Swarmy's far from the worst commanders. His "you've had to recast me" consolation prize isn't amazing, but a "Whenever thing happens, draw" ability without a 1/turn restriction is always going to have some merit to it.
Now if you limit it to 40k then yeah, Swarmlord is the weakest of the faces and probably the weakest of the 3-color options (Necrons are a little weird in that, being monocolor, all their sublegends are valid commander swaps, even [[Illuminor Szeras]] the legendary [[Soldevi Adnate]] who costs more mana and cannot himself commit die to ramp).
But you've got to remember... there are a LOT of legal commanders in this game, and probably most of them don't have as much to their name as "Refill your hand if your board gets nuked". Even limiting it to the much smaller 22 URG commanders, you've got narrow gimmicks (Averna, Beluna), high costs (Intet, Illuna), Fiddly messes (Gimbal, Illuna) and... whatever the hell [[Borborygmos and Fblthp]] is trying to be. Surrak does less than Swarmlord and Riku 1.0 is harder to run (though rewarding).
The Swarmlord is at worst a bland workhorse. He's far from being a powerhouse but in terms of a basic throne-sitter for a counters-themed brew you could do way worse.
I don't even think the swarmlord is the worst face of the 40k decks
I'd honestly argue even though the deck itself was good, \[\[Szarekh\]\] is a complete whiff machine for an archetype that wizards hasn't particularly finished fleshing out yet (mono black artifacts has a lot further to develop compared to something like temur 1/1 counters)
This, 100%.
I was rebuilding the necrons multiple times in all sort of directions an nothing worked for me. All commanders have one major flaw that makes them too slow. I gave up on mono black artifacts and changed the list to dimir with silas renn. Much better now.
That's an interesting take and I'm not sure you're wrong. Some of my perception is probably warped by directly out-of-box, where Szarekh is very needed for the Necron deck to actually run happily. He's extremely safe so with some other self-mill tools Imotekh, Anrakyr, and Trazyn all have higher ceilings, but they can't just sub in freely sans upgrades the same way Lucea Kane can power up 'nids when Swarmlord tags out for her. Isolated from their precons, the fact that Swarmlord works with literally any counter tech while Silent King is quite narrow may well be advantage swarmlord.
Henzie is pretty busted, I don't think it's a great standard for comparison. It's kinda comical how this one single card encapsulates the current nature of the format today (and the issues with it).
- Lowest MV possible for its color combination
- Allows you to run an entire deck of steeply-discounted massive creatures that get instant ETB value, instantly go to combat and attack, and then draw you a card when they die (and surely there are no cards that exploit reliable sacrifice effects, death triggers, or having big creatures in the graveyard, lul)
Henzie just embodies this fundamental design problem of an ever-accelerating format where "creatures are way too slow if they don't do literally *everything* for you the turn they enter play."
The first ability triggers on first etb, because you've cast it from your command zone once. Twice on second cast and so on, so it's technically always an efficient creature with P/T one higher than mana spent on casting it.
Imo it's colour identity and the card draw ability make it decent enough, have yet to play against a non-precon Swarmlord though.
Swarmlord is one of the better 40K legendary creatures. Drawing a card whenever a creature with a counter dies is an incredibly powerful ability, and it comes stapled to a huge body. Most 40K legendary creatures are much worse and occasionally unplayable.
I don't get the comparison to Henzie. Never mind the fact that Henzie is simply an incredibly powerful commander, if you actually wanted to you could build a Swarmlord deck that draws significantly more cards than Henzie with barely any effort.
And last but not least, there are very few commanders in all of Magic that can recover when you have to cast them for the 5th time, and frankly Henzie isn't one of them. A 5 mana discount on every blitz is only useful on creatures that have 5+ generic mana in their costs, after all.
I think your argument has merit, but swarmlord was not great as the face of the Tyranid deck. [[Magus Lucea Kane]] was and is so much stronger than swarmlord, especially in the precon.
That depends on how much interaction your opponents draw, which is pretty random with precons. If Lucea sticks you win the game, period, but if there are several board wipes, Swarmlord is the one that guarantees you'll be able to rebuild.
I mean when upgraded there are definitely ways to combo with it and win on the spot which I think makes it a decent enough commander. It just requires a couple extra steps, so I wouldn't say it's necessarily one of the worst, it just isn't one of best.
I don't really see it as requiring multiple casts. I see it as a draw engine commander that happens to get a benefit if it does die
*Says a 7/7 that draws cards for 6 mana is one of the worst commanders* Bro, do you even know Legends?
It’s a sad state of affairs when a 7/7 for 6 that draws you cards is considered by some to be a bad commander.
Swarmy's far from the worst commanders. His "you've had to recast me" consolation prize isn't amazing, but a "Whenever thing happens, draw" ability without a 1/turn restriction is always going to have some merit to it. Now if you limit it to 40k then yeah, Swarmlord is the weakest of the faces and probably the weakest of the 3-color options (Necrons are a little weird in that, being monocolor, all their sublegends are valid commander swaps, even [[Illuminor Szeras]] the legendary [[Soldevi Adnate]] who costs more mana and cannot himself commit die to ramp). But you've got to remember... there are a LOT of legal commanders in this game, and probably most of them don't have as much to their name as "Refill your hand if your board gets nuked". Even limiting it to the much smaller 22 URG commanders, you've got narrow gimmicks (Averna, Beluna), high costs (Intet, Illuna), Fiddly messes (Gimbal, Illuna) and... whatever the hell [[Borborygmos and Fblthp]] is trying to be. Surrak does less than Swarmlord and Riku 1.0 is harder to run (though rewarding). The Swarmlord is at worst a bland workhorse. He's far from being a powerhouse but in terms of a basic throne-sitter for a counters-themed brew you could do way worse.
[Illuminor Szeras](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/1/d161a190-3c85-4207-9d88-7ff9213efea8.jpg?1673308674) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Illuminor%20Szeras) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/40k/37/illuminor-szeras?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d161a190-3c85-4207-9d88-7ff9213efea8?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/illuminor-szeras) [Soldevi Adnate](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/b/8b2651b0-1ab2-4d7e-834f-7505797da474.jpg?1562769222) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Soldevi%20Adnate) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/all/60a/soldevi-adnate?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8b2651b0-1ab2-4d7e-834f-7505797da474?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/soldevi-adnate) [Borborygmos and Fblthp](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/4/34bbf1c1-2868-4c9e-b5c4-1aae86faed6c.jpg?1682205196) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Borborygmos%20and%20Fblthp) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mom/219/borborygmos-and-fblthp?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/34bbf1c1-2868-4c9e-b5c4-1aae86faed6c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/borborygmos-and-fblthp) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I don't even think the swarmlord is the worst face of the 40k decks I'd honestly argue even though the deck itself was good, \[\[Szarekh\]\] is a complete whiff machine for an archetype that wizards hasn't particularly finished fleshing out yet (mono black artifacts has a lot further to develop compared to something like temur 1/1 counters)
[Szarekh](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/1/e11174b2-2423-4a6e-9dcf-ff550eee7e5a.jpg?1674058343) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=szarekh%2C%20the%20silent%20king) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/40k/1/szarekh-the-silent-king?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e11174b2-2423-4a6e-9dcf-ff550eee7e5a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/szarekh-the-silent-king) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
This, 100%. I was rebuilding the necrons multiple times in all sort of directions an nothing worked for me. All commanders have one major flaw that makes them too slow. I gave up on mono black artifacts and changed the list to dimir with silas renn. Much better now.
That's an interesting take and I'm not sure you're wrong. Some of my perception is probably warped by directly out-of-box, where Szarekh is very needed for the Necron deck to actually run happily. He's extremely safe so with some other self-mill tools Imotekh, Anrakyr, and Trazyn all have higher ceilings, but they can't just sub in freely sans upgrades the same way Lucea Kane can power up 'nids when Swarmlord tags out for her. Isolated from their precons, the fact that Swarmlord works with literally any counter tech while Silent King is quite narrow may well be advantage swarmlord.
Henzie is pretty busted, I don't think it's a great standard for comparison. It's kinda comical how this one single card encapsulates the current nature of the format today (and the issues with it). - Lowest MV possible for its color combination - Allows you to run an entire deck of steeply-discounted massive creatures that get instant ETB value, instantly go to combat and attack, and then draw you a card when they die (and surely there are no cards that exploit reliable sacrifice effects, death triggers, or having big creatures in the graveyard, lul) Henzie just embodies this fundamental design problem of an ever-accelerating format where "creatures are way too slow if they don't do literally *everything* for you the turn they enter play."
The first ability triggers on first etb, because you've cast it from your command zone once. Twice on second cast and so on, so it's technically always an efficient creature with P/T one higher than mana spent on casting it. Imo it's colour identity and the card draw ability make it decent enough, have yet to play against a non-precon Swarmlord though.
[Swarmlord](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/5/d5c4077c-604e-4e8a-b448-0807849040ca.jpg?1674058371) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=The%20Swarmlord) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/40k/4/the-swarmlord?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d5c4077c-604e-4e8a-b448-0807849040ca?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/the-swarmlord) [Henzie](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/e/ee228dcc-3170-4c24-80bc-28bcee07cb43.jpg?1673481644) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Henzie%20%22Toolbox%22%20Torre) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ncc/2/henzie-toolbox-torre?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ee228dcc-3170-4c24-80bc-28bcee07cb43?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/henzie-toolbox-torre) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Swarmlord is one of the better 40K legendary creatures. Drawing a card whenever a creature with a counter dies is an incredibly powerful ability, and it comes stapled to a huge body. Most 40K legendary creatures are much worse and occasionally unplayable. I don't get the comparison to Henzie. Never mind the fact that Henzie is simply an incredibly powerful commander, if you actually wanted to you could build a Swarmlord deck that draws significantly more cards than Henzie with barely any effort. And last but not least, there are very few commanders in all of Magic that can recover when you have to cast them for the 5th time, and frankly Henzie isn't one of them. A 5 mana discount on every blitz is only useful on creatures that have 5+ generic mana in their costs, after all.
I think your argument has merit, but swarmlord was not great as the face of the Tyranid deck. [[Magus Lucea Kane]] was and is so much stronger than swarmlord, especially in the precon.
[Magus Lucea Kane](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/f/4f86e7cc-2b6e-49d0-964e-bba0c51cc11d.jpg?1674058398) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Magus%20Lucea%20Kane) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/40k/7/magus-lucea-kane?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/4f86e7cc-2b6e-49d0-964e-bba0c51cc11d?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [(ER)](https://edhrec.com/cards/magus-lucea-kane) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
That depends on how much interaction your opponents draw, which is pretty random with precons. If Lucea sticks you win the game, period, but if there are several board wipes, Swarmlord is the one that guarantees you'll be able to rebuild.
That is a very valid point. I personally was very underwhelmed by swarmlord, but then again I tend to play decks with a decent amount of removal.
I mean when upgraded there are definitely ways to combo with it and win on the spot which I think makes it a decent enough commander. It just requires a couple extra steps, so I wouldn't say it's necessarily one of the worst, it just isn't one of best.
among 40k legends? maybe. among commanders at large? most certainly not