Hi everyone! Magic Origins is arriving fairly soon, and we thought we’d take a couple of days here to go over the new planeswalkers that are debuting in this set. Magic Origins is all about the origins of some of the more popular planeswalkers and how they gained their spark in the first place. To this, we using double faced cards (originally seen in Innistrad block).

Each planeswalker actually starts out as a creature. But each of them has a triggered ability that represents them getting their spark and transforming into a planeswalker! They don’t actually transform while on the battlefield – they exile themselves, and then return as a planeswalker. By doing it this way, it allows them to enter the battlefield as planeswalkers and lets them enter the battlefield with loyalty counters. To be exiled and returned, the creature has to be on the battlefield when the trigger resolves: that means that if your opponent responds to the trigger by killing the creature, it won’t be exiled and won’t return as a planeswalker.

Once they’ve transformed, they’re planeswalkers, just like you know and love. If it’s one of your main phases and the stack is empty, you’ll even be able to use one of the loyalty abilities that turn.

With double-faced cards, they will always enter the battlefield day side up (i.e., creature side up) unless some effect says otherwise, and unless the double faced card is on the battlefield and transformed, you ignore the back side of the card. That means that if they’re in the graveyard, they’re just creatures, not planeswalkers, so they will only count as one type for something like Tarmogoyf.

For Liliana, it’s pretty easy to get her to “spark.” Just have another nontoken creature you control die. This is pretty self-explanatory, but make sure to remember the “nontoken” part, and remember that being exiled doesn’t count either. But all it takes is making a chump block, or sacrificing a creature, or even using a removal spell on your own dude just to get Liliana to turn into a planeswalker! Have fun!

Today’s Rules Tip written by Nathan Long