Glory Bearers
An anthem that grants toughness instead of power is a strange proposition, because most anthem effects exist to close games faster and this one exists to keep your attackers alive through the swing. The +0/+1 lands only on creatures you control that are attacking, so it does nothing on defense and nothing before combat: the bonus arrives exactly when a blocker or a burn spell is trying to trade down, and it turns those trades sour. A 2/2 becomes a 2/3 in the red zone, surviving the mirror-match block, dodging a two-damage removal spell, walking out of a combat step the other player expected to win. The body is the practical problem. At 3/4 for four, it is a fine blocker but a slow attacker, and it does not buff itself, so the card only earns its rate in a wide board where the trigger fires several times a turn. That makes it a payoff for a go-wide shell, a support piece that needs a battlefield to reward, and the toughness-only orientation means it pairs oddly with the damage-based sweepers you might expect it to blank: it saves your creatures from a two-point wipe, but only the ones swinging. A defensively tuned anthem in service of an aggressive plan, built to win the small combats that decide grindy board stalls.


