I don’t see Alarak very often. Actually, there’s quite a few commanders I don’t see very often. I myself am a Fenix player, so I wouldn’t expect to see others playing him much because most of the time I spend playing, he’s my commander.
I do sometimes like to play the less-picked commanders, like Swann, Alarak, and Karax to an extent. Actually, I’ve been maining Alarak ever since the last War Chest, since I don’t yet have the Judicator Caste decal that would have matched Fenix’s forces until a distinct Purifier decal comes out – honestly, the Purifier flag is basically a modified Judicator insiginia anyways.
I don’t even use Ascendants very often. Don’t have the micro needed to use them effectively. Instead, my composition is usually Supplicant/Havoc/Slayer/Vanguard, maybe with Wrathwalkers if I remember to put down the robo bay. I also always have a War Prism floating around to warp in replacement gateway units.
It’s not optimal, but I don’t play co-op to optimize my play anyways. I have ladder if I want to do that. Granted, some of my ladder skills bleed into my co-op play now and then when applicable, but strictly speaking, optimal play doesn’t matter outside of mutations (usually brutations), and even then, certain mutations can be trivialized by certain commanders abusing their unique stuff anyway.