David Fanany
Player since
1995 |
Gideon Jura
Despite his prominence in current Standard sets,
I'm not surprised they included the original
Gideon Jura card as part of the new Archenemy
decks. It's still iconic and it's still the
first one I think of when his name comes up. For
those of you into RPG video games, he plays very
much like the Sentinel role in Final Fantasy
XIII, drawing enemy attacks and delivering
devastating counterblows. Since he goes up to
eight loyalty the very first time he forces an
attack, there are few creatures that can
threaten him alone and fewer than you might
expect that can threaten him in reasonable
numbers, and it gives you a very open chance to
get rid of them between his -2 and spells like
Excoriate. He's clearly at his best when facing
creature decks, as a lot of control opponents
have a way to try and address 6/6 creatures
anyway, but that's still a threat they have to
address, and his -2 might make them reluctant to
attack with one of their late-game creatures.
Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 5/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
EDH/Commander: 4/5 |
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James H. |
Before Gideon became the
face of white Magic, he was a pretty unique
planeswalker back in
Rise of the Eldrazi. Unlike the
other planeswalkers, he didn't have a
conventional ultimate; his ultimate, which cost
zero loyalty, animated him into a 6/6 creature
to bash faces in! Gideon Jura was a potent
finisher in decks because of the relative dearth
of answers to planeswalkers, especially back in
the
Rise of the Eldrazi-era. Six loyalty also meant that it
wasn't easy to take Gideon down on an enemy's
turn.
His other two abilities are
also pretty good; his -2 is the “Royal Assassin"
kill ability, which always is a nice way to
dispose of a pesky attacker. His +2 is a bit
more interesting: it forces your opponent to
swing at Gideon with all their available
creatures. This easily can be taken advantage
of: you can force them to swing their entire
army out, letting you counter-strike for the
win, or you can make them run into your waiting
army of blockers. Ideally, he's more than a
five-mana Fog, but he can serve as that in a
pinch.
The only issue is that
Gideon's mana cost is the "dead zone" cost; five
mana planeswalkers are typically the red-headed
stepchildren, weaker than their cheaper
counterparts (because of their cost) and lacking
the power of the six-mana walkers. He's probably
one of the best five mana planeswalkers, though,
and he can acquit himself rather nicely.
Constructed: 3.75
Casual: 5
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander: 3.75
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