Overshadowed Commanders | EDHRECast 115

Some commanders just haven't gotten their proper time in the limelight. Today the cast dives into the myriad ways that legends get overlooked, and pick some of their favorite commanders whose popularity may be low, but whose power level is very high indeed.
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Special thanks to ‪@commandcast‬ for post-production work on the podcast, and for bringing it to a whole new level!
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Music: "Crunk Knight" by Kevin Macleod licensed via Creative Commons:
• Kevin MacLeod ~ Crunk ...

[@Crazy0101]

I really appreciate your videos guys keep on going. I like your authenticity, friendship, open mind and personalities !

[@xTobsecretx]

Matt: *makes amazing pun* Joey: *is here for it* Dana: *goes on a rant longer than his quarantine mane*

[@RoastedPheasant]

Saskia is one of my favorite commanders of all time! She’s super complex and interesting for a creature-based swing face commander. ... She was also released in the same year as Atraxa and Partners...

[@oom-3262]

Grismold is that "Voltron" deck that somehow manages to completely annhilate token decks by accident, and usually has some stuff to circumvent most voltron weaknesses, like sacrificing creatures.

[@tempestofthought]

I'm starting to get the feeling these guys might stream on twitch.

[@gerardochavez1528]

I recently built Rienne and it’s super fun. You get value off of stuff like Qasali pridemage and bloodbraid elf, and the main win condition I put in it is a Valakut combo with Realm Razer and Saffi Eriksdotter + sac outlet

[@thomasrackley3611]

when able...you guys should work out a visit to SoCal for a game knights clash

[@mcbuckets2399]

That's assuming game knights wants to play against new content creators rather than celebrities and Ashlen Rose for the 10th time lol

[@thorpate1698]

I absolutely love Grismold builds! My personal one is a lore based deck around Critical Role where Grismold is the character Caduceus Clay ... Big fan of this card and the deck build in general

[@fidly4]

And when going over the buy-a-box commanders, haunt of hightower was so obscure even they forgot it.

[@BloomingRose98]

Love to see people talking about my boy grismold

[@felipehurtadomurcia9194]

I recently build a marton stromgald deck. Working around super obscure decks is really fun. It is old, mono red and agresive and I love it.

[@coreyroberson4550]

Yes, please convince more people to play Evra, Halcyon Witness. I've been dying to cast Sudden Spoiling after they activate the ability - just imagine the look on their face.

[@tmakalpha1]

*Pikachu face*

[@jazoinklastname4289]

Do remember that the power stays switched even after the end of turn.

[@OverFuryAndTheFire]

Wouldn't it be redundant it if the ability is already activated? The ability would still have to resolve would it not?

[@tmakalpha1]

@@OverFuryAndTheFire yes but Evra would now be a 0/2 instead of a 4/4, so upon resolution Evra would be a 40/4 and you'd be dead

[@Duchess_Van_Hoof]

I love learning about overlooked and therefore cheap cards I can put in my decks.

[@DropkickGoose]

I've been very tempted to build Reinne for a while. In the meantime, the underlooked commander I've played and found to be quite strong is Licia, Sanguine Tribune. Part of it is there is life loss/paying life payoffs that have been printed recently like Vilis, Font of Agonies, and possibly even The Ozolith

[@frodeburheim5498]

Wort, the Raidmother is one that i would love to see more of. I've surprised many with 6xSecond harvest or just a bonus round usually is a win con. Tried a Voltron version with instant spells that boost wort with trample and double strike that was fun, +5+5 with copies was 1 hits. And I think wort was more fun than feather

[@coreyroberson4550]

Wort is a lot of fun - I usually kill people with copies of Price of Progress and Treacherous Terrain - but I have to say I find Feather more fun as a whole. But I've found both of them to be far more fun than the typical Izzet spellslinger decks I've tried or run against.

[@frodeburheim5498]

@@coreyroberson4550 Yes it's always fun to find your Wort spellslinger when someone comes with their izzet and you just play everything with minimum 1 extra copy=)

[@golgariguy]

I recently got into EDH (even though I have been playing Magic for a long time), and the first deck I have built is Savra, Queen of the Golgari. She only has 253 decks on EDHREC, and as a 4-drop Golgari commander she's overshadowed by Meren, but she can be quite powerful when build right. However she surely is not at the same power level of these new commanders (Muldrotha, Korvold, Chulane, Yarok etc.) which basically don't ask you any deck building effort to make the deck work. Personally I prefer commanders which require a bit more effort to be powerful, but that's my personal preference.

[@haeilsey]

Valerio if you get into another deck and like a challenge try Mishra, as his challenge makes a lot of otherwise terrible cards great

[@golgariguy]

@@haeilsey Yeah, thanks for the suggestion! He seems pretty cool indeed!

[@akselevensen2763]

If you aren't already running them, I'd recommend both Ogre Slumlord and Mortician Beetle.

[@BlackMetalHeart99]

Mishra is a great commander. Cards like Blood Funnel and Nether Void are great to abuse with him, and Possibility Storm is broken with Mishra....

[@magicmindsedh5176]

That intro gets me every time. (NOT the dad jokes, the music + visuals in the very beginning.) SO. COOL.

[@BeeCrab]

I built a grismold and I love it!

[@JujuInFlames]

23:54 oh yes, korvold, my favorite goblin commander😂

[@roberthood5824]

Julian Castro just built it with food chain can’t wait to play it

[@jo_ken]

5:00 Speaking of Dominaria I just rebuilt my Adeliz the cinder wind edh deck. Had it dismantled for awhile as a Rowan/Will Izzet walker build.

[@TheStephenation]

Torsten Von Ursus gets overshadowed because Sir Shandlar of Eberyn is generally a better Selesnya commander in the same set. But Torsten Von Ursus does get the advantage that kills an opponent faster with commander damage.

[@audiophage0]

At 1:00 Dana could have stayed in mono green by referencing Winter's Grasp!

[@longhairhiggins]

I think one of my favorite commander decks that is flexible and also competitive if necessary is quite underplayed: Ojutai Taigam. I think that most people are kind of turned off by azorius spellslinging, but setting him up with dovescape is so cool

[@Bongus_Bubogus]

It’s so crazy hearing talk of product fatigue way back then in retrospect.

[@neilguenter7037]

C'mon, you guys talking about Teshar, and no puns about a Legendary bird headlining an eggs deck??

[@Leo_Lorden]

Zurgo Helmsmasher 🤟 One off my Commander’s I love to play 😎

[@gibbysg8143]

I just recently built a Reki deck. Green is one of my fav colors and it has quickly become one of my favorite decks

[@roberthood5824]

Gibby SG reki is so strong

[@davixoff8337]

i smashed my Deretti precon with some blue cards and equipment own and i made Dalakos my commander... man it is fun!!! ramp draw combat damage graveyard recursion for value , direct damage or commander damage it is soo flexible!!!!

[@EJsGameplay]

Honestly, I kinda wanna try Athreos now because it just occurred to me I have a small coin collection I could show off by using as the coin counters.

[@IcaroMendonca]

The problem with Unified Will is that better 1U counters exist. Delay, Arcane Denial, Disdainful stroke, Negate, Essence scatter and even Mana Leak is more reliable than Unified Will. An that's before even touching stuff like Flusterstorm and Swan Song, or the free counterspells. Three color decks simply don't need that many counterspells that they need to resort to Unified Will.

[@GroundThing]

Yeah, honestly maybe it's just my playgroup, but I'm skeptical of counterspells that can be effectively negated by an opponent's action, especially if it can be any opponent. I will almost never play Stubborn Denial, for instance, unless I have at least 2, hopefully 3, creatures to turn it on, since that just opens up a whole lot of opportunity for politicking where one or both of the other opponents can say to the player I'm trying to counter effectively "What will you give me if I stop this?" which is usually worse than just letting the spell go through.

[@mattatlas8895]

Here is a challenge the stats for you. Diviners wand in Niv-Parun. It automatilcy equips, it's a stick. Just one perfectly times wheel turns Niv into a Tron commander! Plus worse case, just pay 4 to draw.

[@RiverGloom]

Cards and commanders can also be hard to find by region, like here in my town it is impossible to find certain cards as just not a lot of those packs where opened.

[@108stitches6]

Built grismold as a challenge with a new player group. Was surprised how it was crushing. Entered grismold in a budget list local EDH tourney and won. Tweaked list and it held its own in a no expense spared cdh group with urza, prossh etc etc. card is super fun

[@jstrobel3620]

Planechase commanders for sure! Vela the night clad, krond the dawn clad, I guess technically not maelstrom wanderer, and the big hellion that eats everything! I love those commanders, but they are certainly underplayed

[@elliotthood1719]

I think grismold is underrated tbh He’s insane with cards like doubling season and ESPECIALLY primal vigor. He gets huge out of nowhere when you play some mass -1/-1 effect. He’s fun for everybody at the table, he’s not too strong, and he’s unique

[@ManjMau]

I am sad that one of my favorite commanders was not mentioned in the Commander Avalanche category... Rayami, First of the Fallen, is a 5/4 Vampire creature for 1BUG that reads "If a nontoken creature would die, exile that card with a blood counter on it instead. As long as an exiled creature card with a blood counter on it has *keyword ability* Rayami, First of the Fallen has *keyword ability* ". He was in the Commander 2019 morph set and was overshadowed by lots of amazing commanders. Rayami's very special ability actually makes it very hard to play against and lots of people don't even want to face it because of what it does to creature recursion. Since now-a-days most decks like to recur their creatures in some way or other Rayami really ruins a lot of plans, not to mention he prevents death triggers since the exile effect is a replacement effect. That means no skullclamp, Blood Artist or Zulaport Cutthroat...

[@Weasels42]

As someone that's been tuning a Rayami, First of the Fallen list since C19 came out, I definitely feel like they've been overshadowed by Kathril only a year later. It's been a real challenge trying to figure out what I should do with this deck now that it's been so casually one upped. Advice welcome!

[@WunDumDorf]

In hindsight… ya probably should have bought the $12 Sun Quan, Joey. :)

[@marshallwestford3649]

I know late to the party on this one. I built a grismold the moment I saw him spoiled. Tokens, Tron and Aristocrats. He ia by far my favorite deck out of my 15.

[@alfascorpi]

Was thinking of mono white: This could be a good ramp idea fitting white - Rare: Equestrian Explorer, Creature - cost: W. - Haste, 1W, tap, exile Equestrian Explorer: search you lib for a basic land card and put it in to play tapped. Return Equestrian Explorer into play a the beginning of your next turn.

[@Suavek69]

Is there a place where I can see the Kurkesh gameplay you mentioned?

[@Dalenthas]

Meren is so busted almost any Golgari graveyard deck instantly gets more powerful just by putting Meren in the Command Zone.

[@bryankopkin6869]

I have a Teshar deck and I love it to death! Its so fun to durdle around with small artifacts.

[@MegaAaron17]

I'd like to see the Reki deck in action. Do you know which broadcast it was used in?

[@JABarnes18]

Shirei is my baby. I’ve had that deck for around 6 years and I always have fun playing it. I’m at also dirt cheap to build

[@frodeburheim5498]

I saw Shirei not many days ago and wanted to build it straight away=)

[@CPZeit]

Shirei is awesome

[@JABarnes18]

Frode Burheim my advice to you: look up Thoughtpicker Witch. Absolutely nasty

[@OTooleSLuffy]

I am one of those 61 Sun Quan decks! Super duper fun

[@orgazmo686971]

15:20 Now I have to go to twitch to find this game. Also, a fond memory for me was being Ugin board wiped and on my next turn having approx 500,000 damage on board (with haste, trample, first strike, flying, vigilance, protection from red, protection from black) without going infinite.

[@Garahs]

Nice to see Hazezon get some attention.

[@mattkinslow4144]

I decided to build my Kethis deck because I wanted to just throw a bunch of other legends into it. Knowing that at worst i could have other potential commanders to choose just by venture of them being in the deck, and that cards that have sideways synergy in the my Kethis deck would likely go into the new deck. Since he came out I've been making sure to get atleast 1 of any WBG legend just to throw it in and try it out, and keep a binder of just random legends that can slot in should new combos come out.

[@maybeisuckatlife]

I love my Bladewing deck. Sometimes you just want to play a less popular commander in the archetype. Sometimes the power will surprise you!

[@zacharyhaben7335]

I know I'm reaching out about a comment you made a year ago, but did you make dragon tribal out of it?

[@bd35mtg28]

I used to run a Sun Quan deck based on infect. It was weird and a ton of fun!

[@TheSmartCinema]

man Joey is so attractive I can't keep it to myself anymore aaaaaaa

[@Enigmaessence]

As someone who also started in Khans, hearing them get called old cards makes me feel a certain way.

[@Baby-Blue-102]

does anyone have a link to the stream where the reki deck rebuilds the board 3 times? ive looked for 2 hours and cant find it, i dont use twitch very well : (

[@runcmd1419]

Rienne mixed with Saffi and Gerrard has potential as a sacrifice or wrath tribal commander.

[@bobbycapar4820]

Marton Stromgald was in my first Starter Deck.. i'd love to build him, exclusively PreModern one day..

[@Jaketg93]

YES!!!!! I run flagstones and springbloom druid and it comes up way more then u would think xD

[@Yakiro255]

@ 23:58 Purphoros is a really big Goblin

[@Thespqr1997]

34:24 , story of my live while searching for a year for a mono black commander with lifelink like griselbrand, so open ended yet wanting you to lean a bit in a direction but not locking you in a theme. flip lili got excluded since i wanted to smack people with the commander & kalitas was literally forgotten by me. and then almost by accident i remembered that i did not know the buy a box promo of the last set that was released a month ago, Ravnica Allegiance, and found everything i wanted in haunt of the hightower (though i am still bothered by the fact that they made his cmc overpriced with 6 mana and not 5 mana which i would have preferred).

[@killswitch69698]

I really like playing Hazezon Tamar. too bad I have to use a proxy because its so expensive

[@couver2997]

Rienne is so fun to play. I'm a little surprised she didn't take off more.

[@brieucferaud1037]

She's very slow & expensive to play, that's why

[@emeraldsky1289]

I wanted to make one when she first came out, but never did and i already have 4 naya decks now

[@FakeDonut]

Basically this episode made me concious of Reki, and it's a HOUSE. It became basically one of my strongest decks

[@tornadojoe87]

I wonder if my Evra deck is on there... Do tappedout decklists get counted or do they have to be uploaded to edhrec specifically?

[@akselevensen2763]

They take data from a number of different websites (e.g. mtggoldfish).

[@troyzeleznik144]

So I'm watching this video a year late and decide to look up the $12 lord of wu... yeah this episode did a number on that cards price

[@aawwproductions9603]

I've played against Grismold during Commandfest. I had my Xyris deck. I couldn't bring out my commander or Grismold would be huge!

[@Mattismen]

Of course I'm here for my boy Kurkesh!

[@Dalenthas]

My personal favorite Commander suffers from several of these categories. Storrev, Devkarin Lich is a "worse" version of Meren, and it came out in a set with a ton of Legendary creatures.

[@ixion567]

Will the games will be also posted here?

[@momentaigamer3168]

I have a Zurgo Helmsmasher deck. It’s pretty fun.

[@gitaxias]

commander is expensive if you just start recently. I played since 2011, back then my playgroup would make new decks every week

[@bobbyjackson5427]

Unfortunately like every casual format the markets eventually catch up. Wotc eventually learned how to make money off of it and then stores learned what were and weren’t staples and started raising prices.

[@olvynchuru1663]

Evra, Halcyon Witness works much better in the 99 of a Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage deck. You wait until an opponent is tapped out and has no blockers, and at the end of their turn you flash out Evra with Raff Capashen's ability. Then during your turn you switch your life total with Evra's power and attack for a lot, potentially taking that player out immediately.

[@pauldyson8098]

ROb Doherty had a Thunder Spirit on sale at Your Move Games in the '90s for $20. That was too much for my high school self to afford. Now it's about $150 and my much older self can't see paying that kind of money for a card that isn't busted in Commander.:/

[@prashrad2382]

Matt I loved that joke

[@prashrad2382]

Dana that was amazing

[@dreddbolt]

Subbing and ringing the bell. I don't think I have any underrated commanders... Kazarov (Sengir Pureblood) maybe? I made it into artillery tribal... or so to speak. I made it into some kind of goober jank deck which occasionally punishes opponents for building resources and pumping their creatures up super huge. No Goblin Sharpshooter, Basilisk Collar, or any other infinite combos.

[@noahmurtha4036]

I love my Ephara, God of the Polis deck, but so few people know what she does or have seen her it makes for a fun time when I’m just drawing a billion cards and they can do nothing lol

[@Darwingreen5]

Tribal commanders really suffer from this. Like Elves, gobblins, and Dragons have 3 that are so good that it's hard to pass up.

[@staren1991]

the reason Theros had such low numbers is because during and sometime after Eldraine people didn't play as much EDH as they played ELK ;3

[@ayabolinao959]

Love my dragon lord ojutai edh deck.

[@Badassest]

Smoking bacon! Lmfao! That was hilarious😁

[@NetanelKleinman]

From what I understood EDHREC only takes info about decks updated in the last 2 years. Do you think it's possible that many of those older commanders (not so much the very obscure ones) are actually being played more than the data suggests in decks that are "finished" (i.e. the player was happy with the deck and doesn't change it any more - or at least doesn't upload changes to tappedout etc)?

[@matthewbesherse7001]

I would agree with the elemental theme with Omnath. I have played it against other omnath decks that don’t play with that theme. And let’s just say I lightning bolt them to death.

[@whatsupdoc6358]

My zurgo deck is one of my favorites

[@FriendlyNewt]

Not quite as obscure or old as Angus Mackenzie. But MEdomai, it's a one mana more significantly better Dragonlord Oujitai, goes infinite with Identifty Theif. Pretty cool card for Azorius, problems with my deck is that it can't really beatdown but Propaganda and Ghostly make it hard to attack me, fliers mean you can pay back people who do attack and if you get way ahead with say a Recurring Insight and everyone teams up on you you can Resolute Archangel back to parity. Very good fun deck and my first.

[@solidkingcobra]

another overshadowed commander cards are the keyword ability of SHADOW!

[@TheJhakobeyWesst]

Buy cards at starcitygames.com they don't shovel out commissions like tcg to jokers like these guys and command zone so the cards are not over priced. The website is way easier to use too.

[@SuperSilverSerpent]

No love for my boy(s) Riku who was overshadowed by Animar?

[@akselevensen2763]

Not when he is the second most popular temur commander.

[@noahmurtha4036]

Honestly, I wish I could catch the streams haha. But I would 1000% watch gameplay videos if you guys ever decided to post any. 🤗

[@roberthood5824]

I built rasputin dream weaver eldrazi tribal which is way over shadowed

[@federicorodriguez451]

Ho, chuckles, Athreos The buy a box promo now works better whit the new commander death/exile rules.

[@kristennorth3268]

I have Marton Stromgald in my Tajic deck.

[@TheStephenation]

Wait, Dragonlord Ojutai has more decks than Sidisi, Undead Vizier? That means Sidisi could only be, let's see... ...the 17th most popular monoblack commander? Wow, give people a flexible tutor-for-anything creature in the command zone, and they don't even take advantage of it.

[@igniteaxiom]

this goes back to the power creep discussion. if they keep printing better commanders it makes older ones obsolete.

[@johanandersson8252]

If Rienne wasn’t foiled, i would use her as my Angel tribal Commander

[@jeffgangaware5070]

Dreamscape Artist is harrow on a stick.

[@kamikazehansu]

The Dean get's overshadowed all the time... But his budget is looking better and better!

[@zacrance]

I wish more people would talk about Krav, the Unredeemed and Regna, the Redeemer only 750 decks on EDHrec and (0.202%) Rank #152. They are my fa vorite deck. Feel free to try out my deck list: archidekt.com/decks/121973#Krav_and_Regna_Forever_Together

[@matthewhettel8316]

My favorite as well. It's a sleeper at tables for sure. No one expects you to make and sac 8 tokens per cycle.

[@JNB6037]

I bought the C20 humans deck just to build Kelsien, the Plague

[@maybeisuckatlife]

You could probably do another of these episodes already to be honest.

[@nerotoxin0661]

Grismold my beloved

[@KhuxNation]

Rielle the Everwise should be on this list

[@nik700]

Really? I thought that she was one of the most popular from the last set

[@KhuxNation]

nik700 i hardly see her get played though :/ Most people still just play Niv-Mizzet Parun instead for an Izzet commander. The only time I see Rielle get played is for cEDH

[@Frothmeister]

@@KhuxNation I think that might be purely due to her power level. Sort of like how Prime Speaker Vannifar doesn't see much play, it's just too powerful for its own good. People don't like playing the super powerful commanders a lot of the time, it sort of becomes stale quickly. Which makes sense in cEDH where everyone is sort of on the same win no matter what page.