You could do worse than a 3/5 lifelink flying as a blocker but it does feel pretty desperate if you didn't just cast him. One big advantage of baneslayer angel was just how heavily it stabilized your board on the block, because an opponent swinging in with anything less than a 6/6 was going to lose 1 creature and shave off 6-10 damage, so even if they were still trying to run past you with a swarm of weenies the combat math would go against it. A 3/5 flying lifelink isn't as good as a 5/5 flying first strike lifelink but at least if you were desperate to hold it back after you untap with it, you could potentially use instant speed draw spells as combat tricks to make it a 4+/5 and kill off a 4/4.
does it really? Only in a very stretched definition of the terms. It doesn't really generate card advantage and it doesn't really protect itself and even to become an evasive body it needs to eat limited resources. Its a very slow card that needs to both tie up and eat a lot of your mana base to function. This you just slap it down with 1+ cards in your hand and you're able to untap and swing while playing the rest of your deck normally
Combat math and evasive body large enough to swing in and control a board or gain enough lifelink to offset the crackback
Card advantage or otherwise value engine that keeps asserting a dominant board state beyond just being a big dumb beater
Protection from removal you can use while tapped out or at low cost to be able to tap out for it and not just die 1:1 to a murder
Many have two of those factors. But how many have had all three? Chromium is a scary 7/7 flier that's hard to deal with, but if someone can just rush around him he's not going to develop more card advantage or gain life for you. Prognostic Sphinx can keep generating some value (not CA though) and protect itself, but its a 7 turn clock.
This poops card advantage, protects itself with no mana cost after you tap out for it, can swing big enough in the air to both close out a game and make that big life total swing like baneslayer angel, with the upside that it also might jump up to ~7 power when you add in draw spells.
does it really? Only in a very stretched definition of the terms. It doesn't really generate card advantage and it doesn't really protect itself and even to become an evasive body it needs to eat limited resources. Its a very slow card that needs to both tie up and eat a lot of your mana base to function. This you just slap it down with 1+ cards in your hand and you're able to untap and swing while playing the rest of your deck normally
consider cards like drogskol reaver, Ætherling, Chromium, the Mutable, Pearl Lake Ancient, consecrated sphinx, nezahal, primal tide, etc etc. How many of these have matched all the following criterion?
Many have two of those factors. But how many have had all three? Chromium is a scary 7/7 flier that's hard to deal with, but if someone can just rush around him he's not going to develop more card advantage or gain life for you. Prognostic Sphinx can keep generating some value (not CA though) and protect itself, but its a 7 turn clock.
This poops card advantage, protects itself with no mana cost after you tap out for it, can swing big enough in the air to both close out a game and make that big life total swing like baneslayer angel, with the upside that it also might jump up to ~7 power when you add in draw spells.