Ward of Lights MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 2 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Enchantment — Aura |
| Abilities | Enchant |
| Released | 1996-10-08 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Mirage |
| Set code | MIR |
| Number | 47 |
| Frame | 1997 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Mike Dringenberg |
Key Takeaways
- It ensures board control by protecting key creatures, offering an edge in maintaining presence.
- Delivers instant speed flexibility, enabling responses at pivotal moments during match play.
- Demands careful hand management due to its discard requirement, influencing strategic depth.
Guide to Flash card ability
Explore the dynamic Flash ability in Magic: The Gathering (MTG), a feature that allows you to cast spells at lightning speed, often leaving your opponents reeling and your strategy several steps ahead. This versatile ability can turn the tide of a game, providing the element of surprise and tactical advantage. It places a premium on timing and foresight, transforming an ordinary deck into a formidable arsenal of instant threats and responses.
Text of card
You may choose to play Ward of Lights as an instant; if you do, bury it at end of turn. Enchanted creature gains protection from a color of your choice. The protection granted by Ward of Lights does not bury Ward of Lights.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: While Ward of Lights doesn’t draw cards itself, it allows you to protect key creatures from being targeted by spells or abilities, which can help maintain your board presence and indirectly contribute to card advantage. Additionally, if enchanting opponent’s creatures for strategic reasons, it can disrupt their game plan, providing you with an upper hand.
Resource Acceleration: Even though Ward of Lights isn’t a direct source of resource acceleration, by safeguarding your mana-producing creatures, it ensures a steady flow of resources. This protection can be critical in maintaining the pace of your deck against control strategies that aim to destabilize your mana base.
Instant Speed: The instant speed nature of Ward of Lights offers you flexibility to respond to threats during your opponent’s turn. Whether it’s saving a creature from removal or surprising an opponent during combat, the ability to cast Ward of Lights at instant speed makes it a versatile tool in any game situation.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Ward of Lights demands that a player has a card in hand to discard, potentially depleting their hand size and leaving them with fewer options on subsequent turns.
Specific Mana Cost: This enchantment asks for a specific color of mana to cast. For those running multicolor decks, this can pose a challenge when the necessary mana color isn’t available at the right time.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: While Ward of Lights offers protection, its casting cost is somewhat expensive given the level of effect, which only targets a single creature. Players may find comparable protections at lower mana costs.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Ward of Lights can serve as a flexible tool in protecting your key creatures across a variety of deck archetypes. Its ability to grant protection from the color of your choice until end of turn makes it adaptable to changing board states.
Combo Potential: This card can be integral to combos, safeguarding combo pieces from targeted removal or allowing them to bypass potential blockers with its color protection feature.
Meta-Relevance: Given the prevalence of single-color removal spells in many current metagames, Ward of Lights offers a cost-effective way to ensure your critical creatures survive through your opponents’ turns.
How to beat
Ward of Lights is an enchantment card that can both protect and surprise in the world of Magic: The Gathering. It offers flexibility by potentially safeguarding your creatures against specific colors of spells or blocking abilities, which can turn the tide of a match. When facing this card, one must adapt their strategy to overcome its benefits.
To effectively beat Ward of Lights, players may consider using colorless spells, as these are not affected by the ward’s protection. Consider using artifacts or Eldrazi spells which do not specify a color and can therefore bypass the protective barrier that Ward of Lights provides. Another strategy is to introduce cards that can remove enchantments from the battlefield. Naturalize and Disenchant are classic examples, offering a cost-efficient way to clean the board from problematic enchantments. Keep in mind the card type – instants or sorceries – as having the flexibility to react during your opponent’s turn can be critically advantageous.
Ultimately, while Ward of Lights presents an obstacle, players can outmaneuver its effects by broadening their deck’s arsenal with colorless spells or enchantment removal abilities, thus preserving the balance of power on the battlefield.
Cards like Ward of Lights
Ward of Lights stands as a distinctive protective enchantment within Magic: The Gathering, akin to other spells that offer safeguarding abilities. It finds a comparable card in the form of Alexi’s Cloak, as both provide the all-important shroud to a creature. However, Ward of Lights has a versatile edge with the option to change targets each upkeep, granting strategic flexibility that Alexi’s Cloak lacks due to its permanent commitment to a single creature.
Another parallel can be drawn with cards like Shielding Plax which similarly confers the benefit of untargetability to creatures and even offers a card draw upon entering the battlefield. What makes Ward of Lights unique is its transient yet renewable protection, contrasting with Shielding Plax’s persisting yet static shield.
Essentially, while several cards share the theme of defending creatures, Ward of Lights is exceptional with its adaptive and reusable nature, situating it as an interesting choice for players looking to protect key creatures each turn in Magic: The Gathering.
Cards similar to Ward of Lights by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Ward of Lights MTG card by a specific set like Mirage, 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 Ward of Lights and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Ward of Lights has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Premodern | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Ward of Lights card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2009-10-01 | The sacrifice occurs only if you cast it using its own ability. If you cast it using some other effect (for instance, if it gained flash from Vedalken Orrery), then it won’t be sacrificed. |
