The best white planeswalkers in Magic: The Gathering

The Wandering Emperor is, without a doubt, MTG’s best white planeswalker. Her -1 ability, creating a 2/2 Samurai token with vigilance, provides invaluable board control and pressure – when combined with her +1 to give first strike and a +1/+1 counter to a creature, it’s a formidable attacker and an effective way to protect the Emperor herself. Her -2 ability exiles a tapped creature and gains 2 life, a severe blow to aggressive decks looking to race you down before planeswalkers can become relevant.

But all of this is elevated by The Wandering Emperor’s unique ability to be used at instant speed. This turns her modest tokens into surprise blockers, and her slow removal mode into a powerful piece of interaction. When backed up with other powerful instant speed cards at four mana, like Memory Deluge or Collected Company, The Wandering Emperor is a planeswalker that you can’t see coming.

This isn’t without risk, though. Using her best mode, her -2, leaves her vulnerable at one loyalty. She may well disappear from your board as suddenly as she arrives. Finding situations where her other two modes can be effectively used is key to letting The Wandering Emperor live up to her potential as the best white planeswalker in the game.

While the Wandering Emperor is ruling competitive formats, Elspeth, Sun’s Champion is one of the best white planeswalkers in Commander. Her +1 provides three 1/1 blockers to protect her – one for each of your opponents – and her -3 sweeps everything with power four or greater off the board. Her ultimate ability gives all your creatures +2/+2 and flying permanently – turning her +1 into a game-ending threat, but keeping the tokens conveniently out of the range of her board wipe ability.

Elspeth turns out to be a one-card board control machine. Pushing enough damage to kill her through three tokens is tough, and in Commander, boards are often big enough to be completely clear if she lands her board wipe.

The only issue with Elspeth is her speed. Six mana is a big ask in white decks, and if you don’t have the removal to back her up, opposing creatures with trample or flying can easily take her out.

The first iteration of Magic’s most iconic white planeswalker might also have been his best. Gideon Jura is a brick wall, often coming down at six loyalty and using his +2 ability to force opponent’s creatures to attack him, taking the heat off you.

If Gideon stays healthy after the attack, you can follow up with his -2 to destroy a tapped creature – likely one of the ones you just forced to swing into him. And if the forced attack has left your opponent open, you can simply turn Gideon into a 6/6 indestructible, keeping your other creatures to protect him and letting him end the game on his own.

Gideon’s guaranteed to stay by your side thanks to his staggering loyalty total, and at his best, the one-two punch of his +2 and -2 abilities can be repeatable removal that protects you from damage.

Gideon can only tank so much, though, and without a stream of big creatures to protect him after his +2 ability, he’ll drop in loyalty fast. Turning him into a creature is a powerful win condition, but can open him up to exile spells if you’re not careful.

If you ever played Phyrexia: All Will Be One draft, you probably lost to this white planeswalker at least once. The Eternal Wanderer’s power is all in her passive effect, preventing her from being attacked by more than one creature per turn.

If the only threat to her loyalty is one large creature, you can use her +1 ability to exile it until your opponent’s next end step, preventing it from attacking. If you don’t have a creature at all, her 0 ability creates a 2/2 samurai token with double strike, which is fearsome for anything to attack into. But her true power is her -4, a devastating board clear that lets you leave each of your opponents with nothing but their weakest creature while you keep your strongest one.

The Eternal Wanderer is a brutal board control machine that is nearly impossible to kill with board-based strategies once it lands, seeing play in Commander, and even some glacially slow control decks in Standard. But be careful – six mana is a lot to pay, and even once she has resolved, games can take an eternity to close out.

The white planeswalkers we’ve discussed so far have been mainly for control decks, but planeswalkers have their place in aggro decks, too. Gideon Blackblade ticks up to five loyalty on the turn he comes down and buffs another creature with vigilance, lifelink or indestructible, while being a respectable 4/4 indestructible himself. After a couple of turns, his -6 can clear out a blocker or an opposing planeswalker to allow him and your other creatures to get in.

Gideon’s +1 is best used to enable creatures with attack triggers to get into combat without dying, like Adeline, Resplendent Cathar or Kytheon, Hero of Akros. But if your board is clear, Gideon can’t use the ability on himself, making him pretty underwhelming without the proper support. He’s a decently big threat for an aggro deck, but control decks getting cards like The Wandering Emperor has made him a lot easier to remove than his indestructible ability might suggest.