Atraxa Superfriends is one of the most popular Commander decks for a reason: it’s really badass to assemble a team of Planeswalkers to do battle with. When choosing your squad, it’s important to choose based on synergies, ultimate abilities and win conditions. Kristen has her recommendations of what to include.
Ah, Superfriends — it’s an archetype you either love or hate. Those that dislike it usually blame long turns and spinning wheels. But what if I told you there’s a way to avoid being “that” Superfriends player? That there are certain Planeswalkers you should be playing that can enable your strategy, keep your Planeswalkers kicking and help you win the game?
Well, I think that’s a splendid idea, so let’s get on with it.
Honorable Mention: The Wandering Emperor
Damn, I love this card so much. It’s a removal spell at instant speed that can throw people off guard, and the artwork is great (have you seen the Showcase one?!).
The Wandering Emperor’s versatility makes her ideal for a Superfriends build, and she gets better when you consider her abilities can be activated at instant speed. There are plenty of ways to flicker and reset walkers in this archetype, like Venser, Shaper Savant. Add on the ways to double up on loyalty abilities from Oath of Teferi and you’re adding extra layers of unpredictability.
10. The Eternal Wanderer
Sadly, getting rid of one potential attacking creature isn’t quite good enough at keeping our Planeswalker squad alive. That’s where The Eternal Wanderer comes in.
She can immediately come down and get rid of basically everything except your opponents’ worst creatures. If they’re playing Voltron, it’s unlikely you’ll eliminate their Commander. But if they only have one creature, chances are your walkers can tick up pretty freely, anyway.
Her other abilities are good, too. 2/2 double strike blockers are excellent for keeping ‘walkers safe, and flickering an artifact or creature can help to reset mana rocks for interaction or remove attackers for a turn. Add on her static ability, which keeps her safe, and you’ve got a very powerful control piece.
Elspeth, Sun’s Champion used to fill this role, at the cost of blowing up Atraxa. The Eternal Wanderer fixes this problem and is mostly a better card for this archetype.
9. Teferi, Master of Time
Oh, Teferi. I have a feeling this won’t be the last time we see you on today’s list.
Teferi, Master of Time is a unique case for Planeswalkers, as he can be activated once on any player’s turn. The sheer card advantage here is excellent, but what makes him so strong are his other abilities.
You will need to do a little more than merely use Doubling Season or Deepglow Skate to ultimate him, but it’s really not too difficult to do, considering we now have access to Ichormoon Gauntlet and Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus.
8. Garruk, Cursed Hunstman
There are a bunch of great Garruk ‘walkers that can slot into a Superfriends deck. They can untap lands, make blockers, draw cards and are generally pretty useful to have around. Apex Predator also destroys creatures, which is pretty cool.
I’d say the optimal one to put into an Atraxa deck, however, is Cursed Huntsman. If you’re running just one other Garruk, you’re rewarded with easy proliferation of loyalty counters, thanks to the {0} ability putting loyalty counters on each Garruk. It also draws you a card and destroys a creature, which is really good.
7. Narset Transcendent
Narset is in here because she does some very powerful things that a deck like Atraxa wants to do. First up, she comes in at six loyalty for four mana, which is very survivable.
She ticks up to dig for more spells. Her {-2} essentially doubles up your draw and removal spells and makes every board wipe a pseudo-Single Combat (discouraging opponents from playing out more creatures because the wrath will rebound on your upkeep).
To seal the deal, her ultimate makes it very hard for opponents to continue playing their decks and is really quite easy to pull off with a little proliferation. Once you resolve that emblem, it’s a lot easier for you to try and win.
6. Kaya, Intangible Slayer
Speaking of trying to win, you’re going to need a win condition that isn’t just boring your opponents to tears while you try to figure out how to “get there.” That’s where the new Kaya comes in.
Kaya, Intangible Slayer is a win condition on a walker that’s easy to pull off. As long as you can resolve one of your infinite loyalty combos, you can simply uptick Kaya until each opponent is dead and gone.
Having Hexproof means she’s harder to react to, and her otherwise being removal and card draw is exactly where you want to be.
Previously, I used Jace, Memory Adept as one of my win conditions, as his {0} milling 10 cards is also another way to win the game. Skater Jace is still a solid option, but he tends to be less playable than Kaya if you’re not leaning into graveyard recursion. The mana cost here is irrelevant, as our infinite loyalty combo already generates infinite mana.
5. Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge
When it comes to building Atraxa, the mana base can be a real sticking point. It’s hard to play a four color deck with a four color Commander, especially when you need her in play ASAP. Mana rocks can smooth over mana issues quite well indeed, and that’s why Tezzeret Master of the Bridge is a high pick for me.
First up, he reduces the cost of our Planeswalker and Creature spells by giving them affinity for artifacts. Artifact lands, mana rocks and treasures will all work to keep that cost down. It means Atraxa’s Commander tax stays pretty forgettable, and it means you can cast more spells each turn.
He’s also recursion for digging The Chain Veil or other much needed pieces out from the graveyard, and a win condition in his own right. Much like Kaya, his uptick will kill our opponents as long as we have artifacts in play. I rate him highly indeed.
4. Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset
The rest of the walkers on this list are basically all much needed enablers for our Chain Veil combo. Teferi Who Slows the Sunset is a relative newcomer, but one that slots right into what we want to be doing.
As long as we control a creature and/or a land that can produce at least five mana, we can use Teferi’s uptick to untap those and the Chain Veil to keep activating Planeswalkers.
This Teferi’s other modes aren’t so relevant, but his {-2} is nice to have, letting us dig for combo pieces. You’ll basically never need the ultimate, but in some builds that aren’t going all-in on combo, it’s a pretty strong one to have on tap.
3. Tezzeret the Seeker
Thanks to Tezzeret’s ability to both tutor for and enable infinite mana combos for the Chain Veil, he’s pretty close to being an essential part of an Atraxa superfriends deck.
There’s not much more to say once you look at his abilities, really, other than that you should remember that his -X is technically ramp if you go grab an artifact land. Don’t forget there’s a cycle of dual-color indestructible ones from Modern Horizons 2, too. Huge pickups to this build.
2. Teferi, Temporal Archmage
It might surprise you, but the other Teferi on the list isn’t actually number one. Teferi, Temporal Archmage is, however, pretty darn awesome. You can use him to draw cards, sure, but he does much more than that.
His {-1} is a way to enable our Chain Veil infinite loyalty activations combo, but otherwise? It untaps a lot of mana sources, and even lands like Spires of Orazca. Obviously, it would be much better if he could untap a Maze or Spires at instant speed…
… and he can! His ultimate lets you activate any planeswalkers you control at instant speed, which is frankly absurd, scary and really quite fun. Even if you don’t win the game with this, being able to drop Teferi, follow it up with Deepglow Skate and immediately ultimate is just a good time.
1. Tamiyo, Field Researcher
Speaking of fun ultimates, the top spot on my list is Tamiyo. Who doesn’t love Ancestral Recall plus Omniscience? The Omniscience is also an emblem, so it’s not like they can remove it anyways.
Tamiyo only fits into Bant, four or five color decks, so she doesn’t see that much play — which is all the more reason to consider her for your Atraxa Superfriends deck. She can ensure you draw cards when attackers come your way, tap down and freeze potential problem attackers…. She’s a lot of fun, honestly, and should be in your Atraxa deck.
End step
And that’s my Top 10. Which walkers are invaluable for you? Let’s continue the conversation over on Twitter.
Kristen is Card Kingdom’s Head Writer, and member of the Commander Advisory Group. Formerly a competitive Pokémon TCG grinder, she has been playing Magic since Shadows Over Innistrad, which in her opinion, was a great set to start with. When she’s not taking names with Equipment and Aggro strategies in Commander, she loves to play any form of Limited.