this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2026
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Spoilers
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What does ward do?
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.
Ok, well at least for a cost is kinda easy to pay.
Not super easy, actually. It gives your other creatures that ward as well, so losing 10% of your life every time you target something against a red deck adds up.
Nowhere to run is legal though, so hopefully that can counter it if it becomes a problem.
But this is going to be targeted immediately. Best case scenario, you end equal in cards and lose just 2 lifes to it. If the cost were mana, the tempo would make it harder to remove.
"Opponent discards a card and loses 2 life" for 1R is not horrible. No idea if burn is anywhere near the meta but if it is this is gonna be in there.
Worst case, against a deck with no counters and no creature interaction it's a bear that you can side out game 2.
Notably, because the ward ability counters spells, you can just decline to pay ward costs if your spells can't be countered (like maybe you control your own Hexing Squelcher).