Ajani, Nacatl Pariah is one of the strongest creatures printed in Modern Horizons 3 and has had a big impact on Modern and Legacy alike. The front half of Ajani is already quite strong. If you ever have the luxury of transforming it into a Planeswalker, it can singlehandedly take over the game.
Funnily enough, though, the Planeswalker side may be even more powerful than you realize. Thanks to an unusual interaction between Ajani’s 0 ability and any token doubler, you can actually trigger the damage-dealing ability multiple times if you control another red permanent! This is an exciting discovery that could come up in the future.
How the Interaction Works
To understand exactly why this unique interaction works the way it does, we need to look at the exact wording on Ajani, Nacatl Avenger’s 0 ability. You start by making a 2/1 Cat Warrior token. When you do, if you control another red permanent, you can deal damage equal to the number of creatures you control to any target.
In most scenarios, this is a pretty simple ability to understand. You get a 2/1 token guaranteed, and you get to send damage to a target of your choice on top of that if you control another red permanent. However, the damage-dealing ability specifically features a reflexive “when” trigger, meaning that if a replacement effect alters the number of tokens you would create, that replacement effect also alters the number of times you would deal damage to any target.
Token doublers, such as Doubling Season, enable you to make two Cat tokens with a single activation of Ajani’s 0 ability. From there, if you control another red permanent, the damage-dealing ability will trigger twice.
Notably, the reflexive ability triggers once for each Cat token you produce. This means that if you have multiple token doublers in play and thus would create even more Cats, you’ll get more damage-dealing triggers as a result.
On the flip side, if a replacement effect causes you to generate a different type of token (say, you have Divine Visitation in play), “the creation of those tokens won’t cause the reflexive ability to trigger.”
Applying the Interaction
While this interaction isn’t new, it could have some impact on games and how players choose to build their decks moving forward. In Commander, token doublers see a ton of play. It wouldn’t be shocking for a Naya tokens shell to utilize Ajani and have this line of play come to fruition. Ajani isn’t a particularly interesting choice in Commander without this context. Now, Ajani can turn into a win condition, dealing massive damage to multiple targets on an established board.
Even in a Constructed setting, this isn’t too far-fetched. Exalted Sunborn already sees some Legacy play in Ajani decks. It synergizes with Ajani, Ocelot Pride, and Voice of Victory. Sunborn’s Warp ability makes it easy to get value early in the game from its replacement effect. Plus, Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd can blink Exalted Sunborn so you can keep the 4/5 flier with Lifelink around long term.
Many decklists splash red for Amped Raptor and Goblin Bombardment, the latter of which sets up an Ajani transformation nicely. With a little help from Exalted Sunborn afterwords, you can put yourself at a huge advantage.
Exalted Sunborn also shows up in Boros Energy decklists in Modern from time to time. It’s a bit clunky, but there are a lot of token producers to take advantage of. Using Arena of Glory to make a big attack while Warping Exalted Sunborn is pretty sweet, too. With Ajani’s neat interaction becoming common knowledge, we could easily see more copies of Exalted Sunborn appear in decklists in the future.
Similar Situations
Up to this point, we’ve focused solely on Ajani and how to abuse its 0 ability. Importantly, though, Ajani is not the only token producer to feature a reflexive ability.
In fact, in Standard, Faebloom Trick has very similar wording. With a token doubler out, casting Faebloom Trick will net you four Faeries. Then, you get to tap down two of your opponent’s creatures instead of just one.
Both Exalted Sunborn and Elspeth, Storm Slayer are Standard-legal, too. The reward of tapping down an extra creature isn’t as game breaking as dealing a ton of extra damage to any target, but it’s still worth keeping in mind.
At the moment, there isn’t really a deck that incorporates both Faebloom Trick and any token doubler. Elspeth is mainly a control finisher, Faebloom Trick is useful in Dimir midrange alongside Enduring Curiosity, and there are some fun shenanigans to be had with Exalted Sunborn and blink effects like Splash Portal. These strategies just don’t tend to overlap.
Perhaps an Azorius tokens shell will emerge in Standard over time. For now, keep these interactions in your back pocket. You never know when they might come up.
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