Mana accumulates on the first card in the player's hand; the Mana required to cast it appearing as a number. Creatures and supports will always be cast when full after a gem match, unless they are disabled by tapping the circular Type icon. Spells: it depends. Targeted spells will always prompt the player with a decision to cast and a targeting popup, unless there is a second valid part of the spell that is u targeted. A good example of the latter is {{Card URL|Cruel Revival}}, which always returns a Zombie from the graveyard if there is one there and Cruel Revival is not disabled, even though the first part of the spell destroys a Target non-Zombie creature. Another is Sleep with the Fishes, which must be disabled or it will summon a Fish token even after the player chooses not to target an enemy creature.

Like card abilities, [[:Category:Planeswalker abilities|Planeswalker abilities]] tend to be thematically linked to certain colors. For example, [[:Category:Vigilance|giving creatures Vigilance]] and [[:Category:First Strike|First Strike]] tends to be a White Planeswalker ability. [[:Category:Draw|Drawing cards]] and [[:Category:Drain mana|draining the mana ]] out of opponents' cards tend to be Blue PW abilities; Black PWs may draw cards, but they often have to pay Life or some other cost. Black PWs [[:Category:Reanimate|Reanimate creatures out of the graveyard]] straight into play and [[:Category:Lose life|make opponents lose life]]. Red typically does [[:Category:Damage|Damage]] directly to the opponent or their creatures, and [[:Category:Destroy gems|destroys gems]] of the opponent's colors. Green [[:Category:Convert gems|Converts gems]] to their own colors. Green PW's identity beyond that is less clear; they often tend to be a showcase of the [[:Category:Set ability|abilities featured in their set]], or in the case of dual color walkers, have abilities of the second color. Almost 40% of Planeswalkers [[:Category:Summon creatures|Summon some sort of token creature]]; along with the broad category of [[:Category:Buffs|Buffing creatures]] it is an ability that all the colors share.

Always-Standard Origins lands are only in the "Opposed" colors, and so can be optimally used only by Planeswalkers of [[#Dual color: Ravnica Guilds|opposed pairs of colors]]. They also favor the [[#Tri color: Clans of Tarkir|Tarkir Clan Planeswalkers]] over the [[#Tri color: Shards of Alara|Alara Shard Planeswalkers]]. For example, WUR "Jeskai" [[Narset of the Ancient Way]] receives direct benefits from both {{Card URL|Battlefield Forge}} and {{Card URL|Shivan Reef}}, where the UBR "Grixis" Nicol Bolas trio only directly benefit from Shivan Reef. WBR "Mardu" [[Dihada, Binder of Wills]] benefits from Battlefield Forge and {{Card URL|Caves of Koilos}}, where WUB "Esper" [[Dakkon, Shadow Slayer]] only directly benefits from Caves. The reverse tends to be true of the [[Puzzle Masters 2]] lands.

[[Origins]] Planeswalkers' mana bonuses add up to five. Between Origins and [[Hour of Devastation]], mana bonus totals wavered but gradually increased. Planeswalkers released from [[IxilanIxalan]] onwards follow simple rules for their [[mana]] bonuses:

:{{W|2038}}{{B|2038}} Silverquill:{{W|2038}}{{R|2038}} Lorehold :{{U|2038}}{{R|2038}} Prismari :{{U|2038}}{{G|2038}} Quandrix :{{B|2038}}{{G|2038}} Witherbloom

Arc. Adjoining colors, an arc of the color wheel. [[Dakkon, Shadow Slayer]] uses Some Puzzle Quest Planeswalkers use the same colors of magic as, but is are otherwise unrelated to, Alara shards. [[Dakkon, Shadow Slayer]] uses Esper. Nicol Bolas is uses Grixis. [[Tamiyo, Field Researcher]] is uses Bant. [[Lord Windgrace]] uses Jund.