Angels have consistently been among Magic's most popular creature designs, so it was only a matter of time before the series gave them a dedicated volume. Released August 21, 2015, From the Vault: Angels was the eighth entry, built entirely around famous and infamous angel creatures.
Fifteen angels filled the box, ranging from casual fan favorites to genuine competitive Commander staples across white-based decks.
Five of the fifteen cards received new art for this printing, adding visual appeal to a theme that was already built around some of Magic's most striking creature designs.
Here's the full list and why angel tribal deckbuilders specifically should treat this as close to essential.
The fifteen cards are Akroma, Angel of Fury; Akroma, Angel of Wrath; Archangel of Strife; Aurelia, the Warleader; Avacyn, Angel of Hope; Baneslayer Angel; Entreat the Angels; Exalted Angel; Iona, Shield of Emeria; Iridescent Angel; Jenara, Asura of War; Lightning Angel; Platinum Angel; Serra Angel; and Tariel, Reckoner of Souls. The set spans multiple color identities beyond mono-white, including Aurelia's red-white and Jenara's blue-green-white builds.
Serra Angel, one of Magic's oldest and most recognizable angel designs, anchors the set alongside more modern, higher-impact inclusions like Avacyn, Angel of Hope.
Angels had already generated some of Magic's most iconic individual card designs by 2015, from early staples like Serra Angel to newer bombs like Baneslayer Angel. A themed box built around them gave collectors and deckbuilders a concentrated way to pick up several fan-favorite finishers at once.
The creature type's broad popularity across casual and competitive play alike made this one of the more commercially straightforward themes in the series to build around.
Avacyn, Angel of Hope is the set's most powerful inclusion, granting indestructibility to every permanent you control while she's on the battlefield, a genuine build-around finisher in Commander. Baneslayer Angel represents the set's more recent competitive relevance, a card efficient enough to see real Standard and Limited play well beyond its original release.
Iona, Shield of Emeria offers a uniquely disruptive effect, locking an opponent out of an entire color for the rest of the game once she resolves.
Angel tribal Commander decks get the most direct value from this volume, since several of its fifteen creatures can anchor a deck's entire game plan. White-based Commander decks more broadly also find plenty of individually useful finishers scattered across the box.
Competitive constructed players will find fewer of the fifteen cards directly playable outside Commander, since angels as a creature type lean more casual than competitive overall.
Angels was produced in a single limited print run in 2015 and has never been reprinted as a complete boxed set since its original release. Individual cards like Avacyn have seen other reprints in later Commander products, but never in this exact From the Vault foil treatment.
That makes original Angels foils a specific, non-repeated printing for anyone building a complete series collection.
Angels sits in the middle tier of the full series ranking, elevated by genuinely powerful build-around Commander finishers but balanced against its more casual overall competitive relevance. For angel tribal deckbuilders specifically, it's one of the most directly useful volumes in the whole series.
Check our full ranking of all ten volumes for how Angels compares to Dragons, Legends, and the rest of the lineup.
While angels are traditionally associated with mono-white, this box deliberately included multicolor entries like Aurelia, the Warleader and Jenara, Asura of War to broaden the theme's appeal. That choice let players building outside a strict mono-white shell still find a home in the set.
The spread across color identities is part of why this volume works for a wider range of Commander decks than a purely mono-white theme would have allowed. It also means the set has something to offer players who never intended to build a dedicated angel tribal deck in the first place, since individual angels slot into unrelated Commander strategies just as easily as they do a dedicated tribal shell.
It released on August 21, 2015, as the eighth volume in the series.
Avacyn, Angel of Hope, which grants indestructibility to every permanent you control.
No, several span multiple colors, including Aurelia, the Warleader and Jenara, Asura of War.
Angel tribal and white-based Commander deckbuilders get the most direct value from Angels.
An angel tribal Commander deck deserves protection worthy of its finishers. Premium card sleeves keep your Avacyn or Baneslayer Angel shuffle-safe through every long Commander game.
Display your favorite single angel foil in a rigid holder to show off the artwork between games.
!
