Righteous Valkyrie
Creature — Angel Cleric
Flying
Whenever another Angel or Cleric you control enters, you gain life equal to that creature's toughness.
As long as you have at least 7 life more than your starting life total, creatures you control get +2/+2.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Kaldheim
- Price
- $7.52
- EDHREC rank
- #1987
Righteous Valkyrie puts a life-gain payoff and a team-wide pump on the same three-mana body — once you hit the threshold, every Angel and Cleric swings in as a serious threat. The cost is that the buff does nothing until your life total climbs high enough, which makes it dependent on having other engines like Giada, Font of Hope or Priest of Fell Rites doing work alongside it.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Giada, Font of Hope
Giada, Font of Hope is the natural home — she makes every Angel cheaper and enters with a counter, which means the Angel-heavy lists she demands are exactly the ones stacking enough life gain to unlock Righteous Valkyrie's +2/+2 anthem reliably and often.
Shilgengar, Sire of Famine
Shilgengar, Sire of Famine sacrifices Angels to drain life and reanimate them, which simultaneously fuels life-total growth and keeps replaying the creatures that trigger Righteous Valkyrie's buff threshold.
Orah, Skyclave Hierophant
Orah, Skyclave Hierophant reanimates Clerics on death, generating the recursive board presence that lets Righteous Valkyrie function as a persistent anthem rather than a one-time pump.
Sigarda, Font of Blessings
Sigarda, Font of Blessings tutors Angels and Humans directly to hand, making it easy to assemble a critical mass of flyers that turn Righteous Valkyrie's threshold bonus into a finishing swing.
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Avacyn, Angel of Hope builds all-Angel boards where the team already survives board wipes, and Righteous Valkyrie adds the life-gain payoff that turns those indestructible angels into a lethal clock.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Righteous Valkyrie earns its keep — Angel and Cleric tribal lists have enough density to hit the life threshold consistently, and a global anthem on a 2/4 flyer for three mana is a strong rate at any table. In Modern and Pioneer, the card sees fringe play in dedicated lifegain shells, but the threshold condition is harder to trigger without dedicated tribal support, and competing payoffs are plentiful. Legacy and Vintage give it no meaningful home; faster formats simply do not have the turns or the tribal scaffolding to make the pump matter. Oathbreaker follows the same pattern as Commander — tribe-dense builds can make it work, but the narrower card pool and faster game clock push it down the priority list.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Priest of Fell RitesNecrotic OozeRighteous ValkyrieMaskwood NexusLightning Greaves
Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite lifegain; Infinite lifegain triggers; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers
View combo details →
Priest of Fell RitesActivated SleeperRighteous ValkyrieMaskwood NexusLightning Greaves
Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite lifegain; Infinite lifegain triggers; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers
View combo details →
Priest of Fell RitesNecrotic OozeRighteous ValkyrieConspiracyLightning Greaves
Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite lifegain; Infinite lifegain triggers; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers
View combo details →Priest of Fell RitesActivated SleeperRighteous ValkyrieConspiracyLightning Greaves
Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite lifegain; Infinite lifegain triggers; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers
View combo details →
Priest of Fell RitesBody DoubleRighteous ValkyrieMaskwood NexusLightning Greaves
Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite lifegain; Infinite lifegain triggers; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers
View combo details →Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
If the anthem effect is the primary draw, Vanquisher's Banner covers any creature type for five mana and replaces itself over time — you lose the life-gain trigger and the flying body, but it works in any tribal shell without a threshold condition. For the life-gain-payoff angle specifically, Resplendent Angel is similarly priced and not a true budget swap, but Archangel of Thune fills a comparable role at a higher price point; the honest budget answer is that Righteous Valkyrie does not have a clean single replacement — you are either accepting a weaker anthem or a weaker life-gain payoff, not both in one card.
Price Context
Current price
$7.52 mid tier
At $7.52, Righteous Valkyrie sits squarely in the mid tier — affordable enough to include in most Angel or Cleric builds without budget stress, but priced high enough that casual players will feel the spend. It holds value well because it is a unique effect stapled to a relevant creature type with no direct reprint pressure on the horizon.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.