by Elton Gahr

Created on: October 26, 2009

The easiest way to allow a player to put out a creature that is powerful early is to require some type of a sacrifice. The problem with this is that there are really only two types of sacrifice that are easy in the game of magic. The first is life, and there have almost always been cards that cost this, the second is cards. These cards may come in the form of land, creatures, artifacts, or simply discarding. And while there have always been cards that do not easily fit into these two categories most have.

One of the card mechanics that have attempted to find a new way to do cost something is the champion mechanic. This allows you to put a large creature into play far earlier than you normally could, and while it does require a sacrifice that sacrifice is really more about time than anything else since the creature you give up returns when the champion leaves play so as to not cost card advantage.

Supreme exemplar is one of the most impressive of champions. A rare elemental champion from the morningtide expansion set. It is a 10/10 flying creature that costs one blue and six colorless to put into play, but it also champions an elemental meaning that you must remove an elemental from play in order to put it into play. Since many of the elementals are large creatures this is a bit more costly than in many of the other types of deck, but as a 10/10 flyer it is in a class by itself, and even if your opponent does manage to get enough flying creatures to block it the card that it championed will still return.

While the cost seven converted mana for a 10/10 flyer is very low it is still high to high to really be a part of many tournament level decks. This is simply because very few decks can count on having seven mana before turn seven, and likely it will be after that. This is longer than you have in a high level tournament game, unless your own deck gives you the extra time you need.

It limited this is an extremely powerful card, but only if you are able to draft enough elementals or changelings. The real advantage for this is that you are likely to be able to get it late in the draft and getting a usable card late in the draft is often more important than the first pick card.

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