Every time I look at this card, I get distracted
by the fact that the Angel in the art appears to
be wearing silver pantyhose with flip flops. I
long ago came to accept the fact that Magic's
Angels are typically wearing plate armor that
shows too much skin to be functional, but this
is getting downright absurd.
Gameplay-wise, saying Sublime Archangel is good
doesn't really say anything. Anyone who knows
anything about Magic should be able to look at
this card and immediately know that it's an
amazing card. Heck, even without any exalted at
all it'd be good. Compare it to Tower Gargoyle
from Alara block-- that card was one of the most
powerful Limited beaters you could get, and that
required three colors of mana. This is an
easy-to-manage 2WW for a 4/3 flyer that,
ideally, isn't swinging for such a paltry amount
as 4.
The only real question here is why a deck that
runs on exalted would be expected to have enough
creatures to make the Sublime One operate at her
best-- or conversely, why a token swarm deck
would want to give its entire army exalted just
to swing with only one creature. The solution to
that is to remind yourself that exalted is not
an obligation to only send in one creature. It's
a reward for doing so, yes, but sometimes
swinging with the team will be the correct play.
The ability to switch gears from a single
enormous creature and a swarm of small ones is
more powerful than it looks, as it makes your
opponent work even harder to protect himself
form you.
I know that Bolas was scheduled to be the only
multicolored card in M13, but I can't help but
miss some of Bant's angels, like Stoic Angel or
Battlegrace Angel. As far as gameplay goes,
though, Sublime Archangel is a perfectly fine
replacement for them, and even includes what are
close to combo elements in the form of "how many
instances of exalted can I generate among
permanents I control?" She also puts token
strategies over the top, and makes any Lingering
Souls spirits you have left over by the time
someone else has dragons in play feel a lot less
small. Strongly recommended.
Today's card of the day is Sublime Archangel
which is a four mana White
4/3 with Flying, Exalted, and gives your other
creatures Exalted. This is an excellent
card that is efficient, aggressive, and evasive
that turn a small swarm with one unblockable or
other evasion type into a major threat as soon
as she is played. As a 5/4 on the attack
without any other creatures it is very strong at
four mana, but every other creature makes this
even better. While it can be argued that
Exalted can equal or reduce the attack strength
of a large force while putting all of the eggs
in one basket when that creature has evasion,
Hexproof, or other combat benefits it is well
worth that risk. Overall this will be a
major card in current formats and see quite a
bit of play in Exalted and swarm designs.
For Limited this is a bomb and a definite first
pick that will win games either by itself or by
allowing another threat to launch a game ending
attack. The half White mana cost is not a
huge concern in a mono-White or two color deck
and the power is definitely worth the
dedication. In Booster or Sealed it is
worth running as much of an Exalted theme as
possible when this is available and include
almost anything with evasion or Hexproof.
