Best MTG Proxy Cards for Superfriends Commander Decks

TLDR: Proxy the cards that make Superfriends function

The best MTG proxies for Superfriends Commander are your defining planeswalkers, counter and activation engines, board protection, and mana fixing—in roughly that order. Start with cards such as Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Doubling Season, Oath of Teferi, Teferi’s Protection, and the expensive lands your four- or five-color deck needs to cast spells on time.

Do not automatically proxy 25 flashy planeswalkers and call the project finished. Superfriends already has plenty of impressive cards. Its harder problem is keeping those cards alive long enough to matter. A balanced first proxy batch might contain five defining planeswalkers, three support engines, three protection pieces, and four or five lands.

Start with planeswalkers that have a clear job

Superfriends decks can become binders with mana costs if every planeswalker was selected because its ultimate looked exciting. Your first proxy choices should instead represent the jobs the deck needs: card advantage, interaction, token production, control, and a credible way to end the game.

Atraxa lists submitted to EDHREC’s Atraxa deck database commonly include options such as Teferi, Hero of Dominaria; Ugin, the Spirit Dragon; Tamiyo, Field Researcher; Narset, Parter of Veils; Teferi, Master of Time; Teferi, Temporal Archmage; Ajani, Sleeper Agent; and Oko, Thief of Crowns. That data shows what appears in published deck lists, not a mandatory shopping list or universal ranking.

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria: a strong candidate when you want a centerpiece for a controlling build.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon: a natural top-end proxy when your deck needs a dramatic finisher rather than another incremental value card.
Tamiyo, Field Researcher: a thematic multicolor choice for Atraxa builds that can cast her reliably.
Narset, Parter of Veils: better suited to a controlling list than a deck trying to win through creature-heavy combat.
Teferi, Master of Time: worth considering when you want a planeswalker that participates throughout a multiplayer turn cycle.

Pick one or two centerpiece walkers first, then fill functional gaps. If a card is expensive but does the same job as three planeswalkers you already own, it is not automatically a good proxy slot. The goal is to test a coherent deck, not recreate the planeswalker page of a card database.

Prioritize engines before adding walker number 19

Doubling Season is one of the clearest high-priority proxies for this archetype. It doubles counters placed on permanents you control, and its published rulings specify that planeswalkers enter with twice their normal loyalty while it is on the battlefield. That interaction can radically change which loyalty abilities are immediately available.

Oath of Teferi is another sensible early inclusion because it supports additional planeswalker activations. Both cards recur in Atraxa deck data: on the checked general Atraxa page, Doubling Season appeared in 32% of roughly 14,900 sampled decks, while Oath of Teferi appeared in 19% of roughly 8,720. Those figures cover broad Atraxa data rather than Superfriends alone, so treat them as evidence of established use—not commandments from the cardboard mountain.

After those headline engines, look at proliferate and counter support such as Inexorable Tide, Evolution Sage, Brokers Ascendancy, and Deepglow Skate. These appear in relevant Atraxa data subsets and overlap naturally with loyalty-counter strategies. Choose the pieces that fit how your deck already casts spells; an engine that never triggers in your normal turn sequence is just a beautifully sleeved aspiration.

Protection is a better proxy than another mediocre planeswalker

Planeswalkers enter with loyalty counters, can normally activate one loyalty ability during your turn, can be attacked directly, and lose loyalty when damaged. In multiplayer Commander, that gives several opponents a full turn cycle to dismantle your board. Protection is therefore part of the engine, not an optional safety rail.

Teferi’s Protection is the first defensive card I would consider proxying for a white Superfriends deck. It phases out your permanents and prevents your life total from changing until your next turn. Heroic Intervention can cover a different range of threats, while Ghostly Prison and Propaganda make repeated attacks less convenient. All four appear in relevant Atraxa deck data.

These cards do not solve every possible removal spell, but they address the central Superfriends problem: investing several turns in a board that invites the entire table to become temporary coworkers. If your current list can deploy planeswalkers but cannot defend them, proxy protection before adding more finishers.

Fix the mana base before blaming the archetype

Atraxa provides access to white, blue, black, and green cards, which makes Superfriends selection wonderfully flexible and opening hands occasionally theatrical. If the deck repeatedly holds three different four-mana planeswalkers without the right colors, stronger walkers will not fix it.

Use proxies to test fetch lands, shock lands, triomes, or other fixing appropriate to your deck and playgroup before purchasing anything costly. The goal is not to jam every prestigious land into the 99. It is to learn how many untapped colored sources the deck needs and which color requirements cause the most trouble. Our guide to MTG land proxies for Commander mana bases provides a broader framework for choosing those slots.

A practical first proxy package

For a new Atraxa Superfriends build, I would start with a 15-card test package rather than replacing half the deck immediately.

Five planeswalkers: two card-advantage or control pieces, two interactive walkers, and one finisher.
Three engines: Doubling Season, Oath of Teferi, and one proliferate or counter-support card.
Three defensive cards: a mix of emergency protection and attack deterrents.
Four mana-fixing lands: target the color combinations your opening hands struggle to produce.

This package is large enough to reveal whether the archetype works without making it difficult to identify which cards are responsible. If you are still choosing between counters and planeswalkers, the Atraxa counters versus Superfriends deck guide can help you pick one lane before ordering or printing a stack of cards.

For durable stand-ins rather than handwritten slips, ProxyFoundry MTG proxies and playtest cards are one route for assembling an existing-card test package. Keep the cards clearly identifiable as proxies and match their presentation across the deck so opponents can read the board without inspecting every sleeve.

Use proxies for testing, not power-level camouflage

Commander is a 100-card singleton format organized around the commander’s color identity, with multiplayer games normally beginning at 40 life. Wizards’ official Commander overview covers the basic format structure. A legendary planeswalker cannot serve as a commander unless the card explicitly says it can.

Before playing, tell the table that your deck contains proxies and describe what the deck is trying to do. A stack of expensive stand-ins can raise expectations even when the deck is experimental. For sanctioned events, Wizards’ policy requires authentic Magic cards apart from limited judge-issued tournament proxies in specified circumstances.

Build the machine before decorating it

The best Superfriends proxy package is the one that lets you test the whole machine. Begin with a few defining planeswalkers, add Doubling Season or another engine, protect the board, and fix the mana. Only then should you expand into alternate walkers and pet inclusions.

If you want one immediate next step, lay out your current deck by role. Any empty pile—interaction, protection, finishing power, or colored mana—is where your first proxies should go. That approach produces a better deck than simply sorting planeswalkers by price and starting at the painful end.