All 8 Selesnya Planeswalkers in Magic Ranked

Ajani, Mentor of Heroes | Illustration by Aaron Miller

Planeswalkers come in all colors, but some combinations only have a few options. Though there are few Selesnya planeswalkers, they can be mighty, with powerful card advantage abilities tied to creatures and other green-white tricks.

Whether you need a way to give your creatures a power boost or want to meddle around with enchantments, there’s a Selesnya planeswalker for your tastes.

What Are Selesnya Planeswalkers in MTG?

Calix, Destiny's Hand | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

Selesnya planeswalkers are planeswalkers with a green-white color identity, which often care about creatures, permanents, and +1/+1 counters, with some enchantment synergies and lifegain thrown in. Most Selesnya planeswalkers represent the character Ajani, though Huatli has a few, and Calix’s only planeswalker card is Selesnya.

#8. Ajani, Valiant Protector

Time for the obligatory “this Planeswalker Deck planeswalker is bad” segment.

Wizards refused to make any of these exclusive planeswalkers playable, and Ajani, Valiant Protector is no exception. It falls prey to the common flaw of costing too much for its low impact abilities. Six mana to put some counters onto one creature is too little. At least the +1 always draws a card—that’s a better benefit than many of these get.

#7. Huatli, the Sun’s Heart

If you play Huatli, it has nothing to do with the downtick—you want that juicy static ability. But at this point, it’s just not worth it. There are so many Assault Formation variants these days that you don’t need to play one that doesn’t let your defenders attack, especially one that your opponents can remove in combat.

#6. Ajani, the Greathearted

War of the Spark introduced overwhelming planeswalkers and some underwhelming ones; sadly, Ajani, the Greathearted falls into the latter camp. Giving your creature vigilance is a powerful static that I’m surprised Wizards hasn’t toyed with since as it’s a unique way for the planeswalker to defend itself. The main issue is how low-impact the uptick is. In a lifegain deck this is probably fine, but it’s too narrow to really be good.

#5. Huatli, Radiant Champion

If Selesnya’s good at anything, it’s putting together a wide board, which is all Huatli, Radiant Champion desires. The uptick has great potential, and it’s easy to imagine a board state that lets you play Huatli then ultimate it the following turn. Since the emblem doesn’t specify nontoken creatures, Huatli runs best with lots of token-producing cards.

#4. Ajani, Sleeper Agent

I’d love for Ajani, Sleeper Agent to be a great card because compleated is such a cool mechanic, but the uptick is just too high variance. It works in decks that are mostly creatures, but even then you’ll hit a bunch of lands. The other abilities are fine, but it’s really capped by the weak card advantage.

#3. Ajani Unyielding

Ajani Unyielding gets a significant card advantage uptick assuming your deck is heavy on nonland permanents, which is hardly a challenge: Selesnya is generally about creatures or enchantments. Even the odd artifact deck makes use of this, making it a decently flexible card, if a little expensive.

#2. Calix, Destiny’s Hand

Calix, Destiny's Hand is extremely close to being the strongest Selesnya planeswalker because it has such a great balance of abilities relative to its cost. It comes down and probably draws a card, but it can also be a removal spell and builds up to a game-winning ultimate. The only thing keeping it back is how narrow Calix is, because it only works with enchantments. That’s not much trouble in Selesnya, which is the base color pair for enchantress decks, but it does prevent this from being a generically powerful card.

#1. Ajani, Mentor of Heroes

The great Ajanis are mono-white, but Ajani, Mentor of Heroes looks pretty good. I appreciate that it has two upticks and a healthy amount of loyalty, so you probably get two or three activations. It also has some of the strongest card advantage of any Selesnya planeswalker. It’s what Ajani, Sleeper Agent wishes it could be: powerful and flexible, rewarding a creature-heavy deck with a stream of card advantage and even some card selection.

Best Selesnya Planeswalker Payoffs

The primary green-white payoff (really the only one) is Oath of Ajani, which provides cost reduction and, of course, requires a bunch of creatures to really shine. But green-white as a color pair has lots of useful adjacent synergies.

A big one comes from tutors, either planeswalker-specific tutors like Ignite the Beacon and Djeru, With Eyes Open or more generic legendary tutors like Search for Glory. You can even sneak them into play with Deploy the Gatewatch or Urza Assembles the Titans. Captain Sisay is easily the strongest tutor since it works turn after turn.

You need to keep your planeswalkers safe, which you have plenty of tools for. White has no shortage of board wipes. I’d recommend exile-based ones like Sunfall and Farewell because they’re so hard to protect from. You can also use cards like Ghostly Prison that make it harder for your opponents to attack you or Fog effects that prevent combat damage—Tangle is particularly useful because it can shut off two attacks at once.

You can also use proliferate cards to reach your ultimate abilities faster. Many of the good ones are green, like Thirsting Roots and Evolution Sage, though Grateful Apparition looks extremely good with planeswalkers that spread +1/+1 counters.

Wrap Up

Ajani Unyielding | Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Selesnya doesn’t have the greatest planeswalkers, with many rather weak ones. I wonder what this says about Ajani—something, something, those who can’t do, teach? Why’s he mentoring heroes?

Jokes aside, some of these of really fun. Which Selesnya planeswalkers are your favorites? Which do you play? Let me know in the comments below! If you want more Draftsim coverage, join our Discord or check out our YouTube channel, The Daily Upkeep!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!