by Can Tran

Created on: October 25, 2009

"Supreme Exemplar" is a 10/10 blue elemental creature printed as a rare for the Magic the Gathering expansion set known as "Morningtide." This is one of the cards that promote synergy between a creature type. "Tribes" are a dynamic introduced via Morningtide. Most cards are printed to encourage players to build around tribes of creature types and sub-types. In the case of the Supreme Exemplar, you are encouraged to build around elementals.

The converted mana cost for Supreme Exemplar is seven. You will need one blue mana and six colorless mana to bring Supreme Exemplar from your hand and onto the battlefield. For what the Supreme Exemplar can do, the casting cost is worth it. If you want to bring it out early enough, make sure you got good mana acceleration. Your best bet would be artifacts such as "Sol Ring" and the "Thran Dynamo." Also, you should have creatures with abilities that reduce the cost of your blue spells by one colorless mana.

What does Supreme Exemplar do in the first place?

To start things off, you sacrifice Supreme Exemplar unless you Champion an Elemental. It can be any Elemental card. You remove that Elemental from the game while Supreme Exemplar is on the battlefield. You can even use an elemental creature token. That way, you do not have to use one of your better elemental creatures. When Supreme Exemplar leaves the battlefield, the Exiled card returns to the battlefield.

The main ability of Supreme Exemplar is Flying. That alone would not really warrant Supreme Exemplar being printed as a rare. However, you simply need to look at its power and toughness. If you attack with Supreme Exemplar and your opponent does not have any creatures with Flying, s/he is taking ten points of combat damage. That is enough to win the game if your opponent's life points are low enough. A 10/10 creature with Flying is not bad at all.

You can always enchant Supreme Exemplar to add more benefits. This is an example that you can be aggressive with blue creatures. In most cases, blue is not really a color meant for aggression. Most blue cards are used for control decks. With Supreme Exemplar, you can go aggressive with blue.

However, the biggest drawback is that you are forced to make an elemental themed deck. Still, making an elemental deck should not be that bad. With the right combination of cards, you can make an impressive elemental deck. Supreme Exemplar is a good card for any multicolored elemental deck. With Supreme Exemplar, you simply need to go for your opponent's jugular.

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