Well someone should take advantage of him tied up to give him a haircut!
Though, I like the hair in front of his left eye which puts it in the shadows, very creepy.

I could picture Ajani being captured and bound whenever a haircut is in store^^

And his eye should forshadow his turning into darkness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHtKpHlujOA

Oh dear! We may need more ropes!
No! Forget the ropes! Bring chains!

good idea
might come in handy^^

While I am unhappy with the game’s decision to do the lore change, I am in agreement this is a good excuse to time him up more.

I agree with both.

Such a handsome lion! Yes, sounds like a good bit of bondage will do him some good.

Since he will be going evil in the Magic TCG universe, I thought it would be good to set "preventive measures"^^

HAH! Yes! Good on you, being "prepared" like that.

what ? why did they change it that way? that is stupid

I fear, if the story goes on like that it would end as following:

Ajani gets corrupted by the darkness, still believing to do the right thing. After some time, he begins to doubt his course of action, but he as he realizes the truth, it is too late and to amend for his crimes, he sacrifices himself for the grater good.

Yeah yeah. As usual the only character I like in a franchise is going to die. I am so done with it. And there are going my magic cards

Well he's not DEAD so I do have a little bit of hope.... but the way they went about this was just so callous and disappointing, it definitely impacted how I feel about set as a whole, and not for the better.

Well. I just am going to dump the game. Personal feelings, yes. But I am done with every character I like in a franchise is getting this fate. It is almost like a curse.

That's a shame. Understandable, but a shame. I know several people who have quit over this too. I'm of the opinion that this will only get worse if people quit. While I'm super unhappy with the creative decisions behind the game, I'm still enjoying the game itself. So until I stop enjoying the game, I'll just have to carefully decide what aspects I get involved in and hope that filling out their surveys and being vocal about this point will improve things in the future.

well. what to say. When you know the players like to play a character because of he is the good guy and like to play him as a good guy it may be a strange decision to make him turn evil after decades. XD

Haha exactly. Though there is room for them to cure him, so I'm going to wait this out. Though since this has happened already I at least hope they make him an effective villain first. And not just ignore him for another decade.

Phyrexian corruption and a rather grimdark fate for a noble lion, so a good thing to take some preventative measures and bind Ajani Goldmane.

Catnip can be effective on lions, so maybe also giving him an additional bandana gag with a handkerchief soaked in catnip scent to help him mellow out. Maybe a good brushing to get that mane tidied and redo his braids. With his amour having been removed, then finish up with some belly rubs and tickles so that can hopefully chase away any darkness that might threaten to take root.

The only successful way to banish evil

Rawr guess this is the most sexy of them

thanks much

Poor Ajani!!

While I can't deny the potential cool aspects of his recent lore developments, I have absolutely zero faith in WOTC to be able to pull it off. It's been clear to me for a while now that WOTC doesn't give a damn about their nonhuman characters and even if they make Ajani's compleation into a legitimately interesting and effective plot point, I won't so easily forgive how they handled the lead up to it. They ignore him for years, deny him plots he's at the center of, give him the worst cards, then have the gall to then turn around and say "Oh Ajani isn't as popular as Jace or Liliana or Chandra" and do this to him, right off the heels of Tamiyo, too!

And on that note, would anyone like to join me in leaving feedback on the set? WOTC is doing an official survey for Dominaria United. You can bet I'll be mentioning this in my feedback of the set.

https://www.tumblr.com/wizardsmagic.....y?source=share

Sad but true. As far as I have heard, anthro characters in MTG have not really good plots...

It's not just anthro characters, it's nonhuman characters in general (though yes anthro characters fair especially poorly). Despite all the unique races afforded to them, MTG has always had a heavy human bias. Okay that's fine, I expect most people would initially gravitate ntowards human characters anyway. But Ajani has been treated especially poorly despite ostensibly being one of 3 nonhuman main characters (the other 2 being an elf and a golem) out of 20 or so everyone else being human and getting far more screen time (both in terms of story and cards).

And like I sald, the deck was always stacked against him. His cards and strategies they encourage are weak (lifegain). As a character he has the most esoteric and easiest to ignore power sets (healing and 'soul magic'). In nearly 15 years he's been a point of view character twice (the next lowest of all the main characters sits at roughly a dozen). He's been a no show in multiple plots he's been positioned to play a major role in (a background character in 3, and outright left out of another). And his appearance in this set marks the first time we've seen him in years and he immediately gets turned evil.

Like I said there are outs for the creative team, but where as before their human characters were always just given a spotlight, these past few years that spotlight has come at the direct cost of nonhuman characters, and its infuriating. All I can do now is fill out their surveys and buy the Ajani comic to hope it shows them that nonhuman characters and Ajani in particular are worth something.

I guess, most people still shy away if there is an anthro character involved. So the Producers pushed non human characters to the side, for not to lose potential customers.

That unfortunately appears to at least partially be the case, but in a world populated with so many different races I find it incredibly jarring that everything is just SO human centric, with no framing device to explain it. Like I have zero problem with the human centrism of Star Trek, because the framing device is that it follows the stories of a human ship. But when we're talking about a fantasy world with so many races treated indistinguishably, then getting exclusively human stories with exclusively human characters and an exclusively human main cast, it's just frustrating.

Maybe because most customers still prefer to be the human race the unstoppable class of heroes, where non human species at least are accepted at the side lines, but not as the heroes themselves.

Yeah. And I get that, but I also hate it and think it makes for more boring worlds and stories.

So at the end it is us fans again who need to do the trick for ourselves with fanfictions and fanart^^;

Yup! I mean look at my name and my gallery. I'm doing what I can, haha.

And you are doing a good job

Adrift amidst the uncountable planes and dimensions of the multiverse, where dreams shape reality and where there could on occasion be found a castle, that was where the dying thoughts of a planeswalker might bring him. The very last moment where finally the nightmare of Phyrexian corruption was ended and Ajani Goldmane found a moment of peace as he was returned to himself.

Perhaps it was just the last images that passed through the mind of one dying, both random and cryptic, black furred and red eyed rats, a curious trefoil symbol and a glittering blue crystal, a sense of travel across countless worlds and planes, many different faces. Then there was a curious sense of himself coming apart, a million little shards and then nothingness.

Ajani Goldmane didn't know how he'd come to find himself home again, in a state of delirium and considering all that had occurred, he'd not have blamed anyone for binding him even if he'd been in a state to offer resistance. There was a strange glint in his eye, just a lingering echo of his experience, though as his armour was removed to reveal fur and skin beneath with not a trace of metal, it was clear that this was Ajani reborn and whole...even if it would take a little time to come back to himself and his dreams would be strange indeed for many years to come.

lovely

The recent story actually involved him getting captured by the heroes who threw nets on him and tied him up so they could cure him of his evil.

Too bad we didn’t get to see art of that on a card. :(

Good thing, they are able to rescue him.
I only saw one card image, where Ajani is laying feinted on the ground and the card effect says, that a spell is neutralized and the lore text stated, that they put lot of effort into saving Ajani.
Maybe we fans will have to do the trick again in portraying the capture/rescue of Ajani ourselves.
Who was involved in the rescue?

Kind of a long story, but I will try to give a short version.

Phyrexians, the machine cult villains who captured and mind controlled Ajani, wanted to control all worlds and existence, leading to huge battles. An entire world connected to the time mage/planeswalker Teferi was sent crashing into the villains’ world, bringing an army. Ajani (still mind controlled) came to the battle to try and protect the villains, but the good guy army took him out of the battle with nets and magic.

After the Phyrexian leaders were defeated Ajani still had the corrupting power on him but, since no one was giving orders, he was asleep. He was saved by three people: Karn, a silver robot/golem who used part of his soul, Melira, a human capable of removing Phyrexian corruption, and Teferi who slowed down time to allow the process to happen.

It took significant sacrifice but, as far as we know, Ajani is cured of the evil.

Ah, ok. Thank you very much for sharing this info.

Maybe it will be the source of a fanart with some net bondage with Ajani.^^

Heh heh. That would be the best thing!