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Planeswalkers are the rarest of MTG's regularly-seen card types, and their frequent adherence to particular patterns can be quite interesting to observe. So, here's a look at the progression of the planeswalker cards with paper printings - a tally that now, as of the new Tezzeret, makes exactly 300!
(The search I'm using includes silver-border cards, but not playtest cards. Playtest cards are interesting in their own right, but they're admittedly not quite the same.)
The first five planeswalkers were in Lorwyn, one of each color. They follow a pretty consistent structure: one plus ability and two minus ones, with one minus being usable from their base loyalty, and the other being an "ultimate" that is not. In one sense, the biggest standout here is Chandra Nalaar, with her (regular) minus being the first -X rather than a fixed cost. Jace Beleren is also noteworthy in a few ways: the only one whose plus is a +2 rather than a +1 (as well as the only one here to have a symmetrical effect), the most expensive ultimate of the five at -10, and the cheapest cost at 3 mana while the others are split between 4 and 5. Their starting loyalties range from 3 (Jace and Garruk) to 6 (Chandra).
Planeswalkers next appeared a year later in Shards of Alara, now at the mythic rarity introduced in the same set. (Planeswalkers wouldn't return to rarities below mythic for over a decade.) The four planeswalkers in Shards included the first two multicolor planeswalkers, Ajani Vengeant as the first Boros and Sarkhan Vol as the first Gruul, making Ajani the first character to get two planeswalker cards. Meanwhile, Elspeth, Knight-Errant was the first to break the previous loyalty ability structure by forgoing a "normal" minus in favor of two pluses and an ultimate. Elspeth's ultimate also creates the game's first emblem, although this was added in errata and was not part of her original text.
Conflux added Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, the first three-color (Grixis) planeswalker as well as the first to have a cost with four colored mana pips - all the previous ones had exactly two. He's also significantly more expensive than those predecessors at 8 mana, and has the first +3 ability. His other numbers aren't particularly unusual, though.
After that, Alara Reborn would be the last planeswalker-less Standard set for over a decade and a half. Magic 2010 didn't add any new planeswalker cards, but it did reprint the Lorwyn 5, updated from rare to mythic.
Zendikar brought back Chandra as Chandra Ablaze, and she alongside Sorin Markov are the first planeswalkers to cost exactly 6 mana. Sorin is also the first to have a triple-pip cost - the first to include three of the same color and the first to have a total of exactly three pips.
Worldwake, like Conflux a year before, had a single planeswalker but a highly significant one: Jace, the Mind Sculptor. JTMS was the first planeswalker to have four abilities rather than three, resulting in a different frame with a larger text box. He has a conventional plus, minus, and ultimate, but also the first zero loyalty ability. In addition, his ultimate, at -12, is the first to surpass the loyalty cost of his first card's ultimate.
Rise of the Eldrazi had two planeswalkers, Gideon Jura and Sarkhan the Mad, tied for the first to forego an ultimate in favor of having all their abilities usable from base loyalty. Both also have zero abilities, but while Gideon's joins a typical plus and minus, it's the first zero with the rare distinction of being listed after a minus rather than before. It's also the first loyalty ability to have four lines of text, and the first to turn a planeswalker into a creature.
Sarkhan the Mad is even stranger. He's the first Rakdos planeswalker, which also makes him the first planeswalker to lose a color they were previously depicted with (although story-wise, Ajani's mono-W Lorwyn card is chronologically after his RW Alara one). More strikingly, he's the first to lack any sort of plus ability, and therefore the first to have two "regular" minuses. His zero also has the potential to damage himself, the first planeswalker ability to directly change the user's loyalty in ways other than its activation cost. The flipside is that he's the first planeswalker to have a base loyalty of 7. Subsequent cards have tied this base loyalty, but none have surpassed it.
After another set of Lorwyn 5 reprints in Magic 2011, Scars of Mirrodin brought Venser, the Sojourner as the first Azorius planeswalker. He and Koth of the Hammer are the second and third planeswalkers to make emblems, and the first to be listed as such in their first printings, but not the first to list it in a paper printing, as Elspeth was reprinted with the updated template in a Duel Deck a month earlier. Meanwhile, Elspeth Tirel isn't the first planeswalker whose ultimate comes online after the first plus, but she's the first to have that plus give her both enough loyalty to ult and enough to survive doing so.
From there, Mirrodin Beseiged brought Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas as the first Dimir planeswalker, and New Phyrexia brought Karn Liberated as the first colorless walker. Karn is the first walker to cost exactly 7 mana, and his abilities hit two extremes: his plus is the first and so far only +4, a record that still hasn't been matched or broken, and his ultimate is -14, the first to break JTMS's record. Karn's ultimate also has the unique effect of restarting the game.
Magic 2012 was the first core set to include new planeswalkers. Chandra, the Firebrand is the first to have a single-pip cost, although not the first to have fewer than two pips because Karn took that spot with zero. Garruk, Primal Hunter is the first planeswalker with a minus cost exactly equal to the user's base loyalty, making it usable on the first turn without assistance but only if you're willing to give up the planeswalker immediately. Jace, Memory Adept has a more subtle distinction - he's the first to have a plus, a zero, and an ult, but no (regular) minus. This also made Jace and Chandra the first characters to get three planeswalker cards. (Meanwhile the last two slots were the first Standard-set reprints of planeswalkers outside the Lorwyn 5 - Gideon and Sorin.)
Innistrad brought Liliana of the Veil - another famed powerhouse, but here only noteworthy for being the last character from the Lorwyn 5 to get a second card. Garruk Relentless, on the other hand, is packed with distinction. He's the first planeswalker to transform, and does so with the first non-loyalty ability to appear on any planeswalker - leaving his front face as the first planeswalker to have only two loyalty abilities, and they're both zeroes, making him the first and so far only planeswalker to have no plus or minus abilities. However, his first zero, like Sarkhan's, does have the potential to damage him and reduce his loyalty - and thereby enable his transformation.
His back face Garruk, the Veil-Cursed is technically the first Golgari planeswalker, but unlike previous multicolor planeswalkers, he uses hybrid frame colors. The only other DFC in the block with a two-color back face is Huntmaster of the Fells, which has a traditional gold back face frame, presumably because it also has a two-color front face. Later cards that transform from single-color to two-color also have gold frames rather than hybrid ones, making Garruk, the Veil-Cursed the only card to have a back-face hybrid frame - specifically earlier printings of him, because his INR reprint goes with gold.
Garruk, the Veil-Cursed doesn't have a printed base loyalty since he keeps the loyalty counters from Garruk Relentless, but his transformation ability calls for him to transform with 1-2. This means his -3 functions as an ultimate, the lowest loyalty cost of all ultimates so far.
That's one set of Innistrad block, but there's two more. Dark Ascension's Sorin, Lord of Innistrad is the first Orzhov planeswalker, and the first walker to make an emblem without using an ultimate - his regular minus can do it immediately. Avacyn Restored's Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded is the first planeswalker to cost only two mana, although it comes with drawbacks. He's the first to have a base loyalty of just 2, less than the costs of both of his minuses - making them both function as ultimates, although the first doesn't exactly feel like one. He's also the first planeswalker to have a cost with no generic mana, just double-red.
Magic 2013 let Ajani and Liliana join Jace, Chandra, and Garruk in having three planeswalker cards - one in Lorwyn, one in a subsequent block, and one in a core set. These are joined by reprints of the M12 versions of the rest of the Lorwyn 5, plus Bolas, making it the first set to have six planeswalker cards - although only two new ones. Then Return to Ravnica immediately gave Jace the position of first to four planeswalker cards with Jace, Architect of Thought, as well as having Vraska the Unseen as the first conventional Golgari planeswalker.
Gatecrash's Gideon, Champion of Justice sets a new record for highest loyalty cost for an ult at -15, one that has stood to this day. His plus is the first loyalty ability to add additional loyalty counters, potentially also letting him break Karn's record for fastest-growing loyalty count on the right board. Even his zero sets a record - this one set by the previous Gideon - in having a whopping six lines of text.
Dragon's Maze's Ral Zarek is the first Izzet planeswalker. He's the first whose ult has a random effect, potentially doing nothing - albeit with 1 in 32 odds. Magic 2014 gave additional cards to Chandra and Garruk, catching them up to Jace while making them the first to get multiple planeswalker cards from core sets.
Theros block covered the final two color pairs: Born of the Gods with Kiora, the Crashing Wave in Simic, and Journey into Nyx with Ajani, Mentor of Heroes in Selesnya. Kiora is the second planeswalker to have a base loyalty of just 2, while Ajani's fourth card makes him now associated with red, green, and white, although never all at once - making him the first of a strikingly large number of almost-Naya planeswalkers.
Conspiracy's Dack Fayden is the first planeswalker to not be legal in Standard. Magic 2015's Garruk, Apex Predator is the second four-ability planeswalker, with a slightly different structure than JTMS - two pluses, a minus, and an ult. His ult is the first to make an emblem that has a negative effect and goes to an opponent, rather than giving a positive effect to his controller. Ajani Steadfast is the first planeswalker to add loyalty counters to other planeswalkers, and he and Jace getting cards alongside Garruk means the three of them are tied for the first to five planeswalker cards. M15 also introduced a few changes to the card frames, including the planeswalker ones.
Commander 2014 introduced a new kind of planeswalker - ones able to act as commanders, one for each color. Each have three loyalty abilities - a plus, a minus, and an ult - plus their commander text as a static ability, resulting in them also using the four-ability frame. Teferi, Temporal Archmage is the first planeswalker to change the rules for how planeswalkers function, although M15's The Chain Veil offered a non-planeswalker way to make other changes. Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath is the first to make an emblem that has an activated ability, rather than a static or triggered one. (Some previous emblems grant activated abilities to lands, but the emblems themselves have static abilities.) Notably, Teferi is the only one of the five to break the pattern of loyalty numbers - the other four all have a +2, a -2, an ult with an even-numbered cost, and a starting loyalty of 3, making it so they can't reduce themselves to 0 loyalty on their own for an easy way to return them to the command zone.
Khans of Tarkir's Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker is the first planeswalker to have reminder text, for his creature transformation. Fate Reforged's Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is the second colorless planeswalker, the second 8-mana planeswalker, and the second planeswalker to have 7 starting loyalty, but he isn't really the first at anything. Dragons of Tarkir's Sarkhan Unbroken, on the other hand, is the first Temur planeswalker, making him the second three-color planeswalker and the first in wedge colors. This makes Sarkhan the first character to get two planeswalker cards in one block.
Magic Origins introduced another new kind of planeswalker in the form of a cycle of "flipwalkers" that start as creatures and transform into planeswalkers. Jace, Vryn's Prodigy is in a sense the second two-mana planeswalker, and Kytheon, Hero of Akros the first and only one-mana one, although neither of them would have an easy time becoming a planeswalker immediately. (Liliana, Chandra, and Nissa are all three mana.) Kytheon's planeswalker form Gideon, Battle-Forged continues Gideon's pattern of unusual loyalty ability lineups by having two pluses and a zero, making him the first planeswalker to not have any abilities that can decrease his loyalty. At this point, Jace becomes the first to reach six planeswalker cards.
Battle for Zendikar's Gideon, Ally of Zendikar can make an emblem from his base loyalty - a stronger one than Sorin's - but at the cost of dying immediately. Oath of the Gatewatch's Chandra, Flamecaller has a plus, a zero, and a -X, making her the first to have a -X as the only minus. Chandra also catches up to Jace's six cards at this point. OGW also introduced the planeswalker-synergizing Oath enchantments, starting with four of the Origins 5. Oath of Gideon is notable for increasing the starting loyalty of your planeswalkers, although Doubling Season already offered this with an even broader effect.
Shadows over Innistrad's Jace, Unraveler of Secrets puts him back in the lead with seven cards. It also features Arlinn Kord as the second planeswalker-to-planeswalker transformation, and the first to be able to transform in both directions. Her front face is the first to have just two abilities total, a plus and a zero that transforms her, while her back has a plus, a minus that reverts her to human, and an ultimate. Eldritch Moon's Tamiyo, Field Researcher is the first Bant planeswalker, and the first three-color walker to cost only 4 mana.
Conspiracy 2's Kaya, Ghost Assassin takes another new approach to loyalty. She only has a zero and two minuses, but her zero can exile her and return her to the battlefield, resetting her loyalty to her base 5 while not offering a way to go higher without help.
Kaladesh's Chandra, Torch of Defiance is the third planeswalker to have four loyalty abilities (at least, on a single card face). Because Kaladesh introduced planeswalker intro decks with additional starter-level planeswalkers, Chandra and Nissa are the first characters to get two planeswalker cards in one set, allowing Chandra to leapfrog past Jace to be the first to eight planeswalker cards. The starter deck walkers are pretty expensive and not very powerful, but they have some pretty big loyalty numbers - Nissa, Nature's Artisan is the second planeswalker to have a +3, while being cheaper than the previous walkers to hit that value or higher. This also makes Kaladesh the first set to have six new planeswalker cards, although not in the main set.
Aether Revolt gives its own pairs of cards to Ajani and Tezzeret, making Ajani, Valiant Protector and Tezzeret, Master of Metal the first multicolor starter deck walkers. Oath of Ajani is also the first multicolor Oath.
Amonkhet's Gideon of the Trials has the third emblem available from base loyalty, and the first that comes from a zero rather than any kind of minus. In exchange, it doesn't stack, and only works when you have him or another Gideon on the field. He's also another Gideon to be able to only increase his own loyalty, not decrease it, and the first planeswalker to have a plus and two zeroes. Nissa, Steward of Elements is the first planeswalker to have an X cost and X base loyalty, making her -6 able to function either as an ult or a regular minus. She's also the first of the Origins 5 to pick up a second color. Gideon, Martial Paragon is strikingly normal for a Gideon, although he's the first starter deck card to have a single-pip cost, the cheapest so far at 5 mana, and the first to have a zero. Liliana, Death Wielder is the first monocolor planeswalker to cost 7 mana, as well as the first walker to have each ability fit in two lines of text.
Hour of Devastation brings Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh, the fourth planeswalker with four loyalty abilities and the first to revisit a three-color combination, replacing his original UBBR cost with a more typical UBR. The same set features Samut, the Tested - a Gruul walker, but following her original card Samut, Voice of Dissent having a Naya color identity, making Samut the second almost-Naya walker.
Nissa, Genesis Mage puts Nissa at four cards over the course of a year, reaching a total of eight and tying with Chandra for first place. Bolas also gets the first and only three-color starter deck card Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver.
In Ixalan, all planeswalkers received errata to become legendary, replacing the planeswalker uniqueness rule. Jace, Cunning Castaway immediately made use of this to make non-legendary copies of himself, and the starter deck Jace brings him to nine cards, retaking the first-place spot. Huatli, Warrior Poet is a Boros walker that makes green tokens, making her the third almost-Naya walker - and Huatli, Radiant Champion moves her to Selesnya colors, the same progression as Ajani. Alongside her starter deck card, this makes Huatli the first character to get three planeswalker cards in one block, in Magic's final official block - although if you count Guilds of Ravnica as an informal three-set block, a few others join this title. Vraska, Scheming Gordon is the first starter deck walker to have a color combination that doesn't match any of the character's previous cards - in this case, mono-black rather than Golgari.
Unstable's Urza, Academy Headmaster is the first un-set planeswalker, as well as the first 5-color one. His printed abilities are particularly short, although spelling out the full list of possible outcomes is far longer.
Dominaria features Karn, Scion of Urza, with a significantly lower cost than previous colorless walkers. It also has Chandra, Bold Pyromancer as the first starter deck planeswalker card for a character who doesn't have a card in the corresponding set/block, although from a story perspective it's tied to the main set's Jaya Ballard. This puts Chandra back in a tie with Jace for nine cards.
Battlebond's Will Kenrith and Rowan Kenrith have three loyalty abilities and two non-loyalty ones, making them technically the first five-ability planeswalkers, although their "partner with" and commander abilities are only a single line each and share the last segment of their respective text boxes. Being the first commander planeswalkers with a partner ability makes them the first planeswalkers able to head a multi-commander deck, and the first able to head a multicolor commander deck.
Global Series introduces a new type of starter deck, introducing Jiang Yanggu and Mu Yanling as the first planeswalkers to first appear as starter deck cards. Both eventually get other versions, although only one of them has gotten a main-set mythic.
Magic 2019 has six main-set planeswalkers and five starter deck ones, none of which are reprints, putting it at 11 total new planeswalker cards and setting three records at once. The counts of main-set and total planeswalker cards won't hold their record positions for long, though. Along them is Nicol Bolas, the Ravager, the sixth flipwalker and first multicolor one, as well as the fifth card to have four loyalty abilities, and the first to have three minus abilities. He's more expensive than the previous flipwalkers, but cheaper than his own previous cards. Meanwhile, the pairs of Ajani and Liliana cards bring them to match Jace and Chandra in having nine, while Vivien Reid is the first planeswalker introduced through a core set.
Commander 2018 brings four more commander planeswalkers, this time all multicolor. These include Aminatou, the Fateshifter as the first Esper walker, and Lord Windgrace as the first for Jund.
War of the Spark has by far the biggest planeswalker lineup: 36 in the main set, plus two in starter decks and Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge as a buy-a-box promo. These include the first 20 uncommon planeswalkers and the first 13 post-Lorwyn rare ones, and every planeswalker in the set has at least one static or triggered ability - the first instances of planeswalkers getting static and triggered abilities that aren't commander or partner abilities or the transformation condition for Garruk Relentless. The 20 uncommons consist of two of each color plus one for each color pair, with the multicolor ones all being hybrid - the first planeswalker cards to have hybrid costs. Each of them has only one loyalty ability and one non-loyalty ability for a total of two, and each of their loyalty abilities are a minus. But they can still be plenty powerful - one of the two planeswalkers restricted in Vintage is the WAR uncommon Narset, Parter of Veils.
Most of the uncommons are characters who've gotten regular planeswalkers before, but with a few exceptions, including The Wanderer who's the first planeswalker to not have a subtype. Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter remains Yanggu's only non-starter-deck card, while Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage is Davriel's only paper card to date.
The 13 rares all have two loyalty abilities and one non-loyalty ability, with one loyalty ability being a plus and the other some sort of minus - occasionally an ult, sometimes not. The two starter deck walkers also follow this pattern, despite being mythic. Jace, Arcane Strategist alongside his main-set card puts Jace as the first to eleven planeswalker cards, while Ajani, Chandra, and Liliana's main-set cards bring them to ten. WAR's rares include the other planeswalker restricted in Vintage: Karn, the Great Creator.
The four non-starter mythics each have four abilities and the corresponding frame. Usually three loyalty abilities and one non-loyalty, but Gideon Blackblade has two of each. His two passives share a text box segment, making him the first card to use the large frame with only three segments. Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God has the particularly demanding mana cost UBBBR and a static ability that grants him the loyalty abilities of other planeswalkers, while the powerful Liliana, Dreadhorde General is in some ways the most conventional planeswalker in the set.
Modern Horizons introduces the first straight-to-Modern cards, including two such planeswalkers. Among them, Wrenn and Six is the second non-transforming two-mana walker and the first to have multiple abilities usable from base loyalty, making for a much stronger card than her predecessor.
Magic 2020 has most of its planeswalkers join MH1's in returning to a standard structure of three loyalty abilities and no others, but Chandra, Awakened Inferno has a "can't be countered" rider, making her the second Chandra to use the four-ability frame. M20 does, however, take a different lesson from WAR in featuring Chandra, Acolyte of Flame as an rare walker and Chandra, Novice Pyromancer as an uncommon one - both of which have three loyalty abilities, unlike the lower-rarity ones in WAR. Acolyte of Flame doesn't have a plus, but her zero increases the loyalty counters on all your red planeswalkers, including herself. Meanwhile, Awakened Inferno is the first to create an emblem on a plus - a relatively minor negative emblem inflicted on your opponents, but one that stacks with repeated use. There's even a starter deck Chandra, making four Chandras in one set and rocketing past Jace's recent eleven-card record to fourteen.
Meanwhile, Ajani, Strength of the Pride has a new type of ultimate - one that costs zero loyalty, but requires a high amount of life. Like the original Gideon, it's a rare instance of a zero ability listed after a minus. Between his two cards here, Ajani also passes Jace to reach twelve cards.
Eldraine's The Royalty Scions gives Will and Rowan another way to team up, as the first card to have two planeswalker types. Meanwhile, Garruk, Cursed Huntsman has an ult but no plus, with his powerful zero creating tokens that can increase his loyalty to allow him to use it. Oko, Thief of Crowns, on the other hand, doesn't do anything quite as structurally unusual, but his absurdly high power for three mana has caused him to become the only planeswalker currently banned in Modern, and one of two banned in Legacy alongside Wrenn and Six.
Theros Beyond Death's Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis follows a pattern similar to the original Kaya. She's the first planeswalker to have three minus abilities with no plus, zero, or ult, but her last ability, Escape, lets her reset after hitting zero. She's also the first Standard-legal planeswalker with a non-loyalty ability listed after her loyalty abilities rather than before - a position usually reserved for commander and partner text. Elspeth, Undaunted Hero is the first planeswalker to have a triple-white cost, making at least one monocolor planeswalker with a triple-pip cost for each color.
Unsanctioned's B.O.B. (Bevy of Beetles) is the second un-set walker, and takes its own approach to loyalty counters. Tying loyalty counters to tokens in this way doesn't actually work in the rules as written, but it's certainly amusing. B.O.B.'s two loyalty and two non-loyalty abilities give it another four-ability frame.
Ikoria's Narset of the Ancient Way is the first Jeskai planeswalker. Vivien, Monsters' Advocate has two loyalty abilities and two static ones, but because her static abilities are only one line each, they fit into the same text box segment and allow her to use the usual three-ability frame rather than the four-ability one.
Magic 2021 has another five main-set planeswalkers, along with the last five starter deck walkers. Most have three loyalty abilities and nothing else, with the exception of Teferi, Master of Time, who has three plus a static ability granting himself his C14 emblem's effect that allows using loyalty abilities at unusual times and making it possible for him to act multiple times in a turn cycle. Chandra gets another pair of cards here, breaking her previous record to hit sixteen.
Zendikar Rising's Jace, Mirror Mage is the second planeswalker to cost a varying amount of mana, this time in the form of kicker. His kicker ability is short and shares a text box segment with the corresponding ETB, so despite his two loyalty abilities putting him at a total of four abilities, he joins Ikoria's Vivien in having the smaller text box frame. The kicker effect makes a nonlegendary duplicate, like his Ixalan card, but this time with less loyalty. His actual loyalty abilities are just a plus and a zero, but his zero can decrease his loyalty - in fact, it's almost identical to Sarkhan the Mad's. Nissa of Shadowed Boughs expands her into Golgari colors which, combined with her Amonkhet version, makes her an almost-Sultai walker. Like Jace, she has only two loyalty abilities, but also a landfall ability that can give additional loyalty.
Commander Legends has two unconventional planeswalkers: Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools and Jeska, Thrice Reborn. They're the only two planeswalkers to have open-ended partner alongside the commander text, which means they can helm a Rakdos deck together or join up with other open-ended partners to have a planeswalker as one of two commanders at the head of any two or three color combination including black, red, or both. C18's Estrid already covers Bant and the C14 walkers have monocolor, which leaves just Azorius, Selesnya, and Simic without possible planeswalker commanders (and two of those will change later).
Both Szat and Jeska have three abilities alongside their commander ones for a total of five. Szat has a typical three loyalty abilities, while Jeska has just two - a zero and a -X - alongside an ability setting her initial loyalty count based on casting commanders. This makes her the first planeswalker to have other abilities both before and after her loyalty abilities - as well as the first to have a base loyalty of 0, and no way to work without help in non-commander formats.
Kaldheim's Valki, God of Lies is the first MDFC planeswalker, via his back face Tibalt, Cosmic Imposter. Cosmic Imposter is much more expensive and powerful than the original Tibalt, and is the first to come with an emblem just from entering - although it's ultimately an extension of his three loyalty abilities and can only act on the fuel they give it. Niko Aris is the second planeswalker with an X cost, but rather than using it to set their starting loyalty, they use it to generate a set of Shard tokens. Tyvar Kell is the first and only single-faced planeswalker with a color identity different from the card's colors, by letting elves tap for black mana.
Strixhaven has two more MDFC planeswalkers. Mila, Crafty Companion is a second creature front face, with Lukka, Wayward Bonder on the back. Rowan, Scholar of Sparks, meanwhile, is a planeswalker on both sides, taking a third approach to letting her and Will work together. Both sides have the same static ability, but Rowan has only two loyalty abilities alongside it while the more expensive Will, Scholar of Frost has three.
Kasmina, Enigma Sage inverts WAR Bolas's effect by granting her own loyalty abilities to your other planeswalkers, and her ultimate has its effect depend on the user - resulting in it being the first to refer to the user broadly as "this planeswalker". Professor Onyx isn't the first card to have a planeswalker type that doesn't appear in the card's title, but it's the first that has only one planeswalker type, as the first was The Royal Scions.
Modern Horizons 2 brings Dakkon, Shadow Slayer, who joins Jeska in having variable starting loyalty but in a way that functions outside of Commander, and Grist, the Hunger Tide, who has a highly unusual passive ability that offers a new way to use a planeswalker as a commander. Geyadrone Dihada is far from the first Grixis planeswalker, but she's the first to not be Bolas, ending his strikingly long run of the first five planeswalker cards of the color combination.
Adventures in the Forgotten Realms has five crossover planeswalkers, the first of a short-lived experiment. Grand Master of Flowers is another card name missing the character's planeswalker type - Bahamut - and has his own unconventional "ultimate" in the form of his passive. Both of his loyalty abilities are +1s, but once they bring him to seven loyalty, he turns into a dragon - and stops being a planeswalker, so he can no longer be attacked or lose loyalty from taking damage. Lolth, Spider Queen is the only one of the cycle to have four abilities and the larger text box - she has no plus, and instead uses her passive to tick up to her ult.
Midnight Hunt's Arlinn, the Pack's Hope has a two-way transformation like her first version, but here she uses Daybound/Nightbound, meaning she can take wolf form immediately if it's already night. Alongside those passives, each side has just two loyalty abilities - a plus and minus for the front and a plus and zero for the back. Crimson Vow's Chandra, Dressed to Kill makes her the first to hit seventeen cards.
Neon Dynasty's four planeswalkers each have three loyalty abilities plus their passives, but for The Wandering Emperor, that's two passives sharing a text box segment - flash and the ability to act at instant speed on her first turn. Kaito Shizuki has his own first-turn benefit in phasing out so he can't immediately be attacked. Meanwhile, Tamiyo, Compleated Sage introduces the planeswalker-specific keyword Compleated, and a Phyrexian planeswalker frame to go alongside it. All Phyrexian planeswalkers so far use the large text box due to having Compleated and three loyalty abilities, so we've only seen that version of the frame as a result. She's currently the only card to use the Phyrexian G/U mana symbol.
New Capenna's Ob Nixilis, the Adversary can, like Jace, make a non-legendary copy of himself, although I'm not sure how it relates to his powerset. He uses Casualty to make a copy of varying starting loyalty, which means the copy can potentially ult immediately.
Battle for Baldur's Gate features the other three crossover planeswalkers: Elminster, Tasha, the Witch Queen, and Minsc and Boo, Timeless Heroes. All three of them have two loyalty abilities, a plus and a regular minus, plus a passive and the commander text, joining Jeska in having their loyalty abilities sandwiched between others. Elminster is the first planeswalker able to helm an Azorius commander deck, while Minsc was previously depicted as a Naya creature as Minsc, Beloved Ranger - making him the fourth almost-Naya planeswalker.
Dominaria United features Ajani, Sleeper Agent as a second Phyrexian planeswalker, and the first to cost Phyrexian G/W. His default version doesn't use the Phyrexian frame, but one of his alt arts does. DMU also has a reprint of Liliana of the Veil - the first reprint of a planeswalker in a non-core Standard set and the first in any Standard set since Magic 2015.
Dominaria United Commander has another pair of precons headed by commander planeswalkers: Dihada, Binder of Wills, the first Mardu planeswalker, and Jared Carthalion, the first Vintage-legal five-color planeswalker. Both have a standard plus/minus/ult trio of loyalty abilities alongside their commander text - as does the accompanying Sivitri, Dragon Master.
DMC is the most recent set to introduce planeswalkers to new color combinations. Despite having several almost-Naya planeswalkers and one almost-Sultai, there are still no planeswalkers in Naya, Sultai, or Abzan.
Unfinity has the first two Vintage-legal un-planeswalkers. Comet, Stellar Pup only has a single ability, but it's a random effect that takes the whole text box. Like other planeswalkers, his text box's background still divides it into multiple segments - in his case, the first line is one segment and the four possible outcomes are the other, filling enough space to need the large text box. Space Beleren is the thirteenth Jace, making him tied once more with Ajani for second place, and being the first Jace to have a second color as well as the first to omit his name from the card name. The card itself has the highly unconventional "space sculptor" passive, and all three loyalty abilities make use of it.
The Brothers' War introduces the biggest planeswalker card, Urza, Planeswalker. The first meld planeswalker, and the first Vintage-legal Urza. With the help of a text box the size of an entire card, he has five loyalty abilities and six total, two things no other planeswalker has within a single card face. Two pluses, a zero, a minus, and an ult, plus a passive letting him use two of them per turn.
Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim isn't nearly as exciting, but he does join the list of planeswalkers that have an ult yet no formal plus. His passive increases loyalty from drawing cards, and his zero draws a card, letting it function as a plus.
All Will Be One has ten planeswalkers, second only to War of the Spark in the number in a single draft environment. The five mythics are all Phyrexian, while the five rares are not - but even three of the rares have four abilities, three loyalty abilities plus a passive, making them the first rares to use the large text box frame. Kaito, Dancing Shadow even has his own way to use multiple loyalty abilities in one turn. Nahiri, the Unforgiving is the first card with a Phyrexian R/W frame and cost, and Lukka, Bound to Ruin is the first with Phyrexian R/G - given that his Strixhaven card had a Boros color identity due to Mila, this makes him the fifth almost-Naya playeswalker.
Jace, the Perfected Mind, Vraska, Betrayal's Sting, and Nissa, Ascended Animist introduce the monocolor Phyrexian planeswalker frames for blue, black, and green respectively - and Nissa is the first compleated planeswalker to have a double-Phyrexian cost, meaning her starting loyalty has three possibilities rather than two and giving her slightly different reminder text.
Because these are the most recent Phyrexian planeswalkers, this means we have not seen any cards with a red or white Phyrexian planeswalker frame - and because two-color Phyrexian mana has only appeared on Phyrexian planeswalkers, its Azorius, Dimir, Rakdos, Orzhov, Izzet, and Golgari symbols have not yet appeared anywhere. With the Phyrexians currently out of the story, that might not change for a while, although cards set in the past could be another story.
March of the Machine introduces battles, including Invasion of New Phyrexia and its back face Teferi Akosa of Zhalfir, the first back-face planeswalker to not be on the back of a planeswalker or creature. The back face has a white/blue color indicator, shared with Urza, who's only half on the back face of a creature. This is the second instance of the same color indicator appearing on two different planeswalker cards, and the first where they're two different characters, as the first instance was Arlinn's two wolf forms. (Don't tell Urza and Teferi that they have something in common.) Meanwhile, Chandra, Hope's Beacon makes Chandra the first planeswalker to eighteen cards.
Commander Masters has just one commander planeswalker, Commodore Guff - the second Jeskai planeswalker and the most recent three-color walker. He's joined by three rare planeswalkers that, unlike others introduced in commander sets, do not have the commander text - including Chandra, Legacy of Fire, immediately increasing her record again to nineteen. Legacy of Fire uses loyalty counters in another new way by having a zero that spends loyalty counters from any number of your cards, most likely including herself. Teyo, Geometric Tactician makes Teyo the first character whose first paper planeswalker cards are uncommon and rare, and Vronos, Masked Inquisitor makes Vronos the first to be introduced at rare.
The following four Standard sets only have five planeswalker cards between them - all with three loyalty abilities and one passive. Jace Reawakened is the most distinctive as another one of the few two-mana planeswalkers and the first to use the large text box, although his passive bans him from being played early.
Modern Horizons 3 has another cycle of five flipwalkers, all with their creature forms costing just 1-2 mana. Each of them gain a second color upon transforming, making Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student the first option for using a planeswalker as the commander of a Simic deck. (On the other hand, Ral, Monsoon Mage is far from the first for Izzet.) Each of them has one ability with an effect depending on having a card of their secondary color, although some use this to leave their base color's territory more than others. As of MH3, the only color combination outside of colorless and four-color that can't have a planeswalker commander is Selesnya.
Bloomburrow's Ral, Crackling Wit gaining loyalty from his passive is nothing new at this point, but his ultimate brings storm back to Standard for the first time in over a decade and a half. Duskmourn's Kaito, Bane of Monsters joins the small list of planeswalkers to have three loyalty abilities plus two passives sharing a text box segment, although in his case the passives take up almost half the text box and leave limited room for the rest. Like usual, the passive effects are connected, with the ability turning Kaito into a creature allowing his ninjutsu ability to function properly. He's also another rare case of getting an emblem on a plus.
Foundations has three planeswalker reprints and two new ones, including Chandra, Flameshaper as the twentieth Chandra card and her first to cost 7 mana. Aetherdrift then immediately adds Chandra, Spark Hunter, increasing her total to its current twenty-one. But Aetherdrift has something far more noteworthy.
The Aetherspark is the first planeswalker card to have a second card type (excluding the playtest cards, which have a few distinctions of their own). This gives it the artifact version of the planeswalker frame for the first time, and allows it to be the first to have a non-planeswalker subtype, Equipment - while being the first non-Wanderer planeswalker to not have a planeswalker type. It can equip itself to creatures and gain a new source of loyalty counters, as well as protecting itself from being attacked.
Tarkir Dragonstorm's Ugin, Eye of the Storms joins the three loyalty, two passive structure. The passives don't directly affect each other, but the first one is effectively letting the second apply to Ugin himself. He's the first card to use the "standard" colorless version of the large text box - but falls one set short of being the first colorless planeswalker to get a large text box.
Edge of Eternities brings Tezzeret, Cruel Captain, with the same frame Ugin just introduced. He's the first instance of a previously established planeswalker newly becoming colorless, and the first colorless planeswalker to cost just 3 mana.
And that brings us to the present! Or, rather, the near future. These might be all the planeswalkers for 2025, or they might not.
As things stand, Chandra's record of 21 planeswalker cards is not particularly contested. Right now, Jace has 15, Ajani has 14, Liliana has 13, and Nissa has 11. No one else has reached the double digits, at least not in paper. With planeswalkers becoming fewer in number these days, her lead is likely here to stay.