Well, that is what I am thinking. I know that some other commanders are far stronger than him, but my idea was not to ga all in spirits: only a few that are useful, and they could be used to distract oppponents while you prepare a huge Exsanguinate with big mana black has available, namely Cabal Coffers, Deserted Temple, Crypt of Agadeem, Songs of the Damned, and even maybe Crypt Ghast, since it is a spirit.

In this kind of deck, I would use a low count of spirits, but strong ones, so that I can keep the focus of opponents on dealing with them and hopefully bait counters and removal. And just to point it out, I don't need an hard to assemble infinite loop. The beauty with this is that let's say we have Soldevi Adnate on the field and a mass reanimation spell in hand, Living Death. I can cats Iname, Death Aspect, get required spirits in the graveyard (Kuro, Pitlord and Horobi, Death's Wail are used to get rid of any creatures my opponents may have after the reanimation, and then you can ping your own Kokusho, the Evening Star to gain some life and deal extra damage), then sacrifice the commander to Soldevi Adnate to cast Living Death. This would put my creatures on the battlefield and I would be the only one with creatures, and some good ones.

Then I would start attacking into defenseless opponents. For sure that would force boardwipes and removal, but the point is that I will run multiple reanimation effects, and that would actually help me reaching the true, hidden win condition: a huge Exsanguinate fueled by the creatures in my graveyard, that will still be useful if I manage to reanimte them, and big mana black already has access to.

I know the deck would be weak to graveyard hate, but I think it is the same thing for many tier 2 and 3 decks. I am not saying that this is tier 3: I am saying that if we manage to get a good list, it might do it. In fact, I started working on him and writing a primer, since I found some good resources to get myself starting. Iname, Death Aspect combo already was something in french commander, but the idea was only to reanimate a couple strong spirits and swing in your opponent's face to win. I am working on tweaking this for multiplayer EDH, and I think some good results might show up. Not the best deck ever, but still something more playable than tier 4 in my opinion. We will see.

I used Iname in my Karador to fetch Karmic Guide. (I had built it to emulate modern Birthing Pod so the high cmc was easier for me to deal with)

I found that Iname fetching Bloodghast with a skullclamp in play usually broke most games open when it got grindy. Food for thought.

I would argue that Vela the Night-Clad is better than tier 4. Definitely not tier 2 but I think tier 3. Her intimidate anthem is nice but I think the real benefit is the 2nd ability. When a creature leaves the battlefield opponents lose 1 life. This allows for both bounce and recursion combos to kill the whole table. I have a Vela deck list Vela the Night-Clad EDH Bounce Combo as an example. My list isn't maxed out but I think it's ok and can be competitive. I haven't actually built my list yet it's a work in progress so I could be missing something but I would be interested to hear other opinions on her.

I have a few suggestions about upgrading some commanders from tier 4 to tier 3.

I think that Mayael the Anima should be moved up to tier 3. I looked through the old discussions, and it was only moved to tier 4 when there were 6 tiers and was never moved back. I think it falls into the tier 3 description of "pushstomp" decks that have a reputation but aren't overpowering.

Ghoulcaller Gisa has had no discussion and should probably be a tier 3 because of cards like Phyrexian Devourer, Contamination, Phyrexian Dreadnought, Thornbite Staff, and Fallen Ideal that make token generation very easy. It also has synergy with many cards like Skullclamp and Grave Pact effects. I think this deck deserves tier 3.

My last suggestion from moving from tier 4 to tier 3 is just a suggestion, but I think Trostani, Selesnya's Voice might, just barely, be good enough for tier 3. She gains life, and that combos well with a lot of cards (namely Phyrexian Processor, Darien, King of Kjeldor, and Nacatl War-Pride and myriad effects). I think massive lifegain might be a good enough reason to make it powerful in addition to being able to copy tokens.

Everything I've said is up for debate. I own a Gisa and Trostani deck. I could see Trostani staying tier 4, but Gisa deserves tier 3, while Mayael is textbook tier 3 in my opinion.

I tend to agree with you, at the very least with Mayael the Anima, as I have no experience with the others and no time to look right now (at work on my phone).

Ghoulcaller Gisa has some combo potential also I think, and graveuard/sacrifice shenanigans available.

I second the notion that mayael and gisa should move up. not sure about trostani, but one of my friends has a very competitive mayael deck that doesn't always win but at least takes out a player or two and is terrifying when it starts to go off.

If we're doing Tier 3-4 movements, Yosei, the Morning Star, Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer, Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant, Ojutai, Soul of Winter, and Lu Xun, Scholar General can all be moved down to Tier 4.

General Tazri still needs to be bumped to at least Tier 2, possibly Tier 1 (she's currently arguably the best 5C deck in the format. I've played against her in several cEDH games. She constantly threatened to win throughout the game and ended up almost playing archenemy, despite a tuned Prossh list being in the pod.)

Also, I hate to say it, but it's time Arcum was moved out of Tier 1. It's simply no longer realistic to place him there any more.

I also second the moving down to tier 4 of all the mentioned generals and the moving up of tazri, but have no opinion on arcum.

When I look at Ghoulcaller Gisa and then I look at Glissa, the Traitor there is no way I could say GG is tier 3. She costs a lot of mana meaning in multiplayer games if you are taking heat from 2 other players you cannot both play your commander on curve and play other cards reliably to stave of those two opponents or match them in terms of board state. Those extra 2 lands you need for GG could have been 2 extra spells to help you stabilize with GtT.

What GG does for 5 mana isn't enough considering how much pressure can be applied to you before then. And all the fancy stax cards that she works with work equally well if not better in a Prossh or Shattergang Brothers deck.

About Arcum Dagsson... I could see him being Tier 2 maybe but it depends... in a 3 player game he is solidly T1 to me. His plan of attack is practically always the same but he's consistent enough at either popping off early or controlling that he is a formiddable opponent. When it comes to 4 player games though he just cannot compare to Tasigur and Scion IMO. Scion can combo faster and Tasigur has the liberty of killing things meaning if Dagsson wants to counter something scary he feels pressure knowing that Tasigur won't help him with counters. At the same tim Dagsson cannot just say "I'm not going to counter so Tasigur will have to deal with it heh heh heh" because Tasigur doesn't have to do anything in most cases unless a creature swings at him.

One of the golden rules of MTG is don't spend resources unless you have to. When it comes to decided whether or not to spend resources removing creatures the Tasigur player has the upper hand on Daggson.

I can agree with General Tazri being moved up to tier 1. I have tested Food Chain with Sidisi, Brood Tyrant and adding it to the other combos BUG has at its disposal allows SBT to casually pump out turn 2-3 victories with turn 4-5 victories feeling somewhat dissapointing... Food Chain also provides excellent overlap with Hermit Druid since Tainted Pact and Demonic Consultation can two card combo with Laboratory Maniac. The level consistency Food Chain adds to any combo deck that can support it is mind blowing.

I think I already know the answer to this question but are Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim and Karlov of the Ghost Council enough to make Oloro T1?

Also if you ignore Alyi the card Anguished Unmaking really helps smooth out the mana. It's so much easier to cast than something like Unmake that I don't mind losing 3 life with Oloro.

I feel like Gisa and Geralf are good enough to be tier 2.

@kengiczar: No. Optimized Oloro doesn't even run Ayli. Usually he's an Esper Storm deck that utilizes the extra cushion of lifegain for slightly deeper Ad Naus digs and a few other minor things.

Oloro should be tier one because of Flash Rector into Omniscience into Enter The Infinite.

thats just a combo that goes in his colors

Podkomorka So, what does it matter if you can win turn 2.

By that logic, all UW commanders should be bumped up

No, because when you add black to the mix you can have 4 search cards.

Black only has 4 tutors? News to me.

uuuuhhhhhh

it has 10ish. along with Idyllic Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Personal Tutor, and Merchant Scroll

I meant specifically Vampiric, Demonic, Mystic, and Enlightened.

Typically the best black tutors are Vampiric, Demonic, Grim, Imperial Seal. The more situational ones are Diabolic Intent, Insidious Dreams, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact, Dark Petition, Lim-Dul's Vault, Entomb, and Buried Alive. There are a handful of other ones that are playable.

But that would mean that Dromar, the Banisher is tier 1. That seems incorrect to me.

as would be Dakkon Blackblade :\