Planeswalker Party precon upgrade guide

You have seen three planeswalkers by turn six in about one game in three, and Commodore Guff’s big ability wants as many of them in play as you can manage.

Guff’s minus ability draws X cards and deals X damage to each opponent, where X is the number of planeswalkers you control when it resolves, Guff included. He enters with 5 loyalty, so the first use leaves him on 2, and his own end-step trigger starts refilling the rest of your team. The box has 17 other planeswalkers in its 99 cards: five cost 3, six cost 4, four cost 5 and two cost 6. Across the first twelve cards on the play you see three or more of them 33.8% of the time, and four or more 12.3% of the time.

The deck builds that plan and then leaves three gaps. Five lands enter tapped. Its protection against an attack on a walker is mostly taxes, a sorcery and a cap that binds you as well. And it has few ways to draw, so X arrives before the hand to spend it does. Nine swaps close those gaps for $40.14 at the cheapest released printing of each card as of October 2026 (sometimes a promo).

What are the best Planeswalker Party upgrades?

Ordered by what each one changes about how the deck plays, not by price. The three shocklands are $27.36 of the $40.14, and the other six cards cost $12.78 between them.

1. Settle the Wreckage ($0.62): four mana at instant speed, and every creature one player attacks with is exiled. It answers a whole attack after attackers are declared and leaves your own board alone. The box’s Nevinyrral's Disk can do that too, but it takes your artifacts and enchantments with it. The cards it replaces are further down.
2. Teferi, Hero of Dominaria ($2.85): a walker that draws a card every turn and untaps two lands at the end step, with a minus ability that tucks any nonland permanent third from the top of its owner’s library.
3. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar ($0.74): 4 loyalty, and a zero ability that makes a 2/2 Knight every turn. Each Knight is a blocker standing in front of the other walkers.
4. Fact or Fiction ($0.20): an instant that puts five cards in front of an opponent and gives you one of the two piles.
5. Steam Vents ($9.95), Sacred Foundry ($10.23) and Hallowed Fountain ($7.18): they replace the three Temples and enter untapped for 2 life.
6. Needleverge Pathway ($4.16) and Riverglide Pathway ($4.21): untapped duals that add red sources, the colour the mana is shortest in.

Nine cards come out, the last two of them basic lands.

Two more walkers, and the odds of holding them

The two walkers in the list lift the count from 17 to 19, so the same twelve cards show you three or more of them 41.5% of the time and four or more 17.2% of the time. That’s nearly eight points on the three-walker case for two card swaps. It counts cards seen, not cards cast, and a hand of walkers you can’t pay for is the failure the lands further down are for.

Guff’s end-step trigger pads one walker’s loyalty every turn, and it’s worth planning around. Elspeth, Sun's Champion enters with 4 loyalty, makes three Soldiers with her plus ability and sits on 6 if the trigger picks her. Her minus ability, which destroys every creature with power 4 or greater, is available the next turn and leaves her on 3.

Oath of Teferi is the card that makes the new draw engine matter. It lets you activate each walker’s loyalty abilities twice a turn, and the ruling allows the same ability twice, so Teferi, Hero of Dominaria can plus twice for two cards and 6 loyalty. It stays. It’s a five-mana enchantment that does nothing alone, and with this many walkers I wouldn’t cut it.

Silent Arbiter caps your own Dragons at one, and three more cuts

Silent Arbiter says no more than one creature can attack each combat and no more than one can block, and that applies to you. Sarkhan the Masterless turns every walker you control into a 4/4 flying Dragon until end of turn, and Sparkshaper Visionary turns any number of them into 3/3 hexproof Birds at the start of combat. With the Arbiter out, either one attacks with a single creature. It’s a 1/5 that costs four, and in this deck it switches off two of the ways the walkers win.

Norn's Annex has mana value 5 and makes each creature attacking you or a walker pay {W} or 2 life. That taxes an attack and doesn’t stop one, since every attacker can pay life instead of mana. Onakke Oathkeeper taxes attacks on walkers for {1} per creature at two mana, and it stays.

Promise of Loyalty is a five-mana sorcery in which each player keeps one creature and sacrifices the rest. This deck makes a lot of its own bodies: the Wizards from Guff, the Soldiers from Elspeth, the Wall from Teyo, Geometric Tactician and the two Kor Allies from Oath of Gideon. They go in the same pile as the table’s.

Wayfarer's Bauble costs {1}, then {2}, tap and sacrifice to fetch a basic land tapped. Three mana for one tapped land is thin next to Sol Ring, Arcane Signet and the six Signets and Talismans in the box.

Settle the Wreckage is what takes their slots. It targets one player, exiles every creature that player is attacking with, and lets them search for that many basic lands, put onto the battlefield tapped. That last part is a real cost. Exile four attackers and the player gets four lands, so save it for the attack that was going to end you or a walker you can’t replace. It also exiles hexproof attackers as it resolves, since it targets only the player.

Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs, Mangara, the Diplomat, Fog Bank and Wall of Denial all stay. Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs costs five, but you count as the defending player whenever a creature attacks you or one of your walkers, so each attacker either pays {3} or hands you a 3/3 Ogre.

Three Temples, two basics and a red source gain

The box has five lands that always enter tapped, and three of them are the Temples: Temple of Epiphany, Temple of Triumph and Temple of Enlightenment. Each scries 1 and that’s all it has going for it. Mystic Monastery and Myriad Landscape stay, since one makes all three colours and the other fetches two basics. After the swaps the always-tapped count is two.

The three shocklands take the same colour pairs, one for one: Steam Vents for the blue-red Temple, Sacred Foundry for the red-white one and Hallowed Fountain for the white-blue one. Each enters untapped if you pay 2 life and tapped if you don’t. They have land types, which gives them two small extra jobs in this box. Frostboil Snarl, Furycalm Snarl and Port Town can reveal them from your hand to enter untapped, and Oreskos Explorer and Cartographer's Hawk can search up a Sacred Foundry or a Hallowed Fountain when their conditions are met, since each is a Plains card.

Red is where the box is thinnest. The count is 24 red sources against 27 blue and 28 white, and the double-red cards are Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Chandra, Awakened Inferno, Sarkhan the Masterless, Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs and Repeated Reverberation. A Plains and an Island come out for Needleverge Pathway and Riverglide Pathway, which takes the count to 26 red, 27 blue and 28 white. Having {R}{R} by turn five on the play goes from 80.3% to 84.4%.

Treat that 26 as a ceiling. The calculator counts a Pathway for both of its faces, and once you play one it’s only one colour. The two Pathways are $8.37 together against $27.36 for the shocklands, so if you only buy some of the lands, start with them. Steam Vents, Sacred Foundry and Hallowed Fountain are in Star Trek on 13 November 2026, so those three prices may fall.

The $60 draw engine I left out

Rhystic Study is $59.95 at its cheapest paper printing, the original Prophecy one, and it’s a Game Changer. A table of opponents who all cast spells is exactly what it feeds on, and it’s the best blue card I didn’t add. At that price it costs half again what the whole swap list does. Price is the reason here, not the bracket. The box already runs Narset, Parter of Veils, a Game Changer, which sets the floor at Bracket 3 before any swap, and nothing in the nine adds another.

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Fact or Fiction do the cheaper version of the job: one draws every turn the walker lives, the other is a single burst at instant speed. Mystic Remora ($10.58) was the other candidate. Its cumulative upkeep rises every turn in a deck that wants its mana for four- and five-mana walkers, so I passed. Rhystic Study is the one I’d buy next.

What the nine swaps moved

Walkers in the 99 go from 17 to 19. Creatures go from 17 to 16, since Silent Arbiter is the only one to leave. Average mana value goes from 3.51 to 3.54 across the nonland cards. The land count stays at 38, with 16 basics, and the bracket floor is 3 before and after.

The upgraded decklist

The hundred cards as they stand after the nine swaps. Hover any name for the card.

Load into the deck builder Copy decklist

“Load into the deck builder” opens this list in your account, pinned to the printings the box shipped, ready to edit or save. “Copy decklist” gives you plain text for Moxfield, Archidekt or Arena — no account needed.

FAQ

Does Commodore Guff count himself for his own minus ability?

Yes. Guff is a planeswalker you control, and X is worked out as the ability resolves, so he’s in the count. Alone he makes X equal to 1. With Guff and three other walkers it’s 4: four cards and 4 damage to each opponent, leaving Guff on 2 loyalty.

How much do the nine Planeswalker Party swaps cost?

$40.14 for all nine at the cheapest released printing of each card, as of October 2026. The three shocklands are $27.36 of that, and all three are in Star Trek on 13 November 2026, so those prices may fall. The two Pathways are $8.37, and the other four cards are $4.41 together.

Does Settle the Wreckage help the player I exile?

In lands, yes. That player may search for as many basic lands as the creatures they lost, put onto the battlefield tapped, and tokens count toward the number. It targets one player, so in a pod where two opponents attack the same walker it only answers one of them.

Is Rhystic Study worth $60 in this deck?

It’s the best card I skipped, and the one I’d buy next. It draws a card whenever an opponent casts a spell unless they pay {1}, and it’s a Game Changer. At $59.95 it costs more than the nine swaps together. Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Fact or Fiction cover the same gap for $3.05.

Should I pay 2 life for Steam Vents, Sacred Foundry and Hallowed Fountain?

Early, usually, because a tapped land costs you a play and a walker deck is racing to land its third one. Later, only if you need the mana that turn, since each can enter tapped instead for nothing.

Is a Temple worth keeping for the scry?

I’d cut all three. A scry 1 on turn two is worth something, but the box already has Mystic Monastery and Myriad Landscape entering tapped, and a third and fourth tapped land costs more than the scry returns.