Tezzeret, Master of Metal - Magic the Gathering

I can't see this name without thinking of "Magneto, Master of Magnet".

Unlike Ajani, Tezzeret has had far fewer cards dedicated to him, but there are still some comparisons, mostly to Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. I mentioned last post of the parallel between Ajani, Valiant Protector's one ability with Tezzeret's first ability, but Agent of Bolas actually has a similar ability. The difference is it only reveals the top five cards of your library then lets you cherry pick an artifact. The second ability is a downpowered version of Agent's ultimate ability, with the life loss being the number of artifacts you control as opposed to twice that number, and without any life gain. As far as I can tell though, the ultimate ability is all new to Tez, though it does make me think of Confiscation Coup, which was enacted by Tezzeret last set.

Ajani, Valiant Protector - Magic the Gathering

"Hope you have a LOT of +1/+1 counters."

Ajani Unyielding wasn't the only Ajani recently revealed. Like Kaladesh, Aether Revolt has its own Planesawlker Decks, with their own exclusive planeswalker cards.

There's honestly not too much to talk about Baby's First Ajani. It's practically the same image as Ajani Unyielding, but with a slightly different pose showing the unscarred side of his face, and the lighting is much brighter.

The first ability is an upscale version of Ajani, Caller of the Pride's first ability, with two counters instead of one. The second ability mimics Ajani's previous deck searching abilities, but what's interesting is how it foils the other Planeswalker Deck in the set. Tezzeret, Master of Metal's +1 ability is almost the same, except his ability reveals cards until you reveal an artifact, while it's a creature for Ajani.

And the ultimate ability touches what I mentioned with the last Ajani. Ajani likes you to have a big life total. Ajani Classic gave you an Avatar token with power and toughness equal to your life, and Caller of the Pride gave you X 2/2 Cat tokens, with X being equal to your life. There was also the ultimate on Mentor of Heroes, which gave you 100 life, but this card's ability is more in the vein of the first two cards. Rather than making a creature though, this one gives an existing creature X +1/+1 counters, with X being see above. And in case your opponent wasn't dead after that, the creature gains trample for a turn. It is also one of the more expensive ultimate abilities, going into double digits, but still losing to Gideon, Champion of Justice.

Ajani Unyielding - Magic the Gathering

Making planeswalkers more loyal.

It's time to breath some life into an old blog, and what better way to start than with a new card for an old character.

First note is, at the time of writing, this guy is the first preview card for the unrealeased set: Aether Revolt. Since I have not seen the full set yet, I can't tell you how Ajani fits in, other than his appearance on Kaladesh was teased with cards like Impeccable Timing.

There has been though five printed Ajani cards up to this one, so I can make some comparisons there. In terms of art, for example, he seems to mostly resemble Ajani Steadfast, with the small blue tassels. And I just realized that an anthropomorphic cat-person has attached multiple tassels to his costume. I guess his next outfit will incorporate balls of yarn.

His first ability reminds me of the second ability of Ajani, Mentor of Heroes, but it has been tweaked to reveal fewer cards but grab more of them. This card's second ability is a Swords to Plowshares, which fits considering the character. It also sort of fits the trend of previous Ajani cards. Most of the others were concerned with making your life total big, and while the ability is meant to be used more offensively, there is nothing stopping you from exiling your own creatures and collecting the life.

The third ability is where we get interesting. It is based on the second ability of Ajani Steadfast, but it has been multiplied by five and upgraded to an ultimate ability. The part of the ability I like the most though is the one that gives your other planeswalkers loyalty. Cards that affect planeswalkers tend to be rarer, both in terms of the rarities they're printed at and the number of cards printed with such abilities. So I like that this ability does something that cards don't normally do, and with the upscaled ability it makes the whole thing feel a lot more special. This ability also fits the character, since Ajani has partnered multiple times with other planeswalkers.