The Commanders of Dungeon Command
Finally, here is my ranking of the Commanders in Dungeon Command, with a preference given to constructed play in determining the ranks.
Ranking the Commanders:
(1) Tarkon Draal
(2) Rhynseera the Alarphon
(3) Snig the Axe
(4) Drogar, Eye of Gruumsh
(5) Aliszandra Malistros
(6) Kalteros the Sellsword
(7) Morgana Valistova
(8) Lokar of the Stonelands
(9) Valnar Trueblade
(10) Delthrin Everet
After a couple weeks of ruminating, I find myself agreeing with you on almost every rank, namely rank 3 to 10. Of course, having said that, I feel that Tarkon and Rynseenra should be switched. If you were to construct a warband with Rhynseera as Commander, the warband that would trounce Tarkon would feature 4 Orc Chieftains, at least four level 3 orcs and around 3 to 5 of other synergistic creatures.
Let me explain. Now you've a commander with many options (in the form of Order cards). All you need to create a powerful warband is to combine that with high Leadership! The answer lies in having 4 Orc Cheiftains...(!)
Wouldn't you agree?
Tarkon is overall better because the cower ability costs you nothing in-game. It is ongoing and directly pings your opponents Morale (life). Rhynseera is fantastic, which is why she's ranked #2. However, she's about cycling through cards to get you a fix, and not a bonus card per turn. In a Chieftain band I would probably run Tarkon or Drogar or even consider Lokar before Rhynseera.
I like Tarkon Draal well enough, but for virtually the opposite reason you describe. Cowering is almost never a good plan in Dungeon Command; there have been a few times I've done it and it's been right, but a very few and generally not in a predictable pattern. Furthermore, everyone I play with has a strong aversion to losing value based on Draal's ability, so even people who are prone to cowering do it even less if I'm playing him. So in that sense I'm pretty confident his ability saves my opponent from making a bad play more often than it punishes them for making a good one.
On the other hand, his stats are pretty good and well-rounded; he has a good deal of leadership, a reasonable number of orders, and fine morale, so the ability is just a pure add. He's still a good go-to for a Str or Con based deck that has reasonably sized creatures and so benefits from 8 LD, but I've seen some pretty reasonable arguments for Rhynseera in those. There are some really degenerate cards in this game for better or worse, and so having the largest starting hand and best ability to dig for your bombs is pretty much never going to go wrong. I think she's probably the generally best commander in the game, though I still sometimes run Draal out of sheer bull-headedness and an affection for his Eberron pseudo-namesake.
Snigg is pretty clearly up there too because his ability ranges from pretty nice to utterly game-changing. Getting a bonus activation is usually reasonably nice, but if you've lost a whole wave and are just wandering across the board to the enemy, it's mostly meaningless. On the other hand, if you're trying to combo out with degenerate Beastmaster nonsense he's a must, and if your opponent is camping your deployment zone like a gigantic jerk, he's your only chance. I honestly think his ability should have been the basic game rules at this point, but that being what it is, in certain metagames or decks you'd be foolish to run anyone else.
Drogar's pretty meh, not because he's bad exactly, but because he feels like he should go in the Str/Con decks (since his ability helps slow creatres the most) but Rhynseera and maybe Draal are basically better there, so he has no obvious home. High starting morale is mostly meaningless (though certainly not entirely) and while ignoring difficult terrain helps with the speed issues you can get with the Str and Con guys, the bigger problem with them isn't necessarily their speed per se but rather that their threat ranges are so mathable, and he doesn't help with that unless your opponent just forgets to account for his ability. I'd rather just run Charge and/or Stomp and/or suck it up and run some bad nonsesne like Into The Fray rather than having to deal with running a bad commander over Rhynseera or Draal. (Note: correct play is just to run Charge unless you're Con but not Str, Dex, or Int, in which case it is just sad and you have no good choices yet, sadly.)
Kalteros is IMO better than Malistros, much though I loved Malistros early in the game. The Spider deck really wants Snig because his ability is so stellar with the Priestess, and if you're Drow rather than Spiders, Kalteros will generally be better because Dex has the best movement cards already, so +2 speed rarely matters. Kalteros also has a natural home in an Int-based deck because those decks want to run 4x Drow Wizard pretty badly, and want a bunch of Leadership since their guys are expensive but need to team up to kill anything very large. So you get the bonus of digging to your Arcane Rituals or Cloud of Bats with the treasure ability, and you get to deploy real numbers of dudes even though you're running War Wizards and other expensive stuff.
My ranking would be:
Top 3, mostly interchangeble:
1) Rhynserra
2) Snig
3) Kalteros
Decent commanders without homes (ie, I haven't thought of a deck yet that wouldn't rather have one of the top 3):
4) Draal
5) Drogar
6) Malistros
Probably unplayable:
7) Morgana (your critique of her ability being bad for Con decks is particularly well taken)
8) Lokar
9) Valnar
Why did you ever print this garbage:
10) Delthrin Everet
I've only recently aquired this game, and I have all the factions except Blood of Gruumsh.
I love your commander analysis, but I've found a niche wherein Delthrin Everet can do well.
We've played some 4 player matches, and the player using Undead has frequently used Delthrin.
His Leadership boosting ability triggers when ANY enemy player dies. Delthrin can have a leadership near 20 by the 6th round, allowing him to bring in his more powerful creatures. The Lich's Necromancer ability means deploying with greater versatility. One could have nearly one's entire warban
Obviously, a bit of luck is required to make this work. One needs the highly mobile characters such as the Hypnotic Spirit and/or Gravehound early on to avoid confict and let one's enemies duke it out, gathering strength. Of course, your enemies may realize what you're doing and come after you...
In our 4 player games, Delthrin did not win, but he has been the last player to fall.
I'm not disagreeing that in general, he's a terrible commander.
But in a 4 player match, his commander ability rapidly increases his Leadership to the point when he can have his whole warband out. Which can make fo some devastating attacks.