Commanders that used to rock but don't so much anymore

Marath was one of the most popular and powerful commanders in the earlier years of duel commander. It was one of the most popular decks of 2014 and 2015. 

Marath was so powerful thanks to its rather low mana cost and the ability to scale as the game went on because it kept on getting more and more counters. It was especially good against any creature-based deck as it could easily remove any one or more smaller creatures without even "fighting" them. The access to red, green and white also gave the deck many great cards and combo pieces such as Voice of Resurgence, Nightshade Peddler or even Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Marath was eventually deemed too powerful for the format and got banned as a commander in July of 2016.

It would be quite a while before we would see Marath again. Nearly 3 and a half years later the commander got finally unbanned. Even tho it used to be a menace he sees only minimal play nowadays. The aggro decks have just gotten much better and he is quite easily removed even if played before turn 3. There are just better aggro/midrange decks to play now and Marath will probably never be as dominant as he used to be...

Titania is yet another powerful commander who has been played since the early years of the format. She only really increased in popularity after Marath got banned back in 2016. She was known as the aggro killer for years but now you don't see her much.

Titania was especially powerful if played before turn 5 via the use of ramp and mana dorks. She works really well with fetch lands and cards like Zuran Orb allowing you to summon a giant army of elementals to bash your opponent with the turn she was played. The deck could quickly get a lot of mana and play Titania and other giant creatures such as Wurmcoil Engine and Primeval Titan.

Her play rate declined year after year as other red and white aggro decks became better and better. With Yoshimaru and Raffine in the format, she sees very little to zero play nowadays...

Leovold isn't as broken as he was in EDH but he was still a solid choice for control players a few years ago. He reached the high of his popularity in 2020 but sees very little play these days.

One of Leovold's strengths was the great colors he gave you access to. The deck was full of great removal spells, counterspells and threats. Players ran cards like Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, Oko, Thief of Crowns and Questing Beast. 

Yet another strength of the deck was that it could easily discard the whole opponent's hand. The deck ran a lot of discard spells but the deck also included cards like Teferi's Puzzle Box and Day's Undoing to refill their hand and leave their opponent without any cards in hand at the same time.

Leovold is probably one of the most salty commanders ever created and it's probably for the best that he doesn't see any more play than he does now.

Kess, Dissident Mage used to be quite a popular commander for control players back in the years 2018-2020. She wasn't as powerful as the other commanders on the list but I wanted to include her anyway.

Most of her power lies in the sheer amount of value she provides as she lets you play an instant/sorcery from your graveyard on each of your turns. This ability was useful in the early game if you needed to remove the opponent's board or needed more card draw. After your opponent ran out of resources you would use her to play a ton of spells and win by killing your opponent with burn spells or cards like Niv-Mizzet, Parun and Crackling Drake.

Nowadays she doesn't see even nearly as much play as she used to a few years back. Tivit, Seller of Secrets and other similar control commanders are just far better than Kess and I doubt that she will ever find success again.

The last commander I wanted to mention in this article is Saskia the Unyielding. She is one of the most unique aggro commanders and maybe it's a shame she doesn't see as much play as she used to back in 2018.

Saskia was good because she allowed you to play the best aggro threats thanks to her being 4 colors. The deck could put pressure on the opponent with a wide variety of powerful cards like Wild Nacatl, Anafenza, The Foremost and many many others. Black also gave you access to removal spells so you could also easily remove any of your opponent's creatures that stood in your way. The deck was also good in the mid-game as Saskia can turn even small creatures into a problem if they are left unblocked. 

The deck looks a lot different than it used to nowadays. It still gets solid results in tournaments from time to time so you can probably still have success with this commander...

Example decklists from their peaks:

Author: Tomas Solovic

Prices are from the 18th of May, 2023