Hey, for my homebrew Commanderwalkers, and also my possible Armada stories, I need to work out what colours the oldwalkers involved in the Planeswalker War preferred to use. Some are obvious, like Serra being white and Kristina green. Others are mentioned like Freyalise saying Teviesh Szat used blue and black mana. A few can be inferred - Leshrac would be primarily black, Lord Windgrace red, and so on. Others are kinda hard. I thought Ravidel was said somewhere to prefer red-black, but I can't find the reference now. And Geyadrone I really can't figure out. She summoned Chromium and managed to bind Dakkon to her service, so she could be white-blue-black, but Sol'kanar was also a minion of hers, and he was said to have been a spirit of a forest (like a Maro) that she corrupted by turning his forest into swampland. I'd rather have her as a combination not found in any of the others. Would white-black be justified? Or I could just stick to her being Esper and not make a Dakkon-walker (he already has a legendary card and his pw status was kinda weird, in that people kept summoning him all the time).

Serra
Teferi
Leshrac
Sandruu
Kristina
Tevish Szat
Lord Windgrace
Dakkon
Taysir
Daria ?
Emberek ?
Ravidel ?
Geyadrone Dihada ?
Jared Carthalion ?

I feel like Windgrace has a decent number of associated white cards.

For whatever reason I always assumed Geyadrone Dihada was B/G

This is useful for something I'm going to be doing too...

What's your Armada stories project?

I actually made a concept for a B/G Geyadrone walker, based on her turning Sol'kanar's forest into a swamp, but then I started second-guessing myself.

I want to re-write the Armada comics that lead up to the Planeswalker War as prose stories - like how Ice Age was rewritten as The Eternal Ice - and make them align with post-revision ideas of planeswalkers. Because a lot of those are pretty cool stories, with planeswalkers like Freyalise, Leshrac and Taysir.

Was actually initially thinking of doing a Leshrac 'novel' covering his life - the Null Moon Summit, his time on Shandalar, imprisonment on Phyrexia, possibly his involvement in the Planeswalker War. Maybe the Time spiral stuff too - though that's already in post-revision books, so not sure about that. I'm not sure if Leshrac as a PoV character is an entirely good idea though.

It would make mention of the spark, and would have to alter some things in the Ice Age comic to align with the Eternal Ice novel.

Windgrace, by modern standards at least, is . He's shtick is light and is in fact associated with a few and spells, but he is strongly associated with the Urbog swamplands, does use ostensibly spells, and had a tendency to be ruthless and controlling.

I do feel that he was probably originally designed as , however, given his pre-swampification of Urbog origins, hatred of artifacts and chosing a cozy semi-forested area within the swamp

His red white was strong in Planar Chaos. He was working with black creatures, but his methods were very militaristic and he seemed more interested in brining together Urborg's inhabitants to fight the Phyrexians, than using them for personal gains. I didn't see black's presence in this Windgrace.

He has a bit of a /pol/ mentality, which normally tends to be represented in Magic by .

I always got the feeling Daria had some to her, probably because of things like Primal Order.

There were threads about this, probably on the old forums. Here's what I figure for the oldwalkers (in some cases based on decks they had in Battlemage) :

Altair of Coloni:
Arzakon:
Bo Levar: , splash
Dakkon of the Blackblade:
Daria: ? probably also ?
Dyfed: ?
Ash Warlord Embereck: , splash ?
Eskil the White:
Faralyn: , maybe also or ?
Feroz:
Freyalise: , splash
Garth of Oor-Tael:
Geyadrone Dihada:
Grenfell Mor of Golthonor: , splash
Commodore Guff: , splash
Jared Carthalion:
Jaya Ballard:
Jeska:
Karn: colorless, splash
Kenan-Sahrmal: , but with personality tendencies
Kristina of the Woods:
Kuthuman:
Leshrac:
Liana of Minorad: , splash
Marduk Blackwater:
Ravidel the Battlemage:
Sandruu: , maybe splash ?
Grandmother Sengir: , splash
Serra:
Taysir:
Teferi: , splash
Tempè: ?
Tevesh Szat:
Thomil:
Urza: colorless and
Lord Windgrace: , maybe splash or ?
Worzel: , splash

The first creature spell Garth casts in Arena is Drudge Skeletons...

Karn probably splash white as well.
I would also argue Urza probably splash black, potentially even red. Urza is an extremely complicated character, but if Mishra is ubr, Urza likely would splash a third color as well.

Sandruu, as a minotaur pretty much has to have red. Making him urw feels appropriate.

Dyfed has a certain white quality to her, at least as I feel her.

Meanwhile, I'm ashamed that you left of two of the most important Walkers. I mean it's practically criminal.

I think Garth probably had access to all five colors, which is why he was able to so easily fit into the various houses.

Man, I need to re-read Arena again. So good...

Agreed about for Sandruu.
Urza also definitely splashed (Lightning Bolt or similar lightning stuff, Heat Ray, Urza's Rage etc.).
Jaya splashed before she ascended (Unsummon, Phantasmal Dragon or similar illusionary dragon), not sure if she kept doing it as a planeswalker.
Manatarqua is in my head, but it's not like we can say much about her anyway.
Garth's colour identity is a complete mess, because if you combine his House, his motivations and personality and the spells he casts, the safest bet is probably making him five-coloured. (Oh, wait, Raven ninja'd me. Okay, then I'll just go with "What Raven said")
I kinda see Feroz as , at least in personality, but I guess there could be as well. I think the should be in; both when he was attacked by that spider and injured by the flame elemental, he said something like "Don't blame it, it's in its nature". And something about the way he was concerned with the 'growth' of Ulgrotha and its people makes me think of as well, plus the quote about immortality when the Baron is standing at his grave ("like the tree that lives on through its fruits", also note the apple symbolism)

Edit: Oh, and hi Arcades, it's cool to see you around here again!

It wasn't unsummon that Jaya cast, but something more like StP. I think it was specifically called out as a white mana spell.

Thanks, this is really helpful. What's the justification for Kristina using white tho?

Yeah, Garth uses all five colours. Also, I would put Jeska as or splash because Leshrac is later able to steal/drain her Phage powers, so she still had them.

Nope, I just looked it up in The Eternal Ice, p. 281-282, where it says that it's specifically mana from "the islands of Lat-Nam" and that it sends the Keeper of Tresserhorn "back to his point of origin". Which is also somewhat more in line with the illusionary dragon she summons at the Royal Academy. But I guess since we're talking about designing a Commander Planeswalker for Jaya, it's probably not advisable to use anything but . It's just what people will expect, and it's the most elegant solution.

Man I really thought Daria showed up on more cards

I only knew about Aura Blast.

"None of your history books mention me?" laughed Daria. "They will now."

In fairness, there's very little need to design much. Taskmage is more or less a walker as is.

But was Jaya in the Planeswalker War?

Yeah, that's just one more reason to love that card!