Jerren, Corrupted Bishop – Midnight Hunt
Date Reviewed: September 29, 2021
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.00
Casual: 4.00
Limited: 3.75
Multiplayer: 3.00
Commander [EDH]: 3.25
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
David
Fanany
Player
since
1995
Like Tovolar from last week, Ormendahl is a character who’s been referenced in past Innistrad cards but never appeared on a card of his own until now. Getting him onto the field requires some finesse and indeed can become a minigame all to itself, but fortunately his servant Jerren has all the tools you need to complete it. Keeping him alive for long enough to do it with just his own abilities will sometimes be a challenge, but he’ll also make your opponents think with every attack they make and damage spell they fling: what can you do to follow up that brings Ormendahl closer? Even if you don’t get to transform the card, repeatedly granting humans lifelink is pretty dangerous in a different way.
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Commander: 3/5
Can’t keep a good demon down, it turns out. Returning from a brief campaign of carnage in Shadows over Innistrad as the backside of Westvale Abbey, the favorite demon of the Skirsdag cult, Ormendahl, is back. But this time with the help of a friend who desires to sacrifice at the altar of his demonic friend.
Jerren, Corrupted Bishop is interesting as a sort of roundabout Human support card, replacing humans as they die and letting them drain for life. All the life manipulation matters for his passive trigger, though: six mana, if you’re at exactly 13 life, unfetters Ormendahl, a pretty potent sacrifice outlet and card draw engine. The main issue is the life total manipulation to get to transform is definitely fiddly; Ormendahl is powerful, but he does need to survive a full turn before swooping. Moonmist is an option to cheat on the transformation, which would be quite a nasty combo to pull off, but that also might be harder to finagle in formats.
On his own merits, Jerren is a neat little value engine with a looming threat waiting on the back. Even if he never flips, lifelink and a replacing army of blockers is nothing to sneeze at, and his demonic deity is a nice way to end the game. I think he’s more cute than good, but if you can manipulate your life total readily, cute has room to be lethal.
Constructed: 3
Casual: 4
Limited: 4.5 (if you draft around humans, he’ll pull his weight)
Multiplayer: 3
Commander: 3.5
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