Funny, I'd say it's win less rather than win more.
Super hard to evaluate this card, it's very niche as the previous 3-cmc walkers we got recently (Sarkhan and Jace). It could fit either in Legacy Stoneblade, or Modern Thopter Sword, or in standard aggro decks.
Definitely a very interesting design, I like it no matter how bad it could end up being. It indeed reminds me of Gideon Champ of Justice too, and man that card was bad.
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Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
As noted, he _loves_ Afterlife and similar cards. Which pulls him towards Esper... which IMO fits the card perfectly.
There is also a reallllly interesting interplay between his first and second abilities. Let's assume you play this t3 after no t1 play and a bear t2. (Seems like a fair cop.)
The 'safe' approach if you can attack with your bear is +1. That brings him to 5 loyalty and maybe at that point you can start putting out the Thopters.
However, if you have blockers but not necessarily profitable attackers, you can start using the -1 ability immediately. If you can't get rid of them, each -1 he uses early is another +1 whenever he uses his first ability.
So, IF you are in a ground stall, then it is ALWAYS better long-term to make Thopters earlier rather than later, because it 'pays off' faster.
As one example--again assuming no profitable ground attacks and no flyers--you could in your first three turns use +1, +1, -1, and you will be at 4 loyalty and have one thopter. Or in your first two turns you could use his -1 and then his +1, which lands you at... 4 loyalty and one thopter. And it took you one less turn to do that. And that relationship is maintained at all levels. Any (+1 / +1 / -1) sequence can be replaced with a (-1 / +1) sequence and save a turn.
Looks decent in WU flyers. Breya players will love it too.
Derevi too. Makes tokens and benefits from all those tokens damaging opponents. (As does Derevi.)
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Funny, I'd say it's win less rather than win more.
If joking: I'm not sure I get it.
If serious: he benefits when you already have creatures getting through to the dome (without boosting them, making them easier to swing with, etc) and doesn't actually win the game on his own (well, he makes Thopters, but I'm not sure how commonly Dovin will be game ending on his own). He isn't lacking in power or potential, but he's at his best when you're already on the way to a win. I can't speak to competitive (I play strictly casual), but he helps you refill your hand more quickly when you're already winning. That can be valuable, but it just feels win more to me.
Make sense story wise, as Dovin taking a more aggressive approach on keeping up the law and order. Works wonderfully in a token deck, especially with thopters.
This is a pretty good card. White can go wide pretty easily, but even if Dovin is by his lonesome he can get a little life and then can start ramping up.
This is much better than his other version, which was crowded out by a bunch of other four-mana planeswalkers.
Additionally, if MTG Arena does, indeed, form its own version of Modern then you can get to play with a sweet Esper iteration with Lingering Souls (as stated previously) or so on.
Enjoy.
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The "Crazy One", playing casual magic and occasionally dipping his toes into regular play since 1994.
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.
He's interesting. My Bant Superfriends EDH deck probably can't use him, but I do like his design. He's unique for WU but still feels at home in it while also feeling very Dovin and very different from other WU 'walkers.
He does feel very win more, though. Interesting and not lacking for potential, but win more.
Who is your General?
Thrasios and Ishai. They don't support the theme, but they're both useful depending on what I'm up against so I treat them like a mini 'sideboard'.
It comes down to if this card is good enough if you just -1 it 3 times.
Thats 3 x 1/1 flyer and 3 life.
If you found another copy by then, you keep cranking out tokens and that alone should win the game, if your other means of controlling the board ensure you dont die.
Cards not particularly great, but its 3 mana to get flying tokens, which can totally be enough to see play in standard, even if its not incredible at all.
This might be the cheap UW legendary that UW Historic has needed to find its niche. It slots perfectly into the curve, increases the count of legends for Urza's Ruinous Blast, and requires you to jump through far fewer hoops than Sai, Master Thopterist.
an aggressive WU o.O rather odd. His Ult is meh anyways its a better Dig Through Time that you have to wait 5 turns at minimum to trigger.
At minimum? Really? He starts at 3 Loyalty and his ultimate is 7, no? That means if you have a 2/2 that can attack each turn, he ultimates two turns after playing him. I'm not saying that's all that likely, but it's certainly better than 5 turns.
As a planeswalker card, I like this. Very cool design. Pretty unusual for UW while still fitting in the color pair.
As an Azorius planeswalker card... Ehhh. It really doesn't fit with the guild at all versus the other Bolas-guild-walkers we've seen so far who fit pretty well with theirs. I'm sure that you could find some story hoops to jump through to have this be in-flavor but if you took off the name and mana cost and asked me which guild walker has these abilities I definitely wouldn't guess Azorius.
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"Pop in, find a dragon, roast a dragon."
-Chandra Nalaar
As a planeswalker card, I like this. Very cool design. Pretty unusual for UW while still fitting in the color pair.
As an Azorius planeswalker card... Ehhh. It really doesn't fit with the guild at all versus the other Bolas-guild-walkers we've seen so far who fit pretty well with theirs. I'm sure that you could find some story hoops to jump through to have this be in-flavor but if you took off the name and mana cost and asked me which guild walker has these abilities I definitely wouldn't guess Azorius.
Because three out of five of Bolas's stooges are attached to their guilds.
Ral is an Izzet weather mage.
Vraska is a Gorgon who lives in the Golgari tunnels.
Domri is a punk kid born to a Gruul clan.
Kaya's doing the opposite of what the Orzhov do, she's eliminating ghosts instead of putting them to work. But she's also a Ghost Assassin, not a necromancer. And Dovin isn't an Azorius lawmage, he's a Kaladeshian artificer. So he's creating an aggressive spying network. The thing the Kaladeshi government loves. So he wants to be in a WU flyers deck, which I'm sure his Azorius guild will have the tools to make work (in set, as Dovin will make flying things a priority).
As a planeswalker card, I like this. Very cool design. Pretty unusual for UW while still fitting in the color pair.
As an Azorius planeswalker card... Ehhh. It really doesn't fit with the guild at all versus the other Bolas-guild-walkers we've seen so far who fit pretty well with theirs. I'm sure that you could find some story hoops to jump through to have this be in-flavor but if you took off the name and mana cost and asked me which guild walker has these abilities I definitely wouldn't guess Azorius.
Because three out of five of Bolas's stooges are attached to their guilds.
Ral is an Izzet weather mage.
Vraska is a Gorgon who lives in the Golgari tunnels.
Domri is a punk kid born to a Gruul clan.
Kaya's doing the opposite of what the Orzhov do, she's eliminating ghosts instead of putting them to work. But she's also a Ghost Assassin, not a necromancer. And Dovin isn't an Azorius lawmage, he's a Kaladeshian artificer. So he's creating an aggressive spying network. The thing the Kaladeshi government loves. So he wants to be in a WU flyers deck, which I'm sure his Azorius guild will have the tools to make work (in set, as Dovin will make flying things a priority).
Small note Dovin isn't artificer per say but an inspector. He has the magic gift of looking at stuff and finding its flaws.He would go around on Kaladesh and find the weaknesses of artifacts and now to improve them.
I'm guessing because of Teferi, Dovin had to find a new design.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I'm just imagining some kinda UW Artifact Superfriends kind of deck. Throw in a few Karns, Tezzes, and Sais and we've got ourselves a party. Someone earlier suggest running Urza's Ruinous Blast in this and I agree. Overall, great design and something different.
Greetings, UW players, this is Prof. Mardu. Welcome to Tempo 101. I know you weren't expecting to have to take this class to graduate. The first lesson is that if your engine doesn't come down on time, it might as well not come down at all. The second lesson is that if your engine isn't also a threat, your engine stinks. The third lesson is that the tempo cemetery is full of shattered hopes and broken dreams.
If serious: he benefits when you already have creatures getting through to the dome (without boosting them, making them easier to swing with, etc) and doesn't actually win the game on his own (well, he makes Thopters, but I'm not sure how commonly Dovin will be game ending on his own). He isn't lacking in power or potential, but he's at his best when you're already on the way to a win. I can't speak to competitive (I play strictly casual), but he helps you refill your hand more quickly when you're already winning. That can be valuable, but it just feels win more to me.
I feel like a "winmore" card is a card that wins thanks to a board that already wins anyway. Dovin doesn't do that :
1- it's not because you ultimate and win with it that your board presence was enough to win, in opposition to what you think. In standard you can be attacking in the early turns, then you get stone-walled by a Drake or a million tokens, and you need to find an answer to a losing position : the ultimate helps with that.
2- its other abilities support a specific strategy and are quite fair.
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Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
I'm actually pretty salty about how Wedge handled this card.
A few days ago, he referred to this card as "The BEST #MTGRNA exclusive preview card ever in the world ever"
Then earlier today, a bit before the spoiler reveal, he refers to this card as "LITERALLY THE MOST IMPORTANT PREVIEW WE'VE EVER GOTTEN!"
It's awful how much he hyped this card and how it flat out totally underdelivered. I'm not going to call this card downright atrocious, but he's acting like it's Assassin's Trophy level good or the reprint of OG Counterspell for Standard and Modern. It's hard to take the guy seriously at all, especially when he's gotten preview cards much better than this one.
Or am I flat out wrong here? Will this be a powerhouse? I just don't see it right now. You need to attack with 3 creatures to get it to its ultimate loyalty, 4 creatures to be able to ult and keep it alive, then you have to wait a whole turn before you can even ultimate. And it's in colors that you really don't associate aggro beatdown with, and its ultimate is more of a control/tempo play. I just don't get this. And there are some people who seem to think it's really great.
Super hard to evaluate this card, it's very niche as the previous 3-cmc walkers we got recently (Sarkhan and Jace). It could fit either in Legacy Stoneblade, or Modern Thopter Sword, or in standard aggro decks.
Definitely a very interesting design, I like it no matter how bad it could end up being. It indeed reminds me of Gideon Champ of Justice too, and man that card was bad.
WenSon: Yes, it's for each creature.
As noted, he _loves_ Afterlife and similar cards. Which pulls him towards Esper... which IMO fits the card perfectly.
There is also a reallllly interesting interplay between his first and second abilities. Let's assume you play this t3 after no t1 play and a bear t2. (Seems like a fair cop.)
The 'safe' approach if you can attack with your bear is +1. That brings him to 5 loyalty and maybe at that point you can start putting out the Thopters.
However, if you have blockers but not necessarily profitable attackers, you can start using the -1 ability immediately. If you can't get rid of them, each -1 he uses early is another +1 whenever he uses his first ability.
So, IF you are in a ground stall, then it is ALWAYS better long-term to make Thopters earlier rather than later, because it 'pays off' faster.
As one example--again assuming no profitable ground attacks and no flyers--you could in your first three turns use +1, +1, -1, and you will be at 4 loyalty and have one thopter. Or in your first two turns you could use his -1 and then his +1, which lands you at... 4 loyalty and one thopter. And it took you one less turn to do that. And that relationship is maintained at all levels. Any (+1 / +1 / -1) sequence can be replaced with a (-1 / +1) sequence and save a turn.
Derevi too. Makes tokens and benefits from all those tokens damaging opponents. (As does Derevi.)
On phasing:
If joking: I'm not sure I get it.
If serious: he benefits when you already have creatures getting through to the dome (without boosting them, making them easier to swing with, etc) and doesn't actually win the game on his own (well, he makes Thopters, but I'm not sure how commonly Dovin will be game ending on his own). He isn't lacking in power or potential, but he's at his best when you're already on the way to a win. I can't speak to competitive (I play strictly casual), but he helps you refill your hand more quickly when you're already winning. That can be valuable, but it just feels win more to me.
Archatmos
Excellion
Fracture: Israfiel (WBR), Wujal (URG), Valedon (GUB), Amduat (BGW), Paladris (RWU)
Collision (Set Two of the Fracture Block)
Quest for the Forsaken (Set Two of the Excellion Block)
Katingal: Plane of Chains
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
This is much better than his other version, which was crowded out by a bunch of other four-mana planeswalkers.
Additionally, if MTG Arena does, indeed, form its own version of Modern then you can get to play with a sweet Esper iteration with Lingering Souls (as stated previously) or so on.
Enjoy.
Currently focusing on Pre-Modern (Mono-Black Discard Control) and Modern (Azorious Control, Temur Rhinos).
Find me at the Wizard's Tower in Ottawa every second Saturday afternoons.
Thrasios and Ishai. They don't support the theme, but they're both useful depending on what I'm up against so I treat them like a mini 'sideboard'.
Archatmos
Excellion
Fracture: Israfiel (WBR), Wujal (URG), Valedon (GUB), Amduat (BGW), Paladris (RWU)
Collision (Set Two of the Fracture Block)
Quest for the Forsaken (Set Two of the Excellion Block)
Katingal: Plane of Chains
Thats 3 x 1/1 flyer and 3 life.
If you found another copy by then, you keep cranking out tokens and that alone should win the game, if your other means of controlling the board ensure you dont die.
Cards not particularly great, but its 3 mana to get flying tokens, which can totally be enough to see play in standard, even if its not incredible at all.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
At minimum? Really? He starts at 3 Loyalty and his ultimate is 7, no? That means if you have a 2/2 that can attack each turn, he ultimates two turns after playing him. I'm not saying that's all that likely, but it's certainly better than 5 turns.
Have you read his +1 or what? 5 turns? if you flood out super badly, I guess...
As a planeswalker card, I like this. Very cool design. Pretty unusual for UW while still fitting in the color pair.
As an Azorius planeswalker card... Ehhh. It really doesn't fit with the guild at all versus the other Bolas-guild-walkers we've seen so far who fit pretty well with theirs. I'm sure that you could find some story hoops to jump through to have this be in-flavor but if you took off the name and mana cost and asked me which guild walker has these abilities I definitely wouldn't guess Azorius.
-Chandra Nalaar
Ral is an Izzet weather mage.
Vraska is a Gorgon who lives in the Golgari tunnels.
Domri is a punk kid born to a Gruul clan.
Kaya's doing the opposite of what the Orzhov do, she's eliminating ghosts instead of putting them to work. But she's also a Ghost Assassin, not a necromancer. And Dovin isn't an Azorius lawmage, he's a Kaladeshian artificer. So he's creating an aggressive spying network. The thing the Kaladeshi government loves. So he wants to be in a WU flyers deck, which I'm sure his Azorius guild will have the tools to make work (in set, as Dovin will make flying things a priority).
Small note Dovin isn't artificer per say but an inspector. He has the magic gift of looking at stuff and finding its flaws.He would go around on Kaladesh and find the weaknesses of artifacts and now to improve them.
I'm guessing because of Teferi, Dovin had to find a new design.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Evaluate accordingly!
I feel like a "winmore" card is a card that wins thanks to a board that already wins anyway. Dovin doesn't do that :
1- it's not because you ultimate and win with it that your board presence was enough to win, in opposition to what you think. In standard you can be attacking in the early turns, then you get stone-walled by a Drake or a million tokens, and you need to find an answer to a losing position : the ultimate helps with that.
2- its other abilities support a specific strategy and are quite fair.
A few days ago, he referred to this card as "The BEST #MTGRNA exclusive preview card ever in the world ever"
Then earlier today, a bit before the spoiler reveal, he refers to this card as "LITERALLY THE MOST IMPORTANT PREVIEW WE'VE EVER GOTTEN!"
It's awful how much he hyped this card and how it flat out totally underdelivered. I'm not going to call this card downright atrocious, but he's acting like it's Assassin's Trophy level good or the reprint of OG Counterspell for Standard and Modern. It's hard to take the guy seriously at all, especially when he's gotten preview cards much better than this one.
Or am I flat out wrong here? Will this be a powerhouse? I just don't see it right now. You need to attack with 3 creatures to get it to its ultimate loyalty, 4 creatures to be able to ult and keep it alive, then you have to wait a whole turn before you can even ultimate. And it's in colors that you really don't associate aggro beatdown with, and its ultimate is more of a control/tempo play. I just don't get this. And there are some people who seem to think it's really great.
Both Azorius and Orzhov are Bolas-aligned so that is a cool flavour-win. Good call!