Gideon\'s Annex

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Gideon Jura

Legendary Planeswalker — Gideon

Rise of the Eldrazi

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+2: During target opponent's next turn, creatures that player controls attack Gideon Jura if able. −2: Destroy target tapped creature. 0: Until end of turn, Gideon Jura becomes a 6/6 Human Soldier creature that's still a planeswalker. Prevent all damage that would be dealt to him this turn.

Loyalty: 6

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Norn's Annex

Artifact

New Phyrexia

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(

can be paid with either

or 2 life.) Creatures can't attack you or planeswalkers you control unless their controller pays

for each of those creatures.

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Date Posted: Thu Mar/08/12 at 10:34 pm

Black_Lantern_Jake

Posts: 3
Joined: 15-Sep-11

Pros: This combo is Standard Legal (until June). Works fantastically against decks that build up huge armies of creatures on the battlefield.

Cons: You need to have five mana to start using it. Effectiveness is signifcantly diminished against mono-White Decks.

1) Norn's Annex, naturally, makes your opponent have to pay one white mana, or two life, for each creature he attacks you or your planeswalker with.

2) Gideon's +2 ability forces your opponent to attack Gideon next turn.

If your opponent is playing non-white, using Gideon's +2 ability forces your opponent to attack, only with the Annex out, he cannot attack unless he pays 2 life for each attacker. If your opponent has five or more creatures in play, this can be very painful to him. Best of all, your opponent's creatures don't hit you, they must hit Gideon. So you take no damage even if you have no blockers. Basically, you force your opponent with these two cards to grind down his own life total.

Additional spells that prevent damage will also enable you to spare Gideon from getting killed in case your opponent has enough creatures to do so.

I actually killed somebody with this combo, so it does work pretty effectively.

If you're playing a white deck, then you can force your opponent to pay life instead of white mana by finding something with which to tap or destroy all his lands with before implementing Gideon's ability. This, however, may require you to play multiple colors in your deck.

Date Posted: Thu Mar/08/12 at 10:59pm

Boyachi

Posts: 1553
Joined: 02-Nov-11

Holy crap! A non-Jace planswalker in a combo that doesn't rest on pulling off the ability that requires the most loyalty counters? I never thought I'd see the day!

Date Posted: Fri Mar/09/12 at 1:58am

Karn

Posts: 31
Joined: 01-Nov-10

Jesus! My nonwhite token deck's going to kill myself.

Date Posted: Fri Mar/09/12 at 7:01am

gericault5

Posts: 2788
Joined: 13-Oct-09

Gidion says the must attack if able.
However the annex says creatures are not able to attack unless you pay.
So unless the controller decides to pay the creeatures are not able to attack. And gidion can't force them to pay
Sorry to burst the bubble but it no floats

Date Posted: Fri Mar/09/12 at 7:04am

Turbine

Posts: 10194
Joined: 26-Oct-09

Aww. . .Gericault beat me to it.

Date Posted: Fri Mar/09/12 at 8:36am

Squillis

Posts: 424
Joined: 20-Nov-08

Indeed, see the excerpt from the rules below, bolding is my own

508.1d The active player checks each creature he or she controls to see whether it's affected by any requirements (effects that say a creature must attack, or that it must attack if some condition is met). If the number of requirements that are being obeyed is fewer than the maximum possible number of requirements that could be obeyed without disobeying any restrictions, the declaration of attackers is illegal. If a creature can't attack unless a player pays a cost, that player is not required to pay that cost, even if attacking with that creature would increase the number of requirements being obeyed.

Example: A player controls two creatures: one that "attacks if able" and one with no abilities. An effect states "No more than one creature can attack each turn." The only legal attack is for just the creature that "attacks if able" to attack. It's illegal to attack with the other creature, attack with both, or attack with neither.