Baneslayer Angel and the Magic: Foundations Mythic Rares

This page answers two questions: is Baneslayer Angel in Magic: Foundations, and which Foundations mythic rares actually won games in draft? The short answers: no, Baneslayer Angel has never been printed in Foundations; and among the 20 main-set Foundations mythics, Liliana, Dreadhorde General posts the highest games-in-hand win rate in the 17Lands PremierDraft data we fetched on April 4, 2026. Everything below is checked against Scryfall, the Comprehensive Rules effective September 25, 2026, Wizards of the Coast's own collecting article for the set, and that 17Lands data.

Is Baneslayer Angel in Magic: Foundations?

No. Scryfall's full printing list for Baneslayer Angel contains no Foundations (FDN) printing, and a Scryfall search for Baneslayer Angel in set FDN returns no cards. A search for it in Foundations Jumpstart (J25) also returns nothing. Every printing is listed in the next sections.

Foundations does contain Angels at mythic rare. In the main set there is Herald of Eternal Dawn; among the FDN-coded mythics that are not main-set cards there are Lyra Dawnbringer and Aurelia, the Warleader. None of them is Baneslayer Angel, and the last two are not part of the Play Booster card pool described below.

Baneslayer Angel: exact text and how it works

Baneslayer Angel costs {3}{W}{W} (mana value 5) and is a 5/5 Creature — Angel. Its complete Oracle text is: "Flying, first strike, lifelink, protection from Demons and from Dragons."

• Flying. Per CR 702.9b, a creature with flying can't be blocked except by creatures with flying and/or reach.
• First strike. Per CR 702.7b, when a creature with first strike is in combat, there is an extra combat damage step; first strikers deal their damage before creatures without first strike or double strike.
• Lifelink. Per CR 702.15b, damage dealt by a source with lifelink causes its controller to gain that much life.
• Protection from Demons and from Dragons. The official ruling (dated 2009-10-01) spells it out: Baneslayer Angel can't be blocked by creatures with the creature type Demon or Dragon, can't be targeted by spells with either type or by abilities from sources with either type, can't be enchanted or equipped by Demon or Dragon Auras or Equipment, and all damage that would be dealt to it by Demon or Dragon sources is prevented. That matches CR 702.16b through 702.16f.

Put together, the combat math is simple: a 5/5 flier that deals its damage first, gains its controller life equal to the damage it deals, can't be blocked by Demon or Dragon creatures, can't be targeted by Demon or Dragon spells or abilities, and takes no damage from Demon or Dragon sources. Protection does nothing against sources that are neither Demons nor Dragons, and it does not stop effects that don't target or deal damage.

Every printing and where it is legal

Scryfall lists these printings of Baneslayer Angel, all at mythic rare:

As of October 2, 2026, Scryfall lists Baneslayer Angel as legal in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage and Commander, and not legal in Standard or Pauper. Our Wizards ban-history file has no ban or restriction entry for the card.

Which Foundations mythics are in Play Boosters

Scryfall returns 37 different mythic rare cards with the FDN set code, but not all of them are in the draftable pool. Wizards' article "Collecting Foundations: The Four Most Important Things to Know" (October 25, 2024) describes the Play Booster rare slot this way: "This slot contains 1 of the 60 rares (78%) or 20 mythic rares (12.8%) in the main set. It's also possible to open 1 of the 43 borderless rares (7.7%) or 17 borderless mythic rares (1.5%, including 5 borderless planeswalkers)."

Our Foundations draft simulator data contains exactly 20 mythics, and they are the 20 FDN mythics with the lowest collector numbers in Scryfall's list (1 through 244). Those are the 20 main-set mythics. The other 17 FDN-coded mythics carry collector numbers from 422 to 769; since the main set has exactly 20 mythics, these mythic printings are not among them.

The same article covers a separate group: "In 1.5% of Play Boosters, 1 of these commons will be replaced with 1 of the 10 Special Guests cards in non-foil." Scryfall lists those 10 cards under the code SPG (collector numbers 74 to 83), with the Foundations release date of 2024-11-15. They are mythic rare, but they carry the SPG code rather than FDN.

All 20 main-set mythics are legal in Standard as of October 2, 2026, and Wizards' article says the set "will be legal in Standard until at least 2029."

The 20 main-set mythics, ranked by 17Lands win rate

Source: 17Lands PremierDraft card ratings for FDN, fetched April 4, 2026. The column "GIH WR" is 17Lands' games-in-hand win rate; "Games" is the game count 17Lands reports for that card; "Avg pick" is the average pick position. Our stored copy records the fetch time but not the query's date range. To avoid ranking noise, a card is ranked only if it has at least 10,000 games. For reference, the median GIH WR across all 253 cards in the file that meet the same threshold is 54.9%.

Gaps of a few tenths of a point near the middle of this table are small; treat ranks 8 through 12 (57.2% to 58.4%) as a cluster rather than a strict order.

What each ranked mythic does

Summaries of the current Oracle text, in rank order:

• Liliana, Dreadhorde General ({4}{B}{B}, loyalty 6): you draw a card whenever a creature you control dies; +1 makes a 2/2 black Zombie; −4 makes each player sacrifice two creatures; −9 makes each opponent keep one permanent of each permanent type and sacrifice the rest.
• Zimone, Paradox Sculptor ({2}{G}{U}, 1/4): at the beginning of combat on your turn, puts a +1/+1 counter on each of up to two target creatures you control; {G}{U}, {T} doubles each kind of counter on up to two target creatures and/or artifacts you control.
• Sire of Seven Deaths ({7}, 7/7 Eldrazi): reach, first strike, vigilance, menace, trample, lifelink and "Ward—Pay 7 life."
• Bloodthirsty Conqueror ({3}{B}{B}, 5/5): flying, deathtouch; whenever an opponent loses life, you gain that much life.
• Vivien Reid ({3}{G}{G}, loyalty 5): +1 looks at the top four cards for a creature or land; −3 destroys a target artifact, enchantment or creature with flying; −8 gives an emblem granting your creatures +2/+2, vigilance, trample and indestructible.
• Chandra, Flameshaper ({5}{R}{R}, loyalty 6): +2 adds {R}{R}{R} and exiles the top three cards, one of which you may play this turn; +1 makes a hasty token copy of a creature you control that is sacrificed at the end step; −4 deals 8 damage divided among creatures and/or planeswalkers.
• Twinflame Tyrant ({3}{R}{R}, 3/5 Dragon): flying; damage your sources would deal to an opponent or a permanent an opponent controls is doubled.
• Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator ({1}{U}{U}, loyalty 3): gains a loyalty counter whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player; +1 makes up to one creature you control unblockable this turn, then you draw and discard; −2 makes a 2/1 blue Ninja; −9 gives an emblem that makes a Ninja whenever a player casts a spell.
• Ajani, Caller of the Pride ({1}{W}{W}, loyalty 4): +1 puts a +1/+1 counter on up to one target creature; −3 grants flying and double strike until end of turn; −8 makes X 2/2 white Cats, where X is your life total.
• Sphinx of Forgotten Lore ({2}{U}{U}, 3/3): flash, flying; whenever it attacks, a target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback equal to its mana cost until end of turn.
• Herald of Eternal Dawn ({4}{W}{W}{W}, 6/6 Angel): flash, flying; you can't lose the game and your opponents can't win the game.
• Valkyrie's Call ({3}{W}{W} enchantment): whenever a nontoken, non-Angel creature you control dies, it returns to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter, flying, and the Angel type.
• Quilled Greatwurm ({4}{G}{G}, 7/7): trample; whenever a creature you control deals combat damage during your turn, it gets that many +1/+1 counters; can be cast from your graveyard by also removing six counters from among creatures you control.
• Muldrotha, the Gravetide ({3}{B}{G}{U}, 6/6): during each of your turns, you may play a land and cast a permanent spell of each permanent type from your graveyard.

Mythics with too little data to rank

Six main-set mythics fall under the 10,000-game threshold. Their numbers are shown for completeness, not as a ranking.

The 17Lands file also has rows for all ten Special Guests cards, each with fewer than 5,000 games; the four with the most data are Embercleave (64.1%, 4,503 games), Fiend Artisan (54.4%, 3,307), Temporal Manipulation (54%, 3,282) and Akroma's Memorial (55.7%, 3,019). With a 1.5% chance per Play Booster of a Special Guests card, these samples are too small to rank.

The other 17 FDN mythics

For completeness, these cards have mythic-rarity printings with the FDN set code on Scryfall that are not among the 20 main-set mythics, so those mythic printings are not in the Play Booster rare slot described above: Day of Judgment, Think Twice, Llanowar Elves, Angelic Destiny, Finale of Revelation, Demonic Pact, Dragonmaster Outcast, Primeval Bounty, Aurelia, the Warleader, Darksteel Colossus, Pyromancer's Goggles, Ramos, Dragon Engine, Maze's End, Lyra Dawnbringer, Sphinx of the Final Word, Massacre Wurm and Vizier of the Menagerie. Three of them also have main-set printings at lower rarity, so the cards themselves can be opened in Play Boosters at that rarity: Day of Judgment (rare, #140), Think Twice (common, #165) and Llanowar Elves (common, #227).

To practice drafting the real pool, the Foundations draft simulator uses the main-set card list, and our sealed tool covers deckbuilding from a pool.