I'm not sure why some people refer to the sort
of taxing (payment forcing) effects seen on this
card as a "softer" form of control. Normally
players have the right to both attack and cast
spells, right? Yet this card forces them to
choose one of those, turn after turn. You can
get quite far ahead in that time. Though it
won't save you from a well-timed Aetherspouts,
nor a Soulflayer with every keyword ever printed
but which only costs one to attack by virtue of
being the only creature on its side of the
table, it wasn't really intended for those in
the first place.
Today's card of the day is Archangel of Tithes
which is a four mana White 3/5 with Flying that
forces an opponent to either pay to block or pay
to attack depending on Archangel's position.
Aside from being an excellent target to give
Vigilance too this has very solid stats for the
mana cost even if it mostly forces mono-White.
In a deck designed to take advantage of the mana
payments this can be a very difficult card to
oppose and even by itself it should be fairly
solid, so it is likely to appear in a variety of
White builds.
In Limited this is an strong early pick in
Booster with high toughness and evasion, though
mana tends to be of lower importance in the
later stages of the format and the triple White
drastically reduces the speed in a two color
deck. In Sealed running enough White to
include this can be difficult, but worth
attempting if the pool can support it.
On the surface, it's pretty great for stall.
Sort of a Sphere of Safety that also potentially
makes your creatures unblockable. Best in a
playset to be sure. The 3/5 body's decent, out
of burn range which is nice. the triple W cost
hurts a lot though. To its own stall playstyle,
it's neat, everywhere else, it's not.
