Defending Your Planeswalkers: A Comprehensive Guide to Protecting Your Powerful Allies
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Planeswalkers in Magic: The Gathering are powerful allies that can swing the game in your favor, offering card advantage, board control, and even direct damage. However, they are also vulnerable, and your opponent will undoubtedly try to eliminate them. Defending your planeswalkers is crucial for maximizing their impact and securing victory. You defend a planeswalker by preventing damage that would remove loyalty counters. This can be achieved through a variety of methods: blocking attacking creatures with your own, removing attacking creatures with spells or abilities, redirecting damage from you to a creature you control, preventing damage with spells or abilities, increasing your life total to give yourself more time, or using planeswalkers with abilities to protect themselves. Understanding and implementing these strategies effectively will significantly improve your planeswalker’s survivability and your overall win rate.
Understanding Planeswalker Vulnerabilities
Before diving into defensive tactics, it’s essential to understand what makes planeswalkers vulnerable. Unlike creatures, they can’t attack or block on their own (unless they have an ability that turns them into creatures). They also don’t benefit from typical creature-based protection like hexproof or shroud while they are not creatures.
- Direct Attacks: Opponents can attack your planeswalkers directly during the combat phase, similar to attacking you. Any unblocked damage is subtracted from the planeswalker’s loyalty counters.
- Burn Spells: Many burn spells (direct damage spells) can target a player, and the player can then choose to redirect the damage to a planeswalker they control.
- Planeswalker Removal Spells: Some spells specifically target and destroy planeswalkers.
- Abilities: Some creatures and enchantments have abilities that can deal damage to or otherwise remove loyalty counters from planeswalkers.
- Sacrificing Strategies: Some opponents will use sacrifice strategies that could slowly but steadily hurt your planeswalkers.
Effective Defense Strategies
Now, let’s explore the various ways to protect your valuable planeswalkers:
Creature-Based Defense: Blocking and Removal
The most common and often most effective way to defend a planeswalker is through your own creatures.
- Blocking: If an opponent attacks your planeswalker with a creature, you can block with one of your own creatures. This will prevent the attacking creature from dealing damage to the planeswalker. Choose your blockers wisely, considering the attacking creature’s power and abilities.
- Creature Removal: Use instant-speed removal spells (like Lightning Bolt, Swords to Plowshares, or Assassin’s Trophy) to eliminate attacking creatures before they can deal damage. This is a proactive approach that ensures your planeswalker remains safe. You can also use creatures that have abilities like “fight” or “destroy target creature” to remove threats.
- Creature Buffs: Buffing your creatures can allow them to block more efficiently, allowing for more effective defense against your opponents.
Spell-Based Protection: Prevention and Redirection
Spells offer a more versatile range of defensive options.
- Damage Prevention: Spells like Fog or Dawn Charm can prevent combat damage dealt to your planeswalkers (and you). These are particularly effective against aggressive decks.
- Damage Redirection: Some spells allow you to redirect damage from a planeswalker (or you) to a creature you control. This can be a lifesaver if you have a large, resilient creature on the battlefield.
- Counterspells: Counterspells like Counterspell or Negate can directly negate spells that target your planeswalker or are used to remove it.
- Indestructible: Using spells or abilities to give creatures indestructible can make blocking more effective, as the blocking creature will survive combat.
Planeswalker Abilities: Self-Preservation
Some planeswalkers have abilities that can directly protect themselves.
- Creating Tokens: Planeswalkers like Elspeth, Sun’s Champion can create creature tokens that can then be used to block attackers.
- Increasing Loyalty: Abilities that add loyalty counters can effectively “heal” your planeswalker from damage.
- Becoming Creatures: Certain planeswalkers, such as several versions of Gideon, can become creatures, allowing them to block attacks.
Strategic Deckbuilding and Play
Beyond individual cards, strategic deckbuilding and gameplay choices are crucial for planeswalker defense.
- Include Enough Creatures: A deck with a healthy number of creatures will provide ample blocking opportunities.
- Prioritize Removal: Pack your deck with efficient removal spells to deal with opposing threats.
- Control the Board: Focus on maintaining board control. The fewer creatures your opponent has, the fewer potential attackers they have.
- Play Around Removal: Be aware of common removal spells in your opponent’s colors and play accordingly. Don’t overextend your planeswalkers into situations where they’re easily removed.
- Timing is Key: Deploy your planeswalkers at opportune moments when you have blockers in place or removal spells in hand.
Planeswalkers as a Win Condition
Remember that protecting your planeswalkers isn’t just about keeping them alive; it’s about enabling them to achieve their purpose. A well-defended planeswalker can generate card advantage, control the board, or even directly win the game. So, invest in their protection and reap the rewards.
Defending your planeswalkers in Magic: The Gathering requires a multi-faceted approach, combining creature-based defense, strategic spell usage, and clever gameplay choices. By mastering these techniques, you can ensure that your planeswalkers survive long enough to dominate the game. As the Games Learning Society advocates, understanding the intricacies of the game leads to strategic mastery. More resources about strategic mastery can be found at GamesLearningSociety.org.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Can you use creatures to defend a planeswalker?
Yes, absolutely! You can block attacking creatures with your own creatures to prevent them from dealing damage to your planeswalker. This is one of the most common and effective ways to protect your planeswalker.
2. Do planeswalkers deal damage when attacked?
If a planeswalker has an ability that transforms it into a creature (like some versions of Gideon), it can block and deal combat damage as a creature would. However, a planeswalker that is not a creature does not deal damage when attacked.
3. Do +1/+1 counters work on planeswalkers?
No, +1/+1 counters only affect creatures. Planeswalkers use loyalty counters, which are specifically designed to track their “health” or remaining power. You can theoretically put it on the planeswalkers. It just doesn’t do anything there. However, if a planeswalker becomes a creature, it can be affected by +1/+1 counters.
4. Can you negate a planeswalker?
While you can’t negate a planeswalker card that is being played, you can use counterspells like Negate to counter spells that target your planeswalker or spells that would remove it.
5. Can you fireball a planeswalker?
You can’t directly target a planeswalker with Fireball because Fireball targets a player or creature. However, you can target the planeswalker’s controller and then redirect the damage to the planeswalker.
6. Does Deathtouch work on planeswalkers?
Deathtouch is a static ability that causes 1 point of damage of the source with deathtouch to kill any creature it deals damage to (unless that creature is indestructible). This does not apply to Planeswalkers, because they are not creatures. You’ll need an additional ability like that of Vraska, Swarm’s Eminence.
7. What are the rules for planeswalkers with indestructible?
Planeswalkers with indestructible will still have loyalty counters removed from them as they are dealt damage. If a planeswalker with indestructible has no loyalty counters, it will still be put into its owner’s graveyard, as the rule that does this doesn’t destroy the planeswalker.
8. Can you protect a planeswalker?
Yes, absolutely. Preventing damage that removes loyalty counters are the most common ways of defending a planeswalker.
9. Do planeswalkers enter with counters?
Yes, planeswalkers enter the battlefield with a specific number of loyalty counters as indicated on the card. This is a defining characteristic of planeswalkers.
10. Can you target a planeswalker as a player?
No. A spell can only target what the spell says it can target. Planeswalkers are not players. That said, if the spell does DAMAGE to target player, your friend can redirect that damage to a planeswalker that target player controls.
11. What happens if a planeswalker becomes a creature?
If a planeswalker becomes a creature, it can attack and block like any other creature. It retains its loyalty abilities and can still use them (if you haven’t already activated one this turn). If it takes damage while it is a creature, it is dealt damage equal to that damage unless it is specified otherwise.
12. How many planeswalkers should I have in my deck?
The number of planeswalkers you include depends on your deck’s strategy. Some decks run no planeswalkers, while others are heavily reliant on them. Experiment and find what works best for your playstyle and win conditions. You can have up to four copies of any individual planeswalker card in your deck.
13. Can planeswalkers act on first turn?
Yes. You can activate a planeswalker’s loyalty ability the same turn you play it, as long as it’s your turn and the stack is empty (at sorcery speed).
14. How do shield counters work on planeswalkers?
A shield counter prevents the next instance of damage that would be dealt to the permanent it’s on. If a planeswalker with a shield counter would be dealt damage, the damage is prevented, and the shield counter is removed.
15. Does earthquake damage planeswalkers?
Earthquake and similar spells that deal damage to “each player” cannot directly damage planeswalkers. You can only transfer damage to a planeswalker if you’re targeting a player with it.