Gideon Jura … the dark side of white planeswalkers.

 

His abilities are all combat-oriented. Again, staying with the them of what white does. He is Chandra’s ‘love’ interest in Magic: the Gathering lore as far as we know.

 

He is, I believe the rare planeswalker that has no real ‘ultimate’ ability. He is also the one planeswalker whose abilities you will probably use all of in the same game. You almost always want to start with the +2….

 

Everyone attacks Gideon. Oh great! Your opponents creatures are getting fogged for a full turn or maybe more. Watch as they give you the stink eye. No one likes having to attack a Gideon Jura. No one likes to have to do that more than once. This will force your opponent to overcommit or overextend the board and walk into a Day of Judgment or Wrath of God effect. You can also have a blink effect like Venser the Sojourner’s on Gideon to make him last forever and protect your other planeswalkers… as long as he doesn’t randomly take 8 or more damage on that turn. Fun stuff eh?

 

-2 Ability (Vengeance) this is the one that follows up the +2 usually. If a specific creature becomes troublesome, just zap it. Works well with tappers, such as the conveniently name Gideon’s Lawkeeper.

If your opponent does not have enough power to one-shot your Gideon, you can toggle between this and the + 2 ability indefinitely.

 

0: Ability. Gideon attack! LOL. This is the ‘ultimate’, not exactly. Not only does he become a 6/6 creature but he takes no damage. Your opponent needs a Go For the Throat or Doom Blade or Terminate type card to deal with him. He also allows you to have a creature always on when you are board whiping with stuff like Day of Judgment and Wrath of God. You can almost make a theme of it with cards like Glint Hawk Idol, Manor Gargoyle, Chimeric Mass, Chimeric Idol and so on. It’s actually a pretty cool and underused concept.

 

So far Gideon does not have another printing but look for him to make a return. Maybe in Return to Ravnica. Who knows. Also, as a side note, a lot of people have noted that the art for him on the Magic 2012 poster and other promotional merchandising have found him to bear a striking similarity to Bruce Willis. Take a closer look, you will be surprised.