The other planeswalkers have game ending abilities, like Chandra's "blow opponent up" or Linalia's "Get a lot of dead creatures", or even Garruck's Overrun ability. Ajani has "put a big creature into play that will get blocked by Urza's Factory/Troll Ascetic/ANY REGENERATOR for the rest of the game. Or get killed by Disembowel/Deathmark." Not to mention making said token will probably kill Ajani because of his poor loyalty. And this is supposed to the a powerful white wizard? Please. I'd rather have Dark Depths than this.
Isnt Serra Avatar */*?, it doesnt make sense making a X/X token.
What about it doesn't make sense? It doesn't say "put a */* token named Serra Avatar into play." Just because it's quite similar to Serra Avatar doesn't mean it has to be identical. This version is potentially better, and potentially worse at the same time. You can lose life but still have a large creature, or you could be gaining life and the creature stays the same as when it came into play.
Since we haven't actually seen the card, I would say it's possible that the token could be */* and not X/X, but considering the source (I trust Hydro to get it right), I'd say it's probably printed as Hydro says.
I hope this is actually not what Ajani does and that it's just a joke. I love White, but wow, this card is so disappointing. he doesn't suck, but he is so disappointing. no wrath of god effect with soldier token generation? that would have been sweet. *sigh*
I like Ajani, especially with Garruk in at the same time. Rings of Brighthearth + Ajani's Avatar + Garruk's Overrun = 2 26/26 tramplers.
I'm gonna make a bunch of decks (Mostly Casual) that involves Brighthearth and the PWalkers, and the fate of my almost finished U/R one is decided on Jace, so pleeeeaaaasssseeee I want Jace Beleren!!!:D
I actually think he is the best one for actual competitive play. All the other PW have to be semi built around (excpet Chandra which, well having the most powerful abilitys doesnt really go with her color as far as we know)
If you drop him against an aggro deck and just keep gaining 2 life they have to spend resources to kill it. Every creature they attack it with is essentially life gained. After about 4 or 5 turns of life if they havent killed it yet, you make an avatar. Now since they have had so much extra life to punch through you can assume they alot less resources then they would normally have, and then they have to come up with another answer to the avatar.
Sure, there are alot of things to counter it but if they have something and use it then you got them to spend a card for nothing cause your PW is most likely still there.
the one thing that pushes him over the top is the fact that he costs 4. Play turn two lens or mind stone, turn 3 *** if the board is overwhelming and if its not, you play this beat stick.
So, well his abilitys in the abstract are not the brokenness he fits into a cohesive strategy the best.
B: Opponent ditches a card
R: 1 damage to opponent
G: Untap 2 lands
W: Gain 2 life
OVERALL: Same order as shown. Clearly gain life isn't as utilitarian as the other initial abilities
Second Ability
B: Tutor a card and put on top
R: Deal X damage to a creature
G: Call of the Heard
W: +1/+1 and Vigilance
OVERALL: This is a little different but in my eyes it still is the same order, with Ajani dead last. I prefer to get a 3/3 creature rather than pump, IMO measily at that. And I don't see a point at getting the creature if it can get killed with -X loyalty. I see tutoring the most useful here.
Third Ability
B: Rez creatures
R: Kill creatures and hit opponent for 10 in face
G: Overrun
W: Serra Avatar token
OVERALL: I'd say here Ajani gets a push, but not a big one. I'd say R B W G. Overrun here isn't that good, as they can just get blasted away by Chandra next turn. She kills the creatures you get rezzed and the ones you want to Overrun and if everything including players get hit for 10 there is a good chance for the token to die right away.
Why would a angry kitty who is starting to seek only vengence be healing people? The card may be flavorful to white, but it doesn't seem to match itself. "Grrr I want justice!! Oh let me take care of that paper cut." I am, yea I don't like it. Especially with him carrying that huge double-sided weapon who's name took wing and flew out of my head.
I actually like this planeswalker, and I think it's better than chandra. It definitely doesn't compare to garruk, which I consider to be leagues ahead of the others, but it's not as bad as everyone is making it out to be.
This will fit perfectly into a U/W control deck as a finisher. It gains life while you clear away the board, and then once you make the huge avatar token, you have counterspell backup to protect it. It's too bad that the 2nd ability is complete crap, otherwise this guy would be very strong. It should have been "Create a 1/1 flying pegasus token" or something of that nature.
It's hard to tell what's going to happen because we only know a small portion of the Llorwyn cards, but I predict that this will definitely see some play in standard.
Why would a angry kitty who is starting to seek only vengence be healing people? The card may be flavorful to white, but it doesn't seem to match itself. "Grrr I want justice!! Oh let me take care of that paper cut." I am, yea I don't like it. Especially with him carrying that huge double-sided weapon who's name took wing and flew out of my head.
How about "Grrr, I want justice, let me make my ally stronger and then create a huge creature that uses that strength to step on people's necks"
Bane's Reading Suggestions David Eddings: The Belgariad, Mallorean, Elenium and Tamuli Series. The Redemption of Althalus Jim Butcher: The Codex Alera Series
How about "Grrr, I want justice, let me make my ally stronger and then create a huge creature that uses that strength to step on people's necks"
Out of curiosity, how helpful is 2 life? I mean honestly would you play:
0
Sorcery
Gain 2 life
Can only be played once per turn and storm does not count it.
Are you going to hide behind the life gain long enough to make a token that you then have to protect then attack with, and clear a path for? I might just be a lazy player, cause that is just too much work for me.
Well, at the very least these planeswalkers are intelligantly designed. And by that I mean they are making peopel seriously consider which is the best because well it may seem apparent which ones have the most power, some think black is best for the big ability well others think green for its call of the herd and so on and so forth. Kudos to wizards for not making it blaringly obvious. Well until we see the blue one cause we know he is going to say +1: draw 3 cards and kill a puppy. Thats just how mean blue is.
Vs aggro 2 life a turn is better than discard a turn as it will always work even if no cards in hand. If u discard a burn card they no longer pay the mana cost while with this they lose tempo by paying the cost of their card and then u just gain the life back so 2 life a turn is very good in a control deck that may be having trouble with aggro or just wants to solidify their aggro match up. Second ability is a pile of sh... i mean crap. And third ability is what makes it playable because it gives u a finisher after it has gained u life. And you obv never play the abilty when it only has 6 counters u want to drop the creature and then keep gaining life. I actualy think this is best walker yet in constructed playablity... If only the second ability was a sword to plowshares or somethign like that even a disenchant ;(
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My friend that I keep mentioning says that Ajani is the best walker. He supposedly has no card advantage recovery but for that has a "broken" final ability. His first comment was that he is too good for what it is coz you wait 2 turns, sac Ajani and get a 20/20. But if you read my last post on the previous page I propose a different view.
It's a serra avatar with suspend. Not the best planeswalker, but not horrible. White has ways to make sure creatures don't get through with stuff like wrath, condemn, the new white vindicate, dawn charm etc. Against fast aggro, they have to waste several burn cards killing him or else killing the player becomes a lot harder especially with a large avatar in play
The plainswalkers fill different niches.
Lilianna is obviously better in control via control due to recursive discard, although the search makes her OK vs. anything.
Garuk is best in mid-range aggro. He's pretty good against both aggro and control since neither likes recurring elephants or free recurring mana too much.
Chandra is a big burn spell similar to Beacon of destruction She either burns a creature or pings a player for 2 turns until she can explode.
As of the writing of the post, we dont know what Jace does.
Therefore:
Liliana: Black control's tool against other control decks.
Garruk: Midrange green pressure+finisher.
Chandra: U/R or U/R/W control deck's finisher/utility burn spell
Ajani: Anti-aggro white deck stall+win condition.
So none of them are useless, they can all play key roles in GOOD decks. Whether or not a certain deck will become good is another question of course. For example, a red+other control deck seems less likely to come up than a green aggro deck, but you never know, firemane control was a good deck quite recently.
In conclusion, just like the rest of the planeswalkers, he's not a bad card. If creature decks run rampant due to Garruk/Troll/Goyf and friends, a white Ajani control can become a dominant deck in the format.
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The other planeswalkers have game ending abilities, like Chandra's "blow opponent up" or Linalia's "Get a lot of dead creatures", or even Garruck's Overrun ability. Ajani has "put a big creature into play that will get blocked by Urza's Factory/Troll Ascetic/ANY REGENERATOR for the rest of the game. Or get killed by Disembowel/Deathmark." Not to mention making said token will probably kill Ajani because of his poor loyalty. And this is supposed to the a powerful white wizard? Please. I'd rather have Dark Depths than this.
Akuma will wreck you.
Of course, if you want a real life, run him with Garruk, so you can pop him out, then overrun him 23+/23+ tramplers are fun.
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What about it doesn't make sense? It doesn't say "put a */* token named Serra Avatar into play." Just because it's quite similar to Serra Avatar doesn't mean it has to be identical. This version is potentially better, and potentially worse at the same time. You can lose life but still have a large creature, or you could be gaining life and the creature stays the same as when it came into play.
Since we haven't actually seen the card, I would say it's possible that the token could be */* and not X/X, but considering the source (I trust Hydro to get it right), I'd say it's probably printed as Hydro says.
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I'll have to wait for the next White planeswalker
...Which is a good thing, since the general rule is that your life total always goes down, even in a Martyr of Sands deck.
Thanks to Spiderboy4 of High~light Studios for the awesome sig.
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"Stoned players can't attack, block, or play spells or abilities."
Love the idea. I think, though, it would fizzle as the token is a legendary one.
these planeswalkers are insane bombs
I'm gonna make a bunch of decks (Mostly Casual) that involves Brighthearth and the PWalkers, and the fate of my almost finished U/R one is decided on Jace, so pleeeeaaaasssseeee I want Jace Beleren!!!:D
If you drop him against an aggro deck and just keep gaining 2 life they have to spend resources to kill it. Every creature they attack it with is essentially life gained. After about 4 or 5 turns of life if they havent killed it yet, you make an avatar. Now since they have had so much extra life to punch through you can assume they alot less resources then they would normally have, and then they have to come up with another answer to the avatar.
Sure, there are alot of things to counter it but if they have something and use it then you got them to spend a card for nothing cause your PW is most likely still there.
the one thing that pushes him over the top is the fact that he costs 4. Play turn two lens or mind stone, turn 3 *** if the board is overwhelming and if its not, you play this beat stick.
So, well his abilitys in the abstract are not the brokenness he fits into a cohesive strategy the best.
http://tinystrokes.blogspot.com/view/classic
First Ability
B: Opponent ditches a card
R: 1 damage to opponent
G: Untap 2 lands
W: Gain 2 life
OVERALL: Same order as shown. Clearly gain life isn't as utilitarian as the other initial abilities
Second Ability
B: Tutor a card and put on top
R: Deal X damage to a creature
G: Call of the Heard
W: +1/+1 and Vigilance
OVERALL: This is a little different but in my eyes it still is the same order, with Ajani dead last. I prefer to get a 3/3 creature rather than pump, IMO measily at that. And I don't see a point at getting the creature if it can get killed with -X loyalty. I see tutoring the most useful here.
Third Ability
B: Rez creatures
R: Kill creatures and hit opponent for 10 in face
G: Overrun
W: Serra Avatar token
OVERALL: I'd say here Ajani gets a push, but not a big one. I'd say R B W G. Overrun here isn't that good, as they can just get blasted away by Chandra next turn. She kills the creatures you get rezzed and the ones you want to Overrun and if everything including players get hit for 10 there is a good chance for the token to die right away.
This is how I see it. Please comment.
Here is my trading list.
Control is the ultimate expression of power.
This will fit perfectly into a U/W control deck as a finisher. It gains life while you clear away the board, and then once you make the huge avatar token, you have counterspell backup to protect it. It's too bad that the 2nd ability is complete crap, otherwise this guy would be very strong. It should have been "Create a 1/1 flying pegasus token" or something of that nature.
It's hard to tell what's going to happen because we only know a small portion of the Llorwyn cards, but I predict that this will definitely see some play in standard.
How about "Grrr, I want justice, let me make my ally stronger and then create a huge creature that uses that strength to step on people's necks"
Under Original Management!
Bane's Reading Suggestions
David Eddings: The Belgariad, Mallorean, Elenium and Tamuli Series. The Redemption of Althalus
Jim Butcher: The Codex Alera Series
Out of curiosity, how helpful is 2 life? I mean honestly would you play:
0
Sorcery
Gain 2 life
Can only be played once per turn and storm does not count it.
Are you going to hide behind the life gain long enough to make a token that you then have to protect then attack with, and clear a path for? I might just be a lazy player, cause that is just too much work for me.
Control is the ultimate expression of power.
http://tinystrokes.blogspot.com/view/classic
Life's end, isn't it beautiful... its almost tragic.
Here is my trading list.
Final Version i think. Except maybe a little diffrent wording.
http://tinystrokes.blogspot.com/view/classic
My friend that I keep mentioning says that Ajani is the best walker. He supposedly has no card advantage recovery but for that has a "broken" final ability. His first comment was that he is too good for what it is coz you wait 2 turns, sac Ajani and get a 20/20. But if you read my last post on the previous page I propose a different view.
Here is my trading list.
The plainswalkers fill different niches.
Lilianna is obviously better in control via control due to recursive discard, although the search makes her OK vs. anything.
Garuk is best in mid-range aggro. He's pretty good against both aggro and control since neither likes recurring elephants or free recurring mana too much.
Chandra is a big burn spell similar to Beacon of destruction She either burns a creature or pings a player for 2 turns until she can explode.
As of the writing of the post, we dont know what Jace does.
Therefore:
Liliana: Black control's tool against other control decks.
Chandra: U/R or U/R/W control deck's finisher/utility burn spell
Ajani: Anti-aggro white deck stall+win condition.
So none of them are useless, they can all play key roles in GOOD decks. Whether or not a certain deck will become good is another question of course. For example, a red+other control deck seems less likely to come up than a green aggro deck, but you never know, firemane control was a good deck quite recently.
In conclusion, just like the rest of the planeswalkers, he's not a bad card. If creature decks run rampant due to Garruk/Troll/Goyf and friends, a white Ajani control can become a dominant deck in the format.