The Most Powerful Planeswalker Cards For Commander | Magic: The Gathering 

Prof, give ur neighbor the raycons as a passive aggressive “gift”

Sorin Markov is always terrifying when it comes down

I feel like elspeth, sun’s champion should have been on the list. She can protect herself by creating blockers or wiping the board in a way that’s likely favorable to you, especially if you’re in mono white. The ultimate is just gravy for white weenie decks

7 out of 10 were printed in the last year or two. that tells something.

Me: "Wait, Ugin is #1!?" Prof: *pulls out gun* "Always has been."

I could have sworn that Narset, Parter of Veils would be on the list.

dack fayden is so underrated, 99% of the time he's a 2 mana flip on an opponent. Being able to flip 2 cards is great too. ALL FOR THREE MANA

One of my favourite Magic cards is Liliana, Dreadhorde General, and she feels pretty great in commander. Sure, creating a 2/2 for 6 mana is weak, but forcing 3 or 4 opponents to sacrifice 2 creatures each, and getting card draw from it if you have creatures to sac, plus triggering sacrifice payoffs, is amazing. She comes in at 6 loyalty so has a passing chance at untapping, and her -9 is basically game winning if you somehow manage to get it off. Was surprised not to see her here

12:47 I'm pretty sure you can't trade food token for mana crypt since it only states "...target *creature* an opponent controls..."

Huh. I'm disappointed to see that neither "Elspeth, Sun's Champion" nor "Narset, Parter of Veils" made the list. It also surprised me to see that "Liliana, Dreadhorde General" was absent, but the War of the Spark Tamiyo made it. All in all, good picks Prof, but I'm going to respectfully disagree with one or two.

Aminatou is grossly underrated. She's easily a staple in any deck including her colors. She makes every other planeswalker twice as powerful, and syngergizes with many, many creatures--and that's just her -1. And yes, I'm talking about her in the 99. Narset, Parter of Veils and Elspeth, Sun's Champion are also massively strong. All three are easily on par with Oko and Ashiok.

Elspeth, Sun's Champion has always been a favorite of mine, a staple in any white decks

Also Ugin, The Spirit Dragon can wipe the board of tokens for -X, X being 0.

Vivien, monster's advocat. She protects herself, tutors for any creature and she has a great static ability. Was really surprised she didn't make the list.

Point of order: If tezzeret, the seeker untaps candelabra of tawnos and a voltaic key he can generate more mana than Garruk Wildspeaker

Jace "Temple" Beleren has always been a favourite of mine as a group hug player.

Planeswalker love Doubling Season or Proliferate!!! Espacialy in green or greenish decks. And the fact we got a new Elemental that makes every creature you controll a Land Forest and Nissa can make them indestructible is awesome.

I have a few observations: Like others here have mentioned, the omission of Elspeth, Sun's Champion is pretty big. She's similar to big Ugin in a lot of respects in that she's a boardwipe and sets up well for board presence. Jace, Wielder of Mysteries is another omission that I find a bit offensive, although the fact that Thassa's Oracle exists does hamper him a bit. He's not quite a dead card in non-game-ending situations like Oracle can be at times. Karn, the Great Creator is a one-sided Null Rod that can turn your artifacts into beatsicks or blockers, or animate an opponent's problem artifact so that your black deck can kill it. Jace the Wallet-er, Mind Sculptor is a very strong magic card, and while he's worse in EDH, the raw card quality he is can't be ignored. Liliana, Dreadhorde General is bonkers in any sacrifice deck, and in Yawgmoth in particular, can be devastating as he can easily proliferate her to the point where she can ult the turn after she comes down, or even that turn given enough mana. Liliana of the Dark Realms is a monoblack staple for a reason, being able to grab swamps willy-nilly and let the monoblack deck do its thing without stumbling on land drops for a while. Narset, Parter of Veils is backbreaking to many decks, and wins games given a universal wheel effect with how she can break parity.

Oh hello to you too Professor! I love your videos and as someone who owns a copy of at least one version of every Planeswalker ever printed, I'm so excited for this video!

With commander legends coming out with some decently strong partner planeswalkers this video could get completely upended by next month xD

Sorin Markov is probably my favorite, but no “Screw Your Hand” Bolas here?

Missed out on the slot for Elspeth Sun's Champion or Liliana, Dreadhorde General. Great cards to have in edh

Killin it, friend. Love that you did an actually entertaining thing with your sponsor message.

I would totally see a video by you about writing "Gaea's Cradle" on a basic forest!

Reminder that the Raycons have an absolutely terrible sound quality even compared to earbuds half the price. And the fact that raycons are literally rebranded 20 dollar aliexpress earbuds.

Plainswalkers are the bane of my existence :D They are cool in commander though, where you don't see the same ones every single game!

Liliana Dreadhorde General is one of my personal top picks. when she hits the table and you -4 her she will usually get a good chunk of the board cleared and possibly draw you a few cards in the process

Wow! I was just thinking about how great a video this would be...then it came up on my feed! 😄

I know that feeling unfortunately, professor. 😆 Instead of loud music it was motorcycles, my neighbors would rev them at 3 in the morning.

Was surprised not to see Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. He's really good to, but all these picks are great. Also, I think that simic Tamiyo just draws you seven if one of your opponents plays Wheel of Fortune cards, right?

Ooh, a cameo from Tamiyo! Also, Nissa, Who Shakes the World is one of my favorite planeswalkers, and the Ugins are good in literally every deck. Nice video, Prof!

Liliana Vess is a powerhouse in my mono black aristocrats deck. The -2 tutor ability is amazing for getting all my combos set up, +1 is okay but still disrupts your opponents' plans, ultimate is great but most likely won't happen. All in all, a great walker imo. Thanks Prof for all the awesome content! Have a great week! :D

Anyone else watch Prof’s vids simply just to hear him talk, I know I do.

I feel like that ad in the intro was not directed towards me.

Glad to see you are still smiling professor! Don't give up!

I always love playing Liliana of the Dark Realms in my mono black commander deck. Being able to guarantee a land drop every turn is great and I've found she's usualy not a high priority target for most people at a table so she usually sticks around a few turns and can use her removal ability.

These planeswalker are good of course, but i think tou missed important pieces: Narset, Parter of veils Karn, the great creator Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord Domri, Anarch of Bolas I run all of them in my Sisay deck and their abilities are great, both passive and activated

Oko, the of damn where did my commander go planswalker

This is great because there are so many that could be debatable additions to this list. I'm partial to Elspeth Sun's Champion and Nicol Bolas of any variety.

I started brewing a super pals Atroxa deck last night. Perfect timing professor!

Waiting to see Sorin Markov

Kiora, the Crashing Wave is one of my favorites, her +1 stays around until YOUR next turn, and it says permenant. . not just creature. That includes Purphoros, Ugin and many more. If you can keep her alive, her -1 is super solid ramp as well--and if people aren't paying attention-or several people owe u a life debt-and you can ult her, it almost says win the game.

I really enjoy Liliana Vess, tutoring in black, even if only twice before having to + her, especially with creatures to protect it, is fantastic.

Always enjoyed playing Teferi, Master of Time in my graveyard decks, draws cards, fills your yard, phases creatures out & has a game ending ultimate all at instant speed on each players turn.

I was convinced that Narset, Parter of Veils would make the Top 3.

One of the things I really don't like about Oko is how he permanently turns something into something else. He doesn't destroy it or exile it and replace it with a token. And it's not like, an aura showing that the permanent has a persistent effect changing it's name, stats, etc... Am I wrong, or isn't that kind of against all of the design leading up to this point? I've played magic a long time, and I thought that it was only instants and sorceries that changed the characteristics of cards this way, and only temporarily (until end of turn usually). Is it not super weird to have a persistent effect that's not demonstrated in any way? Flavour wise, that means there's no ongoing magic keeping the thing changed? It's just, an elk now, never to be dispelled. And from a tracking, design point of view, this is just weird and awful. Am I off base here?

Liked just for the hilarious sponsor segment with the neighbour joke :D xDD great work prof

I'm partial to Vivien Monster's Advocate in creature-centric. Gives you a creature that can be flexible on it's abilities, pseudo draw of the top, and a fun creature cascade effect

I am surprised that the black planeswalker that drops someone to 10 life when cast is not here... player removal is the only way

My Golos superfriends: Go on, Professor, I'm listening.

Of all the youtube vid I see with sponsors part, yours are the only one I enjoy. =)

Yes I’m so glad ugin got reprinted too! I never thought I’d own one when they were $70+! But I was at my LGS and surprised to find out they were 25 :)

Prof- "Do you like to listen to loud amd obnoxious music" Me- while listening to heavy metal "what is this loud and obnoxious music you speak of??"

I appreciate that you call him “Oogin” and not “Eugene”, that’s how I think his name is said too.

Thanks for another great video! I love the way you build your videos, your excellent insight, and most of all sense of humor. I'm sure you won't get to read this but I appreciate your work! Thank you!

Thanks Prof, loving the new Game oriented lists like this, reminds me of the earlier Command Zone episodes, but with your crazy spin on things .. Keep up the great work & stay safe. I'm surprised Narset Parter of veils was not on the list, but maybe she was just tooooo naughty! lol ;)

@3:28 " *negative* three" . @3:56 "her *plus* one" . Prof, why is that? Why are all of the content creators saying Negative when they see "-" and Plus when they see "+"? It always made me wonder. English is not my native language, so maybe I am missing out on a grammar rule or something. When we say "Plus" the opposite should be "Minus". When we are saying "Negative" then we should also say "Positive". Yet all of you say "a plus 1/plus 1 counter" and "a negative 1/ negative 1 counter" (instead of "a minus 1/ minus 1" counter) all the time. I haven't heard anyone saying "positive counters", so what's up with the "negative counters"? Could someone clear that up for me please? Thanks!

prof: "I hate oko!" Me: **Goes to buy oko with an evil grin**

I remember cracking open my very first Fate Reforged pack from the fat pack at release, and Ugin was there. I read him, stared at the art for a bit, said "huh, cool." and didn't think twice about him. I was really just getting back into the game after about a 15 year break, and found some friends from work were really into don't and MagicTG like me. We went online to check card prices after we all got done cracking packs, and were extremely surprised to see Ugin at over $25 at time of release. We went back and reread the card, started looking up strategies, and I try to play him in most decks now.

My favorite Commander deck is definitely my 5-color Superfriends deck :) Vraska the Unseen Tamiyo, the Moon Sage Nissa, Vital Force Elspeth, Sun's Champion Sorin, Grim Nemesis Narset Transcendent

Hey guys, remember OATHBREAKER?

Dang. I've gotta use this planeswalker for commander. Maybe ill win for once lol.

I've quit magic for a while, wasn't around for about 2 years, but now I am back into it! And boy oh boy do I like the new professor?!?!?! I don't know what, but something changed with these videos, they are more than talking about magic. I really enjoy this new and improved format of yours that you have nowadays.

On the Gaea's Cradle comment, I would love for a video on your thoughts on proxying in commander proff!

So this list is basically a few regular planeswalkers with a bunch of disgusting WOTS planeswalkers

I'm sad that everyone hates Oko. Yeah the card is beyond busted, but as a character he seems so interesting.

Great video as always, Prof! The "always has been" bit actually had me chuckling. That being said, as others seem to have pointed out the tenth and ninth slots feel a bit weird. What you're looking for when adding a Planeswalker to your deck is their ability to either impact the board the very turn they come into play, protect themselves, net you card advantage or leverage static abilities, often allowing you to be flexible with those choices. While both Vivian and Tamiyo might give you card selection/advantage, they won't do that in an efficient enough way to justify their costs. Simply compare their effects to other spells that aren't strapped on a permanent and you can see the value clearly isn't there. You shouldn't rely on your planeswalker surviving for a whole turn cycle in a multiplayer format in which people WILL focus your walker and make sure it goes down quickly. So, with that out of the way, here are some really powerful planeswalker cards I believe were worthy of mention and the reasoning behind my choices: - Narset, Parter of Veils: How was this card not featured!? Probably the strongest and most annoying static text in a planeswalker card ever to be printed, even worse than Threeferi in my opinion. No wonder it's restricted in Vintage. While she may not protect herself or interact with the board, her prison effect is obnoxious in any format that revolves heavily around card draw. Furthermore, her low casting cost and ability to pretty much "cycle" herself can mean she's a huge threat early on for a somewhat low investment. Narset followed by a wheel-like effect, of which there is an abundance in the card pool, can pretty much seal the deal in a lot of games. - Elspeth, Sun's Champion: She might not be as competitive (like restricted in Magic's most powerful format level of competitive) as the previously mentioned card, but Elspeth stands out as one of white's most powerful planeswalkers,. She can do both the things you're looking for a planeswalker to do in more "fair" Commander environments. She can both swing the board in your favor immediately (and survive at 1 loyalty) or create bodies to protect herself/use as sacrifice fodder. A strong option for sure, and defined the meta during its stay in Standard. - Sorin Markov: The main reason most decks run this card is its ability to essentially circumvent the hefty life totals of the format and just press the "U DED" button. Sorin is great for striking deals with other players in order to take down whoever the biggest threat at the table is with just a few flying attackers. A lot of people seem to get salty about this card due to its "swingy" nature, but I actually think it's pretty fun, especially when it comes out of nowhere. - Liliana, Dreadhorde General: Remember what I said about Elspeth? Yeah, this card has the same qualities WHILE ALSO drawing you cards. Even a modest board of creatures can turn this Planeswalker into an absolute machine. It fits the bill perfectly for what a lot of black decks are looking to do: sacrifice creatures and generate value. This one just feels like it was made for Commander, and should be a consideration in a lot of lists that have an emphasis on aristocrat archetypes. - Jace, Wielder Of Mysteries: A shout out to my cEDH players; this along with Thassa's Oracle have effectively replaced good ol' Lab Man as a win condition in most if not all top tier competitive lists. It's essentially a two card win the game combo with Demonic Consultation and, unlike its human wizard predecessor, it can actually do something when your win condition is out of range or when afraid of interaction. Any card that has the "you win the game" clause on it very likely to be exploitable. - Nissa, Vital Force: The play pattern for Kaladesh Block's iteration of everyone's "no longer racist" and "no longer bissexual" elf planeswalker is somewhat linear. Play her when you have the highest odds of untapping with her (seriously I've seen her pop up on turn 2 thanks to Burgeoning), take her up to make make sure enemy attacks don't go through, pray that she sticks around, then use her "ultimate" and proceed to win the game. Jokes aside, this is a fantastic card for lands themed decks, it's as much of a threat as it is an outrageous value engine, combining what are probably the most desired effects in Commander: ramping and drawing cards. Timing is key with this one. - Dack Fayden: I was a bit reluctant to add multi-color costed planeswalkers to this list, as I wanted to keep it as broad and flexible as possible in terms of color identity, but if there's one planeswalker card that is two or more colors you should keep an eye out for that's Dack Fayden. Our (kind of) recently deceased blue red trickster can cause quite a ruckus at the table for it's cost and if he sticks around he will likely provide you some good value though repeated looting. A lot of the early turns of Commander revolve around ramping and frequently enough through mana rocks. Dack can just get in there and straight up steal a Sol Ring while keeping himself barely alive. Is there a better feeling than this? Maybe, but it sure does feel sweet. Again, I really appreciate all the content you put out there, Prof. You're my favorite MtG creator by a long shot. Sorry if this comment is overly long, I just have nothing better to do with my time this Saturday evening (I wish I was playing over at my LGS or something but 2020 is a thing). Love ya, cheers!

Tolarian Community College... how did I just notice halfway through this video that your background music was the theme music for Kerbal Space Program? >D

"Not 1 but 3 players..." You need a larger table, dude; one that sits at least 6, and then see how fast planeswalkers get rekt. :D

Planeswalkers as commanders makes me sick...

Garruk, Caller of Beasts was the first Planeswalker I ever pulled and in commander he never disappoints. Grabbing either every creature out of your top 5 cards is amazing and putting a green creature into play with his minus 3 is amazing for 6 mana.

To be honest, I'm surprised Dack Fayden wasn't on here. Being able to nab people's Sol Rings and signets, in the early game is such a huge tempo swing. He also provides wonderful card filtering that will help you dig for the pieces you need. His ultimate is just gravy, but can easily win the game if you can get it to work. Being able to take anything just by targeting it is super fun :)

Thank you. This has been most informative

Always a pleasure watching your vids prof. Keep it up

My ramos superfriends deck absolutely loves liliana vess. Being able to tutor for a doubling season for 5 and possibly grabbing a tamiyo after is usually a gamewinner.

Loved the end credits on this one!!

Love your stuff Prof! Keep up the good work.

So glad you put Ugin, the ineffable in this list. I also want to mention that he works well in artifact decks like Bosh and especially in eldrazi decks cause they are all colorless. Oh it has color? Devoid classifies it as colorless!

Saheeli, sublime artificer. Makes tokens whenever you cast a non-creature spell And can make token copies of either creatures with haste or artifacts. Great for combo, gumming up the board with tokens or getting a suprise lethal. Super good in any deck with izzet colors.

I don't play commander as I don't have a friend group that plays magic, but my first thought for this list was Nissa who shakes the world, just such a crazy amount of ramp even if you don't get to ultimate. my third favourite card of all time, favourite being Risen Reef and second Thalia, Heretic Cathar.

I used to believe that Oko was as much of a beast in EDH as he's on the 60-cards constructed formats but after a few games playing him consistently I realized even with his unconditional removal he really gets outpaced against 3 opponents. Granted my group does run adequate removal and wipes along creatures so most times he just comes down to turn a creature into an elk an die but I guess on more control focused (or even cEDH) tables he can still wreck anyone's day.

I can't wait to search around and build my first ever custom commander deck. I just got into it and my neighbors play games at my place like every other night! Unfortunately I'm playing saheeli the gifted pre built 2018 deck right now and losing almost every night but its still fun. Not sure if ill just upgrade my pre built first or build a new deck first. Lots of fun though regardless!

I got back into MTG after being out of it since Kamigawa. I grabbed some packs of Core21 and pulled an Ugin. He really is shockingly strong.

I was so stoked when I pulled an Ugin, the Spirit Dragon from M21. Shame I haven’t figured out where I could put him 😅 And I like the Wanderer from War of the Spark. She’s good as a stopgap for incoming damage and remover of beefy threats, if only for two turns before she’s primed for removal herself.

I've gotten some pretty serious value out of Nissa of Shadowed Boughs in my Muldrotha deck. Pretty easy to just keep casting her from the graveyard and playing a creature from your yard/hand with +2/+2. Or just untapping Cabal Coffers is pretty great.

Saheeli, Sublime Artificer is my favorite card to play in Commander. If I am playing any manner of Izzet combination, I cram her in the deck. She is easy to cast, has very little "Oh crap!" tendencies but can virtually do anything you need her to. It's unfortunate she doesn't have a + ability, but what she does do is contribute to the party and help set up some pretty neat turns. Honorable mention status at the very least.

Thanks for the advice, I barely use PWs because I'm so afraid of them getting nuked. Also I love that your sponsorship turned into a low key way to throw some shade at your neighbors

I love that Tamiyo Collector of Tales. Grabs whatever you searched with Long-Term Plans.

Liliana of the dark realms and Dreadhorde General are 2 of my favourites. Also very surprised to not see Narset parter of veils

pulled an extended art Ugin from a core 2021 10 pack box I got for christmas. Was pretty chuffed

As a pure EDH player who loves playing Simic I have to admit that Oko rant was great and I'm loving the content. I'd add Narset, Parter of Veils and Karn, the Great Creator to my Top 10 list with arguably the most powerful static abilities ever printed alongside Ashiok.

Surprised I didn't see Narset Parter of Veils, being able to deny your opponents of additional card draw is really good. Not to mention combining it with a wheel effect to empty your opponents hand, that's serious card advantage in edh.

gotta say. best raycon ad ever. i actualy watched this ad. good stuff :3

Another one that could’ve probably made it on the list is Teferi, Master of Time from Core Set 2021. You can use his abilities any time you’d use an instant, his +1 is a simple draw a card, but you can do it on EACH player’s turn, so by the time it gets back to your turn and if he’s been protected, he’ll be at 7 loyalty. But he has the ability to protect himself from an attacker by phasing them out with his -3, and his ultimate gives you an extra turn! Though despite all that, it does make sense as to why he didn’t make it onto the list, as all the Planeswalkers Professor went over are definitely incredibly strong as well.

I’m a big fan of teferi, master of time since he can be a huge threat with his ultimate. Great list!

Teferi Master of time can get nasty, you're oponnents obviously will do anything to stop him from ulting but the fact that you can uptick him in response to attacks is a great form of protection even if you only have limited blockers

You covered the ones I would have other than Sarkhan the Masterless, his -3 can invalidate tokens, and if playing superfriends he drops down and kills at least one opponent, may not be good otherwise but i still think he is good. Honorable mention to Vraska, Relic Seeker with the non plansewalker/land removal and with doubling season bad things happening for one player ultimate that goes off on casting, I also cant imagine any ways to bring her back in green and black and make more players life totals 1.

Honorable mention for a planeswalker that is great for the decks that want it without being hard denial to the table or super unfun to play against: Ral, Storm Conduit. Incidental value to any spellslinger deck running izzet colors (so any spellslinger deck, typically).

I primarily like token generation and doubling effect (like proliferate or populate) so my favorite planeswalker for that is Freyalese Llanower's Fury given she can ramp me while pumping out mana dorks and I can use her ult for some much needed card draw. 3/4 of the Elspeths are also ridiculously solid choices in any deck using white be it life gain, soldier tribal, or the various swarm tactic type decks, if she can emblam its game and shes better equipped at defending herself due to making 2-3 bodies then most walkers

many already mentioned both of them in the comments, but despite being 6 CMC both Elspeth, Sun's Champion (protect herself with 3 tokens, selective boardwipe) and Liliana, Dreadhorde General (card draw, removal, a bit of protection with the token) are good ladies in their respective colours. I would also add Karn, Great Creator for his static ability disabling opponent's artifact, especially in metas with less creatures and more mana rocks around.