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Planeswalkers are the new heart of Magic the Gathering. Though a relatively new addition, mythic characters with "the spark" are at once universally loved and universally powerful. From Star Wars to Pokemon, other customizable card games have always thrived on their "main characters." 
The thrill of seeing their familiar faces in a pack of cards and the attachment to said characters through lore and literature is irreplaceable. With the most recent "planeswalker" novels, players are understandably excited to find out what is to become of their now beloved heroes. Whether that information be in card, comic or novel form- the lines between the various forms of MTG flavor are beginning to blur. Specifically I'd like to focus on the cards. How will these characters manifest themselves in cardboard? When story arcs change, how so should the cards move with that arc? With Zendikar just around the corner, we will explore the nature of what I will call "planeswalker evolution."
[caption id="attachment_4206" align="alignleft" width="174" caption="An important aspect of any fantasy universe is the clarity of its boundries and limitations. Magic the Gathering has very few of either."]
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Magic the Gathering flavor fans are at once blessed and cursed at the same time. Their blessing is that they get to play in a universe where anything is possible. Their curse? They play in a universe where anything is possible. Unlike a more ridged universe with hard set rules and laws, MTG is made up of an infinite amount of planes where any of those so-called "laws" can be broken, bent or simply thrown out the window. I'm reminded of a quote from JK Rowling (creator of the Harry Potter series) "The most important thing to decide when you're creating a fantasy world is what the characters CAN'T do." That's a tall order in a world that touts itself as a world with "infinite possibilities." A universe without limits is great for the design aspect of the game. On the other hand, it makes things tough for fantasy loving flavor aficionados like myself to really make sense of or relate to that universe. Thats where planeswalkers come in. They bridge that gap and give us a consistency that Magic was starkly lacking before now. For those who want it, there are compelling characters, story arcs and persistent personalities that will always be there for you. But how to carry those on from set to set without reprinting the same cards over and over? The answer is simple - let the planeswalker cards evolve with their characters.
Other card games have been doing this for years. In the original Star Wars CCG, a new "Luke Skywalker" was printed in almost every expansion with a bit more power, a bit more "casting cost" as he got a little bit more badass. And do you think Pokemon would ever print a set without a new "evolved" version of Pikachu? This isn't anything new and I think we're going to start seeing this with Magic the Gathering. Wizard's seem to be pushing the planeswalker constancy campaign particularly hard. Its not a stretch to imagine a world with multiple planeswalkers of the same name.
[caption id="attachment_4199" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Most card games have a system in place for dealing with their main character's evolution."]
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As this article was being written, wizards revealed on their facebook page the casting cost and color of the new evolution of Chandra to be released in Zendikar. Not surprisingly (to me anyway) the new "Chandra Ablaze" will cost six mana. Her abilities are not yet known but there is enough information here to help me make my point. Many expected the new Chandra to cost less than the Lorwyn version. But how, flavor-wise, does that make sense? Of course she was already close to unplayable at five mana and the tournament junkie in me expected to see a "better" card printed. But after the events in Chandra's latest book, you could hardly argue that her character got less powerful and therefore couldn't feasibly cost any less than she did originally.
[caption id="attachment_4189" align="alignright" width="242" caption="A tournament player's worst nightmare realized."]
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What really turns people off about Chandra's new casting cost isn't the fact that it's more than it originally was. We don't even know what her abilities are yet, so it would be tough to completely dismiss this card just yet. Its the fact that she's crossed that invisible "anything that costs more than five mana and doesn't win you the game outright is unplayable in a tournament setting" line. But I think wizard's is taking a step back from walker abilities like Ajani Goldmane who is essentially used as a sorcery spell you play for four mana. You put him out, pump up some tokens and win on that turn. If somehow your opponent survives, you probably don't expect the planeswalker to stick around until next turn. He's not a loyal companion or main character in that sense. He's a "Put a +1/+1 token on all of your creatures and they gain vigilance until end of turn" spell. With the original Chandra Nalaar (or Liliana Vess for that matter), she's probably going to stick around for a few turns at six or seven loyalty right when she comes out. Wizard's liked that set up. High loyalty, high casting cost, and weak(er) abilities. Throw in a devastating final ability that will only get played if they stay in play for four unfettered turns and you've got yourself a modern planeswalker! In a way, planeswalkers have become far too powerful in the sense that you're getting free, extremely powerful spells each and every turn they're on the table. Some of those free abilities even add loyalty counters to the walker. Imagine an enchantment or artifact that did what Elspeth or Jace did every turn. It would surely be some of the most powerful magic ever printed. I'm not sure planeswalkers were meant to be so powerful on the turn they came in to play, for so little mana. Many of us are going to have to put aside our hardcore tournament player hats and put on our fantasy flavor helmets if we're going to try and predict the future evolutions of planeswalkers.
[caption id="attachment_4192" align="alignleft" width="235" caption="Planeswalker evolution should be a bit deeper than this. (Major props to Xplicit on the naughty, naughty art!)"]
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Planeswalkers of the future will be a mix of new heroes, and old ones who have "advanced" in some way. Ajani Vengeant comes to mind. I can certainly see something like him happening again but can wizards really play that game many more times? Do we really want them to add black to a character's casting cost when he does something naughty and white when he helps an old lady cross the street? While Ajani's evolution was perfectly acceptable; to do it too unsparingly would be horribly shallow and dreadfully predictable. Look for new versions of classic planeswalkers to be released with higher casting costs and better abilities to signify their "leveling up".
Having various versions of planeswalkers available is also a great way to tame some of that extreme power walkers have been enjoying as of late. If there are two or three different versions of Jace floating around, all of which being used in different types of decks and maybe even one using different colored mana. You're going to see the subtype/legendary rule come in to play a lot more often. Planeswalkers are difficult to get rid of, particularly those that start at 5+ loyalty. But if you can destroy a higher casting cost Chandra by playing the lower casting cost Chandra (not that you would..) then you've just found yourself a new way to deal with planeswalkers and take a bit of the edge of their current dominance of the game.
MTG fans might be taken aback at first when they start seeing new "versions" cards they already own and love being reprinted. The idea of chasing the same mythic character over and over is a foreign concept to Magic the Gathering. But in the end, it is something that happens in most other games needs to happen in this one. The original Jace Beleren was released in 2007, I think we can afford to reprint another "evolution" of such a main character at *gasp* four mana cost, 2 or 3 years later. Reprints aren't a big deal. They happen in core sets and in expansions. I still go nuts every time I pull a Lorwyn walker out of a pack of M10. Alara was a great model for the release schedule of planeswalkers. A couple of newcomers, an "evolution" of one or two favorites and spread those out over the year's releases. No more than four or five new walkers a year but no less than four or five either. Match those up with the walkers already available in the core sets every year and you've got a good number of choices available without flooding the market. Keeping them special at the same time. You can then rotate out the old walkers in the new core set in favor of the newer ones (or a mixture of both). Heck, now that core sets contain new cards you could even throw a new evolution of the original planeswalkers into the M11 core.
Planeswalkers are special. There's no doubt about it. Wizards has stated this explicitly several times over and there is no reason to doubt it now. I feel for the designers who are forced to Tinker with characters that are so universally cherished by so many. If anything ever happened to my beloved Jace, I really couldn't say how I'd feel. Planeswalkers are the "hook" for Magic the Gathering and I'll be damned if I'm not hooked. Decks are built and broken around them. Sleepless nights are lost and found through their stories. The hopes of an entire community rest in developer's hands. The evolution of these planeswalkers as characters and as gamepieces is going to be at the heart of each new expansion henceforth.
I leave you with this chillingly relevant quote from the "Exiled" version of Tinker: "What separates us from mere beasts is the capacity for self-improvement". I couldn't have said it better myself Tezzy.
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Zendikar spoilers continue to trickle in and the latest one's a doozy!
Did someone order a broom?
This card is the "booster box promotional card" just as Honor of the Pure was for M10. I'm a big fan of getting free stuff for buying things I was going to buy anyway. :)
The quote from Sorin does it for me and seems to suggest a bleak outlook for a Damnation reprint any time soon (as though you were expecting one ) Overall, I think this is a great step forward for the game. We needed a sweep. I think you're going to hear some cawing from the peanut gallery about not being able to use their Wrath of God playset they've collected over the years but I think that will quickly pass. Though you are getting at least one for free when you buy a booster box. Lack of negation of regeneration is interesting but we haven't had any great regenerating creatures in a while. That ability's stock just went up a good 25% today. Its a shame Wiz didn't consider making a wipe in another color. Though there's still time, I doubt any will compare to this card. I think white was doing just fine post M10 and having sole dominance over tokens and the sweep is just ludicrous. But in the end, if I had to choose between having no sweep in the game or having white get yet another premium chase card, Id choose the latter any day.
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