G-Dubs, Captain Awesomepants (By Tobi)

“Gideon, Champion of Justice” has an appropriately hammy name for an appropriately meaty Planeswalker. Unlike his Gatecrash cohort Domri, and much more in the vein of RtR’s Jace and Vraska, Gideon’s newest incarnation explores some new ground in our planeswalking. He costs 4, and starts with (at least) 4, which is nothing impressive, but solid.

Gideon’s new +1 is something exciting, to be sure. He gets one counter for certain, and an additional counter for each of your opponent’s creatures (but only one opponent, to prevent him from becoming bonkers in multiplayer), allowing him to rocket up to an impressive height. It’s not unreasonable to assume he could get to 10 or 12 counters inside of 3 turns, especially… Well, we’ll get to that later. His 0 ability is similar to his 0 ability, but a little better. His power and toughness now scale to the number of counters on him, instead of just being 6. This allows him to trundle on in as his own win condition. Finally, his last ability, -15, is to exile all other permanents. It’s incredibly expensive, but his juicy +1 ability provides an opportunity to actually get him there in the right deck… And if you manage to get him to 20 or so, before using that -15, it’s basically a forced concession, as while you’re both scrabbling to get land back down, he’ll come barreling in for 5 every turn.

Gideon’s new home is most likely going to be in a new planeswalker-themed control deck, much like the one from Zendikar block, where he hung out with Jace, Elspeth and occasionally Ajani. This time, though, it will be Jace, Tamiyo and Sorin holding down the fort while G-Dubs charges up to make it a 1-man show. Jace and Tami are excellent at controlling a crowd, and Sorin’s legion of 1/1 lifelinkers can provide ample blocking, especially if he’s had time to throw down a couple emblems. I can see a deck like this taking off. Gideon is a little awkward in that it takes him a long time to build up against an empty board, but that’s probably when you’d just use him as a straight creature. He has some trouble protecting himself, too, which is why you want a shell of other planeswalkers to distract your opponent with.

Good:

-          -Dat -15

-          -0 Ability is better than old 0 ability

-          -Innovative +1

-          -Cheaper than last Gideon

Bad:

-          -Not as strong defensively as last Gideon

-          --15 is a LOT, and you need more if you want to be sure he can survive it

-          -Needs a lot of support/protection from other cards

Scully Rating: 9.3 out of 10

Projected Settled Value: 20$

Domri Rade (By Tobi)

“Domri Rade” is a new planeswalker from Gatecrash, and in the trend of red planeswalkers, he is boring (But nowhere near as bad as Tibalt, thankfully). At a cost of a red, a green, and a colorless, he’s certainly priced right. 3-mana planeswalkers have all been constructed-playable, and Domri is no exception. He comes into play with three counters, which is certainly reasonable.

His +1 looks at the top card of your deck, and if it’s a creature, you reveal and draw it. Using the average deckbuilding metric, you’ll draw the card about 1 out of every 3 times, and moreso if you skew your deck’s composition in his favor (Bloodrush helps with this). His -2 has one of your creatures fight target creature. This is decent for protecting himself, but still relies on another creature holding back to block for him, which is not what a R/G deck wants to be doing. Finally, his -7 gives your team the kitchen sink – most every ability your team could want (sans lifelink and unblockable), they get.

He’s a solid card, to be sure, he’s just boring. A ho-hum minor card advantage +, a destructive/protective -, and a big, flashy ultimate. He’s costed appropriately, but there’s little to no good flavor behind him. He’s a guy who likes to fight. Go, go, fight guy! Fight! As obnoxious as Jace’s ever-present character is, there’s at least a reasonable story behind him. This guy is basically a smaller, whinier Garruk, and the only reason he isn’t a Garruk is because there are already two of them in standard right now (both of which are more exciting than this guy). He’ll fill his role in the deck as a minor card advantage engine and gaining you a couple life, but this guy is a huge flavor miss for me.

Good:

-          -Reasonable abilities

-          -Cheap Cost

-          -Not Tibalt

Bad:

-          -Boring as all get out

-          -Seems like a filler “we needed another planeswalker” card.

-          -Not Garruk

Scully Rating: 8.9 out of 10

Projected Settled Value – 15$