MTG fans want to see more than one planeswalker in each mainline set. According to a poll put out by Magic: The Gathering head designer Mark Rosewater, most fans are not content with the current rate of planeswalker cards, and would like to see more than one with each new set release.
According to the Tumblr poll, the most popular number would be two planeswalkers in each MTG set, with 40% choosing this option. Three planeswalkers was the second most popular choice, getting 20.6% of the vote, while 14% wanted to stick with the status quo of one new planeswalker card in each release.
Interestingly, 6% asked for no MTG planeswalkers at all – and presumably want the card type to be eliminated altogether.
We should note of course the fairly small sample size of 1,970 respondents, and the fact that this is not a representative sample. Only followers of Mark Rosewater’s blog will have replied, and they’re probably more engaged with the game than the average Magic player (who Rosewater once famously said doesn’t know what a planeswalker is).
Rosewater has said the results don’t surprise him at all – which could mean anything, really: we’re not going to read into the significance of it too much.
Planeswalker cards have been around since 2007, when they were first introduced to the game in the Lorwyn block. Representing powerful mages who could shift between worlds, an ever-growing cast of planeswalkers has been central to Magic’s storyline in the last 15 years.
Generally, we’d only get a few planeswalkers each set, but War of the Spark in 2019 broke all the rules, bringing in 36 new planeswalkers at all different rarities (except common).
Since then, Wizards has scaled back the number of planeswalkers it prints, announcing around the time of Wilds of Eldraine that its intention was to limit itself to one per set.
According to Rosewater, there were both story and gameplay reasons for this decision. It allowed the focus to shift to legendary creatures, who could show up on other planes now thanks to Omenpaths. And it meant Wizards didn’t have to come up with as many planeswalker designs – a card type it has previously said has very limited design space.
It also allowed Wizards to reprint a bunch of its most popular characters as MTG commanders, to further support its most popular format – though Rosewater has recently said the company is planning to pull back on the number of legendary creatures it comes up with each set.
For more Magic: The Gathering news, check out our list of the best MTG Arena decks, and every MTG Arena code that’s still working.
Source: Wargamer
