Here’s Why There Is Only 1 Planeswalker in Wilds of Eldraine

Last updated on August 31, 2023

Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator | Illustration by Raymond Swanland

Back in the days when I was playing kitchen table Magic, I pulled a Chandra out of a pack and was thoroughly confused about why the card looked the way it did and how it worked. After some quick Googling, and a few games, I quickly fell in love with planeswalker cards. My favorite Commander deck is a 5-color superfriends build, and I’m always excited to see what new tools each set is going to give me for it. You can understand my disappointment when it was announced that Wilds of Eldraine was only going to have one planeswalker card.

Now, I won’t pretend the writing wasn’t on the walls that Wizards would be scaling back the number of planeswalkers even before this announcement. Between several fan-favorite walkers being desparked at the end of March of the Machine and the legendary creature versions of them in Aftermath, it seemed clear that Magic’s story was taking a step back from this type of character. After War of the Spark changed disappointingly little about Magic’s story, it’s nice to see that March of the Machine is having a bigger impact on the game going forward, even if it’s at the expense of my favorite card type.

Of course, these types of design decisions aren’t just made to adhere to the fictional universe within the game but are also carefully considered by Wizards’ R&D team a long time in advance. So let’s look at why there’s only one planeswalker card in Wilds of Eldraine, both from a story standpoint and from the perspective of the designers.

Why Is There Only One Planeswalker in Wilds of Eldraine?

Illustration by Fajareka Setiawan

In a preview panel at MagicCon: Barcelona, Mark Rosewater confirmed that we’re seeing fewer planeswalkers in this set as a direct result of planeswalkers losing their spark during the Phyrexian war. Gavin Verhey also mentioned on the same panel that this allows designers to spend more time planning out each individual planeswalker. Since planeswalkers have multiple abilities, it makes sense that they take a little longer to design. Some of the underwhelming recent planeswalkers were likely knee-capped in design as a shortcut to making sure they don’t break the game. If designers are spending as much time developing one planeswalker as they previously did on three, then perhaps they can find a better balance between game-breakingly powerful cards and ones so weak they never see play.

This hopefully means we’ll be getting a higher quality of planeswalker cards going forward, and honestly, neither I nor my wallet would be too upset about quality over quantity when it comes to new walkers.

Who Is the Planeswalker in Wilds of Eldraine?

The only planeswalker in Wilds of Eldraine is the nightmare weaver themself, Ashiok. From what we know about the set’s story so far, Ashiok is likely going to have the time of their life on Eldraine as many of its inhabitants are currently kept in an enchanted sleep. This means plenty of nightmares to create and people to influence.

Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator

Looking at Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator, I think it’s safe to say that the added attention given to this walker has definitely paid off. Its static ability is very interesting, and while we’ll have to see how the rest of the set looks to know how it works in the WOE Limited setting, there’s already lots of potential here for Commander builds.

If you have a consistent method of paying life, the tokens Ashiok creates can grow pretty big as you exile more cards. While ultimate abilities aren’t always easy to get off, if you can with this card, you’ll likely be exiling more cards from your opponent than you have yourself, unless you’re very unlucky and just hit a bunch of lands.

I’m not sure this card has a home in Standard right now, but we still haven’t seen the full set that it’s in. With the format growing to include more sets at once, it’s possible Ashiok could end up being more impactful going forward.

What Is the Alternative to Multiple Planeswalkers?

It seems as though the missing additional planeswalker cards are replaced by new legendary creature cards, similar to March of the Machine: The Aftermath. Though we haven’t seen the cards yet, it has been spoiled that both Will and Rowan Kenrith will be in the new Eldraine set and that they’ve lost their spark. Moving on, we’ll likely continue to see more legendary creature versions of other popular planeswalkers so the characters still have a role in the narrative, even if they can no longer planeswalk. This could actually be a fun chance to use fan-favorite characters as a commander, as previously, they had only been printed on planeswalker cards.

It has also been mentioned that Wilds of Eldraine is an enchantment-heavy set. As enchantments are probably the most mechanically similar to planeswalkers, it will be interesting to see if we get more enchantments with activated abilities to make up for the lack of walkers.

How Does This Affect Planeswalkers in Future Sets?

During the MagicCon: Barcelona panel, Mark Rosewater confirmed that having reduced planeswalker numbers wasn’t a one-time decision. He said, “Starting with this set, there is one planeswalker per set.” He didn’t specify for exactly how long this would last and if that meant all sets or just Standard sets. However, there were some hints dropped about the future of Magic’s story that could help predict exactly how long this will last.

Shortly after previewing the Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator, Rosewater showed artwork for a new character, Kellan, who he hinted would be important for Magic’s next story arc. During the discussion, Rosewater revealed that this story arc would last for three years. It’s likely that we’ll continue to see fewer planeswalkers in each set over that time as Magic focuses on this new narrative direction. It’s possible sets could go back to having three or sometimes more planeswalkers in them, but I’d guess it won’t be until after this three-year arc.

One exception to this is likely the supplemental sets that aren’t Standard-legal. For example, the recently revealed Ravnica Remastered set could have multiple planeswalkers since the set will likely be all reprints the same way Dominaria Remastered was. Modern Horizons 3 could also potentially have more planeswalkers since it isn’t part of the current Magic story. Going back to the design benefits Gavin mentioned about having only one planeswalker, it would make sense that Wizards would only want one in any set with newly designed cards. Even if Modern Horizons 3 isn’t part of the ongoing story, it’s still getting the same attention to detail when it comes to crafting the new planeswalker for it.

What Role Will Planeswalkers Play in Standard?

It might seem like fewer planeswalkers being printed would mean fewer would be played in Standard, but I’m not all that sure this will really be changing all that much. Right now, there are 34 Standard-legal planeswalkers, and only a fraction of those see consistent play in the current meta. Some sets have come out where none of the multiple walkers have made that big of an impact on the format at all.

Wrap Up

Illustration by Julie Dillon

Though I initially had my reservations about the number of planeswalkers being printed being significantly reduced, I’ve been coming around to it after some thought. If Wizards’ team really is spending more effort ensuring the planeswalkers that do come out are very well designed, I think this is the better direction to take in the long run. I’m also excited to see which former planeswalkers show up as potential commanders in future sets.

What do you think about the reduced number of planeswalkers coming out? Which former planeswalkers do you hope to show up as creatures? Let me know in the comments or on Draftsim’s Twitter.

Thank you for reading and I’ll see you next time!