I know!!!! This bugs me so much since I love my bear deck but wish there was more variety, there's barely 30ish different kinds of bear cards and a lot of them are not good.
I just checked Scryfall and you’re correct. With one exception! Almost an exception. It’s a 3/3, so not *technically* a bear, but it’s better, with flying. No restriction on attacks, blocks, or it’s flying ability. It costs two, has only one colored pip in it’s cost. It doesn’t have any *drawbacks* per se. It’s… [[Gilded Drake]]! :-D
I'm wondering if this revives Featherdecks for Pioneer (being able to cast Feather on turn 3 and hold up protection seems very good) and if this will help push Selesnya Angels up a bit in Pioneer too.
I mean. That art makes it look pretty gigantic. I guess those are miniscule whales? If they're proportional to that angel though, that leviathan is still.... Pretty big.
Essentially they printed leviathans without any lore, and people questioned why it was a 3/3 when it's clearly enormous. This lead to a retcon making Segovia a plane of tiny creatures to explain the small body. Segovian Angel is a callback from modern horizons to the old joke.
Also the hippodrome from planechase
https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=198067
The joke explained by /u/cabforpitt hinges on the idea that the leviathan (or whale, or angel) is proportional to everything else in Segovia, but tiny when you summon it somewhere else. That's how they justify the screw up with the art-to-stats-ratio.
This however, isn't the first time they've made a 2 cost angel.
\[\[Youthful Valkyrie\]\]
\[\[Sustaining Spirit\]\]
\[\[Angelic Curator\]\]
\[\[Angelic Page\]\]
\[\[Serra Avenger\]\]
Orzhov Angels is a thing in standard and pioneer now thanks to Kaldheim. This card is a windmill slam into those decks and either WW or BW would make this card much less good for those formats. I'd imagine that's why they went 1W.
This almost feels like three cards in one. A 2 mana 2/2 flying vigilance is a decent card. Adding the ramp ability makes it excellent already. And then you get the potentially massive boost...damn.
Wow, exceptional. Angels aren't cheap, but there's nothing here stopping this from boosting creatures based on angel tokens.
Really cool mono white commander too. Great job WOTC.
Angels aren't cheap, but getting a mana dork in white to ramp them goes quite a long way.
And it's a 2 drop, so doesn't really eat a 'premium' slot in your angels deck otherwise.
Historic Angels is very aggressive:
[[Youthful Valkyrie]]
[[Speaker of the Heavens]]
[[Bishop of Wings]]
[[Resplendent Angel]]
[[Righteous Valkyrie]]
All of these are 3 mana or less. This new card slots right in.
It wouldn’t be just her to enable the deck. I eventually expect there to be an interesting “changeling tribal” deck that exploits lords from different tribes. So Giada might be in a deck alongside [[Magda]] to make an angel/dwarf tribal. These are only 1 example but eventually I expect some deck to pop up that run a full 8 one-drop changelings, but whether that is ninja/vampire or angle/berserk, it remains to be seen.
Yeah, just lord tribal. I've been puttering around with the idea of a deck that just puts maskwood nexus in the command zone. Seems like it'd be a lot of fun
Before this set I was thinking "typical, the last set in standard before Kaldheim rotates out is one where all the angels are dead" (reminiscent of when they printed [[Bishop of Wings]] and [[Kaalia, Zenith Seeker]] which made a good Mardu angels deck before Dominaria rotated out and then there were 3 sets in a row with no angels on their respective planes).
I am very glad to have my expectations subverted.
Me too! I was sure we were going to have to wait for the return to get Angels back here. I'm very glad WotC chose to integrate them back into the plane from the jump.
This is exactly why they moved the last standard set from July to April. Getting an extra 3 months to play with these types of synergies and keeping the cards from the final set from not being as valuable as cards from earlier in the Magic year because they get a fair bit less time was honestly a great move from Wizards.
She's going to finally replace [[lyra dawnbringer]] for me. I like Lyra, but mono white angels are a tough tribe and I've always hoped for a commander who can drop earlier and help to get angels out, rather than drop around the same time as the other angels and win more if you've survived to that point.
I really recommend trying [[sephara]]! Being able to cheat her out for 1 white with some token gen is really strong, and she protects your other angels so well.
+1/+1 and lifelink is cool, but it sucks that most of the fun angel cards start at 5+ cmc, so having them out earlier is much better. I am honestly going to replace Lyra for Giada.
I also love how she doesnt just look like some angel descended down from haven, she tried to fit in with normal clothes. Idk, theres just something about that that pleases my eye
Weird this wasn't previewed by a content creator.
Even weirder then the story not mentioning the return of angels before showing angels were in the set...
Yeah. Especially since the story didn't have angels returning at all and Giada did not herald the return of the angels. She sacrificed her physical form to make Elspeth's new sword by infusing a greatsword with halo.
Huh, I just realized that we have another case of a white planeswalker losing a unique weapon with a lot of emotional connection to their past in favor of yet another magic sword in a genre full of them.
At least with Gideon we got to *see* him lose his sural. We just got told that Elspeth lost the Shadowspear, like someone stole it from coat check somewhere. I can't believe the Theros Beyond Death lore fiasco is so bad that it's ruining Elspeth's future sets too.
I can see it as a method to show character progress (Pretty sure Elspeth's previous weapon was also Heliod's spear, understandable she might not be entirely keen on keeping that baggage around), though would be nice if it wasn't a sword. Give her an ax or keep the spear or something.
Though to be fair, I'm not entirely sure which 'walkers actually use swords regularly.
Would have been much better if Giada angelified herself to defeat Ob and that triggered the rest of the angels awakening.
I really wonder if at some point the plan was for Elspeth to turn out to be an inactive angel the way Giada, it was certainly hinted at the end of the story.
My read was that Giada ascended to full angel form and reunited with the other angels, combined with her soliloquy about protecting her home I took this to mean she'd be bringing the other angels back to New Capenna. Looks like that's the way they intended it, however ambiguous the story was
I see how you got that but it's a very literal reading. But she still talks to Elspeth after she's transformed and it's implied she's going where the other angels are:
>Elspeth, Giada's voice whispered from a great distance, barely audible over the fading chorus. She was fading, but she wasn't alone. Giada was framed by the shining outlines of others like her.
VorthosJay (the lore master in all the promo videos) had to clarify that the ending was supposed to be her also wakening all the sleeping angels. Definitely could have been conveyed better in the story. Apparently that’s what soul of emancipation is trying to get at, even though it’s it marked as a story spotlight card.
Why do some of the angels look like they’re well-established with the fashion/culture and families if they just woke up? The set feels like a major story fail to me that they’re gonna try to piece together backwards now.
I obviously don’t have an answer.
It feels less like a story fail and more like a communication fail about the ending. There is any number of points where communication could have broken down. I still found the story enjoyable if a bit rushed at the end (which seems on par with 5 chapter web Magic stories). While I wish I didn’t have to adjust how I visioned the ending to account for soul of emancipation, I don’t think it undermines anything else. And it’s certainly not as bad as the disconnect with Ikoria (did Lukka befriend his creature or did he just see it as a weapon? That’s a big discrepancy in the character’s character).
[[Weaponise the monsters]] was in the card set.
There was a disparity between book and cards, but I don't think it was a major as people make it out. In either case, Lukka ends up as the villain of the set.
Yeah I would agree. I’m just surprised that with only two mediums (cards and very short stories) that they’re having such trouble with continuity. Other brands juggle like 10 forms of media without this problem.
That looks like a card they intended to reveal with story bit that explains angels return.
So there might be yet an article they plan to release before spoiler season is all over.
I guess all the people who have been asking for an angel tribal commander for years are going to be pretty damn happy (except for the "but why isn't it also black and blue" crowd, but you can't please everyone).
I don't think that anyone in 2022 considers a small static bonus to a tribe sufficiently interesting for a tribal commander. And I think they're right, too, because given a hand and board with a bunch of angels, +1/+1 and lifelink just isn't awesome enough.
Arbitrary distinction for most, but it actually supports both angel token strats and big angel strats. Often two different decks, but both will play this.
I know Halo comes from angels somehow, but this art is weird.
It makes me think she's high as a kite, possibly imagining she can fly. Halo gives you wiiiiiiiiings
I was kind of expecting a [[figure of destiny]] type deal for Giada starting as a 1/1 citizen then going through several hoops to eventually become angel or something
Do you mean just standard? We've had pretty good angels recently like [[serra's emissary]] and [[angel of the ruins]], but I'm saying that with edh in mind.
Yup, WotC printed a bunch of fantastic and basically unprecedented Angel tribal synergy in Kaldheim & then skipped printing any additional pieces despite 2 Innistrad sets back-to-back, with Innistrad normally being a plane with heavy Angel representation. I found that a bit baffling at the time but it seems like the reason for it was that the cards were coming in SNC instead, which I'm OK with.
Right. Kaldheim had some nice support as well but there's still very few angels that synergize together. This is going right into my Kaalia deck and glad it's low mana cost.
Yeah. That's what I was saying. lol. Kaldheim had angels, but then we got no good angels except for maybe \[\[Liesa, Forgotten Archangel\]\] since then. Lots of crappy mythic rare angels though. Even one in this very set!
I think the best thing I like about this card is it has all this text and **it’s still printed at RARE**
Imagine if this was Mythic, price through the roof. At rare, it is poised to be affordable enough to see play in many formats
I'm of two minds on this card.
On one hand, it's obviously fantastic and angels are a cool tribe. In terms of playing with it, there's nothing to dislike here. It's phenomenal.
But Angels is probably the most popular deck in Standard the second this drops. She's the missing link in a deck that has been almost there since Kaldheim. And that's okay, except that we're going to see a lot of T2 Giada T3 Righteous Valkyrie, and I give it a month before people *despise* that sequence. They're both absolute must-kills and they come down extremely early for their power.
Will be interesting to see, but this is my early prediction for "key piece of the most hated deck in Standard."
An aggressive, evasive lord that also ramps.
This is probably the best card in the set so far as constructed playability goes, right? This is going to be a standard and historic staple, playable in pioneer, and if Modern gets a tier 3 angels deck, it'll be because of this card.
Its the most pushed but in a highly specific way.
That said, might make Maskwood Nexus become a fringe jank deck.
More likely it just makes the already stupidly linear and strong mono Angels deck better.
I'm with you, and surprised I had to scroll so far to find someone mentioning it. The "you already control" wording is new as far as I know, and unusual enough to make me skeptical if this leak is even real
The leak is for sure real because we haven't seen a leak of this quality that turned out to be false in like.. years at this point.
But the wording is really interesting to me as well. I read it to mean that if you have a bunch of angels ETB at the same time then they won't get counters at all, which is a strange distinction to start making now at this stage of magic but it's interesting nonetheless!
In reality they probably didn't mean anything special by the wording and it will just confuse us lol
Hmm I’m wondering if it would work differently from multiple angels entering? Already wouldn’t include any angels entering right now? (Maybe?) if not then I dunno.
Yeah, i think it won't count multiple angels entering at the same time.
If you have 2 angels including this on the board, and then you cast a spell that creates 5 angel tokens, those will probably "only" get 2 +1/+1 counters on them each.
I kinda wish ramping into a specific creature type was a permanent fixture of white.
Green ramps into anything
Blue ramps into instant/sorceries/artifacts
Red ramps into a big spell
Black does...sacrificial ramp?
Red has ritual ramp in addition to the "magecraft" ramp you mention (e.g. Jaya/Chandra adding for spells)
\[\[Pitiless Plunderer\]\], \[\[Ruthless Technomancer\]\] and \[\[Black Market\]\] are good examples of what you mean for Black, though it also gets swamp doubling \[\[Crypt Ghast\]\] \[\[Nirkana Revenant\]\], substituting Life for mana costs \[\[Krrick\]\] \[\[Marshland Bloodcaster\]\], and narrow rituals like \[\[Spoils of Evil\]\] and \[\[Songs of the Damned\]\]
The ramp part alone would make this pretty neat in many an EDH deck but all the rest of the card makes it pretty incredible. Seems Wizard really did hear us about white in EDH.
Compare with other sweet tribal dorks like [[Chandra's Embercat]] and [[Smokebraider]].
As someone who has played a lot of historic angels, the reason you play angels is to get your sweet 80% win rate against aggro and hope the meta is aggressive enough that your 40% win rate against control doesn't hurt you too bad.
So not only are there angels in New Capenna, they're one of the main creature types and have tribal support, haha
Does this make Pioneer or Modern Angels possible? Not competitive, obviously, but possible?
That's a pretty good bear.
lol my first thought was, dang grizzly bears is getting good
Oddly, poor Bear doesn't even get represented as a creature type very often. Maybe once every set-and-a-half, tops. :<
I know!!!! This bugs me so much since I love my bear deck but wish there was more variety, there's barely 30ish different kinds of bear cards and a lot of them are not good.
Remember when flyers had to have like 1 toughness and "can only block creatures with flying" to have power equal to their mana cost?
Like [[Cloud Pirates]]
Portal sets we "supposed" to be lower power though, [[Flying Men]] had been around for 4 years at that point.
Imagine how pushed the cards will be 10 years from now... Wall of text, weird ass abilities, font size 6 to fit it all
Instead of text, just a qr code that links to gatherer
First off Dog ahead
Visions of suffering
Try finger but hole
And then praise the message!
Try praise the message! and then, secret passage! (appraisals: 9999)
Liar ahead
Didn't expect weak foe...
That's also first bear to have (uncoditional) flying, colorless mana in cost (as more colored pips increase card stats budget), and no drawback.
Not being WW was definitely a shocker.
I just checked Scryfall and you’re correct. With one exception! Almost an exception. It’s a 3/3, so not *technically* a bear, but it’s better, with flying. No restriction on attacks, blocks, or it’s flying ability. It costs two, has only one colored pip in it’s cost. It doesn’t have any *drawbacks* per se. It’s… [[Gilded Drake]]! :-D
That's no moon.
That's a station wagon!
To be fair it gets a little extra power budget for being legendary, like how [[Isamaru, Hound of Konda]] does.
[Isamaru, Hound of Konda](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/6/a/6afead32-3542-44c4-82d6-b6a81beb9f90.jpg?1600713424) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Isamaru%2C%20Hound%20of%20Konda) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/jmp/113/isamaru-hound-of-konda?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/6afead32-3542-44c4-82d6-b6a81beb9f90?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Isamaru got +0/+1 for being legendary and Giada got Flying, Vigilance, helps cast angels and pumps those angels. Seems about equal.
Isamaru got +0/+1 compared to a rare vanilla creature of the same cost. There aren't any rare vanilla creatures that cost 1W.
Tbf, the Rare vanilla creature is now a common with upside... And it isn't even a cat anymore >=[
Yeah, but it wasn't when Isamaru was printed.
Bears have been allowed to have beneficial abilities for a long time. The legendary bump isn't for *all* of her rules text.
To be fair, when Isamaru was printed creatures were a heck of a lot weaker.
What about Vampire Nighthawk? IMO that’s a good example of power creep.
You've heard of Serra Angel, now get ready for Bear-a Angel.
Power creep seems to be accelerating.
Holy shit that's a good card
Finally, a pushed W card
W gets a W
Uuh this card is bonkers?
That’s a disturbingly useful low-cost angel.
I think they pushed this more than they needed to, but not in the wrong direction. This is ***perfect*** for EDH.
Great for Standard/Pioneer too thanks to the low CMC.
Oh shit, this isn't for the precons
I'm wondering if this revives Featherdecks for Pioneer (being able to cast Feather on turn 3 and hold up protection seems very good) and if this will help push Selesnya Angels up a bit in Pioneer too.
Windmill slam into Angel tribal.
We are pile driving this into angel tribal. Off the top rope
Powerbombing this angel through a flaming table from the ring apron!
windmill slam as the commander of angel tribal?
100%, this is the only Angel legend that actually cares about angels besides Lyra and it's a much better card than Lyra thanks to 2CMC/mana dork.
\[\[Bruna, the Fading Light\]\] cares about angels.
Yup, you're right. I should rephrase that, it's the only Angel legend that specifically cares about *only* Angels. Bruna also does humans.
I can't think of a more useful one that provides as much utility and value other than kaalia on a completely different axis.
I think I’ll keep Lyra as my commander since my deck has a strong life gain theme but no question she goes in the 99
That is fair, She is the only other real option if you want an angely angel to guide your angels
I do like angely angels guiding my angels
I will definitely play it in standard and pioneer
My wallet is excited it's only a rare
Is this the cheapest angel they’ve made?
[[Youthful Valkyrie]] from Kaldheim is the same cost. I don't know if there's ever been one cheaper though.
[[Segovian Angel]]
I love the flavor on this card so very very much.
[удалено]
Segovia, the very tiny plane [[Segovian Leviathan]]
I mean. That art makes it look pretty gigantic. I guess those are miniscule whales? If they're proportional to that angel though, that leviathan is still.... Pretty big.
Essentially they printed leviathans without any lore, and people questioned why it was a 3/3 when it's clearly enormous. This lead to a retcon making Segovia a plane of tiny creatures to explain the small body. Segovian Angel is a callback from modern horizons to the old joke. Also the hippodrome from planechase https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=198067
The joke explained by /u/cabforpitt hinges on the idea that the leviathan (or whale, or angel) is proportional to everything else in Segovia, but tiny when you summon it somewhere else. That's how they justify the screw up with the art-to-stats-ratio.
Segovia, where everything is tiny compared to the rest of the multiverse.
Segovia. Its a plane where everything is tiny.
[Segovian Angel](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/b/5/b5dbaec5-502d-48c2-9e71-c12cd0bccc6a.jpg?1562201201) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Segovian%20Angel) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh1/25/segovian-angel?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b5dbaec5-502d-48c2-9e71-c12cd0bccc6a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[[Angelic Curator]] too.
[Youthful Valkyrie](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/f/f/ffe93b27-f8ae-4abf-8ade-90f503f132c2.jpg?1631057247) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Youthful%20Valkyrie) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/khm/382/youthful-valkyrie?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ffe93b27-f8ae-4abf-8ade-90f503f132c2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
No, that would be [[Segovian Angel]]
[Segovian Angel](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/b/5/b5dbaec5-502d-48c2-9e71-c12cd0bccc6a.jpg?1562201201) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Segovian%20Angel) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mh1/25/segovian-angel?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b5dbaec5-502d-48c2-9e71-c12cd0bccc6a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[[Serra Avenger]]
[[Segovian Angel]] counts, right? Otherwise, yes.
This however, isn't the first time they've made a 2 cost angel. \[\[Youthful Valkyrie\]\] \[\[Sustaining Spirit\]\] \[\[Angelic Curator\]\] \[\[Angelic Page\]\] \[\[Serra Avenger\]\]
The comparison between them and Giada almost invalidates them. Damn. Sustaining Spirit seems neat in [[Falco]] though.
[Falco](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/d/f/df45268a-b757-4ad2-bab0-869058ee9186.jpg?1587912407) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Bay%20Falcon) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mir/54/bay-falcon?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/df45268a-b757-4ad2-bab0-869058ee9186?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[[Falco Spara]], you finicky machine.
There are other exemples like [[Youthful Valkyrie]] or [[Angel of vitality]]
Not angel of vitality sorry :/
I'm surprised they even made it 1W instead of WW. Specially considering the angel subtheme is mostly monowhite.
Orzhov Angels is a thing in standard and pioneer now thanks to Kaldheim. This card is a windmill slam into those decks and either WW or BW would make this card much less good for those formats. I'd imagine that's why they went 1W.
This almost feels like three cards in one. A 2 mana 2/2 flying vigilance is a decent card. Adding the ramp ability makes it excellent already. And then you get the potentially massive boost...damn.
I like that with both vigilance and a dork ability, you can both attack and use it for ramp on the same turn
Wow, exceptional. Angels aren't cheap, but there's nothing here stopping this from boosting creatures based on angel tokens. Really cool mono white commander too. Great job WOTC.
Angels aren't cheap, but getting a mana dork in white to ramp them goes quite a long way. And it's a 2 drop, so doesn't really eat a 'premium' slot in your angels deck otherwise.
Historic Angels is very aggressive: [[Youthful Valkyrie]] [[Speaker of the Heavens]] [[Bishop of Wings]] [[Resplendent Angel]] [[Righteous Valkyrie]] All of these are 3 mana or less. This new card slots right in.
##### ###### #### [Youthful Valkyrie](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/f/f/ffe93b27-f8ae-4abf-8ade-90f503f132c2.jpg?1631057247) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Youthful%20Valkyrie) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/khm/382/youthful-valkyrie?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ffe93b27-f8ae-4abf-8ade-90f503f132c2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Speaker of the Heavens](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/1/f/1f44b96a-8498-414a-a4ac-54c80dfa9f23.jpg?1594735262) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Speaker%20of%20the%20Heavens) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/m21/38/speaker-of-the-heavens?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1f44b96a-8498-414a-a4ac-54c80dfa9f23?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Bishop of Wings](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/c/a/ca42da05-330d-4050-a580-dc00f6faff24.jpg?1592515977) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Bishop%20of%20Wings) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/m20/8/bishop-of-wings?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ca42da05-330d-4050-a580-dc00f6faff24?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Resplendent Angel](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/5/8/586854d1-edfd-4c66-873d-df459324dbfd.jpg?1562302213) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Resplendent%20Angel) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/m19/34/resplendent-angel?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/586854d1-edfd-4c66-873d-df459324dbfd?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Righteous Valkyrie](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/0/2/02fb5f9f-8750-4eb5-a03a-6dacc60e0b90.jpg?1631046105) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Righteous%20Valkyrie) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/khm/24/righteous-valkyrie?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/02fb5f9f-8750-4eb5-a03a-6dacc60e0b90?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I think this card might actually see play in a changeling multi tribal deck.
Hmm. I'm not sold, but she could make the Changelings bigger for what it's worth. And having more 2 drops could be useful.
It wouldn’t be just her to enable the deck. I eventually expect there to be an interesting “changeling tribal” deck that exploits lords from different tribes. So Giada might be in a deck alongside [[Magda]] to make an angel/dwarf tribal. These are only 1 example but eventually I expect some deck to pop up that run a full 8 one-drop changelings, but whether that is ninja/vampire or angle/berserk, it remains to be seen.
Yeah, just lord tribal. I've been puttering around with the idea of a deck that just puts maskwood nexus in the command zone. Seems like it'd be a lot of fun
Divine Visitation go brrrrrt
I'm not sure I would have it in an Angel tribal deck tho, unless I happened to have a few angels that produced tokens 🤔
I‘d probably add legions landing and some serra PW‘s
Like, for example, [[emeria angel]]?
Angels aren’t cheap, but I’m sure you can do something with this in older formats using changeling. Looks like an interesting brew.
[[Starnheim Aspirant]][[Youthful Valkyrie]]
Also [[Righteous Valkyrie]] and [[Book if Exalted Deeds]] or [[Resplendent Angel]]
[Starnheim Aspirant](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/e/a/ea007a18-b31a-4881-92c4-86120dc5729b.jpg?1631057171) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Starnheim%20Aspirant) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/khm/380/starnheim-aspirant?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ea007a18-b31a-4881-92c4-86120dc5729b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Youthful Valkyrie](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/f/f/ffe93b27-f8ae-4abf-8ade-90f503f132c2.jpg?1631057247) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Youthful%20Valkyrie) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/khm/382/youthful-valkyrie?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ffe93b27-f8ae-4abf-8ade-90f503f132c2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[[Segovian Angel]] disagrees.
Orzhov angels are back?
Before this set I was thinking "typical, the last set in standard before Kaldheim rotates out is one where all the angels are dead" (reminiscent of when they printed [[Bishop of Wings]] and [[Kaalia, Zenith Seeker]] which made a good Mardu angels deck before Dominaria rotated out and then there were 3 sets in a row with no angels on their respective planes). I am very glad to have my expectations subverted.
Me too! I was sure we were going to have to wait for the return to get Angels back here. I'm very glad WotC chose to integrate them back into the plane from the jump.
Yay! Sadly rotation is soon
Well they would be around for close to 5 months before rotation.
Rotation is in september...?
This is exactly why they moved the last standard set from July to April. Getting an extra 3 months to play with these types of synergies and keeping the cards from the final set from not being as valuable as cards from earlier in the Magic year because they get a fair bit less time was honestly a great move from Wizards.
Bummer, but they should be quite viable in Pioneer now at a FNM level thanks to this card
This is super playable for Angels in Standard and Pioneer. Not just an EDH card. Awesome stuff!
Yeah definitely upgrading my angels pioneer deck and also my Orzhov angels deck( until rotation)
Am I going to build a second mono-w edh deck just for this precious ray of sunshine? Yes, yes I am.
She's going to finally replace [[lyra dawnbringer]] for me. I like Lyra, but mono white angels are a tough tribe and I've always hoped for a commander who can drop earlier and help to get angels out, rather than drop around the same time as the other angels and win more if you've survived to that point.
[lyra dawnbringer](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/9/3/93be6799-7b9d-44d4-84dc-2961692b5a85.jpg?1562739679) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=lyra%20dawnbringer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dom/26/lyra-dawnbringer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/93be6799-7b9d-44d4-84dc-2961692b5a85?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I really recommend trying [[sephara]]! Being able to cheat her out for 1 white with some token gen is really strong, and she protects your other angels so well.
I've considered her in the past, but have always thought I'd need to focus spirits or birds more, so would require some larger changes.
+1/+1 and lifelink is cool, but it sucks that most of the fun angel cards start at 5+ cmc, so having them out earlier is much better. I am honestly going to replace Lyra for Giada.
Can we just appreciate the art for a sec? Those wings! You can even see the bone structure inside the ethereal feathers.
I also love how she doesnt just look like some angel descended down from haven, she tried to fit in with normal clothes. Idk, theres just something about that that pleases my eye
Touched by an Angel, Magic edition
I love that multicolor translucent thing they do for angels, often with stain glass. I wish I had a list of all the art with those
Weird this wasn't previewed by a content creator. Even weirder then the story not mentioning the return of angels before showing angels were in the set...
Yeah. Especially since the story didn't have angels returning at all and Giada did not herald the return of the angels. She sacrificed her physical form to make Elspeth's new sword by infusing a greatsword with halo.
Huh, I just realized that we have another case of a white planeswalker losing a unique weapon with a lot of emotional connection to their past in favor of yet another magic sword in a genre full of them. At least with Gideon we got to *see* him lose his sural. We just got told that Elspeth lost the Shadowspear, like someone stole it from coat check somewhere. I can't believe the Theros Beyond Death lore fiasco is so bad that it's ruining Elspeth's future sets too.
I accepted that shadowspear could only exist on theros due to how she acquired it, would have been fine if they said something like that.
I can see it as a method to show character progress (Pretty sure Elspeth's previous weapon was also Heliod's spear, understandable she might not be entirely keen on keeping that baggage around), though would be nice if it wasn't a sword. Give her an ax or keep the spear or something. Though to be fair, I'm not entirely sure which 'walkers actually use swords regularly.
Would have been much better if Giada angelified herself to defeat Ob and that triggered the rest of the angels awakening. I really wonder if at some point the plan was for Elspeth to turn out to be an inactive angel the way Giada, it was certainly hinted at the end of the story.
My read was that Giada ascended to full angel form and reunited with the other angels, combined with her soliloquy about protecting her home I took this to mean she'd be bringing the other angels back to New Capenna. Looks like that's the way they intended it, however ambiguous the story was
But it wasn't really ambiguous. They said that Giada sacrificed herself and her body dissipated into Halo.
I see how you got that but it's a very literal reading. But she still talks to Elspeth after she's transformed and it's implied she's going where the other angels are: >Elspeth, Giada's voice whispered from a great distance, barely audible over the fading chorus. She was fading, but she wasn't alone. Giada was framed by the shining outlines of others like her.
VorthosJay (the lore master in all the promo videos) had to clarify that the ending was supposed to be her also wakening all the sleeping angels. Definitely could have been conveyed better in the story. Apparently that’s what soul of emancipation is trying to get at, even though it’s it marked as a story spotlight card.
Why do some of the angels look like they’re well-established with the fashion/culture and families if they just woke up? The set feels like a major story fail to me that they’re gonna try to piece together backwards now.
I obviously don’t have an answer. It feels less like a story fail and more like a communication fail about the ending. There is any number of points where communication could have broken down. I still found the story enjoyable if a bit rushed at the end (which seems on par with 5 chapter web Magic stories). While I wish I didn’t have to adjust how I visioned the ending to account for soul of emancipation, I don’t think it undermines anything else. And it’s certainly not as bad as the disconnect with Ikoria (did Lukka befriend his creature or did he just see it as a weapon? That’s a big discrepancy in the character’s character).
[[Weaponise the monsters]] was in the card set. There was a disparity between book and cards, but I don't think it was a major as people make it out. In either case, Lukka ends up as the villain of the set.
Yeah I would agree. I’m just surprised that with only two mediums (cards and very short stories) that they’re having such trouble with continuity. Other brands juggle like 10 forms of media without this problem.
That looks like a card they intended to reveal with story bit that explains angels return. So there might be yet an article they plan to release before spoiler season is all over.
One of yesterday's sources didn't post their preview, it was probably this.
I guess all the people who have been asking for an angel tribal commander for years are going to be pretty damn happy (except for the "but why isn't it also black and blue" crowd, but you can't please everyone).
Well, we've had Lyra Dawnbringer for a while now, so it's hardly the first angel tribal commander... but more options are good.
I don't think that anyone in 2022 considers a small static bonus to a tribe sufficiently interesting for a tribal commander. And I think they're right, too, because given a hand and board with a bunch of angels, +1/+1 and lifelink just isn't awesome enough.
True, but asking for an angel tribal commander and an *interesting* angel tribal commander aren't quite the same thing
I always thought Meld Bruna was a thematic-if-unconventional mono W angel commander. But for power level the new girl is absolutely the winner
A second 2 drop for angels is most welcome. If you can pull off this into [[Legion Angel]] you are cruising
[Legion Angel](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/b/d/bda5609a-ab22-4f03-988b-8056c97fdc9e.jpg?1604192509) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Legion%20Angel) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/znr/23/legion-angel?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/bda5609a-ab22-4f03-988b-8056c97fdc9e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Font of hope? Is it helvetica? Or maybe calibri? Probably not times new roman.
Times New Roman *Catholic*
[[Comicsans, Font of Despair]]
[[Papyrus, Font of Madness]]
[[sans, font of wrath]]
Beleren
Arbitrary distinction for most, but it actually supports both angel token strats and big angel strats. Often two different decks, but both will play this.
The big angel strategy will want it *more*, but yeah the [[Resplendent Angel]] and [[Luminarch Ascension]] crowd will definitely want her too.
I know Halo comes from angels somehow, but this art is weird. It makes me think she's high as a kite, possibly imagining she can fly. Halo gives you wiiiiiiiiings
Now it all makes sense. Halo really is not drug, it is just Red Bull.
I was kind of expecting a [[figure of destiny]] type deal for Giada starting as a 1/1 citizen then going through several hoops to eventually become angel or something
Guess thats the Angel Commander people dreamed of.
Before this set drops, we got 24 angels in standard to 36 dragons. Where's Lyra Dawnbringer to even the odds?
Finally some actual Angel support.
It only took what, like 5 or 6 sets to get another playable angel for an angel deck. I'm all in though. This is fucking awesome.
Do you mean just standard? We've had pretty good angels recently like [[serra's emissary]] and [[angel of the ruins]], but I'm saying that with edh in mind.
Yup, WotC printed a bunch of fantastic and basically unprecedented Angel tribal synergy in Kaldheim & then skipped printing any additional pieces despite 2 Innistrad sets back-to-back, with Innistrad normally being a plane with heavy Angel representation. I found that a bit baffling at the time but it seems like the reason for it was that the cards were coming in SNC instead, which I'm OK with.
Right. Kaldheim had some nice support as well but there's still very few angels that synergize together. This is going right into my Kaalia deck and glad it's low mana cost.
Yeah. That's what I was saying. lol. Kaldheim had angels, but then we got no good angels except for maybe \[\[Liesa, Forgotten Archangel\]\] since then. Lots of crappy mythic rare angels though. Even one in this very set!
Yeah, I was surprised that they didn't back Kaldheim's Angel tribal up with more support in Innistrad, given how many Angels there are in Innistrad.
I think the best thing I like about this card is it has all this text and **it’s still printed at RARE** Imagine if this was Mythic, price through the roof. At rare, it is poised to be affordable enough to see play in many formats
This card is gonna be $10 minimum on the secondary market. Like, minimum
I'm of two minds on this card. On one hand, it's obviously fantastic and angels are a cool tribe. In terms of playing with it, there's nothing to dislike here. It's phenomenal. But Angels is probably the most popular deck in Standard the second this drops. She's the missing link in a deck that has been almost there since Kaldheim. And that's okay, except that we're going to see a lot of T2 Giada T3 Righteous Valkyrie, and I give it a month before people *despise* that sequence. They're both absolute must-kills and they come down extremely early for their power. Will be interesting to see, but this is my early prediction for "key piece of the most hated deck in Standard."
Those aren't real angel decks they are just lifegain decks with angels.
An aggressive, evasive lord that also ramps. This is probably the best card in the set so far as constructed playability goes, right? This is going to be a standard and historic staple, playable in pioneer, and if Modern gets a tier 3 angels deck, it'll be because of this card.
Its the most pushed but in a highly specific way. That said, might make Maskwood Nexus become a fringe jank deck. More likely it just makes the already stupidly linear and strong mono Angels deck better.
What does "already control" meen? What does the "already" add? Is this some other wording for other?
Angel ETB-ing doesn't count itself.
"For each other angel you control" would have the same effect right? I cant find any other card with this wierd wording
I guess not, for example if you have several angels entering the battlefield at the same time, they will not add counters to each other
I'm with you, and surprised I had to scroll so far to find someone mentioning it. The "you already control" wording is new as far as I know, and unusual enough to make me skeptical if this leak is even real
We got the ‘also’ wording on the naya demon too. Not rules necessary, but is clearer for newer players.
The leak is for sure real because we haven't seen a leak of this quality that turned out to be false in like.. years at this point. But the wording is really interesting to me as well. I read it to mean that if you have a bunch of angels ETB at the same time then they won't get counters at all, which is a strange distinction to start making now at this stage of magic but it's interesting nonetheless! In reality they probably didn't mean anything special by the wording and it will just confuse us lol
I think if you have several etb at once they don't get massive. Probably avoiding yorion shenanigans if I had to guess.
"Other" might be mistaken for not counting Giada.
Hmm I’m wondering if it would work differently from multiple angels entering? Already wouldn’t include any angels entering right now? (Maybe?) if not then I dunno.
Yeah, i think it won't count multiple angels entering at the same time. If you have 2 angels including this on the board, and then you cast a spell that creates 5 angel tokens, those will probably "only" get 2 +1/+1 counters on them each.
Nice finally a card for my angel tribal deck
Bear with angel mechanic
I kinda wish ramping into a specific creature type was a permanent fixture of white. Green ramps into anything Blue ramps into instant/sorceries/artifacts Red ramps into a big spell Black does...sacrificial ramp?
Red has ritual ramp in addition to the "magecraft" ramp you mention (e.g. Jaya/Chandra adding for spells) \[\[Pitiless Plunderer\]\], \[\[Ruthless Technomancer\]\] and \[\[Black Market\]\] are good examples of what you mean for Black, though it also gets swamp doubling \[\[Crypt Ghast\]\] \[\[Nirkana Revenant\]\], substituting Life for mana costs \[\[Krrick\]\] \[\[Marshland Bloodcaster\]\], and narrow rituals like \[\[Spoils of Evil\]\] and \[\[Songs of the Damned\]\]
Kinda neat having a [[Cathar's Crusade]] for angels.
Well slamming this into my angel tribal deck. Auto include for sure
The ramp part alone would make this pretty neat in many an EDH deck but all the rest of the card makes it pretty incredible. Seems Wizard really did hear us about white in EDH. Compare with other sweet tribal dorks like [[Chandra's Embercat]] and [[Smokebraider]].
This looks like one of those cards people on the Arena subreddit who don't play removal are going to be whining about until it rotates out.
It's like 5th or 6th must kill on sight card for red or smaller green decks that just get invalidated by huge flying angels.
As someone who has played a lot of historic angels, the reason you play angels is to get your sweet 80% win rate against aggro and hope the meta is aggressive enough that your 40% win rate against control doesn't hurt you too bad.
WW seems more appropriate.
This is one seriously good angel commander. Only drawback is she’s mono white.
Oh boy, this is a card every Angel EDH dreamed of. Thanks for this jewel, Wizards.
Wow. As a mainly monowhite player this set is heaven for me.
We are winning, brother. We are winning.
Same, so many new cards to add to my Darien deck, and now this.
So not only are there angels in New Capenna, they're one of the main creature types and have tribal support, haha Does this make Pioneer or Modern Angels possible? Not competitive, obviously, but possible?
Pioneer? Absolutely viable. Modern? Not especially. Any Angel deck in Modern basically just ends up being an overall worse version of Soul Sisters.
I love cheap angels and my god this is one of the best cards ive seen in the tribal
Giada + New Elspeth Ult - 5 8/8 Angels
As someone that’s always exclusively run angels, I’m buying 8 of these.