Planeswalkers are awesome. Five color lets you play them all. ‘Nuff said, right? Wrong.
Planeswalkers are unique, repeatable sources of power – but they can be quite fragile in multiplayer Commander. Very rarely does one make it to ultimate in my playgroup; often, they don’t even last a second turn. Building a deck that not only promotes their survival but also relies on it seemed like a fun challenge. Once built, I had so much fun piloting the deck that I determined to tune it even better.
This archetype is often referred to as Superfriends. It would be nice to say that it plays a certain way, but that really depends on your build; if planeswalkers are your theme, what is your subtheme?
Flavor
A planeswalker is any sentient being born with a spark that has learned to use it to traverse the Blind Eternities. They travel from one plane to another in the Multiverse. “You are a Planeswalker” is an expression commonly heard by Magic players, and indeed, the game is supposed to represent a duel or battle between two or more planeswalkers.
The planeswalker card type was introduced to represent an ally that you could call to your aid. As you direct them how to best help you, they either wax or wane in loyalty to you.
You may enjoy Planeswalker Proliferation if...
... you like playing control.
... you prefer not swinging into the red zone.
... you like powerful plays.
... you like to have a lot of options.
... you want a deck that plays differently from any others that you have.
You may not enjoy Planeswalker Proliferation if...
... you don't like being the center of your opponents' attention.
... you prefer creature-based decks.
... you have a tight budget AND don't have a lot of cards.
... you like a general-centric deck.
When Planeswalkers were introduced as a card type, I thought they were cool, but I rarely played with them. Sure, I'd find an occasional deck whose theme meshed nicely with a walker, but overall, they seemed like overcosted ($-wise) enchantments. Fast forward several years and several new walkers, and I started to see the appeal.
Then one day someone brought in a superfriends deck. Here was a deck that played so differently and so powerfully. I thought it was awesome, but I balked at the price when I looked into building my own. Rather than buying, I slowly started trading for the cards I needed. I wasn't even planning to run any dual/shock lands for this (I played it for several months with mostly basic lands), but then I started encountering people who wanted cards from my binder when I couldn't find anything in theirs - so I grabbed some shocklands for trade fodder. After the third one, I realized this deck could use them, and sure enough, I eventually traded for all ten. So far, I've only put about $16 into this deck - everything else was trades.
I play the deck every week or two, and it is a lot of fun to pilot. I often get ganged up on (three to four other players, all scared of what I can do), and while it means I don't always win, it makes for much more challenging games.
Planeswalkers (the card type) may represent uber-powerful beings, but they come with a host of weaknesses to keep them balanced. Seriously, if Superman were printed as a planeswalker, the art would show him juggling chainsaws with chunks of kryptonite instead of teeth. The main things that a walker needs to fear are:
Fortunately, there are tons of cards out there to help counteract these.
Combat Damage – Creatures abound and will likely swinging into the red zone to take down your planeswalker allies. In order to maintain their loyalty, you will need to deal with this threat – with some combination of blockers, pillowfort, turbofog, and/or removal (see Survival Strategies).
Direct Damage – With the loss of the planeswalker redirection rule, we've lost some of our most efficient cards to prevent direct damage. Giving them hexproof with Privileged Position or Shalai, Voice of Plenty can stop targetted damage, but global damage effects will have to be otherwise prevented or countered.
Removal – Removal comes in two types. Spot removal that can hit a planeswalker is somewhat limited but still widely played (ie. Dreadbore, Vindicate, Desert Twister, Beast Within, Oblation, Maelstrom Pulse, etc.). These can all be stopped with Privileged Position, counterspells, or redirection effects. Mass removal is a little trickier – it either destroys, exiles, or bounces, and it can be all non-land permanents or planeswalkers in particular. Some can be worked around; others must be countered or else.
The Immortal Sun - Unfortunately, we can't depend on our walkers to save themselves. This requires artifact removal, such as Austere Command or Aura Shards with your commander. If these prove insufficient, you may need to open up more slots for artifact-hate.
How to play the deck
This deck plays fairly straightforward. Fix your mana, drop planeswalkers, and then spawn out tokens and/or wrath while building their loyalty. The main goal is to win off of their abilities. On rare occasion, you may find yourself in a position to turn aggressive with tokens. The beauty of the deck is not necessarily in complexity, but rather in the shear number of options you can choose from. Do you keep building, or is it time to siphon off a little loyalty for a more powerful play?
Left unchecked, most planeswalkers will eventually win you the game. In order to protect your walkers, you will need to identify which weaknesses are most likely to be exploited in your meta and respond accordingly. Most likely, a mixture of the following strategies will be required to find the appropriate balance.
Blockers
The most basic response to aggression. Even this offers several different strategies. Do you flood the board with tokens? Drop creatures that trigger enters-the-battlefield abilities and are then disposable chump blockers? Use deathtouch and other nasty abilities to say “leave me alone”? Go indestructible to take a licking and keep on ticking? Each option has its own merits, but in a multiplayer environment, you may find it hard to block everything – especially once things become unblockable.
Pillowfort/Turbofog
Pillowfort is designed to prevent creatures from attacking. Some of the more common cards (Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, etc.) won’t actually protect your walkers (though Norn’s Annex/Sphere of Safety do). Other cards are designed to limit how many creatures untap or can attack or even to skip combat altogether. This may or may not work for you – it depends on how well this strategy is received in your meta.
Closely related is turbofog. Although it allows creatures to attack, it prevents them from actually dealing damage (Moment’s Peace, Blunt the Assault, etc.). In a proliferate-heavy deck, Spike Weaver is your best friends when it comes to this strategy.
Extreme Nukage ”The best defense is a good offense.”
The previous strategies have all dealt with attacking creatures. What if you don’t want to give them the chance? What if you’re facing utility creatures that were never intended to swing in the red zone? Enter the board wipes. How extreme you take this is up to you; it can be just a couple wraths to clear away creatures or an entire complement of game-breaking spells (like Decree of Annihilation and Obliterate) that leave you as the only player standing once the dust settles. Just keep in mind that while these spells may win you games, they are unlikely to win you friends in many metas.
The following sections will discuss cards that could be fitting in a Planeswalker Proliferation deck, even if they are not in my personal build (bolded card names are included in my deck). Please note that it is intended to be helpful but hardly all inclusive.
A five-color planeswalker deck needs a five-color legend to lead it, and while there may be little interaction between the deck and its general, that does not mean the choice is unimportant. Here are your options, in alphabetical order:
Atogatog – Atogs are toothy little creatures that devour things; an Atogatog devours other atogs. A fairly useless general unless you want to build around an underused tribe.
Atraxa, Praetors' Voice - Cheating, I know, as this is only four colors, but it certainly fits a superfriends proliferation deck. I don't like losing red, even if it is the least used color in the deck. Also, the proliferation is at end of turn, which may help keep the walkers alive, but it doesn't help get an ultimate ability until the next turn.
Child of Alara – Having a built-in sweeper is nice, but remember a) it has to go to the graveyard, b) doing that can be unreliable without a sac outlet, and c) it will take out your walkers, too. Useful but not dependable.
Cromat – Random silly abilities. This was my original general for the deck because it was cheap and the WB ability could be useful.
General Tazri - A white creature that gains five-color status courtesy of its ability. Not really suited to Superfriends; best used as a tribal commander.
Horde of Notions – Could be used for aggro, but the best thing it has going for it is to recur Crib Swap repeatedly. Some elementals are quite useful (and blinkable with Venser), so a tribal sub-theme could be developed – just remember that every card not devoted to the main theme needs to be seriously evaluated.
Jodah, Archmage Eternal – Fist of Suns in the command zone. It doesn't help you fix your mana, but it does cheapen some spells once you have fixed it.
Karona, False God – Pumps your opponents’ creatures, letting them swing even harder into your walkers; talk about anti-synergy with your deck.
O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami - While this seems like it could be a rattlesnake, O-Kagachi doesn't care if they attack your planeswalkers. It also only does something if you can give it haste or if it is already on the battlefield when they damage you. Overall, not very good for superfriends.
Progenitus – Some people love him, others hate him. Protection from everything is awesome, but to me he’s still just a big, dumb beater. Sure, he’s unblockable, but he still dies to wrath.
Ramos, Dragon Engine - Ramos is a serious contender given all the extra mana he can generate. If you run many wraths, he may not be so useful, but this is definitely the best new five color commander for us.
Reaper King – Vindicate on a stick is nice, but he would be next to useless without tribal support, and there aren’t that many scarecrows (or even changelings) that synergize with a planeswalker deck.
Scion of the Ur-Dragon – Great for a dragon deck, but again lacking synergy with a planeswalker deck.
Sliver Hivelord - An indestructible blocker is great for protecting your planeswalkers. The only problem being that he only provides one blocker.
Sliver Overlord – Slivers are aggressive little buggers, and this guy allows for a toolbox build. Overlord doesn't do much for your typical planeswalker build, but he could be great in a deck with a tribal sub-theme.
Sliver Queen – Ignore the fact that this is a sliver for a moment. This generates a chump blocker for every 2 that you spend and twice as many with Doubling Season in play. That by itself is great. Given that it (and the tokens) are slivers, you may be tempted to run some utility slivers, such as Gemhide Sliver, Necrotic Sliver, etc. That call would have to be according to your meta. I personally felt safer telling my opponents that the queen was the only sliver in my deck and only because I wanted a token producer. Eventually, she got dethroned by Ramos.
The Ur-Dragon - Tribal general is tribal. And expensive.
Walkers are the heart of this deck, but lets face it - not all planeswalkers are created equal. When building my deck, I decided that I needed a system to evaluate how effective a walker would be in my build. Then, of course, I tweaked the focus of my build, throwing off my entire system. For the purpose of this thread, I’m doing a score out of ten with regards to effectiveness in a dedicated WUBRG planeswalker deck with a focus on wraths and token production.
Power at any cost...
Here is a breakdown of my scoring system:
(0-2 points) Plus Ability – How good is it? Does it do anything useful beyond adding loyalty? If this only lived one turn, would this ability have been worth the mana investment?
(0-2 points) Minus Ability – How good is it? Is it worth making my walker more vulnerable by removing loyalty? If this only lived one turn, would this ability have been worth the mana investment?
(0-2 points) Ultimate Ability – Is this worth building up to? Is it worth losing the walker if it costs all remaining loyalty? Will this win me the game or at least put the odds in my favor?
(0-1 point) – Doubling Season Synergy – Can I ultimate the turn it comes into play with Doubling Season on the board? Does this produce double tokens/counters with Doubling Season?
(0-1 point) Mana Requirements – Is this easy to cast in a five color deck? (No more than two specific mana symbols may be a good guideline). Is this something I can play early, or do I have to wait until very late to play it?
(0-1 point) Hate Magnet – Is this card, overall, worth the hate it will evoke? (this is meta-relative)
(0-1 point) Value – Your budget may vary from mine, but this asks if I feel the card’s effect is worth its monetary value.
This system is very subjective and allows a lot of personal bias. You may find that I have rated something differently than you would. Also, this system cannot be applied directly to some walkers (those with a number of abilities other than 3, those with multiple plus abilities or all minus abilities, etc.); in those cases, I have applied the spirit of the system rather than the actual points breakdown. If you disagree with my scoring, discuss why or feel free to come up with your own system.
Ajani Goldmane (6.5/10) – Lifegain is slow, pump is decent, and the token can be large but has no protection or evasion.
Ajani Steadfast (9/10) - His first ability is amazing in a deck that cares about aggro; in this build it may gain us a couple life. The second ability amazing - it proliferates our planeswalkers and pumps our tokens. The emblem is also amazing, protecting our walkers while keeping us alive. The very easy mana requirements and excellent synergy with Doubling Season makes this one of my favorite new walkers.
Ajani Unyielding (8.5/10) - Card advantage is nice. removal is useful. The ult is bonkers. He may not ult immediately with Doubling Season, but his ult does work very nicely with DS on the battlefield.
Ajani Vengeant (7.5/10) – Lockdown and repeatable Lightning Helix are good, and the land destruction is insane, but it draws a lot of hate because of that. Too bad it can’t ultimate immediately with Doubling Season.
Ajani, Caller of the Pride (7.5/10) – The pump and abilities are alright but only help one creature. This incarnation’s best ability is the possibility to create an entire army on its own, and herein lies amazing Doubling Season synergy - for only 1WW, you can get tokens equal to twice your life total the turn it comes into play.
Ajani, Mentor of Heroes (8/10) - The fact that this Ajani has two plus abilities certainly weighs in his favor. My favorite is definitely his second - I could see myself doing nothing but that all game. Of course, his ultimate works in a pinch to give you a little life buffer, but the card advantage while building up to that much loyalty should be helping to win the game by then.
Ajani, Valient Protector (1.5/10) - Overcosted and geared towards a creature deck rather than superfriends. Move along, nothing to see here.
Angrath, Minotaur Pirate (4.5) - His plus can clear small tokens and has some great Humility synergy, but his minus is useless, being tribal-focused. His ult is great and could potentially be a wincon, but it fails the Doubling Season test and isn't really worth building up to - not to mention that for it to do any good, they have to have lots of power, which makes it less likely he will survive to ult.
Angrath, the Flame-Chained (6.5/10) - It's nice to get new blood in the planeswalker pool, and this Angrath is alright if not stellar. His plus ability may not affect the board, but it can limit your opponents' options while throwing in a little burn. His minus could be better - stealing a creature is decent, and getting rid of it is great, but honestly, I'd rather get rid of bigger creatures, not smaller. His ult is great and can often be lethal to at least one player.
Arlinn Kord/Arlinn, Embraced by the Moon (3/10) - Arlinn is great for some decks but not for this one. The sad part is that her best use in this deck would be to alternately produce a wolf and lightning bolt every other turn until she dies, which might yield 3 tokens and deal 9 damage - assuming she never gets touched by an opponent in the six turns it would take to accomplish this. Her plus abilities are not made for this deck, and while the ult is nifty, it isn't worth wasting turns with the plus abilities.
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver - (5.5/10) - Three mana is awesome, and the card has potential, but I feel like I want it to seem cooler than it is. The problem is, there is no way that Ashiok can affect the board the turn it comes into play. Even with Doubling Season in play, you can only activate the first ability. It offers no protection for itself and simply sits there asking to be attacked before it eventually does something powerful. I would love to activate the ultimate, but if your opponents have creatures, you can bet you will never get there.
Chandra Ablaze (4/10) – This card really needs to be in mono-R to be useful.
Chandra Nalaar (6/10) – The first ability is weak, the second can be helpful against utility creatures. The ultimate is fairly awesome, being capable of wrecking a player’s board if it doesn’t kill them outright. Catching someone off-guard by using Doubling Season to ultimate the turn it drops would be priceless.
Chandra, Bold Pyromancer (6/10) – It's a bit costly, but the plus gives some mana back. Spot removal is relatively weak, but the ult is awesome. It really is too bad that it costs six mana.
Chandra, Flamecaller (5/10) - Tokens are nice, but these don't stick around to defend, and rarely do we care about going offensive. The wheel effect gives card advantage, but sometimes you'd rather keep what's in your hand and just draw one more. And the effective board wipe can be nice, if you have enough loyalty.
Chandra, Pyrogenius (4.5/10) - This Chandra is really bad. High mana cost for something that doesn't really affect the board. Ulting it is decent, but I'd rather cast a wrath and hit all opponent's creatures.
Chandra, Pyromaster (4/10) - This Chandra starts out decent, but that ultimate is designed for an entirely different deck archetype. After exiling ten cards, I'm most likely going to find a wrath, and having three copies of that is pretty pointless. It's not an ultimate I would ever want to fire off in this deck, and her other abilities aren't amazing enough to overcome that.
Chandra, Roaring Flame (1/10) - This starts as a creature that is quite unlikely to ever flip in this deck. Even if it does, the generic burn abilities aren't really in theme with this deck.
Chandra, the Firebrand (9/10) – The best Chandra, in my opinion. More splashable, with a more versatile plus ability, it also copies spells (hello, proliferate). The ultimate is scaled back a little from Nalaar, but it is still very useful.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance (8/10) - I want to try her, and I wonder if I was a little conservative with her rating. I normally hate abilities that exile a card and only give you one chance to cast it before losing it forever, but in this case, she at least does something beneficial if you aren't able to cast it. Obviously better with Divining Top or scry. The extra mana ability is nice - sometimes it will be useful. Paying loyalty for a single target creature removal (and only for smaller creatures) is a bit lame. Her emblem is really, really good and totally worth burning out all of Chandra's loyalty for. Even better, she can ult and stay alive the turn she comes into play if you have Doubling Season. Overall, I'd say this is easily the best Chandra variant for superfriends.
Clever Impersonator (10/10) - Okay, maybe it's cheating to put a him here, but technically, he can become a planeswalker. Whether you copy one controlled by an opponent or you really need a second activation from one of your own (at the cost of losing the original), Clever Impersonator is there to be loyal. Ordinarily, these restrictions would reduce his score, but he isn't limited to planeswalkers. The sheer versatility of becoming a second Doubling Season or Rings of Brighthearth or Mirari's Wake or any non-land permanent you want is incredible.
Dack Fayden (4.5/10) - Don't get me wrong, he's a good card - just not for this deck. We have no way to abuse the ultimate, and the best ability is the minus one. He really needs to be in a different deck to shine.
Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast (7/10) - Tokens are nice, and normally defender soesn't matter to us. Removal is meh. And the ult can be amazing or really lame, depending on the game. This one's hard to evaluate because it is so variable.
Daretti, Scrap Savant (5/10) - A splashable piece of card filtering, which can be helpful even if it isn't straight up card draw. The second ability is a bit weak because even though we may want to get artifacts back, we don't run enough to guarantee that we can use this ability. Recursion on Rings and our other toys is nice, but overall, his focus just isn't along the theme of this deck.
Domri Rade (3.5/10) - Nothing against Domri, it's simply the wrong deck. My Animar deck loves its copy, but there just aren't enough creatures in here to make any of the abilities that useful.
Dovin Baan (5/10) - I'd rather remove creatures than shrink/pseudo-Arrest them. Card draw and lifegain is nice, but it's a minus ability that has to be fed loyalty. And the ult is game-breaking - if you ever get there.
Elspeth Tirel (7/10) – Her first ability varies widely in efficacy. Three tokens off the second ability are rather nice. Her ultimate is tricky – sometimes it will be to your advantage, other times it would hose all your walkers and support artifacts/enchantments. While very powerful, the conditional nature of this card reduced its score. It’s a card that can get you back in the game if your behind, but one you’d rather not pull if you’re already in the lead.
Elspeth, Knight-Errant (9/10) – Tokens are always nice, but the pump is somewhat small for EDH. This card mainly shines with its ultimate, which is totally worth losing Elspeth to pull off, especially if she hits the table with Doubling Season already on the board.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion - (8.5/10) - I love all three of her abilities. Getting three tokens and extra loyalty is very nice. The minus is a wrath that won't hit my creatures and will hit anything bound to deal a lot of damage to my walkers. And the emblem is pretty good, too. I am disappointed in the CMC 6, but that doesn't stop me from playing this lovely lady.
Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury (7/10) - Freyalise has two solid abilities - tokens that can do something more than just chump block and a repeatable Naturalize are always welcome. The ultimate is pretty variable - sometimes it does nothing, other times it draws lots of cards - and I may never use it, but I decided to give her a chance.
Garruk Relentless//Garruk, the Veil-Cursed (8.5/10) – Five abilities makes this an exception to the scoring system. Being able to burn a utility creature (or something larger with Doubling Season) is good and helps him flip to his meaner side. The tokens, whether 2/2 or 1/1 deathtouch are definitely nice and help protect your walkers from ground attacks. Tutoring for a creature is always nice, but this ability’s mileage (as well as the ultimate’s) will vary a lot by build and is usually weakened because a dedicated walker deck has fewer targets.
Garruk Wildspeaker (9/10) – His first ability is a combination of ramp and color-fixing, two things always welcomed in a five color deck. His second spawns some nice-sized tokens. The ultimate is nice if you have a lot of tokens but less than helpful post-wrath.
Garruk, Apex Predator (9.5/10) - I really wanted to give him a 10 for having four amazing abilities, but the seven mana-cost is a little steep. This guy is going to be a hate magnet, but the sheer power will be worth it. He defends himself, defends you, breaks up a mirror match, and really lays the smackdown on an opponent. What's not to love?
Garruk, Caller of Beasts (2/10) - This incarnation is really bad for a sweeper build but could prove useful in a tribal deck; even then, his CMC 6 is pretty bad unless you have lots of spare mana (say, from mana slivers). He feels like he really wants to play mono-green or two color at the most.
Garruk, Primal Hunter (7.5/10) – Getting 3/3s as a plus ability is amazing. The second ability is decent even if all you have is the 3/3 from the previous turn. Generating an army of 6/6s is flat out insane. The major strike here is triple mana in five color and the fact that there are better incarnations. I ran him for a while until I cut down to no more than two versions of each planeswalker.
Gideon Jura (5/10) – I suppose he could be used to draw hate away from other walkers, but I find there are better ways to deal with opposing creatures. The royal assassin ability is nice, but the ultimate is underwhelming - unless you already have Teferi's emblem.
Gideon of the Trials (4/10) - I've never been a fan of Gideon, and this one doesn't change my mind. He can fog a permanent, and he can keep you from losing, but that protection is very temporary.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar (6.5/10) - This Gideon likes to attack, which isn't really what my deck is about. The tokens are nice, but I have other walkers who add loyalty for that. The emblem is nice but hardly game-breaking.
Gideon, Battle-forged (5.5/10) - The creature side is cheap, easy to flip, and has potential to survive, but the walker side is still lacking. Again, I'd rather deal with creatures than say "hey, Gideon requests an assisted suicide." The one good thing is he could make our general (or another creature) survive one of our lighter board wipes.
Gideon, Champion of Justice (5/10) – Doubling Season does interesting things with this Gideon, but I still find that he doesn't really do all that much. Sure, he gets more counters, and sure he can become big, but he still gets chumped by a 0/1 goat. His ultimate can be a powerful reset, but it can vaporize your board position as well as your opponents'. I'm not a fan of a conditional board wipe masquerading as a planeswalker that does nothing else; I'd rather just run an unconditional board wipe - straightforward and effective.
Huatli, Dinosaur Knight (0/10) - Wow. This is a first. We've had some bad planeswalkers, especially from planeswalker decks, but this is the first I've ever awarded 0/10. It says "Dinosaur" four times on this card, but that doesn't make it cool enough for superfriends. In fact, it's completely useless, as this makes it so narrow it can't do anything for us.
Huatli, Radiant Champion (4/10) - Huatli just isn't meant to become a superfriend. The ult is the only decent part, turning tokens into card draw, but it's not really worth building up to.
Huatli, Warrior Poet (4.5/10) - Free tokens are alright (not as good as increased loyalty AND tokens). The other abilities are just a bit weak for this deck.
Jace Beleren (5.5/10) – Helping your opponents draw into answers is rarely a good idea. Drawing extra cards yourself is great, but the second ability really needs a repeatable proliferate source to be sustainable. The last ability could help kill someone who has been too greedy or who has been milled, but is not a dependable way to kill anyone if your deck isn’t dedicated mill.
Jace, Architect of Thought (9/10) – His shrink ability is mediocre until you combine it with Humility, where it becomes a powerhouse. His second ability lets you draw into good stuff but also lets your opponents see what’s coming. His ultimate, though, has the potential to break a game completely in half, whether you just get everyone’s most powerful spell or whether you search things up that combo together for something even more malicious.
Jace, Cunning Castaway (5/10) - Lame plus ability, moderate minus, and a really cool, unique ultimate that just isn't worth building up to. The Doubling Season synergy is off the charts, but that's about the only way I'd want tp play this card.
Jace, Ingenious Mind-Mage (5/10) - Repeatable card draw is great, but he doesn't protect himself. Permanent theft is also great, but without Doubling Season, it takes a while to build up to that, and I'd frankly just rather board wipe. Plus, at six mana, he's a bit expensive for what he does.
Jace, Memory Adept (7.5/10) – His plus ability is great, but the other two again depend on dedicated mill to be truly effective.
Jace, Telepath Unbound (6/10) - He's a cheap creature that filters cards but has to survive to flip. Once he does, his best ability may let you recur a board wipe, but again, he builds to a mill effect that really doesn't do much for us.
Jace, the Living Guildpact (5/10) - While the ultimate is great card advantage, I really don't care to use his first ability to build up to it - it just feels like a bad scry variant in a non-reanimator deck. The second ability can be used to reset planeswalkers or disrupt opponents, but it's not great.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor (6.5/10) – I will probably catch a lot of flack on this one, but I warned you it was a subjective scoring system. In my opinion, this card is very overrated, and in my meta, it is a death sentence to anyone who plays it – you will be playing archenemy without the benefit of a scheme deck. Let’s look at the abilities. Fatesealing one player in a multiplayer game is far from effective (a duel would be different, but this deck is for multiplayer). Brainstorm is good but does not build his loyalty (he will be taking damage) and can be had for less than 2% of this price tag – all while costing 2U less (yeah, yeah, yeah, his is repeatable – if you can keep him on the board). Returning a single creature is fairly weak most of the time in multiplayer and really only good if you bounce one of your own enters-the-battlefield creatures. The ultimate is amazing but highly unlikely to ever happen (at least in my meta), and even DS has a hard time helping because you need four times his starting loyalty to pull it off. When all is said and done, the price tag and hate magnet tend to drown out the appeal.
Jace, Unraveler of Secrets (9/10) - This deck often needs card advantage, and being able to scry first makes it even better. I prefer more permanent removal than his bounce ability, but I'd honestly be happy drawing every turn with the occasional emblem. Five starting loyalty is very nice and works very nicely with Doubling Season, letting you get the emblem and keep the walker the turn it comes into play.
Jaya Ballard (3.5/10) – Focused for spell-slinger and not very good for us.
Karn Liberated (7/10) – Karn’s biggest thing going for him is probably the ease of casting a colorless walker. His first ability is too random and doesn’t affect the actual board state. His second is amazing but needs serious proliferation to remain sustainable, or you can settle on an every-other turn basis if you can keep him on the board. And I personally would probably never activate his ultimate.
Karn, Scion of Urza (2.5/10) – Really not what I want to be doing in this deck.
Kaya, Ghost Assassin (5/10) - Kaya can reset herself, but she seems better suited for a creature deck. Her big minus is great, but it leaves her vulnerable.
Kiora, Master of the Depths (6.5/10) - Her untap is nice, but Garruk Wildspeaker does it better. The minus is pretty bad for us. The ultimate can be awesome - I mean three 8/8s (or six with DS), but the fight mechanic will often be useless for us, as most of our creatures are 1/1 or 3/3 - hardly the same as the 8/8s.
Kiora, the Crashing Wave (7.5/10) - Damage prevention, card draw, possible ramp, and a repeatable source of 9/9 tokens (once again, better after you have Doubling Season out.
Koth of the Hammer (4/10) – Great in a mono-R deck, very weak in a five color deck. If you run all dual lands, I suppose he becomes more usable, but even then I’d rather have a different card.
Liliana of the Dark Realms (5/10) – Great in mono-B, and a little more useful than Koth in five color (tutor for duals, use Urborg to improve the other two abilities), but this card just isn’t good enough for a five color planeswalker deck that isn’t running duals.
Liliana of the Veil (7/10) – Her ult is amazing, but building to it can be painful, in the self-inflicted way.
Liliana Vess (9/10)– Very often a five mana tutor, the original Liliana is still great. All three of her abilities are good.
Liliana, Death Wielder (2/10) - Ugh, another piece of overpriced, underpowered trash from a planeswalker deck.
Liliana, Death's Majesty (5/10) - She makes blockers but mills us in search of creatures to reanimate, which will be few and far between in this deck. Her non-Zombie wrath can be decent, unless you're playing against zombies.
Liliana, the Last Hope (2/10) - Her abilities work better in a creature deck. The tokens might be nice, but it's a pain to build towards and significantly worse after board wipes.
Nahiri, the Harbinger (5/5) - Reverse looting is not as good as actual card advantage and does nothing with an empty hand. Her minus can be good but is oddly specific about creatures and artifacts having to be tapped, which means she's nearly useless against things like Darksteel Forge or Akroma's Memorial. And her ult is underwhelming in superfriends, as we only have a few real targets and may have drawn into them by then.
Nahiri, the Lithomancer (5.5/10) - This girl knows what she wants to do, but unfortunately, it isn't play with other planeswalkers. Awesome in an equipment deck, mediocre in superfriends. She basically just spawns out tokens for us and maybe eventually gives us a sword.
Narset Transcendent (7.5/10) - Narset offers some conditional draw, but her second two abilities are where she shines. Giving our sweepers a chance to rebound buys extra breathing room, and the emblem practically locks opponents out (that and Humility pretty much seal the game. The biggest risk with her is if an opponent steals her and gets the emblem for themselves.
Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh (7/10) - Not as good as his original planeswalker incarnation, but still a decent card. That ult is definitely worth building towards and even insta-ults with Doubling Season. I want to try him, but I think I'll wait for him to drop in price a bit.
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker (9/10) – Yes, he has a ridiculous mana cost. He’s still my favorite planeswalker. All three of his abilities are amazing and can drastically change the game.
Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver (5.5/10) - The worst Bolas is the best walker from a planeswalker deck. He's not horrible, just a bit overcosted and not the best plus ability.
Nissa Revane (4/10) – Great in an elf-tribal deck but just doesn’t do enough in a dedicated planeswalker deck. The ability to keep searching up one chump blocker is mediocre at best and useless once that blocker becomes exiled or has to face evasion of any sort.
Nissa, Nature's Artisan (3/10) - Essentially, this is a one-shot double Coiling Oracle for six mana that might survive long enough to gain you a tiny bit of life. I'd rather run Coiling Oracle.
Nissa, Sage Animist (5/10) - She's easy enough to flip and card draw is awesome. The legendary token is a bit disappointing (it's only a 4/4, and we can only have one). And while I'm a fan of untapping land, I am not a fan of making them vulnerable to our board wipes.
Nissa, Steward of Elements (4/10) - An X planeswalker is cool, but she doesn't synergize with superfriends very well.
Nissa, Vital Force (6.5/10) - I normally dislike animating my land and making it vulnerable to removal, but this ability does keep a rather large blocker around until your next turn before wearing off, allowing you to wrath with impunity. I would consider adding Darksteel Citadel if I planned on activating that ability often. Her regrowth ability is awesome, allowing us to bring back any other walker or utility permanent. And her ult is very good if you are still hitting land drops.
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar (6/10) - She's cheap, pumps out tokens, and offers decent card draw and lifegain. My only complaint is that her tokens are 0/1 and won't trade with anything likely to attack us.
Nissa, Worldwaker (4/10) - I want to like a planeswalker that can untap four lands or fetch any number of basic land cards and put them on the battlefield, but turning lands into creatures indefinitely is a good way to get your manabase blown up.
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath (4.5/10) - It seems sad to score a walker who makes 5/5 flying tokens so low, but I'm not impressed by Ob. His first ability doesn't affect the board and will just draw attention. His second is awesome, provided we do not have Humility in play (imagine paying loyalty and life for a 1/1). And his ultimate is somewhat lacking - either we sac a 1/1 for minimal benefit (I'd rather Skullclamp them), or we are punching a big hole in our defenses.
Ob Nixilis Reignited (7/10) - Card draw, creature removal, and an potential wincon.
Ral Zarek (8/10) - Good abilities all around. The tap may not lockdown like Tamiyo, but the untap has so much potential. Three damage is almost always useful. And the ultimate makes for disgusting shenanigans (posted on page 3, I believe).
Saheeli Rai (4.5/10) - Scry without draw isn't great. Clone tokens would be okay if they stuck around but are weakened by the fact that it only copies things you control and can't stay to block. The ult is pretty good but probably not worth building up to in this deck. I could totally see her in an artifact-heavy variant with Tezzeret and Daretti.
Samut, the Tested (4/10) - The ult is great but not worth building up to. She does pass the Doubling Season Test, but that's about the only way I'd want to get her out.
Sarkhan the Mad (5/10) – As an individual card, this version of Sarkhan is just really bad for this type of deck. His first ability will often kill him, and his last ability is pointless unless you’ve gotten several uses out of his second ability. Sure, you could sac a 1/1 soldier token to him and if you have doubling season, you would get two dragons, but that’s a best-case scenario. Overall, there are just too many other cards I’d rather be playing.
Sarkhan Unbroken (5/10) - Card draw and mana make for an awesome plus - I would do that the entire game if I could. 4/4 dragons aren't bad, either. The ult is just useless to us.
Sarkhan Vol (8/10) – His first ability fits better in an aggro deck, while this deck often plays more defensively. Temporary theft is nice but also conditional on what you steal. Five dragons (or ten if you have Doubling Season) is really good.
Sorin Markov (8.5/10) – His first ability is decent, and Mindslavering is always great, but Sorin’s second ability alone almost breaks some games. If you ever copy it with Rings of Brighthearth, expect a short game – either because two opponents are now low on life or because you are being targeted by the entire table. He certainly brings the hate.
Do you have any idea how frustrating "one size fits all" hat labels are?
Sorin, Grim Nemesis (7/10) - Very powerful abilities, but he costs 4WB. I really like that his plus is guaranteed card advantage and a potential wincon. His minus is okay - lifegain is always welcome, but the damage isn't super high, usually. And the ultimate is potentially very powerful - unless you are near the end of a game or have gotten great use out of his plus ability. It's a great mid-game ability that gets worse as a finisher the further you are in the game.
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad (9/10) – Tokens are nice, lifelink is extra nice. I can’t quite decide how much I like the emblem – the pump is permanent, but it seems so small; with Humility on the board, my creatures may deal twice as much damage, but they still trade 1-for-1 because there’s no toughness boost. His ultimate obviously depends on the board state, but whether you are stealing someone else’s good stuff or just resetting/retriggering your own, it certainly has its uses.
Sorin, Solemn Visitor (5/10) - The weakest Sorin for this deck. The emblem is great; the the stuff leading to it, not so much.
Tamiyo, Field Researcher (8/10) - The plus can be used on our own tokens or on an opponents' creatures to either draw or to discourage an attack. The minus is an ok frost ability. But the ult is awesome. Immediate card advantage and an untouchable Omniscience. And the icing on the cake is the fact that she passes the Doubling Season test - you can play her, ult her, and she still survives!
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage (10/10) – The first one (chronologically) worthy of a 10/10, and this is coming from someone who hated her when she first came out. On a sparsely populated board, her first ability can protect her/your other walkers. The card draw off the second can be very helpful. And her ultimate is insane; the first time I pulled it off, I had a Tezzeret’s Gambit in hand, which I got to cast time after time, proliferating several other walkers up to their ultimates. That emblem can win you games.
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria (7/10) – The plus is good, and the ult is great. I hope t try this out sometime.
Teferi, Temporal Archmage (10/10) - You have no idea how close I was to scoring him 11/10, but the cmc left me at a solid 10. Superfriends likes card draw, and untapping 4 permanents is awesome, especially if you can double your mana production and have The Chain Veil or Contagion Engine in play. The ultimate is a dream come true - this can easily give you 3-5 times the loyalty activations in a multiplayer game.
Teferi, Timebender (3.5/10) – The weakest of Teferi's incarnations – it costs too much mana and doesn't do enough on its own.
Tezzeret the Schemer (3/10) - It makes mana tokens, wants to run lots of artifacts, and wants to be agressive with artifacts. Not really a good fit for superfriends.
Tezzeret the Seeker (7/10) – I’ve seen other builds that use a lot of mana rocks to give him some viability, but without a surplus of artifacts in my build, he really loses appeal. He can tutor up artifact lands to fix your mana with zero loss of loyalty. Granted, the tutoring would be nice (for Rings, Clasp, or Engine), but I’d rather just run a tutor that can fetch anything.
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas (6/10) – This incarnation is even more dependent on running lots of artifacts than the other. Probably amazing in a Sharuum deck, but a bit underwhelming in five color planeswalker.
Tezzeret, Master of Metal (4/10) - Like Samut, this passes the Doubling Season Test but is the only way I'd want to get it in play.
Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded (3.5/10) – Tibalt’s abilities are generally too chaotic/random without actually changing the board state. The only exception is his Insurrection ultimate, but a) I would rather wrath those creatures and b) I would rather run Insurrection because it is more reliable.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon (8/10) - Ugin is awesome - colorless makes him easier to cast, even if he does cost 8. The plus is a little weak, but the other abilities more than make up for it. The ult is a game-winner.
Venser, the Sojourner (8/10) – Venser’s blink ability is great, and while this deck may not be focused on that, it can still retrigger things like Eternal Witness, Doubling Fish, or Contagion Engine or even reset a planeswalker who dipped really low on loyalty. The second ability is often forgotten but can be used for critical hits, especially with Vraska’s assassin tokens. And his emblem is great, making every spell much more powerful as it helps you secure the board. The biggest hit to his score was that not even Doubling Season will let you auto-ultimate.
Vraska the Unseen (8/10) – Flavorfully, I find Vraska awesome. She protects herself, blows things up, and pumps out baby-[card=Phage the Untouchable]Phages. I do wish her plus ability actually did something other than say “leave me alone.”
Vraska, Relic Seeker (8.5/10) - Great abilities, works well with Doubling Season. I'll definitely be trying this one out when I get a chance. My only complaint is that she seems a little expensive for my taste, both in mana and money.
Vraska, Scheming Gorgon (5/10) - Vraska's back, and instead of making baby-Phages, this one turns every creature we own into a full-blow Phage, which is hilarious. She also has a removal ability. Unfortunately, her plus is crap and not worth using to build up to the other abilities. At least she passes the Doubling Season instant-ult test?
Xenagos, the Reveler - (5/10) - While he is a good walker, and hasty tokens are cool, this just isn't anything I want in my planeswalker deck. The mana is negligible in a low creature deck. The token may be hasty, but a 2/2 isn't that scary in EDH. And the ultimate is not something I can ever picture using in this type of deck. I'd lose more value than I'd gain.
Proliferate, as a mechanic, is almost like cheating when it comes to planeswalkers - suddenly they're not the ones dictating how to build loyalty. It's also great with other things, which is why I chose to include a couple in my deck as support and/or backup.
There are currently 15 spells with proliferate, and nearly all of them have another ability tacked on.
Atraxa, Praetors' Voice - Awesome for creature-friendly builds, and even a potential commander if you don't mind losing red. Repeatable proliferate is nice, provided it survives, and provided you don't mind having to wait a turn to use the extra loyalty.
Why proliferate only once when you can do it twice?
Contagion Clasp – Repeatable proliferate is amazing, and this comes on a cheap, colorless artifact that slaps a -1/-1 counter on target creature – even if it doesn’t kill it, it at least gives you something to proliferate. Note that Venser can blink this to retrigger its ETB ability and/or to reset it for another activation if it’s already tapped.
Contagion Engine – As the only card that double proliferates on a single activation, this card is awesome. Also being able to shrink an entire team (including untargetable) is great. The additional mana to play this is well worth it. Also a great blink target for Venser.
Core Prowler – One of only two cards to combine proliferate and infect on the same cardboard, it seems a bit overcosted. Being weak is not a problem, as this little Horror wants to go to the graveyard.
Deepglow Skate - Doubling Fish doesn't actually proliferate - what it does is much, much better. It's also Venser's favorite pet.
Fuel for the Cause – A counterspell with proliferate – straightforward and powerful. My kind of card.
Grim Affliction – Instant removal, this card is better than it looks at first because it proliferates its own counter as well. I usually don’t run a lot of spot removal in EDH, but this card works well with the deck’s theme.
Inexorable Tide – Here’s a card I hadn’t seriously considered before typing this up, so I’m not entirely sure how to evaluate it. Repeatable proliferate is amazing, but it’s also the only card with no other purpose (Throne of Geth is at least a sac outlet). If you have walkers out, this is great; if you’re topdecking in a vacuum, I can’t think of a more useless card.
Plaguemaw Beast – The most aggressive body with proliferate, this could be great in a creature-heavy build (or at least one that wasn’t planning to wrath it away).
Spread the Sickness – Five mana is a bit pricey for sorcery speed, but at least it’s unconditional removal, which can help protect your walkers.
Steady Progress – Three mana to proliferate and replace itself at instant speed is great.
Tezzeret’s Gambit – For just a slightly higher cost (1 or 2 life), this actually generates card advantage. Sorcery speed is disappointing, but it’s still a great card.
Throne of Geth – This card varies in value according to your build. With more artifacts, it could be really good; with less, it’s just a 2-cost one shot proliferate spell. It does get significantly better once you pull Tamiyo’s ultimate (but that applies to all of the one shot spells on this list), as you can just cast and sac it repeatedly.
Thrummingbird – A cheap, evasive creature that depends on connecting to proliferate. Could be great in a creature-heavy build.
Viral Drake – The other infect/proliferate combo, and this has two advantages: flying and the ability to proliferate multiple times. Mana sinks are always useful.
Volt Charge – It’s not Lightning Bolt, but I wouldn’t run it if it was. This can be useful removal, but it’s still the proliferate I’m more interested in.
The Obvious - Anything with counters, be they +1/+1, -1/-1, poison, charge, divinity, storage, loyalty, eyeball, fade, age, time, blaze, devotion, flood, tower, training, depletion, etc. That's not the point of this section - the point is to identify the ones that synergize well with this deck. I'll include all the cards I use and others I considered, as well as a few that would fit a slightly different build.
Astral Cornucopia - Drop it for 3, and it acts like a lot of other mana rocks. Start proliferating, and it keeps producing more and more mana.
Darksteel Reactor - Typically a slow win condition, proliferate really speeds this up. Indestructibility makes it harder to remove. This was in for a while, but I eventually cut it because it doesn't do anything unless it wins the game.
Helix Pinnacle - Another typically slow win condition that can be fueled by proliferation. This one is protected with shroud.
Luminarch Ascension - It only needs four counters to go off, so proliferate is a bit limited in how much it can help this enchantment. On the other hand, getting it off a turn early can be life saving, and it synergizes well with Doubling Season's other half (you know, the Parallel Lives clause).
Lux Cannon - Triple proliferate turns this little cannon into quite the weapon (and I have pulled that off with both Contagion Clasp and Contagion Engine on the board). Unfortunately, it is too slow, and the majority of games, it gets destroyed before it actually does anything, which is the reason it was removed.
Magistrate's Scepter - Free turns are always fun, and this can go infinite with enough proliferate. The trouble I've found (and the reason I pulled it out) is it's too much off a mana drain when I want to cast other spells.
Mana Bloom - For a low investment, this enchantment can continue to pay dividends so long as you can proliferate. It can also give you one extra spell a turn if you've pulled Venser's emblem and want to be extra mean.
Myojin - EachofthefiveMyojin can be cast from your hand to gain a single divinity counter, which grants it indestructibility until you activate its one-time ability. Proliferate turns that previous sentence into a lie. Take Myojin of Cleansing Fire - as long as I proliferate the divinity counter, I can remove one to destroy all other creatures while still retaining all the pieces I need to do it again and again. The others allow for mass land destruction, discard, or card draw (only the green has no synergy with this deck).
Orochi Hatchery - Every proliferation means another snake each time you activate this. It also means that you can drop it for 2 if you get it early and not have to feel bad that it will only produce one snake. BTW - This card really loves Doubling Season, as it utilizes both clauses.
Serrated Arrows - Proliferate helps this two ways - it can refill the quiver of arrowhead counters and increase the -1/-1 counters that they inflict.
Spike Weaver - Being able to fog multiple times makes this card good on its own. Proliferating to do it every turn is even better.
Storage Lands - Why just store mana when you can increase it?
Umezawa's Jitte - Before I mention how good this is with proliferate, let me just say that I despise this card with all of the hatred one can direct at a small piece of cardboard - it's stupidly broken and undercosted. That being said, proliferate makes it even more stupidly broken and powerful. If I hadn't vowed to never play this card because I hate it so, I would have acquired one for the deck.
Vivid Lands - Proliferate these often enough, and they each become a Command Tower.
Creature selections are very dependent on your subtheme. A wrath heavy deck won't want to invest too many card slots for things that just get blown up, while a tribal deck may need more slots to strengthen the tribes efficacy. I don't plan to go into detail on tribal interactions here (look in the Alternative Budgets/Subthemes section for that); this section is instead for general utility creatures that can help the deck. Keep in mind that any creature with an ETB ability interacts well with Venser for repeatable fun.
Creatures, even more than spells, are often limited to finding just basics, so mileage varies by build. Any that trigger on ETB are especially helpful because they can then serve double-duty as disposable blockers to protect your walkers.
Weathered Wayfarer - This one-drop may be the best fixing in any non-green deck, but you need to analyze its strengths/weaknesses a bit more in five color. It can fetch any land you need, whether for color or utility, but it only works if you have less land than an opponent, it costs mana each time, and it has to stay on the board a full round before you can use it.
Wood Elves - The ability to fetch non-basic forests is key to whether you run this or not. If you have dual-lands (shock lands or original), this is awesome. If you have mostly basics or non-forest non-basics, spending 2G to fetch G seems less exciting.
Duplicant - Good colorless removal is hard to come by. Blinkable with Venser.
Eternal Witness - One of the best creatures ever printed, in my opinion. Getting back anything you need is amazing.
Gilder Bairn - Pseudo-proliferate on legs. The main disadvantage is you have to tap him first as it's an untap ability, so unless you have another way to do that, he may be taking a one-way trip into the red zone.
Maelstrom Archangel - Too bad it's not legendary, as this would be a contender for 5-color superfriends general. Flying means it may survive and connect, but then again, maybe not.
Maelstrom Wanderer - The double cascade can potentially cheat all but the most expensive walkers into play, even if Humility is in play, but you still have to be at 5URG, which means you should be able to cast them instead.
Narset, Enlightened Master - Another way to cheat walkers into play, Narset has to stick around long enough to swing, but she doesn't actually have to connect.
Peacekeeper - In a pillowfort build, this card can keep you and your walkers safe for the low investment of 1W each turn.
Non-creatures perform a variety of functions, all necessary to developing and protecting your board. Keep in mind, however, that in a deck that can run any card legal in the format, each one you choose needs to merit its slot.
The utility of a mana-fixer generally depends on your mana base - the word "basic" can change everything. I don't really have the space to talk here about every fixer out there, but I'll try to hit some of the more popular.
Chromatic Lantern - It fixes and it ramps. With this out, you never have to worry about colors, and Boseiju can be used for normal colored mana if you don't feel like paying life for the uncounterable clause. Even fetch lands become mana-producers with Lantern in play.
Coalition Relic - A mana rock that can produce 1-2 mana of any color under normal circumstances and even more with proliferate
Crop Rotation - Sac a land to get any land - works best when if you're getting something more versatile than a basic.
Cultivate/Kodama's Reach - 2-for-1s are nice, and they even ramp a little for the next turn. Require basics.
Expedition Map - Colorless mana-fixing can be especially helpful in a 5-color deck if you haven't drawn a green source yet. Fetching any land you want it great.
Farseek - Two mana ramp capable of grabbing anything with a basic land type other than forest, but it doesn't have to be a basic land, which means this is great with dual lands and shock lands.
Fetchlands - Some of the best mana-fixers are lands. Terramorphic Expanse, Evolving Wilds, and the panoramas if you run basics. Entire cycles of other fetches work for both basic and non-basic but vary in efficiency depending on what they find.
Harrow - This is essentially a break-even on cards, which may or may not be worth it. Saccing Riftstone Portal would be awesome but unlikely. It does have the advantage of putting the lands in untapped. Scary against counterspells, as you can 2-for-1 yourself and lose a land. Requires basics.
Journey of Discovery - The entwine makes this quite pricey, but the flexibility is nice - you can choose fixing, ramp, or both. Requires basics.
Land Tax - In a basic-heavy build, this card is amazing. Even one use gives a 3-for-1 and can setup your next three land drops. Keep it on the board a while and regulate your land drops so someone else still has more than you, and you can experience some serious deck-thinning. If you have all non-basics, though, it's fairly useless.
Manamorphose - One-time fixing, but it replaces itself both in mana and in card advantage. Can be copied by Chandra, the Firebrand for ramp and card advantage.
Primal Growth - A token deck won't mind the kicker. Getting the lands untapped is great. Requires basics.
Prismatic Omen - Two mana to ensure you don't have to worry about colors. Cheaper than Chromatic Lantern (mana-wise), but it doesn't ramp and it can't be returned with Academy Ruins.
Tempt with Discovery - Your mileage will vary depending on your playgroup. It costs 4, which may be high for a single land, but netting 3-5 lands makes this amazing.
Tithe - Clearly better when it has non-basic Plains to fetch rather than just Plains. Being able to fetch one land is great, getting two for W is a steal. Getting duals provides fixing for any colors you want.
I selected wraths based on my meta. Sure, Wrath of God, Wrath of Satan, and Day of Judgment are cheap (mana-wise), but they don't take care of all the indestructibility I've been seeing lately, nor do they get around counter magic. They also don't do anything unique (like card draw) or hit any non-creatures. Here's a list of the ones I'm using:
Austere Command - Amazing utility in one card - it can be a full wrath if you want, or it can be used against enchantment/artifact decks. I run this in every white deck I own.
Black Sun’s Zenith - The -1/-1 counters get around indestructibility and can be proliferated (deck synergy!). It also shuffles back into the library, giving you a chance to use it again later.
Decree of Pain - The cycling ability can knock out an army of tokens while getting around countermagic, and the full spell can give you tons of card advantage.
End Hostilities - The worst thing about playing an equipment deck is that killing the creatures is not enough; you kill them all, only to have a 0/1 goat jump into the ring wearing boots and armor while swinging multiple swords (MTG physics are weird!). End Hostilities helps clean up the creatures and their toys.
Hallowed Burial - Tuck is sometimes even better than wrath, especially in decks that take advantage of recursion, death triggers, or indestructible.
Supreme Verdict - Uncounterable to make those blue mages cry.
Other wrath options come on spells or creatures. The most powerful can wipe out everything except planeswalkers, which can give you the game, but they aren't for every meta. Given the number of options Wizards has given us, there should be something for everyone. Here are a few of the more popular ones:
Akroma's Vengeance - Powerful when needed and has the option to cycle when you really need something else. A great card to level the board, leaving only lands and planeswalkers.
Cyclonic Rift - While not a permanent board wipe, it can buy you a temporary reprieve and even open the way for a token army to knock someone out.
Decree of Annihilation - Super nasty in either mode. Hardcast, this gets around indestructibility and strips everyone of their hard-earned manabase, not even allowing for recursion. It also empties their hands and most permanents, leaving your walkers to bask in its mushroom cloud. Can you imagine doing this with Bolas on the table? Even if they draw and cast a land, that just adds to his loyalty. Cycled, this card offers nearly uncounterable land destruction.
Elspeth Tirel - I talked about her in the Planeswalker list, but she does have the unfortunate side effect of nuking your other walkers. As a trade-off, she keeps your tokens intact.
Gaze of Granite - Keeps the lands but blows up everything smaller than X - it can at least be tailored to your needs, but it can take out your walkers if the X gets too high.
Jokulhaups - Taking out lands means you'd better have a wincon on the board, but most walkers will contribute once they don't have to worry about your opponent casting spells or attacking.
Nevinyrral's Disk - Larry Niven's Disk lacks the surprise of a non-permanent, but it also lets you drop it and (once it untaps) have instant access for the measly cost of 1.
Obliterate - Watch UU stream down the faces of blue mages everywhere. As long as you have a walker or two out, you'll be doing fine.
Oblivion Stone - Usually not a good option as it also takes out your walkers.
Planar Cleansing - Usually not a good option as it also takes out your walkers.
Scourglass - Also not a good option as it takes out your walkers and has timing restrictions.
Spreading Plague - As long as it stays on the board, not many other creatures will.
Honorable Mention - I wanted to mention Merciless Eviction by itself. While I am a fan of having options and of exile, under certain circumstances, this card can be turned into a liability - if an opponent casts it (whether by Mindslavering you or with Diluvian Primordial, Chancellor of the Spires, Knowledge Exploitation, etc), they can really hose your board. Running it would be meta-dependent.
These are lands that do more than just produce mana or fetch other lands.
Academy Ruins - Getting back artifacts is great, even when you're only running a handful. The Contagion artifacts, skullclamp, your mana rocks - these cards are in the deck for a reason, and if they get destroyed, Ruins can flip them on top of your library.
Alchemist’s Refuge - Flashing a walker isn't the greatest, as loyalty abilities are sorcery speed, but flashing a wrath just before your turn can be a huge tempo swing just after they cast their creatures.
Bojuka Bog - Gravehate that doesn't take a dedicated slot is worth the comes into play tapped drawback.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All - Added after a frustrating game where we really needed a wrath but couldn't get one to stick. this turns all wraths into Supreme Verdict.
Command Tower - I know I said just utility, but this card is too amazing not to mention. produces any color with no drawback.
Rogue's Passage - This land may not do much for most builds, but with an infect subtheme, this card becomes pure gold.
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale - Not for those with a small wallet, but the ability can really slow down decks that would like to attack our walkers.
Practically the most powerful planeswalker ever printed - who else has 20+ ultimate abilities?
This section covers other cards that can be good in the deck - some more critical than others.
Doubling Season - Iconic in a walker deck, Doubling Season gives double starting loyalty, which can lead to surprise blowouts. It also doubles the speed of your proliferation (on your permanents) and gives you double tokens. Any card that helps your main theme, your sub-theme, and your sub-sub-theme is great.
Humility - This card is more versatile than it seems. It equalizes all creatures on the board. It prevents damage by reducing the power of your opponents' creatures. It hoses utility creatures. It nerfs generals. It shuts down enters-the-battlefield abilities (including the ones that could blow it up). It combos with the Chandra plus abilities to kill creatures and with Jace, Architect of Thought's plus to nullify any attacks. Very worthwhile if it can fit your budget.
Parallel Lives - Doubling Season's little brother. Works great in a token deck for 1 cheaper and a fraction of the price.
Priviledged Position - Good protection for your other cards. It at least has to eat removal before they can target your other stuff.
Rings of Brighthearth - If you build any version of this deck, GET THIS CARD! It can double any loyalty ability for just 2. It doubles the proliferation off the proliferation artifacts. It turns Lux Cannon into Lux Machinegun. It finds a second land when you crack a fetchland. It gives you extra activations of Luminarch Ascension without using more white mana. This card does more for one card slot than any other card in the deck, and it is worth every penny.
Rystic Study - It's cheap and either draws a few cards before getting destroyed or slows your opponents down. Some people will actually wait an extra turn or limit themselves to one spell rather than two just to keep you from drawing. Sounds like a win-win to me.
Savor the Moment/Time Warp and friends - Extra turns are another way to cheat your planeswalkers' loyalty even higher, often allowing you to ultimate before any expected you could.
Skullclamp - You turn tokens into card advantage. Need I say more?
Sphere of Safety - It usually only costs 1 or 2, but that can mean the difference between survival or getting overrun. Doesn't do a lot against a single voltron attacker.
Sudden Spoiling - An interesting card that can shore up a number of deck weaknesses. Split Second makes it nigh uncounterable, and the card can be used as a fog or simply to hose one player in combat. It can also be combined with a wrath to take out even indestructible creatures (or in response to the Avacyn player's wrath).
The Chain Veil - A second activation for each planeswalker is amazing. It's even better than proliferate because you also get the extra abilities. The life loss is reasonable and shouldn't be an issue in a dedicated planeswalker deck. If anything, it encourages you to run even more walkers.
Tutors - Of course they're good. I don't think we need to discuss them in detail. They find you what you need when you need them.
WUBRGWUBRGWUBRG
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Oh - and special thanks to Gelf - I didn't know the extent of formatting we could do in one of these threads until I looked through the coding on his Animar Primer (which, I have to admit, convinced me to build my own Animar deck).
This deck will continue to change and evolve, so feel free to leave suggestions.
WUBRGWUBRGWUBRG Under Construction
A planeswalker deck is expensive; even on a low budget, the cost threshold is substantial compared to many other archetypes. That being said, limited resources do not necessarily preclude you from enjoying planeswalkers - it all depends on your build.
The trick to creating your own build is to balance each card's cost with its power-level. Is that card worth spending $X, or would something else be an acceptable substitute? You could just cram all the cheap planeswalkers together, but cutting a couple of mediocre ones could pay for just one that synergizes better.
Listed below are some other build ideas. There are also options to improve the deck for those who wish to spend a bit more. Got another build you's like to try/seen done? Post it in the thread for discussion. Lower Budget
-Horde of Notions Elementals
-Sliver tribal
-Infect
-Progenitus beats face Higher Budget
-Mega-Budget Manabase
-Uber-Douche
Elementals are a very versatile tribe of creature. Many have relevant abilities, so reusing them makes sense. The following list is designed to be very low budget (by planeswalker standards) and take advantage of ETB abilities and counter proliferation. There are also a couple of higher budget suggestions.
This deck can play two ways - it can play defensively to get maximum effect out of the walkers or it can play aggro/control with the walkers along for the ride. Being creature heavy, it doesn't really like wraths.
All-Stars: Venser, the Sojourner - able to retrigger elementals with ETB effects Crib Swap - exile removal that can be recast over and over with the general Skullbriar, the Walking Grave - keeps getting proliferated and keeps coming back Spitemare - a good rattlesnake to protect your walkers Rings of Brighthearth - doubles abilities from your walkers and your general
Cost Analysis:
The body of this deck is worth approximately 30% of my build (land not included). While it only has 11 Planeswalkers, it is a great budget option for someone looking to start a planeswalker deck for cheap. Obviously, cards can be added/changed out as the player acquires more.
Proliferation may be great for walkers, but it's also killer for infect. The following deck is designed to work on both. The actual general doesn't matter. Cromat offers options, Progenitus can one-shot a player with Triumph of the Hordes, Scion of the Ur-Dragon can turn into Skittles for a turn and dump him in the graveyard, and Atogatog would just be funny. This deck has the added advantage that many of the cards are barely worth anything, allowing you to splurge on a few more planeswalkers.
This deck focuses on walkers that can remove potential blockers or produce tokens that can be given infect with Triumph of the Hordes and/or Grafted Exoskeleton. It also allows the creatures to deal direct damage so you can avoid the red zone altogether. If you can get at least one poison counter on each opponent, each proliferate spell will become more effective. Unfortunately, this also means that the planeswalkers will sometimes be playing second fiddle while the infect creatures steal the show. Replacing some infect slots with more planeswalkers could fix this, but it would definitely raise the budget.
All-Stars: Venser, the Sojourner - Venser's often forgotten middle ability becomes way more powerful with poison. His blink can also retrigger Ichor Rats as a pseudo-proliferate for poison. Corrupted Conscience - take their baddest creature and make it even scarier Ichor Rats - a poison counter on each player means all you need to do to win is proliferate Reaper of Sheoldred - excellent blocker to protect your walkers, as it turns big attackers into a lethal liability
Cost Analysis: With Cromat or Scion of the Ur-Dragon in command, this deck is fairly evenly priced with the Elemental build; Progenitus brings it up to 33% of my deck's value (not including land). It is fairly deadly and manages to pack extra planeswalkers, but the sheer deadliness of infect may overshadow the planeswalkers at times.
Sliver Overlord - Sliver Tribal Superfriends - Medium Budget
Slivers are a very polarizing race - either you love them or hate them. It is my belief that any sliver player justly deserves any and all cardboard beatdowns that come their way in a game. With that in mind, they are a powerfully diverse tribe for a five color deck. It's just too bad that there aren't any planeswalkers that make sliver tokens... or are there?
This deck wants to play around by turning the tokens produced by planeswalkers into slivers, which it can then use for a variety of nefarious purposes including mana ramp, aggro, removal, and of course, spawning even more slivers. It also has a couple of finishers in the shape of Virulant and Legion. Sliver Overlord was selected as the general because it can search for any sliver in the deck - it turns the deck into a toolbox for whatever ability you currently need. I also threw in Amoemoid Changeling and Unnatural Selection to combo with his theft ability.
All-Stars:
Um... it's a sliver deck. Your all-stars are whatever you need at any given time to make your horde evolve to the situation. That and Hivestone, which makes your planeswalkers spit out slivers. Necrotic Sliver - Turning every token your walkers churn out into a Vindicate seems pretty powerful. Gemhide Sliver/Manaweft Sliver - Five color decks can always use mana-fixing, and these guys provide it in swarms. Harmonic Sliver - Removal is great, but keep in mind that this is not a may ability. If your opponents run out of targets, you will start nuking your own. Running something like Darksteel Ingot can provide a target that soaks up triggers and doesn't go away.
Cost Analysis: This one comes in about double the value of the previous examples, but it's still less than 65% of the build I'm running. This would be really good for someone looking to play a quick aggressive game with a little bit of shenanigans. Keep in mind it will likely draw a lot of hate, and it's biggest weaknesses include board wipes.
Higher Budget recommendations: Sliver Queen (although i don't really feel like she's needed)
I like the deck! I thought of a deck like this the moment i found out that Rings of Brighthearth worked on planeswalkers. Which I still believe to be OP as shet. (Despite never once seeing it happen in-game). How does your deck fair when you dont get doubling season out? And what is the most often way you win? (Ie: your most used win-con)
How does your deck fair when you dont get doubling season out? And what is the most often way you win? (Ie: your most used win-con)
I've actually never had Doubling Season out yet. I traded for it three weeks ago, but our Tuesday EDH has been on hold for the holidays. Here's hoping I get it tonight.
That being said, I'm still in the process of tuning the deck. My first game, I pulled five ultimate abilities and completely smashed everyone. After that, they wised up, and I've been having to make it stronger - I've doubled the wraths, trimmed the cards that aren't as powerful, added a backup win (Darksteel Reactor), and slightly shifted the focus. There's still a lot of cards I am considering, so suggestions are welcome.
Pillowfort cards can be a big help in discouraging attacks.
You may also want to consider Mana Reflection/Mirari's wake to get a bit of a jump in casting the expensive stuff. And if you are cool with a sub theme almost all of the Myojin are good in a Walker deck. If MLD is frowned upon (I'm not a huge fan either) the black, blue, and white Myojin are amazing with proliferate. Blue in particular will win you games.
I finally got around to updating the decklist but still have a lot of sections under construction in the main post - hopefully I can get to them soon.
Further playtesting shows that the deck is really powerful if given time to develop (double Venser emblem one game, multiple ultimates leading into Architect of Thought's another), but it is a bit slow if people start ganging up on me before my mana is fully developed. I need good, fast ramp options - ones that actually speed up my mana and thin my deck, not simply ones that fix my mana. I like Genini's suggestions, but at 5-6 mana, they are slower than I would like. I know there's Cultivate and Kodama's Reach, but what other cards do people like that fit the bill?
Harrow is usually good - you're up one land on it, which is solid for the price, and they don't come in tapped. Journey of Discovery can't be underrated either. With tokens on the table, Primal Growth wouldn't be a bad choice, as it's an easy kicker to pay. Skyshroud Claim is better than Hunting Wilds or Ranger's Path, but all would work with shocklands or even dualies - or Dryad Arbor, for that matter. Then there's always Gem of Becoming, even though it's meh at best at least it doesn't require G.
Well, he's missing Jace the Absurdly Priced, so knock at least $70 off that amount right from the start.
One thing, out of curiousity: why not more tutor effects instead of Mimic Vat and other things like Myojin of Cleansing Fire? I can understand not springing for Vampiric Tutor, but Enlightened Tutor would help you dig for your Doubling Season or Rings, Mystical Tutor would let you find a board wipe, and while a bit pricey manawise, Increasing Ambition and Diabolic Tutor are at least tutors. Just one tutor effect in a deck like this seems a bit off to me, when each one functions as a duplicate of whatever card you might need right now.
While the general might not matter too much, I'd think Cromat would be more relevant if only because he might actually do something on the table, and if plan Planeswalker fails to pan out you'll certainly have ramped enough to use his abilities. Plus they might think you're 5-color Voltron...
I thought of a deck like this the moment i found out that Rings of Brighthearth worked on planeswalkers. Which I still believe to be OP as shet. (Despite never once seeing it happen in-game).
One game I won recently involved Rings of Brighthearth copying Venser, the Sojourner's ultimate. With two emblems, every spell I cast let me exile two permanents, which made quick work of my opponents' boards. Oh, and I got to use it to make Terramorphic Expanse fetch me two lands once - that was fun.
Out of curiosity, how much do you think making a walker deck would be? My guess is close to 400$,but I could be wrong.
I honestly have no idea - like I said, I traded for all but $10 worth. It also depends on how you build it. I opted not to use an expensive mana base and skipped Big Money Jace. If I get some time, I'll run my decklist through a pricing site.
One thing, out of curiousity: why not more tutor effects instead of Mimic Vat and other things like Myojin of Cleansing Fire? I can understand not springing for Vampiric Tutor, but Enlightened Tutor would help you dig for your Doubling Season or Rings, Mystical Tutor would let you find a board wipe, and while a bit pricey manawise, Increasing Ambition and Diabolic Tutor are at least tutors. Just one tutor effect in a deck like this seems a bit off to me, when each one functions as a duplicate of whatever card you might need right now.
While the general might not matter too much, I'd think Cromat would be more relevant if only because he might actually do something on the table, and if plan Planeswalker fails to pan out you'll certainly have ramped enough to use his abilities. Plus they might think you're 5-color Voltron...
Tutors - I like a little tutoring power, but I tend to run less tutors than most simply because one of the things I like about EDH is the variety - each game plays differently. If every game you tutor for the same 10 cards, you may as well play 60-card and get four copies each.
Mimic Vat and Myojin of Cleansing Fire - I love Mimic Vat; it offers so much repeatable utility and occasional power. Myojin give me a repeatable wrath effect with proliferate and an indestructible blocker to boot.
Cromat - He has an interesting variety of abilities, but he doesn't really synergize with the deck. Sliver Queen gives me tokens, which can be used to protect my planeswalkers, to swarm an opponent, or to Skullclamp for card advantage. Plus, it synergizes with Doubling Season.
Hadn't though of some of those. I need to evaluate them a little better and see which ones I want copies of (not to mention what to cut for them). Still looking for other suggestions, too.
Very cool/interesting deck idea. My only question (maybe I missed it) is why you're not running Corpsejack Menace and Parallel Lives as well?
As the deck becomes more token-centric, I have been considering Parallel Lives more and more. I'm just not sure how to make room for it. (Same with Awakening Zone - ramp and tokens both help, tokens get doubled by Doubling Season, but I'm not sure how to make a home for it). Any suggestions for what to cut would be appreciated; I already have my own list, but I'd like to see what others perceive as the weakest cards.
Corpsejack Menace doesn't do enough - I don't have that many +1/+1 counters in the deck, and he would die (along with the pumped creatures) as soon as I wrath.
Out of curiosity, how much do you think making a walker deck would be? My guess is close to 400$,but I could be wrong.
I found a link to http://deckstats.net/index.php and figured I'd give it a try. It puts the current value (as of today's build) at $342.06. I'm not sure how accurate the prices are, but a quick glance looked about right, possibly a little low.
That being said, there are definitely ways to modify the deck to match different budgets.
Five of the cards are listed between $20-$39 each, meaning you could save about $130 by using cheaper alternatives. Just replacing Sliver Queen with Cromat would save about $25. A lot of cards in the $10-$20 range could also be replaced if you are on an extreme budget. Once I complete the entire first post, I'll see about adding a budget list.
If your goal, on the other hand, is to sink as much money as possible, a full set of original duals/fetchlands/shocklands would not go amiss. You could foil when possible, get everything altered, and use sharpied Black Lotuses for 1/1 tokens. Pretty much, the sky's the limit if you want to go up.
By the way, i had planned to make a proliferate walker deck, but you beat me to it..and made a better deck than i could have anyway. thanks for posting it.
oh.. one thing that i thought would be interesting.. run KOTH and Bloodmoon. no one will care about KOTH since he's so narrow, but once bloodmoon hits the table, that emblem will be spectacular.
Extra turns are certainly powerful, but I like where trancekat is going here. Sure, you can't untap your lands, but for only 1UU, you get to draw a card, drop another land, activate all of your walkers (whether plus or minus), and do a few more things. I may have to give that a try.
oh.. one thing that i thought would be interesting.. run KOTH and Bloodmoon. no one will care about KOTH since he's so narrow, but once bloodmoon hits the table, that emblem will be spectacular.
While that is a combo, it's not one I particularly care for. Neither card on its own is that great - Bloodmoon could actually hurt my mana production. Together, they're still not that powerful, and I find I'd rather run something else other than an easily disruptable combo that doesn't necessarily win me the game.
Imo you need a few more control creatures like maybe elesh norn and possible blazing archon to help stifle tokens and quick beats
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Blazing Archon are both very powerful cards, but at 5WW and 6WWW, they're too late to stop quick aggro decks. Something like Wrath of God would be cheaper and faster to accomplish that goal. I've already got several wraths in here - do you feel it's not enough?
EDIT - I removed Darksteel Reactor in favor of Awakening Zone. It's a change I've been debating and finally decided to go for because I've been 1-2 mana short or 1-2 blockers short the past few games. This is ramp plus tokens and should help the deck out. The reactor just sits there doing nothing, not helping your board position at all. Sure, it could win the game, but more often, having a dead card is going to lose you the game.
I have a very non-budget 5 color Planeswalker deck and one of the cards that is amazing in the deck is Maelstrom Nexus and for me since the only creature in my deck is the general Ward of Bones is also amazing. I also run Door to Nothingness. My deck is basically 5 color control with Lots of planeswalkers and removal. I run cards like Moat, Spirit of Resistance, Legacy Weapon, and Decimate is really good with a large play group. I run the main mana doublers and fixers like Mirari's Wake, Prismatic Omen, Mana Reflection, Chromatic Lantern. I'm not sure what you can afford, but all of those cards are really helpful in my deck and not all of those are that spendy. Just a few suggestions for ya.
Intro: This Deck is obviously based on 5 color control with planeswalkers. It’s really a fun deck because of the shear amount of options that you have. The first thing you might notice is that there are no creatures except for the general. That was a style choice and I toyed with the idea of using just Phage in the deck for the bribery lovers of the EDH world but I figure my play group would catch on really quick. I find that I end up making my opponents scoop from having an ugly ultimate go off or killing them with general damage. In multiplayer I’ve also kicked many of my opponents threw the door ftw. Any Input you may have would be nice. I look at all my decks as a work in progress.
I did have more proliferate in there at one time, but Slowly took it out. Though I really want to find room for Inexorable Tide again. I'm also thinking of trying to fit lux cannon into it as well because it's just a mean card and with tezzeret and some proliferate it's that much better. As far as pillow fort strats go, I think cards like Ensnaring Bridge and Collective Restraint work rather well. You could also try Primal Surge with the ramp you have. I'm sure that could be a huge card with all the permanents you tend to have in that style of deck.
I have a very non-budget 5 color Planeswalker deck and one of the cards that is amazing in the deck is Maelstrom Nexus and for me since the only creature in my deck is the general Ward of Bones is also amazing. I also run Door to Nothingness. My deck is basically 5 color control with Lots of planeswalkers and removal. I run cards like Moat, Spirit of Resistance, Legacy Weapon, and Decimate is really good with a large play group. I run the main mana doublers and fixers like Mirari's Wake, Prismatic Omen, Mana Reflection, Chromatic Lantern. I'm not sure what you can afford, but all of those cards are really helpful in my deck and not all of those are that spendy. Just a few suggestions for ya.
WARD OF BONES!!!! Mwahahahaha. I haven't played that card in so long that I'd forgotten about it. It is absolutely amazing if you want to limit your opponents to 2-3 each of creatures, artifacts, or enchantments. I need to find a copy. Really makes Sharuum decks cry if they dropped artifact lands early.
Thanks for posting all the suggestions. Moat is great if you can afford it, and Decimate is one of my favorite removal spells (it's a 4-for-1 by itself!) - I even have a spare that may make it's way in if I don't put it in a new deck I'm planning. The mana cards are obviously good picks, too.
Intro: This Deck is obviously based on 5 color control with planeswalkers. It’s really a fun deck because of the shear amount of options that you have. The first thing you might notice is that there are no creatures except for the general. That was a style choice and I toyed with the idea of using just Phage in the deck for the bribery lovers of the EDH world but I figure my play group would catch on really quick. I find that I end up making my opponents scoop from having an ugly ultimate go off or killing them with general damage. In multiplayer I’ve also kicked many of my opponents threw the door ftw. Any Input you may have would be nice. I look at all my decks as a work in progress.
Cool list - thanks for posting it. Once I get to the Alternative budget section, I may glean ideas from it. I was wondering about your selection of walkers: was the exclusion of Liliana of the Veil deliberate? I rather like her. And I keep debating Tezzeret the Seeker (which I see in there) for his tutor ability. You mentioned him activating Lux Cannon, which I hadn't even thought about. I may see if I can find him to give it a try. Oh - and I wouldn't waste a slot on Phage - the Bribery player has the option when searching to fail to find, meaning they waste the Bribery but don't lose the game.
Why Five-Color Planeswalkers?
Planeswalkers are awesome. Five color lets you play them all. ‘Nuff said, right? Wrong.
Planeswalkers are unique, repeatable sources of power – but they can be quite fragile in multiplayer Commander. Very rarely does one make it to ultimate in my playgroup; often, they don’t even last a second turn. Building a deck that not only promotes their survival but also relies on it seemed like a fun challenge. Once built, I had so much fun piloting the deck that I determined to tune it even better.
This archetype is often referred to as Superfriends. It would be nice to say that it plays a certain way, but that really depends on your build; if planeswalkers are your theme, what is your subtheme?
Flavor
A planeswalker is any sentient being born with a spark that has learned to use it to traverse the Blind Eternities. They travel from one plane to another in the Multiverse. “You are a Planeswalker” is an expression commonly heard by Magic players, and indeed, the game is supposed to represent a duel or battle between two or more planeswalkers.
The planeswalker card type was introduced to represent an ally that you could call to your aid. As you direct them how to best help you, they either wax or wane in loyalty to you.
You may enjoy Planeswalker Proliferation if...
... you like playing control.
... you prefer not swinging into the red zone.
... you like powerful plays.
... you like to have a lot of options.
... you want a deck that plays differently from any others that you have.
You may not enjoy Planeswalker Proliferation if...
... you don't like being the center of your opponents' attention.
... you prefer creature-based decks.
... you have a tight budget AND don't have a lot of cards.
... you like a general-centric deck.
Current decklist:
1 Ramos, Dragon Engine
The Walkers
1 Ajani Steadfast
1 Ajani Unyielding
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
1 Liliana Vess
1 Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Ral Zarek
1 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Tamiyo, Field Researcher
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Teferi, Temporal Archmage
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
1 Venser, the Sojourner
Their Favorite Tools
1 Doubling Season
1 Oath of Gideon
1 Oath of Liliana
1 Oath of Nissa
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 The Chain Veil
Proliferation and Friends
1 Contagion Clasp
1 Deepglow Skate
1 Grim Affliction
1 Steady Progress
1 Tezzeret's Gambit
1 Austere Command
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Decree of Pain
1 False Prophet
1 Hallowed Burial
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Terminus
Other Creatures
1 Academy Rector
1 Clever Impersonator
1 Eternal Witness
1 Reki, the History of Kamigawa
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Wood Elves
Other Enchantments
1 Aura Shards
1 Humility
1 Mirari's Wake
1 Rhystic Study
1 Sterling Grove
Other Artifacts
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Sensei's Divining Top
Other Spells
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Farseek
1 Nature's Lore
1 Sudden Spoiling
1 Teferi's Protection
1 Tempt with Discovery
1 Yawgmoth's Will
Lands and Mana-Rocks
1 Academy Ruins
1 Alchemist's Refuge
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Breeding Pool
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Command Tower
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Maze of Ith
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Watery Grave
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
4 Forest
3 Island
1 Mountain
3 Plains
2 Swamp
Wishlist - Enlightened Tutor, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Oath of Nissa
1 Sensei's Divining Top
TWO MANA
1 Contagion Clasp
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Farseek
1 Nature's Lore
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Sterling Grove
THREE MANA
1 Aura Shards
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Eternal Witness
1 Grim Affliction
1 Oath of Gideon
1 Oath of Liliana
1 Reki, the History of Kamigawa
1 Rhystic Study
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Steady Progress
1 Sudden Spoiling
1 Teferi's Protection
1 Wood Elves
1 Yawgmoth's Will
FOUR MANA
1 Academy Rector
1 Ajani Steadfast
1 Clever Impersonator
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 False Prophet
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Humility
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
1 Ral Zarek
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Tamiyo, Field Researcher
1 Tempt with Discovery
1 Tezzeret’s Gambit
1 The Chain Veil
1 Deepglow Skate
1 Doubling Season
1 Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
1 Hallowed Burial
1 Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
1 Liliana Vess
1 Mirari's Wake
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Venser, the Sojourner
SIX MANA
1 Ajani Unyielding
1 Austere Command
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Ramos, Dragon Engine
1 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
1 Teferi, Temporal Archmage
1 Terminus
EIGHT MANA
1 Decree of Pain
1 Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
X-SPELLS
1 Black Sun’s Zenith
LANDS
1 Academy Ruins
1 Alchemist’s Refuge
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Breeding Pool
1 Command Tower
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Maze of Ith
1 Mountain
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Watery Grave
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
3 Island
4 Forest
3 Plains
2 Swamp
1 Academy Rector
1 Ajani Steadfast
1 Austere Command
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 False Prophet
1 Hallowed Burial
1 Humility
1 Oath of Gideon
1 Teferi's Protection
1 Terminus
BLUE
1 Clever Impersonator
1 Deepglow Skate
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Jace, Unraveler of Secrets[/card}
1 Rhystic Study
1 Steady Progress
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Teferi, Temporal Archmage
1 Tezzeret’s Gambit
BLACK
1 Black Sun’s Zenith
1 Decree of Pain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Grim Affliction
1 Liliana Vess
1 Oath of Liliana
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Sudden Spoiling
1 Yawgmoth's Will
GREEN
1 Doubling Season
1 Eternal Witness
1 Farseek
1 Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Nature's Lore
1 Oath of Nissa
1 Reki, the History of Kamigawa
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Tempt with Discovery
1 Wood Elves
1 Ajani Unyielding
1 Aura Shards
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
1 Mirari's Wake
1 Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
1 Ral Zarek
1 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Sterling Grove
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Tamiyo, Field Researcher
1 Venser, the Sojourner
COLORLESS
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Contagion Clasp
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Ramos, Dragon Engine
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 The Chain Veil
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
LANDS
1 Academy Ruins
1 Alchemist’s Refuge
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Breeding Pool
1 Command Tower
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Flooded Strand
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Maze of Ith
1 Mountain
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Watery Grave
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
3 Island
4 Forest
3 Plains
2 Swamp
When Planeswalkers were introduced as a card type, I thought they were cool, but I rarely played with them. Sure, I'd find an occasional deck whose theme meshed nicely with a walker, but overall, they seemed like overcosted ($-wise) enchantments. Fast forward several years and several new walkers, and I started to see the appeal.
Then one day someone brought in a superfriends deck. Here was a deck that played so differently and so powerfully. I thought it was awesome, but I balked at the price when I looked into building my own. Rather than buying, I slowly started trading for the cards I needed. I wasn't even planning to run any dual/shock lands for this (I played it for several months with mostly basic lands), but then I started encountering people who wanted cards from my binder when I couldn't find anything in theirs - so I grabbed some shocklands for trade fodder. After the third one, I realized this deck could use them, and sure enough, I eventually traded for all ten. So far, I've only put about $16 into this deck - everything else was trades.
I play the deck every week or two, and it is a lot of fun to pilot. I often get ganged up on (three to four other players, all scared of what I can do), and while it means I don't always win, it makes for much more challenging games.
Change log
- Chromat, + Sliver Queen (General)
- Darksteel Reactor, + Awakening Zone
- Legacy Weapon, + Journey of Discovery
- Orochi Hatchery, + Kodama's Reach
- Serrated Arrows, + Martial Coup
- Awakening Zone, + Boseiju, Who Shelters All
- Faith's Fetters, + Garruk, Primal Hunter
- Krosan Tusker, + Pilgrim's Eye
- Rest in Peace, + Ral Zarek
- Forest, + Overgrown Tomb
- Island, + Steam Vents
- Plains, + Temple Garden
- Swamp, + Godless Shrine
- Plains, + Hallowed Fountain
- Mimic Vat, + Sudden Spoiling
- Plains, + Sacred Foundry
7/30/13
- Swamp, + Stomping Ground
- Spread the Sickness, + Breeding Pool
- Kodama's Reach, + Wood Elves
- Journey of Discovery, + Tithe
- Island, + Watery Grave
9/24/13
- Lux Cannon, + Ajani, Caller of the Pride
1/20/14
- 1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride, +1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2/12/14
- Lim-Dûl's Vault, + Wargate
- Manamorphose, + Astral Cornucopia
- Swamp, + Kiora, the Crashing Wave
- Fuel for the Cause, + Savor the Moment
7/14
- Sylvan Ranger, + Spoils of Victory
- Savor the Moment, + The Chain Veil
8/14
- Garruk, Primal Hunter, + Ajani Steadfast
- Acidic Slime, + Aura Shards
- Duplicant, + Mirari's Wake
- Coalition Relic, + Farseek
- Myojin of Cleansing Fire, + Sterling Grove
9/2014
- Luminarch Ascension, + Academy Rector
10/2014
- Martial Coup, + End Hostilities
11/2014
- Pilgrim's Eye, + Clever Impersonator
- Privileged Position, + Comeuppance
- Evolving Wilds, + Flooded Strand
- Lavaclaw Reaches, + Bloodstained Mire
- Terramorphic Expanse, + Polluted Delta
12/2014
- Chandra Nalaar, + Teferi, Temporal Archmage
1/2015
- Celestial Colonnade, + Wooded Foothills
- Raging Ravine, + Windswept Heath
- Karn Liberated, + Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
2/2015
- Comeuppance, + Maze of Ith
4/2015
- Liliana of the Veil, + Narset Transcendent
- Volt Charge, + Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
7/2015
- Ajani Vengeant, + Sarkhan Unbroken
- Land Tax, + Nature's Lore
- Wargate, + Temp with Discovery
11/2015
- Narset Transcendent, + Ob Nixilis Reignited
1/2016
- Spoils of Victory, + Oath of Gideon
2/2016
- Skullclamp, + Sensei's Divining Top
5/2016
- Sarkhan Unbroken, + Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
6/2016
- Expedition Map, + Yawgmoth's Will
8/16
- Sorin Markov, + Sorin, Grim Nemesis
- Spike Weaver, + Oath of Liliana
- Vraska the Unseen, + Tamiyo, Field Researcher
??/17
- Contagion Engine, + Deepglow Skate
- Plains, + Reliquary Tower
7/17
- Garruk Relentless, + Ajani Unyielding
- Farhaven Elf, + False Prophet
10/17
- Chandra, the Firebrand, + Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
- Tithe, + Oath of Nissa
- End Hostilities, + Teferi's Protection
- Astral Cornucopia, + Reki, the History of Kamigawa
11/18
- Sliver Queen, + Ramos, Dragon Engine
Planeswalkers (the card type) may represent uber-powerful beings, but they come with a host of weaknesses to keep them balanced. Seriously, if Superman were printed as a planeswalker, the art would show him juggling chainsaws with chunks of kryptonite instead of teeth. The main things that a walker needs to fear are:
- Combat Damage
- Direct Damage
- Removal
- The Immortal Sun
Fortunately, there are tons of cards out there to help counteract these.Combat Damage – Creatures abound and will likely swinging into the red zone to take down your planeswalker allies. In order to maintain their loyalty, you will need to deal with this threat – with some combination of blockers, pillowfort, turbofog, and/or removal (see Survival Strategies).
Direct Damage – With the loss of the planeswalker redirection rule, we've lost some of our most efficient cards to prevent direct damage. Giving them hexproof with Privileged Position or Shalai, Voice of Plenty can stop targetted damage, but global damage effects will have to be otherwise prevented or countered.
Removal – Removal comes in two types. Spot removal that can hit a planeswalker is somewhat limited but still widely played (ie. Dreadbore, Vindicate, Desert Twister, Beast Within, Oblation, Maelstrom Pulse, etc.). These can all be stopped with Privileged Position, counterspells, or redirection effects. Mass removal is a little trickier – it either destroys, exiles, or bounces, and it can be all non-land permanents or planeswalkers in particular. Some can be worked around; others must be countered or else.
The Immortal Sun - Unfortunately, we can't depend on our walkers to save themselves. This requires artifact removal, such as Austere Command or Aura Shards with your commander. If these prove insufficient, you may need to open up more slots for artifact-hate.
How to play the deck
This deck plays fairly straightforward. Fix your mana, drop planeswalkers, and then spawn out tokens and/or wrath while building their loyalty. The main goal is to win off of their abilities. On rare occasion, you may find yourself in a position to turn aggressive with tokens. The beauty of the deck is not necessarily in complexity, but rather in the shear number of options you can choose from. Do you keep building, or is it time to siphon off a little loyalty for a more powerful play?
Left unchecked, most planeswalkers will eventually win you the game. In order to protect your walkers, you will need to identify which weaknesses are most likely to be exploited in your meta and respond accordingly. Most likely, a mixture of the following strategies will be required to find the appropriate balance.
Blockers
The most basic response to aggression. Even this offers several different strategies. Do you flood the board with tokens? Drop creatures that trigger enters-the-battlefield abilities and are then disposable chump blockers? Use deathtouch and other nasty abilities to say “leave me alone”? Go indestructible to take a licking and keep on ticking? Each option has its own merits, but in a multiplayer environment, you may find it hard to block everything – especially once things become unblockable.
Pillowfort/Turbofog
Pillowfort is designed to prevent creatures from attacking. Some of the more common cards (Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, etc.) won’t actually protect your walkers (though Norn’s Annex/Sphere of Safety do). Other cards are designed to limit how many creatures untap or can attack or even to skip combat altogether. This may or may not work for you – it depends on how well this strategy is received in your meta.
Closely related is turbofog. Although it allows creatures to attack, it prevents them from actually dealing damage (Moment’s Peace, Blunt the Assault, etc.). In a proliferate-heavy deck, Spike Weaver is your best friends when it comes to this strategy.
Extreme Nukage
”The best defense is a good offense.”
The previous strategies have all dealt with attacking creatures. What if you don’t want to give them the chance? What if you’re facing utility creatures that were never intended to swing in the red zone? Enter the board wipes. How extreme you take this is up to you; it can be just a couple wraths to clear away creatures or an entire complement of game-breaking spells (like Decree of Annihilation and Obliterate) that leave you as the only player standing once the dust settles. Just keep in mind that while these spells may win you games, they are unlikely to win you friends in many metas.
Individual card discussion
The following sections will discuss cards that could be fitting in a Planeswalker Proliferation deck, even if they are not in my personal build (bolded card names are included in my deck). Please note that it is intended to be helpful but hardly all inclusive.
A five-color planeswalker deck needs a five-color legend to lead it, and while there may be little interaction between the deck and its general, that does not mean the choice is unimportant. Here are your options, in alphabetical order:
Atraxa, Praetors' Voice - Cheating, I know, as this is only four colors, but it certainly fits a superfriends proliferation deck. I don't like losing red, even if it is the least used color in the deck. Also, the proliferation is at end of turn, which may help keep the walkers alive, but it doesn't help get an ultimate ability until the next turn.
Child of Alara – Having a built-in sweeper is nice, but remember a) it has to go to the graveyard, b) doing that can be unreliable without a sac outlet, and c) it will take out your walkers, too. Useful but not dependable.
Cromat – Random silly abilities. This was my original general for the deck because it was cheap and the WB ability could be useful.
General Tazri - A white creature that gains five-color status courtesy of its ability. Not really suited to Superfriends; best used as a tribal commander.
Horde of Notions – Could be used for aggro, but the best thing it has going for it is to recur Crib Swap repeatedly. Some elementals are quite useful (and blinkable with Venser), so a tribal sub-theme could be developed – just remember that every card not devoted to the main theme needs to be seriously evaluated.
Jodah, Archmage Eternal – Fist of Suns in the command zone. It doesn't help you fix your mana, but it does cheapen some spells once you have fixed it.
Karona, False God – Pumps your opponents’ creatures, letting them swing even harder into your walkers; talk about anti-synergy with your deck.
O-Kagachi, Vengeful Kami - While this seems like it could be a rattlesnake, O-Kagachi doesn't care if they attack your planeswalkers. It also only does something if you can give it haste or if it is already on the battlefield when they damage you. Overall, not very good for superfriends.
Progenitus – Some people love him, others hate him. Protection from everything is awesome, but to me he’s still just a big, dumb beater. Sure, he’s unblockable, but he still dies to wrath.
Ramos, Dragon Engine - Ramos is a serious contender given all the extra mana he can generate. If you run many wraths, he may not be so useful, but this is definitely the best new five color commander for us.
Reaper King – Vindicate on a stick is nice, but he would be next to useless without tribal support, and there aren’t that many scarecrows (or even changelings) that synergize with a planeswalker deck.
Scion of the Ur-Dragon – Great for a dragon deck, but again lacking synergy with a planeswalker deck.
Sliver Hivelord - An indestructible blocker is great for protecting your planeswalkers. The only problem being that he only provides one blocker.
Sliver Legion – Again, best in a tribal deck.
Sliver Overlord – Slivers are aggressive little buggers, and this guy allows for a toolbox build. Overlord doesn't do much for your typical planeswalker build, but he could be great in a deck with a tribal sub-theme.
Sliver Queen – Ignore the fact that this is a sliver for a moment. This generates a chump blocker for every 2 that you spend and twice as many with Doubling Season in play. That by itself is great. Given that it (and the tokens) are slivers, you may be tempted to run some utility slivers, such as Gemhide Sliver, Necrotic Sliver, etc. That call would have to be according to your meta. I personally felt safer telling my opponents that the queen was the only sliver in my deck and only because I wanted a token producer. Eventually, she got dethroned by Ramos.
The Ur-Dragon - Tribal general is tribal. And expensive.
Walkers are the heart of this deck, but lets face it - not all planeswalkers are created equal. When building my deck, I decided that I needed a system to evaluate how effective a walker would be in my build. Then, of course, I tweaked the focus of my build, throwing off my entire system. For the purpose of this thread, I’m doing a score out of ten with regards to effectiveness in a dedicated WUBRG planeswalker deck with a focus on wraths and token production.
Power at any cost...
(0-2 points) Plus Ability – How good is it? Does it do anything useful beyond adding loyalty? If this only lived one turn, would this ability have been worth the mana investment?
(0-2 points) Minus Ability – How good is it? Is it worth making my walker more vulnerable by removing loyalty? If this only lived one turn, would this ability have been worth the mana investment?
(0-2 points) Ultimate Ability – Is this worth building up to? Is it worth losing the walker if it costs all remaining loyalty? Will this win me the game or at least put the odds in my favor?
(0-1 point) – Doubling Season Synergy – Can I ultimate the turn it comes into play with Doubling Season on the board? Does this produce double tokens/counters with Doubling Season?
(0-1 point) Mana Requirements – Is this easy to cast in a five color deck? (No more than two specific mana symbols may be a good guideline). Is this something I can play early, or do I have to wait until very late to play it?
(0-1 point) Hate Magnet – Is this card, overall, worth the hate it will evoke? (this is meta-relative)
(0-1 point) Value – Your budget may vary from mine, but this asks if I feel the card’s effect is worth its monetary value.
This system is very subjective and allows a lot of personal bias. You may find that I have rated something differently than you would. Also, this system cannot be applied directly to some walkers (those with a number of abilities other than 3, those with multiple plus abilities or all minus abilities, etc.); in those cases, I have applied the spirit of the system rather than the actual points breakdown. If you disagree with my scoring, discuss why or feel free to come up with your own system.
Ajani Goldmane (6.5/10) – Lifegain is slow, pump is decent, and the token can be large but has no protection or evasion.
Ajani Steadfast (9/10) - His first ability is amazing in a deck that cares about aggro; in this build it may gain us a couple life. The second ability amazing - it proliferates our planeswalkers and pumps our tokens. The emblem is also amazing, protecting our walkers while keeping us alive. The very easy mana requirements and excellent synergy with Doubling Season makes this one of my favorite new walkers.
Ajani Unyielding (8.5/10) - Card advantage is nice. removal is useful. The ult is bonkers. He may not ult immediately with Doubling Season, but his ult does work very nicely with DS on the battlefield.
Ajani Vengeant (7.5/10) – Lockdown and repeatable Lightning Helix are good, and the land destruction is insane, but it draws a lot of hate because of that. Too bad it can’t ultimate immediately with Doubling Season.
Ajani, Caller of the Pride (7.5/10) – The pump and abilities are alright but only help one creature. This incarnation’s best ability is the possibility to create an entire army on its own, and herein lies amazing Doubling Season synergy - for only 1WW, you can get tokens equal to twice your life total the turn it comes into play.
Ajani, Mentor of Heroes (8/10) - The fact that this Ajani has two plus abilities certainly weighs in his favor. My favorite is definitely his second - I could see myself doing nothing but that all game. Of course, his ultimate works in a pinch to give you a little life buffer, but the card advantage while building up to that much loyalty should be helping to win the game by then.
Ajani, Valient Protector (1.5/10) - Overcosted and geared towards a creature deck rather than superfriends. Move along, nothing to see here.
Angrath, Minotaur Pirate (4.5) - His plus can clear small tokens and has some great Humility synergy, but his minus is useless, being tribal-focused. His ult is great and could potentially be a wincon, but it fails the Doubling Season test and isn't really worth building up to - not to mention that for it to do any good, they have to have lots of power, which makes it less likely he will survive to ult.
Angrath, the Flame-Chained (6.5/10) - It's nice to get new blood in the planeswalker pool, and this Angrath is alright if not stellar. His plus ability may not affect the board, but it can limit your opponents' options while throwing in a little burn. His minus could be better - stealing a creature is decent, and getting rid of it is great, but honestly, I'd rather get rid of bigger creatures, not smaller. His ult is great and can often be lethal to at least one player.
Arlinn Kord/Arlinn, Embraced by the Moon (3/10) - Arlinn is great for some decks but not for this one. The sad part is that her best use in this deck would be to alternately produce a wolf and lightning bolt every other turn until she dies, which might yield 3 tokens and deal 9 damage - assuming she never gets touched by an opponent in the six turns it would take to accomplish this. Her plus abilities are not made for this deck, and while the ult is nifty, it isn't worth wasting turns with the plus abilities.
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver - (5.5/10) - Three mana is awesome, and the card has potential, but I feel like I want it to seem cooler than it is. The problem is, there is no way that Ashiok can affect the board the turn it comes into play. Even with Doubling Season in play, you can only activate the first ability. It offers no protection for itself and simply sits there asking to be attacked before it eventually does something powerful. I would love to activate the ultimate, but if your opponents have creatures, you can bet you will never get there.
Chandra Ablaze (4/10) – This card really needs to be in mono-R to be useful.
Chandra Nalaar (6/10) – The first ability is weak, the second can be helpful against utility creatures. The ultimate is fairly awesome, being capable of wrecking a player’s board if it doesn’t kill them outright. Catching someone off-guard by using Doubling Season to ultimate the turn it drops would be priceless.
Chandra, Bold Pyromancer (6/10) – It's a bit costly, but the plus gives some mana back. Spot removal is relatively weak, but the ult is awesome. It really is too bad that it costs six mana.
Chandra, Flamecaller (5/10) - Tokens are nice, but these don't stick around to defend, and rarely do we care about going offensive. The wheel effect gives card advantage, but sometimes you'd rather keep what's in your hand and just draw one more. And the effective board wipe can be nice, if you have enough loyalty.
Chandra, Pyrogenius (4.5/10) - This Chandra is really bad. High mana cost for something that doesn't really affect the board. Ulting it is decent, but I'd rather cast a wrath and hit all opponent's creatures.
Chandra, Pyromaster (4/10) - This Chandra starts out decent, but that ultimate is designed for an entirely different deck archetype. After exiling ten cards, I'm most likely going to find a wrath, and having three copies of that is pretty pointless. It's not an ultimate I would ever want to fire off in this deck, and her other abilities aren't amazing enough to overcome that.
Chandra, Roaring Flame (1/10) - This starts as a creature that is quite unlikely to ever flip in this deck. Even if it does, the generic burn abilities aren't really in theme with this deck.
Chandra, the Firebrand (9/10) – The best Chandra, in my opinion. More splashable, with a more versatile plus ability, it also copies spells (hello, proliferate). The ultimate is scaled back a little from Nalaar, but it is still very useful.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance (8/10) - I want to try her, and I wonder if I was a little conservative with her rating. I normally hate abilities that exile a card and only give you one chance to cast it before losing it forever, but in this case, she at least does something beneficial if you aren't able to cast it. Obviously better with Divining Top or scry. The extra mana ability is nice - sometimes it will be useful. Paying loyalty for a single target creature removal (and only for smaller creatures) is a bit lame. Her emblem is really, really good and totally worth burning out all of Chandra's loyalty for. Even better, she can ult and stay alive the turn she comes into play if you have Doubling Season. Overall, I'd say this is easily the best Chandra variant for superfriends.
Clever Impersonator (10/10) - Okay, maybe it's cheating to put a him here, but technically, he can become a planeswalker. Whether you copy one controlled by an opponent or you really need a second activation from one of your own (at the cost of losing the original), Clever Impersonator is there to be loyal. Ordinarily, these restrictions would reduce his score, but he isn't limited to planeswalkers. The sheer versatility of becoming a second Doubling Season or Rings of Brighthearth or Mirari's Wake or any non-land permanent you want is incredible.
Dack Fayden (4.5/10) - Don't get me wrong, he's a good card - just not for this deck. We have no way to abuse the ultimate, and the best ability is the minus one. He really needs to be in a different deck to shine.
Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast (7/10) - Tokens are nice, and normally defender soesn't matter to us. Removal is meh. And the ult can be amazing or really lame, depending on the game. This one's hard to evaluate because it is so variable.
Daretti, Scrap Savant (5/10) - A splashable piece of card filtering, which can be helpful even if it isn't straight up card draw. The second ability is a bit weak because even though we may want to get artifacts back, we don't run enough to guarantee that we can use this ability. Recursion on Rings and our other toys is nice, but overall, his focus just isn't along the theme of this deck.
Domri Rade (3.5/10) - Nothing against Domri, it's simply the wrong deck. My Animar deck loves its copy, but there just aren't enough creatures in here to make any of the abilities that useful.
Dovin Baan (5/10) - I'd rather remove creatures than shrink/pseudo-Arrest them. Card draw and lifegain is nice, but it's a minus ability that has to be fed loyalty. And the ult is game-breaking - if you ever get there.
Elspeth Tirel (7/10) – Her first ability varies widely in efficacy. Three tokens off the second ability are rather nice. Her ultimate is tricky – sometimes it will be to your advantage, other times it would hose all your walkers and support artifacts/enchantments. While very powerful, the conditional nature of this card reduced its score. It’s a card that can get you back in the game if your behind, but one you’d rather not pull if you’re already in the lead.
Elspeth, Knight-Errant (9/10) – Tokens are always nice, but the pump is somewhat small for EDH. This card mainly shines with its ultimate, which is totally worth losing Elspeth to pull off, especially if she hits the table with Doubling Season already on the board.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion - (8.5/10) - I love all three of her abilities. Getting three tokens and extra loyalty is very nice. The minus is a wrath that won't hit my creatures and will hit anything bound to deal a lot of damage to my walkers. And the emblem is pretty good, too. I am disappointed in the CMC 6, but that doesn't stop me from playing this lovely lady.
Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury (7/10) - Freyalise has two solid abilities - tokens that can do something more than just chump block and a repeatable Naturalize are always welcome. The ultimate is pretty variable - sometimes it does nothing, other times it draws lots of cards - and I may never use it, but I decided to give her a chance.
Garruk Relentless//Garruk, the Veil-Cursed (8.5/10) – Five abilities makes this an exception to the scoring system. Being able to burn a utility creature (or something larger with Doubling Season) is good and helps him flip to his meaner side. The tokens, whether 2/2 or 1/1 deathtouch are definitely nice and help protect your walkers from ground attacks. Tutoring for a creature is always nice, but this ability’s mileage (as well as the ultimate’s) will vary a lot by build and is usually weakened because a dedicated walker deck has fewer targets.
Garruk Wildspeaker (9/10) – His first ability is a combination of ramp and color-fixing, two things always welcomed in a five color deck. His second spawns some nice-sized tokens. The ultimate is nice if you have a lot of tokens but less than helpful post-wrath.
Garruk, Apex Predator (9.5/10) - I really wanted to give him a 10 for having four amazing abilities, but the seven mana-cost is a little steep. This guy is going to be a hate magnet, but the sheer power will be worth it. He defends himself, defends you, breaks up a mirror match, and really lays the smackdown on an opponent. What's not to love?
Garruk, Caller of Beasts (2/10) - This incarnation is really bad for a sweeper build but could prove useful in a tribal deck; even then, his CMC 6 is pretty bad unless you have lots of spare mana (say, from mana slivers). He feels like he really wants to play mono-green or two color at the most.
Garruk, Primal Hunter (7.5/10) – Getting 3/3s as a plus ability is amazing. The second ability is decent even if all you have is the 3/3 from the previous turn. Generating an army of 6/6s is flat out insane. The major strike here is triple mana in five color and the fact that there are better incarnations. I ran him for a while until I cut down to no more than two versions of each planeswalker.
Gideon Jura (5/10) – I suppose he could be used to draw hate away from other walkers, but I find there are better ways to deal with opposing creatures. The royal assassin ability is nice, but the ultimate is underwhelming - unless you already have Teferi's emblem.
Gideon of the Trials (4/10) - I've never been a fan of Gideon, and this one doesn't change my mind. He can fog a permanent, and he can keep you from losing, but that protection is very temporary.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar (6.5/10) - This Gideon likes to attack, which isn't really what my deck is about. The tokens are nice, but I have other walkers who add loyalty for that. The emblem is nice but hardly game-breaking.
Gideon, Battle-forged (5.5/10) - The creature side is cheap, easy to flip, and has potential to survive, but the walker side is still lacking. Again, I'd rather deal with creatures than say "hey, Gideon requests an assisted suicide." The one good thing is he could make our general (or another creature) survive one of our lighter board wipes.
Gideon, Champion of Justice (5/10) – Doubling Season does interesting things with this Gideon, but I still find that he doesn't really do all that much. Sure, he gets more counters, and sure he can become big, but he still gets chumped by a 0/1 goat. His ultimate can be a powerful reset, but it can vaporize your board position as well as your opponents'. I'm not a fan of a conditional board wipe masquerading as a planeswalker that does nothing else; I'd rather just run an unconditional board wipe - straightforward and effective.
Gideon, Martial Paragon (2/10) - These planeswalker deck planeswalkers really suck.
Huatli, Dinosaur Knight (0/10) - Wow. This is a first. We've had some bad planeswalkers, especially from planeswalker decks, but this is the first I've ever awarded 0/10. It says "Dinosaur" four times on this card, but that doesn't make it cool enough for superfriends. In fact, it's completely useless, as this makes it so narrow it can't do anything for us.
Huatli, Radiant Champion (4/10) - Huatli just isn't meant to become a superfriend. The ult is the only decent part, turning tokens into card draw, but it's not really worth building up to.
Huatli, Warrior Poet (4.5/10) - Free tokens are alright (not as good as increased loyalty AND tokens). The other abilities are just a bit weak for this deck.
Jace Beleren (5.5/10) – Helping your opponents draw into answers is rarely a good idea. Drawing extra cards yourself is great, but the second ability really needs a repeatable proliferate source to be sustainable. The last ability could help kill someone who has been too greedy or who has been milled, but is not a dependable way to kill anyone if your deck isn’t dedicated mill.
Jace, Architect of Thought (9/10) – His shrink ability is mediocre until you combine it with Humility, where it becomes a powerhouse. His second ability lets you draw into good stuff but also lets your opponents see what’s coming. His ultimate, though, has the potential to break a game completely in half, whether you just get everyone’s most powerful spell or whether you search things up that combo together for something even more malicious.
Jace, Cunning Castaway (5/10) - Lame plus ability, moderate minus, and a really cool, unique ultimate that just isn't worth building up to. The Doubling Season synergy is off the charts, but that's about the only way I'd want tp play this card.
Jace, Ingenious Mind-Mage (5/10) - Repeatable card draw is great, but he doesn't protect himself. Permanent theft is also great, but without Doubling Season, it takes a while to build up to that, and I'd frankly just rather board wipe. Plus, at six mana, he's a bit expensive for what he does.
Jace, Memory Adept (7.5/10) – His plus ability is great, but the other two again depend on dedicated mill to be truly effective.
Jace, Telepath Unbound (6/10) - He's a cheap creature that filters cards but has to survive to flip. Once he does, his best ability may let you recur a board wipe, but again, he builds to a mill effect that really doesn't do much for us.
Jace, the Living Guildpact (5/10) - While the ultimate is great card advantage, I really don't care to use his first ability to build up to it - it just feels like a bad scry variant in a non-reanimator deck. The second ability can be used to reset planeswalkers or disrupt opponents, but it's not great.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor (6.5/10) – I will probably catch a lot of flack on this one, but I warned you it was a subjective scoring system. In my opinion, this card is very overrated, and in my meta, it is a death sentence to anyone who plays it – you will be playing archenemy without the benefit of a scheme deck. Let’s look at the abilities. Fatesealing one player in a multiplayer game is far from effective (a duel would be different, but this deck is for multiplayer). Brainstorm is good but does not build his loyalty (he will be taking damage) and can be had for less than 2% of this price tag – all while costing 2U less (yeah, yeah, yeah, his is repeatable – if you can keep him on the board). Returning a single creature is fairly weak most of the time in multiplayer and really only good if you bounce one of your own enters-the-battlefield creatures. The ultimate is amazing but highly unlikely to ever happen (at least in my meta), and even DS has a hard time helping because you need four times his starting loyalty to pull it off. When all is said and done, the price tag and hate magnet tend to drown out the appeal.
Jace, Unraveler of Secrets (9/10) - This deck often needs card advantage, and being able to scry first makes it even better. I prefer more permanent removal than his bounce ability, but I'd honestly be happy drawing every turn with the occasional emblem. Five starting loyalty is very nice and works very nicely with Doubling Season, letting you get the emblem and keep the walker the turn it comes into play.
Jaya Ballard (3.5/10) – Focused for spell-slinger and not very good for us.
Karn Liberated (7/10) – Karn’s biggest thing going for him is probably the ease of casting a colorless walker. His first ability is too random and doesn’t affect the actual board state. His second is amazing but needs serious proliferation to remain sustainable, or you can settle on an every-other turn basis if you can keep him on the board. And I personally would probably never activate his ultimate.
Karn, Scion of Urza (2.5/10) – Really not what I want to be doing in this deck.
Kaya, Ghost Assassin (5/10) - Kaya can reset herself, but she seems better suited for a creature deck. Her big minus is great, but it leaves her vulnerable.
Kiora, Master of the Depths (6.5/10) - Her untap is nice, but Garruk Wildspeaker does it better. The minus is pretty bad for us. The ultimate can be awesome - I mean three 8/8s (or six with DS), but the fight mechanic will often be useless for us, as most of our creatures are 1/1 or 3/3 - hardly the same as the 8/8s.
Kiora, the Crashing Wave (7.5/10) - Damage prevention, card draw, possible ramp, and a repeatable source of 9/9 tokens (once again, better after you have Doubling Season out.
Koth of the Hammer (4/10) – Great in a mono-R deck, very weak in a five color deck. If you run all dual lands, I suppose he becomes more usable, but even then I’d rather have a different card.
Liliana of the Dark Realms (5/10) – Great in mono-B, and a little more useful than Koth in five color (tutor for duals, use Urborg to improve the other two abilities), but this card just isn’t good enough for a five color planeswalker deck that isn’t running duals.
Liliana of the Veil (7/10) – Her ult is amazing, but building to it can be painful, in the self-inflicted way.
Liliana Vess (9/10)– Very often a five mana tutor, the original Liliana is still great. All three of her abilities are good.
Liliana, Death Wielder (2/10) - Ugh, another piece of overpriced, underpowered trash from a planeswalker deck.
Liliana, Death's Majesty (5/10) - She makes blockers but mills us in search of creatures to reanimate, which will be few and far between in this deck. Her non-Zombie wrath can be decent, unless you're playing against zombies.
Liliana, Defiant Necromaster (1/10) - Hard to flip and hardly supports superfriends.
Liliana, the Last Hope (2/10) - Her abilities work better in a creature deck. The tokens might be nice, but it's a pain to build towards and significantly worse after board wipes.
Nahiri, the Harbinger (5/5) - Reverse looting is not as good as actual card advantage and does nothing with an empty hand. Her minus can be good but is oddly specific about creatures and artifacts having to be tapped, which means she's nearly useless against things like Darksteel Forge or Akroma's Memorial. And her ult is underwhelming in superfriends, as we only have a few real targets and may have drawn into them by then.
Nahiri, the Lithomancer (5.5/10) - This girl knows what she wants to do, but unfortunately, it isn't play with other planeswalkers. Awesome in an equipment deck, mediocre in superfriends. She basically just spawns out tokens for us and maybe eventually gives us a sword.
Narset Transcendent (7.5/10) - Narset offers some conditional draw, but her second two abilities are where she shines. Giving our sweepers a chance to rebound buys extra breathing room, and the emblem practically locks opponents out (that and Humility pretty much seal the game. The biggest risk with her is if an opponent steals her and gets the emblem for themselves.
Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh (7/10) - Not as good as his original planeswalker incarnation, but still a decent card. That ult is definitely worth building towards and even insta-ults with Doubling Season. I want to try him, but I think I'll wait for him to drop in price a bit.
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker (9/10) – Yes, he has a ridiculous mana cost. He’s still my favorite planeswalker. All three of his abilities are amazing and can drastically change the game.
Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver (5.5/10) - The worst Bolas is the best walker from a planeswalker deck. He's not horrible, just a bit overcosted and not the best plus ability.
Nissa Revane (4/10) – Great in an elf-tribal deck but just doesn’t do enough in a dedicated planeswalker deck. The ability to keep searching up one chump blocker is mediocre at best and useless once that blocker becomes exiled or has to face evasion of any sort.
Nissa, Genesis Mage (3/10) - She's an overcosted Garruk Wildspeaker that can't make beasts.
Nissa, Nature's Artisan (3/10) - Essentially, this is a one-shot double Coiling Oracle for six mana that might survive long enough to gain you a tiny bit of life. I'd rather run Coiling Oracle.
Nissa, Sage Animist (5/10) - She's easy enough to flip and card draw is awesome. The legendary token is a bit disappointing (it's only a 4/4, and we can only have one). And while I'm a fan of untapping land, I am not a fan of making them vulnerable to our board wipes.
Nissa, Steward of Elements (4/10) - An X planeswalker is cool, but she doesn't synergize with superfriends very well.
Nissa, Vital Force (6.5/10) - I normally dislike animating my land and making it vulnerable to removal, but this ability does keep a rather large blocker around until your next turn before wearing off, allowing you to wrath with impunity. I would consider adding Darksteel Citadel if I planned on activating that ability often. Her regrowth ability is awesome, allowing us to bring back any other walker or utility permanent. And her ult is very good if you are still hitting land drops.
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar (6/10) - She's cheap, pumps out tokens, and offers decent card draw and lifegain. My only complaint is that her tokens are 0/1 and won't trade with anything likely to attack us.
Nissa, Worldwaker (4/10) - I want to like a planeswalker that can untap four lands or fetch any number of basic land cards and put them on the battlefield, but turning lands into creatures indefinitely is a good way to get your manabase blown up.
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath (4.5/10) - It seems sad to score a walker who makes 5/5 flying tokens so low, but I'm not impressed by Ob. His first ability doesn't affect the board and will just draw attention. His second is awesome, provided we do not have Humility in play (imagine paying loyalty and life for a 1/1). And his ultimate is somewhat lacking - either we sac a 1/1 for minimal benefit (I'd rather Skullclamp them), or we are punching a big hole in our defenses.
Ob Nixilis Reignited (7/10) - Card draw, creature removal, and an potential wincon.
Ral Zarek (8/10) - Good abilities all around. The tap may not lockdown like Tamiyo, but the untap has so much potential. Three damage is almost always useful. And the ultimate makes for disgusting shenanigans (posted on page 3, I believe).
Saheeli Rai (4.5/10) - Scry without draw isn't great. Clone tokens would be okay if they stuck around but are weakened by the fact that it only copies things you control and can't stay to block. The ult is pretty good but probably not worth building up to in this deck. I could totally see her in an artifact-heavy variant with Tezzeret and Daretti.
Samut, the Tested (4/10) - The ult is great but not worth building up to. She does pass the Doubling Season Test, but that's about the only way I'd want to get her out.
Sarkhan the Mad (5/10) – As an individual card, this version of Sarkhan is just really bad for this type of deck. His first ability will often kill him, and his last ability is pointless unless you’ve gotten several uses out of his second ability. Sure, you could sac a 1/1 soldier token to him and if you have doubling season, you would get two dragons, but that’s a best-case scenario. Overall, there are just too many other cards I’d rather be playing.
Sarkhan Unbroken (5/10) - Card draw and mana make for an awesome plus - I would do that the entire game if I could. 4/4 dragons aren't bad, either. The ult is just useless to us.
Sarkhan Vol (8/10) – His first ability fits better in an aggro deck, while this deck often plays more defensively. Temporary theft is nice but also conditional on what you steal. Five dragons (or ten if you have Doubling Season) is really good.
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker (2/10) - Not good for this deck.
Sorin Markov (8.5/10) – His first ability is decent, and Mindslavering is always great, but Sorin’s second ability alone almost breaks some games. If you ever copy it with Rings of Brighthearth, expect a short game – either because two opponents are now low on life or because you are being targeted by the entire table. He certainly brings the hate.
Do you have any idea how frustrating "one size fits all" hat labels are?
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad (9/10) – Tokens are nice, lifelink is extra nice. I can’t quite decide how much I like the emblem – the pump is permanent, but it seems so small; with Humility on the board, my creatures may deal twice as much damage, but they still trade 1-for-1 because there’s no toughness boost. His ultimate obviously depends on the board state, but whether you are stealing someone else’s good stuff or just resetting/retriggering your own, it certainly has its uses.
Sorin, Solemn Visitor (5/10) - The weakest Sorin for this deck. The emblem is great; the the stuff leading to it, not so much.
Tamiyo, Field Researcher (8/10) - The plus can be used on our own tokens or on an opponents' creatures to either draw or to discourage an attack. The minus is an ok frost ability. But the ult is awesome. Immediate card advantage and an untouchable Omniscience. And the icing on the cake is the fact that she passes the Doubling Season test - you can play her, ult her, and she still survives!
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage (10/10) – The first one (chronologically) worthy of a 10/10, and this is coming from someone who hated her when she first came out. On a sparsely populated board, her first ability can protect her/your other walkers. The card draw off the second can be very helpful. And her ultimate is insane; the first time I pulled it off, I had a Tezzeret’s Gambit in hand, which I got to cast time after time, proliferating several other walkers up to their ultimates. That emblem can win you games.
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria (7/10) – The plus is good, and the ult is great. I hope t try this out sometime.
Teferi, Temporal Archmage (10/10) - You have no idea how close I was to scoring him 11/10, but the cmc left me at a solid 10. Superfriends likes card draw, and untapping 4 permanents is awesome, especially if you can double your mana production and have The Chain Veil or Contagion Engine in play. The ultimate is a dream come true - this can easily give you 3-5 times the loyalty activations in a multiplayer game.
Teferi, Timebender (3.5/10) – The weakest of Teferi's incarnations – it costs too much mana and doesn't do enough on its own.
Tezzeret the Schemer (3/10) - It makes mana tokens, wants to run lots of artifacts, and wants to be agressive with artifacts. Not really a good fit for superfriends.
Tezzeret the Seeker (7/10) – I’ve seen other builds that use a lot of mana rocks to give him some viability, but without a surplus of artifacts in my build, he really loses appeal. He can tutor up artifact lands to fix your mana with zero loss of loyalty. Granted, the tutoring would be nice (for Rings, Clasp, or Engine), but I’d rather just run a tutor that can fetch anything.
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas (6/10) – This incarnation is even more dependent on running lots of artifacts than the other. Probably amazing in a Sharuum deck, but a bit underwhelming in five color planeswalker.
Tezzeret, Master of Metal (4/10) - Like Samut, this passes the Doubling Season Test but is the only way I'd want to get it in play.
Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded (3.5/10) – Tibalt’s abilities are generally too chaotic/random without actually changing the board state. The only exception is his Insurrection ultimate, but a) I would rather wrath those creatures and b) I would rather run Insurrection because it is more reliable.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon (8/10) - Ugin is awesome - colorless makes him easier to cast, even if he does cost 8. The plus is a little weak, but the other abilities more than make up for it. The ult is a game-winner.
Venser, the Sojourner (8/10) – Venser’s blink ability is great, and while this deck may not be focused on that, it can still retrigger things like Eternal Witness, Doubling Fish, or Contagion Engine or even reset a planeswalker who dipped really low on loyalty. The second ability is often forgotten but can be used for critical hits, especially with Vraska’s assassin tokens. And his emblem is great, making every spell much more powerful as it helps you secure the board. The biggest hit to his score was that not even Doubling Season will let you auto-ultimate.
Vraska the Unseen (8/10) – Flavorfully, I find Vraska awesome. She protects herself, blows things up, and pumps out baby-[card=Phage the Untouchable]Phages. I do wish her plus ability actually did something other than say “leave me alone.”
Vraska, Relic Seeker (8.5/10) - Great abilities, works well with Doubling Season. I'll definitely be trying this one out when I get a chance. My only complaint is that she seems a little expensive for my taste, both in mana and money.
Vraska, Scheming Gorgon (5/10) - Vraska's back, and instead of making baby-Phages, this one turns every creature we own into a full-blow Phage, which is hilarious. She also has a removal ability. Unfortunately, her plus is crap and not worth using to build up to the other abilities. At least she passes the Doubling Season instant-ult test?
Xenagos, the Reveler - (5/10) - While he is a good walker, and hasty tokens are cool, this just isn't anything I want in my planeswalker deck. The mana is negligible in a low creature deck. The token may be hasty, but a 2/2 isn't that scary in EDH. And the ultimate is not something I can ever picture using in this type of deck. I'd lose more value than I'd gain.
Proliferate, as a mechanic, is almost like cheating when it comes to planeswalkers - suddenly they're not the ones dictating how to build loyalty. It's also great with other things, which is why I chose to include a couple in my deck as support and/or backup.
Atraxa, Praetors' Voice - Awesome for creature-friendly builds, and even a potential commander if you don't mind losing red. Repeatable proliferate is nice, provided it survives, and provided you don't mind having to wait a turn to use the extra loyalty.
Why proliferate only once when you can do it twice?
Contagion Engine – As the only card that double proliferates on a single activation, this card is awesome. Also being able to shrink an entire team (including untargetable) is great. The additional mana to play this is well worth it. Also a great blink target for Venser.
Core Prowler – One of only two cards to combine proliferate and infect on the same cardboard, it seems a bit overcosted. Being weak is not a problem, as this little Horror wants to go to the graveyard.
Deepglow Skate - Doubling Fish doesn't actually proliferate - what it does is much, much better. It's also Venser's favorite pet.
Fuel for the Cause – A counterspell with proliferate – straightforward and powerful. My kind of card.
Grim Affliction – Instant removal, this card is better than it looks at first because it proliferates its own counter as well. I usually don’t run a lot of spot removal in EDH, but this card works well with the deck’s theme.
Inexorable Tide – Here’s a card I hadn’t seriously considered before typing this up, so I’m not entirely sure how to evaluate it. Repeatable proliferate is amazing, but it’s also the only card with no other purpose (Throne of Geth is at least a sac outlet). If you have walkers out, this is great; if you’re topdecking in a vacuum, I can’t think of a more useless card.
Plaguemaw Beast – The most aggressive body with proliferate, this could be great in a creature-heavy build (or at least one that wasn’t planning to wrath it away).
Spread the Sickness – Five mana is a bit pricey for sorcery speed, but at least it’s unconditional removal, which can help protect your walkers.
Steady Progress – Three mana to proliferate and replace itself at instant speed is great.
Tezzeret’s Gambit – For just a slightly higher cost (1 or 2 life), this actually generates card advantage. Sorcery speed is disappointing, but it’s still a great card.
Throne of Geth – This card varies in value according to your build. With more artifacts, it could be really good; with less, it’s just a 2-cost one shot proliferate spell. It does get significantly better once you pull Tamiyo’s ultimate (but that applies to all of the one shot spells on this list), as you can just cast and sac it repeatedly.
Thrummingbird – A cheap, evasive creature that depends on connecting to proliferate. Could be great in a creature-heavy build.
Viral Drake – The other infect/proliferate combo, and this has two advantages: flying and the ability to proliferate multiple times. Mana sinks are always useful.
Volt Charge – It’s not Lightning Bolt, but I wouldn’t run it if it was. This can be useful removal, but it’s still the proliferate I’m more interested in.
The Obvious - Anything with counters, be they +1/+1, -1/-1, poison, charge, divinity, storage, loyalty, eyeball, fade, age, time, blaze, devotion, flood, tower, training, depletion, etc. That's not the point of this section - the point is to identify the ones that synergize well with this deck. I'll include all the cards I use and others I considered, as well as a few that would fit a slightly different build.
Astral Cornucopia - Drop it for 3, and it acts like a lot of other mana rocks. Start proliferating, and it keeps producing more and more mana.
Darksteel Reactor - Typically a slow win condition, proliferate really speeds this up. Indestructibility makes it harder to remove. This was in for a while, but I eventually cut it because it doesn't do anything unless it wins the game.
Helix Pinnacle - Another typically slow win condition that can be fueled by proliferation. This one is protected with shroud.
Luminarch Ascension - It only needs four counters to go off, so proliferate is a bit limited in how much it can help this enchantment. On the other hand, getting it off a turn early can be life saving, and it synergizes well with Doubling Season's other half (you know, the Parallel Lives clause).
Lux Cannon - Triple proliferate turns this little cannon into quite the weapon (and I have pulled that off with both Contagion Clasp and Contagion Engine on the board). Unfortunately, it is too slow, and the majority of games, it gets destroyed before it actually does anything, which is the reason it was removed.
Magistrate's Scepter - Free turns are always fun, and this can go infinite with enough proliferate. The trouble I've found (and the reason I pulled it out) is it's too much off a mana drain when I want to cast other spells.
Mana Bloom - For a low investment, this enchantment can continue to pay dividends so long as you can proliferate. It can also give you one extra spell a turn if you've pulled Venser's emblem and want to be extra mean.
Myojin - Each of the five Myojin can be cast from your hand to gain a single divinity counter, which grants it indestructibility until you activate its one-time ability. Proliferate turns that previous sentence into a lie. Take Myojin of Cleansing Fire - as long as I proliferate the divinity counter, I can remove one to destroy all other creatures while still retaining all the pieces I need to do it again and again. The others allow for mass land destruction, discard, or card draw (only the green has no synergy with this deck).
Orochi Hatchery - Every proliferation means another snake each time you activate this. It also means that you can drop it for 2 if you get it early and not have to feel bad that it will only produce one snake. BTW - This card really loves Doubling Season, as it utilizes both clauses.
Serrated Arrows - Proliferate helps this two ways - it can refill the quiver of arrowhead counters and increase the -1/-1 counters that they inflict.
Spike Weaver - Being able to fog multiple times makes this card good on its own. Proliferating to do it every turn is even better.
Storage Lands - Why just store mana when you can increase it?
Umezawa's Jitte - Before I mention how good this is with proliferate, let me just say that I despise this card with all of the hatred one can direct at a small piece of cardboard - it's stupidly broken and undercosted. That being said, proliferate makes it even more stupidly broken and powerful. If I hadn't vowed to never play this card because I hate it so, I would have acquired one for the deck.
Vivid Lands - Proliferate these often enough, and they each become a Command Tower.
Creature selections are very dependent on your subtheme. A wrath heavy deck won't want to invest too many card slots for things that just get blown up, while a tribal deck may need more slots to strengthen the tribes efficacy. I don't plan to go into detail on tribal interactions here (look in the Alternative Budgets/Subthemes section for that); this section is instead for general utility creatures that can help the deck. Keep in mind that any creature with an ETB ability interacts well with Venser for repeatable fun.
Creatures, even more than spells, are often limited to finding just basics, so mileage varies by build. Any that trigger on ETB are especially helpful because they can then serve double-duty as disposable blockers to protect your walkers.
Farhaven Elf - Ramping into any color is great.
Pilgrim's Eye - Colorless fixing is really helpful for those times when you just haven't drawn a forest.
Sakura-Tribe Elder - Two mana to ramp into any color you need is hard to beat.
Solemn Simulacrum - Colorless fixing again, but this also draws a card when it dies. A staple in five-color decks.
Sylvan Ranger - 1 cheaper than Civic Wayfinder and friends for the tiny drawback of -1/-1.
Weathered Wayfarer - This one-drop may be the best fixing in any non-green deck, but you need to analyze its strengths/weaknesses a bit more in five color. It can fetch any land you need, whether for color or utility, but it only works if you have less land than an opponent, it costs mana each time, and it has to stay on the board a full round before you can use it.
Wood Elves - The ability to fetch non-basic forests is key to whether you run this or not. If you have dual-lands (shock lands or original), this is awesome. If you have mostly basics or non-forest non-basics, spending 2G to fetch G seems less exciting.
Academy Rector - It's the blocker you don't mind losing and can fetch and put into play any enchantment - that means Doubling Season, Mirari's Wake, Humility, Aura Shards, Omniscience (if you run it).
Acidic Slime - Versatile spot-removal on a deathtouch blocker. Blinkable with Venser.
Avacyn, Angel of Hope - Fairly high mana cost but particularly good in a build that runs Obliterate and friends.
Duplicant - Good colorless removal is hard to come by. Blinkable with Venser.
Eternal Witness - One of the best creatures ever printed, in my opinion. Getting back anything you need is amazing.
Gilder Bairn - Pseudo-proliferate on legs. The main disadvantage is you have to tap him first as it's an untap ability, so unless you have another way to do that, he may be taking a one-way trip into the red zone.
Maelstrom Archangel - Too bad it's not legendary, as this would be a contender for 5-color superfriends general. Flying means it may survive and connect, but then again, maybe not.
Maelstrom Wanderer - The double cascade can potentially cheat all but the most expensive walkers into play, even if Humility is in play, but you still have to be at 5URG, which means you should be able to cast them instead.
Narset, Enlightened Master - Another way to cheat walkers into play, Narset has to stick around long enough to swing, but she doesn't actually have to connect.
Peacekeeper - In a pillowfort build, this card can keep you and your walkers safe for the low investment of 1W each turn.
Non-creatures perform a variety of functions, all necessary to developing and protecting your board. Keep in mind, however, that in a deck that can run any card legal in the format, each one you choose needs to merit its slot.
The utility of a mana-fixer generally depends on your mana base - the word "basic" can change everything. I don't really have the space to talk here about every fixer out there, but I'll try to hit some of the more popular.
Chromatic Lantern - It fixes and it ramps. With this out, you never have to worry about colors, and Boseiju can be used for normal colored mana if you don't feel like paying life for the uncounterable clause. Even fetch lands become mana-producers with Lantern in play.
Coalition Relic - A mana rock that can produce 1-2 mana of any color under normal circumstances and even more with proliferate
Crop Rotation - Sac a land to get any land - works best when if you're getting something more versatile than a basic.
Cultivate/Kodama's Reach - 2-for-1s are nice, and they even ramp a little for the next turn. Require basics.
Darksteel Ingot - Everybody's favorite indestructible mana-fixer/ramp.
Expedition Map - Colorless mana-fixing can be especially helpful in a 5-color deck if you haven't drawn a green source yet. Fetching any land you want it great.
Farseek - Two mana ramp capable of grabbing anything with a basic land type other than forest, but it doesn't have to be a basic land, which means this is great with dual lands and shock lands.
Fetchlands - Some of the best mana-fixers are lands. Terramorphic Expanse, Evolving Wilds, and the panoramas if you run basics. Entire cycles of other fetches work for both basic and non-basic but vary in efficiency depending on what they find.
Harrow - This is essentially a break-even on cards, which may or may not be worth it. Saccing Riftstone Portal would be awesome but unlikely. It does have the advantage of putting the lands in untapped. Scary against counterspells, as you can 2-for-1 yourself and lose a land. Requires basics.
Journey of Discovery - The entwine makes this quite pricey, but the flexibility is nice - you can choose fixing, ramp, or both. Requires basics.
Land Tax - In a basic-heavy build, this card is amazing. Even one use gives a 3-for-1 and can setup your next three land drops. Keep it on the board a while and regulate your land drops so someone else still has more than you, and you can experience some serious deck-thinning. If you have all non-basics, though, it's fairly useless.
Manamorphose - One-time fixing, but it replaces itself both in mana and in card advantage. Can be copied by Chandra, the Firebrand for ramp and card advantage.
Primal Growth - A token deck won't mind the kicker. Getting the lands untapped is great. Requires basics.
Prismatic Omen - Two mana to ensure you don't have to worry about colors. Cheaper than Chromatic Lantern (mana-wise), but it doesn't ramp and it can't be returned with Academy Ruins.
Rampant Growth - One of the most basic fixers ever.
Spoils of Victory - Dual lands make this worth running.
Tempt with Discovery - Your mileage will vary depending on your playgroup. It costs 4, which may be high for a single land, but netting 3-5 lands makes this amazing.
Tithe - Clearly better when it has non-basic Plains to fetch rather than just Plains. Being able to fetch one land is great, getting two for W is a steal. Getting duals provides fixing for any colors you want.
I selected wraths based on my meta. Sure, Wrath of God, Wrath of Satan, and Day of Judgment are cheap (mana-wise), but they don't take care of all the indestructibility I've been seeing lately, nor do they get around counter magic. They also don't do anything unique (like card draw) or hit any non-creatures. Here's a list of the ones I'm using:
Austere Command - Amazing utility in one card - it can be a full wrath if you want, or it can be used against enchantment/artifact decks. I run this in every white deck I own.
Black Sun’s Zenith - The -1/-1 counters get around indestructibility and can be proliferated (deck synergy!). It also shuffles back into the library, giving you a chance to use it again later.
Decree of Pain - The cycling ability can knock out an army of tokens while getting around countermagic, and the full spell can give you tons of card advantage.
End Hostilities - The worst thing about playing an equipment deck is that killing the creatures is not enough; you kill them all, only to have a 0/1 goat jump into the ring wearing boots and armor while swinging multiple swords (MTG physics are weird!). End Hostilities helps clean up the creatures and their toys.
Hallowed Burial - Tuck is sometimes even better than wrath, especially in decks that take advantage of recursion, death triggers, or indestructible.
Supreme Verdict - Uncounterable to make those blue mages cry.
Terminus - Another Hallowed Burial that often costs 1 more and occasionally only costs W.
Other wrath options come on spells or creatures. The most powerful can wipe out everything except planeswalkers, which can give you the game, but they aren't for every meta. Given the number of options Wizards has given us, there should be something for everyone. Here are a few of the more popular ones:
Akroma's Vengeance - Powerful when needed and has the option to cycle when you really need something else. A great card to level the board, leaving only lands and planeswalkers.
Cyclonic Rift - While not a permanent board wipe, it can buy you a temporary reprieve and even open the way for a token army to knock someone out.
Decree of Annihilation - Super nasty in either mode. Hardcast, this gets around indestructibility and strips everyone of their hard-earned manabase, not even allowing for recursion. It also empties their hands and most permanents, leaving your walkers to bask in its mushroom cloud. Can you imagine doing this with Bolas on the table? Even if they draw and cast a land, that just adds to his loyalty. Cycled, this card offers nearly uncounterable land destruction.
Elspeth Tirel - I talked about her in the Planeswalker list, but she does have the unfortunate side effect of nuking your other walkers. As a trade-off, she keeps your tokens intact.
Gaze of Granite - Keeps the lands but blows up everything smaller than X - it can at least be tailored to your needs, but it can take out your walkers if the X gets too high.
Jokulhaups - Taking out lands means you'd better have a wincon on the board, but most walkers will contribute once they don't have to worry about your opponent casting spells or attacking.
Nevinyrral's Disk - Larry Niven's Disk lacks the surprise of a non-permanent, but it also lets you drop it and (once it untaps) have instant access for the measly cost of 1.
Obliterate - Watch UU stream down the faces of blue mages everywhere. As long as you have a walker or two out, you'll be doing fine.
Oblivion Stone - Usually not a good option as it also takes out your walkers.
Planar Cleansing - Usually not a good option as it also takes out your walkers.
Scourglass - Also not a good option as it takes out your walkers and has timing restrictions.
Spreading Plague - As long as it stays on the board, not many other creatures will.
Honorable Mention - I wanted to mention Merciless Eviction by itself. While I am a fan of having options and of exile, under certain circumstances, this card can be turned into a liability - if an opponent casts it (whether by Mindslavering you or with Diluvian Primordial, Chancellor of the Spires, Knowledge Exploitation, etc), they can really hose your board. Running it would be meta-dependent.
These are lands that do more than just produce mana or fetch other lands.
Academy Ruins - Getting back artifacts is great, even when you're only running a handful. The Contagion artifacts, skullclamp, your mana rocks - these cards are in the deck for a reason, and if they get destroyed, Ruins can flip them on top of your library.
Alchemist’s Refuge - Flashing a walker isn't the greatest, as loyalty abilities are sorcery speed, but flashing a wrath just before your turn can be a huge tempo swing just after they cast their creatures.
Bojuka Bog - Gravehate that doesn't take a dedicated slot is worth the comes into play tapped drawback.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All - Added after a frustrating game where we really needed a wrath but couldn't get one to stick. this turns all wraths into Supreme Verdict.
Command Tower - I know I said just utility, but this card is too amazing not to mention. produces any color with no drawback.
Manlands - Celestial Colonnade,Creeping Tar Pit, Lavaclaw Reaches, Raging Ravine, Stirring Wildwood all act as color-fixing but also provide blockers that survive post-wrath (provided they aren't active when the wrath goes off). Ravine can even go strongly offensive with a bit of proliferation.
Rogue's Passage - This land may not do much for most builds, but with an infect subtheme, this card becomes pure gold.
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale - Not for those with a small wallet, but the ability can really slow down decks that would like to attack our walkers.
Practically the most powerful planeswalker ever printed - who else has 20+ ultimate abilities?
Doubling Season - Iconic in a walker deck, Doubling Season gives double starting loyalty, which can lead to surprise blowouts. It also doubles the speed of your proliferation (on your permanents) and gives you double tokens. Any card that helps your main theme, your sub-theme, and your sub-sub-theme is great.
Humility - This card is more versatile than it seems. It equalizes all creatures on the board. It prevents damage by reducing the power of your opponents' creatures. It hoses utility creatures. It nerfs generals. It shuts down enters-the-battlefield abilities (including the ones that could blow it up). It combos with the Chandra plus abilities to kill creatures and with Jace, Architect of Thought's plus to nullify any attacks. Very worthwhile if it can fit your budget.
Mind's Eye - Good card advantage.
Moment's Peace - A Fog that can be cast twice.
Norn's Annex - Similar to Sphere of Safety but actually chunks out some life from players without access to W.
Parallel Lives - Doubling Season's little brother. Works great in a token deck for 1 cheaper and a fraction of the price.
Priviledged Position - Good protection for your other cards. It at least has to eat removal before they can target your other stuff.
Rings of Brighthearth - If you build any version of this deck, GET THIS CARD! It can double any loyalty ability for just 2. It doubles the proliferation off the proliferation artifacts. It turns Lux Cannon into Lux Machinegun. It finds a second land when you crack a fetchland. It gives you extra activations of Luminarch Ascension without using more white mana. This card does more for one card slot than any other card in the deck, and it is worth every penny.
Rystic Study - It's cheap and either draws a few cards before getting destroyed or slows your opponents down. Some people will actually wait an extra turn or limit themselves to one spell rather than two just to keep you from drawing. Sounds like a win-win to me.
Savor the Moment/Time Warp and friends - Extra turns are another way to cheat your planeswalkers' loyalty even higher, often allowing you to ultimate before any expected you could.
Skullclamp - You turn tokens into card advantage. Need I say more?
Sphere of Safety - It usually only costs 1 or 2, but that can mean the difference between survival or getting overrun. Doesn't do a lot against a single voltron attacker.
Sudden Spoiling - An interesting card that can shore up a number of deck weaknesses. Split Second makes it nigh uncounterable, and the card can be used as a fog or simply to hose one player in combat. It can also be combined with a wrath to take out even indestructible creatures (or in response to the Avacyn player's wrath).
The Chain Veil - A second activation for each planeswalker is amazing. It's even better than proliferate because you also get the extra abilities. The life loss is reasonable and shouldn't be an issue in a dedicated planeswalker deck. If anything, it encourages you to run even more walkers.
Tutors - Of course they're good. I don't think we need to discuss them in detail. They find you what you need when you need them.
WUBRGWUBRGWUBRG
Oh - and special thanks to Gelf - I didn't know the extent of formatting we could do in one of these threads until I looked through the coding on his Animar Primer (which, I have to admit, convinced me to build my own Animar deck).
This deck will continue to change and evolve, so feel free to leave suggestions.
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WUBRGWUBRGWUBRG
Under Construction A planeswalker deck is expensive; even on a low budget, the cost threshold is substantial compared to many other archetypes. That being said, limited resources do not necessarily preclude you from enjoying planeswalkers - it all depends on your build.
The trick to creating your own build is to balance each card's cost with its power-level. Is that card worth spending $X, or would something else be an acceptable substitute? You could just cram all the cheap planeswalkers together, but cutting a couple of mediocre ones could pay for just one that synergizes better.
Listed below are some other build ideas. There are also options to improve the deck for those who wish to spend a bit more. Got another build you's like to try/seen done? Post it in the thread for discussion.
Lower Budget
-Horde of Notions Elementals
-Sliver tribal
-Infect
-Progenitus beats face
Higher Budget
-Mega-Budget Manabase
-Uber-Douche
Horde of Notions - Elemental Tribal Superfriends - Low Budget
1 Horde of Notions
PLANESWALKERS
1 Ajani Goldmane
1 Chandra, the Firebrand
1 Chandra Nalaar
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Jace Beleren
1 Liliana Vess
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
1 Sorin Markov
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Vraska the Unseen
ELEMENTALS
1 Animar, Soul of the Elements
1 Ashling the Pilgrim
1 Brine Elemental
1 Crib Swap
1 Deepfire Elemental
1 Fertilid
1 Flamekin Harbinger
1 Incandescent Soulstoke
1 Ingot Chewer
1 Kulrath Knight
1 Living Hive
1 Mulldrifter
1 Nameless Inversion
1 Nevermaker
1 Purity
1 Quicksilver Elemental
1 Reveillark
1 Roil Elemental
1 Shinewend
1 Shriekmaw
1 Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
1 Smokebraider
1 Soul of the Harvest
1 Spitemare
1 Stingmoggie
1 Timbermare
1 Tornado Elemental
1 Wispmare
1 Contagion Clasp
1 Contagion Engine
1 Fuel for the Cause
1 Plaguemaw Beast
1 Steady Progress
1 Thrummingbird
OTHER
1 Acidic Slime
1 Aura Shards
1 Austere Command
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Cruel Ultimatum
1 Crystal Shard
1 Cultivate
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Deadeye Navigator
1 Evacuation
1 Ghostway
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Manalith
1 Pilgrim's Eye
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Sunken Hope
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Titanic Ultimatum
This deck can play two ways - it can play defensively to get maximum effect out of the walkers or it can play aggro/control with the walkers along for the ride. Being creature heavy, it doesn't really like wraths.
All-Stars:
Venser, the Sojourner - able to retrigger elementals with ETB effects
Crib Swap - exile removal that can be recast over and over with the general
Skullbriar, the Walking Grave - keeps getting proliferated and keeps coming back
Spitemare - a good rattlesnake to protect your walkers
Rings of Brighthearth - doubles abilities from your walkers and your general
Cost Analysis:
The body of this deck is worth approximately 30% of my build (land not included). While it only has 11 Planeswalkers, it is a great budget option for someone looking to start a planeswalker deck for cheap. Obviously, cards can be added/changed out as the player acquires more.
Higher Budget recommendations:
Avenger of Zendikar
Domri Rade
Doubling Season
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Maelstrom Wanderer
Mirror Entity
Vigor
Sorin, Lord of Inistrad
1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
1 Chandra Nalaar
1 Chandra, the Firebrand
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Gideon Jura
1 Liliana Vess
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Vraska the Unseen
INFECT
1 Blight Mamba
1 Blighted Agent
1 Core Prowler
1 Corpse Cur
1 Corrupted Conscience
1 Decimator Web
1 Fallen Ferromancer
1 Hand of the Praetors
1 Ichor Rats
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Necropede
1 Phyrexian Crusader
1 Phyrexian Swarmlord
1 Plague Myr
1 Putrefax
1 Reaper of Sheoldred
1 Rot Wolf
1 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
1 Spinebiter
1 Suq'Ata Assassin
1 Triumph of the Hordes
1 Viral Drake
1 Viridian Corrupter
1 Virulent Wound
1 Contagion Clasp
1 Contagion Engine
1 Fuel for the Cause
1 Grim Affliction
1 Plaguemaw Beast
1 Spread the Sickness
1 Steady Progress
1 Tezzeret's Gambit
1 Thrummingbird
1 Volt Charge
OTHER
1 Corrupted Resolve
1 Cultivate
1 Electropotence
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Kodama’s Reach
1 Mortarpod
1 Pilgrim’s Eye
1 Predatory Focus
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Sylvan Ranger
1 Thornbite Staff
1 Viridian Longbow
1 Whispersilk Cloak
This deck focuses on walkers that can remove potential blockers or produce tokens that can be given infect with Triumph of the Hordes and/or Grafted Exoskeleton. It also allows the creatures to deal direct damage so you can avoid the red zone altogether. If you can get at least one poison counter on each opponent, each proliferate spell will become more effective. Unfortunately, this also means that the planeswalkers will sometimes be playing second fiddle while the infect creatures steal the show. Replacing some infect slots with more planeswalkers could fix this, but it would definitely raise the budget.
All-Stars:
Venser, the Sojourner - Venser's often forgotten middle ability becomes way more powerful with poison. His blink can also retrigger Ichor Rats as a pseudo-proliferate for poison.
Corrupted Conscience - take their baddest creature and make it even scarier
Ichor Rats - a poison counter on each player means all you need to do to win is proliferate
Reaper of Sheoldred - excellent blocker to protect your walkers, as it turns big attackers into a lethal liability
Cost Analysis: With Cromat or Scion of the Ur-Dragon in command, this deck is fairly evenly priced with the Elemental build; Progenitus brings it up to 33% of my deck's value (not including land). It is fairly deadly and manages to pack extra planeswalkers, but the sheer deadliness of infect may overshadow the planeswalkers at times.
Higher Budget recommendations:
Blightsteel Colossus
Doubling Season
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Slivers are a very polarizing race - either you love them or hate them. It is my belief that any sliver player justly deserves any and all cardboard beatdowns that come their way in a game. With that in mind, they are a powerfully diverse tribe for a five color deck. It's just too bad that there aren't any planeswalkers that make sliver tokens... or are there?
1 Sliver Overlord
PLANESWALKERS
1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
1 Domri Rade
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Elspeth, Knight Errant
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Liliana Vess
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
1 Sarkhan Vol
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Vraska the Unseen
SLIVERS
1 Acidic Sliver
1 Amoeboid Changeling
1 Blur Sliver
1 Bonescythe Sliver
1 Brood Sliver
1 Cautery Sliver
1 Crypt Sliver
1 Crystalline Sliver
1 Essence Sliver
1 Firewake Sliver
1 Galerider Sliver
1 Gemhide Sliver
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Heart Sliver
1 Homing Sliver
1 Manaweft Sliver
1 Mnemonic Sliver
1 Necrotic Sliver
1 Opaline Sliver
1 Pulmonic Sliver
1 Quick Sliver
1 Root Sliver
1 Sentinel Sliver
1 Shifting Sliver
1 Sliver Legion
1 Striking Sliver
1 Synapse Sliver
1 Syphon Sliver
1 Talon Sliver
1 Thorncaster Sliver
1 Virulant Sliver
1 Winged Sliver
1 Hivestone
1 Unnatural Selection
Proliferation
1 Contagion Clasp
1 Contagion Engine
1 Fuel for the Cause
1 Grim Affliction
1 Plaguemaw Beast
1 Steady Progress
1 Tezzeret's Gambit
1 Volt Charge
OTHER
1 Cultivate
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Eldrazi Monument
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Solemn Simulacrum
This deck wants to play around by turning the tokens produced by planeswalkers into slivers, which it can then use for a variety of nefarious purposes including mana ramp, aggro, removal, and of course, spawning even more slivers. It also has a couple of finishers in the shape of Virulant and Legion. Sliver Overlord was selected as the general because it can search for any sliver in the deck - it turns the deck into a toolbox for whatever ability you currently need. I also threw in Amoemoid Changeling and Unnatural Selection to combo with his theft ability.
All-Stars:
Um... it's a sliver deck. Your all-stars are whatever you need at any given time to make your horde evolve to the situation. That and Hivestone, which makes your planeswalkers spit out slivers.
Necrotic Sliver - Turning every token your walkers churn out into a Vindicate seems pretty powerful.
Gemhide Sliver/Manaweft Sliver - Five color decks can always use mana-fixing, and these guys provide it in swarms.
Harmonic Sliver - Removal is great, but keep in mind that this is not a may ability. If your opponents run out of targets, you will start nuking your own. Running something like Darksteel Ingot can provide a target that soaks up triggers and doesn't go away.
Cost Analysis: This one comes in about double the value of the previous examples, but it's still less than 65% of the build I'm running. This would be really good for someone looking to play a quick aggressive game with a little bit of shenanigans. Keep in mind it will likely draw a lot of hate, and it's biggest weaknesses include board wipes.
Higher Budget recommendations:
Sliver Queen (although i don't really feel like she's needed)
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Thanks for sharing!
I've actually never had Doubling Season out yet. I traded for it three weeks ago, but our Tuesday EDH has been on hold for the holidays. Here's hoping I get it tonight.
That being said, I'm still in the process of tuning the deck. My first game, I pulled five ultimate abilities and completely smashed everyone. After that, they wised up, and I've been having to make it stronger - I've doubled the wraths, trimmed the cards that aren't as powerful, added a backup win (Darksteel Reactor), and slightly shifted the focus. There's still a lot of cards I am considering, so suggestions are welcome.
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You may also want to consider Mana Reflection/Mirari's wake to get a bit of a jump in casting the expensive stuff. And if you are cool with a sub theme almost all of the Myojin are good in a Walker deck. If MLD is frowned upon (I'm not a huge fan either) the black, blue, and white Myojin are amazing with proliferate. Blue in particular will win you games.
Further playtesting shows that the deck is really powerful if given time to develop (double Venser emblem one game, multiple ultimates leading into Architect of Thought's another), but it is a bit slow if people start ganging up on me before my mana is fully developed. I need good, fast ramp options - ones that actually speed up my mana and thin my deck, not simply ones that fix my mana. I like Genini's suggestions, but at 5-6 mana, they are slower than I would like. I know there's Cultivate and Kodama's Reach, but what other cards do people like that fit the bill?
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UBRSedris, the Necromancer KingUBR
One thing, out of curiousity: why not more tutor effects instead of Mimic Vat and other things like Myojin of Cleansing Fire? I can understand not springing for Vampiric Tutor, but Enlightened Tutor would help you dig for your Doubling Season or Rings, Mystical Tutor would let you find a board wipe, and while a bit pricey manawise, Increasing Ambition and Diabolic Tutor are at least tutors. Just one tutor effect in a deck like this seems a bit off to me, when each one functions as a duplicate of whatever card you might need right now.
While the general might not matter too much, I'd think Cromat would be more relevant if only because he might actually do something on the table, and if plan Planeswalker fails to pan out you'll certainly have ramped enough to use his abilities. Plus they might think you're 5-color Voltron...
One game I won recently involved Rings of Brighthearth copying Venser, the Sojourner's ultimate. With two emblems, every spell I cast let me exile two permanents, which made quick work of my opponents' boards. Oh, and I got to use it to make Terramorphic Expanse fetch me two lands once - that was fun.
I honestly have no idea - like I said, I traded for all but $10 worth. It also depends on how you build it. I opted not to use an expensive mana base and skipped Big Money Jace. If I get some time, I'll run my decklist through a pricing site.
Tutors - I like a little tutoring power, but I tend to run less tutors than most simply because one of the things I like about EDH is the variety - each game plays differently. If every game you tutor for the same 10 cards, you may as well play 60-card and get four copies each.
Mimic Vat and Myojin of Cleansing Fire - I love Mimic Vat; it offers so much repeatable utility and occasional power. Myojin give me a repeatable wrath effect with proliferate and an indestructible blocker to boot.
Cromat - He has an interesting variety of abilities, but he doesn't really synergize with the deck. Sliver Queen gives me tokens, which can be used to protect my planeswalkers, to swarm an opponent, or to Skullclamp for card advantage. Plus, it synergizes with Doubling Season.
Hadn't though of some of those. I need to evaluate them a little better and see which ones I want copies of (not to mention what to cut for them). Still looking for other suggestions, too.
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As the deck becomes more token-centric, I have been considering Parallel Lives more and more. I'm just not sure how to make room for it. (Same with Awakening Zone - ramp and tokens both help, tokens get doubled by Doubling Season, but I'm not sure how to make a home for it). Any suggestions for what to cut would be appreciated; I already have my own list, but I'd like to see what others perceive as the weakest cards.
Corpsejack Menace doesn't do enough - I don't have that many +1/+1 counters in the deck, and he would die (along with the pumped creatures) as soon as I wrath.
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I found a link to http://deckstats.net/index.php and figured I'd give it a try. It puts the current value (as of today's build) at $342.06. I'm not sure how accurate the prices are, but a quick glance looked about right, possibly a little low.
That being said, there are definitely ways to modify the deck to match different budgets.
Five of the cards are listed between $20-$39 each, meaning you could save about $130 by using cheaper alternatives. Just replacing Sliver Queen with Cromat would save about $25. A lot of cards in the $10-$20 range could also be replaced if you are on an extreme budget. Once I complete the entire first post, I'll see about adding a budget list.
If your goal, on the other hand, is to sink as much money as possible, a full set of original duals/fetchlands/shocklands would not go amiss. You could foil when possible, get everything altered, and use sharpied Black Lotuses for 1/1 tokens. Pretty much, the sky's the limit if you want to go up.
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WUBRGProgenitus
URGMaelstrom Wanderer
WUBOloro, Ageless Ascetic
WURZedruu, the Greathearted
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher ($100)
GWUDerevi, Empyrial Tactician ($100)
UGKruphix, God of Horizons ($100)(retired)UTalrand, Sky Summoner (French 1v1, $100)
By the way, i had planned to make a proliferate walker deck, but you beat me to it..and made a better deck than i could have anyway. thanks for posting it.
Extra turns are certainly powerful, but I like where trancekat is going here. Sure, you can't untap your lands, but for only 1UU, you get to draw a card, drop another land, activate all of your walkers (whether plus or minus), and do a few more things. I may have to give that a try.
While that is a combo, it's not one I particularly care for. Neither card on its own is that great - Bloodmoon could actually hurt my mana production. Together, they're still not that powerful, and I find I'd rather run something else other than an easily disruptable combo that doesn't necessarily win me the game.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Blazing Archon are both very powerful cards, but at 5WW and 6WWW, they're too late to stop quick aggro decks. Something like Wrath of God would be cheaper and faster to accomplish that goal. I've already got several wraths in here - do you feel it's not enough?
EDIT - I removed Darksteel Reactor in favor of Awakening Zone. It's a change I've been debating and finally decided to go for because I've been 1-2 mana short or 1-2 blockers short the past few games. This is ramp plus tokens and should help the deck out. The reactor just sits there doing nothing, not helping your board position at all. Sure, it could win the game, but more often, having a dead card is going to lose you the game.
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[DECK]Commander:
1 Progenitus
Artifacts (8):
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Contagion Engine
1 Door to Nothingness
1 Legacy Weapon
1 Mindslaver
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Sol Ring
1 Ward of Bones
Enchantments (9):
1 Doubling Season
1 Maelstrom Nexus
1 Mana Reflection
1 Mirari’s Wake
1 Moat
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Prismatic Omen
1 Spirit of Resistance
Instants (5):
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Mortify
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Realms Uncharted
1 Vampiric Tutor
Sorceries (19):
1 Austere Command
1 Conflux
1 Damnation
1 Decimate
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Dreadbore
1 Final Judgement
1 Hull Breach
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Recross the Paths
1 Rout
1 Shard Convergence
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Time Spiral
1 Urban Evolution
1 Vindicate
1 Violent Ultimatum
1 Void
1 Wrath of God
Planeswalkers (21):
1 Ajani Vegeant
1 Chandra Nalaar
1 Chandra, the Firebrand
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Gideon, Champion of Justice
1 Jace Beleren
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Karn Liberated
1 Liliana Vess
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
1 Sarkhan Vol
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Sorin Markov
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Vraska the Unseen
Land (37):
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Arid Mesa
1 Badlands
1 Bayou
1 Blood Crypt
1 Breeding Pool
1 Command Tower
1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Crystal Quarry
1 Darigaaz’s Caldera
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Forbidden Orchard
1 Godless Shrine
1 Graven Cairns
1 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Jungle Shrine
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plateau
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Savage Lands
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Taiga
1 Temple Garden
1 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Undergroud Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Watery Grave
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Moat
WARD OF BONES!!!! Mwahahahaha. I haven't played that card in so long that I'd forgotten about it. It is absolutely amazing if you want to limit your opponents to 2-3 each of creatures, artifacts, or enchantments. I need to find a copy. Really makes Sharuum decks cry if they dropped artifact lands early.
Thanks for posting all the suggestions. Moat is great if you can afford it, and Decimate is one of my favorite removal spells (it's a 4-for-1 by itself!) - I even have a spare that may make it's way in if I don't put it in a new deck I'm planning. The mana cards are obviously good picks, too.
Cool list - thanks for posting it. Once I get to the Alternative budget section, I may glean ideas from it. I was wondering about your selection of walkers: was the exclusion of Liliana of the Veil deliberate? I rather like her. And I keep debating Tezzeret the Seeker (which I see in there) for his tutor ability. You mentioned him activating Lux Cannon, which I hadn't even thought about. I may see if I can find him to give it a try. Oh - and I wouldn't waste a slot on Phage - the Bribery player has the option when searching to fail to find, meaning they waste the Bribery but don't lose the game.
2022 Average Peasant Cube
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