Spring is in the air. The flowers are blooming. Here in the Middle-Atlantic, it has finally stopped snowing (at least we think it has). And new love can be seen everywhere we go. I'm not referring to that sweet little thing in a skirt or shorts that just smiled at you for the first time. No, I'm referring to something better.
The Journey into Nyx spoilers have begun!
Same Song, New Tune
As with all spoilers seasons, the first couple of announcements made Monday were calculated to wet our whistles. Wizards of the Coast wanted to tease us with fun new mechanics and show off just a little bit of the new art. The marketing experts who figure out when and how to release information know that they need to start slowly and build to a crescendo. Tuesday's releases brought out some heavy hitters. New gods were spoiled, and the world wept.
Wizards wasn't done yet. If Monday was a warm-up band and Tuesday was the prologue (think 'Ecstasy of Gold' before Metallica takes the stage), then Wednesday was going to be the main performance. And what a performance!
Today they released the last piece of the great planeswalker puzzle. A Green/White planeswalker, the last color pairing missing from every fanboy's set made its big debut. Wizards of the Coast answered finally the promise made long ago. In Born of the Gods, we were given the missing U/G planeswalker, Kiora. And today we have Ajani, Mentor of Heroes.
Shouldn't everyone be happy? Well, apparently not. No, people are most decidedly unhappy. That is if you listen to Facebook, Twitter, and your local clutch of teenagers. People are complaining, again. "It's not flavorful." "It's not original." "It has the weakest ultimate ever." Normally I would join in with arguing. I love a spirited discussion about one's parentage. But this time though, I'm not. And I'm here to share why.
Mechanics
I have a confession to make first. I haven't read the actual article that accompanied the newest planeswalker. I thought it would be best to evaluate it on my own, share my findings and then, and only then, read it. I won't think less of you if you have read it already. If you'd like to read the full story, you can find it here. In the meantime, let's peel back the mask and see if this PW is playable.
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| A very tough looking Ajani |
The first thing to check is the Casting vs. Loyalty test. This is to Planewalkers as the Vanilla test is to
creatures. Casting vs. Loyalty answers two questions: when the PW hits the battlefield will it survive an immediate attack and is the cost fair when you look at the starting loyalty. Ajani, Mentor of Heroes stacks up fairly well in both tests. First, it hits the ground running at 4 Loyalty (soon to be +1). That will survive all but an outright 'kill the Planeswalker' type of response. And starting at 4 Loyalty for a CMC of 5 isn't bad either. It's not stellar, but it is more than fair.
Ajani has three abilities. Unlike most Planeswalkers, the first two abilities result in positive changes to Loyalty counters. That's right, Ajani is all about net gain. The first two abilities are important, flavorful, and helpful in most formats.
The first, distribute three +1/+1 counters as you choose to creatures you control is great. In fact, it's better than that. You get to do this (theoretically) every turn you want to. Common Bond, a 3CMC G/W spell only did 2 counters each time you cast it. Even if you only consider this a Common Bond for three counters that you'll get to fire twice in most cases, it seems pretty solid to me.
But wait (says the guy selling Ginsu), there's more! The second +1 ability is not horribly awful. In fact, when you compare it to the first ability, it is better than that. It is downright perfect. Boardstates generally evolve into one of two states - you could have creatures that would benefit from the counters and thus the first ability or you could have a boardstate with limited or no creatures. While you don't get to search for and play a creature of a given CMC or less, you do get to go search for one and move it to your hand. Or a planeswalker. Or an enchantment. And you get to do this card draw and selection in G/W, not the standard blue. This is powerful juju, and I think people should step back from the cliff just based on this ability alone.
No Bitch'n?
Most people are upset at the ultimate. I'm not, but here is their complaint in a nutshell: gaining 100 life is either the most useless or the most annoying ultimate ever. I admit, as an ultimate it seems pretty ridiculous. And not in the, 'Hey every turn you can make a 7/7 Flying Deathtouch Zombie Angel token,' ridiculous. More of the, 'We have to get up to 8 Loyalty, wait one more turn and all we get is this stupid t-shirt ridiculous'.
I agree that it doesn't win games outright. What it does do is it puts most games out of reach, which is almost the same thing. But if you're worried about someone going ultimate with their Ajani, MoH, against you, you're doing something wrong. I'm not upset though. If I had this on the battlefield under my control, I wouldn't even look at the third ability. Neither should anyone else. Good players facing it will target and kill Ajani before it ever gets to the point. Good players that have it on their side of the battlefield will likely never see greater benefit from going ultimate than they will from the first two abilities.
It's a -8 ability. It's a negative 8, with no way of protecting itself (the last statement is not completely true, but it will stand up in court and I don't think it's important to explain further right now). People who want this Ajani in their deck will want it for the +1/+1 effect. They'll want it for the card smoothing effect. They really won't care about the ultimate. And neither will opponents. Going ultimate with a PW is wonderful, but it's also not why they're played.
We play cards for the guaranteed payoff, not the perceived, best-case scenario. Ajani's best case can be a nightmare for players in any format. It's not to be feared though. How often does a PW ultimate, on average? Even the best ones? I'll bet it's less than 20% of the time. No one plays a PW for the ultimate ability alone.
Whether you're arguing about the 'value' of this newest planeswalker or if you're bemoaning the -8, do us all a favor. Stop. Your. Bitch'n.
It's not the end of the world. It's also way too early to determine how much of an impact this card will have on Standard or any of the other formats (I personally think it will be stupidly powerful in Limited). People will want it and many, many will find success with it. Until the meta changes in Standard, I think we can all sit back, grab a frosty beverage and relax.
Oh, and I have five bucks on it appearing in a Top 4 deck before the end of May....
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Reblogs, Retweets, & Mentions of all kinds are appreciated - as an independent writer I'm only read when others like what they see and share with their friends.
Endnotes: Coming to GP Philadelphia this weekend - April 11-13? Feel free to look me up on Twitter. I'll be there Saturday, slinging spells with Jacob, my son and fellow lover of Limited/Sealed. If you'd like to hit me up during the day, my Twitter handle is @mtgdad. If you can't find me or I'm not answering, stop in at CardTitan and ask for Nick or Miles.
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