Of all the cards to show up on the Alara Reborn Visual Spoiler so far, this is the easilly the most exciting creature of the bunch. What is not to love about a 3/3 flier for three mana that can grow as big as needed? The only downside I can see to this critter is  its legendary status when everyone is going to want to be playing with this card. Jenara is going to be exciting for players looking for the Noble Hierarch into 3-drop into Rafiq parlay and is a suitable finisher for 5-color players.

I am very excited about this card in the 5-color decks. I have been playing around with one list that was more or less creatureless with a handful of counterspells and Martial Coup as the only way to win. With Alara Reborn I can see this deck making room for anywhere up to a full set of four — although you rarely see four-ofs in a deck that have the legendary tag.

I think it has to draw inevitable comparisons to the Serra Angels in Brian Weissman’s The Deck from the primoridal days of competitive Magic and it is not far off. It is not too hard to imagine scenarios where this is getting played once a player has five or six mana — to protect it with either Hindering Light or Cancel — and using mana to pump it only when there is a clear window to do so.

There is a flexibility to Jenara that is unmatched by the game’s first contol deck finisher — as any 90’s era player who has stared at a useless Serra Angel in hand while getting smashed by Savannah Lions and White Knights can attest. Mono-white Exalted has been taking the top spot in MTGO Block PEs for the past few weeks. Jenara seems like a fine weapon to come down early and scale with the exalted threat from your opponent.

Basically, this card is vying with Broodmate Dragon for the creature slot in these decks so it will become a question of mana cost versus card advantage. While the Dragon is the clear winner on the table the ability to drop this guy early and slow down opponents playing more agressive strategies will certainly merit some attention.

In the Bant decks Jenara will be vying with Rhox War Monk, which comes with a crucial fourth point of toughness and the ability to double up on the lifelink with Battlegrace Angel to put the damage race out of reach very quickly. Flight and pumpability vs. Lifelink with the drawback of legendary status weighing it down on the first side. My guess is that in Hierarch based block decks Jenara will serve as 3-drop’s five through eight (or maybe only six or seven) to ensure that Noble Hierarch has something to power out on turn two.