Gideon: Champion of Disappointment

Hello Everyone!

After the nearly infinitely long article yesterday, I decided I would be better off writing a short piece every day on those day's interesting spoilers as opposed to trying to do so every other day. Today we had three cards each get their own article, and then a ton of cards were released through the promos article. So lets go!

Starting things off we have our first playable Cipher spell, which is very powerful! I don't think this guy will see any constructed play, but in limited, this card is probably first pickable as a modular removal spell. What I really like about this card is that it enables itself - by casting Hands of Binding you create an opportunity for your creature to get in for some damage and recast it, putting yourself very far ahead. This card feels a lot like a Detain to me, and when we have Dragon's Maze-Gatecrash-RTR draft I think this will see more play in Azorious then it will in Dimir. This card is sweet, and I like how they are making Cipher seem more playable.

This card is actually very interesting. If control decks become more popular and you're anticipating the mirror, Specter feels like a good mirror breaker to me, putting your opponent on a clock and drawing a card every turn. if you flip a land to Specter, you can play that as well, so there are no dead flips at all! I'm pretty sure if you cast a spell that you exiled it will go into your opponent's graveyard, so something like Think Twice would be awkward to cast with Specter since you and your opponent both get to draw a card, but you do get it at a better rate, for what it's worth.

This is the card that is given out to everyone for playing in the gameday event, and it's actually very good! An Oran-Rief the Vastwood with the ability to draw lots of cards makes this guildmage likely to be constructed playable, especially in a Bant deck with Gavony Township! I'm known locally for playing Elves since I did so well with it at the SCG event, and this is another in the small line of playable Elves in blue. Edric, Spymaster of Trest is good enough that I have considered adding a Tropical Island to my Elves deck for one of him. After a quick gatherer search, I found Momir Vig, Simic Visionary and Sages of the Anima as two creatures who can guarantee any Glimpse of Nature to go infinite and win on the spot (Momir Vig is a guarantee, Sages of the Anima is just very good). I can see this guy and Edric in a UGx value-elves deck that plays a super-efficient beatdown plan with big creatures and plenty of cards, with maybe a few tricks up their sleeves. At the very least, this guy offers sweet value and I expect it will see play

This is a spicy meatball! One of the things that hold cards like Fireball back is that they are just very inefficient 1-for-1 removal spells. Clan Defiance, on the other hand, changes that. At it's very worst, this is a fireball to the face for 1 less damage. However, it's significantly better than that because you're usually going to be casting it to kill a creature, and the damage to the other player is just a bonus. In standard right now, there's enough flying creatures seeing play like Sublime Archangel, Restoration Angel, Thundermaw Hellkite, and Lingering Souls that you will be able to reliably 2-for-1 the opponent while also hitting them for some damage in the process. If we get some awesome stuff to ramp into, and that kind of deck arises, I can absolutely see Clan Defiance seeing some play as a way for those decks to protect themselves and stabilize the board, along with Huntmaster of the Fells, before their big guns take over.

And last but not least, we have a very disappointing planeswalker. I have heard people complaining about how they don't like the art, how they think the name is just a little too long and it's awkward how it touches the mana cost, how the three abilities seem awkward together and doesn't seem to have much of a game plan. I just think he sucks. Yes, all the other comments are absolutely right - I mean his art makes him look like he is in space, not in a city - but I'm boring and the furthest thing from a Vorthos player, so I just care if he is playable. I think there is one redeeming quality to Gideon though - being a fantastic example to show someone when teaching them how to evaluate if a planeswalker is any good. Back when RTR was being spoiled,  I immediately was underwhelmed with Vraska because the + ability didn't do anything relevant and the other abilities couldn't compensate. With Gideon, we have the same issue, but just more dramatic.

Starting with the plus ability - usually the reason you choose to play a planeswalker - we have actual blank nothing for text. You gained some loyalty counters.... Yet absolutely nothing else changed. At least with Vraska there was a punishment for your opponent if they wanted to shut down your planeswalker, but here there is none. Sure if your opponent is beating down with a Merfolk of the Pearl Trident you can just beat him with your Gideon, but you were going to win if instead of Gideon you had an Arachnoid instead. Sure, Gideon gains a lot of counters if they have a lot of creatures, but if they have a lot of creatures, they simply don't care about Gideon and will just kill you instead, or they can send one big dude at Gideon to put him in his place and still whoop your ass. If they don't have any creatures? Then Gideon's loyalty grows at a painfully slow rate, and you wish you had that Arachnoid instead.

Moving onto the 0 ability - the only reason you can defend playing Gideon. We have a creature that can attack our opponent with an indestructible body with reasonable size if it had a good pump the previous turn. This is definitely a good reason to run the card! Back in the day Gideon Jura created a very short clock after establishing balance on the board (and the clock would be especially fast with Celestial Colonnade). If your opponent has 2 guys in play, attacking with an indestructable 7/7 of turn 5 is pretty big game!

Then we have the flashy -15 ultimate. First things first, this is not remotely realistic to achieve. Sure Jace TMS had a -12 that was very playable, but his + was actually relevant and would lock opponents out of the game very quickly. Also, that -12 won the game on the spot whereas Gideon's puts you in a decent position, where hopefully you can get ahead from and eventually figure out how to win. Keep in mind you lose all of your own stuff too.

So if we have 1 good ability, why do I still not like it? A 4 mana attacking planeswalker reminds me of Koth, which was an incredibly powerful planeswalker for the mono-red deck. However, Koth worked well with that game plan of fast damage and provided inevitability with the Emblam. Gideon does neither of these things. First, he doesn't have any immediate effect on the board. If you look at aggressive decks, all creatures have haste or "haste" via an ETB effect. Silverblade Paladin, Sublime Archangel, Thragtusk, and Wolfir Silverheart are all good because they all provide an immediate effect. Back in the day there was "the Jace test" which basically meant "was your guy playable if you could never untap with it in play?" Creatures that don't pass the Jace test can't see play. So Gideon fails there. Second, if he is an aggressive planeswalker, that means he will be in a deck with other creatures that should all be turning Sideways every turn. This means no one can protect him, and your opponent can just tap their creatures and create a build-your-own-Visara the Dreadful. In aggro mirrors being able to attrition out your opponent's creatures is incredibly important for an inevitable kill since usually aggro decks can't come back from behind as well, so allowing your opponent to destroy one of your guys (or bring it to 1-3 loyalty and therefor pretty weak) without them investing any cards is something they will always take.

So now let's say you do get to finally do your thing and use Gideon's 0 ability, what do we have? A dude. With no abilities. Whoop-de-freakin-doo. I'll block with my Llanowar Elves. Ruhan of the Fomari is really tearing it up right now too! We have a dude with no abilities that may be undercosted, but it absolutely the top of your curve which dies to all the same removal as the rest of your deck. What makes you so special? You're a planeswalker? Don't you feel so privileged? With no "haste", no protection, and no real reason to go out of your way to make it work, this card gets an F from me.

TL;DR: this card is horribly bad, and if you open him sell/trade him immediately! I'm predicting this will be a $10 card by Dragon's Maze

Unfortunately today, we don't have anything that has me incredibly excited, just a couple sweet limited cards and a very underwhelming planeswalker. As the great philosopher Fortin once said, "They can't all be winners".

That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie

Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com

@ThingsILack