“You can trust us to stick to you through thick and thin – to the bitter end.”
Art:Deicide
by Jason Chan
With a ton of product releases and new commanders coming out as fast as lightning, it can be very hard to keep up with the huge number of new cards entering the format. Because of this, there are a ton of awesome commanders who are strong and unique that rarely get played and are very underrated; this is not a list focusing on the best of the best but focusing more on the forgotten commanders that you never hear anyone talk about or play. I hope you all can find a new commander you’ve never heard of! I am super excited to showcase these unusual and underrated commanders; without further adieu, let’s get it!
Deck #1: Jason Bright, Glowing Prophet Mono-Blue Zombies
Decks on EDHREC: 43
Jason Bright was released in the fallout set, and since that set was jam-packed with commanders, Jason definitely went under the radar; while this is certainly not the strongest zombie commander within the format, it is quite good and a blast to pilot. Jason only has 43 decks on EDHREC, which is criminally low, in my opinion.
Jason Bright is a mono-blue zombie deck focusing on +1/+1 counters and value. We have a strong source of card draw and counters from Jason, and the flying he gives to a creature can make us evasive and allow us to hit very easily. Combine that with the typical mono-blue control elements with cards like Counterspell
and Cyclonic Rift
, and we have an evasive and strong deck that can hit like a truck and easily take over a game.
The Deck:
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Jason Bright, Glowing Prophet Zombies !
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Deck #2: Gallia of the Endless Dance Gruul Satyrs
Decks on EDHREC: 650 decks
Gallia is a very interesting commander. I love the abilities of this card as well as the overall flavor, but I think this commander will stay underrated primarily due to the quality of a lot of the satyrs. In contrast, we have super powerful ones like Boon Satyr
; there is quite a bit of underwhelming ones. Luckily, because we are in Gruul, there are a ton of interesting enchantments and ways to make our satyrs bigger and badder. If you are a huge satyr fan, this is the deck for you.
This deck follows a stompy gameplay strategy overall, focusing mostly on using our commander for early-mid-game card advantage and giving us a leg-up in early-game combat. Once we have a board established, we can take over with awesome enchantments like Beastmaster Ascension
and Shared Animosity
, which are both great ways to take over and end the game. I do love Gallia a lot. Her card advantage is awesome, and since the satyrs are rather unimpressive on their own, the buff and the haste can be very helpful. This deck is a blast to play at a table full of creature decks and I had so much fun testing it, while it does have a decent number of decks present online I think the fun and flavor of this card, should make it much higher!
The Deck:
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Gallia of the Endless Dance Gruul Satyrs!
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Deck #3: Fumiko the Lowblood Mono-Red Forced Combats
Decks on EDHREC: 254 decks
This deck certainly won’t make you any friends, Fumiko is a very interesting commander and one that will certainly turn heads when you bring it out at the table; this is a very interesting and different commander focusing on the Bushido mechanic which is quite strong, on top of that we are able to force how our opponents block, wipe boards and force our opponents to attack each other allowing us to take all the pressure off of us and let the chaos ensue.
This deck is very fun to play but certainly is a little one-sided; opponents may get sick of us making all of the combat decisions and the overall chaos we bring to the table. We typically end the game through combos with Blazing Sunsteel
and Stuffy Doll
or Brash Taunter
but we do have some big finishers like Insurrection
. This deck is a lot of fun to play and certainly adds a lot of politics to the game!
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Fumiko the Lowblood Mono-Red Forced Combats!
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Deck #4: Ojutai, Soul of Winter Azorius Dragon Control
Decks on EDHREC: 121 decks
Ojutai is a very cool commander but does have an uphill battle, the number one being that they are in dragons, which is jam-packed with some of the most powerful commanders in the format, and the second battle is that they cost seven mana. Despite these drawbacks, this deck is a lot of fun to play, and dragons with a control element from both our creatures and our spell package makes for a very fun experience overall. Ojutai is quite expensive, but when they do come out, our opponents can kiss their boards goodbye as we consistently and constantly tap them down.
Well, I don’t think this is the most powerful dragons deck you can build, it is a ton of fun to play, and the overall control elements add something you typically don’t get with dragons; I don’t think that Ojutai is going to take the commander world by storm, but I do think it is very underrated and this deck is a ton of fun.
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Ojutai, Soul of Winter Azorius Dragon Control!
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Deck #5: Vogar, Necropolis Tyrant Mono-Black Aristocrats
Decks on EDHREC: 110 decks
If you have any interest in some good old mono-black fun, then this is the deck for you; Vogar is a great option for an aristocrats/sacrifice strategy; card draw is something mono-black can definitely struggle with so being able to draw a ton of cards and have a very good attacker as our commander is a great asset, beyond that we have all of the classic Aristocrat ways to destroy our opponent’s boards like Grave Pact
and ways to attack our opponent’s life like Zulaport Cutthroat
and Blood Artist
.
Vogar is a super fun and flavorful commander, and truthfully, I’m surprised at how low their deck count is, it’s a great commander that helps to address one of my mono-black’s biggest weaknesses in card draw and is also great in combat as well.
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Vogar, Necropolis Tyrant Mono-Black Aristocrats!
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Conclusion:
I hope you all enjoyed it and left with some new ideas for commanders! There are so many amazing commanders out there, and while I love some of the more popular commanders in the format there is nothing wrong with going toward the bottom and checking them out; when I pulled out these decks at our testing table, I got a lot of looks and side-eyes and alsmot all of my opponents had to read them and see what they did, by the end they knew what they did when they were on the receiving end! Do you have any underrated commanders we didn’t cover? Send them our way; we’d love to check them out! Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!