MTG Salvation

I'm building my first cube and there's some definite token support in white along with the usual weenie and control elements.

There have been a couple threads on Anthems, but they're both over two years old from what I found with a search, so I figured a new thread was reasonable.

I have Glorious Anthem and Spear of Heliod in my collection. (Probably a Crusade somewhere too.) I could get something like Honor of the Pure or Divine Sacrament if I wanted to, the question is whether people think it should make the cut.

For reference the cube hasn't been finalized but the finished list will be somewhere in the 480-500 range, unpowered. In that context, would you play any of them? If so, how would you rank the cards above?

Those I actually play at 600 are :

Honor of the Pure
Spear of Heliod
Dictate of Heliod

I found that approximativly 1 for 175-200 is enough, depending on how you want to push tokens. However, IMO, I found those 3 really useful out of tokens as well.

EDIT : Yeah, I forgot about Goldmane!

Ajani Goldmane and Angel of Jubilation are a couple other options.

Oh yeah, Ajani Goldmane as well. Thanks for reminding me about Dictate of Heliod, that's good to keep in mind as well.

We are very happy with Spear of Heliod and Glorious Anthem in our 475 cube. We also run Adaptive Automaton for a similar effect. It has been in our cube for a couple of years now.

Ajani Goldmane, Spear of Heliod and Dictate of Heliod are my favorite non-creature effects in that vein. Glorious Anthem is cool for larger cubes too, especially considering the need for 3cc non-creature spells in white as the cube grows in size.

Spear of Heliod is excellent. Glorious Anthem is fine, but there are better options. I don't like the white only anthems like Honor of the Pure very much because they're too narrow, and I'd absolutely avoid anthems that could end up being symmetrical like Crusade. Those are just outclassed by other options these days.

These are all of the anthem effects I'm currently running in white at 465, and I'm pretty happy with all of them:

On creatures:
Accorder Paladin
Mirror Entity
Soltari Champion
Angel of Jubilation
Hero of Bladehold
Jazal Goldmane

Non-creature Anthems:
Ajani Goldmane
Elspeth, Sun's Champion (ultimate only)
Spear of Heliod

Some others I've liked that I'm not running right now:
Sublime Archangel
Dictate of Heliod
Marshal's Anthem


There are some solid anthem effects worth running in other colors, such as:

Hero of Oxid Ridge
Purphoros, God of the Forge
Curse of Predation
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Marshal's Anthem is a cool card. Now that I have a Gifts/Unburial package that uses white as a secondary color for reanimation, I wonder if it's worth another look...

Spear is a staple. Dictate of Helliod is one that is super fun with lots of tokens. I a mgiving Marshall's Anthem a Spin as well as Sublime Arhcangel and Jazal Goldmane.

Hall of Triumph is a option depending on your power level. I like it much better than the Crusade variants.

Wilt-Leaf Liege is probably the only one I am running that others are't and took the place of Angel of Jubilation.

Curse of Predation, and Curse of Shallow graves are non-traditional anthem effects that you might want to try.

In blue I always wanted to use Military Intelligence but my composition doesn't currently support it.

Good call on Wilt-Leaf Liege, I'd run that too if it didn't cost a mint, or if I ever manage to trade for it. That reminds me I'm also running Creakwood Liege, which has been great in all kinds of builds.

The only Anthems I run at 360 are Mirror Entity and Soltari champion these cards are decently efficient on their own, unlike most anthems that are pretty terrible if you have nothing on board.

I really like Hall of Triumph partially because of the sick promo art. It also gives other colors or even just a light white splash an anthem effect for the same cost as Glorious Anthem.

Lots of great info, thanks! Given the size of my cube and what I already have in hand, I'm going to test with Glorious Anthem and Spear of Heliod, and I ordered a Soltari Champion through PucaTrade.

Quote from wtwlf123 »

Marshal's Anthem is a cool card. Now that I have a Gifts/Unburial package that uses white as a secondary color for reanimation, I wonder if it's worth another look...

I ran it a few years ago. The triple white turned out to be a pain. Decks that plan to reanimate their own creatures are rarely that heavy in white. And 2WW is a bit too much for a basic Anthem, considering that Glorious Anthem isn't one of the best options anymore. If the basic cost was 3W, it might be worth a second look, since that would both make it more resonable as an Anthem and easier to use as a reanimation spell.

Quote from Spike Rogue »

Good call on Wilt-Leaf Liege, I'd run that too if it didn't cost a mint, or if I ever manage to trade for it. That reminds me I'm also running Creakwood Liege, which has been great in all kinds of builds.

Your comment made me look up the price for Liege and holy cow has this one gotten expensive!

I ran Wilt-Leaf Liege for a while and liked it. Yes, it was more like a Selesnya gold card than a hybrid card, but it sill made it into Wx aggro decks sometimes. An Anthem for almost all your creatures + a 4/4 for a total of 4 mana is a good deal. I could see myself cutting Knight of the Reliquary to bring the Liege back.

Quote from DrewReaLee »

I really like Hall of Triumph partially because of the sick promo art. It also gives other colors or even just a light white splash an anthem effect for the same cost as Glorious Anthem.

While it is nice to have an Anthem for non-white decks (or even another Anthem for white decks), I don't like this card that much. Cube aggro decks are usually two-colored, so some of your creatures won't profit from the bonus. If mono-red decks are common in your cube and you want to push heavy-black decks, then this becomes more interesting. Personally, I don't think I am going to put it into my cube, due to its restriction to a single color.

I ran it a few years ago. The triple white turned out to be a pain. Decks that plan to reanimate their own creatures are rarely that heavy in white.

Agreed. For some reason, I misremembered the kicker cost as being 2.

There's also path of bravery. It's conditional but plays into a life gain theme if you have one of those going. It's also 2W instead of 1WW, so more splashable.

Without stuff like Ajani's Pridemate, I'm not sure it's worth a slot. But I do really like synergistic cards like this.

If your cube's white agressive decks tend to be mono white, the most powerful anthems are honor of the pure and crusade.
If your white agro decks are a mix of mono, 2 color and zoo stay far far away. But if your white decks are 80%+ mono colored, my favourite anthem is honor of the pure.

White is very deep at 1/3 and shallow at 2, It fits much nicer into the curve. If all of your threats are white, clearly it is MUCH more powerful than a glorious anthem.

In powered cubes, I think white agro is among the weaker archetypes, so there's an argument to giving them a narrow card to boost their upside a bit.
The power level boost is unlikely enough to justify the narrowness, but it's something to think about.

I used to have Glorious Anthem, Now I just have Spear of Heliod. I may consider Hall of Triumph.