Usually, having high power is more... well,
powerful than having high toughness. Holy
Strength is alright because it can allow a
creature to tangle in combat with things that
would otherwise kill it, and it can make it very
hard for an opponent's attackers or burn spells
to go the distance. But the card disadvantage
and the smallness of the bonus it grants means
that this card is most often just not worth a
slot. If you want to pump up your creatures,
better off with Armored Ascension or Mighty
Leap.
Holy Strength and Unholy Strength are one of the
things that Richard Garfield got absolutely
right way back in 1993, and are two cards I
personally wouldn't mind seeing in every core
set - they just make too much sense, both on
their own and as a pair. Like its dark
counterpart that we reviewed last week, Holy
Strength doesn't show up often in high-level
constructed, but can have a significant impact,
especially when attached to a creature like
White Knight that's already hard to stop. The
extra toughness boost is also notable, as it is
just enough to protect the aforementioned Knight
from Lightning Bolt and Kor Firewalker from
Disfigure.
Today's card of the day is Holy Strength which
is White's opposite number to Black's Unholy
strength and grants +1/+2 instead of +2/+1.
The different may be subtle, but being more
defensive instead of offensive limits the
usefulness and aside from slightly helping the
survival of a creature against damage is a
pretty weak aura. Add in the fact that
auras as a whole are already risking a two for
one card disadvantage and there is rarely a
reason to play this outside of a dedicated
Enchantress themed deck.
For Limited the lack of offensive punch is
somewhat mitigated by the improved defensive
option as the format is very combat oriented.
In color commons Elite Vanguard, Assault
Griffin, and Stormfront Pegasus have a toughness
one lower than their power so this can balance
the scales to make them a better match for
bigger threats across the battlefield.
Additionally Goldenglow Moth and Palace Guard
are excellent blockers that benefit from added
toughness, so this works well with them or
creatures with Vigilance such as Serra Angel and
Sun Titan. Normally this would be a very
weak card, but the readily available creatures
in the Limited format are well suited to take
advantage of what Holy Strength does offer.
In Sealed it should be played when running White
and a large enough base of creatures. For
Booster in can be drafted once the choices in
the pack start getting past creatures with
Flying as they should still offer a bigger
advantage, but this can help keep them in play
longer and deal a little more damage as well.
