Planeswalker cards are some of the most iconic and splashy cards in all of Magic: The Gathering. Featuring key characters from the game’s story, Planeswalkers traditionally feature numerous activated abilities that provide them with a level of flexibility while also toting potentially game-winning ultimate abilities.
While there are several Planeswalkers, such as Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Oko, Thief of Crowns, whose powerful abilities are quite notorious, there are many useful Planeswalker cards that don’t get nearly as much attention as they should. So here's a look at the ten most underrated Planeswalker cards in Magic: the Gathering.
Updated on November 23, 2022 by Paul DiSalvo: With over two hundred unique Planeswalker cards existing within Magic: The Gathering, it should be no surprise that while some cards are synonymous with powerful decks, other slip through the cracks and fall into obscurity. As the Commander format allows players to access a massive card pool that dates back to the earliest days of the game, there are a wide variety of often overlooked Planeswalkers that can offer impressive benefits to a vast range of decks of varying strategies and archetypes.
14 Lolth, Spider Queen
An incredibly potent mono-black Planeswalker, despite her power and synergies with sacrificing effects, Lolth, Spider Queen is severely underrepresented within the Commander format. A four-loyalty Planeswalker for five mana, Lolth doesn't have a positive loyalty ability, uniquely generating one loyalty whenever a creature under your control dies. This means that, when slotted into an Aristocrats deck, Lolth can have access to a significant amount of loyalty.
While this card's ultimate ability is quite lackluster in the context of the Commander format, its 0 ability consistently allows you to draw cards, while its -3 creates flexible Spider tokens that have both menace and reach. This means that Lolth can readily protect itself, even regenerating its own loyalty when these tokens are destroyed.
13 Huatli, Radiant Champion
Another card that doesn't see nearly as much Commander play as it should, Huatli, Radiant Champion is a slam dunk in white/green Selesnya token and flicker decks alike. A three-loyalty Selesnya Planeswalker for four mana, Huatli's +1 exists to simply generate a massive amount of loyalty, as it causes Huatli to gain an amount of loyalty equal to the number of creatures you control.
While it's most often unadvised to judge Planeswalkers on their ultimate abilities, Huatli's access to such impressive amounts of loyalty makes this card a special exception. Upon using its -8, Huatli creates an emblem that causes you to draw a card whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control. Though this is already an impressive effect, it's not out of the realm of possibility that Huatli can allow you to resolve this ability more than once per game, potentially generating more than one of these emblems.
12 Kasmina, Enigma Sage
Printed in Strixhaven, is an underrated Simic Planeswalker that can bring unique value to Superfriends decks that aim to make use of a wide variety of Planeswalkers.
This is largely in part to her ability to provide each other Planeswalker you control with its activated abilities. As Kasmina has a +1 of Scry 1, this can allow Planeswalkers such as Narset, Parter of Veils that don't have access to positive loyalty abilities to raise their loyalty.
Additionally, as Kasmina's -X allows it to create an X/X token, providing this ability to each Planeswalker at your disposal may allow you to convert several utility cards into a game-winning offense.
11 Nissa Of Shadowed Boughs
Land-based decks are an incredibly popular archetype, especially within the Commander format. These decks often make use of cards with landfall abilities, while reaping the inherent rewards that come with having additional lands in play.
A Golgari Planeswalker for four mana, Like Lolth, Nissa of Shadowed Boughs has an alternate means of garnering loyalty counters. While Lolth is able to grow through the deaths of your creatures, Nissa gains one loyalty whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control. This means that, through mana ramping, Nissa can gan a significant amount of loyalty quite quickly. This synergizes in an incredibly powerful fashion with Nissa's -5, allowing you to put a creature from your hand or graveyard directly onto the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters as long as that creature's mana value is less than or equal to the number of lands you control.
This makes Nissa an impressive asset in any land-based Commander deck with access to both green and black such as The Gitrog Montser and Lord Windgrace
10 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner is one of the many uncommon Planeswalkers from War of the Spark. Like each uncommon Planeswalker from War of the Spark, this Simic (blue/green) Planeswalker has a static ability, as well as a single minus ability. For only three mana, this Kiora can provide quite a great deal of value.
Allowing her controller to draw a card whenever a creature with power four or greater enters the battlefield under that player’s control, Kiora’s -1 can also be activated to untap any permanent, such as a land. This means that for three mana, Kiora is able to simultaneously supply both mana ramp and card draw.
9 Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter
Another uncommon War of the Spark Planeswalker, Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter is a perfect card for any green deck that features +1/+1 counter synergies. With a -1 that can put a +1/+1 counter on target creature, Jiang Yanggu’s static ability states that any creatures with +1/+1 counters his owner controls can be tapped to produce one mana of any color.
This means that in +1/+1 counter-heavy decks, this card can be a stellar source of mana ramp, potentially turning each of a player’s creatures into a mana dork.
8 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
While the other two iterations of Saheeli tend to get a lot more attention due to their notorious infinite combo and status as a commander respectively, the uncommon Saheeli, Sublime Artificer is far from a bad card. Saheeli is an Izzet (blue/red) Planeswalker for three mana that has a static ability that produces a 1/1 Servo artifact creature token whenever this card’s controller casts a non-creature spell.
Not only can this quickly develop a board state, but these tokens pair well with Saheeli’s -2 ability that can temporarily make an artifact such as one of these Servos into a copy of another artifact or creature until the end of the turn.
7 Elspeth, Sun’s Nemesis
The most recent iteration of Elspeth, Elspeth, Sun’s Nemesis is a four-mana white color Planeswalker that excels that making 1/1 Human Soldier tokens and providing creatures with temporary power improvements.
While her abilities pair well with a traditional 'white weenie' strategy, this iteration of Elspeth is notably the only Planeswalker in the game that is able to reliably recur itself from the graveyard thanks to the card having an Escape cost of six mana.
6 The Royal Scions
Like, Saheeli, The Royal Scions is an Izzet Planeswalker card for three mana. Starting with a somewhat high loyalty of five, this card has access to not one, but two +1 abilities, one of which allows a player to draw and discard a card, the second of which temporarily buffs a creature, giving it +2/+0, first strike, and trample until the end of the turn.
For only three mana, this card provides a great deal of flexibility. Unfortunately, at the time of its release, The Royal Scions was greatly overshadowed by the ever-broken Oko.
5 Jeska, Thrice Reborn
One of the two Planeswalkers introduced in Commander Legends, While Jeska, Thrice Reborn was largely overshadowed by Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools, it's still an excellent card in its own right.
A mono-red planeswalker for only three mana, While Jeska’s -X can spot remove up to three targets simultaneously, her zero loyalty ability triples a target creature’s combat damage output for a turn. This allows you to potentially deal disgusting amounts of damage early into a game when paired with aggressive creatures and equipment.
4 Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord
Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord is an Orzhov (black/white) Planeswalker for four mana that has a great static ability that provides all creatures and Planeswalkers under its owner's control with lifelink as long as it’s their turn.
Most notably, Sorin’s -X allows him to return a creature with a mana value of X from the graveyard to the battlefield. As Sorin starts with four loyalty and has a +2 ability, he can easily be used to return several key cards from a player’s graveyard to the battlefield.
3 Ugin The Ineffable
A colorless Planeswalker for six mana, with the sheer value supplied by the card, it’s hard to see how it hasn’t become a Commander staple. Reducing the cost of all colorless spells its controller casts by two mana, with a +1 that exiles a card from atop its controller’s library and creating a 2/2 Spirit that puts the exiled card in its controller’s hand when it dies, Ugin simultaneously protects itself while drawing cards.
As if this weren’t enough, Ugin’s -3 can be used to destroy any permanent that’s one or more colors.
2 Jace, Mirror Mage
Jace, Mirror Mage is a blue Planeswalker that has the distinction of being the only Planeswalker in Magic to have the kicker ability. If Jace’s kicker is paid, its controller creates a token copy of Jace, providing twice as much value.
With a +2 that can scry two, thanks to the copy, Jace essentially allows its controller to dig four cards deep into their library each turn, potentially drawing cards when needed with his zero ability.
1 Chandra, Acolyte Of Flame
A red Planeswalker for three mana, Chandra, Acolyte of Flame is an excellent card that synergizes in a variety of strategies. Toting two zero loyalty abilities, Chandra can put additional loyalty counters on other Planeswalkers when in a Superfriends deck, or create two 1/1 tokens each turn, functioning as an engine for Aristocrats decks.
Chandra is even able to help a player cast spells from their graveyard, allowing her to assist instant-heavy decks such as storm decks to access additional cards on their turn.