Planeswalkers can be powerful in Commander, especially in the Superfriends archetype. On their own they tend to fall easier though, so having a big impact is key to making them playable in the average deck. Kristen has 10 Underrated Planeswalkers that she thinks should make the cut in your decks more often – no Atraxa required.

The Eternal Wanderer. Liliana, Dreadhorde General. Oko, Thief of Crowns. You’ve no doubt seen these Planeswalkers devastate a Commander table. Wiping the board is powerful, so is a mass edict, and so is curving out Oko to ruin everyone’s fun. What makes some of these ‘walkers so good is their static abilities – Planeswalker design has come a long way since Lorwyn. 

Everyone knows the best Planeswalkers for a Superfriends deck, but what about the ones that are worth playing in the average deck, knowing you’ve got a small chance of untapping with them?

10 UNDERRATED PLANESWALKERS FOR COMMANDER

10. KIORA, BEHEMOTH BECKONER

Kiora is perhaps the most ubiquitously played entry on this list, and so she’s heading up the rear. And my, what a rear. Kiora comes down early with a magnificent 7 loyalty. The state of Commander at current is such that players are heavily incentivized to attack players and not Planeswalkers, so that they can steal lunch money and other loot from triggers. Given Kiora has no ultimate too build to, players are much happier to let her gradually tick down, as she offers a fairly common green draw effect.

What elevates her potential, and why you should play her, is her ability to untap anything from a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to a Marwyn, the Nurturer. She’s secretly a mana doubler at three, for at least one turn. 

9. DARETTI, SCRAP SAVANT

Daretti should be played in basically any deck that has artifact creatures or powerful artifact engine pieces, because every deck nowadays has more treasure than they know what to do with. One man’s trash is another man’s Treasure, and Daretti practically wrote this proverb. He can plus to 5 when he comes down with a Faithless Looting, and regularly ticks up over multiple turns because his ultimate requires a lot of setup. Four mana to Loot and Weld while buffering your life total a little seems more than good enough to me.

8. TEZZERET, MASTER OF THE BRIDGE

War of the Spark Tezzeret has enjoyed play in Artifacts decks for a while now, but where before he was commonly played as win condition (amassing artifacts before nuking), I think he can comfortably fit into decks now as more of a value-piece. Between Clues, Food, Treasure, and soon to be Junk in Fallout, artifact tokens are easy to amass even in strategies that don’t ostensibly call themselves an Artifacts deck. 

When you add in the utility he grants from reducing the cost of your creature spells and also buying back an artifact from your graveyard, Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge starts to look very splashable. 

7. AJANI, STRENGTH OF THE PRIDE

One sided wraths are always good. They’re especially good when they get rid of multiple types of permanents (think a good-for-you Austere Command, or straight up Ruinous Ultimatum). What if that spell could be just four mana, and otherwise synergize with your deck?

Well, than you’d get Ajani, Strength of the Pride. He can tick up to gain you a buttload of life in the right deck, but most often you’re playing this while ahead to seal the deal. It’s a similar philosophy to the much derided mass land destruction approach, when you’re ahead. Just way more socially acceptable. If you gain life, play this card.

6. GARRUK WILDSPEAKER

I touched briefly on Kiora’s untap target permanent ability earlier, and Garruk does this also. In a mono-green deck, he’ll untap Gaea’s Cradle, a flipped Itlimoc, a Nykthos… and even utility lands like Tyrite Sanctum. Heck, even untapping Temple to the False God can be good. As a mana generator, Garruk is one of the better ones in green, and it doesn’t take much to unlock an overrun too. 

5. VIVIEN, MONSTER’S ADVOCATE

As far as green walkers go, though, I’m way more inclined to wax lyrical about Vivien from Ikoria. While she’s in play, you can cast creatures off the top, which is already great. She can defend herself with a (most often) 3/3 with Reach, and her ability is pure advantage. She essentially grants a mini Tooth and Nail effect to the next creature spell you cast, letting you grab something from your library with lesser mana value. Even if it gets countered, this ability will still let you tutor something into play. 

I’ve played her in everything from Angels to Dragons, and she always delivers. 

4. KAITO, DANCING SHADOW

I haven’t seen much of Kaito, but I’m never going to escape the Mardu Server accusations levelled at my discord, and I’ve played a lot of Spelltable of late. He’s just not gonna be playable in a lot of the decks I’ve played against in recent games. 

Kaito has a Draw a Card ability, which can be activated twice if you bounce an attacker back to hand. In a deck with Kaito, you probably want to be playing attackers that benefit from that bounce anyways. While he seem like just a Ninja’s card, he really isn’t. Making deathtouch blockers and also stopping things attacking can mess with combat real good. 

3. KAYA, SPIRIT’S JUSTICE

In my recent set review for Murders at Karlov Manor, I was pretty high on Kaya. Nothing much has changed. She’s got a very relevant static, which triggers when you do graveyard things, when your stuff gets removed, when you flicker things… the list goes on. Having an until-end-of-turn hasty flyer, essentially, is very good. What’s more, she both enables her own static, and she has a very powerful removal ability which… also enables her static ability.

Oh and her other ability? It makes the token with which to commence shenanigans. I think this card is capable of great swings.

2. NAHIRI, HEIR OF THE ANCIENTS

Nahiri felt pretty disappointing when she released. She came out at a time when Commander was still all about Haymakers, making her removal ability a little anemic. What’s more, we didn’t have the colossal support for equipment decks that came out in the 3 and a bit years since Zendikar Rising. 

Since then, getting a free equip on a token is pretty good. Since then, digging for a Warrior or Equipment has also gotten better; have you seen Astor, Bearer of Blades? I wanna dig for that.

It’s also gotten a lot easier to dump a lot of equipment into play, too, with the advent of decks that care about going wider with cheap equipment. Couple that with the lower curves seen in 2024 Commander and you have yourself a pretty respectable card. Oh, and the borderless art is killer. 

1. SORIN, VENGEFUL BLOODLORD

Speaking of killers, a hot-blooded one in the form of Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord tops today’s list. I’m a sucker for Sorin x Nahiri bloodfeud drama, and despite being a Nahiri fan through and through, I have to hand this one to Sorin.

In previous years, my Sorin was relegated solely to my vampires deck. What changed?

Well, just how good tempo based plays have gotten. Slamming Sorin for four mana and proceeding to reanimate a key creature while leveraging a huge lifepoint swing can quickly turn a game. What’s more, he’s way harder to deal with than a Whip of Erebos. Less removal hits him, less removal feels worth it on him, and sending a creature to take him down after an opponent gains a bunch of life feels awful unless you have a spare Spirit Token or whatever. 

This Sorin can potential stick around, and if he does, you’ll find it very hard to lose. 

END STEP

Planeswalkers can be hit or miss, but I hope today’s list is more hit than miss for you. What Planeswalkers do you like to run in Commander? Let us know on X.