Been playtesting this guy for a little while now. Here's my findings:
Getting his ability off nice and early in the game is GAMEBREAKING. From games I've played, the ability to save your own hand and play your opponent's cards, most of which will be good, puts you so far ahead card advantage-wise. You either steal a useful card, exile something you can't play (but could still be useful to your opponent) but gain a ton of life for free, or exile one of their lands and watch as they, quite consistently (from my various plays), miss their important land drops. There's no situation where hitting with this guy is not worth the swing, because you're gaining life or exiling/stealing their resources in the process.
The fact that you have until the end of the turn to play the card you hit makes exiling counterspells even more lovely. ("No, I don't believe you will be casting 'at the end of my turn.'") Again, I have to stress that the worst-case scenario - hitting a land - is ac... (see all)
Posted By:
Kaizeischi
(9/18/2013 12:22:32 AM)
Beautiful white blue hero flavor. While the other heroes are straight out fighting monsters, this guy slips behind them and manipulates others into fighting for him, just as any clever hero would.
A few obvious combos - aqueous form is amazing - and in spite of his evasive abilities this guy is the first one I want to put it on. Doublestrike, be it fireshrieker or Ajani, caller of the pride - will double the magic, and double the fun.
In set - Ephara's Warden seems a designed combo
Posted By:
Cloudchaser.Kestrel
(9/17/2013 9:57:33 PM)
Oh my goodness. He only says "you may cast that card until end of turn," not "you may cast that card as long as it remains exiled." That means that if you put the opponent's commander on top of their library and then deal combat damage with Daxos, you can cast the opponent's commander even if it's been sent back to the command zone!
Best of all, the additional mana required to recast a commander only applies to the card's owner, so you don't even have to pay any additional tax to do it!
Here is a statement from a judge verifying this:
http://magicjudge.tumblr.com/post/66749649488/
Posted By:
MisterAction
(11/15/2013 11:01:42 PM)
Great equip/aura target, since no big creatures can block him. The added spell steal bonus makes him highly versatile, like using Noxious Revival to put opponent''s card on his or her library.
Posted By:
Cyberium
(9/17/2013 6:07:55 PM)
This is quite amazing for EDH, although it's going to have a great big target on it. That ability is powerful and not to be trifled with at any point in the game.
Posted By:
SyntheticDreamer
(9/18/2013 4:34:35 AM)
No creature with even Power and Toughness can profitably block him with his evasive ability and the stealing effect if fun card advantage with built in survivability from the life gain. 4.2/5.
Posted By:
Purplerooster
(9/18/2013 3:37:19 PM)
Holeeeee crap, this card does it all. To count it off:
- Evasion, par for the course for UW but with a unique twist. With a couple of auras and/or first strike (not hard for white to muster) it's either damage or death for the defending player.
- Lifegain, which by itself isn't too impressive, but can be nice if it's stapled onto another ability. Such as...
- Card theft. With mana of any color. And at any point of the turn at that. That kind of thing alone can upset games.
- All, for a measly 3 mana. I only wish this had a third color just so I could put it in a more flexible EDH deck.
This will be a beast in just about any format. I'm thinking it's about as scary as good old Saint Traft. So keep your eye out for it.
Posted By:
Totema
(9/18/2013 9:49:27 PM)
Council of the absolute, meet daxos, daxos, council of the absolute. Your best friend cant use his favorite card, and you take it from him and play it for less.
SO MUCH FUN!
Posted By:
BroskigeeAirmen
(9/28/2013 8:34:37 PM)
I want to put this odysseus-like fellow in my EDH deck as the general. That way I can really not invest huge dollars on my own cards and just play with my opponent's jank stuff. It's great if you have cards that see what's at the top of opponents' decks obviously. Or good old cards like Time Ebb, which put cards there directly. There's hardly anything more fun than that, really.
Posted By:
Hercynian
(11/6/2013 8:21:42 AM)
I bet this card tells a story. I see Daxos as a leader character. Someone who went on a journey to recruit the finest warriors, scholars and miscreants in all the land. Each of them had given him a challenge to win them over. So he had to use his cunning and tenacity in order to show them that he was capable leader. None of them where able to stand in his way and folded to his mastery, becoming a part of his band of adventurers for the gods. Where this ability would normally be associated with Blue/black, it fits perfectly in White/blue if we look at in this light.
Daxos reminds me of Odysseus of whom he may have been inspired by. I look forward to playing with this card and I feel his mechanics do show a bit of his character. I am very interested in learning more about him now and I hope at least part of my prediction is correct.
Posted By:
Yozuk
(9/17/2013 7:58:49 PM)