Archangel Elspeth

Every Elspeth to date has been built around soldiers and small white bodies, and this one keeps that thread while adding a graveyard payoff none of the earlier versions carried. The plus makes a lifelinking token every turn, standard Elspeth arithmetic, but the minus-two is where the character does something new: it does not just protect a creature, it transforms one, stacking two counters and grafting flying and the Angel type onto whatever you point it at. Because a planeswalker activates one loyalty ability per turn, the plus and the minus-two are a two-turn conversation rather than a single-turn combo: build the board wide one turn, then upgrade a lingering token into a 3/3 flying lifelinker the next. Both abilities operate at sorcery speed, so the value lands on your own main phase, not as a reactive combat swing. The ultimate is the reward for a deck that has been trading and sacrificing along the way, returning every nonland permanent of mana value three or less from the graveyard at once, a mass reanimation that pays off a curve built low on purpose rather than a single expensive bomb. The loyalty math sets the whole plan: the plus is the only ability that climbs, so reaching the minus-six means committing to tokens turn after turn, and the minus-two is a genuine detour, spending loyalty on a threat instead of banking it toward the finish.