Kaya, Intangible Slayer
Hexproof on a planeswalker rewrites which threats matter, not whether the walker can be threatened at all. The keyword shuts off targeted interaction: no Hero's Downfall pointed at the walker, no burn spell or opposing planeswalker ability ticking loyalty down by naming it. What it does not do is close the two lines opponents actually reach for against a fresh six-loyalty walker. Creatures still swing in and chip loyalty with combat damage, and a board wipe that sweeps every permanent takes the walker along with the rest. So the protection is real but partial, and reading it correctly is what the card asks of you: hexproof buys immunity from the surgical answers, not the collateral ones. That partial guarantee still reframes each ability. The +2 drain is a clock you can lean on, since the cheap disruption that would normally trade with a landed walker cannot connect, so loyalty climbs while it pings. The 0 is card advantage rather than a stall, the opponent's scry a small concession you pay for two cards. The -3 is the payoff for surviving: exile a creature or enchantment and, unless it was an Aura, keep a flying Spirit copy, folding removal and a board presence into a single activation. At seven mana across double-white and double-black, the real question is not whether it survives the turn it lands (the usual tax on a walker this expensive) but whether the deck can pay that pip-heavy cost and then keep the ground clear enough that combat does not do the killing hexproof was supposed to prevent.




