Advice for a proper Commander to play against young daughter

[Istarkano]

I taught my nine year old daughter how to play magic at the beginning of quarantine. We started with pretty basic decks, mostly permanents, but a few instants and sorceries as well. I mostly play commander, and when she saw me open a Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn, she asked me to build her a deck so that she could play commander with me.

I have the Lathiel deck almost finished, again it is pretty basic, mostly permanents, but plays quite a bit with the unicorn's strengths of +1/+1 counters and lifegain. The issue now is that I need to come up with a commander that is appropriate in power to her deck so that we can play together.

So, I come to the hivemind for help! What commander(s) would you recommend to build in my situation? What would be a good choice to go head to head with Lathiel? I believe I can build the rest of the deck to an appropriate power level, but I am honestly just stuck with the commander choice. I was thinking to build a deck in colors outside of so that she can see what else this game can do. But any thoughts would be appreciated here.

[darrenhabib]

I'm thinking Rakdos br so that you can have a Good vs Evil type "roles". Also it would be nice to have life gain be as relevant as possible so the Rakdos deck is dealing damage.

Maybe Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch because it has same cost to Lathiel and also deals in +1/+1 counters so is easier to understand the mechanics for your daughter.

[Dunharrow]

I would say Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
The general is easy to track for her. Not like Olivia Voldaren which has a lot of things going on.
You can tweak the deck easily to make it stronger or weaker.

[Sinis]

I recommend something in the same vein that darrenhabib said: Something simple that asks for a not-too-complex build around, probably with creatures.

Maybe Arvad the Cursed legendary cards? Or Rosheen Meanderer X spells?

[RxPhantom]

I really like @Sinis's idea of Arvad the Cursed. It puts you on a pretty narrow path, which should also be easy to navigate as it relates to your daughter's deck. It probably wouldn't be too complicated either.

[WolfWhoWanders]

Clearly you want to make a solemnity combo deck so you can crush her and hear the lamentations of her women... Oh wait. NM. On a more serious note, I like the Arvad suggestion on the merits that it should be pretty simple. Also, your daughter may not be interested in the darker half of magic (or she is, I don't know). I avoided a lot of black when teaching my girlfriend to play because she would always "ew gross" at the cards. Lathiel seems able to give Arvad a run for his money too, perhaps providing a nice enough challenge for you too

[BaronCappuccino]

Maybe The Scorpion God? Build it to create a game of tug of war regarding the counters on her creatures?

[onering]

Either something straightforward but underpowered, or something really convoluted but weak (not complicated to track, just hard hurdles to clear to do what it wants to do).

[Istarkano]

Thanks for the replies everyone, you have definitely narrowed it down!

[PrimevalCommander]

I'm thinking Rakdos br so that you can have a Good vs Evil type "roles". Also it would be nice to have life gain be as relevant as possible so the Rakdos deck is dealing damage.

Maybe Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch because it has same cost to Lathiel and also deals in +1/+1 counters so is easier to understand the mechanics for your daughter.

Exava looks like a good match to the Unicorn. I like this option best so far for all the reasons stated above. I don't think I can offer a better recommendation.

[ISBPathfinder]

Rather than suggesting a specific commander I am going to advise against two things:

Voltron: Voltron sort of invalidates lifegain so I would avoid it as a strategy to play against this deck as it would counter her deck to some degree.
Control: Stay away from too much removal. Removing every creature she plays would not be fun for her.

This leaves me with saying..... probably play a proactive non voltron commander. Using general combat damage and not infect will also be for the best given what her deck is. I would probably say in general I would do something red that has a proactive combat concept to it. A GR deck might be a good place to start against her as its a strategy that is fairly straightforward for her to understand how to play against it. It would also probably give her a small advantage which is good because you can probably out play her so taking a disadvantage on archetypes would probably help her.

[3drinks]

I think you should go back to basics a bit, a classic Stonebrow, Krosan Hero style of beat down deck to make her life gain matter as well as the size to get her creatures bigger than what you're throwing down. All the fun tramplers, like Silvos, Rogue Elemental, and Gruul War Plow, no gods or combos. just gradually build up from that when she's ready.

Maybe include a "hard" counter to her primary strategy (life gain). I'm thinking Sulfuric Vortex. It's not overwhelmingly controlling, but it's a clear obstacle to identify to her goals. And, you get to teach a valuable lesson about the value of having some disenchant effects.