Venser The Sojonor
+2: Exile target permanent you own. Return it to the battlefield at the beginning of the next end step.
-4?: Creatures are unblockable this turn.
-8?: You gain an emblem with "Whenever you cast a spell, exile target permanent."
3
And in other news, I need 4, tomorrow. Seriously, cost is no object for me on him. Shame MTGO dealers don't do preorders.
Jesus, this is going to be a long wait until mid-October now.
I loved Venser as a character before, and blink with my ETB heavy U/ build is just going to make it simply ludicrous.
Ezuri's Brigade 2GG
Creature - Elf Warrior (rare) Metalcraft - As long as you control three or more artifacts, Ezuri's Brigade gets +4/+4 and has trample. Riding ravenous, ever-growing vorracs is almost as dangerous as fitting them with saddles.
4/4
Venser seems nuts, AND he is a natural curve after Jace. Better than Gideon I think, or least played alongside. Just thinking of the blinking possibilities. Wall of Omens, Sea-Gate Oracle, Aether Adept, Titans, etc. Plus really any U/W Permanent with a good CiP ability. Halimar Depths, Sejiri Refuge, lots of options here.
The only issue I see with venser is it isnt a MAY ability... you may end up exiling your own land if you cant kill your opponent fast enough. Which then turns into a "stalled game"
I'll laugh if I ever see Venser's ultimate go off in a competitive Standard match. With the exception with Garruk, Sarkhan the Mad, and Gideon, it's rare to see a planeswalker's ultimate ever go off in a game. I'm talking about the first two abilities. They don't seem to fit in with the type of archetypes U/W generally ends up with. I suppose we'll see, but I don't think Venser's going to be hitting Jace, the Mindsculptor or Gideon Jura levels.
EDIT: Interesting how Venser can exile himself. That could be pretty amusing, actually. Basically useless, but interesting.
I'd like to introduce you to someone. His name is Wall of Omens. Say hi, Wall of Omens!
So, Wall of Omens, how do you think you're going to affect standard? What's that, you say? You're going to slot right into an already-established UW Control archetype, and improve the deck's matchup against Jund significantly? Wow, bold words there Wall of Omens.
Steel Hellkite: Pretty neat card. Destroys planeswalkers without having to attack them.
Clone Shell: Boring, but nice to see Imprint return.
Venser, the Sojourner: Absolutely nuts. As planeswalker abilities are free, this leaves your mana open to obliterate your opponents board with spells after going ultimate with Venser. Wow - I love it.
Memnite: Neat. I like it a lot, actually.
Ezuri's Brigade: Nothing to write home about. Metalcraft is boring but makes sense.
Darksteel Axe: Pretty cool, I must say. Gets the job done for one mana.
Ichor Rats: Poison isn't terribly exciting to me, but these are the types of cards are going to needed for poison to be competitive.
Venser is underwhelming. I hope we get some good EtB permanents if it is to be abused, and even then they need to be very good permanents. The ultimate isn't that impacting and the -1 sucks for the sort of the deck he would go.
Steel Hellkite is one of those cards that are cool but that really have no home. Having to connect kills it.
Ezuri's Brigade is interesting, though. If artifact lands are back it might see play. 8/8 trample for 2GG? If not, it is doomed to remain behind Vengevine and Baloth.
And Memnite? It is WotC's finest trolling attempt until now.
I'll laugh if I ever see Venser's ultimate go off in a competitive Standard match. With the exception with Garruk, Sarkhan the Mad, and Gideon, it's rare to see a planeswalker's ultimate ever go off in a game. I'm talking about the first two abilities. They don't seem to fit in with the type of archetypes U/W generally ends up with. I suppose we'll see, but I don't think Venser's going to be hitting Jace, the Mindsculptor or Gideon Jura levels.
Better Image from the other Venser thread:
I did notice the +2 ability stated 'Target Permanent you own.' That's weird IMO.
And the UW shell can include this even just with the +2. Imagine this on turn 5, and on turn 6 you get out say Frost Titan. Then use this ability, your opponent just had 2 stuff tapped. WOW.
There are, I think, a few things that might keep Venser from getting crazy like Jace, or even Elspeth. Heavily played PW in the past have a few things in common he does not.
1.) The ability to protect themselves. Jace can Unsummon, Ajani can Helix, Elspeth has tokens, etc. Venser cannot actually protect himself, only blink your own Permanents and make your attackers better.
2.) He costs 5, and thus far 4 has been the magic number for high play PW. Sure a Gideon or a Sarkhan get through, but usually only as a 1-2 of and not 4 of like Jace or Elspeth.
For these reasons I think he will be a nice 1-2 of addition to UW, but not super expensive the way Jace or Elspeth were. I anticipate him being the price that Gideon currently is when things level out.
Another factor, and more subtle, is that in a world of Mana Leak tapping out for 5 or 6 cost spells is a bit more difficult as well.
I do love that Venser can reset himself. I don't know it will happen or be relevant, but from a floavor standpoint, it's cool that a Planeswalker can bounce himself. Using him to reset OTHER planeswalkers may happen too, but most likely he'll be used with Wall of Omens, Sea Gate Oracle, etc.
My gut reaction is that he'll presell for $25 each and drop to $15. But I also predicted Jace2 to be sitting at $10-$12 right now.
I'd like to introduce you to someone. His name is Wall of Omens. Say hi, Wall of Omens!
So, Wall of Omens, how do you think you're going to affect standard? What's that, you say? You're going to slot right into an already-established UW Control archetype, and improve the deck's matchup against Jund significantly? Wow, bold words there Wall of Omens.
Venser is at the perfect power level. His abilities are good when you focus on them, but he certainly is not broken.
That said, he is one of the best EDH Planeswalkers I have ever seen.
Note the first ability says 'you own', so you can blink stuff stolen by other players in EDH and get it back.
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There are, I think, a few things that might keep Venser from getting crazy like Jace, or even Elspeth. Heavily played PW in the past have a few things in common he does not.
1.) The ability to protect themselves. Jace can Unsummon, Ajani can Helix, Elspeth has tokens, etc. Venser cannot actually protect himself, only blink your own Permanents and make your attackers better.
2.) He costs 5, and thus far 4 has been the magic number for high play PW. Sure a Gideon or a Sarkhan get through, but usually only as a 1-2 of and not 4 of like Jace or Elspeth.
For these reasons I think he will be a nice 1-2 of addition to UW, but not super expensive the way Jace or Elspeth were. I anticipate him being the price that Gideon currently is when things level out.
Another factor, and more subtle, is that in a world of Mana Leak tapping out for 5 or 6 cost spells is a bit more difficult as well.
He can protect himself if you have creatures, by "giving them vigilance" with his blink ability.
That is a nice thing to note on +2 is that if "steal" effects get commonplace, you can go hogwild. (As some have theorized might exist as a Phyrexian thing - since they corrupt and send in sleeper agents)
Also a natural paring with "switcheroo effects" if any come in Scars.
Of course, got a weird rulings question - tokens that come from spells/effects you control are owned by you I'm 95% sure - but what about tokens from those oddball spells that give tokens to both players, who's considered the owner for cards like Venser in that case?
And as some others have noted above - he's certainly got his own defense - he's not really meant to be used like Elspeth where she sits on an empty field - he's meant to be a "general" of a field of critters, quite obviously.
PS - Charlequin, are you like me and the only thing you could want to make him "perfect" would be to be able to use his +2 as an instant? (Please, please, please let there be a Scars artifact for something like 2 with a 1 and tap ability to use target PW's ability as an instant this turn)
For competitive play, it's just about perfect for flavor, power level, and usefulness.
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Anthony Lowry, Article Writer for Manashift.
Your #1 source for New York City Magic!
Twitter: @Aufam
Complaining about card prices accomplishes nothing. Read some Medina articles, learn to trade better, don’t act like the only way to do ANYTHING in this game is to price out decks and buy every single you ever need.
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And in other news, I need 4, tomorrow. Seriously, cost is no object for me on him. Shame MTGO dealers don't do preorders.
Jesus, this is going to be a long wait until mid-October now.
I loved Venser as a character before, and blink with my ETB heavy U/ build is just going to make it simply ludicrous.
Re: People misusing the term Vanilla to describe a flying, unleash (sometimes trample) critter.
Should be fixed now.
Currently playing:
T2
BW Aggro-Midrange BW
Ezuri's Brigade 2GG
Creature - Elf Warrior (rare)
Metalcraft - As long as you control three or more artifacts, Ezuri's Brigade gets +4/+4 and has trample.
Riding ravenous, ever-growing vorracs is almost as dangerous as fitting them with saddles.
4/4
Casual Commander player.
Check this Magic Shop to buy singles and cards online in Europe!
I'll laugh if I ever see Venser's ultimate go off in a competitive Standard match. With the exception with Garruk, Sarkhan the Mad, and Gideon, it's rare to see a planeswalker's ultimate ever go off in a game. I'm talking about the first two abilities. They don't seem to fit in with the type of archetypes U/W generally ends up with. I suppose we'll see, but I don't think Venser's going to be hitting Jace, the Mindsculptor or Gideon Jura levels.
EDIT: Interesting how Venser can exile himself. That could be pretty amusing, actually. Basically useless, but interesting.
Altered Art Cards! | Commissions currently Closed
Ichor Rats:
Clone Shell: Boring, but nice to see Imprint return.
Venser, the Sojourner: Absolutely nuts. As planeswalker abilities are free, this leaves your mana open to obliterate your opponents board with spells after going ultimate with Venser. Wow - I love it.
Memnite: Neat. I like it a lot, actually.
Ezuri's Brigade: Nothing to write home about. Metalcraft is boring but makes sense.
Darksteel Axe: Pretty cool, I must say. Gets the job done for one mana.
Ichor Rats: Poison isn't terribly exciting to me, but these are the types of cards are going to needed for poison to be competitive.
Did I mention how amazing Venser was?
Steel Hellkite is one of those cards that are cool but that really have no home. Having to connect kills it.
Ezuri's Brigade is interesting, though. If artifact lands are back it might see play. 8/8 trample for 2GG? If not, it is doomed to remain behind Vengevine and Baloth.
And Memnite? It is WotC's finest trolling attempt until now.
I did notice the +2 ability stated 'Target Permanent you own.' That's weird IMO.
And the UW shell can include this even just with the +2. Imagine this on turn 5, and on turn 6 you get out say Frost Titan. Then use this ability, your opponent just had 2 stuff tapped. WOW.
So looking forward to SoM.
Currently playing:
T2
BW Aggro-Midrange BW
1.) The ability to protect themselves. Jace can Unsummon, Ajani can Helix, Elspeth has tokens, etc. Venser cannot actually protect himself, only blink your own Permanents and make your attackers better.
2.) He costs 5, and thus far 4 has been the magic number for high play PW. Sure a Gideon or a Sarkhan get through, but usually only as a 1-2 of and not 4 of like Jace or Elspeth.
For these reasons I think he will be a nice 1-2 of addition to UW, but not super expensive the way Jace or Elspeth were. I anticipate him being the price that Gideon currently is when things level out.
Another factor, and more subtle, is that in a world of Mana Leak tapping out for 5 or 6 cost spells is a bit more difficult as well.
Everyone is going to call me a bandwagon-jumping power gamer for this, but Venser is like my favorite planeswalker ever.
Ichor Rats is pretty good too. It's a quick way to start up a proliferate clock.
Altered Art Cards! | Commissions currently Closed
My gut reaction is that he'll presell for $25 each and drop to $15. But I also predicted Jace2 to be sitting at $10-$12 right now.
WUBRGPauper Battle BoxWUBRG ... and why I am not a fan of Wayne Reynolds' Illustrations.
That said, he is one of the best EDH Planeswalkers I have ever seen.
Note the first ability says 'you own', so you can blink stuff stolen by other players in EDH and get it back.
Twitter
I have to agree with this statement, that being because he's U/W. Now I can build the Planeswalker EDH deck I wanted.
On posting Garruk of the Wild
He can protect himself if you have creatures, by "giving them vigilance" with his blink ability.
Also a natural paring with "switcheroo effects" if any come in Scars.
Of course, got a weird rulings question - tokens that come from spells/effects you control are owned by you I'm 95% sure - but what about tokens from those oddball spells that give tokens to both players, who's considered the owner for cards like Venser in that case?
And as some others have noted above - he's certainly got his own defense - he's not really meant to be used like Elspeth where she sits on an empty field - he's meant to be a "general" of a field of critters, quite obviously.
PS - Charlequin, are you like me and the only thing you could want to make him "perfect" would be to be able to use his +2 as an instant? (Please, please, please let there be a Scars artifact for something like 2 with a 1 and tap ability to use target PW's ability as an instant this turn)
Re: People misusing the term Vanilla to describe a flying, unleash (sometimes trample) critter.
For competitive play, it's just about perfect for flavor, power level, and usefulness.
Anthony Lowry, Article Writer for Manashift.
Your #1 source for New York City Magic!
Twitter: @Aufam