Serra's Emissary
Creature — Angel
Flying
As this creature enters, choose a card type.
You and creatures you control have protection from the chosen card type.
- CMC
- 7
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Modern Horizons 2 Promos
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #2593
Serra's Emissary enters the battlefield and immediately grants your whole team protection from a chosen card type — naming creatures against aggro or instants against a removal-heavy player can lock opponents out of the game on the spot. Seven mana is a real cost, but Kaalia of the Vast cheats it into play for free, and even in fair shells, the effect is so warping that the price is usually worth paying. If you need a comparison point for how absurd the protection can be, consider that it makes your team as hard to deal with as a Frenetic Efreet is to target — except the effect applies to everything you control.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Kaalia of the Vast
Kaalia of the Vast attacks, Serra's Emissary enters for free, and suddenly your entire army has protection from whatever card type threatens you most — all before the seven-mana cost ever matters.
Shilgengar, Sire of Famine
Shilgengar, Sire of Famine works with a board full of Angels, and Serra's Emissary blanket-protects that entire Angel army at the moment it enters, making combat or removal answers nearly impossible to execute.
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Avacyn, Angel of Hope already gives your permanents indestructible; Serra's Emissary stacks protection on top of that, creating a board state where opponents are effectively locked out of both destruction and targeting.
Sigarda, Font of Blessings
Sigarda, Font of Blessings cares about Angels and Humans, and Serra's Emissary fits naturally as a high-impact Angel that can wall off the most threatening card type at the table the turn it arrives.
Mayael the Anima
Mayael the Anima flips Serra's Emissary off the top for free — it has power 5 or greater — and the protection naming creatures immediately shuts down chump blocking and combat-based answers to a board already loaded with large threats.
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 Serra's Emissary does its best work: the multiplayer table means naming a card type affects three opponents' game plans simultaneously, and cheat-into-play commanders like Kaalia of the Vast completely erase the seven-mana ceiling. In Legacy and Vintage, Serra's Emissary is legal but sees virtually no play — the cost is simply too high for formats that close games by turn two or three, and Reanimator shells have better targets. Modern is the same story: legal on paper, irrelevant in practice. Serra's Emissary is fundamentally a Commander card, and that's not a knock — it's exactly the kind of high-impact, slow-burn effect that the format rewards.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data isn't available for Serra's Emissary right now, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the current market rate before buying. It's a niche Commander staple rather than a cross-format staple, which historically keeps the ceiling modest — but demand from Kaalia of the Vast and Angel tribal lists gives it a stable floor.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.