Pointed Discussion

A pretty solid variation on Ajani. The abilities are well rounded and helpful thanks to card advantage and creature strength bonus, and he's fairly priced mana wise to let him see play. Once again though Wizards seems to be proving my point About how atomic should almost never bother with a planeswalker's ultimate. I mean seriously, what's the point of an ultimate that can be countered by skullcrack?

I want to see someone play False Cure in response to that ultimate.

Sunbond!

Our first White-Green 'Walker!

Ajani finally reaches into the final component of his Naya upbringing, embracing his green side to draw cards, put even more counters on dudes, and gain more life than either color would ever consider on its own.

At five mana in the sort of midrange deck our Obi Wan Planeswalker would be best suited for, I'd rather be casting a creature with a powerful ETB effect most of the time. Ajani does little to stabilize your board position, though he is good at ensuring you can close out a close game or helping deliver the final blow when you're ahead. Three +1/+1 counters go a long way without disruption, and drawing an additional card every turn is one of the best things you can do in Magic.

That said, I don't know if he has much of a home outside of 'Walker decks. Certainly fun and exciting and splashy, but not the strongest. At four mana, he would have been even more of a beast than his White-Red alter-ego.

There's been a lot of conversation about the 100 life ultimate. It's novel enough. This kind of scale has not been seen on a Magic card before. I can't believe people think it's lazy design when just those three words are enough to incite a huge portion of the player base.

Don't worry, everyone! I fully intend to fire off Ajani's ultimate, then lose, so you don't need to try it yourself. You're welcome. No need to thank me, that's just the kind of guy I am.

Well... he's not Ajani Vengeant in my mind, but he's definitely cooler than the other two versions of the leonin planeswalker. And I don't care what anybody says, seeing the phrase "You gain 100 life" is awesome. It's not the most powerful ultimate, but it's definitely the most succinct, and you would activate both Felidar Sovereign and Test of Endurance with it. Plus, who doesn't want a Serra Avatar with upwards of 100 power and toughness?

Great to finally see a G/W planeswalker! And Ajani, no less!

This Ajani is clearly not an aggro card; I think that green devotion wants to be playing a threat here, and white weenies wants to curve out at 4 mana absolute tops. That doesn't make him bad, just situational. I think the biggest loss here is Naya Hexproof - the abilitiy to grab the perfect equipment or creature seems nice, but the mana cost is just too high.

With his abilities, he probably wants to be played in a midrange-y or control deck that has at least some creatures and a bunch of planeswalkers, and is resilient enough to ensure that Ajani won't be unprotected when it hits the board. With that in mind, I think the two best decks for this guy are the Bant Walkers deck we saw make a splash in February, or Reid Duke's recent Junk Midrange list.

In Bant Walkers, Ajani serves the purpose of digging for threats like Kiora or Elspeth while also buying time (he's got to be killed eventually or the 100 life will be a serious pain). A problem is that some of these lists ran few to no creatures, making his counter ability irrelevant - I'd predict that the lists we see incorporate a couple more creatures so as to synergize better with Ajani. This doesn't seem hard thought, as Sylvan Caryatid and Courser of Kruphix play perfectly with what the deck wants to do, at the cost of being forced to tap out a bit more than we might want in the early game. The normal gameplan isn't to swing with these creatures, but extra +1/+1 counters can allow Caryatid to trade with aggro or block bigger threats like Polukranos, and allow Courser to grow to a serious beater quite quickly. This is a deck I'm definitely interested in playing with, so I can't wait to see what Ajani does here.

Ajani might be even better in a deck like Reid Duke's Junk Midrange list. The ability to dig for finishers like Obzedat, Archangel of Thune, and Elspeth is absolutely fantastic in this deck, and the +1/+1 ability is exactly what we want on fatties like Polukranos, Reaper of the Wilds, or an Advent of the Wurm token. Since both of his modes help the goals of this deck, I think he'll fit in perfectly here. What's more is that the heavy removal suite and resilience of the creature base makes it quite likely that Ajani will stick around for more than just one turn. Consider that just 3 turns of Ajani could mean that you get to pick your favorite 3 cards out of the top 15 of your deck, or could turn a Polukranos from a 5/5 into a 14/14. It's unfortunate that Obzedat's exile messes with the counters, but the card still seems great in this list.

In a vacuum, Ajani is I think a very well-balanced walker. Obviously what holds him back is the 3GW casting cost, which is near the tops of the playable range, but this is no Karametra. The fact that Ajani is always at 6 loyalty T1 and the threat of an 100 life gain looms by turn 4 after playing it means that it soaks up punishment pretty well, which is an extra bonus. I think that the 5 CMC means it won't be a 4-of anywhere, but a definitely good walker that will fit in as a 1- or 2-of in some good decks. And post-rotation, who knows? It could get even better!

Aaaaaaand on to three-color walkers! Bolas, being Bolas, is already ahead of the curve. That's okay, however, because he's Nicol Freaking Bolas.

@Trygon_Predator

lol, that would be awesome to see.

oh no skullcrack

Now we need Ajani with all his colors at once.

Distributing counters or drawing cards, and all at +1? I'll take it. The counters mean your weenies will be able to defend him better and keep him around. If you can actually pair this with Elspeth, Sun's Champion, you're getting three 2/2 Soldiers each turn. Tough to lose when you've got that.

+1: you've grown strong my student.

(other)+1: Remember your training.

-8: okay wait... what?

going for the ultimate is the wrong choice about +95% of the times. If you have been ticking up Ajani for 4 turns against aggro while not dying and him not getting lower, then it is a game already won.

100 life is meaningless against control and they would love you to go for it instead of the +1s quite a lot.

They probably printed that ultimate for the novel factor and how it looks on a card.

Selesnya's main weakness is its inability to produce much needed card advantage. His +1 fixes that nicely. Should be a 1 or 2 of in Bant Walkers or maybe even G/W Midrange.

I'm sorely tempted to make a WGB Sanguine Bond/Proliferate deck with this guy.

Ajani here was a real savior at pre-release. I pulled two of him and my entire deck was contingent on getting him out to win -- and whenever I wasn't too mana screwed to cast him or mana-flooded to draw him, I did. A solid card.

One of the few planeswalkers that can ultimate immediately with Doubling Season in play. So if you already use Doubling Season in a deck with these colors, is a card that gains 100 life sorcery speed for 5 mana relevant?

My guess is probably not. I don't know of any decks that use Doubling Season in modern. In Commander, Sorin Markov would laugh at such shenanigans, so probably not at home there. Who knows, maybe one day this will be relevent somewhere besides silly kitchen table games.

It's 1st pick in limited, and it will be a strong value card in constructed - epic library control
for 5 mana with Voice of Resurgence dekcs in constructed!
An easy 5 star card! Buy as many as possible, because this planeswalker will be very, very
expensive mythic rare card.

I believe this is the card Selesnya desperately needed, but was too late in getting it. I always struggled with hand advantage as Selesnya. 5 mana is steep, but since you're playing green you can obviously ramp into it a turn or two earlier. Making your VoR into a 5/5, searching for other Planeswalkers and even an Aura makes it worth your while. I'm convinced Ajani will be a sleeper that will knock the meta down late in his cycle.

Many cards, planeswalkers included, are judged on their ability ot immediately affect the board, particulalry for cards that are 4 or more mana. There are enough aggro and midrange decks where every card has to immediately do something if you want to keep up the tempo. In general, planeswalkers that can protect themselves are always the ones that excel. Look at how PWs like Sarkhan Vol and Gideon champion of justice are awful because they don't have abilities that protect themselves. Look at how PWs like Elspeth and Jace 2.0 and Liliana of the Veil are good becuase they have abilities that do (there are of course a few exceptions. Koth is an exception because he was very strong in RDW particularly because he could threaten his ultimate 2 turns after he was dropped. Jace Beleren was also an exception because he was only 3 mana so you could afford to play a 3drop and not directly impact the board, but he's horrendous vs aggro).

This ajani can protect himself, but it'll be interesting to see how well he does it. Because his first +1 only makes your existing creatures bigger (as opposed to spewing out chump blockers or being a kill spell) you'll need to make sure not to get blown out by a removal spell. The more creatures both players have out, the safer Ajani is (the exception being if nobody has any creatures out), since you can put the +1/+1 counters on your smaller critters first to make sure that even if one of your blockers dies, you will have enough creatures left to rumble with anything that tries to attack Ajani. Then once the board is stable you can make a voltron creature and start pressuring, or dig in your library.
(ex. Both players have Polukranos out. One plays ajani and pumps his. The other kills the opponent's polukranos and kills ajani with his own polukranos.
Versus, both players have Polukranos and Brimaz out. One plays ajani and puts 2 counters on brimaz and 1 on Polukranos. The opponent kills the Brimaz, but he can't profitably swing in to Ajani with his Polukranos + Brimaz without additional help.)

Getting 5 loyalty at 5 mana after a +1 is not amazing but it's okay. It's important that after a +1, it can tank a stormbreath dragon attack, which is one of the biggest haste threats in standard right now.

I'm not 100% sure how good ajani will be. He can protect himself, but the turn you drop him is sketchier than with the other top walkers because there's more chances you get blown out. 5 mana is also above the sweet spot for walkers, although new elspeth is doing perfectly fine and she's 6, so maybe Ajani will be fine. My guess is that after journey prices stabilize, he'll hover around $15-20. New garruk is around $10-15 and I think this ajani is better despite committing you to 2 colors.

The 100 life gain is just a bonus. Every single turn he's either making threats or digging for threats while increasing his loyalty no matter what.

Sorin Markov says "Nope."

Finally the Selesnya Planeswalker shows up! And he has two relevant +1 abilities! I'm so glad!! I can see this guy doing wonders in standard with Gyre Sage, Fathom Mage, Simic Manipulator as well as some other cards. I confess I was expecting more of his ultimate, but since his two other abilities are good and are +1, I guess its fine.

I think Ajani's ultimate ability fits perfectly with the colors he's in. What did you think G/W was going to get? Return all creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield under your control? While yes, this 'walker's ultimate isn't the greatest by far, it's +1 abilities more than make up for it. Besides, you could use the ultimate to force the game into a draw, if things are going that bad for you. I envision that most of the time, when the ultimate resolves, that the other player at least mentally forfeits. Even if you obviously have the better board state 100+ life is still kind of intimidating, and it means that the other player has the time to draw the threat that they need. Even if they don't it still means that the game is going to take forever, so many less experienced opponents just give up really trying to win.

"Don't worry, everyone! I fully intend to fire off Ajani's ultimate, then lose, so you don't need to try it yourself. You're welcome. No need to thank me, that's just the kind of guy I am."

lolinfect

Ajani Returned with all of his Glory!! Love it:)

Yes, you heard me. Id like to Ult my Ajani whilst I have 4 Boon Reflections, and 4 Rhox Faithmenders in play. I believe that's 25600 life. Good luck.

Zoo superfriends anyone? Dig for each planeswalker in red, green and white. Then flood the field with tokens from Elspeth and Xenagos, put counters on them, use Domri Rade to dig a creature from the top 5 as well, Xenagos to add a ton of mana to cast a fatty or another walker, Garruk to cheat out a big creature too. Supreme Verdict? Make more tokens with Elspeth and Xenagos. Gray merchant? Ultimate your Ajani (which is easier because both his other abilities are +1). The only deck I see problems against is red aggro but every 3-color deck has trouble agaisnt them.

THREEE +1/+1 counters!?!?!? THREE??

My god this will be broken as sh*t for casual. My friends thought my gavony township was broken.

@mdakw576

I disagree with the statement that he is better the more "crowded" the board is - take the Polukranos situation: an offset Naya standard, being previous grull with white from mana confluence, a turn three Polukranos matched by the opponent, as you said, and then if you drop Ajani turn four you will beat any draw they could have; there is no way they would have nine mana to make their Polukranos bigger than yours even if they happened to have seven mana somehow, you would let Ajani take the hit and then you would proceed to win by swinging for ten by monsterousing yours. In aggro mirrors, Ajani will give you the upper hand because both decks will be running the same utility creatures and yours will all be larger.

Where Ajani will have the most trouble is against the Esper control, either being hit by a counterspell or an instant Hero's downfall, making you sink five mana into a discard spell. If he hits the board against control and is able to activate, his dig effect allows you to replace him with a threat (assuming you knew that Ajani was in your deck and built accordingly!) at least keeping you dropping threats until your opponents run out.

The deck that Ajani fits into is a hard question though. jpw234 mentioned two, but Ajani isn't even that required in those. I feel that as soon as Ravnica rotates out, there will be an opportunity for a naya aggro (as I mentioned before), keeping Xenagos (walker), Elvish Mystic, Sylvan Cary., and Polukranos mixed with Brimaz, Ajani, and awkwardly said Dawnbreaker Charioteers. The deck would obviously require mana confluence to guarantee the colors, but with the Charioteers as a four of, there would be a very powerful life linker hitting the field every turn three with boost turn four - in aggro match ups the trouble is storm breath, but if Polukranos is a four of, it would be no problem to plow through, so it is a safe bet there. It doesn't fair so nicely against control, relying heavily on large cmc threats, but seeing Supreme Verdict go away, control decks will have to diminish, being unable to support Elspeth so easily.

Regardless of whether or not the deck is a chance, I'm very excited to see Ravnica rotate out and make room for many three color shenanigans with mana confluence and scry lands.

This guy seems like he could be a lot of fun with Tree of Redemption and Feed the Pack. It would be win more, but it would be fun win more. Ultimate -> Swap Life w/ Tree -> 100 2/2 wolves...Immediate Wrath effect or lose.

I love how old Ajani looks in this artwork. He's scarred and world-worn, his "staff" is broken and even more white is around his eyes and muzzle, just like you'd expect for an aging lion.

@Jeremiah
In response, I'd like to tap to 2 swamps to cast False Cure.
Enjoy losing 51200 life.

The image for this card is actually cropped.

On the actual card, Ajani's sword sticks out into the black border. I didn't think even Un-cards could do that.

Akin to anonymous1burger's comment on Voice of Resurgence, the entire look of this card is simply breathtaking. When I (and probably many others) first saw this card, I was In awe before I had even read his abilities.
Thank you Mr. Miller for doing such an outstanding job!

If Ajani played magic, I bet he'd be a johnny...




Alright, I'll leave.

ultimate him while you have a creature enchanted with sunbond and wreck face

Last two drafts I played in I had to roll over and die because my opponents had this card. I HATE YOU AJANI.

Make sure you remove my God of the Dead first for that last ability

Ajani, Mentor of Heroes: Thor.

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad: Nick Fury. (yes because he's Black. and because he makes you want to be Black.)

Jace, Architect of Thought: Captain America (he's young and blue. Jace is more of a jerk than Cap, yes, but they're both naïve and hopeful.)

Elspeth, Knight-Errant: Black Widow.

Xenagos, the Reveler: Tony Stark.

Garruk, the Veil-Cursed: The Incredible Hulk

Nissa Revane: Hawkeye.

Avengers.Planeswalker.dec




Tibalt, the Fiend-blooded: Loki
Nicol *** Bolas: Thanos.

+1 Imma make my lil Fleecemane Lion huge!
+1 Where did my Brimaz go? There he is.
-8 i knew I should have sunbonded my Serra avatar

But I would gain 100 life
And I would gain 100 more
Just to be that man who gains a hundred life without progressing the board

(Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Undela Undela Undela la la la)
(Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Undela Undela Undela la la la)

cost should be 2GW, or abilities +3(with ultimate at 12 or so). Even then the draw/dig would be slightly underwhelming but balanced for G.

the first ability is obviously what makes him interesting, accruing massive combatpower, while second ability keeps him from causing carddisadvantage

3rd ability kinda annoying. for a high cost ultimate it is extremely underwhelming. 1000 would be better. that would be "a lot" of life while not be infinite. high enough that most decks would struggle to get it to 0 before running out of cards, but not so high that the task would be impossible. 100 life is a respite, a big one, but by no means worthy of a planeswalker ultimate.

playable certainly, he's a planeswalker after all, a bomb if the format allows him/his pumped creature to go wild, but otherwise...meh...