Hello everyone!
So we’ve been able to review Lukka, Bound to Ruin, and Nahiri, the Unforgiving as compleated walkers, and Kaya, Intangible Slayer as one of our heroes, but we have yet another hero to analyze – The Eternal Wanderer!
So we have a six mana planeswalker with five loyalty which is pretty standard for six mana walkers. What’s interesting about The Eternal Wanderer is the passive where only one creature can attack it at a time. That should make it make it much harder to kill depending on what the opponent has, but it’s better than no passive!
The +1 is very interesting as it’s a blink effect that can target artifacts or creatures on either side, However, since it returns that card at the owner’s end step, it can work as protection for The Eternal Wanderer as well since you can keep locking that card down. In that sense, it reminds me of Tamiyo, the Moon Sage‘s plus ability.
The 0 is simple, making a 2/2 Double Strike. That is a reasonable stat line to create for a 6 mana walker, especially as a 0, but it is unfortunate that any removal spell will kill that token.
Finally, you have an ultimate that you can activate immediately which is very reminiscent of Tragic Arrogance which was a staple back in the Bant Company days as a midrange mirror breaker. Nowadays, slower decks aren’t as much about permanents as they are about powerful ETB creatures and spells, but that’s still an extremely powerful ability.
So we have a somewhat pricey walker with three solid abilities. Where does that leave us?
VERDICT
I want to start off to say that this card is definitely good and definitely the most promising six mana planeswalker Standard has seen in quite awhile. All the abilities are powerful, the passive is going to come up much more often than I think people realize, and being able to immediately ultimate is quite powerful if the board gets too wide.
So what’s my issue with it? How it lines up against everything else. In a format that’s currently defined by Make Disappear, Invoke Despair, and Cityscape Leveler, having a six mana planeswalker that isn’t completely insane is a bit of a tough sell. Furthermore, if decks were more interested in building up big creature boards slowly or the ultimate was literally Tragic Arrogance, this would be much better suited for the metagame, but as it currently is, it’s hard to see where this would fit.
I think this definitely deserves a three on power level alone, but whether it’ll see play on release is another question entirely. However, unlike other six mana planeswalkers, I would be very surprised if this didn’t see play at some point. It has been quite awhile since a six mana planeswalker has been good, so having one that’s powerful enough to potentially see play is exciting.
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