So, to tack onto a question asked earlier in this forum that never received an answer:

The rules for Planeswalkers' loyalty abilities were adjusted slightly after WAR, presumably because of the interaction between Gideon Blackblade and Humility. The new text that deals with how planeswalkers get their initial loyalty counters is quoted here:

Originally posted by 306.5b:

A planeswalker has the intrinsic ability “This permanent enters the battlefield with a number of loyalty counters on it equal to its printed loyalty number.” This ability creates a replacement effect (see rule 614.1c).

This doesn't actually seem to solve the issue caused by Humility, though. The issue previously was that planeswalkers were “treated as having printed on them” that text. Humility caused the ability to not apply as Blackblade entered the battlefield, due to “the Blood Moon update” looking ahead and seeing him lose the ability, so he would enter with zero loyalty counters and die. It seems like the switch to an “intrinsic ability” was intended to fix that. But there's only one other use of the term “intrinsic” in the rules:

Originally posted by 305.6:

The basic land types are Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest… A land with a basic land type has the intrinsic ability “{T}: Add (mana symbol),” even if the text box doesn’t actually contain that text or the object has no text box…

And here, the mana ability of a basic land being “intrinsic” based on its type doesn't grant anything special to that ability. It still gets removed in layer 6 if another effect removes abilities; a Dryad Arbor under Humility can't tap for {G}. Even though the ability is “intrinsic” to the type and not printed in the text box, it's still an ability that can be removed.

So Gideon has an intrinsic static ability, which applies a replacement effect. He'll lose this ability under a Humility. It stands to reason, then, that a Blackblade entering the battlefield under Humility is still not going to have any loyalty counters placed on him, because we'll ignore the the replacement effect as instructed by 614.12, and he'll die to the first round of SBAs after he resolves. Is that intended behavior, or should we expect the wording of that rule to change?

—–

Edit 9/29: Eli provided an answer to this question on Twitter. Currently, if you cast him on your turn, Gideon Blackblade dies instantly for having zero loyalty if there's a Humility in play. That may change in a future update.

Edited Beau (Sept. 29, 2019 08:24:07 PM)