My favourite bad commander has to be Isao, Enlightened Bushi A mono green samurai commander that lets you regenerate target samurai. Not counting changelings there are five green samurai in the game.
The same problem also happens with Kentaro, the Smiling Cat. He lets you cast Samurai spells for X, where X is their cmc; basically letting you ignore any colored mana in their mana costs. No need to worry about color fixing. _But_ he's mono-White.
@@LadyTsunade777 Spice8rack did do an impressive Kentaro combo deck, and it looked interesting. So there's at least potential since that mana fixing ability of his can be abused
not adding, transposing. but yeah the guy is really REALLY bad at reading. Honestly at this point I wonder if this is intentional to get engagement in the comments which figures into the youtube algorithm or if the guy really just has a grade school reading level or massive dyslexia.
@@alexrowe9957 definitely not ai generated, ai would mispronounce things, sure, but it would get the letters and their order right, it wouldn't replace the x with a z in Ixalan or swap the r and d in Odric.
It’s wild to think at some point in time card designers and players didn’t think, “People want to win so it’s a natural tendency for players to put cards in their deck which do the most for the least” and instead thought, “It’s inherently good because it’s duel color. Let’s nerf it!”
Magic was thought to be an extremely casual game, like friends playing with each others on their kitchen table. The design team didn't balance around meta or card powers, they care more about making cool flavors or unique effects. That was why early Magic has insanely powerful cards like Black Lotus or Time Walk. The designers knew full well that those cards are broken, but they still printed them because they thought casual players would just be getting a random one or two copies in their decks and not getting 4x copies to optimize their chances of drawing those cards. Early early Magic was a lot more different than the modern day hyper competitive Magic.
They let out a lot of cards like the grandeur legends than need copies of themselves to be able to use they're better effects but let odric in f second place because "hE wAs A lEtDoWn" This list was a joke
He was the first card that came to mind when I saw this video. When I first started playing magic I tried to design a haakon deck because a graveyard knight tribal would be so cool until I realized he couldn't be cast from the command zone
When I played paper Magic, my play group was the rec room at Job Corps. The rec advisor that was the entire reason why there was a Magic play group in the first place had a Haakon deck (not EDH, just a standard 60 card deck). Because I didn't understand about discard or self-mill at the time, I didn't get how it was even possible to play him.
I actually have a Phage deck. Basically the entire deck is revolving around cheating out phage via torpor orb, platinum angel, etc. Then once phage hits the board, it basically becomes a game of archenemy with a three turn clock, where everyonce scrambles to take phage off the board. Its unconventional and doesnt win too many games but its incredibly fun to play and to play against
How about Brothers Yamakazi? You can have two out at once and if you do get two they both get a decent bonus, but Commanders singleton rule still applies, so in order to turn it on you need a clone effect, which is preciously rare in mono red.
Omitting the legendary creature you literally are unable to cast from the command zone in Haakon, Stromgald Scourge is...an interesting decision. It's a strong card but a massive albatross in the Command zone.
Cho-Manno at least combos with Pariah and Pariah shield, both of which white can search. Haakon meanwhile definitely deserves a spot on this list, for being literally impossible to cast from the command zone, so you have to tutor out a card to add him to hand and then discard him to do literally anything.
Phage may be a super bizarre card but I have always loved her ever since I opened her up back in 10th edition so she has a soft spot in my heart (also the whole lore behind her as Jeska and Karona is so good) I just can't help but love her and have a super fucked up and trolly "gift away" deck o her XD.
Yeah I remember when she first came out in Legions. I pulled Akroma and my friend pulled Phage. The story was really cool I had the books from the fat packs. Kamahl was badass too and how Akroma was created by Ixidor 😁
@@7ItalianStallion Phage was my first rare from Legions, and I used her in my reanimator deck. There was this enchantment that reanimated creatures from graveyard under next player's turn, so if you Entomb her she reanimates under their control next turn and this triggers her ability and they lose game because they didn't play her from hand. Also I use to have her red barb variant and Kamahl in both red and green variant. Green druid Kamahl was dope, he had built-in Overrun, which I used in my beast deck, but sometimes swap him into my joke squirrel deck. It's all fun and games till bunch of squirrel tokens Overrun you.
Well.. looking at how Lost Caverns of Ixalan told us that Ojer Axonil is "O-hair Ash-onil" (not perfect, but you get the idea), everyone has pronounced Ixalan incorrectly.
Fuuuu... my bottle is empty now. :( Seriously, how someone gonna do an MTG channel and not even try to pronounce stuff? Dude also calls Slivers "silvers" instead, as if they're a purse of coins.
Grandmother Sengir is such a nostalgic card for me. I’m the youngest with two much older brothers who, with my father, were pretty involved in early magic. I grew up playing Mtg by the lantern light while camping. I had no cards of my own, just played whatever my brothers and father had around. One of my favourite decks was the mono black deck. Some vampires, some royal assassins with the dreaded Icy Manipulator combo, and of course, Grandma Sengir herself! It wasn’t until many years later, long after my brothers stopped playing that I actually got back into playing myself, inheriting all their old cards. Haven’t played much in recent years but seeing Grandma Sengir in your list snapped me back to those times lol. Thanks for the video!
Ive always enjoyed yet feel mixed on commander, it's great fun building a deck round one card or using it to bolster a strategy or playstyle. you also get to see a lot of potential combo's youd never see in other formats due to the many unique interactions that building a deck from only 1 copy of a card has, however sometimes it can be a lot more chaotic in general espically being a format aimed at casual bigger multiplayer games.
This list went from "cards that are bad in Commander because of the nature of the format" to "just bad cards" surprisingly quick. I mean, Nana Sengir is bad, yes, but you can play her and she does stuff. Haakon, on the other hand...
They didn't even mentioned all the commanders that lose effects because commander doesn't let you play copies of cards like the grandeur commanders, the old mishra or dragon lord kolaghan
Phage was one of the most fun commanders I ever built around. Not great if your objective is to win a lot of games but very fun. And you can definitely win some games occasionally (or at least get some cheesy kills a little more often).
There are actually multiple cards that do so, most of them are permanents so they can be used multiple times. Edit: Those that I can see are Campfire, Command Beacon, Netherborn Altar, Road of Return. Although that last one is off-colour.
The top three feel odd. Considering how most of them are cards that don't properly function in the command zone or on the battlefield, I expected Brothers Yamazaki; Haakon, Stromgald Scourge; or any of the Grandeur commanders.
Seeing Niambi, Faithful Healer on this list is hilarious, seeing as my Niambi deck is one of those 100 or so decks on EDHREC. And like, it's not THAT bad. It works pretty well for a Teferi Tribal deck comnander, which is kinda one of the main purposes of choosing Niambi for me at least.
Hajar, Loyal Bodyguard should be on this list. Low mana cost aside, there are better ways to give creatures indestructible without having to worry about commander tax.
I would love to see you do a video where you cover the best Commanders in Pauper Commander, where any Common and Uncommon Creature can be your Commander.
Phage is cluncky but I love her! Even if she is not that powerful, she is the scariest thing in a table when you somehow manage to pull her out and give her shroud or indestructable. It is so funny to see people nuking a whole table just because Phage is there. While she is not ideal, she is very fun to try to make her work.
Back in the day I had mono-black deck, which had Phage, Visara, 4 black knights, unholy strength, 4 terrors, pestilence, Undead Gladiator, Corruption, Mutilation and Nightmare. It was super fun deck. Then Mirrodin came in and completely mess up the game (alto some might say it saved MTG by speeding it up), and bunch of people that use to play quit, including me, because power creep was insane, most previous sets couldn't keep up with Mirrodin.
You actually can put plains, mountains and islands in a bortuk deck. The colored icon on basic land icons is in the reminder text, which is jot part of the card text. Thia is for the same reason you can use cards with extort in konowhite or black decks.
Video idea: The best lands in Commander… that are terrible in every other format. Honorable mentions to lands that are designed to work in Commander, obviously, but there are a few that aren’t specifically intended that way that could be considered.
Cho mano was my favourite card when I began Magic, and it had a synergy with Pariah which deals any damages inflited to you to one creature. It sounded very strong to 13 years old me, and it was generally a win con against badly constructed blue and green decks that my siblings played XD
I actually run a Phage deck and, while definitely a bit janky, it can be pretty threatening. Using cards that prevent Phage’s ETB from killing you is really more of a plan B. I tend to try and get Phage into my hand from the command zone (Command Beacon, Campfire, etc), then cast her from hand. Black is the best tutoring color, so with that and some good card draw, you can pretty reliably find the cards you need to get Phage into your hand or prevent your death from casting her from the command zone. Haste enablers (namely the three sets of footwear) make it so that Phage is immediately threatening as soon as you play her, especially if you also have some evasion. Also, since it’s mono-black, you can run a good amount of edicts, wraths, and removal to hold other people back until you play Phage. Cards like K’rrik, Crypt Ghast, and Cabal Coffers also give you plenty of ramp, so it’s not like you’re actually waiting until turn 7 to play Phagealicious. I’ve goldfished it a bunch and it can threaten player kills as early as turns 3-4, though in practice, she usually drops around 5-6.
I had an idea for a joke deck where the idea was to get as much mana as possible as quickly as possible and 'win' by playing Phage on turn 1 (you'd need a very specific opening hand to make this work and 'winning' would be very inconsistent)
I tried it with dark ritual, a 0 cost creature, myr moonvessel and culling the weak, play swamp, cast ritual, 3 mana, one for myr vessel, one for another ritual, 4 black mana, cast culling the weak, 3 mana, myr dies, 4 mana, culling resolves, , 8 mana, cast phage and you get 1 floating mana for those pesky tax counters! People.laugh when i can pull it off
I run a Niambi deck and it rules. Not only is she a blocker once you cast Teferi later on, his +2 is very strong with mana rocks. He can, while definitely being overcosted, still draw you cards when you’re in a rut, and his -9 is a wincon. By using cards like the Chain Veil you can untap it with his ability to have multiple, occasionally infinite, activations on all your planeswalkers.
Making a bad legend your commander can be a lot of fun. There was a tier list on tapped out that has since be abandoned. I picked a commander from the lowest tier on that list LuBu master at arms and made a reasonably powerful voltron deck with him. Going into card shops with a obscure old commander and doing well with it is fun. Plus LuBu has a theme song from being a historical figure and being represented in Dynasty Warriors.
My favorite "bad" commander is Jared Carthalion, True Heir who comes in as a 3 mana 3/3 with a casting cost of 3 different colors, and also gives at least one of your opponents the ability to draw an extra card at the end of their turn. He also has a conditional Cho-Manno ability, which in this video was described as "very underwhelming." Anyways, I love that guy.
Isamaru, Hound of Konda could have been on this list. A 2/2 as a one drop is a great rate, but having this card take up your command zone is bad. Anything after the first cast is just a feelsbad.
A bad commander that I feel should have made this list is Dragonlord Kolaghan, the secondary ability to deal damage to an opponent to casted a card with the same name as something in their graveyard is 99% of the time not going to trigger since the commander format is singleton having two cards with the same name is almost impossible except for the small number of decks that can run multiple copies like Relentless Rats, Dragon’s Approach, Shadowborn Apostle, and Persistent Perstioners.
After 3 months in deployment and I am greeted with a good top 10. So delicious. Edit: Building my mono black EDH using Ihsan's Shade just for nostalgia reasons, throwing in all the memorable cards when I first started MTG, problem is that one of the yawgmoth card is banned and the other is insanely expensive.
Looking forward to seeing what these are. May make a Commander deck with one of these. EDIT: This reminds me. I need to rebuild my Grandmother Sengir deck.
My bad commander of choice is Kentaro, the Smiling Cat. His effect makes samurai creatures cost their CMC in generic mana, which would be cool for mana fixing, except he's mono white. You can do some funny things with cost reduction and lands that make colourless though if you really want to build around him.
Horobi was one of my favorite build around challenge commanders at how niche u gotta make ur deck to optimize him while playing around his double edged sword ability that makes opponents all to eager to waste a simple target ability on a crearure to kill him
When I was 13, I won my first FMN (Friday Night Magic) at my locals. This was back during OG Innistrad, and I wanted the swords from New Phyrexia. Pulled a card called, Jor Kadeen, Privailer. He has firststrike and metalcraft - creatures you control get +3/+0. When I saw Odric, Blood cursed the frist thing I thought was, "He'd be cool in a Jor Kadeen deck"
Dakkon Blackblade and Gwendlyn di Corci were actually pretty good in Legends. Sol'kanar was decent as well. And these days, Livonya Silone (first strike, legendary landwalk) would also see use.
There are a few ways to get your commander into your hand from the command zone, which eliminates the risk of them blowing up your Torpor Orb. But Torpor Orb is just a good card anyway so you might as well play it.
Every Myojin only enters with a divinity/indestructible counter if you played it *from your hand.* There are only two cards that give divinity counters (the colorless That Which Was Taken and the white Kindred Boon), and not that many cards that give indestructible counters either (Tyrite Sanctum, a scant few white cards and the black Daring Fiendbonder). They can also represent a cool deckbuilding challenge, since if you manage to get a Myojin *with* a counter into play it's hard to remove and you can then go ham with proliferation effects to spam the super powerful ability. But without that counter they are insanely overpriced vanilla creatures
I don't mind having something that is bad or not as effective as a commander. It could fit well in the 99 or have a really interesting deck building challenge some people like, I'm one of those that like a challenge. Bortuk you could get 3 basic land types in a deck because of Wastes. Also if anything you can return a creature to your hand to cast again later. It isn't horrible but not nearly as effective as it could be with more colors, its at least playable. Tetzimoc, Phage, The Unspeakable, and by extension the Miyojans(not mentioned but should have been) weren't designed with commander in mind at all so I don't blame them for not working. I do respect that there were ways of making them kind-of work but there needs to be way more of those options. Cho-Manno is an amazing card to build around. There are quite a few things the can redirect damage from you to a creature and most of that is in white. I remember early when commander was starting up that a few people had Cho-Manno decks that were just unbeatable. It does take work but it certainly isn't worst. Odric the Blood Cursed was an absolute travesty and the card is actually alright, they did him so wrong in the story. White and red does have a lot of options for each of those abilities but the fact he doesn't have one himself hurts him a little. I don't think he is unplayable its just the stigma around what they did to him that sours the card.
I feel like framing this as a ranking instead of just "here's some bad commanders" was a bad idea. yeah yeah yeah top 10s are good in the algorithm I know but. like... realistically Barktooth and Cho-Manno are by far the worst cards on this list, but the top 10 format means that putting them at the top is anticlimactic so instead top 2 went to grandmother Sengir, which is pretty bad but definitely not the worst card on this list, and Odric, Blood-Cursed which... honestly why is he on this list? Yeah sure I get the disappointment factor but like... is that really enough to put him on a list of the worst of the worst? Also "blood tokens aren't good enough to build around unless you have some other way to make use of them"... that's... that's covered by "building around them", my guy. That's like saying Krenko is bad because a bunch of 1/1s that don't have haste are too slow unless you have some other way to use them by means of damage triggers like impact tremors or sac outlets like goblin bombardment. That's... that's the entire point.
Pre watch predictions: Kentaro, Smiling Cat (Mono colored mana fixer), Phage the Untouchable (Die on ETB from Command zone.), and Haakon, Stromgald Scourge (May only be cast from graveyard). And at least one of the terrible old vanilla legends.
If you want to run an effect like Arashi... run Silklash Spider. Though it's not legendary so you'll have to run it in the 99 anyway. You lose the single target but you have a tougher creature that can REPEATEDLY wipe out flyers.
With Cho-Manno you could run Pariah and Pariah Shield, and there may be similar effects I don't know about. It doesn't make the card good, but not bad enough for this list.
You could run Granny Sengir in a Vhati Il-Dal deck I suppose. Vhati can get a creatures toughness to 1 so Granny here can actually kill it and green has LOTS of untappers. Still not GOOD by any means but... somewhat useable. I would argue that Veldrane is actually worse. You either have a 7 mana vanilla 5/5 OR a 10 mana unblocable 2/5. Without activating his ability he can be chumped by anything. WITH activating his ability you're only chipping someone for 2.
The real downside of bortuk is only black and green have "all lands are land type in addition" you got urborg and yavimayah with are already black and green really make it worse, if there was a full 5 color cycle of these lands it could work as green fetches lands well enough.
I have a tetzimoc aristocrats-y deck with a lot of the cheap return to hand reviva and sac outlets. The deck works very well on it's own, and tetzimoc is just a very reliable selective boardwipe that's only mildly clunky to get going the first time. It's far from competetively viable mind you, but it is pretty high power and more than pulls it's weight. I give you that he isn't a combo piece just living in the command zone, but i don't think he deserves a spot on worst commanders of all time :D
One of these days I’ll make a Niambi deck. The Teferi could be a much worse card. Anyway, surprised Nael, Avizoa Aeronaut didn’t share Bortuk’s slot, along with Radha, Coalition Warlord and Zar Ojanen, Scion of Efrava.
Just to be clear about the #10 spot, those were intended to BE your commander. EDH was created by the community (a small group, but it grew fast) to favor older cards with neat art so that they could actually SEE play. As the "Commander" format, those are bad cards, but originally before WOTC got the format legitimized, those kinds of cards were meant to be leading your deck. The whole idea of EDH was to have fun with old/expensive/slow cards that would never see play in higher tier formats.
I honestly don't think Sengir deserved the #1 spot on this. Whether it's in order or not, the fact that she can work with Horobi, Death's Wail and the new Massacre Girl can enable her to draw you cards when she kills things isn't anything to sneeze at. There's also lots of cards that can let you untap her and black ramp is bananas. I've actually squeaked out wins with her because of how ignored she is. "There aren't that many ways to untap her in mono black" Thousand-Year Elixir, Puppet Strings, Staff of Domination, Magewright's Stone, Patriar's Seal, Thornbite Staff, and Umbral Mantle would all like to have a word 😉
Haakon, Stromgald Scourge would come to mind. As a commander he is very hard to cast and his ability to play knights from the graveyard is nice, but not worth the effort.
Another decent reason for the legends from legends to only be tenth is the og elder dragons from that set are the entire reason the format was created to begin with.
Cho Manno and Odric i feel could had been up higher like be the 9th and 8th positions. Cho Manno is interesting because he cannot be damaged. This is not that insignificant. Odric blood cursed (and i disagree with him becoming a vampire WotC) while his ETB may seem underwhelming, your getting alot of "free" blood tokens depending on what different keywords you have on the field. When you find out how many reanimation spells there are and "flicker" spells in just white you can do some really interesting things with him creating blood tokens WHICH also upon paying one mana allow you to discard a card and draw a card. The problem when he was released was just that he didn't do much with the blood tokens.
Honestly, Dominaria is a Legends matters set, so any of the domain cards are meant to go into something like a WUBRG Legends matters deck. The same is true with a lot of cards on this list that they are meant to go in other decks and not be commanders. Just because something can be your commander doesn't mean it's meant to be.
I've been getting into commander and I've been looking through all my old magic cards from the 90s. And the 2000s and I. Specifically remember picking up Grandma. I was like wow. She sounds like a funny name for commander and then I read her abilities and I was like wow. That just it's awful
Could you cast pariah or equip pariahs shield on cho to make yourself never take damage? White does have ways to find it too. But thats about all I can think of to take advantage of the ability.
my fav is Ramses Overdark, you pay 2UUBB for a 4/3 Legendary Human Assassin from Legends that Taps: Destroy Target Enchanted Creature. He is really bad but fun
Is Blood Cursed the only dual colored version of Odric. If so, it might be worth using simply to give the deck more options than just white spells because it does still fit the theme even if its weaker
@Manalogs, I'm kind of disappointed with this one. There are at least 10 other creatures that could have fit between the best and worst on this list. The myojins, harkon, and a number of creatures that have either bad or no effects. Odric provides a little value for an ETB, but there is value to be had and a vanilla 3/3 for 3 is not a bad rate, compared to some of the 1994 legends. And Cho-man has a very unique ability. Is it over-costed? Yes? Is it worse than some of the 1994 legends? No. Same goes for the #1 spots on the list, there are much worse cards out there, even if people aren't building with the ones you put on your list. I do want to say thank you, as I appreciate and am entertained by these videos, and I've been watching since the Dual Logs days. Your videos are quite good, and usually quite informative, and I appreciate the content you put out.
Cho-Manno is not great, but you actually missed the one thing he is normally used for. The decks that run him usually outfit him with Pariah or Pariah's Shield in order to redirect all damage to him and effectively become immune to damage. Then protect him from removal with auras and eventually just win with something like Approach of the Second Sun.
While I disagree with Ordic being number 2, there is also the fact some of the keywords won't be in your deck. How many Hexproof, Reach and Deathtouch creatures are you running in a Red/White deck?
I was expecting to see the original Mishra, or maybe a stand in with a similarly limited effect, as EDH, being a singleton format, makes their effects moot, but oh well. I eas definitely expecting to see Phage, and I'm still sad she's there, though it's obvious why.
Ehhh I don't think you fully understood Odric. Having an abundance of tokens (let alone artifacts) on the field for any reason is just straight up useful
100% one that should be on here are the Myojin cards from Kamigawa Neon Dynasty. They all cost 5 mana and 3 colored mana of the colour they belong to (total 8 mana) They all get an indestructible take if cast from your hand, meaning they can never get this if cast from the command zone and then they all have another effect which requires you to remove the indestructible counter from them to do. so they cost a total of 8 Mana to cast and are effectively a vanilla creature and they don't have good stats to warrant that (3/3, 5/2 are the ones i can remember of the top of my head).
All of the Kamigawa Myojin that need to be cast from your hand to work should also be on this list. They are some of the worst commanders. I actually think this Odric, though he may be pretty bad, can be underrated and has uses. You can filter a ton with him to get through your deck if you build it right and even get to the Lumarch Marshal to make all your creatures have all the abilities out there. But the Myojin are even worse than a lot of the cards that want to be in your hand from this list because they cost so much
Heavy disagree on Phage. She's not GREAT, but there's enough ways to get around her effect (Platinum Angel, Lich's Mastery, Sundial of the Infinite, Torpor Orb, Stunning Reversal, The Golden Throne, the aforementioned Command Beacon/Campfire, Netherborn Altar, all the black tutors to get these things, etc.) that a deck built around her can and will find ways to get her to stick without losing. Once on board, she is an immediate and dire threat to everyone else at the table, since there are enough equipment and enchantments out there to protect her and make her difficult to block. There are problems with her, but unlike everything else on this list, she can work incredibly well.
I think we liked these underpowered cards like Barktooth back then because players were mostly a bunch of dorky kids who were like "COOL THESE CARDS ARE GOLD!!!" and that was as far as our thought process went.
My favourite bad commander has to be Isao, Enlightened Bushi
A mono green samurai commander that lets you regenerate target samurai. Not counting changelings there are five green samurai in the game.
Made him a Voltron deck, it was terrible mid
The same problem also happens with Kentaro, the Smiling Cat.
He lets you cast Samurai spells for X, where X is their cmc; basically letting you ignore any colored mana in their mana costs. No need to worry about color fixing.
_But_ he's mono-White.
@@LadyTsunade777 That's hilarious
@@LadyTsunade777 put him in a 5c deck
@@LadyTsunade777 Spice8rack did do an impressive Kentaro combo deck, and it looked interesting. So there's at least potential since that mana fixing ability of his can be abused
Rivals of Izalia caught me off guard, saying Ordic 56 times had me dyyiinngg
I had to replay 6:46 to make sure I didn’t miss hear rivals of ixalan as rivals of izaelia
I was wondering about that, too.
Straight up thought I had a stroke
I run a deck with Chandler, from Homelands, as the commander. How many people can say they run a commander who shares their name?
my real name is K'rrik
I run a deck with Chandler from friends. Interestingly, a Chandler means maker of candles.
@@AwakenedAvocadoMy name comes from the meaning, not the TV show.
Hello fellow Chandler
Having my name legally changed would be cheaper than some EDH decks tbh.
It's hard to get past how he pronounces cards 😂. Adding an r to Odric is wild. Pronouncing it Or-dic instead of Od-ric
He just saying ordic
And rivals of “izalan”
not adding, transposing. but yeah the guy is really REALLY bad at reading. Honestly at this point I wonder if this is intentional to get engagement in the comments which figures into the youtube algorithm or if the guy really just has a grade school reading level or massive dyslexia.
Honestly, I think he's a AI generated voice. Either that, or he does it on purpose to drive engagement
@@alexrowe9957 definitely not ai generated, ai would mispronounce things, sure, but it would get the letters and their order right, it wouldn't replace the x with a z in Ixalan or swap the r and d in Odric.
It’s wild to think at some point in time card designers and players didn’t think, “People want to win so it’s a natural tendency for players to put cards in their deck which do the most for the least” and instead thought, “It’s inherently good because it’s duel color. Let’s nerf it!”
Magic was thought to be an extremely casual game, like friends playing with each others on their kitchen table. The design team didn't balance around meta or card powers, they care more about making cool flavors or unique effects. That was why early Magic has insanely powerful cards like Black Lotus or Time Walk. The designers knew full well that those cards are broken, but they still printed them because they thought casual players would just be getting a random one or two copies in their decks and not getting 4x copies to optimize their chances of drawing those cards. Early early Magic was a lot more different than the modern day hyper competitive Magic.
Thank you for making a list of potential commanders for my 2 power level groups.
No mention of Haakon, Stromgald Scourge. Who can never be cast if he's your commander and the amount of hoops to get him into your graveyard to cast.
They let out a lot of cards like the grandeur legends than need copies of themselves to be able to use they're better effects but let odric in f second place because "hE wAs A lEtDoWn"
This list was a joke
He was the first card that came to mind when I saw this video. When I first started playing magic I tried to design a haakon deck because a graveyard knight tribal would be so cool until I realized he couldn't be cast from the command zone
Ah, sad little Haakon, the commander with an interesting effect but has effectively banned himself from ever being a commander in Commander.
When I played paper Magic, my play group was the rec room at Job Corps. The rec advisor that was the entire reason why there was a Magic play group in the first place had a Haakon deck (not EDH, just a standard 60 card deck). Because I didn't understand about discard or self-mill at the time, I didn't get how it was even possible to play him.
What does EDH mean?
I actually have a Phage deck. Basically the entire deck is revolving around cheating out phage via torpor orb, platinum angel, etc. Then once phage hits the board, it basically becomes a game of archenemy with a three turn clock, where everyonce scrambles to take phage off the board. Its unconventional and doesnt win too many games but its incredibly fun to play and to play against
6:46
YGO players really do have problems with names
15:19 he constantly said Ordic instead of Odric
It's really annoying me how lazy the voiceover is sometimes; like you couldn't have tried ONE more take on Ixalan or re-read ODric's name?
How about Brothers Yamakazi? You can have two out at once and if you do get two they both get a decent bonus, but Commanders singleton rule still applies, so in order to turn it on you need a clone effect, which is preciously rare in mono red.
I'm trying to figure that one out since I have started playing commander. Cards with my family name are only uncommons :(
I'm actually making a commander deck with Brothers and a bunch of red/colorless clone effects
I came to say the same thing. It's the first card that came to my head when I saw the video title.
I'm surprised that Haakon didn't make the list. He's another commander that suffers for being in the Command Zone.
He looks like a good card otherwise
Also iname as one
Or phage ?
Omitting the legendary creature you literally are unable to cast from the command zone in Haakon, Stromgald Scourge is...an interesting decision. It's a strong card but a massive albatross in the Command zone.
Cho-Manno at least combos with Pariah and Pariah shield, both of which white can search. Haakon meanwhile definitely deserves a spot on this list, for being literally impossible to cast from the command zone, so you have to tutor out a card to add him to hand and then discard him to do literally anything.
Was literally about to comment this. Cho-Manno has a few prison style soft locks you can do with him.
Was gonna comment exactly this. I have a friend who built this deck, and it was busted.
Phage may be a super bizarre card but I have always loved her ever since I opened her up back in 10th edition so she has a soft spot in my heart (also the whole lore behind her as Jeska and Karona is so good) I just can't help but love her and have a super fucked up and trolly "gift away" deck o her XD.
I love the idea of those decks? Have the card list anywhere to see?
Phage and endless whispers, with phyrexian reclamation to replay her and any sac outlet
Yeah I remember when she first came out in Legions. I pulled Akroma and my friend pulled Phage. The story was really cool I had the books from the fat packs. Kamahl was badass too and how Akroma was created by Ixidor 😁
@@7ItalianStallion i miss the books coming with the product.
@@7ItalianStallion Phage was my first rare from Legions, and I used her in my reanimator deck. There was this enchantment that reanimated creatures from graveyard under next player's turn, so if you Entomb her she reanimates under their control next turn and this triggers her ability and they lose game because they didn't play her from hand.
Also I use to have her red barb variant and Kamahl in both red and green variant. Green druid Kamahl was dope, he had built-in Overrun, which I used in my beast deck, but sometimes swap him into my joke squirrel deck. It's all fun and games till bunch of squirrel tokens Overrun you.
6:46 ah yes, my favorite set. Rivals of Izalia
How did you butcher Ixalan that hard?
By not playing the game or knowing anything about it.
By not being told the official pronunciation when creating the episode
By wanting you to comment about it
@@Padilla1 *shrug* stupidity driving engagement is still stupidity, and the well of sympathy will dry up long before this loser's bills will.
Well.. looking at how Lost Caverns of Ixalan told us that Ojer Axonil is "O-hair Ash-onil" (not perfect, but you get the idea), everyone has pronounced Ixalan incorrectly.
Surprised to not see the Myojin on this list. They're basically just overcosted spirits in the Command zone
Take a drink every time Odric's name gets butchered. 🥃💀⚰
Bleughhh
Fuuuu... my bottle is empty now. :( Seriously, how someone gonna do an MTG channel and not even try to pronounce stuff? Dude also calls Slivers "silvers" instead, as if they're a purse of coins.
Grandmother Sengir is such a nostalgic card for me. I’m the youngest with two much older brothers who, with my father, were pretty involved in early magic. I grew up playing Mtg by the lantern light while camping. I had no cards of my own, just played whatever my brothers and father had around. One of my favourite decks was the mono black deck. Some vampires, some royal assassins with the dreaded Icy Manipulator combo, and of course, Grandma Sengir herself! It wasn’t until many years later, long after my brothers stopped playing that I actually got back into playing myself, inheriting all their old cards. Haven’t played much in recent years but seeing Grandma Sengir in your list snapped me back to those times lol. Thanks for the video!
Ive always enjoyed yet feel mixed on commander, it's great fun building a deck round one card or using it to bolster a strategy or playstyle. you also get to see a lot of potential combo's youd never see in other formats due to the many unique interactions that building a deck from only 1 copy of a card has, however sometimes it can be a lot more chaotic in general espically being a format aimed at casual bigger multiplayer games.
That's a feature, not a bug. Commander is meant, from the ground up, to let you tell a story and to hear your friends' story.
This list went from "cards that are bad in Commander because of the nature of the format" to "just bad cards" surprisingly quick.
I mean, Nana Sengir is bad, yes, but you can play her and she does stuff. Haakon, on the other hand...
They didn't even mentioned all the commanders that lose effects because commander doesn't let you play copies of cards like the grandeur commanders, the old mishra or dragon lord kolaghan
Phage was one of the most fun commanders I ever built around. Not great if your objective is to win a lot of games but very fun. And you can definitely win some games occasionally (or at least get some cheesy kills a little more often).
I love the puzzle of getting Phage into play without losing.
Kongming, "sleeping dragon", 2w and 2any for a 2/2 with a +1/+1 anthem, that's all
9:46 they really need an overcosted sorcery that puts a commander directly into your hand
There are actually multiple cards that do so, most of them are permanents so they can be used multiple times.
Edit: Those that I can see are Campfire, Command Beacon, Netherborn Altar, Road of Return. Although that last one is off-colour.
The top three feel odd. Considering how most of them are cards that don't properly function in the command zone or on the battlefield, I expected Brothers Yamazaki; Haakon, Stromgald Scourge; or any of the Grandeur commanders.
Seeing Niambi, Faithful Healer on this list is hilarious, seeing as my Niambi deck is one of those 100 or so decks on EDHREC. And like, it's not THAT bad. It works pretty well for a Teferi Tribal deck comnander, which is kinda one of the main purposes of choosing Niambi for me at least.
"Ordic" now lives rent free in my head
ordic is my fave character from innistrad
Hajar, Loyal Bodyguard should be on this list. Low mana cost aside, there are better ways to give creatures indestructible without having to worry about commander tax.
I would love to see you do a video where you cover the best Commanders in Pauper Commander, where any Common and Uncommon Creature can be your Commander.
Phage is cluncky but I love her! Even if she is not that powerful, she is the scariest thing in a table when you somehow manage to pull her out and give her shroud or indestructable. It is so funny to see people nuking a whole table just because Phage is there.
While she is not ideal, she is very fun to try to make her work.
Back in the day I had mono-black deck, which had Phage, Visara, 4 black knights, unholy strength, 4 terrors, pestilence, Undead Gladiator, Corruption, Mutilation and Nightmare. It was super fun deck. Then Mirrodin came in and completely mess up the game (alto some might say it saved MTG by speeding it up), and bunch of people that use to play quit, including me, because power creep was insane, most previous sets couldn't keep up with Mirrodin.
Odric, Blood-Cursed feels like he stepped right out of Dark Souls 2 / Bloodbourne / Elden Ring, and I'm really diggin' it 🤩
You actually can put plains, mountains and islands in a bortuk deck. The colored icon on basic land icons is in the reminder text, which is jot part of the card text. Thia is for the same reason you can use cards with extort in konowhite or black decks.
Incorrect. The 5 basic land types each contribute to color identity.
Video idea: The best lands in Commander… that are terrible in every other format. Honorable mentions to lands that are designed to work in Commander, obviously, but there are a few that aren’t specifically intended that way that could be considered.
Cho mano was my favourite card when I began Magic, and it had a synergy with Pariah which deals any damages inflited to you to one creature.
It sounded very strong to 13 years old me, and it was generally a win con against badly constructed blue and green decks that my siblings played XD
I actually run a Phage deck and, while definitely a bit janky, it can be pretty threatening.
Using cards that prevent Phage’s ETB from killing you is really more of a plan B.
I tend to try and get Phage into my hand from the command zone (Command Beacon, Campfire, etc), then cast her from hand.
Black is the best tutoring color, so with that and some good card draw, you can pretty reliably find the cards you need to get Phage into your hand or prevent your death from casting her from the command zone.
Haste enablers (namely the three sets of footwear) make it so that Phage is immediately threatening as soon as you play her, especially if you also have some evasion.
Also, since it’s mono-black, you can run a good amount of edicts, wraths, and removal to hold other people back until you play Phage.
Cards like K’rrik, Crypt Ghast, and Cabal Coffers also give you plenty of ramp, so it’s not like you’re actually waiting until turn 7 to play Phagealicious.
I’ve goldfished it a bunch and it can threaten player kills as early as turns 3-4, though in practice, she usually drops around 5-6.
I had an idea for a joke deck where the idea was to get as much mana as possible as quickly as possible and 'win' by playing Phage on turn 1 (you'd need a very specific opening hand to make this work and 'winning' would be very inconsistent)
I tried it with dark ritual, a 0 cost creature, myr moonvessel and culling the weak, play swamp, cast ritual, 3 mana, one for myr vessel, one for another ritual, 4 black mana, cast culling the weak, 3 mana, myr dies, 4 mana, culling resolves, , 8 mana, cast phage and you get 1 floating mana for those pesky tax counters! People.laugh when i can pull it off
An "OTK" if you will
I run a Niambi deck and it rules. Not only is she a blocker once you cast Teferi later on, his +2 is very strong with mana rocks. He can, while definitely being overcosted, still draw you cards when you’re in a rut, and his -9 is a wincon. By using cards like the Chain Veil you can untap it with his ability to have multiple, occasionally infinite, activations on all your planeswalkers.
Making a bad legend your commander can be a lot of fun. There was a tier list on tapped out that has since be abandoned. I picked a commander from the lowest tier on that list LuBu master at arms and made a reasonably powerful voltron deck with him. Going into card shops with a obscure old commander and doing well with it is fun. Plus LuBu has a theme song from being a historical figure and being represented in Dynasty Warriors.
My favorite "bad" commander is Jared Carthalion, True Heir who comes in as a 3 mana 3/3 with a casting cost of 3 different colors, and also gives at least one of your opponents the ability to draw an extra card at the end of their turn. He also has a conditional Cho-Manno ability, which in this video was described as "very underwhelming." Anyways, I love that guy.
Isamaru, Hound of Konda could have been on this list. A 2/2 as a one drop is a great rate, but having this card take up your command zone is bad. Anything after the first cast is just a feelsbad.
Isamaru could be voltroned, his low cost makes it easy to resummon and re equip when it gets blow up.
A bad commander that I feel should have made this list is Dragonlord Kolaghan, the secondary ability to deal damage to an opponent to casted a card with the same name as something in their graveyard is 99% of the time not going to trigger since the commander format is singleton having two cards with the same name is almost impossible except for the small number of decks that can run multiple copies like Relentless Rats, Dragon’s Approach, Shadowborn Apostle, and Persistent Perstioners.
After 3 months in deployment and I am greeted with a good top 10. So delicious.
Edit: Building my mono black EDH using Ihsan's Shade just for nostalgia reasons, throwing in all the memorable cards when I first started MTG, problem is that one of the yawgmoth card is banned and the other is insanely expensive.
Great! Now I want to make a "Phage the Untouchable" mono black commander deck that's built around never playing Phage...
16:17 preach! My favorite commander deck is still my Odric, Master Tactician deck.
Looking forward to seeing what these are. May make a Commander deck with one of these.
EDIT: This reminds me. I need to rebuild my Grandmother Sengir deck.
My bad commander of choice is Kentaro, the Smiling Cat.
His effect makes samurai creatures cost their CMC in generic mana, which would be cool for mana fixing, except he's mono white. You can do some funny things with cost reduction and lands that make colourless though if you really want to build around him.
Horobi was one of my favorite build around challenge commanders at how niche u gotta make ur deck to optimize him while playing around his double edged sword ability that makes opponents all to eager to waste a simple target ability on a crearure to kill him
When I was 13, I won my first FMN (Friday Night Magic) at my locals. This was back during OG Innistrad, and I wanted the swords from New Phyrexia. Pulled a card called, Jor Kadeen, Privailer. He has firststrike and metalcraft - creatures you control get +3/+0. When I saw Odric, Blood cursed the frist thing I thought was, "He'd be cool in a Jor Kadeen deck"
Dakkon Blackblade and Gwendlyn di Corci were actually pretty good in Legends. Sol'kanar was decent as well. And these days, Livonya Silone (first strike, legendary landwalk) would also see use.
There are a few ways to get your commander into your hand from the command zone, which eliminates the risk of them blowing up your Torpor Orb.
But Torpor Orb is just a good card anyway so you might as well play it.
I still remember how much it hurt when Odric's new card got revealed during Crimson Vow spoilers =C
Master tactician was so good, how the mighty have fallen...
Every Myojin only enters with a divinity/indestructible counter if you played it *from your hand.* There are only two cards that give divinity counters (the colorless That Which Was Taken and the white Kindred Boon), and not that many cards that give indestructible counters either (Tyrite Sanctum, a scant few white cards and the black Daring Fiendbonder).
They can also represent a cool deckbuilding challenge, since if you manage to get a Myojin *with* a counter into play it's hard to remove and you can then go ham with proliferation effects to spam the super powerful ability. But without that counter they are insanely overpriced vanilla creatures
I don't mind having something that is bad or not as effective as a commander. It could fit well in the 99 or have a really interesting deck building challenge some people like, I'm one of those that like a challenge.
Bortuk you could get 3 basic land types in a deck because of Wastes. Also if anything you can return a creature to your hand to cast again later. It isn't horrible but not nearly as effective as it could be with more colors, its at least playable.
Tetzimoc, Phage, The Unspeakable, and by extension the Miyojans(not mentioned but should have been) weren't designed with commander in mind at all so I don't blame them for not working. I do respect that there were ways of making them kind-of work but there needs to be way more of those options.
Cho-Manno is an amazing card to build around. There are quite a few things the can redirect damage from you to a creature and most of that is in white. I remember early when commander was starting up that a few people had Cho-Manno decks that were just unbeatable. It does take work but it certainly isn't worst.
Odric the Blood Cursed was an absolute travesty and the card is actually alright, they did him so wrong in the story. White and red does have a lot of options for each of those abilities but the fact he doesn't have one himself hurts him a little. I don't think he is unplayable its just the stigma around what they did to him that sours the card.
Wastes sadly don't have a land type. The max for domain is 5: plains, islands, swamps, mountains, and forests.
I was expecting the two myojin cycles. So bad overcosted and junky to play from the command zone
I feel like framing this as a ranking instead of just "here's some bad commanders" was a bad idea. yeah yeah yeah top 10s are good in the algorithm I know but. like... realistically Barktooth and Cho-Manno are by far the worst cards on this list, but the top 10 format means that putting them at the top is anticlimactic so instead top 2 went to grandmother Sengir, which is pretty bad but definitely not the worst card on this list, and Odric, Blood-Cursed which... honestly why is he on this list? Yeah sure I get the disappointment factor but like... is that really enough to put him on a list of the worst of the worst? Also "blood tokens aren't good enough to build around unless you have some other way to make use of them"... that's... that's covered by "building around them", my guy. That's like saying Krenko is bad because a bunch of 1/1s that don't have haste are too slow unless you have some other way to use them by means of damage triggers like impact tremors or sac outlets like goblin bombardment. That's... that's the entire point.
Pre watch predictions: Kentaro, Smiling Cat (Mono colored mana fixer), Phage the Untouchable (Die on ETB from Command zone.), and Haakon, Stromgald Scourge (May only be cast from graveyard). And at least one of the terrible old vanilla legends.
If you want to run an effect like Arashi... run Silklash Spider.
Though it's not legendary so you'll have to run it in the 99 anyway.
You lose the single target but you have a tougher creature that can REPEATEDLY wipe out flyers.
With Cho-Manno you could run Pariah and Pariah Shield, and there may be similar effects I don't know about. It doesn't make the card good, but not bad enough for this list.
Do best/worst Oathbreakers. And best/worst Commander pairings.
You could run Granny Sengir in a Vhati Il-Dal deck I suppose.
Vhati can get a creatures toughness to 1 so Granny here can actually kill it and green has LOTS of untappers.
Still not GOOD by any means but... somewhat useable.
I would argue that Veldrane is actually worse.
You either have a 7 mana vanilla 5/5 OR a 10 mana unblocable 2/5.
Without activating his ability he can be chumped by anything. WITH activating his ability you're only chipping someone for 2.
The real downside of bortuk is only black and green have "all lands are land type in addition" you got urborg and yavimayah with are already black and green really make it worse, if there was a full 5 color cycle of these lands it could work as green fetches lands well enough.
I have a tetzimoc aristocrats-y deck with a lot of the cheap return to hand reviva and sac outlets. The deck works very well on it's own, and tetzimoc is just a very reliable selective boardwipe that's only mildly clunky to get going the first time.
It's far from competetively viable mind you, but it is pretty high power and more than pulls it's weight.
I give you that he isn't a combo piece just living in the command zone, but i don't think he deserves a spot on worst commanders of all time :D
One of these days I’ll make a Niambi deck. The Teferi could be a much worse card. Anyway, surprised Nael, Avizoa Aeronaut didn’t share Bortuk’s slot, along with Radha, Coalition Warlord and Zar Ojanen, Scion of Efrava.
Just to be clear about the #10 spot, those were intended to BE your commander. EDH was created by the community (a small group, but it grew fast) to favor older cards with neat art so that they could actually SEE play. As the "Commander" format, those are bad cards, but originally before WOTC got the format legitimized, those kinds of cards were meant to be leading your deck. The whole idea of EDH was to have fun with old/expensive/slow cards that would never see play in higher tier formats.
I honestly don't think Sengir deserved the #1 spot on this. Whether it's in order or not, the fact that she can work with Horobi, Death's Wail and the new Massacre Girl can enable her to draw you cards when she kills things isn't anything to sneeze at. There's also lots of cards that can let you untap her and black ramp is bananas. I've actually squeaked out wins with her because of how ignored she is.
"There aren't that many ways to untap her in mono black"
Thousand-Year Elixir, Puppet Strings, Staff of Domination, Magewright's Stone, Patriar's Seal, Thornbite Staff, and Umbral Mantle would all like to have a word 😉
Haakon, Stromgald Scourge would come to mind. As a commander he is very hard to cast and his ability to play knights from the graveyard is nice, but not worth the effort.
Kentaro, the Smiling Cat deserves at least an honorable mention.
Kentaro is a combo commander. Not a really good one, but probably better as every other bushido samurai deck.
Didn’t spice8rack figure out a semi serviceable deck with kentaro?
Yeah, exactly. Thats where i know Kentaro from =D@@U1TR4F0RCE
I'd like a list of the weakest and strongest precon commander decks
Another decent reason for the legends from legends to only be tenth is the og elder dragons from that set are the entire reason the format was created to begin with.
Cho Manno and Odric i feel could had been up higher like be the 9th and 8th positions.
Cho Manno is interesting because he cannot be damaged. This is not that insignificant.
Odric blood cursed (and i disagree with him becoming a vampire WotC) while his ETB may seem underwhelming, your getting alot of "free" blood tokens depending on what different keywords you have on the field. When you find out how many reanimation spells there are and "flicker" spells in just white you can do some really interesting things with him creating blood tokens WHICH also upon paying one mana allow you to discard a card and draw a card. The problem when he was released was just that he didn't do much with the blood tokens.
Honestly, Dominaria is a Legends matters set, so any of the domain cards are meant to go into something like a WUBRG Legends matters deck. The same is true with a lot of cards on this list that they are meant to go in other decks and not be commanders. Just because something can be your commander doesn't mean it's meant to be.
I've been getting into commander and I've been looking through all my old magic cards from the 90s. And the 2000s and I. Specifically remember picking up Grandma. I was like wow. She sounds like a funny name for commander and then I read her abilities and I was like wow. That just it's awful
Making one of these as a commander deck.
Could you cast pariah or equip pariahs shield on cho to make yourself never take damage? White does have ways to find it too. But thats about all I can think of to take advantage of the ability.
my fav is Ramses Overdark, you pay 2UUBB for a 4/3 Legendary Human Assassin from Legends that Taps: Destroy Target Enchanted Creature. He is really bad but fun
Is Blood Cursed the only dual colored version of Odric. If so, it might be worth using simply to give the deck more options than just white spells because it does still fit the theme even if its weaker
@Manalogs, I'm kind of disappointed with this one. There are at least 10 other creatures that could have fit between the best and worst on this list. The myojins, harkon, and a number of creatures that have either bad or no effects. Odric provides a little value for an ETB, but there is value to be had and a vanilla 3/3 for 3 is not a bad rate, compared to some of the 1994 legends. And Cho-man has a very unique ability. Is it over-costed? Yes? Is it worse than some of the 1994 legends? No. Same goes for the #1 spots on the list, there are much worse cards out there, even if people aren't building with the ones you put on your list. I do want to say thank you, as I appreciate and am entertained by these videos, and I've been watching since the Dual Logs days. Your videos are quite good, and usually quite informative, and I appreciate the content you put out.
Cho-Manno is not great, but you actually missed the one thing he is normally used for. The decks that run him usually outfit him with Pariah or Pariah's Shield in order to redirect all damage to him and effectively become immune to damage. Then protect him from removal with auras and eventually just win with something like Approach of the Second Sun.
I play Niambi as the commander for my Teferi tribal deck and the precon Teferi gives a lot of extra turns late in the game.
While I disagree with Ordic being number 2, there is also the fact some of the keywords won't be in your deck. How many Hexproof, Reach and Deathtouch creatures are you running in a Red/White deck?
I actually built a deck with Haakon as the commander, surprised he isn't on the list
AI have a Phage deck, and I love it!
I was expecting to see the original Mishra, or maybe a stand in with a similarly limited effect, as EDH, being a singleton format, makes their effects moot, but oh well. I eas definitely expecting to see Phage, and I'm still sad she's there, though it's obvious why.
I played lord Magus for a long time when we started commander. Before it really took off
15:19 who is Ordic?
Ehhh I don't think you fully understood Odric. Having an abundance of tokens (let alone artifacts) on the field for any reason is just straight up useful
No mention of Taniwha or Shimatsu, the Bloodcloaked?
Taniwha Easily worse than anything on the list, its baffling
Phage is amazing in the 99.
Phage + Fractured Identity = gg
Phage is fun as your commander. I know from experience.
Cho Manno is great with Pariah and the shield 👌👌👌
At least the Elder Dragon cycle is why we have Elder Dragon Highlander to begin with. And Nicol Bolas was sort of alright.
Phage the Untouchable is my favorite.
100% one that should be on here are the Myojin cards from Kamigawa Neon Dynasty. They all cost 5 mana and 3 colored mana of the colour they belong to (total 8 mana) They all get an indestructible take if cast from your hand, meaning they can never get this if cast from the command zone and then they all have another effect which requires you to remove the indestructible counter from them to do. so they cost a total of 8 Mana to cast and are effectively a vanilla creature and they don't have good stats to warrant that (3/3, 5/2 are the ones i can remember of the top of my head).
All of the Kamigawa Myojin that need to be cast from your hand to work should also be on this list. They are some of the worst commanders. I actually think this Odric, though he may be pretty bad, can be underrated and has uses. You can filter a ton with him to get through your deck if you build it right and even get to the Lumarch Marshal to make all your creatures have all the abilities out there. But the Myojin are even worse than a lot of the cards that want to be in your hand from this list because they cost so much
Heavy disagree on Phage. She's not GREAT, but there's enough ways to get around her effect (Platinum Angel, Lich's Mastery, Sundial of the Infinite, Torpor Orb, Stunning Reversal, The Golden Throne, the aforementioned Command Beacon/Campfire, Netherborn Altar, all the black tutors to get these things, etc.) that a deck built around her can and will find ways to get her to stick without losing. Once on board, she is an immediate and dire threat to everyone else at the table, since there are enough equipment and enchantments out there to protect her and make her difficult to block. There are problems with her, but unlike everything else on this list, she can work incredibly well.
Give her eldrazi conscription 🙂
I wonder how things would Change if from the hand effects could be activated from command zone, would tetzimoc then be ok?
I think we liked these underpowered cards like Barktooth back then because players were mostly a bunch of dorky kids who were like "COOL THESE CARDS ARE GOLD!!!" and that was as far as our thought process went.
Inname as One is probably one of the hardest build arounds
The combo to get out The Unspeakable doesn’t work if The Unspeakable is in the command zone as it gets it from the library.
boretuk bonerattle about to make a comeback with the ''everything'' lands!!!!!!
They did Odric dirty. Really dirty. Like, dirty sanchez dirty.