I feel like if commanders don't have the most direct, obvious value, they are overlooked. Many unique and interesting commanders overshadowed by wotc power creep
Agreed, this is also the main reason i dislike most universe beyond products. That said i was quite suprised with assassins creed, most of the cards there wouldn't feel out of place in amonketh/kaldgeim/new capena respectively.
The thing with karlov/thunder junction commanders are that none of them are truly that powerful. If they're powerful enough, the spikes will play them and overlook the subpar designs. For people who aren't as power-centric in deckbuilding, the aesthetics and design are a far bigger factor in whether or not they're interested in building them as a commander.
Arbaaz Mir is even more nuts when you give him Lifelink. Since it turns every trigger into gain 4 life (or even more with stuff like panharmonicon effects or Ojer Axonil), I've easily closed games with 100+ life. I really like that deck. Underrated indeed.
I built kambal and wasn't sure what to expect. I sat down and very quickly became archenemy at the table. Especially once you double up on the token etb drain triggers like mirkwood bats, corpse knight etc
Genku has finally given me the opportunity to play my “less lands than you” deck mixed with a favorite creature type. It’s been so fun, and a fun way to get my playgroup more accustomed land destruction with magus of the balance.
Last year, MKM came out and I saw the new Izoni. The Commander talked to me a lot, but not the ''obvious builds'' with her : tokens, graveyard, spiders typal, gain life, card draw, sacrifice. I went in a different route that was exiling my own graveyard. Insidious Roots or Chalk Outline are perfect examples of payoff cards for my deck. Izoni is just another way to exile cards from my graveyard and she creates good bodies + gives me card draw because a lot of my payoff cards create tokens:))
Ertha Jo is one that I look at a lot. I know there have been a couple of people that have built it and I've seen it in at least one stream, but the difficulty for me is figuring out what effect I would want to double.
I have Ertha deck and I went with giving small dudes unblockable with all those Goblin Tunnelers, than pumping their power with mercenaries or any other effect, so I use small dudes with double-strike or "dealt damage" triggers.
I was the Arbaaz Mir player. I'm a big fan of the deck but I don't play it too much generally because I do become arch enemy really fast. I do agree that it could have just been Target opponent and it still would have been a pretty decent commander.
Ertha Jo is one of the commanders I build almost as soon as she got out, and people have learned to fear her deck. She is insanely powerful and one of the few Boros commanders that will flood you with card draw
Kitsa is great to trigger all those” on your second card each turn” or” whenever you draw a card” effects. Can also be a replacement for isochron with traumatic reversal.
Kambal is absolutely nutty with Inkshield and also with Tombstone Stairwell. This commander is super under-rated, and I've only lost with him once because of that. You'll build a board presence and swoop in before people have any idea it's a threat and before they can do anything to even prep for it. Also, add the "Hunted" creatures.
Ertha Jo is kinda nutty and i think she went under the radar because it's an uncommon. I build a deck around her, boom box and Tameshi in standard before rotation. Boom Box with a creature to target triggers twice which kinda felt like copying casualties of war and then be able to bring it back and do it all over again creating a soft lock. Ertha Jo helped a lot with that.
I have a Yes Man deck and it's one of my favorites. Voltaic Key and similar cards are great, you just have to hold priority. Homeward Path is MVP. Make sure to include tons of Reliquary Tower effects or ways to find them (Expedition Map, Weathered Wayfarer).
Trying to understand, as I was looking at this guy. You tap him to do his thing and Voltaic Key to untap then tap him again. Do you get four cards and two quest counters? Who ends up in control? The last tap and target?
A buddy of mine playz Izoni and, no kidding, that deck is a beast. We are a pretty competitive play group and I'm not sure I've seen him lose more than a game or two with it. I think the reason it isn't more popular is that you kind of have to see it in action to fully appreciate it. At first glance it just sort of looks like 6 mana durdly good stuff.
I have both an "Ertha Joe" (+ a secret second Commander "Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot") to uograde pingers and a "Cayth" deck to cloke artifacts :D they are fantastic!
i have an ertha jo deck, it's incredibly fun. not very strong but fun EDIT: my deck uses creature doublers like jolly balloon man to copy twice creatures with ETB/LTB/sacrifice abilities
I have an Ertha Planeswalker deck. You use Chandras which can target opponents with damaging effects & Ajani & Elspeth cards which usually target your own stuff & gives them +1/+1 counters & keywords. Very fun & actually a good deck.
Ertha Jo has a lot of fun. Including yes man from this very list, let's you draw 4. Used to have an Argus Kos deck that had the same kind of doubling feel to it but switched because he was getting hated off the table hard. Something EJ doesn't seem to do
I really enjoy my Cayth deck. I run it as populate centric with an emphasis on making non legendary token copies. She can really go off out of no if you have 5 of her in play and once you get the first, it gets waaaay easier. Intruder alarm is great with that too
Arbaaz triggers off of legendary AND artifact lands! It’s so icky lol. Throw in an Ojer Axonil and you can easily wipe a pod in a couple of turns. My build for him only has 3 non-land non-historic cards, and only like 15 or so non-historic lands. It has a saga sub-theme, so it’s probably not the most powerful version it could be. The sagas do really help cover some of the bases I’m missing with instants and sorceries though, like removal, ramp and card draw.
Kambal is great and I agree with everything you said but it's also why I took him apart. I built him. The amount of triggers he gets and trying to order everything right( I built around tokens entering or leaving drains my opponents/aristocrat's using all those tokens) and the amount of table hate he gets make for a type of game I don't necessarily enjoy.
I put him in my Marneus Calgar deck where I have some blue mana to help protect him but, I agree the triggers and the table hate can be rather cumbersome.
Something I haven't tried yet with Kitsa is extra turn spells. Being able to copy extra turns would be huge. Banner cards are definitely primers for her, reducing the need to repeatedly casting multiple spells to copy something desirable. Most of these Legendaries are unpopular partially because they're either redundant or the play pattern is too small compared to existing legendaries.
I have a cayth deck. I found this cool interaction with giving all of your creatutes fabricate 1. Norn + cayth + impact tremors/soul warden = 8dmg/life gain a rotation. Passively. Pretty stupid problem for your opponents to have to deal with. Lol
Whitemane Lion and friends seem like a slam dunk for Genku. Add in a God-Eternal Oketra for some chonky zombies when you cast those bouncy cats and some regular UW blink stuff-seems amazing. Kambal has been on my radar, but Cayth and Wylie seem pretty interesting too. Product fatigue is definitely a thing.
Don't forget about artifact lands for Arbaaz Mir. I didn't have legendary lands, but I had artifact lands and it made the deck just as toxic. It's one of my favorite budget decks.
Swarmweaver is a lot of fun. I don’t do Golgari a ton but the insect subtheme keeps it from being generic graveyard goodstuff and turns out a lot of my old pet cards are insects that love deathtouch, Giant Adephage and Gleancrawler for example 😂
I actually run a lot of these cards... in the 99 of my decks. 😅 Like, Wylie Duke is super strong in Katilda and really easy to use multiple times a turn.Kiora is super strong in two of my other decks. Gotta remember that a lot of people already have a bunch of decks that these get slotted into rather than building a whole new deck for. For me, I look for new commanders that are doing something NEW or different from what I've already got and most the ones on this list weren't that.
I have seen a bunch of those commanders in the 99 of other decks ( kambal ofc but also Ertha). A Friend of mine had Izoni as a commander for a while but dismantle the Deck because if spined its wheels for not much
I 100% think that Cayth is unpopular because its literally some grandma artificer. People care about "coolness" factor and cards design. Who the hell want to have some fat grandma as a commander?
I've noticed almost no one (besides myself) is playing mono blue anymore... So that's two of these commanders explained right away. I don't really understand why. My favorite part of the last year was the release of Ugin's Binding, which gave mono blue a new great card that required some building around. I've tried to get people to push it but no one has :) I am also one of those people that never heard of Arbaaz Mir. They are just making too many things now. Impossible to follow along and have a life.
Nice list. I think I'm going to make a Kambal deck. I usually make decks where I have to do a lot, set things up, do this and that ... too complicated. I'd like to have a deck where I get value from my opponents doing things so I can kind of relax once in a while. Of course, they'll probably all attack me, like with other decks. I tend to not follow the advice, "don't make yourself a target". That is good advice ... but not as much fun for me most of the time.
I built a Wylie Duke for online play last year and it is a really fun deck, a bit hard to close games with it. I will probably try it again with Aetherdrift, maybe it is possible to make a saddle themed deck for the flavor.
Kiora's Alternative art is pretty cool! Edit: How excited are you for the new vanilla commanders coming out in the next set?! I like seeing big dumb creatures!
Ertha Jo goes illegally insane with The Jolly Balloon Man. Set up Agrus Kos, Eternal Soldier and some pingers or Purphoros and burn down your opponents' life in one turn.
i think the thing with basim ibn ishaq is that people read it as though the card draw also only happens once per turn. at least thats how i read it the frist time
Kambal was unironically hurt by he Dockside Ban and that is simply because people have short attention spans and dont want to pay attention when I clearly tell them "Hey so my commander will also make those treasures, are you sure?"
I’ve done an Arbaaz Mir deck that I call Mana Rock Tribal. I hit my opponents every time I play a mana rock, and my mana rocks allow me to play more mana rocks.
Why would someone from the golgari guild care about someone dying enough to even become a detective? Seems like the least likely to care. Usually they like death. So that was kinda a fundamental love break to me and almost takes me out of the immersion if that makes sense. That's been my issue with every set this last year they just ignore their own world building to put these characters into dumb gimmicks
I probably would forgive it if the race was something happening in the background as more world building for avishkar but not the main draw of the set. Kinda like how amonkhet had the trials for the gods but it wasn't the main draw of the set it was just there to explain the planes lore. The way they are doing sets now is slapping a new hat on or helmet in this case and jamming everyone into that idea. Not a big fan of that world building or game design
I think that what you say around the 20 minute mark is true, super open-ended commanders aren't very popular and i think it's mostly because people need a clear direction because commander's cards pool is so massive that "open-endedness" looks scary
I think Vannifar was unpopular because she's basically worse Kadena for any morph deck, who does essentially the same thing but also gives you card draw and access to black. Vannifar is great in the 99 of Kadena though
So there is a lot going against Basim Ibn Ishaq and the first and most obvious one in my mind is his name.... like that name hurts a foreign tongue it seems. But second is that he is part of a strategy people REALLY DISLIKE in commander and that is Delver//Protect the Queen because it means massive card disadvantage, even if Basim draws you more cards potentially on each players turn. Delver just feels really bad because its like running Voltron with very little equipment, though Basim pays you back for running out gear so maybe some flash gear is worth it
Honestly, for Scarecrows nothing is even faintly close to Reaper King. While Scarecrows are not, generally speaking, a very incredible tribe, Reaper King turns them into a pretty scary force, so there's really not a ton of reasons to play The Swarmweaver. It is a mediocre insect/spider tribal commander, and not even in the running for scarecrows.
Arbaaz is in my Kassandra deck. It's worth pointing out that Basim and Arbaaz aren't popular characters in the Assassin's Creed franchise - Basim is divisive and Arbaaz is from a game no one played, so I understand that they're overlooked.
Approximately 12,000 new commanders were printed last year so I kind of get it. Plus a bunch of the sets were extremely lame/gimmicky - don't blame people for skipping a few. I still have no idea what went on in MKM
I built an Arbaaz Mir deck and it's... fine. I've won games with it. But it's a slow accrual of value over the course of the whole game, which just isn't as fun as big splashy stuff.
Popularity? Not sure. If legions of haters counts, I'm wildly popular. Machiavelli said any publicity is good publicity. I haven't exactly seen any benefits from it personally. 🤷
I think the reasons these are unpopular is just because there’s so many other options. Why build something new when you can stick with what’s proven to work? Not that I agree with that sentiment. I just understand where they’re coming from.
Maybe people are netdecking too much, so that only a few commanders, whose popularity happen to gain momentum, eventually get most of the attention...?
There is too many commanders getting printed. Its perfectly normal that most don't get played even if they are decent. I dont see them as beeing unpopular, it's just there are other commanders who are popular. Some themes are also "solved" in a way. Why play Kaust when Kadena is all you need in a morph deck. Why play MKM Vannifar when she fits in Kadena ? Or DSK Zimone when Zimone goes in Kadena right ? Sure its different flavors but its hard to beat Kadena in that space because of how efficient and reliable she is.
the question you ask is funny. basically you're asking "why play any commander that isn't in the top 100 in the format?". i guess you should ask literally every other commander player why they do that.
Kambal is one of my goto decks. Super powerful... More than you think... Bonkers. Add the other kabal dude in, and some good stuff... Oboy Oboy... Super fun with the best 2024 card Delney streetwise 🥰🫣🤪👌
I feel like if commanders don't have the most direct, obvious value, they are overlooked.
Many unique and interesting commanders overshadowed by wotc power creep
I think a lot comes also down to people just not liking the arts or the artstyles on these commanders
Exactly! They’re all so lame. The art is THE most important thing to me and I would never want any of these dumb, ugly cards in my collection.
Agreed, this is also the main reason i dislike most universe beyond products.
That said i was quite suprised with assassins creed, most of the cards there wouldn't feel out of place in amonketh/kaldgeim/new capena respectively.
@@MisterWebb What, pray tell, do you consider smart, beautiful art?
The thing with karlov/thunder junction commanders are that none of them are truly that powerful. If they're powerful enough, the spikes will play them and overlook the subpar designs. For people who aren't as power-centric in deckbuilding, the aesthetics and design are a far bigger factor in whether or not they're interested in building them as a commander.
Arbaaz Mir is even more nuts when you give him Lifelink. Since it turns every trigger into gain 4 life (or even more with stuff like panharmonicon effects or Ojer Axonil), I've easily closed games with 100+ life. I really like that deck. Underrated indeed.
He is indeed very good. I use him in a Kassandra voltron deck, and he triggers a lot with all those equipments.
Frisbee boy? Nah
Thank you for making me feel better about having added The Swarmweaver to my “build decks for these” pile.
I built kambal and wasn't sure what to expect. I sat down and very quickly became archenemy at the table. Especially once you double up on the token etb drain triggers like mirkwood bats, corpse knight etc
Genku has finally given me the opportunity to play my “less lands than you” deck mixed with a favorite creature type. It’s been so fun, and a fun way to get my playgroup more accustomed land destruction with magus of the balance.
To be fair, Vannifar, Evolved Enigma is in the 99 of every Zimone, Mystery unraveler decks
Last year, MKM came out and I saw the new Izoni. The Commander talked to me a lot, but not the ''obvious builds'' with her : tokens, graveyard, spiders typal, gain life, card draw, sacrifice. I went in a different route that was exiling my own graveyard. Insidious Roots or Chalk Outline are perfect examples of payoff cards for my deck. Izoni is just another way to exile cards from my graveyard and she creates good bodies + gives me card draw because a lot of my payoff cards create tokens:))
I looked at her multiple times now and I found her so interesting but couldn‘t really come up with a cool idea.
Yours sound amazing 😁
Ertha Jo is one that I look at a lot. I know there have been a couple of people that have built it and I've seen it in at least one stream, but the difficulty for me is figuring out what effect I would want to double.
you can double all pingers and, With "Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot" , you ca double "Fireballs" :D
I have Ertha deck and I went with giving small dudes unblockable with all those Goblin Tunnelers, than pumping their power with mercenaries or any other effect, so I use small dudes with double-strike or "dealt damage" triggers.
@@mateuszjezierski7460 that's genius! doubling not pingers and similia but bonuses :D GG!
I was the Arbaaz Mir player. I'm a big fan of the deck but I don't play it too much generally because I do become arch enemy really fast. I do agree that it could have just been Target opponent and it still would have been a pretty decent commander.
Ertha Jo is one of the commanders I build almost as soon as she got out, and people have learned to fear her deck. She is insanely powerful and one of the few Boros commanders that will flood you with card draw
Kitsa is great to trigger all those” on your second card each turn” or” whenever you draw a card” effects. Can also be a replacement for isochron with traumatic reversal.
If you use a banner or give her a +1/+1 counter it positions her to not need an additional spell to be able to copy desirable spells
@ skullclamp is pretty good too!
Kambal is absolutely nutty with Inkshield and also with Tombstone Stairwell. This commander is super under-rated, and I've only lost with him once because of that. You'll build a board presence and swoop in before people have any idea it's a threat and before they can do anything to even prep for it. Also, add the "Hunted" creatures.
Ertha Jo is kinda nutty and i think she went under the radar because it's an uncommon. I build a deck around her, boom box and Tameshi in standard before rotation. Boom Box with a creature to target triggers twice which kinda felt like copying casualties of war and then be able to bring it back and do it all over again creating a soft lock.
Ertha Jo helped a lot with that.
Man I’m still building commanders from last year on my to build list 😂 haven’t even looked at the legends printed this year
28:11 Don’t forget the artifact lands!
I have a Yes Man deck and it's one of my favorites. Voltaic Key and similar cards are great, you just have to hold priority. Homeward Path is MVP. Make sure to include tons of Reliquary Tower effects or ways to find them (Expedition Map, Weathered Wayfarer).
Trying to understand, as I was looking at this guy. You tap him to do his thing and Voltaic Key to untap then tap him again. Do you get four cards and two quest counters? Who ends up in control? The last tap and target?
@@thelunchlady8276 Yes, you get four cards and 2 quest counters. Whoever you target first ends up in control, because that ability resolves last.
@@robertwilbrand3441 Ah, makes sense. Thanks! So, if I have other means of untapping him, I'll get even more. Patriar's Seal, etc. Excellent.
A buddy of mine playz Izoni and, no kidding, that deck is a beast. We are a pretty competitive play group and I'm not sure I've seen him lose more than a game or two with it. I think the reason it isn't more popular is that you kind of have to see it in action to fully appreciate it. At first glance it just sort of looks like 6 mana durdly good stuff.
I have both an "Ertha Joe" (+ a secret second Commander "Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot") to uograde pingers and a "Cayth" deck to cloke artifacts :D they are fantastic!
Yay! I’ve got a Caith - Seven Dwarves and it’s a ton of fun!!
ertha jo looks very fun, i dont have a boros deck yet so this one might just be it!
i have an ertha jo deck, it's incredibly fun. not very strong but fun
EDIT: my deck uses creature doublers like jolly balloon man to copy twice creatures with ETB/LTB/sacrifice abilities
I have an Ertha Planeswalker deck. You use Chandras which can target opponents with damaging effects & Ajani & Elspeth cards which usually target your own stuff & gives them +1/+1 counters & keywords. Very fun & actually a good deck.
@@andrewfornes5320 wooow this is awesome!
I have a deck with her and "Taii Wakeen, Peefect Shot" second/hidden commander :D i ping a lot, bounce, protect, it's ... Nuts
Ertha Jo has a lot of fun. Including yes man from this very list, let's you draw 4.
Used to have an Argus Kos deck that had the same kind of doubling feel to it but switched because he was getting hated off the table hard. Something EJ doesn't seem to do
I really enjoy my Cayth deck. I run it as populate centric with an emphasis on making non legendary token copies. She can really go off out of no if you have 5 of her in play and once you get the first, it gets waaaay easier. Intruder alarm is great with that too
Arbaaz triggers off of legendary AND artifact lands! It’s so icky lol. Throw in an Ojer Axonil and you can easily wipe a pod in a couple of turns. My build for him only has 3 non-land non-historic cards, and only like 15 or so non-historic lands. It has a saga sub-theme, so it’s probably not the most powerful version it could be. The sagas do really help cover some of the bases I’m missing with instants and sorceries though, like removal, ramp and card draw.
Kambal is great and I agree with everything you said but it's also why I took him apart.
I built him. The amount of triggers he gets and trying to order everything right( I built around tokens entering or leaving drains my opponents/aristocrat's using all those tokens) and the amount of table hate he gets make for a type of game I don't necessarily enjoy.
I put him in my Marneus Calgar deck where I have some blue mana to help protect him but, I agree the triggers and the table hate can be rather cumbersome.
I love hate. That's why I play Umbris fear manifest XD.
Basim is essentially Jhoira, cranked to 11.
Something I haven't tried yet with Kitsa is extra turn spells. Being able to copy extra turns would be huge. Banner cards are definitely primers for her, reducing the need to repeatedly casting multiple spells to copy something desirable.
Most of these Legendaries are unpopular partially because they're either redundant or the play pattern is too small compared to existing legendaries.
I have a cayth deck.
I found this cool interaction with giving all of your creatutes fabricate 1. Norn + cayth + impact tremors/soul warden = 8dmg/life gain a rotation. Passively. Pretty stupid problem for your opponents to have to deal with. Lol
Whitemane Lion and friends seem like a slam dunk for Genku. Add in a God-Eternal Oketra for some chonky zombies when you cast those bouncy cats and some regular UW blink stuff-seems amazing.
Kambal has been on my radar, but Cayth and Wylie seem pretty interesting too. Product fatigue is definitely a thing.
Don't forget about artifact lands for Arbaaz Mir. I didn't have legendary lands, but I had artifact lands and it made the deck just as toxic. It's one of my favorite budget decks.
Swarmweaver is a lot of fun. I don’t do Golgari a ton but the insect subtheme keeps it from being generic graveyard goodstuff and turns out a lot of my old pet cards are insects that love deathtouch, Giant Adephage and Gleancrawler for example 😂
I actually run a lot of these cards... in the 99 of my decks. 😅 Like, Wylie Duke is super strong in Katilda and really easy to use multiple times a turn.Kiora is super strong in two of my other decks. Gotta remember that a lot of people already have a bunch of decks that these get slotted into rather than building a whole new deck for. For me, I look for new commanders that are doing something NEW or different from what I've already got and most the ones on this list weren't that.
I have seen a bunch of those commanders in the 99 of other decks ( kambal ofc but also Ertha). A Friend of mine had Izoni as a commander for a while but dismantle the Deck because if spined its wheels for not much
I 100% think that Cayth is unpopular because its literally some grandma artificer. People care about "coolness" factor and cards design. Who the hell want to have some fat grandma as a commander?
Not me! I would never want any of these lame cards in my collection.
I've noticed almost no one (besides myself) is playing mono blue anymore... So that's two of these commanders explained right away. I don't really understand why. My favorite part of the last year was the release of Ugin's Binding, which gave mono blue a new great card that required some building around. I've tried to get people to push it but no one has :)
I am also one of those people that never heard of Arbaaz Mir. They are just making too many things now. Impossible to follow along and have a life.
Nice list. I think I'm going to make a Kambal deck. I usually make decks where I have to do a lot, set things up, do this and that ... too complicated. I'd like to have a deck where I get value from my opponents doing things so I can kind of relax once in a while. Of course, they'll probably all attack me, like with other decks. I tend to not follow the advice, "don't make yourself a target". That is good advice ... but not as much fun for me most of the time.
I built a Wylie Duke for online play last year and it is a really fun deck, a bit hard to close games with it. I will probably try it again with Aetherdrift, maybe it is possible to make a saddle themed deck for the flavor.
Kambal is also fun when you gift tokens because you essentially gift yourself one too! Same for demonstrate.
Kiora's Alternative art is pretty cool!
Edit: How excited are you for the new vanilla commanders coming out in the next set?!
I like seeing big dumb creatures!
I put Arbaaz Mir in my Dihada, Binder of Wills deck and it just wins games for me, might be the best card in the deck.
I like the swarmweaver, but I already have a Zaask deck. I’m tempted to put Swarmweaver in the deck, but I like Zaask better as a commander.
Demo.. Please make a deck tech on Garth one Eye. The most open and toolboxy commander out there.
Ertha Jo goes illegally insane with The Jolly Balloon Man. Set up Agrus Kos, Eternal Soldier and some pingers or Purphoros and burn down your opponents' life in one turn.
i think the thing with basim ibn ishaq is that people read it as though the card draw also only happens once per turn. at least thats how i read it the frist time
The card draw is once per turn
@@tinkerermelon6599 oh okay my bad
Ertha Jo is a powerhouse in my Jolly Balloon Man deck. Can actually go infinite with Ertha Jo out.
I have a Basim deck I love it. Its pretty good
I woudl also talk about Finneas Ace archer as a very good and simple Rabbits and tokens go big! Building it now its looks hella fun
Kind of gets overshadowed by Baylen in every aspect
In principle, Kellan is one of the best Commanders to play with Keruga as a companion, since you always guarantee having something to do on 2 mana.
I play Cleopatra also not that populair far less good then those other assasins greed commanders but for me more fun.
Kambal was unironically hurt by he Dockside Ban and that is simply because people have short attention spans and dont want to pay attention when I clearly tell them "Hey so my commander will also make those treasures, are you sure?"
I’ve done an Arbaaz Mir deck that I call Mana Rock Tribal. I hit my opponents every time I play a mana rock, and my mana rocks allow me to play more mana rocks.
Why would someone from the golgari guild care about someone dying enough to even become a detective? Seems like the least likely to care. Usually they like death. So that was kinda a fundamental love break to me and almost takes me out of the immersion if that makes sense. That's been my issue with every set this last year they just ignore their own world building to put these characters into dumb gimmicks
i'm guessing your don't like aetherdrift?
@edhdeckbuilding not even a little bit
I probably would forgive it if the race was something happening in the background as more world building for avishkar but not the main draw of the set. Kinda like how amonkhet had the trials for the gods but it wasn't the main draw of the set it was just there to explain the planes lore. The way they are doing sets now is slapping a new hat on or helmet in this case and jamming everyone into that idea. Not a big fan of that world building or game design
Also the checkered flag symbol is whack af. I don’t want any of those cards sullying my collection.
Demo
Kambal with Infernal Genesis?
I think that what you say around the 20 minute mark is true, super open-ended commanders aren't very popular and i think it's mostly because people need a clear direction because commander's cards pool is so massive that "open-endedness" looks scary
I think Vannifar was unpopular because she's basically worse Kadena for any morph deck, who does essentially the same thing but also gives you card draw and access to black.
Vannifar is great in the 99 of Kadena though
So there is a lot going against Basim Ibn Ishaq and the first and most obvious one in my mind is his name.... like that name hurts a foreign tongue it seems. But second is that he is part of a strategy people REALLY DISLIKE in commander and that is Delver//Protect the Queen because it means massive card disadvantage, even if Basim draws you more cards potentially on each players turn. Delver just feels really bad because its like running Voltron with very little equipment, though Basim pays you back for running out gear so maybe some flash gear is worth it
Honestly, for Scarecrows nothing is even faintly close to Reaper King. While Scarecrows are not, generally speaking, a very incredible tribe, Reaper King turns them into a pretty scary force, so there's really not a ton of reasons to play The Swarmweaver. It is a mediocre insect/spider tribal commander, and not even in the running for scarecrows.
Arbaaz is in my Kassandra deck. It's worth pointing out that Basim and Arbaaz aren't popular characters in the Assassin's Creed franchise - Basim is divisive and Arbaaz is from a game no one played, so I understand that they're overlooked.
I played Chronicles and all of them are really enjoyabel. They are closer to what Assassin's Creed should be than the last 3 canon entries.
I have a kambal deck i can confirm its an amazing commander
hate to be that guy but it's wild how many of these i built... just made me laugh. Basam, Izoni, Genku, Wylie Duke, Kellan, Yes Man
I have a Kambal deck that does a ton of life gain and life drain whenever I gain life and its really gross.
For me it's a budget thing and a design thing. Alot of the designs have been quite basic and I'm looking for stuff that's a bit more weird.
Approximately 12,000 new commanders were printed last year so I kind of get it. Plus a bunch of the sets were extremely lame/gimmicky - don't blame people for skipping a few. I still have no idea what went on in MKM
Bruh there was only 2000 new CARDS printed last year lol. Only 30,000 since the game was invented. Definitely not 12,000 commanders just last year LOL
@ both a midget and never heard of the concept of hyperbole before. Rough.
@@MidgetMotowait really? I thought he was serious?
@ definitely not true
... you seriously don't grasp that I'm using hyperbole to emphasise a point? Huh.
I tried playing a Kambal, but had the commander killed everytime I played him. Wasn't really fun.
I built an Arbaaz Mir deck and it's... fine. I've won games with it. But it's a slow accrual of value over the course of the whole game, which just isn't as fun as big splashy stuff.
Popularity? Not sure. If legions of haters counts, I'm wildly popular. Machiavelli said any publicity is good publicity. I haven't exactly seen any benefits from it personally. 🤷
I think the reasons these are unpopular is just because there’s so many other options. Why build something new when you can stick with what’s proven to work?
Not that I agree with that sentiment. I just understand where they’re coming from.
I think the swarmweaver is very generic. It isnt a surprise to me at all, that its not that popular
Maybe people are netdecking too much, so that only a few commanders, whose popularity happen to gain momentum, eventually get most of the attention...?
There is too many commanders getting printed.
Its perfectly normal that most don't get played even if they are decent.
I dont see them as beeing unpopular, it's just there are other commanders who are popular.
Some themes are also "solved" in a way.
Why play Kaust when Kadena is all you need in a morph deck. Why play MKM Vannifar when she fits in Kadena ? Or DSK Zimone when Zimone goes in Kadena right ?
Sure its different flavors but its hard to beat Kadena in that space because of how efficient and reliable she is.
even as you read half of them you are groaning because there is soooo much text on cards. it's exhausting.
Theres just better commanders so why play them? I wouldn't play basim when jhoira is around and she's not restricted to once per turn
the question you ask is funny. basically you're asking "why play any commander that isn't in the top 100 in the format?". i guess you should ask literally every other commander player why they do that.
Kambal is one of my goto decks. Super powerful... More than you think... Bonkers. Add the other kabal dude in, and some good stuff... Oboy Oboy... Super fun with the best 2024 card Delney streetwise 🥰🫣🤪👌