The Gathering may be about to break the One Planeswalker Trend

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Summary

  • The limited number of Planeswalker cards is limiting for deck building in MTG if they are often multi-colored.

  • The last 2024 MTG sets mainly featured multi-colored Planeswalkers, which affected the diversity of the deck.

  • Wizards of the Coast is addressing the issue of multi-colored Planeswalkers for future sets.

There are many internal rules that need to be addressed when Wizards of the Coast redesigns Magic: The Gathering cards, such as respecting the suit pie and considering what a given card's effects bring to the table. For example, while all colors in Magic: The Gathering have some sort of removal, they differ in themes and average costs to represent the philosophy behind the color pie and the various color combinations. The Planeswalkers shook up Magic: The Gatherings game in big ways over the years, and while they were introduced as single-colored cards, they eventually began filling out sets in more color combinations.

Color combinations i 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 combinations in Magic: The Gathering which are intended to give players a profit at a high cost or with high risks. While you have multi-colored cards in MTG is often a good thing, it can come with its fair share of deckbuilding problems, especially for card types that are printed in low quantity in each set, such as Planeswalkers. In fact, many sets contain only one or a handful of Planeswalkers, and when they are multi-colored, it can be difficult to include them in some decks. Still, WotC may be about to change this trend.

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Magic: The Gathering can never print a classic card by default

Magic: The Gathering's standard format sees new cards being printed quite often, but a classic card is more unlikely than ever to be reprinted.

Why Multi-Color, One-Per-Set Planeswalkers Are a Major MTG Concern

The reason for multi-colored Planeswalker cards in Magic: The Gathering might be problematic is that, starting with Wilds of Eldraine and after, Wizards of the Coast decided to only have one Planeswalker per set. As such, with only a limited number of Planeswalkers each year, having them mostly as multi-colored cards can put a big restriction on deck building. The result is that some Planeswalkers, while playable, struggle to have their time in the spotlight in the meta because they require specific decks and colors to function.

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

The idea of ​​only one Planeswalker card per set isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it allows Wizards of the Coast to put more emphasis on each Planeswalker's goals and alignments, and how these affect the set it plays in. However, reducing the number of new Planeswalker cards per set to one means that it can be difficult to fit them into decks depending on the format, with most of the limitations in Magic: The Gatherings default format and non-Eternal format.

MTG's Planeswalkers in 2024 Sets Explained

In 2024, several Planeswalker cards were printed, and only one of them was monochrome. This was Jace Reawakened from Outlaws of Thunder Junction, a blue card, while 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 wasn't even the “face” Planeswalker for Outlaws of Thunder Junction, last year, which was Oko. With four Planeswalkers total from the 2024 main sets, not having a dedicated single-color Planeswalker can hurt a lot when it comes to deckbuilding.

Magic: The Gathering attempts to resolve The Multicolored Planeswalker Issue

On top of that, Magic: The Gatherings UB set will not have Planeswalkers even with the new 2025 release schedule, meaning 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 multi-colored Planeswalkers and their limited deckbuilding potential.

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

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