Recently, TSG and Eck from The Magic Box set out on a quest to determine a definitive ranking on all the planeswalkers in Cube and we were happy to contribute when Usman Jamil (co-host of the third power and writer for Star City Games) contacted us for our input on the subject.
Along with polling Sam, Usman, and me, the guys over at The Magic Box polled Anthony Avitollo (co-host of the third power and writer for legitMTG), Kenny from Reno, Johnathan Richmond, Justin Parnell (of star city games), Casey Ferraro, and Kenyon Colloran.
Here is what they came up with.
| 1st | Jace, the Mind Sculptor |
| 2nd | Elspeth, Knight-Errant |
| 3rd | Karn Liberated |
| 4th | Liliana of the Veil |
| 5th | Ajani Vengeant |
| 6th | Gideon Jura |
| 7th | Garruk Relentless |
| 8th | Tamiyo, the Moon Sage |
| 9th | Garruk Wildspeaker |
| 10th | Sorin, Lord of Innistrad |
| 11th | Koth of the Hammer |
| 12th | Garruk, Primal Hunter |
| 13th | Jace Beleren |
| 14th | Jace, Architect of Thought |
| 15th | Ajani Goldmane |
| 16th | Venser, the Sojourner |
| 17th | Elspeth Tirel |
| 18th | Ajani, Caller of Pride |
| 19th | Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker |
| 20th | Chandra Nalaar |
| 21st | Chandra, Pyromaster |
| 22nd | Vraska, the Unseen |
| 23rd | Ral Zarek |
| 24th | Sarkhan the Mad |
| 25th | Gideon, Champion of Justice |
I think this list is pretty good. I wish I saw more Chandra, the Firebrand on the list since she can really just win games. I understand that most cube designers hate Jace, Memory Adept so I really didn’t expect to see him on the list.
The top ten is wildly powerful – just looking at their names makes me giddy. And, the top four are exactly the same as mine, so I know we are all pretty close in our rankings. All in all, I would say that we did really well ranking the planeswalkers.
Long live the king.
Thank you to TSG and Eck for putting this all together and thank you to Usman for asking us to help!
Why is Jace, the game winner not on here?
I don’t really know. I voted for him at fifth Sam put him in at 3rd or 4th. I guess no one else runs him.
Most ppl, like me, just consider it banned from cube lists
wouldn’t that make him the best, then? so good he can’t even be played?
its just that it wins you the game with 3 unanswered activations.
Given the few opportunities we all had to play with Chandra, Pyromaster and Ral Zarek on our cubes, I believe both will climb this list to the low teens in a few more months.
You’re probably right
By the way, how do you guys manage the PW count on your cubes?
play them all because playing with awesome cards is fun
Jace, Memory Adept is indeed very powerful but I feel Anthony Avitollo really put it best saying that he’s just a binary Planeswalker even if that means he’s operating in the ON position most of the time.
Planeswalker all too often already create subgames within Magic and big Jace is the worst offender warping the game of Magic to a very simple and short form of “Attack and kill me now or perish!”
I don’t disagree with anything you say, he definitely creates a sub game you have to deal with. Having that sub game doesn’t bother me too much. I enjoy that some cards in cube–a limited format with some extremely complicated interactions and play possibilities–can be big, stupid “GUHHH I WIN” type of cards, cards that reward you for getting to that spot and keeping him protected.
This list is bogus.
>Every Ajani is overvalued here.
>Sorin Markov isn’t even mentioned.
>Gideon, Champion of Justice is on this list.
I’m OK with where Vengeant is, but I agree with your other two points. I would’ve put Sorin Markov pretty high up in my #16-25 spot, and would’ve put him and old Tezzeret over new Gideon.
We ran Sorin for a LONG time and he just was not good
I don’t think he was bad–when he hit the board, he was really nice–but BBB is hard to cast.
I fought to keep him in for a while. But for six mana, 3 being BBB, he has to do more than shoot an x/2 and gain you life. Brining your opponent to 10 means nothing majority of the time.
That being said, he would be in my top 25, but not in my top 20.
Bringing* Lol. I wish he brined your opponents.