MTG: Gideon Jura Planeswalker

Gideon Jura is a planeswalker who wields white magic. Unlike most planeswalkers, Gideon doesn’t hesitate to enter combat. He also practices hieromancy, the magic of holy justice.

Life before the Order

Gideon never knew his father, as he had left sometime before Gideon was born. He lived with his mother until her death while he was still a young man. With no better options, Gideon joined a gang, which he soon became the defacto leader . With high ideals, he led the other boys to start stealing from the mansions of the rich, taking only what they needed to survive and giving the rest away to the poor.

Alas, he was caught and Gideon found himself in prison, one poorly suited to keeping him. With that in mind, the local constabulary found a man able to deal with Gideon. He took him from prison with the intention of rehabilitating Gideon by teaching him Hieromancy – the magic of order. After a few failed escape attempts on Gideon’s part, he eventually settled in, finding the magic fascinating and enjoying the feeling of power he was cultivating. His teacher recognized something within him though and began teaching Gideon of planeswalkers, one of whom had been his teacher, and the man that had given him his sural. He also instilled in Gideon a warning against pyromancy, the form of magic that had killed his former master.

Gideon’s spark ignited when he killed a much stronger opponent. The impossibility of his survival seemed so overwhelming that as Gideon tried to reconcile what he found, he achieved momentary enlightenment, a perfect perception of the entire multiverse, and slipped into the Blind Eternities. When he arrived in another world his sense of clarity quickly faded, and he returned to tell his teacher what had happened. His teacher revealed that he had been expecting it, having only ever seen one hieromancer as powerful as Gideon, the man who had taught him. He passed the sural onto Gideon that day, and Gideon left to try and find enlightenment once more.


Who or what is Gideon? If we can step out of the multiverse of Magic the Gathering (if only for a few seconds) – lets define where the name Gideon actually originated. What does it mean?

Gideon or Gedeon: (Hebrew: גִּדְעוֹן) which means “Destroyer,” “Mighty warrior,” or “Feller (of trees)”.

In the novel – ‘The Purifying Fire’, by Laura Resnick – one can delve a bit deeper into what is to come from the many details that exist already about this human Planeswalker – an excerpt is below.

All is not well in Regatha. A society called the Order of Heliud, comprised primarily of white mages, has decided that it is their duty to “bring peace and harmony to the land”. Sure enough, they attempt to outlaw the practicing of fire magic, because of the supposed inherently violent nature of anyone who wields it.

*Uh oh Chandra!*

A free spirit with a fiery temper, Chandra Nalaar will not stand for this, and engages on a reckless crusade to drive the dictators out of the plane she has learned to call home.  There are those who would do anything in their power to stop her, from hordes of angry ouphes to fellow planeswalkers with allegiances and backgrounds more cryptic than those of Chandra herself.

Among them is a planeswalker named Gideon, a white mage who seems to be fighting both alongside and against the fiery heroine’s attempts at survival. Through her acquaintance with Gideon, Chandra becomes stronger on her quest to self-realization, while learning more about the Multiverse around her and the many different sides of white magic.

Through the lands of Regatha, Kephalai, and Diraden — Chandra and the enigmatic Gideon showcase very different behaviors from their traditional color stereotypes. Although she has the reckless passion known to red mages, she also has a strong sense of loyalty to her fellow mages.

Gideon on the other hand, promises peace and order in a way that Thomas Hobbes would have admired, the concepts of which are very white-aligned, but the means used to achieve that end most definitely are not. Gideon, on the other hand, is not as “pure” as he would have people believe; he shows many traces of black characteristics, such as the willingness to sacrifice human life to further their own agenda.

Other related topics:

What is a Planeswalker?
Gideon Jura Soldier Deck