In some of the recent sets, Ajani's planeswalker
cards were not rated as highly on some people's
ranking systems. In hindsight, I can't help but
wonder if they toned him down as a reaction to
his first year in Standard. Lorwyn's Goldmane
provided an insane boost to any of the block's
various tribes that could cast him, and this
version, from Alara, was and remains a weapon of
mass destruction. He's equally at home in
aggressive and controlling decks, being able to
deal with creatures on both an offensive and
defensive basis, plus anything else that depends
on tapping, and his ultimate may be the absolute
hardest for an opponent to recover from. Even
Nicol Bolas might have to set his off against an
opponent with a lot of tokens, or some on-table
way to try and draw cards. Neither of those help
so much when you have no lands. Ajani Vengeant
has been a pillar of Magic decks since his first
day, and will be for years to come.
Ajani's angriest iteration has always been one
of the more popular planeswalkers, and it's not
hard to see why. In the worst-case scenario,
he's a sorcery-speed Lightning Helix that
threatens to Helix them a couple more times.
That's not to dismiss its +1, though; Ajani's
ability to keep tapped permanents tapped can
keep your opponent off a color of mana or leave
their biggest attacker unable to keep smashing
face or block. In a close situation, sometimes
you just need a turn of that permanent locked
down, and Ajani offers it to you.
Ajani's value is that, to a point, he's not
hugely threatening. He is a card advantage
engine, but he's not as in-your-face as Liliana
of the Veil or Jace, the Mind Sculptor, which
gives the kitty cat a chance to hang around and
create chaos. In Naya or R/W decks in general,
he's worth consideration for all the little
things he does well.
His ultimate is pie-in-the-sky, but if you can
resolve it, you've already won.
