Mayael the Anima and Isperia the Inscrutable are two generals I enjoy but don't see many of. Both are rather strong, and though you can really only build Mayael one way (Naya goodstuff) Isperia can be guild quite a few ways and is really fun to play.
Actually, the guys at gatheringmagic did an analyis of 1000 online EDH lists. Excluding the new Commander Generals (Mimeo, Kaala, etc), Mayael was the most popular general..
As "the guys at gatheringmagic," I was going to post this comment myself
As far as underrated commanders go, there are a ton of mono-colored options. Every color has dozens of options, and only a small handful see any significant play.
Although I'm still in the process of building it, I have yet to see a Ramirez DePietro deck. I'm building a thematic, yet still effective deck using Rogues. I'm also surprised to see Glissa, the Traitor as popular.
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"When does a man die? When he is hit by a bullet? No! When he suffers a disease? No! When he ate a soup made out of a poisonous mushroom? No! A man dies when he is forgotten!" Currently Piloting: EDH BGGlissa, The Traitor - Recursion (Primer) WBRKaalia of The Vast URGRiku of Two Reflections WUBSydri, Galvanic Genius UBRamirez DePietro GWKrond, The Dawn-Clad GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician RGOmnath, Locus of Rage
Actually, Lorthos is absurdly hard to deal with if you get him out early. My friend had a deck centered on artifact ramp and playing him T5 or so, in a MUC shell. It was pretty sick in duals, and even surprisingly effective in multiplayer.
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"A little nonsense now and then is cherished by the wisest men."
- Willy Wonka
The Quote function doesn't work for me on this forum. Sorry for any confusion created.
Although I'm still in the process of building it, I have yet to see a Ramirez DePietro deck. I'm building a thematic, yet still effective deck using Rogues. I'm also surprised to see Glissa, the Traitor as popular.
why would you be surprised? she's really strong in multiple ways, as a buildaround or a goodstuff, and she was printed in a recent set. probably doesn't hurt that a lot of people have the promo.
can't really call ramirez "underused" and certainly not underrated. he's sort of cool but really doesn't do anything. I think the idea was to post generals who don't get the love they deserve; out of the 500 legends or whatever, there were bound to be a few hundred bad ones that no one uses.
I'd have to say Higure would be one that I'm surprised is so underused. he's unblockable (hello voltron) he fetches ninjas (hello tribal...ok so there aren't many ninjas but they're mostly very useful anyway) and he's also just badass and cool. but pretty much no one plays him.
as long as we're talking mono-blue, ertai and empress galina are remarkably unused. Sure, galina isn't as good as your average newbie might think (I seem to recall I figured she was banned after looking at her) and ertai draws down plenty of hate, but for some reason merieke and esper ertai get a lot more love. could be the color combo, but I think it might also be that people like playing with some restrictions. Galina and ertai just feel too simple, same as visara the dreadful I guess.
Some of these guys may see some play, but I've never seen anyone play these generals. I hope to build most of these lists, as they are really cool generals imo.
Both Syggs are underused, especially River Guide. As vultron, he is everything you want, his small starting body the only drawback.
Hokori is criminally underrated. Winter Orb on a very annoying stick. I used to tear through people with him back in the old standard where everyone wanted to play Dragons.
For that matter, I don't see any of the dragons played. Yosei is somewhat nice, better if you can recur him as one of the 99 maybe. But Keiga seems like he would rip it up too, like a larger, non-restrictive Empress Galina. Mono-u def has better options though.
Speaking of underrated though is quite a bit different than talking underused. Zur is underrated. For real. I see everyone trying to build him Vultron, etc, when a buddy at my LGS just goes for Bitterblossom, Contamination every single game. That setup is broken, and comparatively seen less than the cliche degenerate stuff like Mike-Trike.
On those same lines, Damia is underrated. When you stick Burgeoning and Arcane Denial someone's T1 Sol Ring, the only consolation is that you'll eventually run out of land in hand and be on the same page as everyone else. Not no more. When a general is so powerful that you can't allow someone to untap with it, it's a bit over the top. But in these colors all I see is Mimeoplasm.
Of course, saying that Zur and Damia are underrated is like saying Michael Jordan was underrated in 1994. But he was. No one really realized how unbeatable he was. Same thing with Damia/Zur stax - virtually unbeatable. But I guess that's not the point of the thread.
Somebody already mentioned Rakka Mar but I had one that ran all the untap effects with the intent of getting the most milage out of her. Then I got a wild hair to see what other mono colored generals have good tap effects. Mangara of Corondor is a beast. Especially with Liberate, Otherworldly Journey, and Ghostway. With the help of Thousand-Year Elixir, I've exiled six permanents over two turns. Throw in the fact that white has the best removal in the game and you almost never use her on creatures. She also rarely draws much hate as I don't go nuts with her till mid-late game while running relatively small defensive creatures and being in "the second worse color".
A team should be as happy as a meal - TEAM HAPPYMEAL
EDH - UWGrand Arbiter Agustin IV UBW Oloro, Ageless Ascetic Modern - Mono U tron / Polymorph / NFTW (ninja for the win)GR tronGR
Buy All the planeswalkers!!!
Buy All the Dual Lands!!!
Buy All the fetches!
Create tons of EDH Decks!!!
Eat Nothing but Oats!! (LOL, not true)
Train MMA!!!
Marry My girlfriend!!!
Get her Pregnant only Once!
Teach my Son/Daughter Sports and magic cards!!!
Continue my legacy son!!!/Daughter!!
Actually, Lorthos is absurdly hard to deal with if you get him out early. My friend had a deck centered on artifact ramp and playing him T5 or so, in a MUC shell. It was pretty sick in duals, and even surprisingly effective in multiplayer.
I will second this, I had a similar monstorsity and eventually took it apart to try something else. If he drops early enough and survives once round the table, its pretty much game as you chip away at everyone with Commander damage. Also if you drop him early enough, you can afford to recast him for the extra two anyway,
EDH, on the other hand, is more like a monster truck rally. It's more about the spectacle than the race, the games go long, and it's not usually clear who's in the lead until there's only one truck left.*
Single player EDH is like two guys smacking each other with pillows... until one of them pulls out a shotgun.
I must confirm an earlier post that Jor Kadeen can actually be quite strong. I've been tuning my personal list, and though it becomes marginal with an occasional bad draw, it smashes face normally.
Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder seems potentially strong what with black sac interactions...I shall begin developing.
Everything she can do, Niv-Mizzet can already do in a much less hokey fashion
...including drawing a table full of hate before the game even starts. Nin would have a much better chance of actually surviving long enough to play the game around here.
And as I've said numerous times, Adun Oakenshield is my all-time favorite "fun" general. I've never seen anyone else play him in person, which only adds to his fun factor.
I'm thinking about making a Radha, Heir to Keld deck based on elf-ramp and gigantic red X burn spells. Does anyone do that? I'm pretty new to the format, but I haven't heard it yet.
A much, much better choice for that is Rosheen Meanderer, but Elfball Radha does work quite well.
I think I'm gonna gimp the **** out of myself and try Radha first based solely on flavor, but that dude rules. Definitely putting him in and then feeling terrible about my decisions when he's not in play/dead.
I'm thinking about making a Radha, Heir to Keld deck based on elf-ramp and gigantic red X burn spells. Does anyone do that? I'm pretty new to the format, but I haven't heard it yet.
Radha is actually fantastic, but I don't see a lot of people playing it.
The key is to pack your deck with a host of 4CC spells that you cast T3. There's of course the series of 4CC mana ramps spells, but things like Birthing Pod and Natural Order become much better when you can guarantee that T2 green creature.
I also like Radha more than Azusa, because having red allows you to run more creature removal and more hate than a straight-up green deck, which often times has trouble dealing with early creatures.
Edit: I think Radha tribal is not great.
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My apologies, children, for I am afraid I cannot save you all.
My favorite general of the moment, Kiku, Night's Flower. She fronts my vampire tribal deck. I haven't heard of anyone else playing her. She's a great general/creature killer...although Doran, the Siege Tower decks laugh at her.
Selenia, Dark Angel leads my Angels and Demons Purgatory deck. I've only seen a couple of decks online.
EDH: BBKiku, Night's FlowerBB 3WBSelenia, Dark AngelBW3 3RWJor Kadeen, the PrevailerWR3 3BBMarrow-GnawerBB3 WUBRGChild of AlaraGRBUW WUBRGScion of the Ur-DragonGRBUW
For aggro in multiplayer vigilance is amazing. Go stompy with lots of creatures that have tap abilities to rule the combat steps.
G/B poison with things like doubling season and pump effects to maximize your poison getting through unexpected and fast. The general can be used defensively and offensively. Green and black also have lots of redudant cards to make the deck more consistent. Both have tutors, both lots of draw and both have lots of graveyard recursion.
Some of these guys may see some play, but I've never seen anyone play these generals. I hope to build most of these lists, as they are really cool generals imo.
I've run Brigid in the past and currently use Hazezon. Brigid is unquestionably awesome. There were a ton of times where someone swung a 4 toughness creature into her without realizing she was just going to eat it, and her with deathtouch lets you run the combat step.
Hazezon doesn't see as much play as other Naya generals mostly because he's old and expensive, I think. He's definitely effective, seeing as he throws down an army in colors that are very well suited to support it.
He's a good B Voltron guy with evasion and 7 power.
You also get style points for using Hatred and for having a commander that actually is a commander.
Greven is an awesome general. I'm still looking for a German copy, so I can run General Greven il-Vec instead.
I'll throw out that Sisters of Stone Death is somewhat underrated. Yes, they're horrendously expensive, but they're in green and black. Ramp into them the first time, reanimate them from there. They pretty much run combat when they're out and there are quite a few fun little tricks you can pull with them. They also get the benefit of being rarely seen, so you get people who don't bother to read the card closely enough and swing into them when you have mana up. I've always kind of wondered about Mirri the Cursed as voltron as well. Fairly costed hasty flyer in black seems like she could do some damage.
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[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
I play Chorus of the Conclave and Dromar, the Banisher both of whom I feel are pretty underrated which can help me not look as threatening. With Chorus It's funny when I start bashing people with a huge fertilid who I can then sac for tons of lands.
As "the guys at gatheringmagic," I was going to post this comment myself
(Article in question in here, by the way.)
As far as underrated commanders go, there are a ton of mono-colored options. Every color has dozens of options, and only a small handful see any significant play.
Multicolor is a bit more restrictive. Almost all the multicolor legends from Alara forwards see a lot of play. Xira Arien and Adun Oakenshield are both cool older cards, and Hazezon Tamar is a personal favorite of mine. More recently, Wort, Boggart Auntie, Rosheen Meanderer, and Sygg, River Guide haven't seen much action.
I never seen Ruhan at my LGS so far... and the most underused general I like and powerful will probably be Rubinia Soulsinger
EDH: Xenagos, God of Revels.
Currently Piloting:
EDH
BGGlissa, The Traitor - Recursion (Primer)
WBRKaalia of The Vast
URGRiku of Two Reflections
WUBSydri, Galvanic Genius
UBRamirez DePietro
GWKrond, The Dawn-Clad
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician
RGOmnath, Locus of Rage
Modern
UG Infect
Actually, Lorthos is absurdly hard to deal with if you get him out early. My friend had a deck centered on artifact ramp and playing him T5 or so, in a MUC shell. It was pretty sick in duals, and even surprisingly effective in multiplayer.
- Willy Wonka
The Quote function doesn't work for me on this forum. Sorry for any confusion created.
why would you be surprised? she's really strong in multiple ways, as a buildaround or a goodstuff, and she was printed in a recent set. probably doesn't hurt that a lot of people have the promo.
can't really call ramirez "underused" and certainly not underrated. he's sort of cool but really doesn't do anything. I think the idea was to post generals who don't get the love they deserve; out of the 500 legends or whatever, there were bound to be a few hundred bad ones that no one uses.
I'd have to say Higure would be one that I'm surprised is so underused. he's unblockable (hello voltron) he fetches ninjas (hello tribal...ok so there aren't many ninjas but they're mostly very useful anyway) and he's also just badass and cool. but pretty much no one plays him.
as long as we're talking mono-blue, ertai and empress galina are remarkably unused. Sure, galina isn't as good as your average newbie might think (I seem to recall I figured she was banned after looking at her) and ertai draws down plenty of hate, but for some reason merieke and esper ertai get a lot more love. could be the color combo, but I think it might also be that people like playing with some restrictions. Galina and ertai just feel too simple, same as visara the dreadful I guess.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
W - Brigid, Hero of Kinsbale
U - Kaho, Minamo Historian
B - Endrek, Master Breeder
R - Heartless Hidetsugu
G - Sekki, Season's Guide
Two color - Ulasht, the Hate Seed
3 Color - Hazezon Tamar
5 Color - Cromat
Some of these guys may see some play, but I've never seen anyone play these generals. I hope to build most of these lists, as they are really cool generals imo.
WR Heroic
Modern
FISH
Legacy
FISH
EDH
Hanna, Ship Navigator - Enchantments
Sygg, River Guide - Fish Tribal
Mayael, the Anima - Power5orGreater
Zedruu, the Greathearted - Gifts
Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker - 1 Power Recursion
Roon of the Hidden Realm - ETB Triggers
Edric, Spymaster of Trent - TurboFog
Lazav, Dimir Mastermind - Shapeshifters *IN PROGRESS*
Krenko, Mob Boss - Goblins *IN PROGRESS*
Hokori is criminally underrated. Winter Orb on a very annoying stick. I used to tear through people with him back in the old standard where everyone wanted to play Dragons.
For that matter, I don't see any of the dragons played. Yosei is somewhat nice, better if you can recur him as one of the 99 maybe. But Keiga seems like he would rip it up too, like a larger, non-restrictive Empress Galina. Mono-u def has better options though.
Speaking of underrated though is quite a bit different than talking underused. Zur is underrated. For real. I see everyone trying to build him Vultron, etc, when a buddy at my LGS just goes for Bitterblossom, Contamination every single game. That setup is broken, and comparatively seen less than the cliche degenerate stuff like Mike-Trike.
On those same lines, Damia is underrated. When you stick Burgeoning and Arcane Denial someone's T1 Sol Ring, the only consolation is that you'll eventually run out of land in hand and be on the same page as everyone else. Not no more. When a general is so powerful that you can't allow someone to untap with it, it's a bit over the top. But in these colors all I see is Mimeoplasm.
Of course, saying that Zur and Damia are underrated is like saying Michael Jordan was underrated in 1994. But he was. No one really realized how unbeatable he was. Same thing with Damia/Zur stax - virtually unbeatable. But I guess that's not the point of the thread.
EDH - UWGrand Arbiter Agustin IV
UBW Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
Modern - Mono U tron / Polymorph / NFTW (ninja for the win)GR tron GR
Buy All the Dual Lands!!!
Buy All the fetches!
Create tons of EDH Decks!!!
Eat Nothing but Oats!! (LOL, not true)
Train MMA!!!
Marry My girlfriend!!!
Get her Pregnant only Once!
Teach my Son/Daughter Sports and magic cards!!!
Continue my legacy son!!!/Daughter!!
I will second this, I had a similar monstorsity and eventually took it apart to try something else. If he drops early enough and survives once round the table, its pretty much game as you chip away at everyone with Commander damage. Also if you drop him early enough, you can afford to recast him for the extra two anyway,
On building a Celestial Kirin Stax EDH:
Everything she can do, Niv-Mizzet can already do in a much less hokey fashion. She's a a nice addition to an already well-established General.
Tibor and Lumia. Now THEY'RE underplayed.
Thanks, Heroes of The Planes! You guys are great!
Actual Truth:
Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder seems potentially strong what with black sac interactions...I shall begin developing.
Also my friend has a Hazezon Tamar deck, and it is just nuts sometimes.
UBR Grixis UBR
...including drawing a table full of hate before the game even starts. Nin would have a much better chance of actually surviving long enough to play the game around here.
And as I've said numerous times, Adun Oakenshield is my all-time favorite "fun" general. I've never seen anyone else play him in person, which only adds to his fun factor.
EDH:
RNorin the WaryR <-Link! (Primer - Mono Red Control)
GUEdric, Spymaster of TrestUG <- Link! (Mini-Primer - Dredge)
Duel Commander:
WUGeist of Saint TraftUW <- Link! (Aggro-Control)
BGSkullbriar, the Walking GraveGB <- Link! (Aggro)
BUGDamia, Sage of StoneGUB <- Link! (Extinction Control)
Church of the Wary
I think I'm gonna gimp the **** out of myself and try Radha first based solely on flavor, but that dude rules. Definitely putting him in and then feeling terrible about my decisions when he's not in play/dead.
The key is to pack your deck with a host of 4CC spells that you cast T3. There's of course the series of 4CC mana ramps spells, but things like Birthing Pod and Natural Order become much better when you can guarantee that T2 green creature.
I also like Radha more than Azusa, because having red allows you to run more creature removal and more hate than a straight-up green deck, which often times has trouble dealing with early creatures.
Edit: I think Radha tribal is not great.
Selenia, Dark Angel leads my Angels and Demons Purgatory deck. I've only seen a couple of decks online.
Playing
BBKiku, Night's FlowerBB
3WBSelenia, Dark AngelBW3
3RWJor Kadeen, the PrevailerWR3
3BBMarrow-GnawerBB3
WUBRGChild of AlaraGRBUW
WUBRGScion of the Ur-DragonGRBUW
coming soon:
WUBRGReaper King GRBUW
For aggro in multiplayer vigilance is amazing. Go stompy with lots of creatures that have tap abilities to rule the combat steps.
G/B poison with things like doubling season and pump effects to maximize your poison getting through unexpected and fast. The general can be used defensively and offensively. Green and black also have lots of redudant cards to make the deck more consistent. Both have tutors, both lots of draw and both have lots of graveyard recursion.
GAzusa, Lost but SeekingG
WBVish Kal, Blood ArbiterWB
WBRKaalia of the VastWBR
UBGVorosh, the HunterUBG
WRGisela, Blade of GoldnightWR
WUGJenara, Asura of WarWUG
WBGTeneb, The HarvesterWBG
WUBRGHorde of NotionsWUBRG
I've run Brigid in the past and currently use Hazezon. Brigid is unquestionably awesome. There were a ton of times where someone swung a 4 toughness creature into her without realizing she was just going to eat it, and her with deathtouch lets you run the combat step.
Hazezon doesn't see as much play as other Naya generals mostly because he's old and expensive, I think. He's definitely effective, seeing as he throws down an army in colors that are very well suited to support it.
Greven is an awesome general. I'm still looking for a German copy, so I can run General Greven il-Vec instead.
I'll throw out that Sisters of Stone Death is somewhat underrated. Yes, they're horrendously expensive, but they're in green and black. Ramp into them the first time, reanimate them from there. They pretty much run combat when they're out and there are quite a few fun little tricks you can pull with them. They also get the benefit of being rarely seen, so you get people who don't bother to read the card closely enough and swing into them when you have mana up. I've always kind of wondered about Mirri the Cursed as voltron as well. Fairly costed hasty flyer in black seems like she could do some damage.
My Saffi deck