Knight Exemplar

The lord that hands out indestructible was a rarer thing than the +1/+1 line lets on. Tribal anthems were everywhere by the time this kind of design appeared, but stapling static destroy-immunity onto the buff turns a wide Knight board from a sweeper liability into a problem that has to be exiled, bounced, or shrunk with -X/-X. The catch is built into the wording: every other Knight gets the protection, and this 2/2 does not protect itself. Wrath of God kills the lord, and because the indestructible is a static ability sourced from a creature that is no longer on the battlefield, the rest of the team loses it the instant the lord dies. The Knights survive the sweeper's "destroy," but they are mortal again immediately, vulnerable to the next removal spell or a follow-up combat step. That fragility is what keeps the card from being oppressive: the whole engine routes through a body any combat trick or burn spell can pick off, and the opponent always knows exactly where to aim. While the lord lives, though, the protection rewrites combat math, since damage simply cannot destroy a buffed Knight, and the defender has to find a non-damage answer or eat the attack. A clean piece of tribal-lord design from an era when these creatures were still being calibrated: generous enough to anchor an aggressive Knight shell, brittle enough that the answer is never a mystery.