The Gathering can break one planeswalker trend

Summary

The limited number of Planeswalker cards is limiting for deckbuilding in MTG if they are often multi-colored.
The recent 2024 MTG sets featured mainly multi-colored Planeswalkers, which affected the diversity of the deck.
Wizards of the Coast is addressing the issue of multi-colored Planeswalkers for future sets.

There are many internal rules that need to be worked out when Wizards of the Coast designs new ones Magic: The Gathering cards such as respecting the color pie and considering what the card's effects will bring to the table. For example, when all colors are in Magic: The Gathering have some form of removal, vary in motifs and average costs to represent the philosophy of the color pie and different color combinations. The Planeswalkers shuddered Magic: The Gathering's gameplay in a big way over the years, and when they were introduced as single-color cards, they eventually began to populate sets in multiple color combinations.

Color combinations in Magic: The Gathering may be of particular interest both for card design, philosophy, and gameplay. An example comes from the various combos of Rakdos v Magic: The Gathering which are intended to ensure players win at a high price or with a high risk. Even if you have multi-colored cards inside MTG is often a good thing, it can come with its fair share of deckbuilding concerns, especially with card types that are printed in small quantities in each set, such as Planeswalkers. In fact, many sets only contain one or a few planeswalkers, and whenever they are multi-colored, they can be difficult to include in some decks. Still, WotC may be about to change that trend.

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Magic: The Gathering can never reprint a single Classic card in Standard

New cards and reprints appear fairly frequently in Magic: The Gathering's Standard format, but one classic card is more likely than ever to be reprinted.

Why multi-color planeswalkers for one set are a big problem in MTG

This is because of the multi-colored planeswalker cards Magic: The Gathering The problem may be that from Wilds of Eldraine onwards, Wizards of the Coast chose to include only one Planeswalker per set. As such, with only a limited number of planeswalkers each year, having them mostly as multi-colored cards can be very limiting for deck building. As a result, some Planeswalkers, while playable, struggle to get their time in the limelight within the meta, as they require specific decks and colors to work.

Wilds of Eldraine was released on September 8, 2023, and was the first MTG set to contain only one Planeswalker card in addition to reprints and guest cards, starting a new trend.

The idea of only one Planeswalker card per set isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it allows Wizards of the Coast to put more emphasis on the goals and alignment of each Planeswalker and how they impact the set in which it plays. Reducing the number of new Planeswalker cards to one per set means that they can be difficult to fit into decks depending on the format, with the most limitations being in Magic: The GatheringStandard and Eternal formats.

Explanation of MTG planeswalkers in 2024 sets

Few Planeswalker cards were printed in 2024, and only one of them was single color. It was a blue Jace Reawakened card from Outlaws of Thunder Junction, while the other planeswalker cards from last year were all multi-colored. This includes:

Kaya, Justice of spirits (white and black) from Murders on the Karlov estate
Eye, Ringleader (green and blue) from Outlaws of Thunder Junction
Ral, Crackling Wit (blue and red) from Bloomburrow
Kaito, Bane of Nightmares (Blue and Black) from Duskmourn: House of Horror

Jace wasn't even the “face” of the Planeswalker for Outlaws of Thunder Junction last year, which was the Eye. With a total of four planeswalkers from the 2024 core sets, not having any single-color planeswalkers can be quite the sting when it comes to deck building.

Magic: The Gathering is trying to fix the problem with multi-colored planeswalkers

In addition Magic: The GatheringUB sets won't have Planeswalkers even with the new 2025 release schedule, meaning there will only be three Planeswalker cards this year. However, WotC's Mark Rosewater recently confirmed that the company is working on the issue of multi-colored Planeswalkers and their limited deckbuilding potential.

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It's still unclear exactly what Wizards of the Coast has planned for future Planeswalkers so they won't be too restrictive in terms of colors, but fans can wait and see. The first standard-legal set of the year will be MTG's Aetherdrift in February and will feature Chandra as its themed Planeswalker, but nothing else is known yet.