The major issue that our speculation needs to hurdle is... "How are they treated while in play?" The whole "Planeswalkers behave like WoW TCG heroes or not?" issue, for one.
Well, I don't play WoW, but from what I can tell WoW TCG heroes start in play and are a necessary component to a deck, akin to Vanguard cards or a DBZ technique. From what we have so far, there are five planeswalkers in Lorwyn, which would really fundamentally change every format were they implimented to behave like a hero. The trick of this design is that there is no resource cost to the cards (typically mana), but rather they would need to be balenced solely on their abilities, which seems difficult. Being able to provide usable mana costs that behave like mana costs of other card types seems like a useful way to go, and seems to fit with the extremely limited info we have so far.
yet may be unique to the point you can only have one Planeswalker at a time on your board (World), and then just add rules to deal with the "multiple coming into play at a time" issue (you'd choose one to keep, the rest go kaput).
I hope you can have more then one in play at a time, because if they aren't vanguard cards and they represent more of an alliance between you and another planeswalker, I don't see why you couldn't have an army of planeswalkers working for you.
This is possible, but it raises an issue I've been thinking about. Now, this takes a few leaps of faith, but IF you think that Planeswalkers will be able to cast spells, including permanents, then persumably those permanents would be under the Planeswalkers control (This is how the game normally treats cards cast). IF a Planeswalker can control permanents, then it would seem likely that the game would use the existing multiplayer rules reguarding what happens to a player permanents if that player loses. Right now, those cards (including creatures, spells on the stack, abilities) are removed from the game the instant the player loses. Now IF a Planeswalker can leave play after being cast (dealt leathal damage, boomerang), then those cards would leave play, too. This would be a huge draw back because if you invest too many creatures in a planeswalker, you get wrathed if it dies or get way behind if it control of the planeswalker switches. But it could lead to interesting conclusions, that they will be hard to remove (In my example they are only affected by cards that could also target a player). It would also let them be hit by Lava Spike et all.
I liked your design of the cards, but I do think that more attention will be payed to giving benifits to permanents controlled by planeswalkers. If they only have an effect when you would normally play a spell, and not a continuing effect on the stuff they played, I will be suprised.
And lastly, I also highly doubt they'll have reminder text. If they're going to have rules specially devoted to them (duh, right?) it'd be slightly redundant on the card, depending on the reminder text. The likelihood of needing to cast them as a "spell" is very high, if you ask me, since they come into play as permanents.
Reminder text is fortunately always going to be redundant on the card. I think the best example is the reminder text of Aura's in the base set, which is pretty complex considering enchant creatures used to just be a given. That said, I think you have a good point about probably not needing all of that text on every card. Especially if they invest one side of every other tips and tricks card to explaining Planeswalkers, the exposure to the rules should be pretty high.
Finally, I agree that the likely hood of them being cast is high (6 out of the 7 existing types are cast with lands being the exception), but I don't think the fact that they come into play as permanents is enough to come to that conclusion. I think it depends on how they treat them flavor wise. If they are the magical comandeering of a planeswalker or changing your shape into that of another planeswalker, then that makes the Vorash in me happy to be able to counter it. If you are trying to cancel the connection or truce of a fellow planeswalker though, that doesn't sit quite as well. It would be like trying to counterspell the connection to a forest or a mountain. Granted, this is thoughly top down design, but I don't like them using the stack.
All that said, I have no idea what they have come up with, but their hype machine is definately working on me.
The standard uberenchantment feeling just doesn't seem to fit for me, because they can be captured by another type already. Especially with the recent clarifications going on with mutliplayer rules, it seems easier then ever to have a card that behaves like an additional player without horribly warping the rules. Espiecially having them have activated abilities that act as spells makes them seem like spellshappers rather then unique players. This is an example that I'd appreciate comments on (In terms of how grokable it is and how much more busy work it would create):
Jace Beleren :3mana::symu::symu:
Planeswalker
(Jace Beleren is not a spell, but is treated as a teammate player. You see all cards that player could see and make all decisions for the player. Take your turns simultaneously. Jace may play cards from your hand. Jace may play mana abilities of lands you control, putting the mana they generate into his mana pool. If Jacewould leave the game, remove all objects he controlled from the game.)
Jace may only cast blue spells. Spells Jace casts cost or 1 less to cast.
Whenever a creature Jace controls deals damage to a player, you draw cards equal to the damage dealt.
Starting Life=10
or
Lilliana Vess :3mana::symb::symb:
Planeswalker
(Lilliana Vessis not a spell, but is treated as a teammate player. You see all cards that player could see and make all decisions for the player. Take your turnssimultaneously. Lilliana may play cards from yourhand. Lilliana may play mana abilities of lands you control, putting the mana they generate into her mana pool. If Lillianawould leave the game, remove all objects she controlled from the game.)
Lilliana may only cast black spells.
Sacrifice a swamp: Add :symb::symb::symb::symb: to Lilliana's mana pool. Use this mana only to cast black spells.
Pay 1 Life: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature Lilliana controls.
Starting Life=10
Hopefully, this design captures the feeling of another player joining the game, while not requiring too serious a stretch of the rules. The most confusing part of this design is having the opponent choose which player to attack (ala a MTGO free for all), and having creatures controlled by a planeswalker only able to block attacks against that planeswalker. Also, these players might draw cards, which would either need to go to your hand, or draw from your deck to their hand. Both of those seem weird. Most of the other questions this design raises are answered by the existing rules for two headed giant.
As for the best way to resolve the legendary/alternate realities problem, I think the most elegant solution would be to have control of the plainswalker switch if a duplicate copy is played. That increases the risk of playing cards through the walker and gives more use to playing multiple copies of a walker in your deck without resorting to Grandure. Flavorwise, planeswalker cards would represent an alliance with that planeswalker, not creating/casting one. It wouldn't even need reminder text just like the legend rule in X, seeing as they are likely rare.
This is largely based on Solmancer/destroysound 's design, but I think there needs to be enough of a draw back so that you won't just play all your spells through the planeswalker. RFGing the perms, the back and forth of the mirror, and having those creatures not being able to defend you seems to help balance them, but maybe they are now too weak. Also, the reminder text takes the full card, let alone any abilities. On the plus side, they allow you to refer to yourself in the third person! Playable? Printable?
Well, I don't play WoW, but from what I can tell WoW TCG heroes start in play and are a necessary component to a deck, akin to Vanguard cards or a DBZ technique. From what we have so far, there are five planeswalkers in Lorwyn, which would really fundamentally change every format were they implimented to behave like a hero. The trick of this design is that there is no resource cost to the cards (typically mana), but rather they would need to be balenced solely on their abilities, which seems difficult. Being able to provide usable mana costs that behave like mana costs of other card types seems like a useful way to go, and seems to fit with the extremely limited info we have so far.
I hope you can have more then one in play at a time, because if they aren't vanguard cards and they represent more of an alliance between you and another planeswalker, I don't see why you couldn't have an army of planeswalkers working for you.
This is possible, but it raises an issue I've been thinking about. Now, this takes a few leaps of faith, but IF you think that Planeswalkers will be able to cast spells, including permanents, then persumably those permanents would be under the Planeswalkers control (This is how the game normally treats cards cast). IF a Planeswalker can control permanents, then it would seem likely that the game would use the existing multiplayer rules reguarding what happens to a player permanents if that player loses. Right now, those cards (including creatures, spells on the stack, abilities) are removed from the game the instant the player loses. Now IF a Planeswalker can leave play after being cast (dealt leathal damage, boomerang), then those cards would leave play, too. This would be a huge draw back because if you invest too many creatures in a planeswalker, you get wrathed if it dies or get way behind if it control of the planeswalker switches. But it could lead to interesting conclusions, that they will be hard to remove (In my example they are only affected by cards that could also target a player). It would also let them be hit by Lava Spike et all.
I liked your design of the cards, but I do think that more attention will be payed to giving benifits to permanents controlled by planeswalkers. If they only have an effect when you would normally play a spell, and not a continuing effect on the stuff they played, I will be suprised.
Reminder text is fortunately always going to be redundant on the card. I think the best example is the reminder text of Aura's in the base set, which is pretty complex considering enchant creatures used to just be a given. That said, I think you have a good point about probably not needing all of that text on every card. Especially if they invest one side of every other tips and tricks card to explaining Planeswalkers, the exposure to the rules should be pretty high.
Finally, I agree that the likely hood of them being cast is high (6 out of the 7 existing types are cast with lands being the exception), but I don't think the fact that they come into play as permanents is enough to come to that conclusion. I think it depends on how they treat them flavor wise. If they are the magical comandeering of a planeswalker or changing your shape into that of another planeswalker, then that makes the Vorash in me happy to be able to counter it. If you are trying to cancel the connection or truce of a fellow planeswalker though, that doesn't sit quite as well. It would be like trying to counterspell the connection to a forest or a mountain. Granted, this is thoughly top down design, but I don't like them using the stack.
All that said, I have no idea what they have come up with, but their hype machine is definately working on me.
Jace Beleren :3mana::symu::symu:
Planeswalker
(Jace Beleren is not a spell, but is treated as a teammate player. You see all cards that player could see and make all decisions for the player. Take your turns simultaneously. Jace may play cards from your hand. Jace may play mana abilities of lands you control, putting the mana they generate into his mana pool. If Jace would leave the game, remove all objects he controlled from the game.)
Jace may only cast blue spells. Spells Jace casts cost
Whenever a creature Jace controls deals damage to a player, you draw cards equal to the damage dealt.
Starting Life=10
or
Lilliana Vess :3mana::symb::symb:
Planeswalker
(Lilliana Vess is not a spell, but is treated as a teammate player. You see all cards that player could see and make all decisions for the player. Take your turns simultaneously. Lilliana may play cards from your hand. Lilliana may play mana abilities of lands you control, putting the mana they generate into her mana pool. If Lilliana would leave the game, remove all objects she controlled from the game.)
Lilliana may only cast black spells.
Sacrifice a swamp: Add :symb::symb::symb::symb: to Lilliana's mana pool. Use this mana only to cast black spells.
Pay 1 Life: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature Lilliana controls.
Starting Life=10
Hopefully, this design captures the feeling of another player joining the game, while not requiring too serious a stretch of the rules. The most confusing part of this design is having the opponent choose which player to attack (ala a MTGO free for all), and having creatures controlled by a planeswalker only able to block attacks against that planeswalker. Also, these players might draw cards, which would either need to go to your hand, or draw from your deck to their hand. Both of those seem weird. Most of the other questions this design raises are answered by the existing rules for two headed giant.
As for the best way to resolve the legendary/alternate realities problem, I think the most elegant solution would be to have control of the plainswalker switch if a duplicate copy is played. That increases the risk of playing cards through the walker and gives more use to playing multiple copies of a walker in your deck without resorting to Grandure. Flavorwise, planeswalker cards would represent an alliance with that planeswalker, not creating/casting one. It wouldn't even need reminder text just like the legend rule in X, seeing as they are likely rare.
This is largely based on Solmancer/destroysound 's design, but I think there needs to be enough of a draw back so that you won't just play all your spells through the planeswalker. RFGing the perms, the back and forth of the mirror, and having those creatures not being able to defend you seems to help balance them, but maybe they are now too weak. Also, the reminder text takes the full card, let alone any abilities. On the plus side, they allow you to refer to yourself in the third person! Playable? Printable?