By Amanda Stevens

It is hard to contest that Planeswalkers are game changing cards once they hit the table. Many of us are aware how hard it is to battle back in Limited when your opponent lands one of them on the table. Tiny Leaders, however, is a format where some of the strongest Planeswalkers are unplayable, such as Glimpse the Unthinkable and Garruk Wildspeaker. What kind of impact do the remaining 7 Planeswalkers have on the format?

Strengths: In decks with great Voltron deck themes, Ajani is a great game ender. His second ability to give a creature flying and double strike allows him to have a very high impact once he hits the board. Ajani’s first ability is pretty good to strengthen your army and allow you build up a creature.

Weaknesses: Ajani’s cost is pretty heavy with it being double White. This makes him harder to cast early in a format with less lands. This regulates Ajani to mono-colored decks. Also, his ultimate is pretty hard to hit even if can be game changing.

Recommended Tiny Leader: Isamaru, Hound of Konda. Isamaru is a very aggressive creature. Being the cheapest leader in the format, if you can follow Isamaru up with Ajani your opponent isn’t going to have much of clock.

Strengths: One of Ashiok’s strengths in Theros limited was their first ability to mill 3 cards a turn. With Tiny Leaders being a format with 50 cards deck size, Ashiok can get through an opponent’s deck fairly quickly. This ability is bolstered by the fact that cards like Tome Scour and Glimpse the Unthinkable being Tiny Leaders playable.

Weaknesses: I am going to be honest, Ashiok is one of the strongest Planeswalkers for Tiny Leaders. Not a single one Ahiok’s abilities is bad for the format, their color’s support them as a win condition, and its ultimate is reachable and back breaking.

Recommended Tiny Leader: Sygg, River Cutthroat. Ashiok doesn’t have many homes in Tiny Leaders, but I figured Sygg, River Cutthroat was a good fit. While a Sygg strategy can be very Voltron oriented, a version of Sygg that uses Black hand disruption, Lliana’s Caress and Megrim combined with Blue’s mill and control magic can go very far.

Strengths: Dack’s greatest strength probably is in his color combination. Aside from that, his first ability is strong for digging for answers.

Weaknesses: Unfortunately for Dack, his overall kit isn’t great. His ultimate’s emblem is tricky to make work, his second ability is really reliant on your opponent, and looting two cards at a time in a format with 49 card library size can be risky.

Recommended Tiny Leader: Nin, the Pain Artist. With this general, we are aggressively using Dack’s first ability to mill our opponent. We use Blue’s control magic and Red’s removal to confine their resources as Nin dwindles their library size.

Strengths: Domri is an all around solid Planeswalker. In the right deck, he will probably always net you a card from his first ability. His second ability allows you to snipe out pesky utility creatures.

Weaknesses: Like Ajani, Domri’s ultimate can is four turns away from activating after he hits the table. Also, as I stated in his strengths, Domri needs a deck built 100% around creatures if you don’t any turns that you whiff on his first ability.

Recommended Tiny Leader: Radha, Heir to Keld. Radha is a pretty aggressive general for Domri. She helps you cast those extra creatures you are drawing and fits Domri’s Gruul heritage.

Strengths: Tibalt doesn’t have much in the strength department. His loot ability is high risk, but can be worked around with planning. Also, his second ability can be a massive blow if you can and want to keep Tibalt alive that long.

Weaknesses: Like Ajani and all the other mono-colored Planeswalkers in Tiny Leaders, Tibalt is very heavy costed. Being double Red relegates him to mono Red decks which might only run him for his loot ability. Tibalt is probably the weakest of all of the Planeswalkers, even in Tiny Leaders.

Recommended Tiny Leader: Jaya Ballard, Task Mage. If I am going to have to make the most of Tibalt, I am going to want a Tiny Leader with a lot of diversity. Since Jaya is a Spellshaper and a prototype for the Planeswalker card type, she offers us a lot of utility to go with chaos of Tibalt. And since we are already discarding cards for Jaya’s abilities, our hand is less of a concern for us.

Strengths: Jace fits in well with two types of strategies. If you just want to use him like Dack Fayden and Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded, and only loot; he’s great. If you want to mill out your opponent with his ultimate, then just keep using his first ability. Blue has a lot of tricks to allow you to sit behind him to win the game.

Weaknesses: The only glaring weakness to Jace is that his first ability does net your opponent a card. If you do not have proper defenses and counter measures set up, this can and will bite you in the end. Otherwise, I rate Jace Beleren in the Top 3 of Planeswalkers in Tiny Leaders.

Recommended Tiny Leader: Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer. Gwafa plays into a lockdown strategy that works well with protecting your Jace. The added benefit that Gwafa allows you to take advance of White’s taxation effects means your opponent won’t get to use those extra cards you are giving them.

Strengths: I like to think of Liliana as a really strong guided missile. In mono Black decks, she can help continue to put the pressure on a weakened hands. In a deck with Green, she can help destroy your opponent while also setting up future plays with a strong recursion engine.

Weaknesses: Like Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver and Jace Beleren Liliana has no real weakness. Landing her will more than likely secure you the game versus your opponent.

Recommended Tiny Leader: Glissa, the Traitor. First off, this elf is aggressive and a great attacker and blocker. Second, she allows you have use of the cards you pitch to Liliana’s first ability. Three, she is part green, which has some of the better graveyard recursion for this format.

Like in most formats, most of the Planeswalkers eligible for Tiny Leaders are extremely back breaking. Heck, I even found a home for Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded. If you can land anyone of these guys or gals on the table, I am pretty sure you can just ask for the handshake.

Next week, I am going to show you some quirky spells you probably haven’t thought of for the format yet. ‘Til then, keep calm and play lands in front.