Dear Commander Fans! I hope you are having an amazing day today! Today I want to look at some of the least underplayed cards at the Commander format. None of these have at least 10k in uses, and only a few surpass 2k in registrations over at EDHREC.com. We have one honorable mention that just crosses 2k and then another that should be a staple and just hits south of 10k, and then we have a bunch under 1k, and our top card has fewer than 100 decks registered.

Ready for my list? Let's do it to it!

Honorable Mention #1 - Congregate with a Shout Out to False Cure

This common from Urza's Saga was the first powerhouse of multiplayer and was played everywhere. Today there are just 2,075 decks in Commander, which, to be fair, has 40 life, but this instant regularly gains 12, 14 or 20 life in one four drop spell and should get played outside of lifegain with token brews, midrange with large creature counts, Simic's Volo, Guide to Monsters, and more. I used to run False Cure to kill people that were about to give themselves a ton of life and save themselves a few turns of life before they died like a massive Fog that lasted three turns. Both made my first Commander deck, an Oros, the Avenger control deck. False Cure is under 1k cards. They are really strong and earn more decks in Commander.

Honorable Mention #2 - Gem of Becoming

This is a variant of Armillary Sphere that is played in under 2k decks, which makes no sense. Three to cast, three to sac. Grab three lands, one each of Island, Swamp and Mountain, and unlike the Sphere it is similar to, you can get dual lands, which means in a four-color deck you can all four colors in your three lands, and I run it in a 5C Commander deck with the old original dual lands since you can get all five colors. You can grab Shock lands, the cycling lands, the Triome three color lands, all are getable from this, and that's pretty strong from where I am sitting, right?

Honorable Mention #3 - Unscythe, Killer of Kings

This 4-drop gives a nice sized +3/+3 and first strike, and it is pretty sexy and has fewer than 1000 cards on EDHREC.com but when it deals any damage to a dork that then dies, you can exile it and make a 2/2 Zombie token, which is pretty nice, and the power boost and first strike make the cost well worth it. Now, color identity means it can only be played in at least Grixis or more colors, but it can also be free with equipment droppers like Stonehewer Giant and others. It's triple power boost to a Commander is so nice that it can really speed up Commander Damage kills by multiple turns, and the added ability to kill in combat with first strike speed before they can trade, exile, and then Zombie token add value to those decks that care. I also ran this in my Five Color Abe's Deck of Happiness and Joy brew.

Top Ten Proper, baby!

#10. Portent

This common 1-drop sorcery is currently being played at a rate of 9,227 in the most commonly played color with a % of 1. This is the missed format staple that I was talking about earlier. Opt, Brainstorm, Ponder, Consider, Serum Visions, you get the idea. They are all heavily played, and trigger things like Guttersnipe in Izzet Spellslinger, draw you key cards, dig for lands in the early game, try to find combo pieces, and loads more. People love the one cost sorceries and instants in this format, and yet this hasn't even cracked 10k, even though it is better than some other options, because you don't draw the card until the next player's turn. You can reorder your three cards prior to drawing the card, and Serum Visions scries two after in the wrong order, but it's still played in 33,965 decks and is a clear staple. This can also shuffle your library if they all suck. Then if you want you can target your foe's library and reorder their top three and then draw a card. That's much more powerful, and it's worth the delayed card until your foe on the left's turn. You aren't casting it on that turn anyway on the first turn, so the delay doesn't matter. You can use this to hide cards from discard by waiting a turn on an empty hand for things like Liliana of the Veil. Run and you won't be disappointed by its power. I run these all over my decks.

#9. Overwhelming Splendor

This 8-drop Aura Curse can knock out one player by making their stuff 1/1s with no abilities. It also drops the abilities on other things as well, so it's basically a Humility for one player. I enjoy it a lot since it can basically act as a brake on the one player who is playing the broken deck at the table and can be cheated out as an enchantment and an aura as well as acting as a win con, but it's not as welcome at the kitchen table despite being a good emergency brake on the powerful player so it's on just 4,526 decks. It should be more!

#8. Bringer of the Blue Dawn

The most-played Bringer in casual play is this 5/5 that lets you draw two free cards each upkeep for no mana down. It's pretty powerful at the kitchen table and it's a 5/5 trampler for, hopefully, 5 mana, but has a five-color identity to prevent from most decks in Commander world. Love it loads though, and it can be dropped for free with decks that care about free creatures and a double Phyrexian Arena on legs is pretty potent as well, right? There are just 1,310 decks over at EDHREC.com with this powerhouse registered, and it's pretty potent in a 5c good stuff brew. I have played it in multiple decks. We'll hit this cycle once more in another card...

#7. Uyo, Silent Prophet

Six mana for this flying 4/4 Moonfolk Wizard. Probably about -1/-1 for its casting cost. You can spend two mana, return two lands, and then Twincast an instant or sorcery that anyone controls. It's in the most popular color in Commander, and it's much better now that it was before. We've had a "copy" matters ability called magecraft that is quite common, and this would fit right into. Simic has a landfall deck this would love since you can bounce your lands to your hand to copy a foe's Fact or Fiction or Swords to Plowshares or Murder or other key spell and then have two more landfall triggers. See how strong this is? We also just saw a Grixis "copy" theme that cast big stuff to copy a few times with casualty. Pretty good, right? And yet there are only 1,919 decks registered with this copy powerhouse, and I've played it in a few decks over the years!

#6. Chandra, Flame's Catalyst

Our first and penultimate planeswalker is this powerhouse that was printed in a Planeswalker deck, so many folks just don't know it exists. It does! This 6-drop, 5 loyalty game winner is a +1 to bolt all of your foes, which will kill quickly in a multiplayer format, even with a 40 life starting level. Chandra can also -2 to cast any red instant or sorcery from your graveyard and then exile it. She is one of the best game winning planeswalkers ever printed and she can find a home with red damage increasers like Fiery Emancipation, Boros Burn decks that are heavy in red burn for the -2 and looking for a game winner with the +1, and Superfriends that are looking for a winner of the game. This is a very strong version of Chandra, and did you know that she existed?

#5. Bringer of the Black Dawn

Let's knock out the other Bringer. Everything I said about the Blue Dawn one applies here, and this was banned on in the default casual format of the day when it was printed (Five Color). Now it's less powerful in Commander since it's only playable in 5C brews, but that are really common and most 5C leaders have tons of cards for the color combo, and loads of different ways to build around them. In your upkeep each turn you net a free Vampiric Tutor. Nasty right? On a 5/5 trampling body. I love this most 5C Good Stuff brews, and yet there are only 2,258 of these in decks right now, pretty small when you consider just how potent a repeatable Vampiric Tutor is every turn.

#4. Sarkhan Vol

Our top-scoring planeswalker and multi-colored card identity is this planeswalker. It's played in just 1,558 decks and yet it's been one of my best resulting planeswalkers in casual play, multiplayer, and it even wins games in Type Four, the format with infinite mana but just one spell per turn. This powerful four drop 4 loyalty 'walker has a +1 that gives your team haste and +1/+1 for the turn, so it's a Fires of Yavimaya in color and power level.

Haste is very strong in multiplayer since there is a lot of mass removal there, and you can be the first to punch someone's face. I really love it with vigilance since you can punch out of nowhere and then hold back to block. The pump is nice too, your Commander can kill a turn or two faster with both the haste and the pump; your going wide or token team can punch more powerfully.

This is the best haste-granting planeswalker ever printed. The -2 to Threaten a dork for a turn and punch the face of the person can also really push the board around towards your direction, and it's one of the top planeswalkers ever printed for multiplayer and you can easily try it out and see how it plays!

#3. Kaho, Minamo Historian

Kaho is our only non-Red identity card in our top five, and hits the middle making a fun little sandwich. I started my Commander Cube in real life with Kaho, and after more than ten years of updates, they are still in the Cube. This 4-drop 2/2 will search your library for three instants when entering the battlefield, and then you can cast them in future turns for an X tap equal to the cost of the card. As more and more dorks have been pulled for instants, this has grown in power, and exiling Brainstorm, Counterspell and Murder is a pretty strong slate of cards and cheap effects. Note that they remain exiled and able to be used over and over again. Swords to Plowshares? An Offer You Can't Refuse? Beast Within? Krosan Grip? There are tons of powerhouse instants that you can pull and cast. It's strong with Spellslinger brews. There are only 312 decks that play it either as a leader or in the 99.

#2. Avatar of Fury

Did you know that there were other Avatars in the cycle that includes Commander staple Avatar of Woe? I have played this in many brews. This is normally an 8 mana 6/6 with flying and firebreathing, but here you can drop it for just two mana if a foe has at least 7 land, and that's pretty likely at pretty much any playgroup given the proclivity towards ramp decks with their ramp effects and even control decks running a ton of lands to make sure that they get high numbers of lands. This is pretty strong but just has 658 decks frumping around and it's really strong. By the by, this should be a 7 mana card (same abilities as Shivan Dragon but +1/+1 in size) so you only lose a mana in the worst case scenario.

But what amazing red card has fewer than 100 decks registered over at EDHREC.com?

#1. Ogre Arsonist

This Ogre is only in 68 decks, and is a 5-drop 3/3 Stone Rain on a stick. Destroying lands is pretty important in Commander since people often hide their best cards in their theme in their land base, like Academy Ruins in an artifact sacrifice deck or Maze of Ith in a control deck to keep themselves alive or the broken Gaea's Cradle in an Elfball brew. Rogue's Passage in a Voltron deck that is getting their leader past your defense? Reliquary Tower in a control deck with 11 cards in hand? War Room card draw? Cabal Coffers in a mono-Black deck? Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx in a mono-colored deck? You can see what I am talking about. Every deck in the format hides around some lands so release that pressure with this red creature, and add it to your Gruul or Rakdos midrange, Rakdos reanimation, and general answer suites. It's pretty strong, right? Why aren't you running it? Be honest have you even heard of it?

And there we go! So...what did you think of my underused list? Anything in there missing or that I got in the wrong order? Next week we'll look at my choices for the most underplayed planeswalkers for Commander. Just let me know and have an amazing day!