Ajani In Journey to Nyx?
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on Jan. 31, 2014, 5:12 p.m. by Mac97
There may already be a forum for this ,but I cannot find one. In a picture released there is definitely a Leonin by Elspeth. From the weapon and other appearance this seems to look a lot like Ajani.
I'd also like to point out that we haven't had 4 new planeswalkers in a block since Shards of Alara Block, which doesn't really count. Since we already have 3 new planeswalkers in the block (new as in no previous versions of them exist) we will probably get another returning planeswalker, even if it's not Ajani.
February 6, 2014 11:51 a.m.
SharuumNyan says... #3
Whether or not more than X number of new planeswalkers have been introduced means nothing. They have been breaking all kinds of norms with the Theros block, such as more legendary creatures than normal, and more new mechanics than normal. There could be more than one planeswalker introduced in Nyx for all we know. The unwritten-rules of new sets are always being broken.
February 6, 2014 12:13 p.m.
Theros block currently has 7 keyworded mechanics, which is about par and looks likely to hit the 8-11 in the whole block average. A higher number of Legendaries was announced going into the set, and fits for top-down flavor reasons. We have never had more than 5 planeswalkers in a block since they were introduced, and considering that planeswalkers have limited space both creatively and mechanically, I would not expect them to deviate for no reason. Every block since Shards of Alara has had a 3-2 or 2-3 split between new and returning planeswalkers, which is expected. There is also the fact that Planeswalkers are always mythics, and two planeswalkers in Journey into Nyx, along with the Gods, would leave only three mythic slots left.
February 6, 2014 12:20 p.m.
SharuumNyan says... #5
Everything you say is speculation though. Using older set precedence to predict a new set is unreliable, because they can change any of that at any time. Having a higher number of legendary creatures has already differentiated this block from previous blocks, so anything could happen.
Maybe they're trying to move away from the boring and predictable set construction of the last few years. There hasn't been anything really exciting and different since Rise of the Eldrazi.
February 6, 2014 12:30 p.m.
Yes, all of what I said is speculation. All of what you said is also speculation. We don't know the future, and we can only guess using the past as an indicator. Induction is not philosophically justified.
That said, I am providing reasons for my speculation. I can cite examples. Could they change all of this in this block? Yes. They could also choose to get rid of the restricted list, unban DRS, and get rid of lands, ala Hearthstone. That doesn't justify belief that they will.
And every block has something that sets it apart. High numbers of legendaries not only fits the theme, it doesn't mean everything else will change.
February 6, 2014 12:53 p.m.
Everything on here is a speculation, a theory, or a hypothesis. Some of us site sources and use proof others do not.
February 6, 2014 1:03 p.m.
SharuumNyan says... #8
There is no proof for speculation. That's why they call it speculation.
February 6, 2014 1:50 p.m.
BlastercoolWeird says... #9
While it's true there's no confirmed lore for why Ajani would become G/W, I'm pretty sure Wizards doesn't actually explain color changes between planeswalker incarnations until the planeswalker is actually confirmed to be in the set.
In the lore so far, Elspeth was chased into the wilds for failing to stop Xenagos from becoming Xenagod, so it's quite possible Ajani starts utilizing green mana and possibly green philosophy to find Elspeth and encourage her to challenge Xenagos.
Also it doesn't really make a lot of sense to have Journey into Nyx have an extra planeswalker over Born of the Gods. You can make an argument for wanting to mix things up but honestly how much does adding one extra planeswalker move away the "boring and predictable set construction of the last few years?"
I haven't been playing for very long but during the time that I have I've noticed that Wizards generally does things with a lot of planning and reasoning for their decisions.
February 6, 2014 1:51 p.m.
That is true. But some of it is a hypothesis as well, which can have proof same for theories.
February 6, 2014 1:51 p.m.
There is no formal proof, but there is evidence, which can make a speculation more or less likely.
February 6, 2014 1:52 p.m.
SharuumNyan says... #12
If Ajani is printed yet again, I'm going to be seriously disappointed. That is a fact. I'm almost as sick of Ajani as I am of Jace. Printing the same planeswalkers over and over is just getting boring. I was fine with Elspeth, because we haven't seen her much. But we've had four Ajanis or reprints in the last five years - almost as many as Jace and Chandra, and just as many as Liliana. Why? There are so many others to choose from. I was excited that they possibly WEREN'T printing the same boring core-set planeswalkers in this set.
Maybe it's a sign that they're trying to increase Ajani's popularity for the upcoming movie: Magic the Gathering: The Ultimate Sellout (speculation)
February 6, 2014 2:06 p.m.
This is the problem with 'iconics', which the lowryn 5 are, they are wizards iconic planeswalker, the ones they want mtg to be identified with. They are and will shove them down our throats while giving us other ones at the same time.
February 6, 2014 2:09 p.m.
I think just for "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot's" sake they should do Nicol Bolas. I would at least find that unpredictable and humorous.
February 6, 2014 2:09 p.m.
Ajani hasn't been in a non-core set since Shards of Alara. There have only been three planeswalkers who aren't in the Lorwyn 5 who have been in core sets (Nicol Bolas, Gideon Jura, Sorrin Markov). He has been reprinted, but he hasn't been in the story, so it's not really fair to call him out on that. He would also be the only core-set planeswalker to be in Theros block.
Plus, I personally find him one of the more interesting planeswalkers, along with Jace, Elspeth, Tezzeret and Ashiok.
February 6, 2014 2:15 p.m.
SharuumNyan says... #16
Doesn't matter if the set is non-core or not. The fact that they keep rehashing the same planeswalkers is boring. It's Jace, Chandra, Liliana, Ajani in almost every core set. So why not keep the blocks interesting and do something totally different?
If they want us to identify with specific characters, they should bring back Urza. He could be reincarnated somehow by Karn. Way more interesting.
February 6, 2014 2:42 p.m.
The entire point of the Lorwyn 5 is that they are iconics, planeswalkers that players can easily identify with. Keeping them as the faces of Magic requires that they be in core sets. However, if they never showed up in the expert expansions, that would kind of defeat the point.
Maro said, about a year ago, that the average magic player has about 7 years under their belt. Most magic players probably don't know who Urza is.
February 6, 2014 2:48 p.m.
SharuumNyan says... #18
Yeah, most magic players don't know who Urza is so he's new and fresh, and those that do remember him mostly thought he was a great character. What better reasons to bring him back?
Keeping the same planeswalkers around so people can "easily identify" with them stinks of cheap marketing. What next? Action figures? SMH
February 6, 2014 2:52 p.m.
Cheap marketing works, and they have fathead and clothing supporting it, why not action figures? Seriously, why all the hate to keeping the game profitable?
February 6, 2014 2:56 p.m.
You do realize Wizards is a business, right? Marketing is part of their job.
At this point, we've moved beyond speculation into personal taste. I've cited my reasons why I think a G/W Ajani is likely for JOU. If you don't like that speculation, I'm not going to try and argue you around to it.
February 6, 2014 2:56 p.m.
SharuumNyan says... #21
But, raithe000, you've been having so much fun being argumentative about my speculations :)
There's marketing, and then there's selling out. An action-figure-ish set of planeswalkers doesn't seem like Wizards' marketing - it has the stench of Hasbro all over it. I'm concerned that with these "iconic" planeswalkers, plus a movie, plus all the Magic crap WalMart is now selling (wall decals?) that the whole game is going to change too.
My biggest fear is that, in their efforts to popularize magic even more, they're going to significantly change the game mechanics. Wizards is profitable enough right now, but when a company (and in this case, it would be Hasbro) gets greedy, things start to get bad. Look at the 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons. They tried to expand the game to get more people to play, by basically simplifying and changing it until the game was barely recognizable. It was so awful that they had to reprint 3.5, and a lot of customers were pissed off and quit to play Pathfinder. Are you ready for that to happen to Magic? It's a possibility.
February 6, 2014 3:11 p.m.
They already have, remember mana burn? heard of NWO? what about making creatures more important by taking spells on to them and calling them french vanilla's? No X spells at common... Yes these things are part of this push to keep the larger group happy. It's going to happen, It's happening. For the most part, now they are drawing a line in the sand and not pushing things so far with it, at least that's my feelings towards rule changes.
February 6, 2014 3:16 p.m.
SharuumNyan says... #23
I don't see that line in the sand. I see execs at Hasbro with dollar signs in their eyes fawning over 8-13 year old boys and figuring out how to change the game to get them involved after the cgi-spattered summer blockbuster comes out.
Maybe I'm just too negative, but I play D&D and I've been burned by this company before.
February 6, 2014 3:19 p.m.
I perfectly willing to argue about whether there is evidence that Ajani will be in Journey into Nyx. I'm not interested in trying to convince you that Ajani is a good character, as that is a matter of taste.
I would note that they are taking the reaction to 4E into account with making 5E from what I've heard. And if Magic really does go to crap, vote with your pocketbook and stop buying new cards.
February 6, 2014 3:24 p.m.
SharuumNyan says... #25
I didn't mean that Ajani isn't a good character. He's just an overused character. The more that core set of planeswalkers is used, the less interesting they are. The game lore has become sort of like "follow Jace and friends on a magical adventure" - kind of like a cartoon.
I really do wish Urza would become a planeswalker though. No character deserves it more.
February 6, 2014 3:47 p.m.
I'd disagree about following Jace and friends on a magical adventure (for one thing, I'm not sure any of them are friends). Again, Ajani hasn't been in a non-core set since Shards of Alara. Personally, I don't count Core sets as advancing the story, so Ajani has been out of focus for quite a while in my mind.
February 6, 2014 4:27 p.m.
SharuumNyan says... #28
But if they're planning to put one of those often-used planeswakers in a block set, how about leave them out of the core sets immediately before and after that block set? Having only one instance of a single planeswalker in Standard at any one time would already make the game more interesting - and it would also make more sense.
"Oh, where's Ajani gone? He's not in this core set."
"Well, Ajani is traveling the planes. Who knows when and where he'll pop up."
That would be fun!
February 6, 2014 4:40 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #29
February 6, 2014 4:46 p.m.
I am pretty sure Urza is dead and gone. i have played for almost 4 years and i knew who he was right of the bat.
February 6, 2014 4:50 p.m.
SharuumNyan says... #31
Urza is dead...but he and Barrin also built a time machine. There are all kinds of ways to bring him back. I think part of Urza's soul is still alive inside Karn too.
February 6, 2014 4:55 p.m.
Creative isn't very keen on resurrecting planeswalkers right now. Something about keeping "Meaningful dramatic tension" or other such rot.
February 6, 2014 4:57 p.m.
SharuumNyan says... #33
Okay, it's time to start a petition to bring back Urza as a planeswalker!
February 6, 2014 5:01 p.m.
Hey, look, Maro just said something relevant to this!
I'd prefer new planeswalkers rather than rehashing the old, but if we had to have old ones, It would be cool to see Lord Windgrace or Freyalise.
February 6, 2014 5:18 p.m.
BlastercoolWeird says... #37
I'm not terribly fond of bringing Urza back, I feel his story was fully concluded and bringing him back as a card just reintroduces all the baggage of the old mtg storylines. Like, when I was first getting into the game I hated Nicol Bolas because I didn't know about the older storylines that sort of explain just why he's the big dog on campus and why he god-modes all over the place. Urza probably would not be a whole lot different.
I want these new planeswalkers, with new storylines, because I really dig the neowalkers, from A to X.
Also I don't think they should've not printed Ajani, Caller of the Pride in m14. Given Elspeth was getting a card in Theros the decision was either Gideon or Ajani, and I will take the actually-playable Caller of the Pride over Champion of Justice every time I'm offered the choice.
I really don't feel Ajani is overused, the Core sets don't have any real story to them, and...man, Ajani's one of my favorite 'walkers, it really annoys me to hear people calling him "overused" when he's had literally only one appearance in a block's story, and that was basically his origin story.
February 7, 2014 10:02 a.m.
SharuumNyan says... #38
Ajani being called overused is annoying to you? Well, seeing the same planeswalkers reprinted over and over is annoying to me. You dig the new stories, I did the old stories. That's your preference. Personally, I find the new stories kind of empty, and the old stories more relevant to the game mechanics.
I'd much rather they bring back some old characters than keep rehashing Jace, Liliana, Chandra, Ajani, and Garruk over and over. Or, maybe they could diversify the core-set planeswalkers. How about another blue choice other than Jace, a red choice other than Chandra, and a green choice other than Garruk? Instead of asking "Which Jace are we getting in M15?", we should be asking "Which blue planeswalker are we getting in M15?" Knowing for sure which characters are going to be in a core set is so boring, and when those characters are then used in a block set as well, it's just overkill.
February 7, 2014 10:26 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #39
You do remember that Ajani sin't typically a core planeswalker right? The core W walker has been Gideon Jura for quite some time.
February 7, 2014 10:28 a.m.
I agree to an extent. I know they are going to keep shoving jaces, chandra, garruk, liliana, and ajani in our faces. The storyline of those five I like most are Chandra and Garruk. I do however think they should maybe make newer planeswalkers more or at least newer versions. Planeswalkers if they are good tend to keep the prices excessively as single profits (the profit wizards doesn't really make) high so they price control through reprints unless they plan on banning the card.
February 7, 2014 10:35 a.m.
SharuumNyan says... #42
Ohthenoises - how do you figure?
M10 - Ajani
M11 - Ajani
M12 - Gideon
M13 - Ajani
M14 - Ajani
February 7, 2014 10:39 a.m.
BlastercoolWeird says... #43
Yeah, I guess I would be fine with Ajani not showing up in the core sets regularly if it meant people didn't complain about him showing up in story arcs. Same really for all the Lorwyn Five.
The problem with the Core Sets is that there's no story to them so the Lorwyn Five keep being shoved into our collective attention without anything to flesh them out and give us more reason to like or abhor them.
February 7, 2014 10:09 p.m.
deathtouch_roadrunner says... #44
I'm not a fan of the same plainswalkers repeating endlessly in the core sets.
That said, given that there seems to be a pretty big cat thing going on in Theros I can forgive them if they end up making a GW Ajani.
February 8, 2014 2:12 a.m.
balmung014 says... #45
That leonin in the picture is most likely Ajani, that weapon of his dose not fit with those in Theroes. However one thing I noticed about planes walkers is that they cover all colors. We already have a pure white planes walker, blue black, red green, green blue.
This simply means that if Ajani appears he will be most likely dual colored and most likely Red, White given what we know of him. Strange that most of the planeswalkers have no bearing on the story this time, I expected Krosa who has been over due for a planes walker card.
The question is why are they fighting that god, what is his role in the story and why is ajani on theroes, last seen he was on Dominaria in the comics when she met koth and they went to mirrodin.
March 8, 2014 9:34 p.m.
Enlightened_Jedi says... #46
I would love another UR planeswalker. Ole Ral Zarek is sweet but I can't seem to get him working in Standard. I'm just excited to see what UR gets in general this set
March 9, 2014 8:59 a.m.
Enlightened_Jedi says... #47
Also this may be off topic.
But if there was a battle royale of all PW's...who would win?
Also isn't Ajani the only walker to actually stand toe to toe with Bolas and survive?
March 9, 2014 9:07 a.m.
Sorin Markov would win i think. He would take control of Jace, the Mind Sculptor and let him fight until he is not needed anymore.
March 9, 2014 10:03 a.m.
balmung014 says... #49
Ajani survived when bolas was trying to kill him, yes. That won't happen a second time though if he is in the next set he faces something nearly as great. A planes walker gone god with the same colors as sarkan Vol the planes walker who taught him about planes walking.
March 9, 2014 10:53 a.m.
This argument is ridiculous- Bolas would destroy everything else, if you are talking about post-shift PWs. Before? Probably Serra.
Mac97 says... #1
I actually think that GW would be the true straight forward lore way. He is from Naya GRW. He has already been RW and he no longer seeks vengeance. There are multiple printings from him as white Ajani, Caller of the Pride and Ajani Goldmane . To me making a new version of him as white would be a step backwards.
February 6, 2014 11:47 a.m.