David Fanany
Player since
1995 |
Nissa, Steward of Elements
Nissa's rather grown on me over the last few
years, and that's only partly because she has a
much wider range of abilities than her original
elf-centric version. Her tailor is also clearly
one of the best in Dominaria or beyond. But
regarding that first point, she's remade herself
for this year as a one-woman combo. Given that
her +2 is scrying, I find it all but impossible
to imagine any situation where you won't hit
something good with her 0 ability. Even if you
feel like where her ultimate is less ultimate
than you'd want, it's the sort of effect that's
good to have around, and between mana-ramping
and her other two abilities not depleting
loyalty counters, it'll be shockingly easy to
use it while keeping her on the table.
Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 5/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
EDH/Commander: 5/5 |
|
James H. |
Nissa, Steward of Elements
(4/25)
We’ve never had a
planeswalker like Nissa before, to be sure. And
she adds a new wrinkle to the “hard to evaluate
planeswalker" base we’ve seen many times before,
thanks to the X in her mana cost that equates to
scalable loyalty.
She can drop as early as
turn 2 or 3 with 1 loyalty, and she can try to
tick her way out of danger. Her +2 is meant to
help set up for her 0 ability, but getting 2
loyalty does go a way towards protecting her.
Her 0 is potentially a free card, hitting a land
about 1/3 of the time and a creature a bit less
than that; since it bases off of her loyalty,
more loyalty makes her 0 more likely to hit a
target. This even gives more incentive to slam
Nissa for more mana. Her -6 is a fairly mundane
ultimate, but it’s 10 damage in the air; at
worst, you're paying 8 mana for 10 damage, which
can help in stalled games.
Nissa is unique, and I
definitely think she has a lot of power to her.
She’ll scale well to the point you need her to
be in the game, and she can stabilize your board
or close out the game. Look forward to seeing
her a lot.
Constructed: 4.5
Casual: 5
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander: 4
|
