The 7 Most RISKY Commanders (And Their Decks) 

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With rowan, I've learned the most useful trick to getting her ability to resolve is to activate her, then hold priority and pay life with an outlet

See it's a real risk to play Krenko, Mob Boss. Not only do you become public enemy #1 at the table once he gets on board, the second your board gets removed it's a challenge to rebuild.

To reduce the risk of Rowan, you can always put her ability on the stack, then pay your life in response (before she resolves). She checks on res, so your opponents would have to use a stifle at that point.

With Lynde, Curse of Misfortunes is actually even better when you put it on yourself. You stack your triggers so on your upkeep you first search your deck for any curse and attach it to yourself, then second attach that curse you tutored to any opponent. Gets around un-targetable opponents and draws you two cards to boot!

The deathgaze as Beezy backed out of the manscaped ad required a double take 🤣 hilarious

Love the ad placement ❤ you both made it really entertaining to digest it!

Nitpicking Nerds and Manscaped is the crossover I did not expect lol

That Manscaped bit was peak. Gratz

Love the newspaper gag

Horobi is the hero we didn’t think we needed versus the Nadu insanity

Discarding many cards onto Toluz and someone exiling her is a good way Toluz.

Mr. House deserves a spot for being the definition of feast or famine. You lose your rolls and you're doing nothing. You hit your rolls and you have a number of different options to go infinite.

20:15 Bazaar Vendor fits well here 22:00 Evra will love "Surestrike Trident"

37:03 flipping a morph is a special action that doesn't use the stack I believe, so it can't be responded to rather than being at instant speed. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here.

Dralnu is so bad but it’s my favorite deck I own. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, better than casting a Domineering Will on an opponent’s combat step.

I'm building a Lynde deck right now. Should be a lot of fun! Thanks for your help.

Obeka Brute Chronologist is definitely deserving of a spot here. If she gets removed at the wrong time it can cause you to take yourself out with the risky extra turn spells or other similar effects

Heartless Hidetsugu + lifelink equipment = absolute hilarity! You do still lose the life, but you gain much more back, so its almost worry free!

Wow, definitely didn't expect to see Beezy in a Nitpicking Nerds video. What a pleasant surprise.

Nailed the advertisement!

The newspaper was so funny! Thank you for the laugh😂

I was hoping to see Phage on this list, not too disappointed. One of buddy plays her. We usually have the agreement of no fast mana at our table, but we lift that for when he plays Phage since it's just such a jank commander, and we love to see it take people out.

Rowan, Scion of War is a bit less risky if you tap him to activate his ability and then trigger a bunch of things to pay life too in response his ability being placed on the stack.... he dies you still get his effect but your still down all that life so maybe open to being killed or the rare squelch like cards

I will always have the mindset of playing to win the game, assuming I'm not ruining my friends' evening. That being said, I will be the "sacrificial lamb" every time someone holds the table hostage.

Heartless Hidetsugu!! I love that guy!! I run him in my damage doubler deck - I loaned it to my buddy once and he hit the setup and went for it even though he was at an even life total just for the rush of blasting the rest of the table to 1 lmao

I was always confused on why rowan was more possible than Will, who has some fantastic synergies, and generally life gain is better than life loss, not to mention it is more common.

Dralnu was the second commander I ever built. First was Kemba being the first. I didn't connect with Kemba at all so that deck lasted a week. Dralnu lasted for years. This was before Snapcaster mage by a year when I built him and he was super fun. At the time red was considered the worst color and burn spells were extremely rare. So the drawback wasn't really much of an issue most the time. I'd run 10 counter spells so I'd have roughly 20 counterspells throughout the entire game. The deck was really good during the wild west of the time but it soon was outclassed by newer decks that could just function at a higher level. What really held him back was that 5 CMC. Interestingly, Dralnu actually used to have a Niche cEDH deck at one point. When Paradox engine was legal Dralnu was effectively a past in flames in the command zone which made his active turns rather explosive. Without it he doesn't have much of a chance and is dubious even in casual.

I have Lynde, An extended foil for her, Was super hyped to build a deck for her but the curses just aren't good enough to really hang around with, Even for casual, You tend to just make a big target out of yourself or get stuck with a bunch of high cost or low effect cards, One day maybe she will have a better pool to draw from but for now I do not think shes worth trying to run as commander

Gratuitous Violence + Heartless Hidetsugu only kills players who have an even amount of health. deal one damage to yourself, activate heartless, the damage he deals to you is rounded down, then doubled, leaving you with that one HP... I use him in a red and white deck that involves single damage shenanigans and truly funny stuff like circle of protection: red.

Evra is awesome!! My favorite risky general is Thromok the Insatiable

This ad is top tier, I love this 😂 I have wanted to get Manscaped for a while and I think I will now that you guys are sponsored 👀 tired of self inflicted injuries 😅

I got to pilot my buddy's Lynde deck and it's soooooo fun

Rowan feels like it should depend on the threat of instant-speed spells should you hit them

Bro WTF Beezy is taller than the door frame 😮

With Rowan if you have wall of blood out I believe you can tap Rowan before you lose any life, then with Rowan’s ability on the stack you should be able to lose life with wall of blood to reduce your spells cmc.

I wanna see a Lynde deck with the new Obeka as a secret secont commander

there is no phage the untouchable..

I have a Lynde deck and she’s so much fun to play with 😁🧡

What does heartless do to you when you have negative life?

Idea to make Rowen riskless: There is a 4 mana red guy that allows you to pay I think 3 or 4 life for a red mana, Since this is a mana ability, you can use it without passing priority, and it does not use the stack, thus you can pay 30 life for 10 red mana, and put Rowan's ability on the stack to get 30 discount on your next spell. Unless someone is running stifle or countermagic, the following drain spell should close out the game quite nicely. Edit: Yes, the orge talked about, mana abilities are a bit jank.

Not me watching 5 minutes of Heartless Hidetsugu thinking it was just another combo piece with Rowan...

I think jetmir is super risky, he's totally telegraphed, and you can just kill him after blockers and wipe out the attackers

wouldnt using Claws of Gix to sac the curses while Lynde was out just make them come back onto you anyway?

Ball Saviors

Moxfield ad guess 18:39

Ive never seen it, but why wouldn't someone put aetherflux reservoir in a rowan deck and try to make some combo out of it. Paying all that life ans slinging spells i would think could work in some way

Just started the video. If I don't see Obeka, Brute Chronologist, I'll end your turn... PERMANENTLY.

Manscaped sponsor is hilarious. Calling dibs.

I'm really intriged for the content/news in that Newspaper 😂

Guess: 15:27 for moxfield

Mia in the Manscaped promo made me crack up!

GREAT ad bit lol. Literally made me laugh out loud. Love yall lol

Heartless Hidetsugu + Solphim = salty playgroup 😊

that ad was stellar 😂

You can fix Dralnu by playing "wrong turn" nothing better then donating dralnu to the Player Who grinned At ya while playing blasphemus act❤

I'm using a basic generic mondrak as commander right now

I like risky things cause it makes it fun if your play group only runs gas your kinda upshit creek

Great Manscape ad~

My girl titania protector of argoth is missing from this list.

My Most risky Commander IS only hans. He is not risky for me BUT every Attack with him is a Chance to kill my commander

I think it would be very useful if you add timestamps to the video 🙏🏻

Not gonna lie: I have Heartless Hidetsugu in my 5 Colours Jodah-Deck, simply 'cause Hidetsugu is a janky Legend, that's the whole thing in the deck: a) be janky b) be Legendary. XD

Amber and Miso are not dumb 😭 They are cute

Lynde is great because it's a legit excuse to put Harmless Offering in a deck (best art, booful kitten)

The video is quite blurry.

"We Save Balls" 😂😂😂😂😂

I love Lynde, but god she is so awkward to play, most curses SUCK. Her color idendity is also pretty awkward, her being Grixis mean we do not get access to the enchantress package. 😢 If at least she had white in her color identity we could go for a Curse of Misfortune into Overwhelming Splendor to shut down a player, but nope!

GD B is tall

Yeah, when you go to a big convention around thousands of people, it's super important to shave your balls haha

23:44

I hearby request timestamps so i can skip the ads, please.

i will not stand for the amber and miso slander

sting lol

Lol no one watching this channel needs manscape…not getting laid. I only heard this part of the video because it auto played after Heroes and Legends top 10 MH3 list.

Mia and the newspaper had me dying lmaooo wow 10/10

Years ago at the end of a legacy pro-tour qualifier, I played Heartless Hidetsugu deck in a ridiculous 12 man pod... I wiped them all out... was awesome... people actually loved it... was good fun for all :D

Lynde is my girl...curses rule!!

Greven is in the same vein as Rowan. Life loss payoffs are so much fun though.

Kuro Pitlord with Horobi - highly recommend

For Dralnu, Reins of Power and Domineering Will are great. They basically donate him at instant speed. So if someone does Blasphemous Act, not only do you save yourself, but you've weaponised your weakness. Domineering Will can even rarely force him to block

I actually have a Lynde Curse deck because I followed the “Build your own Precon” guide from Tolarian Community College. It’s gotten a LOT of upgrades (mostly just in card art and such, but some in the Mana Base, and in some of my Defensive plays). It’s currently worth over $500 now cuz of the oricey pieces I’ve added like some Shock Lands, Deflecting Swat, Fierce Guardianship, Deadly Rollick, and most recently, Cyclonic Rift. I actually played it at my LGS recently in fact in a casual 3 Person pod (it was gonna be a 2 person pod and I had a different deck ready, but when a third chose to hop in as we were shuffling, I swapped decks). The deck is slow and wants to stay Under the Radar until you begin popping off. My opponents were running Dina Soul Steeper (Golgari Life Drain) and Astor Bearer of Blades (Boros Equipment). I was pretty slow, and only had 1 curse for the first 5-7 turns, just saccing it occasionally to get extra draws, getting back a little life each time to counter the Life Drain strategy. I was slowly building my board up while playing Politics, aiming my opponents at eachother by pointing out stuff like “oh, that guy is really hurting us cuz his board is pinging us for a lot of damage just by playing lands” or “The commander can’t be removed without a lot off work, and it has enough power to 2/3 shot someone who can’t block it”. I would play the rare removal option to help. Generally I was pinging for 1 damage here and there until I got Sphinx of the Second Sun on board to get MORE card draw and a beefy flying blocker. It began to pay off as the others entered a Stalemate (both were just Top Decking, and Golgari was playing a creature each turn to block, while the Boros deck was trying to find a Trample equipment). I was meanwhile beginning to find more curses, and having been getting a land drop and/or mana rock out every turn, I was slamming them onto people. The only time my board was even looked at was a Lightning Greaves I put on Lynde for Protection (and planned to out on the Sphinx for a free early attacj, but they got Abraded). Then I pulled Painful Quandary, a card that was perfect as both opponents were BARELY getting more than 1 card in hand each turn. I played it and both were doomed. Boros was hit with multiple curses and my board swinging as he didn’t leave any blockers, and I then began slamming the curses onto Golgari when my next turn began cuz they had no board state at all (even after removing Quandary as part of a deal I made to killed Boros). golgari got 3 turns to try and find answers but ultimately was devoured by Scarabs and Torment. The deck runs a lot of Counter Spells and Spot Removal, plus Group Hug pieces like Scheming Symmetry, that way I can make friends, keep their eyes off me and onto eachother, while I help keep the table running smoothly like a puppeteer until the pieces are in place for my Grand Finale.

Oh, I am FINE with being the one to trigger the effect. I thrive in reckless gameplay. My matches with my Vilis deck DO NOT last long. I pay SOOO much life for effects... It's the definition of high risk, high reward. 😆

Instead of building Rowan, Scion of War I put her in the 99 of my Judith, Carnage Connoisseur deck as a Mana Dork because of all the Black cards in it that cost me Life for card advantage. Even just reducing my stuff by 2 or 3 is a huge boon in that deck.

Playing horobi in my King of Oathbreakers deck. Touch of darkness is amazing 1 mana asymmetrical board wipe. Part of the cycle that spiked because of Nadu. Also I just made a Yurlok deck and giving your opponents a ton of mana is risky because you need to pass priority for it to mana burn them. But it's super fun.

Is Evra really that risky? If you hold up 8 mana before you swing, you can activate Evra's ability before damage, then activate it again to switch back afterwards or when Evra gets targeted with removal.

rowan is risky in such a lame way. either win the game on the spot or lose and its a 3 player game.. very solitaire and not interactive at all. probably the LEAST fun commander to play against in the format

Rowan is definitely risky, but considering that the vast majority of life loss cards in your deck are instant speed, you should activate her first and maintain priority to bolt yourself or whatever, so that if someone removes her, her ability is still on the stack

for rowan, a great way to pay life at instant speed besides outlets on the board is casting a card like fire covenant, because the life is paid during the cost and thus counterspells do not interact with the interaction either

Henzie is my favorite jund dragon commander and jund dinosour commander and jund demons.

Mia’s action in this episode sponsor is funny as hell🤣🤣😂😂👍🏼👍🏼💯

I'm glad you guys are getting sponsors and making it big

The key is to respond to rowans ability by paying life

Huh. I've got a Licia deck that uses Evra and would love to add Rowan to it. I have considered breaking it apart and turning it into two decks, Evra and Greven. I've also been slow-building a Karthus deck. I might have a playstyle.

I clicked the link AND interacted! #forthealgorithm

I hear Tolaria has a nice community college!

I remember when EDH was fairly new, a mate made a Dralnu deck. I T1 Pithing Needle'd, naming Dralnu, and he couldn't answer it. He was ready to quit EDH altogether.

Lynde is a perfect candidate for the new Shadow of the Second Sun card Also, Kartthus seems like you could add Goad cards to protect yourself

Awesome vid!

What’s the opposite of this for us paranoid mfs