Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. Coming up in the Commander Masters preconstructed Commander decks, one of my favourite characters in all of Magic: The Gathering’s history.

Commodore Guff is one of the silliest characters written for the game and I won’t lie, I don’t really see what part of his history is on this card aside from being supportive of other planeswalkers. I have an Aminatou, the Fateshifter superfriends planeswalker deck, so I’ll be drawing from my experience with that deck to suggest cards here.

At five loyalty for 1URW, Guff trades black for red as a Jeskai superfriends leader. Let’s see that textbox.

“At the beginning of your end step, put a loyalty counter on another target planeswalker you control.  

+1: Create a 1/1 red Wizard creature token with “{T}: Add R. Spend this mana only to cast a planeswalker spell.”  

-3: You draw X cards and Commodore Guff deals X damage to each opponent, where X is the number of planeswalkers you control.  

Commodore Guff can be your commander.”  

I think I get it now! Commodore Guff’s whole deal is that he knows the fate of the multiverse and breaking the fourth wall. He gets planeswalkers to their ultimate abilities quicker by hinting them to their end.

Here are a few things to note:

  1. Guff’s static ability cannot target himself.
  2. Guff’s static ability triggers at your end step, so unless you’ve got something that allows you to activate planeswalkers at instant speed, you won’t be able to activate your planeswalkers after Guff’s ability until your next turn.
  3. Guff’s +1 Wizard tokens are mana dorks, but can’t be used for anything but paying for planeswalkers. Make sure you can use this mana, but if not, have some back up ideas of what to do with them.
  4. Guff’s -3 ability hits each opponent for at least 1 and draws you 1 while he is still in play, so at the very least, Guff can be a really bad draw spell if he’s all alone.

There are so many great cards for a superfriends deck besides the planeswalkers themselves. I want to mostly highlight the cards that aren’t planeswalkers. I’ll mention a few but keeping it at non-planeswalker cards.

  1. More Counters!

Let’s talk about getting your planeswalkers to their strongest abilities. Ultimate abilities are usually hard to evaluate a planeswalker on because they infrequently make it to that level. If you have ways to bolster them – like Guff’s static ability – you very well might get to an emblem like Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset’s or Dovin Baan’s or Venser, the Sojourner’s. There’s no  Doubling Season for these colours, but there are a bunch of ways to add counters.

Inexorable Tide lets you proliferate when you cast any spell, while Flux Channeler does it for noncreature spells. Deepglow Skate’s ETB allows your to double the counters on any number of target permanents which is pretty good when you’ve got a board full of planeswalkers. Ichormoon Gauntlet gives all of your planeswalkers the ability to proliferate and eventually an extra turn, not to mention a single target proliferate when you cast a noncreature spell. It’s really powerful. If you’re already proliferating, Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus thinks it’s so nice, better do it twice. Chandra, Acolyte of Flame basically proliferates your red planeswalkers for its 0 ability, but it won’t trigger Tekluthal.

Oath of Gideon and Lae’zel, Vlaakith’s Champion lets your planeswalkers enter with an extra loyalty counter. Lae’zel allows you to add an extra loyalty counter when using an ability that adds a counter, such as Guff’s +1 ability.

Get your planeswalkers within range of their emblems and get it down!

  1. Protection

Sphere of Safety, when paired with enough enchantments, can make it impossible for your opponents to get through and hit your planeswalkers in any meaningful way. Norn’s Annex does a similar thing making your opponents have to either pay white or two life. But what about turning them into creatures so they can’t be targeted at all? Luxior, Giada’s Gift isn’t just a solid win condition when you’ve got a big enough planeswalker, but it also means that your opponents can’t attack your planeswalker of choice directly. Deification is also a solid inclusion if you’ve got a few of a single type of planeswalker or just need to protect a particular  planeswalker. Mila, Crafty Companion makes your planeswalkers harder to attack and draws you cards when they’re targeted.

The best protection is getting them out of the way. Semester’s End blinks out your planeswalkers until the next end step and brings them back with an extra loyalty to boot. It also blinks out your creatures if you need to protect those too! If one planeswalker is getting pounced on, you can use Resourceful Defense to move loyalty counters over from a planeswalker to another and let them die supporting another superfriend.

  1. Double Up

Planeswalkers are powerful because their abilities are pretty wild. Why not get more out of them? Copy them if you need to! Spark Double is one of the best clones in the game. Sakashima of a Thousand Faces and Clever Impersonator can let you make another of what you need! Rowan’s Talent and Rowan Kenrith allow you to copy planeswalker abilities. Oath of Teferi and The Chain Veil allow you to activate your planeswalkers’ abilities an additional time.

  1. Bring Back the Band!

There are only two mass planeswalker recursion spells in these colours: Triumphant Reckoning and Ascend from Avernus. Got a graveyard full of planeswalkers? Why not have a battlefield full of planeswalkers instead!

Repair and Recharge is an excellent piece of versatile recursion. Five mana to get back an artifact, enchantment, or planeswalker to play and get a Powerstone? Sounds good to me! Especially in a deck that can make use of Archaeomancer or Ardent Elementalist.

Elspeth Conquers Death is one of the strongest pieces of removal on a permanent. It can go through all three chapters in one go with all the proliferate in the deck so far. Play for five mana, exile a card, make things more expensive for your opponents, and get a creature or planeswalker to play? This card is cracked!

  1. Other Cool Things With Planeswalkers

Teferi’s Talent and Teferi, Temporal Archmage can nab you an emblem to allow you to activate planeswalker abilities at instant speed, which is absolutely backbreaking. In my Aminatou deck, the moment this happens, my opponents know it’s only a matter of time before it’s game over.

Planebound Accomplice is planeswalker Sneak Attack. With you being able to basically speed run to ultimate abilities, paying one mana for a planeswalker and probably its best ability is pretty bonkers. Ignite the Beacon and Call the Gatewatch allow you to tutor for planeswalkers. Urza’s Sylex can also tutor planeswalkers if you can blink it or when you activate it.

All Will Be One deals damage whenever you put counters on things – like planeswalkers. Oath of Jace will let you scry like crazy in this deck and if you can copy or flicker it, you will draw a ton of cards. Urza Assembles the Titans is an amazing way to dig to a planeswalker, play one for free, and trigger multiple loyalty activations. Such a solid value piece for planeswalker decks.

That does it for this edition of A Seat at the Table! Let me know what you’d like me to cover in the next one! @mikecarrozza on Twitter and Instagram!

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