The best Planeswalkers in Commander: 20-11

Here we are, after taking a side trip to the ban list and discussing that we're back and finally talking about the top twenty now. Pretty much all these guys will see play in decks ranging from All stars in casual to good in competitive.

 20: SORIN MARKOV

A ton of people expected Sorin in the top ten and a few as number one. He's for me he's fairly similar to Venser in that he's an All-Star in more casual tables but in competitive games, he's pretty subpar. Knocking a player down to ten is an absolute beating and you may as well have killed that player in games where the winner is decided by creatures turning sideways. That being said in more competitive games Sorin doesn't quite do enough. Six mana to not impact the board and just bring a player slightly closer to death in a format dominated by infinite combos or lockdown doesn't do enough. Let's say you get him out turn 4 or 5 and bring someone down to 10 life. Neat, now they can untap and just combo out since the board isn't impacted, and on top of that, you're likely tapped out. Also, Sorin is more or less useless against Necropotence and Ad Naseum. You bring them down to 10 life and then in response they may as well use necro to go to one life and get some cards. Also, you target them and then they can Ad Naseum into a ton of cards and go up to ten afterward. Not to mention the other players aren't affected at all. His other two abilities don't do enough in competitive, either as draining something for six mana isn't impactful. Sure you could mindslaver which also pretty much kills a player but it has the same problem in which the other players can just win. All in all, when playing Casual he's a definite threat but in competitive he's pretty bad.
Score: 78/100
Played in: Mono Black control and every casual deck ever


19: NISSA, VITAL FORCE

My submission for the best Nissa is right here. Granted there really isn't much competition but this Nissa needs to see more play. Let's start that she can plus, net you mana, give you a blocker, or pump up your Gaea's cradle with her first ability. It's fairly easy to keep her alive a full turn and then....you're drawing a ton of extra cards every turn. Fetch lands are everywhere in games and drawing 3 cards a turn that can't be removed is fucking insane. That's just the beginning, let's say you have her life a little longer. First, get that emblem as soon as you can but now you have someone who makes your cradle, Nyktos, whatever tap again and gives you a solid body. On top of that, her last ability is pretty relevant too. Sure you can't return instants or sorceries but you're in Green, you absolutely have great lands, creatures, enchantments, or walkers to return.
She may not be seeing that much play quite yet but I think she's grossly underrated. Play this card and test it out. You may find another treasure.

Score: 81/100
Play in: Every not Yisan green deck. Decks that love Gaea's Cradle, decks that could use extra draw and have fetch lands



18: TAMIYO, THE MOON SAGE

Tamiyo's main use is locking down cards in stasis decks. Being able to constantly keep something locked down with any orb effect or skipping untap effect will often be enough to end the game itself. On top of that, she can net you a bunch of cards with tapped creatures. Which if your deck is working on tapping down your opponents things shouldn't be a problem. You can effectively skip players turns when abusing her to the fullest. Finally the ultimate, I don't expect it to happen often because in games where it does you really should have won already but once it happens it may as well be over. Having one or two counters in hand plus bounce/draw or whatever makes the game pretty much impossible for your opponents to catch up.

Score: 82/100
Played in: Stax, Mono-blue control






17: TEZZERET, AGENT OF BOLAS

If you have Tezzeret in your deck you really have to mean it. He's an all-star in artifact based decks but has no use elsewhere. The plus will often get you the best or second best card in your top five. His minus will both protect you or make another creature far worse, it's nice to be able to both draw the best cards in your deck and protect yourself while making your artifacts beefy. After you've kept him on board a while you can easily drain your opponents for 20-30 life. While that may not be enough to kill them it's likely that by that point they've gone down a good amount thanks to things like Necropotence, Shocks, fetches, Dark Confidant, and so on. Most decks will use life as a resource and have no problem draining themselves for 10-30 life so they can win. With Tezzeret you can both give yourself that life back and make it much harder for someone else to abuse that.
On top of that, he is still viable when he's not going for the kill with his other two abilities.

Score: 84/100
Played in: Black/Blue Artifacts and most iterations of this.



16: LILIANA OF THE VEIL

The next few walkers I had trouble really putting them in order. Much like the rest of this list they're all super solid but are different enough that the smallest things made the placements. The only problem with Lili is she has trouble on boards with presence. You can throw her down early and start having people discard cards. You're playing the Lili and likely have a deck that doesn't mind the discard so it's often not symmetrical. Against one player she's far more insane as she comes down and takes out a creature. Against a Voltron deck that often only has one creature, she's a crazy play. The ultimate also is likely to wipe a player out of the game and is very viable to get because she is taking out resources while she's on board. Personal favorite things include separating all the creatures and lands from a player and depending on what they keep cast either Armageddon or Damnation (Any version of these) game over. But like I said she has a problem in which late game she isn't likely to stay on board unless you're already ahead.

Score: 84/100
Played in: Mono Black, Stax, Control



15: ELSPETH, KNIGHT-ERRANT

Elspeth could have placed really anywhere between 16 and 13. The reason she placed a little higher than Lili is she comes down and protects herself or allows you to get in with big creatures. The ability to have solid defense and offense is super good. Place her in any Voltron deck to either knock out a player with the second ability or protect your own life with her first. She also works well in Stax deck as you have a token maker that nets loyalty as well. So naturally, she places a higher than other token based walkers since she also has the ability to pump up generals for alpha strikes as well. Finally the ultimate is solid but not really needed. Unless you plan on blowing up the board yourself with land destruction or wrath effects you likely won't activate it. Your deck should already have a good amount of resources so that blowing up all the lands wouldn't hurt you and win you the game already. Of course, the emblem doesn't hurt but often isn't needed.

Score: Liliana of the veil/100
Played in: Voltron, Stax, White Weenie

14: GARRUK, PRIMAL HUNTER

Yet another walker that really could have placed anywhere in the last few slots. I put Garruk up higher than Elspeth because; 1) While he is a little more mana it's easier to get to that cost in green. 2) The tokens he makes are threats by themselves. 3) Drawing cards in Green is very powerful and even when put in other decks this can net you tons of cards without much mana. 4) That ultimate will probably kill people.
All those reasons by themselves wouldn't be enough to get past Elspeth but add them all together and I think Garruk is very solid and if not answered could give his player the game.

Score: 86/100
Played in: Big creature decks and heavy ramp







13: FREYALISE, LLANOWAR'S FURY

Female Nick Fury is the final of the four walkers I think could have placed anywhere here but when I compare her to Garruk she just seems slightly better. She can blow up threats to the deck like Humility or Spreading Plague. The tokens she makes can net you mana and her casting cost is a little easier than Garruks. Again, not a bunch of super relevant things on their own but added together it seems enough to edge her just past our favorite green Beefslab. This isn't even mentioning that she can be your general in very powerful elf ball decks. Yeah, that's reason enough why she's better than the last few


Score: 87/100

Played in: Elves, Mono Green, Stax




12: DARETTI, SCRAP SAVANT

I think Daretti scores the highest for walker with two or more versions. He's the only one that is only seen in the Best of walkers. His presence in artifact based decks helps a ton, whether it's abusing that Mindslaver to lock players out or netting you cards. He even throws cards in the bin that you can cheat in the following turn. On top of that great synergy his ultimate will win you the game. Players have to kill you or drown in artifacts like Possessed Portal, Nullstone Gargoyle, Smokestack, and Tangle Wire. Of course, he is best used as his own general as you can easily cast him turn one or two with rituals and rocks, discard a massive threat and then cheat it in the following turn. He also survives effects like Obliterate and Devastation so while your opponents have no resources you have the goblin pope netting loyalty for a game-ending ultimate. The reason he isn't in the top ten is he isn't too hard to hose. Most grave hate makes him cry and red has trouble answering that. But place him at an unaware table and you're on top of the world.
Score: 88/100
Played in: Everything that abuses artifacts


11: KARN LIBERATED

Karn just barely barely barely missed the top ten. A lot of people assumed he would make it in so I don't need to explain why Liberating any permanent is great,  how he gets to 10 loyalty the turn he comes down, or how he can fit in any deck. So I won't mention that.
The reason he didn't make the top ten is seven mana is a fucking ton to handle one threat. Often you land him and take out the biggest threat on the table. Well, I hope you can keep him alive now because no one else will let him live. Karn is a massive threat to the board that is super hard to get down early. If it was far more possible to get him down early it would be far more viable in competitive games (Outside of huge mana decks) but spending seven mana too often just scour from existence something isn't great.
This is assuming you aren't already winning, landing a Karn when you're in a winning position will often end the game because it's going to be that much harder for opponents to catch up. Stealing a card from hand narrows choices to kill him and going to ten mana right after makes that even harder.
Score: 89/100
Played in: Big mana decks (Kruphix, Daretti, Selvala)





And that's our entry for today. Soon we can talk about the all-stars and how absolutely insane they are. Until then I encourage you to talk this survey on which cards you think should be banned in commander.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1xzUspjtolL6_YNtVypcKFlvg7t7cTrnJQGycRm1orLE/edit?usp=forms_home&ths=true


We have a good amount of input already but I think the more we get the better the article will be.


Anyway, that's our article for today. Any you expected to see by now? How about ones you wished made the top? Are you going to try out Nissa like you should? Let me know, and let's start a discussion.

Until next time, DoomBlade, Signing out...