Gideon Blackblade

The line that makes this planeswalker work is the one that keeps it off the defensive: on your turn it becomes a 4/4 with indestructible that still counts as a planeswalker, and all damage to it is prevented anyway. That combination resolves a problem every attacking planeswalker before it carried, namely the awkward window where you either sit still ticking loyalty or expose the walker to combat. Once summoning sickness has worn off, it swings without risk: it dodges the blocker's damage entirely, and reverts to a static planeswalker on your opponent's turn, so sweepers that only see creatures at sorcery speed miss it and combat tricks aimed at the body do nothing. The +1 is the tell for who it was built for: a proactive white deck full of attackers, where handing a second creature vigilance keeps it back on defense, lifelink stabilizes a race, or indestructible walks a threat through a block. None of the three modes is passive value; each assumes you are already on the offensive. The -6 exile clause is the late-game insurance you rarely reach, because a Gideon that starts attacking the turn after it lands tends to end the game before loyalty climbs that high. The design lineage runs through every Gideon that wanted to be a creature on its own turn; this is the version that stopped hedging and made the body a permanent condition of the untap step.