Ajani Steadfast was clearly designed to be
reminiscent of Ajani Goldmane from Lorwyn, and
is usable in much the same decks. The
differences are subtle, but important. This
version's ultimate doesn't really help you win
the game in the way that Goldmane's did, but
both of his other ones definitely pull you
towards creature strategies (though it's notable
that his -2 also works with planeswalkers, while
his +1 is arguably less important in a control
strategy that's likely to have multiple
planeswalkers). All three abilities are strong,
though, and all three are likely to help some
deck somewhere; I'd be a little surprised if
Ajani Steadfast wasn't adopted by some deck out
there.
Today's card of the day is Ajani Steadfast
which is a four mana White planeswalker with
four loyalty. The +1 gives a target
creature +1/+1, First Strike, Vigilance, and
Lifelink until end of turn which is very solid
as a +1 if a moderately powerful creature is in
play to be the target. The -2 puts a +1/+1
counter on each creature you control and one
loyalty on each other planeswalker, which
outside of a multiple planeswalker Chain Veil
build is more costly and lacks the temporary
Vigilance of the original Ajani's -1. The
-7 gives you an emblem that reduces all damage
to you or your planeswalkers to a maximum of one
per source which makes losing or destroying your
creatures extremely difficult, particularly if
life gain is a theme in the deck to go along
with the +1. Overall this Ajani is built
with planeswalker support in mind which is a
fairly narrow design space to work with, leaving
this as a card that is not likely to see much
play.
In Limited the +1 is by far the primary usage
for this Ajani as it puts a great deal of
pressure on the opponent with First Strike
attacks, life gain, and maintaining a defense
with just this and a single creature.
The -2 is very situational, but with two or more
creatures in play can sometimes be more useful
than the +1. The -7 is powerful, though
focus on the +1 should make using it both
redundant and a loss of a tempo. An
excellent first pick in Booster or Sealed and
with only a single White in the casting cost it
is easy to splash or run as a secondary color.
The latest incarnation of Ajani fits right in
line with what white decks like to do. Giving
one creature +1/+1, first strike, vigilance, and
lifelink is a pretty impressive ability. The
vigilance will often be the most important as it
allows you to attack and still have someone back
to block and help protect Ajani and build him up
towards his ultimate. If you get him there and
can pull of the ultimate, it gives you an emblem
that's a throwback to a classic card: Forcefield.
With it in play, your opponent has a very hard
job ahead of them to take your life total down,
especially since you've been building up your
life total by giving someone lifelink.
But Ajani also gives you other possible
strategies with his -2. If you're playing a
weenie rush deck, putting a +1/+1 on everything
- possibly twice - could be just the extra boost
you need to run over your opponent before they
knew what hit them. Or, in a superfriends (lots
of planeswalkers) deck, you might combine this
with The Chain Veil and get your walkers up to
ultimate in record time.
