Angel

Angel
Creature Type
(Subtype for creature/kindred cards)
Beeble Scale	1
Statistics	162 cards 0.6% 74.7% 0.6% 1.9% 1.9% 2.5% 1.9% 3.1% 6.8% 4.3% 1.9%
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type:"Angel"

Angels are humanoid beings with large wings on their backs.

Description

Often worshiped as divine beings, angels are manifestations of predominantly white mana (the original description of Serra angels imply that their bodies are constructs inhabited by holy spirits), though some have been corrupted with black mana, and angels from Bant, Innistrad, and Ravnica have boasted traits from each of the other colors. Almost all known angels are female, intentionally so, though Amonkhet's appear to be male. The first creature to bear the type was Serra Angel from Alpha. Angel is the iconic creature for the color white.

Storyline

Alara

While angels are normally confined to specific Shards of the sundered plane, the Conflux has led to the creation of Maelstrom Archangels that wield the power of all five kinds of mana.

Bant

In the Shard of Alara called Bant, there are angels who are thought to be ultimate representations of its society's ideals. It is commonly believed that a noble life and death will lead a person to be reborn as one.

The most revered angel in Bant history was named Asha. History tells that she sacrificed herself to defeat the half-demon/half-dragon abomination Malfegor (though in reality, she simply banished him to the Shard of Grixis). Though she has been gone for many years, she left a powerful sigil that, until the Conflux, maintained safety and peace among her people. The faithful still pray to Asha, and some believe that she still might some day return.

Angels lend guidance to mortals, but otherwise they do not directly interfere with their lives. Among angels, there is a hierarchy with four different ranks.

Asura

The Asura are the highest ranked angels. There are only seven of them, which make up the Court of Orderly Contemplation. Only one has been revealed via the cards, Jenara who is the Asura of War.

Amesha

The Amesha represent ideals, such as honor or justice.

Mahra

The Mahra carry out the orders of the Asura and the Amesha.

Celebrant

Celebrants, as the lowest ranking angels, are responsible for protecting the lives and ideals of mortals.

Esper

Following the Conflux, some Angels have accepted Etherium parts, becoming Filigree Angels. They have pledged themselves to the Noble Work of infusing all life with Etherium.

Amonkhet

A Seraph of the Suns

Amonkhet is a rarity, a world with male angels. Whatever their original forms might have been, they have been twisted into distorted reflections of Nicol Bolas. Their limbs are long and thin, with elongated shins and forearms. Their huge wings are adorned with white and black feathers. Light shines through their joints and chests as if from an internal fire, and their eyes glow with a gold or orange light. They can be embalmed into zombies. Bolas's angels are his personal agents during his absence from Amonkhet. Their mission, which they pursue with unwavering devotion, is to keep Naktamun free of dissenting voices. They seemingly act as servants of the gods and bind dissenters in special sarcophagi, called Tombs of Disgrace, which leave the prisoners’ hands exposed. The sarcophagi line the streets of Naktamun for all to look upon in what is known as a Display of Doubt. When the display concludes, the angels carry the dissenters through the Hekma and into the desert beyond where they are left to be consumed by the Curse of Wandering. In the Hour of Devastation their true loyalty with the God-Pharaoh came to light, as they joined his hordes in laying waste to the plane.

Dominaria

Copper-Leaf Angels

A copper-leaf angel

Copper-Leaf angels were artificial angels created by Latulla to aid in the Keldon war effort against Jamuraa. However, they did not play a significant role in the Keldon invasion and likely fell into disuse following their creator's downfall.

Duler Angels

Duler angels were created by the Sages of Lat-Nam and were inspired by legends about Serra angels. They were created them by mutating humans, giving them wings. As such, the Duler Angels are both male and female, are naturally born and can grow old. Their purpose was to guard School of Lat-Nam and its secrets.

Fallen Angels

"Fallen angels" were Serra angels, crowned with a Horned Halo, who were under the command of an Angel Keeper. Fallen angels tended to require sacrifices to remain strong. These were very powerful creatures, used by wizards as a means to gain more power. According to a Dominarian fable, an angel who dies as a fallen angel dies forever.

The most famous fallen angel was Trine. Another was controlled by the wizard Dreygar in the western Domains.

Angels of Vengeance

Angels who were summoned and bound to carry out acts against their nature lost their celestial nature and became material beings. Unlike other angels, they have dull feathers and highly predatory features. This process takes some time to happen, but with each act they fall further from what they once were.

Valkyrie

The Valkyrie of the Ice Age escorted dead warriors to the Halls of Valor in the afterlife. Sometimes they raised them to fight and die again instead.

Innistrad

Innistrad's angels were born from a shared essence in the "dawn times" of that plane, and the leaders of its four flights considered each other sisters. Much later, roughly 3560 AR, Sorin Markov created the archangel Avacyn to maintain an equilibrium between humans and the monsters that preyed on them. Innistrad's native angels were unable to sense Avacyn as they did each other, but followed her out of respect for her power and confidence.

The Flight of Goldnight

Gisela led these angels, which were associated with the sun. Once a year during the Harvest Moon season, the sun will not dip below the horizon for two full days, and during this time the moon isn't visible. Known as the Feast of Goldnight, this is the holiest day for the humans. It is the time when the Avacynian enchantments are strongest throughout Innistrad. Many fell when Avacyn turned mad.

The Flight of Alabaster

Bruna led these angels, which personified the Blessed Sleep and were associated with the Hunter's Moon season. They provided magic that warded against the desecration of dead humans. They, too, turned en masse against humanity.

The Flight of Herons

Sigarda led these angels, which were associated with birth, purity and the New Moon season. Their magic is said to ward humans against harm in life (as opposed to the Alabaster host, which wards against harm in death). The Flight of Herons chose to side with humanity instead of Avacyn, leaving them uncorrupted.

The Fourth Flight

The fourth flight was destroyed one thousand years ago. Its leader, a "wayward sister" to the others, had associated with monsters, ostensibly learning about them in order to defeat them more handily. She eventually crossed a line by forming an alliance with a demon lord, earning the condemnation of her sisters. Avacyn declared her a heretic and destroyed the entire flight, and the remaining angels forbade the mention of their sister's name.

The former leaders of Flights Goldnight and Alabaster, Bruna and Gisela, were twisted by Emrakul into her herald Brisela.

The Flight of Moonsilver

A new flight created after Avacyn's descent into madness. Angels of the Flight of Moonsilver wield a spear made from a shard of the Helvault, and serve as Avacyn's honor guard. The Reaper of Flight Moonsilver personifies this Flight.

The last Flight

In recent storyline events, Avacyn was corrupted, leading to a genocidal angel rampage against humanity. Innistrad's angels now overwhelmingly leaned towards Red mana. After Avacyn's death at the hands of her creator Sorin, Emrakul successfully entered Innistrad, and began corrupting angels into horrific abominations. These formed the Flight of Nightmares.

Kaladesh

An Angel of Invention

The angels of Kaladesh are brightly coloured, four-armed entities with ornate wings. All seen angels wear a metallic, heavily ornated headpiece that obscures their eyes. They are artificial creations by inventors, considered "perfect" and at times even part of a "Great Design", and for this reason they are thought to be immune to the final stages of the Aether Cycle.

Irreligious as the plane is, Kaladesh angels are not worshipped and as such do not answer prayers. They are solitary, interacting with each other in esoteric rituals.

Mirrodin / New Phyrexia

Aloof and mysterious, Angels were rarely seen on Mirrodin. Sometimes, a Platinum Angel could be seen battling against Reiver Demon over the dominance of mirran skies. Revered by the Auriok, these Angels were primary aligned with the Bringer.

In the war against the growing influence of Phyrexia, numerous angels fought and died to halt the corruption. Several of these were captured and forcefully compleated. While multiple of these corrupted angels serve the Machine Orthodoxy, Elesh Norn has on one occasion cooperated with the other Praetors to create a particular powerful servant of New Phyrexia. One such angel is Atraxa, the Praetor's Voice, who had saved hundreds of humans from corruption before attracting Elesh Norn's retribution. Like all life on the plane, its Angels had metallic parts, particular the wings.

Ravnica

Firemane Angels

A Boros angel

Within the Boros, angels are considered to be incarnations of the spirit of justice and revenge. They are considered to be the top members of the guild, whose parun Razia is an angel herself. Razia created all other Boros angels as clones, reflections or copies of herself. They all lived in the floating hall called the Parhelion.

Boros angels possess no need to drink, eat, or sleep, but can if it so pleases them. They have enhanced strength, a strong sense of duty and morality, and are supposedly incapable of lying. Boros angels can hear people calling their name from anywhere in Ravnica.

The only surviving first generation angel is Feather, who became the Guildmaster after Razia's death. Following in her progenitor's footsteps, Feather created a new lineage of angels. Feather was later replaced by one of these Angels, Aurelia, who argued that a disgraced angel can't command authority or respect. They have only two wings, unlike the original generation which had four wings.

Angels of Despair and Deathpact Angels

An Orzhov angel

The angels of the Orzhov Syndicate are those that are dissatisfied with the way the Legion works. If an angel begins to doubt the purity of her mission and her doubts are allowed to fester into cynicism, the Church of Deals is always ready to welcome them, luring them with status, respect and power. Orzhov angels are empty voids whose only fulfillment comes from performance of duty. They may act as executioners, commanders or pontiffs, but more often tend to carve out their own unique roles in the guild. They act without mercy, and appear only on special occasions such as high ceremonies, where they inspire awe and fear in onlookers.

Unguilded Angels

In the wake of Aurelia's leadership and her assaults on parts of the Ravnican population that she deemed complicit in crimes, several angels left the Boros and dedicated themselves to the protection of the guildless.

Serra Angels

A Serra Angel

There are three types of Serra Angels. All three are named after the planeswalker Serra. First there are the souls of brave warriors who rise in the form of angels, divine creatures of pure mana (though they can also conjure bodies). Even if defeated in battle, they can't be truly killed, and their souls rise again. Interestingly, goblins have used Serra Angel skulls to make their war drums. These angels played an important role in the rebellion of Epityr against Sheoltun.

The second type was brought into being by Serra on her own artificial plane, Serra's Realm, to populate her world. Their society was peaceful and harmonious until the arrival of Urza Planeswalker and the Phyrexians, the latter of whom brought with them black mana that corrupted the realm, drove away Serra, and led to Radiant's coup. The Phyrexian attacks against Serra's Realm also accelerated the plane's collapse, but Urza was able to evacuate some of the angels to Dominaria, where many still exist.

The third type is created in answer to the prayers of mortals.

Famous Serra Angels include Radiant, Selenia, Reya Dawnbringer and Tiana.

Zendikar

The angels were among the first creatures that attempted to mount a resistance against the original arrival of the Eldrazi but were easily defeated. Because of this, their halo was worn down over their eyes, symbolizing their blindness to the Eldrazi's atrocities and their powerlessness to aid their world. Over time the angels' forced aloofness was incorporated into the world's religions. The "deity" Emeria, for example, was conceptualized as a great angelic being, an impartial refuge in a dangerous world—her halo a sign of hope, not of separation. When the Eldrazi were released again, the halos of oppression shattered and the angels were given the opportunity to redeem themselves. The angels fought, and mostly, they died.

Notable Angels

Alara

• Asha
• Jenara

Dominaria

• Akroma
• Gabriel Angelfire
• Lyra Dawnbringer
• Rael, protector of Caligo. She led the Benalish forces against the Cabal and helped defeat Josu.
• Reya Dawnbringer
• Selenia
• Shalai, Voice of Plenty, a Serra Angel who has forged a deep bond with the elves of Llanowar after fighting beside them during the Phyrexian Invasion of Dominaria
• Tiana
• Trine

Innistrad

• Avacyn
• Brisela
• Bruna
• Freydalia, an angel of Goldnight
• Gisela
• Marcyz, angel trapped and exsanguinated by Edgar Markov and his sons in their ritual to become Vampires.
• Olaylie, angel of Goldnight. Attacked and by Devils at Havengul and killed by Arlinn Kord in her werewolf state
• Sigarda
• The Nameless Angel

Kylem

• Regna, the Redeemer, fighting in Valor's Reach with her Demon lover Krav.

New Phyrexia

• Atraxa

Ravnica

• Aurelia
• Feather
• Maladola
• Nevana,Firemane angel who led a successful assault on a group of guildless rebels.

After being chastised by Aurelia, she has distanced herself from the Boros Legion's leadership. She independently pursues her own vision of justice and punishment

• Razia

Serra's Realm

• Radiant
• Kenidiern, Sossina's lover.

Unknown

• Anya
• Basandra
• Rienne, Angel of Rebirth
• Sephara, Sky's Blade
• Tariel

Zendikar

• Iona
• Linvala

Tokens

Token Name	Color	Type Line	P/T	Text Box	Source	Printings
Angel	White	Creature — Angel	3/3	Flying	The Book of Exalted Deeds Elspeth Resplendent Linvala, the Preserver The Pit Seraphic Steed Soul of Emancipation
	White	Creature — Angel	4/4	Flying	Angelic Accord Angelic Ascension Angelic Favor Court of Grace Decree of Justice Descend upon the Sinful Devout Invocation Entreat the Angels Empyrial Storm Geist of Saint Traft Invocation of Saint Traft Luminarch Ascension Moonsilver Spear Saint Traft and Rem Karolus Seraphic Greatsword Speaker of the Heavens Sigil of the Empty Throne Urbis Protector
	White	Creature — Angel	4/4	Flying, vigilance	Divine Visitation Finale of Glory Jenson Carthalion, Druid Exile Historian's Boon Parhelion II Rampage of the Valkyries Resplendent Angel Serra the Benevolent Valkyrie Harbinger
	Black	Creature — Angel	3/3	Flying	Haunted Angel
Avacyn	White	Creature — Angel	8/8	Flying, Vigilance, Indestructible	Battle at the Helvault
Angel Warrior	White	Creature — Angel Warrior	4/4	Flying	Emeria's Call
	White	Creature — Angel Warrior	4/4	Flying, vigilance	Firja's Retribution Great Hall of Starnheim Starnheim Unleashed Valkyrie's Sword
Alien Angel	Black	Artifact Creature — Alien Angel	2/2	First strike, vigilance Whenever an opponent casts a creature spell, this permanent isn’t a creature until end of turn.	Aplan Mortarium Blink
Eldrazi Angel	Colorless	Creature — Eldrazi Angel	4/4	Flying, vigilance	Angelic Aberration
Angel of Sanctions	White	Creature — Zombie Angel	3/4	Flying Whenever Angel of Sanctions enters the battlefield, you may exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls until Angel of Sanctions leaves the battlefield.	Angel of Sanctions
Herald of the Host	White	Creature — Angel	4/4	Flying, vigilance	Herald of the Host
Battle Angels of Tyr	White	Creature — Angel Knight	4/4	Flying Whenever Battle Angels of Tyr deals combat damage to a player, draw a card if that player has more cards in hand than each other player. Then you create a Treasure token if that player controls more lands than each other player. Then you gain 3 life if that player has more life than each other player.	Battle Angels of Tyr

Angel enchantments

• Opal Archangel is an enchantment that can become a 5/5 white Angel creature with flying and vigilance.
• Similarly, Answered Prayers can become a 3/3 Angel creature with flying.