MTG Top 10: Worst Planeswalkers | Episode 32

In last week's top 10 we looked at the most powerful planeswalkers in MTG history..this week, we look at the opposite end of the spectrum, the terrible planeswalkers who were never even a blip on the rader in competitive magic.
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[@TheRealSpellstar]

3:45 "Target creature's controller sacrifices it" is an extremely rare and powerful effect

[@colesate6086]

You have indestructible? Cute, I don't care. Get rid of it

[@Earthboundmike]

Which then becomes a 5/5 dragon, with flying. Seems like a bit of a downside.

[@howaboutnow1895]

@@Earthboundmike it that betays

[@calemr]

@@Earthboundmike I'd rather be facing down a 5/5 flying than an 11/11 indestructible infect.

[@wiictvchannel1112]

@@calemr I agree, especially if you have removal to deal with it. And can't you target your own creature like a 1/1 that becomes a 5/5 flyer?

[@Odd_Magus]

Tibalt is Good at one thing, being a distraction, I've won many a game because my opponent was afraid of the Ultimate and wasted an attack or spell on tibalt

[@melindagreer4177]

That's a fair enough point. I mean, it's a two drop that kinda forces your opponents hand in some way. I don't think any walker is "awful " but if the best you can say is it makes for a good distraction, it may not be the best card.

[@lizzytrip4560]

In my experience, he is only playable in 4+ player free for alls, but if i have something like Tirifi's Protection or Safe Passage, he either cant do anything to me, use my creatures at all, or both

[@afk5112]

Tibalt can make People laugh to death.

[@stuflames4769]

Tibalt is good in a madness/discard deck. Whenever you want to, for example, loot to draw a card... you never feel bad throwing Tibalt away. Anything you draw will be better.

[@KnowingisHalftheBattle]

@@stuflames4769 That's funny 🤣

[@umbra4729]

With Sarkhan the Mad, you're supposed to use his -4 first in a dragon deck. In something like EDH, he basically insta-kills someone.

[@assassinmaster1234]

Feodor Romanenkov that's what 8 was coming to say, you either run him in a red/black or both sarkhan and use both of the high effects for what would be 20 damage

[@Jacois]

Hrmmm.... Pretty sure he was used to kill your own creatures to make 5/5 dragons. After doing that once or twice, you'd just use the 0:draw a card until he died, then drop your 2nd one.

[@Nagol93]

Wait, there are other planeswalkers besides Tibalt?

[@tenebro1184]

I've built a Tibalt Deck out of pure curiosity once. Using of Course Tons of Flashback and Madness cards and overall i built the entire deck around him. Even then after lots of Fun rounds in my playgroup i had to admit that my tibalt deck would be better without tibalt. Buuuut it is so much fun playing with that Dude. Most of the time he ist just a Meat Shield for 2 Mana, But he also was capable of dealing 3-4 or 7 damage from Time to Time (with that red miracle wheel of fortune card). Since the Rest of the Deck was pretty fast it actually kiiiiiiiind of worked. But as i said before, this tibalt deck would be stronger without tibalt. So my final conclusion: Is he good? Not really... but is he fun to play? Heck yeah! :D

[@STiLLiLLPRODUCTiONS]

Keks von Krümel I ran a Tibalt, Jace, Memory adept deck.

[@breaze3242]

Maximo K. now why would you do THAT

[@STiLLiLLPRODUCTiONS]

Breaze Jace has a draw 20 cards ability for each player and Tibalt has an ability where your opponent loses life equal to the amount of cards in their hand.

[@azhaiel3845]

I've got a super friends edh deck with Tibalt and Gideon in it. Gotta say, if you build the deck properly, those guys going off is a game changer. Gideon you get the choice of wiping the entire edh board, or just having a big beefy to pummel people with. And Tibalt... yeah his -4 isn't great, but his ult is amazing, and easy to get in a super friends (People will overlook Tibalt in favor of the more common, stronger walkers)

[@hippoglyph]

ty for that everyone loved your comment.

[@GodofGHz]

I have an illegal EDH deck with tibalt as the commander. My friends never complain.

[@nexusgiga]

good thing its now legal

[@florianw116]

@@nexusgiga Are you thinking of Oathbreaker?

[@noahfinney4899]

I’ve got a commander cube and if you don’t draft any commanders you get tibalt but you can change his mana symbols to any 2 colors you want

[@olddaydreams]

@@noahfinney4899 iconic of you

[@rileypowell5354]

Careful posting about it, you could be arrested

[@rkbmcb]

I once used Sarkhan the Mad to remove an Emrakul in original Zendikar block standard. I don't really remember where else I saw him, but that's my strongest memory of that card.

[@Funkytrip73]

Imo Sarkhan the Mad is pretty underrated. It reads: Pay 5 mana: Put a 5/5 flying dragon token into play and a planeswalker with 5 loyalty counters which can repeat the dragon token twice more, or grab a few extra cards with. Thats a lot of bang for only 5 mana. You don't even see 5/5 flyers for 5 a lot.

[@bradleyhoward9638]

Yeah I was listening to him and thinking to myself the narrator has never played this card or he's been misusing it. I've never seen it played and already was thinking of ways I'd use it and it sounded pretty decent in my head.

[@codychoate1513]

Now you can redo this list due to War of The Spark!

[@BrysonSummers]

I ordered a Tibalt yesterday for my chaos edh deck. I'm so excited lol

[@PaulGaither]

#7) Liliana of the Dark Realms True, she did not do anything in Limited, Standard, Modern, Legacy, or Vintage. However, those are not the only formats which exist, and even WotC has admitted, Casual players outnumber competitive players by a wide margin. There is a reason why after plmmitting to $5 in Jan. 2014, she has risen up to $9+ and continues to climb. She is everything a mono black deck could want, and works well in black centric multicolored decks. Her plus ability does so much: •You can make sure to get a swamp every turn. This is something mono black has never been able to do before, and getting +1 card every turn is what makes Phyrexian Arena effects so darn good. •It works double time with Scroll Rack, Top and/or Crystal Ball (on a budget). You don't have to play the swamp. You can always put it back with scroll rack and dig it back out again later. •The swamp can be discarded to various outlets for value and then played from the graveyard with Crucible of worlds. Her ultimate doesn't win you the game any more or less than other ultimates. Just like every other powerful ultimate, it puts you in position to win the game with the advantage it creates. Apparently it has to be explained to many people that Magic is a game of limited respurces. Resource production and ramp are vital to winning games. The more mana you have, the more spells and larget spells you can cast. By the time you hit her ultimate, you should have at least five swamps if not 6-8 of them. That means you should ve able to produce 20+ mana in a single turn with her emblem alone. When combined with other powerful cards like Cabal Coffers, Nirkana Revenant, Crypt Ghast, Caged Sun, or what ever... how can you not win a game with 20+ mana? How can you not com back from a losing game state and/or criple your opponent to set up a win with 20+ mana? There are many popular formats outside the normal set of limited-vintage. We have planechase, archenemy, emperor, star magic, free for multiplayer, and the most popular format in all of magic, Commander. According tue EDHrec and TappedOut, mono black is the most popular color or combination of colors people play. She is everything a mono black deck could want. Players are starting to realize that and her price continues to increase.

[@legendnodensetsu8423]

I poured over 40 mana into Torment of Hailfire with her emblem and her swamp fetching ability. Such a terrible planeswalker!

[@ComicbookJunky]

she won me alot of LGS tourneys

[@itayazikri1406]

She's really bad competetively, but she's very fun in casual edh,and unlike of stuff on this list it is fun. The reason she is weak in comp is that she is just to slow,sadly her ult does nothing in any other format that is not edh and can not do anything worthy to have a slot.

[@bintavi7034]

A good example of optimizing Liliana is to build up swamps while casting spells to kill creatures along the way. Once you have her ult, you can use a big kill spell like Bontu's Last Reckoning to wipe the board. Because you have the emblem, you only need to tap one of the probably 8 or 9 swamps you have. Once everything is in the graveyard, use rise of the dark realms to put all creatures from all graveyards onto the battlefield under your control. Rise of the Dark Realms costs 9 plus Bontu's Last Reckoning's 3 to cost 12, which is only 3 swamps because of Liliana's emblem.

[@natesmith5426]

sarkhan the mad does end games though

[@christinabutterfield1801]

Nate Smith y ikr. dragon tribal is good for him

[@iceicicle3046]

In an ur dragon commander deck he will normally do at least 10 damage with it

[@archwingdragon9411]

Tibalt shouldn't be here let alone be called THE worst planeswalker because you have to remember Tibalt has never lost a game so shouldn't he be labeled as the number 1 for best planeswalkers

[@NizzahonMagic]

+Gabriel Gallegos I'm not sure I understand your logic herem

[@korigall1992]

Gabriel Gallegos I've seen him win in commander in fact the opponent swore he would not kill him if he could sing burning ring of fire... he could not

[@zachcostelow2033]

Gabriel Gallegos tibalt is my favorite planes walker. I win most games when I play him. And if I don’t win a game but he’s still played I get very close to winning

[@Vlad2319]

Zach Costelow this the exact thought I had. He's really good in graveyard decks. Yes you get what's on the field but combo that with the Liliana (vail?) that pulls from the grave as well. Also people ignore him. Easily won a game against a proliferate deck. Plus early gameplay drop which, for people who focus on plainswalkers when they're out it'll distract them for a moment.

[@damienleigh9943]

If you never play, you can never lose!

[@NizzahonMagic]

Just wanted to post a comment on this video as this has turned out to be surprisingly contentious! I wanted to present a general response to the criticisms about the video. Yes, even the walkers on this list have their special places, especially in EDH. Tibalt sees play in Daretti EDH decks - if a walker is seeing play in one tiny narrow place, that makes them pretty terrible! The average walker power level is quite high, but all the ones on this list see play in extremely narrow and generally non-premier event format - that means they are bad as far as walkers go! The way EDH is, darn near every card in Magic has a place in some deck. Because a card is in one EDH deck it doesn't make it good. if a card is an EDH staple, then we will talk. The one exception to this is probably Ral Zarek, comments about other walkers on the list have done little to sway my opinion about them, but Ral probably shouldn't have made the list. In the video I stated that he is good in cube - that probably should have been enough for him to dodge the list, as the others on it aren't even good there! Anyway, continue the spirited discussion, I think such things are useful for all in helping us improve .

[@razielrythin3845]

Nizzahon Magic Thamks fot acknowledging Ral Zarek. He can be very good. I have an Izzet friend that runs him well

[@ryangainey94]

Nizzahon Magic Also, Gideon Champion of Justice. If you think the point is to exile the board then attack with a 3/3 or something, um, no. Notice that he's white -- this means he exists in the same colors as say, Ghostly Prison, Sphere of Safety, Norn's Annex, Archangel of Tithes, Windborn Muse, Peacekeeper, Blazing Archon... then all the cheaper cards like Pacifism. Then consider you can get him up to ridiculous proportions if someone's running a ton of creatures. You don't ult Gideon when he's at 17 or 18, you ult him when he's at, like, 40. Or 80. Or any other insanely big number. Imagine your opponent lucked out on some infinite life and creature combo and finds they can't attack you because, well, you're playing white and you're doing what white does best. Then you wipe the board with a Gideon at infinity. You just hard countered all of green and most other things too. And you've still got a huuuuuge attacker people can't get rid of unless they specifically run walker removal. And if they did run walker removal they would have used it before he used his ultimate, because otherwise they don't have mana to cast it. Sure, it's still not that great in limited or whatever. But this shines bright in EDH as a possible game ender. What're the chances in EDH that at least one person out of 3 or 4 will run green or something similarly creature heavy (e.g. Krenko)? If you're not running protective cards in general anyway (so you're not building around this card) then why the heck are you even playing white, lifegain? You get the same thing (but better) in Black, or maybe you're doing Orzhov life shenanigans. Whatever. Point is it's great in EDH and you don't need to even really build around it.

[@unKrlcnnchz]

Nizzahon Magic IInmun

[@Zmangamez]

Real damn late here, but Sarkhan Vol and Sarkhan the Mad are amazing in EDH, which is what I'll be talking about here. Sarkhan Vol can give you a lot of power with his +1, especially if you have a large number of creatures with summoning sickness your opponents aren't worrying about. His neg two is also amazing, allowing you to grab threats for yourself, allowing you to swing, or to kill someone with another player's commander through commander damage. As for Sarkhan the Mad, his abilities really don't matter, as his ult can win you the game in a well-constructed dragon deck. His other abilities are definitely useful if you're not in a position to do that however.

[@Probably_my_Alt_Account]

Zmangamez especially with the tarkir sarkhan! Temur dragons can be a powerhouse (although dragons are generally jund, but that’s ok because edh is a thing, therefore it’s viable.)

[@lemonBassdrops]

I'm not sure why people feel to the need come defend some of these walkers. In the grand picture of all the Planeswalkers to be printed yet, these have seen the least play and impact in their respective time for constructed and failed to find homes in top tier decks in eternal formats later on. Yes, they have their spots in trolly and/or special narrow niche decks. But all things considered, these walkers are just not as powerful as the other Planeswalkers.

[@NizzahonMagic]

+Juan Aviles Agreed. I've been shocked at how many people have been upset about X Planeswalker on the list, like I am being unfair. Not my fault these walkers have never done anything in,a competitive environment.

[@pathexile3064]

You should go with what you think are the top 10 worst not what is played by others and Tibalt is going to make a comeback with all these madness discarding ability cards maybe be able to make a fun deck with him that way idk lol. Time to find me 4 tibalts for like $2 or less lol

[@lemonBassdrops]

Path Exile That would barely change the list or everyone else's opinion. He made the list based on his opinion and then added to that opinion with supporting data of their impact on the game overall and the decks they are played in. This list is not purely because everybody else says they suck. Even if it was, there's probably a good reason for such a unanimous decision to declare a card "bad". Madness has been around for months now but that of itself doesn't make him a good Planeswalker. That's still one specific deck he is played in and it is still not a top tier deck due to consistency issues and lack of flexibility when compared to other decks in the format.

[@pathexile3064]

Im not saying he shouldnt be on this list no where did i say that i even made fun of his like 50cent price tag but okay it was more of a joke since that is about the only deck ever he would even be close to being okay in. Since you cant take a joke I will be blunt he fucking sucks and is by far the worst planeswalker ever made and even worse then 75% of most commons and you should try to make some fun decks sometimes magic doesnt always have to be about winning or having the best deck everyone else plays sometimes people just like to play magic as fun with friends but yes again he is by far the worst planeswalker ever created and idk if they can even make a worse one.

[@lemonBassdrops]

Path Exile joke was not lost on me. It would seem that perhaps you may have misread my own comment and intention. you're right it's not always being competitive, top tier #1 card or deck. However, the video seems to have come under alot of stress because people felt the need to defend these specific cards he has listed, despite giving his opinion and reasoning. Stating multiple times that they are not absolute garbage and have specific deck lists and formats for them. The comments still came in, saying alone the lines of "well such and such is great in this deck I play or see so you're wrong." I simply made the case not with just your comment I mind but for anyone else that may stumble upon it. With all that said, I am more that willing to dabble with funny decks. I once constructed a budget friendly Mono Blue tempo deck for standard. Yes with more creatures and less counter magic. 😈

[@fernandopires135]

I came to this video just to see my favorite planeswalker be top 1 in something Go Tibalt!

[@alucard5841]

you might be happy now that he has a way better version thanks to kaldhein

[@part_timemtg2467]

I use Chandra Ablaze to great effect in Feldon EDH. The fact you can discard a target or wheel a combo players hand twice is very nifty. I also run her as a budget Wheel effect in other Rx EDH lists. She might not be the best walker, but she does have uses.

[@justicedunn5502]

Sarkhan saw play because you can just slap him down and even if you only had 2 or 3 dragons, his ult would still hit that player for at least 10 damage reliably. Great Finisher

[@MrGorillafist]

I get why people would think Gideon doesn't work as a planewalker. On his own he ain't great. However, the card is amazing is you put him into a blue white pillow fort enchantment deck. I've honestly had him at 20 loyalty counters within a turn or two.

[@marx_avenger6137]

I ran 2 of him in a turbofog build as an alternate wincon MD in case of Eldrazi shuffle effects. It also served as a catch all (cold deal with cards like platinum angel, etc)

[@gnomeyMTG]

Gideon seems like a very powerful multiplayer card too. His value goes up for each extra opponent.

[@jarrodkent716]

Andrew Mertes Kinda, the ability targets one opponent. He's not terrible, but he usually only accomplishes damage absorbtion. His four cmc helps, and getting the bomb off doesn't often accomplish much. It's not that he's bad overall, he just doesn't fit in a lot of decks. Pillow fort is where you'll get the most out of him.

[@generalawesome7279]

Well this Gideon has a problem that most walkers have. There only good in EDH and nothing else

[@CardBazaarYT]

Tibalt was an absolutely terrible card. I agree with a lot of these picks.

[@idigamstudios7463]

Tibalt exists for Madness decks, he's actually really good in mine,given how good he really should have seen a new card in shadows.

[@blueringedoctopus4778]

Tibalt is good in LOD decks

[@Dream_Hex]

Card Bazaar I love tibalt and I made a deck base around him

[@Dream_Hex]

Idigam Studios what kind of maddnes deck you have

[@mitchelll899]

Card Bazaar he's good in hell-bent deck's as well as madness it's just overlooked as anything with no hand decks as being bad.

[@Mastblood]

Lilly of the dark realms is a bomb in EDH

[@iazire]

Liliana of the Dark Realms is absolutely AMAZING in EDH. She searches for Swamps, which allows you to find any ABUR Duals, Shock lands, Battle lands, that have that Swamp subtype. She is great in Mono-Black as said, does fine in 2 color, but excels the more colors you have as she can tutor whatever color you need. The longer she lives, the more she tutors, and if you ever get in a position to Ult her, well you're running Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth aren't you?

[@Auron3991]

Sarkhan, the Mad could pop your own creatures that had trigger on die effects to get a 5/5 as well as whatever the effect was. Ablaze could have been decent in this standard with a fair amount of red madness or the first Inistrad with the flashback.

[@HugHeist]

I love Liliana of the dark realms, but i also play mono black edh

[@JuniusHalsey]

Seth Fowler Same for me, her -3 makes me win everytime (mono b infect ;-))

[@scooterthefrog]

Indeed with cabal coffers and yagmaoths tomb its black mana for days son. It helps that people will look at her and say oh its the crappy lilly and ignore it as you get the first 2 swamps. Then the sadness starts as i start hard casting eldrazi on turn 6.

[@steelirony1622]

I've had some wonderful commander games maybe some of my favorites with this liliana, mono black for life

[@MaxUmbra]

Mono black is quite fun to play It's my favorite

[@stuflames4769]

She's pretty legit.

[@theSavageHippie]

there isn't 84 walkers, Arlinn Kord // Arlinn, Embraced By the Moon is 1 and counts for 2 cards on gatherer, and the same goes for the doublefaced Garruk

[@NizzahonMagic]

+theSavageHippie Good call

[@alexisfiligree9116]

Sarkhan Vol is one of the best choices for GR Doubling Season Planeswalkers...Alongside Samut the Tested and Xenagos, the Reveler. It actually works quite well as a deck in general (in Modern). It's just too bad that Bloodbraid Elf is banned.

[@Sarkhamy]

I think you confuse "Not competitively viable" with "Bad" here. Firebrand, Sarkhan Vol, and Zerak are not bad cards, they just were never played competitively. Lili of the dark realms is a commander stable.... How did Sarkhan Vol take this list and Liliana Vess not?

[@NizzahonMagic]

+Sarkhamy I'm not confusing anything. Worst is obviously subjective. I defined what I meant by "worst" in the video - as not competitively viable. For this video, that's what I mean by worse - I think it is a pretty good baseline, especially because almost all planeswalkers have done something on the competitive scene - if a walker never did, they are usually pretty bad. For example, Liliana Vess has 5 Pro Tour top 8s and over 20 GP top 8s, and doesn't really qualify as worst by any definition I don't think!

[@dylanmorris5253]

Ablaze is arguably the best chandra

[@NizzahonMagic]

+Dylan Morris Chandra, Flamecaller and Chandra, Torch of Defiance, and Chandra, Pyromaster disagree.

[@dylanmorris5253]

I respect your opinion my playstyle includes lots of instants.

[@Ninjamanhammer]

+Dylan Morris It's not a question of play style. I don't play blue often but that doesn't mean I don't think Ancestral Recall is an insane card.

[@GoldoGolderson]

"This card wins you the game. Its bad." "This card is actually good and doesnt belong here. Its bad." "This card is broken. Its bad"

[@antoniomarino9444]

A lot of planeswalkers have as last ability a win condition. the problem is that they have usually a 4 or more mana cost + at least 3-4 turns to gain that loyalty points to use it. so we have to assume that on turn 4-5 the opponents can't bring down your planeswalker in 3-4 turns. If your opponent is in this situation then you've probably already won the game.

[@thatoneguy7781]

I've actually won with Sarkhan the Mad on several occasions. I just do his second ability first, then his last if I have a few dragons and then I use his first when he's outlived his usefulness

[@stuflames4769]

He's not bad at all. Not top tier. Not bad.

[@kasadeya3754]

Laughs in all the games I’ve Won with Tibs.

[@WindchaserX]

Actually Chandra Ablaze is way better than any of the rest. Works ridiculously well in my mono red deck.

[@bradleyhoward9638]

I used firebrand in jeleva edh. Nalaar you can tell is trash just by looking. I never used ablaze but it seems ok. Flamecaller was good in my standard Jeskai control. The flip Walker is only ok in a mono red burn deck but even then it's weak I think. Pyromaster and Torch of Defiance were great in standard. I played the latter in 2 decks. Acolyte of Flame was a rdw staple. Awakened Inferno I never saw play except in edh where in long games 2-3 emblems are pretty devastating. Even the uncommon 1 was good in limited. Heart of flame I never saw any relevance for but dressed to kill looks like it will be at least decent. Since Pyromaster Chandras have been a lot better. You'd think they would've wanted her to be playable from the get go but I'm guessing they thought she was gonna be way too good if they gave her useful abilities. Just because red struggles with attrition as it's balancing aspect and good Planeswalkers provide an answer for that.

[@Silatuyok]

I actually really like Tibalt in my madness deck. Every card in it has madness or makes me discard things and it's kind of fun getting to just play roulette with fiery tempers and the like.

[@emrakulsmash643]

Float your mana then ultimate Gideon. Enough said.

[@loganlewis1790]

How are you gonna ult him

[@codyhumble7855]

​@Lamp Boi you, a mono white deck, with 3 creatures and a stalled board against a green opponent with 2 creatures, gideon comes down and gets 3 loyalty. (7) in order for your opponent to get to gideon he needs to devote to the board more creatures. These usually will not have haste, giving gideon another gain of loyalty.(adding about 5, he has 12 loyalty now) The white player now untaps and builds to their board as well, giving the green player no profitable attacks. the green player still attacks, just to reduce gideon's loyalty, leaving his board decimated. gideon still has 7 loyalty, and now plays the role of big beatstick against the decimated green player. Gideon creates a war of attrition because you know the end result if you leave it alone: bad in a game of 4 players in the commander format, creatures are the least important card type usually, unless you're just playing for fun. So do you play for fun and play bad cards, or do you play competitively and actually win the game before gideon would matter? or cast a counterspell? If you're playing for fun, then why are you hating on this card? if you're playing competitively, why are we talking about the loyalty of this card?

[@flyq7470]

There is a strange phenomenon that ive seen occur when you use tibalt in a super friends deck. people leave tibalt alone and go after your other walkers. I suspect this is because people know hes bad, and thus don't expect him to ever pose a threat. Especially when there are other planeswalkers like Elspeth Suns Champion, Ajani Vengeant and Veraska to worry about. This can lead if you manage to draw peoples attention away from him to potentially devastating use of his ult. That said he is still a bad card and the fact that he gets lucky that people sometimes forget about him because of this doesn't excuse him. it is a fun mini game though to see if you can direct peoples attention away from him.

[@lovetownsend]

13:45 His legs look like Goofy lol

[@sircrabsalot9507]

"The planeswalker who allows you to either upgrade your small creatures into *5/5 flyers*, or downgrade enemy creatures in the same fashion, is bad because... no +1, I guess?"

[@odoacredacalcutta5085]

oct 27th 2019, Tibalt still number 1 on this list

[@ComradeArthur]

Very educational. I'm getting back into magic and this helps me understand the ins and outs of planeswalkers.

[@christophercollins3632]

My Daretti commander deck loves loves loves Tibault. I actually play it for the plus 1 alone. A Planeswalker protecting itself is not the end-all be-all critera. Useful but not crucial. Besides, there is something to be said for the feeling I get when my opponent looks at Tibault and cannot believe I found a way to make him good.

[@Vlad2319]

Never knock a plainswalker. First plainswalker for me (along with one of the chandras on the list and Sorin Markov.) I looked at his abilities and literally my first question, "are there cards that work from the grave?" Kinda scared and impressed my local cardshop guys, they actually helped me build a deck for him. I pretty much started running him and no matter how I shuffled, even with other people shuffling it, he ended up in my first hand.

[@christophercollins3632]

Nero. Good thinking. Red graveyard recursion is a rarity. I hope you're running Daretti, Scrap Savant (sp?). If you have other examples, let me know, please. Honestly, Daretti as a commander is the only useful recursion in red I can think of off the top of my head. "Search for Survivors" is too narrow and creature only. Thx

[@Vlad2319]

Christopher Collins My biggest deck for him is his prebuild. No Daretti. Tried it before didn't work too well for me. I used mainly red spells with flashback and black creatures that came from the grave. Chandra helped as well when I ran a homebrew. (doubling to tripling the damage from spells is fun.) After that he got tucked into a blue red or (as I like to call it) fuel to the fire deck, with Firebrand and 4 jaces. Another one is life gaining which at least keeps you in the game longer, keeping your options open for other plays. I think one big thing I will say is to plan around him but don't plan him as end game.

[@christophercollins3632]

Cool stuff. I was a 60 card deck builder until around 2 years ago, when I was bit by the Commander Format bug. Standard is too expensive, Modern is 4-5 turn win average, and plus I have a lot a lot of cards, so I can use those in Commander. Daretti is the perfect Commander for Tibault. He is 4 cmc, so he comes out quickly, and because he is the Commander, he provides the graveyard recursion with few hiccups. Red needs black, any color needs black, for decent recursion. Give Commander a shot, with Daretti, Scrap Savant at the helm, and show them what Tibault can do without any swampy offerings. Just a suggestion.

[@AdesVomSilberfeuer]

"only if you play a deck with every madness card ever printed, but why would you do this" - Anje Falkenrath has entered the chat.

[@RoKKr023i]

yeah im looking at tossing him into my madness for madness deck.

[@JaxonHaxon]

Every Timmy will defend their choice, don't worry Spike.

[@myticalsmusings7887]

Question. Gideon and 'phasing' creatures. Would he make a good reason to add in phasing creatures? He nukes the board, next upkeep your phased creatures swoop in and thrash enemy?

[@allisonmontgomery7164]

I personally like Ral Zarek and Nissa Revane. I like the Nissa since she is the only other planeswalker outside of Freyalise that can support me when I play with my elf deck, which is nice. I agree that the search for a specific card is annoying but at least she has another +1 to help out. I like Ral Zarek in my Temur Commander deck since my most beautiful play with him. My 2 opponents saw him as a minor threat and refused to attack him and I also had Kiora, Master of the Depths out as well. When I used Ral's ultimate, I got 4 extra turns which gave me Kiora's ultimate, which won me the game. He is, however, not that great in Modern since I had him in a Blue-Red deck and he failed me almost every time I had him out. In commander though, he can be a provider of mana. Tap an opponents creature, untap a dual land or a Sol Ring, gain two extra mana

[@petershipman8391]

yeah Ral Zarek is great in EDH

[@NizzahonMagic]

Allison Montgomery I don't disagree that they have their place in EDH and in cube, but they are pretty unplayable in competitive constructed formats

[@tylerdirks7310]

Nizzahon Magic granted, so is most of the planeswalker pool

[@omgopet]

Love having these old videos randomly recommended by KZbin. After War of the Spark, the comments about the percentage of walkers that are good increasing seems like such an understatement...

[@petershipman8391]

Heyyyy, I love Sarkhan Vol...

[@metalfogger1395]

I think he's quite strong in an Aggro/tempo gruul deck

[@jmenoprijmeni8729]

Xenagos Is better

[@fulltime4545]

Depends on the deck you are playing I guess. If you play Gruul Omnath, Sarkhan Vol can be devastating, as you suddenly get 5 6/6´s with haste, maybe more, which deal 3 damage if they die. I didn´t know Sarkhan, but I might put him in the deck instead if Xenagos.

[@Someone-sq8im]

He’s the best waifu

[@darthfervor33BBY]

I run Chandra Ablaze in my mono red burn deck that’s based on burning creature tokens (elves and goblins to be specific). I love her + ability because I can just toss a magma Phoenix or Chandras Phoenix and get it back later.

[@deathmetalmachine]

I'm playing tibalt the fiend blooded in Commander to spite you because I beat with it

[@stevendreyer7247]

Hey I run him in a couple commander decks. He can do some good work.

[@T4N7]

funny u mentioned madness, i used 1 copy of Chandra Ablaze with 2 copies of Liliana of the Veil in a hellbent madness control deck i had made for a friend, and it was so simple yet so effective with the eldrazi titans reshuffling my graveyard into my deck. the deck ended up being so powerful i used it to play test other decks i made. Chandra has her niche but she fits it really well.

[@jimpachi98]

Still the hottest Gideon though

[@gormold4163]

I have that Gideon in a mono white EDH deck. He can absorb a good deal of damage if he gets targeted and I don’t have a way to protect him, and since it counts all enemies for his +1, he can grow faster than normal. A 1/1-4/4 Gideon on a dead field is not going to win any games, but a 15/15 can. You can also float mana to play additional cards after nuking the field. He grows quickly enough in EDH that it is often about as difficult to kill him as it is you, and that should not go ignored.

[@HelloWorld-hy9xq]

Gideon is awesome in causal, limited, and edh.

[@Luircin]

I have had a little bit of success running Tibalt in limited with an RG deck, specifically because Avacyn Restored is low on removal and so he can tick up fairly easily with enough field clutter. Also my curve was pretty low in the decks, so there was a fairly good chance that I'd be pitching unneeded lands and getting a replacement card from them. Far from first pickable, but in the right deck he can be a passably good 2 drop in that format. At least in my experience.

[@couchpotatoe91]

Sarkhan the Mad was common sideboard tech in Japan during the Jund era. He is GREAT in grindy matchups where both sides play Sprouting Thrinax, Putrid Leech and other good blockers. Hell, getting a 5/5 when you reach 5 mana is already really good! I've played him in my casual Jund deck back in the day and honestly found him better than Broodmate Dragon because he's cheaper. He's worth 2+ cards most of the time, you don't have to construct your deck around dragons for this guy to be good at grinding! I'm sorry but just the reason that you judge many planeswalkers by their ultimate (which comes up every like 10 games?) leads me to believe that you're perhaps not the best when it comes to evaluating Planeswalkers...

[@rustyshovel9064]

Him: saying how mono black isn't played much anymore Me 4 years later: *laughs in vito, thorn of the dusk rose*

[@danielgraham1879]

Uh... Wasn't Tybalt printed while cards with proliferate were still in standard? I only point this out because I think it was a tiny bit easier to build loyalty.

[@Jupiterbun-bunJetson]

I know I'm late to this and I'm not defending Tibalt, he is a bad card. But he's the first planeswalker I actually pulled so I have a ton of nostalgia for him. I'm also really bad at getting planeswalker from packs.

[@damienleigh9943]

Casual Jeff When you adopt the skill of getting planeswalkers from packs, please let me know 😂

[@typerez9023]

The first pack I ever bought had a planewalker

[@TheUnchosenOne]

lol yeah, I remember the Tybalt hype. And that's all anyone remembers! xD

[@christopherhancock1723]

One of my most favorite Planeswalkers is Domri Rade. He is a low cost that has a great emblem in my creature focused edh decks. Since he is pretty underrated nobody really targets him, which makes getting his emblem off pretty easy.

[@maxeggs9039]

I actually own both of the first Chandras on this list

[@WindchaserX]

I own all of them.

[@connorreese5315]

Max Marsh me too. and chandra nalar is really good imo

[@FeltonHM]

chandra ablaze is really good in a burn deck

[@modernminded5466]

F H M She really, really isn't...

[@brazyraphael4248]

I own 8 chandras

[@mattsmith457]

Gideon was my first mythic and he was so fun. Pumping him up was surprisingly easy, especially in commander. In 2-3 turns, you could get him up to 17-20 loyalty counters easy peasy. Plus, since you’re running white, spitting out tokens to protect Gideon is EZ, and there’s no shortage of removal for white so Gideon is really well protected. His ult is also super useful, completely bombing the board, leaving everyone with nothing except for you with Gideon, who is gonna start getting super buff again and swinging for massive damage, and he’s indestructible. Plus, your opponents have no mana so they can’t really do much. Sometimes I like to splash blue so I don’t even need to ult, like I’ll have 21/21 indestructible Gideon and I’ll just sleep everyone for a turn, or I’ll cyclonic rift a bunch of tokens and get a kill shot. He’s seriously good guys, and his mana cost is low so he can easily be played with a few other guys later in the game to protect him.

[@paweassassin5444]

Tibalt is best planswalker ever.

[@elfenbeinturm-media]

In defence of Chandra, the Firebrand: in Standard and Limited she actually was very nice, a lot of X/1-creatures were around at these times and and doubling a searing spear could just almost be a board wipe; the main problem was to let her survive one round; if she did, she was awesome. For CMC3 she would be just good, but Wizards always seem to be concerned of red decks becoming too powerful. I can remember that phase during Theros, when Burn Decks actually appeared in standard and the upcoming editions didn't see any good burn spells coming as a consequence. They didn't even print a 4/1 Haste creature for 3 Mana until today. They must be REALLY frightened of red decks becoming too strong. Wizards are totally struggling with CMC3 planeswalkers in red colour. Chandra, the Firebrand for CMC3 - wouldn't be overpowered for sure concerning Modern.

[@Chosen1_of.the.NONexistent_God]

Gideon, Champion of Justice is one of my win condition in my Oloro EDH deck.

[@TransparentEclipse]

Gideon, Champion of Justice will always have a special place in my heart, since my actual name is Gideon and I was given a copy of one as a birthday gift when I was 12 by a friend. I acknowledge he's terrible, but he's still one of my favorites.

[@dustbintv2328]

i disagreed with just about every one except tibalt.

[@Video-Post-Mortem]

fuck you Tibalt good

[@andyscout]

I played Nissa Revane in standard at the time. Sure, it wasn't a top tier deck, but her first +1 with the Chosen gave me a great sac outlet for Eldrazi Monument, which itself was a great way to give my elf deck some late game reach. There were some pretty good elves in the few sets after Zendikar and I definitely won some games at some locals with the deck.

[@littlemrdoom5997]

tbh, jace the living guildpact has won me a few games...

[@florianw116]

I wonder if Tibalt would see play if the discard wasn't random.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Almost definitely

[@MrNajie]

The Gideon is good in commander.

[@sidneypowelstock6812]

I agree, I love him in the token clash between my friend and I. The game always stalls with no good attacks and I get Gideon to like 50 loyalty and win like that.

[@SundayBbq4786]

Sarkhan the mad saw play in a standard that played 4 memnites and 4 ornithopters, as well as 4 lightning bolts, 4 despise, and 4 inquisition of kozilek. 0 and 1 cost bombs. Especially when you sac'd the thopters and memnites for dragons.

[@TastySnackies]

Congratulations on 2k subscribers! I'm almost at 300 lol. And great video, as always :)

[@NizzahonMagic]

+TastySnackies Thanks! 300 will be 2k in no time!

[@TastySnackies]

Nizzahon Magic Of course! And hopefully :)

[@Achesti]

TastySnackies nice to see that, after a year , you really got over 2k subs 😀

[@Kavou]

I remember whne I first faced Tibalt.It was turn 2 and my opponent was so confident.He plays him on turn 2,plus him and gets to discard his only copy of primeval titan.He did not run a graveborn-type of deck.On my turn 2,I throw a 3/1 hasty creature and totally murder him just like that.

[@ronastv177]

No, Liliana is best☺

[@jonhill987]

One thing on Chandra Ablaze, Chandra's Phoenix. Discard it with her +1, deal damage to a player, and put it right back into your hand.

[@mindtoggler1368]

I use Gideon in my Phelddagrif deck. You've just given your opponent 80 hippos? Use Gideon!

[@colerosenbalm4]

pheldagriff decks and pillowfort decks are actually hilarious with gideon. phelddagrif is hilariois no matter what tho

[@connorcampbell-bisson8721]

I'm not sure how much I agree with Nissa Revane being on this list. Sure, her first +1 basically forces you to play a Nissa's Chosen in order to get anything out of it, but it's basically a free 2/3 that you don't have to worry about keeping on the battlefield because you can just bring it back. Her second +1 is essentially wellwisher, so it works well for an elf tribal deck, and her first +1 actually works with it quite well. I'd even make the argument it works well in an elf commander deck as it effectively allows for a second wellwisher. Then her -7 gives you basically every elf you have in your deck, if she survives till the next turn, the life gain from her second +1 will be immense, and that's ignoring how elfs tend to have abilities that get better the more elfs you have in play.

[@RikelWirkkunen]

I like Gideon with Ensnaring Bridge in EDH. Gideon is in a colour where you can aggro out and keep your hand empty, so the Ensnaring Bridge keeps Gideon protected. Stock him up to really high loyalty and then blow up the board. You then have a monster sized Gideon that because Ensnaring Bridge is gone can go to town on all of your opponents.

[@CrimsonFox36]

Ral Zarek was actually a crucial combo piece for a pretty powerful deck back in M15 standard, involving Nissa and the Cain Veil.

[@codyhumble7855]

'they need to print a top level red planeswalker' *cries in chandra, torch of defiance*

[@ethanbibber-alexander]

I run 3 of these in my wondertwins edh deck, ral zerik is actually really good if you copy his abilitys, and he is only a secondary target for your enemys because when you play planeswalkers you have will out, and he is scary af so he becomes a massive target, and you get to slam proliferates on ral and start flipping, on average you will get 2 or 3 extra turns which will win you the game with a deck all about slamming and recasting massive burn or just give time to cast more extra turn cards and have a fun single player magic game.

[@felixrivera895]

Tibalt's plus 1 is really what needs fixing and honestly I can think of a way. Perhaps: "Draw a card, then discard a card. Tibalt deals damage to target creature equal to the discarded card's converted mana cost." Or "Target player draws a card, then discards a card at random." That first ability alone would give Tibalt protection for himself himself and maybe last for a bit, the other would make him worth the risk against certain decks. Also 3 loyalty.

[@joshuapelletier8219]

When Gideon, Champion of Justice was in standard I ran him in U/W control where he was pretty underrated. his abilities in combination with JaceAOT +1, Azorius charm, Supreme verdict ect... was actually very good. most people where not playing him, but I killed a lot of people with him. People underestimated the ability of Jace's +1 to protect himself when he first came out (he was over $20 in standard before the duel deck one dropped him to nothing) and I believe people did the same with this Gideon.

[@alexander_trowbridge]

Ral Zarek was my first planeswalker and my favorite. It's so much fun to flip for those extra turns

[@Kuronosa]

I remember the combo that people were so excited to play Firebeand with...There was this...7 or 8 mana card called Sorrin's Vengeance, I think, That did 10 to the enemy dome and gave you 10 life. If you did Firebrand's -2 ability, that would One-shot most opponents....though the combo was hard to pull off because you were at least ing RB, and if you did it in Jund your mana base wasn't the best, but you wold at least still have Ramp. Nobody likes Tibalt when he was released, because he was Bolt Bait, and Bolt was a legal card at the time. When I can actually gett the money to dredge myself back into Commander, I know I'll be buying a copy for some of my jankier decks with Red in them, maybe even putting him in a Nekusar, because hit ult is pretty nice against decks that like large AF hands.

[@ryangainey94]

Also, Gideon is best used in conjunction with a boardwipe. Don't get him to 16 or 17 -- get him to, like, 35 at least if it's modern or legacy or whatever. Use wrath to protect him while powering up, maybe enchantments like ghostly prison or other things that prevent opponents attacking with creatures like a peacekeeper or blazing archon. Then you ult Gideon and he'll still be at 20, and having a 20/20 indestructible in play is kinda like having a marit lage -- you usually win the turn after.

[@simpslayer7414]

How is Chandra bad? If you get up to it's ultimate ability, then you can do all that damage to the player. If I understand it correctly, it is lethal if at 36 or lower health. Please tell me if I misunderstood.

[@jackiesingleton2351]

Since the card Nissa makes you play (Nissa's Chosen) always goes back into your deck don't you only need to run one, maybe 2? I have never played an Elf deck but it seems like you wouldn't need a four-of of cards that are always going back in the deck. Am I missing something? P

[@Kuronosa]

Firebrand had a silly little combo with Sorin's Vengance, where you could -2 her to dome the enemy for 20...it was a R/B control deck that was usually just durdling until it got to the combo.

[@TheBanimal]

Tibalt was my first Planeswalker draw and he will hold a special place in my heart. I accept he is bad but I love him, I only got his ultimate once in a game and it felt great.

[@oldskoolrayvn]

Honestly I think the best way to make Tibalt an actual good PW is to have +2: Discard a card at random, then draw a card. -4: Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded deals damage equal to the number of cards in target player's hand plus the number of creatures on target players board. -7: Gain control of all creatures until end of turn. Untap them. They gain haste until end of turn After your turn, your creatures you control now gain deathtouch. I'd make him start on 3 Loyalty Points, and have a CMC of 1Any, and 2 Red

[@LuDogg805]

There's only 1 card that can make Tibalt Useful... Magical Hacker... that's the only reason why I bought Tibalt at a more than reasonable price.

[@kellenliame2674]

Wow. Good choice for #1. Though I can see 1 possible reason for the minus 4 ability. It's deterrent for blue. They will try to blow their load asap to not have to risk taking loads of damage.

[@scarletphantom6403]

Can only at the best scenario deal 7 damage (As you can only have 7 cards in hand at max unless your using a card that increases it) Deal 7 face for 4 loyalty isn't really that good, perhaps not even against Mono-Blue. Other plainswalker abilities such as Sorin Markov's -3 (Reduce a opponents life to 10) is far better, even though its only a small tweak, because of one thing. Consistancy. Which I suspect is why so many Red Plainswalkers are on this list.

[@marx_avenger6137]

As long as you're being the aggressor, then yes.

[@Potapes]

And now there should be special cathegory about Planeswalker deck's bad Planeswalkers :-D

[@lordgiblets7585]

Tibalt COULD be useful, in a very specific situation, but that'd be really tricky to achieve. Your opponent would need to have a bunch of creatures, you'd have to have a solid defense to keep them from getting through to him, and then you'd need a Wrath of God/Damnation as a follow-up. Or maybe a Chain Reaction. Of course, for a card to be good, it'd have to be useful in a wide variety of situations.

[@scienceviking4490]

My guess for how Sarkhan the Mad sees play is that some Dragon decks just run him as a sorcery. 5 mana isn't that much for his ultimate effect if you have plenty of Dragons, so you can just play him, ultimate immediately, and possibly win the game.

[@jacobkashola5969]

I really like Tibalt's design as a character. Me and him even have the same hair style lol. I actually do use him in one of my decks too. The point of planeswalkers like Tibalt is that to really use them effectively you have to play around their weaknesses. The deck I use him in uses a lot of instants and sorceries and then brings those back from the grave, so if I discard one at random I can always get it back later. Now are there better cards than Tibalt? Definitely, but I still think that people hate on him a little more than necessary. The deck I use him in also throws out lots of cheap blockers, so defending him isn't much of an issue. When it comes to cards like these, while there may be better ones, they can still be fairly effective when used properly. Although I do think Tibalt deserve a new card, I think that that would be awesome lol

[@Typhosion]

Well Sarkhan the made maybe bad for other deck but for dragons he can kill a player once he hits the board depending on if you have enough dragons for his ult. I've seen him kill players in 1v1 match ups as well as FFA matches. He's not hardly played but when he is, he does work.

[@fanaticalproductions9661]

Ok good this was made before war of the spark

[@raziel1132]

chandra ablaze in any red or black/red discard deck is awesome. especially with madness. discard fiery temper to do 7 damage straight to your opponents face, or creature, or planeswalker? thats pretty good. and even discarding non-red cards can be advantageous for a madness enabler, or perhaps discarding something too later cheese it in from your graveyard. while chandra's 6 drop cost is a bit high making her weak, i don't think that ablaze is worse then the other 2 chandras considering there +1s were 1 damage, and ablaze's +1 is A.a madness enabler B. a cheese enabler C. 4 damage and in formats that have longer games, like edh, chandra can come out turn 6, discard ceaseless hunger, and then turn 7 use any revival spell to get him onto the field. and her -7 is instant game. thats every burn spell in your graveyard. which again, has epic synergy with her +1. i get her being on the list, as a 6 drop is rather heavy and she is constricted to 1 or 2 color decks (perhaps 3 colors, if it is red heavy). but i don't think she should be higher then nissa, nalaar, or firebrand. also, you seem to not really get the point of sarkhan the mad's playability. its important to note that the set after eldrazi was scars, meaning he was in standard with proliferate. and sarkhan (along with nissa) does not *need* to utilize all of his abilities. if you are playing a low-drop deck, you use his +0 and -2. if you are playing dragons, you use his -2 and -4. and you only need to proliferate 1 time with sarkhan on the field to trigger his ultimate twice in a dragon deck, which should be game.