Commodore Guff’s abilities are more aligned with its fellow Planeswalkers than ever, suggesting a new era where Planeswalkers are the most dominant card type in Commander, and not just legendary creatures. The current Commander format is doing well with an astonishing variety of legendary creatures to lead the decks, but there’s still room for more. While some Planeswalker cards can be a deck’s commander if the card’s text box says so, the Commander format should make this official and let all Planeswalker cards to lead Commander decks.

Magic has seen at least one cat that has no problem going to the graveyard (remember that Cauldron Familiar that needed to be rebalanced?). Lukka’s extremely mediocre for its cost, though having Mila as an alternative option brings it up a decent amount, since the creature half is reasonably good. Its ultimate is an emblem version of Warstorm Surge, though you could just cast that card for six mana anyway and forget the hassle of having to protect a planeswalker. Like the Magic Origins flipwalkers, Mila, Crafty Companion’s another “planeswalker” that’s cheating on the rules a bit. Technically I evaluate Lukka, Wayward Bonder here, but having Mila as the front-facing half of the card means you get to sneak this planeswalker into the command zone of a deck. Estrid isn’t the worst, but I think you can do better in terms of planeswalker commanders.

Focusing on the -2 and the -7 ultimate on this beautiful feline friend can give you a new leader to a niche strategy in mono-white. The -2 giving all your creatures (and more importantly, all your ‘walkers) an extra counter is great. One of the hardest things with superfriends decks, or any decks with a large number of planeswalkers, is either getting to the ultimate or getting them out of the range of being attacked. Additionally, as an excellent piece of utility, Freyalise’s -2 can destroy any artifact mtg combo or enchantment, dealing with numerous problematic cards opponents may be utilizing.

MTG Salvation

Then in War of the Spark not only did they print a whole slew at rare, but uncommon planeswalkers were popping out of packs left, right, and center. Remember how I mentioned that mono-colored commanders have to be really good to work? Its ability to filter through your hand makes it relevant at all times, but what really stands out is its -2 ability. Jeska makes this a much easier task by allowing you to play good old-fashioned aggro decks without feeling outclassed by your opponents.

Where are the rules for planeswalker not being commanders?

Permanents, spells, and abilities can also target any player around the table (as long as they don’t explicitly say they must be used on “you”). In addition to the normal Magic loss conditions, if a player is dealt 21 points of combat damage from a single commander throughout the game, that player loses the game. This combat damage total is kept track of separately for each player’s commander and does not reduce if a player gains life. Elminster loves scrying and then playing big instants using the discount he grants after you do so.

#28. Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy / Jace, Telepath Unbound

This is where your commander resides during the game when they are not in play. At the start of the game, each player puts their commander face up into the command zone. A commander can be cast from the command zone for its normal costs, plus an additional two mana for each previous time it’s been cast from the command zone this game. If your commander would be put into your library, hand, graveyard or exile from anywhere, you may return it to your command zone instead. If you want to use a planeswalker as a commander, this guide will show you the best options you can pick from. Now, some groups will let you use any old MTG planeswalker as your commander, but it’s key to have that all-important rule zero discussion before you try it.

Most of them have been released with Commander precons, but there are a handful of others that have come from Commander-specific sets like Commander Legends. Starting with Ixalan, this rule was abandoned.[24] All planeswalkers past, present, and future gained the supertype legendary and became subject to the “legend rule”. Thus, if a player controls more than one legendary planeswalker with the same name, that player chooses one and puts the other into their owner’s graveyard. This has also enabled planeswalkers without types to be printed, such as The Wanderer. A card’s color identity can come from any part of that card, including its casting cost and any mana symbols in its text.

WotC used to call their 100-card format, Historic Brawl (now just Brawl). Stick with digital play and you can find the 60-card Standard Brawl format on Arena. It’s technically a creature but can transform into Nicol Bolas, the Arisen if you’re willing to pay the mana. Not only are its first two abilities relevant (we can pretend the third one doesn’t exist), but Esper () is also a great color combination in EDH. You could remove Saheeli, the Gifted’s first ability altogether and I’d still give the card the same ranking. Being able to produce potentially insane amounts of mana in a single turn is nothing to laugh at.

Do this by leading up to sorceries like Blatant Thievery or Expropriate, to take your opponent’s permanents and extra turns. That said, Commander is intended to be a format played casually for fun with friends — the official EDH site’s Philosophy section says as much. That same section explicitly encourages people to make exceptions or changes to the rules for local play if it’s fun.

Land destruction, Wrath-heavy decks, and hard Stax are all possible strategies that would want Knight-Errant as the leader. Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes is a stellar new Gruul commander capable of dealing considerable damage to one’s opponents, as well as accumulating card advantage for its controller. For four mana, whenever this three-loyalty planeswalker enters the battlefield and at the beginning of its controller’s upkeep, its controller can create a legendary 1/1 Hamster token with trample and haste named Boo. While this is often true, in the format’s lifespan, there have been numerous planeswalkers printed that possess a clause stating that they can be legally used as a player’s commander!

This deck might have a more toxic gameplan, around it so playing with caution would be advised. This card was used to show off the Escape mechanic in Standard, so having all minus abilities was a way to reliably get this card in the graveyard on a consistent basis. In Commander, death is not the desired outcome unless you plan to play reanimation. This card does not do anything to escape a place outside the 99 of a deck, and to be honest, this card is still trying to break into the 99 to begin with. On top of all this, EDH precons like Planeswalker Party are an easy way to get into planeswalker cards.

Attempts to retain flavorful rule quirks (planeswalker redirection, type-line uniqueness) have been revoked in favor of more practical gameplay. No matter the outcome, Commander gives players the tools to express themselves through strategy, skill, and a whole lot of deck building fun. Each player starts with 40 life, places their commander face-up in their command zone, and draws a hand of seven cards. Players are seated randomly in a circle and turns progress one player at a time in clockwise order around the table.

Guff’s -3 ability is powerful and highly reliant on Planeswalkers, so a “superfriends” deck is necessary to get value from it. However, Commodore Guff’s future decks shouldn’t be the only ones to focus on Planeswalkers this much. Build your own Gatewatch and put together more planeswalkers than your opponents can handle, superfriends in Commander is a type of deck that puts as many powerful planeswalkers together to overwhelm opponents. Check out our decklist featuring a Commander that you almost never play as a creature, The Prismatic Bridge, and have some fun at your casual Commander table.