Commander is a lot of fun! And we have hundreds of options for leaders for your decks. And yet, despite that, some leaders are used a lot more than others. Many early legendary creatures were pretty weak, and made before the iconic aspects of legendary creatures was expected. Today, even a cycle like the five leaders from Aether Revolt have different takes on typical mono-colored abilities, from Yahenni, Undying Partisan's indestructible sacrifice to Baral, Chief of Compliance combining the looting ability to draw and discard with the instant and sorcery loving of a control deck.

But despite that, we have a slate of legendary leaders that have a bad rap. When someone flips them over to reveal their Commander, you hear groans, not applause. Sighs, not praise. Instead of beloved, they are "Be-Hated."

What makes a Commander dreaded at the kitchen table? What are the elements for being Be-Hated? It's it simply being played a lot? Just having a lot of power? What is it?

Can it just be a matter of play and similarity? Imagine you were always shuffling up against Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim decks with the same mechanics and cards for support with very little deviation from one deck's card list to the other. How long would it take before Ayli became one of your top Be-Hated Commanders?

I think that a wide open Commander who is good, commonly played, but can go in a variety of directions is something different, like Atraxa, Praetors' Voice, which just has proliferate and can be used in a variety of foundations like Planeswalkers, +1/+1counters, charge counters or whatever build you are looking for. Coretapper? Mindless Automaton? Rasputin Dreamweaver? Orochi Hatchery? Dreadship Reef? You get the idea. There are so many options that after people stop editing the initial Atraxa deck, I suspect these builds will look very distinct from each other.

So I don't think Atraxa is a Be-Hated Top Ten entry today, or on its way later. And some leaders, like Rhys the Redeemed, are commonly played, have the same sort of cards, and yet are easy to answer and thus aren't real problems. They lack one of the three elements.

For me it's this perfect trinity of power, similar playstyle and cards, and commonly played. If you have a boring, powerful, and common deck, then you are a Be-Hated Commander.

Everybody has a pet card or three they like. Everybody sees Commander differently. As I mentioned in my "What is Commander to You?" article, I discuss various things that people take away and look for from the format. And there is a subgroup of people that want to play decks that are full throttle, "I Win!" stuff. As long as a card isn't banned in the format, then it is allowed. And that is fine with some folks out there. Or if you have a pet card that you run as your Commander, but you play it with a weaker deck and get less heat then that is fine! One of my own decks sees my #3 choice for Be-Hated Commanders below as it's leader.

So if I list one of your own pet cards, and your playgroup is fine Spiking your metagame to the 12thdegree, then that's fine. I have no issues. Playing that same deck at a pickup game at your local card store is different. Make a different deck for that. Because that is where these Be-Hated Commanders come from and elicit those groans.

Honorable Mention - Sliver Overlord, Sliver Hivelord, Sliver Queen, Sliver Legion

Because they are the one tribal deck that plays so similarly, has the same slate of Slivers each time, and very similar support for them, I find this combo to be very boring, pervasive, and more. And there's always some dumpy answer, like the Overlord tutoring up the indestructible Sliver Hivelord to drop, or the Crystalline Sliver and such. It's annoying and pervasive, but I don't think it rises to the power of the Top Ten, because, well, Slivers are fun, right?

10. Nekusar, the Mindrazer

Nekusar is on this list for a few reasons. Much like a few other cards, it's hard to defend against the Zombie Wizard. Nekusar is built to win from a different angle, and one that has a lot of gas in the tank to hit stuff with. After other cards that attack and swing have some and gone, you are still doling out damage a little bit at a time from your foes. Did your opponent draw a card? Then they take a damage. It's simple as that. But the support cards that make Nekusar work are few and far between. So every deck is looking for Underworld Dreams, Spiteful Visions, Fate Unraveler, and more. And then add in cards to make everyone take damage, like Geier Reach Sanitarium and Mikokoro, Center of the Sea. Boring. It's the same thing, every game. Now Nekusar is a poor man's version of #2 below, but it's still powerful, has great colors to support its theme, and can be very nasty.

9. Kaalia of the Vast

Kaalia. Of course. Kaalia. I would argue that Kaalia is the most-played leader of all time, at least from where I'm sitting. She swings. You drop one of three creature types into play attacking alongside her. There's no countering, just dealing with the threat. And you don't know what they are dropping until it's in play, so you can't respond to their Avacyn, Angel of Hope by killing something before it gets indestructible. So annoying. There are a ton of options in these tribes out there, the majority of which are Commander friendly. But you always see the same slate of Angels, Demons, and Dragons. Karmic Guide. Akroma, Angel of Wrath. From spikes who don't care, Iona, Shield of Emeria. Rune-Scarred Demon. Angel of Despair. Gisela, Blade of Goldnight. Bloodgift Demon. Kokusho, the Evening Star. Ho hum. Same support too -- here's your Lightning Greaves and friends. However unlike #8 below, you have to have the card in hand to drop it. But the similarity of cards and concepts means she plays the same each time. Swing and drop for free. Swing and drop for free. Swing and drop for free. Kaalia is to EDH what Goblin Lackey was to Extended when it was banned for dropping powerful Goblins for free early and often.

8. Zur the Enchanter

Ah yes, Zur. Zur plays the same way each time. Here let's drop it. Can I equip it with Lightning Greaves? Yes, then I'll get an enchantment right now! If not how about something similar? And I can drop some big, beefy aura to amp Zur up to kill in a few hits, and run some pillow fort stuff like Propaganda and Ghostly Prison, along with Rhystic Study, Necropotence, and well, you get it. The decks play very, very similarly. And it takes time to tutor every turn. Plus, you always tutor for the same slate of cards, that perfect set of Esper enchantments for gross card drawing, breaking Zur, and more is always the same because the subset of quality, on-color 3 mana or fewer options is relatively small.

7. Jhoira of the Ghitu

Jhoira is a great leader that should be flexible enough that each Jhoira deck plays out differently, right? I mean, you could have one deck with Jhoira Eldrazi! Another Jhoira Dragons! Another with JhoiraIzzet CounterBurn! Another with Jhoira Control dropping expensive control finishers early. Jhoira should be very flexible. But for some reason, every single Jhoira deck I have ever run up against invariably wants to run mass land removal, and timing crap that breaks the game with Obliterate style effects just before a bunch of big hitters drop from suspension. I have no idea why people focus so much on the various Red mass land removal effects (or mass everything) but Decree of Annihilation and others prove they do. And here's my Omniscience and suspended beaters to win. Yay me! I can't ever recall a big artifact deck that used Jhoira to power out Memnarch, Bosh, Iron Golem, or Darksteel Forge. But mass land removal is always the card of choice we see. So sad. So annoying. Make a new Jhoira deck.

6. Leovold, Emissary of Trest

Leo was recently released, but already has a price tag of about $50 near mint right now and moving. Why? Because he is the real deal in Commander. The only reason I have him at #6 is due to the recentness of his release. At first, he looked more open ended than he actually sees in play. The ability to both draw a card when your stuff is targeted (and before resolution, so you can draw a card to respond to it) and to keep your foes from drawing more than one is very powerful for a 4/4 3-drop that gives you ramp, removal, and countering. And the deck invariably runs the traditional group hug cards and just uses them to draw only themselves. Here's my Howling Mine that just impacts me! And these countless "everybody discards their hand and draw a new one" effects are now just "everyone else discards and draws a single card." Blue and Black have a ton of them. Windfall? Whispering Madness? Wheel and Deal? Memory Jar? You get the idea. Leo gets very old, very quickly. Especially when you target Leovold for death and the person both draws a card and counters it. And when you do manage to gang up and kill him, it's not like the Commander tax on a 3 mana leader is overly prohibitive to replaying Leo.

Top five time!

Are there any mono-colored leaders that will make our list? Nope!

5. Maelstrom Wanderer

The problem with Maelstrom Wanderer is not the card itself. A 7/5 haster for a full 7 mana is very answerable. And even if it came with some built in card advantage, like a Mulldrifter, we could deal with it. But it's two additional effects are the issue. First it cascades twice. Cascade is a cast trigger, so you cannot counter the Wanderer to prevent the cascades from going off. And that is a serious problem for all things smash. Barring a bizarre card like Summary Dismissal, then you can't stop them from going off. So you can easily harvest 14 or 15 mana of cards from your 7 mana investment even in a deck not built around breaking it. And then don't forget that all of those creatures have haste, because the Wanderer just don't have self-haste, but whole-team haste. That's nasty. It's hard to stop, and the number of cards that exist that can feasibly answer it are few. Even if you kill it, a decent deck runs powerful mana rocks like Gilded Lotus and Dreamstone Hedron to power out more big stuff or the Wanderer post-Commander Tax. You need something like Song of the Dryads or Darksteel Mutation to shut it up and end the haste at the same time.

4. Karador, Ghost Chieftain

The good news about Karador is that he is a little easier to stop than others because you can aim hate at the graveyard to slow him down. The bad thing is that decks with too much graveyard hate are screwed against other decks, and those with too few are screwed against graveyard decks like Karador. It's a lose/lose situation. Plus, Karador and other leaders that are hard to stop outside of graveyard silencing (The cheaper to play cost, the ability to recur one creature per turn for free) also forces graveyard-centric decks that are just nice and not abusive to have serious issues. Take my Mono-Black Commander deck built around Nether Shadow, Ashen Ghoul, and such. I just want to Buried Alive for three tiny self-recursive creatures, and then have some fun bringing them into play, sacrificing them to Carnage Altar or Krovikan Horror and such. But then I hit that deck that's packing 8 anti-graveyard cards because of how badly Karador and friends warp the environment, and my deck never had a chance to play or do anything.

3. Derevi, Empyrial Tactician

I try to make my lists objective. And frankly, I didn't get this at first. Derevi leads my Commander Equinaut deck, and there she's a fun player that can get an Aura Shards trigger, make a flying blocker, swing for damage off Tolsimir Wolfblood, and such. And it's nice to get in a hit with Watchwolf and untap it. And she doesn't draw significant hate in real life. But online? Man the sheer amount of vitriol that Derevi gets is unmeasured by virtually any other Commander out there. It has to be people just playing meanly with her, right? Are they being overly oppressive? Yeah, they are. Stasis. Root Maze. Winter Orb. Rising Waters. Gaddock Teeg. Tamiyo, the Moon Sage. You get the idea. That's just not nice. I guess these are the people that Static Orb was reprinted as a Masterpiece from Kaladesh for. Don't you like your friends?

2. Oloro, Ageless Ascetic

I have two major issues with Oloro, which we will discuss soon. First, there are only a number of really good Commander quality life gain effects, so most Oloro decks have a very similar suite of cards. Sigh, here's your Serra Ascendant, Serra Avatar, Sphinx's Revelation, Absorb, yadda yadda, and some cards to spend life on and then either the life gain winning conditions like Felidar Sovereign or the auto-kill Black enchantments like Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood. It's very boring, and works very well. But the other issue is that even when Oloro isn't on the battlefield, this fool is still gaining life. Annoying. Sure, people will defend their personal Oloro by pointing to Commander Damage as the way out. But you know what? Not everyone is running a 6/5 legendary as their leader that can kill in a few hits. How does my Dimir control deck led by Sygg, River Cutthroat hit enough times to win? Also, don't forget that Esper gives our good Oloro friend enough countermagic to stop the two or three cards that you run that might break up the band.

1. Uril, the Miststalker

Uril is a very annoying deck to play against, and has to be one of the most Be-Hated Commanders of all time. Why? Well, let's drill down into it. First of all, you are enchanting it. So you are looking for an array of positive auras to use to give it some pants. Well, the slate of positive auras that are in your colors and good for Commander is so small that the positive aura selection is basically the same for each deck. Here's your Rancor. Here's your Shield of the Oversoul. Secondly, you cannot interact with Uril in many ways, due to the hexproof the Beast is running. So you have to hit it from another angle, like countering it, or destroying their mana base to prevent its replay with the Commander tax or run a non-targeting defensive card out there, or mass removal. But it's so cheap at 5 mana, and already a 5/5 creature, so even after mass removal sweeps the board, Uril hits fast and hard. Even a simple Rancor being replayed gives you a 9/7 trampler hexproof giant that kills in three hits with Commander damage. Uril is a machine that is very hard to handle. Check out Arcane Lighthouse if one dominates your table.

I hope that you liked my list!

So what are your most Be-Hated Commanders and why? What did I miss and why?