Looking for MTG planeswalkers that can be your commander? Once a novel idea, there are quite a few of these plane-hopping deck-leaders kicking about now. Using a planeswalker commander can make for really interesting gameplay. You have to build your EDH deck differently to ensure you can protect your fragile walker, and the best of the bunch have multiple unique abilities that are great fun to build around.
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. And there’s plenty of fun to be had even if you stick to the cards officially sanctioned as MTG commanders. Check out the best planeswalker commanders here.
- 8. Tasha, the Witch Queen
- 7. Grist, the Hunger Tide
- 6. Daretti, Scrap Savant
- 5. Elminster
- 4. Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes
- 3. Dihada, Binder of Wills
- 2. Aminatou, the Fateshifter
- 1. Lord Windgrace
8. Tasha, the Witch Queen
Tasha, The Witch Queen is all about stealing magical spells. Her abilities seem a little underwhelming at first: you need to spend one turn using her plus ability to form your snatched spellbook, then another to cast one of them, after which you won’t be able to cast a second spell until you tick her up a couple more times.
Tasha comes together a bit more when you consider her as a piece of your game plan but not the main driving force by herself. She works brilliantly alongside other card steal effects, at which point her token generation starts popping out demons you can use to protect yourself and her.
7. Grist, the Hunger Tide
This scary looking planeswalker card is actually a cute bug – who, yes, did lead swarms of locusts to destroy the food supply of untold thousands, but only because she didn’t know that humans had feelings.
Anyway, on to Grist, the Hunger Tide’s actual effects, and they’re pretty interesting. Notably, that +1 ability could create a single bug token, but if the cards in your deck are all lined up just so (and you happen to be running a lot of insects) it could create an unstoppable horde – and super early in the game too. Her other effects include removal, and a pretty painful life drain effect.
The downside to Grist is that insect tribal isn’t exactly a well-supported archetype. This might be a planeswalker that works better in the 99 of a different Golgari creature, rather than leading the swarm.
6. Daretti, Scrap Savant
Daretti, Scrap Savant is a mono-red goblin planeswalker that is all about artifact destruction. Specifically, with Daretti as your deck’s commander, you’ll want to be dumping your own artifacts into the graveyard, sacrificing little trinkets or treasures to bring back giant war machines and powerful monuments.
Daretti’s abilities are all heavily focused around this game plan, from the loot effect to fill your graveyard, to the artifact sac and reanimate, to the ultimate that means your artifacts keep coming back. The tricky thing is, Daretti doesn’t make any tokens or remove opposing threats, making it quite difficult to protect him at times.
5. Elminster
Elminster loves scrying and then playing big instants using the discount he grants after you do so. It’s a pretty simple gameplan, but Elminster pulls it off really well. His second ability can create a giant horde of flying 1/1 tokens in a pinch, once you’ve done some scrying to ensure a strong card is on top of your library.
4. Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes
Mins & Boo, Timeless Heroes is an amazing Gruul planeswalker commander that wants to kill opponents by throwing giant hamsters at them. It creates a Boo creature token each turn, encouraging you to either grow the rodent with your plus ability or ‘fling’ it at the enemy with the minus.
What’s great about this planeswalker commander is there are all sorts of avenues to go down, you’ve got trample and haste being relevant keywords you want on most of your creatures, burn damage providing a win con if you can make Boo (or your other creatures) big enough, and a renewable token that makes a great target for sacrifice effects.
There’s even cEDH potential here, using Minsc & Boo’s minus ability on himself to kill your own planeswalker so you can take advantage of infinite mana to play your commander again and again.
3. Dihada, Binder of Wills
Dihada, Binder of Wills is all about legendary creatures and permanents. She doesn’t much care what they are either, working well with pretty much any legendary you like. The most eye-catching part of this card is the -11 ultimate effect, but what this mainly does is give people a reason to be scared of (and target) Dihada; you basically never get to use it.
The treasure and card draw on the -3 is very solid, but the +2 effect is the true subtle strength of this card. It gets you loads of life gain, and makes one of your legendary creatures indestructible until your next turn. This makes it almost impossible for players to attack you without a concerted effort, setting you up to be in a leading position from early on in the game.
2. Aminatou, the Fateshifter
Aminatou the Fateshifter is a blink commander, able to pop permanents on and off the battlefield with ease. That’s her main deal – and you’ll find most decklists for Amintou include old classics like Mulldrifter and new blink cards like Displacer Kitten. Interestingly, you can even blink creatures you stole from other people, making cards like Hostage Taker very impressive in the deck.
Aminatou’s ultimate is really interesting, and once in a blue moon, you might be able to manipulate the board to a state where you can steal something really good while giving your opponent next to nothing. Mostly though, you’ll be using Aminatou’s -1 power, as early and often as you can.
1. Lord Windgrace
Lord Windgrace is one of the most popular planeswalker commanders, and partly that’s because he’s one of the oldest. But the other reason is he’s a great commander for a lands-themed deck, one that wants to sacrifice and then return lands from the graveyard, to trigger all sorts of neat abilities.
The abilities do look a little anemic on the surface. After all, you get no built-in protection aside from your ultimate, and instead what you’re mainly working with is a bit of card draw and ramp. But looks can be deceiving. Indeed, Lord Windgrace can be brutal, generating a load of value, before winning the game with giant spells, or armies of tokens. You can even throw Marit Lage at your opponent.
If you’ve picked your commander and aren’t sure what to do next, check out our guide to how to build an MTG Commander deck for some tips. We’ve also got a list of the best MTG Commander precon decks you might enjoy.