All 9 Teferi Planeswalker Cards in Magic Ranked

Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset | Illustration by Heonhwa Choe

As a blue control player, Teferi planeswalker cards are a sure tool in my arsenal, at least in the formats where I can play them. Ever since the first Teferi planeswalker card, Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, most Teferi cards are at least playable, and some of them are even format staples.

Today, we take a look at the character Teferi, his impact on MTG, and all his planeswalker cards ever designed. Not all Teferi cards are equal, though, so of course we’ll rank them from the worst to the best. And yes, I haven't forgotten you Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir. But not today, my friend, only ‘walkers.

Let’s dive in!

What Are Teferi Planeswalkers in MTG?

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria | Illustration by Chris Rallis

Teferi planeswalkers include any planeswalker card with the Teferi subtype. While Teferi was originally a pre-Mending planeswalker, he lost his planeswalker powers in the Mending, so the first Teferi card we had was a legendary creature. From Dominaria onwards, Teferi recovered his planeswalker spark. Teferi, Hero of Dominaria is the first Teferi planeswalker card, and from there, Teferi became a go-to planeswalker in the next few sets, eventually getting into the Gatewatch.

Teferi is mainly a blue () character, with some designs branching into white as well. The cards are usually played in control decks – Teferi is a time mage, so these cards slow the game down and help you disrupt your opponent’s game plan while the planeswalkers help you with more cards, life, or mana.

#9. Teferi, Timebender

Teferi, Timebender was designed as an Intro Deck planeswalker, and these are usually not good enough for the Standard format. And the final result shows. We’re not excited to play a 6-mana planeswalker just to draw two cards, or use the uptick ability to untap something.

#8. Teferi, Timeless Voyager

Not great, but a little bit better. Teferi, Timeless Voyager allows you to draw a card on the uptick ability, and a nice catch-all removal helps, too. Still nothing to write home about it, but it’s okay if you can fetch it with Teferi's Wavecaster.

#7. Teferi, Temporal Archmage

Teferi, Temporal Archmage is a Commander design that allows you to build an EDH deck around this card. Thinking about EDH specifically, you can maximize that -1 ability to either go heavy on tap and untap synergies, or to have your creatures untapped and ready to defend your “captain”. It’s a strong mana discount and huge with mana rocks. Paying 6 mana for your commander is bad, but a 4- or 5-mana refund is very good. The emblem helps in a superfriends deck if you can get to the activation.

#6. Invasion of New Phyrexia / Teferi Akosa of Zhalfir

Here we have an interesting case. Teferi Akosa of Zhalfir is a planeswalker who works well with creatures, specifically knights. Which is odd given that Teferis usually fit creatureless control better. The power of the card is mostly on the battle side, Invasion of New Phyrexia, which can make a lot of tokens either as a wincon or a board stabilizer. It’s interesting that, in many situations, the Teferi planeswalker card doesn’t matter if the knights are doing their job, and you can certainly win a game on the back of many 2/2 tokens. The planeswalker itself is okay, but it’s a little weird of a design overall. I’d play it in WU knight-heavy decks.

#5. Teferi, Master of Time

Teferi, Master of Time brings novelty to the planeswalker world. You can activate its abilities on your turn and also on your opponents'. You can loot on your turn while you activate the -3 ability on a strong threat on their turn. Or keep looting to your heart’s content, which builds up to the ultimate after a few turns.

#4. Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset

Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset was an interesting metagame call. It’s not uber powerful on its own, but gaining 2 life a turn is pretty powerful against aggro, burn, and aristocrats decks. And sometimes you’ll get a full combo of attacking with a creature, tapping a mana rock for mana, and untapping these plus another land. With a counterspell or removal spell in hand, that makes you really feel in control of the game.

#3. Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim

Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim is the strongest “Standard-level” Teferi. The card is pretty fair, an interesting control/midrange card that’s not ultra dominant. With this card around, you can make tokens that scale while you draw cards, and you can also draw with the 0 ability, which is secretly a +1. And it’s nice when you combine it with the many draw and discard options Izzet has to offer.

#2. Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria made the jump almost instantly from Standard to Legacy and powered Cube, not to mention formats in between. It turns out drawing an extra card every turn while untapping two lands is great on both avenues. If you spend mana on your turn, maybe for a Stock Up, you get an effective 2-mana discount. With two lands untapped, it’s easy to hold Negate or Counterspell to prevent your opponent’s next move. It’s a strong enough planeswalker to be a win condition on its own. You can use the -3 option on the card itself, so you won’t deck, and once you activate the ultimate, you’ll permanently exile your opponent’s cards, including lands.

#1. Teferi, Time Raveler

Five-mana Teferi is pretty strong on its own, but it has a 3-mana partner in crime called Teferi, Time Raveler. Just casting this card and using the -3 to bounce something immediately and draw a card is already format-defining. But what makes Teferi, Time Raveler banworthy is that its passive is too strong. If you’re the first to play this card, your opponents can’t cast spells at instant speed or interact meaningfully, and your spells can’t be countered. And giving flash to your sorceries can lock players out of the game if you’re using sorcery-speed discard after they draw. There’s a fixed Alchemy version: It costs 1 mana more, and it restricts your opponents to cast spells on your turn only, but it enters with an extra loyalty point to compensate.

Teferi Payoffs

Obviously, the best payoff for playing with Teferi is to win the game, because there are some busted designs. But let’s talk specifically about cards that get better when we play our favorite time-manipulating planeswalker.

Niambi, Faithful Healer and Teferi's Wavecaster both fetch a specific version of Teferi when they enter the battlefield. It would be much better if they could get any version, but these were specifically designed for intro decks.

Oath of Teferi and Teferi's Talent just reference Teferi in their name, and they can work in any planeswalker-heavy deck.

Historian of Zhalfir and Teferi's Sentinel are simple creature designs that get better if you control a Teferi planeswalker. A 3/3 that draws a card when it attacks isn’t a bad creature, even if it attacks only once. Teferi's Sentinel is just a vanilla 6/6 creature if you control a Teferi, so it’s not that exciting.

Many Teferi designs work well in control shells, where you can untap certain permanents, draw cards, or gain life. This can lead to many exploits, like untapping Basalt Monolith or Lotus Field. Untapping these or other land means you’ll have more mana, so counterspells and flash creatures work better in these scenarios. And plenty of cards and strategies in MTG work well when you’re drawing extra cards or gaining life. The Chain Veil is particularly strong with some Teferis, creating chains where you untap enough mana to keep activating the artifact, then re-activating your Teferi.

Who Is Teferi Akosa?

Teferi Akosa is a very important player in MTG’s lore. His origins date back to Mirage in 1996, but he’s still relevant in modern MTG’s stories. Teferi is a former Tolarian Academy student from Zhalfir, in Jamuraa, Dominaria. He’s a powerful time mage and a royal mage of the Zhalfirin Court. He’s more than a 1,000 years old, and a pre-Mending planeswalker. At that time, he was brash and arrogant. During the Phyrexian Invasion, he ”phased Zhalfir out of existence” to protect his homeland, doing the same to Shiv. Realizing the mistake he had made, Teferi sacrificed his planeswalker spark to bring Shiv back into existence. While desparked, he wandered around and met Subira, with whom he had a daughter, Niambi. Many years later, in the events of Dominaria, he met planeswalkers from the Gatewatch (Chandra, Liliana, Gideon) and Jhoira aboard the Weatherlight. He recovered his planeswalker spark and joined the Gatewatch, and he helped to defeat Nicol Bolas in the events of War of the Spark.

Dominaria was once again being invaded by Phyrexians in the events of Dominaria United, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, and March of the Machine. With the help of Wrenn and Realmbreaker, he once again made a great sacrifice and switched Zhalfir with New Phyrexia, and thus freed his homeland while he time-locked the Phyrexians, at the cost of his planeswalker spark.

Is Teferi Still Alive? Is He Still a Planeswalker?

Teferi is still alive on Zhalfir, but after the events of March of the Machine, many planeswalkers lost their planeswalker sparks, including him. In future card designs, he may appear as a legendary creature.

Is Disruptive Student Teferi?

It is. But not a planeswalker, or a powerful creature, like we see in Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir. It’s a reference to when Teferi was a student at the Tolarian Academy. Barrin references Teferi there as a problematic student in the flavor text.

Wrap Up

Teferi Akosa of Zhalfir | Illustration by Chris Rallis

For an MTG Arena player like me, Teferi is one of the game's main faces. His first design in Dominaria, one of Arena’s first Standard sets available, was pretty powerful, and the first Standard and Pioneer metas were heavily shaped by a Teferi control deck of some sort. But even the “weaker” Teferi designs made a mark in Pioneer or Standard in some shape or form. I hope that we’ll all see him being relevant to MTG once again soon.

What are your favorite Teferi planeswalker designs? Do you prefer him as just a legend? Let me know in the comments section below, or in our Draftsim Discord.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you around.