Nothing wrong with a 2/2 lifelinker for two.
It's good to attack with, since you get 2 life
either way, and it's good to leave up to block,
since your opponent doesn't want to attack if he
won't get in for damage and you'll end up
gaining instead of losing. It's on-curve, too,
so it's good in an aggressive deck, and it's
still good in slower lifegain decks, since this
encourages them to attack more often. Not much
more to say than that, really-- if you're
monowhite, you want a card like this.
I'll let you in on a little secret: I liked the
Lorwyn block's art style. Perhaps that puts me
in the minority, I know, but it's a fact. As
such, the first thing I thought of when I saw
this card was Knight of Meadowgrain, and how the
Sunstriker is "strictly worse" except for being
a cat, but the other card is a Knight, but this
one is also a Cleric, and then I remembered that
there are proverbs in many languages warning you
about doing exactly that thing I just did. So
let's cut straight to this card's actual point:
two mana. 2/2. Lifelink. Sound good to you? It
sounds pretty good to me.
Today's card of the day is Ajani's Sunstriker
which is a two mana White
2/2 with Lifelink. The double White keeps
this from being particularly useful in
multicolor decks, though just being a 2/2
Lifelink isn't compelling enough for most
competitive builds anyway. The cat/cleric
types have some benefit, but overall there are
better cards for the two mana slot in mono-White
builds.
In Limited the double White is a noticeable
drawback whenever running multiple colors and
the 2/2 for two is only mediocre at best.
On color it is an alright choice for Sealed when
filling the deck and lacking lower cost
creatures and is a playable choice later in the
pack for Booster when running White.
Welcome to
a new week of card of the day reviews here at
Pojo.com! Today we begin our week looking at
Ajani’s Sunstriker from M13. Ajani’s Sunstriker
is a common white creature cat cleric that costs
two white mana and is a 2/2. Ajani’s Sunstriker
has lifelink.
The newer face of Magic is all about
getting you mana’s worth, and with Ajani’s
Sunstriker that is exactly what you get, and
then some! For just two white mana, you get a
2/2 lifelink which means you will be quickly
building up your life total while chipping away
at your opponents. The other perk of “new Magic”
is that if a card bears a planeswalkers name, it
usually means that it combos very well with that
planeswalker. And that holds very true with
Ajani’s Sunstriker. When used with the Ajani,
Caller of the Pride, you could gain a 3/3
lifelink on turn three, or hit for four damage
and gain four life on turn three with the
Ajani’s Sunstriker having been given flying and
double-strike. And of course, the more you boost
the Sunstriker with Ajani’s first ability, the
more potent his final will be, gaining you even
more 2/2 cats. With the older Ajani Goldmane,
you’d be able to put a +1/+1 counter on the
Sunstriker and give it Vigilance until the end
of turn, then of course the final is still
boosted, since you gain an Avatar token equal to
your life total.
Now matter how you look at it, the Sunstriker is
an amazing card. I have seen it utilized well in
Exalted decks, since you gain a bunch of life
off of it attacking.
