Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin | Illustration by Zezhou Chen
Multiverse-altering events are often exciting, especially when they creep into card design. One such story shift occurred after March of the Machine concluded the New Phyrexia storyline, birthing a series of “desparked planeswalkers.”
But what exactly are desparked planeswalkers? How are they represented on cards, and are those cards any good? I’m getting into all of that today!
What Are Desparked Planeswalkers in Magic?
Nissa, Worldsoul Speaker | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve
Desparked planeswalkers are legendary creature cards for characters once represented as planeswalkers, easily identifiable by the desparked planeswalker watermark in their textbox, as seen on Nissa, Resurgent Animist:
The only desparked planewalker without the watermark is Aminatou, Veil Piercer, because its only printing has a full-art treatment.
Lore-wise, the mass desparking of planeswalkers coincides with the end of New Phyrexia’s multiplanar invasion utilizing Realmbreaker, the Invasion Tree and the opening of the Omenpaths across the Multiverse. The exact details of how the invasion rewrote the rules of the Multiverse are unclear at this point, as are details on why some planeswalkers kept their sparks or what happened to the lost sparks.
In ranking these cards, I’m primarily considering their value as commanders since most of them appear to have been designed for that format, but I’ll mention any that have relevance in other Constructed formats or Cube.
#25. Basri, Tomorrow’s Champion
I don’t know where Basri, Tomorrow's Champion fits. It’s not commander material with so much cycling text, though Rin and Seri, Inseparable players are jumping for joy. It might work in Cube, except white 1-drops face stiff competition between Esper Sentinel, Usher of the Fallen, and Mother of Runes variants. At least Standard Cats gets some love, I guess?
#24. Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer
I’m unimpressed with Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer. We get the best ability from Daretti, Scrap Savant on a stick, but do we care about the stick when it costs more mana and can’t set up your graveyard? The redundant Trash for Treasure effect might be useful for some decks, but I find this underwhelming.
#23. The Wandering Rescuer
The Wandering Rescuer gives the intrepid Commander player too little to work with, especially within the confines of a mono-colored commander. Giving your team surprise hexproof is far less appealing when the “surprise” is face-up and many players’ removal spells of choice are wraths. I can see it working in a creature-heavy Cube environment, but even then, it lacks some oomph.
#22. Nissa, Worldsoul Speaker
The newest iteration of everybody’s favorite elven planeswalker, Nissa, Worldsoul Speaker is a fine support card for an energy deck but lacks the impact I’d want from a commander. Mono-green has too little energy support, and you have better options to cheat things into play from the command zone in mono-green and beyond.
#21. Samut, the Driving Force
Samut, the Driving Force wants to pull ahead of your opponents, presuming you have an aggressive enough shell to achieve max speed through the start your engines! mechanic. The reward’s pretty good, though at 6 mana, this can be a little slow.
#20. Vraska, the Silencer
Vraska, the Silencer has a pretty unique ability that steals opposing creatures as you kill them. Even though you don’t get the body, enough creatures have busted enters abilities or static abilities these days that it doesn’t matter much if your Orcish Bowmasters or Hullbreaker Horror can’t attack. It might be an upgrade since they dodge wraths.
#19. Kiora, the Rising Tide
Graveyard decks love Kiora, the Rising Tide as both an enabler that gets two cards in the graveyard and an eventual payoff that rewards you for stocking the seabed. I don’t know whether that’s worth building around, but I’d be happy to play such a compact card in a Muldrotha, the Gravetide graveyard deck or in a midrange Cube deck.
#18. Samut, Vizier of Naktamun
Samut, Vizier of Naktamun packs a ton of great keywords on a relatively cheap body. This often draws a card when it hits the board and it supports haste cards admirably, with Enduring Courage and Ogre Battledriver standing out as strong partners. It’s likely better suited to a support role alongside commanders like Xenagos, God of Revels and Halana and Alena, Partners, but it has some power on its own.
#17. Sarkhan, Soul Aflame
I’d like to begin by thanking Wizards for stopping Sarkhan, Soul Aflame from copying legendary dragons with no downside.
That aside, this can be quite powerful; getting two triggers, not to mention damage, off cards like Balefire Dragon and Utvara Hellkite propels you well ahead of the pack. I’m also a fan of the curve; some of Magic’s best dragons cost 5 mana, so you can play this on turn 3 and follow it up with Bonehoard Dracosaur, Glorybringer, or Goldspan Dragon quite easily.
#16. Tyvar, the Pummeler
Tyvar, the Pummeler’s emblematic of an aspect of modern power creep: Cards must always be relevant. We have a perfectly on-rate body that defends, with a mass pump effect for late-game potency. Always being relevant and hard to kill makes it an incredible Cube card, even if the lack of trample makes it less exciting for Commander gameplay.
#15. Mu Yanling, Wind Rider
Mu Yanling, Wind Rider looks like an excellent Aetherdrift card for Cube as a must-kill draw engine that leaves a Vehicle token behind. Coastal Piracy effects are powerful, even with a restriction, and I’m sure you can scrape together a couple of fliers. As for its value as a commander, it’s just worse than Azorius commanders () that grant access to powerful payoffs like Sephara, Sky's Blade and Steel-Plume Marshal.
#14. Calix, Guided by Fate
A rather aggressive enchantress card, Calix, Guided by Fate can be quite scary. In addition to growing your board, copying enchantments like Grasp of Fate, Eidolon of Blossoms, and even Overwhelming Splendor gives you plenty of late-game impact. All that from a cheap commander like this is incredible.
#13. Saheeli, the Sun’s Brilliance
Saheeli, the Sun's Brilliance isn’t the only version of this copy-haste token effect we’ve seen in the command zone, with Jaxis, the Troublemaker and Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink standing out as prominent examples, but it is both the cheapest commander at 2 mana and a 2-color one.
Getting to copy blue spells like Thought Monitor and Timestream Navigator in addition to red’s monster creatures like Overlord of the Boilerbilges, plus incorporating artifact synergies makes this a fantastic choice for a value commander—you can even get up to some nonsense with Intruder Alarm.
#12. Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep
Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep is… extremely functional. It falls into the Simic () tradition of encouraging you to ramp, then rewarding your ramp with a bunch of extra spells. Ward helps this stick around and even get niche synergies from cards like Serpent of Yawning Depths and Whelming Wave. The sea monster restriction gives this some deckbuilding requirements so that it’s not just Simic value the way Koma or Uro is, but… it’s still just the same game plan, no?
#11. Nahiri, Forged in Fury
In Commander, your expensive commanders—which generally refers to commanders that cost more than 4 mana—need to have some real power to back them up. Nahiri, Forged in Fury gives you card draw, which any assertive Commander deck needs, but even better is the affinity for equipment ability. That means your 6-mana commander never actually costs 6, and it reduces the commander tax to take the edge off your opponents’ removal.
#10. Will, Scion of Peace
Cost reduction abilities are always powerful because anything you can do to achieve a mana advantage in Magic often rewards you handsomely. Will, Scion of Peace often looks like a token deck because some of the best spells to exploit that cost reduction are token generators like Finale of Glory and Storm Herd. In addition to winning via board advantage, Will gives you plenty of card advantage thanks to Sphinx's Revelation, Blue Sun's Zenith, and other X spell card draw.
#9. Niko, Light of Hope
Niko, Light of Hope is generally played as a blink commander, though Azorius has some excellent combat-related triggers to make use of, like Dream Trawler and Silverwing Squadron. Making copies of powerful cards while blinking them gives the deck a lot of grindy potential, especially if you aim for cards like the impending Overlords and Titans with attack triggers and enters abilities.
#8. Huatli, Poet of Unity / Roar of the Fifth People
Huatli, Poet of Unity is my favorite dinosaur commander, which might ruffle the feathers of Gishath, Sun’s Avatar fans, but let me make my case: The most important thing these decks can do is hit their land drops, which Huatli enables. That’s not very exciting, but neither is staring at a bunch of cool dinosaurs you can’t cast or spending all your turns ramping to keep up with the rest of the table.
Much of this card’s power rests in the Roar of the Fifth People. This saga gives you a bit of everything: board presence, mana production, a finisher, but most importantly, access to your best dinosaur. That usually means Etali and Gishath, who you still have easy access to from the command zone with a commander that doesn’t alert the table to the nuclear bomb in your deck box.
#7. Aminatou, Veil Piercer
Aminatou, Veil Piercer distinguishes itself as one of 2024’s most unique commanders. Most enchantress commanders encourage playing lots of cheap enchantments, like Sythis, Harvest's Hand and Go-Shintai of Life's Origin, but Aminatou, Veil Piercer rewards you for going tall with the miracle ability.
When you cast One with the Multiverse, Shark Typhoon, Overlord of the Mistmoors, and similarly powerful cards at a fraction of their mana cost, you pull way ahead of your opponents, and miracles are easily set up with Aminatou’s surveil ability and cards like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Sensei's Divining Top.
#6. Tyvar the Bellicose
The elf players have done it again with a powerful elfball commander. Tyvar the Bellicose rewards your mana dorks for producing mana, and it scales well for cards like Priest of Titania and Elvish Archdruid. You can’t overlook the deathtouch ability, either; your opponents will never have favorable blocks, and it makes combat math meaningless once your power out that Craterhoof Behemoth.
#5. Karn, Legacy Reforged
One of your best choices for a colorless commander is Karn, Legacy Reforged. It goes hard as an artifact commander thanks to its crazy mana production. You miss out on most Eldrazi cards as they don’t benefit from the artifact-only mana, but who cares about Eldrazi when you can play Cityscape Leveler and Portal to Phyrexia fast enough to make the green players jealous?
#4. Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin
The most immediate reason to run Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin is the infinite combo with All Will Be One, but it’s a beast of a commander beyond its a+b combo. Cards like Firebrand Archer and Manabarbs throw around 1 point of damage like nobody’s business, drawing tons of cards and growing Ob Nixilis.
It becomes a major threat in a similar way to Korvold, Fae-Cursed King where it both draws an unmanageable number of cards while pressuring life totals and even threatening commander damage-based kills without auxiliary support. Attacking your opponents on two axes like that gives you a lot of power to work with.
#3. Rowan, Scion of War
Rowan, Scion of War stands well above her brother for two reasons. Instead of deploying a bunch of tokens to win eventually, Rowan, Scion of War punches your opponents directly with cards like Crackle with Power and Torment of Hailfire.
And more importantly, losing life is far easier than gaining it. Cards like Wall of Blood, Treasonous Ogre, and Plunge into Darkness give you far greater control over Rowan’s ability than you have with Will’s for a much more devastating commander.
#2. Nissa, Resurgent Animist
Admittedly, Nissa, Resurgent Animist isn’t the best commander among the deparked planeswalkers, but I think it’s the best card. Breaking this landfall ability with fetch lands and bounce lands and cards like Kodama of the West Tree and Exploration takes no effort. You even get to draw cards off it! You can build your deck around the ability to tutor up specific cards like Titania, Protector of Argoth by making them the only elemental or elf in your deck. That’s a lot of value for a mere 3 mana.
#1. Narset, Enlightened Exile
Narset, Enlightened Exile is the epitome of a value commander, providing incredible card advantage and plenty of pressure. Jeskai decks () have no trouble churning out tokens to buff with prowess thanks to cards like Monastery Mentor and Young Pyromancer that benefit from your spellslinging.
Except, Narset, Enlightened Exile isn’t even restricted to instants and sorceries! It just cares about noncreature spells, so you can recycle that Reconnaissance Mission and make sure that your opponents can’t keep Rhystic Study down. Oh, and you can steal cards from opposing graveyards for some reason! Go power creep!
Do Any Planeswalkers Still Have Their Spark?
Yes! The exact details of why some planeswalkers retained their sparks are unknown, but here’s a small list of planeswalkers who still have their sparks and seem important to the story going forward:
There are a few others, and Quintorius Kand becoming a planeswalker proves that individuals can still ignite their sparks post-Invasion, but these three seem particularly important to the current story.
Wrap Up
Narset, Enlightened Exile | Illustration by Marie Magny
I’m interested to see where the story of the desparked planeswalkers leads us as we continue to explore an interconnected Multiverse thanks to the Omenpaths. It’s also quite interesting to see how some of the cards are adapted into legendary creatures as it can highlight some of their more important traits. It’s also nice that fans of planeswalkers like Nissa and Rowan get to play them in the command zone!
What do you think about the desparked planeswalkers? Do you think Wizards can stick the narrative ending? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!
Stay safe, and thanks for reading!
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