You can pay two mana to move one of these counters, but you can also remove one of them to gain two life
The commander is here primarily as an outlet for Food Chain
Phyrexian Altar works very well with all the card draw in the deck, letting you sacrifice rats and make mana and draw cards before Verminister brings the rats back to do it all over again
This to some extent makes sense, as specific card choice becomes more difficult given overwhelming releases, having guiding philosophy about the hows & whys of deck construction ends up more relevant
6: Triple Triad A great flavour win
If youre pitching cards anyway, this turns the downside into value fast, especially in decks like Hashaton, Scarab's Fist in Commander, where youre already discarding creatures for value