Requiem Angel - A Magic the Gathering Card Review

by Phoenix Desertsong, Old School Duelist

If any Magic the Gathering deck archetype was boosted more than Humans by the Avacyn Restored set, it would be Angels. Being that the premier card of the set Avacyn, Angel of Hope is an Angel, this should have probably been an obvious consideration of Wizards of the Coast Research & Development. It couldn’t be overlooked that once relatively unplayable Angel cards suddenly have a bit more value because of this set. In particular, Requiem Angel is very glad Avacyn is now free of the Helvault! 

(See, something good did come out of that awful mythic rare from Dark Ascension!)

Requiem Angel is a 5/5 flyer with a six mana casting cost (5 colorless, 1 White) with a decent effect. Whenever another non-Spirit creature you control dies, you put a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying onto the board. For 6 mana, this is OK. She gets better alongside Herald of War, also from Avacyn Restored, who can reduce the casting costs of your Angels for each +1/+1 counter on the Herald. This means you can cast Requiem Angel for as little as one mana, not that it would happen often. Requiem Angel was a neat card, but she never really saw Standard play, which shouldn’t be too surprising due to her position on the mana curve.

Requiem Angel in Commander / EDH

Interestingly enough, Angel Tribal Commander decks, such as Sephara, Sky’s Blade, aren’t the key home for Requiem Angel.  Rather, she’s great in the Commander decks that can best take advantage of the Spirit tokens she creates. Notably, unlike a lot of creatures who generate tokens when other creatures die, Requiem Angel doesn’t care if those creatures are tokens or not, which is a major plus in decks who basically thrive off of their token generation.

No Commander has recruited her as much as Teysa Karlov, whose ability to copy triggered abilities and give creature tokens vigilance and lifelink makes Requiem Angel an obvious include. Her predecessor from Guildpact, Teysa, Orzhov Scion, has also recruited Requiem Angel to create the 3 white creatures she can sacrifice in order to exile a target creature.

For quite some time, Ghave, Guru of Spores was the Commander she was paired with most. This seems a strange pairing until you consider that Ghave decks produce a lot of tokens, especially Saprolings. So, when any of those Saprolings die, especially when sacrificed using Ghave’s ability, you get a Spirit token. 

Another Commander who takes advantage of Requiem Angel is Jazal Goldmane. This makes sense since Jazal can boost the flying Spirit tokens the Angel creates. It makes even more sense when you consider Requiem Angel was re-printed in the same Commander 2014 deck as Jazal. 

Token-happy commanders such as Thalisse, Reverent Medium, Emmara Tandris, and Darien, King of Kjeldor also co-opt her services on more than a few occasions. While she’s hardly any sort of token deck staple, Requiem Angel is a good one to have around for those Commanders who can maximize her abilities.

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