Pointed Discussion

Welcome back, oh one of beauty. :)

Bomb in limited, meh anywhere else. Still a solid 3.5/5 if there ever was one.

I wanna see this clash with Serra Spider.

5/5 just for the nostalgia.

Funny story: I have been playing magic since Apocalypse, but since i normally avoid core sets I opened my very first one of these at this prerelease. I guess after eleven years it was unavoidable.

I once gave her a Mask of Law and Grace and Holy Strength and used her against a Baneslayer Angel and won. That's what happens when you mess with the big boys (Or, as it is, girl/angel/epicness).

It's probably the most famous card in the game, and it's still good even now. Sure there are better angels, but Serra's only uncommon now so even folks without money to spend can have a couple in their white decks.

My oldest angel comes back.

I used to dislike people who used this card back in the day as I always ran black or red, and lightning bolt didn't do 4 points of damage! Not enough flyers in black or red to easily deal with it then. Still though I give it a 5 just due to the wrecking crew that it could perform when the game first released.

I am a pro that has brought a lot of pain with this card over the years.

Even with all the power creep, this will still see play after all these years. Probably no top decks will use it, but I'm sure every player will either face or use this card at some point in their lives. It's too good not to.

The "angel next door".
No matter how much more assets the new angels have (Baneslayer, Angelic Overseer, etc.), we guys would STILL want this one over those :D

A travesty that Baneslayer Angel has the same mana cost, new players will clearly choose Bane over this classic. But this card is a model of design, it is costed right for its powers, has flavor out the wazoo, and is a legend within the game. This is the standard by which all angels should be judged. Alas, I'm afraid she's slipping, which is a crime, really.

Great card to help you in times of serious distress. Found myself starting to follow her even when the light is present :P

I started using this card with Revised and it was one of the best cards in the game at that time. You could have minimal creatures in your deck since you could both attack and block with her while running control. Pus a good majority of players did not play flying creatures back then so you could hit them for whatever you buffed her up to, I usually had her at 7/7 with Divine Transformation, and still block their attacks.

In honor of being reprinted for the 5th Core Set in a row, I've taken the liberty to gather all Flavor Text throughout the years:

Born with wings of light and a sword of faith, this heavenly incarnation embodies both fury and purity.
Her sword sings more beautifully than any choir.
When she flies above the good, they consider themselves blessed. When she flies above the wicked, they consider themselves dead.
Perfect justice in service of a perfect will.
And the current: Follow the light. In its absence, follow her.

Baneslayer is still not strictly better, though. Suck it Baney, you don't have vigilance! =P

Wow, this is my all-time favorite card. When I first started playing this card seemed liked the best there ever was! Vigilance seemed like such a broken ability since you could attack and block, plus Serra Angel is a hefty 4/4. 5 out of 5 for pure awesomeness and respect.

Classic. A perfect card. No room for improvement. Any more power and she becomes obscene, any less and she's just an Air Elemental.

"Though she may be gone, our faith, like her Angel, is eternal."

Serra Angel has run in every deck I've ever had, and she's always been useful.

Hehe, right now this is rated 4.239 / 5.

Baneslayer Angel is rated 4.185 / 5.

Suck it, you insanely overpowered mythic, you.

@Erudite_Idiot- Oh now come now :3 Perfect? No. Power-creep is a thing. Has always been ever since around 5th Edition, by which time we'd really cycled out most of the overpowered "Legends" and Beta cards.

I do appreciate the fair Serra as my favorite Angel Design (and incidentally, I think Akroma herself was probably inspired in R&D mechanically as following through on 'making the Most Powerful Serra Angel imaginable), but please....was Shepherd of the Lost really so terrible?

I think it was just...really too harsh, too soon, too brusk, having Baneslayer be (if I remember correctly), our *FIRST* Mythic Angel besides the Duel Deck reprinted Akroma? And Baneslayer obsoleted Akroma and Serra and had the audacity to appear in the Core Set following Serra Angel's Last Two Appearances as a Rare, and then Serra was in THE SAME Core as Baneslayer...as an Uncommon. That was quite a lot of Demotion at once :O It was a disgrace to the poor girl that we'd loved for years to have that harlot just strut in here with red lipstick all over her expansion symbol. :(

But Shepherd of the Lost and Angelic Skrimisher *I* feel do fair Justice and actual Honor/Tribute to Serra Angel-- they seem to be cards as good now as Serra Angel was, without being just too much. If you play them against other Standard and Limited Cards, that can recapture what Serra Angel was like back in the day.

Wizards: a White/Green Serra Angel with Trample. Please I want one. :3 6 CMC is more preferable to either 5 (too much power) or 7 (too much cost)

I find it strange how this has been moved to uncommon, after having been THE white rare creature everyone wanted (with the permission of Exalted Angel) back in the days when I was playing, 10 years ago. That was also when Shivan Dragon could still be seen kicking about. Back then, under-costed creature cards with respect to their abilities, like Spiritmonger, were rarities.

Now they're rampant in every set Wizards puts out (esp. this Return to Ravnica block). Now you get silly, extremely OP creature cards for the same cost that are better and come with no drawbacks. I'm sure most of you will know it's Baneslayer Angel and Thundermaw Hellkite I'm talking about (not to forget Thragtusk).

It didn't bother me too much since I mostly play , and artifacts. But then came Obliterator. Awesome card, yes, but it doesn't require you to think like Negator did, and neither do Baneslayer Angel or Thundermaw Hellkite. The thinking aspect's what made me fall in love with MTG in the first place. That seems to be disappearing now.

"I remember when the best think you could lotus/mox out was Serra Angel. 'Course then it became who could Swords the other angel first..."

-Old Fogey

The lady is back in her domain, kicking ass and taking names.

Vigilance is a highly overrated ability until it's stapled to something with an evasion ability and a fairly respectable power and toughness. Then you start to hate that wing-ed beauty sitting there able to attack you every turn AND block during your turn. Well unless she's on your side.

Such a great card yet so underrated these days.

And it's declared that she's getting printed in M14.

I think Wizards understands that she is one of the most sought-after cards in limited for obvious reasons:
1. In limited, where choosing a strategy is hard to achieve, you need creatures to win. Creatures are the lifeblood of any good limited deck.
2. Flyers provide you with two kinds of defense and evasion. They're both offensive and defensive, depending on how you want to play the game.
3. Vigilance is exceptionally useful since it can allow your toughest creatures a chance to attack when you're low on life and need a blocker.
4. 4 toughness is the magic number for toughness. Most creatures in limited have power equal to or less than 3. To prove my point, there are 114 creatures in M13. 91 of them have power <= 3. This means that Angel can block most of those creatures without dying.
5. 5 mana is not that difficult to pay for in limited. Unlike Standard/Modern/Legacy, players tend to start attacking and dealing damage by turn 3-5, and if you can get a perfect land-drop, a turn-5 (or heaven forbid, turn-4).
6. is not too colour-heavy, unlike something like Phylactery Lich. You can splash this in your deck as long as you have more than 3 other good white spells.

If I'm missing anything else, please tell me. However, I think Serra Angel is just about on par with Vampire Nighthawk in terms of limited gold.

@Ferlord I mean I'd say Vampire Nighthawk is probably a little better because it's 3 mana and races just as good as serra angel which costs 5. But in limited, this is where you want your finishers to be at and not nighthawk. Nighthawk feels like a limited value creature to me because you gain life putting you ahead in the race and it can trade up with any creature on the battlefield so it never just chumps if you are behind. With this, you are far less likely to trade up early due to the higher toughness and it finishes your opponent twice as quickly and therefore more effectively because your opponents have less time to draw into removal. If I had both in the same pack I'd probably take the angel and force white. I've seen some white goodies be passed out pretty late in m13.

Follow Bruce Lee. In it's absence, follow h-Chuck Norris

At one point considered overpowered; now outclassed by several things, but still very powerful in her own right. Goes to show how much this game has evolved in the past twenty years.