"Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver : Ending Control"

"Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver : Ending Control"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

In my experience when EDH games go on for a long time it always tends to favor the control players on the board. They always have their hands full , they always have an answer and players who have exhausted all of their tricks could only lower their shoulders in defeat. 

I took one good look at Ashiok and here was someone that could really help me out in the end. 

A blue black planeswalker costing only 3 mana , Ashiok enters the battlefield with 3 Loyalty counters which can be raised to 5 right away when you use his first ability. 

The +2 ability allows you to target an opponents library and to exile the top three cards. Hopefully this includes the land he needs , the combo piece he was looking for and removal that he needed to take care of your other threats. Let us also hope that you could have exiled at least one creature that could prove useful to you later on.Depriving your opponents of possible threats while increasing your own is really wicked which leads us to this planeswalkers second ability.

An -X(subtract loyalty counter) ability that allows you to put at least a 5 mana costing creature (if you use it on the following turn after you cast him) that was exiled by Ashiok on to the battlefield. Now this ability could be tricky because if you really do not need a creature on the battlefield right away then you are just wasting the loyalty counters. On the other hand if you have a useful creature that would turn the tide in your favor then by all means go ahead and use it. You could also exile more cards with the first ability until you could cast a really big monster from the the Ashiok created limbo. What is remarkable about this skill is that it is something that cannot be countered in the traditional sense. So you basically guarantee a quality creature on your side of the board.If that was not awesome enough Ashiok even has something to offer you for the end game.

And the last ability which is -10. Exile all cards from all opponents' hands and graveyards. Beautiful. I would buy Ashiok for this ability alone. Control would fear Ashiok for the simple fact that he could remove all of the Ace's up their sleeves and leave them open to all manner combos and creature attacks. Ashiok who in one swing will rid those pesky hands while leaving your own hand full and ready. Think about it. Wasn't he someone you have been waiting all your EDH life? Theros is shaping up to be an exciting set. I can't wait to get my hands on these new planeswalkers.