Hall of Triumph

Maybe it's only because I just spent 80 hours over the last month playing Final Fantasy X (I can't describe how happy I am that it's back and in HD), but there's something about this card's aesthetic that reminds me of that game. The stars kind of look like pyreflies and that statue or image of the hero reminds me of the fayth's chambers. I'm not sure this card is destined to be the kind of thing that has immense emotional impact even after thirteen years, but a Glorious Anthem that can go into any deck is something that will put the fear into a lot of opponents.

Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5

Today's card of the day is Hall of Triumph which is a Legendary three mana artifact that gives creatures you control of a chosen color +1/+1.
This is a decent card to add to a multicolor deck with creatures primarily of one color and also works for many other builds such as tokens or swarm. The cost of three is reasonable if not quite as good as some options from the past, but it does work alongside any of them and if already using Anthem or Crusade style effects there is little reason not to include another. Being Legendary is a drawback, aside from Commander where the single color effect is the downside, though that shouldn't prevent it from seeing some deck slots across formats.

In Limited this is an excellent card for almost any deck that can power up whatever creature color is most likely to be the primary one in play. In Booster it is a great first pick that doesn't lock you into any color and aside from being a poor topdeck should generally be an effective play. For Sealed there is no reason not to include this in any deck as at worst it adds +1/+1 to a creature while the potential for more is much higher.

Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 4.0
Multiplayer: 3.5

Hall of Triumph

Giving all of something +1/+1 is a classic effect. First there was Bad Moon and Crusade for Black creatures and White Creatures. Then there was Glorious Anthem and the colorshifted Gaea's Anthem that covered everything. This is kind of a hybrid of the two types of cards. If you are playing a monocolored deck (and that's primarily when you want to play the Hall), this gives all your creatures a pump. This will have the greatest effect in a deck with lots of small creatures. There is a lot of fun potential with this card, since it can be played in any color deck.

Don't neglect to notice that this is legendary. That actually reduces the value quite a bit. You can't search up multiples of this and give your creatures +2/+2 or +3/+3 to really break your opponent's back. There are so many ways right now to pump your creatures - I'm not convinced this is one of the best. This card does nothing for you unless you have creatures out.

I think this will be a fun casual card, but I don't see it making a big enough splash to see much constructed play. I drafted this card last weekend in a white/blue deck, and it really didn't do much for me. Most of the time I drew it, it stayed in my hand while I played more important things. I'd probably give it another chance, but it's certainly not a top pick for limited. Multiplayer games usually have enough big threats that a +1/+1 isn't going to make a huge difference.

Constructed: 2
Casual: 3
Limited: 2.5
Multiplayer 2.5

I've always been a fan of Glorious Anthem and its various permutations and upgrades. And as I'm sure everyone else will also point out, that's essentially what this is. Glorious Anthem for anything other than white. In fact, especially NOT for white, because this is strictly worse than Glorious Anthem and every other even better white version of the effect (I'm looking at you, Honor of the Pure).

It's a fun thing to do, playing a static board-wide bonus like this. All your creatures are now stronger, tougher, faster. Well, maybe not faster. How good is a card like this? Well that depends almost entirely on what colour you're playing. This card has wildly different levels of usefulness depending on what colour you're running. So instead of telling you if it's good or bad, I'm going to tell you what kind of colour and what kind of deck actually wants this card.

As I mentioned already, outside of limited if you're running white you don't want this card. Period. There are better options. What about green, then? They like creatures and attacking, right? Yes, but for the most part they don't want or need something like this. Green specializes in getting out a few big fat creatures and smashing face. And is there that big of a difference between a 7/7 and an 8/8? Does it really matter all that much if your monstrous Arbor Colossus is a 9/9 or a 10/10? No, not really. It'll smash face either way. White knows how to use these effects correctly. One or two 6/6's turning into 7/7's is kinda meh, but a massive army of 1/1's turning into 2/2's just doubled your entire forces! So, out of all the other colours, who has a similar playstyle to that?

Red.

Red likes to attack fast. Red likes to attack early. Red likes to attack often. Red likes to throw lots of haste-y creatures with low toughness (but sometimes high power) at the opponent, just to see what will get through. There are always more disposable goblins where that first wave came from, after all. Red can probably get the most mileage out of this card, since white already has better and green doesn't need it unless you're running an elf deck. Blue and Black can make some use out of it as well, especially if you want to pump up some weak flying guys.

But that brings me to the final and biggest problem Hall of Triumph has. For red it can be a good card, but it'll only ever be *A* card. Singular. And that's because of the word Legendary. That's why this card is worse than even Glorious Anthem for white. Because of that, you can only ever have 1 of these on the field at a time. And that pretty much kills it. The most fun you can ever have with Glorious Anthem / Honor of the Pure style effects is when you have multiple copies of them out at the same time. How fun is it when you have 4 Honor of the Pure on the field, and casting a Serra Avenger for 2 mana gives you a 7/7 instead of a 3/3? How fun would it be to have a 5/5 Llanowar Elves or Elvish Mystic? I mean you don't usually get up to 4, but 2 or 3 can easily happen in slower fun casual games. But it never will with Hall of Triumph. The best it can ever do for you is +1/+1, and for most decks it's just not worth the deck slot. It's also a card you never want to topdeck, since it doesn't do anything on its own and relies on you having other stuff it can empower, but all Anthem effects have that problem too.

I liked Glorious Anthem, and I like Honor of the Pure even more. But I don't like Hall of Triumph that much. The colour that needs it most already has several things better, and one copy just won't help anyone else enough.

Constructed: 2
Casual: 2.5
Limited: 3
Multiplayer: 2.5