Most Underrated Commander?

Commander (EDH) forum

Posted on Sept. 5, 2015, 2:57 a.m. by Owlteeth

I wanted to know what you guys thought the most underrated commander was. simple question, just remember to have the name in brackets.

My favorite, and IMO most underrated, is Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni

MirranTitan says... #2

One of my guys that I am playing is super under-rated. Wrexial, the Risen Deep I'm playing a really corny mill deck in commander, and it's fun.

September 5, 2015 3:04 a.m.

MagicalHacker says... #3

Thrun, the Last Troll at the helm of a voltron deck can be extremely brutal, and yet I've never seen him as a commander for anything besides the deck I've built for him.

Then again, I have built >200 edh decks on this site, so I'm sure the majority of the decks I've built fit that bill.

September 5, 2015 3:09 a.m.

asasinater13 says... #4

Surrak Dragonclaw is much better than I expected before playing with him. I totally underrestimated him because he lacks any inherent card advantage and all he protects himself from is countermagic, which didn't seem like it would be good enough.

September 5, 2015 3:09 a.m.

Havok.Bane says... #5

Meloku the Clouded Mirror is underrated in my opinion and is really fun in a token/ landfall combo build.

September 5, 2015 3:23 a.m.

Tolluf says... #6

I have found Patron of the Moon to be a good commander, totally underrated it. Like with Meloku you can really do some clunky and weird combos with your lands.

September 5, 2015 5:27 a.m.

lemmingllama says... #7

I'd probably say Multani, Maro-Sorcerer is my most underrated commander. He is often a 20/20 or 30/30 with shroud, which can quickly deal a lot of damage.

@ M a g i c a l H a c k e r I've actually played against Thrun voltron before. It's quite brutal, but it's also much slower than many typical voltron commanders. If there are any combo or super aggressive decks, it's hard for Thrun to keep up.

September 5, 2015 6:49 a.m.

greyninja says... #8

I just turned my fiance's Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker deck into Aurelia, the Warleader

I wish mono- wasn't so slow, since michiko can be pretty detrimental to certain deck builds

Aurelia is great because she's still relevant even when casting her at and . Not all commanders can say that

September 5, 2015 7 a.m.

Arvail says... #9

I don't feel like there are too many truly underrated generals out there. Sure, there's a lot of generals that don't see all that much play, but that's because they lack some of the power of the most common meta picks at higher levels of play. That's not to say that the less frequent picks aren't fun or can't lead to interesting builds or decks.

Oh, and just because something isn't played a ton doesn't mean they're all that underrated. Think about Angus Mackenzie. He's a fine general with a great color identity. Regardless, it's pretty rare to see people running him. That doesn't mean the community doesn't value him as a commander though.

September 5, 2015 8:58 a.m.

nayrash5 says... #10

I haven't seen very many Rasputin Dreamweaver lists, though he is rather niche and expensive.

September 5, 2015 12:15 p.m.

Phaetion says... #11

I feel like Sedris, the Traitor King is seriously underrated. He just wins out of nowhere if you set everything up right. Oh, and the challenge of playing around Unearth's drawback. Too bad people would rather use Nekusar, the Mindrazer and Marchesa, the Black Rose.

That said, even the likes of Krond the Dawn-Clad is underrated. You're in 2 colors, what's so difficult about WWWGGG?

September 5, 2015 1:11 p.m.

Arvail says... #12

I actually play a Grixis combo control shell with Sedris, the Traitor King. Most of the deck is draw/utility/loot effects that let me stock up on resources. Then it's just dictating the board with control. Lastly, add in a few utility fatties, reanimation stuff, and a bunch of redundant splinter twin combo pieces.

It's a fun deck that wins out of nowhere. Intuition is the MVP of that deck. It's effectively an entwined Tooth and Nail in most cases, fetching me my combo.

September 5, 2015 1:37 p.m.

DinosaurSheriff says... #13

I think I'm the only one who plays Marath, Will of the Wild, who can be super nasty if played right. It seems most people prefer Ghave, Guru of Spores for their token decks, but Marath is the man.

September 5, 2015 2:08 p.m.

RegisteredDecksOffender says... #14

I third that Sedris, the Traitor King is the most underrated. He is very good at taking people by surprise. I play him myself, and your board state can go from nothing to winning very quickly.

September 5, 2015 3:12 p.m.

guessling says... #15

I agree about Marath, Will of the Wild being more threatening than Ghave, Guru of Spores - at least in 1v1.

Marath is often more than just a token deck and tends to run faster. In multiplayer, it looks as if combo-ghave could have a slight edge on marath because of tutors and the sheer number of combos.

A lot of playgroups are down on the combos, though. Ghave-combo would be more likely to take table hate or shunning. Marath can still be powerful and subtle after ditching combos.

Going ghave-tokens alternatively is a much more obvious strategy that draws hate for a different reason - all of it is board state so stuff is right there for any hate etb triggers or w/e that need to just pick something ... and it is always politically correct to target the most powerful thing on the board, even though the most advantageous permanent in play rarely is the highest threat for anyone winning (or losing).

September 5, 2015 3:38 p.m.

NoPantsParade says... #16

My friend has a pretty potent Vorel deck. It's absolutely bonkers and gets out of hand pretty quickly.

September 5, 2015 3:40 p.m.

Karns_Pyromancer says... #17

Tibor and Lumia is my contribution. They're highly playable, but do require heavily building around.

September 5, 2015 4:12 p.m.

VensersJournalist says... #18

I'd say Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer is an underrated/underplayed commander, at least in my circles. I recently built a deck around him and it's not easy playing hug/turbo fog minus green. However, in multiplayer I feel like Gwafa can be an unseen threat, much like Sedris.

September 5, 2015 4:46 p.m.

WicKid52 says... #19

Earlier, someone said Rasputin Dreamweaver. 100%. He is so good.

September 5, 2015 6:25 p.m.

greyninja says... #20

If you look at the commanders mentioned you'll see that is the most represented, right?

I think as long as you can focus on a color that draws cards; you can make it work lol

The challenge is an underrated general with zero or even . Playing the grind game in multiplayer is hard without it imo. I attempt to chug along in Aurelia, the Warleader with Mind's Eye, Sword of Fire and Ice, tutors, etc.

Super interested in the Sedris, the Traitor King idea. Currently running a Crosis, the Purger; and I like the "chuck sh*t in the graveyard until you can pay to combo out" that Sedris offers

September 6, 2015 12:04 p.m.

ComradeJim270 says... #21

@DinosaurSheriff: I've got a friend who runs Marath. The deck is absolutely terrifying to face. It really doesn't need or to have answers for everything. The ramp is obscene and it has incredibly explosive plays through the entire game... which isn't very long once it combos off.

Heartless Hidetsugu is a funny one simply because it can go from "not a threat" to "everyone dies" in a single turn with little or no warning.

September 6, 2015 1:14 p.m.

MagicalHacker says... #22

After Pondering the question for some time, I realize now that we may be approaching the question from the wrong angle. The most underrated commander is someone that the majority of people would consider to be bad (due to a large amount of downsides or low amount of upsides) when that commander is in fact pretty decent. According to MTG Goldfish's stats, here are some of the uncommonly built decks that I believe could be pretty good (wall of text incoming...):

(Sidenote: Doing the process backwards led me to which commander that I'd say is the most overrated: Progenitus. Cool, I guess...)

September 6, 2015 3:33 p.m.

DinosaurSheriff says... #23

@ComradeJim270 check out my marath deck, Rudolph, The Flame Farting Reindeer. I'm really proud of the time and effort I put into making it balanced between ramp and explosiveness.

September 6, 2015 4:20 p.m.

biggestmtgnerd says... #24

celestial Kirin. Although I think that it's less of a matter of people not thinking it's good and more of a matter of people not knowing it exists

September 7, 2015 2:34 a.m.

greyninja says... #25

Celestial Kirin

September 7, 2015 6:55 a.m.

MrAptronym says... #26

Some generals aren't played, not because they are underrated, but just don't excite people. Beyond that, I think people tend to underestimate generals that don't have bomb effects or means of protecting themselves. I also believe single color generals tend to be underrated with a couple exceptions.

My Thada Adel, Acquisitor Deck seems to get underestimated pretty thoroughly. Evasive, cheap, in a tribe with half a dozen lords and she steals artifacts in a format where every deck plays some.

Fumiko the Lowblood is pretty potent. Interestingly she is a red general who plays well defensively, and forcing your opponents to attack every single turn messes up a lot of decks. When your board position is strong, she absolutely shuts down a lot of people.

Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero is straightforward, but she basically ensures that from turn 3 on you will be able to play something every turn. In fact, you should probably be able to spend almost all of your mana every single turn. The downside is, most rebels aren't too threatening on their own, but white's got effects that help that. Being able to recur Children of Korlis every single turn from your 4th turn on, for 4 mana is pretty annoying.

Toshiro Umezawa is another 3 mana general that gets irritating very quickly. He just quickly provides great value. If you focus on control and destruction you can use his effective card advantage to provide answers to any threats your opponents can come up with.

Reki, the History of Kamigawa is a neat build around. Did you know there are currently 72 mono-green legendary spells? Or 32 more with colorless color identities?

A bonus one for green: Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant with a lot of forests, a lot of to-hand ramp and a few mana sinks she goes from useless to a win in no time. Its tricky and you may sometimes find yourself defenseless, but you can play her and flip her instantly if you need to and no ramp effect is stronger. She is nice for people who like all-or-nothing type decks.

On the multi-color front, if you don't mind being a jerk and more than likely making your friends have to consult the comprehensive rules then there is no contest: Mishra, Artificer Prodigy gets my vote for flat out most underrated commander. Mishra's ability makes most players I have seen look at him and immediately dismiss him from commander. However, he combos with cards like Possibility Storm, Planar Chaos or Nether Void. By properly ordering your triggered abilities these cards effect other people... and not you. (Okay, Possibility Storm also nets you a random free artifact every time you cast one.) If you know your metagame, you can even cast artifacts out of your opponents decks and search your own copy. (Hey there Thada Adel, Acquire and Praetor's Grasp)

September 9, 2015 4:17 a.m.

poorpinkus says... #27

Rasputin Dreamweaver can make really cool flicker decks, for example my deck Ra Ra Rasputin - Flickering Mana Dork EDH has been really fun to play, and works awesome with Conjurer's Closet and Leyline of Anticipation effects

November 12, 2015 3:26 p.m.

WicKid52 says... #28

poorpinkus: Necro 2 stronk

November 12, 2015 6:38 p.m.

poorpinkus says... #29

WicKid52 it's not... THAT old...

I mean, I've accidentally commented on post from 4 years ago before so there's that

November 12, 2015 6:48 p.m.

WicKid52 says... #30

Last comment was a month ago. Still necro.

November 12, 2015 6:49 p.m.

AwesomeOctopus says... #31

Isamaru, Hound of Konda?

November 13, 2015 1:47 a.m.

WicKid52 says... #32

AwesomeOctopus: Oh. My. God. Stop with the necro.

November 13, 2015 8:36 p.m.

This discussion has been closed