(Lunar InsightLunar Insight|Art by Dan Murayama Scott)

Once In a Blue Moon...

Ever ask yourself, where did all the monocolored commander decks go? Welcome, all you five color good stuff pile creators to your inevitable intervention.

This is The Monolith: a brand new series here on EDHREC in which I, your host, will be espousing the values of building Commander decks with just one color.

Of your collection of assembled commanders, how many of them are laced in gold or split color borders? It's okay, you can tell me. This is a safe space.

Did you know that out of the top 100 most played commanders registered on EDHREC, only 10 of them are monocolored? I also have a sneaking suspicion that the top 3 most played monocolored commanders are only there because they represent said color's most popular creature type. I'll let you be the judge of that:

So monocolored decks aren't as trendy as their technicolor pals. Who cares right? More colors, more fun, more power and all that. Well no, I think you should care actually - I certainly do.

One of the founding principles of this game we call Magic is that genre defining, seminal mechanic of the color pie.

The five conflicting ideals of how mana weaves through the planes of Magic's world that define the abilities, philosophies, and purpose of every card ever printed for the game.

The colors of mana give an identity to everything we do with our decks on the table. Every removal type and keyword, carefully assigned among the five.

And whilst there's plenty of joy to be had in mixing those paints together and seeing the pretty pigments they can create, the more shades you add to the mix the more of the original color's identity you lose. Speaking of losing things...

The Light Strays from Monocolored Decks

There's a slightly irritating trend I've noticed in modern legendary creature design that worries me. You'll crack a pack from a new set or scroll through some spoilers online and happen upon a creature that seems custom built to lead your 99.

We probably all notice them on instinct at this point, the legendary with the hyper specific ability that doesn't seem to fit with any of the deck archetypes of the set.

And, hey, we all know Commander is the most popular format in the game. They're going to print cards for it, that's not the problem.

The problem, for me, lies in the rules text of the monocolored legendaries. Off-color mana symbols, sneaking themselves onto a nicely designed box of mechanics and flavor to pull that commander into a Ravnican guild, or even worse, a triple color identity. I'm looking at you WickWick.

Even in Foundations Jumpstart, a set entirely comprised of booster packs containing pre-built, monocolored half decks, did they sneak in activated abilities with hybrid mana costs to allow for multicolored deck building in commander.

What's Wrong With One?

It begs the question, what's wrong with a monocolored deck?

Are they not powerful enough? Well, there's no greater judge of power than Commander's more sweaty and competitive cousin, cEDH.

A format in which players try to build the most busted and fast decks possible to completely blow their opponents out of the water. If monocolor decks don't deliver in high performance situations then we can maybe mark that as a point against them.

But that's not really the case! In fact, you'll see a fair few mono decks appear among the upper echelons of the format. Some even topping the tier lists with creatures like Magda, Brazen OutlawMagda, Brazen Outlaw and K'rrik, Son of YawgmothK'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth.

Mono-red and mono-black commanders respectively, are widely considered to be some of the most powerful in the game.

Now there's still a similar problem of course, with decks of multiple colors still far more prevalent in the format. And there's certainly plenty of advantages you can give yourself by adding multiple slices of the color pie to your deck, I won't deny that.

But the point I'm making is that you won't be hamstringing yourself by only picking one. There's plenty of commanders out there that will put the fear of Godo into your table when you place them into the command zone - without needing another color for help (if that's your goal that is).

Sins of the Father

The lean away from single identity decks might even be a chicken and egg problem at his point. Do Wizards of the Coast lean towards printing multicolored commanders because they know that's what the players want?

Or has the rapid decline in legendary creatures bearing only one identity convinced the masses that no one plays those kinds of decks anymore?

Here's some homework for you. Go have a look at every Commander precon released in the last few years and tell me how long it takes before you see one with less than two mana symbols on the box.

You may be scrolling for a while. Even longer if you don't count colorless decks, and even longer still if you avoid Universes Beyond.

Back in 2014 when Commander precons were just a novelty rather than the most profitable part of every release, we saw a full cycle of monocolored pre-built decks for sale - each fronted by one of the iconic planeswalkers of Magic's world. And since then? Are you still scrolling?

The Problem With Outside Influence

With Commander starting as a fan made format and reaching the heights of the most popular play style in the game, I'm sure Wizards of the Coast find themselves in a tricky spot for balancing.

Originally, adding another color to a creature's casting cost would make it more difficult to include in your deck.

If you're playing blue and you really like the look of a spell that seems like a perfect include for your strategy but the casting cost is Azorious (), suddenly you need to add the ability to generate white mana into your deck just for this one spell (colloquially known as splashing).

In a regular 60 card format where a deck can contain anything you want, that ends up being a restriction you've now imposed on yourself when you choose to include the card. Your mana base becomes less efficient as you stretch to include multicolored lands.

You also put yourself in a situation where you could be holding a dead card at some point in the game. Draw it when you're out of white mana? Or even worse, you didn't find any of your dual lands that would have produced it? It's not getting used!

The Rules Have Changed

In Commander we have a strange inversion of that restriction. By adding a second color pip to a card, if it's a legendary creature, you now empower Commander players to use an entirely new suite of cards when building their deck.

So is a second color in your casting cost a drawback or a boon in modern Magic? It's tough to say, even more so for a card designer.

That's why those hybrid mana symbols appear in the Jumpstart commanders. If they were gold creatures there's a very high chance they would be uncastable for the player that cracked them.

Each half deck only comes with one mana source that can make any colour. But by giving them an activated ability that can use either their base color OR a color of mana that will only ever be relevant for building a Commander deck with them, Wizards gets to have their cake and eat it too. Creativity or cowardice? You decide.

(Norin, Swift SurvivalistNorin, Swift Survivalist|Art by Yigit Koroglu)

Mono Blondes Have More Fun

So maybe the problem is simply that monocolored decks just aren't that fun to play with? Maybe multi decks have a better time? Well if there's anything I'm seeking to prove with The Monolith, it's that this statement simply isn't true.

In fact in my next article for EDHREC I'll be explaining exactly why I think you might have a much better time when building with just one colour.

Restriction breeds creativity and one of the core experiences that's fun about Commander is one of its very first rules. Your deck only gets to contain the colors printed on your legendary creature. And one is plenty.

Think of all the most famous deck archetypes that players have flocked to with every Magic set ever released. Mono-white Aggro. Mono-red Burn. Mono-green Stompy.

These are truly the fundamentals of the game. Some of the most fun you can have with a stack of cardboard. There's also a lot of fun you can have by bending colors out of shape.

Going against type. Trying to fit a deck archetype into a color that doesn't normally support it like a red Enchantress deck or a blue Aristocrats.

What Can I Do About It?

The world is your oyster. Even more so in our beloved EDH where player expression is paramount. But the reason I've gotten up on this soap box is to convince you, if you aren't already converted, that mono is a beautiful way of life.

It's a tricky deck builder's dream. A harken back to our favorite game's roots. And most importantly, it's incredibly fun to play.

In the face of this over-saturated scourge the answer is to build more mono decks! To strip down your favorite archetypes to the color that suits them best! To embrace the basic mountain!

If you're tired of the prismatic playthings we're handed in precons. If you want to reject modernity and embrace tradition. Then follow me into the monochrome breach and let's build some white, blue, black, red, and green decks together. But never a mix of the above.

This is The Monolith, and here we build mono decks. If you want to join me on this journey, I'll be here every week (or close enough). Giving you recommendations, explaining my love for the monochrome, and inviting you in on this journey.

So, regardless if you were whipped up into a frenzy by my words or you just enjoyed my raving ramblings, I'll see you next week on The Monolith.

Michael 'Wheels' Whelan

Wheels is a lover of all things cardboard from Brighton & Hove in the UK. As well as playing card games of all flavours multiple times a week he's also deeply invested in board games, wargames, and RPGs. In fact, he even designs his own tabletop games from self published TTRPGs like, The House Doesn't Always Win to published wargames like, FREAKZ! Mutant Murder Machines. Wheels is a big advocate for wacky deckbuilding and is an evangelist for more commander players building mono-coloured decks. He talks about all this and more on his YouTube and TikTok channel, Just For Fun!