In Magic: The Gathering’s March of the Machine, Elesh Norn’s invasion of the Multiverse has finally begun. Armed with the Realmbreaker tree and an unimaginably large Phyrexian army, nobody on any plane is safe from compleation.

RELATED: Magic: The Gathering – March Of The Machine Previews

Not even, shockingly, the Angels of New Capenna. Even when you’re made of Halo, one of the few things in the multiverse that can stop a Phyrexian attack, there’s still a risk of falling to Norn’s corruption. What happens when a divine being succumbs to phyresis? Our preview card, Seraph of New Capenna//Seraph of New Phyrexia, shows just what.

Seraph Of New Capenna

Seraph Of New Capenna

Seraph of New Capenna is a 2/2 Angel Soldier that costs two generic mana, and one white. It’s simple enough, and as you’d expect from an Angel, it has flying to make it harder to block.

Cost-wise, Seraph of New Capenna is pretty much in line with other 2/2 fliers, although the lack of any inherent ability in and of itself compared to older creatures like Angel of Vitality or Angelic Protector does make it slightly less enticing.

To make up for that, Seraph of New Capenna has the ability to transform. By paying four generic and one black Phyrexian mana (either one black mana, or two life), you can transform the Seraph of New Capenna into its much more horrific side, the Seraph of New Phyrexia.

Seraph Of New Phyrexia

Seraph Of New Phyrexia

Now it has fully fallen to the corruption of New Phyrexia, the Seraph becomes a black and white 3/3 Phyrexian Angel with flying.

It also picks up a new ability: whenever it attacks, you can sacrifice another creature or artifact you control to give the Seraph of New Phyrexia +2/+1 until the end of the turn. This turns it into a horrifying 5/4 with flying – something that could mean a very quick death for opponents who can’t block it.

Keep in mind that this is a triggered ability that goes off when you declare the Seraph of New Phyrexia as an attacker. The trigger only allows you to sacrifice one thing to it for a maximum of +2/+1.

Using The Seraph

Seraph Synergy

While its ability likely won’t be heading up any decks on its own, it fits nicely with a lot of the current sacrifice-heavy deck archetypes in Standard.

A particular standout card to run alongside this is Oni-Cult Anvil, which replaces your sacrificed artifact with a 1/1 Construct artifact creature token primed and ready for you to throw to the Seraph next turn. Of course, Isshin, Two Heavens As One is also a great tool for the Seraph. Isshin doubles attack triggers, which will allow you to sacrifice two things for a whopping +4/+2 until the end of turn instead.

In other formats, the Seraph’s ability gets even stronger. Once again, the Seraph’s black and white identity falls nicely within the white/black/red colours of Isshin, Two Heavens As One in Commander. It also works in practically any black/white sacrifice deck, such as Teysa Karlov; Athreos, God Of Passage; or even Shadrix Silverquill.

The most powerful place for the Seraph will easily be in limited formats like Draft and Sealed. Here, the Seraph is a huge beater that is difficult to block, and the format will be slow enough to let you reliably pay the cost to transform it into the Phyrexian side. As long as March of the Machine gives us enough artifacts or disposable creatures to feed it with, the Seraph could be an important part of your strategy at the prerelease.

March of the Machine launches April 21, 2023.

NEXT: Everything Revealed At Magic: The Gathering's March Of The Machine Debut