Top 37 Planeswalker Characters in War of the Spark

War of the Spark is almost here and I figured now would be as good a time as any to go ahead and rank the 37 planeswalker characters in the set from worst to best. This isn’t an evaluation of the cards, but instead of the planeswalkers themselves and how much I care about them as characters. Let’s get to it! Also, obviously there will be spoilers.

38: Nissa

Nissa is easily my least favorite planeswalker in the entire game of Magic. She’s a boring character who can’t make a decision to save her life and peaces out at the first sign of trouble. There was a point in time that I liked Nissa, and then Origins happened and she got retconned into uselessness. Origins helped a lot of characters become more interesting, but Nissa lost pretty much everything that made her special. I get that they didn’t want to go with the racist depiction that she was previously, but at least there was a solid character arc there of her becoming more tolerant or something. Now she’s a Mary Sue who does nothing and basically stands for nothing. People have described her as  having the personality of a 2×4, which is fitting because her trees are more interesting than she is.

37: A Trubbish

Not a special shiny Trubbish or anything like that, no this is just a normal Trubbish. But it says something that a sentient bag of literal garbage is more interesting than one of the core characters of the game.

36: Teyo

I haven’t read the novel yet, so I’m sure Teyo becomes more interesting in the near future. I have no problem with this guy, I just don’t know anything about him so far. If he’s awesome in the novel, feel free to let me know so I can reconsider his position.

35: Kasmina

So I basically have the same reasoning for Kasmina that I do for Teyo. The only reason she’s higher on the list is because I like her design a little bit more. Simple stuff. (Although anime Teyo looks pretty awesome.)

34: The Wanderer

Once again, a character we know nothing about is at the bottom of the list. At least The Wanderer is shrouded in mystery that makes her more intriguing than Teyo and Kasmina. With a lot of these lower characters, don’t take their rankings to mean I don’t like them (except Nissa), it’s just hard to rank a character high that we have almost no information about. I am excited to see what they can do in the future, though.

33: Jiang Yanggu

HE HAS A CUTE DOG THAT TRAVELS WITH HIM! That instantly shoots him up above the other unknowns on the list.

32: Saheeli

Saheeli is kind of an interesting choice for me. I really like her design and concept as this master shaper, but as I was making the list I just realized that I liked most other characters more than her. That said, she has some solid potential going forward now that she’s buddied up with Huatli, so I’m excited to see her actually do something the next time she shows up as opposed to just kind of being there in Kaladesh.

31: Arlinn

Arlinn suffers from a similar problem as Saheeli where she just kind of didn’t do anything when she first showed up. That said, werewolves are awesome and Innistrad is my favorite plane so I’m sure that Arlinn will actually get some development in the near future, and I’m excited for that. Plus, if the rumors are true and Kaldheim is the next plane, then Arlinn would make for an interesting appearance.

30: Davriel

Davriel hasn’t done too much yet, but the things he has done are pretty interesting. I have the feeling this is not the spot he will stay in for long, because this character is probably going to be a lot more developed moving forward.

29: Huatli

All that stuff about Saheeli and Arlinn? Yeah, they apply to Huatli too. Wizards is definitely setting up some interesting characters for the future and I think that most of these “bottom-of-the-list” characters are actually a lot better starting out than most of the other planeswalkers were when they first appeared. Gideon may be interesting now, but he was abysmal compared to these guys when he first showed up, in my opinion.

28. Kaya

Kaya is actually the first character on this list (besides Nissa) who I’m a bit concerned about regarding her character. Everyone else has seemed interesting but underdeveloped so far, but Kaya doesn’t really strike me that way. She’s had more development than some of these other characters, but she’s felt fairly inconsistent, even as opposed to someone like Huatli. I hope that her new presence in the Gatewatch will help her in that regard, because her power set is really awesome.

27: Domri

It’s a shame this character is dead because he had what could have been an interesting character arc ahead of him about basically growing up. I think they killed this character off too early, honestly.

26: Tibalt

Lol, Tibalt.

25: Samut

Now this is a character I’m excited about. Samut has some real fire and personality showing in all of her appearances so far, and I’m sure the more we see of her, the more exciting she’ll become. This is probably my favorite of the most recent walker additions and I hope they keep her tenacity going forward. Yeah, Bolas may be defeated now, but give her something else to get excited about doing, Wizards!

24: Ob Nixilis

Ob Nixilis has been woefully underutilized as a villain so far, but now that Bolas is out of the way hopefully we will have more room for him to shine. He’s cool, he’s got a genuine grudge, and he’s crazy powerful. I was honestly disappointed that Chandra was able to beat him, but maybe he just needs some time to regenerate some more of his power. Ob is a great piece in the next generation of Magic villains, please don’t screw him up!

23: Ashiok

Ashiok’s placement comes from their mystery. Are they a hero or a villain? Are they out for something specific or just wandering? Who knows? And the ambiguity of a character so powerful is what makes them so terrifying. There’s not much to say here about Ashiok, but that’s kind of the point.

22: Angrath

Angrath is one of the most unique characters we’ve had in a long time. It’s hard to make black/red not just evil, but somehow Wizards made a character that I have some sympathy for in that regard. JUST LET ANGRY MINOTAUR DAD GO HOME TO HIS DAUGHTERS!

21.5: Dack Fayden, the Greatest Thief in the Multiverse

Dack: Walks in, dies.

21: Sarkhan

Sarkhan has had some interesting development as a character over the years. He started off as a just a dude to teach Ajani, became a pseudo-villain to Chandra and Jace, and then went on to save Ugin with time travel shenanigans. Overall, I think his character is kind of one note at the moment as he is just kind of focused on dragons all the time, but his history  gives him a lot of potential as a character. If they utilize Sarkhan correctly, he could honestly be one of the most unique characters in the game.

20: Dovin

I like Dovin, he’s a cool villain. His motivations are kind of funny, but they’ve definitely set him up as a great foil to Chandra. He’s got the evil scheme motif down to a science and his little thopters are strangely menacing. I’m sure now that he’s probably blind, the thopters will play an even bigger role in his character identity. This guy is shaping up to be one of the greats as far as a villain goes.

19.5: Garruk

OH MY GOD, IS THAT GARRUK’S MUSIC?!

19: Narset

Narset is probably the best thing to come out of Dragons of Tarkir. Her backstory is very interesting with her learning under Ojutai but slowly realizing the truth about Tarkir. The fact that we saw both sides of her with the timeline differences makes the current version of her all the more interesting since we know how she becomes otherwise. Her fascination and intrigue as a character carries her pretty high on the list, plus she’s the first member of Tamiyo’s story circle to show up on it, too!

18: Vivien

Hey, a mono-green character I’m actually interested in! Vivien takes all of the best parts of pre-retcon Nissa: the sass, the attitude, the badassery and brings that into a new shell. Her character concept as a Pokemon master is really fun and her irreverence for others gives her a solid arc in the future for growth. Here’s hoping they don’t neuter her like they did Nissa.

17: Ral

The more we learn about Ral, the more interesting he becomes. It won’t be long before this guy is cracking the top ten list. The fact that he was in on Niv Mizzet’s all along may not be surprising, but it is still fun to see from a story perspective. His power set is really interesting, and his interactions with the main cast have been surprisingly enjoyable too. Ral went from being a whiny brat in Return to Ravnica‘s block to being a fun character in his current iteration. Keep it up, Wizards!

16: Chandra

There was a period of time when Chandra was my favorite character in the game. That was before Kaladesh. Kaladesh turned this potentially interesting character into a bland brat with a personality that matches. Chandra was once filled with energy and emotion, and now she just kind of wanders around not knowing what to do. I used to love because she wasn’t particularly smart, but she was tenacious and did what had to be done anyways. She’s not really that way anymore. I think that making her character arc be about her awkwardness was the wrong move and that it should have instead been about unintended consequences like her Origins story was setting her up for. It’s sad that the more development she got, nerfed her instead of improving her and it feels unfortunately similar to Samus Aran from Other M in that regard. Let’s hope the comics can right the wrongs and get Chandra back on track, because right now she’s losing ground all the time.

15: Nahiri

Nahiri and Sorin’s feud has been one of the most interesting story threads in recent years and most of that comes form the fact that neither one of them is really correct. Both have solid points against the other and in reality if they weren’t so stubborn, they would probably be able to work things out. JUST KISS, DANG IT!

14: Jaya

She’s Chandra, but better in every way!

13: Tezzeret

Tez probably has one of the more tragic backstories in Magic and it all makes for a very interesting villain. Looked down upon in his homeland, betrayed by Jace and Liliana, press-ganged into servitude by Bolas, and now finally the master of his own destiny: Tezzeret is a tale and a half of a character. Now he’s setting himself up as the new big arch-villain and I love it. This is one villain I can’t get enough of and I’m excited to see what he does in the near future.

12: Gideon

Similarly to my opinions on certain characters in Avengers: Endgame (cough, Captain America, cough), I was fairly certain that Gideon was going to die from the beginning. The prophecy from Hazoret, the acquisition of the Blackblade, the finishing of his arc, all of that was a clear signal of his impending doom. Still, they at least were able to make him interesting in his final moments and make his sacrifice feel earned. There was a period of time where I would have ranked Gideon quite low on this list, but they really turned this character around and made him into someone I will miss from the coming storylines. Good job, Wizards!

11. Kiora

We’re starting to get into more personal preferences now, but I really like Kiora ‘s character so far. Her showing up on Theros and stealing Thassa’s bident was freaking great and then her defeat and shame in Battle for Zendikar was probably one of the highlights of that story (and that means a lot, because that story was pretty awful). Kiora has been consistently interesting to me and I hope they keep her sass and personality going forward while refining her other traits.

10. Ugin

Ugin started off as not much more than a nod regarding the Eldrazi and now he’s become an integral part to the modern stories of Magic. Talk about a turnaround! It helps that he’s so closely associated with Bolas, but Ugin has really been able to separate himself out form his brother and become an good character in his own right. It’s unfortunate we won’t be able to see much more of him, but he’s added a lot of mystery while he’s been around.

9.5: Koth

There have been some jokes in this whole article, but this one really isn’t. Where the hell is Koth? Koth was such a great character and we haven’t heard from him in over eight years! IF the the timelines stays accurate then there is a good chance we’ll be revisiting New Phyrexia in 2020 which would allow Koth to show back up, but it’s still a shame that it’s been so long. BRING KOTH BACK!

9: Sorin

A big part of Sorin’s ranking is his mystery. We know quite a bit about this character, but do we really? Sorin has been around a LOOOOOOOONG time and we only know a small portion of that story. I really like the way that Wizards has been kind of drip feeding us (haha, vampire pun) more and more information about Sorin and his exploits over the years, and I hope this trend continues. It’s nice to just see him show up every now and then with a little more information about his past tied to it. Sorin is interesting, and now that Nahiri is in play too I think it will stay that way.

8: Karn

Karn is almost more interesting because of what he represents more than he is as a character. Karn is a symbol of the old days of Magic, and the old stories that came with them. The Urza story is so unique in fantasy and Karn is a big piece of that.  Being a part of the Legacy only increases this character’s value, and his continued inclusion is a constant reminder that the real original threat of the game is still out there somewhere. Phyrexia still exists.

7: Ajani

Ajani’s story is so good and so tragic, and he’s been a key piece in tying all of the disparate stories together. Ajani has lost a lot of friends and he continues to work for good anyways. He challenged Bolas and held his own decently well and he’s brought a lot of our favorite characters together. Ajani is such a key piece to Magic lore at this point that the game story almost becomes impossible to achieve without him. It also helps a lot that he is the central character for what is arguable the best Magic short story in existence: Release. If you haven’t read it, do so, because it is phenomenal.

6: Teferi

All that stuff about Karn applies to Teferi too except that  he’s also an interesting character. Honestly, I hate to cop out, but just go read the old Magic fiction or at least the summaries on MTG Salvation for this one. It’s an interesting story.

5: Nicol Bolas

The original villain returns and his plan may not be the best, but his personality and character more than make up for that. This character crushed the Gatewatch on Amonkhet, created worlds, and murdered a lot of people. He’s intimidating and terrifying. He was the perfect villain for the game. It’s honestly sad that he won’t be around anymore, but Wizards made the smart decision of keeping him alive instead of killing him, just in case they need a boost in sales later. He’s the perfect bridge between the old and new, and I’ve loved seeing his story unfold.

4. Liliana

Liliana has been a fantastic character to watch and a lot  of that has to do with her interactions with everyone else. This is a character they got right pretty much from the start. She never lost her confidence and arrogance, but they masterfully allowed us to see her weaknesses shine through at just the right moments. Liliana is a strong character and her arc has been fantastic to see unfold. Dying for her friends would have been a fitting end, since she’s been so self-centered so far, but having her live is even more interesting. Liliana might be the consistently well-written of the modern characters and I hope that continues into the future.

3: Jace

A lot of people don’t like Jace, because it felt like Wizards was shoving a jerk of a character down our throat for a long time. But the creative team deserves credit where it is due, because they turned this whiny asshole into a likable and interesting person in recent years. It all began in Shadows Over Innistrad when we began to see more of the vulnerabilities of his psyche appear as he slowly descended into madness. Pairing him with Tamiyo and Liliana helped to explore his character and make something cool out of this jerk; when you couple that with his tragic and terrifying backstory in Origins, you have a good start. It all culminated in Ixalan where Jace became a new person and turned into a character I can genuinely root for. Ixalan‘s story did a lot of good things for a lot of characters and Jace and Vraska definitely improved dramatically. Jace has been recently defined by his supporting characters, but I can now confidently say he could carry a story on his own if he needed to.

2: Vraska

Jace and Vraska’s relationship is one of the most mutually beneficial we’ve seen in Magic story. Both of these characters were kind of wet blankets going into Ixalan and both came out as some of the community’s favorites. I love both of their story threads, but Vraska takes the cake for being a badass pirate captain and queen!

1:  Tamiyo

Almost no one will agree with me, but Tamiyo has become easily one of my favorite characters in the game and it all has to do with her story circle. Tamiyo’s story circle is easily the best group of planeswalkers around, and I’m hoping Jace joins it soon. Tamiyo is nice because as much as I like an awesome character with dramatic backstory and plenty of combat, there’s something to be said about a character as calm and collected as Tamiyo. She brings something to the table that most other characters don’t and I really appreciate that they were able to bring a different perspective to the world of Magic that normally doesn’t get explored. Tamiyo is awesome in her own way, and it’s nice that at the end of the day she’s able to just go home and be a good mother instead of always having to be in some dramatic peril. This is a great and unique character and I hope they don’t user her too often and ruin what makes her special.

ABSOLUTE S+++ TIER: TIBALT AGAIN

LOOOOOOOOOL TIBALT!

I’m sure you disagree about certain placements and descriptions of characters, so feel free to leave a comment saying what spots you think characters should be in and why! Thanks for reading!