Venser, the Sojourner is a mythic rarity blue/white planeswalker appearing in the upcoming Magic: The Gathering Scars of Mirrodin expansion, and he's already commanding a $50 price tag over at StarCityGames. Although prerelease card hype can turn out to be drastically off-base, we're fairly certain Venser is the real deal and not another Time Reversal.
Venser, the Sojourner
3WU
Planeswalker - Venser Mythic Rare
+2: Exile target permanent you own. Return it to the battlefield at the beginning of the next end step.
-1: Creatures are unblockable this turn.
-8: You get an emblem with "Whenever you cast a spell, exile target permanent."
Loyalty 3
If your first thought is that Venser, the Sojourner is all kinds of good, we're in agreement with you. Blue/White control decks will have a wonderful time exiling Wall of Omens, Sea Gate Oracle, Æther Adept and planeswalker friends to reset their loyalty counters, all while working up to a coup de grâce of epic, emblematic proportions. The proliferate mechanic in Scars of Mirrodin is just icing on Venser's very tasty control cake.
Venser, the Sojourner's "ultimate" ability is certainly a game winner, but there's a good chance you won't even have to use it when you're potentially abusing enter the battlefield effects, everything up to and including Frost Titan. Have a board wipe but running creatures? Blink your creature to safety and dust the board off. Mind Control taking your premium targets? Hey, Venser thought of that too, and included the "you own" clause in his blink effect.
The fact that Venser can link up with his superfriends network easily following a 4 casting cost Jace, the Mindsculptor, and revitalize planeswalkers who may have lost a few counters makes him a ridiculous force to be reckoned with, even though he lacks inherent defenses of his own.
Note that once you've paid for Venser's emblem, there is currently no way in Magic: The Gathering to remove that token, so as long as you've got time to play a spell or two the game should end in short order.
Venser is currently being valued very high by some and very low by others, but we're solidly backing him as incredible, with even more potential interactions coming from the ever expanding Scars of Mirrodin spoiler.
We're just going to throw it out here right now, Venser is the real deal. Look for Venser, the Sojourner at the Scars of Mirrodin prerelease and release events coming up at the end of September!
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Comments
You, and everyone else, are overrathing Venser, the Sojourner. We've seen 60 cards from Scars of Mirrodin.. he will probably just be another overated mythic rare. Junk. Dont you dare compare him to jace.
Hey Walter- when was the last time you saw a card that said 'exile target permanent'? I'll give you a hint- there is none. Not a single other card in the game can exile lands, I guarantee.
And this is hitting you for exile EVERY TURN. I dont think his ultimate will be that hard to build to, since in a Super Friends deck, the other guy wants to kill Jace more than Venser.
But you know what? Jace's strength is in his 0, +2, and -1 abilities. it's so unlikely that you ever pop his ultimate, since he has a giant target on his head as soon as he comes down. But you know you'll get to at least use his cool manipulation powers before he dies. Venser? I don't think his first two powers are all that much. Not worth 50 dollars anyway. Decent enough that I dont mind using them to add loyalty. But Venser's Ultimate is MUCH faster than Jace's, and more devastating. More devastating because its going to happen. its going to happen A LOT.
Vindicate? Repeated VINDICATE? Vindicate on Swords to Plowshares? the dude is nuckin futs. he's going to break in Legacy Vinage because of all the 0-cost crap they throw around there.
Lotus, Mox, Island, Venser, +2 go.
Island, Recall, Mox, Mox, Petal, Ornithopter, exile all your lands and moxen, go.
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