how do avatar and planeswalker cards work in Magic the Gathering

[stu5545]

how do avatar and planeswalker cards work in Magic the Gathering

[Lakepirate]

Could you be more specific? Esp since Avatar is a creature type and thus follows all the rules of creatures, and a Planeswalker is very different from a creature, and takes a bit to explain everything about them...

So do you have a specific question about them?

[Arix]

No creature type has any specific rules attached to it. If you're asking about Avatar cards in general, they follow the same rules every other creature does. If you're thinking of a specific Avatar, tells us which one so we can help you more.

Planeswalkers hav a lot of rules attached to them. Here they are in a nutshell:

1. Planeswalkers are permanents and use the stack as normal. This means they can be responded to and countered. They are permanents, but not creatures. You can hit one with Vindicate, but not Terminate. You can play them only when you could normally play a sorcery, ie during your main phase and while the stack is empty.

2. Planeswalkers come into play with a number of loyalty counters specified on the bottom-right corner, where power and toughness is for creatures. Ajani Vengeant comes into play with 3, for instance.

3. Once per turn, whenever you could play a sorcery (again, during your main phase with an empty stack), you can activate one of the planeswalker's abilities. To do so, pay the cost specified on the left hand side. For example, the cost of Ajani's first ability is to put one loyalty counter on him. The cost of his second ability is to take two off. As with any other card, you can't play the ability if you can't pay the cost, so you can't activate Ajani's second ability if he has less than two counters, or his third if he has less than seven. These are normal activated abilities, meaning they can be responded to as normal (and are stopped by Pithing Needle).

4. If your opponent controls a planeswalker, you can attack it with your creatures. When you declare attackers, specify for each one whether it's attacking your opponent or their planeswalker. Your opponent then blocks as normal.

5. If a source you control would deal noncombat damage to an opponent, you can redirect that damage to a planeswalker they control. Note that spells such as Lightning Bolt never target the planeswalker - they target your opponent, then when they resolve, you can redirect the damage. This means that giving a planeswalker shroud won't protect it from a Bolt, but your opponent having shroud will. Also note that you choose to redirect either all the damage or none of it - you can't split it between opponent and planeswalker.

6. Any damage dealt to a planeswalker, whether through attacking or through the "redirection" rule, results in that many loyalty counters being taken off of it. When a planeswalker has no loyalty counters on it, it's put into its owner's graveyard.

7. Note on the type line, each planeswalker has a subtype (for example, "Planeswalker - Ajani"). If there are ever two planeswalkers with the same subtype in play, they're all put into their owners' graveyards. So you can have both Ajani Vengeant and Sarkhan Vol in play, but you can't have two Ajani Vengeant, or an Ajani Vengeant and Ajani Goldmane.

I'm pretty sure I covered all the basics. I'm sure someone will fill in anything that I missed.

[kevin]

is planeswalker an opponent

[Arix]

As mentioned in the other thread, no.