MTG Salvation

As the title says I'm looking for the most fun to play R or G commanders. My group thought it would be fun if we all built a different color, and I've got my choice of mono Red or mono Green. But uh, I don't usually enjoy those colors too much. Red is a fine complimentary color but I almost never play Green. The commanders my group has decided on are Kami of the Crescent Moon, God-Eternal Oketra, and Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker. The most interesting one I've found seems to be Grenzo, Havoc Raiser because at least then I can play with their cards and stuff. I'd love some input on the subject!

Diaochan, Artful Beauty has probably inspired more time on the deck-builder sites than any other legend since Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder. You'll want to throw in the equipment that grants shroud, indestructible and protection from red, and the rest is up to you.

Mono Red and Mono Green were the first 2 commander decks that I really optimized

I went with Godo since he is a strong enough threat by himslef. Red has a hard time closing out the game since it has such a focus on small creatures and direct damage in constructed, which does not translate well, so you need a recurring threat.

Mono Green Omnath or Azuza are probably the 2 strongest. I think Azuza requires a bit more tuning, where omnath is engine and threat in 1 package that you can just throw a bunch of green cards in with, or tune it.

I always had a lot of fun with Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant in G, it is a different style of ramp to most green decks that explodes into the most splashy of plays.

My favorite decks in these two colors are Daretti, Scrap Savant and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger. Not sure if I would strictly count them as "mono-color" since both are artifact-heavy.

I play Daretti with as many small combos and interactions as possible, like a Rube Goldberg machine that might eventually do something useful.

I play Vorinclex as a hateful, "fun-police" Stax deck. It is playfully named "Vorinstax".

Wort the Raidmother. Play different decks and choose either red or green. If you're green copy stuff like mwonvuli acid moss or plow under. If red copy goblin token stuff.

I run a Nylea, God of the Hunt +1/+1 counters deck that’s loads of fun, using Nylea to always grant trample is a huge benefit.
I also run a Krenko, Mob Boss mono red goblins deck that’s LOADS of fun. It’s definitely my favorite deck, and it’s a fast win, usually turn 5-6.

I’m particular to Bosh, Iron Golem being the best mono-red Commander, but I think that I’m fairly biased in this regard. I think that the new Neheb, Dreadhorde General or Neheb, the Eternal are both fantastic cards to potentially build around without having an obvious theme. You mention playing with your opponents cards, so I would also check out Etali, Primal Storm. The other mono-red general that I thought would be really interesting to build was Varchild, Betrayer of Kjledor.

Mono-green has plenty of ways to go for Elf tribal, but I think that Druid tribal with Seton, Krosan Protector can be equally good yet much less expected. Other good options would be Titania, Protector of Argoth or Yisan, the Wanderer Bard as both have some cool things going on without having a theme set in stone.

I really love feldon of the third path as an artifact heavy general. You can slot in land destruction packages and some intense power plays, or keep it super casual creature combat focused like mine.

Oh wow, thank you all for the suggestions! There were a couple that really jumped out at me. Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion looked interesting and so did Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant. Trying to assemble a hand of all lands really seems like a lot of fun, but I think I've been smitten by Titania, Protector of Argoth. That looks like a very interesting way to build Green. I just hope that the deck can keep up with God-Eternal Oketra which is my main concern. That seems like it's going to be very, very good at going wide but hopefully I can find a way to make this deck work out. I've got some ideas. Again, thank you all so much!

Dong Zhou mono red etb matters. His ability, which makes target creature deal damage to its controller equal to its power, is surprisingly relevant.

I’d vote Grenzo, and you can build him with low goblin counts as well. Being able to steal opponent spells while manipulating them to fight amongst each other is great for mono red.

Zo-Zu the punisher was one of the most fun mono red decks I've ever had. Lots of land destruction and punisher type effects. The coup-de-grace was casting Thieves Auction with Zo-Zu out and watch people sweat over choosing lands.

For monored, Neheb, the Eternal is pretty interesting. For monogreen, I'm fond of Yisan, the Wanderer Bard.

R comes with several interesting commanders and has gotten a lot of love lately. G on the other hand doesn't come with a lot of necessarily interesting commanders but several fun and usually Timmy like commanders.

As for my faves:

R:
1. Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion - God, this card is just lovely. Card draw, mana generator, madness enabler, discard outlet, ... So much to explore.
2. Zada, Hedron Grinder - Absolutely love the unique interaction. A lot of fun to maneuver, yet a bit shakey at times.
3. Neheb, the Eternal - A lot more linear than the other iteration, still makes for some big splashy plays.
4. Grenzo, Havoc Raiser - Aggressive leader with CA and politics included.
5. Daretti, Scrap Savant - By far the best designed Precon PW. Though anyone might've seen "the Daretti deck" already.
6. Etali, Primal Storm - The Timmy option. Therefor not as viable in stronger Metas.
7. Ilharg, the Raze-Boar - Close to Sneak Attack in the Command Zone.
8. Feldon of the Third Path - One of the best back stories in MTG and a cool deck.

G:
1. Yeva, Nature's Herald - Makes G a lot stronger and more flexible. A lot of fun to maneuver and play against, too.
2. Nissa, Vastwood Seer|Nissa, Sage Animist - Has CA written all over it. Seen a lot of creative decks around her.
3. Surrak, the Hunt Caller - Haste is such a vital keyword for G! Meanest deck i've ever faced with him was ramp hard Eldrazi.
4. Reki, the History of Kamigawa - Why play one of the legends, when you can play all of them?
5. Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma - Again, Timmy option. But a strong one at that.

Happy brewin'!

If you want to win, and win fast, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is still amazing. He'll get hated off the table, but when he sticks he gets you so much value you can hardly help but win the game. I love my Kiki-Jiki deck.

For Green, I'm partial to Kamahl, Fist of Krosa. Having an overrun, a mana sink, and board wipe protection on the same creature, in your command zone no less, is pretty great.

I’m gonna suggest Nissa, Vastwood Seer. There’s a ton of utility packed on to one card there, and she’s open enough that you can take her in any direction you like. There’s a couple of decent primers here, one an enchantress build and an ETB control build (that ones mine). Both are strong builds, but more importantly, both are a blast to play.

Titania can be really strong too - she goes from zero to 100 pretty damn quick.

R
norin the wary - you can do so much dumb ***** with him as the commander of an etb / Chaos deck
Jaya Ballard, Task Mage - Control deck (Note that she can be a sweeper every turn if she has protection from red, and that there are ways to make your opponents permanents blue)
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs - Interesting Pillowfort / Punisher deck

G
Ezuri, Renegade Leader - for your typical elf deck
Selvala, Hearth of the Wilds - for that big BIG creatures (get a 2nd landdrop t1, play her t2, have 5 mana on t3, play a creature, have 10+ mana on t4
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard It feels like you could so something really interesting with him, I just didn't get to do it yet

So, which playstyle do you like? It sounds to me that you don't really love big creature decks or simply decks that need to go to the red zone. Is that true?

Anyway, you can play different styles with both colors. Here are some nice examples (all of them work really well):
- Jaya Ballard, Task Mage can be a nice mono red control deck. You can focus more on artifacts and giving here protection from red. I once played a burn version which was actually quite nice. I used many "mass" burn spells to get rid of creatures and then finished off with some damage doublers and mana doublers.
- Ilharg, the Raze Boar could be build as a nice ETB deck. I'm quite certain you don't need big fatties and can play a similar game as most Feldon of the Third Path.
- Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker can give you this combo-feeling you might have been looking for.
- Zada, Hedron Grinder gives you a super glass cannon combo deck which can even be built quite cheap if you have some concerns about the budget.
- both mono red Nehebs are also really nice and can give you this "card drawing"-feeling that many blue based decks can give. And both of them can get out of hand quite easily.
- Etali, Primal Storm looks quite boring at first but I can assure you that this dinosaur is super cool in a multiplayer setting. Just use some haste enablers and go to town.
- If you like some kind of pillowfort strategies then you can use Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs. There are many cool old enchantments that work reasonably well with him.
- If you are looking for some hyper competitive deck then there's a pretty nasty list called "Godo Helm" with Godo, Bandit Warlord.
- Last but not least, there are many tribal options, e.g. Goblins, Dragons, etc.

For green, many strategies revolve around creatures. But also there are many nice options:
- Omnath, Locus of Mana can easily overpower the table if not he's not answered early enough. There are many mana doublers out there that work nicely with him. I even player a mill versions once, and even that worked!
- Titania, Protector of Argoth gives you a really nice lands based strategy. You can go more on a token route or even a very controllish list. But many cards in such a deck are quite expensinve (concerning the budget).
- Reki, the History of Kamigawa is pretty much a "legend ball" style deck and get's new cards in almost every set. It works quite nice and you can use many cool legends and legendary permanents (Planeswalkers, Artifacts, etc.).
- Seton, Krosan Protector offers a cool tribal deck that can get out of hand on turn 3/4 quite easily. But it usually doesn't have a lot of interaction.
- Ghalta, Primal Hunger can be build in different style. You can use elves and use him as a big finisher, big creatures beatdown or even combo with Food Chain. For example, I have a big creature Stompy deck with him. It's slow but when it gets going then it's just super fun. Now there are even nice new cards, I'm looking forward to Finale of Devastation for X>=10 and get God-Eternal Rhonas making my commander's power over 40 :).

For me it has always been a question of "how much interaction do I want?". A nice green control deck (there's a super cool primer with Nissa around here) can give you a very satisfying game in which you did a lot of "answering" whereas a Stompy style deck is "simple" and plays a lot of cool creature but almost no interaction (but that depends on your build entirely).

Search for “double this, double that” to find a cool monored burn deck with Squee, Goblin Nabob. The deckhand is basicly a raw source of cardadvantage with reds ability to loot. It’s pretty fun to win with burn effects om a format where such a strategy isn’t that reliable.

I was gonna sugvest grenzo too.

As for green, commanders quarters has an interesting kamahl, fist of krosa deck. Takes green in a different direction.

i play Krenko, Mob Boss for red. goblin combo gets stupid fast but opponents will wisen up and krenko will die. as for green I play Rishkar, Peema Renegade its a +1 counter build that likes to ramp out huge critters

Honestly you cannot move past hua tuo, honored physician as interesting. Good? Maybe not. Interesting however he has it in spades.

Kind of shocked no one has even mentioned Zirilan of the Claw.

He's one of the only true toolbox commanders - he can get a dragon to solve whatever problem you need to fix at the time: need to kill a combo creature? bogardan hellkite is your man. Need to protect Zirilan from a board wipe? changeling berserker gets it done. Want to steal some sweet artifacts? Blam, hellkite tyrant. Maybe another permanent type is giving you trouble? Never fear, steel hellkite is here. Want to build up a huge board? utvara hellkite - and if you want to get even crazier, eot utvara into scourge of the throne to make oodles of tokens. Or you can combo scourge of the throne with moltensteel dragon to blow people away, or with dragon tyrant to deal tons of damage without sacrificing your life total. Or you can play it slow and build up artifact combos with hoarding dragon. So much utility, all in one card. It's super sweet.