The token would be killed by using the third ability of Chandra, also Chandra can choose to hit Ajani or other planeswalkers with the first ability.
EDIT: I want to see the blue planeswalker soooo badly!!!!
I don't think so if the token is already in play. I doubt' you'll be at 10 when you activate Ajani's 3rd ability. If it happens either you are not playing lifegain control or you desperately activate Ajani's ability due to some urgency.
Let's analyze this situation (sample situation only). Red player (RP) playing RDW with Chandra and white player (WP) playing life gain control with Ajani. Both players at 20 (white player still at 20 because of some life gain cards like Martyr of Sands, red player still having no damage). WP plays Ajani then gains 2 life. WP at 22, Ajani at 5. RP plays Chandra, hits Ajani with 1 damage. RP @ 20, WP @ 22, Chandra @ 7, Ajani @ 4.
Next turn WP gains 2 life again, RP @ 20, WP @ 24, Chandra @ 7, Ajani @ 5. At RP's turn Chandra deals 1 damage again to Ajani, RP @ 20, WP @24, Chandra @ 8, Ajani @ 4.
Next turn WP gains 2 life again, RP @ 20, WP @ 26, Chandra @ 8, Ajani @ 5. If ever RP decides to kill Ajani next turn, this means that Ajani saved his WP with his ability. I know Ajani's ability is not that exciting but I believe its not the crappiest there is.
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White is the one color for equality. So how do you get advantage when you're unwilling to give yourself a leg up? You find a way to turn equality into a weapon. Make it active and offensive. Wrath of God answers this call. Evening the playing field is quite aggressive when you're the one behind. Or you're the one that knew such an event was coming and planned ahead. Wrath of God gives the most defensive color some teeth. - MaRo http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr164
The rumor gods have answered you call brother Madding... behold:
Ajani Goldmane 2WW Planeswalker - Ajani +1: You gain 2 life -1: Creatures you control get +1/+1 and vigilance until end of turn -6: Put an X/X white Avatar creature token into play with power and toughness each equal to your life total. Loyalty: 4 Rare.
Now, the only unclear whisper was the type of creature created... other than that... he's solid solid solid.
Interesting that Serra Avatar is his last ability, but it has obvious synergy with his +1 ability. It's a 'bomb' ability that may see use (though much less of a bomb than the others we've seen). Crusading for -1 loyalty certainly has its uses. I'd rate him below Garruk, particularly for his first ability, but for the same reasons Garruk is good (inexpensive abilities, low cost, relevant effects) I can see Ajani being played. It does seem a lot could be riding on Jace Beleren, though - with four planeswalkers revealed (if this is real), there isn't one among them that screams 'power card'.
His final ability isn't quite as gamebreaking as Lilliana or Chandra's. Better than Garruk, though. x.-
Really? Overrun was heavily played in its day. To the best of my recollection, Serra Avatar wasn't - it was one of those "Wow, OMG, something new and *HUGE*" preview cards that never made it to decks (a bit like Gleancrawler in Rav). Killing your useful crusading Planeswalker for something as fragile and conditional as a single evasion-less, unprotected creature doesn't seem a great move. However, I agree that there are decks that can make a lot of use of his free lifegain and probably a fair few that will benefit from the weenie-booster.
I'm even more disappointed now that these PWs are all new characters. Design space for their ability's seem like fairly simple recycle jobs, and with the sorcery speed limit built in with little to no room for exception, (dunno if this possibility has been mentioned before, +1:You may use this PWs other abilitys on your opponent's next turn.), the recycle options seem even more narrow. Sure would've been nice to get timeshifted PWs like Nicol Bolas, Teferi, Jeska, Leshrac, Karn, etc. etc. before other miscellaneous PWs started taking away fun recycle options.
Quite apart from the fact that these characters all have cards, making them new characters is deliberate and ties into the planeswalker type thing. The blurb in Chandra's section tells us that we get to see these planeswalkers at the start of their careers - no prizes for guessing that those who survive the storyline will be getting new cards for 'experienced' versions of the characters in Morningtide or later sets. This likely also explains why this first batch is comparatively weak; the 'older' versions will no doubt have more powerful abilities.
Pretty slow planeswalker, gain 4 life before making a possibly huge avatar... maybe in the good deck... but not really good when you need a solution NOW! the red one is better in this case.
The key is the colour. White is a slower colour than green or red, and Ajani's first two abilities both help stall the game (since the creatures have vigilance and can block). A slow planeswalker like Ajani is much better than a slow (in fact even slower) planeswalker like Chandra by virtue of the decks and cards he can interact with. I agree that Ajani can probably make the cut as a constructed card, he just needs to be part of a more precisely-tuned deck than Garruk or arguably Liliana (discard and tutoring is rarely unwelcome).
As the Rumor Gods were kind to me this season, and brother Hydro granted me a favor, I will dedicate the deck to them and shall hand out web addresses to this thread at each FNM I bring it to.
Pfft, Ajani is garbage. Serra Avatar screams "Chump me please!" every time she swings. Give me something that helps me win, not something that helps me lose less. I can't wait to see the White greater elemental, it'll probably be:
3WWW
First Strike
Whenever a source your opponent controls deals damage to you, reduce that damage by 1.
You have received a warning at MTG Salvation Forums.
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This is the worst planeswalker so far. It isn't worth gaining life so slowly for 4 mana. There are many better cards out there. As for the final ability, it isn't even broken like liliana vess or chandra. It isn't decent like garruk either. This ability is just awful. Even if the token was a fatty, the fact that it has no trample is a major disadvantage. Also, there are many cards that can kill creatures, more so than planeswalkers.
You shouldn't put clockspinning in your U/W control deck to help your finisher.
Finishers are ment to kill your opponent while you neutralize his threats with counters and control.
The clockspinning would likely be in there power up other things if it was at all, but again, I'm not sure that a 10/10 or bigger token and 2 life gain a turn is a bad deal for 4 mana, and for a much larger token, more life gain and the shot at another token later if necessary, it might be worth paying 9 mana over 2 turns. I'll admit though, that my main thinking about clockspinning was that it would be used on Jace and possibly something like Restore Balance or Chronomantic Escape (basically, if Jace is good, which I anticipate, and worth playing clockspinning for, then you may get the occasional early Ajani token, and sideboard answers to certain decks, like the chronomatic escape).
The abilities are only boring, not recycled!
Instead of giving white a good white ability, they just come up with something that has proven to be unplayable since Alpha came out.
We know discarding is good, as is untapping lands and burning.
So why couldn't this make Spirit or soldier tokens? I think that ability has a more white feeling than life gain.. which adds nothing to a game.
Life gain has proven extremely strong every time they let it be. Just like the amount of damage that is considered powerful is different than the amount of card draw that is, the amount of life gain needed for power is different. But I'm not sure it is double. Pulse of the Fields vs. pulse of the forge, for example or FTK vs. Loxodon Hierarch. It is less versatile than something like incinerate, but just like lava spike was not a great card because it didn't hit creatures, a lot of life gain spells are bad because they use a card and don't affect the board.
Ajani, however, does affect the board. He isn't great turn 4 when your opponent has lethal damage staring down at you, but he is pretty nice the next turn, once you've wrathed, or on turn 3 when the opponent doesn't have a perfect draw. It's not like your whole deck is him, and he takes no mana past his casting cost, so you are not doing nothing else. Yes, he isn't good in the spot where wrath of god is good, but he is good in spots where wrath wouldn't help, and he can single-handedly win a game.
Secondly, the second ability was supposed to defend the planeswalkers..
If you have an army that is big enough to use the second ability on you should be winning anyway.
A condemn/stp would be more on it's place here. As would 2 soldier tokens.
I agree that the second ability would have played better as creating tokens, but a) Soldier or even spirit or cat tokens don't fit Lorwyn very well and merfolk or kithkin tokens don't seem to fit Ajani well and b) the ability to attack and also tap, as I mentioned, is likely to be worthwhile for merfolk decks.
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People's Front of 422
Pfft, Ajani is garbage. Serra Avatar screams "Chump me please!" every time she swings. Give me something that helps me win, not something that helps me lose less. I can't wait to see the White greater elemental, it'll probably be:
3WWW
First Strike
Whenever a source your opponent controls deals damage to you, reduce that damage by 1.
*Yawn*
I had to guess, I'd expect it to be:
3WWW
Vigilance
When ? comes into play, choose a colour. Other creatures you control have protection from the chosen colour.
Vigilance is just as bad, it's not a form of evasion.
And as far as protection is concerned, white already has 2 extremely efficient low cost beaters that have protection from the most important colors: black and red.
Soltari Priest and Paladin-En-Vec.
I know the Pally doesn't see much play, but still. My point is, the white elemental is going to be garbage, as opposed to the other ones(I shudder to think what the blue one will do.)
I am confuzzled. So gaining 2 life every turn is not useful or is useful. Can't you Soldiers and/or clerics make up your minds? I had such high hopes for the white 'walker being a big vengeful kitty, oh well can't win 'em all.
Don't you see that the whole aim of Moderators is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make infractions literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed, will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten.
I think Ajani is going to be the card to hate in standard, because:
turn 2: wall of roots
turn 3: ajani, gain 2 life
turn 4: brion stoutarm, gain 2 life
turn 5: X/X creature comes into play, hits opponent in the face for X, gain X life, gg
even if it was only R/W and hit a turn later it could be devastating. Ajani is my new favorite clock.
It says "as the token comes into play." It makes me think that Ajani, as given by Hydro on page 1, is creating a Serra Avatar. I know the token doesn't have a CDA itself, but it can happen that Ajani creates a continuous effect that modifies the p/t of the token - something similar has happened before, but I don't remember what.
Also, I think a lot of people are forgetting that the planeswalkers activate any time you could play a sorcery.
This happened before with Dark Depths. The Marit Lage token has only one ability - "flying." If it loses all its abilities, it's still indestructable for the sole reason that Dark Depths says so.
hmmm...
Turn 1: Plains, Martyr of Sands
Turn 2: Plains, Mindstone, sac Martyr (assuming you still have one land in hand, that oughta be a 9 life boost. (29)
Turn 3: land, Ajani, gain 2 life (31)
Turn 4: gain 2 life (33), wrath (or drop/sac another martyr, if you do this, wrath next turn before you pop the token)
Turn 5: token. do whatever else you like for the turn, it's not gonna matter, you're on 30+ life with a 30+/30+ creature on the table
Of course, this relies on the idea that your opponent's going to be playing control If not, then he's welcome to hit Ajani since you'll keep gaining life with Ajani and Martyrs until you're out of range and ready to drop an Akroma
Hell, I didn't even mean Necro era. Even modern MBC in remotely skilled hands is a bastard to beat with creatures. there's nothing like all your good early game work being undone with a damnation followed by a Korlash picking up a hammer...
Control is merely a term for what a style a deck is. Since any color can adopt a number of styles, according to the cards available to it in the format, it is irrelevant to state what colors comprise what styles.
I like Ajani. He is probably the most internally synergistic Planeswalker (unless you count Chandra, whose mission in life seems to be to say "Burn baby BURN!" after everything she does. She does it well too).
Now we're only missing Jace...I secretly hope he's bad (since Blue is the sword enemy of red and green)....but I also hope he has some synergy with his abilities.
I really hope his power would be equivalent to Vess. She, IMO, is the best for now, as you might have guessed what I'd say from all the putdowns I have been stating on the other 'walkers ESPECIALLY the white one. Well the red one is next in line as she provides a level of control over the other ones. I SO want the Rumor Gods to hear my prayers from ever since I have seen him. Please, oh please Rumor Gods answer my call.
I don't think so if the token is already in play. I doubt' you'll be at 10 when you activate Ajani's 3rd ability. If it happens either you are not playing lifegain control or you desperately activate Ajani's ability due to some urgency.
Let's analyze this situation (sample situation only). Red player (RP) playing RDW with Chandra and white player (WP) playing life gain control with Ajani. Both players at 20 (white player still at 20 because of some life gain cards like Martyr of Sands, red player still having no damage). WP plays Ajani then gains 2 life. WP at 22, Ajani at 5. RP plays Chandra, hits Ajani with 1 damage. RP @ 20, WP @ 22, Chandra @ 7, Ajani @ 4.
Next turn WP gains 2 life again, RP @ 20, WP @ 24, Chandra @ 7, Ajani @ 5. At RP's turn Chandra deals 1 damage again to Ajani, RP @ 20, WP @24, Chandra @ 8, Ajani @ 4.
Next turn WP gains 2 life again, RP @ 20, WP @ 26, Chandra @ 8, Ajani @ 5. If ever RP decides to kill Ajani next turn, this means that Ajani saved his WP with his ability. I know Ajani's ability is not that exciting but I believe its not the crappiest there is.
Interesting that Serra Avatar is his last ability, but it has obvious synergy with his +1 ability. It's a 'bomb' ability that may see use (though much less of a bomb than the others we've seen). Crusading for -1 loyalty certainly has its uses. I'd rate him below Garruk, particularly for his first ability, but for the same reasons Garruk is good (inexpensive abilities, low cost, relevant effects) I can see Ajani being played. It does seem a lot could be riding on Jace Beleren, though - with four planeswalkers revealed (if this is real), there isn't one among them that screams 'power card'.
Really? Overrun was heavily played in its day. To the best of my recollection, Serra Avatar wasn't - it was one of those "Wow, OMG, something new and *HUGE*" preview cards that never made it to decks (a bit like Gleancrawler in Rav). Killing your useful crusading Planeswalker for something as fragile and conditional as a single evasion-less, unprotected creature doesn't seem a great move. However, I agree that there are decks that can make a lot of use of his free lifegain and probably a fair few that will benefit from the weenie-booster.
Quite apart from the fact that these characters all have cards, making them new characters is deliberate and ties into the planeswalker type thing. The blurb in Chandra's section tells us that we get to see these planeswalkers at the start of their careers - no prizes for guessing that those who survive the storyline will be getting new cards for 'experienced' versions of the characters in Morningtide or later sets. This likely also explains why this first batch is comparatively weak; the 'older' versions will no doubt have more powerful abilities.
The key is the colour. White is a slower colour than green or red, and Ajani's first two abilities both help stall the game (since the creatures have vigilance and can block). A slow planeswalker like Ajani is much better than a slow (in fact even slower) planeswalker like Chandra by virtue of the decks and cards he can interact with. I agree that Ajani can probably make the cut as a constructed card, he just needs to be part of a more precisely-tuned deck than Garruk or arguably Liliana (discard and tutoring is rarely unwelcome).
Phil
As the Rumor Gods were kind to me this season, and brother Hydro granted me a favor, I will dedicate the deck to them and shall hand out web addresses to this thread at each FNM I bring it to.
3WWW
First Strike
Whenever a source your opponent controls deals damage to you, reduce that damage by 1.
*Yawn*
Dear kbx41,
You have received a warning at MTG Salvation Forums.
Reason:
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Flaming or Other Forms of Misbehavior
Saying that you sometimes wish people (in this case the implication is the staff) would fall down a well and get AIDS is hardly appropriate for the forum.
I have 28 different EDH decks
The clockspinning would likely be in there power up other things if it was at all, but again, I'm not sure that a 10/10 or bigger token and 2 life gain a turn is a bad deal for 4 mana, and for a much larger token, more life gain and the shot at another token later if necessary, it might be worth paying 9 mana over 2 turns. I'll admit though, that my main thinking about clockspinning was that it would be used on Jace and possibly something like Restore Balance or Chronomantic Escape (basically, if Jace is good, which I anticipate, and worth playing clockspinning for, then you may get the occasional early Ajani token, and sideboard answers to certain decks, like the chronomatic escape).
Life gain has proven extremely strong every time they let it be. Just like the amount of damage that is considered powerful is different than the amount of card draw that is, the amount of life gain needed for power is different. But I'm not sure it is double. Pulse of the Fields vs. pulse of the forge, for example or FTK vs. Loxodon Hierarch. It is less versatile than something like incinerate, but just like lava spike was not a great card because it didn't hit creatures, a lot of life gain spells are bad because they use a card and don't affect the board.
Ajani, however, does affect the board. He isn't great turn 4 when your opponent has lethal damage staring down at you, but he is pretty nice the next turn, once you've wrathed, or on turn 3 when the opponent doesn't have a perfect draw. It's not like your whole deck is him, and he takes no mana past his casting cost, so you are not doing nothing else. Yes, he isn't good in the spot where wrath of god is good, but he is good in spots where wrath wouldn't help, and he can single-handedly win a game.
I agree that the second ability would have played better as creating tokens, but a) Soldier or even spirit or cat tokens don't fit Lorwyn very well and merfolk or kithkin tokens don't seem to fit Ajani well and b) the ability to attack and also tap, as I mentioned, is likely to be worthwhile for merfolk decks.
People's Front of 422
I had to guess, I'd expect it to be:
3WWW
Vigilance
When ? comes into play, choose a colour. Other creatures you control have protection from the chosen colour.
6/6
Phil
And as far as protection is concerned, white already has 2 extremely efficient low cost beaters that have protection from the most important colors: black and red.
Soltari Priest and Paladin-En-Vec.
I know the Pally doesn't see much play, but still. My point is, the white elemental is going to be garbage, as opposed to the other ones(I shudder to think what the blue one will do.)
Control is the ultimate expression of power.
turn 2: wall of roots
turn 3: ajani, gain 2 life
turn 4: brion stoutarm, gain 2 life
turn 5: X/X creature comes into play, hits opponent in the face for X, gain X life, gg
even if it was only R/W and hit a turn later it could be devastating. Ajani is my new favorite clock.
Edit: boy was I ever wrong on this one.
This happened before with Dark Depths. The Marit Lage token has only one ability - "flying." If it loses all its abilities, it's still indestructable for the sole reason that Dark Depths says so.
Turn 1: Plains, Martyr of Sands
Turn 2: Plains, Mindstone, sac Martyr (assuming you still have one land in hand, that oughta be a 9 life boost. (29)
Turn 3: land, Ajani, gain 2 life (31)
Turn 4: gain 2 life (33), wrath (or drop/sac another martyr, if you do this, wrath next turn before you pop the token)
Turn 5: token. do whatever else you like for the turn, it's not gonna matter, you're on 30+ life with a 30+/30+ creature on the table
Of course, this relies on the idea that your opponent's going to be playing control If not, then he's welcome to hit Ajani since you'll keep gaining life with Ajani and Martyrs until you're out of range and ready to drop an Akroma
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That is deeply, dramatically incorrect.
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I like Ajani. He is probably the most internally synergistic Planeswalker (unless you count Chandra, whose mission in life seems to be to say "Burn baby BURN!" after everything she does. She does it well too).
Now we're only missing Jace...I secretly hope he's bad (since Blue is the sword enemy of red and green)....but I also hope he has some synergy with his abilities.
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Artist Strikes Fish