Ever find yourself glaring at a gigantic, unstoppable hexproof monstrosity across the table, all while your measly Swords to Plowshares sits in your hand going, "Nope, guess this is a bad card."?

Well, good news, friend: there's now a kinder, gentler, (slightly) more interactive version of the "can't touch this" mechanic--and it's called Ward.

Whether you're someone who laments the days of Kird Ape vs. Savannah Lions or a fresh-faced planeswalker who wants every creature to blink, fling, or do your taxes upon entering the battlefield, you'll probably find something to like with Ward.

So buckle up because, in today's Mechanic's Overview Segment, we're about to do a deep-dive into one of Magic's biggest changes to its protective mechanics!

What Is Ward?

"Whenever this permanent becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter that spell or ability unless that player pays [cost]."

Or translated into your typical table banter:

"You want to point that Doom Blade at my innocent 1/3 flying Dinosaur Thopter, Gold-Forged Thopteryx? Well, that's fine...but it's gonna cost you. Extra."

And that cost can take many shapes. Sometimes it's a couple of mana. Sometimes, it's a few life. Sometimes, it's discarding a card, sacrificing a creature, or maybe paying with your best friend's left kidney; look, the point is a cost must be paid for their insolence!

Now, you don't necessarily have to pay the Ward cost, of course, but if you don't, your precious removal spell will simply fizzle. And trust me, you don't want to get stuck explaining to your Commander pod that your Assassin's Trophy failed to resolve against an Amalia Benavides Aguirre that's about to nuke the board just because you decided that three life was more important. ("But I only have two life left!" Eh, tough luck.)

A Brief History of Ward

Ward cards were introduced officially in Strixhaven: School of Mages (2021), though it's basically the final, official descendent of a longtime design space that once hid behind aliases like "Frost Armor" (a name first associated with Frost Titan, the original poster child for "pay up or I stomp your stuff for you").

Early glimpses of "proto-Ward" were on cards like Diffusion Sliver (which made spells targeting your Slivers cost more) and Ashenmoor Liege (which taxed opponents with life loss if they so much as looked at it funny). We also saw near-relatives on creatures that forced an additional cost or an extra chunk of mana. So, if you've ever tried to kill a Boreal Elemental and found yourself paying an extra every time, that's generally the same concept. (Also, my sincere condolences if you've actually lost to a Boreal Elemental in Limited; I've certainly been there.)

Gavin's Take: The "Too-High Ward = Hexproof++" Problem

Gavin Verhey--who you might know from official Magic streams or from that one day he absolutely destroyed your sense of card design humility-- actually gave us some of his thoughts on Ward via his YouTube channel Good Morning Magic. Here are some highlights of his (and R&D's) observations:

Ward And Ward Are Borderline Unstoppable

Slapping a "Pay " or "Pay " tax on a removal spell can turn your creature into near-hexproof especially if your opponent wants to keep mana open for, you know, their own game plan. It's so punishing that it effectively kills any attempt to remove your creature, short of throwing a board wipe or a "Destroy all creatures" style effect.

In Commander, That Cost Can Break Hearts

It's not just 1v1. In multiplayer, someone always wants to kill your stuff. The extra cost is a big deterrent. No one wants to blow half their resources just to remove that one big threat--so they might just skip it altogether.

Non-Mana Ward Is Sneaky Fun

Paying life, discarding a card, or sacrificing a creature can be super interesting. It's an extra layer of "Are you sure you want to do that?" that can lead to some unexpectedly comedic or desperate table politics.

Ward In "Small Doses"

We probably don't want everything to have Ward. Wizards tried saturating sets with Ward, and folks got a bit salty about it. Not quite Infinity War-level saltiness, but enough that R&D realized they should dial it back.

TLDR: Ward is a "meh but sometimes relevant" tax in Limited that's way more terrifying in Constructed (where every single mana matters). Ward is a real deterrent but can be used in fun, balanced ways. Ward + is basically a "back off, peasant" sign that might as well read, "I have hexproof, but I'm giving you a courtesy handshake before I say no."

So...Is Ward Replacing Hexproof and Shroud?

The short answer is not exactly, but also sort of. The best way I can put it is to think of Ward as a delightful cousin to hexproof and shroud. They all come from the same big dysfunctional family of "Don't you dare point that Fireball at me," but each does it in a slightly different way.

• Shroud: "No one can target me. Not even me. Huh."
• Hexproof: "You can target me, but no one else can."
• Ward: "Sure, you can try to target me...if you're okay with paying a toll. It's not that high. Right? Right?! Well, actually, maybe it is."

Wizards has since indicated that true Hexproof is now mostly reserved for conditional or niche cases. So this means that while we will still see the occasional gem like Avabruck Caretaker letting you and you alone target your unstoppable beaters, for the most part, Ward is the modern design space for "protect my creature from nonsense, but not so thoroughly that my opponents want to flip the table."

Why Ward Is the Protective Mechanic We Didn't Know We Needed

I'll be the first to admit that while the Ward mechanic might not be perfect--sometimes it feels just as annoying as hexproof, especially if the cost is a mile high--it does offer something unique in Magic's design: a semblance of interactivity. You can kill the creature, you can bounce it, you can do something...if you're willing to pay the price. Conversely, your Warded creature can't just be unilaterally removed for free. There's a cost, a dance, a negotiation. And if you're a chaos goblin at heart like me, then that's where the real fun lies.

And that's it for this Mechanics Overview Segment. As always, happy brewing, and don't forget to pack a little extra mana (or life...or creatures) the next time you're gearing up to annihilate some Ward-ed-up creatures. Or you can just let that threat live. Who knows? I'll leave that decision up to you--and your opponent who's about to untap with their Sauron, the Dark Lord.