Ixalan Previews Start with a Rule Change! “Legendary Planeswalkers”
Hello, all, and welcome to the start of Ixalan previews! Quite a few Rares got spoiled some months ago, but today starts the official previews for the set. I apologize for starting previews with a spoiler as a featured image, but it couldn’t be helped. It has to do with the new rule.
While I’ll cover some of the other previews within the next few days (hopefully), I’d like to address one change today.
When Planeswalkers debuted in Lorwyn in 2007 (reference 1), we got a variation of the Legend Rule called the “Planeswalker Uniqueness rule.” In its current (pre-Ixlalan) form, it states that no player can have more than two Planeswalkers that share a Planeswalker type (the “type” usually being a first or last name, like Jace, Nahiri, or Bolas).
Ixalan looks to change that. Presenting Jace, Cunning Castaway ! (reference 2)

You see the “Legendary” supertype listed next to “Planeswalker” now. All Planeswalkers will have this, either new or reprinted. But why?
The “Planeswalker Uniqueness rule” is going away. ALL Planeswalkers are now under the Legend Rule.
Fully technically, here’s all that’s happening:
1) All past Planeswalkers will be errata’d to have the “Legendary” supertype. This means even the original Ajani will have a type line of “Legendary Planeswalker – Ajani.”
2) You cannot control two Legendary Planeswalkers of the same card name. This is important for Jace, Cunning Castaway because it makes non-Legendary copies of himself, meaning the Legend Rule doesn’t kick in. Why? There are not two Legendary Jace, Cunning Castaways on your side of the battlefield, just the original.
Let me explain by using a real example.
A player in our group likes a particular Planeswalker character. But he always mixes up the Planeswalker Uniqueness Rule with the Legendary Rule. Why? Because in Magic Origins, his favorite character got a Legendary Creature/Planeswalker flip card. This led to discussions about how many of that Planeswalker character you could have.
I always had to tell him, “It’s fine to have the Legendary Creature and 1 Planeswalker version side-by-side, but once the Creature becomes a Planeswalker, you have to choose one or the other to keep.”
Now, this will no longer be the case. Even if that “flipwalker” becomes a Planeswalker, the game checks for having *Legendary* Planeswalkers of the same *name*.
For another example, if you have this hand and, let’s say, Omniscience (so you don’t have to pay anything to cast anything) (all images from MagicCards.info) :



Pre-Ixalan (until September 28th), you can only have one Nicol Bolas planeswalker-type card out at a time. They all share the “Bolas” Planeswalker type.
Post-Ixalan (starting September 29th), you can cast all 3 of these with no issues. You’ll have 3 Nicol Bolas planeswalkers on the board, each with a difference card name.
So if you want the TL;DR version (that I’ll post on Facebook):
Planeswalkers past, present, and future now fall under the Legend Rule (and will be errata’d to have the “Legendary” supertype). If you have two Legendary Planeswalkers of the same card name (not Planeswalker Type), only then do you choose one to keep and send all others to the Graveyard. For example, “Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh” and “Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver” are both safe to have on your side of the battlefield as they have different card names.
If that’s too long to read, here’s the more condensed “TL;DR the TL;DR” version:
Planeswalkers join Legendary Creatures in following the Legend Rule, with pre-Ixalan Planeswalkers being errata’d to be Legendary. The Planeswalker Uniqueness rule goes away.
I should be back with more Ixalan previews, so keep an eye on this page!
REFERENCES
(1) https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Lorwyn
(2) http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/ixalan-mechanics