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 Angels are the iconic white creatures in Magic. But how many of them are there? How strong they are? And what is their sex? Let's find out the answers to all of these questions (especially the sex thing), with the complete Angelpedia, the first in a cycle of constantly updated compendia that also includes the enigmatic Sphingopedia, the sulfuric Demonpedia, the fiery Dragonpedia, and the scaly Hydropedia.

• Current number of Angel creature cards: 187 in black border, plus two from the Un-sets
• Criteria: Body is the sum of Power and Toughness; the rating is calculated on a scale from 0 to 10; the entries are ordered by casting cost groups (called Choirs and given names based on the Medieval tradition – just for flavor, no claim of theological accuracy), then alphabetically
• The Un-Angels
• Angel-Related Cards
• Angel Statistics
• The Angel Commanders
• The latest Angels
• Summary

THE SIX ANGELIC CHOIRS

• Cherubim (CMC 3 or less)
• Seraphim (CMC 4)
• Virtues (CMC 5)
• Dominions (CMC 6)
• Archangels (CMC 7)
• Principalities (CMC 8 or more)

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1. 

• Name: Segovian Angel   > summary <
• Set: Modern Horizons
• Converted Mana Cost: 1
• Body: 2
• General Evaluation: Everything is small in the miniature plane of Segovia – Angels include. The experimental set Modern Horizons considered such a notion a good enough excuse to create the very first one-drop Angel, complete with vigilance. It might just be a flavor gimmick, or it might actually make some sense in the White Weenie style of deckbuilding, although the competition there is steep, and two power or lifelink are probably more crucial stats than vigilance on your opening creature.
• Tribal Evaluation: If lowering the curve in an Angel deck is the name of the game, Segovian Angel really goes for broke.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

2. 

• Name: Angelic Curator   >> summary
• Set: Urza's Legacy
• Additional Type: Spirit
• Converted Mana Cost: 2
• Body: 2
• General Evaluation: For a common Angel at the lowest casting cost (and power level), Angelic Curator comes with a protection ability that might even prove relevant on occasions. Still, it's more of a sideboard card, useful only in specific meta conditions (which, by the way, did NOT exist back in Urza block, where there were only a handful of playable artifact creatures, so this essentially reads "protection from Masticore").
• Tribal Evaluation: No sideboards allowed in Tribal Wars decks, so the protection becomes a matter of mere match-up luck. If your deck really requires a turn-two Angel, you could do even worse, but nowadays you can also do much better. In a Spirit deck, well, this is the number of available two-drops.
• Gender: Unclear
• Rating: 4

3.   

• Name: Angelic Page   >> summary
• Sets: Urza's Saga, Seventh Edition, Eighth Edition, Duel Decks: Divine vs. Demonic, Masters 25, Jumpstart
• Additional Type: Spirit
• Converted Mana Cost: 2
• Body: 2
• General Evaluation: Here's your basic common Angel that comes on turn 2. She doesn't do much, it's just a minimal flying body that can add its stats to other fellow fighters (being their faithful battlefield "page"). But she's still better than most other two-drops in the tribe – or at least she was for a long stretch of her existence, hence the quantity of reprints throughout the years.
• Tribal Evaluation: She was once the only real option for early board presence in an Angel deck. But not anymore. In Spirit, of course, she never was.
• Gender: Female (the much-reprinted Seventh Edition version adopted kind of a Middle Eastern imagery for some reason)
• Rating: 5

4.  

• Name: Serra Avenger   > summary <
• Set: Time Spiral, Champs and States 2006 Top 8 promo, Magic 2013
• Converted Mana Cost: 2
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: Serra Avenger has been a popular gal in her time. She was the main beater in various classic incarnations of the Death and Taxes archetype. Her casting cost shouldn't deceive you, though – she's actually a four-drop (a three-drop through Aether Vial). As such, she directly competes with her 4-CMC sisters, a much less forgiving bunch. Still, she repays her modest mana investment with vigilance on a decent body, while she lets us leave mana open the turn in which she hits the field; both still good arguments in her favor.
• Tribal Evaluation: For a long time she was a must-play in your average Angel deck. As noted, she's no help during the first three turns of the game, but she can still do reasonably well in a beater role later on, and she has an especially favorable interaction with Stoic Angel.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

5. 

• Name: Sustaining Spirit   >> summary
• Set: Alliances
• Additional Type: Spirit
• Converted Mana Cost: 2
• Body: 3
• General Evaluation: This is less of a creature and more of a combo piece involving a non-zeroable life total. And given that there are other, better ways to do that without having to deal with the always annoying cumulative upkeep, this Angel Spirit remains just an obscure piece of vintage Magicana.
• Tribal Evaluation: Only playable in case you need the "can't die" combo routine built in the tribal component of an Angel deck, at a cheaper (yet more ephemeral) cost than Platinum Angel. So, in all fairness, not an extremely likely case. There still might be some use in temporarily stopping the opponent from winning via damage while also getting a blocker, somethng that possibly better suits a more shenanigan-prone Spirit deck.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 3

6. 

• Name: Youthful Valkyrie   > summary <
• Set: Kaldheim
• Converted Mana Cost: 2
• Body: 4
• General Evaluation: Two brilliant intuitions about Angels came from Kaldheim. The first is the realization that they perfectly lend themselves to represent the mythological Valkyries. The second is that an Angel that drops on turn two and yet remains relevant the entire game can, in fact, exist. That Angel is Youthful Valkyrie, a card only found in Theme Boosters and Set Boosters.
• Tribal Evaluation: It's not just a matter of accommodating a lowered curve anymore; this Valkyrie kid is a real threat, and it's just delightful to watch her grow to awe-inspiring greatness over the course of a game. Admittedly, she loses some value as a topdeck in the late game, but she can still pick a counter or two before it's all said and done. She also starts with a larger body – featuring a non-shockable butt! – than any other two-drop Angel that was ever printed before.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

7. 

• Name: Angel of Vitality   > summary <
• Set: Core Set 2020
• Converted Mana Cost: 3
• Body: 4
• General Evaluation: This is strictly meant to enhance lifegain strategies, something the Angels have focused on more consistently in the years leading to Angel of Vitality's printing; in particular with Core Set 2019's in-tribe payoff Resplendent Angel and fellow Core Set 2020's off-tribe enabler Bishop of Wings. These three actually describe a power combo, because following up a turn-two Bishop with a turn-three Angel of Vitality paves the road for a turn four in which Resplendent Angel drops and immediately creates a 4/4 token (in the meantime, Angel of Vitality has become a 4/4 herself, but that's just gravy). If left unchecked, this simple interaction can quickly take over the game. Elsewhere, she's still a reasonable addition to builds centered around Soul Warden and/or Serra Ascendant and/or Heliod, Sun-Crowned.
• Tribal Evaluation: The mentioned trio is already the basis for a solid Angel deck with a handsome curve. Angel of Vitality is perhaps the least essential of the three cards, but still has a role to play.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

8. 

• Name: Emancipation Angel   >> summary
• Set: Avacyn Restored, Duel Decks: Blessed vs. Cursed, Ultimate Masters, Jumpstart
• Converted Mana Cost: 3
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: The angelic version of Kor Skyfisher, with one point of additional power but also costing one more white mana. Probably not worth it, in general, but still playable. The permanent-bouncing clause might turn into value later on, when we can pick up and retrigger some crucial ETB effect.
• Tribal Evaluation: Believe it or not, before Core Set 2019 was released, this was still the largest body you could naturally hardcast on turn three in a monowhite Angel deck – or at least if we were incline to dismiss the two-for-one waiting for happen that is Haunted Angel. She would slow down our mana progression at that point (if we treat a land as the more common target of the self-bouncing ability); on the other hand, she might virtually give us one mana back in a turn in which we wouldn't otherwise make a land drop. The previous shortage of low-cost alternatives made her an option worth considering in a faster Angel deck. Unfortunately for Emancipation Angel, though, things have changed quite a bit since then, and now Youthful Valkyrie, Resplendent Angel, Resplendent Marshal, and Righteous Valkyrie all exist.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

9. 

• Name: Feather, the Redeemed   > summary <
• Set: War of the Spark
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 3
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: The most conflictual member of the Boros Legion, and her rival Aurelia's very creator, Feather visited her fierce aggression on the hordes of Bolas's Eternals during the War of the Spark – and in Standard as a centerpiece of a moderately successful aggro-combo list that would heavily exploit her recursive ability with cards like Defiant Strike, Gods Willing and Reckless Rage. Once the engine gets going and we're able to draw cards off of her, protect her from removal, and kill opposing creatures again and again, the victory is at hand.
• Tribal Evaluation: An Angel deck built around Feather's shtick is certainly possible, even if her best allies, like Tenth District Legionnaire and Dreadhorde Arcanist, reside off-tribe. Worst case scenario, she's a 3/4 flyer for three mana, which is pretty much as big as you can go on turn three with Angels.
• Commander Evaluation: Feather is one of three legendary Angels at CMC 3 (the other two are Jenara and Linvala). Her Commander deck is necessarily one-note, but potentially very effective, as she ranks among the most consistent aggro commanders in Boros colors, especially for one-on-one play.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

10. 

• Name: Guiding Spirit   >> summary
• Set: Visions
• Additional Type: Spirit
• Converted Mana Cost: 3
• Body: 3
• General Evaluation: Definitely one of the less played low-cost Angels, Guiding Spirit mostly contributes her activation to the board, since her body is negligible. We can envision particular states where she can bring back one of our key creatures, or negate the opponent a draw by forcing them to take back some now useless piece of early acceleration, or some such. These situations don't feel like something we could really wait for or easily engineer, though.
• Tribal Evaluation: She is most assuredly not worth a blue splash for her sake alone, but if you happen to already run blue mana in your Angel list, you should at least consider and then probably dismiss her as a possible base of your curve. In a Spirit deck, the dismission seems automatic.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

11. 

• Name: Haunted Angel   >> summary
• Set: Apocalypse
• Converted Mana Cost: 3
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: This is only interesting in that she's the (very ancient) precursor of a mechanic later reworked for the Avacyn Restored demon, Treacherous Pit-Dweller. Sort of the embodiment of the idea that you may well profit now, but one day the chickens will come home to roost – under the guise of opposing black Angels.
• Tribal Evaluation: Here's what really haunts this Angel now and will do until the end of time: there's no profit anymore in a three-drop 3/3 flyer with a downside, because now we have multiple three-drop 3/3 flyers with upsides! For the same exact mana value of Haunted Angel, we can have Righteous Valkyrie! Complete and utter obsolescence is a harsh mistress.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 0

12.  

• Name: Illusory Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Planechase 2012, Magic 2015, Iconic Masters
• Additional Type: Illusion
• Converted Mana Cost: 3
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: The only monoblue Angel in existence. Just like in the case of Serra Avenger, Illusionary Angel can't naturally play the role of a turn-three beater. Unlike her monowhite colleague, though, it's easier to play around her restriction – we just need a zero-cost spell to fulfill the clause, with no additional mana requirement. And if that spell happens to be a Mox of some sort or other, we can easily have her on the battlefield by turn two, with a body that is still the most impressive of any other Angel of the same cost. Plus, she skips the whole "illusions die when targeted" clause, which one may have expected, given her secondary subtype.
• Tribal Evaluation: Definitely worth of consideration in an Azorius Angel deck, though her special status of most coveted three-drop Angel has been subjected to increasingly convincing challenges since her release in Planechase 2012, and is now more or less in shambles. She still puts up a decent fight for space against Phantasmal Dragon in Illusion decks.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

13. 

• Name: Jenara, Asura of War   >> summary
• Sets: Alara Reborn, From the Vault: Angels
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 3
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: For all the color requirement she demands, Bant leader Jenara doesn't impact the board much right away, but it's the kind of creature you have to deal with quick, as she might provide an awfully fast clock if left unchecked. Granted, she calls for heavy mana investment, with the very present risk of losing it all to pretty much any piece of spot removal, but once you have a fast evasive beater that grows at the rate she does, you might well just sit back and protect her while she does her thing.
• Tribal Evaluation: Jenara is probably the main reason to build a Bant Angel deck to begin with. Being legendary, you can't have more than one around at any given time (barring shenanigans), but she drops early enough and threatens the opponent severely enough to suggest running a full playset anyway, as you can take some more risks with her if you got a second copy in hand.
• Commander Evaluation: Not the flashiest, but still a pretty solid way to get access to her three colors while also getting a cheap and reliable commander that can serve various different strategies – and love herself some Ozolith.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

14. 

• Name: Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate   > summary <
• Set: Zendikar Rising
• Additional Types: Legendary, Wizard
• Converted Mana Cost: 3
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: The third incarnation of the subversive Linvala was designed as one of the payoffs for party synergies, which is also why she somehow went to a magic academy and became a Wizard while Zendikar was being consumed by the Eldrazi (wherever that was, they forced her to put some damn clothes on). Her pseudo-removal party trigger is okay, and her sacrifice ability to protect the team plays well into the efforts not to lose full party status, which is the main concern in that kind of list.
• Tribal Evaluation: All Angels printed since Zendikar Rising have been given one of the party types, so it's possible to build an Angel tribal deck that manages to trigger Linvala's first ability without external help. Although, it's probably going to be less effective than a deck that just doesn't try to do that.
• Commander Evaluation: Considering Linvala's colors are comprised within Jenara's colors, she doesn't seem to be a best candidate for cheap Angel commander; and even for dedicated Commander party builds, she has to contend with Tazri, who provides a card-drawing ability and, more importantly, gives access to all five colors.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

15. 

• Name: Renegade Reaper   > summary <
• Set: Kaldheim
• Additional Type: Berserker
• Converted Mana Cost: 3
• Body: 5
• General Evaluation: Simple uncommon that would be just barely playable in Limited, but it's not even the case, since it only appears in Kaldheim's Theme Boosters and Set Boosters.
• Tribal Evaluation: She might be okay in some version of Angel reanimator, with the lifegain as a bonus; but even there, she's pretty slow and the residual body too insignificant. She's currently one of eight monoblack Angels, but gets beaten by Vengeful Reaper, which can also be played on turn three if foretold on two, and attacks for the same amount as Renegade Reaper, and one turn ahead of schedule.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 3

16.  

• Name: Resplendent Angel   > summary <
• Set: Core Set 2019
• Converted Mana Cost: 3
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: Arguably the best Angel ever printed under CMC 4 so far, the Core Set 2019 white mythic Resplendent Angel was followed up one core set later by the cards that would go on to become her favorite synergy pieces, namely Angel of Vitality and Bishop of Wings. When they put their minds and wings together, these three are capable of truly amazing things, fulfilling the conditions for Resplendent Angel's end-step trigger like it's nobody's business. Scroll of Avacyn also helps, wherever it's legal, as under Resplendent Angel's watch, it becomes "draw a card, gain 5 life, make a 4/4 Angel", while more esoteric combos include Divine Visitation turning the Bishop's consolation Spirits into more full-fledged Angels (and potentially into infinite life in conjunction with a free sacrifice outlet). But the best part about the Resplendent Club, it's that each part works in isolation too, synergizing to various effects with other Angels, particularly the larger lifelinkers and of course Lyra Dawnbringer. In this sense, Valkyrie Harbinger is essentially Resplendent Angel on steroids.
• Tribal Evaluation: All this Resplendent Angel token-making business is not the only way to build an Angel deck, but it's undeniably one of the best, as it starts threatening board advantage early on and then remains relevant throughout the entire game, with our shiny winged heroine fully capable to enable her own triggered ability when six mana can be funneled into her activation. This makes her a must-play in Angel decks just out of curve smoothing alone, even when we don't bother including the more synergistic combo pieces.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 10

17. 

• Name: Resplendent Marshal   > summary <
• Set: Kaldheim
• Additional Type: Warrior
• Converted Mana Cost: 3
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: In a world where the original Resplendent Angel wasn't printed yet, this Marshal namesake would look much better. As things are, and in a larger context, she's merely okay, since she costs exactly the same as her predecessor, has identical stats and keyword, but a much less exciting unique ability. She's expressly designed to complement tribal builds, but her boost is difficult to exploit by turn three, when the board won't be very populated yet, and having a creature of the right type already in our graveyard is somewhat unlikely, unless our deck specifically incorporates a self-mill strategy (and maybe some changelings), something that's not too common in a list capable of generating double white so early on.
• Tribal Evaluation: For the reasons stated above, the Marshal is not going to win herself a spot in too many Angel lists, which have at least two superior options in Resplendent Angel and Righteous Valkyrie, and even less of a chance of enabling the Marshal's trigger and/or extracting much value from it – certainly not on turn three. Off-tribe within a White Weenie shell is probably where Resplendent Marshal could properly shine. No pun intended.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

18. 

• Name: Righteous Valkyrie   > summary <
• Set: Kaldheim
• Additional Type: Cleric
• Converted Mana Cost: 3
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: Yet another Angel that strongly supports lifegain synergies, this Valkyrie from Kaldheim brings that very strategy up to eleven, going as far as gaining four life when Bishop of Wings joins the field, so basically stealing even the Angel-loving Cleric's thunder. Or better, expanding the scope of that routine, even just to start gaining more life than the opponent can threaten, at least in an ideal condition of double tribal policy. If that wasn't enough, her toughness places her beyond bolt's reach, and her static anthem eventually raises everybody's power and toughness by two, and that includes the base stats of the Valkyrie herself.
• Tribal Evaluation: She's one of the most desirable three-drops in Angel tribal, and possibly even more crucial in Cleric tribal, where lifegain is more than just one possilble approach; with cards like Cleric of Life's Bond and Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, it's become an integral part of the tribe's regular functioning.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 9

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19. 

• Name: Angel of Condemnation   >> summary
• Set: Hour of Devastation
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: One of the (male) Angels who worked for Nicol Bolas on Amonkhet, Angel of Condemnation has a couple of interesting abilities. He's able to O-Ring a creature every other turn, or blink one every turn, to exploit ETB effects, dribble removal, reset control (the wording does specify "owner"), or just plainly stop attacks. Only problem is, all this versatility does not come cheap, requiring a slow, mana-intensive activation cost. Being vigilant, he can still attack before indulging in his control trickery, plus his casting cost is reasonable. On the other hand, his body is fragile and unimpressive (on par with Emeria Angel, whose value is however accrued much more smoothly), and his overall impact feels much weaker than more streamlined blinkers like Brago, King Eternal or Emiel, the Blessed. Bonus points for effort, though.
• Tribal Evaluation: The big question is: would it even make sense for an Angel deck to assign to this guy one its precious four mana slots? There are indeed a few Angels with strong ETB effects to abuse, although both Sunblast Angel and Magister of Worth would just insta-kill Angel of Condemnation on the spot, while blinking seven-drops like Angel of Despair and Angel of Serenity doesn't exactly feel like the most agile battle plan ever conceived, and it's the kind of wishful thinking that strictly belongs to Magical Christmasland. The blinking can be decent in conjunction with cheap Angels like Resplendent Marshal and to trigger Righteous Valkyrie's lifegain over and over, or even to stop graveyard shenanigans at instant speed with Angel of Finality, albeit that's very situational. You can also sort of build your own Platinum Angel by flickering Angel of Grace every turn. Or even better, we could abuse Karmic Guide. All right, maybe we shouldn't be too quick to dismiss Angel of Condemnation, for all of his clunkiness.
• Gender: Male
• Rating: 7

20. 

• Name: Angel of Finality   >> summary
• Sets: Commander 2013, Commander 2020, Kaldheim Commander
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: Angel of Finality has one job and one job only, but she performs it effectively. That job being, of course, graveyard hate. Granted, she doesn't operate at instant speed (so she has no way to trump Gifts Ungiven or Living End), but at least she only targets the opponent's graveyard, asymmetrically. And just like Bojuka Bog can be made instant via Knight of the Reliquary, we can use Aether Vial (and, later, Angel of Condemnation) to improve the scope of our Finality gal. All in all, she's awfully situational, but it's good to have such an effect as part of the angelic arsenal.
• Tribal Evaluation: You might well want to include a couple copies of this specialized Angel in your Tribal Wars deck, what with graveyard strategies being annoying to fight when you don't have a sideboard. Her body is sub-par compared to other Seraphim, and once in the battlefield she doesn't have additional abilities other than her wings, but she can manage.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

21. 

• Name: Angel of Jubilation   >> summary
• Set: Avacyn Restored
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: Her body is pretty low-key for a modern Seraph, although her static anthem is already providing some value. What makes Angel of Jubiliation really noteworthy is the quantity of cards she's able to shut down with her last ability, more remarkably fetch lands, Phyrexian mana, and all sacrifice outlets including Birthing Pod and Viscera Seer. It works against us too, but the three white mana in the cost mean we probably are operating within a monowhite environment, so these limitations don't feel as relevant as they woul in black or green (and we can still use Flagstones of Trokair and Fabled Passage).
• Tribal Evaluation: The Seraph slots have steep competition, so I can see Angel of Jubilation never making the cut, mainly because she doesn't deliver much on the beating side of things (unless you're exploiting the passive bonus with token generators like Emeria Angel), and the hosing ability might occasionally just amount to a minor annoyance. At times, though, it can really give you an edge over some strategies.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

22. 

• Name: Angelic Field Marshal   >> summary
• Set: Commander 2014
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 6 (10 with commander)
• General Evaluation: Well, of course the lieutenant ability has no meaning whatsoever outside of Commander, and without the lieutenant boost, Angelic Field Marshal is a French vanilla four-drop 3/3 flyer, which matches the power level of your average Limited-fodder Griffin. With lieutenant online, she becomes a pretty good deal as a 5/5 vigilant that only costs four mana, even if Commander cares more about the impact than the cost, and while granting universal vigilance is sweet enough, it's not exactly novel.
• Tribal Evaluation: Tribal Commander is feasible, if not exactly commonplace. In that subformat, this Angel might have a place, albeit finding 33 other Angels that are strictly superior isn't that hard these days, and giving them vigilance would be redundant in half the cases.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

23. 

• Name: Angelic Protector   >> summary
• Sets: Tempest, Duel Decks: Divine vs. Demonic, Tempest Remastered
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 4
• General Evaluation: Would you really wanna pay four mana for a 2/2 that can't be bolted?
• Tribal Evaluation: Would you really wanna pay four mana for a 2/2 that can't be bolted in an Angel deck? 
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 1

24. 

• Name: Archangel of Tithes   >> summary
• Set: Magic Origins
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: This one's a nasty little bugger, isn't she? She's stronger when we're playing defensively, as suggested by her body balance tending towards toughness, and the whole tax situation being more suitable to stop enemy attacks rather than helping your Angel and her friends sneak damage through the opponent's defenses. Her casting cost is screaming monowhite, and four mana feel like a pretty reasonable cost, considering what she brings to the table. She just really needs to be given vigilance. Flavor corner: you see that sort of tiara she's wearing on her head? Doesn't that look like what Liliana always wears? Well, it's exactly that, as the incorrigible Liliana stole it from the Angel, as depicted in Unholy Hunger. Now you know.
• Tribal Evaluation: Again, you'll probably want to keep her untapped, as your evasive Angels won't have much trouble connecting anyway. Then again, Angel tribal doesn't especially need this effect, except when built with a higher curve that could easily fall prey of aggro; the kind of list that would already benefit from the inclusion of Ghostly Prison effects.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

25. 

• Name: Atraxa, Praetors' Voice   >> summary
• Sets: Commander 2016, Double Masters
• Additional Types: Legendary, Horror
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: The Phyrexians have won their war of conquest on the Plane Formerly Known as Mirrodin. When Elesh Norn emerged victorious among the other Praetors, she celebrated her victory with a little compleation project at the expense of one proud Angel once known as Atraxa, now transformed into the spokeperson (spokemonster?) for the Praetors (minus the rebellious Urabrask, who declined to take part in this particular group activity). At first, Atraxa appears to be a super-fighter along the lines of old favorites like the Akromas or Sphinx of the Steel Wind. She's more defensive than offensive, though, thanks to vigilance and lifelink, while deathtouch doesn't usually amount to much on a large body (it's flavorful, though). The really over-the-top ability is that free, recurring proliferate, which could spiral out of control pretty fast in the right deck. It's also great that the proliferation starts right away (barring instant removal), rather than upon connection, because that means Atraxa is able to impact the board the turn she drops, which is always a sign of a first-rate creature.
• Tribal Evaluation: It's not easy to accommodate so many colors in Angel tribal, and red, Angel's second favorite color, isn't even included in Atraxa's package. Being green, she could be fetched in several specific ways (Natural Order, Green Sun's Zenith), but that doesn't seem the correct route in Angel tribal. This said, there's a good number of Angels that deal in proliferable +1/+1 counters: Youthful Valkyrie, Resplendent Marshal, Jenara, Shalai, Archangel of Thune, Herald of War, Patron of the Valiant, Angel of Invention (maybe not Copper-Leaf Angel). That's a deck right there. Or three.
• Commander Evaluation: As a commander, Atraxa provides access to almost every color, a solid board presence, and a strong "counters matter" theme. It's no coincidence that she originated in a Commander product to begin with.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

26. 

• Name: Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice   > summary <
• Set: Guilds of Ravnica
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: We first met this temperamental Boros guildmaster in her top-end Aurelia, the Warleader incarnation from Gatecrash. For our return to Ravnica that closely preceded the War of the Spark, Aurelia was given a more manageable Seraph form, lacking haste but making up for it with a more resilient body and a combat trigger that can give herself, as well as one of her comrades in arms (preferably one that's Boros-colored), +2/+0, trample, and vigilance. And if that's not enough, she can also mentor. It's quite the aggressive package for her cost.
• Tribal Evaluation: Now, mentor might not come up too often in Angel tribal, and trample might not be especially needed on flyers, but Aurelia's combat trigger is bound to boost right away one fellow Angel that was already on board, by increasing their power and making them vigilant. She's extremely effective and highly tactical, arguably reason enough to splash red in any Angel list with some room to spare at CMC 4.
• Commander Evaluation: Just a very solid "good stuff" Boros commander, perhaps leaning on the side of the Voltron style of all-in aggression, if with less inherent safeguards compared to Feather, the Redeemed.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 9

27.   

• Name: Emeria Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Zendikar, Game Day Promo, Iconic Masters, The List
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: Emeria Angel is a highlight, no doubt on that. As far as this point of the curve goes, you trade the chance to get a more impressive or resilient beater (like a straight-up 4/4 flyer, if we're talking other Angels) for the ability to steadily generate an army of not very peaceful white doves. The applications span different kinds of strategies, from aggro (more beaters, possibly getting enhanced by anthem effects, apply more pressure) to control (you get a self-contained finisher slot that also provides suitable Equipment carriers) to combo (you'll have a combination of active board presence and a limitless and abusable creature generator for sacrifices and similar shenanigans). Landfall is just that kind of insanely powerful mechanic that rewards you for playing the game.
• Tribal Evaluation: At the very top of the shortlist for any Angel deck.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 9

28. 

• Name: Emeria Captain   > summary <
• Set: Zendikar Rising
• Additional Type: Warrior
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 2 (virtually 4)
• General Evaluation: The return to an Eldrazi-less Zendikar couldn't pass up on the chance of referencing the original Emeria Angel, but unfortunately her promotion to Captain didn't do great for our halo-blinded friend. Landfall is gone, unfortunately, and was replaced by a simple party payoff that just works to make our Angel better than the plain terrible four-drop 2/2 she starts as. With a full party, she can aspire to be a severely discounted Archangel, but that's about it, and she quickly downgrade to mediocre if only two or three party types are present on the battlefield, to atrocious if forced to drop on an empty board.
• Tribal Evaluation: In Angel tribal, she's not even very likely to be able to pick up the full set of +1/+1 counters at all.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

29. 

• Name: Eradicator Valkyrie   > summary <
• Set: Kaldheim
• Additional Type: Berserker
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: Easily the best of the monoblack Angels, this Valkyrie (styled, due to her color, as a reaper of the unworthy, while the monowhite ones are shepherds of the worthy) is, first and foremost, a four-powered lifelinker Angel at CMC 4, a trait that's only matched by small Gisela and four-colored Atraxa. Hexproof from planeswalkers is a cool-sounding ability, but at the end of the day it's so situational that works more as novelty factor than as anything that can be concretely evaluated. On the other hand, being able to cast a two-mana Innocent Blood at every attack is nothing to sneeze at, and places Eradicator Valkyrie closer to the territory of the all-time great monoblack four-drops – particularly those related to sacrifice strategies, like Rankle, Master of Pranks.
• Tribal Evaluation: She requires a heavy black commitment in a tribal environment that might easily manage without it, so she might not be worth the splash alone. As a Berserker, she's probably a bit too expensive for their usual low-to-the-ground build.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

30.  

• Name: Firemane Avenger   >> summary
• Sets: Gatecrash, Game Day Promo, GRN Guild Kit
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: The Firemane clan gets a new member, one that's easier to cast than her six-mana sister. The body is a bit underwhelming for a beater that should manage to stay alive long enough to be able to attack alongside two companions in order to trigger battalion, but once you get there, a Lightning Helix effect is as good as that mechanic gets. As a top-of-the-curve battalioner, she's appealing enough.
• Tribal Evaluation: She has a lot of contenders within the Seraphim, and achieving battalion isn't as easy in an Angel deck as it is in White Weenie or Boros Aggro, but the threat level for 4 mana is definitely there. Worth a try.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

31.   

• Name: Gisela, the Broken Blade   >> summary
• Sets: Eldritch Moon, From the Vault: Transform
• Additional Types: Legendary, Horror, Eldrazi when melded with Bruna
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 7 (up to 19 when melded with Bruna)
• General Evaluation: Gisela's second incarnation represents the more agile half of the whole tragic tale of Brisela, Emrakul's composite monstrosity that functioned as her insane spearhead on Innistrad (and to which she gave a portmanteau name like Brangelina, because that's how unfathomable Emrakul's mind is). Blade of Goldnight no more, this broken Angel, driven to madness by the eldritch horror, has shed the red mana (plus two generic mana) and is now a four-drop 4/3 lifelinking first striker, which are some pretty decent stats, if not super-exciting, and perhaps a bit too on the fragile side with that boltable butt. Comparing her to similarly built and costed Angels, we see Sublime Archangel poses a bigger threat, Emeria Angel has better tactical value, and Linvala, Keeper of Silence is potentially more strategic. There's still something to be said for a four-powered evasive beater that can strike first and gain life – for one thing, only a handful of the other Seraphim are able to block this Gisela and survive. And then there's the whole Brisela business to factor in. But let's be honest here, that was mostly a meme. The plan of hardcasting or reanimating or otherwise cheating into play her sis Bruna, in order to make the two them go Voltron (except with more body horror involved) wasn't really taken too seriously in competitive circles. Sure, Brisela is a game-ending finisher, and her shutting down opposing spells of CMC 3 or less (therefore the vast majority of spot removal) is a wicked ability, making up for the fact that you have basically just combined two prime targets into one, which is a big no-no in the Magic handbook. But making it happen is the definition of casual, one of those Johnny/Jenny endeavors that are attempted uniquely because they exist. And yet...
• Tribal Evaluation: Mad Gisela's battle prowess easily earns her the right to at least one slot in an Angel deck. And at that point, how to resist also including at least one copy of Mad Bruna, in the off-chance their paths will cross and Brisela will be released in all her blasphemous glory?
• Commander Evaluation: So, say we pick Broken Gisela as our monowhite commander (which is probably not the right move). We'll retain access to monowhite Bruna, so we can put her amidst the 99 cards of the deck, eventually we'll draw into her and it'll be hail, Brisela! But then, once our hideously twisted Angel Horror is dealt with (removal that costs more than three does exist in Commander), Gisela goes back to the command zone, Bruna ends up in the graveyard, and that's the end of it? Sounds like a heartbreaking story all right.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

32. 

• Name: Glimmering Angel   >> summary
• Set: Invasion
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 4
• General Evaluation: It's an old common, and it shows: poor body/cost ratio, and off-color, activable shroud as its only upside. Yeah, that makes it somewhat hard to kill, but it remain a 2/2 that can't be directly enhanced, since shroud also stops our interactions with it. No wonder this card was never reprinted in the twenty-plus years since it was first released, and it's probably never going to be.
• Tribal Evaluation: Not very likely to be considered at all. It even has the gall to require a blue splash.
• Gender: Unclear
• Rating: 3

33. 

• Name: Glorious Protector   > summary <
• Set: Kaldheim
• Additional Type: Cleric
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: The design concept for Glorious Protector is pretty self-explanatory: she's meant to rescue your team by sacrificing herself in the face of a sweeper. Alternatively, she can just save a single creature from spot removal, and she won't die in the process, but the selfless scenario is more thrilling and to the point, plus you'll be left with the other creature in exile for the time being. Foretell makes it so we'll need to keep three mana open rather than four, which is still a considerable amount, notably one mana more than Heroic Intervention – albeit in monowhite and with a flying body attached. Only real problem is, she won't protect the other Angels. I understand why they keep wording this kind of card the way that they do (see also: Restoration Angel), but also, I don't really do. I mean, if this effect was allowed to target any Angel, it would single-handedly create an infinite loop of enter-the-battlefield triggers, which would easily combo with so many things. But in order to prevent that, the clause "other than Glorious Protector" was sufficient, if wordier and arguably less elegant. I'm just sad a creature like this is not allowed to interact with its own main tribe.
• Tribal Evaluation: This said, a medium-sized flyer with flash that can potentially drop on turn three is still something. There are very few Angels that can be played at instant speed, and none of them works this fast. Additionally, Clerics can really use the Protector's in-tribe help as a guarantee that their often intricate board state is not nullified by a single wipe.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

34. 

• Name: Goldnight Castigator   >> summary
• Set: Shadows over Innistrad
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 13 (virtually)
• General Evaluation: Okay, first of all, Goldnight Castigator doesn't really have toughness 9, does she? For all intents and purposes, it's more like 5. And, sure, she swings for four damage in the air on turn four. Big freaking deal. In the meantime, the opponent's Lightning Bolts are dealing 6 damage to our face. It surprises no one to find out that this Shadows over Innistrad mythic sells for one cent in MTGO and is only played in Zedruu the Greathearted and Blim, Comedic Genius Commander decks, as both need harmful permanents to unload onto the opponent.
• Tribal Evaluation: To add insult to injury, we're even required to seriously commit to red in our mana base if we want to play the Castigator on curve. It's suddenly clear who she's meant to be castigating.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 2

35. 

• Name: Guardian Seraph   >> summary
• Set: Magic 2010
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: This is a simple, workmanlike Angel that does everything right. Her body is better than most Seraphim (and she's literally one of them!) while the damage reduction ability is relevant more often than not. One has to see her in (passive) action against the token army of a go-wide deck to fully grasp the magnitude of her impact.
• Tribal Evaluation: All in all, Guardian Seraph still has a legitimate claim to multiple slots in the angelic CMC 4 spot. Defense can be the best offense.
• Gender: Female (according to the flavor text)
• Rating: 8

36. 

• Name: Hailstorm Valkyrie   > summary <
• Set: Kaldheim
• Additional Types: Snow, Wizard
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 4
• General Evaluation: Kaldheim has brought back snow across the entire color wheel, and Angel got its little slice of the chilly pie with this snow-based firebreathing on a black card. Could have been worse, could have been better. If we consider Jenara drops on three and, for the same amount of mana, grows a permanent +1/+1 counter, we can conclude that it could have gone a lot better.
• Tribal Evaluation: Chances of running black in an Angel deck specifically to get access to such mana-intensive 2/2 are extremely dim.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

37. 

• Name: Herald of Serra   >> summary
• Set: Urza’s Saga
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: A take on Serra Angel where you get her out one turn earlier in exchange for a point of power. And echo, so you also lose the near entirey of the turn where you would have played regular Serra Angel. Thank you, but no, thank you?
• Tribal Evaluation: Her time and place are probably gone, if they ever existed at all. The art itself already depicted an ominous sunset (right behind the completely gratuitous upskirt).
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 1

38. 

• Name: Indomitable Archangel   >> summary
• Sets: Scars of Mirrodin, Modern Masters 2015
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: This Angel was obviously created with an "artifacts matter" strategy in mind, and she clearly deliver in that type of shell. But her main attraction is probably the fact that (thanks to her mythic rarity) she gets to be a four-drop 4/4 flyer, which is still not too frequent an occurrence, and still the only case in monowhite as well as the only Angel other than Atraxa.
• Tribal Evaluation: It's definitely still a solid option in Angel tribal. We can opt to include more relevant abilities in this slot, from Emeria Angel to Linvala or Shalai, but there's something to be said for sheer power sometimes. Of course, in the off-chance we are actually building an artifact-based Angel deck, she becomes a no-brainer.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

39. 

• Name: Legion Angel   > summary <
• Set: Zendikar Rising
• Additional Type: Warrior
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: Squadron Hawk got big, but this time it fees off the sideboard rather than the library. Which reduces its chances of drawing it (basically you either run two in main and two on the side, or one and three), not to mention the entire access to it in several formats. But where the routine is feasible, it's a great way to offset removal by self-replacing itself, and all things considering, the stats are okay, and four points of power in particular is as high as it gets for a four-drop Angel.
• Tribal Evaluation: Unfortunately, there's no sideboard in Tribal Wars, so the Legion will have no Angels there. In other instances of tribal strategies, one mainboard copy is highly recommended.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

40. 

• Name: Lightkeeper of Emeria   >> summary
• Sets: Worldwake, Commander
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: This has "limited fodder" written all over the place. You get a sub-par, mainly defensive flying body, plus a harmless application of one of the mechanics of the set she was printedon. Not terribly attractive. In fact, mediocre is the word you're searching for.
• Tribal Evaluation: Even when lifegaining synergies are a primary concern in deckbuilding, there's still no reason to include this one in any conceivable Angel list.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 3

41. 

• Name: Lightning Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Apocalypse, Time Spiral "Timeshifted", Duel Decks: Speed vs. Cunning, From the Vault: Angels, The List
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: Her colored cost is demanding, but aside for that, she's a decent specimen. Four-drop Serra Angel trading one point of power for haste? That's more like it. Take notes, Herald of Serra.
• Tribal Evaluation: Then again, her colored cost is really demanding for an Angel deck. Azorius Angels or Boros Angels are very feasible. Jeskai Angels begins to sound more strain on the mana base than it's worth.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

42. 

• Name: Linvala, Keeper of Silence   >> summary
• Sets: Rise of the Eldrazi, Modern Masters 2017, Jumpstart
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: Ah, the original Linvala. So beautiful, so powerful, so situational. I like to think that the opposing creatures (including, it's interesting to note, mana creatures) can't activate their abilities because they're just all staring at her, enthralled.
• Tribal Evaluation: Linvala's natural role is sideboard star, to be brought on the field only whenever her ability is needed the most. After all, you might well face a deck with no activated abilities whatsoever. Still, her stats are slightly above curve, and in a tribal enviroment it's not to unlikely to face a few creatures she could paralyze (case in point: Elves). Therefore, one or two copies of Linvala are a legitimate inclusion in any given Angel deck.
• Commander Evaluation: Being such a severe, one-sided hoser, she can prove a pretty hateful commander, though monowhite is already so at a disadvantage in the format that it'd probably be better off picking a more proactive leader.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 9

43. 

• Name: Malach of the Dawn   >> summary
• Set: Planar Chaos
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: The colorshifted version of Ghost Ship. Yeah, not exactly something to write home about.
• Tribal Evaluation: Triple-mana regeneration on a two-powered four-drop? You won't have a hard time believing this guy never saw any play, or reprints.
• Gender: Male
• Rating: 2

44.   

• Name: Restoration Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Avacyn Restored, Avacyn Restored Promo, Modern Masters 2017, Iconic Masters, Kaldheim Commander
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: A fairly splashable instant-speed abuser of ETB abilities, as well as a respectable beater in her own right, Restoration Angel became an overnight sensation when she was first printed in Avacyn Restored. Over the years, she left a mark in all the formats she was legal in, particularly in her infinite partnership with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, still a big part of the Modern metagame. She's just a brilliant design.
• Tribal Evaluation: Here we see the first instance of the non-Angel clause that would later also affect Glorious Protector. And it's a real bummer for Angel decks, where she's mostly a 3/4 with flash (which could still be good enough, to be honest) – unless there's something off-tribe to flicker. Or maybe just some Angel that doesn't necessarily start as an Angel.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 10

45. 

• Name: Seraph of Dawn   >> summary
• Sets: Avacyn Restored, Commander Legends
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: As far as tame, designed-for-Limited creatures go, this one is almost decent. Lifelink is always appreciated. And she's a common, which is relevant for Pauper.
• Tribal Evaluation: Of course the competition at CMC 4 is so steep that we can't even start considering to run this Seraph in Angel tribal, unless your deck is entirely dependent on lifegaining synergies, and even there, she can't compare to Gisela, the Broken Blade and, if we're running black, Eradicator Valkyrie.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

46.  

• Name: Seraph of the Scales   > summary <
• Set: Ravnica Allegiance
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: This Seraph from the Orzhov Syndicate comes pre-packed with a number of useful abilities that allow her to play aggression and defense at the same time, trading for pretty much anything the opponent throws at us while still ensuring a post-mortem evasive board presence with the pair of afterlife Spirits.
• Tribal Evaluation: Including her mostly boils down to whether we're running black in our Angel deck or not. If we do, then we still have to decide which one we prefer to have on four between her and Eradicator Valkyrie – or maybe a mix of both, since they do play well with each other, the tokens providing fuel for the Valkyrie's sacrifices.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

47. 

• Name: Seraph of the Sword   >> summary
• Set: Magic 2014
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: Straightforward, simple, a bit underwhelming: an Angel that always survives combat and combat-related situations (including deathtouch), yet never survives being bolted. As an anti-creature barrier, she's efficient enough, but the tactical value is pretty narrow.
• Tribal Evaluation: The strategic advantage of Guardian Seraph already puts Seraph of the Sword in stark contrast, but pretty much every format has at least one more desirable four-drop monowhite Angel to run in our Angel deck.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

48.  

• Name: Serra Advocate   >> summary
• Sets: Urza’s Destiny, Seventh Edition, Duel Decks: Divine vs. Demonic
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 4
• General Evaluation: The Urza's Destiny team just took Urza's Saga's Angelic Page, doubled her cost and stats, and called it a day.  It's sad to think that in 2009, the designers of Duel Decks: Divine vs. Demonic felt the need to reprint both.
• Tribal Evaluation: We still like Angelic Page better, and we don't particularly like Angelic Page.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 3

49.  

• Name: Shalai, Voice of Plenty   >> summary
• Sets: Dominaria, Secret Lair
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: Llanowar protector Shalai (whose epithet sounds a bit silly, to be honest. Is she the Voice of All for followers of moral relativism?) is arguably the most accomplished hexproof-granting creature in the game, with her mystical shield extended over her controller and all the planeswalkers on her side, on top of any other fellow creature. This clearly comes with the side effect of having all opposing removal pointed in her general direction, typically shortening her life on the battlefield quite a bit; but at the end of the day, that's a further form of protection, forcing the opponent to handle Shalai before being able to deal with the most threatening permanent Shalai is safeguarding. And four points of toughness might even require two damage-based spells to get past, anyway. Being legendary, we can't easily lock the hexproof by dropping a second copy, although there are ways around that. Furthermore, her last ability might look expensive, but it's actually only one mana more than Gavony Township's, and with no upper limit to the number of possible activations per turn.
• Tribal Evaluation: Green is the least Angel-friendly of colors, but it's not really necessary to be able to pay for the activated ability in order to enjoy the crux of what Shalai brings to the table, which is the universal hexproof. On the other hand, a deck that already runs green for Sigarda, Host of Herons is definitely going to include a few copies of Shalai as well.
• Commander Evaluation: She's not exactly a build-around commander, but she protects our other shenanigans, so she can be the right choice in a variety of combo-oriented Selesnya builds (those where the commander is not a combo piece, at least). Plus, the mana sink can take a substantial form in the late game of such a ramp-prone format.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 9

50. 

• Name: Stalwart Valkyrie   > summary <
• Set: Kaldheim
• Additional Type: Warrior
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 5
• General Evaluation: Don't be fooled by the alternate cost: this is not really the two-drop it's advertised to be. Or better, it can technically be, if we can somehow mill or pitch a creature beforehand, but we'd need to put in some work to make it happen, and that kind of defies the purpose of an uncomplicated evasive beater that can be paid for cheap. Still, the reduced cost could just open the room to double-spell on turn four or five, even if that sounds a lot less compelling.
• Tribal Evaluation: It's playable, particularly as incidental board presence in a reanimator deck that uses self-mill as an enabler.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

51. 

• Name: Stoic Angel   >> summary
• Set: Shards of Alara
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: Given Serra Angel's original distinctive trait was not being required to tap when attacking, "vigilance matters" is a strategy we might have expected to see on an Angel sooner or later, and our Stoic specimen here executes it well, positioning herself as a Winter Orb for creatures while acting as the first member of an untappable hit squad.
• Tribal Evaluation: The color requirement and the heavy build-around factor prevented Stoic Angel from becoming popular, but she shouldn't be underestimated. She even has an unlikely ally in Planeswalker Deck exclusive Serra's Guardian.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

52. 

• Name: Sublime Archangel   >> summary
• Sets: Magic 2013, Ultimate Masters
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: Here's another pretty Angel who knows how to administer a good beating. Why turn all our 1/1 tokens sideways, when they can just stay back, ready to chump-block during the opponent's turn while still contributing their power to a single evasive attacker? Of course, the big risk in this strategy is that one removal spell is all it takes to stop one attacker – or at least one that's not Sigarda, Host of Herons. Regardless, our sublime little blonde can herself swing for five in the air on an otherwise empty board, and she impacts the battlefield right away as long as there's a creature able to be exalted by her arrival.
• Tribal Evaluation: One of the most unsung heroes among the four-mana Angels, she never got to leave her mark on Angel tribal, despite substantially speeding up the clock and being great in multiples.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

53.  

• Name: Sustainer of the Realm   >> summary
• Sets: Urza's Legacy, Seventh Edition, Duel Decks: Divine vs. Demonic, Iconic Masters
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 5
• General Evaluation: She swings for two, she blocks four-powered threats, and yet she still dies to Lightning Bolt. Color me unexcited.
• Tribal Evaluation: Moving on.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 1

54. 

• Name: Tormented Angel   >> summary
• Set: Urza's Destiny
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: I get that this Angel is "tormented", so she doesn't want to inflict more than one damage to her fellow living beings, but c'mon, we're not spending this much mana only to be able to safely block four-powered flyers. Also, that's some shamelessly skimpy outfit in the art.
• Tribal Evaluation: Even Pauper Angel tribal has no use for this flying bikini contest winner.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 2

55. 

• Name: Vengeful Reaper   > summary <
• Set: Kaldheim
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 5
• General Evaluation: Foretell offers a viable way for this black Valkyrie to drop on turn three, which makes her the fastest four-drop Angel in existence, as well as the cheapest of the seven members with haste the tribe counts among its ranks. The damage output is unimpactful, but deathtouch keeps her relevant in the late game.
• Tribal Evaluation: She's not an essential component of an Angel deck running black, but there's no shame in playing this versatile little Reaper. She fills more different roles than the other two-mana alternate cost Angel from Kaldheim, Stalwart Valkyrie.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

56. 

• Name: Voice of All   >> summary
• Sets: Planeshift, Tenth Edition, Commander
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 4
• General Evaluation: Let's take a step back, since this Angel actually represents the cultmination of a mega-cycle spanning multiple blocks. It all began in Urza's Saga, with two white Angels (Voice of Grace, Voice of Law) protected from their enemy colors. One year later, in Urza's Destiny, the cycle expanded to include the allied colors (Voice of Reason, Voice of Duty). The only one missing was same-color protection, so in the following block's middle set, here comes Voice of Truth to complete the cycle. Except she doesn't, since another block later (and, again, in the middle set), we find an ulterior four-mana member with the option to tune her protection into any given color – which makes the entire cycle ultimately moot, giving it a definite aftertaste of pointlessness. In the end, Voice of All is a decent tactical creature, with more chances to be maindecked than all of her Voice sisters combined.
• Tribal Evaluation: Running Voice of All in Angel tribal isn't a questionable choice per se, but she remains just a 2/2, and chances are we'd want something with a bit more oomph for her cost, unless we're specifically looking for good Equipment carriers.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

57. 

• Name: Voice of Duty   >> summary
• Set: Urza’s Destiny
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 4
• General Evaluation: See Voice of All.
• Tribal Evaluation: I don't think so.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 0

58. 

• Name: Voice of Grace   >> summary
• Set: Urza’s Saga
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 4
• General Evaluation: See Voice of All.
• Tribal Evaluation: Not a chance.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 0

59. 

• Name: Voice of Law   >> summary
• Set: Urza’s Saga
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 4
• General Evaluation: See Voice of All.
• Tribal Evaluation: Nope.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 0

60. 

• Name: Voice of Reason   >> summary
• Set: Urza’s Destiny
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 4
• General Evaluation: See Voice of All.
• Tribal Evaluation: Not in a million years.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 0

61. 

• Name: Voice of Truth   >> summary
• Set: Nemesis
• Converted Mana Cost: 4
• Body: 4
• General Evaluation: See Voice of All.
• Tribal Evaluation: As if.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 0

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62. 

• Name: Angel of Destiny   > summary <
• Set: Zendikar Rising
• Additional Type: Cleric
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: The lifelinker to end all lifelinking. Angel of Destiny essentially grants all your team the old-school, Spirit Link version of combat-based lifegaining, but only upon connection with an opponent, and at the price of not being able to win through damage anymore. Instead, you turn your battleplan into the alternate wincon of getting to 15 life more than your starting life total, which could be easy enough if she drops on a stabilized game state, a bit harder from a losing position, especially on an empty board. It's a game-altering ability for sure, but one that requires more build-around than it looks, because it only gels with strategies that already aims to increase your life total and ignore the opponent's. Plus, you can't auto-win just by dropping Angel of Destiny with the required goal already achieved, as she needs to have attacked during the turn for the trigger to happen at all, which is a definite complication. Also, I'm not sure why they made her a two-powered double strike rather than merely a four-powered creature; it's not like triggering the lifegain multiple times per combat at different steps changes the amount of life gained.
• Tribal Evaluation: Angels and lifegain go hand in hand, and so do Clerics, therefore a build centered around this five-drop is more than feasible, though it might feel self-defeating at times, when dealing 20 damage with your lifelinkers could have been accomplished in less time than the whole Destiny gimmick.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

63.

• Name: Angel of Flight Alabaster   >> summary
• Set: Innistrad
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: Along with Requiem Angel, this is one of the terrorized Angels who are waiting for the return of Avacyn during the evens of Innistrad block (she's technically part of Bruna's squadron, but I guess being indestructible beats having your Auras stolen). I don't really get why a 4/4 flyer should be scared of much of anything, but that's apparently her thing. At any rate, she comes with the basic stats for a Virtue, plus a free recursion ability that's nothing to sneeze at and can gives birth to some interesting Spirit decks.
• Tribal Evaluation: Unless you're trying to build some Angel/Spirit hybrid, it's unlikely your Angel list will have room for enough Spirits to justify the presence of an entirely dedicated five-drop. Although, maybe just running enough copies of self-sacrificing Spirits like Kami of False Hope or Selfless Spirit could be all it takes to be worth her inclusion as a combo piece.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

64. 

• Name: Angel of Grace   > summary <
• Set: Ravnica Allegiance
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 9
• General Evaluation: Sort of an overblown version of Angel's Grace (hence the name), this has also the non-negligible function of being a flash creature with the capacity to apply a substantial amount of pressure, as well as ambushing enemies of considerable size (though she trades better than she blocks). The graveyard ability is a nice bonus, but it can't be expected to come up very often, as losing pretty much a full turn when we're far behind is probably not going to solve much.
• Tribal Evaluation: Let's be honest, the "anti-death" ETB trigger is rarely going to be relevant. Being able to keep up five mana, even to beat something like Splinter Twin or a storm finisher going off, is not realistic. This leaves us with the flash aspect, which would be very good if five mana didn't define the spot where the most powerful Angels reside. She's still the flash Angel that gives us more bang for our buck, so she can still be a solid option in a more control-oriented build that tries and plays in the opponent's end phase as much as possible.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

65.  

• Name: Angel of Invention   >> summary
• Set: Kaladesh
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 3 or 7
• General Evaluation: On Kaladesh, even the Angels care about contraptions. Angel of Invention is actually one of the best fabricators. For five mana, you can place six points of power on the battlefield, in the form of a small flyer with vigilance and lifelink plus a couple of virtual 2/2s; or you can opt for a single critter that packs more of a punch. Of course, she won't outlive a bolt in either mode, which is always a problem. In her defense, the +1/+1 anthem is not limited to her Servos, which makes her useful in any midrange creature-based deck, where she fulfills several roles – increasing our life total, populating our board, and improving the whole team. She's also a valid target for flickering shenanigans.
• Tribal Evaluation: A fine creature on her own right, she may not be the strongest contender for the coveted five-drop slot in Angel tribal.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

66. 

• Name: Angel of Light   >> summary
• Set: Starter 1999
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: The starter-level Serra Angel variant, with just one colored mana in her cost but both power and toughness reduced by one for some reason. Could she be any less interesting?
• Tribal Evaluation: Nothing to see here. Except maybe the art; that's not bad, if looking triumphant for no real reason.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 0

67.   

• Name: Angel of Mercy   >> summary
• Sets: Portal Second Age, Starter 1999, Invasion, from Eighth Edition to Tenth Edition, Duel Decks: Divine vs. Demonic, Iconic Masters, Mystery Booster, Jumpstart
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: Does a one-shot lifegain account for the subpar body and no vigilance, compared to Serra Angel? Probably not. Regardless, Angel of Mercy has been reprinted a lot over the years, as a nicely straightforward flyer for Limited purposes.
• Tribal Evaluation: Unlikely to make the cut in any list.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 3

68.  

• Name: Angel of Sanctions   >> summary
• Set: Amonkhet
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: Ah, the famous ancient Egyptian Angels! (It's a thing that exists! Sort of.) A temporary exiler a la Fiend Hunter is always useful to win the tempo battle, although on turn five we might feel like we'd be better off casting something more threatening than a three-powered critter. This is where the embalm mechanic raises the stakes, essentially turning Angel of Sanctions into a way to potentially force the opponent to trade two of their removal spells for it, so it remains a two-for-one regardless of what happens to his original target. By the way, I love how the token for his mummified state has bandaged wings, yet is still able to fly.
• Tribal Evaluation: As the cheapest in-tribe removal on legs, he's something one should definitely consider running in Angel tribal.
• Gender: Male
• Rating: 8

69. 

• Name: Angel of the Dawn   > summary <
• Set: Core Set 2019, Double Masters, Commander Legends
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: Angel of Dawn is another simple Angel with a reduced body and an ETB ability to make up for it. Compared to Angel of Mercy, she can sometimes impact the board in a more explosive way – the ability is a team boost, after all – but other times she might also do nothing at all, whereas Angel of Mercy's lifegain never goes to waste. They're both designed for Limited, in any case.
• Tribal Evaluation: Still not something Angel tribal will ever be interested in.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

70. 

• Name: Angelic Captain   >> summary
• Set: Battle for Zendikar
• Additional Type: Ally
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: In the right deck, she could swing for double her base power. And just as easily get bolted with the ability on the stack.
• Tribal Evaluation: Of course she's meant for Ally tribal, not as much for Angel tribal. Unfortunately, Ally decks would hardly bother to include a very frail five-mana creature that doesn't synergize much with their overall plan.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 3

71. 

• Name: Angelic Overseer   >> summary
• Set: Innistrad
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: This is an interesting design. A five-mana Angel with a dangerously low base toughness that becomes almost untouchable if paired with a (supposedly pious) Human. Being so dependent on the presence of another creature is a fatal weak spot for sure, although it means she can still survive a non-exiling sweeper, and is best pal with several Angel-related Humans like Bishop of Wings, Speaker of the Heavens, and Starnheim Aspirant.
• Tribal Evaluation: Without a Human around, she becomes a pretty miserable five-drop, and it's unlikely an Angel deck will be consistent enough with its off-tribe inclusions to make it work. Human builds provide a better shell for her; albeit, chances are, they won't care.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

72. 

• Name: Anya, Merciless Angel   >> summary
• Set: Commander 2015
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: The fierce battle Angel Anya (who agrees to disagree with Angel of Mercy) was released in a multiplayer expansion, so it's to nobody's surprise that she's been designed with the multiplayer setup in mind, and indirectly references that style of play in her rule text. Even there, though, she's kinda bad (a harder to cast Serra Angel with no vigilance) until someone drops below half their starting life total.
• Tribal Evaluation: There might be a place for her in an Angel-flavored Commander deck, but nowhere else. And if we're playing Commander one-on-one, she's not even that desirable.
• Commander Evaluation: She provides access to two colors, and after a while she'll become bigger and indestructible. Not a super-exciting commander, but at least she can wait in the command zone and join the fight only when she'll be the most resilient.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

73.  

• Name: Archangel Avacyn   >> summary
• Sets: Shadows over Innistrad, From the Vault: Transform
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 8 (up to 11 when transformed)
• General Evaluation: After reaching her third iteration (following the original Avacyn, Angel of Hope and the nearly forgotten Avacyn, Guardian Angel), Sorin's angelic "daughter" has gone for broke. Literally: driven mad by Emrakul's influence, she went from protecting Innistrad's population to viciously assaulting them. The in-game result of such tribulations is a cheaper, leaner Avacyn that only grants indestructibility for one turn, but reactively. Even when the ETB trigger has no use, a Serra Angel that drops in the opponent's end phase is already an improvement; and then you just have to facilitate the demise of one of your other creatures and, snap!, mad Avacyn reveals her true color – which is, in fact, the color of madness: red. Suddenly, her stats become more threatening, and she casts both modes of Slagstorm at once, so everyone's punished. It's a great, flavorful design, perfectly suitable for creature decks that weren't planning to go wide, as Avacyn's insanity-fueled sweep doesn't account for allegiance.
• Tribal Evaluation: The transformation clause specifying non-Angel seems to discourage fielding Avacyn alongside her winged comrades; but if your list is already including some cannon fodder a la Bloodsoaked Champion, then she'll be happy to get crazy for you.
• Commander Evaluation: Commander is the one environment where you can naturally have Avacyn perform the transform sweep multiple times, which could be already enough to earn her a command position.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 9

74. 

• Name: Archangel of Thune   >> summary
• Sets: Magic 2014, Iconic Masters, Double Masters
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: The serene, chaste, extreme beauty of the artwork reflects the role of Archangel of Thune on the battlefield: not an adrenalinic rush of mayhem, but a steady flow of inevitability. The more she attacks, the more life you gain; and the more life you gain, the more threatening your entire team becomes. There are Virtues with greater starting bodies, but few of them are able to quietly change the balance of the game the way she does. And even if the opponent gets rid of her quickly enough (provided it's not right away), the fruits of her free Gavony Township activations will still persist. On top of that, she's a well-tested combo piece for Creatures Toolbox lists, thanks to her partnership with Spike Feeder, of all creatures.
• Tribal Evaluation: She likes the company of early accelerants like Birds of Paradise, which she later turns into threats, so the best Angel deck to build around her might be one where not everyone is an Angel. Emeria Angel and other token makers also make for great companions to this powerful redhead.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 9

75. 

• Name: Avacyn, Guardian Angel   >> summary
• Set: Magic 2015
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 9
• General Evaluation: Avacyn's second coming is cheaper to hardcast than her eight-mana version, even if triple white mana can be unforgiving on the mana base. Her actual impact on the battlefield is however debatable. Body and stats-wise, she's a slightly better Serra Angel, but her first activated ability, far from the universal indestructibility provided by her larger self, is, at the end of the day, just a glorified regeneration shield that works marginally better when facing lifelinkers. The second activation might generate a soft lock against aggro and burn, but it's terribly expensive, and certainly control decks don't much like a finisher that constantly taps all their mana. Where this Avacyn mostly fails, though, is in protecting herself. I get that at this stage she was still meant to be an altruistic type of divine figure, but c'mon. Girl's gotta survive the fight if she's going to do any good for her people. It pains to say it, but madness looks better on her.
• Tribal Evaluation: Not useful enough to make a dent in the highly competitive angelic curve. The only case where she might be worth of some consideration if when devotion is a factor, since she can be pretty effective combined with Nykthos.
• Commander Evaluation: I feel like, even if we really, really care about preserving our creatures, there are better commanders for the task (like, for one, the original Avacyn, as expensive as she is). However, there's something to be said about the high degrees of mana production that Commander games can reach (even in monowhite), so her various mana sinks could ultimately represent the chance to shut down entirely the damage output of any monocolored deck.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

76. 

• Name: Avenging Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Tempest, Tempest Remastered
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: Robbing you of your next draw isn't a very effective take on "immortal creature". Even Vengeful Pharaoh can occasionally become an annoyance, and he brings much more to the table than a 3/3 flyer does. Granted, the effect here isn't mandatory, but if you don't use it, what you're left with is just a below-curve midrange flyer.
• Tribal Evaluation: Too many better options at this casting cost to even entertain the idea of running this clumsily returning Angel.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

77. 

• Name: Baneslayer Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Magic 2010, Magic 2011, From the Vault: Angels, Core Set 2021
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: The Walletslayer! The Bankslayer! Back in her times, when she dominated pre-Titan standard as the ultimate finisher, a single copy of Baneslayer Angel might have set you back as much as 50 bucks. Of course, that price was Standard-inflated, and after the Magic 2011 reprint and the shift of the meta, more than 90% of that value evaporated like ice in the sun. With her glory years behind her, what's left of the once dreaded Baneslayer these days? Well, while she was quite definitely overrated (a thoroughly overlooked card like Battlegrace Angel can impact the board the same way, if not more), she's still a very powerful finisher, entirely obsoleting classic Serra Angel in all cases in which vigilance is not a critical factor (when playing with Stoic Angel, for instance). The vast majority of the times, her very specific protections are just meaningless flavor, and first strike is not too relevant on a creature you mostly want to attack with, except for the turn she's waiting out her summoning sickness. But lifelink on an enhanced body are improvement enough to still make a difference, even if following the Core Set 2021 reprint, she didn't see any play at all in Standard anymore. Times, how they change.
• Tribal Evaluation: Going with Baneslayer in the five-mana slot of an Angel deck might not be very creative, but it certainly ain't stupid either.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

78. 

• Name: Basandra, Battle Seraph   >> summary
• Sets: Commander, Conspiracy, Vintage Masters
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: Infamously sexy BDSM Angel Basandra (seriously, was the kinky whip really necessary?) is a Boros-colored Serra Angel that forbids combat tricks and can force attacks. She can't lure to death utility creatures able to tap themselves, but she's still very useful to get rid of any other small troublemaker. All in all, not essential skills, but intriguing ones.
• Tribal Evaluation: If you're running red in your Angel deck, to include some copies of her isn't a bad idea at all, even if it's probably not the first that comes to mind.
• Commander Evaluation: She's a solid Boros general from the very first wave of Commander-specific products. She can get rid of blockers, while often messing with the combat phase just because people will forget to cast their instants beforehand. Plus, her activated ability has some handy political applications.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

79. 

• Name: Battlegrace Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Shards of Alara, Modern Masters 2015
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: I always liked to think of Battlegrace Angel as the thinking man's Baneslayer Angel. The main thing Baneslayer Angel does to repay the five-mana investment is swinging for five damage in the air while gaining you five life. Well, Battlegrace Angel does the very same. The two other things Baneslayer Angel does are first striking, which is not vital for a flyer; and, once in a while, outfighting very specific creature types. The one other thing Battlegrace Angel does is giving lifelink and +1/+1 to that other creature that was already there, thus impacting the battlefield immediately. All in all, the tactical value of Battlegrace is surprisingly superior, since you can keep her in defense and still be able to exploit lifelink with your backup creature. Of course, Baneslayer Angel is better at playing defense, since she can first strike and gain five before the normal damage is even calculated; but when she does that, you're not attacking. With Battlegrace Angel, you are able to block with a 4/4 flyer and still swing and deal lifelinking damage, and the opponent will have to deal with both.
• Tribal Evaluation: At one point in time, this was the Angel I would put in charge of the CMC 5 slots. Then more Virtues got printed, like unmissable Angel lord Lyra Dawnbringer, and the paradigm has shifted once again.
• Sex: Female
• Rating: 9

80. 

• Name: Blinding Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Nemesis, Eighth Edition, Ninth Edition
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: Magic history tells us that Blinding Angel was a force to be reckoned with in Standard, and her reign only ended with the printing of her sworn nemesis, Flametongue Kavu. Her ability is still one of the most powerful in the whole Angelpedia: she needs to connect, and she doesn't deal much damage while doing it, but utterly negating the opponent combat phase? Most aggro decks will be required to deal with her asap, if they don't want to find themselves all but locked out of the game.
• Tribal Evaluation: Another great tactical option for this point on the curve, if one that tends to be passed over by shinier, more recent alternatives that for the same cost more directly work toward eroding the opponent's life total.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

81. 

• Name: Cleaving Reaper   > summary <
• Set: Kaldheim
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: Only found in Kaldheim's Theme Boosters and Set Boosters, this Reaper has a solid recursion ability that costs no mana, but it's dependent on a tribal shell. It might or might not justify the subpar toughness. It doesn't guarantee a post-sweeper presence because it also requires to draw an enabler, so you either have two creatures or none, but it does guarantees that at least one of them will be a five-powered flyer, so there's that. She's also one of very few Angels with natural trample (basically, only the Akromas and fellow Reaper Hailstorm Valkyrie have it at all times), and one of few that are monoblack, a population that Kaldheim has more than doubled.
• Tribal Evaluation: Maybe the Berserkers have more use for this recursive finisher, while in Angel tribal you have a higher chance to have drawn into a different larger flyer while retrieving the Reaper from the graveyard, but there's still something to be said for two-for-one-ing your gas.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

82. 

• Name: Copper-Leaf Angel   >> summary
• Set: Prophecy
• Additional Type: Artifact
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 4
• General Evaluation: One of only two colorless Angels in existence (the other being the much better known Platinum Angel). It's only a 2/2 for five, though? But no, wait, she can grow! By, err, tapping herself and sacrificing a bunch of lands? Oh no, not the infamous Wood Elemental mechanic! Why, Prophecy, why?!
• Tribal Evaluation: No.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 0

83. 

• Name: Crypt Angel   >> summary
• Set: Invasion
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: Before Kaldheim there were only three monoblack Angels (and only seven nonwhite Angels), and Crypt Angel was already the least popular of the trio, despite having featured in Tom van de Logt's 2001 World Championship winner deck. Aside from flying, she offers two distinct abilities, albeit not particularly related to each other, as they seem more about describing the concept of black being white's enemy but blue and red's ally. She's easily splashed even in a deck with minor black presence, but her body is subpar for a Virtue. On the plus side, protection from white is rare to find and always welcome; and her main ability returns a creature from the graveyard, which is a strong form of card advantage. Both these aspects were critical meta-calls at the 2001 World Championship, but are less appealing in a vacuum.
• Tribal Evaluation: The problem with her recursion: it only targets creatures of black's allied colors. That means she's a black card that brings back blue and red cards within a tribe where almost everything is white. Not ideal.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

84. 

• Name: Dawning Angel   > summary <
• Set: Core Set 2020
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 5
• General Evaluation: Instead of just reprinting Angel of Mercy, the designers of Core Set 2020 decided to make the tiniest variation, increasing the life gained by entering the battlefield while decreasing the toughness. The more effective ETB makes her a better flicker target, but to lay herself open to death by mere Shock is a bigger liability.
• Tribal Evaluation: Still just a Limited card.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 3

85.   

• Name: Fallen Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Legends, from Fifth Edition to Eighth Edition, Duel Decks: Divine vs. Demonic, Commander, Masters 25, Mystery Booster
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: The first ever (and very flavorful) nonwhite Angel. She's still a decent free sacrifice outlet that doubles as a beater. Under the right circumstances, a Fallen Angel-based alpha attack can be lethal. For comparison, cards like Phyrexian Ghoul, Nantuko Husk, Bloodthrone Vampire, and Vampire Aristocrat all start as non-evasive 1/1s or 2/2s – though, of course, they're cheaper.
• Tribal Evaluation: It's just hard to justify running a 3/3 for five nowadays, even with the backup of some top-end creature generator, like Bitterblossom.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

86.  

• Name: Firja, Judge of Valor   > summary <
• Set: Kaldheim
• Additional Types: Legendary, Cleric
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: It's not every turn that we're gonna secure the benefits of the "cast two" trigger from Shepherd/Reaper combo Firja (the only multicolored Angel from Kaldheim); but when we do, the Impulse-like ability is card-advantage at its finest. For the rest, her body is underwhelming for such a restrictive cost, but at least she has gotten a secondary keyword in lifelink, even while the low base power doesn't exploit it as much as it could.
• Tribal Evaluation: Probably not a top-of-the-line option for Angel tribal, where double spelling is not the most frequent occurrence. Conversely, she could perform better amidst the usually cheaper Clerics.
• Commander Evaluation: Not the best candidate to lead other Angels in Commander, even just as an Orzhov representative. She could be profitable in a more low-to-the-ground builds with many recursions.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

87. 

• Name: Guardian of the Gateless   >> summary
• Sets: Gatecrash, Conspiracy: Take the Crown
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: Hard to justify spending five mana for a specialized blocker, as proficient as she is as doing just that – faced with an infinitely large army of 1/1s, Guardian of the Gateless is able to naturally stop and destroy them all, something that goes beyond even Guardian Seraph's job description. However, she gets progressively worse the bigger the attackers become, and it just takes a couple of 3/3s to test the limits of her ability.
• Tribal Evaluation: As a defense specialist, she's truly unique. Too bad the best defense is a good offense.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

88. 

• Name: Herald of Faith   > summary <
• Set: Core Set 2019
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: As far as lifegaining, Limited-based, five-mana Angels along the veins of Angel of Mercy and Dawning Angel go, this one at least has a healthier amount of power. The lifegain is also repeatable, but not immediate.
• Tribal Evaluation: Make no mistake, she might swing for more damage and procure more life over time, but the playability remains more or less the same as with all the other low-impact Angels of her kind.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 3

89. 

• Name: Herald of the Host   >> summary
• Set: Commander 2015
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: Myriad is a reworked, and keyworded, version of Hydra Omnivore's ability. Unlike the Hydra, though, myriad doesn't automatically deal damage to all the other opponents when you connect with one; they instead get attacked by token copies of the myriad creature, something that doesn't guarantee any additional damage being dealt but might lead to shenanigans, as it physically generates a number of tokens per attack, an occurrence that in turn might trigger other abilities on the battlefield. On the other hand, if fellow multiplayer-oriented design Anya, Merciless Angel loses most of her value outside of her designated environment, Herald of the Host would literally turn into nothing else than Serra Angel.
• Tribal Evaluation: Completely irrelevant in one-on-one formats, but with a lot of potential in any build, tribal or otherwise, concocted for multiplayer.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

90. 

• Name: Herald of War   >> summary
• Set: Avacyn Restored
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: This one might play slightly worse than it reads. A midrange Angel that makes all following Angels cheaper sounds great; but in order to get to the mana discount, Herald of War doesn't only need to successfully clear the declare attackers step, but also to survive the attack itself, barring instant-speed applications of her tribal synergies. So not exactly a Pearl Medallion surrogate. This said, she's still an evasive beater that already swings for four the first time around and then keeps growing at each attack, through easily abused +1/+1 counters – Archangel of Thune, for one, loves her company.
• Tribal Evaluation: Colorless discount on a five-drop might be not as significant for Humans as it is for Angels, but even within her more curve-oriented tribe, Herald of War could end up being a bit of a disappointment, if occasionally effective when everything lines up properly: no removal from the opponent, while holding a worthy follow-up spell in hand, to ramp into.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

91.  

• Name: Karmic Guide   >> summary
• Sets: Urza’s Legacy, Commander 2013, Vintage Masters, Eternal Masters
• Additional Type: Spirit
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 4
• General Evaluation: Resurrection on legs, at exactly Resurrection's cost. Which means, by reviving something via Karmic Guide, we're essentially netting a quasi-free 2/2 flyer with the added bonus of being protected from black, which is not without its general relevance. I'm saying quasi-free because there's still the echo cost to contend with in the following upkeep, but once we have two creatures on the battlefield, one of which has good chances of not being a five-drops originally, we could also be inclined to pay the echo cost and see if they connect. But what if we don't pay it, and the other creature was Reveillark, and we process it through a sacrifice outlet to get Karmic Guide back, which gets Reveillark back, which gets Karmic Guide back again and again? Or maybe it was Kiki-Jiki, and we instantly copied Karmic Guide to resurrect something like Restoration Angel (or Deceiver Exarch), which resets Kiki-Jiki to starts the chain again. Point being, Karmic Guide got vastly exploited over the years by various combo builds centered on her main ability.
• Tribal Evaluation: All in all, even with no particular reanimation strategies in mind, a couple Karmic Guides have a place in every Angel deck where she's legal (unfortunately, that only concerns Eternal formats). And she gets the attention of Spirit decks, too, if to a lesser extent, due to the ghostly tribe being less interested in reanimator shenanigans.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 9

92. 

• Name: Liesa, Shroud of Dusk   > summary <
• Set: Commander Legends
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: The long-dead fourth member of the Innistrad sisters, the dark angel Liesa is explored through a card that was clearly designed for Commander (the name of her original set might have given that away), but can prove effective in one-on-one formats as well, just by being one of the most powerful bodies in the Virtue group (the others being Baneslayer Angel, Lyra Dawnbringer, Maelstrom Archangel, and her own sister Sigarda, Host of Herons), accompanied by a relevant keyword in lifelink, nicely complementing her final ability, which punishes players from casting spells – and while that's symmetrical, we might just sit back and do nothing while our finisher is still around delivering the pain and increasing our life total in the process.
• Tribal Evaluation: Like the other archangels from Innistrad, she only requires one black mana, so she's easy enough to splash, possibly in a deck that's already interested in running Seraph of the Scales at four and Magister of Worth at six. Of course Lyra Dawnbringer staking a major claim on the five-drop slots makes everything more complicated for Angels that drop at this spot in the curve.
• Commander Evaluation: Circumventing the commander tax is always kind of a big deal, and the unmistakable sign of a commander worth its salt.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

93. 

• Name: Lyra Dawnbringer   >> summary
• Set: Dominaria
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: Among Dominaria's many callbacks to Magic's history are the descendants of famous characters from the past, and apparently Lyra is the spiritual heir to ultimate graveyard enabler Reya Dawnbringer. Except Lyra's own card has actually nothing to do with her namesake, and is clearly more of a new take on Baneslayer Angel, with a newfound tribal focus replacing the barely relevant protections. An Angel lord dropping on five is already a big deal, and aside from that aspect, even played on her own, Lyra is for all intents and purposes a legendary Baneslayer Angel, and that certainly makes her desirable no matter what.
• Tribal Evaluation: Angels don't particularly need the basic anthem effect (of course it doesn't hurt), but universal lifelink is a terrific boon for the tribe, impacting the board right away and winningly synergizing with other members like Resplendent Angel and Valkyrie Harbinger.
• Commander Evaluation: Monowhite Angel tribal has found in her its commander of choice, hands down.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 10

94. 

• Name: Maelstrom Archangel   >> summary
• Sets: Conflux, Mystery Booster, Jumpstart
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: Maelstrom Archangel has a tremendous ability, no discussion there. Once she connects, she rewards us with a free spell, and it could be anything, from Emergent Ultimatum) to Emrakul (cast trigger included). That is, if we still have a worthy card in hand by the time she managed to connect. We also have the little issue of running a five-color creature; getting to WUBRG on curve might present a bit of a challenge even in Legacy, let alone in Modern. Although, it's worth noting, her greenness open the path to the use of all specialized cheaters (e.g. Natural Order, Dramatic Entrance, Green Sun's Zenith). And on top of everything, she's a 5/5 flyer for five, which are stilll quite impressive stats for a midrange-y finisher, once you disregard the specifics of the mana requirements.
• Tribal Evaluation: The rainbow aspect of her cost makes her a pretty rare sight in an Angel deck, where you have a ton of safer alternatives at five, color-wise. At the same time, it's one of the tribes where she would easily find strong ways to exploit her ability.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

95. 

• Name: Melesse Spirit   >> summary
• Set: Mirage
• Additional Type: Spirit
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: A more expensive Voice of Grace with a better body. Getting out a 3/3 beater for five mana is not acceptable anymore, even if it brings along a couple of keywords.
• Tribal Evaluation: Maybe if you knew you'll be facing monoblack decks all day long. Which you usually can't know.
• Gender: Unclear
• Rating: 2

96. 

• Name: Militant Angel   > summary <
• Set: Game Night
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: This obscure Game Night exclusive (from the preconstructed deck called "Assemble for Battle") has sort of a raid ability, creating 2/2 vigilant Knights as her companions if we drop her in the second main phase of a turn where we attacked. The ability has a potentially better payoff in multiplayer, but even in one-on-one, it could mean putting out five points of power spread across two permanents, which is not an incredible deal or anything, but there are a few relevant keywords involved. Of course the marked mythic rarity is only relative to the casual-oriented set of precons she was printed in.
• Tribal Evaluation: We're still looking at a three-powered five-drop in a tribe in which many alternatives exist that are much more threatening than that. She's also quite mediocre when the pseudo-raid can't be enabled.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

97. 

• Name: Patron of the Valiant   >> summary
• Sets: Magic Origins, Game Night 2019, Jumpstart, Commander Legends
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: This one only really works in decks that traffic in +1/+1 counters, otherwise it's a strictly worse Serra Angel. Too bad same-costed Archangel of Thune is also perfect in that kin of deck, and a much better card in general.
• Tribal Evaluation: There are other Angels that play well with +1/+1 counters and occupy the same slot, chiefly the mentioned Archangel of Thune, which is even legal in the same formats. Sorry, Patron; the Valiant are looking elsewhere.
• Gender: Unclear
• Rating: 4

98. 

• Name: Radiant, Archangel   >> summary
• Sets: Urza’s Legacy, Vintage Masters
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: So, in order to be a full-fledged Serra Angel, Radiant needs another flyer around. With two, she'll be slightly better than that. With three... well, I guess at that point we're playing some kind of Azorius Flyers deck? Or at least an unchecked Emeria Angel. I suppose she's good in conjuction with with cards like Bitterblossom or Lingering Souls. Still, at the end of the day, the payoff is just a big flyer, which isn't going to tear the board apart. And she squarely qualifies as a win-more card, and a strange one at that: if we have six small flyers on the battlefield, what we really want to draw into is Favorable Winds or Rally of Wings to potentially close the game; dropping a 9/9 flyer doesn't impact the game state much that turn and we can't guarantee it will be able to connect. It's a pity that such an important character in the lore was given such a poor incarnation, though Radiant, Serra Archangel from Commander Legends fixed the issue to an extent.
• Tribal Evaluation: Small flyers tribes like Bird  or Spirit could be more fitting for Radiant, but even there, she's slow and inconsistent.
• Commander Evaluation: Run Radiant as a commander and you'll know which theme to build upon. However, once again: maybe our commander should be able to do more than just being large when we already have an advantageous board position.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

99. 

• Name: Reaper of Flight Moonsilver   >> summary
• Set: Shadows over Innistrad
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: Now you need to achieve delirium in order to obtain a color-shifted Fallen Angel? C'mon.
• Tribal Evaluation: I mean, c'mon! (This is a member of Mad Avacyn's death squadron, by the way).
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 1

100. 

• Name: Rienne, Angel of Rebirth   > summary <
• Set: Core Set 2020
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 9
• General Evaluation: Rienne (of whom we know absolutely nothing about story-wise, not even from which plane she comes from) was severely overlooked when Core Set 2020 was in Standard, because her colors didn't match current archetypes in the least. She was in fact printed as a quirky Buy-a-Box exclusive, which didn't contribute to her popularity. And yet, if we're in Naya in any format (even back then, in a Standard cycle that included three Ravnica-based sets), it's relatively easy to put together a functional army of multicolored critters to severely enhance via Rienne's abilities. And she's also a five-powered finisher for five, to boot.
• Tribal Evaluation: Angel deckbuilding doesn't typically love to mess with too many non-white colors at once, but there are 15 multicolored Angels that match Rienne's colors, and several of them are pretty good, like the various Boros Angels from Ravnica, the original Gisela, and the Sigardas.
• Commander Evaluation: She's a more beloved presence in Commander, because the theme she supports is rich and she really makes it sing through both an anthem and (especially) free recursion.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

101. 

• Name: Selenia, Dark Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Tempest, Tempest Remastered
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: Crovax's true (and doomed) love Selenia is basically a 3/3 flyer who can't ever die as long as we have life left to funnel into her self-bounce ability. The moment we can afford to recast her every turn, she will be able to endlessly nullify any one non-trampling threat – at least one that was going to connect for more than the two life we have to pay to Selenia. The process can be clunky and especially tempo-damaging in the early stages of her gameplay, but having a near-immortal creature (she can still be countered) is always a nice advantage in the late game.
• Tribal Evaluation: She's not a bad option in a Angel deck featuring black. But we can live just fine without her, a lesson Crovax should have learned.
• Commander Evaluation: She's a commander that bypasses the commander tax, and that's never not relevant. There are many options in Orzhov colors that are more impactful or offer better strategies, but one may happen to really like Selenia, goth look and all.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

102.      

• Name: Serra Angel   >> summary
• Sets: from Alpha to Fourth Edition, from Seventh Edition to Magic 2012, Magic 2014, Magic 2015, Magic Origins, Commander, Duel Decks: Divine vs. Demonic, From the Vault: Angels, Eternal Masters, Iconic Masters, Masters 25, Dominaria, Dominaria Japanese Promo, Arena New Player Experience, Game Night, Jumpstart, Arena Beginner Set
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: "Her wings carried her across the ages", says the flavor text for her Dominaria reprint (in which she changed ethnicity). The very first Angel in the history of Magic, Serra Angel isn't seeing much play nowadays. Unfortunately, a lot of other five-mana options made her obsolete over the years. Based on the number of reprints she still gets, and the number of times I used her as a comparison during this treatise, she's still an iconic parameter for judging the efficiency of an Angel (or any midrange beater, really), especially in the case of Virtues: for five mana, Serra Angel gives you a 4/4 flying vigilant body. Is your beater up to this?
• Tribal Evaluation: The crazy part is, we can still run her in our Angel deck and nobody will find it weird. Vigilance is still a relevant ability for a pure beater, especially within a tribal environment.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

103. 

• Name: Shattered Angel   >> summary
• Sets: New Phyrexia, Commander
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: Sort of a reverse landfall ability for this peculiar Phyrexian Angel. It's mainly a Limited-oriented creature, but the mechanic is capable of granting more life than we'd expect.
• Tribal Evaluation: Unfortunately, Angel tribal is way beyond the point where it's allowed to care for a subpar five-drop with an incidental quirky ability that the opponent can even easily play around.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 3

104. 

• Name: Shepherd of Heroes   > summary <
• Set: Zendikar Rising
• Additional Type: Cleric
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: Party trick Angel. Not terrible, but not even entirely necessary in a dedicated party build, where it could gain up to eight life in one fell swoop. Outside of that shell, it's just an Angel of Mercy that gains less life but sports more toughness.
• Tribal Evaluation: Angel Party is not a thing. It could be, but it's not.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

105. 

• Name: Shepherd of the Lost   >> summary
• Set: Zendikar
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: Another solid entry that was meant for Limited. Essentially a Serra Angel that traded one point of power and toughness for first strike, which is something we didn't particularly dream for Serra Angel to do, but it can still make it harder for the opponent to attack into. Flavor note: we can see she wears her halo over her eyes, blinding herself; it's something every low-ranking Zendikari Angel does, symbolizing their mystical blindness to the Eldrazi's atrocities and their powerlessness to aid their world. Dark stuff. Now that the plane is healing, they still wear their halos that way.
• Tribal Evaluation: She's not a bad card overall, but it's still hard to find any non-budgetary reason to run her in Angel tribal.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

106.  

• Name: Sigarda, Heron's Grace   >> summary
• Set: Shadows over Innistrad
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 9
• General Evaluation: Sigarda's first incarnation was the most popular of the original Powerpuff Angels from Avacyn Restored, so it feels natural to compare her to this reboot, from the point in time when she tragically lost her sisters to cosmic horror. She switched one previously white mana to colorless, but in doing so she loses one point of power and hexproof for herself, because now she's all about helping people in need, which specifically means her controller and their Humans. Hexproof for the player is always a nightmare for burn and hand disruption to deal with, but we get that for cheaper with Shalai. What Sigarda mostly brings to the table is her token generation via graveyard recycling; multiple instant-speed 1/1s (with hexproof) for two mana apiece, that's a very bargain deal, though the number is restricted by the fodder we can find in the graveyard. Overall, the Sigarda of old was scarier, because she was a fast clock and very hard to deal with. This one is definintely a downgrade, but still packs some tactical value.
• Tribal Evaluation: It makes pretty much zero sense to play this version over the older one in any Angel deck, or in general. In a Human or Human-adjacent deck, on the other hand, she can be a reasonable curve-topper.
• Commander Evaluation: If your Commander deck is filled with Humans, especially of the "combo piece" variety, Sigarda 2.0 is your gal.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

107. 

• Name: Sigarda, Host of Herons   >> summary
• Sets: Avacyn Restored, Ultimate Masters
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: The first of the Powerpuff Angels (along with Bruna, Light of Alabaster and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight), the original, code-colored protector archangels who watch over the plane of Innistrad, since before Sorin created Avacyn. She's Buttercup, the tough, tomboyish one (notably, Sigarda will be the only member of the trio to resist Emrakul's influence in Shadows over Innistrad, a beacon of hope and sanity in a world that's gone mad). And seriously, what's toughest than an untargetable five-drop 5/5 flyer that makes herself and every other permanent impervious to edict effects, annihilator, and All Is Dust? You just don't mess with Sigarda.
• Tribal Evaluation: After she was introduced, splashing green in an Angel deck became suddenly very appealing.
• Commander Evaluation: A Buttercup Selesnya deck. Ode to the Unopposed Beatdown.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 10

108.  

• Name: Starlit Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Portal, Chinese Portal
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: The Angel from the first Portal set, currently the only member of the tribe that's not on MTGO. It's a Serra Angel that gave away one point of power and vigilance in exchange for... being strictly worse than Serra Angel. Yeah, we're not really holding our breath for her to get a digital version.
• Tribal Evaluation: Don't think so.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 0

109. 

• Name: Tiana, Ship's Caretaker   >> summary
• Sets: Dominaria, Commander Legends
• Additional Types: Legendary, Artificer
• Converted Mana Cost: 5
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: The only Angel with an Artificer subtype, new Weatherlight mechanic Tiana is a strange beast (just the fact that she's an Angel who works as a mechanic aboard a flying ship is mighty odd). Her body is subpar for a five-mana creature of two colors, and first strike doesn't do too much on a small flier that's not also vigilant. She's all about her passive ability that automatically recurs all Auras and Equipment that are moved to the graveyard from the battlefield. It seems to especially invite abuses of the former subtype, turning everything into Rancor, so to better exploit any Aura that has an ETB trigger. It sounds interesting in theory, but overly casual in practice.
• Tribal Evaluation: Meaningful combos with Tiana certainly exist, though Angel tribal might not be the right shell for them.
• Commander Evaluation: A commander with a unique, if narrow, trick is typically worth brewing for, and she comes in a color identity that features strong Auras and has access to the vast majority of all existing Equipment.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

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110. 

• Name: Adarkar Valkyrie   >> summary
• Sets: Coldsnap, Modern Masters, Commander 2014, Commander 2018, The List
• Additional Type: Snow
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 9
• General Evaluation: The original instance of a valkyrie styled as an Angel, from before Kaldheim was even conceived, and already snow-related. The only real issue with Adarkar Valkyrie is that she doesn't really impact the board the turn she drops. But once you get to untap with her on the battlefield, her shtick proves to be truly unique. She's free to perform her own vigilant attacks, always ready to tap and rescue a fellow creature from its dire fate by granting them a persist-like ability (of course, she can't do that to herself, that would be a bit much). And maybe that creature is even being sacrificed by us in the opponent's end phase, and happens to have a nice ETB effect to exploit. Also, please notice the wording doesn't specify "you control". That's right, Adarkar Valkyrie can steal the opponent's dead guys! Big potential here, though the initial investment might be a concern.
• Tribal Evaluation: Definitely a rewarding six-mana Angel with high tactical value, if not a very popular one.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

111.  

• Name: Admonition Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Worldwake, Zendikar Rising Commander, Secret Lair
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 12
• General Evaluation: The removal effects that allow for a way back should always be taken with a grain of salt. Admonition Angel isn't different, as her landfall mechanic sounds a lot more devastating than it actually is. Of course, if this bad girl sticks, the unbalance in the respective board positions might become lethal pretty soon, especially through a clever use of fetch lands. And she's a 6/6 flyer for six mana, after all, which is at least on curve. It just takes one piece of creature removal for the opponent to reset the entire game state, though. There's a case where it might be strategically sound to direct the exiling ability toward our own permanents, to ensure the dispatching of our evasive finisher won't let us on empty (the exiled stuff will come back no matter what fate befalls the Angel); but it just seems a bit convoluted, and it involves giving up on the immediate value of stabilizing a degenerate board.
• Tribal Evaluation: The top-end of an Angel tribal curve has safer options nowadays, even if Admonition Angel uses the same enabling tools of Emeria Angel – but that's not saying much, since it just means lands.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

112. 

• Name: Aegis Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Magic 2012, Magic 2015, Magic Origins
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: A 5/5 base body and flying are pretty much the expected minimum stats for a Dominion, which just goes to emphasize how much above-curve five-drops like Baneslayer Angel and Lyra Dawnbringer are. Now, making another permanent indestructible can be useful, but it's not an ability that's worth spending six mana on, as most of the times it won't be that useful – like when Aegis Angel is already the first permanent to deal with
• Tribal Evaluation: Probably not the first choice in an Angel deck's six-mana slot. Nor the second.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

113. 

• Name: Angel of Fury   >> summary
• Set: Portal Second Age
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: I don't know what being furious has to do with getting shuffled back into the deck, but I guess it's a way to convey "immortality", something that doesn't seem particularly linked to the concept of "fury" as well. Main mystery, though: why do we have to pay six mana for this effect on a 3/5 vanilla flyer that maybe will come back during the game, but we're not even entirely sure we want it to?
• Tribal Evaluation: Only if your Angel deck's main goal is to be unpredictable in the most unexciting of ways.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 1

114. 

• Name: Angel of Renewal   >> summary
• Sets: Battle for Zendikar, Mystery Booster
• Additional Type: Ally
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: I won't say she can't provide you with a bunch of life on occasion (she was designed to fit creature-heavy Ally lists, after all). We're in six-drop territory, though. For the same cost, body and rarity, Goldnight Redeemer gives us twice that amount!
• Tribal Evaluation: Did I mention we're talking six-drops here? And that thing about Goldnight Redeemer? Which is never going to make the cut, anyway, so imagine Angel of Renewal's chances.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 2

115. 

• Name: Angel of the God-Pharaoh   >> summary
• Set: Hour of Devastation
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: Mostly just a cycler for Limited purposes. He's actually a follow-up to Winged Shepherd from Amonkhet. They're pretty much the same card for the same cost. This one cycles for colorless and has a better body, Shepherd cycles for cheaper and has vigilance.
• Tribal Evaluation: Good in Angel mass reanimator? Probably not.
• Gender: Male
• Rating: 3

116. 

• Name: Angelic Guardian   > summary <
• Sets: Gift Pack 2019, Core Set 2020 Starter Decks
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: This Angel defines the kind of rare creature that is often used as an exclusive card only found in starter decks and other type of off-booster associated products. She has low complexity and a powerful ability, but she just sits there waiting to be removed, and only really works within an environment where decks aren't built in the most efficient way. Still, universal indestructibility, even if limited to the attack phase, is better than most throwaway abilities.
• Tribal Evaluation: Giving indestructible-while-attacking to a bunch of evasive creatures isn't the most critical move, I'm afraid.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

117. 

• Name: Angelic Skirmisher   >> summary
• Set: Gatecrash
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: Six mana for a 4/4 flyer – it doesn't look like a great deal, so far. But there's a bit of tactical value involved. The three keywords provided by the Skirmisher to our whole team at every combat phase are generally useful (it's not freaking rampage!) and can be tailored according to the turn. We probably want vigilance in our turn, then first strike in the opponent's, and lifelink whenever we need life. All in all, she's probably still a bit overcosted for a six-mana rare, but to dismiss her immediately as junk doesn't seem fair.
• Tribal Evaluation: She can give a nice boost to our angelic host, though she loses in the comparison to cheaper options like Lyra Dawnbringer.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

118. 

• Name: Anointer of Valor   > summary <
• Set: Commander Legends
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: Commander Legends is a draftable set, so not every new creature has the power level typically associated with Commander products. For instance, Anointer of Valor is just a common, and it shows. The body is abysmal for the mana investment, and you have to spend three mana to put a single +1/+1 counter on an attacking creature. We're not even close to Constructed playable.
• Tribal Evaluation: I could compare her to Archangel of Thune, but it just feels cruel.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 2

119. 

• Name: Archway Angel   > summary <
• Set: Ravnica Allegiance
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: Simple angelic application of the "Gates matter" theme. She was quite good in that list while it was legal in Standard (although it never was tier-1), catching up on life after the initial setup phase would inevitably expose the deck's flank to the aggression of faster builds. Unfortunately, she's way too specialized to leave any kind of mark in larger formats, so her relevance pretty much ended with rotation.
• Tribal Evaluation: I can't see a single reason why Angel tribal should ever want to take the Gates route.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 3

120.  

• Name: Aurelia, the Warleader   >> summary
• Sets: Gatecrash, From the Vault: Angels, GRN Guild Kit
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: After Razia's death, a new Boros leader emerged, and while the former was sort of a distant, untouchable figure (you know, the kind that deflects damage away from herself), our girl Aurelia is more of a people's Angel. What this means in game terms is that we spend two mana less, which is good, and we get what essentially amounts to a Lightning Angel – which is bad, since that's a four-drop. But wait, there's more: when Aurelia attacks, you can untap your team (which incidentally means she's granting vigilance to everyone), and you get to attack again. And yeah, that's a pretty great recipe for a lethal alpha strike, potentially coming out of nowhere, due to haste. It might well justify a Titan amount of mana, and almost Gisela-level of formidableness, but cheaper. No wonder her people like her.
• Tribal Evaluation: One of the two main reasons Boros Angels look attractive. To be fair, the other one is still called Aurelia.
• Commander Evaluation: With her at the helm, it'll be hardly a secret what our deck aims to do. But if kicking butt and taking names is the name of your game, Aurelia has to be one of your best pals.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

121. 

• Name: Bruna, Light of Alabaster   >> summary
• Sets: Avacyn Restored, Commander 2018
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: The second of the Powerpuff Angels (along with Sigarda, Host of Herons and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight). She's Bubbles, the cute, sensitive one. She looks happy indeed, stealing, recurring, and cheating into play all the Auras she can get her hands on. She can put together quite the collection indeed, and the amazing part is that it almost doesn't matter which zone the Auras end up in, as Bruna can retrieve them pretty much from anywhere. Still, it's a very narrow ability that strictly requires a build-around.
• Tribal Evaluation: Hard to pull off an Aura deck within an Angel shell. One might always try, though. That would make Bruna smile.
• Commander Evaluation: She's been called "the anti-Uril". And while she can steal all the Auras Uril usually wears, she's less of a solution and more of a different problem. In fact, a Bruna deck can be troublesome on its own, with the fact that each time she recurs, she'll take back everything she was wearing last plus everything we drew into in the meantime. It's not an oppressive strategy or anything, but can be really effective.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

122. 

• Name: Dawnbreak Reclaimer   >> summary
• Set: Commander 2015
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: This is fun in multiplayer, especially if you target someone that's behind as a political move. Aside from that, the effect is too situational and unpredictable to be taken into serious consideration.
• Tribal Evaluation: Although, I imagine the end-step trigger might benefit our Angel deck more than, say, our opponent who's playing Goblins.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

123.  

• Name: Deathless Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Rise of the Eldrazi, Game Day Promo
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 12
• General Evaluation: Ah, the bikini Angel. So over the top, Monsieur Bodin. Better to avoid talking about her "body", then; let's just say that her "power and toughness" (boy, this still sounds like a double entendre) are perfectly on par for a Dominion, even with a slight focus on defense, which is reflected in her main ability. To keep double white open to activate the indestructibility on-demand isn't somethng one can afford every turn, but after all, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, who does a better job at providing that kind of protection, drops for eight mana. Which is exactly the amount we need to have available in order to exploit Deathless Angel's ability from the get-go, so there's the usual big issue of lacking immediate impact on the field. Flavor note: as you can see, she's got six wings (what are you looking at? Her wings are up there). That's a feature of most Zendikari Angels, as is the case with Iona, Shield of Emeria and Emeria Angel as well.
• Tribal Evaluation: Protecting one or more creatures, including herself, isn't a worthless ability, even at this cost and with indestructible being a bit overrated as it is. An Angel deck's six-mana zone might be otherwise occupied, though, when it exists at all.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

124.  

• Name: Deathpact Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Gatecrash, RNA Guild Kit
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: The third Orzhov-colored Angel ever printe (after the decent Selenia, Dark Angel and the all-star Angel of Despair) is sort of a mixed bag. The recursiveness is terrific, at the very least the opponent will need two separate pieces of removal to get rid of her, and once we untap with the little Cleric on the board, we will be able to activate his ability and bring the morbid Angel back from the dead at instant speed, possibly dribbling ill-timed removal in the process. But the whole routine is slow and more than a bit clunky. To trust a puny 1/1 token to be the key element of the entire engine seems hazardous, and we can end up wasting a few turns casting and recasting the same six-mana finisher again and again without ever getting a chance to actually attack with her. As far as survivability of a six-drop 5/5 goes, Twilight Shepherd is the superior choice.
• Tribal Evaluation: She asks for two black mana, so we'd need a black-heavy Angel deck to accommodate her. After Ravnica Allegiance and Kaldheim, this might well be the case, but simultaneously also the end of any chance Deathpact Angel ever had to make the cut.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

125. 

• Name: Ethereal Valkyrie   > summary <
• Set: Kaldheim Commander
• Additional Type: Spirit
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: The one extra Valkyrie from the Commander decks associated to Kaldheim comes with an underwhelming body for her cost, but has the card advantage card to play, thanks to her blue component. In fact, she almost plays more like a Sphinx than an Angel, drawing a card upon entering the battlefield, and then again at every attack. More than that, she also reduces that card's casting cost using the foretell ability. The foretelling is mandatory, so worst case scenario, we're empty-handed and we draw a land, that foretell doesn't let us play. But even then, with a six-drop around, we might be glad to just get rid of that land on top.
• Tribal Evaluation: The cost and color combination aren't the friendliest for Angel tribal, but the value is there, it starts accruing right away, and the foretold cards aren't lost in the event of the Valkyrie getting killed – they remain safely stored away in exile, to be called upon as soon as we please. Spirit tribal has obviously less of an issue with the blue in the cost (that's the tribe's main color), but more with the sheer amount of required mana.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

126.   

• Name: Exalted Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Onslaught, Judge Promo, From the Vault: Angels
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 9
• General Evaluation: Exalted Angel, arguably the best Angel of the old era, shouldn't even count as a Dominion. In fact, she only occasionally drops for six mana, due to her morph ability (whose implications are fairly obscure: being "exalted" allows her to camouflage, then spring out from behind cover, thus taking people by surprise?). Cast in her face-down form for three mana, she's able to reveal herself and attack on turn four, even if such a move would cost us the entirety of two turns worth of mana. Unless you're using devious tricks like flickering, which would exalt her even more.
• Tribal Evaluation:  She's capable of outfighting a four-powered enemy and has pseudo-lifelink (which actually stacks with the actual lifelink from Lyra Dawnbringer). All this makes her a serious contender for space in any Angel deck, where she takes on the role of both a turn-three play and a turn-four play, regardless of what her regular casting cost says.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

127. 

• Name: Firemane Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Ravnica: City of Guilds, Duel Decks: Ajani vs. Nicol Bolas, Iconic Masters, GRN Guild Kit
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: This Boros legionnaire was at one time somewhat popular, although her basic stats are severely lacking compared to her cost, especially the bolt-susceptible toughness, only partially compensated by first strike. The lifegaining is steady if slow, and the self-reanimating ability is theoretically powerful, making her a sound target for a fetch-to-the-graveyard routine, but ten mana is a prohibitive, ludicrous cost in a regular game of Magic. She seems more at home in Commander, if anywhere.
• Tribal Evaluation: Too aimed to the very long run to fit the average Angel deck.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

128.  

• Name: Flameblade Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Shadows over Innistrad, Shadows over Innistrad Intro Pack
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: I honestly can't tell why this is rare, or why she costs six mana. I mean, sure, that army of 1/1s is not going to attack you now (unless you're already behind). It could have been a worthy defensive weapon at a lower point in the curve.
• Tribal Evaluation: Nah.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 3

129. 

• Name: Goldnight Redeemer   >> summary
• Sets: Avacyn Restored, Duel Decks: Blessed vs. Cursed
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: Most Angels are by design creatures that right the wrongs and protect the meek (well, except for Baneslayer Angel, according to her flavor text). So, there has been a lifegaining subtheme running through them across the years. Goldnight Redeemer's take on the concept isn't the worse (in fact, it's pretty much strictly better than the analogous Angel of Renewal), offering an ETB trigger that just asks to be abused. Still, the cost remains excessive for the package, betraying the lower rarity.
• Tribal Evaluation: She clearly wants a board gone wide, and Angel tribal is probably not the best kind of build for that, barring a very impressive amount of Bird tokens.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

130. 

• Name: Heavenly Blademaster   > summary <
• Set: Commander 2018
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 9
• General Evaluation: With more than a hint of Bruna, Light of Alabaster, the Blademaster sets herself apart by caring for Equipment too, which is all the better since she only works on permanents we already control. So instead of moving around our Auras, this becomes a case of equip herself for free, and that can lead to nice combos with heavy hitters like Colossus Hammer, exploiting her nature of three-powered double striker rather than six-powered single striker (there had to be a reason behind such a design choice, after all). There's also an anthem to be gained in the process, but that feels somewhat incidental – unless one makes it the whole focus of the deal, by engineering a state where the Blademaster will act as a magnet for a large number of self-replacing Auras and cheap Equipment.
• Tribal Evaluation: Hard to find room for Blademaster shenanigans in Tribal Wars, though the Colossus Hammer combo is intriguing, if awfully fair.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

131. 

• Name: Herald of the Sun   > summary <
• Set: Core Set 2020
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: I can't for the life of me tell why we're paying four mana for a conditional +1/+1 counter, nor why we're not allowed to place it on the Herald herself. Being an uncommon doesn't even start to be reason enough for such an appalling design.
• Tribal Evaluation: At least the condition for placing the counters wil be always fulfilled in an Angel deck. But please don't mistake this observation for an endorsement.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 2

132. 

• Name: Light of the Legion   > summary <
• Set: Guilds of Ravnica
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: When the big mentor creature dies, she imparts one last fight lesson to everybody. Eh.
• Tribal Evaluation: The real mentors in Angel tribal reside elsewhere.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 3

133. 

• Name: Linvala, the Preserver   >> summary
• Set: Oath of the Gatewatch
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: Admittedly, the original Linvala was a tough act to follow. Turning an early control creature into a large beater kinda takes it in the completely opposite direction, though (her third incarnation also defies expectations to an extent, so that's perhaps her thing). This Linvala is meant to fill the role of a curve-topper, but I don't think she brings enough to the table. Sometimes we'll gain five life and sometimes we'll get an additional 3/3 flyer – and if we do, it means we were probably behind with a six-drop stuck in our hand. Timely Reinforcements costs half that amount for a reason. I'm not in love, no matter how much she made herself look like a movie star from the Nineties.
• Tribal Evaluation: Once again, too many better options at CMC 6. Hell, even at CMC 5, to be honest.
• Commander Evaluation: She might get to recur her gifts with further iterations. It's pretty much all she has going for her as a commander, though.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

134.  

• Name: Magister of Worth   >> summary
• Sets: Conspiracy, Launch Promo, Vintage Masters
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: We can happily ignore the whole Will of the Council novel. In one-on-one, Magister of Worth (aka Crazy Sexy Winged Nun) is a very simple card: a six-mana sweeper that leaves a 4/4 flyer behind. Simple, powerful, you want it.
• Tribal Evaluation: She competes with Sunblast Angel as the tribe's resident high-profile sweeper. But if our list is willing to splash black, she might be even better.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 9

135. 

• Name: Pristine Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Darksteel, Conspiracy, Commander 2019
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: In the picture, we can easily imagine Pristine Angel thinking: "Why don't I have vigilance?". To which the designers could retort with: "Because it's more fun to answer removal with your own instant-speed removal, thus achieving an amazingly unexpected two-for-one." And they would be right.
• Tribal Evaluation: Fun plays aside, it's a bit hard to pull off the "protection from almost everything" trick at every attack, so Pristine Angel remains more of a defensive creature. She's quite good at that, and for six mana, we could do worse; but also better. Oh well, who knows, maybe we already planned to run Serra's Blessing.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

136.   

• Name: Regna, the Redeemer   > summary <
• Set: Battlebond
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: The Valor's Reach arena of Kylem (the setting of Battlebond) is theater to many stories. One of those is the tale of the forbidden love between an Angel and a Demon. Where Regna goes, Krav follows, and vice versa. In game terms, it means you want to have both in your deck, and casting one with tutor up the other, which is some nice built-in card advantage. Krav is slightly cheaper, Regna is slightly more impactful right away, both are more at home in Commander, Two-Headed Giant, or multiplayer in general. Their abilities are matched, in that any lifegain will trigger Regna's token-making, and then Krav can sacrifice that pair of tokens to grow, draw cards, and gain life, which in turn generate more tokens with Regna. I'm not sure what this entails, lore-wise. Regna attracts followers and then feeds them to her lover? This doesn't feel like trying to redeem him, more like enabling his addiction! Is that the story here? She talks big about redemption ("I can change him!"), then she keeps going back to her toxic relationship? She should have a word with Feather, the Redeemed!
• Tribal Evaluation: Other Angels will stage an intervention and won't allow Regna to see Krav.
• Commander Evaluation: With Regna in the command zone, Krav has to go amidst the 99 maindeck cards. This will show him who's in charge. Until he comes home with a bouquet of sacrificed Warriors, and she'll fall in love all over again.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

137.  

• Name: Requiem Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Dark Ascension, Commander 2014
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: "Please, please, don't hurt me", seems to say Requiem Angel, despite the fact that a 5/5 flyer is the second biggest creature in all Dark Ascension and pretty much nothing in the set can kill her by blocking. Just like with Angel of Flight Alabaster, the concept of "without Avacyn, the Innistrad Angels feel lost" looks a bit overdramatic in its depiction. I mean, you're okay to fight only when your boss makes you indestructible? Spoiled much? Anyway, she creates 1/1 flyers with a morbid-like mechanic, which isn't a terrible thing to do, but certainly not enough to account for the Titan mana. So maybe she's weeping because she knows she's going to receive a failing grade.
• Tribal Evaluation: Requiem Angel as a six-drop in an Angel deck? Not very likely.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

138. 

• Name: Serra's Guardian   > summary <
• Sets: Core Set 2019 Starter Decks, Core Set 2020 Starter Decks
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: Exclusive of Ajani's Planeswalker Deck (as well as the monowhite Welcome Deck) in Core Set 2019, a deal repeated for Core Set 2020. She's better than her pal Angelic Guardian (who was instead only found in the Gift Pack), in that universal vigilance has actual synergies and is immediately advantageous, but she remains typical starter deck fare, a slow Timmy/Tammy finisher that in competitive environments will eat removal, leaving no trace of her existence.
• Tribal Evaluation: She can actually complement a deck built around Stoic Angel.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

139. 

• Name: Shepherd of the Cosmos   > summary <
• Set: Kaldheim
• Additional Type: Warrior
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: She offers a minor Karmic Guide routine for small creatures, and she can be foretold to reduce her cost to four mana, but her body is still a bit too slender, and her overall impact not on par with the effort she requires, either by hardcasting her for six or by investing the same amount across two turns.
• Tribal Evaluation: Not many Angels are encompassed by her resurrection ability.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

140. 

• Name: Subjugator Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Eldritch Moon, Game Night
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: The only reason to play this is to setup an alpha strike, and there are cheaper ways to do that.
• Tribal Evaluation: Her ability is situational, especially within a all-evasive tribe, and her stats for a six-mana Angel are so subpar isn't even funny. As a curve-topper in party decks (since she's a Warrior, after all) is still underwhelming.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

141. 

• Name: Sunblade Angel   > summary <
• Set: War of the Spark
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: She's kind of a miniature Akroma (but without haste, which was a break in the color pie). If only her body wasn't so lacking.
• Tribal Evaluation: Four keywords are tempting. But not tempting enough.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

142. 

• Name: Sunblast Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Scars of Mirrodin, Duel Decks: Venser vs. Koth, Commander 2014, Commander 2020
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 9
• General Evaluation: Sunblast incoming! Now, this is how you do a vengeful Angel. This classic sweeper on legs brings the Day of Judgment with her. And only for tapped creatures (they're always the worst sinners!), which is even better, because she will always survive her own mayhem, in order to put her flying body to some use.
• Tribal Evaluation: The top of the curve in conservative Angel decks, a valid alternative to Magister of Worth for blackless builds.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 9

143. 

• Name: Twilight Shepherd   >> summary
• Sets: Shadowmoor, Duel Decks: Divine vs. Demonic, Commander 2014
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: Let's start with this: six mana earns us a 5/5 with flying and vigilance. That's already a discounted Archangel (all right, more like an Archangel that's not monstrously overcosted). And we get persist as well, which is great to survive removal, and especially synergistic in the color that usually casts sweepers. And you know what also synergizes with sweepers? Getting all your stuff back afterwards! And please note that she can bring back any permanent, not just creatures. So maybe we can start by getting back the Lotus Bloom we used to drop her onto the battlefield to begin with.
• Tribal Evaluation: The main reason this card doesn't see more tribal play is Sunblast Angel being the go-to six-mana slot resident, as well as the curve in Angel decks having been considerably shortened in recent years, to the point where it doesn't need anything beyond five anymore. But in general, a purely offensive trigger trumps a tactical/defensive one. And yet the Shepherd makes for a healthy choice and is ready to tango with more combo partners that one would expect, even within a tribal shell.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

144.  

• Name: Valkyrie Harbinger   > summary <
• Set: Kaldheim
• Additional Type: Cleric
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 9
• General Evaluation: Resplendent Angel's try-hard big sister. Sure, she enables herself without any additional mana expenditure, and her Angel tokens are still Serra Angels, but she's a six-drop to begin with. She originated in Kaldheim's Theme Boosters and Set Boosters.
• Tribal Evaluation: Still, a dedicated lifegain synergy deck (including a Cleric-based one) might want to consider her as a curve-topper.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

145. 

• Name: Victory's Herald   >> summary
• Sets: Mirrodin Besieged, Commander 2015
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: Giving flying and lifelink to all your team is definitely something, but the process involves casting a six-drop and having her survive into the next combat phase. And if she's alone on the board, we'd just be attacking with a 4/4 lifelinker. She can certainly helm a game-turning alpha attack under the right circumstances; those circumstances might never really materialize, though.
• Tribal Evaluation: Giving flying to all the other Angels? That's not exactly an accomplishment, is it?
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

146.  

• Name: Voice of the Provinces   >> summary
• Sets: Avacyn Restored, Duel Decks: Blessed vs. Cursed, Mystery Booster, Jumpstart
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: All right, she's just a common. But six mana for the dynamic duo of a 3/3 flyer and a vanilla 1/1? I don't know what provinces are we talking about here, but judging from their representative, they don't look like those where the most exciting things happen.
• Tribal Evaluation: Pass.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 1

147. 

• Name: Warrior Angel   >> summary
• Set: Stronghold
• Additional Type: Warrior
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 7
• General Evaluation: That's probably a good indicator of how underpowered your average creature was in pre-Modern times (in this case, circa 1998). Warrior Angel is a rare, back when that was the highest possible level of rarity. So, there's no excuse for her to be so terrible.
• Tribal Evaluation: Do we really need to consider a 3/4 with bad lifelink (i.e. the one that uses the stack so you can die before getting the life) for six mana, when for just five we can have Baneslayer Angel or Battlegrace Angel or Exalted Angel instead? And even just humble four-mana common Seraph of Dawn is better, for crying out loud. Entirely because of her name, Warrior Angel also got the Warrior type (years before it became a party favor), but you'd need to find a very specific monowhite Warrior deck that wants an overcosted lifelink flyer.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 1

148. 

• Name: Wayward Angel   >> summary
• Set: Odyssey
• Additional Type: Horror
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: How much appealing can it be to field an overcosted Serra Angel that might later turn into a vigilant Lord of the Pit? Probably not very appealing.
• Tribal Evaluation: And she's a Horror, too. Only a handful of them are white, yet she still manages to not rank among the top three Angel Horrors. You could build a monowhite Horror deck and still not coming close to consider including her.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 2

149. 

• Name: Winged Shepherd   >> summary
• Sets: Amonkhet, Mystery Booster
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 6
• General Evaluation: The precursor to Angel of the God-Pharaoh with the stats slightly reworked. Being common rather than uncommon should mean he's the weaker one, but he's actually the one that cycles better, which is the only meaningful difference between the two.
• Tribal Evaluation: Relying on Amonkhet block as the core for an Angel reanimator build might not be the best proposition, but could still work.
• Gender: Male
• Rating: 3

150. 

• Name: Wispweaver Angel   >> summary
• Set: Kaladesh
• Converted Mana Cost: 6
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: Junior varsity Restoration Angel. She costs way more and doesn't have flash, which is crucial.
• Tribal Evaluation: Unlike Restoration Angel, she can flicker other Angels, so there's that.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

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151.  

• Name: Akroma, Vision of Ixidor   > summary <
• Set: Commander Legends
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 12
• General Evaluation: The Akroma from Commander Legends is explicitly meant as a correction to the classic Akroma, Angel of Wrath. And why would that one need correction? Mostly because haste is very much not in white's color pie, and in fact there's not a single other monowhite creature with native haste in the history of Magic. So new Akroma (named after her creator, the obsessed reality-crafter Ixidor) gets a cost discount to a more manageable seven mana, but trade haste and her enemy colors protection (also kind of a deprecated thing in modern Magic) for a convolute way to grant one ore more instances of a +1/+1 boost to other creatures in her team. Problem is, original Akroma was popular as a reanimation target that could immediately get to work chipping away large chunks of the opponent's life total. Haste is the second most important ability to have in a finisher that takes effort to get online, right after some way to dribble removal. At least, haste means the opponent needs to have instant-speed removal available promptly in order to completely nullify the finisher's presence. Akroma, Vision of Ixidor is just a clunky Timmy/Tammy beater that's not even too exciting to Timmys/Tammys.
• Tribal Evaluation: She rewards other creatures for having a lot of keywords at once, so played alongside original Akroma, she would make her a 13/13. And their little sister Sunblade Angel a 7/7. This feels already more Timmy/Tammy-esque.
• Commander Evaluation: She has also partner, so she can be one half of a command zone. It sure makes her more interesting in Commander, though not by a lot, since her tactical value is kind of a built-in win-more.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

152. 

• Name: Angel of Despair   >> summary
• Sets: Guildpact, Commander, Ultimate Masters, RNA Guild Kit
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: Would we want to pay seven mana for a Vindicate that leaves behind a 5/5 flying body? Eh, maybe not so much anymore. But would we jump at the opportunity to cheat it into play then perhaps even abuse it via Recurring Nightmare, Astral Slide/Astral Drift, or what have you? That's more like it. At the time of her release in 2006, Angel of Despair arguably represented the most powerful ETB trigger in the whole game. Then Theros had to go and print Ashen Rider, severely diminishing this bald baddie's street cred. Archons, ugh. The smug Angels!
• Tribal Evaluation: Orzhov Angels isn't that uncommon anymore. In fact, after Kaldheim, it kind of became the default dual-color combination for Angels. Angel of Despair has now simultaneously a clear tribal home and a lot of competition at lower points in the curve.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

153. 

• Name: Angel of Glory's Rise   >> summary
• Set: Avacyn Restored
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: At first sight, Angel of Glory's Rise looks desperately situational. If we were facing a Zombie deck while piloting a Human deck, she'd be amazing (well, kind of: if both builds are aggro-oriented, chances are the game will be probably over one way or the other before we even get to seven mana). In every other case, she'll do absolutely nothing and will just be a tragically overcosted four-powered flyer. But what if we built a Human-based deck where they all intentionally go to the graveyard, and then we fetch her, perhaps with some Birthing Pod effect (this was in fact a Pod build back when the powerful artifact was still legal in Modern), and suddenly we find ourselves casting the reverse of Zombie Apocalypse (Human Apocalypse?), even enhanced by some incidental Juniper Order Ranger shenanigans triggered by massive token generators like Captain of the Watch, Geist-Honored Monk, or Reverent Hoplite. She's a one-trick Angel, but it's a cool trick.
• Tribal Evaluation: You build that Human reanimator deck, you're going to need her. In an Angel deck? Not so much.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

154. 

• Name: Angel of Retribution   >> summary
• Sets: Torment, Battlebond
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: "Bitter vengeance never glowed so bright." I assume that's someone's vengeance on us, because we've just been forced to play an overcosted French vanilla beater. But very splashable, eh!
• Tribal Evaluation: She's a first striker with a large body. She can get by in combat. But if you're going to devote an Angel tribal deck's seven-mana slot, whose existence is sketchy to begin with, jto such a low-value beater, you have some serious resource allocation problems.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 3

155. 

• Name: Angel of Serenity   >> summary
• Sets: Return to Ravnica, Commander 2015, Kaldheim Commander
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 11
• General Evaluation: Boom! goes the uber-powerful archangel. If we had to rank the Angels' relative degrees of impact on the battlefield, Angel of Serenity would score at the magnitude of a Tunguska event. For all intents and purposes, we get to essentially sweep, or at least cripple, the opponent side of the board, regardless of their creatures' power level (provided they are targetable, of course). And yes, those creatures may eventually return, but not back to the battlefield, O-Ring-like, so at the very least we Cyclonic Rift-ed them. And there are subtler uses, too. The graveyard targeting option can both punish reanimator strategies (which is ironic, given than Angel of Serenity herself instantly qualifies as a major reanimator staple), or giving us back some of our dead guys, as a safeguard in case our mighty angel get quickly dispatched. She's really the heaven-sent gift that keeps on giving.
• Tribal Evaluation: Before dedicating streets and monuments to this gal, we should consider if we actually want to run a seven-mana Angel in our list to begin with. If we do, it's probably because of Angel of Serenity.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 9

156. 

• Name: Angel of the Dire Hour   >> summary
• Sets: Commander 2014, Mystery Booster, Jumpstart
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 9
• General Evaluation: This is Settle the Wreckage with a big body attached, and before Settle the Wreckage even existed. Now, Sunblast Angel essentially procures the same end result for one mana less, and is also able to hit something like Deathrite Shaman or Grim Lavamancer. But exile is more final than destruction, and operating at flash speed can catch the opponent off-guard, and has general applications in control builds. In most decks, though, Angel of the Dire Hour is just too slow to stop aggro in a meaningful way. One-sided or not, you want to sweep the board on turn three, not on turn seven. And to be fair, Settle the Wreckage has the element of surprise, but can also be played around if the opponent knows about it.
• Tribal Evaluation: Angel of the Dire Hour is cool, but doesn't endanger Angel of Serenity and Angel of Despair's hold on the seven-mana slots. Plus, reanimating her is mostly pointless, unless we manage to do it at instant speed via something like Makeshift Mannequin or Back for More.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

157. 

• Name: Angelic Arbiter   >> summary
• Sets: Magic 2011, Commander, Jumpstart
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 11
• General Evaluation: So, the opponent either casts spells or attacks. This ability feels like it would be very impactful in early turns against aggro decks, since it hinders their strategy entirely. Too bad it comes on a seve-mana creature, one we don't particularly want to Entomb and Exhume on turn two. As it is, it's at best a mild annoyance, especially when facing decks that are capable of casting in our turn. Unless we're really committed to stop the Empty the Warrens/Goblin Bushwhacker endgame.
• Tribal Evaluation: Once we decide to extend our curve beyond Titan mana, it has to be because of some critical element we want access to. Unfortunately, Angelic Arbiter does not qualify as such.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

158.     

• Name: Archangel   >> summary
• Sets: Visions, Portal, Portal Second Age, Sixth Edition, Starter 1999, Gotta Magazine Promo, Avacyn Restored, Commander 2013, Mystery Booster
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: Back in Visions, the design idea behind Archangel was to make a slightly bigger Serra Angel. Which is boring, but not entirely without merit. Apparently, something went wrong when the moment came to rework the casting cost. And 15 years later, when they reprinted her in the Angel-themed Avacyn Restored, they still wouldn't admit the absurdity of that cost (well, maybe a little, since at least she was downgraded from rare to uncommon).
• Tribal Evaluation: If you're really into "vigilance matters" strategies, go ahead and spend seven mana on this classic piece of Magic history (seriously, look at those reprints and alternate art versions, including the extremely rare one from the Japanese Gotta Magazine, which is worth $70). But when people will laugh at you, don't say you hadn't been warned.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 3

159. 

• Name: Archangel of Strife   >> summary
• Sets: Commander, From the Vault: Angels
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 12
• General Evaluation: Most Angels are styled as righters of wrongs and protectors of the meek. This one traffics in high concepts like righteous war and armed peace, a territory that over the years has been relocated to the Archons, along with most "rules-setting" static abilities. This one from Archangel of Strife has the potential to be fun in multiplayer, especially on a complicate board position. In one-on-one games, odds are everyone will choose the aggression, or at the very least the mode where their general strategy is emphasized. There's some room for strategic planning, but it's minimal.
• Tribal Evaluation: Oh yeah, let's give our two lifelinking Angels +0/+3 while they'll give their six Goblins +3/+0. Peace, man!
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

160.   

• Name: Bruna, the Fading Light   >> summary
• Sets: Eldritch Moon, From the Vault: Transform
• Additional Types: Legendary, Horror
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 12 (up to 19 when melded with Gisela)
• General Evaluation: The Bruna gone mad from Eldritch Moon. Her basic stats are high-profile enough to justify her casting cost, if barely. Then comes a free Resurrection for Humans and other Angels, which is designed to bring back her nimbler partner in insanity, Broken Gisela, who drops earlier in the curve and will likely be dead and buried by the time we hit seven mana. The resurrection is achieved through trigger that happens upon casting Bruna (an Eldrazi mark), which means we can't reanimate her to in turn get to Gisela and, consequently, Brisela. Then again, this way the trigger is hard to counter. All in all, this corrupted monowhite Bruna seems more widely playable than her very narrow, combo-oriented Azorius version. By the way, did you notice how the two Powerpuff Angels touched by Emrakul have turned monowhite? That's a subtle hint at them believing to be now serving the more worthy deity.
• Tribal Evaluation: Horror Bruna is functional as a curve-topper that brings back an Angel from previously along the curve, which could mean something juicy like a dead Shalai. Does that provide a better advantage than Angel of Serenity, though? The answer is no, but if we ultimately plan to unleash Brisela on our opponent's face, this is how we do it, so we might as well get some incidental value along the road.
• Commander Evaluation: Bruna has some build-around potential for the Human and Angel types, and is the commander of choice to enable Brisela, just because retrieving her smaller component Gisela gets easier with Bruna in the command zone.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

161. 

• Name: Chancellor of the Annex   >> summary
• Sets: New Phyrexia, Mystery Booster
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 11
• General Evaluation: As far as New Phyrexia Chancellors go, this Angel is one of the most interesting members of the cycle. The free Force Spike can be relevant, as it'll stop most turn-one plays. And once the Chancellor herself comes down, the tax she'll impose on every opponent's spells can cause real pain, even in the late game. Of course, hoping to trigger the reveal means wishing for an opening hand containing one or more seven-mana creatures that will take forever for us to hardcast, but there are ways to mitigate that issue.
• Tribal Evaluation: To maximize the effect on turn one, we want to run a full playset in our deck, which is dangeous, as it might slow down our early game. It might be a viable option only in an Angel build that's already equipped to handle high-costing cards.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

162.  

• Name: Desolation Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Apocalypse, Amonkhet Invocations, The List
• Converted Mana Cost: 7 (technically 5)
• Body: 9
• General Evaluation: The counterpart to Apocalypse's Desolation Giant, technically Desolation Angel is a five-drop, except there's no real reason to cast her in the unkickered form, trading all your lands for a five-powered flyer (I guess it could combos with Balance and the likes). Conversely, as a five-powered flyer that you get by spending three extra mana on the Armageddon she casts, she's something to consider. Although, one might be better off just running Armageddon in the first place.
• Tribal Evaluation: In Angel tribal, where you can easily work up a favorable board position just in virtue of having a couple of big evasive creatures out, it's not a wrong idea to try and seal the deal with this bad girl. We're not going to make many friends this way, but that's the price of doing business with the blackest of Angels.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

163. 

• Name: Emeria Shepherd   >> summary
• Sets: Battle for Zendikar, Zendikar Rising Commander
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: Emeria Shepherd begs to be compared with the kind of Angel that delivers recursion effects... recursively. The first that come to mind is, of course, Reya Dawnbringer. And with Reya being a bombastic, outdated nine-mana card, the comparison appears to be going in Emeria Shepherd's favor, provided we never trigger her landfall ability with any other land but Plains, so that the permanents are returned directly to the battlefield and not just to our hand – that would still be good, but not as effective. We might safely assume that to be the case in a monowhite build, so what we get here is essentially a less consistent Sun Titan, but also one that doesn't have to put itself on the line to deliver its recursion. On the other hand, her body is subpar for seven mana, which are also one more than Sun Titan requires. On the other other hand, there's no upper limit to the cost of the permanents we're getting back, and there are plenty of ways to severely abuse a landfall trigger.
• Tribal Evaluation: Her whole shtick might be too much wishful thinking to actually earn a role in the more selective Angel tribal builds, but it's not entirely inconceivable to run her as a one-of curve-topper that's not as crazily expensive as Reya.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

164. 

• Name: Exquisite Archangel   >> summary
• Set: Aether Revolt
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: Any effect that changes the way the game ends does probably warrant a mythic spot. This winged gal with a finely ornate helm costs as much as Platinum Angel and is harder to cast with the double white requirement, so let's start by seeing how she fares in the comparison. The main difference is that her ability is not a continuous effect, it's more like casting an Angel's Grace plus some lifegain (I appreciate the wording saying "starting life" rather than "20 life", by the way). So if we're going to lose to a negative or null life total, Platinum Angel is just keeping us alive until she's dealt with, while Exquisite Archangel actually resets our side of the clock. Then again, this only means they'll have to deal with the Archangel before emptying our life total, rather than afterwards, which is only marginally better. This seems to be the crux of it: the opponent can just treat this as an ersatz Platinum Angel, dealing their finishing blow, be it either aggro- or combo-based, only after the Exquisite Archangel is out of the way. On the other hand, this goes to offset her main weakness of getting exiled to prevent the loss of the game, thus missing her role as a finisher; but as long as they'll keep her around to avoid restarting our life total, she can beat them down exploiting her faster clock. She could have been truly great had they given her flash on top of her ability, allowing her to be a proper surrogate Angel's Grace in a pinch. As things stand, Platinum Angel remains the superior choice, especially with the latter fitting any deck and fully benefiting from a colorless ramp.
• Tribal Evaluation: I couldn't recommend her in Angel tribal. She could ben effective at moving the opponent's endgame back, but most of the times she runs the risk of just trading for one spot removal spell without impacting the game state in the way a seven-mana play should.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

165. 

• Name: Gabriel Angelfire   >> summary
• Set: Legends
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: Oh my goodness, look at him! He's sitting on his ass, clueless, trying to understand how that sword works! What did you expect from a guy who's not sure which to pick between flying and rampage? And could you believe this guy was actually worshiped as a god in Benalia? I swear I'm not making this up! How lame would those Benalians have to be?
• Tribal Evaluation: Not. Going. To. Happen.
• Commander Evaluation: Insert sarcastic laughter here.
• Gender: Male
• Rating: 0

166.  

• Name: Gisela, Blade of Goldnight   >> summary
• Sets: Avacyn Restored, Commander 2015, Masters 25, Secret Lair
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: The third of the Powerpuff Angels (along with Sigarda, Host of Herons and Bruna, Light of Alabaster). She's Blossom, the leader of the trio. In fact, clocking at seven mana, Gisela is the most expensive among them. Her mirrored abilities combine to create one of the flashiest effects of all angeldom: with her on the battlefield (and the main problem is to make her stick, of course), your Lightning Bolt will deal six damage, the opponent's will deal one. What's even sweeter, she completely shuts down the opponent's army of 1/1 tokens. And boy if she beats! She beats like an enraged blacksmith, dealing a whopping ten first striking evasive damage on her own, and impacting the board instantly if we happen to have another creature ready to swing when she drops. She's any red player's power fantasy, a precursor to cards like Obosh, the Preypiercer and Fiery Emancipation.
• Tribal Evaluation: The splash only requires a modicum of red mana. But we also need the capability of consistently casting or cheating into play a seven-mana creature. If that's the case, one copy of Gisela is warranted. If we successfully get her online with another Angel already around (the true dream would be her own sister Sigarda, who's appropriately lower on the curve), then suddenly the game has a good chance of quickly coming to an end.
• Commander Evaluation: One of the all-time best Boros commanders for aggressive decks. Maybe not in the Secret Lair version, though. That's cute but demeaning. Somehow even sexist? The powerful woman reduced to harmless Valentine's Day cliché?
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 9

167.  

• Name: Iridescent Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Odyssey, From the Vault: Angels
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: Upside of  Iridescent Angel: protection from all colors is cool, especially if used offensively. Downsides of  Iridescent Angel: seven mana is a steep cost, and you also need a blue splash; her body is really subpar (she's definitely no Progenitus); defensively, Sigarda is strictly better; and for one mana less, Pristine Angel blocks artifacts too. Still, she might be a valid choice if you like to play it safe.
• Tribal Evaluation: I sincerely doubt this is the Angel that pushes any tribal deckbuilder to add blue to their list.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

168.  

• Name: Luminous Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Mirrodin, Duel Decks: Divine vs. Demonic
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: Creature generators with no activation costs are always a good thing. We can compare Luminous Angel with a classic like Verdant Force, for instance. For one more mana, the good ole Elemental creates Saprolings during each player's upkeep (which becomes even more relevant in multiplayer); then again, Luminous Angel's tokens are flyers. Her personal body is underwhelming, but all things considered, the effect may not be too overpriced. After all, it's Bitterblossom with no loss of life. The real problem is that she's really, really slow. We get to the turn where we drop a seven-mana creature, and all we have to show for it is a 4/4? And if she manages to survive long enough to untap one turn later, we'll have a 4/4 and a 1/1 Spirit that can't attack yet. Eventually, those little suckers could take over the game, but at a painfully sluggish pace. There's a reason Bitterblossom was designed to be online by turn three, not by turn eight.
• Tribal Evaluation: She's not really a sound investment in Angel tribal. Or anywhere else, except possibly in some Commander build where tokens matter.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

169.  

• Name: Platinum Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Mirrodin, Tenth Edition, Magic 2010, Magic 2011, Duel Decks: Mirrodin Pure vs. New Phyrexia, From the Vault: Angels, Conspiracy: Take the Crown, Kaladesh Inventions, The List
• Additional Type: Artifact
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: There's not a specific reason for Platinum Angel to be an Angel at all. The effect might well have been imbued on a Platinum Elephant or a Platinum Unicorn. But that's what it is, and the groundbreaking mechanic is now forever linked to the angelic tribe. Also, yeah, it's one of the most revered abilities in the game, do I have to actually explain it? We can't lose the game and our opponents can't win the game. Until they find removal for our Angel, that is.
• Tribal Evaluation: One consequence of the designers' choice of subtype is letting us include Platinum Angel as one of the tribal elements in our Angel deck. However, she usually likes artifact synergy cards like Master Transmuter, Open the Vaults, or Darksteel Forge, and those aren't so likely to show up in Angel tribal.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 9

170.  

• Name: Radiant, Serra Archangel   > summary <
• Set: Commander Legends
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: Radiant was Serra's most cherished creation and at one point became the leader of an entire plane. In monstruously underwhelming fashion, her original incarnation from Urza's Legacy, Radiant, Archangel, was a weak card with the dullest name and, let's be honest, mediocre art. New Radiant tries to right that grievance, and only partially succeeds. The art is now more regal and pleasant to the eye; her card name has a better flow to it; and, more importantly, her ability is more impactful, and at least only requires one other flyer to be fully enabled (up to a point; of course if we have more creatures to tap, we can respond to further attempts at killing Radiant). Plus, there aren't too many six-powered Angels that cost less than eight mana. We're talking of a seven-drop, though, and just providing a decent clock and the off-chance of dribbling removal aren't really causes enough for calling the design of Radiant 2.0 a complete success. Being forced into an uncommon slot probably didn't help.
• Tribal Evaluation: She clearly wants to be accompanied by vigilant Angels, otherwise you'd have to keep one of them back in order to activate the ability. Of course this is only one of the reasons why seven-mana Radiant is not a particular good inclusion in Angel tribal. Possibly even less than the original, despite being generally a better card.
• Commander Evaluation: Partner always increases the playability of any given prospective commander, though the strategic options this Radiant suggests are limited to her being a costly beater that might not be too easy to kill in the right circumstances.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

171. 

• Name: Resolute Archangel   >> summary
• Set: Magic 2015
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: A 4/4 body for seven mana is underwhelming, but the ability to reset the life total is an attention-grabber. For one thing, it's not something we need access to in the early turns, so having it on a seven-drop might be fitting. The package remains a bit lacking, though, and it's strongly dependent on having Resolute Archangel available at the exact right moment, to maximize her value. She could combo with flicker effects, but it's probably more effort than it's worth. She also doesn't compare favorably to Exquisite Archangel, for the same cost.
• Tribal Evaluation: A nombo in an Angel deck built around lifegain (she directly hinders cards like Righteous Valkyrie and Speaker of the Heavens), and not particularly attractive even elsewhere.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

172. 

• Name: Sephara, Sky's Blade   > summary <
• Set: Core Set 2020
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 14
• General Evaluation: We know nothing about Sephara, but we know that she's been the beloved centerpiece of a "flyers matter" list in Standard. Not the most successful deck ever, but still capable of winning its fair share of matches, and very straightforward in its gameplay: you'd just drop as many little flyers as possible, then tap four of them to get the very big Sephara (not counting Brisela, she's the second largest Angel in existence after Avacyn, Angel of Hope, tied with Iona, Shield of Emeria) out on the battlefield for just one mana. And now our team is indestructible, so even most sweepers will only kill Sephara, who otherwise swings for a thunderous seven lifelinking damage. It doesn't take much to win the game from that position.
• Tribal Evaluation: The alternate cost is hard to engineer in Angel tribal (though easier than it once was, thanks to the recent profusion of playable early drops like Youthful Valkyrie and Resplendent Angel), but the universal indestructibility still affects all the Angels, making Sephara more functional and desirable than eight-mana Avacyn.
• Commander Evaluation: The battle plan is clear and its proper execution feasible even in monowhite. Sephara remains dearest to many players' heart.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

173.  

• Name: Seraph   >> summary
• Sets: Ice Age, Fifth Edition
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: That's the Ice Age era for you: a block of barely readable text that hides terrible mechanics verbosely described. The short version of the one up there is: she takes control of what she kills as long as she sticks around. The very short version is: don't waste seven mana on a 4/4 with a clunky mechanic that doesn't even seem to belong to white, or to the depicted character. Nice Lewis Carroll-esque hat in the Fifth Edition art, though.
• Tribal Evaluation: She might work in conjunction with Basandra (they're both seraphs for a reason!), but strictly within the confines of casual play.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

174. 

• Name: Seraph of the Masses   >> summary
• Set: Magic 2015
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: Variable
• General Evaluation: The concept makes perfect sense: an Angel with convoke that's as strong as your creature total. It's hard to envision a deck where this isn't just win-more, though. Or even where its stats become actually remarkable and its casting cost small enough. Those masses are going to be thoroughly disappointed.
• Tribal Evaluation: That deck is definitely not Angel tribal, in any case; unless we managed to assemble a LARGE number of Emeria Angel's little doves.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

175. 

• Name: Seraph of the Suns   >> summary
• Sest: Amonkhet, Mystery Booster
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: This guy costs as much as Iridescent Angel (albeit dispensing with the blue splash) and trades protection from all colors for indestructibility, so his effectiveness at blocking is essentially the same, but attacking is not much more advantageous (then again, they're both fliers, chances are they're already evasive enough). Iridescent Angel is also able to ignore all spot removal, while Seraph of the Suns is stronger against most sweepers.
• Tribal Evaluation: Truth is, neither of them is worth seven mana, especially in an Angel build. Iridescent Angel might be slightly better just because the majority of prime removal across all formats is exile-based, and indestructibility is helpless against that.
• Gender: Male
• Rating: 4

176. 

• Name: Tariel, Reckoner of Souls   >> summary
• Sets: Commander, From the Vault: Angels
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 7
• Body: 11
• General Evaluation: In 2011, Tariel, Magic's first take on a reaper, was part of the original batch of Commander preconstructed decks, whose color focus was placed on the enemy triplets. Back then, Mardu wasn't as commonplace as it is today (in fact, only one previous legendary creature in Mardu colors existed at the time, Oros, the Avenger from Planar Chaos), and felt like an odd color combination for an Angel. Tariel's unusual power/toughness ratio puts an emphasis on defense, while vigilance leaves her free to attack and use her activated ability in the same turn. The ability in question is, once again, unusual, but quite powerful – a permanent theft/reanimation effect that doesn't cost any mana, and can even be activated at instant speed. The randomness of the targeting is its main flaw, and just implores us to be paired with some means to control what's in the opponent's graveyard, lest we only end up reanimating junk. Needless to say, it can be done.
• Tribal Evaluation: Really hard to envision an Angel deck able to put together the building space necessary to fit her, but it could be nice to try.
• Commander Evaluation: Kaalia of the Vast (the designated commander of the very deck in which Tariel first appeared) is a big contender in the same colors, but while a Kaalia deck is always very single-minded, Tariel build looks more idiosyncratic.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 7

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177.  
 

• Name: Akroma, Angel of Fury   >> summary
• Sets: Planar Chaos, Commander, From the Vault: Angels, Masters 25, Time Spiral Remastered
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 8
• Body: 12
• General Evaluation: The color-shifted version of Akroma from an alternate reality represents the monored member of the elite club of "superfighters", a group of battleworthy creatures bearing an abnormal quantity of keywords, and of which the oldest was Spirit of the Night from Mirage. This Akroma directly descends from the original monowhite Akroma, but exchange most of her predecessor's abilities for entirely new ones, including protection from the opposite pair of enemy colors. Most notably, she loses haste, a weird occurrence for a top-end red creature, while uncounterability and morph are a bit at odd with each other. The latter is probably the most significant addition, allowing a turn-four attack if a morphed Akroma is followed by a flickering effect that reveals her – a risky but potentially rewarding move, partially making up for the lack of haste.
• Tribal Evaluation: She was once the only monored Angel in existence; since her release, Shadows over Innistrad added Flameblade Angel, Goldnight Castigator, and especially the transformed side of Archangel Avacyn. We're still far from a functional Monored Angel build, but Fast and Furious Akroma could find a spot in Boros, at the highest end of the curve. Or rather, at the lowest? That's the real, overlooked strength of red Akroma: we can just drop her face-down early on, then find a way to forcedly un-morph her, either with a spell like Cloudshift (that's Avacyn in the art, after all) or even Restoration Angel herself. And then, voilà, our battlestation Angel is ready to administer some old-fashioned beating as early as turn four.
• Commander Evaluation: She's a monored super-beater; slow but flashy, and with a call for possible shenanigans.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 9

178.   

• Name: Akroma, Angel of Wrath   >> summary
• Sets: Legions, Time Spiral "Timeshifted", Duel Decks: Divine vs. Demonic, From the Vault: Angels, Masters 25, Commander 2020
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 8
• Body: 12
• General Evaluation: There was a time, long ago now, when Akroma was the Queen of the Battlefield. The number one reanimation target. Almost two decades later, she's still quite the bomb. Fun fact: she's not actually an Angel, per se. Or better, all Angels are made, not born. But according to her hyper-complicated back story from the novels, she's a sentient illusion created by the mad mage Ixidor to avenge his dead wife, who Akroma was created in the image of (only, you know, with wings and angelic powers). At some point, Phage cut off Akroma's legs, and Ixidor replaced them with jaguar legs, turning her into some sort of Centaur/Angel with "feline tendencies". It's just silly that way.
• Tribal Evaluation: We're talking eight mana for a finisher. That's not a healthy amount to try and hardcast, and Angel tribal is not particularly good at ramping. So either we're planning some grand reanimation shenanigans, or we just put a singleton copy of her in the deck, because, hell, she's Akroma.
• Commander Evaluation: You can change universe, but that won't change what Akroma does better: hitting the opponent in the face, hard. And, well, dribbling a fair share of removal spells, too.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 9

179.  

• Name: Angel of Deliverance   >> summary
• Sets: Shadows over Innistrad, Shadows over Innistrad Promo
• Converted Mana Cost: 8
• Body: 12
• General Evaluation: Angel of Deliverance requires delirium, that much is clear. Before achieving it, she's not even worth looking at the eight mana of her cost. But once delirium is online, the damage-based trigger we're granted is pretty great – not exactly the same as Argentum Armor, because it only affects creatures. But it exiles them, so it cleanly deals with indestructible and recursive threats. Connecting with a flyer shouldn't be a problem, but the ability still triggers by damaging creatures in combat, and even by dealing non-combat damage via fight effects or any other means. It's still all a bit too dependent on certain factors to align, like delirium and the opportunity to deal damage, which might not present itself right away. And as an eight-drop, she'd likely require reanimation anyway, and worthier targets for that certainly exist. On the other hand, she's the kind of card that's occasionally capable of taking over the game if left unchecked, so the verdict can't be too harsh.
• Tribal Evaluation: As usual, eight mana are too many for a tribal deck that already tends toward the expensive side of things; to justify the presence of such a costly card in the list, it would need to be something that entirely changes the way the deck plays. Slowly dealing with the opponent's creatures one at a time is not game-changing enough, especially when there are faster options for that.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

180.

• Name: Angel of Salvation   >> summary
• Sets: Future Sight, Duel Decks: Elspeth vs. Tezzeret, Time Spiral Remastered
• Converted Mana Cost: 8
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: Angel of Salvation is the white counterpart to Bogardan Hellkite. And when white tries to challenge red this way, it never ends well. In fact, this is Healing Salve vs. Lightning Bolt all over again: for the same casting cost, the Dragon deals five damage, the Angel prevents them. Granted, she's still a 5/5 flyer with flash and convoke. But to actually get a significant advantage out of the prevention effect looks unlikely.
• Tribal Evaluation: Convoke is not exactly something Angel tribal has an easy time enabling.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

181.   

• Name: Avacyn, Angel of Hope   >> summary
• Sets: Avacyn Restored, From the Vault: Angels, Judge Promo, Iconic Masters, Double Masters
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 8
• Body: 16
• General Evaluation: I love that Avacyn, the archangel Sorin Markov created to keep the peace on Innistrad, is an Angel as envisioned by a Vampire: wearing black leather and goth makeup. And she even sports Sorin's signature white hair. She's all her dad! With her 16 points of body, this first incarnation of Avacyn still owns the record for largest monowhite creature in existence. As for her power level, indestructible isn't as fancy as it sounds, as it's ignored by the many exile-based removal, including sweepers like (Extinction Event:IKO). Still, Avacyn's impact on the battlefield is stronger than most, and it's up to the opponent to maneuver around a suddenly indestructible side of the board. It's by no means the end of the game, but it's more than a simple annoyance, especially if we quickly follow it up with some one-sided sweeping mayhem. Plus, a 8/8 indestructible vigilant flyer is not a negligible board presence by herself.
• Tribal Evaluation: Expensive as she is, this Avacyn occasionally shows up in Angel decks, especially those that are capable of little ramping, or have some alternative ways to drop her onto the battlefield. She might not match her nemesis Griselbrand's insane strategic value, but she still has a purpose.
• Commander Evaluation: Not a fast commander, but she makes up for it with resilience and impact.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

182.  

• Name: Empyrial Archangel   >> summary
• Set: Shards of Alara
• Converted Mana Cost: 8
• Body: 13
• General Evaluation: With Empyrial Archangel we delve deeper into the territory where high casting costs equal to high rewards. It's common knowledge that the most effective finishers are those that the opponent can't deal with easily, and this Bant-colored Archangel is a very hard customer in that department, even with shroud being an obsolete keyword. She's also supremely tactical, allowing us to swing for five damage in the air while absorbing seven from the opponent's team, with no worry whatsoever, not even for her health.
• Tribal Evaluation: She's a bit past her prime now, but Empyrial Archangel has long ranked among the best reanimation and cheat-into-play targets in the game. An Angel deck that isn't afraid of employing these kinds of tricks, as well as willing to go multicolor, will greatly enjoy her services.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 9

183. 

• Name: Filigree Angel   >> summary
• Sets: Alara Reborn, Commander 2013, Commander 2016
• Additional Type: Artifact
• Converted Mana Cost: 8
• Body: 8
• General Evaluation: Filigree Angel has ever had only one meaningful application: being reanimated by Open the Vaults in an artifact-based deck for a massive amount of lifegain (and even in that case, it's probably just a win-more move). Any other use feels weak in comparison, as a 4/4 flyer that just gains us three life isn't worth eight mana – or even five, for that matter.
• Tribal Evaluation: Almost impossible to make it work within a regular Angel deck.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 5

184.

• Name: Razia, Boros Archangel   >> summary
• Sets: Ravnica: City of Guilds, Planechase, GRN Guild Kit
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 8
• Body: 9
• General Evaluation: One of only six Angels with haste, the late Boros leader Razia swings for six the turn she drops, and then she's still ready to tap to redirect damage around, defying her apparently frail body, since she desn't just have virtually three extra point of toughness, she weaponizes them, turning protection into removal. An amazing combination of sheer power and tactical prowess, and an excellent design.
• Tribal Evaluation: The problem with Boros Angels is that their curve can get awfully high if we pursue the better ones. There's just no room for too many copies of Razia or Gisela in the same deck, if any at all. But if we're feeling bold enough (a trait the Boros Angels would approve of), we could include one copy of Razia, to shock and awe the opponent.
• Commander Evaluation: Razia and Gisela can probably take turns leading the exact same kind of ultraviolent deck.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 8

185.

• Name: Silver Seraph   >> summary
• Set: Judgment
• Converted Mana Cost: 8
• Body: 12
• General Evaluation: A 6/6 flyer for eight mana is not a deal we wanna take. The prospect of a +2/+2 anthem for the rest of the team makes it slightly better, if still not enough to earn her a place under the spotlight. The eventual boost in power could fuel a crucial alpha attack, but there are less clunky ways to achieve this kind of goal.
• Tribal Evaluation: I could see the appeal of engineering a 7/7 Baneslayer Angel, but an eight-mana slot is not the right place for this kind of luxuries.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 4

186.  

• Name: Iona, Shield of Emeria   >> summary
• Sets: Zendikar, Modern Masters 2015, From the Vault: Angels
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 9
• Body: 14
• General Evaluation: Iona, one of the great archangels that originally fought the Elrazi on Zendikar, is the Bane of Monocolored. Or the Punishment of Multicolored That Made the Mistake of Relying Too Much on Just One Color for Removal. Merely picturing her on the battlefield fills your heart with the fear of a lockout.
• Tribal Evaluation: Iona is usually reanimated early on via something along the lines of the classic Entomb/Exhume one-two, which may or may not result in a concession – she's just ruthless that way. Angel decks usually take different paths, but nothing prevents them to be ruthless as well.
• Commander Evaluation: Would you like to play with different people each game, because all the previous ones hate you now? You just have to keep running Iona as a commander. She doesn't even need to actually get to the battlefield – they will hate you regardless.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 10

187.  

• Name: Reya Dawnbringer   >> summary
• Sets: Invasion, Tenth Edition, Duel Decks: Divine vs. Demonic, Conspiracy, Ultimate Masters
• Additional Type: Legendary
• Converted Mana Cost: 9
• Body: 10
• General Evaluation: You don't know how bad Reya has taken the release of New Phyrexia. She used to be Miss Free Resurrection, a goal she had worked hard for, and she was able to convince you it was entirely worth her preposterously huge converted mana cost, the highest in existence in the tribe, alongside Iona's. Then one day Sheoldred showed up, reanimating dudes like it's nobody's business, for two mana less, two power more, and adding an edict effect every turn, to boot. Reya never recovered from that severe case of depression.
• Tribal Evaluation: It's close to impossible to justify running a nine-mana Angel that doesn't impact the board right away. Sorry, Reya, I know I'm only making it worse.
• Commander Evaluation: She can still be a decent commander for a late-game resurrection shenanigans. In white, at least. The thing is, we can build it better in black. You know, with a certain Praetor at the helm.
• Gender: Female
• Rating: 6

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UN-ANGELS

 

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 Unstable is the first Un-set featuring Angels. They're both artifacts, and of course both weird. One subcribes to the Combine mechanic, the other is the only Cyborg ever printed.

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ANGEL-RELATED CARDS

   

   

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 Cards that help Angels: Bishop of Wings, Firja's Retribution, Kaalia of the Vast, Kaalia, Zenith Seeker, Rampage of the Valkyries, Scroll of Avacyn, Seraph Sanctuary, Starnheim Aspirant.

 Major cards that create multiple Angel tokens: Angelic Accord, Court of Grace, Decree of Justice, Divine Visitation, Emeria's Call, Entreat the Angels, Finale of Glory, Luminarch Ascension, Moonsilver Spear, Parhelion II, Seraphic Greatsword, Serra the Benevolent, Sigil of the Empty Throne, Speaker of the Heavens, Starnheim Unleashed.

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 Angelic History (first appearances only)

• Core sets: 23 (Alpha: 1, M10: 2, M11: 1, M12: 1, M13: 1, M14: 2, M15: 3, Magic Origins: 2, M19: 5, M20: 5)
• Starter sets: 4 (Portal: 1, Portal Second Age: 2, Starter 1999: 1)
• Commander products: 16 (CMD: 3, C13: 1, C14: 2, C15: 3, C16: 1, C18: 1, Commander Legends: 4, Kaldheim Commander: 1)
• Special sets: 5 (Planechase 2012: 1, Conspiracy: 1, Battlebond: 1, Game Night: 1, Modern Horizons: 1)
• Ancient sets: 2 (from Legends)
• Ice Age block: 3 (Ice Age: 1, Alliances: 1, Coldsnap: 1)
• Mirage block: 3 (Mirage: 1, Visions: 2)
• Tempest block: 4 (Tempest: 3, Stronghold: 1)
• Urza block: 12 (Urza's Saga: 4, Urza's Legacy: 4, Urza's Destiny: 4)
• Masques block: 3 (Nemesis: 2, Prophecy: 1)
• Invasion block: 7 (Invasion: 3, Planeshift: 1, Apocalypse: 3)
• Odyssey block: 4 (Odyssey: 2, Torment: 1, Judgment: 1)
• Onslaught block: 2 (Onslaught: 1, Legions: 1)
• Mirrodin block: 3 (Mirrodin: 2, Darksteel: 1)
• Kamigawa block: 0
• Ravnica block: 3 (Ravnica: 2, Guildpact: 1)
• Time Spiral block: 4 (Time Spiral: 1, Planar Chaos: 2, Future Sight: 1)
• Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block: 1 (from Shadowmoor)
• Alara block: 6 (Shards of Alara: 3, Conflux: 1, Alara Reborn: 2)
• Zendikar block: 7 (Zendikar: 3, Worldwake: 2, Rise of the Eldrazi: 2)
• Scars of Mirrodin block: 5 (Scars of Mirrodin: 2, Mirrodin Besieged: 1, New Phyrexia: 2)
• Innistrad block: 15 (Innistrad: 2, Dark Ascension: 1, Avacyn Restored: 12)
• Return to Ravnica block: 6 (Return to Ravnica: 1, Gatecrash: 5)
• Theros block: 0
• Khans of Tarkir block: 0
• Battle for Zendikar block: 4 (Battle for Zendikar: 3, Oath of the Gatewatch: 1)
• Shadows over Innistrad block: 9 (Shadows over Innistrad: 6, Eldritch Moon: 3)
• Kaladesh block: 3 (Kaladesh: 2, Aether Revolt: 1)
• Amonkhet block: 5 (Amonkhet: 3, Hour of Devastation: 2)
• "Ixalan/Dominaria" pseudo-block: 3 (from Dominaria)
• "Ravnica at War" pseudo-block: 7 (Guilds of Ravnica: 2, Ravnica Allegiance: 3, War of the Spark: 2)
• Eldraine/Theros/Ikoria pseudo-block: 0
• The MDFCs pseudo-block: 18 (Zendikar Rising: 5, Kaldheim: 13)

 Conclusions: Before Avacyn Restored first set the record for most Angels in a single set, the block with the largest representation was Urza block, mostly thanks to the "Voices" cycle. The only blocks with no Angels at all are Kamigawa, Theros, Tarkir and Ixalan, due to the local plane culture not allowing for any version of them. The post-War sets (Throne of Eldraine, Theros Beyon Death and Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths) were also entirely Angel-free, while the Valkyries of Kaldheim ultimately surpassed the debut of Avacyn with 13 Angels, plus an extra one in Kaldheim Commander.

 Angelic Colors

• White: 173 (of which 138 mono, 6 Azorius, 7 Orzhov, 11 Boros, 3 Selesnya, 3 Bant, 1 Naya, 1 Jeskai, 1 Mardu, 1 four-color redless, 1 pentacolor)
• Blue: 13 (of which 1 mono, 6 Azorius, 3 Bant, 1 Jeskai, 1 four-color redless, 1 pentacolor)
• Black: 18 (of which 8 mono, 7 Orzhov, 1 Mardu, 1 four-color redless, 1 pentacolor)
• Red: 18 (of which 3 mono, 11 Boros, 1 Naya, 1 Jeskai, 1 Mardu, 1 pentacolor)
• Green: 9 (of which 3 Selesnya, 3 Bant, 1 Naya, 1 four-color redless, 1 pentacolor)
• Colorless: 2

 Conclusions: No surprise here, as Angels are the iconic creature of white. Thanks to Kaldheim and its Reapers, black is now tied with red as the second angelic color, but the Boros Angels still have the greatest dual-colored population. In contrast, among the triple-colored Angels it's Bant the most frequent triplet, with three representatives. The only Naya Angel in existence is Rienne, Angel of Rebirth, Jeskai is represented by Lightning Angel and Mardu by Tariel, Reckoner of Souls. Atraxa, Praetors' Voice is the only four-color Angel, Maelstrom Archangel the only one sporting all five colors.

 Angelic Additional Types

• Legendary: 37
• Cleric: 7
• Spirit: 7
• Warrior: 6
• Horror: 4
• Artifact: 3
• Berserker: 3
• Ally: 2
• Snow: 2
• Wizard: 2
• Artificer: 1
• Illusion: 1

 Conclusions: Angels don't usually get secondary creature types as they don't use the race/class system much, or at least they din't before the party mechanic in Zendikar Rising caused a number of instances of Cleric, Warrior and Wizard (no Angel Rogue so far), and then Kaldheim followed suit, also adding the plane-specific Berserker. Before that, the very first instance of angelic "class" only came to be because it was explicitly mentioned in the name of Warrior Angel (so, according to the rules of the Grand Creature Type Update, it had to be added as a subtype). Retroactively, one could argue that there are several other Angels that should be Warriors as well. Battle for Zendikar induced two Angels into the Alliance, while Dominaria gave us the first Angel with a proper job, the Artificer Tiana. Odyssey's Wayward Angel was the original intersection of the tribe with Horror, but both Phyrexians and Eldrazi would later make use of that hybridization. Spirit is still the most frequent secondary type for Angels (now tied with Cleric), due to the celestial nature of the tribe.

 Angelic Skills

• Flying: 187
• Vigilance: 33
• Lifelink: 21 (of which 2 using the stack)
• Protection: 16 (White: 3, Blue: 2, Black: 4, Red: 2, Green: 1, Artifacts: 2, All: 4, Demons and Dragons: 1)
• First strike: 13
• Trample: 7
• Flash: 6
• Haste: 6
• Indestructible: 5 (of which 1 conditional, 1 activated, 1 triggered)
• Deathtouch: 3
• Firebreathing: 3 (of which 1 using permanent counters)
• Foretell: 3
• Hexproof: 3 (of which 2 conditional)
• Convoke: 2
• Cycling: 2
• Delirium: 2
• Double strike: 2
• Echo: 2
• Exalted: 2
• Landfall: 2
• Mentor: 2
• Morph: 2
• Partner: 2
• Shroud: 2 (of which 1 activated)
• Afterlife: 1
• Battalion: 1
• Boast: 1
• Exert: 1
• Myriad: 1
• Proliferate: 1
• Rampage: 1
• Regeneration: 1
• Uncounterable: 1

 Conclusions: Of course all Angels are capable of flying. Even the moronic Gabriel Angelfire, when he remembers he can (though he remains the only Angel without native flying). In addition, more than one sixth of all Angels has vigilance, and a fair share of them have some kind of lifelink ability.

 Angelic Gender

• Female: 176
• Male: 7
• Unclear: 4

 Conclusions: The Angels in Magic are mostly despicted as female, despite the fact that those from the Abrahamic traditions mostly bear male names (albeit mostly for cultural reasons), and the Hollywood-based pop culture usually remains in that camp. Hard to say if Magic's Angels should be considered sexist or feminist (after all, we have an Emancipation Angel!), but at least their art started showing less skin in the most recent years.  Even pin up worthy Linvala ultimately covered up a little. The male Angels mostly come from alternate realities or from Amonkhet, the only plane so far where the Angels are exclusively boys, created by Nicol Bolas himself; it could say something about his views on women (or his orientation, but the sexuality of an Elder Dragon has never really been explored in the lore).

 The Angelic Commanders (click on any of them to go to its review)

• Dominaria: Akroma, Angel of Wrath, Akroma, Angel of Fury, Akroma, Vision of Ixidor, Gabriel Angelfire, Lyra Dawnbringer, Shalai, Voice of Plenty, Tiana, Ship's Caretaker
• Serra's Realm: Radiant, Archangel, Radiant, Serra Archangel, Reya Dawnbringer, Selenia, Dark Angel
• Innistrad: Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Avacyn, Guardian Angel, Archangel Avacyn, Bruna, Light of Alabaster, Bruna, the Fading Light, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, Gisela, the Broken Blade, Sigarda, Host of Herons, Sigarda, Heron's Grace, Liesa, Shroud of Dark
• Zendikar: Iona, Shield of Emeria, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Linvala, the Preserver, Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate
• Ravnica: Razia, Boros Archangel, Aurelia, the Warleader, Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice, Feather, the Redeemed
• Alara: Jenara, Asura of War
• New Phyrexia: Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
• Kylem: Regna, the Redeemer
• Kaldheim: Firja, Judge of Valor
• Unknown: Basandra, Battle Seraph, Tariel, Reckoner of Souls, Anya, Merciless Angel, Rienne, Angel of Rebirth, Sephara, Sky's Blade

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 Latest Additions (click on any of them to go to its review)

• Battlebond: Regna, the Redeemer
• Core Set 2019: Angel of the Dawn, Herald of Faith, Resplendent Angel, Serra's Guardian (Starter Decks only)
• Commander 2018: Heavenly Blademaster
• Gift Pack 2019: Angelic Guardian
• Guilds of Ravnica: Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice, Light of the Legion
• Game Night: Militant Angel
• Ravnica Allegiance: Angel of Grace, Archway Angel, Seraph of the Scales
• War of the Spark: Feather, the Redeemed, Sunblade Angel
• Modern Horizons: Segovian Angel
• Core Set 2020: Angel of Vitality, Dawning Angel, Herald of the Sun, Rienne, Angel of Rebirth (Buy-a-Box promo), Sephara, Sky's Blade
• Zendikar Rising: Angel of Destiny, Emeria Captain, Legion Angel, Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate, Shepherd of Heroes
• Commander Legends: Akroma, Vision of Ixidor, Anointer of Valor, Liesa, Shroud of Dusk, Radiant, Serra Archangel
• Kaldheim: Cleaving Reaper, Eradicator Valkyrie, Firja, Judge of Valor, Glorious Protector, Hailstorm Valkyrie, Renegade Reaper, Resplendent Marshal, Righteous Valkyrie, Shepherd of the Cosmos, Stalwart Valkyrie, Valkyrie Harbinger, Vengeful Reaper, Youthful Valkyrie
• Kaldheim Commander: Ethereal Valkyrie

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SUMMARY
(click on any of them to go to its review)

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 Adarkar Valkyrie, Admonition Angel, Aegis Angel, Akroma, Angel of Fury, Akroma, Angel of Wrath, Akroma, Vision of Ixidor, Angel of Condemnation, Angel of Deliverance, Angel of Despair, Angel of Destiny, Angel of Finality, Angel of Flight Alabaster, Angel of Fury, Angel of Glory's Rise, Angel of Grace, Angel of Invention, Angel of Jubilation, Angel of Light, Angel of Mercy, Angel of Renewal, Angel of Retribution, Angel of Salvation, Angel of Sanctions, Angel of Serenity, Angel of the Dawn, Angel of the Dire Hour, Angel of the God-Pharaoh, Angel of Vitality, Angelic Arbiter, Angelic Captain, Angelic Curator, Angelic Field Marshal, Angelic Guardian, Angelic Overseer, Angelic Page, Angelic Protector, Angelic Skirmisher, Anointer of Valor, Anya, Merciless Angel, Archangel, Archangel Avacyn, Archangel of Strife, Archangel of Thune, Archangel of Tithes, Archway Angel, Atraxa, Praetors' Voice, Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice, Aurelia, the Warleader, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Avacyn, Guardian Angel, Avenging Angel, Baneslayer Angel, Basandra, Battle Seraph, Battlegrace Angel, Blinding Angel, Bruna, Light of Alabaster, Bruna, the Fading Light, Chancellor of the Annex, Cleaving Reaper, Copper-Leaf Angel, Crypt Angel, Dawnbreak Reclaimer, Dawning Angel, Deathless Angel, Deathpact Angel, Desolation Angel, Emancipation Angel, Emeria Angel, Emeria Captain, Emeria Shepherd, Empyrial Archangel, Eradicator Valkyrie, Ethereal Valkyrie, Exalted Angel, Exquisite Archangel, Fallen Angel, Feather, the Redeemed, Filigree Angel, Firemane Angel, Firemane Avenger, Firja, Judge of Valor, Flameblade Angel, Gabriel Angelfire, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, Gisela, the Broken Blade, Glimmering Angel, Glorious Protector, Goldnight Castigator, Goldnight Redeemer, Guardian of the Gateless, Guardian Seraph, Guiding Spirit, Hailstorm Valkyrie, Haunted Angel, Heavenly Blademaster, Herald of Faith, Herald of Serra, Herald of the Host, Herald of the Sun, Herald of War, Illusory Angel, Indomitable Archangel, Iona, Shield of Emeria, Iridescent Angel, Jenara, Asura of War, Karmic Guide, Legion Angel, Liesa, Shroud of Dusk, Light of the Legion, Lightkeeper of Emeria, Lightning Angel, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate, Linvala, the Preserver, Luminous Angel, Lyra Dawnbringer, Maelstrom Archangel, Magister of Worth, Malach of the Dawn, Melesse Spirit, Militant Angel, Patron of the Valiant, Platinum Angel, Pristine Angel, Radiant, Archangel, Radiant, Serra Archangel, Razia, Boros Archangel, Reaper of Flight Moonsilver, Regna, the Redeemer, Renegade Reaper, Requiem Angel, Resolute Archangel, Resplendent Angel, Resplendent Marshal, Restoration Angel, Reya Dawnbringer, Rienne, Angel of Rebirth, Righteous Valkyrie, Segovian Angel, Selenia, Dark Angel, Sephara, Sky's Blade, Seraph, Seraph of Dawn, Seraph of the Masses, Seraph of the Scales, Seraph of the Suns, Seraph of the Sword, Serra Advocate, Serra Angel, Serra Avenger, Serra's Guardian, Shalai, Voice of Plenty, Shattered Angel, Shepherd of Heroes, Shepherd of the Cosmos, Shepherd of the Lost, Sigarda, Heron's Grace, Sigarda, Host of Herons, Silver Seraph, Stalwart Valkyrie, Starlit Angel, Stoic Angel, Subjugator Angel, Sublime Archangel, Sunblade Angel, Sunblast Angel, Sustainer of the Realm, Sustaining Spirit, Tariel, Reckoner of Souls, Tiana, Ship's Caretaker, Tormented Angel, Twilight Shepherd, Valkyrie Harbinger, Vengeful Reaper, Victory's Herald, Voice of All, Voice of Duty, Voice of Grace, Voice of Law, Voice of Reason, Voice of the Provinces, Voice of Truth, Warrior Angel, Wayward Angel, Winged Shepherd, Wispweaver Angel, Youthful Valkyrie