Commander Focus: Gideon, Planeswalker Decks, & Brigid, Clachan's Heart

Gideon Jura is dead. As one of the few lasting consequences of the War of the Spark storyline, his sacrifice in a climax marred by disjointed storytelling was a high point amid a feeling of cowardice to actually upset the status quo of modern Magic's character lineup. You wouldn't hear me say the same of Dovin Baan. While this decidedly-male Lawful Good himbo might be gone though, his memory lives on in the form of an absolute glut of Planeswalker cards. Being Monowhite's main representative after Ajani started exploring his identity—good for him—Gideon was the face of starter decks & Mythic slots alike in his time, and as someone whose very first experience with Magic was Aether Revolt, he's a cornerstone of my era of the game. On the topic of starter decks though, one thing lost in the shift to Commander as an intro format is a series of products known as Planeswalker Decks. These 60-card Standard-Legal decks with unique Planeswalkers came with 1-2 support cards which either tutored their face Planeswalker (as there was no Command Zone) or otherwise supported their subtype. These cards almost always fell below the power curve of the game as a whole (Verdant Crescendo, Tezzeret's Strider, etc), but there's always been one that's stood out to me: Companion of the Trials. If you meet its condition, that's a comically cheap, repeatable untap effect it has. Planeswalker Decks were part of how I got into the game as a whole, and given they're now a defunct product line, I wanted to do a send-up of that era's least-explored, technically-Standard-legal tools. It's an odd niche, but bear with me here. While we see Superfriends as a common archetype in Commander circles, less so are decks based around one specific Planeswalker, though I believe the Companion may be good enough justification (in the lower Brackets, anyways) to tilt towards good ol' Gids. Let's talk about how.

"Activate Only if You Control a Gideon Planeswalker."

The moment you saw mention of a repeatable untap engine in one of my articles, your first thought should have been a combo—the trick is finding an ideal Commander to lead such a list. Let's go over some criteria, before talking about who I've settled on. First and foremost, our Commander ideally is or finds a mana dork that taps for 2+ mana, including a White. That allows it to, of course, go infinite with an enabled Companion. Furthermore, Green would be appreciated to have access to Creature tutors, and some of the better Planeswalker payoffs in the format. Finally, a mana value of ~3 or less would be great, mostly just as a consideration of coming online quickly (ramp gets better the earlier it comes down). Our finalists are Helga, Skittish Seer, Selvala, Explorer Returned, and finally, Brigid, Clachan's Heart//Brigid, Doun's Mind. Helga rewards casting big Creatures, something we'd much rather spend on going wide & Gideons, so she's out, but between Selvala & Brigid it's a tight race. Unfortunately, Selvala doesn't always tap for 2+, even if she does most of the time, but comes with the benefit of being online the moment she has Haste. That said, Brigid meanwhile takes a turn to transform, but once in her Green era does a pretty good Gaea's Cradle impression, between her token, self, & Companion of the Trials going mana positive. While I feel the choice between these two is largely up to the pilot, I favor Brigid for her consistency, even if she needs a turn to flip. Still, Selvala appears in the 99 as a stand-out midgame dork!

The more surprising aspect is how many Gideon-centric cards are worthwhile the moment you start seeing the beefcake as a core aspect of ones' gameplan. Once we have infinite mana, there's a thematic outlet in the form of Gideon's Company, which while not especially efficient can be a solid way to boost our Planeswalkers to either their ultimates, or a relevant Loyalty for other synergies (more on that later). Gideon's Triumph is normally a pretty lukewarm removal Spell, but if we can meet the criteria it's a devastating blowout, and lucky us, we'll have Gideons galore. There's a few other notable synergies with having Planeswalkers, Gideon or otherwise, but before we dive in to what those are, what do Gideons...actually do? Aside from having the relevant Subtype for Triumph, Companion, and so on, these are Mythic depictions of one of the Bolas Saga's foremost characters---provably great for 60-card formats in their own right. What do they do in Commander?

Check the GidHub

He learned to be true to himself, by watching himself die.

There's a few common themes among the ~7 Gideons in Magic, and the big one is their ability to become Creatures in some way; Gideon Jura began this trend, lacking an ultimate and instead being able to pivot between the role of a traditional Planeswalker & un-damage-able beater. This means Brigid can readily hit the thresholds needed to make a ton of mana, or if we've already got a board, benefit from the repeated value having a well-protected Planeswalker provides. In terms of my pick for the overall best Gideon, though, it's Gideon of the Trials. I'm biased, with Amonkhet being among my favorite sets of all time, but the ability to come down and get you an Emblem which rewards keeping any Gids on the table—not just this incarnation—is massive. Preventing opponents from winning shoves most combo decks in a locker, and stopping ourselves from losing means opponents need to get through our wall of quirked up Monowhite boys to actually present lethal.

That's not all for Gideon, though, as his origin in, appropriately, Magic Origins gave us a glimpse of who Gideon, Battle-Forged started as, namely Kytheon, Hero of Akros. Being a 2/1 for {W}, this is by far the cheapest Gideon available, and in fact is the cheapest Planeswalker period, so long as you jump through a few hoops. Once Gideon attacks with 2 other Creatures, often tokens, he turns into a means of untapping Brigid once per turn, or a sizeable beater. On that topic, Gideon, Martial Paragon provides a massive full untap of our board, essentially giving our Creatures Vigilance, and doubling Brigid's mana output. Gideon, Champion of Justice is a bit stranger, scaling his Creature form with his Loyalty, but against some decks can go into the double digits almost instantly. While we don't intend to exile everything with his ultimate...don't rule out the nuclear option. The last two Gideons in this list are the most basic, though simple meals aren't without their joys. Gideon Blackblade is always a Creature, during your turn, and can protect Brigid prior to the pop-off, and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar either turns into an instant +1/+1 Emblem, or extra bodies every turn (or the usual beefcake Planeswalker Creature). That's...a lot of Gideons. In the context of Commander, the 'superfriends' archetype has its fair share of issues: You have three opponents to defend against, they activate proportionally less than in 1v1, and of course, it's far less of a faux pas to kill one in combat than send attackers to a player who's not scary otherwise. Gideon uniquely offsets a lot of these problems, with no threat of ultimate, minimal spooky value, and more Loyalty on average compared to his peers. In being unremarkable, at face value, Gideon is able to persevere through an unfriendly format.

The Measure of a Man

I've been to bear nights like this.

We've talked about what benefits from Gideons, and what Gideon himself actually does, so it's time to talk about what Gideon is. Gideon is a Planeswalker, but often, he's a Creature too—a Creature with tons of counters. I've covered counter-agnostic synergies twice now on Goonhammer (likely not for the last time), but between a GW color identity and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, there's plenty more to explore here. First up, Maester Seymour appears not as a Commander, but in this list's 99. Seymour is a favorite of mine, who helms a Monogreen Spacecraft deck I have in paper, but here his glut of counters comes from Gideons who have leapt into the fray as Creatures. As a reminder, Loyalty abilities are costs, meaning Gideon becomes a Creature after he adds counters (ergo a lot of counter doublers/increasers don't actually work with him). Arcade Cabinet doesn't care, though—it doubles all counters on target Creature, doesn't matter what kind. The endgoal for Gideon is often a bit nebulous, given as mentioned he usually lacks an ultimate, but cards like this ensure he's rarely dying to damage. As previously stated, Gideon, Champion of Justice does have a nuclear option once you hit a substantial number of Loyalty counters.

Gideon also notably is a Creature, and a Legendary one at that. This allows us to flex one particular card I'm quite fond of here: Robaran Mercenaries. The Mercenaries would already be good as just another massive mana generator via our Commander, but those Loyalty abilities on your Gideons are in fact activated abilities. Now, sadly Loyalty abilities are only once per turn, per permanent, per...Comprehensive Rule 606.3. What Mercenaries actually does is allow Gideon to basically both attack as a Creature, and activate a different Loyalty ability in its stead. You could, for example, animate a Champion of Justice, then allow Mercenaries to add a ton of Loyalty via its +2, before next turn animating Martial Paragon to use its -10 at a far faster pace. Similarly, effects granted to Gideons also transfer to Mercenaries once activated, meaning we can really squeeze some extra value from Vivien's Talent & Elspeth's Talent, both of which give our Planeswalkers more options. These are especially good on Gideon Blackblade, which is always a Creature during your turn.

Judges 6-8, Bracket 2-3

I've mentioned the ultimate on Gideon, Champion of Justice a few times, but while it certainly is spooky, how realistic is it actually to reduce the field to solely himself? Well, in the context of infinite mana via Companion of the Trials & Brigid, perhaps more than you think; released in another Planeswalker deck was Gideon's Company in 2019, and it's a doozy. Though pricy, it (or another Creature via Agatha's Soul Cauldron) can dump that mana into infinite Loyalty on our Gideons, and with Champion of Justice also scaling with said Loyalty on his 0-cost ability, that knocks a player out each turn once the board is empty. Even if you aren't going infinite though, Champion also synergizes with White's phasing tools, allowing you to break parity on his effect. If you phase relevant permanents out, via something like Galadriel's Dismissal or Guardian of Faith, once the dust settles you'll have a board to beat faces in and secure a win. As an added bonus, these are flatly good in the deck on the whole, as unlike blink (e.g. Ephemerate) it neither resets our counters, nor reverses Brigid's transformation. Of course, while the best phasing card is out of reach—I'm not the biggest Teferi's Protection fan but it'd be great here—we do have the previous two, and the second-best, Clever Concealment.

All depicted characters are from Magic. Now, anyway.

Are all our win conditions Gideon-related in this list, though? To some extent, yes, as I've forgone some of the better untappers to hone in on Companion, but once we have infinite mana the endpoints do vary. I've placed an emphasis on outlets which are also good in the midgame, being solid role-players in what is ostensibly a midrange deck; if we can survive, and protect our Gideons, that'll get us to the endgame. Shalai, Voice of Plenty is one such example, being fantastic protection that also grows our board infinitely, and Shaman of the Forgotten Ways is a nice mana dork which also puts everyone in the range of our attackers. Your funniest option though, is Skrelv, Defector Mite, with whom infinite untaps and mana results in giving Toxic 1...infinite times, to all your Creatures. That means getting in with a single body against an opponent stacks them fully with Poison, being perhaps the most roundabout Infect kill possible. The best part? That actually happened in testing. On the topic of infinite untaps though, Loran of the Third Path doesn't kill the table but does draw you into an actual win condition, and Gilded Goose enjoys infinite life & Food. Finally, Formidable Speaker in a nightmare scenario could find all the relevant combo pieces by infinitely soft-tutoring with Monumental Henge, a wildly unlikely endgame that also came up in testing. I want to stress: I do know there's better, cleaner ways to win with infinite untaps and mana in Selesnya, but what keeps a strategy like this in Bracket 2 is the fact that its very conceit, the essence of its being, hinges on having Gideon around. We'll talk about ratcheting up the power in just a bit.

Example Decklist: Brigid's Kytheon Kin

For those who started playing Magic around War of the Spark, you'll notice we're actually one Gideon short in our 99. The only 6-mana Gids, Gideon, the Oathsworn, just barely scraped by as a card we're not excited enough to play...though to be clear he came close. This Gideon, like all the walkers in War, comes with a static effect, rewarding you for attacking with 2+ non-Gideon Creatures. As you might surmise, a Gideon-typal deck isn't thrilled about this condition. Worse still, apropos to the narrative, he gets rid of himself with that ultimate ability (and we're rather invested in keeping Gideons onboard). His Oathsworn iteration was essentially concocted in a lab to be the least-appetizing card for a Gideon-centric deck, but it should say something for our interest in subtype density that he nearly made it in. Conversely, another piece from War that did meet our criteria is Gideon's Sacrifice. This allows you to transfer damage for a turn to one unfortunate Creature or Planeswalker, and while we're not playing any Brash Taunter effects, at worst it's a flavorful fog. You perhaps could do better, but you could certainly do worse.

This list is built to have a ridiculously consistent curve, of a 1-mana dork into Brigid, flipping her next turn and having at minimum 5 mana on turn 3. That's enough to cast every single Gideon we play, but if you jam some more Creatures before tapping Brigid your total mana could be even greater; as I stated in our set review of Lorwyn Eclipsed, Brigid is the odd transform card from the set you're encouraged to flip turn-after-turn. Given she does so in the precombat Main Phase, the mana to flip can be paid for with her Green side, turning White to make a 1/1, and then back again the next turn. In that sense, once you pass the first turn cycle with Brigid there's never a turn where her Gaea's Cradle mode is truly 'off'. The fact we found an ideal use-case beyond Kithkin typal is surprising though, as that was one of my calls. It goes to show that efficient mana production is more important than niche type synergies, sometimes.

Decklists are kept updated, and may change with set releases.

If you've seen any of my prior coverage of cards that tap for 3+ mana, the question emerges of why the list isn't on cards like Umbral Mantle & Sword of the Paruns. I confess, these cards would objectively improve basically all Brigid lists, and push her well into B3 as an accessible infinite mana generator in the Command Zone; being in White, she even has access to Stoneforge Mystic and the like, ensuring such tools are accessible at any point in the game. Instead, by making our sole(?) combo involve a Gideon (both because it's funny, and a necessary 3-card combo) we're able to confidently show up to Bracket 2 tables with this pile, thematic coherency intact. Our win will involve a Gideon in Bracket 2, but if you want to power up, other untappers would be among the first cards I'd look to add.

And Stay Dead

I wanted to highlight Miller's Companion here, a card so few know about, for how gorgeous its art is.

Gideon Jura is dead, long live Kytheon Iora. So rare is it that Magic has been confident enough to actually kill its characters, especially in the age of time travel, alternate universes, and cards set in the past. Yet, not a single Gideon has appeared since his death in War of the Spark, beyond a few memorializing cards like Rest in Peace. It's shocking, honestly, and I have my own theory that he was allowed to know peace purely because they wanted Ajani (the original Monowhite Planeswalker) to return as the color's representative. Gideon's story of grappling with The Trials on Amonkhet remains my favorite story in the game's lore, seeing him move from the hope that Naktamun is just, to the acknowledgement that Bolas' meddling has corrupted the plane absolutely. It approaches dystopian fiction with a flair for Egyptomania, and even if the writing errs on the Whedonesque, it inhabits a special place in my heart. With Gideon's death came a number of little-deaths whose impact would only be felt years later: The death of Planeswalker decks, of the Block Set structure, and of the Bolas Saga. His passing coincided with the shift away from traditional 60-card Magic, with the set immediately following War hosting the introduction of Brawl decks (the depths from which cards like Korvold & Chulane originated). Glad that never took off, would be weird if Commander was made to artificially rotate. That would never happen.

I say all of this because Magic now is so different from when I started, and yet my love for the game remains, albeit in a slightly different form. The wonder that Gideon experienced on Amonkhet was likewise my own, thrust into an amazing TCG world after having arrived from one of Yugioh's worst formats, entranced with how good Limited design could be. As time's gone on, the enjoyment comes not from awe, but 'aha', the sensation of finding something worth writing about. Whether that's underplayed Commanders, rules quirks, or a reference to one specific Belgian absurdist painting, I'm always able to find the fun. Of course, I've got mixed feelings on things like Universes Beyond, the rapid set releases, and the game's future, but that affection for Magic is far more alive than Gideon himself. Who, I hope very dearly, remains extremely dead in a post Reality Fracture world. I've seen that spoiler art of a White Liliana, don't you dare bring back a colorshifted Gatewatch, Wizards. I jest, of course, but...please?

Until next time, go White boy go.

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