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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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 😉
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.
EDIT: Nevermind, I guess Wastes is a basic land, but does not count as a type of basic land. Ignore everything else in this post as it is incorrect; I will leave it up as a monument to my failure. It's not great, but you can also run Wastes in your Bortuk deck for a colorless basic land, letting you return a three drop alongside your (at first) six drop 4/4 Commander. So I guess that's an option?
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.
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
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?
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.
Running Phage as a commander is not only a flex but downright *Insulting* to everyone at the table. If you win with Phage, your opponent is going to have to get a new identity and leave the country due to the overwhelming embarrassment of losing to a card that when in the command zone, should have flavor text that says "skill issue" and nothing else
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.
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.
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.
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.
Phage absolutely doesn't deserve to be on this list. Tarpor Orb, Platinum Angel, Campfire, Command Beacon, Stunning Reversal, Sundial of the Infinite, and Netherborn Altar can all stop you from losing the game with Phage ETB or let you put it directly into your hand instead of casting it from the command zone. Phage itself also definitely pays you off for getting it into play since it will pretty much always be a massive threat.
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.
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"
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.
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.
Phage is my vote for worst card ever printed, largely because of when it came out. This was before the days of Commander and Modern. Standard was the most popular format in those days. And the top deck in Standard when Phage was printed was a cycling deck based around Astral Slide and similar cards. If you cast Phage, and your opponent has an Astral Slide, you lose the game on the spot. And cycling decks by their very nature could easily cycle cards to find a copy of Astral Slide. "You can't cast this card if you are facing the most popular deck" is an absolutely insane drawback for something you are paying 7 mana for to have.
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 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.
Bad Odric is really only useful as a fake commander for the other Odric's printed. Adding red to his identity allows easier access to a wider range of keywords, and opens up some interesting strategies but is otherwise almost never used unless you've got nothing else to play.
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
no Haakon stromgald scourge? The most convoluted commander in history to play. You need to send him from the command zone to your hand, so you can send him to the graveyard, and them you can finally put him in play. His effect is at best decent, and he still have a drawback of shocking you every time he dies.
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.
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
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.
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.
> green often struggles with fliers Uhhh, didn't green get removals of "creatures with flying" every now and then? And also spiders with reach? I'd say green, while not having many fliers itself, has more than enough answers to fliers.
5:39 Gonna hard disagree with you there. Green does get access to flying creatures least often, but it is one of the best colors at dealing with flying, mono green has hundreds of cards with reach, which each other mono and colorless has a couple dozen at most, green also has the most flying hate cards like Silklash Spider, Hurricane and plummet. While a lot of these aren't really going to see much play because people can' guarantee they will face flying, green does have by far the most non flyer options for dealing with flying creatures.
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.
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.
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
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.
I wanted to build a “fuck your fliers” deck with Arashi, The Sky Asunder. Run creatures with reach, every single plummet effect, etc. a silly meme deck
Hmm I expected "Mishra, Artificer Prodigy" to make the list, his whole effect is about searching copies of artifacts you play, which is pointless in a Highlander-Deck.
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
Completely missed the mark on “O d r i c”. He’s built as a keyword flicker commander with cards like All That Glitters to reward for the absolute gaggle of near-useless artifacts he pumps out. Aether grid and other cards turn it from disappointment to a sneakily strong pile.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Rivals of Izalia caught me off guard, saying Ordic 56 times had me dyyiinngg
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 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'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
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.
6:46
YGO players really do have problems with names
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.
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.
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.
"Ordic" now lives rent free in my head
ordic is my fave character from innistrad
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.
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.
Surprised to not see the Myojin on this list. They're basically just overcosted spirits in the Command zone
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Odric, Blood-Cursed feels like he stepped right out of Dark Souls 2 / Bloodbourne / Elden Ring, and I'm really diggin' it 🤩
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 😉
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.
EDIT: Nevermind, I guess Wastes is a basic land, but does not count as a type of basic land. Ignore everything else in this post as it is incorrect; I will leave it up as a monument to my failure.
It's not great, but you can also run Wastes in your Bortuk deck for a colorless basic land, letting you return a three drop alongside your (at first) six drop 4/4 Commander.
So I guess that's an option?
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.
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
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...
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?
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.
Running Phage as a commander is not only a flex but downright *Insulting* to everyone at the table. If you win with Phage, your opponent is going to have to get a new identity and leave the country due to the overwhelming embarrassment of losing to a card that when in the command zone, should have flavor text that says "skill issue" and nothing else
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 🙂
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.
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.
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.
16:17 preach! My favorite commander deck is still my Odric, Master Tactician deck.
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
Phage absolutely doesn't deserve to be on this list. Tarpor Orb, Platinum Angel, Campfire, Command Beacon, Stunning Reversal, Sundial of the Infinite, and Netherborn Altar can all stop you from losing the game with Phage ETB or let you put it directly into your hand instead of casting it from the command zone. Phage itself also definitely pays you off for getting it into play since it will pretty much always be a massive threat.
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.
What kind of crazy pills are you on to say Grandma Sengir is worse than a card that literally makes you lose the game.
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"
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.
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.
Phage is my vote for worst card ever printed, largely because of when it came out. This was before the days of Commander and Modern. Standard was the most popular format in those days. And the top deck in Standard when Phage was printed was a cycling deck based around Astral Slide and similar cards. If you cast Phage, and your opponent has an Astral Slide, you lose the game on the spot. And cycling decks by their very nature could easily cycle cards to find a copy of Astral Slide. "You can't cast this card if you are facing the most popular deck" is an absolutely insane drawback for something you are paying 7 mana for to have.
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.
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 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.
Bad Odric is really only useful as a fake commander for the other Odric's printed. Adding red to his identity allows easier access to a wider range of keywords, and opens up some interesting strategies but is otherwise almost never used unless you've got nothing else to play.
I like playing both of them in an Akroma Vision of Ixidor + A red commander decks!
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.
Calling a blinkable commander that can reliably give you 5-6 artifacts when artifact support is so strong is WILD lmao
Do best/worst Oathbreakers. And best/worst Commander pairings.
I'd like a list of the weakest and strongest precon commander decks
>be odric
>be my favourite character
>have 0 good cards
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
6:46 I'm sorry, rivals of WHAT?
no Haakon stromgald scourge? The most convoluted commander in history to play. You need to send him from the command zone to your hand, so you can send him to the graveyard, and them you can finally put him in play. His effect is at best decent, and he still have a drawback of shocking you every time he dies.
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.
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
They did Odric dirty. Really dirty. Like, dirty sanchez dirty.
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.
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.
> green often struggles with fliers
Uhhh, didn't green get removals of "creatures with flying" every now and then? And also spiders with reach? I'd say green, while not having many fliers itself, has more than enough answers to fliers.
5:39 Gonna hard disagree with you there. Green does get access to flying creatures least often, but it is one of the best colors at dealing with flying, mono green has hundreds of cards with reach, which each other mono and colorless has a couple dozen at most, green also has the most flying hate cards like Silklash Spider, Hurricane and plummet. While a lot of these aren't really going to see much play because people can' guarantee they will face flying, green does have by far the most non flyer options for dealing with flying creatures.
"Odric isn't very strong" *Me one shotting my friends for the 30th time with an army of flying double strikers*
I was expecting the two myojin cycles. So bad overcosted and junky to play from the command zone
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.
ChoManno is also extremely inefficient from a meta perspective. If you run LinSivvi, you run ChoManno as well, and she's cheaper lol
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.
At least if you use Phage as your commander you'll always have a stylish way of conceding available.
When he said Izellia I was positive I stroked out
It’s ixilan omg 😂
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
Top ten Voltron commander.
“You can tap grandma” no thanks I’d rather not
Making one of these as a commander deck.
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.
I wanted to build a “fuck your fliers” deck with Arashi, The Sky Asunder. Run creatures with reach, every single plummet effect, etc. a silly meme deck
Hmm I expected "Mishra, Artificer Prodigy" to make the list, his whole effect is about searching copies of artifacts you play, which is pointless in a Highlander-Deck.
I'm really surprised that Dragonlord Koloaghan isn't on this list since it's ability does nothing against all but like 4 decks
our beloved phage the unplayable
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
to be fair, in commander it is an upside to be multicolored. having more colors for a lower stats is easily worth in commander
At least the Elder Dragon cycle is why we have Elder Dragon Highlander to begin with. And Nicol Bolas was sort of alright.
I played lord Magus for a long time when we started commander. Before it really took off
Completely missed the mark on “O d r i c”. He’s built as a keyword flicker commander with cards like All That Glitters to reward for the absolute gaggle of near-useless artifacts he pumps out. Aether grid and other cards turn it from disappointment to a sneakily strong pile.
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 completely forgot what the black primal dinosaur did
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.
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.