5 Planeswalker Commanders From Reality Fracture, Ranked

Think of her as Vraska, Soul of Stone with a worse rate and a smaller color bill. She's a four-mana Izzet 2/4 that makes a flying Thopter whenever you cast something that isn't a creature, and those Thopters have haste, so they swing the turn they show up. She costs a mana more than Vraska and doesn't make mana, so she ranks below her. But two colors are far easier to build than three or five, and the Thopter shell already exists: Thopter Spy Network draws off your hasty artifact attackers, Sai, Master Thopterist double-dips on artifact spells, and Thopter Fabricator makes more Thopters when you draw your second card each turn. Budget Izzet spellslinger players, she's your commander.

Turn one, you play a one-mana 1/1 and the table shrugs. Turn three you drop Lyra, Archangel of Dawn, Liliana the Faultless triggers on the entry, you gain a life, and Lyra grows into a 4/4 flyer that swings next turn before anyone has blinked. Later your best creature eats a removal spell, you pay {1}, tap Liliana and discard a card, and it gains hexproof in response. That's the job: a soul-sister that is narrower than Soul Warden (only your own stuff counts) but actually protects the thing that matters. She turns on Ajani Resolute and Ob Nixilis, the Ascended as well.

She's a narrow commander, but a real one. Mono-white leaves her without the multicolor payoffs that make lifegain decks pop off, and her hexproof can't protect herself. That's why she sits fourth and not higher. In a dedicated mono-white lifegain pile she's exactly what the deck wants to cast on turn one and recast all game. In a lifegain deck built around Kwia Vigorbloom, a 6/6 flying lifelinker that turns your first lifegain each turn into mana, she's the cheapest way to fuel her.

She's mono-black, she's a two-mana 2/2 that dies to anything, and if you treat her as a value engine you'll be disappointed. The right way to think about her is as the more commander-shaped Liliana. Whenever another creature or planeswalker you control enters, you mill two. That's a self-mill engine that costs you nothing but a card slot, and in a graveyard shell a cheap commander you can recast four times is a feature.

The payoff is the exhaust ability. For {5}{B} at sorcery speed you return a creature or planeswalker card from your graveyard, once, and Liliana grows a counter for the trouble. With Avacyn, Angel of Horror milled into the yard, that's an eight-power flying deathtouch body back on turn six. Plenty of reanimation spells skip planeswalkers, so this hits a slot most don't. It also gives her a ceiling the Faultless half lacks. I'd rather lead with the Repentant than the Faultless.

If you want Zombie tokens off the milling, Sidisi, Brood Tyrant is the commander and Liliana is a cheap tuck-in for a Sultai pile. Mono-black means a consistent start and a lower ceiling than that Sultai build.

A planeswalker name does not make a planeswalker deck, and Vraska is the proof. She's a Jeskai spellslinger and artifact-token commander, basically Monastery Mentor with Treasure. Every noncreature spell makes a 1/1 Sculpture that sacrifices for one mana of any color, and your artifact creatures get vigilance. Her trigger resolves before the spell that caused it, so cheap spells pay for the next ones.

The Sculptures are creatures with a {T} cost, so they're summoning sick without a haste enabler. That's why the best partners are Thousand-Year Elixir, Alibou, Ancient Witness and Samut, Hazoret's Champion. With one of them out, a one-mana spell refunds itself by sacrificing its own Sculpture. Urza, Lord High Artificer taps each Sculpture for blue, and Reckless Fireweaver pings the table for every token. Vigilance means they can swing first and tap for mana afterward.

Vraska is a Wizard, which opens up the trigger doublers. Harmonic Prodigy or Wizard's Staff alone makes it two tokens per trigger, and running both makes it three. Idol of Oblivion draws a card on any turn you made a token, but only one, since it's a tap ability and not a trigger.

The cost is three colors, and she's fragile, so expect her to eat removal. But she's far easier to build than Tam and a more practical pick for most pods.

Turn three, Tam lands as a 2/4 and the table figures she's a bear. Turn four, Chandra, Chill of Compliance costs {U}{U} instead of {1}{U}{U}. Turn five, Elspeth, Sun's Champion costs five instead of six, makes three Soldiers, and sits at five loyalty. Turn six is the payoff. Cast Ajani Resolute for a single {W}, then pay {W}{U}{B}{R}{G} and tap Tam. Three planeswalker types, three proliferates, and Elspeth goes from five to eight and ultimates on the spot. I've watched that line threaten lethal on turn six, and the table doesn't usually have an answer ready that fast.

Be honest about it: it's a fair payoff, not a broken one. The activation eats your whole turn, five colors needs real fixing, and two Chandras only count as one type. The ceiling is very high. The floor is a 2/4 that makes your walkers a little cheaper.

The shell decides whether she does anything. Oath of Ajani stacks with her discount and pumps your creatures. Oath of Nissa lets you spend any color on walker spells, which fixes the exact spells you care about. Oath of Teferi gives you a second loyalty activation each turn. Entrust the Spark swaps a spent walker for a fresh one. Spark Double copies a walker with extra loyalty, though a Tam copy can't tap until your next turn unless you have haste enablers. Esika, God of the Tree // The Prismatic Bridge smooths the mana. Atraxa, Praetors' Voice proliferates automatically at your end step but doesn't discount a single walker, so you get the counters without the savings. Tomik, Orzhov Lawmage is a fragile bodyguard, limiting each walker to one attacker.

She's the only walker-creature here that builds a superfriends deck, and the five-color mana base is the price you pay for it.