Timeless Witness MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 4 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost4
RarityUncommon
TypeCreature — Human Shaman
Abilities Eternalize
Power 2
Toughness 1

Key Takeaways

  1. Timeless Witness provides card advantage and resource acceleration, crucial for maintaining a strong hand.
  2. The card demands specific mana and has a high cost, potentially limiting its deck versatility.
  3. Despite some drawbacks, its graveyard recursion ability makes it a strategic inclusion for many players.

Text of card

When Timeless Witness enters the battlefield, return target card from your graveyard to your hand. Eternalize (, Exile this card from your graveyard: Create a token that's a copy of it, except it's a 4/4 black Zombie Human Shaman with no mana cost. Eternalize only as a sorcery.)

Intent: We'd like to re-imagine the Eternal Witness as an initiate on Amonkhet.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: The ability of Timeless Witness to return a card from your graveyard to your hand grants you significant flexibility and maintains your hand size, which is crucial for outpacing your opponent in resources.

Resource Acceleration: Timeless Witness enables you to recycle key spells or land cards, effectively accelerating your resources and ensuring you’re not falling behind on essential plays.

Instant Speed: While Timeless Witness itself may not be an instant, it pairs well with instant-speed reanimation spells, allowing you to bring it back to the battlefield at the most opportune times and maximizing its potential impact on the game.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Timeless Witness offers the ability to return a card from your graveyard to your hand, this advantage comes at the cost of discarding another card if you use its eternalize ability. This can set you back in terms of card advantage, especially in a tight game where every resource counts.

Specific Mana Cost: Timeless Witness demands both green mana and a total of four mana to cast. This requirement can be restrictive for multicolored decks that may not consistently have the necessary green mana sources available at the right time, thus limiting its versatility in a variety of deck builds.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of four mana, Timeless Witness sits at a higher end for creatures with similar effects. In a game where tempo can be critical, using that amount of mana in the early to mid-game phase might not be the most efficient play, as there are other cards in the same mana range that could affect the board state more immediately.


Reasons to Include Timeless Witness in Your Collection

Versatility: Timeless Witness provides flexibility to various deck archetypes, offering a great blend of graveyard recursion and a solid creature presence on board. Whether in a dedicated graveyard strategy or as value in green creature decks, it can be a staple.

Combo Potential: This card is a key component in combos centered around recurring permanent cards from the graveyard. Its Eternalize ability further allows it to come back for a second act, excelling in long-game scenarios and synergizing with self-mill strategies.

Meta-Relevance: With an evolving game landscape that often emphasizes resource utilization and long-term advantages, Timeless Witness holds up by delivering consistent value, ensuring that important spells or creatures can be replayed, thus maintaining its relevance in the changing meta.


How to beat

Timeless Witness presents itself as a valuable asset in Magic: The Gathering due to its unique Eternalize ability, allowing players to bring back a card from their graveyard. This green creature has the potential to turn the tide of a game by recasting pivotal spells or vexing creatures that had previously been dealt with.

Despite its utility, overcoming the resilience of Timeless Witness can be approached strategically. Graveyard disruption is key — cards that exile cards from the opponent’s graveyard, such as Scavenging Ooze, can neutralize the advantage provided by Timeless Witness before it has a chance to use Eternalize. Efficient removal spells are crucial as well. Being able to deal with Timeless Witness promptly upon its first entry to the battlefield will limit your opponent’s ability to maximize its value. Cards like Rest in Peace can even prevent it from returning at all, ensuring that your opponent won’t be able to benefit from its Eternalize ability.

In conclusion, focusing on preemptive graveyard control and being swift with removal strategies are effective measures to mitigate the impact of Timeless Witness in your MTG matches. Prioritizing these tactics can help you maintain the upper hand against decks that rely on this versatile creature.


BurnMana Recommendations

Mastering MTG entails understanding the intricacies of cards like Timeless Witness and their role within your deck’s ecosystem. Whether it’s pulling ahead with resource acceleration, strategizing around graveyard synergy, or seeking resilient creatures for the long haul, Timeless Witness is a versatile addition that enriches any player’s arsenal. Delve deeper into the nuances of deck building, explore the metagame shifts, and fine-tune your strategies to maintain an edge in your MTG journey. Ready to make the most of Timeless Witness’s potential and discover more ways to reign supreme in your games? Visit BurnMana for insights and guides that will help you elevate your play.


Cards like Timeless Witness

Timeless Witness finds its place in the Magic: The Gathering landscape of creature cards with the ability to return cards from the graveyard to your hand. It draws an immediate parallel to Eternal Witness, a fan favorite for its similar effect. Both creatures reach into the graveyard, but Timeless Witness offers the Eternalize ability, allowing it to come back as a 4/4 token with the same effect. This gives it a late-game advantage over Eternal Witness, which lacks this resilience.

Another counterpart is Tarmogoyf, a creature card that grows stronger with the types of cards in all graveyards. While it does not offer the utility of direct card return, its potential to become a formidable threat on the battlefield shares the theme of leveraging graveyard contents. Then there’s Greenwarden of Murasa, an imposing figure capable of retrieving not one, but two cards from the graveyard throughout its field presence. However, its higher mana cost and the absence of the Eternalize mechanic make Timeless Witness a more flexible choice in decks that capitalize on graveyard play.

Assessing creature cards with graveyard interaction, Timeless Witness stands out for its balanced comeback potential and utility, marking it as a card not just with versatility but also with the tactical depth that MTG players appreciate.

Eternal Witness - MTG Card versions
Tarmogoyf - MTG Card versions
Greenwarden of Murasa - MTG Card versions
Eternal Witness - Fifth Dawn (5DN)
Tarmogoyf - Future Sight (FUT)
Greenwarden of Murasa - Battle for Zendikar Promos (PBFZ)

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Scarwood Bandits - MTG Card versions
Carnivorous Plant - MTG Card versions
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War Mammoth - MTG Card versions
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Lhurgoyf - MTG Card versions
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Ulvenwald Oddity // Ulvenwald Behemoth - MTG Card versions
Fungusaur - MTG Card versions
Viridian Lorebearers - MTG Card versions
Monkey Monkey Monkey - MTG Card versions
Giant Spider - Tenth Edition (10E)
Marsh Viper - The Dark (DRK)
Scarwood Bandits - The Dark (DRK)
Carnivorous Plant - Fourth Edition Foreign Black Border (4BB)
Erhnam Djinn - Pro Tour Collector Set (PTC)
War Mammoth - Introductory Two-Player Set (ITP)
Aurochs - Masters Edition II (ME2)
Lhurgoyf - World Championship Decks 1997 (WC97)
Jackalope Herd - Exodus (EXO)
Rootwater Alligator - Exodus (EXO)
Golden Bear - Portal Second Age (P02)
Argothian Swine - Urza's Saga (USG)
Elvish Piper - Ninth Edition (9ED)
Erithizon - Mercadian Masques (MMQ)
Saber Ants - Mercadian Masques (MMQ)
Skyshroud Cutter - Nemesis (NEM)
Ulvenwald Oddity // Ulvenwald Behemoth - Magic Online Promos (PRM)
Fungusaur - Eighth Edition (8ED)
Viridian Lorebearers - Fifth Dawn (5DN)
Monkey Monkey Monkey - Unhinged (UNH)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Timeless Witness MTG card by a specific set like Modern Horizons 2 and Modern Horizons 2, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Timeless Witness and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Timeless Witness Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2021-06-18 and 2021-08-26. Illustrated by Deruchenko Alexander.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12021-06-18Modern Horizons 2MH2 3582015normalblackDeruchenko Alexander
22021-06-18Modern Horizons 2MH2 52015tokenblackDeruchenko Alexander
32021-06-18Modern Horizons 2MH2 1792015normalblackDeruchenko Alexander
42021-08-26Jumpstart: Historic HorizonsJ21 6542015normalblackDeruchenko Alexander

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Timeless Witness has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
CommanderLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderRestricted
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
GladiatorLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Timeless Witness card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2021-06-18 If a creature card with eternalize is put into your graveyard during your main phase, you'll have priority immediately afterward. You can activate its eternalize ability before any player can try to exile it.
2021-06-18 Once you've activated an eternalize ability, the card is immediately exiled. Opponents can't try to stop the ability by exiling the card.
2021-06-18 The token copies exactly what was printed on the original card and nothing else, except the characteristics specifically modified by eternalize. It doesn't copy any information about the object the card was before it was put into your graveyard.
2021-06-18 The token is a Zombie in addition to its other types and is black instead of its other colors. Its base power and toughness are 4/4. It has no mana cost, and thus its mana value is 0. These are copiable values of the token that other effects may copy.

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