Let’s start with why you’re here:
Power creep is helluva force!
Guardian Beast was a popular card seventeen years ago when Arabian Nights hit, as the effect was quite novel and enticing (which was, admittedly, aided by a now-illegal combo with Chaos Orb).
Ten years later, Mirrodin arrived — and with it came Leonin Abunas. Leonin Abunas didn’t just shift Guardian Beast from black to white; it also gained a point of toughness and changed “indestructibility for your artifacts” to “troll-shroud.” While the menace of Affinity kept Leonin Abunas from seeing as much play as it might have, it was used by some Isochron Scepter players to help protect their key card.
What stood in the way of Leonin Abunas seeing more widespread adoption? At the end of the day, not everyone’s trying to blow up your artifacts!
Now as we return to Mirrodin, we’re seeing a number of themes explored more fully — and this time, there’s no Affinity looming over our heads. Indomitable Archangel is Scars of Mirrodin’s Leonin Abunas on steroids. Protecting your artifacts is a potentially game-winning ability when an opponent tries to undo your hard work… but even if they aren’t trying to destroy your stuff, you’re left with a solid body. No one’s ever been excited about a 2/5 for 3W, even back in the day — but a 4/4 flier for 2WW is a pretty serious body to be stuck with!
Sadly, Conundrum Sphinx has taught us that a mere 4/4 flier with a good ability isn’t enough to assure serious play these days. Creatures are just so much better than they used to be! Still, Conundrum Sphinx is a fine card that’s nothing more than a small contextual change away from greatness. And Indomitable Archangel definitely asks a similar question: “How good of an ability does a 4/4 flier for 2WW need to have to get played?”
Ten years ago, a 4/4 flier for four with a drawback would have been a great tournament card… but times change. So how good is Indomitable Archangel’s ability? Besides, Indomitable Archangel only protects your artifacts when you have three or more artifacts on the battlefield (a.k.a. “Metalcraft”). How much of a restriction is that?
Closer examination reveals that it may not be much of a cost at all, since you get the 4/4 flier regardless — and if you don’t have any artifacts, it doesn’t matter that you aren’t protecting them. In fact, the only time she leaves artifacts vulnerable is when you have exactly one or two on the battlefield. That’s relevant, but we don’t yet know how difficult it will be to achieve Metalcraft.
Besides, her ability is irrelevant 85% of the time… But the 15% of the time that it matters, it wins the game for you. For instance, picture that you have a Platinum Emperion that is single-handedly winning the game for you. A removal spell can be the difference between a win and a loss, and Indomitable Archangel has influence here.
Artifact removal spells are blanked outright, but even a creature removal spell must deal with the Archangel before moving on to other targets. A point against the Archangel is that a fist full of removal makes her a prime target… But to be fair, there’s also the potential for a pretty sick combo if you can find a way to turn her into an artifact creature. I haven’t seen the whole set yet — but one thing I’m definitely scanning for is a way to lock my opponent out of removal for the rest of the game by making the Archangel protect herself!
While Indomitable Archangel’s ability may only matter 15% of the time, the rest of the time you’re stuck with only a 4/4 flier for four mana — which is a pretty freaking good consolation prize!
Outside of protecting key artifacts for whatever crazy combo you might be trying to pull off (or one super-important one, like a deck that gets Platinum Emperion onto the battlefield without paying his casting cost), there are still plenty of other uses for the Archangel. For instance, it’s unclear what sort of metalcraft aggro strategies will exist, but it’s very possible that some sort of aggressive artifact creature deck will emerge. Lodestone Golem is also near the top of everyone’s list of cards to keep an eye on. Steel Overseer is another potent artifact creature,
if
you can hit that critical mass of creatures to get the benefit from it. How many more will it take?
Lodestone Golem and Steel Overseer are two great artifact creatures that get better the more artifact creatures you play. If you can find a few more artifact creatures that are worth playing, metalcraft starts becoming a very easy goal to accomplish — and in this case, you’ll end up with an army of untargetable artifact creatures (not to mention the Archangel is another 4/4 flying beater to add to your attack).
All right — so he obviously has some exciting potential upside tacked onto an already respectable body. What are the downsides?
First of all, four mana is the toughest spot on the curve these days. The good four-drops are
so
good that it’ll take a very strong purpose to justify her when her competition is Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Koth of the Hammer, Vengevine, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Day of Judgment, and more.
A point in the Archangel’s favor, however, is that when Shards Block rotates out it will remove Bloodbraid Elf, Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Ajani Vengeant, and more — which gives the Archangel a little more room to breathe.
Some would consider the shroud ability a potential drawback because of its negative interaction with equipment. Remember, when his metalcraft is active, you won’t be able to equip your artifact creatures with equipment (which does target), though it is still fair game to equip the Archangel herself.
Another potential pitfall is its lack of card advantage. These days, so many of the best four-mana spells (and up) assure you some card advantage — so that even if your opponent has a removal spell, you’re still ahead. The Archangel is still just one man (or, perhaps, one angel) and as such is vulnerable to a variety of removal spells.
That said, if there’s one thing we have learned (even if ironically) from
Doom_Blade_Guy
, it’s that they don’t
always
have the removal spell. And even if they do, that was a removal spell they were going to use on your Steel Overseer or your Lodestone Golem anyway.
No, I think the biggest obstacle standing in the way of Indomitable Archangel is whether or not the times where its ability helps makes it worth the opportunity cost. The card is powerful enough to be considered even given how high the bar is on four-drops these days…. but the challenge that faces deck builders who want to evaluate the Archangel is in knowing whether or not its ability is reliable enough to count on. If you’re keeping your artifacts safe with Indomitable Archangel, who’s keeping the Archangel safe?
One easy possibility is using defensive cards like Brave the Elements to protect her… But there’s a very real risk of ending up with cards that are too narrow if you go that route.
More likely, she will be similar to Linvala, Keeper of Silence. Linvala was another card that didn’t generate a lot of hype out of the gate. It took people realizing just how useful its ability really would be before it started seeing widespread use.
Indomitable Archangel is similar in that people will toy with it a bit, decide they don’t want to try to make its ability work — and then, when it seems like people have forgotten about it, it’ll be the hot new technology for a few weeks (before dying back down a little once people adjust).
Like Linvala, the Archangel is at his best when you aren’t protecting her; you just play her because she’s good. Maybe she doesn’t lock the opponent out forever — but sometimes a little disruption goes a long way, especially when you are bashing for four in the air.
Many players would play four Linvalas, since often the best way to protect one is to just cast another… And perhaps you should use the Archangel in much the same way.
One thing’s for sure: Indomitable Archangel is very indicative of the types of cards that we have to evaluate in Scars. You can’t just jam Scars of Mirrodin cards into your decks. Scars is full of cards that will amply repay the clever player who finds the right way to exploit their full potential.
Remember, it was a very fine line between “Just a big dumb flier” and “One of the best creatures of all time” with Baneslayer Angel. Indomitable
Archangel is just big enough that you probably need to
want
the ability to make it worth it — but if you make the ability good, it gets
really
good in a hurry. Most likely, the primary use will be as a technology card when the metagame shifts correctly (like Linvala) or as a sideboard hoser (like Leonin Abunas). But a 4/4 flying body is big enough that it’s very possible that someone will need only the most minimal disruptive value to make her worth it.
Now if only you had a way to turn her into an artifact — well, then you’d
really
be onto something…
Patrick Chapin
“The Innovator”