Styx is so Underrated

For those that don't know, FTV: Angels was announced today. While the last couple From the Vaults sets have been all over the place, I can't help but feel some excitement for this one.

There have been some broken angels, and while it wouldn't be great for the game (or for the wallet of the average player) to reprint all of them in one box, I think we can expect them to follow the usual FTV formula of:

One chase card (Jace, Grove of the Burnwillows, Ulamog, etc.), one or two reprints to please the EDH players (Urborg, Rafiq, Sun Quan, Sol Ring), and then chaff (Fyndhorn Elves, Desert, Dragon Whelp).

Here are some brainstorms I had:

Either Linvala, Iona, or Avacyn (new art)
Red or White Akroma (likely not both, and my money would be on red; new art)
Twilight Shepherd (new art; most likely the teaser art with the announcment)
Angel of Depair
Jenara, Asura of War
Serra Angel (new art)
Empyrial Archangel or Stoic Angel (have to get green and blue on the list somehow)
Lightning Angel (in need of an art update, too)
Restoration Angel
Serra Avenger

Fuck yeah! Give me all of the reprints! But, this isn't realistic, unless we're after an MSRP of ~$150. If I had to narrow it down, based on the fact that most of the best angels are either Mythic or too damn expensive, I'd bet the list looks something like:

Empyrial Archangel
Akroma, Angel of Fury (new art; Wrath has other art already) - the chase card
Twilight Shepherd (with its gorgeous new art)
Angel of Despair
Serra Angel (new art)
Tariel, Reckoner of Souls
Lightning Angel (new art)
Maelstrom Archangel (new art)
Shepherd of the Lost
Exalted Angel
Angel's Grace (new art)
Baneslayer Angel (could be the chase card, if they brought back Greg Staples to do another art)
Archangel (with original art as a tribute to deceased artist Quinton Hoover)
Platinum Angel
Angel of Finality

My reasoning?

- Red Akroma has one foil printing, and while her art is one of the driving forces of her demand, she's long overdue for a reprint.

- Tariel will get her first foil treatment, and she is a somewhat popular Mardu Commander, especially as she's a fraction of the cost of Kaalia from the same 2011 deck.

- Serra Angel is the OG, she's a shoo-in.

- Angel of Despair is your token Commander reprint. Archangel and Shepherd of the Lost are your token filler cards.

- Selenia's been gone a long time, and is a character from Magic's now-distant past that meets the criteria.

- Platinum Angel and Exalted Angel are great casual cards.

- Baneslayer is always good. She's not the house she used to be, and the FTV foil will likely fall to what a non-foil from m10 or m11 is now. But I wouldn't be surprised to see her.

- Angel's Grace. Such a troll card, but it's effect is very powerful, and demonstrates what an angel can do in the lore.

As an added bonus, my picks roughly balance the angels among the colours, with green losing out, but it's pretty representative of the dispersion of angels in the game without cherry-picking awful ones to meet a quota. This list leaves us with a mix of the awesome (Angel of Despair, red Akroma, Baneslayer), powerful, angelic effects (Empyrial Archangel, Platinum Angel, Maelstrom Archangel), some throwbacks to Magic's past (Exalted Angel, Lightning Angel), a first-time foil for Tariel, and a couple random ones just because. Follows the derived formula fairly closely, though angels are a tough tribe to do a FTV box for due to their heavy casual appeal. That's evident when examining the prices of some foil angels online- Linvala at $160? It's not just scarcity- Riseof the Eldrazi was very widely opened as a result of it being a great limited environment, and as a large set, was opened on its own. She's an amazing card (trolls Kraj EDH so hard), but her appeal to collectors is a part of her pricetag, too.

Don't believe me? Check out reddit- r/magictcg sees almost a post every week about someone's angel collection. They're right up there with dragons (Magic's most popular tribe) in terms of appeal.

This FTV could easily be one of the good ones, but I expect the breakdown will be similar to my prediction. Which, like most of the sets, could be alright.

Let me know what you guys think, and we'll see who's right on release day.