MTG Color Identity Guide: Choosing the Right Colors for Your Commander Deck
Understand what each color and color combination does in Commander. Find the right identity for your playstyle.
Every color in Magic has a personality. Understanding what each color does well (and poorly) helps you pick the right commander for your playstyle.
The Five Colors
White (W) **Strengths:** Board wipes, small creatures, lifegain, enchantments, tokens, rule-setting **Weaknesses:** Card draw (historically), ramp **Playstyle:** Control the board, build wide, gain life
Blue (U) **Strengths:** Card draw, counterspells, flying creatures, copying, stealing, combo **Weaknesses:** Creature removal (outside of bounce), direct damage **Playstyle:** Control the game, draw cards, combo off
Black (B) **Strengths:** Tutors, creature removal, graveyard recursion, card draw (at a cost), sacrifice **Weaknesses:** Artifact/enchantment removal, lifegain (trades life for cards) **Playstyle:** Sacrifice for value, reanimate threats, tutor for answers
Red (R) **Strengths:** Direct damage, artifact destruction, haste, impulse draw, chaos, aggro **Weaknesses:** Enchantment removal, card selection, long-game planning **Playstyle:** Go fast, deal damage, burn everything
Green (G) **Strengths:** Ramp, big creatures, enchantment/artifact removal, creature tutors, trample **Weaknesses:** Flying defense, direct removal (creature-based removal only) **Playstyle:** Ramp hard, play big things, overrun opponents
Popular Two-Color Pairs
- - Azorius (WU): Control, flying, pillowfort
- - Dimir (UB): Mill, control, reanimator
- - Rakdos (BR): Aggro, sacrifice, chaos
- - Gruul (RG): Big creatures, combat, stompy
- - Selesnya (GW): Tokens, enchantress, lifegain
- - Orzhov (WB): Lifedrain, aristocrats, taxes
- - Izzet (UR): Spellslinger, combo, copying
- - Golgari (BG): Graveyard, sacrifice, value
- - Boros (RW): Equipment, aggro, combat
- - Simic (UG): Ramp, card draw, +1/+1 counters
Choosing Your Colors
Ask yourself: 1. Do I want to be aggressive or controlling? Aggressive → Red/Green. Controlling → Blue/White. 2. Do I want to interact or combo? Interactive → Black/White. Combo → Blue/anything. 3. What's my budget? Mono-color and two-color mana bases are cheapest. 4. What do I enjoy? Don't pick colors just because they're strong. Pick what's fun.
Use Tapped Decks' AI builder to explore different color combinations. Select your colors, pick a playstyle, and see what the AI suggests.
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