Mine is definitely Hua Tuo, Honored Physician. I love decks with consistent value engines, and he’s an interesting commander with less than 150 decks on scryfall.
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/sR6Q8QgAuUyp7FfLG5cqPA
Note: I tend to build budget decks because I am a poor student with a lot of debt, though the only expensive upgrades I can think of would be cards like Apex Devastator .
Sideboard is filled with cards that I haven previously had in the deck. Felt that pipers like howlpack piper and Champion of Rhonas are clunky because I generally want to be casting creatures from the top of my deck, not from my hand.
I don’t know if he’s considered unpopular, but Chainer, Nightmare Adept is one of my all time favorite commanders, when he is leading rakdos dragons. Every card is a dragon, mentions dragons, or has dragons in the art. It is so slow and clunky, but I just love it. The main goal is to get Bladewing, The Risen onto the battlefield from the yard to cheat another dragon into play, to then bring Bladewing’s Thrall back from the dead. It’s stupid and not powerful, but it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
I think Ulasht, the Hate Seed is the Commander I’ve used with the least decks. He’s like a Gruul Ghave, which gives you access to things like mana echoes and impact tremors, the fact that he can ping things also causes fun combos with cards like Scythe of the Wretched
I recently picked up a Karona, False God that looks like it could be a fun forced combat build.
I used to have a Karona deck. Lots of fun but I had a hard time keeping her alive. Plus the five color mana base can be expensive. I’m currently building a [Kharn, the Betrayer] deck that is very much in the same spirit, but seems cheaper and easier to build.
I built Karona as an enchantress control deck. The goal was to pillow-fort myself, keep everything else off the board, and then MLD before a Solemnity/Decree of Silence combo. At that point, no one has anything and all they can do is hit each other with my commander.
I only played it twice, because it was deemed too mean.
Evra, Halcyon Witness is so much fun!
Evra, Halcyon Witness is so much fun!
Great, now I have to build an Evra deck because that looks so fun!
I love my Gisela, Blade of Goldnight deck!
(Not sure how unpopular she is - > rank 500 on EDHRec at least)
She’s very powerful for a 7CMC boros commander - I built her with a lot of group slug effects, where she breaks parity. With her damage doubling she can go off like a bomb!
Besides the very unpopular Atraxa, praetor’s voice (/s), I love my heartless hidetsugu deck. Commander burn is … somewhat viable but delicious. Maddening hex, thermo-alchemist, guttersnipe, storm cards. It’s all there!
I recently stumbled across Yisan, the Wanderer Bard which doesn’t look to be very popular. I can’t tell if it’s a good card or I’ve just fallen in love with the SLD art…
Yisan used to be very popular as a mono green toolbox commander, using his ability to be able to search out the exact creature you need for different situations before eventually trying to combo, usually trying to get infinite mana with Temur Sabertooth, a card like Great-oak guardian, and enough mana dorks to go mana positive before tutoring out the rest of your creatures with Yisan. He’s definitely a unique commander, and I agree that the secret lair art is sick
Had no idea he was so popular before! I’m fairly new to commander, so just having fun building decks around art I like(Mimeoplasm) or card types I enjoy(yetis!).
I always tell people that she’s essentially the fixed Golos. She ramps and cheats spells and has a meaningful color identity.
Lynde, cheerful tormentor is an awesome take on an agressive/malicious enchantment deck. Though it can be grindy, it has solid win cons in curse of unbinding, curse of thirst, curse of fools wisdom + wheel combos, and pucas mischief control lines. Plus you get to play some unconventional card draw/tutors like curse of misfortunes or curse of surveillance
