"Venser, Visionary Traveler: Wait... Isn’t Venser Dead?"

"Venser, Visionary Traveler: Wait... Isn’t Venser Dead?"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

Any Phyrexian worth his salt knows that Venser is dead.

He sacrificed his spark—his very life—to free Karn from the Phyrexians. And one can only imagine what might have happened if Karn had remained the Father of Machines. Would we have lost the war? Would Wizards of the Coast have ever explained why Phyrexian oil could be incredibly deadly one moment and seemingly ineffective the next?

But I digress.

Knowing that Venser is dead merely means that Venser, Visionary Traveler might be a younger version of him—or perhaps an entirely different version from another timeline.

And why does he look so much like Hugh Jackman?

Are they trying to get him to play Venser in some unnamed Planeswalker project?

Again, I am getting distracted.

I checked my collection binder, and there have actually been quite a few planeswalker versions of Venser over the years. The last one we saw was essentially a corrupted version of his own corpse. So perhaps the fact that Venser keeps showing up in different forms shouldn't surprise me anymore.

Still, here we are.

This five-mana planeswalker in Azorius colors looks like a mid-to-late-game advantage engine. However, if you've ever played with these particular colors, you know that Azorius isn't exactly known for attacking with hordes of creatures. They would much rather lock everything down until you eventually rage-quit.

So the static ability on this Venser is particularly interesting because it seems to encourage you to play with creatures that have been Suspended, are sitting in Exile, or have somehow made their way into your graveyard. Foretell also fits the bill.

Non-token creatures entering the battlefield with two additional +1/+1 counters is certainly useful.

But creatures coming out of Exile or Suspension bigger than when they went in?

That doesn't exactly scream Azorius to me.

His first ability, a +1, allows you to bounce a target permanent you control and return it at the beginning of the next end step under its owner's control.

Now this sounds like Azorius.

You can temporarily remove one of your own permanents and then take advantage of either its leave-the-battlefield or enter-the-battlefield ability when it returns. There are plenty of ways to turn what looks like a simple defensive trick into additional value.

And then there's the -2 ability, which lets you return up to one target nonland permanent that a player controls to its owner's hand.

That's a pretty useful bit of disruption when an opponent is pulling ahead with powerful permanents. Of course, there's always the downside that you're potentially helping them reuse something with a particularly nasty enters-the-battlefield ability.

Still, that's the sort of interaction you expect from an Azorius planeswalker.

At five mana, though, Venser feels a little underwhelming.

Nothing here immediately makes me think, "I absolutely need this card." The abilities are useful, the synergies are there, and there are definitely decks that can take advantage of what he offers.

But perhaps that's the point.

Having Venser as a commander might be exactly what some Azorius player is looking for right now—a planeswalker who rewards patience, careful sequencing, and making the most out of creatures that keep leaving and returning to the battlefield.

And considering how many times Venser has already shown up after supposedly being gone for good...

Maybe we should just stop asking whether he's dead.

He'll probably be back anyway.