Serra Angel

Creature — Angel

Flying (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with flying or reach.)

Vigilance (Attacking doesn't cause this creature to tap.)

Combos

• Pariah + Serra Angel

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Oldschool 93/94	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

DemonDragonJ on How is the New Voja …

2 weeks ago

I know that I ask this question very frequently, but WotC continues to print cards that I feel are simply too powerful for their mana costs, and the new Voja, Jaws of the Conclave is among the newest of those cards; for five mana, the new Voja is a 5/5 creature with three keyword abilities (including ward {3}) and a powerful triggered ability, which I feel is simply too much value for such a low mana cost.

If the new Voja did not have ward, did not have its triggered ability, or cost 7 mana, I would have accepted it, but, as he currently is, he provides simply too much value for too low of a cost; I understand that some level of power creep in any game is inevitable, but this is essentially power escalation, in my mind; I can accept both Aurelia, the Law Above outclassing Serra Angel or Scourge of Valkas outclassing Shivan Dragon, because they are subtle improvements over the originals, but Voja, Jaws of the Conclave is simply ridiculous, to me.

What does everyone else say about this? How is Voja, Jaws of the Conclave remotely balanced?

kirbysan on [Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven *Update*

11 months ago

Perilous_Percival

Ah, I guess spoilers don't work in comment boxes, that's annoying.

March of Machine Upgrades (x12) - Blink/Tutor

1. Guardian of Ghirapur IN Angelic Curator OUT

After nearly a year of playtesting, I'm not the biggest fan of the low CMC angels, especially Angelic Curator. While it's a 1/1 flying angel body for 2, the protection for artifacts is more of a hindrance than a help. It helped defend against a Blightsteel Colossus once but being unable to equip it hurts more. By turn 3 when we want to drop Angelic Curator we would rather want to drop a 3-4 CMC angel or an impactful Artifact, Equipment or Enchantment.

Guardian of Ghirapur is a far superior body to Angelic Curator at 3/3 for 3. Initially there weren't that many blink targets for this deck but I've tweaked it to have more relevant targets and provide some outs to accelerate our gameplan. Typical targets would be Stoneforge Mystic, Recruiter of the Guard, Inspiring Overseer, Karmic Guide, Sanctuary Warden, Bruna, the Fading Light  ^Meld.

2. Karmic Guide IN Angelic Page OUT

Following the same logic as Angelic Curator, Angelic Page simply doesn't do enough when it hits the board. Karmic Guide was initially pulled due to lack of use as 5CMC is a lot for simple recursion and the deck was more focused on mana efficiency. However, with the re-introduction of tutors and blink mechanics it may have a place again.

3. Recruiter of the Guard IN Mangara, the Diplomat OUT

Mangara has proven its worth in a few games if opponents continue with their strategy and play through it. However, like Smuggler's Share, if opponents decide to play around it, it's kind of a dead card on board. The first ability generally doesn't do much since opponents aren't swinging into our board and depending on the deck they can cast one big spell on their turn and save their instants for opponents. Recruiter of the Guard was in my initial build but pulled in favor of more angels. Typical line would be Recruiter of the Guard into Stoneforge Mystic to grab either Lightning Greaves for protection or Sword of Hearth and Home for protection, ramp and blink shenanigans. While it seems like adding 1 card for a maybe synergy seems inefficient I was able to pull it off in 1/3 games so it's not as inconsistent as it seems.

4. Firemane Commando IN Angelic Sleuth OUT

While the clues generated with Sleuth have saved me before, I would much rather have more consistent draw to keep my hand topped off rather than wastinga turn after a wipe to refill my hand. Firemane serves double duty as not only being a solid 4/3 angel body but also provides "free" draw through attacking which we want to do. It also helps direct combat decks towards opponents if they want the draw.

5. Invasion of Dominaria  ^Flip IN Thorough Investigation OUT

In the same theme as Sleuth, Thorough Investigation provides draw for later with the added benefit of going through the dungeon. I've completed dungeons twice before with this card but the benefits haven't been as strong as I hoped. Invasion of Dominaria  ^Flip provides lifegain and draw immediately and as long as we have 2 angels (Giada and 1 other) then we can defeat this battle the turn we drop it providing a 6/6 Serra Angel. When you staple all 3 together then that's incredibly efficient. Late game when we're trying to close out the game we may choose to not swing at the battle but instead go for lethal but the option remains.

6. Invasion of Gobakhan  ^Flip IN The Ozolith OUT

In the dozens of games I've played with Ozolith I've only had it successfully work once. Late game it may seem like a dead card as it sort of hinges on either an opponent playing a board wipe and us refilling the board to swing again or using Pyre of Heroes on a stacked angel to grab something relevant. I much prefer Gobakhan as it slows down an opponents gameplay, easy to flip and provides benefits right away by buffing our board the same turn it comes out and also has "free" protection for later.

7. Conjurer's Mantle IN Mask of Memory OUT

Mask has been pretty great overall but sometimes slows down the game too much by making us filter. While there's a recursion package, it's not always guaranteed, so pitching relevant angel bodies early can be detrimental for late game, especially against graveyard exiles like Bojuka Bog. Yet, we'll still want to draw our cards so the discarding is necessary. Mantle is great not only because it costs the same, has a buff and vigilance and grabs relevant bodies off the top 6 without having to discard.

8. Clever Concealment IN Cosmic Intervention OUT

Cosmic seems good on paper but exile effects like Farewell or Merciless Eviction can make it useless. It also doesn't protect the angel tokens which can sometimes be the main body of threat. Concealment allows us to not just protect the tokens but lets the vigilant angels tap for a surprise protection. Oftentimes opponents will check untapped mana before blowing everything on a boardwipe so the convoke mechanic is super relevant for a well timed protection spell. Depending on the success of this swap I may consider Wand of the Worldsoul as well for some sneaky convoke shenanigans.

9. Chivalric Alliance IN Tome of Legends OUT

In the same line of thinking as Firemane Commando, "free" draw is better than costed draw. They both cost the same but having to pay for Tome of Legends can slow us down as well as if Giada is removed too much in the beginning. At most we'll ever get 1 draw per turn anyway so this swap was pretty simple.

10. Land Tax IN Smothering Tithe OUT

I've loved Tithe for awhile thinking it's a great ramp card. While it is good, it hinges on the decks it's played against. I've been most successful against my friends Jhoira's deck which colored my view when bringing it into pub matches. After reflecting on it for a year, it simply isn't worth it in mid to high powered casual decks that don't use draw as part of their strategy. In 90% of games I'll get 3-6 treasures before it gets removed or the game ends. Figuratively, you would drop it on turn 4 and if no one pays the tax then by turn 6 you'll have at most 6 treasures which is only net +2 mana. If the game lasts till turn 7 then you could have +5 mana but at that point opponents would either have game ending spells or plenty of open mana to pay the tax. Land Tax on the other hand can come down T1 before Giada even hits the field, thins out the deck while filling the hand with relevant plays and synergizes well with Emeria Shepherd or Emeria, The Sky Ruin. It was in the initial build of this deck before but was taken out along with the other artifact ramp to add more angels in.

11. Plains IN Bonders' Enclave OUT

As one of the few available card draws in mono-white, Enclave was a land for hail-mary draws. I've only ever used these abilities in 1 game when I was desperate for any card draw and it felt terrible. Paying 4 to draw a single card is terrible use of mana. Also, there were too many colorless sources from lands so I was struggling early game to play 2 relevant white cards in one turn.

12. Mistveil Plains IN War Room OUT

Same line of thinking as Enclave. Mistveil's ability is more of an experiment as tap lands are generally too slow. Typically recursion would just put the creatures back on the battlefield but Mistveil can possibly help with the Blink/Tutor package we've introduced.

Considering Wand of the Worldsoul and Excise the Imperfect

Game 1 (3-man Pod vs. Sigarda Voltron & Lathiel Lifegain)

Opponents: Sigarda, Host of Herons & Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn

Starting hand: Windswept Heath, Fabled Passage, Path of Ancestry, Bruna, the Fading Light  ^Meld, Folk Hero, Righteous Valkyrie, Invasion of Dominaria  ^Flip

Game lasted only 20 minutes as this hand curved out nearly perfectly.

T1 - Path of Ancestry tapped, drew Lightning Greaves

T2 - Plains (drew) into Lightning Greaves

T3 - Myriad Landscape tapped into Giada, Font of Hope, equipped Lightning Greaves swung with Giada

T4 - Windswept Heath into Plains into Folk Hero, swung with Giada, cast Righteous Valkyrie, drew a card

T5 - Mutavault (drew) into Invasion of Dominaria  ^Flip and swung both Giada and Valkyrie into the battle flipping it to Serra Faithkeeper  ^Flip to gain 8 life this turn and triggering Valkyrie's +2/+2 anthem

T6 - Cast Herald of War and equipped it with Lightning Greaves.

T7 - Cast Lyra Dawnbringer and Invasion of Gobakhan  ^Flip. Equipped Lyra with Lightning Greaves. Swung in for lethal ending the game.

Lightning Greaves did work this game as it not only protected Giada from early single target removal but also accelerated combat damage each turn. While I did draw into both battles this game I didn't have a chance to test out Invasion of Gobakhan  ^Flip except making a Krosan Grip more expensive which likely helped my Folk Hero or Lightning Greaves survive till the end.

Game 2 (4-man Pod vs. Sigarda Voltron, Lathiel Lifegain & Wilhelt Zombies)

Opponents: Sigarda, Host of Herons, Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn & Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver

Starting hand: Cavern of Souls, Scavenger Grounds, Mutavault, Guardian of Ghirapur, Folk Hero, Winds of Abandon, Battle Angels of Tyr

Initially I believed this hand was amazing as I had draw, removal and aggro all in one but failed to realize I had 0 colored mana except for angels. It ended up working out as the 2 Selesnya players ramped hard in the beginning allowing Tyr to do some work.

T1 - Cavern of Souls

T2 - Mutavault into Giada, Font of Hope

T3 - Scavenger Grounds into Battle Angels of Tyr, Giada sworded by Lathiel

T4 - Ancient Tomb into recasting Giada, swung with Tyr drawing a card and generating a Treasure token

T5 - Plains into Folk Hero and Herald's Horn and swung again with Tyr and Giada drawing a card and generating a Treasure token. Using the 3 open mana I cast Recruiter of the Guard fetching Stoneforge Mystic.

T6+ Cast Stoneforge Mystic to fetch Lightning Greaves but Stoneforge was promptly exiled. I had originally planned to use Guardian of Ghirapur to chain blink Stoneforge into Sword of Hearth and Home but instead used her on Recruiter of the Guard to fetch Thraben Watcher. I finished the game by casting Avacyn, Angel of Hope and equipping it with Lightning Greaves to give my board protection and started swinging away with indestructible vigilance angels.

I was nearly knocked out by the Sigarda player in the second to last turn because she was equipped with Sword of Hearth and Home making her unblockable as well as a Kaldra Compleat and finally a flashed in Sigarda's Vanguard for double strike. Luckily I had left mana open for Oblation and targeted the Sword of Hearth and Home allowing me to block with Ghirapur and Giada preventing lethal damage.

Game 3 (4-man Pod vs. Prosper Exile, Sliver Tribal & Muldrotha Reanimation)

Opponents: Prosper, Tome-Bound, Sliver Overlord & Muldrotha, the Gravetide

Starting hand was pretty slow with only 2 tapped lands but I figured Luminarch would win me the game provided I wasn't attacked early game.

Starting hand: Kabira Takedown  ^Flip, Windbrisk Heights, Luminarch Ascension, Invasion of Gobakhan  ^Flip, Herald's Horn, Bruna, the Fading Light  ^Meld, Generous Gift

Prosper started off the game insanely fast with a T1 Dark Ritual into Bucknard's Everfull Purse where he rolled 4 to cast Prosper on T1. They proceeded to dominate the game with a Reckless Fireweaver and later a Storm-Kiln Artist draining us to the low 10s. They attempted to finish us off with a Delayed Blast Fireball to wipe our board and swing with lethal. However, Slivers flashed in a Spiteful Sliver and Sliver Overlord to deal 30 damage back to Prosper bringing them down to 3. I used Luminarch Ascension to drop 2 angels before Giada died and got a 7/7 & 8/8 body that survived the fireball. While Slivers could have knocked me out with the Spiteful Sliver they had no real way to deal with Prosper after the fireball so I was able to knock out both players on my turn. Muldrotha had no answers so was dead on my next turn.

kirbysan on [Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven *Update*

11 months ago

All,

Grabbed all my 3+ pod gameplays and the recent MOM gameplay and swaps and posted it on my own decklist. I'll keep commenting on Guerric page as it gets more traffic. Let me know your thoughts and if my thinking is sound. Thanks!

Help Me Giada, You're My Only Hope

March of Machine Upgrades (x12) - Blink/Tutor Show

1. Guardian of Ghirapur IN Angelic Curator OUT

After nearly a year of playtesting, I'm not the biggest fan of the low CMC angels, especially Angelic Curator. While it's a 1/1 flying angel body for 2, the protection for artifacts is more of a hindrance than a help. It helped defend against a Blightsteel Colossus once but being unable to equip it hurts more. By turn 3 when we want to drop Angelic Curator we would rather want to drop a 3-4 CMC angel or an impactful Artifact, Equipment or Enchantment.

Guardian of Ghirapur is a far superior body to Angelic Curator at 3/3 for 3. Initially there weren't that many blink targets for this deck but I've tweaked it to have more relevant targets and provide some outs to accelerate our gameplan. Typical targets would be Stoneforge Mystic, Recruiter of the Guard, Inspiring Overseer, Karmic Guide, Sanctuary Warden, Bruna, the Fading Light  ^Meld.

2. Karmic Guide IN Angelic Page OUT

Following the same logic as Angelic Curator, Angelic Page simply doesn't do enough when it hits the board. Karmic Guide was initially pulled due to lack of use as 5CMC is a lot for simple recursion and the deck was more focused on mana efficiency. However, with the re-introduction of tutors and blink mechanics it may have a place again.

3. Recruiter of the Guard IN Mangara, the Diplomat OUT

Mangara has proven its worth in a few games if opponents continue with their strategy and play through it. However, like Smuggler's Share, if opponents decide to play around it, it's kind of a dead card on board. The first ability generally doesn't do much since opponents aren't swinging into our board and depending on the deck they can cast one big spell on their turn and save their instants for opponents. Recruiter of the Guard was in my initial build but pulled in favor of more angels. Typical line would be Recruiter of the Guard into Stoneforge Mystic to grab either Lightning Greaves for protection or Sword of Hearth and Home for protection, ramp and blink shenanigans. While it seems like adding 1 card for a maybe synergy seems inefficient I was able to pull it off in 1/3 games so it's not as inconsistent as it seems.

4. Firemane Commando IN Angelic Sleuth OUT

While the clues generated with Sleuth have saved me before, I would much rather have more consistent draw to keep my hand topped off rather than wastinga turn after a wipe to refill my hand. Firemane serves double duty as not only being a solid 4/3 angel body but also provides "free" draw through attacking which we want to do. It also helps direct combat decks towards opponents if they want the draw.

5. Invasion of Dominaria  ^Flip IN Thorough Investigation OUT

In the same theme as Sleuth, Thorough Investigation provides draw for later with the added benefit of going through the dungeon. I've completed dungeons twice before with this card but the benefits haven't been as strong as I hoped. Invasion of Dominaria  ^Flip provides lifegain and draw immediately and as long as we have 2 angels (Giada and 1 other) then we can defeat this battle the turn we drop it providing a 6/6 Serra Angel. When you staple all 3 together then that's incredibly efficient. Late game when we're trying to close out the game we may choose to not swing at the battle but instead go for lethal but the option remains.

6. Invasion of Gobakhan  ^Flip IN The Ozolith OUT

In the dozens of games I've played with Ozolith I've only had it successfully work once. Late game it may seem like a dead card as it sort of hinges on either an opponent playing a board wipe and us refilling the board to swing again or using Pyre of Heroes on a stacked angel to grab something relevant. I much prefer Gobakhan as it slows down an opponents gameplay, easy to flip and provides benefits right away by buffing our board the same turn it comes out and also has "free" protection for later.

7. Conjurer's Mantle IN Mask of Memory OUT

Mask has been pretty great overall but sometimes slows down the game too much by making us filter. While there's a recursion package, it's not always guaranteed, so pitching relevant angel bodies early can be detrimental for late game, especially against graveyard exiles like Bojuka Bog. Yet, we'll still want to draw our cards so the discarding is necessary. Mantle is great not only because it costs the same, has a buff and vigilance and grabs relevant bodies off the top 6 without having to discard.

8. Clever Concealment IN Cosmic Intervention OUT

Cosmic seems good on paper but exile effects like Farewell or Merciless Eviction can make it useless. It also doesn't protect the angel tokens which can sometimes be the main body of threat. Concealment allows us to not just protect the tokens but lets the vigilant angels tap for a surprise protection. Oftentimes opponents will check untapped mana before blowing everything on a boardwipe so the convoke mechanic is super relevant for a well timed protection spell. Depending on the success of this swap I may consider Wand of the Worldsoul as well for some sneaky convoke shenanigans.

9. Chivalric Alliance IN Tome of Legends OUT

In the same line of thinking as Firemane Commando, "free" draw is better than costed draw. They both cost the same but having to pay for Tome of Legends can slow us down as well as if Giada is removed too much in the beginning. At most we'll ever get 1 draw per turn anyway so this swap was pretty simple.

10. Land Tax IN Smothering Tithe OUT

I've loved Tithe for awhile thinking it's a great ramp card. While it is good, it hinges on the decks it's played against. I've been most successful against my friends Jhoira's deck which colored my view when bringing it into pub matches. After reflecting on it for a year, it simply isn't worth it in mid to high powered casual decks that don't use draw as part of their strategy. In 90% of games I'll get 3-6 treasures before it gets removed or the game ends. Figuratively, you would drop it on turn 4 and if no one pays the tax then by turn 6 you'll have at most 6 treasures which is only net +2 mana. If the game lasts till turn 7 then you could have +5 mana but at that point opponents would either have game ending spells or plenty of open mana to pay the tax. Land Tax on the other hand can come down T1 before Giada even hits the field, thins out the deck while filling the hand with relevant plays and synergizes well with Emeria Shepherd or Emeria, The Sky Ruin. It was in the initial build of this deck before but was taken out along with the other artifact ramp to add more angels in.

11. Plains IN Bonders' Enclave OUT

As one of the few available card draws in mono-white, Enclave was a land for hail-mary draws. I've only ever used these abilities in 1 game when I was desperate for any card draw and it felt terrible. Paying 4 to draw a single card is terrible use of mana. Also, there were too many colorless sources from lands so I was struggling early game to play 2 relevant white cards in one turn.

12. Mistveil Plains IN War Room OUT

Same line of thinking as Enclave. Mistveil's ability is more of an experiment as tap lands are generally too slow. Typically recursion would just put the creatures back on the battlefield but Mistveil can possibly help with the Blink/Tutor package we've introduced.

Considering Wand of the Worldsoul and Excise the Imperfect

Game 1 (3-man Pod vs. Sigarda Voltron & Lathiel Lifegain) Show

Opponents: Sigarda, Host of Herons & Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn

Starting hand: Windswept Heath, Fabled Passage, Path of Ancestry, Bruna, the Fading Light  ^Meld, Folk Hero, Righteous Valkyrie, Invasion of Dominaria  ^Flip

Game lasted only 20 minutes as this hand curved out nearly perfectly.

T1 - Path of Ancestry tapped, drew Lightning Greaves

T2 - Plains (drew) into Lightning Greaves

T3 - Myriad Landscape tapped into Giada, Font of Hope, equipped Lightning Greaves swung with Giada

T4 - Windswept Heath into Plains into Folk Hero, swung with Giada, cast Righteous Valkyrie, drew a card

T5 - Mutavault (drew) into Invasion of Dominaria  ^Flip and swung both Giada and Valkyrie into the battle flipping it to Serra Faithkeeper  ^Flip to gain 8 life this turn and triggering Valkyrie's +2/+2 anthem

T6 - Cast Herald of War and equipped it with Lightning Greaves.

T7 - Cast Lyra Dawnbringer and Invasion of Gobakhan  ^Flip. Equipped Lyra with Lightning Greaves. Swung in for lethal ending the game.

Lightning Greaves did work this game as it not only protected Giada from early single target removal but also accelerated combat damage each turn. While I did draw into both battles this game I didn't have a chance to test out Invasion of Gobakhan  ^Flip except making a Krosan Grip more expensive which likely helped my Folk Hero or Lightning Greaves survive till the end.

Game 2 (4-man Pod vs. Sigarda Voltron, Lathiel Lifegain & Wilhelt Zombies) Show

Opponents: Sigarda, Host of Herons, Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn & Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver

Starting hand: Cavern of Souls, Scavenger Grounds, Mutavault, Guardian of Ghirapur, Folk Hero, Winds of Abandon, Battle Angels of Tyr

Initially I believed this hand was amazing as I had draw, removal and aggro all in one but failed to realize I had 0 colored mana except for angels. It ended up working out as the 2 Selesnya players ramped hard in the beginning allowing Tyr to do some work.

T1 - Cavern of Souls

T2 - Mutavault into Giada, Font of Hope

T3 - Scavenger Grounds into Battle Angels of Tyr, Giada sworded by Lathiel

T4 - Ancient Tomb into recasting Giada, swung with Tyr drawing a card and generating a Treasure token

T5 - Plains into Folk Hero and Herald's Horn and swung again with Tyr and Giada drawing a card and generating a Treasure token. Using the 3 open mana I cast Recruiter of the Guard fetching Stoneforge Mystic.

T6+ Cast Stoneforge Mystic to fetch Lightning Greaves but Stoneforge was promptly exiled. I had originally planned to use Guardian of Ghirapur to chain blink Stoneforge into Sword of Hearth and Home but instead used her on Recruiter of the Guard to fetch Thraben Watcher. I finished the game by casting Avacyn, Angel of Hope and equipping it with Lightning Greaves to give my board protection and started swinging away with indestructible vigilance angels.

I was nearly knocked out by the Sigarda player in the second to last turn because she was equipped with Sword of Hearth and Home making her unblockable as well as a Kaldra Compleat and finally a flashed in Sigarda's Vanguard for double strike. Luckily I had left mana open for Oblation and targeted the Sword of Hearth and Home allowing me to block with Ghirapur and Giada preventing lethal damage.

Game 3 (4-man Pod vs. Prosper Exile, Sliver Tribal & Muldrotha Reanimation) Show

Opponents: Prosper, Tome-Bound, Sliver Overlord & Muldrotha, the Gravetide

Starting hand was pretty slow with only 2 tapped lands but I figured Luminarch would win me the game provided I wasn't attacked early game.

Starting hand: Kabira Takedown  ^Flip, Windbrisk Heights, Luminarch Ascension, Invasion of Gobakhan  ^Flip, Herald's Horn, Bruna, the Fading Light  ^Meld, Generous Gift

Prosper started off the game insanely fast with a T1 Dark Ritual into Bucknard's Everfull Purse where he rolled 4 to cast Prosper on T1. They proceeded to dominate the game with a Reckless Fireweaver and later a Storm-Kiln Artist draining us to the low 10s. They attempted to finish us off with a Delayed Blast Fireball to wipe our board and swing with lethal. However, Slivers flashed in a Spiteful Sliver and Sliver Overlord to deal 30 damage back to Prosper bringing them down to 3. I used Luminarch Ascension to drop 2 angels before Giada died and got a 7/7 & 8/8 body that survived the fireball. While Slivers could have knocked me out with the Spiteful Sliver they had no real way to deal with Prosper after the fireball so I was able to knock out both players on my turn. Muldrotha had no answers so was dead on my next turn.

kirbysan on [Primer] Helming the Host of Heaven *Update*

1 year ago

Guerric Perilous_Percival

Now that the full card list is up and searchable I figured this is the current breakdown.

Definitely Include

Invasion of Gobakhan  ^Flip flips to Lightshield Array  ^Flip

The front side of this battle card doesn't do much except maybe slow down the strongest player. We wouldn't necessarily play it on curve but flipping the battle would be pretty easy and its effects would happen the same turn we flip it. Not only does it grow the entire angel army with continued aggro it serves as a protection piece against single target removal or damage spells which is great. Also, when we sacrifice it the battle goes into graveyard which can then be recurred with Serra Paragon or Emeria Shepherd.

Firemane Commando

I fully suspect this card to be double digits on release as it does so much for white aggro decks. Getting card draw on an angel stick is great and it curves out perfectly. It also encourages others to aggro your opponents, usually the combo players.

Maybe Include

Guardian of Ghirapur

There aren't many 3CMC angels and this one has a pretty useful ability. Unfortunately we don't have too many ETB targets for it. Typical targets would be Inspiring Overseer or Sanctuary Warden for the draw or a mana rock to drop more threats.

Chivalric Alliance

This enchantment has the same effect as Firemane Commando but lacks any other useful effects. It fits into the same category as Folk Hero as it'll essentially be a draw a card per turn. While Hero would require Giada to be out, Alliance would require 2 creatures to attack. I figure after a board wipe it would be faster to draw with Hero as you could drop Giada and another angel and draw. If you have Alliance then you could do the same but then need to wait a full turn to attack in order to draw.

Conjurer's Mantle

This equipment is great for tribal decks and can serve as additional card draw for 3CMC total. I'd say it serves a better purpose than Rogue's Gloves as the total cost is 1 less and it provides a slight buff, provides vigilance, triggers on attack instead of combat damage and can pull threats from the deck. On the off-chance that it whiffs then it's obviously worse but with 29 Angels in the deck statistically there's 1.75 Angels out of 6 cards.

Surge of Salvation

This was mentioned in an article as the best white card of the set. I think it serves as a decent protection spell for 1 but I'm not sure how many we'd actually want in the deck.

Invasion of Dominaria flips to Serra Faithkeeper

Apparently this card isn't in the database yet but gaining 4 life and drawing a card is OK for 3CMC. It'll help trigger the lifegain payouts when there's no lifelinker on board. It also flips into a Serra Angel which is decent although you need 5 damage to flip it. I also like how it's recurrable like Invasion of Gobakhan  ^Flip.

Not Worthy

Boon Bringer Valkyrie

5CMC for its effects just aren't that great.

Archangel Elspeth

No specific angel buffs :(

Niko9 on Tutorless Commander?

1 year ago

Vigilance is such an underrated mechanic in commander. I feel like just a single Serra Angel will average 12 damage or so per game, and that's really not bad at all : )

And yep, I hadn't seen Urza's Sylex but that looks pretty nice. If I still had my elf deck together that would absolutely annihilate the mass creature ramp strategy.

Icbrgr on Serra's Descendants, competitive Angel Tribal

1 year ago

I'm a sucker for tribal decks in general and angels are just awesome.

A neat tech option could be Chancellor of the Annex to slow down some hyper aggressive strategies... besides that I feel like Serra the Benevolent needs to be here in some capacity.... {4} mana for a Serra Angel that leaves a planswalker behind to then Glorious Anthem if she survives seems strong in angel tribal... at least the flavor is hard to resist lol (but I have my own personal bias I just love Serra).

Icbrgr on Modern Benevolence

1 year ago

@9-lives thank you for the kind words!

This deck is a passion project to be focused on Serra the Benevolent and thats why I'm running her at 3 copies. I know she isn't competitive but she is the focal point of the deck and the general brewing inspiration for my card choices.

playing a Serra Angel for {4} mana that leaves a planswalker behind to Glorious Anthem with if she survives is very meh for Modern but im doing my best to have it work; even the Worship emblem isn't exactly an automatic win but sometimes it works and feels extremely satisfying.

I really wanted to have more burn spells in this list initially and ran a full playset of Lightning Helix in the mainboard but recently abandoned it altogether... as you were saying if I dropped the planswalkers and was more aggressive helix would come back; but with my decks gameplan I feel like I needed to have more {W} for sideboard hate/removal because my LGS plays pretty powerful decks and its hard for a deck like mine to compete... currently {R} is in here for Lightning Bolt for being a mainboard clock or essential removal for Goblin and {UR} aggro/prowess and a means to meaningfully interact with some opponents mana bases with Alpine Moon.

Icbrgr on How to Know When It's …

1 year ago

Yup this happens to me too... started just playing casually with classmates in elementary school with essentially piles of cards that could hopefully cast Serra Angel at some point lol... then in the days of m10 I played at the LGS all the time and did draft and it was great playing kitchen table magic too... then for reasons xyz I stopped going to the LGS... and my kitchen table magic was becoming less and less frequent... then I found tappedout and essentially theory crafted for years... then arena came out and that really reignited my playing time again and got more familiar with how the game is ACTUALLY being played in standard...then eventually like 6 months ago I broke back out into the LGS scene and using spelltable/discord and I'm actually playing with physical cards again.

TL;DR

I think its normal to fall in and out of the game... even if you aren't actively playing it's still normal to follow and obsess over it to a degree... let's be honest MTG is one heck of a card game with countless reasons to enjoy it whether its lore art or the aspect of collecting.