The color blue is incredibly potent within Magic: The Gathering. Excelling at drawing additional cards and playing spells on opponents’ turns, blue decks are incredibly powerful within “Eternal” formats such as Legacy, Modern, Pauper, and Commander.
However, while blue can perform in quite impressive fashion within the Commander format, across the game’s history, blue has received numerous commanders that are far from stellar. So today we’re going to see the worst of the worst that blue has to offer in regards of potential commanders!
10 Hakim, Loreweaver
A 2/4 with flying for four mana, Hakim, Loreweaver is an aura-based commander in theory. For two mana, Hakim can return an enchantment from his controller’s graveyard and put that card into play attached to himself. However, this ability comes along with a severe drawback that greatly hinders its usefulness, as this ability can only be activated if Hakim is not enchanted. This almost immediately invalidates Hakim as a viable “Voltron” option, as his ability cannot be used to place more than one enchantment on him.
Hakim even comes along with the laughably bad ability which allows mana to be spent to tap Hakim, destroying all auras attached to him.
9 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
Llawan, Cephalid Empress is one of many commanders who limits themselves via their niche and pigeonholed abilities.
A 2/3 for four mana, upon entering the battlefield, Llawan returns all blue creatures controlled by their owner’s opponents to their owners’ hands. Furthermore, this ability is backed up by Llawan’s second effect which prevents opponents from casting blue creature spells as long as Llawan is in play.
This ability is quite potent and effective against decks containing blue, especially those which are mono-blue. However, in any and all matchups in which there are no other players whose decks feature blue, Llawan effectively has no abilities.
8 Linessa, Zephyr Mage
A 3/3 for four mana, for the cost of two blue mana plus an additional X, Linessa Zephyr Mage can be tapped to return a creature with converted mana cost X to its owners hand. While this is a repeatable source of removal, the ability is quite costly, especially when attempting to return creatures of note.
Even more unfortunate is Linessa’s second ability. While powerful in theory, other copies of Linessa can be discarded at any time in order to return numerous permanents to their owner’s hand. However, due to Commander being a singleton format in which no more than one copy of each card may be included in a player’s deck, this ability might as well not even be present, as players will never be able to activate it.
7 Myojin Of Seeing Winds
While Myojin of Seeing Winds features an ability that is powerful in theory, its astronomical mana cost is far too high to validate its use as a commander.
For a staggering ten mana, Myojin of Seeing Winds is a only a 3/3 spirit which enters the battlefield with a divinity counter on it, providing itself with indestructibility as long as has the counter on it.
At any time, the counter can be cashed in, being removed from Myojin of Seeing Winds in order to draw an amount of cards for its controller equal to the number of creatures they control.
While this ability is capable of drawing a significant amount of cards, by the time this card could be cast, there is no guarantee regarding the state of the battlefield, and its controller may have little to no creatures under their control due to circumstances such as a board wipe.
6 Hisoka, Minamo Sensei
Hisoka, Minamo Sensei is a card that would be passable if not for the hindering restrictions of his ability.
For three mana, Hisoka’s controller may discard a card in order to counter a spell of equal converted mana cost to the discarded spell. While being able to reliably counter spells, Hisoka’s controller is on the losing end of this ability. In order to counter spells, they must essentially deprive themselves of a card of equal value, creating an equal loss to both parties. However, doing so also requires that Hisoka’s controller pays three mana. So not only are they depriving themselves of their own spells in order to counter a spell, they’re depriving themselves of the resource of mana, setting themselves back even further.
5 Soramaro, First To Dream
Similarly to the previous entry on our list, Soramo, First to Dream is a commander whose ability functions by depriving its controller of resources. A high-cost 6/6 with flying, Soramo’s power and toughness are equal to the number of cards in its owner’s hand.
Additionally, Soramaro is capable of drawing additional cards in order to grow itself larger, but the means of doing so is far to costly to be considered effective. This is because not only does Soramaro’s controller need to pay the cost of four mana, Soramaro’s controller also is required to set themselves back by returning a land they control to their hand.
4 Alexi, Zephyr Mage
Bringing together the worst elements of Hisoka, Minamo Sensei and Linessa, Zephyr Mage, Alexi, Zephyr Mage is one of the worst possible options a player could choose when constructing a mono-blue control deck.
Capable of returning X creatures to their owner’s hands by tapping Alexi, and paying X mana plus one blue, Alexi’s ability requires their controller to discard two cards each time the ability is activated. Costly and self-damaging, while opponent’s cards are returned to their hand and can be easily recast, Alexi’s controller must discard two cards, depriving themselves of an integral resource.
3 The Unspeakable
An overcosted 6/7 with flying and trample for a massive nine mana, The Unspeakable is far from worth the mana investment it requires.
Upon dealing damage to a player, The Unspeakable can return a single spirit or arcane spell from its owners grave to their hand. This ability is incredibly slow and lacking in power, especially when bearing in mind this card costs NINE mana. For far less mana there are cards that can return all cards of a given type to their owner’s hand, or return a card directly into play, making The Unspeakable look like garbage in comparison.
2 Alhammarret, High Arbiter
While the teacher of Magic mainstay, Jace Beltran may be powerful within the lore of the game, Alhammarret, High Arbiter is a far cry from a strong commander.
Failing the “Vanilla Test,” this 5/5 for seven mana’s power and toughness are each less than its converted mana cost. More offensive however, is Alhammarret’s ability.
Upon entering the battlefield, Alhammarret’s controller is able to look at their opponents’ hands. Then, they name a single card. As long as Alhammarret remains in play, that card cannot be cast. This essentially means that for seven mana, Alhammarret can counter one spell, though even that would be generous. Countering a spell is something that is done at instant speed, something that this sphinx lacks. Additionally, if Alhammarret leaves play, the named spell can still be cast.
1 Reveka, Wizard Savant
No matter how you look at Reveka, Wizard Savant, the card is absolutely abysmal.
A laughable 0/1 for four mana, Reveka can be tapped in order to deal two damage to a creature or player. While this ability is very over costed on a creature that costs four mana, the ability comes with a drawback: After activating this ability, Reveka doesn’t untap during their controller’s next untap step. We don’t think we need to spell out how atrocious this ability is, both slow and over-costed, all attached to an incredibly fragile 0/1.
NEXT: Top 10 Artifacts That Could Fit in Nearly Any Commander Deck
