Rafiq of the Many

Exalted is a tax on going wide: a triggered ability that pays the player who commits to a single attacker, scaling the lone threat instead of the swarm. This is the card that took the keyword and turned its incentive into a kill condition. The exalted line on its own text is almost a footnote; the engine is the second ability, which staples double strike onto whatever swings alone. Stack a few exalted triggers from other sources onto one creature, double the result, and the damage compounds faster than a single combat step usually allows: a modest body becomes a serious clock, and a battlefield with enough exalted support becomes lethal in a swing or two. The constraint that makes it all run is the word "alone." Every buff and the double strike depend on that lone attacker, so the card forbids the very swarm it superficially resembles. It demands a disciplined plan: keep the supporting creatures home, assemble protection and acceleration for one threat, and send it in clean. The result is a Bant-colored aggression built on precision rather than volume, where the work happens before combat (clearing blockers, stacking triggers, guaranteeing the attacker connects) and the payoff arrives in one decisive hit. Among creatures from its era that championed the single-attacker plan, few stated the case this directly or punished a failed block this hard.