Finest Hour

Exalted as a keyword always carried a contradiction: it rewards attacking with a single creature, yet a lone attacker is the slowest way to win a damage race. This is the engine that resolves the contradiction by paying off the solo swing twice over. The exalted pump is the small half. The real work is in the second clause: the attacker that swung alone untaps and is handed an entire additional combat phase, so the lone-attacker tax becomes a feature rather than a drawback. One creature, pumped, swinging twice in a turn, untapping in between to deny a profitable block on the first attack or simply to stay upright for the second swing. Commit everything to a single threat, and the return on that investment doubles. Naturally the loop wants the biggest, most evasive thing you can muster: stack a few exalted sources, give the lone attacker flying or trample and a way to grow, and the two combat phases compound. The Bant color identity is the tell. Extra-combat effects have historically lived in red, built around an army that crashes in twice. This inverts that lineage entirely: it is the extra-combat payoff for the player who committed to a single, overqualified attacker rather than a board full of them, dressed up as a serene three-color value enchantment.