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InMagic: The Gathering’sEdge of Eternities, faster-than-light travel helps the various cultures of the Sothera system mingle, trade, or even wage war. By slipping into the chaos wall and emerging elsewhere in the universe, traveling vast distances in a short amount of time is an everyday occurrence.
In-game, this speed is best reflected by the warp mechanic. Warping lets you cast a spell quicker than normal, but with the cost that it’ll disappear at the end of your turn. If you can master it, warping can be a frightfully powerful mechanic. If not, you might just be stranded in deep space.
What Is Warp?
Warp is analternative casting costthat was first introduced in 2025’s Edge of Eternities. When playing a card with warp from your hand, istead of paying the regular casting cost found in the top right corner of the card, you can pay thelisted warp costin the rules text.
While this is almost alwayscheaper than casting normally, it comes with one significant downside: if you cast a permanent spell for its warp cost, itexiles at the end of the turn. You can then play the cardfrom exile for its regular costfor as long as it remains exiled.
In a lot of ways, warp is similar to an existing mechanic,dash. But instead of bouncing back to your hand at the end of the turn, it goes into exile instead. Creatures with warp alsodon’t gain haste, and won’t be able to attack on their one turn in play unless they’re like Red Tiger Mechan and have haste already.
Casting a spell with warp follows all the regular rules of casting the spell; you can only warp a card at instant speedif it has flash. If the spell is countered, it willgo to your graveyardand never hit exile.
Crucially, like cards withAdventureson them, you can only cast a spell from exileif it was exiled due to the warp ability -if the card was exiled in any other way, youcannot play the card later on.
How To Use Warp
While dash is a mechanic that wants you to get things into play as quickly as possible regardless of the downside,warp is more about having tools available to you. When assessing a warp card, treat them almost like instants or sorceries instead of as creatures - a buff you get for a single turn that helps you advance your board state.
For instance, if you’re about to make a big play with a powerful enter trigger, it might be better to wait until you can pay two more mana towarp in Starfield Vocalist first to double the triggers. Alternatively, you might keep a Starbreach Whale in your opening handdespite its expensive cost, simply because two mana to surveil two with a warp isn’t bad.
As warping counts as casting from outside your hand, it triggers bothDoctor Who’s paradox keyword, and commanders like Prosper, Tomb-Bound.
Warping can also be used tokeep cards away from your opponent. If they’re casting lots of hand destruction, keeping a spicy card like Mechanozoa in exile where your opponent can’t touch itensures you always have a spell to cast, even with nothing in your hand.
The Best Cards With Warp
The sky is the limit with how powerful warp can be, with just about any enter trigger being a good candidate for being included in a warp card in the future. There are a few already revealed worth keeping an eye out for, though.
Starfield Shepherd
Five mana for a 3/2 with flying isn’t great, but two mana for a way to go search for anEsper Sentinel, Blood Artist, Mother of Runes, Stonecoil Serpent, or Walking Ballistais excellent.
Add to that the fact that white is the colour most tiedto blinking, and you have an Angel you can flicker every turn to get more and more low-cost creatures out into play.
Starfield Vocalist
Starfield Vocalist’s ability todouble any enter triggers under your controlmakes it one you’d definitely want to keep around longer than a single turn, but warping it just as you’re about to play a big effect is definitely a good play.
The tricky thing about this card is timing: having to pay two mana before casting an impactful spell couldthrow off your mana curveif you’re not careful, making this one you’d be better off holding until the late game than casting as soon as you have enough to warp.
Anticausal Vestige
Anticausal Vestige’s ability is different to most warp spells, in that it triggerswhen it leaves the battlefieldrather than enters. TypicalEldrazi, always having to be awkward. Regardless, the ability to put anything into play from your hand for free, provided you have more lands than its mana value, is a terrifying thing to play against.
In fact, this is almost a creature you won’t want to cast from exile. Warping for four mana ensures it’ll leave the battlefield and trigger at the end of turn, while there’s a chance it could stay stuck in play if you pay full whack. Unless youflicker it, that is.
