MTG Salvation

Having a second turn in play ulti that have the potential to be very strong is quite an advantage aswell.

First impression is that it won't make the cut for me at 450. The +2 is narrow only buffing fliers. The -3 is good, and she ultimates fast, but I don't think that is enough to get her over the line, especially at one of the most competitive color/cmc slots. Still, she's decent and I imagine she could crack into larger cubes as just Serra Angel for 4 is a fine floor.

I think Big Jim (above) is on point - it is a very nice card, and tons of flavour, but it is just a tad too situational.

White 4s might just be the toughest spot in cube, but this seems good. Not going to unseat Elspeth or Gideon, though.

Two Serra Angel's over three turns is excellent for 4 mana. I'm looking at this as a creature with upside and I think i'll test over Leonin Warleader.

I think it's pretty good. A Serra Angel that leaves a planeswalker behind is a good use of 4 mana, and it can make a 2nd Serra Angel if it sticks around. Not to mention the buff that it grants fliers. It won't push out Elspeth or Gideon, but it might make it in alongside them anyways. Will test to see how it does.

Aggressively ultimating will be a good strategy in some matchups as well. I like it, not sure what to cut. Gisela is the low hanging fruit.

Nice flavor, but the Aviary ability is narrow, and the Worship ability is not for aggro. I still like Gideon Ally better. Pass for 450 for me.

Quite excited for this set, as we can expect a higher power level.

Definitely worse than every white walker I’m currently running but this card is best viewed as a 4/4 that leaves behind a planeswalker (as stated above). In that respect, I think it’s significantly better than Gisela and other lower tier white 4’s. Planeswalker density in white is definitely a concern to some people but I think this card is quite good (450 for reference), so I’ll be testing it over Gisela and expect it to do well.

If I wasn't about to replace sublime archangel (still running her because our group found gisela extremely meh) with the palace jailer I finally remembered to order, I might test her in that spot. However, I don't like her better than any of the 5 W PW's I'm already running, and while I don't like hard limits on card types, that would be getting to a lot of PW's.

I am quite excited for this set, though, if this is the power level of card we're going to see.

I always felt like people never gave Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath the respect it deserved, and this is a better card even outside the mana cost. Worship emblem can be a real win condition against certain decks, and a 4 mana Serra with upside is a hell of a floor. Elspeth and Gideon are going to be hard to supplant, but this is pushed very hard.

I love everything about this card. I think I'll be cutting Gisela for it.

Cheers,
rant

Not the kind of planeswalker I like. For a generic goodstuff 2WW walker, I prefer Elspeth. Ironic that Elspeth actually seems more nostalgic to me at this point than Serra. I'm much more interested in the niche walkers they've been designing lately, like Kaya, Orzhov Usurper, Aminatou, the Fateshifter, and Lord Windgrace. Midrange goodstuff walkers no longer hold appeal for me.

Just curious, but what is Lord Windgrace doing for you outside of midrange goodstuff?

Quote from Jebadiah_Jones »

Just curious, but what is Lord Windgrace doing for you outside of midrange goodstuff?

Literally nothing: I don't have the card, and I'm not really planning on playing it. I am playing Kaya, and tentative results are positive. But from a design standpoint, I'm much more interested in that type of planeswalker: a planeswalker with some archetype support, or just anything but generic good abilities. Perhaps Daretti, Scrap Savant is a better example, since Windgrace is a little on the unplayable side.

We have seen dozens of powerful planeswalkers with good but generic abilities, and that makes Serra kinda samey. There are fabulous planeswalkers (with more or less generic abilities) for 2WW already, so for me this barely registers. To be fair, that's not really a gripe with this card specifically, just a reason why I don't care for planeswalkers of this kind. I don't know if other people feel this kind of fatigue or not.

I actually like the design space she helps explore. Sure she's good as a generic goodstuff 'walker, but I think she's particularly cool in decks designed with Moat/Earthquake/Subterranean Tremors in mind (an archetype I do draft around from time to time) ...decks with all flying threats that can use her {+2} ability in unconventional ways. I think she's powerful both independently and in specific decks, which makes her even more appealing to me.

And her {+2} --> fast Worship can create games that revolve around protecting your own board, and that can be interesting too. I look forward to seeing her in action.

At 540, I’m running Armageddon, Cataclysm, Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Hero of Bladehold, Parallax Wave, Restoration Angel and Wrath of God. I avoid goodstuff midrange in other colors, but I kind of embrace it in white.

Elspeth, Armageddon, Parallax, Resto and Wrath are locked for me. Cataclysm, Hero and Gideon are up for debate.

Hot take, but I’m thinking about testing Serra over Hero:

Hero’s worst-case is a 1-for-1 with removal, its average case is a 1-for-1 leaving 2 1/1s and 2-6 damage (vs a double-block or maybe block+burn), and its best-case is going unblocked for 2-3 turns and singlehandedly winning the game. Serra’s worst case is a 1-for-1 with removal and stopping an attacker, its best case is essentially winning the game in 2 turns via Worship, and I think its average case is probably going to eat an attacker or two while getting damage in with a Serra Angel or Archangel.

Biggest drawbacks seem to be sharing exactly the same artwork as Thalia, Heretic Cathar and having that second white Devotion, which I would love to be able to avoid.

Having PW caps (3 per color) means for me she has to jump 4CC Elspeth, 6CC Elspeth, or 5CC Gideon to get a spot in my 450 unpowered. I think this might still be good enough. There is a great deal of versatility to this card. Can't protect Serra? Make a freaking Serra Angel early as turn 4 that you can protect Serra with and then bash for 5 vigilant evasive damage with it upon your next turn and have the ability to follow up with another freaking Serra Angel on turn 6. Can protect Serra? +2 whether you need the pump or not--pumps spirits, angels, etc.-then just go Worship mode or back to back Serra Angels.

I am happy to be proven wrong on her. If people testing her seem to like her, I may try her out. I'm ok with cutting all but the best white 4's and 5's and just playing more 2- and 3-drops though.

I think she’s quite good, but I don’t know if I want to dedicate a slot for another 2WW planeswalker. The slot is stacked and I don’t like too many walkers.

Unlike Gideon or Elspeth she’s not that good in white Agro, unless that deck happens to have a bunch of spirits. This really reduces her value in my eyes.

The clock she presents is notebly slower and easier to disrupt.

She’s certainly “playable” but I’d cut her from most of my white Agro decks.

I like her a lot in a WU midrange deck , especially built around fliers.. and she’s totally fine as a generic good stuff card.
It’d be cool as archetype support for a “flying matters” theme , but that doesn’t really exist at the moment in my cube.

I’ll probably test but I don’t expect her to stick. On a power level basis she likely barely makes it in, but there’s more for me to consider than that.

Hero of Bladehold is the White 4 CMC card closest to the chopping block in our cube. This card looks incredibly powerful, much more resilient than Hero. The only archetype where I would prefer Hero to this planeswalker is hard aggro, and W/x hard aggro tends to be W/R, and R has much better 4-drops anyway. This card strikes me as a slam dunk for any cube 540+, and we'll be testing at 360 expecting her to stick.

Small note: life loss can still kill players with emblems.

Quote from BlackWaltz3 »

Having PW caps (3 per color) means for me she has to jump 4CC Elspeth, 6CC Elspeth, or 5CC Gideon to get a spot in my 450 unpowered. I think this might still be good enough. There is a great deal of versatility to this card. Can't protect Serra? Make a freaking Serra Angel early as turn 4 that you can protect Serra with and then bash for 5 vigilant evasive damage with it upon your next turn and have the ability to follow up with another freaking Serra Angel on turn 6. Can protect Serra? +2 whether you need the pump or not--pumps spirits, angels, etc.-then just go Worship mode or back to back Serra Angels.

I suspect that Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is better than Serra.

It reminds me a lot of C14 Ob Nixilis. Pseudo do nothing primary [+] ability and a [-] that repeatedly creates evasive tokens. Except it's better in all points. Cheaper. Better stats/ability ratio. Relevant ultimate. It looks quite strong and for us deservess testing at the very least.