The reason for ol' General Kudro's relative unpopularity can likely mostly be attributed to the fact that the mardu precon from Ikoria was also human tribal. So most people likely chose to play either Trynn and Silvar or his daughter Jirina over him.
Zirilan of the claw player here. Made this deck years ago and still consistently one of the most fun and powerful to play. Either your commander gets removed or you're putting out 8-40 damage a turn depending on what set up you have on board when you use him. and worst case scenario you just slam a giant dragon that has a boardwipe attached to it every turn or 2. HIGHLY recommend if you have the budget for it.
Yeah I feel the same way about Temmet. He’s such an interesting Azorius commander. I used to have a deck built around him. It wasn’t especially powerful but it was a ton of fun and I was able to pull out some surprising wins with the deck. Being able to make a creature unblockable is a very threatening ability.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier was my attempt at cedh. It was an Ad Naus Tendrils deck and I had alot of fun piloting it and learning more of how the competitive edh group thought rather than the usual casual groups I played with.
Just built Mazzy myself, fun fact Fuming Effigy and Quintorius, Field Historian work great in this deck since the auras are exiled after they hit the graveyard, Uncontrolled Infestation is funny in this deck as well, Soul Tithe, Elemental Resonance, Quiet Disrepair. Spectral Grasp is fantastic as well, Brand of ill Omen is pretty good too
I was bored with my Tuvasa enchantress deck and I turned it into Mazzy. It is now one of my favorite decks! I love how good it is at protecting itself and rebuilding. You can beef up other player's creatures in a political way, or voltron up one of yours. It draws cards like crazy and hits HARD. It was also fun to find a place for the vow and impetus cards. Highly reccomend!
I think that Kestia the Cultivator is really underrated with just 600 decks on EDHrec. You just play enchantment creature or enchantment creatures and draw so many cards! It's really crazy
That Mazzy deck just got a huge boost through the token aura roles printed in Wilds of Eldraine. Now she's also giving her whole board a blanket +3/+1 and a relevant keyword while also being able to throw other auras onto other creatures.
Lyzolda + Grafted Exoskeleton + Ashnod's Altar turns all your other creatures into ammunition for your autocannon firing guided plague missiles at 2 poison counters per shell. Black and red also have good synergies with artifacts and we've got a lot of good artifact token stuff in the past few years. Easy to tutor up or fish out combo pieces. Edit: there are some solid ways to give a creature infect in black as well: glistening oil, phyresis, tainted strike (one turn but that's only 5 lyzolda triggers to kill someone from 0), and more.
I pulled Mazzy in my first Baldurs Gate Booster and built a deck with her as a challenge. Loved how she played and all the different directions you could build her. However I never really enjoyed having to deal with 25+ cards on my side of the board. Games became convoluted really quick with all the aura interactions going on.
I think the problem with Imyrinth is the fact that it's monoblue but focused around having an empty hand, it means you can't really hold up counterspells or interaction without having to sacrifice your commander's best ability. Sacrificing even the illusion of having a counter in hand just for draw three doesn't seem worth it. If you're casting three spells per turn you're likely playing low mana card like can trips but then you can't even do that because drawing the card weakens the ability.
I currently think that Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant is not getting as much love as it probably deserves. With backgrounds, it's flexible and all it really wants you to do is tap out and Lose something from your field a turn to do it's thing. With the Sac Tokens easily within reach of generation (Clues, Treasure, Tokens), it's really easy to just create a board of tapped creatures each turn and get them to pump. Or, you go the route of blinking your creatures with the Blink suite of cards. I don't know. I think Balder's Gate has some real gems that haven't been looked at too hard due to the bad timing of the set.
> Unpopular Commanders I actually have a Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant//Veteran Soldier vehicles brew with a surprising amount of Baldur's Gate support options... just waiting to put it in sleeves... ... ...and I recently picked up a Nautiloid Ship and a Golden Argosy for the 98. New Capenna has Mysterious Limousine, Getaway Car, and Unlicensed Hearse, so I can have even more versatility. Also, thinking about blinking Stonehorn Dignitary multiple times gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.
Lyzolda was my third commander ^^ it was really fun to play. In my first playgroup the norm was 6 to 8 boardwipes per game, so I searched for a commander that at least wouldn't die in vain.
Mazzy is a commander that I 100% missed, but now that you mention her, seems really cool - being able to freely recur auras through her seems really fun! I'm a big fan of hostile auras, and this kind of effect supports that really nicely~
Ah Polukranos Unchained my beautiful big boy!! I built a deck around him that utilizes all my zombie lords and a couple of +1/+1 counter themes. I was inspired to make the deck after enjoying Polukranos and Mutate interactions on MTG Arena. He's got a lot of potential, and the tribal sub-theme helps keep him in the fight when he runs out of counters
So I like brewing, too. I like using less popular commanders to see what I can come up with. But most people like having a clear direction. *** Iymrith: Mono-Blue needs to deal combat damage to do something Blue already does very well. Additionally Blue never wants to be below three cards; you need to have zero or only one card in hand to draw more than one card. Taigam: Dimir has way faster, more efficient and more powerful ways to draw cards and kill creatures. Sidisi: Probably mostly just boring, leading to repetetive play patterns. General Kudro: You're only hitting one card in one opponent's graveryard at a time. If you're against a graveyard deck, one card isn't going to do much, and if it's not a graveyard deck, it doesn't matter either. And killing creatures with more than four power is good, but how many resources can you really devote to killing one large creature? You have to have two other humans (assuming you're not going to sacrifice General Kudro) that you invested at least one card and at least two mana into (like two mana: create two 1/1 human creature tokens) and now you have to spend another two mana. So, at BEST, it's a four-mana spell that destroys a creature with power four or greater. Zirilan: Pretty sure it's on the Reserved List. Lyzolda: Pretty sure it's mostly because it becomes pretty mana intensive. Meloku: Probably because mono-Blue doesn't put extra lands into play. It's kind of a card that says, "Do your thing and win, or you lose." Temet: The payoff is just "Do a little extra damage." Mazzy: It's basically a goad-enchantress commander that doesn't really do either one very well. If you want to play enchantments/auras, there are far better commanders in those colors; and if you want to goad, green and white really don't give you much to work with.
I did Kudro recently and it’s actually really strong. Spitting out human tokens to sac is nothing. Black and white has a TON of recursion so your non token humans can keep coming back. Adeline from Midnight Hunt goes really well here too being a human and her trigger goes off when any of your creatures swing making three humans to sac at instant speed before blockers get declared. Aristocrats and monarchy are strong as well
For zirlian hes only like 14 most people prob dont like the mono red when ur dragon scion tiamat the new temur one all exist and the dragons exile if ur support cards get destroyed I have a deck of him it's fun but can get blown out
You are really doing Mazzy a disservice by describing her as just another "goad-enchantress commander". Her main draw is that she saves your auras from dying with the creatures they're attached to. She also synergizes with multiple cheap auras that sac themselves for value, and if you have enchantress effects in play you can keep saccing them, getting the boost, and replaying them, drawing more and more cards. She has a very unique build that sets her apart from most enchantress commanders. Her floor is lower than, say, Sythis, but she has a potentially much higher ceiling
tldr: these commanders are either too weak, better versions exist, easier to build around commanders exist, contradict what their colors want to do, or bad timing
You've inspired me, sir! I watched this video and immediately dove in to build a Lyzolda deck. I tried to focus on that sacrifice theme while adding a ton of reanimation spells and passive enchantments with sacrifice triggers and it plays BEAUTIFULLY!
I have a General Kudro deck and absolutely love it. I don't play it as frequently as other decks because keeping up with the tokens and some of the triggered abilities in math can be a little annoying. a very good job of controlling the board and handling graveyard strategies particularly at instant speed. highly recommend people give it a try
What I like best around Polukranos is buffing his power without +1/+1 counters and then just fighting everything on the board without him dying. The swords of X and Y are really powerful with him too (or any protection/damage prevention effect).
I ran Taigam for a bit and he was super fun. Had a fun self mill plan and could always avoid decking out since he skips your draw step and his replacement for it is also not a draw.
There’s been a *lot* of black draft chaff instants lately that say “when target creature dies, reanimate it”. I was thinking of using it in a Gonti “blink” build, but they also genuinely upgrade into tutors when you target Sidisi. Also notably, Temmet does not count as “your commander” when he’s an Embalmed token. You can still Voltron it like a normal creature, just don’t shoot for 21.
One of my buddies has a Zirilan Deck! He's a mono-red and Dragon fanatic. His deck is really powerful and fun to play. Suffers from the Mono-red problem of running out of gas though.
I've built Zirilan before and loved it. It's really good in more battlecruiser metas. It just wasn't quite strong enough in my meta. Too many people gravitate to 5-color dragons. It's still fun and I may rebuild it some day.
I built Mazzy recently after seeing her played on Quest for the Janklord. I hadn’t fully appreciated how much value could be accrued by the constant recasting of Auras.
I'm a returning player, from decades ago, that has thoroughly enjoyed consuming all of your content. My first commander deck was Mind Flayerrrs and I've come to really enjoy it. I've been wondering if you've ever talked about Captain N'gathrod in more depth. I was happy to see you mention him in here.
I always enjoy Azorious decks and for awhile I considered building around Temmet, I was thinking it would be fun to draw/tutor up Mirrorbox early so I can recast him even when one of his embalm tokens is still alive which would make both unable to be blocked which I thought paired well with using enchantments to draw cards like reconnisance mission, coastal piracy. A simple idea but I thought one worth looking into. I ended up building around Council of Four "if an opponent would do anything tribal" from the newest balder gate set instead...My reasoning was I thought making copies of him would be really fun in multiplayer games, and I was right. His cost is a bit high at 3WU but don't sleep on those triggers, my playgroup thought it just triggered on opponents but you also draw and make tokens off your own double draw and double cast. He might cost 1 more but I think it's way more fun than the Augustine guy and all his orbs.
I have a temmet deck as well. I went the voltron route with living weapon equipments since they etb with a germ token. It's not as strong but so fun since azorious has a ton of artifact and token synergies.
First of all these all seem pretty interesting commanders to build around so I do get the 'surprise' on the other hand I also think that because we get so many legendary creatures these days that players are a bit spoiled with options. Anyway fun list and at least I can say that I am one of the few that actually owns a Kudro EDH :D
Personally my pick is Drakuseth, Maw of Flames. I have never seen or heard of anyone else running him as a commander, and almost every recommended card for him on EDHREC is just dragon-tribal support. Honestly he's a terrifying card on his own and I built my deck all around making him as fast and terrifying as possible, while still keeping it pretty good on it's own even if he gets shot down. Red has a lot of ritual effects and there's a lot of mana rocks that let you cast him turns ahead of schedule, lot of haste enablers and protective artifacts to keep him from getting shot down before he can do anything, several damage buffs and extra combat tricks to have him shred the board and life totals, and even a few other tricks like mass damage sweepers that happen to be just below his toughness. Cards like Sarkhan's Unsealing and Flamekin Harbinger just give even more value on being cast, and cards like Fiery Emancipation or Seize the Day guarantee the death of a player in a single turn in addition to the burn he pumps out. And even if the worst happens and he gets hosed, the core of the deck is still a solid mono red build on it's own. Honestly everytime I play him, it feels like Smaug attacking Lake-Town. Just fire and death. All the deck specifics aside, even on his own, a 7/7 flyer with 10 damage worth of burn split among three targets on *EVERY* turn is nothing to scoff at. His only holdback in my book is the high mana cost, which there are *plenty* of ways to get around in red...
I have a Mazzy deck and it's actually pretty strong. I got a lot of totem armor enchantments and the ordeal aura's that are amazing with faith healer in play because they trigger whenever they are sacrificed, does not say it has to be by it's own ability, so I can repeatedly pay 2 mana to get 2 lands with ordeal of Nylea. Pariah is pretty busted because you can use it to protect you while also killing your opponent's creatures.
Meloku, Walking Atlas, and Retreat to Coralhelm is an infinite token combo that I've used many times in cube, and is a nice little emergency wincon in any blue heavy lands deck. I'm glad you brought up Iymrith, I built him and love it in lower power level games!
Polukranos: There's no penalty for having fewer counters than the damage taken, even one counter is enough to prevent all damage, which allow Polukrano to survive over and over again as long as you have ability that buffs his base size and a way to put one counter on it. (See Sekki for similar ruling) SulTaigam is very good with Zur's Wierding. Temmet is surprisingly effective with a voltron strategy since you can make any token unblockable.
I was also thinking with Iymrith, maybe go like a flash themed deck, that way you unload your hand with interaction and deploy flash creatures on opponents turn, attack with Iymrith and refill your hand and continue that way.
Oooh some of these sounds super interesting, thanks for the tip. Have been looking at Meloku and Polukranos but i remember in the case of Polukranos the good cards that synergizes with counters all costs a shirt.
"Mono Blue Lands theme" - boy, do I have a deck list for you to check out :) What?! Mazzy is the #1 unpopular commander - I really like her a ton! Your deck Doc brought that into focus for me; now I want to play here even more.
And then I realized it whenever an enchanted creature attacks (not just the critters you enchanted), they get buffed when they attack anyone but you... so if your opponents are using enchanted creatures, free creature buffs for the table!
Raphael the fiendish savior is amazing and I don’t know why so many people forget about him, he’s an amazing commander in the demon and devil decks I run
7:50 Sidisi should be in an Orzhov deck with "Adarkar Valkyrie" (without summoning sickness) and "Thornbite Staff" equipped to the latter -> _infinite creature tutor :D Temmet is very Interesting, also because it encourages to attack a lot :D Yes, not so much about being blocked but still Nice :D
I actually have a lyzolda enchantment deck, she’s a perfect fit because I need a non threatening commander to be able to slowly build up 3-5 mana enchantments. She only 3 mana and is great for stalling by pinging off creatures and helps me not miss lands drops with the draw. Definitely underwhelming but I win a lot of games with all of red and blacks anti hug enchantments and only a few creatures in play at a time.
I love sidisi in a combos only deck. Infernal darkness+eon hub+ glacial chasm=stonks. Dark depth+hex mage. Rouges passage+phange+ endless whispers. Top+citadel+ reservoir. Paradox engine+priest of Yawgmoth+spine of ish sah.
I’ve been slowly building a Sidisi deck for a while. I recently added haunted crossroads and cards like Supernatural stamina and feign death that allow you to tutor twice
Asmodeus the Archfiend is finally at 303 decks. Definitely underrated. He is a nerfed Griselbrand, with the upside of being able to get around the life loss. And unlike Griselbrand, he is legal in commander 😁
I have a temmet deck and it is my favirout deck second to yuriko but is super close. I really think they should make it so legendary token created by your commander also deal commander damage. I think it would be really cute and flavourful. There is only a handful of legends that make a legendary creature token. I know is more work for not much gain but is neat and would make a temmet, Kari Zev, or a Tolsimir even more fun and unique.
I have a Patron of the Moon deck that has some of the same vibes as Meloku, but Patron can actually help you slap your lands back on board. You get to play some extremely rude cards like Storm Cauldron, Roil Elemental, Ward of Bones, Overburden, Sunder, and Mana Breach.
Meloku can also use Patron of the Moonfolk so they can pay 1 to put 2 lands into play tapped, so after bouncing their lands, they can ramp them right back out so you're not losing mana efficiency to get your effects from your Moonfolk.
zirilan is incredible! I pulled him apart to make a jund dragons deck because he's a little one note and a bit too hard to reliably get online (you just die a lot of the time before getting to actually have fun) he has a forever slot in my dragons deck though, honorary lieutenant
The case that probably baffles me the most currently is Pashalik Mons. I've done Pashalik Mons a couple of times and it's an explosive, combo-enabling commander for one of the most powerful tribes in existence. I wouldn't expect it to pull in numbers like Krenko, Mob Boss, but really Pashalik Mons should be a solid contender for one of the next best Goblin Tribal options. But it's not even close! Just 184 total decks. Another uncanny one, which I think came up in one of these videos before, is Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice. 230 decks, so there's finally been a bit of an uptick. But the card is bonkers and should really claim way more decks. The Haunt of Hightower only has 187 decks. Seems too low. It's no Tergrid, but so what?
Iymrith would probably be a good top end for a tempo deck, but I wish it costed one less and they made it a 4/4 or lowered the ward or something. Mono-blue isn't the best at brining creatures back from the graveyard to gain you card advantage, but it does a good job of bringing back instants and sorceries, so tempo seems to fit. I do think the card pushing you in the direction of looting is interesting, I have it in the 99 of my Kamiz, Obscura Oculus deck where it does draw me an extra card or two, but at the same time I have someone in my main playgroup who plays a lot of discard control that makes Iymrith more useful. I'm pretty sure it's just been usurped by Dragonlord Ojutai who doesn't want your hand size to be small, but now that we have some new toys with the connive mechanic, I think Iymrith would be interesting to revisit as a commander.
If we want a true multicolored human tribal commander, we need like a Super Champion of The Parish Like Mardu Champ but he has some sac and draw with his +1 ability. You have to make it worth it with a good engine
Iymrith I believe is less popular because Ojutai is 5 costed, has hexproof when untapped instead of just ward 4, and you see the top 3 and pick one instead of just drawing 1, and it includes white which is better for voltron.
i've included polukranos into all of my midrange golgari decks. It's a nice card and can work well with Mutate but that applies to every Hydra card out there with 0 basestats. The escape mechanic is counterable so it's a good card to include into every Hydra golgari Deck but not really as a commander.
Iymrith has one major, huge flaw holding it down. Dragonlord Ojutai is a card that’s just better. Hexproof > Ward, Anticipate on hit > Draw (you really gotta build around her condition to get more than a card, and you’re in blue so why do you want less cards), and a whole extra color that makes Vigilance easier to grant as well as aura/equip synergy for voltron. Ojutai is only just over 600 decks, so not super popular, so it’s really not surprising the “worse” version has far less.
« Guys, I just love this Meloku build ! Like have you read Illusions ? If you target them they sacrifice, because they’re not real, that’s so flavorful ! Anyway, uh, Mystic Sanctuary again, take my thirtieth extra turn… »
> Unpopular Commanders I put Meloku (the Clouded Mirror) in the 98 of my Glacian//Toggo artifacts + landfall... and I'm still working on an assemble-the-silliness brew with Varragoth (Bloodsky Sire) at the helm... running Tree of Perdition + Triskaidekaphobia, Festering Newt + Bubbling Cauldron + Bogbrew Witch, and other silly combos + synergy. I have Sceptre of Empires and Crown of Empires, but I'm still looking for a Throne of Empires, so the other two can't make it into the 99 yet. I'm not surprised Alora (Merry Thief) and Lulu (Loyal Hollyphant) are lacking in popularity, but there's some imagination going unused.
Someone in my playgroup has General Kudro, and it absolutely sucks to play against if your commander has 4 or more power, especially because of how they play it
I have a Taigam deck. It's mostly for fun running paradox haze and some value. Being able to fill your graveyard with stuff and making taigams ability more useful for removal is nice too. He definitely isn't that strong especially if he gets killed the first turn you play him because he then costs 7 which hurts.
Still waiting to see Tahngarth, First Mate popping up in one of these lists. Rank #721 with 477 decks, that seems incredibly low for such an intereresting effect. I guess it never popped out on the radar because there was so little support for a Voltron-Goad-Politics-Strategy when he came out in 2019. But now, there´s this increasing number of goad effects - Komainu Armor in particular, it´s as if this was secretly made with Tahngarth in mind.
Shoot, you're right. I was going to say Blue itself can't grant Vigilance and will have to look to the Equipment options. Dragonlord Ojutai really expands options. Although I do prefer Ward as a more fair mechanic.
I'm pretty sure that if you make the embalm token with Temnet it wouldn't count as your commander anymore and just a token copy. So using his ability on himself would only give you regular damage not commander.
Mhmm Fun is subjective of course but yeah I do think you are right in the sense that the Sidisi deck most likely will use the same game plan game after game. Then again, I got a Jhoira (Wheatherlight captain) artifact storm deck and although she is a one trick-pony, I like her ;) (then again I got 40 decks ready to play so that is how I get my variation I guess)
I mean I built a sidisi mono black reanimator and have really enjoyed it, a good example of having a commander that isnt the focal point but is instead a really good card in the deck.
Temmet, I think is because after like 5 cards you gotta go into clone effects which feels rather lame when you want to just pulverize people with interesting big tokens
I think if your argument for Iymrith is that the best card is a reserve card list, I think that’s your answer. I will admit, the EDHRec page has some interesting ideas for it, but also the page works against itself by having so much card draw AND discard to the point where you ask yourself “what am I trying to do? Have a full grip or have no grip?”, I also outside of a really dominant effect like MoM, nobody wants to be discarding cards just to make the commander function, if you have so much dead cards in your hand that you can pitch them as such….that’s not a good sign.
For Iymrith, isn't the problem with the last ability that you're in Blue? Because the idea is, ya know..... if you're in Blue and have less than 3 cards in hand - SOMETHING HAS GONE WRONG. Even if you're trying to get less than 3 cards - you're in MonoBlue - and having a full hand just kinda happens without even thinking. That's probably a turnoff right there.
it is unsurprising that Iymrith is unpopular: 5 mana, to wait 1 turn to maybe draw 1 card most of the time or 2 card if you spend all your cards. as a commander, he doesn't help you advances your gameplan
i've had Lyzolda for at least 8yrs now. You don't need red creatures, I call it my abyss tribal deck. It's basically aristocrats stax with alot of reanimation. Very grindy but fair, I get compliments for not being BW aristocrats and or not being a zulaport cut-throat tribal deck.
I made a polukrano deck when the set came out, I was a big fan of the original card. But for some reason or another I lost every game I played with it xD. Converted it into a skull briar deck after about a year.
Unfortunately most of these cards seem "underwhelming" compared go other alternatives. If you're a seasoned player you might build one of these decks but if you just start out you'll want to play something that seems better performing. I'll look into building the mono red dragon one!
Sadly the problem with these slightly lower power commanders when people look into build them they don't have much choice but to run the same good stuff as anyone else who builds it in order to keep up with your average commander game. So that lowers the number of unique decks built around it. Along with less colors limiting diversity
Problem with Polukranos is that he doesn't have any kind of trample. Too many games with an abundance of token generators means that large vanilla bodies don't cut it.
The reason for ol' General Kudro's relative unpopularity can likely mostly be attributed to the fact that the mardu precon from Ikoria was also human tribal. So most people likely chose to play either Trynn and Silvar or his daughter Jirina over him.
Yeah I think you are spot on ... I am a bit of an exception though as I got both the Mardu precon and left it unchanged and, I made one around Kudro.
yeah i have kudro in my jirina deck
And he came out in the same set as Winota. Why would you play Orzhov humans when you can do the broken shit Winota is doing?
One problem I had was the few games I played were against combo players who just didn’t have creatures 4+ 😂
If it was soldier tribal I would built it instantly.
Zirilan of the claw player here. Made this deck years ago and still consistently one of the most fun and powerful to play. Either your commander gets removed or you're putting out 8-40 damage a turn depending on what set up you have on board when you use him. and worst case scenario you just slam a giant dragon that has a boardwipe attached to it every turn or 2. HIGHLY recommend if you have the budget for it.
Yeah I feel the same way about Temmet. He’s such an interesting Azorius commander. I used to have a deck built around him. It wasn’t especially powerful but it was a ton of fun and I was able to pull out some surprising wins with the deck. Being able to make a creature unblockable is a very threatening ability.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier was my attempt at cedh. It was an Ad Naus Tendrils deck and I had alot of fun piloting it and learning more of how the competitive edh group thought rather than the usual casual groups I played with.
Just built Mazzy myself, fun fact Fuming Effigy and Quintorius, Field Historian work great in this deck since the auras are exiled after they hit the graveyard, Uncontrolled Infestation is funny in this deck as well, Soul Tithe, Elemental Resonance, Quiet Disrepair.
Spectral Grasp is fantastic as well, Brand of ill Omen is pretty good too
I was bored with my Tuvasa enchantress deck and I turned it into Mazzy. It is now one of my favorite decks! I love how good it is at protecting itself and rebuilding. You can beef up other player's creatures in a political way, or voltron up one of yours. It draws cards like crazy and hits HARD. It was also fun to find a place for the vow and impetus cards. Highly reccomend!
Love my mazzi. That deck goes hard, and fast
@@sifthegreat4570 I was surprised at how fast it went
@@chummer2060 I also have a goad sub theme that works very well with the impetus cards and such
I run Temmet in my Varina Zombie tribal and he's GREAT with Amass. Embalming him just adds to the flavour
I think that Kestia the Cultivator is really underrated with just 600 decks on EDHrec. You just play enchantment creature or enchantment creatures and draw so many cards! It's really crazy
That Mazzy deck just got a huge boost through the token aura roles printed in Wilds of Eldraine. Now she's also giving her whole board a blanket +3/+1 and a relevant keyword while also being able to throw other auras onto other creatures.
Lyzolda + Grafted Exoskeleton + Ashnod's Altar turns all your other creatures into ammunition for your autocannon firing guided plague missiles at 2 poison counters per shell. Black and red also have good synergies with artifacts and we've got a lot of good artifact token stuff in the past few years. Easy to tutor up or fish out combo pieces.
Edit: there are some solid ways to give a creature infect in black as well: glistening oil, phyresis, tainted strike (one turn but that's only 5 lyzolda triggers to kill someone from 0), and more.
I pulled Mazzy in my first Baldurs Gate Booster and built a deck with her as a challenge. Loved how she played and all the different directions you could build her. However I never really enjoyed having to deal with 25+ cards on my side of the board. Games became convoluted really quick with all the aura interactions going on.
I think the problem with Imyrinth is the fact that it's monoblue but focused around having an empty hand, it means you can't really hold up counterspells or interaction without having to sacrifice your commander's best ability. Sacrificing even the illusion of having a counter in hand just for draw three doesn't seem worth it. If you're casting three spells per turn you're likely playing low mana card like can trips but then you can't even do that because drawing the card weakens the ability.
I currently think that Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant is not getting as much love as it probably deserves. With backgrounds, it's flexible and all it really wants you to do is tap out and Lose something from your field a turn to do it's thing. With the Sac Tokens easily within reach of generation (Clues, Treasure, Tokens), it's really easy to just create a board of tapped creatures each turn and get them to pump. Or, you go the route of blinking your creatures with the Blink suite of cards.
I don't know. I think Balder's Gate has some real gems that haven't been looked at too hard due to the bad timing of the set.
> Unpopular Commanders
I actually have a Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant//Veteran Soldier vehicles brew with a surprising amount of Baldur's Gate support options... just waiting to put it in sleeves...
...
...and I recently picked up a Nautiloid Ship and a Golden Argosy for the 98. New Capenna has Mysterious Limousine, Getaway Car, and Unlicensed Hearse, so I can have even more versatility. Also, thinking about blinking Stonehorn Dignitary multiple times gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.
Can the far traveler background activate lulu’s ability? 🤔
Lyzolda was my third commander ^^ it was really fun to play. In my first playgroup the norm was 6 to 8 boardwipes per game, so I searched for a commander that at least wouldn't die in vain.
Mazzy is a commander that I 100% missed, but now that you mention her, seems really cool - being able to freely recur auras through her seems really fun! I'm a big fan of hostile auras, and this kind of effect supports that really nicely~
Ah Polukranos Unchained my beautiful big boy!!
I built a deck around him that utilizes all my zombie lords and a couple of +1/+1 counter themes. I was inspired to make the deck after enjoying Polukranos and Mutate interactions on MTG Arena. He's got a lot of potential, and the tribal sub-theme helps keep him in the fight when he runs out of counters
So I like brewing, too. I like using less popular commanders to see what I can come up with. But most people like having a clear direction.
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Iymrith: Mono-Blue needs to deal combat damage to do something Blue already does very well. Additionally Blue never wants to be below three cards; you need to have zero or only one card in hand to draw more than one card.
Taigam: Dimir has way faster, more efficient and more powerful ways to draw cards and kill creatures.
Sidisi: Probably mostly just boring, leading to repetetive play patterns.
General Kudro: You're only hitting one card in one opponent's graveryard at a time. If you're against a graveyard deck, one card isn't going to do much, and if it's not a graveyard deck, it doesn't matter either. And killing creatures with more than four power is good, but how many resources can you really devote to killing one large creature? You have to have two other humans (assuming you're not going to sacrifice General Kudro) that you invested at least one card and at least two mana into (like two mana: create two 1/1 human creature tokens) and now you have to spend another two mana. So, at BEST, it's a four-mana spell that destroys a creature with power four or greater.
Zirilan: Pretty sure it's on the Reserved List.
Lyzolda: Pretty sure it's mostly because it becomes pretty mana intensive.
Meloku: Probably because mono-Blue doesn't put extra lands into play. It's kind of a card that says, "Do your thing and win, or you lose."
Temet: The payoff is just "Do a little extra damage."
Mazzy: It's basically a goad-enchantress commander that doesn't really do either one very well. If you want to play enchantments/auras, there are far better commanders in those colors; and if you want to goad, green and white really don't give you much to work with.
I did Kudro recently and it’s actually really strong. Spitting out human tokens to sac is nothing. Black and white has a TON of recursion so your non token humans can keep coming back. Adeline from Midnight Hunt goes really well here too being a human and her trigger goes off when any of your creatures swing making three humans to sac at instant speed before blockers get declared. Aristocrats and monarchy are strong as well
For zirlian hes only like 14 most people prob dont like the mono red when ur dragon scion tiamat the new temur one all exist and the dragons exile if ur support cards get destroyed I have a deck of him it's fun but can get blown out
You are really doing Mazzy a disservice by describing her as just another "goad-enchantress commander". Her main draw is that she saves your auras from dying with the creatures they're attached to. She also synergizes with multiple cheap auras that sac themselves for value, and if you have enchantress effects in play you can keep saccing them, getting the boost, and replaying them, drawing more and more cards. She has a very unique build that sets her apart from most enchantress commanders. Her floor is lower than, say, Sythis, but she has a potentially much higher ceiling
tldr: these commanders are either too weak, better versions exist, easier to build around commanders exist, contradict what their colors want to do, or bad timing
@@zacharybecker8228 I know with my Zirilan deck if someone plays blind obedience I just want to quit.
You've inspired me, sir! I watched this video and immediately dove in to build a Lyzolda deck. I tried to focus on that sacrifice theme while adding a ton of reanimation spells and passive enchantments with sacrifice triggers and it plays BEAUTIFULLY!
I have a General Kudro deck and absolutely love it. I don't play it as frequently as other decks because keeping up with the tokens and some of the triggered abilities in math can be a little annoying. a very good job of controlling the board and handling graveyard strategies particularly at instant speed. highly recommend people give it a try
I bought a friend's Zirilian deck off of him when he was quitting magic. I may not play it all the time, but I still love it
As someone who no longer plays commander, I always find myself back at your videos Demo. You’re voice is amazing and your videos are super informative
thanks buddy.
LOVE Taigam, it's a little slow-going, but it's so versatile and digs you QUICK. Really fun as a reanimator.
Great to see Temmet in the thumbnail. I still have my budget Temmet Commander deck that I made in my second year of High school.
What I like best around Polukranos is buffing his power without +1/+1 counters and then just fighting everything on the board without him dying. The swords of X and Y are really powerful with him too (or any protection/damage prevention effect).
Also may I suggest to mutate him, hydras are great mutate target.
Anything that adds a counter every turn is really strong since he will only lose that counter when fighting and not take damage
@@TheOtherDoughnut spicy. Never thought about it that way
I ran Taigam for a bit and he was super fun. Had a fun self mill plan and could always avoid decking out since he skips your draw step and his replacement for it is also not a draw.
There’s been a *lot* of black draft chaff instants lately that say “when target creature dies, reanimate it”. I was thinking of using it in a Gonti “blink” build, but they also genuinely upgrade into tutors when you target Sidisi.
Also notably, Temmet does not count as “your commander” when he’s an Embalmed token. You can still Voltron it like a normal creature, just don’t shoot for 21.
One of my buddies has a Zirilan Deck! He's a mono-red and Dragon fanatic. His deck is really powerful and fun to play. Suffers from the Mono-red problem of running out of gas though.
I've built Zirilan before and loved it. It's really good in more battlecruiser metas. It just wasn't quite strong enough in my meta. Too many people gravitate to 5-color dragons. It's still fun and I may rebuild it some day.
I built Mazzy recently after seeing her played on Quest for the Janklord. I hadn’t fully appreciated how much value could be accrued by the constant recasting of Auras.
I'm a returning player, from decades ago, that has thoroughly enjoyed consuming all of your content. My first commander deck was Mind Flayerrrs and I've come to really enjoy it. I've been wondering if you've ever talked about Captain N'gathrod in more depth. I was happy to see you mention him in here.
I always enjoy Azorious decks and for awhile I considered building around Temmet, I was thinking it would be fun to draw/tutor up Mirrorbox early so I can recast him even when one of his embalm tokens is still alive which would make both unable to be blocked which I thought paired well with using enchantments to draw cards like reconnisance mission, coastal piracy. A simple idea but I thought one worth looking into.
I ended up building around Council of Four "if an opponent would do anything tribal" from the newest balder gate set instead...My reasoning was I thought making copies of him would be really fun in multiplayer games, and I was right. His cost is a bit high at 3WU but don't sleep on those triggers, my playgroup thought it just triggered on opponents but you also draw and make tokens off your own double draw and double cast. He might cost 1 more but I think it's way more fun than the Augustine guy and all his orbs.
I have a temmet deck as well. I went the voltron route with living weapon equipments since they etb with a germ token. It's not as strong but so fun since azorious has a ton of artifact and token synergies.
First of all these all seem pretty interesting commanders to build around so I do get the 'surprise' on the other hand I also think that because we get so many legendary creatures these days that players are a bit spoiled with options.
Anyway fun list and at least I can say that I am one of the few that actually owns a Kudro EDH :D
Personally my pick is Drakuseth, Maw of Flames. I have never seen or heard of anyone else running him as a commander, and almost every recommended card for him on EDHREC is just dragon-tribal support. Honestly he's a terrifying card on his own and I built my deck all around making him as fast and terrifying as possible, while still keeping it pretty good on it's own even if he gets shot down.
Red has a lot of ritual effects and there's a lot of mana rocks that let you cast him turns ahead of schedule, lot of haste enablers and protective artifacts to keep him from getting shot down before he can do anything, several damage buffs and extra combat tricks to have him shred the board and life totals, and even a few other tricks like mass damage sweepers that happen to be just below his toughness. Cards like Sarkhan's Unsealing and Flamekin Harbinger just give even more value on being cast, and cards like Fiery Emancipation or Seize the Day guarantee the death of a player in a single turn in addition to the burn he pumps out.
And even if the worst happens and he gets hosed, the core of the deck is still a solid mono red build on it's own.
Honestly everytime I play him, it feels like Smaug attacking Lake-Town. Just fire and death.
All the deck specifics aside, even on his own, a 7/7 flyer with 10 damage worth of burn split among three targets on *EVERY* turn is nothing to scoff at. His only holdback in my book is the high mana cost, which there are *plenty* of ways to get around in red...
I have a Mazzy deck and it's actually pretty strong. I got a lot of totem armor enchantments and the ordeal aura's that are amazing with faith healer in play because they trigger whenever they are sacrificed, does not say it has to be by it's own ability, so I can repeatedly pay 2 mana to get 2 lands with ordeal of Nylea. Pariah is pretty busted because you can use it to protect you while also killing your opponent's creatures.
You just reminded me of Polukranos, 100% i'm doing one for this commander. Thx !
Meloku, Walking Atlas, and Retreat to Coralhelm is an infinite token combo that I've used many times in cube, and is a nice little emergency wincon in any blue heavy lands deck. I'm glad you brought up Iymrith, I built him and love it in lower power level games!
Polukranos: There's no penalty for having fewer counters than the damage taken, even one counter is enough to prevent all damage, which allow Polukrano to survive over and over again as long as you have ability that buffs his base size and a way to put one counter on it. (See Sekki for similar ruling)
SulTaigam is very good with Zur's Wierding.
Temmet is surprisingly effective with a voltron strategy since you can make any token unblockable.
I was also thinking with Iymrith, maybe go like a flash themed deck, that way you unload your hand with interaction and deploy flash creatures on opponents turn, attack with Iymrith and refill your hand and continue that way.
Oooh some of these sounds super interesting, thanks for the tip. Have been looking at Meloku and Polukranos but i remember in the case of Polukranos the good cards that synergizes with counters all costs a shirt.
"Mono Blue Lands theme" - boy, do I have a deck list for you to check out :) What?! Mazzy is the #1 unpopular commander - I really like her a ton! Your deck Doc brought that into focus for me; now I want to play here even more.
And then I realized it whenever an enchanted creature attacks (not just the critters you enchanted), they get buffed when they attack anyone but you... so if your opponents are using enchanted creatures, free creature buffs for the table!
Raphael the fiendish savior is amazing and I don’t know why so many people forget about him, he’s an amazing commander in the demon and devil decks I run
Kudro of Drannith was one of my favorite commanders when I ran him for a while.
7:50 Sidisi should be in an Orzhov deck with "Adarkar Valkyrie" (without summoning sickness) and "Thornbite Staff" equipped to the latter -> _infinite creature tutor :D
Temmet is very Interesting, also because it encourages to attack a lot :D Yes, not so much about being blocked but still
Nice :D
I actually have a lyzolda enchantment deck, she’s a perfect fit because I need a non threatening commander to be able to slowly build up 3-5 mana enchantments. She only 3 mana and is great for stalling by pinging off creatures and helps me not miss lands drops with the draw. Definitely underwhelming but I win a lot of games with all of red and blacks anti hug enchantments and only a few creatures in play at a time.
I love sidisi in a combos only deck. Infernal darkness+eon hub+ glacial chasm=stonks. Dark depth+hex mage. Rouges passage+phange+ endless whispers. Top+citadel+ reservoir. Paradox engine+priest of Yawgmoth+spine of ish sah.
I’ve been slowly building a Sidisi deck for a while. I recently added haunted crossroads and cards like Supernatural stamina and feign death that allow you to tutor twice
Asmodeus the Archfiend is finally at 303 decks. Definitely underrated.
He is a nerfed Griselbrand, with the upside of being able to get around the life loss.
And unlike Griselbrand, he is legal in commander 😁
I love my Zirilan deck. It's perfect for playing with low power playgroups.
I have a temmet deck and it is my favirout deck second to yuriko but is super close. I really think they should make it so legendary token created by your commander also deal commander damage. I think it would be really cute and flavourful. There is only a handful of legends that make a legendary creature token. I know is more work for not much gain but is neat and would make a temmet, Kari Zev, or a Tolsimir even more fun and unique.
I have a Patron of the Moon deck that has some of the same vibes as Meloku, but Patron can actually help you slap your lands back on board. You get to play some extremely rude cards like Storm Cauldron, Roil Elemental, Ward of Bones, Overburden, Sunder, and Mana Breach.
I watched this yesterday. Made a Sidisi deck and oh my god is it's great. Lots of fun!
Meloku can also use Patron of the Moonfolk so they can pay 1 to put 2 lands into play tapped, so after bouncing their lands, they can ramp them right back out so you're not losing mana efficiency to get your effects from your Moonfolk.
i also forget to mention that meloku works great with the MDFC lands.
zirilan is incredible! I pulled him apart to make a jund dragons deck because he's a little one note and a bit too hard to reliably get online (you just die a lot of the time before getting to actually have fun)
he has a forever slot in my dragons deck though, honorary lieutenant
The case that probably baffles me the most currently is Pashalik Mons. I've done Pashalik Mons a couple of times and it's an explosive, combo-enabling commander for one of the most powerful tribes in existence. I wouldn't expect it to pull in numbers like Krenko, Mob Boss, but really Pashalik Mons should be a solid contender for one of the next best Goblin Tribal options. But it's not even close! Just 184 total decks.
Another uncanny one, which I think came up in one of these videos before, is Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice. 230 decks, so there's finally been a bit of an uptick. But the card is bonkers and should really claim way more decks.
The Haunt of Hightower only has 187 decks. Seems too low. It's no Tergrid, but so what?
I might try a mazzy curse deck, I've always wanted a curse deck!
Iymrith would probably be a good top end for a tempo deck, but I wish it costed one less and they made it a 4/4 or lowered the ward or something. Mono-blue isn't the best at brining creatures back from the graveyard to gain you card advantage, but it does a good job of bringing back instants and sorceries, so tempo seems to fit. I do think the card pushing you in the direction of looting is interesting, I have it in the 99 of my Kamiz, Obscura Oculus deck where it does draw me an extra card or two, but at the same time I have someone in my main playgroup who plays a lot of discard control that makes Iymrith more useful. I'm pretty sure it's just been usurped by Dragonlord Ojutai who doesn't want your hand size to be small, but now that we have some new toys with the connive mechanic, I think Iymrith would be interesting to revisit as a commander.
Before I stopped using black I had a taigam deck and he’s really strong at controlling creatures on the board
I played Sidisi for a long time. It was one of my all time favorite decks
If we want a true multicolored human tribal commander, we need like a Super Champion of The Parish
Like Mardu Champ but he has some sac and draw with his +1 ability. You have to make it worth it with a good engine
Iymrith I believe is less popular because Ojutai is 5 costed, has hexproof when untapped instead of just ward 4, and you see the top 3 and pick one instead of just drawing 1, and it includes white which is better for voltron.
i've included polukranos into all of my midrange golgari decks. It's a nice card and can work well with Mutate but that applies to every Hydra card out there with 0 basestats. The escape mechanic is counterable so it's a good card to include into every Hydra golgari Deck but not really as a commander.
Iymrith has one major, huge flaw holding it down. Dragonlord Ojutai is a card that’s just better. Hexproof > Ward, Anticipate on hit > Draw (you really gotta build around her condition to get more than a card, and you’re in blue so why do you want less cards), and a whole extra color that makes Vigilance easier to grant as well as aura/equip synergy for voltron.
Ojutai is only just over 600 decks, so not super popular, so it’s really not surprising the “worse” version has far less.
I used Sidisi as my commander in my CEDH group, had some pretty fun games but after a while I just added Sidisi to the 99 of my Meren :P
« Guys, I just love this Meloku build ! Like have you read Illusions ? If you target them they sacrifice, because they’re not real, that’s so flavorful ! Anyway, uh, Mystic Sanctuary again, take my thirtieth extra turn… »
> Unpopular Commanders
I put Meloku (the Clouded Mirror) in the 98 of my Glacian//Toggo artifacts + landfall... and I'm still working on an assemble-the-silliness brew with Varragoth (Bloodsky Sire) at the helm... running Tree of Perdition + Triskaidekaphobia, Festering Newt + Bubbling Cauldron + Bogbrew Witch, and other silly combos + synergy. I have Sceptre of Empires and Crown of Empires, but I'm still looking for a Throne of Empires, so the other two can't make it into the 99 yet.
I'm not surprised Alora (Merry Thief) and Lulu (Loyal Hollyphant) are lacking in popularity, but there's some imagination going unused.
Sidisi is so strong combos with Dawn of the Dead perfectly. I built it as a discard/ stax strat
I love my Zirilan deck. I always get compliments on how weird it is. I love when people are like "I've never seen that before"
Someone in my playgroup has General Kudro, and it absolutely sucks to play against if your commander has 4 or more power, especially because of how they play it
I have built Polukronos, Temmet, Mazzy, and my favorite that I still play is Zirilan
i suddenly need to build a mazzy deck, great video!
I have a Taigam deck. It's mostly for fun running paradox haze and some value. Being able to fill your graveyard with stuff and making taigams ability more useful for removal is nice too. He definitely isn't that strong especially if he gets killed the first turn you play him because he then costs 7 which hurts.
Roshnakt, heir of rohgahh is awesome and so underrated. He’s like a mono red cantrip deck and no one uses it I love him so much
Still waiting to see Tahngarth, First Mate popping up in one of these lists. Rank #721 with 477 decks, that seems incredibly low for such an intereresting effect. I guess it never popped out on the radar because there was so little support for a Voltron-Goad-Politics-Strategy when he came out in 2019. But now, there´s this increasing number of goad effects - Komainu Armor in particular, it´s as if this was secretly made with Tahngarth in mind.
I always found him to be a worse/less interessting version of Karona False God.
I think the main problem with Iymrith is that a very large portion of the time is just feels like a worse Dragonlord Ojutai.
Shoot, you're right. I was going to say Blue itself can't grant Vigilance and will have to look to the Equipment options. Dragonlord Ojutai really expands options. Although I do prefer Ward as a more fair mechanic.
I'm pretty sure that if you make the embalm token with Temnet it wouldn't count as your commander anymore and just a token copy. So using his ability on himself would only give you regular damage not commander.
Lyzolda is the best when used with infinite mana to win, and that is just not really fun(or strongest in colors) so... Not a lot of people do that
Giving Polukranos first-strike must be scary, since the card might as well say “{1}{B}{G}: destroy target creature”
Came back to this vid for Temmet. At time of typing, Benthic Anomaly just got revealed. That's a mighty big token.
Most of these cards feel generally bad/uninspired without a fun gameplan. Like sure you can Sidisi and tutor, which is really good. But is it fun?
Mhmm Fun is subjective of course but yeah I do think you are right in the sense that the Sidisi deck most likely will use the same game plan game after game. Then again, I got a Jhoira (Wheatherlight captain) artifact storm deck and although she is a one trick-pony, I like her ;) (then again I got 40 decks ready to play so that is how I get my variation I guess)
I mean I built a sidisi mono black reanimator and have really enjoyed it, a good example of having a commander that isnt the focal point but is instead a really good card in the deck.
@@Morrodin182 That's obviously true, but when choosing a commander in mono black, nothing really makes me think "damn sidisi is actually really cool"
Can you do a deck tech of zirilian of the claw? He seems very neat
I’ve played Doran the siege tower for over ten years and have yet to see another one
Temmet, I think is because after like 5 cards you gotta go into clone effects which feels rather lame when you want to just pulverize people with interesting big tokens
I think he might get better with the new Tefari that gain's loyalty when you draw a card
Imryth i was refering to
phyrexian processor and ajani goldmane tokens are nice with temmet
I think if your argument for Iymrith is that the best card is a reserve card list, I think that’s your answer. I will admit, the EDHRec page has some interesting ideas for it, but also the page works against itself by having so much card draw AND discard to the point where you ask yourself “what am I trying to do? Have a full grip or have no grip?”, I also outside of a really dominant effect like MoM, nobody wants to be discarding cards just to make the commander function, if you have so much dead cards in your hand that you can pitch them as such….that’s not a good sign.
For Iymrith, isn't the problem with the last ability that you're in Blue? Because the idea is, ya know..... if you're in Blue and have less than 3 cards in hand - SOMETHING HAS GONE WRONG. Even if you're trying to get less than 3 cards - you're in MonoBlue - and having a full hand just kinda happens without even thinking. That's probably a turnoff right there.
it is unsurprising that Iymrith is unpopular: 5 mana, to wait 1 turn to maybe draw 1 card most of the time or 2 card if you spend all your cards. as a commander, he doesn't help you advances your gameplan
i've had Lyzolda for at least 8yrs now. You don't need red creatures, I call it my abyss tribal deck. It's basically aristocrats stax with alot of reanimation. Very grindy but fair, I get compliments for not being BW aristocrats and or not being a zulaport cut-throat tribal deck.
I made a polukrano deck when the set came out, I was a big fan of the original card. But for some reason or another I lost every game I played with it xD. Converted it into a skull briar deck after about a year.
Unfortunately most of these cards seem "underwhelming" compared go other alternatives. If you're a seasoned player you might build one of these decks but if you just start out you'll want to play something that seems better performing. I'll look into building the mono red dragon one!
Hey Demo, what about Unstable Infestation in Mazzy? I build Mazzy and it is so interesting and fun! Minimus containment is great too
Sadly the problem with these slightly lower power commanders when people look into build them they don't have much choice but to run the same good stuff as anyone else who builds it in order to keep up with your average commander game. So that lowers the number of unique decks built around it. Along with less colors limiting diversity
is there a list of the "assemble" style cards?
Funny story I won a game the other day with 95 basic plais and Hokori Dust Drinker as my commander
Problem with Polukranos is that he doesn't have any kind of trample. Too many games with an abundance of token generators means that large vanilla bodies don't cut it.
i actually have a temeth deck where i went with a exalted token voltron deck with living weapons
I have a Lyzolda deck, Its fun
Moonfolk are my favourite creature type :D
My Mazzy deck hits like a truck. It's hands down one of the best arua commanders we have at this point