Akron Legionnaire: The biggest white Champion

White creatures always come in three varieties. Small, extremely well costed, aggressive creatures, questionable utility creatures, and finally big "champion" creatures.  The most famous, and arguably most powerful champion in white is Serra Angel, however numerous other creatures exist in the format. 

Hand of Justice, Personal Incarnation, Elder Land Wurm, and finally Akron Legionnaire. Hes a long standing personal favorite of mine. 

Recently I included him in my deck "offensive white", and while I didn't cast him once, I loved playing him regardless. So how well does he do in our much love limited card pool.

Playability: Sitting at 8 power, Akron Legionnaire is actually the strongest mono-white power in terms of raw power in the format. The four toughness however is well within Psionic Blast range.  Now the advantage to this is, he's white, so there are numerous ways, both global and local, to pump his toughness.  This has the natural flaw of requiring other cards though. In this regard, the GCU made him a Soldier, which gives him a synergy with Icatian Lieutenant. However sitting at 8 mana, he is very expensive. He cost as much as a Elder Dragon, and one mana less than the 9/9 Colossus of Sardia. However he only costs two white, making him somewhat splashable. Finally, he has one of the strangest draw backs in the entire game. I well get to that in Flavor though. As is, I give his playability 3/5.

I can't gush enough about Mark Poole's distinct art style in the early 90's. The coloring of his pieces were always great. The coloring on this piece is no different, and allows him to pop. The Legionnaire himself has some pretty awesome, if fairly impractical armor. The Tunic on the piece is particularly awesome. Then the colors of the background. Art is definitely a solid 4/5.

Flavor: Oh boy. Judging from the card itself, it's a mess and a half. Sitting as an 8/4, suggests this Giant is a massive creature, in size and strength. Being stronger then a Elder Dragon isn't that unlikely, and weird P/T on creatures is the trademark of Legends. His draw back is the strangest one of all. Why non-artifact creatures? Does he bring fear upon his appearance? I have a long theory this card was originally Akron Legion, which would they only attack with war machines, and when the art was only one figure, it was changed to Legionnaire. This however, is only a theory, with no proof. 

The Legion does appear in the Jedit Ojanen books, but the book was written years later after his last printing, and the Akron Legionnaire's in that book work for Shauku the Endbringer, and have little in common outside the name with its Legends counterpart.

This doesn't help me with the flavor aspect. In reality, the flavor of this card is a hot mess. I'm going to have to give this a 1/5. It's among the strangest white creatures in the game. 

Flavor 1/5.

8/15. (Barely) 3/5. His art is amazing, and his 8 power is awesome. He makes my inner timmy cheer, but he's not a great card by any measure. Still, not the worst guy in the format by any definition.