Planeswalker Counts Follow Each Set’s Story, Rosewater Says

Magic has the same number of planeswalkers each year, but puts them in fewer sets, Mark Rosewater wrote on Blogatog on November 8. He did not give the yearly total.

In a November 7 Blogatog answer, Rosewater said War of the Spark needed many because its premise was a planeswalker war. March of the Machine had four planeswalkers, fewer than a core set or Foundations. Reality Fracture needed the Lorwyn Five and Vraska as its main characters; with Liliana desparked and no Tam planeswalker, Rosewater said it used as few planeswalkers as possible while showing those characters. He clarified that he was discussing planeswalkers, not legendary creatures, and said the increased number of legendary creatures mattered for capstone event sets.