Cathedral of Serra
Land
White legendary creatures you control have "bands with other legendary creatures." (Any legendary creatures can attack in a band as long as at least one has "bands with other legendary creatures." Bands are blocked as a group. If at least two legendary creatures you control, one of which has "bands with other legendary creatures," are blocking or being blocked by the same creature, you divide that creature's combat damage, not its controller, among any of the creatures it's being blocked by or is blocking.)
- CMC
- 0
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Legends
- Price
- $31.03
- EDHREC rank
- #20614
Cathedral of Serra enters tapped and produces only colorless mana, which is a steep ask in any white deck — but the activated ability to prevent all damage to you until your next turn is a unique effect no basic Plains provides. Run it in life-gain or pillow-fort shells where that damage prevention doubles as a combo piece or a panic button; skip it everywhere else.
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 |
Cathedral of Serra is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, and that's the full list — Modern, Pioneer, Standard, and Pauper don't have it. Commander is the format where it's most relevant: the singleton rule means you can't lean on redundancy, and a one-time damage-prevention effect has real emergency value in a multiplayer game where one combat can kill you out of nowhere. Legacy and Vintage have access to it but would never run Cathedral of Serra over a basic Plains — those formats demand mana efficiency above all else. Oathbreaker's faster pace makes the enters-tapped drawback hurt more, so treat it as a fringe option there even in white life-gain signatures.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Cathedral of Serra's damage-prevention mode is nearly impossible to replicate on a budget land, so the honest alternative is a different effect entirely — Teferi's Protection covers your permanents and yourself at instant speed for around $12, doing more for less in most situations. If you specifically want a white land with upside, Emeria, the Sky Ruin is under $2 and provides late-game recursion that scales harder in longer Commander games, even if it doesn't stop a lethal attack.
Price Context
Current price
$31.03 premium tier
At $31.03, Cathedral of Serra sits firmly in the premium tier — expensive for a land that enters tapped and sees narrow use outside dedicated life-gain or pillow-fort builds. The price is driven by scarcity rather than demand, so don't expect it to climb; if the effect matters to your deck, buy it, but don't hold it as a spec.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.