Planeswalkers are a huge part of Magic: The Gathering. More than any other card type, a large majority of the lore revolves around Planeswalkers, and they're often game-warping the moment they enter the battlefield. And with the impending release of the Dominaria United expansion, the field of iconic Planeswalker cards is about to see a fresh influx of incredible power on the board.
Powerful Planeswalkers can dominate a game of Magic almost by themselves, but it isn't always the big blowout effects that make the card type shine. Many of the best Planeswalkers are about accruing small advantages throughout the course of the game with their plus and minus effects, but their huge "ultimate" effects also make for fun win conditions.
Karn Liberated
Deckbuilding is an important part of Magic: The Gathering, and Karn was the first big star of a very specific type of Modern deck: Tron.
In recent years, Karn Liberated has lost favor in some Tron lists to its much cheaper brother Karn, The Great Creator. However, the card is still very powerful in slower formats like Commander and Green Modern decks, which can ramp it out faster. Karn may be a little less universal nowadays, but he still has an important place in Modern and Commander.
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Magic: The Gathering Arena has proved to make for a very fun Esport for anyone to watch, and one of its earliest formats was dominated by Teferi, Hero of Dominaria.
Hero of Dominaria defined the standard metagame for quite a while, with its +1 ability being the key feature that makes the card so frustrating. Teferi doesn't only drew a card every turn; he also untaps two lands during the end step so that the player gets free mana for instants.
Ugin, The Spirit Dragon
Ugin the Spirit Dragon is a powerful force in Modern. The card finds play in Tron decks as well as plenty of other rogue decks that are colorless heavy.
Ugin's +2 ability can take out creatures to buy time for a fairly quick ultimate or even burn for a win. It's -X ability is arguably the bread and butter of the card, allowing it to potentially completely clear an aggressive deck's board on the turn it's played while still keeping enough loyalty to survive. Its ultimate is pretty game winning if it goes off as well, like most good planeswalkers.
Karn, The Great Creator
Magic: The Gathering Arena's historic format makes it one of the best digital trading card games on the market, and Karn, The Grand Creator is a big part of the format.
Karn is so powerful that it's restricted in Vintage and is a key component of many modern decks as well. Almost no cards in the game have the power to access the player's sideboard, and Karn does just that. For just -2, Karn can take an artifact that's exiled or in the player's sideboard and add it to hand. Additionally, it has a brutal passive effect that negates activated abilities of the opponent's artifacts.
Teferi, Time Raveler
Terferi is well known for having Planeswalker cards that are fun to play and miserable to play against. Teferi, Time Raveler is no different in that regard.
Teferi's +1 lets the play cast sorceries at instant speed, a very powerful effect in the right deck. The -3 bounces a card to draw a card, a pretty reasonable tempo tool. However, the passive ability he has in place of an ultimate makes the card completely broken: preventing the opponent from casting any spells at instant speed.
Narset, Partner of Veils
Narset, Partner of Veils is restricted in Vintage for a reason. The card is strange even from a quick glance, as it's one of very few Planeswalkers not to have a way to gain loyalty.
In fact, the card has only one active ability: a -2 to its five loyalty that lets the player look through the top four cards of their deck for a noncreature, nonland card. It's powerful, but the passive is where Narset shines. The opponents of Narset's controller can only draw one card a turn, destroying combo decks and even setting up combos that can leave the opponents with zero cards in hand.
Liliana of the Veil
Liliana of the Veil is one of the most iconic Planeswalkers of all time and is the flagship Planeswalker players think of when they think of Black in Magic.
While Liliana's +1 ability to make every player discard a card may seem innocent, decks built around it with Madness or other abilities to play through their discarded cards won't suffer nearly as much. Liliana's effect to make a play sacrifice a creature for only -2 is just as brutal, considering she has a very low mana cost at 3.
Wrenn and Six
Wrenn and Six was such a powerful card that it was banned in legacy and is one of the most powerful cards currently in Modern.
Many fans may be surprised that a two-mana Planeswalker could be so powerful, but Wrenn and Six is so powerful precisely because it's too many. The card simply gets too many resources and is too easy to keep around. It's especially overpowered in the 4-color Omnath deck.
Jace, The Mind Sculptor
Every TCG has a "face to the game," like Blue-Eyes in Yu-Gi-Oh! or Charizard in the Pokémon TCG. While many people equate Black Lotus to this, Jace is also a worthy contender for the face of Magic: The Gathering.
Jace is the ultimate blue card, with the ability to rearrange deck state, draw cards, and bounce creatures. The ult isn't the biggest reason the card is so powerful, but it's almost always game over if the effect ever resolves. There's a reason that Jace is a dominating force in Modern and a very useful inclusion in Commander.
Oko, Thief of Crowns
Few people expected Oko to be as powerful as he was when the card was previewed. However, it's so overpowered that it's been banned in Standard, Modern, and Vintage.
Oko's ability to turn any artifact or creature into a vanilla 3/3 Elk is arguably the most broken Planeswalker +1 ability in the entire game. Its other two abilities are powerful, but no card can so easily dismantle an opponent's entire strategy so easily while also somehow gaining loyalty. Not only that, but the player can also use it on their own artifacts if they want to use the ability aggressively.