Angel of Despair
Creature — Angel
Flying
When this creature enters, destroy target permanent.
- CMC
- 7
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BW
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Commander 2011
- Price
- $1.21
- EDHREC rank
- #4913
Angel of Despair enters the battlefield and immediately destroys any permanent — land, planeswalker, enchantment, whatever is most threatening — stapled to a 5/5 flying body. Seven mana is a real ask in a vacuum, but Kaalia of the Vast puts it into play for free on a combat step, making the cost largely irrelevant in the decks that want it most.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Kaalia of the Vast
Kaalia of the Vast cheats Angel of Despair into play on attack, turning every swing into a free Vindicate that also adds a 5/5 flier to the board — the combination of evasion, removal, and free deployment is exactly what the deck is built to exploit.
Shilgengar, Sire of Famine
Shilgengar, Sire of Famine wants high-power Angels in the graveyard to fuel its sacrifice engine, and Angel of Despair doubles as an ETB removal piece before it becomes fodder — you get the Vindicate effect on the way in and a sacrifice target on demand.
Athreos, Shroud-Veiled
Athreos, Shroud-Veiled places coin counters on creatures and returns them to hand or play when they die, which means Angel of Despair can retrigger its destroy-any-permanent ETB repeatedly across multiple turns as the engine loops.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Angel of Despair lives — 47% of Kaalia of the Vast decks run it, and its permanent-destruction ETB is uniquely powerful in a singleton format where hitting any permanent type is premium flexibility. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but sees zero play; seven mana for a one-for-one is nowhere near the power threshold those formats demand, and Vindicate itself does the job for two mana without needing a creature in play. Oathbreaker is the one other format worth mentioning: slower games and a Commander-adjacent structure make the ETB more relevant, though the same mana-cost friction applies.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$1.21 cheap tier
At $1.21, Angel of Despair sits firmly in the bulk-rare tier despite appearing in nearly 37,000 Commander decks on EDHREC — heavy reprint history has kept the price low and it's unlikely to spike. It's one of the best dollar-per-impact cards in an Orzhov-adjacent Angel build.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.