I'm a big proponent of the Universes Beyond sets, and I've been vocal about Wizards' decision to move them to Standard legality. But, despite being completely on board with this, there is one big downside I've noticed. Since Planeswalking is currently tied to the In-Universe sets, as part of the Magic: The Gathering IP, we're seeing fewer Planeswalker cards printed each year.

This makes each new printing a mini event. And, when a new Planeswalker is introduced, it has the potential to be something special. So, when the recent Magic Story Podcast episode: Back to School with Secrets of Strixhaven let us known that we would be getting a new Planeswalker in Strixhaven, it got a lot of attention.

Who are Planeswalkers?

Quick recap: The term Planeswalker was originally coined as a representation of you, the player in a game of Magic. Planeswalkers came to populate the ongoing storyline and Wizards eventually decided the idea needed an in-game representation. Planeswalkers as a card type, were first introduced in the original Lorwyn set with what became known as the Lorwyn Five: Ajani Goldmane, Jace Beleren, Liliana Vess, Chandra Nalaar, and Garruk Wildspeaker.

Since that time, Planeswalkers have been the "Face Characters" of the game. In the current practice, Wizards publishes one or two Planeswalkers per In-Universe set.

What We Know

Details are currently scant, but more info should be revealed over the next two weeks as Secrets of Strixhaven becomes a little less secret. Still, enough details were released in the podcast to offer some intriguing speculation.

We know that Delian is linked to the Witherbloom College, the College aligned to Black and Green colors. Per the Planeswalker's guide, "Witherbloom mages draw power from the opposing forces of life and death."

The initial character description of Delian is that he is, "Mysterious, macabre, and debonair." He is, "The youngest tenured Strixhaven professor ever" a feat that suggests he is either immensely powerful or possesses an immense ambition, both of which should work wonderfully in the Black mana aligned college.

Early rumors suggest that we may be seeing a new version of Liliana Vess, as a White card (between future product leaks, the general arc of her character's storyline, and cliffhanger ending of the Lorwyn Eclipsed story). This would leave a great opening for a new Black Planeswalker to step in and fill the void.

The most intriguing notes from the announcement are the comments that, "he was gone for a moment, which you'll find out more about." Could this tie into the Phyrexian invasion storyline, given that it left many of the faculty on Strixhaven dead? Did Delian skip out of the conflict?

The final comment on Delian, that, "one of things that's really worth highlighting is how you're going to get to see the throughline and who this character is and how the students come to know him" suggests that they have big plans for the character's introduction and importance to the storyline of the set.

While the odds that Delian is secretly Emrakul are low (but never zero!), I am excited to learn more about them in the coming weeks. It's not often we get a new Planeswalker (the last new Planeswalker character was Kaito in 2022) and when we do, it should be celebrated!

You can find more of my Magic musings on Twitter/X @travishall456 and on Bluesky.