nothing about the commander that ever made me think it would be one of the most strongly skewed toward one color either.

[@Solemnyty]

Before the Ur Dragon precon came out Surrak was the leader of my Dragon tribal deck. So mine was mainly red cards.

[@MoronicChunk1]

I have a Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain deck where the only red card in the deck is Jhoira herself. To be fair there's only like 6 blue cards in the deck as well, one of which being Jhoira again. It is essentially mono-brown.

[@tastyrick]

You can't outwit the dad jokes. He outsmarted your outsmarting.

[@EvanFarshadow]

Rhythm of the Wild is great. The big difference between the two is the mana cost and the fact the Allo-Shep itself can't be countered. Prowling Serpopard is another reliable option for creatures not being counterable.

[@SkellyBobRoss]

Surprise lands are important in a game that requires mana to play the other cards in the game. The color that does lands the best is favored. I've always been a green fan anyway, good to know I picked correctly.

[@samgarncarz1430]

people who run lord windgrace as a jund lands commander should try running it with vaevictis asmadi, the dire instead. still a very effective commander for it but its a lot more fun and chaotic. gives you a chance to do really interesting top deck things, some land destruction, some extra combat phases. very fun build

[@flaviocbrangel]

I actually run Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx in my Markov deck and between Vampire Nocturnus, Necropotence and the like it pays off imensely.

[@thumbwrestler12]

This was interesting and it be interesting to see if this would change if all commander decks has access to all colors. Pretend zendikar yay! Also :/ :') bought omnath before it's price went down. Land fall and green is awesome also some colorless spells are great in landfall. It's nice that some tribes are mono coloured. Challenge accepted I'll make an elf deck with no green cards

[@noahz42]

rhythm of the wild is also really good with persist creatures since it lets you go infinite with any free sac outlets plus it protects your persist creatures from counterspells

[@dreddbolt]

Even with green, I make sure any two color deck I build has as close to an even amount of both colors as possible, or at least cards of the appropriate colors.

[@geegnomes]

Tinybones is so heavily built around discard synergy that it's more useful to make opponents discard what they drew than to prevent drawing. Decks that play Drannith Magistrate, however...

[@CarronBarboza]

Otherwise known as a study in why Green and Blue are ridiculous.

[@forkstgmr261]

dont know if every saskia deck is very color balanced, but mine is very balanced, green for ramp and mana fixing, red for damage doubling, black for removal, white for board protection, and most of the creatures are multicolored, very fun to play with

[@couver2997]

I thought Matt was going to use the same punchline that Joey did on that dad joke. Well played Mr. Morgan

[@georgirosehempson1454]

Yes new episode

[@gabe3704]

I run rhythm in my radha deck, can confirm its worth running if you are going for a creature deck.

[@mrpopsful]

Wow, my Lord Windgrace deck has 30 red mana symbols vs 46 green and 13 black. 13 mono red cards (lots of land sacrificing)

[@santuli_91]

I run Uba Mask in my Unesh deck and it’s always so busted. Unesh’s ability (and most of all the other card draw spells in the deck) are the type that “put cards into your hand” rather than “draw”, so they get around Uba Mask’s effect. I also run Omen Machine and Possessed Portal for similar reasons. Turns my huge flyers deck into a total control deck.

[@ruudvanlaarhoven5776]

In white, Drannith Magistrate has great synergy with it, if you have no soul ;)

[@santuli_91]

@@ruudvanlaarhoven5776 Oof, that might be a tad too cruel for me...but I’m still gonna keep that in mind..you know, just in case ^_^

[@ruudvanlaarhoven5776]

You should check out Zur's Weirding for blue... Or maybe don't xD

[@santuli_91]

@@ruudvanlaarhoven5776 omg my friend's are gonna abandon me cause I kinda really wanna play it!!

[@jessewieman6955]

Surrak as an izzet commander would be a sweet build. Lots of blue and red creatures would benefit from the trample more than the green creatures

[@karstdeboer4538]

Just in time for dinner!

[@alancoulson]

Independent lady Jhoira says if you like it you shoulda put a sol ring on it

[@douglaszelazny1094]

Wow. Apparently I need to run more green cards in my windgrace deck.

[@wakandacustomerservice8391]

Red definitely got some aura tools from Theros this year. I guess folks have just stopped building Tiana. I was actually upset red got Storm Herald, and to see it not even getting played smh.

[@crimson90]

Now I've gotta look at my Surrak Dragonclaw deck and see if it follows the trend. I'm kind of thinking, off the top of my head, it does. It's big and stompy.

[@Titanreaver616]

While green is the best color in commander, mostly because commander gameplay just tend to lean into what green does. The fact that people like to ramp a lot, and play big things those are just the things the color was designed to do from the game's inception. But as you said at the end of the video its because the specific strategies are color leaning. Even if the only thing green is doing in your deck is color fixing and ramping that is going to eat up a lot of the colored cards. Interesting video though as always.

[@DKMonsieur]

I'm currently building a Zndrsplt/Okaun deck and I'm noticing that it actually tends towards red, for a nice change of pace. In the average deck on EDHREC, you will find 9 mono-blue spells, 30 mono-red spells and 6 Izzet spells. Not as schewed as most commanders on this list, but hey.

[@dorsalfin22]

Yep I just brewed this coin flipping deck myself and it makes sense, since red is definitely the chaotic color!

[@BarbeChenue]

Red dominates the card composition of my Sethron deck. Minotaur tribal lends itself VERY WELL to red. But then again, it's not going to challenge the "optimized" deck we see nowadays. At this rate anyway, "Optimized" has basically become its own meta... Also, to challenge your stats: www.moxfield.com/decks/XzOpWa7hKEiCTJQ4kIbH2A I'm, not the author, but I have played this cEDH deck, and it's a perfect counterexample of Green being outdone by blue. But, then again, it's in a "instant spells matter" format where winning is all about preventing others from winning before it gets to your turn.

[@alphacore112]

My man Surrak getting some spotlight!

[@DETHofMAN]

Okay OKAY FINE.. I’ve come around to the intro music.

[@elijah_gullion]

I have three mono red cards in my korvold deck way to much black in it, but I geuss it’s just my favorite color

[@CarlosDiamond]

I don't think there is anything wrong with having a color lopsided commander deck. I would guess that most optimized decks end up being lopsided toward one color or purpose.

[@Folgrith]

Kinda expected to see tatyova in here tbh

[@eliakimrodrigues]

There are a lot of blue combos played in Tatyova

[@rule-of-three1483]

They talk Surrak as being skewed Green, but I just want it for ramp. Uncounterable spells, all creatures with Trample? I'ma build him deep Red creatures with ETBs and Haste.

[@crawdaddy2004]

I think we now need a list of the top ten green-X color-skewed Commanders to a color not green.

[@jkattack2640]

Need for speed should be a staple in windgrace and its mono red, cant think of many others tho

[@diggerdog9205]

Guessing that the most well balanced color pairings as far as equal cards of each color goes will be red/blue and white/black.

[@Frank-dq3dk]

I knew I wasn't wrong when I said that adding red to Edgar M's color identity made it weaker since it made his mana base more complex for little payoff.

[@SventFulgur]

Hi EDHRECast, here from 2024! o/ Totally not coming here because my favorite commander Izoni was mentioned to be represented, nope TOTALLY NOT 😏

[@kalethehunter6970]

In my Edgar Markov deck 74% of the color pips are black and the remaining 26 is red and white combined

[@ancientswordrage]

How are you getting stats for non-commander+non-commander? I can't find it on the site, are you looking at the database?

[@nikos731]

You can blame Legacy Elves for Allosaurus Sepherd's price.

[@DontStopTheHustle]

More like zero supply and plenty of demand.

[@cloudyboi13]

OMG...the dad jokes! 😂😂😂

[@jackhumphries4692]

"basic forest, OP man..." Give it 3 months Joseph... Just wait.

[@yoshiman9521]

i had an arjun deck with 2 red cards in it not counting arjun and they were blasphemous act and chain reaction

[@soulanski]

One card that would be good for challenge the stats is “dictate of karametra “ in vaevictis asmadi the dire. its should see play in more vaevictis decks as you can boost your mana for a turn and then sac it to vaevictis’s ability before an opponent gets a chance to untap with it.

[@davesgoldenduck6066]

Neyth looks like a mono color Green Legendary anyway

[@eliakimrodrigues]

It would be better if she were mono-green. She could fit so many other decks into the 99.

[@knightfromlordran]

My Oloro deck is skewed against blue

[@Stroggoii]

Green is the most powerful color in every format except Legacy and WotC doesn't seem to have any intention of changing that from what leaks and rumors show.

[@flaviocbrangel]

Also, I’ve seen a few much more evenly color distributed Lord Windgrace lists. That being said, don’t play those outside of really high powered/competitive enviroments (unless you’re a jerk), as they don’t really care that much about landfall, focusing instead on disgusting stax and mass land destruction effects.

[@mikenerdcore]

Lobby WOTC to stopp making green so good.

[@Nehemiah1604]

Showcase omnath is down to 11.50 on eBay fyi

[@OGTahoe3]

I'm Curious where Kinnin and Oloro are in the list

[@felipeguidolin1055]

Red... Always the bridesmaid, never the bride

[@melind82]

My only takeaway is green needs more low cost evasive creatures.

[@staren1991]

Yasova said "Green ? No thanks" and kept stealing stuff as Izzet ;)

[@royalcollectables]

Are you guys ever going to play any of your decks?

[@EDHRECast]

We play them every Wednesday 6pm PST at twitch.tv/edhrecast :D We have VODs there if you wanna catch some of our previous games!

[@royalcollectables]

@@EDHRECast sweet I'll will check it out.

[@Jonzin4BeatzNYC]

Did Matt just wake up from a nap?

[@yes.thatjanedoe]

Poor Red

[@plain6677]

Allosaurus shepherd is €60! Why is it so expensive?

[@ruudvanlaarhoven5776]

Mostly because it's a JumpStart exclusive card, and the supply and distribution of that set has suffered major setbacks due to all the 2020 global issues, meaning there's just not many to go around. A card that's vital for maybe the most popular tribe in magic, even if it's only in Legacy and Commander, will shoot up in price, because of high demand and low supply.

[@dus65]

How did you guys talk of legendary dogs and not segue into CTS by taking a “paws”? Disappointed lol.

[@durpien]

Remove all the other colors, buff green more!

[@Mwarrior1991]

omnath has other colors?

[@elfriedaarts1195]

are we a joke to you? Seriously though, dragons = red.

[@johnbuscher]

Dragons? What are dragons? All I see is lightning and fire...

[@MTG_Ronin]

Challenge The Stats: Wash Out at 1%.

[@monomanamaniac]

My new obuun deck is so imbalanced towards green

[@angelom9685]

allosaurus shepherd market price is high because people choose to pay this price (card board shouldn't be so expensive as juwerly).

[@flaviocbrangel]

You don’t seem familiar with the price tags for legacy staples

[@TheStephenation]

Uba Mask used to be a Vintage staple. It's kinda been a while, but I didn't think it was that obscure.

[@marlowehansen]

Would it be safe to say urza leans heavily toward blue?

[@Sykdude]

Uba Mask is too expensive.

[@captainfry9776]

Omnath

[@yoshiman9521]

i think olivia is so much stronger as a non tribal deck

[@dakillaklown715]

Is edhrec ever getting an android app?

[@peewee130946]

It’s almost like red is the worst color in commander and I’ve been shouting that from the rooftops while everybody else follows the white hate train.

[@Explosive371]

Generally people don't think white is a weak color in commander. They think that mono-white is weak in commander. White has incredible support tools in the form of efficient removal, protection, anthem effects, wraths, and smothering tithe. It brings some of the strongest cards in the format to the table, but generally needs another color working alongside it to turn powerful cards into a cohesive deck. Mono white just reliably has less access to quality commanders and quality card advantage advantage engines.

[@peewee130946]

@@Explosive371 yeah I don’t disagree with anything you said. However that makes it a better color than red. Even a better mono color than red.

[@ruudvanlaarhoven5776]

The reason white feels worse than red is because every way white wants to win games, you can see coming from a mile away, urging the rest of the table to block your efforts. Red has haste, or rituals into massive burn spells, or an Insurrection to close out the game, where white usually wins by untapping with a big board presence, or equipment, or maybe Approach of the Second Sun. That predictability makes it easier for your three opponents to conspire a counterstrategy against a white deck than a red deck. There's no Craterhoof, no Exsanguinate, no Cyclonic Rift, no Tooth and Nail, no Thassa's Oracle/Lab Man, no real fast wincons that are hard to interact with in white, except for maybe the frowned upon Armageddon. It's harder for white than for any other color to, in the late game, topdeck a card with enough impact to leverage it into a victory. That's why a mono white deck can feel really powerful while playing, with all the good interaction, recursion, hate pieces, and other cards you see in constructed sideboards, yet still struggle to beat the other decks at the table, who are built with more resiliency than the 60 card constructed decks that scoop vs the right hate pieces. Mono white is powerful, but it doesn't win games easily. Which is why it leads to the most memorable games I've played, and is my favourite against-the-odds monocolor. Grinding back after being Cruel Ultimatum'd three times in as many turncycles just feels better than Torment of Hailfire for X=45. Your mileage may vary ;)

[@GamerTT00]

@@ruudvanlaarhoven5776 Tru

[@jdogbemple1]

So basically, play more green and play less red when deck building. Does that mean red is the new white?

[@MrPikawika4444]

Green is so good yet so boring :/

[@ingolf82]

OMG Uba mask, I hate that card. you play it and then you play a card that says opponents can't play spells from anywhere other than their hand... oops! locked out of the game once your hand is empty. And then you play something that breaks this parody so you can win. it is a know fact that White has been the weakest colour for years, but maybe, since 2020, white has surpassed red

[@MrShawnshall]

George I'd like to challenge the stat s on soggy omnath if your playing with 5 blue cards...your build is poo, if u got 10 red cards....your build is poo..... I'd like to see the average build