Who are the top 5 greatest Acolytes?

[JasonEsta]

I'll start with them....

Key members over the years

Exodus
Polaris
Amelia Vought
Scanner
Uniscione
Senyaka
Cortez
Javitz
Rusty
Skids
Mellencamp
Maria Cortez

[khairston99]

Exodus
Bought
Scanner
Uniscione
Senyaka

[nx01a]

Amelia Voght
Katu
Mellancamp
Senyaka
Kleinstock Brothers

[MagSeven]

Colossus
Exodus
Cortez
Voght
Senyaka

[Sutekh]

My favorites are Unuscione, Frenzy and Scanner. Maybe Senyaka and Mellencamp, to bring it up to five.

But 'greatest?' Which I'm interpreting as most relevant / important?

Exodus / Bennet du Paris
Colossus / Piotr Rasputin
Frenzy / Joanna Cargill
Fabian Cortez
Amelia Voight

Others not mentioned in the OP;

Chrome - flight, transmutation, sometimes seemed to be incorrectly identified as / conflated with Katu
Delgado - limited growth and super-strength (seemed to be a SHIELD agent sent to infiltrate them, and then mysteriously became one of them?)
Katu - weather control, able to absorb and redirect electricity through his bionic arms
Milan, darling, Milan - technopath, able to interface with machines, or project his thoughts like movies
Neophyte - able to phase/teleport through matter
Rakkus - a sentient virus able to infect someone and grant them temporary super-strength, growth and energy blast powers (hey, maybe he explains why Delgado went from SHIELD infiltrator to giant mutant bruiser?)
Spoor - pheromones make other people angry and fight-y, no fun at parties, extra points for the classy name
Decay - old dude who could steal life-force from others (crumbling them to dust) to keep himself alive (it would have been fun to make him one of those people that Selene has 'made vampires' over the years!)
Gargouille - short, strong, rock-tough, claws, flight
Kamal - absorb the appearance and properties of materials he touched
Orator - empathic awareness
Projecteur - force fields (because Unus, Skids, Unuscione, Cecelia Reyes, Radius and Hisako/Armor apparently didn't already have that covered...)
Static - no idea
Barnacle - no idea
REM-RAM - force people into a dream state during which he can edit / mess with their minds and memories, forcing them to relive buried traumas or whatever
Vindaloo - from India, shot hot burning goop at people, oh Marvel, never stop (for our next trick, a Scottish mutant named Haggis who shoots sheep's guts at people, or a Japanese mutant named Sushi would shoots raw fish at people!)

[Master of Sound]

The ones leaving a real impression;

Exodus (because he became one of the returning X-Villains)
Frenzy because she did become an X-Man
Senyaka (who's the most brutal and was also key in Necrosha)
Voght, who had a thing with Xavier. However, she's forgotten the recent years
Uniscione, because she was on Utopoia, with the X-Men in AvX and is expected to be Unus his daughter.
Scanner (who wanted to become an X-Man but was declined and was the nicest of the Acolytes. Still hurts she got depowered)

[lurkerforyears]

I'll start with them....

Key members over the years

Exodus
Polaris
Amelia Vought
Scanner
Uniscione
Senyaka
Cortez
Javitz
Rusty
Skids
Mellencamp
Maria Cortez

I always liked Neophyte the most. He is the only one who got 2 issues of Uncanny X-Men pretty much as the main character, and UX 315 the Trial of Neophyte in Avalon with Exodus as judge and Colossus as lawyer.
He is a mixture of teleporter and speedster. He can merge with homogenous surfaces and move instantly through them, often that works only for a small area, but if he merged with the Panamerican highway he could move from Panama to Alaska instantly.

I wish the teen mutants of the 90s like Neophyte (although that is probably a rank, not a real codename), Christopher Bradley (Bolt), or Abyss, had joined the school in the 2000s, they were all younger than Jubilee.

[CRaymond]

But 'greatest?' Which I'm interpreting as most relevant / important?

Exodus / Bennet du Paris
Frenzy / Joanna Cargill
Fabian Cortez
Amelia Voight

The Acolytes should have been invented as a foil to the X-Men a lot longer ago than they were. As a spandex-wearing personality cult, they serve as a dark mirror to Xavier's various generations of "heroes". They SHOULD have a hierarchy and various striketeams, but they've always seemed poorly organized and full of redundant, shallow maniacs.

Fabian Cortez is important because he takes advantage of Magneto's symbolism and ideology, and manipulates his following. He exploits the philosophy.

Exodus is important because he is incredibly powerful and devoted, following Magneto's example. He exemplifies the philosophy.

Amelia Voght is important because she pre-dates the Xavier/Magneto schism and seeks shelter from an anti-mutant world. She sees through the philosophy.

Joanna Cargill is important because she's a terrorist who turns to Magneto's Acolytes to accelerate her destructive goals. She engages the philosophy.

I don't have a fifth, but it would be someone who proves the philosophy wrong.

[MYCMTSC]

Frenzy
Scanner
Voght
Neophyte
Unuscione/Senyaka (both kind of generically vicious, but very recognizable)

I never got Exodus. He seemed to just check cliche boxes for instafame by being both overpowered and ancient. I like the other Acolytes because they are like super-powered, misguded orphans.

[lurkerforyears]

Do we even know if Unuscione has not prefered to keep the Age of X memories and Stand-Off codename? those were probably better for her than her real life

[Cat]

Exodus
Cortez
Voght
Unuscione
Senyaka

[Master of Sound]

Do we even know if Unuscione has not prefered to keep the Age of X memories and Stand-Off codename? those were probably better for her than her real life

No one kept their AoX codename. Unfortunately, because Eclipse was way cooler than Sunspot. Same applied applied for several other AoX codenames.

Most of the people do not remember AoX, except a few like Cyke, Rogue and Frenzy.

Anyway, we are drifting off topic here.

The least appealing to me were Bernacle, Orator, Rem Ram and Staric.

Oh and who said Marie Cortrez was ever important? No one even know's her.

[jmc247]

Exodus

An interesting character philosophically rooted in carrying on Magneto's torch, though as a character not always quite understanding what Magneto's torch actually is when he isn't around. Exodus would love to take over from Magneto and has tried, but his take on it is a warped vision with Middle Ages concepts intermixed.

Cortez

A figure who is willing to play the role of lackey, but also stand up to Magneto as he uses Magneto's ideas and legacy heavily as an avenue for the advancement of his own power.

Polaris

On some level Magneto both did and didn't want her as a part of the war as he only came to her when he was on the knives edge of losing it. Magneto has long looked at rest of the Acolytes for a replacement when he is gone and tended to find either the overzealous, the power hungry, or alot of other things that led him to think they couldn't fill in his shoes very well.

Then there is Lorna who he avoided much of her life because he didn't want her on ground zero for his war, but having a daughter around who shares his power and emotionality creates a hard to ignore enforcer and possible replacement. Lorna herself long has been equally conflicted about that possible role with the question being less can and more is that what she wants and therein comes uncertainty.

[JasonEsta]

Frenzy
Scanner
Voght
Neophyte
Unuscione/Senyaka (both kind of generically vicious, but very recognizable)

I never got Exodus. He seemed to just check cliche boxes for instafame by being both overpowered and ancient. I like the other Acolytes because they are like super-powered, misguded orphans.

Odd. Exodus has been clearly defined for years.A zealot who believed heart and soul in Magneto's homo superior should inherit the earth mindset. Overpowered? He's not Sentry. He just has various powers like Sinister and Apocalypse.

[JasonEsta]

No one kept their AoX codename. Unfortunately, because Eclipse was way cooler than Sunspot. Same applied applied for several other AoX codenames.

Most of the people do not remember AoX, except a few like Cyke, Rogue and Frenzy.

Anyway, we are drifting off topic here.

The least appealing to me were Bernacle, Orator, Rem Ram and Staric.

Oh and who said Marie Cortrez was ever important? No one even know's her.

She's important because, unlike her brother, when it seemed certain death was their fate in X men #3, she refused to be saved by Xavier and stayed under Magneto's arm till the end. Definition of an Acolyte. Next to Unsicione and Scanner, she worshipped Magneto maybe the most.