Planeswalkers are one of my favorite card types to play within Magic The Gathering. However, it’s a good idea to know just how many Planeswalkers you are allowed to have in a deck if you are looking to build the ultimate Planeswalker deck.
As a general rule, you can have a maximum of 4 Planeswalkers that share the same card name in your deck. No rule limits the total number of Planeswalker cards or subtypes that can be in a single deck, so long as there are no more than 4 copies of the exact planeswalker card.
How Many Planeswalkers Can You Have In A Deck: Overview
| Magic The Gathering Format | Number of Planeswalkers in a Deck |
|---|---|
| Historic | 524 |
| Pioneer | 716 |
| Modern | 840 |
| Legacy | 908 |
| Vintage | 902 |
| Commander | 99 |
As you can see from the list above you can fit a lot of Planeswalkers into a single Magic deck.
New Planeswalker cards are released in almost every new MTG standard set, so the number of Planeswalkers you can add to your deck grows constantly.
Since in the majority of Magic The Gathering formats there is no limit to the amount cards that you can have in a single deck, you can include every Planeswalker that is legal in that format in your deck 4 times – with a few expectations.
For those of you that may be worried about how the “Legend Rule” might any players trying to play a large amount of Planeswalker in their deck, no need to worry.
The Legend rule only affects Planeswalkers that are on the battlefield and not in your deck or hand. You won’t be able to have more than one of the exact kind of Planeswalker in play at the same time, but this does not impact the typical rule that states you can have up to 4 of a card in your deck.
If you are not sure about how the “Legend Rule” works, you can get out this post where I explain everything you need to know about the Legend rule – Maximum Number of Planeswalkers in Play [Formats, Rules]
How Many Planeswalkers Can You Have In A Commander Deck?
Unlike other Magic The Gathering formats, Commander only allows you to have 99 cards in your deck – no less, no more.
On top of this, Commander is a singleton format.
In other formats, you can have up to 4 copies of the exact same Planeswalker card in your deck, but not in Commander.
In this singleton format, you can only have a single copy of a card in your commander deck – no need to buy a playset.
Despite the fact there is a huge array of Planeswalkers to choose from in the Commander format, you won’t be able to pack them all into one giant Planeswalker deck due to the format’s card limit.
Even though you theoretically could put 99 Planeswalkers in your deck, that won’t leave you any space in your deck for the Lands to cast them!
Although you might not be able to build a functional 99 Planeswalker Commander deck, you can have a Planeswalker as your commander!
How Many Planeswalkers Can You Have In A Vintage Deck?
You may be wondering, why is the number of Planeswalkers cards that you can play in a Vintage deck less than a Legacy deck?
While at this time, all Planeswalkers that are legal in the Legacy format are also Legal in the Vintage format, there are some Planeswalkers that are “restricted”.
The Vintage format is currently the only Magic The Gathering format that has some cards classed as “restricted”.
When a card is restricted in Vintage it means that players can only have one copy of the card in their deck, not the usually 4 copies.
Making the rules to use that particular card somewhat similar to Commander – only a singleton of a restricted card can be used in a deck.
In vintage, there are only 2 Planeswalkers that have been restricted to 1 copy per Vintage deck:
With these 2 Planeswalkers restricted in the format, the theoretical number of Planeswalkers that you can play in a Vintage deck will always be 6 less than that of the Legacy format.
A Legacy deck can play 4 “Narset, Parter of Veils”, and 4 “Karn, the Great Creator”, 8 in total.
Vintage players are stuck with only 1 of each, 2 in total – Sorry Vintage players!
I recommend if you are planning to build a Planeswalker deck in the near future, in any format, that you make sure you have a good understanding of all the rules surrounding Planeswalkers.
Although Planeswalkers can be an exciting card type to play with, there are a few things that can take you by surprised if you are not careful.
One thing I had a lot of trouble with when I first started playing Magic The Gathering was how some Planeswalkers would be affected by “Summoning Sickness” depending on which Planeswalkers you played with, and the abilities you choose to activate.
If you are a little uncertain of how some Planeswalkers interacted and can be affected by summing sickness, then just head on over to the quick guide that I wrote about on the topic.
In the post, I include a free “Cheat Sheet” table that you can reference, just in case you ever get stuck. Check out the post here – Do Planeswalkers Have Summoning Sickness: Helpful Guide
In any case, you should now be armed with all the information you need to go and start building that Planeswalker deck to drawn your opponents in a sea of loyalty counters!
Click to scroll back to the “How Many Planeswalkers Can You Have In A Deck: Overview” Table.