Venser, the Sojourner is my favorite card, because it speaks to me from multiple angles.
First and foremost, I love blink effects. Something as small as a blink can change the way a lot of things operate, by repeating enter-the-battlefield triggers, rescuing your mind-controlled or perpetually-tapped creature or other permanent, or even just giving something pseudo-vigilance. Or, perhaps in a cube, you can do something nasty like blink a wincon and proceed with a wrath - or even nastier, an Upheaval - and continue onward uncontested. It's a lot of versatility, making Venser's first ability elegant, even though it's incredibly simple.
Venser's second ability is perhaps a bit confusing to a control deck trying to abuse his +2 with the likes of Wall of Omens or Mulldrifter; why would you ever use this ability? I always believed this is because Venser was designed for the BantPod deck when it was standard legal, a midrange monstrosity that abused etb triggers and eventually amassing a huge board. With Venser, you can build up advantages until you can simply overwhelm your opponent; a -1 with "Creatures are unblockable this turn" could just as well read "win the game" in the right deck. I enjoy cube, and find Venser doesn't need to use this ability to be good, but having the option allows him to fit in more decks than many other planeswalkers who don't have as straightforward abilities as "Draw a bunch of Cards". For this reason I think he trumps most other guys outside the Lorwyn 5. Both the +2 and -1 can work together, but they don't need to.
Venser's ultimate is incredibly powerful - a little wonky, to be sure, but powerful. Spells giving you free, colorless exiles is exceptionally good, and cantrips like Preordain suddenly become incredibly valuable. If you have a Batterskull on the table, you're in amazing shape. And this isn't an ultimate that takes forever to get to, either.
Venser is far from the best card, or even best planeswalker in MTG. But, all three of his abilities are potentially powerful, which lead to enjoyable experiences every time I play it. Because Venser's abilities require a little bit of planning, I find that deck construction with him becomes quite interesting; some already good cards gain additional value, some strategies suddenly have an entirely new angle when he hits the field. Being able to think ahead and see real benefits of that planning make playing the card a very rewarding experience.
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- Blue_Oneironaut
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It seems like maybe there are differences in design philosophy here? It's like some people are looking for aggro cards to win faster, and others are looking for ways to give aggro decks endurance. I personally want my aggro players not to have a mentality of "I basically win on turn 4-5, or not at all". And I feel like if I adopted that perspective and front-loaded all my aggro cards, that would almost be a self-fulfilling prophecy? While the general plan of aggro is to beat the opponent before they get to enact their plan, I don't think I've ever played in a limited setting where aggro players simply never reach 6 mana or higher in their best-of-3s. It's uncommon that aggro plays the perfect curve-out, and it's uncommon that the control decks draw into all their tools or wincons precisely when they want them. Classic matchups can go incredibly long. And I anticipate this card will do well there.
I wouldn't be super eager to play this in a deck that wants true-name. It could fit there, but I'm thinking more like a big control deck, WU/x style, that is light on creatures and whose early plays are mostly just roadblocks and disruption. While say a Wall of Omens gives you the value up-front and is always kind-of acceptable in off-matches, this takes a different route and provides a threat when a defender would otherwise look kind of dumb.
I agree Stroke of Genius is the most sensible version.
It's a shame I don't care to support UB. Guess I'll be skipping it.
I guess at first glance it didn't strike me because it's not filling any empty holes in my list. I think white has plenty of options at 4+ mana that also give good value and help stabilize your game, and some of them can be abused for really powerful synergies or outright combos. But, upon second look, I might want to try this in my mardu slot to just have more spells that can be upcast for greater benefit.
Incredibly simple card. Very easy to overlook. Here, I am going to make a brief argument for it:
Imagine your board is a Goblin Guide and something like Dismissive Pyromancer or Goblin Cratermaker, or any other reasonable utility creature that isn't too embarrassing to attack with. Your opponent slams down a Questing Beast. Fighting through a Questing Beast might require you to just suicide through, or 2-for-1 yourself, or at the very least take a very large tempo hit.
If you have instead a Goblin Guide and a Yavimaya Steelcrusher, you can present your opponent with a 1-for-1 trade through Enlist. You just get to attack in for 4, trading upward in mana cost, no loss in card advantage or tempo.
Clearly there are scenarios where this isn't quite so good, e.g. your opponent also has a random bear they're willing to trade instead. So there are limitations. But, I think this is a reasonable second-tier include for cubes that want to give red new ways to compete in creature-heavy environments.
Very curious to get your thoughts.
Thanks for the examples. I must have wrote those cards out of my memory.
Although, apart from Atsushi, I would respectfully disagree that these upsides are significant in a cube environment. I find most of them clunky and oftentimes irrelevant. I daresay the option of a sweep and a loot is immensely more helpful for a controlling red deck than a death ping, or the ability to tap out for a 2-for-1, or to make a temporary token off of a brainstorm or a lightning bolt. I would sooner play a Thunderbreak in an aggressive deck, although that's the only place where I care about having that card, whereas this is way more useful in decks that aren't just going face. This could be wrong, but they genuinely read to me as flavor text.
I understand a lot comes down to our personal tastes and our unique cube design. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think this card is way higher on the list cards that I'm interested in. You're right that the benefit must therefore come from the other modes, and I think that absolutely, that value is above what else is out there because these are definitely things I want to do in my cube.
I appreciate that unlike converge, domain just requires you to have the land types; a single triome does a lot for this card. And honestly, I love instant draw-2s, I love putting stuff in the graveyard. All that said, this is another one of those cards that I want to play, but not sure if it makes it. I think there are cases where you might just have only single basic type alongside painlands or pathways, making this a lot less impressive. That kind of variability leaves me a little worried and makes me want to look elsewhere for a comparable effect.