Best, recent, simple but good commander…

[kraus911]

I used to be one to make convoluted decks, embracing complex legendary creatures. But Dr. Who might have jumped the shark in terms of complex=fun for me. Or maybe it was my attempt to build the Stranger Things partners. I'm called to decently powered but simple commanders of yore - Ruric Thar, the Unbowed and even Alela, Artful Provocateur.

But I figure there have to also be newer commanders that are simple but decent (depending on how you build them). I just haven't been paying enough attention recently to have filtered them out.

So what are your favorites in the past year or two (aka the last 20 sets).

[Toshi]

So what are your favorites in the past year or two

A quick sift back until 2022 i would say Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant, Don Andres, the Renegade and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse are prime examples of simple, yet interesting(ly enough) card designs.

Overall less text and not being a double-sided card always helps. On top of that legends of the more recent years tend to have not only plenty of text, but also several keywords as well.
It's a common joke in our playgroup to see if someone can name all lines of text on Questing Beast, the Caverns Mythics, March of the Machines "Transformers", Omnath, Locus of Creation or Valki, God of Lies // Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor, much like textless Cryptic Command had been a running gag in the past.

[NZB2323]

Éowyn, Shieldmaiden human tribal is simple, powerful, and can be built a number of different ways. I also like that she's #249 on EDHREC and not everyone is running her.

[RowanKeltizar]

Personally, I want to build Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres. Low cost, card advantage in the command zone. I would probably go superfriends with it, there are a ton of budget planeswalkers and you get both Flux Channeler and Evolution Sage in these colors. Superfriends is still an archetype I haven't built yet. Simic gives you budget access to ramp and card advantage, so I think it would make a phenomal sub 100$ deck.

[kraus911]

Éowyn, Shieldmaiden human tribal is simple, powerful, and can be built a number of different ways. I also like that she's #249 on EDHREC and not everyone is running her.

She's good. I played against the precon and it was solid. Will have to consider.

Don Andres, the Renegade is cool. I like the idea of having to cast your opponents cards, but might be too hoop jumpy for what I'm after.

[Mookie]

Stuff that is currently in Standard that I find interesting and not terribly complicated:

• Agatha of the Vile Cauldron
• Braids, Arisen Nightmare
• Evelyn, the Covetous
• Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant
• Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor
• Halana and Alena, Partners
• Isshin, Two Heavens as One
• Jacob Hauken, Inspector
• Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia
• Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep
• Meria, Scholar of Antiquity
• Myrel, Shield of Argive
• Narset, Enlightened Exile

Not sure if all of these qualify as 'simple' (it's a somewhat subjective term), but I feel like these generally only need to be read once to understand what they do. I didn't browse the list of recent non-Standard commanders.

[kraus911]

Thanks for the response. This is interesting also for what catches the eyes of others as interesting and simple. Yes simple is subjective, for me that means what the commander does is intuitive and doesn't require a lot of hoops to jump through or a lot of bookkeeping. Isshin is a great example, oh yeah, he's that mardu attack triggers guy.

I'd forgotten about the new Narset and how she's the most interesting one. I might build her!

[RxPhantom]

General Ferrous Rokiric has become one of my favorite commanders in recent years. He dodges a lot of the format's best removal while elevating cards such as Lightning Helix and Squee's Embrace since you get a 4/4 body with it every time.

[Boros_Blendo]

I'm very much a stick with what you got kind of guy. I still have most of the decks I built at the start. Xenagos, God of Revels in an every-bit-as-Gruul-dirtbag as you'd expect and Prime Speaker Zegana as a Simic shenanigan deck that only recently added proliferate mechanics to the graft cards. The most recent one that isn't precon is right up that alley as Rhonas the Indomitable fight club. He struggles with go-wide, so I had to temper the fight club and spend some of the design space to deal with the many go-wide decks in my group. So, I like simple, straight-forward commanders.