All 9 Colorless Planeswalkers in Magic Ranked

Last updated on January 4, 2026

Ugin, the Spirit Dragon | Illustration by Raymond Swanland

I’m known for being a fan of Draft archetypes involving more than two colors in my decks. But not today.

Kaldheim, Strixhaven, and Neon Dynasty were the best formats for multicolor decks. But sometimes you just want to keep things simple, not mess around with too many colors, and be as straightforward as you can. Right?

I imagine WotC designers felt the same when it came to planeswalkers at some point and decided to push that idea to its limits by creating the first colorless planeswalker. Today I’m going over the best colorless planeswalkers and ranking them from worst to best and crowning the strongest among them. Let's dive right in!

What are Colorless Planeswalkers in MTG?

Karn, Scion of Urza | Illustration by Chase Stone

Colorless planeswalkers are planeswalkers that don't have any colored mana symbols in their casting costs or rules text. They follow the same color identity rules as most artifacts, and many are overpriced compared to what a similar card would cost if it had a color requirement.

However, Wizards has been experimenting with cheaper colorless ‘walkers lately, and we've seen plenty of novel cards in this narrow design space.

#9. Karn, Living Legacy

It's an unfortunate truth that Karn, Living Legacy is one of the worst Karns WotC has printed. It comes in with 4 loyalty counters for 4 mana but fails to take much initiative with its available abilities, simply making a tapped Powerstone or giving you a card (that you also need to pay mana for).

Its ultimate creates an emblem that turns your artifacts into weapons capable of pinging any target for 1 damage. This is underwhelming to say the least, and doesn't make up for the lackluster start this card has. Overall, this card fails to deliver in multiple fronts, and wasn't quite good enough for Standard, let alone formats with higher barriers to entry, like Modern or Legacy.

#8. Karn, Scion of Urza

Karn, Scion of Urza is unique because it's best when built around other cards, whereas the other colorless planeswalkers don't need a lot of effort to be good. You ideally want to build an artifact-heavy deck so that you can start creating massive Constructs left and right when this thing enters the battlefield.

But Karn is still good even if you don't and you just happen to have a high density of artifacts in your deck, since its first ability is pure card advantage and the second is card selection. Definitely a win-win scenario.

#7. Ugin, the Ineffable

Ugin, the Ineffable shows how fearsome this ethereal spirit dragon can be. While this Ugin doesn't have tons of abilities, it does have one that not many planeswalkers have: a static ability that lets you play your colorless spells for cheaper.

This card synergizes better when built around, but its other two abilities are powerful. Ugin can start creating a small army that gives you card advantage when they die or gets rid of some annoying card on your opponent's side of the field.

The Ineffable doesn't have an ultimate but it compensates for that with its static.

#6. The Aetherspark

The Aetherspark is one of the strangest MTG cards, and it can cause confusion, so let’s break it down. It’s a planeswalker that’s also an equipment. So you’ll cast it, attach it to your biggest creature, and swing.

Let’s say you’ve attached it to a 5/5 that becomes a 6/6 thanks to the +1/+1 counter, you attack, hit something, and put 6 loyalty counters on this card. Note that the creature just needs to deal combat damage, so it works if it’s blocked, similar to Umezawa's Jitte. Next, you can take off the counters and draw some cards. While it’s attached, it can’t be attacked directly. The main idea behind this card is to spread +1/+1 counters around, and it’s particularly good with evasive creatures, big trample creatures, or cards that care about equipment in general. Whether you’re using the loyalty counters to draw more cards or to generate more mana is up to you.

#5. Ugin, Eye of the Storms

Ugin, Eye of the Storms is just one of the high mana value, powerhouse Ugin cards. You get immediate value just by casting it and exiling another nonland permanent. You cast it, activate the +2, draw another card immediately, get some life, and get rid of the biggest threat. Not bad for a planeswalker that sits on the battlefield with and absurd 9 loyalty. Not to mention the huge value you get later by casting colorless cards. Sometimes you'll fire off a few spells and turn Ugin into an exiling machine.

#4. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

With yet another appearance for Bolas‘s brother, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon was the first version of an Ugin planeswalker to be printed. This card saw some legit gameplay in a lot of Standard decks and in Eldrazi’s prime during Modern’s early stages. The Spirit Dragon is more often seen in cubes and Commander nowadays but make no mistake; it constantly threatens to end the game on the spot every time it comes around: Colorless removal doesn't get much better than this.

While 8 mana seem like a lot, the middle ability will almost entirely wipe the board, and it’ll threaten to take over the game after that if it doesn't die. And it’s cute that its ultimate ability is basically Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker‘s ability, but backwards. Instead of punishing your opponents by taking down their resources, it rewards you by giving you a fresh new hand and almost half your starting life total back.

#3. Tezzeret, Cruel Captain

Tezzeret, Cruel Captain’s best quality is its low mana value, since you can get it on the battlefield on turns 2-3 consistently. Depending on your hand and the board state, you can sometimes create the embelm right after casting it. This planeswalker fits into a variety of decks, be it artifact aggro, ramp, or combo. Its 0 ability untaps creatures or artifacts, providing ramp and enabling some nasty combos. Furthermore, you can tutor up artifacts like Sol Ring that work well with its untap ability, so you can play this card in colorless ramp decks as well. EDH decks today have plenty of artifact ramp, artifact tokens, Treasures, and the like, so this card usually does a good job.

#2. Karn, the Great Creator

Karn, the Great Creator might be the most popular colorless planeswalker among Commander players since a lot of players consider it borderline broken. This is because its static ability makes artifacts you don't control pretty much useless.

EDH is known for its decks that rely on mana rocks to ramp into their most potent spells. And the terrifying part really comes when you pair it with other cards to enable some broken combos, as if that wasn't bad enough. Let me show you a few.

• Karn, the Great Creator, Voltaic Construct, and Basalt Monolith creates an infinite amount of colorless mana. The idea here is to tutor Voltaic Construct from outside the game to pair it with any mana rock that adds more than 2 mana. Other options for this combo are Thran Dynamo, Gilded Lotus, Mana Vault, Grim Monolith, Dreamstone Hedron, and Chromatic Orrery.
• Karn, the Great Creator, Myr Turbine, and Intruder Alarm is fun because your opponents will hate it. If you target Myr Turbine with Karn's first ability and then make a token, you can start a chain of endless amounts of creatures, untap effects, and ETB triggers all at once.
• Heartstone, Basalt Monolith, and Karn, the Great Creator produces the same result as the last combo (infinite colorless mana) but it needs a bit more effort. You need to tutor for Heartstone and then use Karn’s first ability to transform Basalt Monolith into a creature. From there you get infinite mana.
• Karn, the Great Creator and Mycosynth Lattice is the most popular combo. If you manage to get both into play your opponents won't be able to tap their lands or anything that adds mana to cast their spells, forcing them to deal with your board with what they already have. Add in a Propaganda to prevent attacks as well.

#1. Karn Liberated

What does the #1 colorless planeswalker have that the others don’t? In a word, tenure. Karn Liberated was the first colorless planeswalker ever printed and it's been single-handedly dominating formats ever since.

Seven mana might seem like a lot but that's an easy task to accomplish by turn 3 in decks like Eldrazi Tron. Not to mention that getting rid of cards in your opponent's hand while threatening to restart the game with you being the only one to have resources on the battlefield is truly scary. Many argue that the newest Ugin has supplanted OG Karn, but this card holds up even in the face of competition.

Decklist: Mono-Green Tron in Modern

Karn, the Great Creator | Illustration by Wisnu Tan

To honor the king, let’s take a look at a Modern deck that features the oldest colorless planeswalkers. The plan here is simple: Get your big spells on turn 3, then win. And if you can’t just win you still have a solid plan. The deck has a lot of depth to it, and I suggest trying it if you’re interested in Modern and you have any tournaments around the corner.

Decklist: Turbo Ramp in Commander

Karn Liberated | Illustration by Jason Chan

Back in the day Kozilek, Butcher of Truth was one of my favorite commanders to play because it's simple but effective. Kozilek is among the cheapest of the Eldrazi and one that will provide you with tons of card draw without using a single colored mana when you cast it. And being the cheapest makes it perfect for this Turbo Ramp deck because you can just cast again without much effort if it gets killed, even potentially the next turn after it dies.

But the all-stars of this Turbo Ramp EDH deck are Karn Liberated and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. They’re the simpler but effective planeswalkers for this kind of deck since they have one job and execute it flawlessly: Act as removal.

Decklist: Tezzeret, Cruel Captain in Brawl

Tezzeret, Cruel Captain | Illustration by Chris Rahn

This is a decklist from the famous YouTuber Covertgoblue. This decklist shows the power of Tezzeret, Cruel Captain as a Brawl commander. The deck has a very low curve, with many cards in the 1-3 mana value range. Ideally, you want to cast Tezzeret, follow it up with some cheap artifacts, and try to emblem it ASAP, so you’ll get the three +1/+1 counters each turn. Getting an emblem mitigates the fact that your planeswalker commander doesn’t impact the board and that it will be attacked constantly.

Cards like Mystic Forge and Lodestone Golem are excellent when almost every card is an artifact or colorless nonland card. Heart of Kiran works really well if your commander has loyaty counters to spare. Paradox Engine works as a combo piece when a lot of cards in your deck can be tapped to activate something. We got a few Eldrazi and an Eldrazi Temple to round out the colorless theme.

Wrap Up

Ugin, the Ineffable | Illustration by Daarken

WotC has shown a willingness to print new colorless ‘walkers, with three new ones coming out in 2025 alone. There still aren't many, but the ones we have are very powerful, and I’d be very happy to throw them in decks where I can build around them and maximize their potential.

What do you think? Would you like to see more colorless planeswalkers? A queen of artifacts, perhaps? Let me know in the comments or over in the Draftsim Discord.

Take care, and let's meet again next time!