Do you have any cool fan theories that pertain to planeswalkers, or any other aspect of magic? Please, feel free to contribute them below! Anything is welcome!
Now, there are obviously valid reasons as far as game mechanics go for why planeswalker cards are not as powerful as us "real life/player" planeswalkers, but why is this?
To put it in perspective, we are able to access a massive library of powerful spells that span across multiple planes, while planeswalker cards can only really force people to sacrifice creatures or do some burn damage, and up to a limit of three.
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My theory is that the only thing holding back a planeswalker is their loyalty. Let's compare a player in multiplayer magic to a card planeswalker.
Within multiplayer, especially EDH, it's a game of politics really. You see someone becoming too powerful, you make an alliance with someone to take them down, you seem someone getting pummelled and you believe saving them could mean they help you later, you often help them out, but most importantly, if someone who you are allied with starts relying heavily upon you, you realize you need to stop wasting your resources.
This exists as well with card planeswalkers. We summon them to our plane, through some weird time vortex that allows us to call upon them at different stages in their life, and loyalty represents that feeling of whether or not we rely upon them too much. The keyword here is loyalty, NOT resources or mana to spend.
So let's say we call upon our good ol' pal Sorin Markov. Off the bat, we can reduce an opponent to 10 life. How we view this is nearly making Sorin lose all loyalty to us. How Sorin views it is us calling upon him for a huge favor right off the bat. If, instead, we start just using him for some sangromancy damage, we see it as gaining loyalty counters, but he would view it as us using him as a small aid, thus he believes we are a worthy ally still.
Remember earlier when I said the keyword is loyalty? This is why that matters. Loyalty means his abilities are only limited by how much he wants to contribute. In this sense, card planeswalkers are more powerful than us. If loyalty wasn't a concern, the only thing holding Sorin back would be his own capabilities. He doesn't have to worry about being able to channel a specific spell (draw a specific card), because his abilities are always there, and there is no limit to how many times he can execute them, save for his own capabiltiies.
If you pit a player against a Sorin Markov who can cast multiple of his abilities in a single turn, without the need for mana, or even with the need for some mana, and Sorin would easily come on top.
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Now, there are obviously valid reasons as far as game mechanics go for why planeswalker cards are not as powerful as us "real life/player" planeswalkers, but why is this?
To put it in perspective, we are able to access a massive library of powerful spells that span across multiple planes, while planeswalker cards can only really force people to sacrifice creatures or do some burn damage, and up to a limit of three.
---
My theory is that the only thing holding back a planeswalker is their loyalty. Let's compare a player in multiplayer magic to a card planeswalker.
Within multiplayer, especially EDH, it's a game of politics really. You see someone becoming too powerful, you make an alliance with someone to take them down, you seem someone getting pummelled and you believe saving them could mean they help you later, you often help them out, but most importantly, if someone who you are allied with starts relying heavily upon you, you realize you need to stop wasting your resources.
This exists as well with card planeswalkers. We summon them to our plane, through some weird time vortex that allows us to call upon them at different stages in their life, and loyalty represents that feeling of whether or not we rely upon them too much. The keyword here is loyalty, NOT resources or mana to spend.
So let's say we call upon our good ol' pal Sorin Markov. Off the bat, we can reduce an opponent to 10 life. How we view this is nearly making Sorin lose all loyalty to us. How Sorin views it is us calling upon him for a huge favor right off the bat. If, instead, we start just using him for some sangromancy damage, we see it as gaining loyalty counters, but he would view it as us using him as a small aid, thus he believes we are a worthy ally still.
Remember earlier when I said the keyword is loyalty? This is why that matters. Loyalty means his abilities are only limited by how much he wants to contribute. In this sense, card planeswalkers are more powerful than us. If loyalty wasn't a concern, the only thing holding Sorin back would be his own capabilities. He doesn't have to worry about being able to channel a specific spell (draw a specific card), because his abilities are always there, and there is no limit to how many times he can execute them, save for his own capabiltiies.
If you pit a player against a Sorin Markov who can cast multiple of his abilities in a single turn, without the need for mana, or even with the need for some mana, and Sorin would easily come on top.