Edible Magic The Gathering Planeswalker Cake Decorating

Welcome to our Planeswalker Decks Guide for Core 2021. Are you a new player who's just starting out? Or maybe you play some casual Magic every now and then? Well, whatever it is, we can help you pick the best Planeswalker Deck for you.

For each deck we'll first check its decklist, then take a look at which themes are present in the deck and figure out how to upgrade it.

Here's how to upgrade part will work. We won't just say build this exact decklist. Rather, you'll get some general suggestions for good cards and you can decide which ones to include, depending on what you have and like. Suggestions will mostly be budget friendly cards from Core 2021.

With all that said, let's take a look at what stuff you'll get in each Planeswalker Deck.

Planeswalker Deck Core 2021 Contents

Each Planeswalker deck contains the following:

60 card deck
cardboard deck box
1 Core 2021 Booster Pack
strategy insert (information about that specific deck)
2 reference cards (with some reminders about rules)
MTG Arena code

The cardboard deck box you get is a pretty nice looking one (it has the art of the chosen planeswalker). However, it's not the most sturdy one and if you sleeve your cards, they won't fit in it anymore. So if you want a better one, you can find best Magic deck boxes here.

Booster pack is always welcome. It contains 15 cards, one of which is a guaranteed rare or a mythic rare. You might immediately get a card or two, which could fit in your new deck.

MTG Arena code is another nice addition. You get an exact copy of the deck on Arena as well. If you aren't playing Arena, you should definitely check it out. It's the best platform for playing Magic on your computer. It's also an easy way to learn how to play the game.

Deck Contents

All decks follow the same general pattern. Here's what's in these 60 card decks.

1 Planeswalker Card

As the name suggest, each Planeswalker Deck contains a planeswalker card. These planeswalkers have lower power level, as they all cost six mana and don't have as strong abilities as the ones you can open in boosters.

However, they're still pretty fun to play with and balanced well against one another.

Basri Devoted Paladin Planeswalker Decks Core 2021 Upgrade Guide

Teferi Timeless Voyager Planeswalker Decks Core 2021 Upgrade Guide

4 Rare Cards

Each deck contains 4 rare cards. Two of those are the same – you can only get them in these decks. They have a small effect that let's you find your planeswalker. Example: Basri's Aegis

Furthermore, you get two regular rares (meaning you can also open them in booster packs). One of them is thematically tied to respective planeswalker. For example, Garruk gets Garruk's Harbinger. You can find others in the decklists bellow.

25 Common and Uncommon Cards

Rest of the non-land cards are commons and uncommons. Each deck also contains 4 copies of a common and 3 copies of an uncommon, specific to the Planeswalker Decks – you can't get them in regular boosters.

You can find those by looking at the number in the bottom left corner. If it's greaterer than 274 (number of cards in Core 2021 boosters), it's a planeswalker deck exclusive card.

24 Basic Lands + 1 Showcase Basic Land

Finally, each deck contains 25 basic lands. One of them has a special Showcase style. These lands can be found only here and in Core 2021 Collector Boosters. Don't they look amazing?

Plains-Basri-Showcase Collector Booster M21

It's worth mentioning that you won't get this basic land style on Arena when you use the Planeswalker deck code. All cards that you get on Arena are the regular versions.

White – Basri Ket

Basri Ket Planeswalker Deck

Planeswalkers (1)

Creatures (25)

Spells (7)

Enchantments (2)

Lands (25)

Cards (60)

Who is this deck for? For anyone who would like to win with small fair creatures, which get bigger when the game progresses.

Price: check on Amazon

Themes

+1/+1 Counters

That's the major theme of the deck. You want to make your small cheap creatures bigger with +1/+1 creatures and defeat your opponent fairly quickly. There are 18 cards in this deck that grant counters to themselves and/or other creatures.

Life Gain

12 cards in Basri Planeswalker deck gain life in one way or another. There are also some payoff cards, but not that many and you're probably better off by focusing on the counters theme.

However, lifelink creatures work well with counters (the bigger they are, more life you'll get), so no need to remove those.

Upgrades

A single best card to get for this deck is probably Basri's Lieutenant. At its worst you can put a +1/+1 counter on it and you get a 4/5 with protection and vigilance, that also makes a 2/2 when it dies. However, if you do have other creatures with counters, (which you often will) it makes them better as well!

You already have one in the deck, so you want three more. It's fairly cheap – even the version with the Showcase style. You can check its price here.

Selfless Savior is another cool card you can add, it's cheap so you can put counters on it very quickly. Besides that it also protects your best creature. That's one good boy!

You probably also want some copies of Basri's Solidarity so you can buff all of your creatures in one go. Once you decide to go for it, you want some cards that make multiple creatures. Core 2021 doesn't have many of those, so we'd suggest a card from other sets in Raise the Alarm. It gives you two bodies for just two mana to buff with counters.

Life Gain – Yes or No?

If you decide to pursue the life gain theme, you need Ajani's Pridemate instead of more expensive cards like Aven Gagglemaster. Pridemate works well with both of your themes, but you'll also need more life gain – maybe some more cheap life gain creatures?

However, you can still just abandon the life gain aspect an focus only on +1/+1 counters, which will make your deck more focused and probably better as a result.

Don't forget to add additional removal spells. Let's say 2 Banishing Lights, for a full playset (4 copies of a card).

Finally, you can remove a single basic land card, if you removed some of your more expensive cards. You can also upgrade a basic land with to Castle Ardenvale, which will help you when you draw too many lands.

Blue – Teferi, Timeless Voyager

Teferi, Timeless Voyager Planeswalker Deck

Planeswalkers (1)

Teferi, Timeless Voyager

Creatures (19)

Spells (10)

Artifacts (2)

Enchantments (3)

Teferi's Ageless Insight

Lands (25)

Cards (60)

Who is this deck for? For players who want to draw lots of cards, have many options and feel smarter then their opponents.

Price: check on Amazon

Themes

Card Draw

There are 16 cards in Teferi Planeswalker deck that draw you more cards. Card draw is already pretty good by itself, as it gives you more options, but you also get some additional payoff with cards like Faerie Vandal.

Prowess

Whenever you cast a noncreature spell all you prowess creatures get bigger. With spells like Opt these can quickly get out of control. The deck only has 5 prowess creatures, so you might want to add more of them.

Upgrades

You can try and get three more copies of Stormwing Entity as it fits nicely in the deck, giving you a cheap threat with some card selection.

Something like Unsubstantiate can be a nice way of interacting with your opponent's stuff, when you're playing blue. You can also use a card, which isn't in M21, Essence Scatter to get rid of creatures before they even come into play.

Finally, Sublime Epiphany is a really nice combo with Shipwreck Dowser. As one of the modes you choose to make a copy of Dowser, which can get you Epiphany back immediately. Now that's some insane value!

Maybe Mill?

You can also build your deck in whole another way. You replace your aggressive creatures with better defenders and you play 4 copies of Teferi's Tutelage as your win condition.

Sure you can win by dealing 20 damage to your opponent, but that's not the only way. Whenever a player would draw a card from their deck and can't (because there aren't any cards in the deck) they lose the game – and you win if you're playing 1 vs 1.

So you can use Tutelage and cheap card draw spells to mill all of your opponent's card to win the game. Pretty neat, huh?

But be careful when you use that type of strategy against deck that can utilize its graveyard, as this next Liliana deck we got here, for example.

Black – Liliana, Death Mage

Liliana, Death Mage Planeswalker Deck

Planeswalkers (1)

Creatures (24)

Liliana's Standard Bearer

Spells (9)

Enchantments (1)

Lands (25)

Cards (60)

Who is this deck for? For anyone who likes zombies and doing some shenanigans with getting creatures back from graveyard.

Price: check on Amazon

Themes

Graveyard

Black decks usually use the graveyard as a resource. So does Liliana, Death Mage. You can get any creature back from your graveyard with her first ability.

Demonic Embrace is also pretty cool, as you can replay it from your graveyard, making any one of your creatures a must-deal-with threat. Once it is dealt with, you just embrace another one.

Death Triggers

Some cards can sacrifice stuff for value (like Bushmeat Poacher), while others will do something when they (or something else) dies – Liliana's Standard Bearer for example.

Using them in conjunction with one another can give you a significant advantage.

Upgrades

Black is a color of great removal. That's why you shouldn't play mediocre cards like Alchemist's Gift and Unlikely Aid. Just in Core 2021 you can get both Eliminate and a fourth copy of Grasp of Darkness – those aren't even rares!

If you want to sacrifice creatures, Village Rites can also be very efficient.

This deck probably contains the best card from all Planeswalker Decks in Core 2021 – previously mentioned Demonic Embrace. This card made a new black aggressive deck competitive in Standard. If you want, you can slowly build towards it. However, keep in mind that a lot of cards in that deck will rotate out of Standard in autumn 2020. If you'll just play at home, there's no need to worry about that, though.

Red – Chandra, Flame's Catalyst

Chandra, Flame's Catalyst Planeswalker Deck

Planeswalkers (1)

Chandra, Flame's Catalyst

Creatures (22)

Spells (11)

Enchantments (1)

Lands (25)

Cards (60)

Who is this deck for? For anyone who likes to win quickly by directly attacking their opponent.

Price: check on Amazon

Themes

Burn

Burn spells are red spells that deal damage, preferably directly to the opponent. This deck has both Shock and Slaying Fire as such cards. There are also nine creatures like Storm Caller that can deal damage without attacking.

All of these work nicely with Chandra's Pyreling and Chandra's Incinerator.

Prowess

There is also a soft prowess theme present. Even though Heartfire Immolator is the only card that actually has prowess written on it, Spellgorger Weird and Pyroceratops work in the same way – even better, as they get to keep their buffs even after the turn ends.

Upgrades

First you want a full playset (4 copies) of both Shock and Slaying Fire.

Because of your burn theme, you also want three more copies of Chandra's Incinerator, as it can be very efficient in a deck like this. You might even cast it for one measly mana. Chandra's Magmutt also works well with it.

You can also build around Cavalcade of Calamity, which works great with Chandra's Pyreling. You can take a look at this mono red decklist for inspiration, most of the cards can also be found in the Red Challenger deck, although that's a whole different product.

If you manage to remove some of the cards that cost 4+ mana, you can also remove a land or two from your deck. In any case, you can also upgrade a land with Castle Embereth, which can buff all of your creatures.

Green – Garruk, Savage Herald

Garruk, Savage Herald Planeswalker Deck

Planeswalkers (1)

Creatures (26)

Spells (6)

Enchantments (2)

Lands (25)

Cards (60)

Who is this deck for? For anyone who would like to win with BIG! monsters.

Price: check on Amazon

Themes

4+ Power

This green deck is build just around this theme. It wants to play big creatures, preferably ones with power 4 or greater. It already has 8 creatures that have 4+ power by themselves and some of your other creatures can also get there.

You want to use Garruk's Uprising to keep drawing additional cards through the game. Play big creature, draw a card, smash your opponent with big creature. That's what green wants to do!

Upgrades

First, try to get two additional copies of Garruk's Uprising, so you'll take full advantage of your big creatures.

Furthermore, you want more creatures with 4+ power, preferably efficiently costed ones. Garruk's Harbinger fits both criteria and it's especially good, when you play against a black deck. Even though it's a rare it doesn't cost much (check price here).

Something like Elder Gargaroth would also fit very nicely in a deck like this, but that one's quite expensive, as you can see from its price on Amazon. However, you can use something like Wildwood Scourge, as a budget friendly option. It's scales depending on your mana and can sometimes be even bigger than Gargaroth.

Ilysian Caryatid can help you get lots of mana and you can definitely use it in a deck like this, so try to get another two copies of it.

Are M21 Planeswalker Decks Worth It?

Are you just starting out with Magic the Gathering? If so, Planeswalker decks are definitely worth it. You get a Magic deck that you can play right out of the box. Sure, they aren't the best in power level, but you can quickly improve them by just opening some booster packs.

Don't forget to also use the code you get inside the product on MTG Arena. Each code can only be used once.

A nice option you have is to buy two different planeswalker decks, that way you'll be able to play against a friend. As they are fairly balanced against each other, this is a really fun experience. You can also get all five of them. You don't need to even upgrade any of them and just use them as a self contained Magic game.

Planeswalker Decks Core 2021 Guide Guide — Click on the image to check price.

If you're a deeply enfranchised player, the Planeswalker Decks probably aren't worth it for you. These decks won't be winning tournaments any time soon.

However, if you like to play more casually, you can do what we suggested above. Just get all five planeswalker decks and use them as a self contained game. All players will have a deck of a similar power level and you can even use them for a game night with friends, who don't play Magic, as these decks are fairly easy to learn.

Besides, you'll also get five booster packs and five Showcase art basic lands, which you can use for your other decks.