The 41 Best Mono Green Commanders in Magic Ranked

Last updated on July 5, 2024

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds | Illustration by Tyler Jacobson

I used to think of mono-green decks as being somewhat uncomplicated, and maybe even a little boring. My impression was that they were just about playing lands and dropping big creatures. But as I played more of the game I started to realize just how versatile of a color green can really be. Not only are there a variety of powerful cards, but a lot of them break the color pie in ways that make a mono-green deck feel like you’re playing a multicolor one.

The legendary creature you choose to lead matters just as much as the cards you put in the deck when building a mono-green Commander deck. Green has lots to offer, with competitive but also fun commanders to choose from. Combine this with the color’s diverse range of cards, and you have a lot of options when trying to build a mono-green deck.

Let’s take a look at some of the best green commanders Magic has to offer! I’ll also give you some insight into how each card plays to give you an idea of the different styles available in this color.

What Are Green Commanders in MTG?

Yisan, the Wanderer Bard | Illustration by Chase Stone

Green commanders are any legendary creature cards with a green color identity. In Magic, the color of a card and a card’s color identity are actually two different things. A card has a green color identity if it has a green mana pip () either in its cost or somewhere in its rules text. This means that even a colorless land like Castle Garenbrig has a color identity because it has green mana pips in its rules text. We're focused on cards that can lead a mono-green Commander deck, so these legends will all have a mono-green color identity.

#41. Grunn, the Lonely King

Grunn, the Lonely King is a pretty expensive commander, especially if you want to use its kicker ability. That said, Grunn can be an incredibly powerful commander, especially if you build around +1/+1 counters or other ways to buff it like equipment and cheap auras. Grunn only needs to get to 11/11 before it can start taking players out in one shot, and that’s definitely something you can achieve in a mono-green deck.

#40. Thrun, Breaker of Silence

What I like about Thrun, Breaker of Silence is that it’s a very difficult commander for your opponents to kill. It won’t meaningfully improve the power of the other cards in your deck, though. Thrun is still a great option for a Voltron deck given how naturally resilient it is.

#39. Grothama, All-Devouring

Grothama, All-Devouring leads to some very interesting gameplay. Because your opponents can choose to fight it for cards, you may have opportunities to take out some of their stronger attackers that you wouldn’t otherwise have. You can also fight Grothama yourself if your green card draw is falling short, though you’ll want to make sure it’s worth losing your large commander who’s also drawing some aggro from you.

#38. Baru, Wurmspeaker

Wurms in Magic are usually pretty powerful creatures, so even simply giving them trample makes Baru, Wurmspeaker a clear choice for a wurm typal deck. Of course, being an anthem for wurms makes it all the better. Baru’s activated ability can easily get down to just later in the game once you have some of your big wurms on the field, allowing you to have a wide board full of big creatures.

#37. Ruxa, Patient Professor

Ruxa, Patient Professor allows you to build a very different kind of deck. Instead of looking for creatures with abilities that work well together, you’ll actually be building a deck largely around creatures with no abilities (a.k.a. vanilla creatures). This allows you to pick up some cheap cards that have good power and toughness for their mana value and make them much more powerful since they can assign damage directly to players. You can also take Ruxa in a different direction and turn it into a token commander. Since many token creatures don’t have abilities, you can create a large army of them and do significant amounts of direct damage.

#36. Ayula, Queen Among Bears

Ayula, Queen Among Bears is an obvious choice for a bear typal Commander deck. While bears aren’t the biggest creature type, you have some great options like Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma. Each bear you play also gets stronger if you want, making even weaker options like Pale Bears much more intimidating. You can also fill out your creature roster with changelings as you wait for more powerful bears to be printed.

#35. Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer

If you’re looking for a landfall commander, Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer is a pretty good option. Not only will it get stronger each time you play a land, but it also creates lots of token creatures if you’ve built around playing as many lands as possible. I’d recommend including Ashaya, Soul of the Wild because each time you play a creature, you also get a Badger token. This can also buff Greensleeves significantly if you have a lot of creatures on the field.

#34. Wilson, Refined Grizzly + Raised by Giants

Similar to Thrun, Breaker of Silence, Wilson, Refined Grizzly has lots of meaningful abilities that can make it an excellent attacker or blocker. By pairing Wilson with the Raised by Giants background, you can make it much more powerful and possibly even take out players with commander damage. You can easily turn this into a Voltron deck, focused on giving Wilson more buffs and protection to make it even more powerful.

#33. Titania, Voice of Gaea

Titania, Voice of Gaea is somewhat underwhelming on the front side, but once you meld it into Titania, Gaea Incarnate, it becomes much more powerful. I wouldn’t usually recommend relying on melding your commander, but with cards like Crop Rotation and Scapeshift available to you in mono-green, you’ll have an easier time finding Argoth, Sanctum of Nature.

#32. Fangorn, Tree Shepherd

Maybe it’s my soft spot for high-toughness creatures and vigilance, but Fangorn, Tree Shepherd represents one of the best characters from The Two Towers, and building up green mana between phases is always powerful. It does take a long time to say anything among Ents, so it makes sense that Treebeard costs so much.

#31. Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse

You might be surprised with how consistently Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse can create a token creature. Green has plenty of great draw engines like Beast Whisperer and Sylvan Library, and you can also use cantrips or cycling abilities to draw extra cards. Filling your hand also makes Jolrael’s activated ability that much more potent. You probably want to include a Reliquary Tower or cards with similar effects so you can make your creatures larger than 7/7s.

#30. Kodama of the West Tree

Green has plenty of ways to modify creatures, making Kodama of the West Tree a solid option for a mono-green commander. Giving all your creatures trample is a great way to do extra damage, and Kodama’s ramp ability allows you, the green player, to play bigger creatures more quickly. Kodama is a great option if you want to win by attacking with big creatures.

#29. Legolas, Master Archer

The heroic trigger is nearly a whole deck all on its own. Add to that the second triggered ability on Legolas, Master Archer that gives you a free Rabid Bite every time. Not overpowered on its own, but not hard to maximize in a green Commander deck either. At optimal use, your opponents won’t be able to keep any creatures on the board; not bad for a reacher that may never need to attack.

#28. Emissary Green

Ravnica: Clue Edition took the colorful personalities of the characters from Clue and ported them over to in-universe legendary creatures. Emissary Green generates Treasure and +1/+1 counters when it attacks, depending on how each player votes.

At 5 mana, Green’s expensive for a 3/3, especially a 3/3 that you need to risk in combat if you want to trigger its ability. That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of ways to keep this commander safe in green. Tyvar's Stand and Blizzard Brawl and any number of equipment can help preserve it in combat, and you’ll generate advantage no matter how your opponents vote.

#27. Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig

It’s appropriate that Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig is a giant, because it can get huge in a mono-green deck. Including additional support for +1/+1 counters like Hardened Scales is a great way to speed up Yorvo’s growth, allowing you to deal significant amounts of commander damage. Yorvo is also relatively cheap to cast for how powerful it can get, making it easier to get it back on the field if your commander is destroyed.

#26. Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant

Yes, Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant is limited to the creatures in your hand, but not everything can have multiple instances of cascade and discover. Besides, isn’t Tooth and Nail one of the best cards of all time? This is a more fair version that lives in your command zone. Oh, and even without the amazing ETB ability, 12 trample commander damage is going to be hard for at least one of your opponents to handle.

#25. Aeve, Progenitor Ooze

Even without its storm ability, Aeve, Progenitor Ooze can get pretty big if you’re playing an ooze typal deck. Oozes are great at multiplying and buffing each other up, with Biogenic Ooze being particularly good at both. This means that Aeve can easily come down as a big creature and only gets more powerful from there. Its storm ability also resolves before Aeve enters the battlefield, meaning it gets even stronger for each copy you make.

#24. Yeva, Nature’s Herald

In general, being able to cast your creature spells with flash thanks to Yeva, Nature's Herald can grant a decent advantage. This gets even better when you consider green has access to cards like Wilderness Reclamation and Seedborn Muse. This essentially allows you to play your turn whenever you like, always choosing the best time to drop a creature.

#23. Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Ghalta, Primal Hunger is basically just a big stompy creature; however, that might be all you need if you drop it early enough in the game. Lots of players build Ghalta using vehicles, thanks to cards like Cultivator's Caravan that have much higher power than a creature of the same mana value would. This allows you to get Ghalta on the field very quickly and start dealing damage to your opponents while they’re still playing smaller creatures.

#22. Nissa, Resurgent Animist

You want more lands? You’re in the correct color, and with one land per turn being a fundamental rule of Magic, it's surprising how often you trigger a second landfall (thank you Evolving Wilds). The card advantage on Nissa, Resurgent Animist is excellent.

There’s something to be said about commanders that aren't too salty and overpowered. The elves and elementals found by Nissa, both of which have a great number of options to choose from, just go into your hand, and the rest of the cards don't go to the graveyard, so opponents feel less threatened by your commander.

#21. Yedora, Grave Gardener

Yedora, Grave Gardener’s triggered ability makes it much less of a loss when one of your creatures gets destroyed. In fact, if the creature is small enough, it may even be an improvement to trade it for a forest. This allows you to sacrifice your own creatures for beneficial effects or just chump block and still get something out of it. A Yedora deck can also ramp at a rapid pace, making it hard for opponents to keep up with.

#20. Kosei, Penitent Warlord

Though Kosei, Penitent Warlord takes a bit of setup to get online, you’ll be able to make some big plays once you have its ability. Being able to draw a lot of extra cards is always a huge benefit in Magic, and being able to spread out your damage allows you to target whichever opponent is least able to block you.

#19. Gargos, Vicious Watcher

Gargos, Vicious Watcher is one of the most powerful hydra commanders to build a hydra typal deck around. Discounting your hydras essentially allows you to throw four extra +1/+1 counters on them without any additional cost. Gargos can also solve green’s issue with lack of removal by allowing you to fight other creatures. That said, thankfully Gargos’s ability triggers with each of your creatures being targeted and you can choose zero targets to fight.

#18. Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth

Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth has trample to help get combat damage through and is able to get lands in addition to creatures, which is great for this reasonably costed legendary god. Temple of Cultivation essentially having the city’s blessing is a fitting ode to Rivals of Ixalan and a very feasible way to keep Ojer Kaslem on the field.

#17. Toski, Bearer of Secrets

There are a few ways to build an effective Toski, Bearer of Secrets deck. Lots of players choose equipment-based EDH decks since Toski is indestructible and is forced to attack anyway. If you want to build a particularly nasty deck, give Toski a Worldslayer and see what happens. Alternatively, you can choose to go wide with your board and take advantage of Toski’s card draw ability to keep your hand stocked with resources.

#16. Freyalise, Llanowar’s Fury

Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury can be a very good elf commander, especially since it can make you a free elf each turn. This helps with typal effects like Elvish Archdruid. Freyalise can also be a strong choice for just a green good-stuff deck. It allows you to ramp, has built-in unnatural removal, and can draw you plenty of cards if you have a lot of creatures. These are all things that synergize with green’s general strategies, so you aren’t stuck building an elf deck if you want it as your commander.

#15. Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma

If you want to build a deck around big creatures, Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma is definitely a good choice. Not only does this commander allow you to play your big creatures more quickly, it also gives them trample if they don’t already have it. Sometimes, trample is all a massive creature like Impervious Greatwurm is missing to make it a serious threat.

#14. Bristly Bill, Spine Sower

If there’s one thing green cards are known for, its high-power creatures and lands. Bristly Bill, Spine Sower, from Outlaws of Thunder Junction, does both in just about the most standard way possible.

Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, Bill puts a +1/+1 counter on a creature you control. For 5 mana, it’ll double the number of counters on creatures you control.

Bill is a green commander that rewards you for doing what green does best: playing lands and playing creatures. It’s best used in conjunction with heavy ramp and with other passive +1/+1 counter generators so you can save mana to double your +1/+1s multiple times at once.

#13. Eladamri, Korvecdal

The elf lord Eladamri got a face lift in Modern Horizons 3 with Eladamri, Korvecdal. At its most basic, Eladamri, Korvecdal is a 3/3 for 3 mana that lets you cast creatures from the top of your library. That’s all well and good, but we already have Future Sight and Bolas's Citadel for that sort of effect.

What makes the new Eladamri really good is the option to totally skip the casting cost for a creature in your hand or on top of your library, instead paying a mere single green mana and tapping Eladamri along with two of your cheap little Elf Warrior tokens. The ceiling on value you can generate here is insane: Want a 1-mana Craterhoof Behemoth? What about Terastodon or Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger?

Green might not be known for untapping effects, but there are more than a few ways to activate Eladamri multiple times per turn, which really pushes the efficiency of this green commander. Instill Energy is the classic, but note that effects like Copperhorn Scout’s let Eladamri activate its ability during combat (since its restriction is “only during your turn” and not “only when you could cast a sorcery”).

#12. Ashaya, Soul of the Wild

Landfall decks can sometimes suffer if you aren’t drawing into any lands, but Ashaya, Soul of the Wild fixes this by making all your creatures forests. With Ashaya on the field, the majority of the cards in your deck likely trigger landfall abilities when they enter the battlefield. Ashaya plays well with Blanchwood Armor and also makes it easy for you to ramp quickly since every creature you control can also tap for green mana.

#11. Ezuri, Renegade Leader

Ezuri, Renegade Leader is one of the better elf typal commanders in mono-green. A single green mana to regenerate your elves is a sweet deal, especially if you have Elvish Archdruid or Circle of Dreams Druid on the field who allow you to protect them all. Ezuri also gives you a way to buff your elves, which is typically how elf decks want to finish out the game. Go wide and then buff them up. While there are better options for this type of effect, having one stapled to your commander is always handy in a pinch.

#10. Fynn, the Fangbearer

Fynn, the Fangbearer can be a very aggressive commander, allowing you to close out games quicker than other options. There are plenty of low mana value creatures that have deathtouch, which allows you to start distributing poison counters early on. With Phyrexia: All Will Be One giving us a lot more support for giving out poison counters and proliferating, Fynn has only gotten harder to deal with. This might be the kind of commander you want to have a Rule 0 discussion about because some players aren’t a big fan of infect commanders or poison counter decks.

#9. Yisan, the Wanderer Bard

Yisan, the Wanderer Bard is the best Pod commander and is bit like having a Birthing Pod in the command zone. You also don’t have to sacrifice a creature to activate the bard, so you’ll be able to fill your board for not too much mana. You’ll want to make sure you’re spreading out the mana curve of your creatures so that Yisan is effective each time you activate it. Including proliferate abilities or counter doublers can also help you more quickly drop your big creatures for only 3 mana.

#8. Titania, Protector of Argoth

Titania, Protector of Argoth allows you to lessen the sting of sacrificing your own lands. This allows you to use potentially powerful cards like Constant Mists and at least get a powerful creature to replace the land you lose. There are also a decent number of green cards like Ramunap Excavator and Conduit of Worlds that allow you to play lands from your graveyard. You can sacrifice them, get a token from Titania, and get them back without too much issue.

#7. Imaryll, Elfhame Elite

Imaryll, Elfhame Elite may have slid beneath many players’ radar because it’s an exclusive card from the more casual Game Night product. However, Imaryll isn’t a commander you should sleep on if you want to make an elf deck. You can easily get Imaryll strong enough to take out players with commander damage. Even if they have blockers, they can’t stop you without fully removing your commander. Imaryll also has a reasonably affordable mana value, making it easy to attack into blockers that you know will kill it.

#6. Six

Six is a 3-mana treefolk with a self-mill theme. Whenever Six attacks you’ll mill three cards, returning one land from among them to your hand. Where Six gets exciting is its second ability – during your turn, nonland permanents in your graveyard have retrace, an old mechanic from Eventide that allows you to recast spells from your graveyard if you discard a land in addition to paying their costs. This makes Six an effective way to use your entire graveyard as extra cards in your hand.

Six synergizes well with a number of other green legendary creatures, including both Titania, Voice of Gaea and Titania, Nature's Force.

Really, my only complaint about Six is that the returned land must be from those three cards you milled, rather than any of the lands in your graveyard. I suppose this was a balancing decision, though.

#5. Azusa, Lost but Seeking

Azusa, Lost but Seeking is an exceptional landfall or lands commander, thanks to the extra triggers you can get from its ability. It also helps you to ramp quickly, allowing you to get ahead of your opponents. Or, if you want to go a more unexpected direction, Azusa can be a surprisingly effective control commander in green. Combine its ability with something like Crucible of Worlds and suddenly you can blow up three lands per turn with a Strip Mine. This playstyle won’t be popular with opponents, but they likely won’t see it coming until you’re getting ahead in the game. This makes it a good cEDH option, though casual tables might not be happy with it.

#4. Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider

Counter doublers are very effective in Magic, so having Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider readily available in the command zone is very powerful. You can easily build a +1/+1 counter deck or an infect deck around this version of Vorinclex and be confident in knowing you’ll get to play one of the best support cards for that archetype. Vorinclex also makes any green planeswalker you play much more powerful.

The other side of the effect dampening your opponents' counters is not to be underestimated since it completely shuts down some of the opposition.

#3. Omnath, Locus of Mana

While there are certainly more focused commanders, Omnath, Locus of Mana can just be generally good for any green deck. Having extra mana is always helpful for getting ahead in a game, and Omnath ensures none of yours goes to waste as long as it’s on the battlefield. As a bonus, it can also get pretty strong, especially if you’re running cards like Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun.

#2. Marwyn, the Nurturer

There are plenty of great elf commanders, but it’s hard to beat Marwyn, the Nurturer in mono-green. It’s cheap enough to reliably get out turn 2 or 3, and its power only continues to snowball as the game progresses. A Marwyn deck can move so fast that it can often be difficult for your opponents to keep up.

#1. Selvala, Heart of the Wilds

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds is good in a similar way as Marwyn, the Nurturer. Though it won’t produce you as much extra mana, its card draw ability makes up for that. Selvala also offers you more flexibility in how you build your deck since you aren’t tied to a specific creature type. You can include the biggest and best green creatures and Selvala will work well with all of them.

Best Green Commander Payoffs

One area in which green excels is creating a wide board state full of creatures. This means cards like Circle of Dreams Druid and Growing Rites of Itlimoc are good payoffs. Craterhoof Behemoth is a mono-green staple that’s often used as a game-ender and also takes advantage of going wide.

Green also has a lot of powerful creatures. Cards like Garruk's Uprising or Return of the Wildspeaker can be very effective.

Green is also adept at creating a lot of mana. X spells like Green Sun's Zenith or Finale of Devastation are particularly powerful in mono-green decks.

Green’s known for playing lands and big creatures, but many green legendary creatures also synergize well with +1/+1 counters. Green commanders like Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig and Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider basically demand that you include cards like Primal Vigor and Hardened Scales. Even commanders that appear to have a very specific theme can be powered up by some +1/+1 counter synergy; Marwyn, the Nurturer, Aeve, Progenitor Ooze, and more just get straight-up better when you can put more counters on them.

Is Mono-Green Good in Commander?

Yes, mono-green commanders can be very good. Magic players love to debate which mono-colored decks are best in Commander. While it’s hard to say any one color is the best, I’ve rarely seen anyone claim that green is the worst color. That said, your success with a given deck comes down to how it’s constructed and how you play it. Simply choosing to make a mono-green deck won’t guarantee you victory just because it has the potential to be very powerful.

How Many Lands Should Be in a Green Commander Deck?

If you’re running an elf typal deck that has access to a bunch of great mana dorks, you can probably get away with having lands in the low to mid 30s range. If you’re playing a lands-matter or landfall deck, you probably want to have more lands than you typically would. With some landfall decks, you might even want to run up to 42 lands just to make sure you aren’t running out of ways to trigger your creatures’ abilities. Green likes to put lands into play as a main form of ramp; how much ramp to play in EDH is a slightly different question. Like with any color, the number of lands you put in your Commander deck depends on the type of deck you’re building.

Commanding Conclusion

Marwyn, the Nurturer | Illustration by Chris Rahn

Mono-green is a fun and surprisingly versatile color to build a Commander deck. Apart from perhaps removal and counterspells, you won’t feel like you’re missing out on much of what you need to be successful in a game of Magic.

While these are what I’d consider the best mono-green commanders, I’d love to hear which are your favorites. Which, if any, of these commanders have you built a deck for? Are you considering any now that you’ve read the list? Let me know in the comments below, or over on Draftsim’s Twitter.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to seeing you in the next one!