He can provide you with constant fodder, buff up a whole board (as long as you're playing a Cat deck), deal damage to pick off weak creatures, or pressure your opponent
For older sets, you'll know if you recognise the set symbol, if you don't the end date on the copyright range printed on the card tells you the year that set came out, and you can find a list of sets in many places (I have usually looked here, but wikipedia and scryfall also have lists) Finding the year will give you only a handful of symbols to compare
get all 40 and make the table tremble
One of the first commanders that came to mind when I saw this was Rakdos, Lord of Riots
Whenever Acererak attacks, for each opponent, you create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token unless that player sacrifices a creature of their choice
and because Limited play is almost always won on the back of creature combat, finding the opportunities to trade one creature, removal spell, or well-placed buff for more than one creature will pay off dividends