Top 10 Commander Staples That Are BAD Everywhere Else - MTG 

I have a spellslinger deck that likes having instants and sorceries in the GY. Arcane denial can give me extra card draws along thew way.

Haha what a clever idea! Love this!

Sheoldred combo 😃

But it is also good in pauper

I play Lightning Bolt with Swans of Bryn Argoll for that reason. Basically becomes a red ancestral recall

The perfect example of why having a relevant creature type can really make a huge difference between a card being "okay" or "amazing" in a format.

@@LadyTsunade777 Right but the card wasn't played only in merfolk. Was the deck so played the Merfolk type made a difference ?

@@LadyTsunade777 no? merfolk is trash in legacy xD its a 3/1 beater with protection from everything, thats why its good.

Some cards just work better in 1v1 and this is one of them

True name nemesis is good in commander in my opinion

It also starts to see play in pioneer, mainly in combo decks that don't care about the 2/2 flyer.

@@TheEmeraldboy100 Yeah, its best in or against combo decks. Giving your opponent a 2/2 doesn't matter when you're winning on the spot. On the flip side, giving your opponent a 2/2 doesn't matter when they don't win through combat damage. They'll probably just chump an attack with it, and the time that buys them is less than the time you gained by using Swan Song on some important combo piece or tutor.

Played in modern storm for the same reason

I have seen a sneak and show deck lose to the 2/2 bird after both sides countered each others combo plays.

I can't wait to see the new Jodah in a shrine deck, ever since i saw him ive been prepping for it

You can also just play 1 ofs in other formats. It's that's commander is slow that makes shrines more viable.

That comes at the cost of consistency. Shrines suffer from having to balance consistency with variety. Highlander formats force all decks to lose consistency, which is less painful on shrines, since they already have less consistency.

Indeed, nearly unbeatable I’d say

Mana source has something to say about that

it's also really good if you have a card that makes instants cost [1] less to cast like Goblin Electromancer

It had a small place in Standard when it was legal there, but quickly got outpaced.

@@delathenleso5793 people tried it with emergency powers from the same set

@@robertbadgley6291 *shrug* I started playing Magic a few sets later, in Eldraine. I never saw that particular combo. I did see Smothering Tithe with some Aristocrats decks, where the goal was to outlast your opponent, and the card draw at your upkeep was enough to fuel the Tithe.

I guess it was too similar to Rhystic Studies to be interesting for the list

It doesn't do enough unless you have 3 opponents and wheel them. Then it's basically Omniscience

yeah pretty much all politic cards only see play in commander(or the very rarly played other multiplayer formats), the asymetrical ones like death by dragons, the whole goad mechanic, voting, ect ect

This. A lot of the cards you mentioned are staples. I think the creator should spend some time looking at edhrec for what is considered staples.

Most of these cards are too good in other formats. The only card on this list that's uniquely good in Commander is Smothering Tithe, all the other ones would be excluded for seeing too much play in other formats already.

Cabal coffers is used in several modern decks, urborg is in almost every black deck in modern and pioneer and even sees some play in legacy, swords and path are still used in every format you can play them, rhystic study is technically correct because it will never be legal in any format it has any ability to be good in, but still gets used in some weird legacy decks.

Ngl I have actually drawn into a wincon using Skullclamp in my (arguably) mid-tier Brudiclad deck so I feel this. Skullclamp is basically an auto-include in any deck I build that makes tokens or sacrifices creatures.

@@yummines yeah its absurd. i dont remember who but a MTG youtuber made a video showing the changes Skullclamp went through in its design process and how the card changed from a completely fair, kind of okay card into one of the best equipments in commander. It was a good watch and shows how wizards will still make mistakes when designing cards *cough* Oko *cough*

Don't forget clamp was also banned during it's standard run.

I agree, also surprised that Serra Ascendant wasn't mentioned. Sure it's not an outright staple in every white deck... but it sees more play than shrines do.

You’re just straight up wrong lol. Mystic remora is significantly stronger than rhystic study. Expropriate is awful. Most of the cards on this list weren’t even that good in commander.

@@wizardsmix7961 it's always nice when you take care to argument and people just answer "you are wrong bleah". Good job, you proved you are smarter than everyone else. Sorry, though, you won't get cookies or belly rubs.

@@wizardsmix7961 Early game yes. Late game no.

Mystic remora is actively better than rhystic for every reason rhystic isn't good in other formats. Remora is an early game power house where you draw cards while people are actively trying to set up the board. If they're "playing around Remora" they're not playing mana rocks, ramp spells, etc. It is basically impossible to pay the tax, even late game so it's not totally useless while interaction is required to play as well. Remora is an incredibly good card. Study however, costs more and more often than not IS just a tax that gets paid because players realize if they pay the tax... You don't run away with the game. And then later, someone can remove it if the tax is becoming a problem. Study, is not a bad card in commander. It's a one sided tax on EVERY card. Remora, is just better for what people _want_ study to be.

Or how it’s used nearly exclusively with Jodah who gives you the option of casting everything for WUBRG. So fist makes everything free with her on the field.

@@VVheeli uh... Jodah and Fist of Suns have the exact same effect. Morophon is the one that provides the discount.

@@royplatt455 you’re right I’m just dumb. Haven’t played 5 colors in a long time.

@@VVheeli you're on the right track. Fist of suns doesnt make everything free with Jodah BUT it is an extra jodah in your deck in case he's died a few times and is expensive to cast

While true, that's a bit of a niche deck. And it could be argued a better strategy to use generic mana reducers (urzas incubator, semblence anvil, heartless summoning) and run monophonic as a 1 or 2 colour deck. I say this, because, unlike fist, the generic cost reducers reduce the cost of monophonic itself. And assuming every creature you play shares the tribe you call, and only has 1 colour pip, your creatures functionally become free anyways.

Morophon the Boundless.

Specifically turbo-fog for Arcane Denial, from what I’ve seen

While most decks try to run some enchantment hate, it's still one of the hardest types of permanent to interact with. And you're still a lot less likely to just get aggroed down before you can even drop a 5-mana threat.

@@astuteanansi4935 shrines is still a bad meme deck :D

Hi

But you can use his abilities whenever you feel like for no mana cost. Or is that just the M21 version I have?

@@joebaumgart1146 He's talking about Teferi's Protection, not the 4 mana one from M21.

Regarding the first thing, the list is about the discrepancy in power, not how good they are in Commander. Study is kind of ok in other formats, whereas Sabertooth is straight up bad in most formats. While study is better, Sabertooth has the bigger discrepancy.

Fist of suns/Morophon is killer if you run Tiamat. Being able to dump 6 dragons onto the field feels good

When you only have one opponent it's not very good

Nexus of Fate. I mean, nobody but dirty infinite turn Narset players with money to spare run it, but it is a hard counter.

Lethal Vapors. It requires extra setup though. If you don't have something that stops others from using abilities on your turn or find a way to kill Lethal Vapors without passing priority, the opponents just activate it as many times as you do. Worse case scenario, someone has a Thassa's Oracle/Laboratory Maniac/Jace and they get a free win. A "damage can't be prevented" card also gives a win since commander damage is like poison, it doesn't matter if you lose life or not, if you reach 21 you're dead. Otherwise an Eldrazi titan in the deck or a Zenith card stops it as well.

@@Seedmember Yeah this is more of a Magic Online strategy. You need to use something like Faith Healer or Final Payment to get rid of Lethal Vapors without passing priority, and otherwise it's hard

Does no one in your group run Swan Song?? XD

Even then it's still pretty bad

it gets +5/+5 when you're above 30 life*, but yeah its an absurdly strong card in commander. Turn 1 serra ascendant makes you an immediate target and its almost impossible to block in the early game so you get massive lifegain swings

@@fosterdawson7339 there we go, fixed it, thanks for the catch. And yeah it’s a good card that will get you targeted if you get it early.

Yup. Paying the mana tax is advantageous to all three opponents, giving the Rhystic user a card is advantageous to one. Plus that advantage is less likely to be turned against you. What's your opponent going to do, go for the one that's giving them card advantage first? No no, they're going to go for the other two. If you're on the receiving end of this card, sell the others out and hope you can pull off something sneaky while the one playing Rhystic is dealing with them.

Entry point? You need 100 unique cards lol I dont know anybody that started with Commander. Only folks who grew into it.

Smothering tithe (not on this list) also saw some standard play, I think this list leans heavier to cards that saw no eternal format play post rotations

erm, no. its not good cause "players bad". Having a +1 tax on every spell hurts big time, especially if you want to establish your own board. Playing out a big turn, letting the rhystic guy draw 5 and then hoping the other players can deal with the cards is a valid point. Its an expensive staple for a reason.

Sabretooth doesn’t flicker, it returns to your hand. So if you have more lands than you need to cast and activate, you can tap out, float the excess, and play and bounce Zacama, netting mana.

@@tyrusdalet he was saying how flicker was more efficient, I'm saying not with Zacama

All of those saw play and were good in formats they've since rotated out of. And Solemn Simulacrum isn't actually that good in commander, and far from the "auto-include" many players like to think it is.

@@Mirvana solemn is very eh its called sad robot for a reason I mainly use it in non-green decks for ramp which it's OK at just I think it's highly played solely because it's colorless It can go in any deck and they are some things you can do with it like blinking it.

Also Serra Ascendant.... which can be an absolutely insane turn 1 play in the format.

Yea, it’s not just that you have more opponents for it to trigger, it’s that the incentives of each opponent is changed in multiplayer

Fist of suns doesnt prevent you from paying commander tax,since commander tax is an additional cost, similar to kicker.

@@sirplayalot11x Guess my playground never looked into that ruling. The pitfalls of home table play I suppose.

Yeah, some people see multiplayer as 1V3, rather than what it is, 1V1V1V1. And, yeah, Duel Logs' heavy focus on Card Advantage is Very Yu-Gi-Oh. I barely hear it from people who's primary game is M:tG. People care more about Tempo, Ramp, utility, so on.

Yeah, I do like these videos, but it's very clear and obvious that he's not really a primary Commander player. While Commander uses the same cards as Modern or Legacy or Pioneer, the actual game plan is very different. What's happening on the table is usually only about half the story, with politicking, aiming players at other players rather than yourself, and being unassuming until a turn you can "go off" are often at least as important as what's in your hand or on the battlefield.

Script writer here. I'm aware that what I said was somewhat inaccurate, as you won't be the one dealing all 120 damage. Still, you will have to deal far more damage than normal. That was just a sort of shorthand to let the audience know how much more power you need to put out to win a game of commander. The number is probably closer to like, 30-60 depending on tons of factors

@@pumkinswift8263 Aggro decks are still a thing in Commander, but they tend to care more about symmetrical/"deals damage to all opponents" style effects or multiple combat steps in a single turn over just having a Goblin Guide smack face for a few turns. As the format continues to speed up with WotC printing Commander optimized cards, we'll be seeing more Aggro strategies popping off; they just won't look like 60-card format Aggro decks. That's really a huge part of the point of Commander: it's very much it's own kettle of fish, and the ways in which it is different often make it far more accessible to new players just starting the game and getting caught in all the cool artwork, character designs, and diagetic storytelling potential. (I run a mono-Green Aggro deck for when my table wants to go cEDH. The Commander is Marwyn the Nurturer, and I can usually pump out infinite or near-infinite mana on turn 4-5 and toss down an infinite number of Hydras or get some big Eldrazi to smack face or draw through near my entire deck to find the right combo. I've done it as early as turn 2, which is why I stopped playing the deck in casual tables. If that isn't Aggro, then you need to adjust your definitions to match your format and stop pretending that Commander is Legacy's little baby-boo-bop cousin. Legacy is all but dead because of the Reserve List, and it really needs to stop being held up as "Magic Distilled," because it is impenetrable to anyone not wanting to sink Used Car money into a hobby.)

@@delathenleso5793 making infinite mana and winning is not what anyone would call aggro, its a combo.

this is a lovely idea! actually, I don't personally see lots of retrain cards, but they are wonderful nonetheless :D

I mean, just because they were made for commander, doesn't mean they still don't apply to this list. They are legal in eternal formats, don't specify commander, and fit the criteria. As well, both have seen some form of reprint in a non-commander focused draft set. (Archive version from strixhave for tef pro, and double masters for dockside)

@@krvys7226 @Krvys Reprints in a supplemental product that doesnt affect the legality of a card(except pauper) doesnt change the fact they are literally pushed cards for the commander format with that format in mind. Not only that, these cards are only legal in Vintage and Legacy cause wotc stated all supplementary products just become legal in those format. They weren't added to those format by the normal means of type 1(now standard), but from products cater made to a format where power levels can be much higher than the norm and it would be fine. It just feels unfair that cards that were designed for a clearly lower power format have to compete with stuff that occasionally pops out legacy and vintage staples(True name Nemesis, hullbreacher, opposition agent, etc) Not to mention if Teferis protection and Dockside Extortionist were printed into actual rotation and legal in standard, pioneer, modern, then they would DEFINITELY see play in at least 2 of those formats each.

@@krvys7226 I agree. And for the other side of that coin, look at True Name Nemesis. Not really all that impressive in commander, but people were buying the Jeleva commander deck just to remove that card and resell it as a 99-card deck so they could play it in... I want to save Vintage? I honestly can't recall which format was trying to get play-sets of it.

An offer you can’t refuse is good in standard tempo decks right now