Planeswalker

Planeswalker is a permanent card type that represents a powerful ally fighting alongside you, entering the battlefield with a starting number of loyalty counters that go up or down as you activate its abilities. Attack a planeswalker directly and its loyalty drops, so protecting one becomes almost as important as protecting yourself.

Planeswalkers usually offer a mix of abilities, one that grows their loyalty, one that removes a threat or draws cards, and often an “ultimate” that swings the game once loyalty gets high enough.

How Planeswalkers Work

You can activate exactly one loyalty ability per planeswalker per turn, at sorcery speed, the same timing restriction as playing a land. Plus abilities add loyalty counters, minus abilities remove them to fuel a stronger effect, and once loyalty hits zero the planeswalker dies and goes to the graveyard.

Opponents can attack a planeswalker with creatures instead of you, chipping away its loyalty, which means a planeswalker left undefended rarely survives more than a turn or two against an aggressive board.

Planeswalkers in Deckbuilding

A resolved planeswalker generates card advantage or board control turn after turn, so decks often build removal and blockers specifically to keep one alive once it lands. In Commander, planeswalkers also live under the same legend rule as legendary creatures, so you can’t control two copies of the same one.

Control and midrange decks lean on planeswalkers as long-game engines, while aggressive decks usually just want to kill them before they get to activate more than once.