When the first 5 Planeswalkers were printed in Lorwyn, Garruk emerged as the #1 Planeswalker, being the most used and most sought after. Even today, Garruk still sees tournament play. In casual, Garruk is a very powerful builder card. With Garruk's +1 ability to untap two lands, you can play him turn 4, allowing you to have a very powerful turn 5-6 play. On turn 4, with his +1 ability, you essentially have invested 2 mana into a Planeswalker with 4 loyalty, which is a great investment. Garruk's first ability also helps you fix your mana if your playing 2 or more colors in your deck and can help crank out spells requiring 3 mana of a single color. The ability also helps you recover from a mana/land famine in case you don't draw mana artifacts or some ramp/land tutoring in the early game. Garruk's -1 ability also gives you the option to produce a 3/3 blocker or strengthen your army by putting out another beater. On a top deck or in the late game, Garruk helps you get back into the game with a fairly relevant 3/3. Garruk helps the control decks out supply (more mana) their opponents in the mirror match and helps defend itself with the token. Garruk gives the token/green based tribal decks another Overrun ability and helps give the G/U card advantage based decks the ability to race against combo or control decks. Garruk's downside is that his loyalty is low enough where he could be picked off by an opponent's creature or burn spell in the early game, but the advantage of a 3/3 or untapping two lands is worth it in most cases.
#4: Elspeth, Knight-Errant
#4: Elspeth, Knight-Errant
After seeing tons of play on the tournament tables, it's no surprise Elspeth, Knight-Errant comes on top as one of the best Planeswalkers in casual. After the release of Shards of Alara, Elspeth, Knight-Errant changed casual magic and powered out white based aggro and control decks and really pushed white into a powerhouse color. Elspeth's first +1 ability puts a token on the board that can block, attack, hold an equipment, be the target of Elspeth's second +1 ability, and discouraging opponents' from throwing hate damage (damage you take from being open to attack) at you. The Second +1 ability helps you keep up an offensive against opponents with smaller/weaker creatures. The great thing about Elspeth is that she doesn't have any negative loyalty, so she's constantly making herself more difficult to kill as the turns progress. This makes her a perfect defense for creature based combo decks who need the focus fire to move away from themselves or the engine their trying to construct. Elspeth is great in the equipment deck, because they're consistently needing creatures to equip and give you a steady stream of 1/1 soldiers. The great thing about Elspeth, is after the first activation, she's at 5 loyalty, which puts her just right out of range of most damage spells and lets her survive past the first rotation. She has a lot of resiliency and the 1/1 tokens she can generate help protect her.
Ok, so Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker is an incredible card, we can all agree on that. Nicol Bolas still is the only card I've ever preordered on the first day it was spoiled. Nicol Bolas is the defining card of the grixis archetype. Nicol Bolas gives grixis the ability to destroy noncreature permanents (something more reserved for green) allowing him to knock out problematic enchantments and artifacts, something that very few black cards have the ability to do. Although Nicol Bolas is 3 colors and heavily commits you to a strategy, his sheer power finishes games very quickly and can shut down opponents' strategies within a couple turns. Unlike the other Planeswalkers, Nicol Bolas is a 'build around me' card and has potential to run the board. With a lot of support from Red mass removal, including (Obliterate, Jokulhaups, and Decree of Annihilation), Nicol Bolas easily cleans up the game. Nicol Bolas generally enters the battlefield and starts with 8 loyalty leaving him out of range to be picked off by a small flyer or a small squad of 1/1's. I chose Nicol Bolas over Karn Liberated because Nicol Bolas has the ability to mind control or destroy the permanent. Nicol Bolas also has 8 loyalty after a noncreature destruction, while Karn is left with 3 loyalty after exiling a permanent. Both Nicol Bolas and Karn can eliminate an enemy Planeswalker, but Nicol Bolas protects himself while doing so by increasing his own loyalty. Because Karn is colorless, he's more versatile than Nicol Bolas; but I haven't seen enough play with Karn to give him a spot in the top 5. I guess here, I'm giving Karn honorable mention.
No surprise, but Jace, the Mindsculptor makes top 5. He's 1 color, so he's easily castable and sits at a comfortable 4 mana, making him easy to follow up after a board wipe. His ability to Fateseal an opponent, Brainstorm, or Unsummon makes him extremely versatile for control decks or the midrange blue decks. In a multiplayer match, Jace can help draw attention to him, which could help draw attention away from you if you're close to dying or can help control a board from opponents' bomb creatures. Jace protects himself using the unsummon ability or helps bounce your utility creatures, similar to Crystal Shard. Towards the late game, his +2 Fateseal on yourself can help you dig to the cards you need or on an opponent to keep them from drawing spells. Jace's brainstorm ability helps you dig 3 cards deeper into your deck to find the answers you need to (most of the time) a hostile board. Jace has the ability to play the role of a builder planeswalker and help you build to a stronger late game, or help you lock an opponent out of the game. I think the downsides, and reason Jace isn't #1, is he draws way too much attention. In larger multiplayer games, Jace will more often than not die, to Creeping Tar Pit, a barrage of flying creatures, burn, multiple players declaring combat against Jace, and a multitude of other horrible deaths. Jace is a great card, but doesn't have the room to shine until the late game when several opponents have died from a multiplayer game.
And Number 1 is....
#1 Gideon Jura
Gideon Jura is one of the most incredible Planeswalkers. He's at 5 mana that keeps him very playable and completely turns combat around. Entering the battlefield at a whopping 8 loyalty or Assassinate-ing a key utility creature makes Gideon a great piece of utility himself. Gideon's +2 can also help move attention from you to Gideon as you use the tempo to build your army to realiate into your opponent's relatively open board. The +2 ability also helps you eliminate your opponent's board with a timely Sunblast Angel. After leaving the board clear, his ultimate ability gives you a creature to swing at your opponent's Planeswalkers or bring your opponent closer to death. His ultimate ability also works like Chimeric Mass and gives you a very strong board presence after a wrath effect. After hitting the board, Gideon changes the way your opponents' engage in combat and by choosing the right opponent at opportune times, you can mark opponents to be open to be retaliated by other opponents. Gideon is one of the few political Planeswalkers that isn't a direct threat off the bat, but can really change the way opponents view each other. Like Jace, I don't think Gideon is made for every deck playing white (blue for Jace), but I feel in the right deck, both can be very devastating.
Some of the honorable mentions for the Top 5, include Liliana Vess, Elspeth Tirel, Venser the Sojourner, Karn Liberated, and Tezzeret the Seeker. Hope you guys enjoyed, let me know if there was any Planeswalker you felt I should have mentioned.
-David J.
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