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When it comes to Mono-colored decks, you have six different options (if you count Colorless). With Mono Green, prices can range from very expensive to quite cheap. Budget Green options are plentiful in Commander, allowing you to build decks without having to spend a ton of money.
Budget Staples
These are cards that most Green decks want to run. These are substitutes for stronger cards that do similar (if not identical) things to their more expensive counterparts. Mono Green can do quite a few things (especially at lower bracket levels), so there are countless options. If you don’t want to spend a ton of money, you can use these budget Green options instead.
Ramp Cards
Green is the color of ramp (cards that generate mana ahead of your natural mana curve). Three Visits is one of the strongest cards for ramp, as you can search for any Forest card, not just a basic. So any dual lands or triomes can be put onto the battlefield with it, so long as it has a Forest land type. However, for a budget option, luckily, you have an identical version with Nature's Lore that costs significantly less.
Gaea's Cradle is one of the most expensive staples in the game. It’s on the Reserved List, so it’ll never be reprinted. So, unless you’re planning on using a proxy you have to really break the bank if you want to use its powerful effect. This effect is on a few weaker, much more budget-friendly cards. The two notable examples are Evendo, Waking Haven and Circle of Dreams Druid. These cards aren’t overly expensive, but not super cheap. However, compared to Gaea's Cradle, it’s a bargain. For Elf decks, Elvish Archdruid serves a similar function, as does Overgrown Battlement for Defender decks.
Counter Syngery
One of the common themes of Mono Green is +1/+1 counters. You have cards like Doubling Season, Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider, Primal Vigor, and The Earth Crystal, which can all double the counters that are being put on your creatures, though they can be a bit costly.
The only budget option that fully doubles +1/+1 counters is Branching Evolution. It has less utility than its counterparts, but still gets the job done without needing to spend too much money. The budget version of this effect is putting just one extra +1/+1 counter on your creatures when you put them on. Options include Hardened Scales, Solid Ground, and High Score. These effects do stack, so you get to add an extra counter for each version of the effect you have on the battlefield.
Tutors
Every color that can tutor has a gimmick. Black can tutor for anything, Blue can tutor for instants and sorceries, and Green can tutor for creatures. Cards such as Sylvan Tutor and Worldly Tutor are your traditional tutors in Green. Survival of the Fittest and Defense of the Heart require some extra hoops to jump through, but are also fantastic (and expensive) tutors like the rest.
Luckily, there are some great budget Green options. Summoner's Pact can tutor for any creature for no mana, but you do need to pay on your next turn if you don’t want to lose the game. Fauna Shaman takes a bit of time to set up, but once it is, you can trade any creature card in your hand for one in your library. Magus of the Order sacrifices itself with another Green creature to bring any Green creature from the library onto the battlefield. Primal Command can tutor for creatures, and offers a variety of utility effects too. These range in usefulness depending on what the current game state is.
Extra Land Drops
An effect that Mono Green has access to is the ability to play extra lands on your turn. Exploration is the best version of this effect, since you can utilize it as early as turn one. Icetill Explorer and Azusa, Lost but Seeking are great as well, but all of these cards are not cheap.
The budget options for these are, luckily, still rather strong. Prismatic Undercurrents is the cheapest, and comes with the bonus of getting extra basic land cards out from your library. Rites of Flourishing is a common Group Hug card, giving all players an extra land drop and an extra draw at the start of their turn. Although Summer Bloom is a sorcery, it gives you three extra land drops for when you have a ton of lands in your hand.
Mana Dorks
While most colors have some form of mana dorks, Green is the color with by far the most. The color usually has cards that can tap for any color. Birds of Paradise is the classic mana dork, a one-drop that can generate any color of mana. Delighted Halfling can be used for colorless mana, or any mana if the spell is legendary. Bloom Tender can make a ton of mana when it comes to WUBRG decks.
For easy mana fixing, Abundant Growth can turn any land into a way to make mana of any color. Sylvan Caryatid is useful as a blocker, as it has decent toughness and can’t be removed easily thanks to having hexproof. You can get two mana dorks for the price of one with Tender Wildguide if you can pay for its offspring cost. This nets you two creatures that can tap for any color of mana, as well as the ability to grow their own stats if you don’t need to use them for mana generation.
Budget Green Commander Builds
As with every archetype, there are budget builds. We’ll be looking at a few archetypes in Mono Green that all cost less than $100. These decks are still strong despite their budget restriction, thanks to the many budget Green options available. These won’t include naturally budget archetypes like Vanilla Creatures Matters, since those are naturally cheap. Instead, they’ll be archetypes that can run up a price tag, but with decklists that are much nicer on the budget. Sage of the Maze can make any two colors of mana you want, and turn a land into a creature (but do need to be playing Gates).
Budget Elves
Elves are one of the most common tribes when it comes to Mono Green (and in general). For a commander, the best choice is Marwyn, the Nurturer. It quickly rises in power to be able to generate a ton of Green mana easily. You want a ton of Elves constantly entering the battlefield, so cards such as Lys Alana Huntmaster and Elvish Warmaster are particularly great.
The thing Elves shine the most at is flooding the battlefield. Many Elves tap to generate a ton of mana like your commander and Priest of Titania. So, cards that can untap your creatures are very powerful in the deck. Quirion Ranger, Scryb Ranger, and Seeker of Skybreak all help to keep your mana dorks untapped to keep making mana.
Elf decks can easily run out of steam, so draw power is vital for the deck to thrive. Most of your deck is made up of creatures, so Beast Whisperer, Regal Force, and Leaf-Crowned Visionary all draw a ton of cards. Shamanic Revelation and Return of the Wildspeaker are also quite helpful draw cards.
A sample decklist can be viewed below. You win by either flooding the battlefield with creatures, or through Helix Pinnacle or Beastmaster Ascension.
Commander
Creatures (45)
Instants (4)
Sorceries (9)
Artifacts (4)
Enchantments (4)
100 Cards
$178.39
Budget Landfall
Another common theme with Mono Green is Landfall. Green is the color of ramp, so it makes sense it’s the color of Lands Matter. Titania, Protector of Argoth is the commander here. Instead of caring about lands entering, it cares about lands leaving. So, it plays plenty of lands that sacrifice themselves to tutor for other lands such as Fabled Passage. Evolving Wilds, and Shire Terrace.
With how many lands go to the graveyard, you want ways to get lands out of the graveyard. Undergrowth Recon puts one land from the battlefield tapped every upkeep. It’s especially good with the New Capenna fetchlands (Brokers Hideout) since they’ll be sacrificed for a basic land right away and trigger your commander. Conduit of Worlds lets you play any lands from your graveyard, and a nonland permanent once per turn if you accidentally mill something important. Aftermath Analyst and World Shaper can bring all lands back, but have to die to do so.
You have traditional landful cards as well. Chocobo Racetrack and Zendikar's Roil create creature tokens when lands enter. Titania, Nature's Force makes tokens when Forests enter, and Tireless Provisioner helps to ramp with Treasure tokens.
A sample decklist can be viewed below. It floods the battlefield with powerful tokens, and overpowers your opponents with them.
Commander
Creatures (28)
Instants (7)
Sorceries (10)
Artifacts (8)
Enchantments (7)
Lands (40)
100 Cards
$153.9
Budget Infect
There are a few different ways to build infect. For a budget option, your best commander choice is Fynn, the Fangbearer. Rather than strictly infect, it’s also partly a Deathtouch deck. The idea is to play cheap creatures with deathtouch like Ankle Biter and Dragon Sniper so that your commander turns them into ways to put poison counters on your opponents. You want to get a ton of creatures out early so that your opponents won’t have enough blockers for your creatures.
Once you get just one poison counter on your opponents, you can increase them with proliferation so you never actually have to deal damage to them again. The easiest way is with Evolution Sage, which just needs you to play lands, and Karn's Bastion that only needs you to pay mana. Staff of Compleation requires you to pay three life, but after that, you can proliferate. Planewide Celebration can proliferate four times with just one card.
Hornet Nest and Hornet Queen are easy ways to make flying tokens with deathtouch. This makes it easier to connect for damage in the late-game when your opponents are more likely to have defenses up. The best card for this is Bellowing Tanglewurm, which grants all your creatures intimidate. Since you’re in a mono-colored deck, that severely limits what your opponents will be able to block with.
A sample decklist can be viewed below. This deck has an explosive start, but can struggle in the later game (especially after a board wipe) since most of the creatures are rather weak if your commander isn’t around.
Commander
Creatures (36)
Instants (6)
Sorceries (10)
Artifacts (14)
Lands (34)
100 Cards
$135.56
Budget Voltron
Voltron is an archetype that exists in every color and color pairing. These are decks that are focused on loading up your commander with counters, Equipment, and Auras, and making them your primary source of damage. For a budget option, we’ll be using Legolas, Master Archer. It has a self-growth effect, as the entire deck’s removal suite consists of fight spells such as Ancient Animus or creature-based damage removal like Animist's Might.
Once Legolas has power, you want to get in with direct damage. Trailblazer's Boots, Brotherhood Regalia, and Psychic Paper all help to make Legolas unblockable. This helps to close out games by taking your opponents out with commander damage.
As with all Voltron decks, you want to ensure your commander sticks around. Cards with Umbra armor (formerly totem armor) are quite useful since they provide a stat boost along with protection from removal. Lion Umbra needs the creature to be modified, but provides both vigilance and reach, which are both useful effects to have. Less powerful are Spider Umbra and Boar Umbra, but you’re playing it more for the protection than the effects.
A sample decklist can be viewed below. The deck is great at keeping the battlefield clear of threats, as you can use Legolas, Master Archer‘s effect to remove one creature, and the fight spell to remove another.
Commander
Creatures (13)
Instants (21)
Sorceries (11)
Artifacts (13)
Enchantments (11)
100 Cards
$159
In Conclusion
Budget Green decks can be very formidable. Even though you aren’t playing with the best of the best cards, Green is such a popular color that even the budget options are very useful. You can build very powerful decks without needing to spend a ton of money.
This article is only the tip of the iceberg of what Mono Green can do on a budget. Whether you like hyper-aggro decks like Infect, or Midrange decks such as Landfall, budget Mono Green has something for everyone.
