The Gathering May Be About To Break One Planeswalker Trend

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 2, 2025 7 Views 6 Min Read
The Gathering May Be About To Break One Planeswalker Trend



Summary

  • The limited number of Planeswalker cards is restrictive for deckbuilding in MTG if they are often multicolored.
  • Recent 2024 MTG sets featured mainly multicolored Planeswalkers, impacting deck diversity.
  • Wizards of the Coast is addressing the issue of multicolored Planeswalkers for future sets.

There are many internal rules that need to be addressed when Wizards of the Coast designs new Magic: The Gathering cards, such as respecting the color pie and considering what a given card’s effects bring to the table. For example, while all colors in Magic: The Gathering have some form of removal, they differ in themes and average costs to represent the philosophy behind the color pie and the various color combinations. Planeswalkers shook up Magic: The Gathering‘s gameplay in big ways over the years, and while they were introduced as mono-colored cards, they eventually started populating sets in more color combinations.

Color combinations in Magic: The Gathering can be particularly interesting for both card design and philosophy and from a gameplay standpoint. An example comes from the various Rakdos combos in Magic: The Gathering that are supposed to net players a win at a high cost or with high risks. While having multicolored cards in MTG is often a good thing, it can come with its fair share of deckbuilding concerns, especially for card types that are printed in low quantity in each set, such as Planeswalkers. In fact, many sets include just one or a handful of Planeswalkers, and whenever they are multicolored, it can be hard to include them in some decks. Still, WotC may be about to change this trend.

magic-the-gathering-mtg-standard-format-lightning-bolt-reprint-unlikely-removal-op-overpowered-burn-damage-creatures-players-one-mana-red-bad-why

Related


Magic: The Gathering May Never Reprint One Classic Card in Standard

Magic: The Gathering’s Standard format sees new cards and reprints quite often, but one classic card is more unlikely than ever to be reprinted.

Why Multicolored, One-Per-Set Planeswalkers are a Big MTG Concern

The reason multicolored Planeswalker cards in Magic: The Gathering can be problematic is that, as of Wilds of Eldraine and afterward, Wizards of the Coast decided to only feature one Planeswalker per set. As such, with only a limited number of Planeswalkers each year, having them mostly as multicolored cards can put a big crestriction on deckbuilding. The result is that some Planeswalkers, while playable, struggle to have their time in the limelight within the meta because they require specific decks and colors to work.

Wilds of Eldraine came out on September 8, 2023, and it was the first MTG set to only feature one Planeswalker card outside of reprints and guest cards, starting a new trend.

The idea of just one Planeswalker card per set is not necessarily a bad one, as it allows Wizards of the Coast to put more emphasis on each Planeswalker’s goals and alignments, and how these impact the set it stars in. However, reducing the number of new Planeswalker cards per set to one means that it can be hard to fit them in decks depending on the format, with the most restrictions being in Magic: The Gathering‘s Standard and non-Eternal formats.

MTG’s Planeswalkers in 2024 Sets Explained

In 2024, multiple Planeswalker cards were printed, and only one of them was mono-colored. This was Jace Reawakened from Outlaws of Thunder Junction, a Blue card, whereas the other Planeswalker cards from last year were all multicolored. This includes:

  • Kaya, Spirits’ Justice (White and Black) from Murders at Karlov Manor
  • Oko, the Ringleader (Green and Blue) from Outlaws of Thunder Junction
  • Ral, Crackling Wit (Blue and Red) from Bloomburrow
  • Kaito, Bane of Nightmares (Blue and Black) from Duskmourn: House of Horror

Jace was not even the “face” Planeswalker for Outlaws of Thunder Junction, last year, which was Oko. With four Planeswalkers in total from the main sets of 2024, having no dedicated mono-colored Planeswalker can sting quite a bit when it comes to deckbuilding.

Magic: The Gathering is Trying to Solve The Multicolored Planeswalker Issue

On top of that, Magic: The Gathering‘s UB sets won’t have Planeswalkers even with the new release schedule of 2025, meaning that this year there will only be three Planeswalker cards. However, WotC’s own Mark Rosewater recently confirmed that the company is working on the issue of multicolored Planeswalkers and their limited deckbuilding potential.

magic-the-gathering-mtg-mark-rosewater-blog-planeswalker-cards-color-issue

It’s still unclear what exactly Wizards of the Coast is planning for future Planeswalkers in order not to make them too restrictive in terms of colors, but fans can wait and see. The first Standard-legal set of the year is going to be MTG‘s Aetherdrift in February, and it will feature Chandra as its thematic Planeswalker, but not much else is known for now.

Source link