Pointed Discussion

Well. That was an unexpected reprint. It's been quite some time since we've seen this one.

Blessing:
Target creature is a shade.

Nice to see a new, awesome illustration for such a classic!

Woah, straight out of 4th edition. Did anyone see that coming? This isn't too bad, even though white usually isn't known for huge mana, (outside of the occasional plains fetcher) But combat tricks are always nice. This might have a home in an auras deck with Mesa Enchantress and her ilk.

Sure has been a while. It's good to see old cards get new life every once in a while, even though this one sadly won't see much play outside casual or Limited.

Shade's Embrace.

No immediate use (unless late game), and has the classic 2 for 1 drawback. Playable in limited, but 1.5/5 from me.

A rather unusual ability for white nowadays...

Might mono white be right? I say no tonight.

how did you get so fat?
i've been blessed.

I like the flavour they gave to white for this core set. Lots of soldiers/knights/warriors, angels, and life gain that isn't complete garbage.

That's so shady shade

Wow talk about a blast from the past, I approve this reprint.

Wonderful reprint.
From 4 to M14, that's quite a leap, haha.

I'd have liked an homage to to the original artwork with a cleric blessing someone in a desert-like place.
But the straight-forward take with an angel blessing a knight is more fitting to M14's environment.

It seems like a good time to reprint this, with Ajani's Chosen this is pretty decent,
since you don't have to worry about getting two-for-oneed.

3 stars, and almost breaking 4! If you're a NON-CREATURE getting a 3.5 10 years later, you are Looking Fine B|

Even though the creatures get more easily Power Creeped into obsoleteness, they also have 'Faceness', 'Icon' going for them, like Shivan Dragon, Lord of the Pit, Leviathan, and Serra Angel do. Even weird sets like Arabian Nights whose most notable cards are some broken uncommon lands....we still remember Juzam Djinn very well, don't we?

It takes quite a bit to come down through the ages if you're a non-creature spell, because you usually either got banned, or 8th Edition said you were too good for reprinting. And of those that remain, a lot of them are....well, kind of weak. Really I think Wrath of God is the only Rare that will always belong in Magic and always feel Rare, no matter how many names they give it...

Blessing itself is weird but cool, because it really asks a whole lot of color-commitment to White Mana...Green, Red, and Black tend to care about that kind of thing more, White and Blue tend to be more splashable.

Gives heavy white decks some staying power in Limited, goes well with Suntail Hawk

they have been powercreeping enchantments for years. Then they print this, which was terrible 15 years ago. don't play this in any format ever.

Interesting reprint. I figured they'd decided that ": +1/+1" was a Black mechanic due to the color weight, but people forget how much White has like White. Guardians' Pledge, Honor of the Pure, etc.

In fact, I really wish those two had been reprinted with it. Would've made for an interesting "white matters" subtheme.

Kind of makes sense with the release of Theros. Devotion and Heroic.

White tends not to have the mana it takes to make this brutal efficient, but it's still a good little card none-the-less; especially because white does reliably *get* it's mana (tithe, land tax, etc..) so if the game goes long, you'll be able to turn a weenie into something huge; at least big enough to pummel your opponent.

People complain about auras, but honestly the time in the game that this comes down (probably later so you can give a lot to it) people don't necessarily have removal on hand. Plus! You're white; you have protection spells silly! Now feed your little soldier a bunch of donuts and clobber someone.

I LIKE it alot, buuuuuutt usually i always have something else i want to play with that mana.