Venser, the Sojourner is my favorite card, because it speaks to me from multiple angles.
First and foremost, I love blink effects. Something as small as a blink can change the way a lot of things operate, by repeating enter-the-battlefield triggers, rescuing your mind-controlled or perpetually-tapped creature or other permanent, or even just giving something pseudo-vigilance. Or, perhaps in a cube, you can do something nasty like blink a wincon and proceed with a wrath - or even nastier, an Upheaval - and continue onward uncontested. It's a lot of versatility, making Venser's first ability elegant, even though it's incredibly simple.
Venser's second ability is perhaps a bit confusing to a control deck trying to abuse his +2 with the likes of Wall of Omens or Mulldrifter; why would you ever use this ability? I always believed this is because Venser was designed for the BantPod deck when it was standard legal, a midrange monstrosity that abused etb triggers and eventually amassing a huge board. With Venser, you can build up advantages until you can simply overwhelm your opponent; a -1 with "Creatures are unblockable this turn" could just as well read "win the game" in the right deck. I enjoy cube, and find Venser doesn't need to use this ability to be good, but having the option allows him to fit in more decks than many other planeswalkers who don't have as straightforward abilities as "Draw a bunch of Cards". For this reason I think he trumps most other guys outside the Lorwyn 5. Both the +2 and -1 can work together, but they don't need to.
Venser's ultimate is incredibly powerful - a little wonky, to be sure, but powerful. Spells giving you free, colorless exiles is exceptionally good, and cantrips like Preordain suddenly become incredibly valuable. If you have a Batterskull on the table, you're in amazing shape. And this isn't an ultimate that takes forever to get to, either.
Venser is far from the best card, or even best planeswalker in MTG. But, all three of his abilities are potentially powerful, which lead to enjoyable experiences every time I play it. Because Venser's abilities require a little bit of planning, I find that deck construction with him becomes quite interesting; some already good cards gain additional value, some strategies suddenly have an entirely new angle when he hits the field. Being able to think ahead and see real benefits of that planning make playing the card a very rewarding experience.
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- Blue_Oneironaut
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So now that we'd got Eye of Vecna and Hand of Vecna, I can't wait for Head of Vecna.
Yeah, that discard choice is something worth considering. I don't think it's enough, but maybe.
I don't like it as much as Remorseful Cleric, because I think that card gives more tools to the aggro deck, than this card's various synergies affords any of those other decks (and I think +1/+0 equipment isn't affording much at all). I would prefer aggro have a solid gy exile above this.
Sorry about that. I should maybe learn how to play this game sometime
I see. My mistake. Thanks for the correction, everyone.
Yeah you guys are on-point lmao
What I like about the ability:
-you can thwart early aggro pushes at card parity, just like pyrokinesis
-you can clear token blockers, or kill a single tough blocker like Brimaz
-you can kill low-loyalty PWs, something pyrokinesis could never do.
-like the rest of the cycle, the evoke is 0 mana, so you can cast this and a haste dude like Hellrider in the same turn and go to town.
What I like about casting creature mode:
-Should be a 2-for-1 or better. As much as the 3/3 doublestrike body absolutely disgusts me, it's capable of killing aggro creatures coming your way, and 6 damage isn't something a control deck can ignore for too long either.
What I dislike about the ability:
-There are flat-out bad targets. If you even think about evoking this to clear a Wall of Omens to push through damage, you're down approximately a billion cards. To avoid this, you'd want the creature mode, and I feel like 5 mana is a bit much for this kind of removal, particularly because you also won't get enough damage to deal with Baneslayer, Thundermaw, or Polukranos either. My bias here is that it feels miserable next to Solitude, which can remove a Goblin Guide or a Blightsteel Colossus. This can...kill multiple x/1s and other junk, but nothing big. But does that necessarily make Fury bad? I don't know, but my gut says yes. Honestly, even +1 damage might have made me feel quite a bit better.
-PW targets can already be killed by haste flyers, as already argued by asmallcat. Rebuttal that these creatures die to spot removal is not highly persuasive to me. If people can hold open a Hero's Downfall to kill my Thundermaw, I feel like that deck probably only had about 2 relevant targets for Fury's burn anyway, making this IMO a very marginal opportunity for greater value than the alternatives.
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MUST find a target; Solitude and even Subtlety avoid self-targeting, Grief and Endurance don't really care, but Fury cannot be played onto an empty field.Apparently you can choose zero targets, which I was entirely oblivious to-Not instant speed
I don't feel bad about it not going face, because I think that would have probably opened a huge can of worms. But, I feel that given its restrictions it could have been meaningfully boosted for damage without becoming ridiculous. That, or something else. I dunno. At the moment, this is a card I could reasonably include in my list, but I'll probably just scowl whenever I see it because I just simply hate it.