The Planeswalking Peddler

Magic: The Gathering - Tutorial Week 9

ome history on this card type that we’re going to see today: for a long while in Magic’s past, players (you and me) were considered wizards so powerful that we could never be printed in card form. The belief was that if we were printed on cards and we could be destroyed or killed by the opponent, we wouldn’t look all that powerful anymore. Then the time rifts came and several “players” sacrificed their power to heal every realm, every existence that was part of the worlds of Magic. If they didn’t, the mythical worlds of Magic, and the game itself, would cease to be.

Ever since their sacrifice that saved all realities, “players” started to see print.

And by players, I mean Planeswalkers.

Why these people are called planeswalkers is simple: they can travel from one plane of reality to another. They don’t literally walk from one plane to another but for the sake of drama and good old fashioned storytelling, the suffix “walker” is used.

So why are Magic players considered planeswalkers? Because like Jace Beleren, we can travel from one Magic expansion to another. For every Magic expansion released and for every one we play, we “walk” from one Magic reality to the next, sampling the world of Zendikar, then Mirrodin, and who knows if we’ll return to Kamigawa in the future.

Planeswalkers, like players, transcend single Magic expansions.

And on to how planeswalkers actually work in the game. I’ll give the notes in point form for easier reference.

1. Planeswalkers are permanent cards. They enter the battlefield with a life total (loyalty) just like a player has a life total. All planeswalkers’ life/loyalty are indicated on the bottom right corner of the card. In the case of Jace Beleren, he starts with 3 life/loyalty.

2. Planeswalkers are not creatures. They cannot go into combat like creatures. They cannot be killed, buffed, or protected by cards that specifically care about creatures. They can use their abilities straight away, unlike some creatures that have to wait a turn before they can use their abilities.

3. All planeswalkers have multiple abilities. All abilities work at sorcery-speed, meaning they can only be used during your turn, during your main phases, and only when the stack is empty.

4. Only one ability can be used per turn.

5. All abilities have a cost. These costs are represented by up or down arrows to the left of the ability. Jace’s first ability increases his life/loyalty counters by 2. His second ability reduces this number by 1. The last one reduces this number by 10.
   

6. You can’t use an ability if you can’t pay for it. This means that you need at least 10 life/loyalty on Jace to use his third ability. You can’t use it if Jace has less than 10 loyalty counters on him.

7. Planeswalkers are like players. This means that they can be attacked in the same way you can attack the opposing player. Creatures can block opposing creatures to protect a planeswalker just like they can block creatures from damaging you. Planeswalkers can also be hit by damage spells like Lightning Bolt just like a player can be hit by a Bolt.

Time for a simple example on how planeswalkers work.

It’s Blue’s turn. Both players are out of mana. Blue looks at Jace Beleren, Jace looks back at him, they both agree on a plan, and Jace uses his second ability.

“-1: Target player draws a card.”

Blue targets himself with this ability, and he ends up drawing one card while reducing Jace’s loyalty by one. The illustration shows Jace with eight counters on him, to show he has eight life/loyalty. After using the second ability, Jace goes down to seven loyalty counters (7 life).

Blue then passes the turn to White.

For the sake of this example, White won’t do anything but enter combat. Since Jace is like an analogue for a player, White can attack Jace and try to kill him. White can also attack Blue since Blue is his opponent. White thinks and then splits his attack as follows:

It’s as though White is attacking multiple players at once.

Blue decides to block, and this is what we get:

When the dust settles, all of White’s creatures would be dead and Blue and Jace would emerge unscathed. If Blue didn’t block the attack at Jace, Jace would lose 4 life/loyalty, dropping from 7 counters to 3.

If someone were to aim a damage spell at a planeswalker, that planeswalker would take the damage and he’s loyalty would go down.
In a nutshell, that is how planeswalkers work and how they can be attacked, defended, and damaged. Is that all too much for you?

Now another thing about planeswalkers. Some of them give abilities that happen until the end of the game, abilities that cannot be destroyed.

Let’s ignore Koth’s first two abilities and look at the third. It says:

“-5: You get an emblem with “Mountains you control have ‘:This land deals 1 damage to target creature or player.’””

Whenever someone gets an emblem, it means that the given ability is “on” until the game ends. This is different from abilities that are only “on” until the end of the turn. So if you activate Koth’s last ability, you get the emblem, and from then on all your Mountains can tap to do 1 damage to anything. Doesn’t matter if the Mountain enters the battlefield after Koth is gone/dead. That Mountain will still get the “can do 1 damage” bonus.

Another small ruling about planeswalkers. Take a look under the illustration.

Planeswalkers are unique, literally. This means that there cannot be two Koths on the battlefield at the same time. A person can’t be in two places at once, can he? If there are two or more Koths on the battlefield, they cancel each other and all go to the graveyard. Same with Jace and any other planeswalker. Two Jaces will cancel each other out, sending both to the graveyard regardless if both are yours or if one is yours and the other is the opponent’s. A Koth and a Jace won’t cause anything bad to happen to each other, so be sure to check the battlefield before you cast a planeswalker.

You know, I think I’ll give it a rest for now. Thank you for listening and have a fabulous week ahead.