By Jeremy Rose
Welcome back to Foxy Gaming’s Best of EDH series! We will be going through the top card, by card type, in each color and colorless when appropriate. We will be sticking with mono-colored cards for this first series. This is our fifth entry in the series, and it will be discussing planeswalkers, specifically planeswalkers that cannot be your commander. To see our previous entry, which discussed enchantments, click here!
DISCLAIMER: This list is based on Foxy Gaming’s playgroup and the cards we see, run in our decks, and get donked by week in and week out. Our playgroup tends to play in the six to eight range on the power level scale, so keep that in mind as we go through our list. If you and your playgroup see different cards or value some differently than we do, we would love to hear about it so please leave a comment letting us know what you think!
WHITE: Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Though it’s been a while since we’ve seen this baddie across the table, it’s hard to forget just how badly it can dumpster somebody. Four mana is a great cost for planeswalkers, especially with four loyalty, and this one gets you a lot of bang for your buck. Its first +1 ability provides a token to protect itself from your opponents’ attackers and its second +1 ability (that’s right, there are two of them) is like slamming a Red Bull, it pumps your creature up and gives it wings. There are tons of good creatures in Commander and helping an awesome attack trigger go off with evasion like that can help set up some backbreaking plays and the +3/+3 is no joke either. Then, of course, there’s the ultimate ability. Removing eight loyalty counters from Elspeth will get you an emblem with “Artifacts, creatures, enchantments, and lands you control are indestructible.” It does take some time investment to get up to that -8, but if you manage it, you are very unlikely to lose that game. Elspeth is good in all stages of the game and in a variety of different decks, which earns it the distinction of being the white card on this list.
BLUE: Teferi, Master of Time
I think we can all agree that Teferi makes games of Magic fun and interesting and interactive right? Anybody? Okay, while I may be in the minority of players’ opinions on Teferi, there is no denying that almost every iteration we've seen has been a powerhouse. Master of Time cranks that up a few notches in multiplayer games since it allows you to activate its abilities at instant speed on everyone’s turns. Even if we just consider the +1 ability, it’s a Merfolk Looter that you can activate every turn. The -3 ability can lock down a problematic creature or even just be used to protect Teferi from an attacker for a turn until you can get a better answer to the problem. The ultimate is a -10 ability that allows you to take two extra turns after the current one at instant speed. Teferi may only enter with three loyalty counters but getting up to ten can be easier than you may think considering you get to add one on everyone’s turn. This card just provides insane value and allows you to sculpt your hand all while ticking down a doomsday clock that goes off once you ultimate this walker.
BLACK: Liliana, Dreadhorde General
War of the Spark introduced us to a series of planeswalker cards with static abilities and we’ve seen them get played all across Magic’s various formats. Commander is a value heavy format and having our planeswalkers do something without having to activate an ability can sometimes be a big deal. Liliana’s static ability is a better version of Harvester of Souls for the same mana cost, but it’s attached to a six-loyalty planeswalker with three loyalty abilities. Lili’s +1 creates a 2/2 zombie that can be used to protect our queen or, better yet, can be sacrificed for value and we get to draw a card due to the static ability. The -4 ability also works well with the static and can also help out with crowd control by making the whole table sacrifice two creatures each. These first three abilities are extremely synergistic and make playing Liliana a very engaging experience as well as one that is hard to beat for your opponents. The ultimate ability is a -9, so it’ll be a while before it gets activated, but it is absolutely game ending. Forcing your opponents to only keep one of each of their permanent types is a sweeper on steroids. Should you get to ultimate this beast of a walker, your opponents will probably not be coming back from it anytime soon.
RED: Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Red decks tend to make great use of planeswalkers for extra damage, extra mana for the turn, or even impulse draw abilities that can help get their engines online. Chandra, Torch of Defiance does all of those things in one four mana, four loyalty, and four-ability package. Chandra’s first +1 ability gives you an impulse draw off the top of your library and if you choose not to cast the card, it shocks all your opponents and gets some good chip damage in over the course of a few turns if you so choose. The second +1 ability provides a ritual type of effect and adds two red mana to your mana pool, which is great for red decks looking to go zoom zoom and have explosive turns. Taking three loyalty counters off this Chandra allows you to point four damage at a creature of your choice which is going to kill a lot of problematic things and the best part is that your Chandra sticks around if you fire this ability off as soon as it comes down. Chandra’s fourth ability is a -7 ultimate ability that gives you an emblem with “Whenever you cast a spell, this emblem deals five damage to target creature or player.” As with most planeswalkers on this list, the first abilities are great value and helpful throughout the game and the ultimate can close out games all on its own. Every spell you cast with the emblem deals five damage to something and red decks love their cheap spells so this emblem will really put in some work.
GREEN: Nissa, Who Shakes the World
This Nissa is well known for shaking up Standard quite a bit, it also has had its impact felt in Commander. Doubling the mana production of all of your Forests makes a huge difference at almost every point of the game. It also makes Nissa, essentially, a three mana planeswalker when you consider its +1 ability which untaps a land. The land also becomes a 3/3 with vigilance and haste, which is not insignificant. Those two abilities are what makes up the majority of this walker and where you’ll get most of your value from. However, Nissa does still have a -8 ultimate ability that will win you the game in any deck with a significant number of Forests. Nissa is a card that you should expect to see across the table from you and should plan on implementing in your heavy green decks yourself.
COLORLESS: Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
UGH. This card is just so powerful. Quite possibly the best planeswalker in Commander, there is never a good time to see Ugin hit the field under an opponent’s control. An eight mana, seven loyalty planeswalker, Ugin has the ability to take more damage than most other walkers and gets to hide behind the 40 life of EDH to get to the required eight mana to cast it. Its +2 ability is just a straight up Lightning Bolt, which is nothing to scoff at, but its -X ability is the real reason to play Ugin. Taking off X loyalty counters exiles each permanent with CMC X or less that’s one or more colors. The turn Ugin comes down, that could be a -7 ability and sweep just about everything right off the board, and you could even go -6 if you want to keep Ugin. Resetting the board while keeping a planeswalker that Bolts something every turn can very simply just close out games. If you ever get to the -10 ultimate ability, you’re probably winning the game already. Gain seven, draw seven, and put seven is absolutely ridiculous. It’s rare to hit that ultimate, but the first two abilities are often enough to win the game without it.
This concludes Foxy Proxys’ list of best planeswalkers in Commander! What planeswalkers do you and your playgroup think fit on this list? What planeswalkers do you think we highly overrated? Let us know in the comment section below and be sure to stay tuned for our next entry in the series!
Jeremy Rose is a relatively new Magic player, having only started in Battle for Zendikar. When he's not being a filthy, filthy blue player, he enjoys jamming fun games with his friends. He's also a lifelong martial artist and a professionally employed teacher. He sometimes paints minis adequately. Find out more about him on his Twitter @jermytrose.
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