Posted in: Card Games, Games, Magic: The Gathering, Tabletop, Wizards of the Coast | Tagged: Ajani Goldmane, Chandra nalaar, Garruk Wildspeaker, Jace Beleren, Liliana Vess, magic, MTG, Op ed, Planeswalker, WotC

Magic: The Gathering: 5 Planeswalkers' New Year's Resolutions

Happy holidays, players, collectors, and other fans of Magic: The Gathering, the premier trading card game by Wizards of the Coast! With New Year's Day coming in hot for the year 2022 AD, many of us are wondering what we will do to improve ourselves inside and/or out for the new year. With the Multiverse being an endless expanse (as, according to Wizards, one plane is best described as one grain of sand on an endless beach among endless amounts of beaches), it's not entirely implausible that the Planeswalkers of the Magic canon exist in some form or another, and as such it isn't entirely implausible that they are about to celebrate an Earth-like New Year's Day as well. While in the most canonical aspects of the game's world, time is mostly observed via the Argivian Reckoning system (also known as A.R., which will be important to note for when The Brothers' War set comes out later in 2022), let us suspend our disbelief for a short while to take a look at what five Planeswalkers might be doing for their New Year's resolutions.

Ajani Goldmane

Ajani Goldmane, the Leonin from Naya responsible for taking down the tyrant and elder dragon known as Nicol Bolas during the Conflux of Alara, is a character who seems, much like many white-aligned characters, to take on far too many responsibilities in his day-to-day life. Whether it's cutting down tyrants like Bolas on Ravnica, or unveiling the truths behind the pantheon of Theros' gods, Ajani has been hard at work. His New Year's resolution would most definitely be to take it a bit easier during his downtime because it's obvious that his line of work tends to affect his ability to relax.

Jace Beleren

Much unlike Ajani, the Vryn mind-mage Jace Beleren is not one to take such a relaxed stance on work. Instead, he buries his nose in books and studies, preferring to fully immerse himself in the duties that he has as the de-facto leader of the Gatewatch (and while the Gatewatch is mostly divided, Jace is still the main voice of command within this faction of Planeswalkers, whether fans like it or not!). Be this as it may, his resolution for this New Year's would probably be to stop hiding behind his illusions outside of combat situations as an escape from the reality he is living in in the present. Would he be able to fully embrace this resolution? This is a mystery even Jace himself can't be sure of.

Liliana Vess

The Dominarian necromancer and former consort of demons known as Liliana Vess has been relaxing a bit more from the trauma of dealing with Nicol Bolas during the War of the Spark by taking on the role of a professor of Strixhaven Academy on Arcavios. Thankfully, winter break has started (at least by our standards), so Liliana is likely to be taking off for the time. For what it's worth, Liliana is likely to go along with a silly and perhaps stupid resolution for the new year, such as not using her necromancy for resurrections in lieu of mundane tasks, but inevitably this resolution may be quickly broken by way of Liliana sorely desiring a coffee (taken black, as one does) but being too lazy in the early morning to grab one herself. A zombie will soon thereafter come shambling to get one for her. The good life!

Chandra Nalaar

Chandra Nalaar of Kaladesh would be notoriously bad at keeping resolutions, but she would make one and at least attempt to stick to it, much unlike Liliana who is apt to think of resolutions as infringements upon her individual freedoms. Chandra would take this time to try something new and exciting, as is the way of the red-aligned. This past December, by our own calendar at least, Chandra attended a vampire wedding and made the effort to overthrow the eternal-night regime of Olivia Voldaren and her retinue on Innistrad. After that, not much could be more nerve-wracking, right? Wrong! Chandra seems to be a Planeswalker with iffy coordination at best. She would take this time to learn to dance better. She might attempt to take up swing dancing as it's fast-paced and exhilarating overall. Will she succeed? If she does, it won't before a few attempts with other interests interspersed before any success.

Garruk Wildspeaker

The Dominarian huntsman Planeswalker called Garruk Wildspeaker has most recently been seen as the protector of Will and Rowan Kenrith, the royal twin children of King Algenus Kenrith, the rightful sovereign of Eldraine (thieves of crowns be damned!). It is likely that as of New Year's Eve he has been hunting quarry during a royal hunt alongside King Algenus for Yuletide. Overall he's probably still feasting on a wonderful bounty, deservedly hunted and harvested. However, it seems that Garruk has no need for resolutions… Except to finish his grudges against either Liliana Vess or the fey called Oko, for their part in affecting his livelihood for the worse. Hey, he hasn't managed to take either down, yet, but it's probably not an impossible task for a tracker as accomplished as Garruk.

What do you think about these resolutions? Do you have any Magic: The Gathering-based resolutions for 2022? Are you hoping to build a new deck? Do you want to collect a whole subset of cards? Are you quitting? Let us know what your thoughts are for the new year in the comments below!

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