Extra Loyal

Planeswalkers are both equally loved and equally maligned in Magic. Certainly more maligned in EDH. There was a time when the basic design seemed rather stale. + to make a token, - to remove something. Then there were the game ending ultimate abilities. Everyone always hyper focuses on the“ultimate,” but getting there can often be a trap. Especially in EDH. You have to protect the card from 3 times as many opponents, and it's not like it starts with triple the loyalty.

With all that in mind, I've wanted to see where I could take the card type. I already had a modular Planeswalker build in Golgari colors, so I wanted to do something different this time around. It took a while and a little random luck to find my hook. I had entered a “competition” designed to spotlight commanders under 1000 registered decks. There were a lot of interesting cards you don't usually see, but the decks were often very straightforward. Some of these underloved legends are ok at one thing in a very narrow way, and people get stuck building along that path. Someone submitted an Arna Kennerud, Skycaptain deck all about +1/+1 counters, and it was just that.

This isn't a knock on building straightforward decks. Believe it or not, I have some fun with +1/+1 counters here. In my never ending effort to Make EDH Weird Again, I wanted to look past the obvious in my deck building. I reread the Esper legend and noticed it doubles all counters, not just +1/+1 counters. It also happens to double other modifications on the attacking creature, auras, and equipment, so there was a lot of design space left to be explored. My mind latched right onto Loyalty counters.

Some of you are saying, “You idiot, a CREATURE needs to deal combat damage to double the counters on it, Planeswalkers don't attack.” You're right. And wrong. Everyone's favorite White Planeswalker, Gideon, (RIP) has quite the habit of turning into a creature. My plan was simple: let Gideon become a creature, have it do damage to an opponent, double its loyalty counters, then ultimate him. Not all Gideons are created equal, but I play each of them to their strengths. Let's look at Gideon Blackblade for starters. It has a static ability that makes it a creature on my turn, so I don't have to use a loyalty ability to animate it. That means I'm that much closer to the -6 ability and exiling a troublesome permanent. I'll even make deals with opponents to let them pick the permanent to be exiled if they let Gideon in for damage. The usual turn of events goes like this: 1st turn, +1 Gideon Blackblade since it doesn't have Haste, now at 5 loyalty. 2nd Turn, Make the deal, double my counters with combat damage, and exile something. Now it's at 4 Loyalty. 3rd turns, make the same deal with the guy who just lost something important. Attack, damage, double my 4 counters, use the exile ability again, and end the turn with 2 counters. It's consistent, efficient, and funny. The downside here is that since this Gideon is always a creature on my turn, he's more susceptible to removal, including my own bardwipes. We'll see a little of that in the next paragraph.

Gideon, Champion of Justice is a different animal. He quickly climbs in loyalty if someone is playing tokens. The more creatures an opponent has sounds good for me, but I have to defend myself from all of them before I can ultimate this Gideon. This Gideon is the one with arguably the best ultimate since it clears the board of everything. It has to stick around an extra turn, though, to fire off the ultimate. All those creatures that give me the counters aren't going to make that easy. I find it best to play him later in the game. Cast Gideon, get the counters, then fire off a board wipe. It's easy with something like a foretold Doomskar. Sorry, Gideon Blackblade.

Since this build is a little unusual, it opened the door for me to play Gideons from the old Planeswalker decks. Gideon, Martial Paragon fits well since it taps all of the other creatures that could stand against me. Even the +2 is nice since I get to untap all of my creatures that attacked that turn to protect me and my other Planeswalkers. Gideon, the Oathsworn puts +1/+1 counters on my attacking creatures thanks to a static ability. Once those creatures connect, Arna doubles those counters. One more and then I'm moving away from Gideon. I included Gideon of the Trials because he insulates me from losing with that sweet emblem. I get a lot of heat after that emblem enters the game.

I mentioned having a little +1/+1 counter synergy in the deck. Aside from Gideon, the Oathsworn, I went and added Modular creatures. Not one of my crazy modular decks. I'm talking about Artifact Creatures with the Modular ability. If one of these creatures dies, I get to move its +1/+1 counters to another Modular creature. All of that investment sticks around. I added Power Depot to my mana base because it happens to have Modular as well. It can store my counters until I have a suitable creature to attack with. A creature like Arcbound Hybrid, because it has Haste, can make an immediate impact. Arcbound Reclaimer can help me save lost Modular creatures by moving them from the graveyard to the top of my Library. I added in Scrapyard Recombiner, not because of Modular, but because of the creature tutor ability. All these factors mean I always have a dumping ground for any +1/+1 counters I might be about to lose.

I have some other Planewalker support that has been key to the deck running smoothly. The easiest one to add in was Djeru, With Eyes Open. This Legendary Creature enters the battlefield and lets me tutor up any Planeswalker from my deck. He works great with Semester's End. That spell has saved my board multiple times. It's not a total loss since my Planeswalkers reenter with an extra loyalty counter, and Djeru does his thing all over again. Gatewatch Beacon is a mana rock that brings extra Loyalty counters and hands them off to Planeswalkers I cast. Oath of Gideon goes a step further and gives any Planeswalker that additional counter when it enters, not just three. Oath of Teferi and The Chain Veil allow me to double up the number of times I can activate loyalty abilities, really accelerating my plan.

I mentioned several cards that added additional Loyalty counters in one fashion or another. I found a couple of Planewalkers that do that too. Ajani Steadfast is great because it adds +1/+1 counters to my creatures and loyalty counters to my other Planeswalkers. Lolth, Spider Queen, Dovin, Grand Arbiter, Ajani Strength of the Pride, and Kaito Cunning Infiltrator all have ways to add additional loyalty counters to themselves. That's a little selfish, but it opened up a question: why can't these Planeswalkers get in on the doubled counters? Luxior, Giada's Gift can turn a walker into a creature that can now attack. Once it connects, I get to double its counters if my Commander is on the field. Arna also creates a token copy of Luxior in this instance. I have to sacrifice it since the artifact is Legendary, unless I have something like Mirror Box or Mirror Gallery on the field.

I have another use for those Mirrors I mentioned before. Those also work great with The Aetherspark. This Equipment gives one of my regular creatures access to loyalty abilities. The creature doesn't get the loyalty since the counters go on The Aetherspark, but there is another way here. If I can animate The Aetherspark, it becomes a Creature and can attack to double its own counters. Blue has a ton of options to turn Artifacts into creatures, so I leaned into that. Sydri, Galvanic Genius is a classic at doing just that, so it was a natural fit alongside The Aetherspark. Karn, Silver Golem is another classic that allows me to pay to animate my Artifacts. Even better is March of the Machines. This enchantment just sits there and animates all of my Artifacts. No choosing or paying is necessary. Dance of the Manse gives me another shot with my destroyed artifacts, returning them to the battlefield and making them creatures if I pay enough.

It was a gamble to have a specific Artifact and spell to animate it the turn I wanted to attack. Why limit myself? If I can make my Planeswalkers into artifacts, I can then make them creatures too. This blew the strategy wide open in regard to which Planeswalkers I can include and get the benefit for. Mycosynth Lattice just sits there and turns everything into an Artifact. Liquimetal Torque can ramp me or it can make a permanent into an Artifact. There's even more versatility to this strategy. Artifacts aren't the only permanents I can animate. Opalescence is the same for Enchantments as March of the Machines is for Artifacts. I just need to couple it with Enchanted Evening to get all of my newfound enchantments to become creatures.

I got ahead of myself. With Arna copying key equipment, I added in some killer options that really provide greater density to the deck. I try to fit Helm of the Host in as many decks as I can, and this deck is no exception. Making a second copy of Gideon or another animated Planeswalker is great, especially if the legend rule isn't a factor. It's the same reason I added in Spark Double.

That's the plan. Play my commander, attack with Planeswalkers, double my counters so I can get my ultimates out ASAP. So what does the deck look like? Like this

Arna Kennerud, Skycaptain

Giddeon, Ally of Zendikar	The Aetherspark	Arcbound Hybrid
Gideon Blackblade	The Chain Veil	Arcbound Javelineer
Gideon, Champion of Justice	Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion	Arcbound Ravager
Gideon Jura	Djeru, With Eyes Open	Arcbound Reclaimer
Gideon, Martial Paragon	Enchanted Evening	Scrapyard Recombiner
Gideon of the Trials	Opalesence	Clever Impersonator
Gideon, the Oathsworn	Mycosynth Lattice	Mirror Gallery
Grand Master of Flowers	Ensoul Artifact	Mirror Box
Kytheon, Hero of Akros	Karn, Silver Golem	Helm of the Host
Elspeth, Sun's Champion	Liquimetal Torque	Urza Assembles the Titans
Ajani Steadfast	Sydri, Galvanic Genius	Spark Rupture
Ajani, Strength of the Pride	March of the Machines	Spark Double
Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator	Luxior, Giada's Gift	Settle the Score
Dovin, Grand Arbiter	Settle the Score	Deification
Lolth, Spider Queen	Elspeth Conquers Death	Gatewatch Beacon
Command the Dreadhorde	Dance of the Manse	Gideon's Company
Spectral Guardian	Debt of Loyalty	Oath of Gideon
Semester's End	Timewipe	Oath of Teferi
Elspeth's Talent	Generous Gift	Kaya's Ghostform
Teferi's Talent	Requisition Raid	Aetheric Amplifier
Liliana's Talent	Doomskar	Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion
Kaito, Bane of Monsters
Scavenger Grounds	Bojuka Bog	Blast Zone
Power Depot	Arcane Sanctum	Arid Archway
Secluded Steppe	Lonely Sandbar	Barren Moor
Tectonic Edge	Ghost Quarter	Wasteland
Plains x8	Island x8	Swamp x7

The deck is fun to play for sure. It does rely on me having my commander on the field. This actually creates a problem for opponents. Opponents see Planeswalkers and want to destroy them. If I have my commander out, it often gets overlooked from attacks and removal as opponents focus on the walkers. It's key not to overcommit to the board and time my board wipes well. Overcommitting just opens me to a blowout and losing a ton of permanents from a mass removal spell. Especially with Mycosynth Latice or Enchanted Evening out. I have to time my own mass removal and make sure my Planeswalkers aren't in a more fragile state of being and get removed by my own spell.

I'm going to keep looking for underutilized commander options and see what type of design space has been overlooked by the masses. But what do you think? Would you be intimidated by an army of Gideons or other plaeswalkers?

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