Wall

A wall is a creature type, usually found on defensive creatures. They represent barriers for attackers ranging from physical objects to intangible forces. Being unable to attack, walls in general have a higher toughness than power but there are exceptions, like Blistering Barrier. Walls were introduced in Alpha, which featured ten of them in all colors.

Introduction of Defender on Walls

Originally being a Wall implicitly did not allow the creature to attack. This meant that Wall was the only creature type having a specific rule attached to it and this brought additional rule text on cards like Mistform Ultimus (Legions) or Artificial Evolution, forced to have a specific non-wall condition to avoid to give an unwanted ability (defender) added to the creature. This was changed with the release of Champions of Kamigawa when the ability Defender was introduced and the creature type Wall was decoupled from it with previously printed Walls getting an errata adding that ability to them. With the exception of creatures with Changeling, no new walls have been printed without Defender. This change also meant that changing the subtype of a creature to "Wall" no longer stops them from attacking.

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

Wall

A creature type with no particular rules meaning. Older cards with the Wall creature type but without defender had an unwritten ability that precluded them from attacking. Those cards have received errata in the Oracle card reference to have defender. Some older cards that referenced the Wall creature type have also received errata. See Defender.

Absence of Walls

Walls were removed for a short time after Eighth Edition because in a sense it was hard to fathom how a Wall of Wood which seemed stationary would be able to move to block a creature. From a flavor perspective a wall is either an artifact or a land. That logic kept Walls away for several years, but sentimentality eventually brought them back. Although Walls didn't make much sense creature-wise, they did have an über-logic to them in that they were used as a means to protect the player. This meta-flavor was beloved by enough of R&D that Walls returned. In Tenth Edition, each color, except black, saw a wall being printed. Walls are used much more sparingly now, and Creative tries to keep them from feeling like inanimate objects.

Notable Walls

• Illusionary Wall — The first wall to have a power greater than its toughness.
• Sunscape Familiar — A white wall that was used in various decks to reduce the mana cost of blue and green spells.
• Tinder Wall — A green wall that can be sacrificed to add to the mana pool, thus providing a short term mana boost or acting as a mana battery.
• Wall of Blossoms — A green 0/4 Wall that, when it comes into play, allows its controller to draw a card; this wall saw and still sees regular tournament play. It was colorshifted to white as Wall of Omens in Rise of the Eldrazi.
• Wall of Denial — A very large Wall that can virtually not be removed due to shroud.
• Wall of Glare — A white 0/5 that can block any number of creatures.
• Wall of Hope — A small but effective barrier for Weenie rush strategies.
• Wall of Mulch — The closest thing to a "Wall Lord," this was the first wall that rewards players for putting it in a deck with other Walls; while some cards in Rise of the Eldrazi have similiar effects, they are dependant on Defenders rather than Walls themselves.
• Wall of Reverence — A very large defensive creature that can also block Flyers and continuously replenishes the lifetotal of its controller.
• Wall of Roots — A green 0/5 Wall which can be shrunk once a turn to add to the mana pool. It is notable because it can immediately add mana as it does not use , therefore also retaining the ability to block, and it can also produce mana in consecutive turns without the necessity of untapping it in between.

Trivia

• Animate Wall was the only Enchant Wall printed and the first card to remove the defender ability from the walls. Later its card type was changed in Aura. Rolling stones grants the same ability to all the walls.
• Number of walls (as of Aether Revolt): 114.
• Number of walls with supertype snow: 1 — Wall of Shards.
• Number of artifact walls: 16.
• Cheapest (mana cost) wall: Shield Sphere — .
• Most expensive (mana cost) walls: Dark Maze, Illusionary Wall, Infested Roothold, Necropolis, Snow Fortress, Wall of Opposition, Mnemonic Wall — converted mana cost of 5.
• Wall with the highest power: Illusionary Wall — 7.
• Walls with the highest toughness: Wall of Shards, Wall of Stone and Wall of Denial — 8.
• Walls with the highest combined power and toughness: Illusionary Wall and Sunweb — 11
• Walls with the lowest combined power and toughness: Mindbender Spores, Necropolis, Wall of Shadows, Wall of Tombstones and Wall of Vapor — 1.
• Wall printed the most times: Wall of Swords (every core set before Magic 2010 except 9th Edition plus Portal).
• Set with the most walls: Legends — 11.
• Testament of Faith is an enchantment that can become a X/X Wall Enchantment creature with Defender.

Wall tokens

Token Name	Color	Type Line	P/T	Text Box	Source	Printings
Wall	White	Creature — Wall	0/3	Defender	Rammas Echor, Ancient Shield Teyo, the Shieldmage
	White	Creature — Wall	0/4	Defender, Flying	Teyo, Geometric Tactician
	Blue	Creature — Wall	5/5	Defender	Tidal Wave
	Colorless	Artifact Creature — Wall	0/2	Defender	Basalt Golem
	Colorless	Artifact Creature — Wall	0/4	Defender	The Birth of Meletis
Wood	Green	Creature — Wall	0/1	Defender	Jungle Patrol
Kelp	Blue	Creature — Plant Wall	0/1	Defender	Wall of Kelp