(Threefold Signal | Art by Julian Kok Joon Wen)

Trifecta

The question of planeswalkers as commanders has been brought up in Magic discourse an infinite number of times. People say it would kill EDH as a format, and others say it will do nothing but give more options to a perpetually endless pool of commanders. I believe the truth is somewhere in the middle. My name is Nick, and the seventeenth installment of Myth Realized will cover three-color planeswalkers. Let's look at how they would each ruin (or not ruin) your favorite 100-card Singleton format.

If you've stuck around with me until this article, I would generally tell you that you know what cards to keep an eye out for. However, adding a third color to these cards expands the card pool to a degree where knowing the standard cards that can "break" a planeswalker gets more complicated.

Dakkon, Shadow Slayer

Dakkon's a fan-favorite character, originally from Legends in 1994. This fantastic artwork is one of the most "fighting with itself" planeswalkers regarding strategy. While this card has the potential to enter the battlefield with as few as three counters (or fewer if you pay for him with mana rocks) or as many as the number of lands in your deck, it is in Esper colors (white, blue, and black) - not the colors often associated with getting lands onto the battlefield. Well, at least this used to be the case. Over the years, white has gotten many cards that use a "catch up" ramp to get lands when someone else either has more lands on their side of the battlefield or puts lands from their deck/hand onto the battlefield. Cards like Claim Jumper, Deep Gnome Terramancer, and the classic Weathered Wayfarer.

These cards also allow Dakkon to exile multiple creatures with his minus three ability before leaving the battlefield. Pair his +1 to surveil two cards and some self-mill like Hedron Crab, and Dakkon will be pulling out big haymaker artifacts from the yard in no time. While not the type of deck I would build (it uses too much brain power), I would love to play against someone using this as their commander.

Geyadrone Dihada

This might be the most Grixis planeswalker that has ever walked the face of the earth. Sorry, Bolas, but it's true. All the abilities on this card scream blue, black, and red abilities. Protection from permanents with corruption counters makes Dihada hard to get at unless an entire board faces you. A plus one that drains the table and allows you to place one of these counters, beefing Dihada up to five loyalty is a very fine ability. One of my favorite things this card does is not make you wait. The minus three allows you to Threaten a creature or planeswalker; untapping it and giving haste is fantastic. But not restricting you to needing a corruption counter on that permanent is a design that would not have been present in the earlier years of the game.

The bonus of putting a corruption counter on the permanent you just used so that it cannot be used as revenge is a "chef's kiss" level of good design. I want to say that I like the ultimate on this card, but I don't. The odds you can get this weird counter needed for this card onto enough of your opponents' permanents will not happen to the level required to win you the game. This is still a very cool card.

Narset of the Ancient Way

This would be the only Narset I would ever want someone to tell me they have a commander deck built around. And I still find this card very powerful, but not to the likes of Narset, Enlightened Master, where it is killed on sight...if you can. Gaining life and fixing your mana to cast more spells after you play this card is often underrated. The play pattern of casting this card on turn four, using the plus one and then casting either a Swords to Plowshares, Faithless Looting, or even a simple Ancestral Recall (I mean Serum Visions) is full of value.

The minus two on this card, however, is not the best. The card's removal aspect depends on the mana value of the cards you have in your hand, so removing a threatening creature or planeswalker with high loyalty is not a guarantee. But the minus six ultimate on this card is excellent at killing your opponents and anything they hold dear to them. If cards like Guttersnipe have taught players anything, two damage adds up fast.

Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God

We finally get to the one, the only, the big bad of all big bads in the Magic universe. The Dragon God himself, Nicol Bolas. While not the first appearance of this character, and not even the first planeswalker version of him, it has combos allowing you to make infinite versions of himself. Keeping it within the Grixis color combination, the combo looks something like this:

Infinite combos aside, this card has a stringent mana cost, which means it usually will not hit the field on a curve. The deck built around this card also tends to "build itself" thanks to Nicol Bolas's static ability. Giving this card access to all other loyalty abilities of other planeswalkers, including your opponents if they happen to have one, makes them the perfect commander for Grixis Superfriends. That's how this card can be attractive. It's all about the other characters paired with Nicol Bolas—a bit of a hit to this dragon's ego.

Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh

Seven mana for a card that wins you the game? Sign me up. Going up to eight or nine loyalty off the first uptick ability is ludicrous for an opponent to try and get through. A free cast of the first nonland card off the top of an opponent's deck or exiling two cards from each opponent's hand are some of the most backbreaking abilities a planeswalker can have. If that wasn't enough, this version of Bolas comes with four total abilities. A minus four allows you to throw seven damage at any target, and a minus twelve will clear all boards but yours down to just their lands.

This big bad is both big and bad for anyone foolish enough not to stop you earlier in the game. Running this deck means getting to the long game, so it might not be a deck you can play every game of Commander Night. But if you like to be the problem and your group is ok with it, this seems like the perfect commander to play arch enemy with at a table.

Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

So if the seven-mana version of Nicol Bolas was so good, then the eight-mana version of him must be borderline broken, right? No. What this card can do is be a bit more destructive to your opponents right when it hits the table. You can blow up anything not a creature on a massive plus-three. Does someone have a land you don't like? Blow it up. Is there an annoying Ghostly Prison stopping you from attacking? Blow it up. What about a version of that fool Gideon Jura staring you down? BLOW HIM UP.

And after you blow up noncreatures, how about stealing the creatures left? Forever. Yes, you are reading that right. You gain control of the creature forever. It doesn't matter if Bolas leaves the field; you still get the creature. And what do you get for an ultimate on this card? A version of a Cruel Ultimatum that trades in any benefits for you to inflict more misery on an opponent.

Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver

Sadly, even Bolas isn't immune to the effects of having a planeswalker deck version of themselves. But for once, the increased mana cost has not been unheard of. The worst part is that this eight-mana version is not like its previous self. All in all, this card has good abilities. The plus-three is, except on rare occasions, going to cause everyone to lose three life rather than sacrifice a nonland permanent or discard. Minus three doesn't steal a creature this time but destroys it and draws you a card for the trouble. Finally, the first ability makes getting to the minus eleven rather achievable, allowing you to hit everyone for seven damage and draw seven cards. Not too shabby.

Still, this card is eight mana, and you won't find winning the game as easy as you would with Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker.

Sarkhan Unbroken

You like to play Dragons but hate when the table yells at you for playing Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm? Might I suggest Sarkhan Unbroken? As the name would imply, he's decidedly not broken, but far from bad. Like Narset, he starts at four loyalty and allows you to get mana to cast more spells with a plus one. The trade-off is you get to draw a card rather than gain life. The minus two gets you a 4/4 Dragon with flying, which, outside of some white-aligned planeswalkers making Angels and Kiora making Octopi and Krakens, is up there for one of the biggest tokens. But the real draw to this card, outside of not dying immediately to the table for playing Miirym, is the ultimate.

A long time ago, I, like many others, told you not to evaluate a planeswalker solely on their ultimate. But I don't care about the rules when a Temur (green, blue, and red) planeswalker has Dragonstorm as an ultimate. As discussed many articles ago, blue and green are the best colors for proliferation, and red is the best for Dragons. Mix all this, and Sarkhan is potentially the perfect Dragon commander that no one is playing. There might be a few reasons, like legality, but come to my table, and I will happily push that to the side if you want to play everyone's favorite time-traveling dragon-man.

Tamiyo, Field Researcher

Last but certainly not least, we have a card that taught me always to read my opponent's cards in real-time. Why should you do this, you might ask? Because of cards like Tamiyo and whoever decided this needs an ultimate combining Ancestral Recall with Omniscience. If that wasn't enough, this ultimate is on an emblem, which can't be interacted with in the game of Magic, and put on a Bant (green, white, blue) planeswalker that has access to just about every wrath, counter, and Fog card in the game.

Need to draw more cards? How about taking some creatures and attacking with them or striking a deal with your opponent, playing a more aggressive deck, and using the plus one to target their creatures instead? And if everything goes wrong for you, tap down two nonland permanents and keep them that way for an entire turn with a negative two. This is the card I've tried to fit into most decks, and it always gets cut. The card is incredible when it works, but so much setup is required unless you try to turbo your way to the ultimate with a Doubling Season effect.

Wrap Up

Regarding the three colors, the cards are only as strong as the colors in the casting cost. This might sound like the case for all cards, but it's not true. Other cards can stretch their abilities within the confines of their color or colors when talking about mono- or two-colored cards. What we see with these three-color cards is that all their abilities have to hit on an aspect present inside those colors. Using Tamiyo, Field Researcher as an example, we see the following: blue and white provide the tap-down ability on her card. Green and blue give the combat damage = card draw ability. As previously mentioned, the ultimate is two powerful blue cards that have their effects massed together.

Three-color planeswalkers are also a space seldom explored by designers. There are more than those mentioned on this list, and they are in different color combinations. Such as Dihada, Binder of Wills a Mardu (red, white, black) colored planeswalker. But if you notice, this card can already be your commander, thanks to the text at the bottom of the card.

I don't discuss cards like this because they can already be your commander.

What does it all mean? In the end, after seventeen articles covering planeswalkers, what is the answer to What if Any Planeswalker Could Be Your Commander? The answer is not too much. It might be a bit anticlimactic, but this is the case. Looking at the data on EDHREC for the top commanders of the past two years, we see only two: Dihada, Binder of Wills, and Lord Windgrace make the list.

Both of these cards are very powerful. And yet, both fall near the bottom of the list. Some of this is due to people not wanting to build decks around them anymore rather than sheer power, and some of it has to do with the fact that three other players can attack your commander to kill it. Would allowing all the cards I've discussed for almost two years shake up the format? But it would not destroy it. Maybe a card has to get banned, or perhaps something gets built by a large portion of the player's base, making it have a presence about it that people don't like.

But on the heels of Modern Horizons 3 with the likes of Nadu, Winged Wisdom, Outlaws of Thunder Junction and Obeka, Splitter of Seconds, and the atrocity that is Murders at Karlov Manner's Voja, Jaws of the Conclave, I think the question of What if Any Planeswalker Could Be Your Commander ruining the format is much more Myth than Realized.

My name, as always, is Nick, and you can find all my articles in this series and more on the site. Check out other fantastic writers here and at Commander's Herald, and I will see you for whatever I write about next, most likely in the world of Commander and maybe even one day at table-slinging spells.

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Nicholas Lucchesi

Player and lover of all Magic the Gathering formats. Forged in the fires of Oath of the Gatewatch expeditions. Always down to jam games with anyone and everyone. When not playing Magic I am doing something else equally, if not more nerdy.