The best color combinations in Commander, ranked by win rate

What is the best color combination in Commander?

Best color combinations

Every color combination of two or more colors, ranked by win rate in four-player games. A deck belongs to exactly one of these rows: its full color identity. Decks in a single color are the second ranking below, and the 9,000 games played by colorless decks are neither.

Top 5, at least 10,000 games

Best first.

	Izzet	28.23%	40,736 games
	Temur	27.55%	41,003 games
	Boros	26.21%	34,867 games
	Five Color	26.11%	66,549 games
	Esper	25.95%	51,272 games

Bottom 5, at least 10,000 games

Worst last.

	Gruul	23.81%	41,528 games
	Selesnya	23.35%	27,453 games
	Dimir	22.96%	42,670 games
	Sultai	22.93%	40,545 games
	Grixis	22.28%	51,963 games

Three four-color combinations have a higher win rate than Izzet but fewer than 10,000 games each, so they are left out of this strip. They are in the four-color table below, with the reason to be careful with them.

Two-color combinations

All ten two-color combinations, best win rate first, in four-player games.

Colors	Combination	Most played commander	Win rate	Games	Vs 25%
	Izzet best Izzet commanders	Stella Lee, Wild Card	28.23%	40,736	+3.23 points
	Boros best Boros commanders	Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser	26.21%	34,867	+1.21 points
	Orzhov best Orzhov commanders	Clavileño, First of the Blessed	25.94%	37,921	+0.94 points
	Azorius best Azorius commanders	Shorikai, Genesis Engine	25.69%	26,445	+0.69 points
	Simic best Simic commanders	Hakbal of the Surging Soul	25.41%	43,565	+0.41 points
	Golgari best Golgari commanders	Lathril, Blade of the Elves	24.45%	48,730	-0.55 points
	Rakdos best Rakdos commanders	Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls	24.35%	44,849	-0.65 points
	Gruul best Gruul commanders	Bello, Bard of the Brambles	23.81%	41,528	-1.19 points
	Selesnya best Selesnya commanders	Ellivere of the Wild Court	23.35%	27,453	-1.65 points
	Dimir best Dimir commanders	Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow	22.96%	42,670	-2.04 points

Three-color combinations

All ten three-color combinations, best win rate first, in four-player games.

Colors	Combination	Most played commander	Win rate	Games	Vs 25%
	Temur best Temur commanders	Ureni of the Unwritten	27.55%	41,003	+2.55 points
	Esper best Esper commanders	Y'shtola, Night's Blessed	25.95%	51,272	+0.95 points
	Naya best Naya commanders	Pantlaza, Sun-Favored	25.37%	57,629	+0.37 points
	Jund best Jund commanders	Hearthhull, the Worldseed	25.34%	34,351	+0.34 points
	Mardu best Mardu commanders	Edgar Markov	25.27%	50,563	+0.27 points
	Jeskai best Jeskai commanders	Éowyn, Shieldmaiden	24.88%	46,008	-0.12 points
	Bant best Bant commanders	Ms. Bumbleflower	24.74%	37,731	-0.26 points
	Abzan best Abzan commanders	Felothar the Steadfast	24.56%	28,648	-0.44 points
	Sultai best Sultai commanders	The Wise Mothman	22.93%	40,545	-2.07 points
	Grixis best Grixis commanders	Sauron, the Dark Lord	22.28%	51,963	-2.72 points

Four-color combinations

All five four-color combinations, best win rate first, in four-player games. Read the note under this table before quoting a row.

Colors	Combination	Most played commander	Win rate	Games	Vs 25%
	Sans Green best Sans Green commanders	Tymna the Weaver	28.58%	4,482	+3.58 points
	Sans Red best Sans Red commanders	Atraxa, Praetors' Voice	27.12%	8,365	+2.12 points
	Sans Black best Sans Black commanders	Aragorn, the Uniter	26.03%	7,387	+1.03 points
	Sans White best Sans White commanders	Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder	25.19%	1,481	+0.19 points
	Sans Blue best Sans Blue commanders	Saskia the Unyielding	25.10%	1,434	+0.10 points

All five colors

The one five-color combination, in four-player games.

Colors	Combination	Most played commander	Win rate	Games	Vs 25%
	Five Color best Five Color commanders	The Ur-Dragon	26.11%	66,549	+1.11 points

Best mono color

A mono color deck is a deck whose color identity is exactly one color. It carries no partner color, so this is the cleanest question you can ask about a color on its own, and the gaps here are much larger than in the third ranking below.

Mono color decks, 4-player games

25%, an even share

Decks whose color identity is exactly that one color.

Blue

27.43%

19,903 games

Red

25.80%

36,326 games

Black

25.12%

32,742 games

White

24.99%

20,579 games

Green

24.21%

25,671 games

Blue is clearly above 25% and green clearly below it. Red is above. Black and white are level with it. The five span 3.22 points, more than four times the spread in the third ranking below.

Mono color decks, 2-player games

50%, an even share

The same decks with one opponent instead of three. An even share here is 50%.

Green

54.50%

7,582 games

Red

53.40%

7,562 games

White

52.57%

6,081 games

Blue

50.18%

4,129 games

Black

49.00%

8,135 games

Green and blue change places completely. Mono green wins 54.50% of 2-player games and 24.21% of 4-player games. Mono blue wins 50.18%, then 27.43%. This is why every headline figure on this page says how many players are in the game.

Color	Mono color page	Most played commander	Win rate	Games	Vs 25%
Blue	best mono-blue commanders	Urza, Lord High Artificer	27.43%	19,903	+2.43 points
Red	best mono-red commanders	Krenko, Mob Boss	25.80%	36,326	+0.80 points
Black	best mono-black commanders	K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth	25.12%	32,742	+0.12 points
White	best mono-white commanders	Giada, Font of Hope	24.99%	20,579	-0.01 points
Green	best mono-green commanders	Ghalta, Primal Hunger	24.21%	25,671	-0.79 points

Best color across all Commander games

This ranking counts every deck that contains the color, whatever else is in it. A Grixis deck counts once each for blue, black and red. It is the broadest way to ask which color is best. Because almost every deck plays more than one color, each row is mostly about the colors that one is usually paired with. The five shares add up to well over 100%.

Every deck containing the color, 4-player games

25%, an even share

A deck counts toward every color in its identity. The dotted line is an even share.

White

25.44%

507,333 games

Red

25.40%

561,156 games

Blue

25.30%

530,105 games

Green

25.01%

512,070 games

Black

24.71%

546,565 games

White, red and blue sit a little above 25%, green is right at it, and black is the only color clearly below it. The top three are too close together to put in a firm order.

Color	Commanders	Win rate	Games	Vs 25%
White	best mono-white commanders	25.44%	507,333	+0.44 points
Red	best mono-red commanders	25.40%	561,156	+0.40 points
Blue	best mono-blue commanders	25.30%	530,105	+0.30 points
Green	best mono-green commanders	25.01%	512,070	+0.01 points
Black	best mono-black commanders	24.71%	546,565	-0.29 points
25%, an even share		25.00%		0.00 points

The second and third rankings disagree, and that is the point of printing both. Blue is first among mono color decks at 27.43% and third across all decks that contain it at 25.30%. White is first across all decks at 25.44% and fourth among mono color decks at 24.99%. Anyone quoting a single best color number is quoting one of these two rankings without saying which.

Games here means games played by a deck: one deck in one game, so a four-player game adds four. This table rests on 1,062,396 of them, played by 288,947 different decks.

Win rate by number of colors

The shape here is a curve, not a line. Two-color and three-color decks are level with 25%. Four-color and five-color decks are above it, and so is a single color. So "more colors is better" is not what this shows: the climb only appears at four and five colors, and the two largest groups of all sit at the bottom.

The colorless row is not a finding about playing no colors. 4,379 of its 9,000 games are one commander, Zhulodok, Void Gorger, winning 29.34%, and a further 1,003 are Kozilek, the Great Distortion. Read it as a fact about those two decks.

Inside Izzet and Grixis

The obvious objection to the ranking above is that one popular commander could be carrying a whole combination. It is worth checking, and it does not hold: take the most played commander out of Izzet and it still wins 27.93%, and take the most played commander out of Grixis and it rises only to 22.67%, still last.

Izzet, five most played commanders

	Stella Lee, Wild Card 6.9% of the combination	32.24%	2,826 games
	Vivi Ornitier 6.6% of the combination	32.47%	2,701 games
	Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph 6.0% of the combination	23.80%	2,462 games
	Niv-Mizzet, Parun 4.4% of the combination	29.29%	1,813 games
	Veyran, Voice of Duality 3.8% of the combination	30.24%	1,531 games

Grixis, five most played commanders

	Sauron, the Dark Lord 9.6% of the combination	18.60%	5,016 games
	Nekusar, the Mindrazer 8.0% of the combination	23.37%	4,142 games
	Be'lakor, the Dark Master 4.5% of the combination	24.30%	2,350 games
	Kefka, Court Mage // Kefka, Ruler of Ruin 4.5% of the combination	27.26%	2,348 games
	Admiral Brass, Unsinkable 4.4% of the combination	22.50%	2,280 games

Sultai is the one combination where a single commander does most of the work: The Wise Mothman is 19.4% of it and wins 16.59%, and without that deck Sultai rises from 22.93% to 24.46%, which would move it out of the bottom five. The other two do not move like that.

Popularity against power

The most played color, red, is second strongest. The second most played, black, is the weakest. White is the least played of the top three and finishes first. The same holds for combinations: Grixis is the fourth most played combination and the worst performing one.

Share of decks is the share of distinct decks whose identity includes that color, so it adds to more than 100%. Win rate is the four-player figure from the third ranking.

Has it changed since 2023?

Players moved toward three colors, and three-color decks sit at the bottom of the curve. So what people play changed. The win rates did not. Every figure below counts every deck containing the color, in four-player games with one winner, sorted by the year the game ended. 2023 is a partial year of 7,163 four-player games, because tracking only got going halfway through it, and 2026 runs to 31 Aug 2026. Everything before 2023 is 165 games in total and is not shown.

Color	2023 (part year)	2024	2025	2026 (part year)
White	25.55% 13,035 games	25.72% 115,455 games	25.33% 208,727 games	25.37% 170,061 games
Red	25.58% 14,070 games	25.42% 128,825 games	25.34% 228,665 games	25.45% 189,552 games
Blue	25.88% 13,518 games	25.34% 122,496 games	25.30% 217,908 games	25.23% 176,144 games
Green	25.09% 12,471 games	24.99% 119,562 games	25.03% 207,637 games	25.01% 172,345 games
Black	25.04% 14,534 games	24.83% 126,540 games	24.62% 221,839 games	24.70% 183,597 games

Black is last in every one of the four years. The top of the table swaps between white, red and blue from year to year, which is what three values inside 0.2 points of each other are expected to do.

What this page does not say

• Nobody was handed a color combination. People pick one along with the commander, the budget and how hard they mean to play. So a win rate here describes the decks people build in a combination, not the colors.
• Precon evenings and tuned decks sit in the same average. Only 18.0% of decks tell us their bracket, so we cannot split them apart.
• The three rankings answer three different questions and will not agree. In the third one, only 20,579 of white's 507,333 games are mono white decks, so that row is mostly about the colors white is paired with.
• We checked whether this holds when every deck in the game declares the same bracket. That leaves 7,524 games, far too few to answer it either way. Nothing jumped, and that is all we can say.
• Playgroup Live games alone cannot settle it either. Live started part way through 2026 and is 5.5% of that year's four-player games, 19,456 of them, which is too few. Black comes out low on both Live and the tracker.
• It does not say which combination you should play. Two decks in the same colors differ more than most of these rows, and two players differ more still.

Method and caveats

• We start from every finished Commander game tracked on Playgroup with at least two players: 670,472 games, all of them, through 31 Aug 2026. Solo games are left out. Which colors a deck counts as is decided the same way as on our colors pages.
• We keep only games with one winner. That is 636,866 games and drops 33,606, or 5.01%: 17,125 with no winner written down, 16,012 with more than one, and 469 draws. Most of those were abandoned rather than finished.
• The page compares every row against 25%, an even share in a four-player game, and against 50% where it talks about two players. The decks in this data win 25.1% of four-player games on average rather than exactly 25%, because games recorded without a commander are left out and those lose more often. The page compares against 25% to keep it readable.
• Games means games played by a deck: one deck in one game, so a four-player game adds four. Four-player games give us 1,062,396 of them, played by 288,947 different decks. Decks repeat, about 3.65 games each in the biggest group, so small differences are less solid than the game counts suggest.
• Nothing with fewer than 1,000 games is shown at all, and a combination needs 10,000 before we will call it the best. That is why the three four-color rows above Izzet are not the headline.
• The 95% confidence interval for every figure on this page is in the audit document, along with the working. We left the intervals off the tables to keep them readable, and only quote one where it decides something.
• Tracking really starts in the middle of 2023: everything before is 165 games. 2024 is the first full year, so year-on-year change is measured from there, and 2026 runs only to 31 Aug 2026.
• Two-player games behave differently, so every headline figure on this page says four players. The full working is in our research notes at docs/audits/most-powerful-color-2026-09-14.md.
• This page is a snapshot of that audit, not a live feed. Our colors overview page measures something different on a rolling window and will not print the same numbers.

Playgroup Live is a free in-browser virtual tabletop for 2 to 6 player Commander. Games played there and games logged with our tracker are what these numbers are made of.

Art credits

Art: Fajareka Setiawan (Stella Lee, Wild Card), James Ryman (Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser), Matt Stewart (Clavileño, First of the Blessed), Wisnu Tan (Shorikai, Genesis Engine), Tyler Walpole (Hakbal of the Surging Soul), Caroline Gariba (Lathril, Blade of the Elves), Chris Cold (Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls), Slawomir Maniak (Bello, Bard of the Brambles), Dmitry Burmak (Ellivere of the Wild Court), Yongjae Choi (Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow), Valera Lutfullina (Ureni of the Unwritten), Magali Villeneuve (Y'shtola, Night's Blessed), Sam Burley (Pantlaza, Sun-Favored), Daniel Ljunggren (Hearthhull, the Worldseed), Volkan Baǵa (Edgar Markov), Craig Elliott (Éowyn, Shieldmaiden), Marta Nael (Ms. Bumbleflower), Zoltan Boros (Felothar the Steadfast), Chris Seaman (The Wise Mothman), Kieran Yanner (Sauron, the Dark Lord), Winona Nelson (Tymna the Weaver), Victor Adame Minguez (Atraxa, Praetors' Voice), Javier Charro (Aragorn, the Uniter), Karl Kopinski (Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder), Greg Opalinski (Saskia the Unyielding), Jaime Jones (The Ur-Dragon), Grzegorz Rutkowski (Urza, Lord High Artificer), Lie Setiawan (Krenko, Mob Boss), Chase Stone (K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth), Kai Carpenter (Giada, Font of Hope), Chase Stone (Ghalta, Primal Hunger), Toni Infante (Vivi Ornitier), Aaron J. Riley (Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph), Svetlin Velinov (Niv-Mizzet, Parun), Mathias Kollros (Veyran, Voice of Duality), Mark Winters (Nekusar, the Mindrazer), Daarken (Be'lakor, the Dark Master), Xui Ton (Kefka, Court Mage // Kefka, Ruler of Ruin), Jason Rainville (Admiral Brass, Unsinkable). © Wizards of the Coast.