Yeah each one of these gives the ability, so if you have 2 in play then all other creatures have essentially ward: pay 4 life (it’s 2 triggered abilities of 2 life each though).

This is fun with Melira, Sylvok Outcast! Just a 6/6 trample with ward:2 for 2cmc.

Seems like an auto include for any EDH tribal deck

Wow a reciprocal effect in 2026?? Love it!

If the card is targeted by a spell or ability, it gets countered unless the other player pays the ward cost (MTG Wiki).

If I tried to Shock your Hexing Squelcher, for instance, I’d have to pay 2 life or else the Shock would get countered.

End of an era 😞 He was one of the artists that got me into Magic originally, just loved his lands. Thanks for so many awesome cards!

This card seems like one of the strongest hate bears ever…

Even helps in a UR deck so that your counters are uncounterable!

Ah thanks, that makes these alternative ward costs pretty strong

Pretty strong synergy with evoke. As if a lot of the pitch elementals needed something to boost them!

Pretty cool design. Does this ward cost mean that if you don’t have a creature to put the counters onto, whatever you targeted it with is always countered?

Should be a fun weekend of mardu energy mirrors 🤮 Seems like every format now just has a deck making up 1/3 the meta.

I love the idea of Timeless and even doing degenerate things, I just wish it was curated a bit better. Still looking forward to catching some of this though.

Very excited for this set, and in particular here:

• Treefolk getting more support, specifically Doran it seems
• a planeswalker that makes Kithkin creature tokens
• “Add X {G} or X {W} where X is the number of other creatures you control.”

it is now clearly MTG Arena’s second most played format

This is shocking to me, it really goes to show just how big a share commander formats have in the entire game. I wonder if this is just in relation to constructed formats or if they’re also including all draft formats in that too?

Kinda surprised at the lack of Dimir Midrange and mono red, especially since they seemed to perform pretty well. I know these types of tournament metas are really insular/unique but still.

I watch at least a decent amount of Standard on Twitch (mostly @shehar_shenhar) and don’t think I’ve ever seen Bant Airbending. It had 16 players (!) and a terrible 35% win rate. What’s up with that? Was UR just too good against it? I can’t imagine missing so badly with that deck.

One of the two controversial “take backs” Seth had: https://www.twitch.tv/magic/clip/VenomousSolidBaconDansGame-LnIY9xnX9rDABQLR

Ken played Broodspinner off Cavern of Souls so while it was uncounterable, it was still targetable by a counter. Seth goes to sacrifice 2 treasure tokens to play It’ll Quench Ya! but unwinds it himself, remembering out loud that Ken named Spider on his Cavern.

Not sure how I feel about it; watching it in the moment I felt like he cast that and can’t take it back, but also Ken didn’t call a judge and just went with it. His hands never left the treasures either. I think overall the “spirit of the game” would be that Seth was just thinking out loud and didn’t fully commit to it, but a game like this should definitely require more precision.

I find this to be a pretty crappy argument and outcome. Essentially it’s a lame duck standard with Vivi completely warping the format for 2 months because we need to “think of the RCQ players.” Doesn’t even acknowledge how many will not play an RCQ because of this crappy meta.

So play Vivi or anti-Vivi the next few months (or get destroyed) then replace your deck when Vivi eats an all but certain ban. Great plan.

I find it more alarming that they’re doubling down on the overall ban strategy. While they plan to add a few more times during the year, they’re still dodging the real issue. They won’t acknowledge that turbo charging cards over 18 sets in a standard window will require (quite a few) emergency bans!

Yeah I missed the nonland part on the first read and thought wtf this is a better Thoughtseize in eternal formats!

Treasures work well but not sure if there’s enough reliability otherwise for this to be worthwhile in standard.

I kinda like the 2-picks-per-pack as it can be easier to get into an archetype or cut something off, I have to think this is more related to 8-man pods failing to fire at LGSes though. I don’t have any data but anecdotally it seems like tabletop drafting is down and maybe this is WotC’s attempt to try to fix that? It’s a shame because I’ve always felt the 8 person, 1 booster box, 3 round setup was perfect.

Funny that the new 30 pack play boxes still don’t work nicely with this format either 😜

These all seem like good unbans 👍 I can’t believe some have been banned for 20 years either.

Did players really expect that Dockside et al would be unbanned now that they felt like they had to include that massive explanation?

First and foremost, I’m sorry you’ll be coming around here less :( You’re an amazing contributor and wish you all the best.

This is an amazing post and I could not sign off any more on everything you’ve written here. I’ve felt similarly for a long time and you’ve articulated the exact same sentiments.

I have a visceral negative reaction when I look at UB cards or think about playing games with them.

I just simply do not want to sit across the table from all of these pop culture references or kids shows or even the crazy card frame treatments that aren’t even legible. It’s become a different game entirely and this is really the crux of it for me too.

Agreed on all of the power creep feelings too. To add on a bit, it has seemed to me that Wizards has undergone an intense campaign to do away with bad topdecks. Every draw needs to “feel good,” and ripping a Llanowar Elf on turn 9 or land after land “doesn’t feel good.” No Bad Topdecks has meant that every card has to be relevant early and late, which is why I think we see Kicker and its variants so much, or DFC lands more and more, or cheap cards with expensive activated abilities, or abilities that can be played after you cast the card, or just straight up two cards jammed into one all the time.

Thank you for being such a wonderful person and for being here ❤️ I hope you find something better and even more so that we see you around still!