The Noble Cheese

Now here's a card made for the Antigonish variant if I ever saw one! I guarantee that if four players are sitting around a table playing TAV, there is one Noble Djinni (3rd edition, 84/100) in each person's deck. You've got to have this card on hand, if you want to be competitive in the format.

Noble Djinni is a +4 ally, but that's not why anyone would use it. Let's also ignore the card's first power. It's okay in its own right - your opponent is prevented from playing flyers once battle begins (basically what this means is that only non-flying allies can be used). But the real fun comes from the Djinni's second power. "All opposing flyers already in the battle are discarded." Well, that means if a White Weird or a Foulwing is in play, they are tossed. Good, but...wait a minute! What if the opposing champion is itself a flyer?!

Yes, that's right. If an opponent attacks you with a flying champion like Ting Ling or Apocalypse or just about any dragon, and you slap down the Noble Djinni, the champion is instantly discarded. Since you get a spoils when an attacker is discarded during combat...BAM. Also, in TAV that opponent cannot attack you again until his or her next turn.  

Not many champions are immune to ally powers, so the Djinni is almost universally effective. It's not a flyer itself, so rule cards and/or events that prevent flyers don't stop you from slapping it down. And *everybody* uses flyers - they are some of the best champions in the game. These facts taken together make the Noble Djinni the very definition of primo, instant-kill cheese.

All-in-all, this is one genie you really don't want to let out of the bottle!

Next Time: Gib Cram's TAV dictionary!