MTG Salvation

Like all the Monarch cards, this one's value is difficult to decipher without getting games under your belt, and it also doesn't help that it's in the same set as quite possibly one of the most powerful blue creatures ever (who also happens to share the same mana cost). That said, as the top of a curve in a midrange deck this card looks like it can put in work. If you keep both it and the Monarch on your side, then you have a dicounted Sun Quan, Lord of Wu that draws a card every single turn (starting with the turn you played him). The question becomes, is the card powerful enough to justify the risk in having your opponent obtain the Monarch? I'm not sure the answer, or the size/style of cube that would want it, but at the very least the raw power is there.

Did anyone add this card? I was just taking a look through monarch cards after figuring out how awesome Behemoth and Lich are. No one?

The cubeable Monarch cards are good because their abilities are geared towards helping you maintain or retake Monarch (or creating a situation where exchanging Monarch back and forth is hugely unfavorable for the opponent). This ability does nothing for you unless you are holding Monarch uncontested ...and those are boards/games you're gonna win anyways.

It's not really appealing enough for me to want to try it. You have to wait a while to get rewarded for the monarch trigger other than the card, so if you can't block well enough that really sucks. It's also an expensive blue card, which there's barely room for. If you got the unblockable trigger as it ETB/whenever you became monarch it would be a lot more intriguing but when you're getting a 4/4 for 3UU that just makes you the monarch then that's not good enough. Plus as KMAYER referred to, Arcane Savant came out in the same set so a tough cut already had to be made, doing another would have to be a lot more rewarding than this guy.

I have thrown this into my 15-card Conspiracy module that gets debuted in a few weeks.
I suspect it's going to go further in the slower Multiplayer environment, and it's certainly going to free up some clogged boards. Will likely need to be dealt with on sight if my opponent plays it. I can see it being very good in a 2HG / 3HG environment (simply because there are multiple people protecting it there).