Followup: What are the most viable Planeswalkers in Modern?
Modern forum
Posted on Nov. 25, 2016, 9:51 a.m. by Infinimage007
As a followup to my thread asking about Dovin Baan, what are the top 10 or 15 most viable planeswalkers in the Modern format? If you could provide a brief explanation for each choice that would be great.
EpicFreddi says... #3
Liliana of the Veil undisputed No. 1. Nahiri, the Harbinger on 2nd place.
After that, I'd say Elspeth, Sun's Champion and Ajani Vengeant.
Then we get to Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver and Chandra, Torch of Defiance. Ashiok is SB Material or Mainboard when you want to mill. Chandra establishes her place in modern currently.
Garruk Wildspeaker is a great card for Tooth&Nail // Doubling Season.
Gideon Jura is a great finisher for control.
Sorin, Solemn Visitor is a great pick for any token strategie.
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas is the master of the Tezzerator deck.
Ugin and Karn are both the greates planswalkers for Tron.
And Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded wins every game.
November 25, 2016 10:06 a.m. Edited.
1/ Liliana
Huge dropoff
2/ Nahiri (enalbes jeskai control decks)
3/ Karn Liberated
That is about it. In the turn 3 format that modern has become, incremental value walkers are a bit hard to justify.
November 25, 2016 10:06 a.m. Edited.
aeonstoremyliver says... #5
Liliana, the Last Hope sees play as a 1-2 of (usually one main and one in the side) in Abzan midrange and Jund. Garruk Relentless Flip will see play in the Abzan sideboard on occasion. Koth of the Hammer sees play in Skred.
I could argue that Arlinn Kord Flip may be viable in Jund as a 1x of. In a grindy match I can see her getting over the top. I'm testing her as a 1x of currently. Chandra, the Mindsculptor may have her beat for the slot, though.
November 25, 2016 11:21 a.m.
Here's my take on the top 10:
Liliana of the Veil - and she's #1 by a pretty big margin. She's one of the engines that makes Midrange (a perennial format powerhouse) good, and she sees spot use in other decks.
Nahiri, the Harbinger - A couple of control archetypes (most notably Jeskai) use her as a win condition. She's also been tried out in decks like Kiki Chord and Breach Titan, but it ultimately didn't pan out.
Karn Liberated - The bedrock 'walker in Tron. Uncastable everywhere else, but that doesn't much matter. It empowers one of Modern's major archetypes.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon - Usually found in Tron decks, regardless of color. Not quite as high up as Karn because it's usually a 2-of at most, and is not as critical to the deck's gameplan.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion - Great finisher for -based control decks, especially Jeskai and . Very hard to deal with once it's on the table. Uncastable elsewhere.
Gideon Jura - Another finisher for -based control decks, and it can also function as a recurring Fog effect to help you come back from bad board states or force bad attacks from your opponent.
Jace, Architect of Thought - Sees patches of play in -based control decks, but is mostly the engine of the admittedly fringe 5c Superfriends deck.
Sorin, Solemn Visitor - It plays an important part in Tokens, but that's a rather marginal archetype. Sees some spot sideboard play elsewhere.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar - Sees spot sideboard play in Death & Taxes and some play in Tokens. The first 'walker on this list that I would argue is underplayed.
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver - Used to see play in Control decks, but I don't really see it anymore. It's not bad, but protecting it is an issue at times.
November 25, 2016 1:53 p.m. Edited.
I find your lack of Ugin, the Spirit Dragon disturbing. Only in Tron, of course.
The problem with #3-#15 planeswalker rankings is that so many are just played in ONE deck, and can't really be compared to each other all that well.
November 25, 2016 4:23 p.m.
There's been alot of people playing Esper Narset Transcenant builds lately. she's awesome in UW/x decks.
November 25, 2016 5:09 p.m.
"a lot of people" is a gross exaggeration. No one plays Esper to begin with, and I'm sure that only a small fringe of that fringe is reaching for Narset. And Narset Transcendent would be great if this format were stuffed with slow control decks and spells (not creatures) were king, but neither of those things are true.
And looking at my rankings again, Ashiok is probably not as good as Koth of the Hammer. Chandra, Torch of Defiance should also find her way into the list - those two helped take down a Grand Prix, which is more than some of these other planeswalkers can say (or likely will ever be able to say).
November 25, 2016 10:43 p.m. Edited.
mathimus55 says... #10
People are forgetting that Domri Rade is consistently a 1-2 between main and sideboards whenever Zoo lists show up between Bushwhacker Zoo lists, Naya and any Collected Zoo. He certainly pops up way more(read: at all) more than Ashiok. rothgar13's list was the closest to what I would put together, with Domri probably being 5 or 6 I think.
Ajani Vengeant also should be ranked fairly high, he is a very powerful engine in Jeskai control decks. Better than most that have been mentioned as well.
The Masters of Modern podcast recently did a 2-part podcast of the top walkers for modern. I largely agreed with most of what they had to say.
November 25, 2016 11:10 p.m.
Ajani Vengeant is overrated in my opinion. He's rarely more than a spicy 1-of, and he's not even great in that role. Domri Rade is definitely good, especially in Zoo, but the problem is that Zoo isn't a common deck anymore. That said, it might beat out some of the decks I mentioned in my top 10, which are even more fringe. shrug
November 25, 2016 11:21 p.m.
SwaggyMcSwagglepants says... #12
Ajani isn't that good. It's a bad icy manipulator or a overpriced lightning helix.
Chandra should definitely be on that list. 3 prominent, good Jund players, including Steve Rubin, have shaved the 4th LotV for the second Chandra.
November 26, 2016 12:05 a.m.
Chandra, Flamecaller has been such a beast in the sideboard of my R/x/x control and midrange decks I've found myself putting her mainboard. She's really hard to deal with and functions in Jund like Elspeth, Sun's Champion does for Abzan. She feels really underplayed, but that could be due to how fast the format has gotten.
Sorin, Grim Nemesis is another powerhouse. I'm on the fence over whether or not to play him or Elspeth, Sun's Champion in Abzan midrange. He has a +1 that draws cards on top of being a fat body.
I've noticed that WotC has really increased the power of 6-mana planeswalkers the last couple of sets. If the format were slower (i.e. less Dredge, Zooicide, Burn, and Infect), they'd show up more frequently.
Overall, I'd have to agree with most of the other posters and the general consensus of this thread. I'd personally rank them:
- Liliana of the Veil
- Nahiri, the Harbinger
- Karn Liberated
- Jace, Telepath Unbound Flip
- Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
- Elspeth, Sun's Champion
- Garruk Wildspeaker
- Gideon Jura
- Chandra, Flamecaller
- Koth of the Hammer
- Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
- Ajani Vengeant
- Jace, Architect of Thought
- Sorin, Solemn Visitor
- Sorin, Grim Nemesis
- Liliana, the Last Hope
- Garruk Relentless Flip
- Nissa, Worldwaker
- Domri Rade
- Jace Beleren
- Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
- Elspeth, Knight-Errant
- Chandra, Pyromaster
- Chandra, Torch of Defiance
- Dovin Baan
- Ral Zarek
- Tezzeret the Seeker
- Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
- Ajani, Caller of the Pride
- Kiora, Master of the Depths
- Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
- Narset Transcendent
- Jace, Memory Adept
- Saheeli Rai
- Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
I think my top 3 aren't really up for much debate as to their order. 4 through 9 are the cream of the crop, but not as format-defining as the top 3. Everything between 10 and 21 is probably on equal power level in terms of the format. 22 on down are kind of "ho-hum." They are planeswalkers I'd consider Modern playable, but haven't been used as frequently or found a home yet. Good arguments could be made some of them should be higher, lower, or replaced by other planeswalkers.
Lastly, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker is absolutely hilarious with Oath of Nissa, Utopia Sprawl, and Arbor Elf.
November 26, 2016 3:46 a.m.
I play Elspeth, Knight-Errant in Bant Knightfall. I would say she is top 5 at least..
My top 5: Lili, karn & ugin, elspeth knight errant, nahiri
November 26, 2016 5:06 a.m.
I think sun's champion is by far a better finisher.
November 26, 2016 5:29 a.m.
And Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is a much better finisher than Liliana of the Veil. Lili is the better walker tho, because you can actually cast her :)
November 26, 2016 5:40 a.m.
smackjack that is a 3 versus 8 mana walker. The two elspeths are 5 and 6, by no way a fair comparison.
November 26, 2016 6:48 a.m.
You guys keep putting Nahiri as second banana, when in all seriousness, she's kinda dropped off the face of the planet as of late. Mass Grafdigger's Cage play to stop Dredge splashed off on CoCo and Nahiri decks, making both of them unplayable as of late.
Long story short, Liliana of the Veil is 1st, Karn Liberated is my 2nd, Jace, Telepath Unbound is my 3rd for me
November 26, 2016 9:14 a.m.
mathimus55 says... #21
I think it's ironic that you say Nahiri has fallen off lately, but she just won the most recent Modern classic in the RW prison deck and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy Flip is yet to win any relevant event in paper or online.
November 26, 2016 9:56 a.m.
I definitely wouldn't say Nahiri, the Harbinger decks have disappeared. They've gone down in prominence for sure, but they still pop up every now and then (3% on MTGTop8, though I'll be the first to point out that database isn't the most accurate), and the vast majority of Jeskai Control decks still feature her.
I think Jace, Telepath Unbound Flip is too high on some of these lists. What deck other than some Griselbrand lists plays him anymore?
November 26, 2016 10:15 a.m.
JaceArveduin says... #23
Well, he is the best 2 mana planeswalker.
And Knight-Errant is 4 mana, not 5.
I just wish I could find a slot for Sarkhan Unbroken myself, not sure in what or where, but I want it pretty badly.
Scouty says... #2
Well, first-off, there are only maybe 5 or so played planeswalkers in all of modern, and most of them are rather fringe.
Liliana of the Veil is by far the best available in modern, and arguably the best planeswalker in MTG. Other playables include Garruk Wildspeaker in Tooth and Nail type decks, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and Sorin, Solemn Visitor in Token decks, and Gideon Jura and Elspeth, Sun's Champion in very few control decks.
Out of the decks I just listed, they're all relatively low-tier. I guess Nahiri, the Harbinger has been making a splash lately, but I'm not seeing it around anymore.
November 25, 2016 10 a.m.