Elspeth, Knight-Errant
The four-mana template that taught a generation of players what a planeswalker was supposed to feel like. Both plus abilities cost the same loyalty and both push the board forward, so there is no "do nothing to protect myself" tax: every turn she either widens the battlefield with a Soldier or turns an existing creature into an evasive threat, and the loyalty climbs either way. That dual upward pressure is what made her a fixture of white aggressive and midrange decks for years; she defends herself by ending the game, not by sitting back. The second +1 is the under-discussed half, because pairing flying with +3/+3 turns any token she has already made into an evasive clock and pushes an attacker over the top of ground blockers without needing more bodies. The ultimate is rarely the plan, but its scope (artifacts, creatures, enchantments, and lands, all indestructible) is a reminder of how generously the early-era walkers were costed: an emblem that, once landed, walks back nearly every symmetrical sweeper and most spot removal a control deck can muster. She is the design Wizards has spent the years since gently walking away from, the proactive low-loyalty walker who advances her own board on a body she does not have, and the reason later white planeswalkers were priced and gated more carefully.
