Planeswalker Threshold

[Legend]

I always wanted to make a Gideon tribal Commander deck but was waiting for there to be more Gideon walkers. Well, Gideon has been dead for awhile, leaving only 8 Gideons to work with. Which got me wondering, what's the ideal number of planeswalkers for a deck that's intended to win with them?

[darrenhabib]

I don't know if this is a trick question, but there are only 8 Gideon planeswalkers.

[Legend]

I don't know if this is a trick question, but there are only 8 Gideon planeswalkers.

Oh whoops I had been counting various planeswalkers and still had Chandra on the brain. Fixed in the OP.

[DirkGently]

How do you intend to win with them? I had a Liliana, Heretical Healer // Liliana, Defiant Necromancer deck that focused on ulting her and winning with the emblem. Didn't use any other planeswalkers I don't think. If I did, they weren't terribly important.

Virtually any number anyone gives you in magic will be an oversimplification. The real answer is that it always depends on your plan. For anyone who wants to improve their game, think critically about your plan and what it needs to look like to accomplish it. Don't build a deck paint-by-numbers and expect success.

[Hawk]

Define "win", yeah?

I have "Daretti Superfriends" and the list has 11 'walkers including Daretti. I've definitely won games by ultimating Koth of the Hammer and grinding out a win with his emblem. I've lso won by ultimating Daretti, Scrap Savant himself (folks tend to scoop when you're saccing Wurmcoil Engines and Myr Battlespheres to reanimate other value cards, then bringing them all back with his emblem) and Karn Liberated (folks super didn't want to play again especially not with me starting with a pile of lands...probably a war crime in some countries to ultimate Karn 1.0...). But those are wins because I'm either creating a salty boardstate no one wants to deal with, or grinding out value alongside other damage sources. Planeswalkers are "contributing" but I'm not "winning" with them, the way I might "win" with Samut, Voice of Dissent in that deck.

[Crazy Monkey]

As a player with a Gideon tribal deck, I think that the more important question is what type of decks you want to play it against. Gideon tribal can work really well at the "upgraded precon" spectrum of decks.

Super friends around a specific planeswalker is more dependent on the quality of the walker itself than how many there are. I have played against extremely powerful Will Kenrith and Rowan Kenrith or Teferi, Temporal Archmage decks. Gideon specifically just underperformed unless everyone is on slow battlecruiser decks.

[Dunadain]

Well you'll need seven of any card to get threshold, Gideon planeswalkers or otherwise.

[illakunsaa]

You can equip a Gideon with Helm of the Host to get more Gideons.

[Ertai Planeswalker]

The cheapest Gideon is 3 cmc, by that time you will have drawn 10 cards without extra card draw. 99/10=9,9 so you'll need 10 to have one on average when you want to cast it. There are 8, but you can run several tutors to effectively have more. There's Djeru, Call the Gatewatch, the double tutor from War of the Spark, the snow tutor that can find legendary permanents and Thalia's Lancers so that puts you up to 13 Gideons with regards to finding one. So yeah you can make it work. Be wary though that protecting planeswalkers in a multiplayer game is hard. You will need to find a solution to avoid having them attacked all the time, especially once you have Gideon of the Trial's emblem.

Gideon is a lot about attacking and having opponents attack into him so maybe a wall of first strike creatures can accomplish both aims. Especially combined with vigilance.

[DirkGently]

For funsies I went through all the legal planeswalker commanders. Here are the ones with the most hits for "tribal".

Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh // Chandra, Roaring Flame - 17
Liliana, Heretical Healer // Liliana, Defiant Necromancer - 13
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy // Jace, Telepath Unbound - 12
Nissa, Vastwood Seer // Nissa, Sage Animist - 8
Kytheon, Hero of Akros // Gideon, Battle-Forged - 8
Nicol Bolas, the Ravager // Nicol Bolas, the Arisen - 5
Will Kenrith/Rowan Kenrith - 5
Teferi, Temporal Archmage - 3
Saheeli, the Gifted - 3
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath - 3

Note this is only counting planeswalkers which can fit into their deck, so not Ob Nixilis, the Fallen or Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

For funsies I went through all the legal planeswalker commanders. Here are the ones with the most hits for "tribal".

Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh // Chandra, Roaring Flame - 17
Liliana, Heretical Healer // Liliana, Defiant Necromancer - 13
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy // Jace, Telepath Unbound - 12
Nissa, Vastwood Seer // Nissa, Sage Animist - 8
Kytheon, Hero of Akros // Gideon, Battle-Forged - 8
Nicol Bolas, the Ravager // Nicol Bolas, the Arisen - 5
Will Kenrith/Rowan Kenrith - 5
Teferi, Temporal Archmage - 3
Saheeli, the Gifted - 3
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath - 3

Note this is only counting planeswalkers which can fit into their deck, so not Ob Nixilis, the Fallen or Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset.

You can play more teferis if you play Niambi, Faithful Healer as your commander. Genetically, it's still Teferi tribal if you think about it.

[Jemolk]

For funsies I went through all the legal planeswalker commanders. Here are the ones with the most hits for "tribal".

Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh // Chandra, Roaring Flame - 17
Liliana, Heretical Healer // Liliana, Defiant Necromancer - 13
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy // Jace, Telepath Unbound - 12
Nissa, Vastwood Seer // Nissa, Sage Animist - 8
Kytheon, Hero of Akros // Gideon, Battle-Forged - 8
Nicol Bolas, the Ravager // Nicol Bolas, the Arisen - 5
Will Kenrith/Rowan Kenrith - 5
Teferi, Temporal Archmage - 3
Saheeli, the Gifted - 3
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath - 3

Note this is only counting planeswalkers which can fit into their deck, so not Ob Nixilis, the Fallen or Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset.

You can play more teferis if you play Niambi, Faithful Healer as your commander. Genetically, it's still Teferi tribal if you think about it.

I did this. In actual effect, the commander of that deck is Teferi, Timebender. Do that, and there are seven legal Teferis (counting the commander himself). Also, there are two creature versions of Teferi, though most people would only think of one. The second (or first, if you're thinking chronologically in story or print order) is Disruptive Student. If you count the creatures, then, the Teferi count is 9, where most people would only expect 8.