Ranking the Planeswalkers in MTG Shards of Alara For Standard Play

When the Shards of Alara planeswalkers were released, they got the MTG community talking. They were the first planeswalkers to be in the mythic rare slot, so they were harder to collect than your average planeswalker.

Now that a couple months has passed, we can look back and see which planeswalkers are actually doing well in the Standard tournament scene.

Here are my current rankings for the four planeswalkers from Shards of Alara.

1. Ajani Vengeant

This guy was initially dismissed as not being powerful enough. First, he can only use his second ability once before he has to recharge with his first ability. Second, his ultimate ability takes awhile to charge.

But what many players didn't realize is that Ajani's first ability is very powerful. Also, Ajani is in the color of the best one drop creature in Standard, Figure of Destiny.

These two things have made Ajani a tournament staple in red/white decks like Kithkin and Boat Brew.

2. Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Like Ajani, Elspeth was thought of as not being powerful enough for serious tournament play. However, savvy players realized that her abilities were actually very synergistic with the existing Standard cards.

For example, there are many white decks that play Windbrisk Heights. I already talked about the red/white decks but mono white aggro Kithkin decks and black/white token decks also play the Lorwyn land. This land works very well as long as you have a lot of creatures. Elspeth fits well in this strategy since she is a creature generator like Bitterblossom.

3. Tezzeret the Seeker

I thought this blue planeswalker would be strictly a Vintage card. However, Conflux brings new cards that could make Tezzeret a good Standard card. Conflux brings artifacts like Cumberstone and Scepter of Dominance.

Some rogue deck builders have reported success with playing these artifacts with Tezzeret.

4. Sarkhan Vol

Sarkhan Vol was the most hyped planeswalker in the set. It started out as a $20-$25 card but now it's in the $15-$20 range.

Why hasn't this red/green planeswalker made a dent in the tournament scene? The reason is pretty simple. There are no good red/green decks in the format. The closest thing we have is the red/green/black Jund mana ramp deck. However, that deck is not very good because green lost Harmonize.

So, while Sarkhan Vol's abilities are very powerful, he just hasn't found a deck that fits him well.

Credit:ezinearticles

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