MTG Salvation

She's great on offense (immediately -2 on your biggest ground creature to get in an evasive and bigger attack), defense (by making chump blockers that not only soak up damage but also gain you life), and in a late-game board stall (by ticking up to ultimate). I really like this card and will find room for it in my cube, which supports a heavy lifegain matters theme, a heavy +1/+1 counters theme, and a light Angel tribal theme. Even without those synergistic themes, this card is very powerful. By itself this card is strong as a standalone value engine that ticks up to make 1/1 lifelinkers that next turn can attack as 3/3 flying lifelinkers, then the following turn as Baneslayers.

This feels essentially the same power level as OG Elspeth, which is nowadays a bubble card on power level for cubes (can't believe how far we've come). If you want that with a slightly different flavor, or want another version of that, this is perfect. However, if you don't want that, this card won't move you.

I think this is probably slightly worse when you're ahead (unless your opponent has no removal, where it's probably better), slightly better when you're behind, and with a cheaper and worse ultimate that I don't really care about (just like with OG Elspeth).

But like, this isn't gonna move the needle on what 4-drops I want to run. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is more powerful. I think the Wandering Emperor is more powerful (and infinitely more interesting as a design). It's not gonna bump any of my 4-drop creatures. I wish, given that this is apparently Eslpeth merged with Serra, they'd pushed the power up a bit more and maybe made it a 5-drop or a 6-drop, or had tried a completely different suite of abilities. It's kind of boring that it's so similar to the the first time we saw Elspeth.

Quote from asmallcat »

This feels essentially the same power level as OG Elspeth, which is nowadays a bubble card on power level for cubes (can't believe how far we've come). If you want that with a slightly different flavor, or want another version of that, this is perfect. However, if you don't want that, this card won't move you.

I think this is probably slightly worse when you're ahead (unless your opponent has no removal, where it's probably better), slightly better when you're behind, and with a cheaper and worse ultimate that I don't really care about (just like with OG Elspeth).

But like, this isn't gonna move the needle on what 4-drops I want to run. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is more powerful. I think the Wandering Emperor is more powerful (and infinitely more interesting as a design). It's not gonna bump any of my 4-drop creatures. I wish, given that this is apparently Eslpeth merged with Serra, they'd pushed the power up a bit more and maybe made it a 5-drop or a 6-drop, or had tried a completely different suite of abilities. It's kind of boring that it's so similar to the the first time we saw Elspeth.

I like Ally of Zendikar more as well and this would come as a close second.

Quote from steve_man »

Last night I just added Humility to my cube for testing, so Archangel Elspeth couldn't have come at a better time for me. This plays well with Humility by having a +1 ability that generates tokens and giving things +1/+1 counters and flying. Like OG Elspeth, this being able to hit the board and potentially steal initiative or kill Minsc & Boo is huge in my environment, and is a big differentiator between this and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar.

Overall people will probably fall into two camps with this depending of their opinions of Elspeth, Knight-Errant. The more you like Knight-Errant, the more you'll probably like this, and vice versa. Archangel Elspeth's first and third ability are much better than Knight-Errant's, plays better defensively, but the difference between their second abilities is pretty big. Archaangel Avacyn has more risk / reward that can potentially lead to a blowout on either side, while Knight-Errant is pretty safe and generally has a higher damage output.

I be interested to hear how Humility plays out.

I was disappointed at first but the more I think about it the more I suspect this will turn out as the 2nd best W walker.


I think WotC does a pretty boring job in terms of distributing the best W walkers along the mana curve

How crazy am I for liking Citadel Siege more than this? White decks don't have trouble sticking creatures on the field so lack of targets shouldn't be an issue, and the -2 ability not being repeatable feels like a very real drawback, but I'm probably underrating the flying it grants.

Quote from Breathe1234 »

I be interested to hear how Humility plays out.

Same. Hope it does more than Moat which has literally never shown up 5+ years of drafting.