Despite the fact that you need six levels before
he becomes anything more than a 3/3, I think
Transcendent Master is one of the best level up
creatures printed. Why? Two reasons. One, the
more mana you sink into him, the harder he
becomes to kill, both through increased
toughness and indestructibility. He protects
your investment. And two, his level up cost is
very cheap. Most levelers cost three or more
mana for each level. This guy gains levels
easily.
It's too bad shadow wasn't a keyword in Rise
of the Eldrazi, as I think it could have been
cool if what this character transcended was the
material realm and the ability to be touched by
other people. Even so, Transcendent Master is
one of the most dangerous levelers, as he
advances with any colored mana, and should
rarely spend more than one attack step as a 3/3
creature, and once he's at his last phase, you
have to have either white or blue cards to deal
with him effectively.
Today's card of the day is Transcendent Master
which is a 3/3 for three mana making it quite
decent for White and the Level Up ability being
only one colorless is very manageable. The
catch is it takes six more mana before the first
upgrade and that only makes it a 6/6 with
Lifelink. It takes a total of twelve mana
spent after summoning to make it into a 9/9
Indestructible with Lifelink and that keeps it
from really being viable in Constructed formats.
Not a horrible card, but just too slow to really
see a great deal of play.
For Limited the base creature is a good play, if
a bit slowed down by having the double White in
the casting, but the level up is well within
reason for the slower set. With Eldrazi
meeting or exceeding the twelve colorless mana
this card can obtain it fits in quite well with
the high cost colorless theme. A good
first pick in Booster that may lock you into
White or consider Eldrazi Spawn Token support
and acceleration from Green. With Sealed
the playability goes down slightly if your pool
doesn't have other colorless or a strong White
base, so it isn't likely to just be splashed.
