A planeswalker in every pack
War of the Spark is the payoff to the Bolas arc, and its defining choice is structural rather than mechanical: thirty-six planeswalkers, one in every pack, at every rarity. Twenty are uncommon, thirteen rare and three mythic.
The uncommon ones are what made it work. They have exactly two abilities, a static one and a minus, and none of them can raise their own loyalty. That single restriction is why twenty planeswalkers could exist at uncommon without the Limited format collapsing into who drew more of them.
Themes
Amass
Put that many +1/+1 counters on an Army you control, making a 0/0 black Zombie Army token first if you have none. Every trigger feeds the same body, so a pile of small triggers becomes one large creature rather than a board of chaff.
Proliferate
Add another counter of each kind already present, on any permanents and players you choose. In a set this full of planeswalkers it grows loyalty as readily as it grows an Army, which is why it sits at the centre.
Uncommon planeswalkers
Not a keyword, but the design that shapes the set. Two abilities, a static and a minus, and no way to go up. They are threats you spend rather than engines you protect.
Where You Can Play It
War of the Spark shipped under a single code and has left Standard, which is the only format it left.
Not Standard-legal. Standard only ever holds the last few years of sets, so everything this old has long since left it. These cards are still playable in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage and Commander. Commons from any set are Pauper-legal; that isn't listed per set here.
Limited
A full ten-pair format, and one where a planeswalker in every pack changes the maths: every deck has some, so removal that answers them is worth far more than usual.
All ten two-color pairs
Full ten-pair format
Amass concentrates in black and the Dimir end, proliferate spreads across the counters pairs, and the uncommon planeswalkers turn up everywhere because one is in every pack.
FAQ
No. Standard only holds the last few years of sets, so a 2019 release left it long ago. WAR cards are still legal in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage and Commander.
Thirty-six, one in every pack. Twenty are uncommon, thirteen are rare and three are mythic, which is the largest number of planeswalkers ever printed in a single set.
Each has exactly two abilities, a static one and a minus, and none can raise its own loyalty. That restriction is what let twenty of them exist at uncommon without Limited games being decided by who opened more.
Put that many +1/+1 counters on an Army you control, creating a 0/0 black Zombie Army token first if you do not have one. Every amass trigger feeds the same creature, so small triggers stack into one large body.
Choose any number of permanents and players with counters on them and give each another counter of each kind already there. In this set it grows an Army and a planeswalker's loyalty with the same trigger.
All card names, art, and mechanics belong to Wizards of the Coast. War of the Spark released on May 3, 2019; details reflect the set as published. Sources: Wizards of the Coast set pages and release notes, Draftsim, Untapped.gg.
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