Ward of Piety MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 2 |
| Rarity | Uncommon |
| Type | Enchantment — Aura |
| Abilities | Enchant |
| Released | 2005-02-04 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Betrayers of Kamigawa |
| Set code | BOK |
| Number | 28 |
| Frame | 2003 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Tim Hildebrandt |
Key Takeaways
- Casting Ward of Piety at instant speed gives players reactive flexibility to shield their creatures.
- Discard requirement of Ward of Piety challenges players to balance protection with hand economy.
- Ward of Piety’s enchantment versatility makes it a resilient meta-relevant choice for players.
Text of card
: The next 1 damage that would be dealt to enchanted creature this turn is dealt to target creature or player instead.
Reluctant to strike at the kami directly, some kitsune trained in more passive fighting techniques.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Ward of Piety provides a way to protect your key creatures from targeted removal. This not only preserves the creatures on your board but effectively negates an opponent’s removal spell, potentially leading to card advantage if they’ve spent resources trying to deal with your threats.
Resource Acceleration: Although not directly generating additional resources, Ward of Piety can help you maintain a solid presence on the board by safeguarding your mana dorks or other creatures with abilities that contribute to resource acceleration. By keeping these creatures around longer, you can effectively ramp up your mana and cast more significant spells earlier.
Instant Speed: The ability to cast Ward of Piety at instant speed provides you with flexibility. You can wait until the last possible moment to protect a creature, perhaps even in response to an opponent’s spell. This allows you to keep up mana for other instant speed interactions, ensuring you use your resources most efficiently and reactively in the game.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: One notable drawback of Ward of Piety is its discard requirement, forcing players to weigh the protective benefits against their hand’s valuable cards. This can often result in a difficult choice, especially when operating with a limited number of cards.
Specific Mana Cost: Ward of Piety demands a precise mana configuration to cast, needing white mana that might not always be readily available in multi-colored or splash decks, making it a situational pick and potentially a dead card in hand.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With its mana cost being on the higher side for its effect, players might find it less appealing compared to other protection spells. Better alternatives might offer more versatile or cost-effective solutions, making Ward of Piety a less optimal choice in competitive play.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Ward of Piety adds a layer of protection to key creatures within your deck, which can be pivotal in preserving your board state against targeted removal, a common threat in many MTG games.
Combo Potential: This enchantment has the potential to be part of intricate combinations that can divert harmful spells or abilities aimed at crucial, combo-enabling creatures, thereby maintaining your strategic setup and progression towards victory.
Meta-Relevance: With a metagame that’s constantly evolving, having a card like Ward of Piety offers a flexible defense mechanism. As control decks and removal spells often populate the competitive scenes, this enchantment can prove to be an essential addition to your contemporary arsenal.
How to beat
Ward of Piety is a unique card that presents an intriguing challenge on the battlefield. To effectively navigate around this protective enchantment in the game of Magic: The Gathering, players should focus on advancing their strategies that bypass or overcome the protection it offers. Notably, spells that do not target, such as mass removal or global effects, can circumvent Ward of Piety’s shield.
Similarly, employing abilities that don’t single out individual cards will smooth the path towards maintaining control. It’s essential to keep a well-rounded deck with a blend of targeted and non-targeted measures to prepare for encounters with obstacles like Ward of Piety. Alternatively, tapping into enchantment removal options available within your deck, like Disenchant or Naturalize, could dismantle the Ward’s defense, allowing your strategy to proceed uninterrupted.
Understanding the nuance of your deck’s capacity to handle various threats is key. Adapting to the gameplay by leveraging both targeted and untargeted spells will ensure that protective enchantments such as Ward of Piety do not derail your path to victory on the magical plane.
Cards like Ward of Piety
Ward of Piety is an intriguing defensive enchantment in Magic: The Gathering, bearing similarity to a suite of protective spells. Comparable to the well-known Pacifism, both cards aim to mitigate threats by restricting opposing creatures’ capabilities. While Pacifism outright prevents a creature from attacking or blocking, Ward of Piety provides a more flexible approach, allowing you to redirect incoming harm to a different creature of your choosing.
In terms of flexibility, Shelter is another spell that can offer both protection and a card-drawing opportunity. Although Shelter only provides temporary protection as an instant compared to the persistent effect of Ward of Piety, it includes the added benefit of replacing itself in your hand. Another related card is the aura-based Faith’s Fetters, which not only neutralizes a creature’s ability to attack or block but can also disable activated abilities and grant you life, at a higher cost.
Evaluating Ward of Piety within the context of MTG’s broad array of defensive strategies, it holds a unique position. It offers ongoing creature protection with a strategic twist that can adapt to the ever-changing demands of the battlefield, making it a versatile tool in enchantment-focused decks.
Cards similar to Ward of Piety by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Ward of Piety MTG card by a specific set like Betrayers of Kamigawa, 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 Piety 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 Piety has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Ward of Piety card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2005-02-01 | Redirected damage retains its information. For example, your opponent attacks you with Slith Firewalker (which reads, in part, “Whenever Slith Firewalker deals combat damage to a player, put a +1/+1 counter on it.”) and you block with a creature enchanted with Ward of Piety. If you activate Ward of Piety, targeting your opponent, the Slith’s ability triggers during the combat damage step and it gets a +1/+1 counter. It’s still combat damage. |
