Angel of the Dire Hour
Creature — Angel
Flash
Flying
When this creature enters, if you cast it from your hand, exile all attacking creatures.
- CMC
- 7
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- The List
- Price
- $1.60
- EDHREC rank
- #8607
Angel of the Dire Hour enters the battlefield and immediately exiles every attacking creature — a full combat wipe that can single-handedly reverse a game state your opponents thought was locked up. Seven mana is the real cost, and you need to survive long enough to flash it in, but the effect is so one-sided that Avacyn, Angel of Hope decks treat it as a staple reset button.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Avacyn, Angel of Hope's indestructible clause means your own permanents survive the ensuing board states while Angel of the Dire Hour cleans out attackers, making the two cards a natural defensive package in the same shell.
Giada, Font of Hope
Giada, Font of Hope accelerates the mana needed to cast Angel of the Dire Hour ahead of schedule while also counting it as another Angel for the tribal synergy pile — 15% inclusion across over 31,000 decks reflects exactly that overlap.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Angel of the Dire Hour is a Commander card through and through — the flash-in-response-to-an-alpha-strike play pattern is uniquely powerful in a multiplayer format where one player can threaten to kill you while two others watch. In Legacy and Vintage, where the card is technically legal, seven mana at instant speed competes with nothing relevant and sees essentially zero play. Oathbreaker is the only other format where its defensive ceiling is even worth discussing, and there it functions the same way as in Commander — a get-out-of-jail-free card you hold up in the late game.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$1.60 cheap tier
At $1.60, Angel of the Dire Hour sits firmly in the bulk-rare tier, which is fair for a card with narrow but real demand confined almost entirely to one format. The price is stable — it does exactly one thing, does it well, and the supply from its original printing keeps it accessible.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.