Ayesha Tanaka
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Oldschool 93/94 Legal
Planechase Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Ayesha Tanaka

Legendary Creature — Human Artificer

Banding (Any creatures with banding, and up to one without, can attack in a band. Bands are blocked as a group. If any creatures with banding you control are blocking or being blocked by a creature, you divide that creature's combat damage, not its controller, among any of the creatures it's being blocked by or is blocking.)

: Counter target activated ability from an artifact source unless that ability's controller pays . (Mana abilities can't be targeted.)

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mauricio49b on Legends by Plane

3 years ago

The Vorthos in me loves DemonDragonJ's commander by home plane, so I wanted to expand that to all eligible commanders and legends. Don't nitpick me, but I am also including Planeswalkers and some unofficial commanders in this list due to them being notable figures in magic lore, and some casual circles use them as commanders. Placements are made due to lore reasons and my best judgement. Several planes have pretext to explain some categorization choices. I'll update this list over time of course. Currently Updated to Innistrad, Crimson Vow (VOW, 2021).

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Worth noting that most of the earlier unknown origins (especially LEG) can be assumed to be Dominaria, but there's not official confirmation and for all pre-mending sets, having a spark wasn't required for planar travel. If the set takes place on multiple planes, and there isn't explicit confirmation of which plane they reside, they go in unknown. Post Mending (Post Future Sight), creatures are assumed to be from the setting of the current plane, unless otherwise stated.

If this isn't enough vorthos for you, check out https://www.mtg-multiverse.com

Idoneity on Would a White Version of …

3 years ago

This is an odd subset within the game, as it is an effect sparsely seen yet widely known.

Blue is obviously the head of this ability, as demystified by bearing the namesake, yet Green actually has a few cards of it. Bind from Invasion is the only one that deviates from the stipulation of artifacts, the rest being Brown Ouphe , Ouphe Vandals , and Rust .

White only has Ayesha Tanaka , yet she is both Blue and restrained to artifacts. Wizards of the Coast did not have much of a grasp of the colour pie in Legends, meseems.

Like so many effects that could have been White, the Green part of the game takes it. It makes perfect sense for White to have this ability, as the colour does not only tax but outright denies (see Grand Abolisher , Leyline of Sanctity , Rest in Peace ), yet it does not.

ThoAlmighty on What instrument would Chromium play?

5 years ago

I recently made a finalized draft of an EDH decklist centered around banding, with Chromium at the helm (for more old-school mechanics). As the easiest way to give banding consistently is with the cycle of banding lands (for this deck, Cathedral of Serra, Unholy Citadel, and Seafarer's Quay), the deck has a historic theme. The joke of the deck is that all the legendary creatures are part of a band, so after I put the deck together I was planning to alter all of them with simple clipart-ish instruments. My question is: based on the art and character of each card, what instrument should I paint?

Some of them are fairly simple, like Ayesha Tanaka. It's not a stretch to say she's singing, so I could paint a little microphone next to her. Odric, Lunarch Marshal could be playing a cello. Although recognizability is important, I'd like a lot of different instruments. The sillier, the better. Any ideas?

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We're Getting the Band Back Together

Commander / EDH* ThoAlmighty

SCORE: 4 | 5 COMMENTS | 106 VIEWS

SynergyBuild on Commanders by Power Level [EDH Tier List]

5 years ago

thegigibeast here are some of my thoughts on the matter, dunno if it helps!

Wait... Myojin of Seeing Winds is tier 5? That is the best Omni-Show deck in the format, being surprisingly powerful with proper gameplay, running as a controling sort of deck before dropping Omniscience and going all Super-Saiyan and drawing the deck and casting it all for free. It uses it because when you get Omni out you can cast your commander, then Chain of Vapor, Into the Roil, Snap, and Blink of an Eye it to hand and draw into more bounce and card draw to draw more bounce to bounce Myojin and keep storming off until it hits Enter the Infinite and wins. Surprisingly a really sweet list. Tier 4?

Also, Ragnar is Tier 5? That is the second best commander for creature-based bant stax decks, very close to Derevi. I mean, protecting the other creatures you run is really important, and Mother of Runes and Sylvan Safekeeper can't do a ton against sweepers like Austere Command, so Ragnar really helps the list. Tier 3 for me.

Ayesha Tanaka is a reasonably powerful commander for Azorius Stax, stopping many cards such as Basalt Monolith's untap, Grim Monolith's untap, Dramatic Reversal, Strionic Resonator, Aetherflux Reservoir, etc. Tier 4.

Dosan the Falling Leaf is a reasonably well-powered elf-ball commander, helping out stopping almost any interaction on combo-turn. It really is good, despite not being an elf, it is low-costed enough to be cast on turn two from a turn one elf, and easily go off turn three given little hate. Tier 3.

In tier 4... well there are a lot I disagree with:

Adun Oakenshield is a powerful midrange-combo commander, being good with Hermit Druid lines in a way most aren't. The line is a simple one, using Morselhoarder, Devoted Druid, Dread Return, Necrotic Ooze, and Walking Ballista, yet also is surprisingly powerful with the ability to use the commander to rebuild if the combo is disrupted, using Krosan Reclamation to bring cards back into the deck immediately and Riftsweeper to shuffle back in the Reclamation, the list also can use Adun to bring back key cards to attempt to recombo out the very next turn, given sufficient mana. Backup wincon in Survival of the Fittest/Protean Hulk/Apprentice Necromancer in case you can't access the druid. Tier 3 (Similar to Xira Arien in terms of as a card and power level).

Anafenza, the Foremost has been already discussed, and is much, much more powerful as a stax/hatebears commander than a load of currently much higher rated lists. Tier 2-3?

Arcanis the Omnipotent may not see a lot of play, but instantly wins with Mind Over Matter and is easy to compare to as a slightly worse Azami, Lady of Scrolls. Tier 3.

Dragonlord Dromoka is a commander that always surprises me as a really impressive commander for stax. It even has a relatively effective wincon in beatdown. Being able to stop interaction on your turn, laying out a thicker field of stax, every following turn, while also having a commander that is difficult to interact with (dependent on interaction) is really much stronger than people expect when they see the 6 cmc. Tier 3.

Eladamri, Lord of Leaves is another good option for elfball, leaving extremely little interaction. It can be targetted itself because it was errated, but it is a cheap, effective wall against targetted removal, and so should be considered more often in comparison to other lists. Tier 3 is my pick.

Heidar, Rimewind Master I have only seen once, and it didn't do amazingly, but after I looked at the list was a reasonable Dramatic Reversal Isochron Scepter list that uses all snow lands except for an Ancient Tomb using Scrying Sheets really well. The commander isn't amazing, but the interaction hitting nearly anything while being able to synergize with the countermagic suite the deck runs really seems good in the grindier games, in which it disables most other decks' combos for a turn or so if it sticks. Tier 3?

Linvala, Keeper of Silence is one of the better mono-white stax lists, along with Hokori, Dust Drinker, I would imagine they are better in the current metagame than most would expect. Tier 3 seems reasonable for both.

Masako the Humorless should be tier 5. I don't think this ability is useful at all in cEDH, and when we have Atogatog in tier 5, a commander that could replace many old Scions and Najeelas in the C-Zone and no one would notice in tier 1-2, this card shouldn't be considered tier 4.

I will write up lists for these if you want, but I think most speak for themselves.

Caerwyn on Mechanics that never really worked

6 years ago

I mean, we should probably talk about that big ol' elephant in the room: Banding.

Banding is one of those abilities that should work. There are plenty of absurdly powerful combos you could assemble--I've always thought a combination of Breaker of Armies, Stuffy Doll, and Cooperation would be rather fun. On defense, a creature with banding can completely block a creature with trample, which is absurdly good, particularly given the numerous ways of giving creatures indestructible.

Now, it's pretty clear that I love the concept of banding, but there are several reasons why I do not think it worked.

  1. Banding requires tremendous support to excel on offense, but is from an era of Magic where cards tended to be less complex. There really are not any creatures that both have banding and a way to abuse it.

  2. Wizards had not quite figured out how to cost creatures with abilities when banding was released. 1/1s with banding (Benalish Hero and Timber Wolves) for 1 mana is quite reasonable--this is a card you want to throw in front of a trample user to buy you time. But it will not really help you much on offense. But once you start getting larger creatures like Benalish Infantry, the cost feels wrong--you're paying far too much for an ability that heavily requires other cards.

  3. Often times, banding creatures together makes them worse in combat. There are some combos you can use, but none of those combos work well with the existing set of banding cards.

  4. It's a wordy nightmare. I'm no stranger to complex legalese, and banding still gives me a bit of a headache.

  5. While nothing else really compares to banding's blocking ability, there are far, far better pseudo banding options for offense such as Odric, Master Tactician.

  6. The current selection of banding cards are far, far too slow for Legacy and Vintage, leaving only Commander. There are only two legendary creatures with banding. Ayesha Tanaka is just terrible, with a small body for 4 mana and an extremely situational ability. Soraya the Falconer has a wonderful ability to confer banding... but only to birds--a tribe which does not really have the support necessary to break banding.

Caerwyn on What mechanics should return for …

6 years ago

I agree with SteelSentry's suggestion of banding, though I know it is a bit of an unpopular one (most people I've talked to about my desire for banding's return either roll their eyes, complain about how wordy the rules text is, or ask "what the heck is banding?").

Currently, there are two legendary creatures with Banding-based abilities, neither of which is viable in commander. Ayesha Tanaka is a measly 2/2 with an extremely poor ability (especially in multiplayer), which still costs you 4 coloured mana. Soraya the Falconer's ability to give others banding is nice, but mono-white birds are a terrible tribe--the vast majority of them are older cards, and are incredibly poorly costed for what you receive. Further, very few, if any, of these creatures really benefit from banding.

Now, why banding?

On defense, banding is extremely powerful, and provides a hard stop to creatures with trample (if the defending player blocks a creature with banding, they can choose to assign all damage to their creature, rather than have some trample over. A 1/1 with banding can block the totality of a 500/500 trample creature's damage).

But on offense is where it gets fun. For example: Breaker of Armies + Banding gifted to it by the commander + Stuffy Doll = all your other creatures successfully do damage; you assign all their blocker's damage to an indestructible creature; you reflect the blocker's damage back on target player.

Caerwyn on Commander 2018

6 years ago

At the risk of voicing an unpopular idea, I would love to see a deck which utilizes Banding. Currently, there are only two possible commanders with Banding--Soraya the Falconer, who is limited to a mediocre tribe, and Ayesha Tanaka, whose ability is quite substandard.

The mechanic itself provides some interesting possibilities, but is from an era where cards tend to be under-powered and vastly over-costed. Banding does some cool things on the defense, including providing immunity from trample damage. On offense, it would be really fun to band a card like Breaker of Armies with Stuffy Doll.

Since the mechanic is a bit of a wordy mess, we are never going to see it released in a standard-legal set. However, given Commander's more laid-back environment, it seems the perfect place for a limited re-release of the mechanic.

chosenone124 on Can vehicles tap a creature …

6 years ago

Another way to disable crewing is to stop activated ablities of the artifact with stuff like like Damping Matrix, Ayesha Tanaka, or Lavinia of the Tenth

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