36 Planeswalkers in War of Sparks
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on March 8, 2019, 5:42 p.m. by Eledain
War of Sparks will have 36 different playable planeswalkers. This just got confirmend from WotC. Every pack will contain one planeswalker.
What is your opinion? Imo too much planeswalkers available in standard isn't good for gameplay. Planeswalker tend to snowball too much, especially in multiples. I'm afraid that Sparks limited could become really crappy.
Flooremoji says... #3
I hope they give us more less then 4 cmc planeswalkers in mono green, I think that it seems a little unlikely though.
March 8, 2019 7:04 p.m.
The one problem that I can see with this is that it might make it so that many of those planeswalkers just never get played. It might just be that a handful of planeswalkers are good and the others are not useful, making that card set less fun. Although that's just my input on it.
March 8, 2019 7:13 p.m.
Is anywhere confirmed that the 36 planeswalker cards are standardlegal?
March 8, 2019 7:45 p.m.
Well Jareht I think the fact that they are printed in this very War of the Spark product answer your question.
March 8, 2019 8 p.m.
I think will see some really powdered down walkers. Weaker then planeswalker deck walkers
March 8, 2019 8:15 p.m.
PlatinumOne says... #8
Flooremoji: more walkers that cost less than 4 in any color combination will be great, but 3 is probably the minimum cost for a decent planeswalker.
March 8, 2019 8:24 p.m.
PlatinumOne says... #9
Jareht: considering they are in a standard legal set, yes they are legal. every pack of "war of the spark" will contain one of the 36 planeswalkers.
March 8, 2019 8:25 p.m.
PlatinumOne says... #10
garruk: there will of course be some planeswalkers that aren't played much or at all, but that won't make the playable ones less fun. at least not outside of a pre-release or draft.
March 8, 2019 8:27 p.m.
PlatinumOne says... #11
shadow63: i doubt we'll see planeswalkers so powered down that they are weaker than the planeswalker deck walkers. those are always intentionally powered down for some reason.
March 8, 2019 8:30 p.m.
PlatinumOne well theyed have to be at uncommon rare and maybe even common. So I think an uncommon walker would be weaker then a pw deck one.
March 8, 2019 9:29 p.m.
PlatinumOne says... #13
shadow63: theres not a single planeswalker below "rare", so I doubt they'd be as low as common. they'll likely take the mythic and rare slots. its "possible" they might be made as low as uncommon though, otherwise theres gonna be a lot of packs with at least 2 rares. but even an uncommon walker will likely still be better than a planeswalker deck one. the planeswalker deck walkers just require too much mana.
March 8, 2019 9:38 p.m.
Whelp, my Planeswalker Reference Deck is going to get a bit of a workout over the next few weeks. 140 current 'Walkers, and 36 more means a bit over 25% increase!
March 8, 2019 10:49 p.m.
I don’t think they’ll take a card slot. I think they’ll be in place of a token (like double faced cards in Innistrad). Seems like the easiest way to ensure every pack has one and that packs themselves still seem random
March 8, 2019 11:21 p.m.
ZendikariWol says... #16
So big hot take, from what I've seen... I love the idea of more planeswalkers. The more fun characters I can see depicted the better, and I love playing walkers (especially as someone who's super into EDH, where walkers can have a lot of impact if you use them properly).
But beyond that, I just wanna see these characters get their due. There's something I want from all of these, from a gameplay perspective. But more importantly, from a vorthos perspective, I'd love to see the fun we have with these characters at the same place at the same time. ESPECIALLY Sorin, Nahiri, and Tibalt!
... but
What if we made some of them legendary creatures? For example, Tibalt could be a red/black legend that works a lot like Sygg, River Cutthroat mixed with Rakdos, Lord of Riots ? See what I mean?
March 8, 2019 11:51 p.m.
ZendikariWol says... #17
It could also be a good way to represent them losing their sparks.
March 8, 2019 11:52 p.m.
Oh no, 36 planeswalkers is going to break standard.
Eh.
I just want more walkers for Atraxa Superfriends EDH. Bring it on.
March 9, 2019 3:22 a.m.
RoarMaster says... #19
Its a deep subject.
WotC has spent a lot of time making walkers 'Special', so it is a weird pivot to see them go this way. Admittedly, they have also returned to a design perspective of old where they made 'Legendary' more of a game mechanic than differentuating value. That was considered a bad idea back in the day(kamigawa, legends). Those sets didnt work out well, although for reasons described other than this. Still...
I was (Sadly) playing standard, cause I was a fool back then, when they first introduced walkers. And they were REALLY oppressive. There were no answers outside of Oblivion Ring in standard(basically), and very few options aside frm that in other formats(Vindicate). And over time WotC has given us ways to deal with walkers. Very. Very. Slowely. Hopefully with a planeswalker specific set, we will be given adequet tools to incorporate planeswalkers into a balanced sysetm.
I think we will see a slight drop in PW prices all around, due to the saturation ofthe ard type, but money walkers will still remain money walkers.
I can only assume that many of the PW in this set will be underpowered. To do otherwise would be to destroy the format. I imagine we will see a few epic PWs, and a ton of "Tibalt 2.0-32.0"
March 9, 2019 3:59 a.m.
JANKYARD_DOG says... #21
I don't believe we'll see them 'lose their spark' as the The Immortal Sun was on Ixalan and there were still Planeswalkers with abilities, they were just trapped.
Their rarity and power levels remain to be seen, will they be the Mythics of the set? Have their own special slot? Or share Mythic/Rare spots based on power levels. Could be a mix of option 2 and 3... I imagine they will also want to print other cards at various rarities that say "Planeswalkers Matter" etc.
Edit: just to add... after all the "Gates matter" stuff I hope we see a Maze's End reprint... I'm sure it'll have some part to play in things.
March 9, 2019 9:21 a.m. Edited.
If they're using the same "Legend in every pack" technique from Dominaria, except for 'Walkers, then rarity is a non-issue - just distribution. All the auto-Legends were marked as 'uncommon', which allowed people to pull Rare and Uncommon Legends without issue. We could have 5 "Mythic" Walkers at the normal R1 slot, while the others are part of the fixed Auto-Walker arrangement, which means that those five have the normal chance of showing up while the other Walkers are the ones in the auto-include slot.
March 9, 2019 9:34 a.m.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #23
I'll go for a source. Anyone's got a link?
Leaving aside the mechanical implications, seeing that wizards stops treating planeswalkers THAT special seems interesting. With the new weatherlight crew on dominaria, it seems plausible they start to focus on non-pw stories again. Would be a great thing imo.
March 9, 2019 11:39 a.m.
I desperately want Wizards to revisit Lorwyn or Kamigawa once this whole ongoing Bolas thing wraps up.
March 9, 2019 11:44 a.m.
PhotogenicParasympathetic says... #25
For those curious but too lazy to look, the 36 planeswalkers are:
Samut
Nicol Bolas
Ashiok
Domri
Ral Zarek
Tamiyo
Karn
Jaya
Tibalt
Kiora
Sorin
Teferi
Angrath
Dovin
Ajani
Arlinn Kord
Ob Nixilis
Jiang Yanggu
Huatli
Sarkhan
Saheeli
Narset
Nahiri
Ugin
Vraska
Kaya
Jace
Gideon
Liliana
Chandra
Nissa
Vivien Reid
And four that I can't identify, likely new walkers.
March 9, 2019 5:07 p.m.
It's weird that Tezzy won't show up.
Anyway, I think we're going to see a lot of Mythic 'walkers, and even more of them at rare. At uncommon? Not likely.
IIRC, there's 16 mythics and 52 rares in a set. I could see ~10-12 mythics be walkers, then the rest at rare. They'd still have 4-6 mythics and half of the rares to fill out with whatever stuff they want to print.
March 9, 2019 5:31 p.m.
Has anyone considered a return of the masterpieces for the walkers?
March 9, 2019 5:59 p.m.
Dango, a return to New Phyrexia we will likely see sooner I feel.
March 9, 2019 6:12 p.m.
PlatinumOne says... #29
with every pack already guaranteed a rare, and War packs also being guaranteed a planeswalker, its likely each pack (or at least most) will come with 2 rares.
March 9, 2019 6:30 p.m.
ZendikariWol says... #30
Worth noting:
There are 60 Rares in every standard set.
There at 39 Mythics in every standard set.
So where's the number 36 come into play? It's the number of boosters in a box. I suspect, therefore, that these walkers will come special in every pack (perhaps in place of or alongside the foil?), and will likely not be draft legal. Each box will, naturally, feature one of each of the given cards.
Now the question is... are they printing all-new interpretations of the characters or are they gonna be reprints?
March 9, 2019 10:57 p.m.
Nope, these are 36 new PW Cards. They are using the same in-pack distribution that the Legendary Creatures and separate print sheet used for Dominaria, and won't be replacing the normal Rare slot. The exact ratio of 'fixed' Walkers and 'regular' Walkers hasn't been announced yet.
And they are Draft Legal. Just like Masterpieces, and the Dominaria Legendaries. The set was designed with every Draft/Sealed deck having access to multiple 'Walkers and running them.
March 10, 2019 1:32 a.m.
PlatinumOne says... #32
ZendikariWol: ravnica allegiance had 53 rares and 15 mythics.
March 10, 2019 3:10 a.m.
I suspect they'll try to force AEther Snap into the meta.
March 10, 2019 9:03 a.m.
ZendikariWol says... #35
Really PlatinumOne? I looked it up on the gatherer, you'd think they would have it right.
March 10, 2019 10:48 a.m.
ZendikariWol: No, PlatinumOne is right. There are 121 cards on a print sheet - 11x11. Each Rare is printed twice, and each Mythic is printed once on the sheet for {(53x2)+15} = 121
Any specialty rares for preconstructed decks like the Planeswalker Packs, or the "fixed" Walkers for WAR are printed on their own sheet, often with the extra space being used for tokens or basic lands. They don't count for the print run of the actual set specifically because they're not part of the set. They are a smaller, concurrent supplemental printing that might have the same set icon, but they are not part of the set itself for the purposes of cards in a pack.
March 10, 2019 11:20 a.m.
ZendikariWol says... #37
Aah, yeah, I didn't take the planeswalker decks into account. It was actually just wishful thinking. Which, excluding the walkers and the booster box dude, does leave us with 36 mythics.
But to safely have them in every pack they need to exist at at least uncommon. That or they have to come with every pack.
That being said, if Wizards has any love at all for memes, Tibalt is going to be a common/uncommon, no matter the others' rarity.
March 10, 2019 11:26 a.m.
PlatinumOne says... #38
ZendikariWol: planeswalkers have always been rare or mythic, and i kinda doubt wotc would suddenly print them at lower rarities for the first time, in a "planeswalkers matter" set. which is why im predicting 2 rares in each pack.
March 10, 2019 9:42 p.m.
ZendikariWol says... #39
I think that the walkers will have their own place- placed just after the foils and lands.
March 10, 2019 9:54 p.m.
PlatinumOne says... #40
ZendikariWol regardless of where they're placed, 2 rares is 2 rares lol.
March 10, 2019 11:51 p.m.
ZendikariWol says... #41
Once again though, I hold out vain hope that Wizards will understand the meme that they've created and make the next tibalt either monstrously overpowered or a common.
March 11, 2019 9:11 a.m.
JANKYARD_DOG says... #42
So I was reading a little something on blogatog where its stated "there will be walkers in the story that are not depicted on cards". Not sure if that means some of the depicted stained glass characters won't get cards or... Also 'care of Blogatog' no answer as to the slot they will take, a very cryptic "thats a good question" answer to the question.
March 11, 2019 12:35 p.m.
PlatinumOne says... #43
Mj3913: all of the stained glass planeswalkers will get cards
March 11, 2019 6:50 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #44
Phaetion, seriously, Tezzeret will not be in this set? He grafted Rashmi's planar portal to his metal arm, so he now controls it, and, given that the planar portal is a crucial part of Bolas's plan, I wonder why Bolas would not have Tezzeret join him on Ravnica; perhaps Bolas is having Tezzeret perform some other task while everyone else is on Ravnica, but is Bolas unaware that Tezzeret despises working for him?
March 11, 2019 10:17 p.m.
ZendikariWol says... #45
Pretty sure Tezzy’s in the stained glass... right?
checks glass
On second thought, Tezz is the one sending Bolas his reinforcements. He’s on Amonkhet.
March 11, 2019 10:22 p.m.
I looked at the list and I cannot help but think...OK! It's been since 2015 since you last printed a garruk card. You turned him partially black and we haven't even heard a single PEEP about him since. Since then you have created one really terrible green planeswalker right after another. Nobody likes Nissa, Vivien is dumb, and that freylese or whatever is meh, and if this is going to be a set with 36 or MORE planeswalkers and you leave out garruk, GARRUK in an PLANESWALKERS SET! I am gonna be awfully miffed about that.
March 19, 2019 5:15 a.m.
vasarto77 Rosewater said in a recent article that they have plans for Garruk and we'll be seeing him very soon so don't you worry friend.
March 19, 2019 8:04 a.m.
"While most of the known, living Planeswalkers are in War of the Spark, not all of them are, Garruk being one of the absent Planeswalkers. But fear not, Garruk fans, we have plans for Garruk. You'll be seeing him soon enough."
He responded to questions regarding Garruk's absence as well as many others. If you get a chance to read over it, please do. It's really informative and reassuring. The next set is going to be Core set 2020, and then they plan on revisiting a whole new plane we haven't seen yet. You can find the article here.
March 19, 2019 8:52 a.m.
ZendikariWol says... #50
Okay this isn’t about Garruk but I think they really could have done something with Nissa- or really any green planeswalker. There’s a side of green we don’t often see and I really wish we did; the nurturing, sort of maternal figure.
Green understands that everyone is born with incredible potential, and it is Green’s duty as a neighbor and as a piece of the same cosmic puzzle to help others and itself unlock that potential.
Nissa could have been that sort of parental figure- an emotional anchor for the gatewatch. Think about it- that would play perfectly off of the other characters!
When the gatewatch started, Gideon was the tortured soldier, accustomed to the losses but unwilling to move on. Chandra was deeply unstable, unwilling to control herself and often more trouble, arguably, than she was worth. Jace was a snarky dick who kinda needed to be knocked down a peg.
Nissa could help Gids move on, help Chandra control herself, help Jace not be an asshole. She could have been a caring, nurturing person, helping her friends through their issues, leading them to a power they didn’t know they could have. This could unify the team, making them more formidable against Bolas. This would increase the depth of all of the characters- which is sorely needed when you have people (like me) who don’t even care that they’re totally killing off Gideon and are honestly kind of relieved by it.
Hell, if not that idea, her backstory showed so much potential! A recovering xenophobe has a lot of story potential to draw on, could be a very compelling character.
But no. Instead, Nissa is just a typical Druid character. And if you can’t already tell I’ll say again: I’m SUPER bummed out about it. I haven’t yet read all of Vivien’s stuff (I’ve been behind for a hot minute so I skipped a bit), but based on the descriptions I’m going to be disappointed.
PlatinumOne says... #2
planeswalkers are just permanents, like any other permanent. its not about "how many" of a given permanent type exist, its about how powerful a particular card is. a standard with 50 planeswalkers that are all balanced, is better than a standard with 1 planeswalker thats crazy broken.
March 8, 2019 6:19 p.m.