Wedge · Color Identity
Temur (Green-Blue-Red): History, Playstyle and Best Commanders
Temur makes more mana than any other identity and spends it in one enormous turn. It has green's ramp, red's rituals and blue's card draw, and between the three of them not one clean way to kill a creature.
Temur is green, blue and red, the three-color identity. Savagery and instinct: the most mana in Magic, spent on the largest possible turn.
Also called GUR, RUG, Temur Frontier.
Where the Name Comes From
The Temur Frontier, a clan of Tarkir, named in Khans of Tarkir (2014).
Temur is green's wedge (green plus its enemies blue and red) named for the Temur Frontier, Tarkir's clan of shamans and hunters living on a glacial frontier, whose philosophy is savagery: survival demands acting on instinct. Khans of Tarkir gave them Ferocious, which rewards controlling a creature with power four or greater, and which is the flavor stated as a number.
Green-blue-red is the format's ramp-into-something-enormous identity, and it also happens to be the one that produces the most infinite mana. Green's mana dorks and land ramp, red's rituals and treasure, and blue's untap effects and cost reduction stack in a way that no other three colors do, which is why Temur turns up at competitive tables far more often than its casual reputation would suggest. Older players sometimes still call it "RUG" from constructed formats before Khans named it.
All 32 color combinations and where each name came from →How Temur Plays
Temur ramps hard and then does something the table cannot answer. That might be a genuinely enormous creature, a cascade chain that casts half the deck, a storm-style turn off rituals and untap effects, or an extra-turn loop. The unifying feature is that the deck's mana curve is a lie: a Temur deck routinely has twelve mana available on turn six.
Its card advantage comes from three directions at once: green draws off the board, blue draws off the library, and red exiles cards to play immediately. That is why the identity so rarely runs out of things to do, and why its big turns are usually assembled rather than drawn into.
The gap is interaction with permanents. Green fights, blue bounces, red burns, and none of those is a clean answer to a large creature, none touches an enchantment except green's, and there are essentially no board wipes. Temur's answer to a threat is a counterspell before it lands, or being far enough ahead that it does not matter, which means a Temur deck that is behind on board rarely gets back into a game.
What It Does Well, and What It Doesn't
Strengths
- The most mana of any identity: green ramp, red rituals and blue untap effects together.
- Excellent card advantage from three different mechanisms, so the deck never stalls out.
- Counterspells with the mana to keep them up while still developing.
- The best cascade and "cast free spells" package in the format, which turns mana into cards.
Weaknesses
- No unconditional creature removal and essentially no board wipes.
- No lifegain and no way to stabilise, so an aggressive board is a genuine problem.
- No graveyard interaction and no discard.
- Big-mana turns look like combo turns, so the table often decides to stop you early.
Best Temur Commanders
The command zones that define the identity rather than the ones winning this week: the pips beside each name are its color identity, which is what it lets you play in the other 99.
Commander Spotlight
Animar, Soul of Elements ↗
Grows with every creature you cast and makes every subsequent creature cheaper, with protection from white and black so most removal cannot touch it. Creatures become free faster than anybody expects.
Riku of Two Reflections ↗
Copies every creature and every instant and sorcery you cast, for a price. The most flexible payoff in the wedge and a mana sink for all that ramp.
Maelstrom Wanderer ↗
Cascade twice on cast and haste for the team. Eight mana that casts two free spells and swings immediately.
Surrak Dragonclaw ↗
Your creature spells cannot be countered and every creature you control has flash. Turns a ramp deck into an instant-speed one.
Xyris, the Writhing Storm ↗
A Snake for every extra card an opponent draws. Wheel effects turn a group-hug shell into a lethal board in one card.
Intet, the Dreamer ↗
Exiles the top card on connect and lets you cast it free. One of the format's original commanders, and still a fine mana sink.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Temur mean in Magic?
Temur is the green-blue-red color combination, named after the Temur Frontier, one of the five clans of Tarkir, introduced in Khans of Tarkir in 2014. It is a wedge: green plus its two enemy colors. Older players often call the same trio "RUG", which is what it was known as in constructed formats before 2014.
Why does Temur show up in competitive Commander?
Because it makes the most mana. Green's ramp, red's rituals and blue's untap effects stack in a way no other identity's do, and infinite or near-infinite mana is the shortest route to most of the format's combo finishes. The same cards that make a casual Temur deck cast a big creature early are the ones a competitive deck uses to go off.
How does Temur deal with a resolved threat?
Not well. Green fights it, blue bounces or steals it, red burns it, and each of those fails against something big, indestructible or hexproof. Most Temur decks accept this and lean on counterspells to stop the threats that matter, plus a couple of colorless answers for the ones that resolve anyway.
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