Serra Angel – Alpha
Date Reviewed: May 5, 2022
Ratings:
Constructed: 1.88
Casual: 3.67
Limited: 4.13
Multiplayer: 4.25
Commander [EDH]: 2.37
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Serra Angel is maybe the iconic white creature, an efficient flying creature what blocks well and presents a fast clock. While creatures have gotten better over the years, this doesn’t mean Serra Angel has aged as poorly as other iconic creatures of the era, and I’d actually say it’s held up the best of the lot. Five mana for a 4/4 with flying and vigilance is slightly below rate these days, but Serra Angel has always been at uncommon and has always been accessible to more players, and sometimes you just need her to get in there or hold someone off.
Her most recent appearance was in Dominaria, where…she mostly was a fine Limited card that didn’t do much outside of it. She’s a bit too slow to measure up in non-Standard formats, and creatures getting better has definitely not helped her case. All the same, she is a classic for a reason, one of the best creatures from an era where they were mostly bad, and she’ll still do her job in today’s game if you support her.
Constructed: 1.75 (just doesn’t do enough in the face of efficient removal and more efficient creatures)
Casual: 4,25 (there are better angels, sure, but she’ll win you plenty of games)
Limited: 4.5 (still phenomenal in Limited, really only beaten out by bigger boss creatures, and is greatly helped by being present in greater quantities)
Multiplayer: 2
Commander [EDH]: 2.25
One of my favorite cards in Magic has been reduced to a near unplayable uncommon and it greatly saddens me. Back in the day, Serra Angel was part of the first real meta deck called “The Deck” and she maintained her status as a powerful card through the 2000’s and the printing of Baneslayer Angel pushed Serra Angel to the backburner and into the uncommon slot. She’s not played much today outside of limited (she’s very good in limited still!) and a few commander decks that use her. My rating is for Serra Angel of today and not Serra Angel of yesterday, Magic is an ever evolving game and good cards become bad cards but this one hurts…
Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 2/5
Commander [EDH]: 2.5/5
Serra Angel is a card that’s very much earned a place in Magic’s collective consciousness, despite not being seen in constructed for a long time. I think a lot of it has to do with her art, which has always been great; a lot of it has to do with the way she can take over a casual game, even today. Even though five mana in some sets gets you comes-into-play abilities and such, her stats are extremely solid, reliable, consistent, and often intimidating. And I hate to repeat myself, but every printing is great to just look at – life is too hard already before you force yourself to play with cards whose art you don’t like.
Constructed: 2/5 (in 93/94 Old School she might be a 4 or higher)
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Commander [EDH]: 3/5
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