Might change the casting cost to 2WWRR and lower P/T by 1. Not sure if this is oppressively good or not, would have to play it to see. My guess is that one of the lifegain abilities might have to go.

Oooooh, ok. So.. it's, what - an inverse Personal Incarnation? A permanent Reverse Damage? And it keeps coming back?

Evil! And on top of that it's pretty damn stompy.

Something I learned from Empyrial Archangel... this creature will always be blocking as long as its untapped. 9/9 Elemental with trample coming through? Sure, I block that.

Personally, I think the lifelink is overkill, not because of casting cost issues, but because, no matter what costs and how good this card is, it kind of sorta represents continual Foging. It isn't... and, jeeze, if you get every turn, then you're probably winning anyway... but it could be. I like my cards to have some sort of chink in their armor... though personal opinion on this subject is very varied.

True; you do have it only every other turn (assuming you can smash in for at least 6 damage a turn) but it's a big bad rattelesnake.

The "Or permanents you control" bit is serious icing though. I can't think of an abuse; but I'm sure there is one.

Still - it's pricey. Pricey is allowed to be good, right? I'd be a lot happier if it didn't have built in recursion, though.

Thanks for the comments! You're right, the lifelink is probably a little too good. Maybe hexproof is a reasonable enough downgrade, I'd like to playtest it sometime and see how it goes.

... it makes it harder to get rid of. Lifelink lets it build up a buffer that you then need to wear down once you break the lock. Hexproof makes the lock unbreakable except with a wrath or a large fireball to the head (and that's before you slap on a regenerate making it completely unbreakable)

Well, I don't know about that Vitenka. It makes it harder to get rid of, but there's one easy way to get rid of it: Attack with your creatures. Playing Empyrial Archangel taught me that just playing a large-butted damage absorbing angel wasn't good enough. I had to have a good board position, too. I'd accelerate out to that angel, only to watch her act as a creature removal + fog. Zombify her back on the battlefield, and I've done it again... but I would expend too much energy to set this stuff up, and was therefore losing the game.

Most Magic games aren't controlled by "Who's dealing the most damage", so much as determined by "Who's in control?". Having an Angel in play that prevents damage to you is nice... but it doesn't give you control, since a player with overwhelming control will deal ludicrous amounts of damage to it, knocking it out. In this sense, if you have a large angel, but you can't attack with it, because my counter-attack will kill your angel, then I'm still in control... I'm just not dealing enough damage to you yet to seal a victory. If, however, it came with vigilance... that's probably too much control for that casting cost, and any game that saw this creature would devolve fast.

Thanks, guys. :) I don't think this card is incredibly overpowered with the costs as they are, but I'd have to playtest it to really know for sure.

Yep, my experience with Empyrial Archangel mirrors JMG's, and it's for that reason that I think this might be fair.

I really dislike hexproof, though. Amongst the reasons are things like this card... one hit with Indestructibility, or even Sandskin, and suddenly you're in an almost unassailably good position. Shroud would be fairer, but that's not an argument that Wizards seem to agree with these days :(

This seems printable as a mythic.

Hexproof is not on those colors. White can bleed it, but here you're doing it pretty much for just an Empyrial Archangel.