The 35 Worst and Overrated Commanders in Magic Ranked

Last updated on August 30, 2025

Tarox Bladewing | Illustration by Aleksi Briclot

In the ever-evolving landscape of Magic: The Gathering, players are always on the lookout for the most powerful and synergistic commanders to lead their decks. However, not all commanders rise to the occasion, and some fall significantly short of expectations.

Today, we delve into the realm of the least impressive leaders in the MTG universe: the commanders who struggle to bring value and impact to the battlefield, AKA: The WORST of their kind. Despite their legendary status, these commanders fail to provide the synergy, efficiency, and versatility needed to compete effectively in the format.

From those burdened with high mana values and minimal abilities to those whose effects are too narrow or conditional, join me as we explore why these legendary creatures have earned their spot among the worst commanders in MTG and understand the pitfalls that make them such challenging choices for your deck.

What Are the Worst Commanders in MTG?

Gallowbraid | Illustration by Carl Critchlow

When one thinks about the worst or the most overrated commanders in Magic history, we're often referring to the ones that provide either no utility at all, or actual drawbacks when running them.

These commanders typically suffer from high mana costs combined with minimal impact, making them inefficient for the Commander format. These commanders often need more synergistic abilities or have mechanics that are too narrow or situational, which limits their usefulness in a diverse range of game scenarios.

That said, you might be willing to rise to the challenge and build around the ones that are somewhat niche, and if so, this is a list you should take notice of!

Prepare your eyes for the worst of the worst; there’s nothing at the bottom of the barrel but them.

#35. Barktooth Warbeard

With its high mana cost (7 mana) for a vanilla creature (6/5), Barktooth Warbeard offers no additional abilities or synergies, making it an extremely underwhelming choice for an EDH deck.

Don’t get me wrong, there are other vanilla commanders like Isamaru, Hound of Konda, or Yargle and Multani, but the major difference relies on stats as one can justify the former for being extremely cheap while the latter oversized for its cost.

What does Barktooth Warbeard have? Nothing, it's just an undersized, costly Rakdos commander.

The fun fact is that there’s a full “cycle” of these common commanders from Legends, and since I bet you're curious, I will share with you the full list:

• Barktooth Warbeard
• Jasmine Boreal
• Jedit Ojanen
• Jerrard of the Closed Fist
• Kasimir the Lone Wolf
• Lady Orca
• Sir Shandlar of Eberyn
• Sivitri Scarzam
• The Lady of the Mountain
• Tobias Andrion
• Torsten Von Ursus

#34. Veldrane of Sengir

Veldrane of Sengir is another black commander bogged down by inefficiency. Costing 7 mana for a 5/5 with an activated ability that gives itself -3/-0 and forestwalk until the end of the turn, it’s an expensive and counterproductive investment. Reducing its own power significantly diminishes its usefulness in combat, and forestwalk is situational at best in multiplayer formats.

#33. Iizuka the Ruthless

Iizuka the Ruthless can sacrifice a samurai to give all samurai creatures you control double strike until end of turn, which, while potentially powerful, is highly restrictive and narrow in its application considering there are very few red samurai.

Ah, its ability also works on samurai spells….

#32. Kentaro, the Smiling Cat

This white card is deceiving not only in name but also in what it does. Even if you’re running it as your white commander, it just reads as a 2-mana 2/1 creature. Even Isamaru, Hound of Konda is better at being vanilla due to its mana value, proving that dogs are better than cats!

#31. Zhou Yu, Chief Commander

Paying 7 mana for a vanilla 8/8 is somewhat better than the cards we just addressed. While you can argue that MTG's most popular commanders are blue, and therefore run islands, you can’t justify the chance of not getting to attack with the commander you spend your whole game trying to play if your opponent happens to not be on the right colors for you.

Because of this, despite being bigger, I consider Zhou Yu, Chief Commander even worse than the original legends, and trust me, it doesn't get any better from here.

#30. Haakon, Stromgald Scourge

Haakon, Stromgald Scourge, while having an interesting mechanic allowing you to cast knight cards from your graveyard, is severely hampered by its unique restriction: It can only be cast from the graveyard. This necessitates very specific cards and strategies to bring Haakon into play if it’s your commander, creating a significant setup cost, and that’s without bringing up its vulnerability to graveyard hate.

#29. Gallowbraid

Gallowbraid is another high-cost, zero-reward commander.

A 5/5 trample for 5 mana that requires you to pay life each turn to keep it on the battlefield is less than appealing. Trample is a useful ability, but it doesn't compensate for the continuous life loss that makes this creature a liability.

#28. Dong Zhou, the Tyrant

Dong Zhou, the Tyrant has an interesting ability that deals damage to a target creature's controller equal to that creature’s power. While this can be situationally powerful, especially if your opponent is running the likes of Yargle and Multani, it’s often difficult to leverage effectively in a multiplayer setting where threats can come from multiple angles. 5 mana for a 3/3 isn’t particularly great either.

#27. Shimatsu the Bloodcloaked

A 0/0 for 4 mana that requires sacrificing permanents to enter the battlefield with that many +1/+1 counters reads awful. In theory, you can throw it into a token deck and go from there, but most of the time you’d rather have those tokens to use for something else.

Now, suppose you manage to sacrifice your permanents and get a big creature, only to realize that it can be easily removed. Well, that's the story of this card.

#26. Lu Bu, Master-at-Arms

Lu Bu, Master-at-Arms is another commander with the relatively interesting horsemanship ability. You can try and build around them and turn it into a Voltron commander, but limiting your options to do this with a red commander might prove challenging.

Also, consider that this is a 6-mana 4/3, and while it has haste, that’s a big investment for something that’s going to have this tough of a time winning..

#25. Phelddagrif

While often used as a “group hug” commander, Phelddagrif provides significant advantages to your opponents, making it a double-edged sword. Each of its abilities grants resources to other players, which can easily backfire by empowering them to defeat you more quickly or effectively.

While it can be fun for political and casual group-hug games, its overall lack of impactful abilities and the inherent risk of bolstering opponents make it a suboptimal choice for more competitive EDH play.

#24. Taniwha

Maybe a 7/7 with trample for 5 mana seems like a good deal. Taniwha’s problem is its phasing ability, which causes it to phase out every other turn. This means you effectively only have access to your blue commander half the time, limiting its utility and impact. In addition, your lands also phase out on each of your turns, and while there are plenty of ways to take advantage of that ability with the likes of Sunder and Worldslayer, it becomes somewhat of a headache to brew around.

#23. Princess Lucrezia

Princess Lucrezia isn’t technically as bad as the other vanilla commanders, but paying 6 mana for a mana dork must be a joke.

Still, if somehow you’re looking for a legendary creature that can add mana and you can brew your deck around a convoluted infinite combo, here’s your option.

#22. Tor Wauki

A 5-mana 3/3 that taps to deal 2 direct damage to an attacking or blocking creature is an underwhelming package considering the mana investment. The requirement to tap Tor Wauki means it can't even attack effectively to use its ability without assistance. I don’t think haste would even make it more popular, but at least it’d be more useful while being very situational.

Note that this may be a trend, so don’t be surprised if I repeat myself with the wording on the upcoming commanders, but most of them would be at least more useful with haste.

#21. Bortuk Bonerattle

While Bortuk Bonerattle can return creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield, this Golgari commander‘s color identity backfires on it, severely limiting its utility. Otherwise, it’s a decent card to run in other decks.

#20. Tetzimoc, Primal Death

While Tetzimoc, Primal Death has a lot of text, in reality this card is a vanilla 6/6 commander for 6 mana. You broadcast what you want to do as you reveal it, and go from there. That requires a lot of setup to get a very minimal reward.

#19. Grandmother Sengir

Following in the footsteps of mediocre commanders who try to kill something and realistically can’t, Grandmother Sengir is a 5-mana 3/3 with a tap ability to give a creature -1/-1 until end of turn.

Of course, it can kill some lost Llanowar Elves once in a blue moon, but this card isnt even cheap to begin with and doesn’t have haste to support its niche.

#18. Iname, Life Aspect

Iname, Life Aspect does benefit from the Commander rules in that you may to return it to the command zone if you exile it. That said, you had to put the overcosted spirit into play, and you needed to already have spirits in your graveyard. And where do those spirits go? Back to your hand, so it's a more expensive, glorified gravedigger in a color known for Regrowth.

#17. Nael, Avizoa Aeronaut

Nael, Avizoa Aeronaut was clearly not designed for Commander. Domain might care about basic land types, but beyond Forest, Island, and Wastes, you got your work cut out for you. Deal that combat damage to a player and then you get a restrictive version of scry, whew, what a work out!

#16. Kei Takahashi

The prevention effect on Kei Takahashi is too small to be significant in most games. The high mana cost makes it inefficient, and yes, it's also missing haste.

#15. Jiwari, the Earth Aflame

Jiwari, the Earth Aflame is the bane of non-flying creatures, but this ability is slow and costly and often doesn’t provide enough impact for the investment required.

Additionally, its channel activated ability is pretty much useless if it’s your commander.

#14. Rashida Scalebane

Rashida Scalebane, a 5-mana 3/4, has a conditional ability that only matters when blocking or blocked by a dragon, which is highly situational.

#13. Shisato, Whispering Hunter

If you only look at Shisato, Whispering Hunter’s second ability, then this is a decent build-around green commander. However, the severe upkeep cost and the necessity to build around a specific creature type (snakes) limit its potential.

#12. Tyrox, Saurid Tyrant

Whoa, a 2-drop from 2025? Tyrox, Saurid Tyrant is an odd vanilla commander, and I see what WotC wants to do in providing an early 4-power creature for power matters decks. You know the joke about massive Eldrazi Titans falling to 15 squirrels, well, Tyrox actually dies to one of those creature tokens.

#11. Shizuko, Caller of Autumn

There are other useless snake commanders that you can (not) rely on, and Shizuko, Caller of Autumn will surely disappoint you.

Unlike others, this one isn’t bad because it’s overpriced or understatted, but rather because it benefits your opponents. While it can accelerate games, it provides an equal advantage to opponents, potentially speeding up their game plans and making it harder for you to control the game.

Needless to say, the symmetrical mana advantage can backfire, making Shizuko a risky commander.

#10. Telim'Tor

I’m pretty sure some of you may have not heard about flanking up until today unless you play Pauper, or have played against a Sliver commander running Sidewinder Sliver.

Well, it's not a great ability either way for Commander purposes, and since it's not widely used, it limits the number of creatures that can benefit from Telim'Tor’s effect.

In addition, this commander is mono-colored, and red has just a handful of cards with flanking or ways to give it to other creatures.

#9. The Unspeakable

If you cast a 9-mana 6/7 flying trampler, you should expect a game-breaking ability on it. Instead, The Unspeakable requires dealing combat damage to a player to return arcane spells from your graveyard to your hand.

For those who don’t know, arcane is a very limited card subtype and this alone may restrict The Unspeakable’s potential synergies (if it has any).

#8. Tivadar of Thorn

Fans of the Goblin Slayer manga will love this human commander. Also, if you hate goblins, this commander will be of great joy for you to use. But if you don’t fall into any of those categories, you'd probably be better with other cheaper and more powerful mono-white commanders.

#7. Marhault Elsdragon

Have you ever heard about rampage? Not the movie, the MTG ability? Well, me neither.

Rampage is an outdated and largely ineffective ability, providing minimal benefit in most combat situations.

While it may have some utility on other aggro commanders, Marhault Elsdragon is extremely over-costed to justify it on.

#6. Livonya Silone

I must admit that many legendary lands like Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth are very popular Commander cards to run.

However, you can’t always rely on your opponents running or playing them, and 6 mana for a 4/4 first striker doesn’t make Livonya Silone that appealing either.

#5. Lieutenant Kirtar

No haste required, and a relatively cheap rattlesnake commander.

So, if that’s the case, what’s the problem with Lieutenant Kirtar? Well, it simply does very little. While useful in some situations, the trade-off of losing your commander for a single exile effect is significant.

It’s also mono-colored and runs into many other commander problems we already discussed, so do yourself a favor and avoid this commander unless you’re building a mono-white bird typal deck or something similar.

#4. Lady Caleria

Lady Caleria is hard to cast, lacks haste, and has a highly situational ability, making them one of the most underwhelming commanders to build around. Their tap ability to deal 3 damage to an attacking or blocking creature is slow and limited in scope, failing to address more than one threat at a time.

Consider the practicalities of using this as a commander: Your deck strategy would have to revolve around forcing opponents to attack you with small creatures, an unreliable and inefficient plan.

#3. Boris Devilboon

Boris Devilboon is a Reserved List legendary zombie that is as slow as those garden variety ones on Plants vs. Zombies. Pay over two turns to get a 2/2 and a 1/1, no thanks.

#2. Hunding Gjornersen

Like Marhault Elsdragon, Hunding Gjornersen has a mechanic that is hard to benefit from. Among Azorius commanders, you lean towards unblockability which works against this, and turns it into a liability of six mana for a 4-toughness creature.

#1. Tarox Bladewing

Tarox Bladewing: a 5-mana 4/3 with flying and haste that can be pumped by discarding another card named Tarox Bladewing. That wouldn’t even be good in Constructed formats. On top of that, the redundancy of a grandeur ability is irrelevant in Commander, where the singleton nature of the format, quote on quote, negates its potential advantage.

The Worst Commanders for Brawl on Arena

Sure the old commanders are terrible, but what about the command zone options for Brawl on Arena? These are a few of the worst ones that made it to the client, but require a ton of support to say you made them work.

Alpharael, Dreaming Acolyte is an expensive one-time looter and often trades with a 3/1, can do much better for three mana. The Prima Vista is the last commander players had in mind when legendary vehicles became eligible as commanders, the free crew cost met by an expensive prowess spell on 5-power Brawl commander is something, but a very small something, and a card that does nothing to help the other 99. Brothers Yamazaki is a Champions of Kamigawa card that got rereleased with Foundations Jumpstart, but how you get a second copy in mono-red is beyond me, and in the best case scenario you've likely overpaid for two 4/3 creatures with bushido 1, and get deeply hosed if one is removed.

Wrap Up

Lieutenant Kirtar | Illustration by Paolo Parente

While these commanders might be legendary in name, their underwhelming abilities and inefficient designs place them among the weakest choices to lead a Commander deck.

That said, understanding why these commanders fall short can provide valuable insights for deckbuilding and strategy development. And, at any rate, these can provide a fun deckbuilding challenge (as long as you don't care too much about winning!). Even the most overlooked commanders can occasionally surprise you with the right build and creative approach.

What other commanders do you think deserve a spot on this list? Did you agree with the choices we discussed? Let us know your thoughts in the comments! If you want to stay updated on all things MTG, follow us on social media and join the Draftsim Discord community.

We look forward to exploring more Magic: The Gathering topics with you in the next article. Take care and happy gaming!