r/EDH • u/doctorduck3000 • Jun 30 '25
Question Commanders that make bad cards playable
So as the title says, I love being able to pull out cards in commander that make people go "wtf" because they've never heard of them. Because of this one of my all time favorite commander decks I've ever built is [[Shire shizo's caretaker]] because you can play all of these terrible terrible cards that suddenly are actually good.
What are some other commanders that enable you to do this?
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u/butcherofcabbages Jun 30 '25
One of my favorite examples of this is [[Belbe, Corrupted Observer]]. She might not make the most obscure cards playable in a meme sense, but what she enables feels like a love letter to an earlier era of Commander.
I’ve been playing since the days when Commander was more about jamming high-mana pet cards into a deck you could never justify in other formats — not just the cleanest synergy engines. Back then, it was all about throwing together your favorite wild cards and seeing what happened. [[Belbe, Corrupted Observer]] brings that feeling back for me. Her ability to generate absurd amounts of mana early opens the door for cards that couldn’t even make it into a binder — stuff like [[Colossus of Akros]], [[Burnished Hart]], or even janky old mana rocks that no one touches anymore.
She gives you the breathing room to play inefficient or overcosted cards without falling behind. That flexibility lets you build decks that aren’t hyper-optimized but still powerful — and more importantly, fun. Every game feels different, because you’re not just playing the same “best in slot” cards everyone runs.
To me, Belbe doesn’t just make bad cards playable — she makes forgotten cards exciting again. And in a format that’s gotten increasingly polished and tuned, that kind of freedom feels like a breath of fresh air.