Today as I approached my 4000th QB win (humblebrag) and took interval screenshots of a cheater (jerk), I decided to play my last bundle of matches in order from my least favorite to play with to my favorite – this list has no bearing on effectiveness – it’s just who I think is the most fun. Here is my list, let’s see yours:
Least fun to most:
L2
Nissa
C2
Sorin
C1
Koth
J2
G1
Garruk
Arlinn
Dovin
Tezz
J1
Kiora
Nahiri
Sarkhan
Ob
L1
G2
Ajani
Fun idea for a thread. I tried to give a little explanation for each. Ultimately it came down to which PWs I play with for fun most often, and also which decks I like to tinker with the most.
need to update jace 2 i think with some of the kaladesh cards he can be a destroyer. still slow but that is mainly because to build it will you need to control your opponent cast them first then let the good times rolls. last few games i rolled over them with a 30+ attacking mana battery
Least favorites
Jace 1
Tezzeret
Chandra 1
Gideon 2
Arlinn Kord
Meh
Sarkhan
Lilliana 1
Chandra 2
Gideon 1
Favorites
Anjani (total badass)
Nahiri
Dovin Baan (total badass)
Garruk
Koth (total badass)
Lilliana 2 (total badass)
Sorin (total badass)
Ob Nixilis (total badass)
Kiora (total badass)
Jace 2
Don’t own Saheeli yet
Least fun to most, in rough tiers:
Nissa1 – She’s outclassed in mana gains by other green walkers, and early on I lacked power green cards to make her work. There’s literally no reason to play her.
Tezz – Similarly, without power blues like TSN, he’s pretty underwhelming. His mana is better than Jace1, but his abilities are fairly underwhelming. I do like the first ability, but everything he can do I just find easier (and more powerful) in Jace2.
Jace1 – He was really fun in the old pre-nerf days, but now his mana’s too slow. Boring.
Liliana1 – I’ve never been a big fan of graveyard strategies in this game, and while discard is powerful, I can achieve the same disruption through spells without sacrificing my own cards in the process.
**Chandra1—**She isn’t bad, really, but low starting life and the glut of red aggro planeswalkers means she just gets lost in the process.
**Gideon1—**To me, he’s held up the best, because his first ability is so strong. He was my go-to-pw for so long that I wish I didn’t get so bored with his paltry mana gains.
**Chandra2—**She’s a poor man’s Koth. I appreciate her ultimate more than many seem to—it has won me some tough games—but she isn’t really exciting to play.
Dovin – Maybe I’d feel differently if I had Nyx or iWill or Hixus, but his mana is weak and that’s the fastest way for me to ignore you. He’s useful, and occasionally good, but not fun.
**Garruk—**I want to love Garruk. I like his mana, I like his concept—token creatures are fun—but he’s so one-note that the sheer lack of deck diversity makes me yearn for more. Hopefully they never repeat the “three loyalty abilities that do the exact same thing” again.
**Liliana2—**So, she’s fun, but her deck really just builds itself. I mean, the zombie deck was practically handed to us on a silver platter. It’s a good deck, it wins games, and I love her mana, but..that’s what she does. I don’t see her being very versatile.
**Arlinn—**Similarly, I’ve had a lot of fun because I own Ulrich and Bandit, and Arlinn is great with them. She’s solid with Harness, too. However, she’s pigeonholed just like L2, and being unable to use the second and third abilities if you want a non-werewolf deck is pretty ridiculous. She should be able to make her own, like Sarkhan. Anyway, sometimes I have fun with her, but the narrow design space makes me yawn.
**Gideon2—**Another pw I rode into the ground. I still like him. His abilities are a great way to tie abilities to a set while still maintaining long-term viability. Abilities 1 and 2 are ally-themed but ALWAYS USEABLE. That’s the difference between him and Arlinn.
**Jace2—**He’s pretty fun to play. He has clear weaknesses and strength, his mana is exceptional, and he offers a trio of useful abilities, which is rare.
**Sorin—**He’s been fun to play around with after his boost, and I like the color combination. There are enough lifegain tricks to keep things interesting, and he has a lot of fun deploy duos and trios as well.
**Koth—**He’s fun because he’s so powerful and explosive. I always feel like I can come back and win even if I start off rough. I’ve seen some amazing sequences, and he’s still the best overall in QB for me.
**Sarkhan—**I’m a huge fan of Sark. I love ability 1, I love red/black, and the fact he can make his own dragons means he is not beholden to putting them in the deck. I’ve used him a lot, and it’s only recently that I feel his mana is falling behind the speed of the game.
**Ajani—**Arguably two of the best loyalty abilities. He is versatile and can run just about any deck; his mana is consistent and steady.
**Kiora—**In my view the most powerful planeswalker because of the combination of mana and control. She consolidates brokenness and sometimes, when I’m cycling through mana and cards like no tomorrow, I have to resist the urge to giggle maniacally. That being said, she isn’t always as fun, because it can get a little tedious being overpowered.
**Nahiri—**I’m an aggro player, so I’ve loved Nahiri from the moment she came out. She’s a more fun Koth because she brings more flexibility, and her ultimate is fantastic. Only pw I’ve gotten a one-turn win with.
**Saheeli—**I love red and blue. I loved her old abilities for the deckbuilding versatility, and hate the changes they made to her. However, even though I now ignore her ultimate and rarely use the second ability, the red/blue combination is extremely fun. I’ve run countless Harness variants, and right now Saheeli is my best “under X damage” option because of her awesome mana and combo of aggro-control.
**Ob—**Hands down my favorite, because I love being able to win with the ultimate. I love that until C2’s ultimate, he was unique in the ability to win a game without summoning a creature. I love shutdown control. I generally prefer better mana (which is why I run him with two mana supports), but playing Ob is like wearing a favorite shirt. He’s comfortable and easy and relaxing.
List is probably influenced by the fact that I play qb do much the qb favourites don’t do so well on mine.
Least interesting to favourite:
Nissa. 0 usable combat tricks. She plays like koth, except it’s more long and boring.
garruk. Equally boring, but he wasn’t the only lvl 60 plane walker I had for 3 months, so he wins over Nissa.
koth. Played too many games with him. Koth burn out. And he’s pretty brainless to play.
jace 1. Entire game hinges around getting to skill 3. Can dominate in events, but way too inefficient compared to other blue alternatives.
chandra 2. Combine a nerfed chandra 1 and koth, and this is the result. Her first skill is nonsense as it is contradictory, and her third skill is a win more skill.
chandra 1. One of the original 5 who can actually still be competitive. Very swingy. Exciting to play when things go your way. Frustrating when they don’t.
Lilliana 2. Excellent mid ranged walker. Too bad I grew sick of zombies before I even got her.
Lilliana 1. Best of the original 5. Still a powerhouse, but cannot compete due to speed and how ties are broken.
jace 2. Excellent walker with solid stats and abilities. Boring to play unless you’re trying to break records on how big you can pump creatures.
Gideon 1. So far down the list only because he’s white. Decent mid range walker that can still be competitive in certain formats. Not the best.
Gideon 2. No longer that great, but I have fond memories of playing him exclusively for a while in qb.
nahiri. Really only great at qb now. She’s outclassed even by ajani because she does nothing without a board.
ajani. Stable and reliable. Nothing much to say about him.
arlinn. Sucks as a theme walker, but makes up for it by being the only R/G walker around. That colour combination always amuses me to play around with infinite combos.
tezzeret. Support lock down rocks.
The following walkers are regulars in my event roster. They really can be considered equally enjoyable for me.
dovin. U/W walker. Been waiting for him since day 1. One of 3 walkers I feel completely stable going creatureless.
kiora. So versatile.
saheeli. Very strong, very stable. Mostly due to colour combination and insane mana generation. Please don’t change her back.
ob. So, so, so good. Very easy to adapt to objectives too.
sarkan. Dragons! And potential 2 turn clock putting him just behind ob. Love the stable mana gain too.
sorin. Absolute beast once he has creatures in play. B/W is also a great because both colours currently lack diversity in colour combinations.
I don’t know the least fun pw as I am redoing all my decks to use dynavolt tower.
But I find these 3 fun with “critterless” dynavolt decks:
Dovin
Kiora
Ob
Okay so I don’t own quite as many planeswalkers as some of you but here’s my short list.
Chandra 1- Only got her cause I needed a red walker and only use her to finish color objectives in story mode. (Waiting fit Sarkahn to cycle back in)
Jace 1- Rarely use him. Never was fond of his abilities.
Nissa- Only green planeswalker I have. Sufficient but not really consistent.
Lilliana 1- First walker I bought and still my go to. Probably play her most in a competative way.
Sorin- Black and white. Vampires and lifelink. Nothing else needs to be said. (Although I’d love to see Sorin Markov Lord of Innistrad come out with the same abilities as he has in the tutorial. But I guess that’s a post for another thread)
Lilliana 2- Play her much like I play Lilliana 1 but her abilities give her a slight edge.
Jace 2- Absolutely the most fun. Just to see how powerful I can get my creatures. I’m just in awe when I have three 30/30+ creatures with flying on the field.
The ones that I have, sorted in rough order like others have done:
Don’t have: Sorin, Arlinn, Sahili, Tezz
Least Fun:
Jace1: Slow to develop, abilities haven’t held up well, and basically any strategy that is good on him is done better by other blue PWs
Gideon1: Held up somewhat well, but his abilities seem too high on cost. Especially when on most white objectives the goal is to either not kill or not lose many creatures, so his first ability can be a liability.
Liliana1: Was higher on my list before I got Liliana2, but now her abilities seem more like a liability than a benefit.
Nissa: Was higher up the list, but has fallen by the wayside for me with newer green PWs
Chandra2: Something just seems off with her. High mana gains, but very few ways to effectively use her abilities.
Moderately fun:
Chandra1: Mostly because this is my werewolf deck, and I have some decent werewolves. A fun niche PW
Gideon2: Another niche PW. Great with the right Ally cards, but his continued use is severely compromised by how cards are categorized. No new allies are likely coming, and his summons have weird tags (Soldiers, but not human) which means he doesn’t interact with other cards as well as he could.
Sarkhan: Should be a really fun deck, but I lack the better Dragon cards to really utilize him. Still, he has some great card potential, and can be fun. Decent mana gains across the board help.
Ajani: I think he was better before we started getting a lot of these mythic cards for sale. Dealing 6 damage with his second ability is good against chump cards, but won’t help you against something like Olivia. Just need to keep disabling them until you run out of loyalty. Still, a good color combination helps him.
Dovin Baan: Still haven’t come up with a great strategy for him (need to fiddle with his deck tonight), but he’s been fun. Mana gains could be a bit higher, but his abilities are fun and thematic.
Very fun:
Ob Nix: I love him. His top ability can be fun and very useful against certain kinds of decks. Got Madwren’s Kiora deck to basically kill herself in one round once I got it out. Plus, if you really need to, his second ability can remove a troublesome creature.
Kiora: Don’t have all of the cards to really utilize her, but she’s fun nonetheless
Nahiri: Sooooo many ways to build her and still be effective. Her first ability is just way too good to pass up as a top contender.
Koth: Big creatures fast. Allows you to use a significant number of creatures and spells that would be too prohibitive on other red decks.
Jace2: Great ways to use all of his abilities, and they all work together somewhat.
Liliana2: I’ve got zombies, and I know how to use 'em. A one-trick pony. But a FUN and effective one-trick pony.
Garruk: His abilities allow you to use more spells/supports if you want to, which is nice. But I still wish he had more than one type of ability that just summoned more effective creatures (if each one had some sort of ability, it would be top of my list for sure).
Someone faced one of my decks! Awesome! I’m honored to die to creatureless Ob, my favorite build.
Wasn’t quite creatureless, as I needed to get two vamps out. Luckily I got them out early before your deck’s craziness began. Once I saw what I was up against, I basically just went for the gems to build for the ultimate. Missed out on the health objective, though.
From most favorite to least favorite:
1: Gideon1. He was my first love, and I’ll always have fond memories of him. Sometimes, on a moonlit night, when a broken card like Runaway Carriage is released, we still get together and steal a moment of romantic bliss. He’s pretty bad, and his focus on creature combat doesn’t make him anything like top tier, because creature combat is absolutely the worst way to win games, but smacking two bodies violently into each other is fun, dammit.
2: Ajani Vengeant. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Ajani, is there? The high life total, the awesome mana gains, the solid control abilities, the fact that he’s a lion man… what’s not to like? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsqpF6X8QmQ Nahiri plays with Deploy the Gatewatch a little better, but her 4 spell and 4 support limit keep annoying me so she’s being bumped down this list as far as I can justify it to myself.
3: Jace2. Jace2 is very powerful, and does a good job of showcasing blue’s weaknesses (life gain, and support removal) and strengths (literally everything else he does is OP). Dual color blue planeswalkers just break the game.. Jace2 probably does too, but at least every single game you play doesn’t feel like a forgone conclusion.
4: Dovin Baan. Yeah, yeah, I know, dual blue, hypocrite much shteev?? Dovin Baan’s second ability is currently the only really good way for me to play with energy so that it’s consistent, and I’m having a bit of fun with him. He lacks decent support removal, but I reckon he might be strong enough to just do without it…
5: Liliana1. I like how she just feels so different to playing any of the other planeswalkers; that focus on the first unknown card in your opponents hand and your ability to discard it is neat. These days, blue PWs get a taste of this ability with Insidious Will, because blue has to be 4 times better at practically everything in this damn game BY LAW.
6: Kiora. Well, she wins everything, doesn’t she, and I like winning. Also, sometimes I quite like playing with lots of gem changers and just watching graphics whizz aroung the screen until I win… unless my phone crashes, of course.
7: Ob Nixilis. He wins too. Did I mention I like winning?
8: Saheeli Rai. Yeah, her mana gains mean she’s still good, but she’s a shadow of her former self and as such I don’t enjoy playing her so much. Plus, Harness the Storm isn’t so good in the current metagame, Talent of the Telepath causes terrible lag… I like Saheeli but she’s not being good to me right now.
9: Liliana2. Too focused on zombies. Zombies are great to play with for a while, and then you realise that there is one best zombie deck that can be built, and that everyone who plays zombies plays with it. That doesn’t make me feel very creative. Bored now.
Joint Last: Jace1. Nerfed into the ground, and forgotten about.
Joint Last: Sorin. 82 Life.
Joint Last: Garruk. Mono Green.
Joint Last: Nissa. Mono Green.
Joint Last: Nahiri. See Ajani Vengeant.
Joint Last: Gideon2. I’ve always just preferred playing Allies in G1 or Nahiri. Maybe if I had Veteran Warleader I’d give him another try. At the time, I only really bought him so I could get a second deck save slot for white.
Joint Last: Arlinn. I haven’t got GRB, I haven’t got Ulrich, I haven’t got Olivia, and I haven’t got The Great Aurora.
Joint Last: Sarkhan Vol. Ok this was even a surprise to me when I bought him. Sarkhan just looked ridiculously powerful when everyone else was playing with him, and the fact that he never ever seemed to come back to the Vault made me want him more and more with each passing day. But when we finally met, we fell out in a BIG way over his mana gains, which are attrocious. He’s probably great if you learn to play around/build decks around the fact that it takes him 2 turns to cast a 6 mana spell, but at the end of the day, HE upset ME and I’m not talking to him again until he apologises.
Even More Joint Last, because I cannot be bothered to write even a single thing about them: Tezzeret. Koth. Chandra 1 and 2. Probably Nissa2 as well.