Her body can withstand a Titan's blow (unless
it's Inferno or Grave Titan) and swing back
almost as hard without leaving you sans
blockers. She empowers your whole team and
hobbles everybody else's creatures. But is seven
mana simply too late in the game? If your
opponents' creature are small enough for Elesh's
ability to kill them, he's playing aggro, and if
you made it to seven mana against an aggro deck,
you've already won. Her ability encourages you
to run lots of smaller creatures, but then
you're playing aggro and equally unlikely to
make seven mana. Perhaps her place is in a
mid-range token producer? I'd say Elesh Norn is
best used as a finisher-- have a decent army in
play already when she hits, and you ideally
won't even have to get any use out of her
vigilance-- her Overrun and Infest effects will
have already overwhelmed your opponent.
Elesh Norn is definitely better in the casual
formats-- creatures and tokens are more common,
board sweepers are less common, and people get
to seven mana in pretty much every game.
Multiplayer is her real venue of choice-- with
multiple opponents, her -2/-2 ability becomes
more potent and players are even more likely to
let the game run on to seven mana, not having
the resources to end the game any earlier.
I'm reluctant to compare the Praetors to past
cards, because the designers and the artists put
so much effort into making them interesting and
unique, and I don't want to suggest that they
can't stand on their own merits - quite the
opposite. Still, I will note that Crovax,
Ascendant Hero was one of my favorite cards from
Planar Chaos, and that Elesh Norn is not only an
interesting callback and complement to him, but
a potential windfall for almost any deck that
plays creatures. You've got Knight of
Meadowgrain? Welcome to Candyland, and enjoy
gaining ridiculous numbers of life. You've got
Bridge from Below? Your opponent better have
Extirpate. You've got Doubling Season and Rhys
the Redeemed? . . . Don't even start with that.
Today's card of the day is Elesh Norn, Grand
Cenobite which is a seven mana 4/7 with
Vigilance that gives your other creatures +2/+2
and creatures your opponents control -2/-2.
By itself a 4/7 with Vigilance is a moderate
threat offensively and defensively and resists
multiple forms of removal with the high
toughness. The other two effects are an
impressive combination for controlling the field
and even a small number of creatures on your
side of the battlefield should win the game in
short order. This is the kind of card that
ends a game when supported properly and should
be used alongside some acceleration and White or
artifact creatures. Overall this card may
be underestimated because of the cost, but it
can be a huge threat and might be take a few
tournaments by surprise.
In Limited not playing this when opened is
almost always a mistake as it weakens the
position of your opponent, improves your own
field, is very difficult to destroy, and can
even be played in decks with multiple colors.
Easily one of the best cards in the set and
should be treated as such in both Sealed and
when drafting in Booster.
For Multiplayer the combination of weakening the
creatures of all opponents and Vigilance makes
this stand out as a top choice and a theme can
certainly be made to take advantage of both
aspects.
Welcome to another
great card of the day review here at Pojo.com.
Today we take a look at Elesh Norn, Grand
Cenobite. Elesh Norn costs five generic and two
white mana. She is a 4/7 with vigilance. She
also gives other creatures you control +2/+2,
and creatures your opponents control -2/-2.
Very seldom does a card so powerful appear that can
virtually alter the landscape of the battlefield
as drastically as Elesh Norn. The ability to
severely wipe out the field of your opponent,
and drastically weaken anything that can hit the
board is undeniable. Not to mention the fact she
is pumping your own creatures quite
significantly in exchange.
For even more fun, run Elesh Norn with the Mirror
Gallery. That way you could actually have two
Elesh Norn’s out. Then even the mightiest
dragons look like mere worms.
A guaranteed impact of a card, so long as it hits the board.
