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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Ajani's Sunstriker
Image from Wizards.com

Ajani's Sunstriker
- M2013

Reviewed September 17, 2012

Constructed: 3.50
Casual: 3.50
Limited: 3.75
Multiplayer: 2.80

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating

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Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Ajani's Sunstriker

Nothing wrong with a 2/2 lifelinker for two. It's good to attack with, since you get 2 life either way, and it's good to leave up to block, since your opponent doesn't want to attack if he won't get in for damage and you'll end up gaining instead of losing. It's on-curve, too, so it's good in an aggressive deck, and it's still good in slower lifegain decks, since this encourages them to attack more often. Not much more to say than that, really-- if you're monowhite, you want a card like this.

Constructed- 3.5
Limited- 4.5
Casual- 3.5
Multiplayer- 3.6

David Fanany

Player since 1995

Ajani's Sunstriker
 
I'll let you in on a little secret: I liked the Lorwyn block's art style. Perhaps that puts me in the minority, I know, but it's a fact. As such, the first thing I thought of when I saw this card was Knight of Meadowgrain, and how the Sunstriker is "strictly worse" except for being a cat, but the other card is a Knight, but this one is also a Cleric, and then I remembered that there are proverbs in many languages warning you about doing exactly that thing I just did. So let's cut straight to this card's actual point: two mana. 2/2. Lifelink. Sound good to you? It sounds pretty good to me.
 
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 2/5

Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Ajani's Sunstriker which is a two mana White
2/2 with Lifelink.  The double White keeps this from being particularly useful in multicolor decks, though just being a 2/2 Lifelink isn't compelling enough for most competitive builds anyway.  The cat/cleric types have some benefit, but overall there are better cards for the two mana slot in mono-White builds.
 
In Limited the double White is a noticeable drawback whenever running multiple colors and the 2/2 for two is only mediocre at best.  On color it is an alright choice for Sealed when filling the deck and lacking lower cost creatures and is a playable choice later in the pack for Booster when running White.
 
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 2.5
Limited: 2.5
Multiplayer: 2.5

John
Shultis
Phoenix
Gaming

       Welcome to a new week of card of the day reviews here at Pojo.com! Today we begin our week looking at Ajani’s Sunstriker from M13. Ajani’s Sunstriker is a common white creature cat cleric that costs two white mana and is a 2/2. Ajani’s Sunstriker has lifelink.

       The newer face of Magic is all about getting you mana’s worth, and with Ajani’s Sunstriker that is exactly what you get, and then some! For just two white mana, you get a 2/2 lifelink which means you will be quickly building up your life total while chipping away at your opponents. The other perk of “new Magic” is that if a card bears a planeswalkers name, it usually means that it combos very well with that planeswalker. And that holds very true with Ajani’s Sunstriker. When used with the Ajani, Caller of the Pride, you could gain a 3/3 lifelink on turn three, or hit for four damage and gain four life on turn three with the Ajani’s Sunstriker having been given flying and double-strike. And of course, the more you boost the Sunstriker with Ajani’s first ability, the more potent his final will be, gaining you even more 2/2 cats. With the older Ajani Goldmane, you’d be able to put a +1/+1 counter on the Sunstriker and give it Vigilance until the end of turn, then of course the final is still boosted, since you gain an Avatar token equal to your life total.

      Now matter how you look at it, the Sunstriker is an amazing card. I have seen it utilized well in Exalted decks, since you gain a bunch of life off of it attacking.
 
Limited: 5/5
Constructed: 5/5
Casual: 5/5
Multiplayer: 3/5


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