Since their introduction in Lorwyn back in 2007, planeswalkers have become a mainstay of Magic: The Gathering, beloved by many players. For the unfamiliar, a planeswalker can use one of its abilities by gaining or paying a number of loyalty counters once per turn. These loyalty counters also function as the planeswalker's health, being decreased if the planeswalker takes damage. If a planeswalker ever has no loyalty counters, it dies. While this does make them uniquely vulnerable, they make up for this vulnerability by being powerful sources of recurring value.

In the Commander format, planeswalkers are in an interesting position. While the format's slower and more casual nature seems excellent for them, its multiplayer component makes for an extremely dangerous environment. In a four player game, a planeswalker will need to survive the combat steps of three opponents to get another chance to activate an ability. Because of this, planeswalkers are often used sparingly, and usually require support from creatures to block the damage that might otherwise be headed their way. However, this doesn't mean that planeswalkers can't thrive in a multiplayer environment. Today, I'll be covering my top ten planeswalkers for multiplayer commander.

The Top 10 Planeswalkers for Multiplayer Magic

As usual, don't take my numbering too seriously. The relative strength of any of these planeswalkers will vary based on countless factors such as the kind of playgroup you have, or the deck you're playing them in.

10. Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools

I suppose it's appropriate that we start the list with a card designed specifically for Commander. He can even be your commander, but we won't be focusing on that today. Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools is five mana, but more than justifies that cost. He can produce tokens or sacrifice creatures to draw cards, and both of those abilities increase his loyalty. This gives him incredible survivability - not only does he create creature tokens to block attacks, he also won't be reducing his own loyalty with anything but his last ability, often referred to as a planeswalker's "ultimate". Tevesh Szat's ultimate impacts the game tremendously, and since he won't be spending his loyalty on anything else, it remains an inevitable threat so long as he survives.

9. Ashiok, Dream Render

Playing Ashiok, Dream Render in your deck is a bit like flossing your teeth. You're never excited about it, but you should probably do it anyway. Ashiok costs only three mana (very cheap for a planeswalker), and while they can't increase their loyalty, they have a powerful passive ability. So long as Ashiok remains on the battlefield, your opponents can't search their libraries. In a format filled to the brim with tutors and multicolored decks full of fetchlands, this effect excels at slowing down your opponents. On top of that, Ashiok's loyalty ability will exile each opponent's graveyard. As a lover of graveyard decks, effects like these make me very sad, but that's exactly why you should be playing them.

8. Tezzeret the Seeker

Tezzeret the Seeker might just be the most versatile planeswalker in the format. His first ability can untap two artifacts, which is already powerful. You can use this to reuse the abilities of your artifacts to create mana or do countless other things. Tezzeret's real power lies within his second ability. By paying any amount of loyalty, he can search your library for any artifact with an equal mana cost, and put it directly onto the battlefield. When you play Tezzeret, you can immediately use him to get any artifact with a cost equal to or less than his starting loyalty of four. Tezzeret can get you a Sol Ring, a Skullclamp, an Ashnod's Altar, or a pair of Lightning Greaves, all while surviving to untap more things.

7. The Wandering Emperor

The Emperor of Kamigawa is an enigmatic figure, and this card epitomizes that. Unique among planeswalkers, The Wandering Emperor has flash, and can activate her abilities at instant speed if she entered the battlefield on the same turn. She can put a +1/+1 counter on a creature and give it first strike for a turn, create a token, or exile a tapped creature, all three of which are powerful effects to pull out unexpectedly. The Wandering Emperor specializes in turning an opponent's combat step around by buffing a creature, making a blocker, or exiling an attacker, and then sticking around to produce more value on your later turns.

6. Liliana, Dreadhorde General

Liliana has had many powerful iterations, from Liliana of the Veil to Liliana, the Last Hope, but Liliana, Dreadhorde General is my favorite for Commander, mostly thanks to her incredible triggered ability. Whenever a creature you control dies, you draw a card. This sort of effect is shockingly difficult to come by, since most similar draw effects require nontoken creatures to die. I can only find three other instances of this ability (Dark Prophecy, Moldervine Reclamation, and Weatherlight Compleat), and none of the others are nearly as versatile as Liliana. She can create tokens, or force each player to sacrifice two creatures. While sacrifice-based removal isn't particularly effective against decks with large numbers of disposable creatures, it can be devastating for creature-light decks, especially if they rely on hexproof or indestructibility to protect their commander.

5. Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler

Planeswalkers can often have a difficult time making it into decks. According to conventional wisdom, you should avoid playing planeswalkers with abilities that don't synergize well with the deck they're in. Even a single "dud" ability can often cause a planeswalker to not be worth the card type's inherent fragility. Because of this, highly synergistic planeswalkers are at a major advantage, and few are more synergistic than Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler. The combination of his passive ability and his +1 allows him to do an excellent impression of Thousand-Year Elixir. Much like that card, Tyvar is excellent with any commander with a tap ability. He probably even surpasses it, thanks to his ability to reanimate inexpensive creatures.

4. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

The observant among you might have noticed a pattern between the cards on this list. All of them have been able to do something powerful the turn you play them, and then remain on the battlefield to continue generating advantage. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon epitomizes this with his -X ability, which will exile every colored permanent with a mana value of X or less. This effect alone is an extremely powerful board wipe, which also benefits greatly from being playable in any deck, no matter the colors. Mono-Black decks, for example, have precious few ways to remove enchantments, and will appreciate Ugin's ability to exile them. That's not all he can do, of course. He also has a +2 ability, which is basically Lightning Bolt. Or, more accurately, Ghostfire. While Bolt is an incredible card, it's often overlooked in Commander, due to the format's higher life totals and the prevalence of larger creatures. Make no mistake, though, Ugin's ability to exile most of the battlefield and then stick around to keep control of the board with his Ghostfire more than warrants his hefty cost.

3. Elspeth, Sun's Champion

If you've been playing as long as I have, you might know Elspeth, Sun's Champion from her long reign over the Standard format, way back in 2013. Elspeth has a decade long legacy, and for very good reason. She can single-handedly generate an army with her +1, protecting herself and threatening your opponents, all while only growing stronger and more difficult to deal with. If your opponents' creatures ever start seeming too threatening, you can use her -3 to destroy all creatures with four or more power, cutting them down to size while leaving your horde of 1/1 tokens intact. Elspeth is incredibly difficult to deal with without using a removal spell or small evasive creatures, and she presents an inevitable threat that your opponents will need to answer.

2. Narset, Parter of Veils

Narset, Parter of Veils has been a staple of the Commander format ever since she was released in War of the Spark, but it'd be understandable if a newer player couldn't see why. She's far from a flashy card. Her -2 is a simple way to generate card advantage, but it isn't really anything special. Her passive ability is something else entirely.

"Each opponent can't draw more than one card each turn." That glorious line of text has only been printed on one other card, Leovold, Master of Trest, a card which is banned in Commander, leaving Narset as the sole source of this incredibly powerful effect. Not only does this ability impede your opponents while leaving you unaffected, it's also able to combo with "wheel effect" spells like Windfall or the eponymous Wheel of Fortune. There are many spells in that vein, and with Narset on the field, playing one of them will refill your hand while leaving each of your opponents with just a single card. The power of this interaction is not to be understated, and is the reason why Leovold is banned today. Decks built around this combo were incredibly disruptive and capable of generating an absurd amount of card advantage, all while packing enormous amounts of redundancy. Countering a Windfall doesn't mean much when the Leovold player's deck still has upward of seven more ways to accomplish the same effect.

1. Teferi, Master of Time

From the moment I conceptualized this list, I knew Teferi, Master of Time would be at this number one spot. No planeswalker can take advantage of the multiplayer nature of the format quite like this one. Because Teferi can use his abilities at instant speed, he can be activated on every single player's turn. Every turn he isn't being threatened, you can use his +1 to filter through your deck and fill your graveyard, and if he's ever in danger from a large creature, or if you're worried about what an opponent is doing, you can use his -3 to phase out a creature, essentially removing it (and everything attached to it) from existence until the start of its controller's next turn. Alternatively, you can use that same ability on one of your own creatures to protect it from a board wipe or removal spell. This alone gives Teferi unparalleled versatility, but that's not all he's capable of.

Are we all in agreement that Time Stretch is a powerful spell? Extra turns are among the most powerful effects in all of Magic: The Gathering. They effectively provide card draw, extra land drops, extra untap steps, extra combat steps, extra planeswalker activations, and on top of all that, will duplicate any triggered abilities that occur during your upkeep, end step, or at the start of combat. Because of this, even a single extra turn can generate enormous amounts of value, and two of them can easily create enough advantage to decide the game.

Teferi's ultimate is Time Stretch. Instant speed Time Stretch.

Naturally, your opponents will be wary about letting you get this ultimate off. Teferi will likely be attacked quite often, and if you don't have blockers to protect him, he'll be overrun, as relying on his -3 will quickly deplete his loyalty to nothing. In all likelihood, you'll rarely get the opportunity to use this ability, but when you do, it'll be game deciding.

That's all I've got for now. Hopefully, you've found some part of this exercise insightful. Planeswalkers can be somewhat difficult to evaluate, and not every deck is a good home for one. But when they're used well, they can impact a game enormously.