Crusade was a legend, a staple of White Weenie
decks historically. I hate to say it, but
newcomer Honor of the Pure just does it better.
And in a way, that's to be expected. We aren't
baffled, enraged, or disheartened when this
year's new car models have more engine power and
better mileage than those of yesteryear. Why
would we be when we see that the 2010 model of
white enchantment that boosts your team is more
efficient than the one we were using years ago?
Of course, Crusade has its places. If you're
playing multiplayer and you know your teammates
are playing white (and your enemies aren't),
then Crusade can be a great help to your team.
If you don't have any teammates, Crusade can be
a political tool, allowing you to curry favor
with any other white mages at the table,
possibly earning you a bailout against any
nonwhite attacking army. Or, if you're in a duel
and just happen to know that your opponent has
no white creatures, and your manabase produces
no nonwhite mana, then Crusade is just as good
as Honor of the Pure.
This week we're talking about some of the famous
cards from the latest duel deck, Elspeth vs.
Tezzeret. If you're only familiar with M10 and
Honor of the Pure, Crusade might look a little
odd. The symmetrical nature of its effect can be
troubling, occasionally requiring you to take a
little extra time with combat calculations.
Still, there's a reason global power and
toughness boosts are sometimes called "Crusade
effects" - not every opponent will be playing
mono-white, and one or two extra points of
damage are often the difference between victory
and defeat.
Welcome back readers today's card of the day is
an old classic white weenie card recently
reprinted in Elspeth Versuse Tezzeret, Crusade.
For one less mana then Glorious Anthem Crusade
gives all white creatures +1/+1, in stark
contrast to Honor Of The Pure a less color
intensive version of this card which only
grants the bonus to creatures you control. In
standard end extended this card is not legal so
unfortunately its no good there. In eternal I
think Honor Of The Pure renders this card
obsolete as you no longer have to worry about
pumping opponents white creatures. In casual and
multiplayer this card is an even worse idea,
White is a popular multiplayer color and
inadvertently pumping an opponents army is never
a good idea plus the fact there is Glorious
Anthem and hundreds of other variants that are
playable. In limited unless your drafting with
duel decks, a bizarre practiced this card is not
relevant so not good at all. Overall a classic
older card loaded with flavor and killer new
artwork but Honor of The Pure is almost always
strictly better.
Today's card of the day is Crusade which hasn't
been legal in Standard or even Extended for
quite some time, but was recently reprinted in
the Elspeth Vs. Tezzeret deck with new art and
flavor text. While not legal since Sixth
edition was last in rotation, Crusade has been
more or less replaced by Honor of the Pure.
Honor of the Pure has a slightly easier casting
cost to play with one White and one colorless
instead of two White, and can't benefit opposing
forces like Crusade can which leaves very few
scenarios where Crusade would be preferable.
That doesn't rule out the option of running both
in the formats that allow it, but there are
other less restrictive options that can work on
more than just White creatures and in more
widely played settings.
For Limited, should one happen to play a really
old draft or perhaps sealed Duel Decks, this is
a very solid card provided your opponent isn't
also playing White. If you are only
playing White this can hit the battlefield early
and isn't likely to get removed, but will take a
bit longer to play in a multicolor deck. A
high draft choice in in Booster followed by
White creatures and an easy choice to build a
deck around in Sealed.
In Multiplayer this is a risky card to play as
it is likely someone else will benefit from it
as well, but a good card to base an alliance
from and excellent in Two-Headed Giant if your
partner is playing White and your opponents are
not.
