Upgrading Commander Precon - Planeswalker Party (Commodore Guff)

Commander Masters is finally here and, alongside the new set, we have 4 new precon decks too. It's time to upgrade Planeswalker Party.

It is the first time a planeswalker-themed deck is released, the infamous "super-friends" archetype, and on top of it all, this one has an unusual combination of colors: Jeskai .

It isn't that common to see planeswalkers decks in Commander with that combination of colors, as they want to take advantage of, if not all, at least most colors, with cards such as Doubling Season, Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider, Atraxa, Praetors' Voice and the like.

But the lack of cards like those doesn't make this deck inconsistent. This precon list has a surprisingly solid base for what it intends to do, so much so that, in this upgrade, only 18 cards were added.

Planeswalker Party List

The list has many great cards which have synergy with planeswalkers, such as The Chain Veil, Oath of Teferi, Deploy the Gatewatch and others, including new cards, such as Jaya's Phoenix, Leori, Sparktouched Hunter and Gatewatch Beacon.

By refining here and there, we can extract even more value out of this deck. As it was said before, only 18 cards were removed from the original list, and here they are. Here, we will also keep the original commander, Commodore Guff. It is also possible to use Narset, Enlightened Master or Leori, Sparktouched Hunter as alternative commanders.

Removed Cards

I swear I don't have any issue with Jace, as he is one of my favorite characters. But in this case, Jace, Architect of Thought, Jace, Mirror Mage and Jace Beleren gave way for cards which are more functional.

Oath of Jace, despite interesting, can also give way to Talents, which we'll show later on.

Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs was also a tough decision, but comparing its functionality against its cost, it seems more effective to do something else for this mana cost, or even save mana for some other answer.

And speaking of mana, it was also possible to remove Wayfarer's Bauble.

Cartographer's Hawk and Oresko's Explorer indeed have potential, but only focusing on plains is not what we're looking for here. Lastly, Wall of Denial and Nahiri, the Harbinger were also removed: Fog Bank already fulfills the role of "infinite blocker" and Nahiri seemed not to have that much potential in this deck in particular.

6 basic lands were removed, and also Skycloud Expanse. The total number of lands went down from 38 to 35, as the deck counts on many (but really, many) mana rocks. Skycloud Expanse was removed as it is a land that doesn't create mana alone, which makes it impossible to achieve certain turn 1 plays with Sol Ring and the absurd number of mana rocks.

Great Hall of the Citadel has a similar role to Interplanar Beacon, correcting possible mana issues. The 3 bounce lands were added here with the purpose of being the targets of a combo which will be explained later on.

Besides being two mana rocks, Everflowing Chalice and Gilded Lotus also have potential as combo pieces in the deck. They work really well even when they aren't, particularly Everflowing Chalice with some Proliferate interactions, such as Thrummingbird, Flux Channeler, Grateful Apparition and the deck's new addition, Ichormoon Gauntlet.

The deck also has the potential of being able to use the "-12: extra turn", besides the use of "0: Proliferate" with planeswalkers which don't tick its counters, such as Saheeli, Sublime Artificer and Narset, Parter of Veils.

Elixir of Immortality went in to recover the lost resources: discarded cards, destroyed planeswalkers and the like.

In the original list, we have 17 planeswalkers not counting with the commander, and in the new one, this number was altered to 15.

As finishers, some possible combos were added here. Remember that all planeswalkers and their respective combo pieces also work independently, inside the deck, this way not making them irrelevant on the battlefield in case they are alone.

We have Teferi, Temporal Archmage together with some mana source which creates at least 2 mana (such as Gilded Lotus, Sol Ring, Everflowing Chalice with at least 2 counters or some bounce land) and The Chain Veil.

It is quite simple: first activate The Chain Veil, and next use Teferi's -1, targeting three permanents which can create a total of 4 mana, and also target The Chain Veil. Untapping all 4, it is possible to activate the Veil again, resulting in infinite planeswalker activations, infinite mana and infinite draw.

We also have Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset with The Peregrine Dynamo, activating Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset's first ability targeting The Peregrine Dynamo and some other mana rock which creates at least 2 or more mana. Answer activating The Peregrine Dynamo's ability, copying Teferi's ability. Resolve the copy, untapping The Peregrine Dynamo and the mana rack. It results in infinite mana and infinite health. Alongside Ichormoon Gauntlet, for instance, we also have infinite turns.

It's worth stressing that Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset also creates a combo with Everflowing Chalice with 5 or more counters and The Chain Veil just like Teferi, Temporal Archmage, with infinite planeswalkers activations.

And last, but not least, we have The Eternal Wanderer. Here its defensive role with its -4 ability is great, and it defends well with its passive ability. The interaction with The Eternal Wanderer with Deepglow Skate can be mentioned here.

We use here the three planeswalkers talents available in the deck's identity: Teferi's Talent, Rowan's Talent and Elspeth's Talent. All talents are great to enchant any planeswalker, but mainly enchant the two only unusual ones in the deck which were already mentioned before - Saheeli, Sublime Artificer and Narset, Parter of Veils.

Teferi's Talent can quickly raise the counters of any planeswalker. Rowan's Talent gives you the possibility of using its ultimate ability twice, and we have great candidates for that: Narset of the Ancient Way, Elspeth, Sun's Champion and Chandra, Torch of Defiance, for instance.

And, lastly, we have Elspeth's Talent, creating value with 3 blockers and capable of being used on some planeswalkers which don't have an ability to raise their loyalty counters which is that interesting, such as Ajani Steadfast and Teyo, Geometric Tactician.

As support cards, we have Whirlwind of Thought, Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion and Mila, Crafty Companion. Whirwind of Thought will definitely create a lot of card draw, as the deck counts on at least 48 non-creature spells.

Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion will give you an additional loyalty counter, be it as you activate planeswalkers, through Ichormoon Gauntlet or through Mila, Crafty Companion - which is also a great source of card draw. Unfortunately (or fortunately), Lukka, Wayward Bonder is a side that will probably be used rarely, and it is quite relative to point that.

And this is the final result for our upgraded Planeswalker Party list. Almost 1/5 of the deck was altered, and these small changes guaranteed various new ways of winning, and also many interactions between planeswalkers.

The deck on its own is quite interesting, and with these upgrades (which, by the way, are quite cheap), will become even more. It seems to be a very fun list to pilot.

Alternative List with Narset, Enlightened Master

And here we also a much more aggressive list with another option as commander, Narset, Enlightened Master, focused on planeswalkers and ways of attacking again with Narset, be it with extra turns or extra combat phases.

This is a list for tables which are a bit stronger, with but a few cards from the precon.

I was really impressed with the original list being so consistent, with a few cards which are weaker. This upgrade, for instance, came out quite cheap considering the current economy of each card added, and I risk saying this was one of the, if not the cheapest upgrades I have ever done. The list seems quite fun to pilot, even when it doesn't go to a more combo-focused side.

Did you like the list? Would you play without combos? Would you put in something different? Share your thoughts!