Tamiyo, Field Researcher (7/15)

Planeswalkers are infamously hard to evaluate in a vacuum; Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy was once considered the worst of the Origins planeswalkers, and Arlinn Kord was the one everyone had their eyes on in Shadows Over Innistrad. So take this with a grain of salt until the card comes out.

Tamiyo is our third three-color planeswalker, and she’s the cheapest one of the bunch in terms of mana cost. Her +1 ability and -2 ability both do a good job of protecting her, which is the litmus test of a planeswalker; planeswalkers that don’t immediately impact the board had better have a way to protect themselves while they work their way into a position to impact the board. The -2 can lock down creatures or artifacts, while her +1 can either reward your attackers or discourage their own attackers (bonus points if you have a vigilance creature). Her ultimate is going to win you the game if it resolves, so that’s worth noting…and at -7, it might not take her long to get there.

The issue is her mana cost…four mana is good (and most of the really good planeswalkers cost either 3 or 4 mana), but needing three colors of mana might be a bit of a challenge. It’s going to be hard to see until the set comes out if there’s a home for her, but I suspect she’s good enough to make the cut.

Constructed: 4
Casual: 4.25
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4.25