It seems Ajani's uproarious red streak has
mellowed into a wiser (but no less primal) green
streak. Times like this I wish they still put
out a novel for every expansion. Alas.
The first time I saw this card, the Ultimate
ability distracted me from the fact that Ajani's
first two abilities are both +1, and he
therefore has nothing to spend his loyalty on
except his Ultimate. Gaining 100 life does
nothing to put you any closer to winning, but it
puts your opponents a LOT further away. If you
resolve the Ultimate, you can pretty much alpha
strike every turn, confident in the fact that
no, your opponent can't swing back and kill you
next turn, or the turn after that, or the turn
after that.
And by that point, you should have a superior
board position. Ajani's two +1 abilities are
both all about bolstering your team, either by
finding you extra creature cards, or by pumping
up your creatures. If you play this, you'll
definitely also want a few Pacifism-style Auras
in your deck, so Ajani has a shot at finding you
removal spells when you need them too.
There may be more to being a hero than
winning battles, but Ajani has a singular focus
on various aspects of that exact concern. His
first ability breaks open creature stalemates
and turns regular creatures into dominating
ones. His second ability drags you kicking and
screaming back into a game you were out of
(seriously, how many relevant cards in Theros
does it fail to draw?), and then keeps you
there. His third makes it literally impossible
for some decks to defeat you: think of all the
decks you've seen that struggle to deal 20
damage in a reasonable amount of time.
(Unhinged combo of the week: this guy plus
Mycosynth Lattice plus March of the Machines
plus Pygmy Giant. You're welcome.)
Today's card of the day is Ajani, Mentor of
Heroes which is a five mana Green and White
planeswalker with four loyalty. The first +1
adds three
+1/+1 counters to one, two, or three target
creatures you control which
is a solid effect, particularly combined with
Hexproof, Trample, or evasive effects that are
each readily available in either Green and
White. The second +1 is selective card advantage
that can add the most useful card out of four to
your hand which helps control the battlefield
and maintain pressure on the opponent. The
ultimate of gaining one hundred life is
primarily for use alongside life gain combo
decks that can win the game with massive life
point totals as otherwise it is just a stall
with minimal offensive advantage. The second
ability can support the first by finding
worthwhile targets or support the third by
finding a card to complete the combo, while the
first ability is for an aggressive deck with
bypassing defenses as a focus. Overall the
higher mana cost and passive ultimate will keep
this from seeing much play competitively, but it
should be a frequent sight in Casual, Commander,
and Multiplayer.
In Limited the life gain ultimate can make
losing from loss of life very difficult, but the
second effect can make running you out of cards
a viable alternative for an opponent with little
draw power. The first and second effects can and
will dominant a game and as they both increase
loyalty it should be very difficult for an
opponent to destroy Ajani.
An easy first pick in Booster as either Green or
White should offer decent draft picks and the
other color can be splashed. For Sealed it may
be a little more difficult to have both Green
and White as strong colors, but splashing one or
both and using any available color fixing can be
worthwhile just to include this.
Planeswalkers are always a big deal, but how
does this new Ajani stack up?
First off, he costs 5 to play. Most of the
time green/white decks want to be aggressive, so
it's not the biggest hit there. But, if your
deck can get him out quickly, his abilities are
pretty powerful. His four loyalty is pretty
good, making him harder to kill quickly with
damage.
His first ability can help you bump up your
creatures in a hurry, and reminds us of previous
Ajanis. Your token army gets more and more
powerful each turn. Seems pretty good.
His second ability lets you look through the
top 4 cards of your deck and select an Aura,
creature, or Planeswalker. If you built your
deck right, you should be getting something
pretty good each turn. It's unlikely you'll hit
4 lands, and you probably shouldn't have too
many non-creature, non-enchantment artifacts in
your deck if you're playing this Ajani. I expect
this will be the most popular ability.
And of course, the ridiculous ultimate
ability. Most of the time, you're not going to
get to use his ultimate. Most of the time, if
you have built him up enough to use it, you're
pretty much in control of the game. Gaining 100
life is cute, but unless you're running a crazy
combo deck, it doesn't really help you win.
I am so incredibly thrilled that green & white
finally got a planeswalker. It feels like we've
been waiting a while.
Ajani, Mentor of Heroes is a great card,
especially for casual and limited players. His
abilities make him more suited for a slightly
slower more control-oriented style of play,
which is fine because that's what green-white is
good at anyway. Despite the big, impressive
number on his ultimate ability, you're really
only playing him for the first two.
What Ajani excels at is keeping your momentum
going. Every turn he's helping you improve your
board presence in some way. Either he's helping
you dig through your deck to find more creatures
to play, or he's improving the creatures you
already have, turning a single 1/1 into a 4/4,
or a group of 2/2's into 3/3's, or however you
personally want to distribute three +1/+1
counters that you can put on anyone in any
combination.
It's no coincidence that Ajani's abilities
are perfectly suited for Theros mechanics. This
is literally begging to go into a heroic deck.
Imagine getting heroic triggers from 3 different
creatures in one turn, and doing so is Ajani's
+1! Heck, the fact that both of her abilities
are +1's is fantastic! Again, it helps with the
theme of never running out of gas, getting
stronger every turn. Ajani's all about helping
you get stronger.
Gaining 100 life seems like it'd be awesome,
but honestly even when you get to 8 or 9
loyalty, I'd probably rather play one of the
other abilities before that. Unless you're at
like 1 life and a light sneeze might kill you,
you want to play an ability that will help win
you the game, not an ability that will slow down
your opponent's ability to win the game. Not
that it isn't fun in casual games, though! I've
always wanted to find a good way to use Felidar
Sovereign.
Overall Ajani, Mentor of Heroes is an
extremely solid card. Useful without being game
breaking, and I love that green-white finally
gets some planeswalker love. Play this in the
right control deck, and watch as you and Ajani
slowly but surely overwhelm your opponent with
creatures that keep on growing in both strength
and number.
