One of the cheapest Indestructible creatures in terms of CMC, second only to Darksteel Myr. I think it would have made more sense to give him a Hero of Bladehold-style attack trigger that enabled Battalion, though.
Jake1991
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(17 votes)
Tajic is indestructible by the power of his goatee.
SyntheticDreamer
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is going to be a 7/7 indestructible creature quite often. Great card.
StoicChampion
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Kingsguard of Westeros and its Lord Commander.
majinara
★☆☆☆☆ (1.8/5.0)(10 votes)
Why are most of the legends in this set so boring? Why is this set full of very slightly tweaked old cards? Why is it full of crappy cycles?
Has wotc completly run out of ideas, or did they choose to produce a crappy set on purpose, to make people "ooh" and "ahh" at the next good one?
James_Kernaghan
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I can't say it's not powerful or playable, but the design is a bit bland.
Blackworm_Bloodworm
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(19 votes)
He's got balls of darksteel.
RAV0004
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Majinara, I hope so. I hope so.
a7wingedsheep
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
I fight with the full strength of the Legion!! ... 7 power. I think we need to have a word with whoever's training your Legion..
I think you'll find he's indestructible by the power of JUSTICE.
Curlie-Joe
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
hmm...slightly more weight has now been applied to "-X/-Y" spells
Skeletextman
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
@ Majinara: I absolutely agree with everything you said. If you had mentioned how this set also has a few stupidly powerful cards (I'm looking at you Legion's Initiative, Voice of Resurgence, and Advent of the Wurm) then you would have captured my feeling exactly.
DanielLPennington
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I hope to pull this guy from a Booster Pack this Dragon's Maze Pre-release Weekend!!! Although I have declared Orzhov, I have a Boros version of the same deck. This is what it will look like: Boros Legion - Dragon's Maze Edition 1 Aurelia, the Warleader 1 Captain of the Watch 2 Chandra, the Firebrand 2 Clifftop Retreat 4 Doomed Traveler 2 Frontline Medic 4 Gather the Townsfolk 1 Geist-Honored Monk 4 Ghost Quarter 2 Gideon, Champion of Justice 1 Godless Shrine 1 Increasing Devotion 3 Intangible Virtue 3 Lingering Souls 4 Midnight Haunting 2 Mikaeus, the Lunarch 7 Mountain 3 Oblivion Ring 3 Pillar of Flame 7 Plains 1 Sacred Foundry 2 Swamp
I have Tajic, Blade of the Legion as the 15th card in the Sideboard, but he is interchangeable with Aurelia, the Warleader. If I'm lucky enough to get him this weekend, he may also make an appearance in the WB Orzhov Vizkopa Tokens deck via Unburial Rites.
Blackwatch_00
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Finally a 4 cmc drop bomb.... combine with Legion loyalist/Frontline Medic/ Legion's Initiative to watch your opponent concede....
pandawolf56
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(4 votes)
Tajic is a great card for standard and would be a very nice pull in draft. Indestructible makes him a really good blocker and his possible battalion ability can switch him into being an incredible attacker. He is a solid drop with 4 converted mana cost. I do wish he had vigilance, that away he could do peck damage or at least make your opponent keep a blocker. A better replacement for Manor Gargoyle. 4/5.
I would guess, he is really Gideon Champion of Justice disguised as a Boros Commander to get incognito in the Dragon maze.
RunedServitor
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(4 votes)
I can't see him running the maze very well if he's wearing enough plate armor to make him indestructible.
JRE47
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Simply a beast in any format.
SilverZankarne
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(7 votes)
"I don't always run the maze alone, but when I do I have battalion."
Toquinha1977
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(3 votes)
Most painful memory of my prerelease was when my opponent had this guy with Aurelia, the Warleader. Watching him go from 2/2 to 7/7 was bad enough. Watching him go to 7/7 to 12/12 had me wanting to do this myself.
GhostCounselor
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
A MUST have card for any aggro deck right now in standard. I run one in a Naya aggro deck, and he single handedly saves me games by guaranteeing I at least have one creature. If they do wipe the board to prevent his battalion trigger from going off with Supreme Verdict, I just tap myself out into Kessig Wolf Run and beat down my opponents. Awesome card.
Jayquaz
★★☆☆☆ (2.9/5.0)(4 votes)
@anyone who is wondering why some random human is indestructible (flavor wise):
First let me start off by saying that this is probably my favorite legend which is why I did all of this research and bothered to type this all out. The reason he is indestructible is not the awesomeness of his beard/goatee, though I do like that explanation. Actually Tajic is the head Boros guildmage who is also in charge of The Warmind Initiative (http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/224#boros scroll down to the section about the theaters of war) which is a collaboration between the Boros and the Izzet in charge of producing/developing new weapons, armor, elementals, (Warmind Infantry, Spark Trooper) etc. In addition it would probably be safe to assume that the lead Boros guildmage would be able to make some kind of premanent Boros Charm.
Westertin
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
FOR THE LEGION!!!
Ferlord
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
And now you won't feel bad playing Wrath of God in your Voltron EDH deck!
Thought he was boss until I went 0-4 in draft with him, he kind of put a bad taste in my mouth. I had like 10 2 drops, and still could not have battalion fire reliably. "Oh cool bro, you're swinging for 2 indestructible? I block with Crocanura Sigh...
stormcrowpro
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
As an EDH general, he works well with Pariah and Worship.
psychichobo
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
He's like Konda, except instead of a worthy opponent to get big he just needs some buddies.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say he's probably Rare because he's not just good for Boros, but for Avacyn Human aggro. He's a perfect candidate for Soulbinding abilities and works well with spells like Thatcher Revolt.
I can already see the child of Bladehold and Tajic spawning soldiers giving itself +7/+7 and being in indestructible douche. Known as Hero of the Legion.
hamletface
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Tajic, Blade of the Legion is a great card that has an interesting back story. Tajic is the Boros Legion's most highly ranked Guildmage. He is in charge of the War mind initiative, a collaboration between the Izzet and the Boros. They create electrified walls and checkpoints, steam powered suits for soldiers, powerful armor for Elementals, animated stone soldiers, elemental soldiers (spark troopers), powerful siege machines, weapons, armor, and battlefield traps. Before Tajic was chosen to run the Maze, he was called Advisor Tajic, First Guildmage of the Legion. His indestructibility most likely comes from Aurelia. The Boros smelting wards have magical powers that could allow them to do this. It would not likely be the Izzet because they would probably give their own soldiers this powerful armor. Now onto gameplay. Tajic is a versatile card for both blocking and attacking. It can attack for 7 as well block your opponents large creatures without dying. You can use Gift of Orzhova to easily give it flying and pump it slightly. Its mana cost is perfect. You can play it on turn four. At turn four you could have played three other creatures by then. This allows you to keep a creature to block, let them kill a creature of yours before turn 4, or allow you to not have played a creature. I give this card and overall rating of 9.5/10.
Am I the only person who completely hates the design of Tajic? He's a great card as a 4 drop indestructible 2/2that grows to a 7/7 if he has some buddies along with him, but that's just it for me. He doesn't scream guild champion/maze runner to me. Just compare to some of the other guild champions from this set or even old Ravnica. Anyways, good stats and abilities, bad design IMO.
MrShinyObject
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Nice little combo with stone giant. Give him flying, swing to make him a 7/7, then at the end of turn nothing happens.
Not to mention the image it puts in your head...
Tamerlein
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Solid card. I can see him being a kitchen table superstar for any Boros considering how he dodges a lot of removal and how large he be a 7/7 when swinging for only four mana. Obviously in constructed there are other better options, but he is still a good card either way.
4/5 for me.
Cloak_of_Mists
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Tired of the "Dies to Doom Blade" logic, actually, so it's refreshing that it does not apply, here. I was even surprised to find that my casual rogue deck gets rid of him with a simple Stab Wound ;)
Gcrudaplaneswalker
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Wait... So with all that armor he still dies from a Stab Wound?
Vastator
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Pretty good commander for my boros themed battalion deck
4/5 --- once again, good but not great
... now if it gave all creatures attacking +5/+5 then it'd be a whole different ball game
Ligerman30
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Built in Darksteel Plate. This guy as a general is almost strictly better then Cho-Manno, Revolutionary. Now, I don't think you want to go all in on voltron (which is an option), you want to be able to trigger battalion on a regular basis so in general, your going to need around at least 1/3 of your deck to be creatures making it less voltron and more regular r/w beatdown. Voltron is your backup plan. I mean, they wrath you and you will still have this guy a bunch of equipment and no blockers. Just suit him up with all your gear and swing in for that last bit of general damage. That being said, I shoved a ton of recursion in the deck. So with a general like this, you can really play any style of deck you want, be it, swarm, voltron, beatdown, control even.
The best thing this card has going for it is as a general is allowing for an EDH deck to have a very high threat density. While Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots don't provide redundant efects like in Geist of Saint Traft they aren't really needed to protect tajic and don't really pressure an opponent and can ultimately be cut for more high impact cards.
SirLibraryEater
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
boros gives me a headache. stop being so dang broken. boros charm, boros reckoner, now this? what's wrong with you, Wizards?
@mirosith Are you not noticing that in any Boros deck worth it's salt he's a 7/7 indestructible creature?
Arachnos
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I guess he's Francis' ancestor.
"Good thing I'm indestructible!"
obesechicken13
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Other than the gods, he's the only guy who's permanently indestructible in standard right now.
Fleecemane lion can turn indestructible but this guy comes in indestructible.
RFlaum
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(1 vote)
If he's got the full might of the legion supporting him, why can't he afford a real sword?
r2d2go
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I recently took him out of my standard Boros rush because he was too slow. When you're swinging with a Fabled Hero for 22 flying on turn 4, or even turn 5, he's just not worth it. In limited, he's amazing, in constructed, I can see him being played, but overall the archetype battalion encourages is faster than him.
DritzD27
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
As much as I love this guy I feel like his ability runs headlong against his flavor text. Look at it this way:
1) He says in his flavor that he goes on alone, but with the full might of the Legion.
2) If he does so 'actually' alone (or with one other) then that makes his ability not trigger and he is a wondrous 2/2 entering combat.
So, I suppose by 'alone' he means something other than most people do.
Also, after having seen nearly his entire Standard career, I think it is definitely safe to say that he could have been a 3/3 that got a smaller pump and still probably would only be fringe playable. Such a pity.
SAUS3
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
As a commander, he doesn't do too much on his own, but he works with so many strategies.
Because of how battalion works and because it doesn't scale with more creatures, I think the ideal way to play him is to attack with him and 2 other creatures and that's it. You don't need more because it won't really add that much.
Since he is indestructible, voltron and board wipes are very valuable. It's a little harder to get rid of him, so he loves equipment. board wipes basically become plague wind for much less mana, which is insane - and then you get to attack into empty boards (killing planeswalkers or getting a bunch of stuff off of swords when you hit a player).
Another important factor about how battalion works with him is that the quality of creatures he attacks with doesn't matter. You can have ETB dudes that are no longer useful, tokens, manlands, whatever you happen to have lying around. It could even be some powerful, aggressive creatures like brimaz which will force players into defense. On top of that, having expendable chumps that are there to trigger battalion means it's okay to wrath them away if you need to. Manlands can even completely dodge board wipes and then trigger battalion afterwards.
Then there's the ability to play on defense. Since he is indestructible, he makes a great wall for your planeswalkers. You can even wrath a scary board while leaving your planeswalkers and Tajic in tact. If your opponent over-commits to an attack to kill off the planeswalkers, you can take a huge swing at them with a battalion out of nowhere.
In my Tajic EDH deck, Tajic really doesn't do much on his own, but he supports every strategy in the deck.
Comments (54)
4/5 Stars
Why is this set full of very slightly tweaked old cards?
Why is it full of crappy cycles?
Has wotc completly run out of ideas, or did they choose to produce a crappy set on purpose, to make people "ooh" and "ahh" at the next good one?
...
7 power. I think we need to have a word with whoever's training your Legion..
Boros Legion - Dragon's Maze Edition
1 Aurelia, the Warleader
1 Captain of the Watch
2 Chandra, the Firebrand
2 Clifftop Retreat
4 Doomed Traveler
2 Frontline Medic
4 Gather the Townsfolk
1 Geist-Honored Monk
4 Ghost Quarter
2 Gideon, Champion of Justice
1 Godless Shrine
1 Increasing Devotion
3 Intangible Virtue
3 Lingering Souls
4 Midnight Haunting
2 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
7 Mountain
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Pillar of Flame
7 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Swamp
SB: 1 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Witchbane Orb
SB: 1 Mask of Avacyn
SB: 1 Runechanter's Pike
SB: 1 Angel of Serenity
SB: 1 Erase
SB: 1 Rebuke
SB: 2 Searing Spear
SB: 1 Smite
SB: 2 Thunderous Wrath
SB: 1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
SB: 1 Bonfire of the Damned
I have Tajic, Blade of the Legion as the 15th card in the Sideboard, but he is interchangeable with Aurelia, the Warleader. If I'm lucky enough to get him this weekend, he may also make an appearance in the WB Orzhov Vizkopa Tokens deck via Unburial Rites.
First let me start off by saying that this is probably my favorite legend which is why I did all of this research and bothered to type this all out. The reason he is indestructible is not the awesomeness of his beard/goatee, though I do like that explanation. Actually Tajic is the head Boros guildmage who is also in charge of The Warmind Initiative (http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/224#boros scroll down to the section about the theaters of war) which is a collaboration between the Boros and the Izzet in charge of producing/developing new weapons, armor, elementals, (Warmind Infantry, Spark Trooper) etc. In addition it would probably be safe to assume that the lead Boros guildmage would be able to make some kind of premanent Boros Charm.
Just don't play Final Judgment...
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say he's probably Rare because he's not just good for Boros, but for Avacyn Human aggro. He's a perfect candidate for Soulbinding abilities and works well with spells like Thatcher Revolt.
Known as Hero of the Legion.
Now onto gameplay. Tajic is a versatile card for both blocking and attacking. It can attack for 7 as well block your opponents large creatures without dying. You can use Gift of Orzhova to easily give it flying and pump it slightly. Its mana cost is perfect. You can play it on turn four. At turn four you could have played three other creatures by then. This allows you to keep a creature to block, let them kill a creature of yours before turn 4, or allow you to not have played a creature.
I give this card and overall rating of 9.5/10.
Not to mention the image it puts in your head...
4/5 for me.
Tired of the "Dies to Doom Blade" logic, actually, so it's refreshing that it does not apply, here. I was even surprised to find that my casual rogue deck gets rid of him with a simple Stab Wound ;)
4/5 --- once again, good but not great
... now if it gave all creatures attacking +5/+5 then it'd be a whole different ball game
The best thing this card has going for it is as a general is allowing for an EDH deck to have a very high threat density. While Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots don't provide redundant efects like in Geist of Saint Traft they aren't really needed to protect tajic and don't really pressure an opponent and can ultimately be cut for more high impact cards.
@mirosith
Are you not noticing that in any Boros deck worth it's salt he's a 7/7 indestructible creature?
"Good thing I'm indestructible!"
Fleecemane lion can turn indestructible but this guy comes in indestructible.
1) He says in his flavor that he goes on alone, but with the full might of the Legion.
2) If he does so 'actually' alone (or with one other) then that makes his ability not trigger and he is a wondrous 2/2 entering combat.
So, I suppose by 'alone' he means something other than most people do.
Also, after having seen nearly his entire Standard career, I think it is definitely safe to say that he could have been a 3/3 that got a smaller pump and still probably would only be fringe playable. Such a pity.
Because of how battalion works and because it doesn't scale with more creatures, I think the ideal way to play him is to attack with him and 2 other creatures and that's it. You don't need more because it won't really add that much.
Since he is indestructible, voltron and board wipes are very valuable. It's a little harder to get rid of him, so he loves equipment. board wipes basically become plague wind for much less mana, which is insane - and then you get to attack into empty boards (killing planeswalkers or getting a bunch of stuff off of swords when you hit a player).
Another important factor about how battalion works with him is that the quality of creatures he attacks with doesn't matter. You can have ETB dudes that are no longer useful, tokens, manlands, whatever you happen to have lying around. It could even be some powerful, aggressive creatures like brimaz which will force players into defense. On top of that, having expendable chumps that are there to trigger battalion means it's okay to wrath them away if you need to. Manlands can even completely dodge board wipes and then trigger battalion afterwards.
Then there's the ability to play on defense. Since he is indestructible, he makes a great wall for your planeswalkers. You can even wrath a scary board while leaving your planeswalkers and Tajic in tact. If your opponent over-commits to an attack to kill off the planeswalkers, you can take a huge swing at them with a battalion out of nowhere.
In my Tajic EDH deck, Tajic really doesn't do much on his own, but he supports every strategy in the deck.
5/5 because he's awesome.