Dovin Baan is more or less the template of a
defensive card in his colors, although what
really caught my eye at first was the fact that
his ultimate is a variant of Stasis. It's been
what, more than a decade since the last such
variant? While you have to wait an awfully long
time for it, there will be occasions when a game
goes long and it'll lock out someone's mana base
for long enough that you can close things out. I
think the more common use for him will be his -1
ability: his mana cost means that the effects
will come at just the time when defensive decks
start to be seriously threatened by aggressive
strategies, and have the most need for both time
and extra cards.
There’s something a bit poetic about a Vedalken
being the Card of the Day on Election Day here
in the US, but that's an entirely different
affair. The third Azorius/Ojutai-colored
planeswalker, Dovin does pretty much all the
things you’d expect his character to do.
His ultimate is very awesome, but it's also a
very unlikely one to go off; his -1 is more
impactful immediately, and he’d need to be using
his +1 for 4 turns before you can Static Orb
your opponents.
That means he relies on his other abilities…and,
thankfully, both of those are pretty decent. His
+1 helps protect himself, and it's very useful
if your opponents only have one creature (or one
substantial creature) out, especially if it does
irritating things on its own (though, sadly,
it's pretty ineffective against Vehicles). His
-1 is simple card advantage, an inverse
Phyrexian Arena; paying 4 mana to gain 6 and
draw 3 over 3 turns, while not the flashiest
effect, is pretty decent.
I don't think Dovin Baan will be a constructed
all-star; his effects are not bad, but they're
more incremental advantage than bombastic
board-changing effect. He’ll have a home,
though, and he's worth considering in a control
shell.
