Planeswalker
- For other uses, see Planeswalker (disambiguation).
Planeswalkers are among the most powerful beings in the multiverse, and are the thematic identities of the players of the game. Planeswalkers can be born at random in any sentient race, with no outward signs of their latent power. However, there is an incredibly remote chance that any given sentient, natural being will be born with a planeswalker's spark. When that being is put through a period of extreme stress—in many cases, death—the spark can trigger, causing the individual to ascend and become a planeswalker. Within the game, each player is supposed to be a planeswalker, which is a point emphasized in the current marketing strategy (for example the intro packs' description refers to your opponents as such). This concept originated from the Alpha rule book.[1]
Planeswalker cards are the only cards in Magic other than the unhinged and unglued cards in which the art goes out of frame. This was done for thematic reasons.
Card type
Planeswalker card types were first introduced in Lorwyn. Like the player him or herself, a planeswalker card represents a powerful being that is able to move from plane to plane. Planeswalker was featured as rules cards 1-3 of 5 in the Lorwyn set.
From the ()
From the ()
Rulings
- You can control more than one planeswalker, but there cannot be more than one of the same planeswalker type in play at a time without causing Rule 212.9c to remove them. Though this usually means duplicates of the same planeswalker, currently Ajani has two forms, so you can't have Ajani Goldmane and Ajani Vengeant in play together.
- A planeswalker is not a creature.
Storyline
- For a list of planeswalkers, see List of planeswalkers.
Current planeswalkers
The defining trait of planeswalkers is the ability to travel between separate universes with ease, while the vast majority of people throughout the multiverse are not even aware that other worlds beside their own exist.
The new breed of planeswalkers no longer displays the near-omnipotence of their predecessors. While they are usually powerful mages, they are still physical beings that in general age normally, can be harmed, and need the same sustenance as other mortals. This is in stark contrast to the earlier planeswalkers. Some of them have managed to suppress or avoid some of these limitation by magical means; however, these are specific to each planeswalker.
The new breed of planeswalker manifested itself for the first time in Venser of Urborg, a Dominarian artificer who participated at the solution of the Dominarian temporal crisis. Teferi's first theory was that the rifts mutated Venser's spark, which affected his ascension.
This new breed of planeswalkers was born during the Mending, when Jeska sacrificed her life and her spark to mend all temporal rifts in the Multiverse (doing so in such a great scale was probably enabled by her former existence as Karona, the embodiment of Dominarian magic, and the fact that Dominaria is the Nexus of the Multiverse.) The Mending caused a change in the very rules of Multiverse and a change in the nature of the planeswalker sparks.
Traditional planeswalkers
Planeswalkers had incredible magical capabilities, surpassing all but the most powerful mortal wizards. Their lives could last indefinitely, and their physical forms were matters of will as they were energy projections of a center of consciousness. Through intense effort, planeswalkers could create their own artificial planes. Because of planeswalkers' prolonged life spans and immense power, some are worshipped as gods; many end up insane, or, at the very least, they come to regard the lives of mortals in low-esteem, if even at all.
A planeswalker is specifically a being who possesses a planeswalker's spark. There are other beings who, through various means, are able to travel between planes, but those are not technically considered planeswalkers. Many prerevisionist characters were referred to as planeswalkers but may not technically have been; without any further information, they remain subject to debate.
Reasons for change
Pivotal for the Mending was the creative team's long-standing wish to make planeswalkers more identifiable.[2] Toning them down provided a solution that also cleared the ways for the new Planeswalker card type.[3] This in turn allowed planeswalkers to be not only the focus of the storyline but also of brand identity.
Reception
As with most changes the reactions were mixed. Some deemed it unnecessary to kill off existing characters, arguing that they could have been altered to fit the new approach. Others felt that diminishing their powers made the characters less interesting. Additionally criticism was directed at the way the Mending was handled in the Time Spiral Cycle.
Discussions on differences between the old and new planeswalkers spawned many (sometimes malicious) names for the latter type, generally to make them easier for referencing, but also to show how much they differ from the original ones. Among the most popular, there are: "neowalkers"[4] and "bradywalkers"[5], but the most common reference to date is clearly derogatory "crapwalkers".
References
- ↑ Template:MTGref (transcription)
- ↑ Planeswalker Minisite: Planeswalking the Walk by Mark Rosewater
- ↑ Template:MTGref
- ↑ from Latin neo which means "new"; first term to appear
- ↑ named after Brady Dommermuth, creative director