With one of the new cards being related to Iona, I think now is a good time to revisit Iona the legendary. She is a 2/1 flying card with 2 special land requirements. She is basically a glorified collector, but suffers from the fact that taunts still affect her and she can still be targeted by spells and aoe. As an early collector she isn’t much better than a farm boy. She really only gets put down because there isn’t anything else you can do that turn. I think at the very least she should be a 2/3 so she can’t just be killed in the crossfire of a groundshaker aoe like an afterthought. If people are worried about her being too strong in handbuff decks that maybe give her a last words. Something like when she dies she is resurrected as a spirit or witch. Than she could at least have some synergy with Sac decks. While legendaries aren’t meant to be overpowered I think that she deserves a little more love because of the fact that she is a legendary. It feels really crappy to pull a legendary from a chest and never find a use for it. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the card pool is still small and these are the core legendaries of the game.
Best use is as a blocker, defending your orb (especially vs range) or blocking double-collect.
I’ve never chosen her but I have Magda-rolled her.
I’d say she should be 1/2 instead of 2/1 because that lets her survive groundshakers, falcon dive, and the other 1 damage effects. But 2/3 would be too powerful for a 2 faeria IMHO even without her special.
She is worse in Pandora, too.
3 Ionas + some healing could defeat any deck lacking non-combat damage, so you could try Iona + Aurora’s Creations. Add some buffs to avoid falcon dive etc and avoid drawing cards.
She seems a good fit for the new Divine keyword that’s for sure.
The chances of you getting 3 Iona’s In a game is super slim though. And she is susceptible to,
1 Faeria
Falcon Dive
2 Faeria
Famine, The Emperor’s Command, Soul Drain
3 Faeria
Punishment
4 Faeria
Frogify, Firebomb, Choking Sands
6 Faeria
Firestorm,Last Nightmare
7 Faeria,
Hellfire
9 Faeria
Doomsday
12 Faeria
Meteor
This doesn’t include cards that have Aoe, Taunt, or cards that move her. Admittedly cards with a higher cost than punishment would probably be a waste to use on her, but the point is pretty much every popular deck has a way to deal with her easily, and in just about every case you just ignore her.
What happens if you give iona taunt?
Iona becomes attackable.
i feel like she might be beastly i mean imagine givin her +2 +4, yellow green seems to make a pretty good fit anyways
(100 hrs only but Adept at strat games, so id say above average intermediate Player reference here). that and a protect…shooot i iwish i had her now for my ddeck- this Girl n ruunin ooooweee Baby i want it. my deck’d kill
