Top 5 Best Green MTG Cards in cEDH

Ranking the best cards in the worst color.

It probably isn’t an incredibly controversial take anymore that Green is the worst color in competitive Commander (cEDH). Even throughout its dominance of the occasional Standard format, its omnipresence in Commander (often for ramp purposes, something competitive Commander builds accomplish with mana-generating artifacts), and its longevity at the top thanks to Thrasios, Triton Hero builds once being a popular choice, it just isn’t quite getting the job done as a wholistic color.

While other colors have gotten progressively better and more broken cards, Green has gotten… Endurance. However, while the color hasn’t seen many new toys recently, it does still keep up with the rest of the colors quite well. Being the worst color in cEDH is by no means a death knell to a color, there is just a lot to contend with elsewhere. There’s a reason that if you look at the top-performing decks, many of them still have Green in them somewhere. What are those reasons? These top 5 cards, of course!

#5 Sylvan Library

Sylvan Library (Borderless)

Dominaria Remastered

I’ve talked about Sylvan Library in the past (and so have plenty of other players), but in the grand scheme of Commander, it’s just… a fine card. It does what it says on the tin, letting you draw two extra cards a turn cycle in return for a whole lot of life. There are decks these extra cards are the difference between making and breaking your entire game plan… and then there are the decks that leave it at home. Most Temur Pirates (Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator / Tana, the Bloodsower) pilots, for example, have never cut it due to a lack of card advantage in the command zone and need to find Glint-Horn Buccaneer immediately to raise its stock. However, there are now many people who would be hard-pressed to put it in their Thrasios decks due to the range of other options available.

Market Price: $13.85

Sylvan Library is an objectively powerful card but the mix of having to wait a turn cycle to get your value, having to wait for two more turns than normal in between it triggering, and also that amount of life loss is very relevant these days (combat and Black cards are as popular as they’ve ever been) are brutal in plenty of games. It lands at number five.

#4 Elvish Spirit Guide

Elvish Spirit Guide (Borderless)

Secret Lair Drop Series

Woa, woa, woa! I’m getting spicy here, considering that depending on who you talk to, this card should be either higher on the list or not on it at all. Personally, Elvish Spirit Guide is a card I’ll never leave my house without (if I’m playing Green, at least). Making mana quickly and cheaply is the easiest way to get ahead at the cEDH table, and while its compatriot, Simian Spirit Guide, didn’t quite make the cut for my Best 5 Best Red Cards in cEDH feature, Elvish Spirit Guide is easily good enough to make it here. It may feel strange to say something akin to a very limited Lotus Petal deserves to be on this list, but it has more utility than that as well. It doesn’t trigger any on-cast effects when you use it, like Rhystic Study or Mystic Remora.

Market Price: $15.44

Market Price: $48.52

It also can be pitched to Survival of the Fittest (a card that would have made it here if it was used in a wider range of cEDH decks) or even be put into play to be sacrificed to other great Green cards, like Eldritch Evolution and Neoform. No matter your need, Elvish Spirit Guide can probably meet it (well, unless you’re trying to win the game right this moment), all while being a silly little mana source when your opponents least expect it.

#3 Worldly Tutor

Worldly Tutor (Borderless)

Dominaria Remastered

One of the more iconic tutors in the Commander format, Worldly Tutor gives lots of oomph to decks that rely on finding specific creatures, such as Najeela, the Blade-Blossom, Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy and more. It does have two problems:

• It puts the card on top of your library, forcing you to cast it on the end step or have an assured way to draw a card, lest you wait a turn cycle to gain access to your revealed tutored card.
• It only finds Creatures, a Magic: The Gathering card type that is historically, outside of some extreme outliers like Dockside Extortionist, the weakest of all of them. 

While it does have these obvious shortcomings, being able to find any creature in your deck at instant speed and in return for only one mana is obviously an obnoxiously powerful effect. Worldly Tutor is one of the most common sources of Dockside Extortionist and Derevi, Empyrial Tactician out there, and that alone is enough for me to want to bump it up past my first draft… where I had it at five. Oops! I personally have never been a huge fan of Worldly Tutor, despite always having played decks that rely on it. The above downsides are just too large for me to ignore, and every time I draw it, I wish it was just slightly better. However, even a less-than-ideal one-mana tutor is still incredible!

#2 Seedborn Muse

Seedborn Muse

Commander 2019

Here it is! The biggest Midrange menace in the format. The grand-pappy of all Thrasios creatures. The thing you fear is your Kinnan opponent casting at all times. Seedborn Muse is one of the few genuine must-answer creatures we have in cEDH, enabling decks built around it to gain massive levels of advantage in just one turn cycle. Untapping each of your permanents on each of your opponent’s turns is an ability that can get out of hand very quickly — and often does.

It lets Thrasios draw tons of cards, and Kinnan activate tons of times while also ensuring that come to every turn, they have the option of using their mana to interact or flash things in. Seedborn Muse is basically the glue that helps hold these decks together at this point, taking their relatively fair plans and turbocharging them to the max. It even is durable, presenting four toughness that match up well against Lightning Bolt and Abrade, some of the most common non-white removal spells you’ll run into. I love this card so much that it almost makes me want to play a Thrasios build. Almost.

Dang, can you imagine if the Prophet of Kruphix was legal? I can.

#1 Eldritch Evolution 

Eldritch Evolution

Secret Lair Showdown

What is better than a Seedborn Muse but the card that is most often used to sneakily get it into play? If Seedborn Muse is the card that holds decks like Thrasios and Kinnan together, Eldritch Evolution is the card that enables every creature-heavy plan without question. It screams all things that Green is good at in cEDH to me. It takes your mana-generating creatures and turns them into an impactful threats that will hopefully either win the game on the spot or snowball your advantage into a much better position. 

Paying three mana to often immediately cheat out the creature you need at the moment (or even one that will win you the game) is an incredible effect that people have been able to build entire archetypes around. Whether I’m playing Temur Malcolm, Najeela, Kinnan, Thrasios / Tymna, or Thrasios / Dargo, it’s almost universally the card I’m hoping to draw most off of the top of my deck. Obviously, it does have the minor downside of requiring a creature to get it going, but in all of this mana dork and other creature-heavy decks, cashing in a card on board to get out one of your best creatures (Like, say, a game-winning one such as Darevi) is a no brainer.

Let’s Get Green

Market Price: $40.83

Despite my own thoughts that it’s the worst color in cEDH, Green still has a ton of game and powerful effects in the format. Whether you’re looking for mana, more mana, or powerful creatures that can get you more mana, Green is ready to help you out. I look forward to seeing if Green can regain some ground over the coming years, but with the way that card design philosophy currently works, it doesn’t seem likely the color will get broken cards in the way that cEDH requires.