All 13 Gruul Planeswalkers in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 21, 2026

Domri, City Smasher | Illustration by Eric Deschamps

Planeswalkers are one of the signature card types of Magic. When you introduce a player to Magic, maybe with some kind of Welcome Deck or Jumpstart format, you show them creatures, lands, and more of the other common card types in the game. But when a player comes across their first planeswalker, there’s often a sense of wonder. The planeswalker frame is rather different from the frame on your favorite creature, and all the different abilities often lead a newer player to say: “I’ve gotta try this out!”

Each color and most color combinations have their own planeswalkers, and they each do different things depending on the characters they represent and what their colors can do. Gruul planeswalkers are typically aggressive, but which are the best among them?

What Are Gruul Planeswalkers in MTG?

Lukka, Bound to Ruin | Illustration by Chase Stone

Gruul planeswalkers are planeswalker permanents on at least one of their faces and have exactly a Gruul () color identity. I won’t include mono-green planeswalkers, mono-red planeswalkers, or colorless planeswalkers here. Since we’re focused on color identity, this list is also primarily weighted toward Commander.

Gruul planeswalkers tend to have aggressive abilities that align with what red and green do, especially when those colors mix. Common abilities include bursts of mana generation, creature tokens, burn, or even abilities that cheat creatures into play.

#13. Domri, City Smasher

Planeswalker Deck ‘walkers are overcosted, and that remains true for Domri, City Smasher.Especially when you compare it with other Gruul planeswalkers with similar abilities. A mana value of 6 in an aggro color identity is just too slow if it doesn’t have a massive impact, and the haste and +1/+1 that you get from the uptick doesn’t cut it. Neither does the sorcery-speed Lightning Bolt.

#12. Samut, the Tested

Samut, the Tested just doesn’t excite me, mainly because there’s other 4-mana Gruul planeswalkers with abilities that more obviously synergize with what a deck might want to do. A double strike enabler every turn on the road to tutor for two creatures and/or planeswalkers is fine in the right build, but it won’t matter much if you don’t have a creature that can attack that turn. It also means you pretty much need to activate Samut during your first main phase, so it doesn’t give you the optionality you might get elsewhere.

#11. Samut, Tyrant Smasher

The uncommon planeswalkers from War of the Spark with no abilities to uptick them are pretty much only useful for their static abilities, including Samut, Tyrant Smasher. A 4-mana mass haste enabler is fine enough. It seems redundant that the -1 also gives haste, but that matters if you minus Samut to 0 loyalty and you lose the static ability. The scrying also confuses me because this is a Gruul card, after all.

#10. Sarkhan Vol

Sarkhan Vol is most often played in dragon decks, but there are cheaper mono-red Sarkhan planeswalkers that you can play instead. The uptick pumps your board and grants haste, but you can get consistent haste from 3-mana enchantments like Rising of the Day.

#9. Domri, Chaos Bringer

Domri, Chaos Bringer is pretty much the minimum I want from a Gruul planeswalker. Uptick for mana generation, the downtick filters the top of your library for creatures, and the emblem from the ultimate… well, it’s token generation. I’d rather an upkeep than an end step trigger, but it at least provides reinforcements that are more than capable blockers.

#8. Lukka, Bound to Ruin

No, I don’t have a law degree, but I guess I’ll be the devil’s advocate and try to defend a Lukka card for a minute. But I’ll say right off the top: I wish this Lukka made a legendary token of Rothga with one of its abilities.

My first instinct was that I’d rather run Xenagos than Lukka, Bound to Ruin in virtually any deck, but there’s some niches that this Gruul planeswalker can fill. It pumps out Phyrexian Beast tokens with toxic if you’re going typal on either creature type, like with Migloz, Maze Crusher, Omnath, Locus of All, or Etali, Primal Conqueror. Those decks should also have some proliferate abilities to make it easier to get to the ultimate, regardless of whether you cast Lukka with its compleated ability or not.

#7. Arlinn, the Pack’s Hope / Arlinn, the Moon’s Fury

Both Gruul Arlinns’ numbers on EDHREC are juiced by the popularity of Tovolar, Dire Overlord as a werewolf commander, though I’d argue that Tovolar would be less popular if we had more viable possibilities for that deck. You can also play the Gruul Arlinns in Voja, Jaws of the Conclave decks since they provide you more wolves.

Arlinn, the Pack's Hope suffers a little bit from the day/night mechanic, which makes it harder for you to control whether the front or the back face, Arlinn, the Moon's Fury, is active at any given time. The front side gives you a flash enabler and a source of wolf tokens, while the back side gives you mana or an extra threat with which you can attack.

#6. Arlinn Kord / Arlinn, Embraced by the Moon

Arlinn Kord’s advantage over the other Gruul Arlinn is that you control when you transform it. The front face helps another creature to join the fray, while the back side gives you a mix of a trample enabler, a burn spell, and an emblem that lets your creatures tap to punch any target, including battles, players, and planeswalkers. The emblem you get from Arlinn, Embraced by the Moon can finish off an opponent in the right circumstances, like if your board is wide enough or stacked with +1/+1 counters or anthems.

#5. Domri Rade

I could sell myself on Domri Rade in a lot of builds, especially anything that needs to continue to fill its hand with creatures. Even when it doesn’t draw you a creature card, that first ability can help you make ideal decisions, like whether to crack your Rampant Growth before or after an effect like Toski, Bearer of Secrets has drawn cards. The downtick helps out decks that care about fighting or dealing excess damage to creatures. And the emblem just makes the Timmy/Tammy in me salivate.

#4. Xenagos, the Reveler

I get to talk about one of my boys again, so I’m happy. Xenagos is a bit weird among planeswalkers because we only have one planeswalker card for this character. He only appeared in the original Theros block, and he was killed during its climax. That’s it. The satyr god was here for a good time, not a long time.

Xenagos, the Reveler does very standard Gruul things, with mana generation that cares about how big your board is, a neutral ability that invites a hasty Satyr token to the party, and an ultimate ability that drops lands and creatures from the top of your library to the battlefield. Xenagos was reprinted in the Exit from Exile precon from Baldur’s Gate since the ultimate fits that deck’s theme. Apart from that, it has a home in the Gallia of the Endless Dance satyr typal deck, but you can play it in virtually any creature token deck to get huge swings of mana and add to the board. Duskana, the Rage Mother is another fun home since your 2/2 Satyr tokens will attack as 5/5s… at least during the first combat phase.

#3. Wrenn and Six

Wrenn and Six is played in all manner of lands-matter decks, especially ones that discard or sacrifice lands. It’s really cheap, but also somewhat fragile since it comes in with only 3 loyalty. The emblem is a neat ability to strive toward, though, since retrace also gives you fuel for Wrenn and Six’s uptick. While I’m not personally up to date on non-EDH formats, even I know that Wrenn and Six fits into decks in other formats like Modern.

#2. Domri, Anarch of Bolas

Domri, Anarch of Bolas may not be the most individually powerful Gruul planeswalker, but it’s the most widely played. It gives you a steady +1/+0 buff to all your creatures, generates mana on the uptick and makes all your creature spells for the turn uncounterable (not just the next one), and the downtick fights a creature. I can think of decks that want to leverage each ability, but they won’t scoff at any of them.

The anthem is good stuff for any aggro deck, but especially if you’re going to Fling your creatures at your opponents with the likes of Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes. The mana generation and uncounterability make Domri a fantastic budget option to replace Huatli in dinosaur decks and Arlinn Kord in werewolf decks. A fight ability is good with all kinds of big creature decks, even if you don’t run the likes of Neyith of the Dire Hunt or Maarika, Brutal Gladiator.

#1. Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes

Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes exemplifies my ludicrous pack luck. The first one I pulled was from the last CLB Set Booster my Local Game Store had, and I was telling my friend as I opened it that I was hoping to find Minsc & Boo. The other time, the guy who sold me the booster said to me “Hope you find a hamster!” as we’re wrapping up the transaction. Lo and behold, I did. What I’m saying is that Minsc is John Cusack and I’m Kate Beckinsale.

Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes can be a really fun +1/+1 counters commander when you fill your deck with creatures that have trample, haste, or both. Uptick to buff a creature, then downtick the next turn to fling it. In the 99, this Gruul planeswalker doesn’t have a ton of consistent homes. You can play it in plenty of aggro decks without being embarrassed to do so, but I wouldn’t call it an auto-inclusion anywhere except maybe Minsc, Beloved Ranger.

Best Gruul Planeswalker Payoffs

Some of the better Gruul planeswalker payoffs are general planeswalker payoffs. Most of these only matter if you run a high planeswalker count, though.

Proliferate abilities let you add extra loyalty counters to your planeswalkers to reach their ultimate abilities more quickly. Chandra, Acolyte of Flame also has an ability that adds a loyalty counter to each red planeswalker you control. All Will Be One sends out damage whenever you add counters onto permanents or players.

Interplanar Beacon gains life when you cast planeswalkers, and it filters your mana to help you produce the colors you need.

Jaya's Phoenix can copy a planeswalker’s loyalty ability, and you can return it to the battlefield when you cast ‘walkers. The Chain Veil is another card that lets you reuse loyalty abilities, though none of the Gruul planeswalkers combo with it like some blue or Izzet planeswalkers do.

Luxior, Giada's Gift lets your planeswalkers get in on combat, as does Sarkhan the Masterless. Planeswalker auras like Rowan's Talent and Vivien's Talent can grant your planeswalker extra abilities.

Oath of Nissa and Oath of Chandra pay you off for playing planeswalkers in general. You could make an argument for Oath of Nissa as a color-fixer if Minsc & Boo is your commander, though.

Some cards can prevent creatures from attacking you or planeswalkers you control. Sandwurm Convergence stops fliers from swooping in over your ground troops to take out your planeswalkers, and forces opponents to find another way to handle them.

If you expand the color identity to Naya () or Temur (), you can add more synergy like Ajani planeswalkers that add loyalty counters to your other planeswalkers or additional (read: better) proliferate abilities.

Combo: Xenagos + Wrenn and Six + Cloudstone Curio

While not exactly a payoff, and definitely not even close to the most played combo in EDH, I wanted to highlight this because you don’t often see two planeswalkers in the same combo. Thanks, Cloudstone Curio, you stupid card (complimentary). This combo isn’t easy to pull off; you need at least seven creatures on the battlefield to turn it into an infinite mana combo.

Start with Cloudstone Curio and Xenagos, the Reveler on the battlefield, along with seven creatures. Uptick Xenagos to gain 7 mana, and use to cast Wrenn and Six. Wrenn enters, which lets you bounce Xenagos. Either uptick or downtick Wrenn (the downtick leads to an infinite ping combo), then use of the mana you floated with Xenagos to bring the satyr planeswalker back and bounce Wrenn. You could play this combo with 6 creatures for just infinite pings, or you can play it with 7 or more creatures on board to add infinite mana to the mix since you always have some floating mana left over. And once you have infinite mana, you can keep the combo going and have Xenagos pump out Satyr tokens instead.

It’s silly, but it’s also fragile because your opponent can disrupt it with a Naturalize, a non-overloaded Vandalblast, or a counterspell. It works, but I wouldn’t say it’s works well.

Wrap Up

Arlinn Kord | Illustration by Winona Nelson

Gruul doesn’t have all of the most powerful planeswalkers, but they’re fairly cohesive in terms of what they bring to the table. Some of them are staples of specific decks, like Arlinn in werewolves and Xenagos in satyrs, but they’re mostly generically fine, aggro-slanted cards.

Which of these Gruul planeswalkers do you run? What do you want to see from the next Gruul planeswalker, and which character do you think it’ll be? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord.

Stay safe, but stay stompy!