Teferi, Hero of Dominaria: Rules, Rulings and Azorius Control

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria is a five-mana white-blue planeswalker from Dominaria, which Scryfall dates to April 27, 2018. It left Standard in 2019, and as of October 2, 2026 it is legal in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage and Commander. This guide covers exactly what the card says, the official rulings and Comprehensive Rules behind each ability, the Wizards pages that show when it left Standard, and how an Azorius (white-blue) control deck uses it, reasoned from card text rather than tournament results.

The card, word for word

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria costs {3}{W}{U} (mana value 5). Its type line is Legendary Planeswalker — Teferi, and its printed loyalty is 4. The current Oracle text reads:

• +1: Draw a card. At the beginning of the next end step, untap up to two lands.
• −3: Put target nonland permanent into its owner's library third from the top.
• −8: You get an emblem with "Whenever you draw a card, exile target permanent an opponent controls."

Under Comprehensive Rule 306.5b, a planeswalker enters the battlefield with loyalty counters equal to its printed loyalty, so Teferi arrives with 4. Rule 606.3 sets the timing for every loyalty ability: absent other effects, you may activate one only during a main phase of your own turn, when you have priority and the stack is empty, and only if no loyalty ability of that permanent has been activated that turn. Rule 606.6 adds that an ability with a negative loyalty cost can't be activated unless the permanent has at least that many loyalty counters. Damage dealt to a planeswalker removes that many loyalty counters (rule 306.8), and a planeswalker with loyalty 0 is put into its owner's graveyard as a state-based action (rule 704.5i).

Scryfall lists these printings of the card:

The +1: draw now, untap two lands later

The +1 does two separate things. When it resolves, you draw a card immediately. It also creates a delayed triggered ability: "At the beginning of the next end step, untap up to two lands." Rule 603.7a says delayed triggered abilities are created during the resolution of spells or abilities, and rule 603.7b says such an ability triggers only once, the next time its trigger event occurs. Because loyalty abilities can only be activated in your own main phase (rule 606.3), the next end step after a normal activation is the end step of that same turn.

Three details follow from the rules and rulings:

• You choose the lands late. The official ruling (April 27, 2018) says: "You don't decide which two lands to untap until the next end step." You can tap lands freely during your turn and pick the two to untap afterward.
• Teferi doesn't need to survive. The +1 creates a delayed triggered ability as it resolves (rule 603.7a). That ability untaps lands and does not refer to Teferi, so it still triggers at the next end step even if Teferi has left the battlefield by then. Separately, rule 113.7a means removing Teferi in response to the +1 does not stop the +1 itself from resolving.
• The mana is usable right away. Rule 117.3a gives the active player priority at the beginning of most steps after triggered abilities are put on the stack, and rule 513.1 confirms the end step has no turn-based actions and that the active player gets priority. Once the untap trigger resolves, you can cast instants in your own end step or keep the lands untapped through your opponent's turn.

The table below is arithmetic from a script in this article's working folder. It assumes every land taps for one mana and that nothing else was spent that turn.

The −3: third from the top

The −3 targets any nonland permanent, such as a creature, artifact, enchantment or planeswalker, including one you control. Two rules govern where it goes. Rule 400.3 says an object that would go to any library other than its owner's goes to its owner's library instead, which matches the card's wording "its owner's library." Rule 401.7 covers short libraries: if a player must put a card "Nth from the top" and that library has fewer than N cards, the card goes on the bottom.

A token is a special case. Rule 111.7 says a token in a zone other than the battlefield ceases to exist as a state-based action, so a token hit by the −3 moves to the library and then ceases to exist. For a nontoken card, the effect is a delay rather than permanent removal: if the library has at least three cards and nothing adds, removes or reorders cards above it, the card is the third card its owner draws from it.

Teferi enters with 4 loyalty, so using the −3 the turn it arrives leaves it at 1 loyalty. Because a target is required, rule 608.2b applies: if the targeted permanent leaves the battlefield before the ability resolves, the ability doesn't resolve, but the 3 loyalty counters were already removed as the cost.

The −8 emblem

The −8 gives you an emblem with "Whenever you draw a card, exile target permanent an opponent controls." Rule 114.2 says this puts the emblem into the command zone, owned and controlled by you. Rules 114.4 and 114.5 say an emblem's abilities function in the command zone and that an emblem is neither a card nor a permanent, so effects that remove permanents can't touch it. If Teferi has exactly 8 loyalty, the −8 leaves it at 0 and it goes to the graveyard (rule 704.5i), but the emblem stays.

The official ruling (April 27, 2018) says: "You choose the target for the triggered ability of Teferi's emblem after you've seen the card you drew." The emblem triggers on every card you draw, including the draw in your draw step, any card-draw spell, and Teferi's own +1 on a later turn if it had more than 8 loyalty when you used the −8 and is still on the battlefield. If no opponent controls a permanent the trigger can target, rule 603.3d removes the trigger from the stack.

Starting from 4, using only the +1 and taking no damage, Teferi reaches 5, 6, 7 and then 8 loyalty over four turns. Rule 606.3 allows one loyalty ability per turn, so the earliest −8 comes on the fifth of your turns with Teferi on the battlefield, counting the turn it was cast.

When it left Standard, and where it is legal now

Wizards' release notes for Standard sets list the sets legal in Standard on that set's release date. The Core Set 2020 Release Notes say Core Set 2020 became legal "on its official release date: Friday, July 12, 2019," and that "the following card sets will be permitted in the Standard format: Ixalan, Rivals of Ixalan, Dominaria, Core Set 2019, Guilds of Ravnica, Ravnica Allegiance, War of the Spark, and Core Set 2020."

The August 26, 2019 Banned and Restricted Announcement refers to that Standard season lasting "until rotation with the release of Throne of Eldraine." The Throne of Eldraine Release Notes then state that the set "becomes legal for sanctioned Constructed play on its official release date: Friday, October 4, 2019," and that "the following card sets will be permitted in the Standard format: Guilds of Ravnica, Ravnica Allegiance, War of the Spark, Core Set 2020, and Throne of Eldraine." Dominaria is not on that list, so Teferi, Hero of Dominaria stopped being legal in sanctioned Standard on October 4, 2019. Our ban history, in which every entry links a Wizards announcement, lists no ban or restriction of this card in any format.

Legality per Scryfall's Oracle data, as of October 2, 2026:

Building Azorius control around it in Pioneer

Every card named in this section, except the one flagged at its end, is legal in Pioneer as of October 2, 2026, and none of them appears in our Wizards ban history for Pioneer. The common thread is simple: the +1 draws a card and gives back two lands, so the deck wants instant-speed answers it can cast with that returned mana.

Instants for the returned mana

• Dovin's Veto ({W}{U}, instant): "This spell can't be countered. Counter target noncreature spell." It costs exactly two mana, so a turn of casting Teferi off five lands and using the +1 still leaves it castable on the opponent's turn, provided the untapped lands can produce white and blue.
• Absorb ({W}{U}{U}, instant): "Counter target spell. You gain 3 life." It needs three mana, which the table above shows is available after casting Teferi from six lands, provided those lands can produce {W}{U}{U}. Its official ruling notes that a spell that can't be countered is still a legal target; it won't be countered, but you still gain 3 life.
• Memory Deluge ({2}{U}{U}, instant, flashback {5}{U}{U}): look at the top X cards, where X is the mana spent, and put two into your hand. Its official ruling says casting it for {2}{U}{U} looks at four cards and casting it with flashback looks at seven. Seven lands, Teferi and the +1 leave four lands for it.

Sweepers that protect a planeswalker

Under rule 508.1b, the attacking player announces which player, planeswalker or battle each creature attacks, and damage to Teferi removes loyalty. Clearing creatures before casting Teferi keeps that loyalty intact.

• Supreme Verdict ({1}{W}{W}{U}, sorcery): "This spell can't be countered. Destroy all creatures."
• Sunfall ({3}{W}{W}, sorcery): "Exile all creatures. Incubate X, where X is the number of creatures exiled this way." Its ruling notes that if no creatures are exiled, you still create an Incubator token with no +1/+1 counters.

Teferi's −3 complements these: it handles noncreature threats such as artifacts, enchantments and opposing planeswalkers that a creature sweeper leaves behind.

Lands that tap for both colors

Because the untap lets you choose any two lands at the end step, lands that tap for either color keep both counterspells available. Hallowed Fountain is a Plains Island that enters untapped if you pay 2 life as it enters (unless an effect puts it onto the battlefield tapped). Glacial Fortress taps for {W} or {U} and enters tapped unless you control a Plains or an Island; its ruling clarifies that it checks land types, so Hallowed Fountain counts.

A name to avoid in Pioneer

Teferi, Time Raveler is banned in Pioneer. Wizards banned it in the February 15, 2021 Banned and Restricted Announcement. As of October 2, 2026 it remains legal in Modern, Legacy, Vintage and Commander.

Commander and the older formats

In Commander, Teferi, Hero of Dominaria can go in the 99 of any deck whose commander's color identity includes white and blue (rule 903.5c); its own color identity is white and blue. It can't be the commander itself: rule 903.3 requires the commander to be a legendary card that is a creature card, a Vehicle card, or a Spacecraft card with one or more power/toughness boxes, unless a card has an ability saying it can be your commander (rule 903.3a). Teferi is a planeswalker and has no such ability. In a multiplayer game the −3 and the emblem each affect only one permanent at a time, and the emblem's "an opponent" lets you pick a permanent from any one opponent for each trigger.

Every supporting card named above, Teferi, Time Raveler included, is legal in Modern, Legacy, Vintage and Commander as of October 2, 2026, according to Scryfall's Oracle data. To check how often a given land count reaches five lands by a given turn, our hypergeometric calculator computes exact draw odds, and our mana base calculator helps balance white and blue sources.