4 Things That Make For Bad Commander Design

[@NFEast]

I think it’s important to remember that the Legendary typing isn’t used just to denote it can be your commander. It’s used to limit the power of certain cards in regular constructed formats. Baral would probably be too powerful if you could control more than 1 at a time. Not every legendary creature is built with EDH in mind or at least as their first concern.

[@chrisbenson6753]

I mean you’re right that it was the case, I’m not sure if you could say it still is

[@goldcreeper7376]

@@chrisbenson6753 It most likely was the case for Baral and many of the other Kaladesh block legendaries he highlighted, but that is not the case for later ones that came from the FIRE era after WAR. Modern was still by far the most popular format at the time and several of these legendaries saw some degree of play (some even did up to the MH era of modern)

[@jlbrooks74]

WoTC has long given up on caring about stifling a card's usefulness/power in 60 card formats by denoting them as legendary. Legendary used to denote characters in the lore with some sort of importance. Now the importance is will it attract a commander player to buy packs. And let's make legendaries even more "playable " by continually printing cards that specifically ignore the "legend" rule.

[@STS-qi1qy]

Not just for constructed. Sign-post uncommons are designed for limited. Not necessarily powerful in constructed, or commander (or interesting *as* commanders), but built to be strong for their slot to encourage people into the intended build space for limited.

[@jlbrooks74]

@@STS-qi1qy sign post uncommons could just as easily do this job in a non legendary capacity

[@Krunschy]

I kinda see your point for most of these, but for Don Andres, having an ability for noncreature spells too is absolutely intergral for the commander to work. Can't always rely on your opponents to play creature decks after all.

[@noahvburk585]

exactly. cards like Breeches would become so much worse if the card was split. Having both abilities encourages a thief style deck and i think thats very thematic for pirates and also they need the powerboost bc its a meh tribe in general

[@OniTreefolk]

I like that Wayta makes Enrage dinosaurs more useful, giving you two triggers potentially. She has a lot, but that really made me smile.

[@origaminosferatu3357]

I'm personally glad Wizards is finally brewing commanders for all the off-the-wall decks I've built over the years.

[@riukenavatar8625]

My biggest one is "whenever X, draw a card." Find more interesting payoffs for doing the thing. Korvold and Tatyova are especially bad because of this.

[@eewweeppkk]

Eh as much as I think "do thing draw card" commanders are uninspired, they promote a smooth and consistent game while not completely sacrificing your gamplan when they are removed. I love building decks that are totally reliant on a unique commander to do a unique thing - until I play against someone who imprisons them in the moon or removes then twice and makes them uncastable. Now I'm literally stuck twiddling my thumbs and playing some standard jank from 20 years ago instead of playing my deck. Meanwhile "do thing draw card" commanders just let their controllers play more of their cards (and sometimes the thing is unique itself, allowing them to keep an interesting concept as their core deck idea) while not having the problem of twiddling their thumbs when their commander goes away. I totally see why it it feels uninspired, but its so common because it simply promotes consistent gameplay and allows you to play more of your deck.

[@TruthlessHero]

As you've asked, my opinion on most of those is that they would be a lot less offensive to people in general if people would stop assuming everyone feels the same way. I will try to explain what I mean by that. My friend, let's call him B, built a Tergrid deck immediately upon her release. Everyone at the shop we play at bitched and moaned. This is before he even played it. They said it wasn't gonna be fun. He has been hated out of every single game he wasn't able to pull a super early lead in. I've watched him die first in so many games, without even ever having a chance to cast his commander sometimes. Why? It's not a deck that won. Almost ever. Most of the time he didn't even get to "do the thing". The few times he did, the game was over shortly thereafter and everyone complained. Well one night we were having a big commander event, and a bunch of non regulars showed up to play. I happened to be in the same pod as B, and two of these visitors. B pulled Tergrid out and I could see he was kind of wondering how they would react. One of the guy's response was basically to gush and pull out his Tinybones deck and say he was going to play something else, but thought this would be a good pod. The other guy was like, "Yeah, sure, whatever." It was a really long, grindy game. But, we all had a lot of fun, a lot of good table talk, some loudly hurled curses, lots of laughs. Since then, I try to look at my opponent's commanders in terms of mechanics only, because if I decide that I'm gonna have a bad time just because you're playing whatever commander, it will make it really hard for me to have a good time, regardless of what happens, and some people really do have fun playing those "unfun" games. Given that perspective, there are very few cards on your list that really feel offensive.

[@ospero7681]

Okay, I'll bite (two months late, but whatever). Even just looking at the commander mechanically, *how* do you build Tergrid so it's not completely miserable for everyone involved? Just...how does that work? That ability is intentionally harshing other peoples' buzz, and the way you describe how it went with the regulars at your LGS does nothing to dispel that notion - "either he got hated out of the game really early, or he got to pull off what his deck was doing, and the game ended soon after" is precisely how games involving commanders like that usually go. Either keep that commander off the board, or let them have it for one turn cycle and then it's game over. Also, how does a game with a Tergrid deck in it get, quoting you directly, "really long and grindy"? Almost all Tergrid builds I've seen have a good handful of cards in them that pretty much end the game on the spot or make it really hard to recover - stuff like Dark Deal, Death Cloud, Fraying Omnipotence, Awaken the Erstwhile or Archfiend of Depravity. Is the deck just not playing any of these cards? To be clear, I'm genuinely curious here. Tergrid is such an obvious example of a commander that's miserable to play against and could never be anything else that the very thought of someone somehow managing to build her *not* to be that is just fascinating.

[@jacobstone4070]

A lot of people blame edhrec for how everyone's decks seem to be the same, but I agree with you and think it's not brought up enough that wizards' recent legendary creature designs aren't open ended or leaving a lot of room for creative builds

[@ManjMau]

In general MTG is becoming less creative with mechanics and abilities and instead just piles on more and more existing abilities on a single card. They need to experiment more with ways that rule-changing abilties can make the game more interesting and fun, not just use the same +1/+1 counters, lifegain and lifeloss , card draw, etc.

[@Sinistra359]

Yup. It's getting stale, all they're doing is just mix and matching already existing abilities.

[@emerson685]

All very true points. Totally agree. Maybe I missed it, but I feel like the specific issue for the 4th category is “commanders that are the engine and payoff in one.” It seems like all commanders these days do that; especially tribal commanders. It drives me crazy. It’s like every commander does it all for you. It makes the actual 99 such low stakes. If decks were an algorithm, it typically goes Component A + Component B = successful execution of Theme C. (In the most basic form). Well designed commanders just really have A,B, or C and if they have more it is something that allows for some narrow sub theme that does NOT significantly interaction with A, B, or C. But Modern commander design tends to have 2 of the 3 variables on the card, so you rarely have to make sacrifices to your card selection in the 99. If you are unlucky and only draw cards that do Component A, no problem, your commander has B and C covered as its abilities… or some variation of that. It just makes boring, smart- decks. It doesn’t ask the player to build around some inherent weakness in the strategy or poor RNG. It doesn’t ask the player to account for inconsistency in their deck and thus sacrifice. It doesn’t allow for discovery in the deck building or playing or the deck. It’s just boring.

[@edhdeckbuilding]

"commanders that are the engine and payoff in one" yes, but also just doing more than is necessary for a good commander.

[@Logic-cg7qy]

Notice how many lack activated abilities? They're all triggers, the best ones give value by just sitting there. They're like enchantments now, don't even need to attack with them.

[@callumarcher8111]

I think that may be one of the reasons why I love my Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink deck so much, because I actually get to do something with him instead of it just sitting there gaining me advantage.

[@andrewtaylor5883]

Boring design is so polarizing. It's either laughed out [bad] or agreed to be great. It's fine to have a boring design, to have a simple design, but adding '...draw a card' in the mix makes it hard to politic your way out of being targeted. That's not a healthy for the format.

[@adamklosterman101]

Don't really agree that any of these are "bad design". Just that these types of cards aren't appropriate for more casual games. Beyond that, I think you tend to look at deck building like a fun puzzle to be solved. I think that's great! But not everyone does, so having cards that are easier to build around isn't inherently flawed, imo.

[@decakebaker]

I have a Korvold Treasure deck but switch it to Ziatora when the groups power level is lower. I do agree with most of your points.

[@JessBritvec]

I feel like these aren’t necessarily bad design, but I think the people on the design team have a very different perspective than the average commander player (even if they do play the format) and you have to remember the breadth of players they are designing for. For instance hating when opponents play your cards is irrational because it isn’t a very powerful way to disrupt your opponents; while the design team has to keep opinions in mind while designing a card, its not going to stop them from making those cards for the people who want them. I’d chalk a lot of this to players and how they build and play their decks anyway. For example Tatyova doesn’t really need a ton of Three Visits type ramp beyond getting things going when you are stuck, it needs effects that let you put more than one land into play and that will draw you into your next land if you are playing enough of them. Instead the typical commander player is going to forgo critical thinking while deck building and think you HAVE to Three Visits ramp in a green commander deck, while they could dedicate those slots to cards that use the advantage they gain or anything else they are missing.

[@krazykilper]

I love watching your content to understand the hipster viewpoint.

[@olafthemoose9413]

Being enabler and payoff in 1 card. Being a commander designed specifically for a certain niche deck. Do X do X twice. When you do X draw a card. When you do X do some more X for free. The 5 horsemen of bad/boring commander design.

[@LadyTsunade777]

Niche deck commander one is fine for the most part. Lynde for Curses, Commodore Guff for jeskai Superfriends, Carth the Lion for golgari Superfriends, etc. But I agree on the other four. "do thing draw card" is boring, same with "do thing, put land out", "Do thing, do it again/twice", and "do big thing B when small thing A happens" then also having "do small thing A" both on the same card.

[@olafthemoose9413]

@@LadyTsunade777 printing niche commanders is fine as long as the commander actually does something interessting for that niche AND as long as they're not in every single set. It's cool if we get a niche commander every now and then instead of like 2 every set.

[@Blacklodge_Willy]

​@@LadyTsunade777the potential problem that arises from that overtime is why run this (new or old commander) when you already have the tailor made niche commander.

[@ospero7681]

I'd add "mess with the command zone in any way". Derevi, Yuriko and the eminence commanders were mistakes not necessarily because they're ultra-powerful, but because they break a fundamental rule of the game in a way that can't be interacted with properly.

[@DonWanri]

Aesi and the Eminence commanders are up there

[@legi0n715]

You should cover some classic commanders and builds. I constantly make decks that I try to make unique, can compete and try to include alot of hidden gems and tech to keep my friends guessing or wow'ing them if I can.. however.. ive decided to revisit a classic and build a Sidisi Brood Tyrant deck and I'd like to see one of my favorite creators take a trip like that down memory lane.

[@ComstarAgent]

I strongly disagree on Tatyova. Commanders that make good cards better or provide value by themselves are great because you can just build a solid deck. It’s so much more fun than playing a deck that collapses when the commander isn’t in play because you’re playing a bunch of bad cards that are only good with your commander.

[@Badassest]

A lot of players don't understand threat assessment. Because it's safe to assume that 50% of each player's deck is some sort of ridiculous threat. And people are still slotting 2 boardwipes and 5 removal. That's 28 cards to deal with 200 problems lol. Personally I can't allow cumulative value commanders to survive. Players who do often die to horribly predictable things.

[@jolteon345]

I had a 5 player game where as the Esper knights precon player I was the only one dealing with an Ur Dragon player turboing out dragons until I died. After the game, someone who barely ran interaction and barely did anything claimed that they tried to help…I literally used whole turns addressing threats and the ur dragon player ran away with the game. People don’t run enough interaction, it’s hard to win if you can’t answer anything unless you plan on relying on people to answer each other and not yourself all game.

[@Badassest]

@@jolteon345 yep. The same people who look to me for a wipe are the same people who will spite play me later lol.

[@-8h-]

It's wild how many commanders could have been saved and made fair by adding "once per turn" or "once per opponent" like najeela, tergrid, chulane, etc, and how many have been ruined and made nearly unplayable by adding "once per turn" when it wasnt necessary, like anje maid of dishonor.

[@sheahon1179]

Some of these you have good points. Like Najeela, she is pretty busted still acceptable but definitely high end. But Morbid Opprotunist is definitely not what I would go for as an example of "needs limitations" it already has the "one or more" limit on it.

[@Lazydino59]

How many cards should a 3 CMC permanent be able to draw in a round? The ceiling of morbid opportunist is 4 cards per round, and the floor while 0, is rarely ever (especially if it’s in a deck you would play it in anyways). Also sacrifice in edh is popular and often is one at a time. To be honest it probably is too strong even with its current restrictions, goven it’s very low mana cost and it can be triggered by opponents

[@LadyTsunade777]

My number one biggest pet peeve with Legendary Creatures is "do thing, draw cards" and "do thing, put land onto battlefield". I _hate_ when they just slap that text on anything. Unique, exciting, fun commanders are ones like Alesha Who Smiles at Death, Feather the Redeemed, Evelyn the Covetous, Obeka Brute Chronologist, and a large number of the Doctor Who legends. (River Song, Master Multiplied, most of the Doctors, Missy, etc) Ya know, cards that fundamentally change your deck build and playstyle in fun and unique ways. Ones where the deck isn't just "slam every staple in these colors, also your commander is entirely interchangeable with any other legend in the same colors because they all just draw cards"

[@ospero7681]

Funny you should mention Feather the Redeemed here, because literally every deck I've ever seen with her as the commander looks like it was stamped out using a mold. I don't think there is any other commander that has this many repeat cards between her different (or not so different) decks.

[@LadyTsunade777]

@@ospero7681 That's just how ultra-niche commanders will end up - they have a hyper-specific deck they are for, so the decks end up super similar. Feather is specifically for combat tricks, which are otherwise extremely underwhelming in any other deck (except maybe storm decks for the low mana cost cantrips), so being essentially the only combat trick commander leads to most decks running all the same best combat tricks.

[@ospero7681]

@@LadyTsunade777 The thing is, I find that that just trades one kind of boredom for another. Yes, the commander does something no one else does, but is that really a point of pride when every game using it plays out the exact same way? It feels like I'm still being railroaded, just on a different level.

[@digitaldespot6154]

The best example I can think of for commander design doing too much is The Raven Man. When I first saw him, I was hype to build a mono-black cycling deck where I discard my own cards to get the benefits. It was going to be unique, and not too powerful. The problem with Raven Man is his activated ability. As you mentioned, nobody wants to be forced to discard. So Raven Man ends up getting tons of negative attention at the table and I suddenly become the archenemy. I don't even include cards in my deck that make my opponents discard, but explaining that tends to not help at all. Raven Man is actually a much worse commander BECAUSE of that ability. It 100% costs him games he could have won without it. His activated ability brings a disproportionate amount of hate towards him and its such a shame. WOTC tried to buff him with his second ability, but in my opinion they shot him in the foot.

[@Nokaflai]

I play this commander too and no one has ever mentioned this ability because I barely use it. I'm also in a cycling/madness theme so usually I want to spend my mana doing stuff with my cards rather than make my opponents discard for a raven. It's an ability that is only useful at the very end of the game or when you have a waste not out. I dunno, have not experienced what you experienced at all so far. Most people don't take him very seriously with all the other overpowered shit that currently exists

[@eewweeppkk]

I haven't had that problem with my Raven Man deck, but I have with my Hinata deck. I have the deck build completely around X spells and reducing costs for me.......but it also taxes the opponents stuff which, while beneficial, makes hinata go from something they shold probably deal with to something they absolutely wnt to remove immediately.

[@Phonk-vo4oi]

Drakuseth, Maw of Flames is my current project, I love building decks that people don’t go for. I was inspired by your video about getting around Teferi’s protection. So I am trying for Mono Red commander damage without defaulting to voltron.

[@paull.9884]

Standard cards are less egregious because they weren't meant to dominate in EDH; its just a byproduct. The commander set cards however are overpowered to sell. This is what would always have happened once WOTC accepted commander as a format.

[@abzodolba473]

#1 in Simic colours

[@DanteInformal]

Prosper, Tome Bound is the card I'd always point to when talking about commander design I dislike. He gives you an impulse draw every turn, including the turn you cast him, and then gives you a Treasure token every time you cast a spell from exile. And on top of everything, he's got a 1/4 stat line with deathtouch. Why?! Prosper represents card draw, mana ramp, and his own payoff all stapled together. I've never played against a Prosper deck that failed to pop off once Prosper hit the field.

[@Sinistra359]

Agreed. Prosper does too much. If I could fix him I'd limit the treasure to once per turn, remove deathtouch or make his cost more restrictive or increase to 5 or 6.

[@connorl0204]

6:09 back when golos was a legal commander, one of the cedh channels i watch (splitsecond, theyre foreign, but as long as you don’t mind their accents their gameplay is still pretty high quality and i recommend them if you like cedh gameplay) featured a golos deck that has zero “lands” in it so that they could win through goblin charbelcher. Their mana base was entirely mdfc’s (because the front isn’t a land so charbelcher doesn’t see them as lands), rituals, and mana rocks. Mightve been a codie deck instead of golos, but thats not important to my point.

[@OpticF3ARNGT]

For #2, you have to mention chulane and formerly golos. For #4, i agree, the decks build themselves more than ever and have double the text double the synergy. Except transformers and jurassic park. Seems like the UB in sets are too all over the place for this

[@edhdeckbuilding]

as i mentioned in the video there was an era where this was particularly egregious. i probably coulda mentioned a dozen commanders.

[@michelemichienzi934]

Never have I agreed more with one of your videos

[@PanicBlade757]

Hey Demo, been a fan of the channel for a few years now, you have one of the freshest outlooks on Commander and I love that you encourage creativity in deck design. I gotta say I don’t love your take on Wayta. I understand the fatigue with Panharmonicon commanders but I don’t think it’s “bad commander design.” It’s not very creative, yes, but not bad. Commanders that enable themselves make it a little easier to build for newer players, since they are both enabler and payoff, meaning the new player just needs to add the cards that synergize with the commander and they have a functional deck. It’s simple and a little lazy, for sure, but it’s far from bad design. The deck “builds itself” but therein lies the new challenge: how do I make it my own? Have a great day Demo, you rock!

[@edhdeckbuilding]

#4 on the list is not so much bad design as it is something i'd like to see them do alot less.

[@caniuse3]

Love the video, keep it up! Thanks for speaking about the elephant in the room in regards to these commanders.

[@damienjohnson3450]

Commander players who hate being countered are pretty wild. I'm just suppose to let you resolve that Craterhoof? I get hating playing against a deck that's all counters, but hating being countered at all is childish. They don't play Najeela as "Intended" in Cedh. They play all the fast mana and tutor for the combo. With fast mana you can kill the table on turn 2 or 3.

[@sirsiggy748]

I like commanders with many abilities, because the can be build in many different ways and they are not all beeing the same deck.

[@O.G.Alphaborn]

So many commanders, is this really bad Commander design or maybe not fun to play against. I think what you said before, when does a Commander game go from Casual to "Competitive"????? #4 yes to wordy cards. Its getting harder to "power level" a deck. I am at the point where We have a Everything legal Commander deck Goes Deck and turn zero decks, like no infinite combo wins excluding repeated attack phase combo.

[@scaredycat3146]

The only commander design I dislike are bland throwaway filler with no story or character that are just there to fill limited signpost slots. Baral for example is great design imo. He's an oppressive maniac and control freak that killed Chadras dad and almost Chandra, twice. And I think he translates that amazingly to gameplay. You're not supposed to like him even for a second.

[@haroun1760]

I agree for the most part. But specially with the last category it depence how the deck is build. I bought a lot of the cards you talked about and to be honest dont use manny of them and the ones that i use are in the 99. I also bought the precons from ixalon because they are great and I am planning to build them but for now only the face commanders. The secondairy pirate and dino commanders will become to boring to play very quick, maybe....

[@Shimatzu95]

I know this is polarizing, but i would like to add the category of "ignores the rules", especially the legend ruling to the list.

[@callumarcher8111]

I think instead of "ignore the legend rule", they could have made those cards change the legend rule to limit you to 2 of the same card instead of 1. Still let's you do fun things with legend copies, but not to the point where it removes the rule entirely.

[@brandotheone]

I guess the main problem with Tergrid, Tatyova, Korvold etc. is the power level. If you actually have to pay something like 1 mana to activate their abilities they would be so much interesting.

[@kalewilliamson1384]

I built a Tatyova deck when it first came out and it really does play itself. I have a Carmen built and honestly glossed over the return ability the first time I played it. Currently a vampire deck but might change that.

[@Kabyk]

"Everybody hates Tergrid yet she's still super popular" kinda moots everything else because, yes, no matter how salt inducing, people will play the powerful cards. period. full stop. In the end, unfortunately, it's the power level, not the design, that determines a commander's, or just a card's in general, usage. And usage is what matters to WOTC - people can hate Tergrid all they want but she's still $7 and not 0.25 cents for a reason. It's very telling that the things you list in this video are conversely the most popular things in the format. What people say and what they do are very different, especially in the entertainment industry when the stakes are ultimately very low. lol.

[@scottricks1676]

Def an odd line to run. Imo I tend to like commanders that give you “half the equation” leaving the brew to sprout into other ways.

[@crazydeadperson]

I don't think there's a problem with don Andres he just does the pirate thing

[@grantbosworth6418]

Rule 1) You can’t have fun with archetypes that other people don’t like

[@vennom14]

Dude, you're lucky you weren't playing when Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, the salt

[@simoncss1]

Mainly agreed. I'm a long time EDH player + deck builder & know my way around. It's not very satisfying when WotC keeps makin cards yelling at us for how we should build it. In fact, most preferably, Hasbro/WotC turn their attention from EDH & jus focus on the competitive formats like they always have. Was always more fun to dig around for hidden gems & build our own decks, rather than have the decks quite built for us. ...of course, Hasbro/WotC top brass jus can't resist stickin their greedy, greasy hands into our wallets.

[@GallantLee]

The commanders with too much text also result in longer games. Unnecessary

[@origaminosferatu3357]

I have a slight sticking point about the first group. Discard and counter spells are a part of the game, we shouldn't expect people not to play those mechanics just because it's commander. On the other hand, I do think there is a slight issue building commanders that encourage you to use those (unpopular) mechanics as a main mechanic in a format that is largely causal and communal. They're bad designs because they almost force you to create bad play environments, rather than it being a problem with the mechanics themselves. Second-ability syndrome is valid but I still like Wayta and am gonna add it to the list of swap-out commanders for my Stuffy Doll Tribal deck.

[@edhdeckbuilding]

part of the game, yes. building your entire deck around that thing is the problem.

[@sethvoNhaNdorf]

Do you think that Wizards sometimes makes commanders with cEDH in mind?

[@eldenmox5525]

But I hate when my opponents ramp and play big stupid creatures but supposedly that’s fair🙄

[@brandotheone]

Can’t believe in the 4th category you didn’t mention double sided commanders with 24 lines of text.

[@ospero7681]

Those don't usually do all the things they do at once, though. I don't think any of the DFC commanders from Strixhaven feel supercharged compared to a lot of single-side commanders these days.

[@nailahprincessofhokuto2024]

15:03 DMU Jodah is 1000% my answer to that. Why is he a Coat of Arms in the Command Zone in addition to being Legendary Cascade? Like I think hed be a super cool super friends Commander, but he'd get hated off the table outta fear for his other ability before I could do any Super Friends Shenanigans. He's 1000% my least favorite Commander. Hes needlessly 5 Color, & he does way too much.

[@eekumbookum2090]

I can see why some of them are bad commander design, (Najeela, Krrik, like the ones that are super powerful) but the other just seem good but not like unfun or hateful. Tatyova is a simic landfall deck. Very easy to build around. Korvold is a combo piece and a wincon. And the last two with too much text, they kinda need those extra lines to make them good. Carmen is a reanimator deck, Pirate guy does pirate things and rewards you for doing so. Most of ur takes I could understand but the last one is just wanting commanders to be weaker for no reason.

[@leonfriedemann9151]

Do I feel bad about just building a Carmen deck 😅 I actually had the same😢thought, that it's pretty much like korvold. But I allways play reanimator and allways am hyped about anti treasure abilities. The flaw is maybe that she is plus and anti treasure at the same time and possibly pretty busted in that

[@TheClocktowerCrew]

ooooooooh okay. I had a bit of trouble grasping what was going on since I stepped away from Magic in 2023. I feel like the issue that forced me away from playing magic and EDH are the same that are brought up. Basically, I want new commanders that are much lower power level in design, and that ought to go across the set as a whole. Strixhaven as a stand alone draft set was really good, everything was low power, the legendaries were cool but nothing has been expanded on their designs since, so most of my favorite EDH commanders come from Strixhaven, since they are so odd.

[@timothye.2902]

The first commander which came to mind in your last category (does too much) was Thalia and the Gitrog Monster. 4mv 4/4 with first strike and deathtouch? Already a combat powerhouse, especially on defense. "You may play an additional land on each of your turns" okay, so she ramps too. She's in green, that makes sense. "Creatures and nonbasic lands your opponents control ETB tapped" ...um, what? Why? What does that have to do with anything else she's doing. She's already supremely annoying to block, no need to tap down opponents blockers. But wait, there's one final line: "whenever she attacks, sac a creature or land, then draw a card". So on one creature we have 1) 2 excellent combat keywords 2) land ramp 3) stax 4) card advantage But naturally, there's no room on her card for flavour text about *Thalia riding the freaking Gitrog monster*. WotC couldn't skip any of those abilities even for a one line gag in italics?

[@joelynch4698]

I've built a few of these commander decks over the years. Wouldn't be opposed if they all got banned though. I get it.

[@Yellow_Magpie]

Najeela could literally say 'whenever one or more warriors attack...' it would be much weaker and still broken. She doesn't need a finisher effect AND an explosive token generator on mono colour 3cmc body. Also, permanently making tokens isn't very red, yes she's five colour, but her token generation effect is on the 'red' body of the card. I always frown when I see that on a card design. Really, her tokens should be sac'd/exiled in the end step. That would still be broken and also way more in the colour pie. Or make her boros at least.

[@Lazydino59]

Honestly I think they made her so good because warriors was never a true tribe, so they had no tribal support so they needed something like a Najeela to be playable.

[@Reppen555]

ive made a flying zombies deck with geralf visionary sticker but it never wins cause its to slow, having to tap to make zombies is not ideal

[@SendReinforcements]

I agree with all your points. My favorite part about commander is the variety of cards and strategies you see people build and play. At my old LGS myself and another guy both built Ovika, Enigma Goliath decks; mine is an artifact deck, he built his as a spell slinger. Same commander, different themes. Meanwhile it seems like a lot of commanders are becoming either “good stuff piles” or so narrow and direct that almost anyone who builds it will have the same cards.

[@AKAaBuster]

I think most of them can be fine if they are in the 99. That's the only place I ever use Tergrid. Just shifted Kaervek into the 99 of the deck he was helming bc there were just too many frowns around the table.

[@t.g.7973]

No Chulane?? He’s one of the worst offenders ever!

[@eewweeppkk]

Don Andres absolutely should not be on this list because of their "2 different abilities". They reward you for stealing things - thats the theme. I know you love building around commanders secondary attributes so by all means, go for a 100% pirate/creature theft deck, but the point of Don Andres is that he plays your opponents stuff and the payoff is different from your opponents things depending on if they're a creature or non-creature. It sounds like you would rather have 2 janky commanders that have hyper focused gameplans (which I thought you didn't like) as opposed to one commander that promotes a certain playstyle with different payoffs and has room for other archetypes as well. Don Andres could have been more boring and simply said 'when you cast a spell you don't own make 2 tapped treasures' but they added some interesting room for building and varied gameplay. Absolutely an example of good design, not bad design.

[@Reppen555]

my favorite commander is by far ulamog cause exiling two peraments and making the opponent exile 20 cards everytime he attacks is redicously powerfull

[@QuicksilverSG]

It's not just Wayta, Trainer Prodigy that's over the top, it's the entire "Doubling Season" syndrome. As if we weren't already gagging with Treasure token pukers everywhere you turn, WotC sees fit to DOUBLE every token and counter trigger the offending player spews. In the anime world, we'd call such gross indulgence "fan service" to point out how cynically the publisher was jerking their fans around.

[@stigmaoftherose]

5 color good stuff is still stupid. Look at kenrith renaimator. Even if you ban the best 5 color good stuff commander there is 15 more in the wings waiting to just be the best.

[@erwanprn5491]

Totaly agree for the 4th category (I called them 2 paragraph commander) .Just make them one abilty (+ basic keyword haste/trample..), it leads more interresting deck. The first commander I build was 'creatures in your graveyard have unearth 2B' simple and elegant.

[@vectorstrike]

100% agree on Tatyova and Korvold. They just do too much.

[@patrickaquilina4374]

Could not agree more with this video. Power creep is out of control on creatures and I think it only hurts the format as far as a fun casual experience. I love looking at all my old unplayable creatures from 1995 and before and thinking what a different time it was.

[@garettallen4963]

Tergrid is a blast to play. Not fun to play against but you will get over it.

[@edhdeckbuilding]

"i'm enjoying myself and nobody else is, but i don't care". i think there's a name for that.

[@garettallen4963]

@@edhdeckbuilding indeed, but I guess my play group is more competitive.

[@edhdeckbuilding]

@@ginov.7039 oh you're one of those guys. that explains alot.

[@Noddy-Gaming]

Najeela always makes me sad, it’s exactly what I was looking for in a commander, I have always loved warriors but she just seems to always snowball out of control too fast which can lead to unfun games

[@garettallen4963]

Wayta would have been terrible without the 2nd clause .

[@christianarenas7839]

I have Carmen in the 99 of my treasures deck and yea she's redonkulous. One game she went from a 15/15 to a 49/49 in one turn.

[@olafthemoose9413]

Honestly I think Najeela could say whenever another warrior attacks and she would be quite a bit more fair.

[@DarthAlgar5]

Just built Jan Jansen and he kind of feels like your last example, but I can’t help it lol it’s a Gnome named Jan. Also Carmen seems like a decent inclusion

[@adri2703]

Just build a Wayta deck and it was due to me thinking damn these texts really don't stop

[@Raisukee]

Don is fine imo, easy to parse and has room for flavor text.

[@nathaniellufkin]

Carmen went straight into my Minthara deck

[@sunbro7853]

I made a rule 0 super Voltron commander. Just tie their stats to experience counters

[@soarel325]

The worst commander designs to me are the Tatyova-style “when you do X, draw a card” style designs. They’re just so lazy and uninteresting.

[@danielellis-robinson1573]

Im not sure it's bad commander design, it's probably actually considered to good. But i find it incredibly boring/unimaginative when they release a commander which reads "do X, draw a card". How do we make this underused mechanic playable? Add draw a card to it.

[@masterfulmelon]

Maybe make the second ability a background enchantment for the commanders that do too much

[@tcgmetaslayer4202]

I agree with you that too many abilities ruin a commander like Don Andres Wayta. It would have been smarter to make her two different commanders and add flavor text to each 🌟

[@norrock1]

When they start tacking on so much stuff that they start foregoing art to make room for text I'll agree there'd a problem lol

[@natelagrassa9337]

I think the problem with all 4 types here is the deck builds all become the same… they’re not original… meaning you always see the same builds for them. You take an old school commander and you get so many different builds. So it gets boring. That’s why I have so many decks. 🤦🏻🤣🤣

[@nicolaspassemard265]

I concur.

[@lordmalkom1675]

Those 4 things are exactly what I don't like either. Great list. You forgot to mention prosper. All in One...

[@jlbrooks74]

Agreed 100% when the text box is full we're already off to a bad start 🙄

[@arthurbozelli4360]

Also, a commander design I don't really like it's that there's just a commander for _everything_ You wanna play modular creatures? Play Zabaz! Cycling? You gotta pick Gavi Shrines? WUBGR Go-Shintai Is there. I would like they kept their comnanders a little bit less laser focused. Giving this type of approach to the comnanders i think just makes them "more of the same"

[@rorschach1]

You don’t have to pick any of these. You can use any commander you want for rhose themes. I have built modal decks with completely different commanders. There are no “have to” rules. Be free

[@hydrolythe]

After this video I got to ask you this: Would commander be better off if you could only have overcosted vanilla legendary creatures as your commander? Thus only stuff like the legends card Jedit Ojanen, for instance. It seems clear to me that according to this video that they are shining examples of good commander design and that nothing could ever top them.

[@jlbrooks74]

I'm pretty sure wizards is capable of finding the middle ground. We don't need over the top and we don't want bland as hell 🙄

[@hydrolythe]

@@jlbrooks74 I wish the video also highlighted what you just wrote.

[@light-chemistry]

It’s not a legendary creature but it was absolutely designed with commander in mind: roaming throne. That card is so egregious. Worst design of the year. This Panharmonicon obsession needs to stop

[@mibbzx1493]

Tribal decks need it since they’re not as strong as most decks

[@light-chemistry]

Yeah you're right tribal decks needed a lot more support, which is why dragons (Ur-Dragon), elves (Lathril), dragons (Miirym), zombies (Wilhelt), vampires (Edgar), goblins (krenko), dinos (gishath), and squirrels (chatterfang) are definitely not in the top 25 commanders. Nah we definitely needed a card that doubles up the triggers of pretty much every commander in the format *on the turn it comes down* just to help jank homarid tribal decks. @@mibbzx1493

[@GrimSoulBanisher]

#5 - Eminence. Why? It shouldn't exist.

[@callumarcher8111]

I don't mind Oloro's eminence effect, gaining 2 life in your upkeep isn't back breaking. Markov and Urdragon's abilities are just overkill though, there was no reason to give those cards eminence

[@GrimSoulBanisher]

@@callumarcher8111 it's still free value for doing nothing. I once fought an oloro deck and went for the big swing to kill him and he was alive by just one life and won his next turn. Withut the free life gain, he would have been dead, but free value is free value.

[@GrimSoulBanisher]

@@callumarcher8111 how about an errata, like what they did for Companion? Make it where Eminence only takes effect after the first time you cast it. "If this card is in the command zone and has been cast at least once this game, or is on the battlefield". If they did this, it would at least require some action before being active, but still allow you to benefit from it being in the Command Zone

[@allannechio7368]

tatyova is stronger , i draw my entire deck every game with no combos.I like that

[@andrewfornes5320]

I want one 'niche' commander, then after that, I want them to stop making commanders for certain decks lol. I need a Temur Energy with a commander made for it.

[@TheUltimateRey]

It sucks when you finally get a niche commander and it’s not even good or it becomes too broken that the niche part of it is irrelevant. One example I can think of off the top of my head is Shorikai because I absolutely loved the idea of a giant vehicle commander but instead it’s just a stupid combo token maker that most people build it for… I actually built it Voltron style and it was still very strong

[@whompcity9003]

Strong commanders aren't bad. You may find them boring to play, you may also lose a lot. These commanders aren't bad. You probably are

[@felygu9268]

Nobody said that they are bad. BAD DESIGN. Which is true.

[@C5Domination]

The fact that Golos got banned before Najeela still blows my mind

[@damienjohnson3450]

It actually makes sense. You can only build Najeela in one of 2 ways. CEDH or high power level warrior tribal. Golos was so open ended you saw a ton of different versions of the deck, but all of them were high power. In my play group alone we had 3 people with Golos decks. It's the fact that everyone and their grandma was building a version of the deck and it got stale real fast. It was hard to interact with and always had perfect mana fixing every game. Every time you removed it they ended up farther ahead. A high power level Najeela deck is strong and a threat, but can't easily fix their mana every game and can fold easily to repeated removal and sweepers.

[@BrootalMetalBanjo]

I agree with Eriette, definitely did not need the drain on her. Was way more fun to use for politics not draw ire from draining the table out.

[@1Fsypro]

Doublers (and now triplers) are super poor game design in general. Panharmonicon effects need to be removed from the game en masse

[@marimi46]

I was with you until you flamed Donny Andy :( that commander is so fun and open ended

[@heecks9375]

I hate commander being foil curling card, PLEASE wotc stop printing foil card because your quality is cheap.