Magic: The Gathering - Aether Revolt Spoilers 12/04

While Wizards of the Coast won't officially begin previewing cards for Aether Revolt, the next Magic: The Gathering set and the second half of the Kaladesh block, until January of 2017, some cards have already started making their way to the public. Earlier this week on Tuesday, four possible promotional cards were leaked to the community, sparking interest and discussion of the mechanics and themes that may be making an appearance in the set.

While Wizards of the Coast has not confirmed the legitimacy of these cards at the time of writing this article, they have put out a card of their own, as seen at the 0:30 mark in the below video from their Brazilian YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3kRAfD55W0&app=desktop

The Planeswalker featured in this video is that of Ajani Goldmane, a leonin native to the Nayan shard of Alara. Ajani has made numerous appearances throughout the lore of Magic: The Gathering, his most recent being in Magic: The Gathering Core Set 2015. Typically aligned with white mana (and occasionally red and green mana as well), his appearance in Aether Revolt as Ajani, the Unshakeable sees him drawing on white and green mana as he aids the Gatewatch in their fight against the Consulate and Tezzeret.

Ajani, the Unshakable possess three Planeswalker abilities, begins with four loyalty counters, and has the highest converted mana cost of any Ajani printing thus far, at four generic, one green, and one white mana. His abilities are as follows (credit for translation goes to reddit user LightBeoulve):

• +2: Reveal the top three cards from your library. Put all nonland permanents in your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
• -2: Exile target creature. Its controller gains life equal to its power.
• -9: Put five +1/+1 counter on each creature you control and five loyalty counters on each other Planeswalker you control.

This new printing of Ajani seems to follow the new Planeswalker ability formula that began in Shadows Over Innistrad; a positive ability related to card advantage, a negative ability related to removal, and a flashy ultimate. Certain users in the reddit Magic: The Gathering subforum theorise that the repetition of this formula alongside the high volume of Planeswalker cards printed in each block is a possible indication that the Research and Development team at Wizards of the Coast is running out of design space for Planeswalkers.

Stay tuned to TechRaptor for more information on Aether Revolt and all things Magic: The Gathering.

What are your thoughts on this new rendition of Ajani? Do you think it will see any play, and if so in what formats? Let us know in the comment section below.