Each deck in Magic Spellslingers has a color identity tied to the chosen character, but many Spellslingers have special abilities that allow a splash of another color and sometimes more under specific conditions.
10. Ajani
The green-white cat planeswalker—who may or may not be a Phyrexian sleeper agent in Magic Spellslingers—is all about giving creatures incremental bonuses until they overwhelm your opponent. Ajani’s Mentor ability gives the next creature +1/+1 every time you target a friendly creature with anything. Both spells and abilities give the bonus and by loading your deck up with cards that target your creatures, you can turn even the smallest creature into a threat.
9. Teferi
In Magic Spellslingers, Teferi is the king of trap cards. His Outwit ability has him drawing a card for every third trap you cast. As a primarily control Spellslinger, Teferi rewards players for playing reactively. Unfortunately for Teferi, good trap cards are rare in blue and white. As Magic Spellslingers releases more cards though, odds are more traps will become available for Teferi to use. As one of the few control-focused Spellslingers in the game, Teferi fills a specific role that will only get stronger as the game grows.
8. Kiora
The behemoth queen is in here to summon big creatures and ramp as fast as she possibly can. With her Beckon Behemoths ability, Kiora creates a random leviathan creature in your hand once you reach 10, 15, and 20 mana gems. Reaching 10 mana gems early isn’t difficult with cards like Sylvan Shrine, Birds of Paradise, and Kiora’s Tideshaper to help ramp up. However, getting to 10 mana gems still takes time, leaving Kiora vulnerable in the early stages of the game.
7. Vivien
Vivien is a spellslinger all about value. With her Nurture ability, players can spend one mana to store a random upgrade. These upgrades can range from random keywords to stat increases. With this ability, Vivien can turn even the smallest creature into a powerhouse for just one extra mana. Because of the randomness of the ability, it can be difficult to reliably give your creatures something useful.
6. Liliana
Everyone’s favorite planeswalker is here with an army of the undead to dominate the battlefield. With her Grave Ambition ability, Liliana gives a permanent +1/+1 to a creature when it leaves the graveyard and you gain one life. Combined with the powerful Relentless ability, where a creature returns to the battlefield once after it dies, creatures in her deck get stronger as they rise from the grave. Liliana and her relentless creatures are a great Spellslinger for players just starting off.
5. Domri
Players looking for an aggro strategy in Magic Spellslingers need to look no further than Domri. Thanks to his Unbridled Rage ability, every fifth creature summoned adds a zero mana 3/2 War Boar to your hand. The more creatures you summon, and in turn throw in your opponent’s face, the more free creatures you get. Domri’s unique spell package comes with two creatures that power up your War Boars with new stats and keywords, adding tons of value to the creatures you summon.
4. Ral
The combo king Ral took a bit of a hit in a recent patch, but that doesn’t mean he’s completely out of the game. With his special ability, Storm Conduit, every third spell you cast has its cost reduced by two and Ral deals an additional one damage to your opponent. Ral has the potential to be extremely dangerous as more spell cards are released. Inevitably there will be more cheap spells released and more chances to trigger Storm Conduit consistently.
3. Vraska
This green and black Spellslinger is here for the long game. While Vraska might not have as many abilities as some of the other characters on this list, her Dramatic Exit ability provides a consistent source of value over the course of a game. Each time a creature with Finale dies on your turn, the trigger happens twice. Toss in some quality removal and a few cards to bring back some of your more valuable creatures and you have a deck that literally won’t quit.
2. Drizzt
The most recent Spellslinger to be added to Magic Spellslingers, Drizzt Do’Urden comes straight from the Forgotten Realms to do battle against Magic: The Gathering’s planeswalkers. As a green and white Spellslinger, Drizzt has a unique ability called Companions of the Hall, where he may have up to six legendary creatures of any color in his deck. While players can only have one copy of a legendary creature, regular cards can have a max of two of any single card, the legendary creatures in Spellslingers bring a huge amount of power to play.
Drizzt’s Champion of the Hall ability is directly tied to his other unique ability, Guenhwyvar’s Aid. Every time you attack with a legendary creature, Drizzt summons an attacking Guenhwyvar creature with trample, who gains +1/+0 with every attack. Slam a legendary creature with evasion like Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant or Tajic, Legion’s Edge and Guenhwyvar will quickly grow out of control
1. Ashiok
Easily the best control Spellslinger in the game, Ashiok relies heavily on stealing cards from their opponent’s deck and in return leaving them with Nightmares attached to a random card in their deck. Each time they add a card to their hand that did not start in their deck, and when they play one of those cards, they add a Nightmare. Each Nightmare Drains 1 life away from their opponent and adds it to their own.
With this ability, Ashiok can sustain some early damage against aggro decks, soaking up damage by stealing it from your opponent, and control the board with a wide range of removal spells. While they start with a relatively low health total, Ashiok quickly dominates games once their Nightmares start to trigger.
Ryan (he/him) has been writing about Magic: The Gathering and video games for years, and loves absolutely terrible games. Send him your bad game takes over at Twitter where he occasionally rants about everything from cats to Lord of the Rings.