It’s all go in the world of MTG right now. The spoiler season for Final Fantasy is underway at long last, and MTG Arena is now enjoying the Pioneer format. As if that wasn’t enough for us to sink our collective teeth into, it seems Wizards has even more up their sleeves. Today, a series of new MTG Arena card changes have been announced for MTG Arena to combat dominant decks.
For better or worse, the decks that Wizards are tackling are currently the top performers in Alchemy. While we know Alchemy is hardly the most popular format in MTG, these relances do technically affect multiple formats. On top of this, Alchemy is worth paying attention to right now, thanks to Qualifier Weekend events.
Slow and Steady
In the latest MTG Arena announcement post, Wizards of the Coast revealed that four MTG Arena cards are getting major changes soon. Each one of these rebalances is due to come into effect tomorrow, May 13th, 2025. While Wizards didn’t give a concrete general philosophy for the bans, their reasoning was nonetheless clear from the small descriptions provided.
At their core, these bans aim to slow down the Alchemy metagame somewhat by clipping the best decks’ wings. Izzet Prowess, Orzhov Bounce, and Azorius Birds decks are each being hit by these latest rebalances. Hopefully, this should free up the metagame somewhat, allowing more unique archetypes to fight for wins.
Ribald Shanty
The change to Ribald Shanty is very simple at its core, but it may be devastating to the card’s playability. By simply increasing the card’s cost from R to 1R, Ribald Shanty is no longer a well-costed ultra-aggressive removal piece. Instead, this card is a moderately costed removal piece that takes some time to get going.
Even if you can get some good value out of it later, Ribald Shanty now starts worse than Lightning Strike. As you might expect, this may disincentivise a lot of Izzet Prowess decks from using this card. This, in turn, could massively hurt Hymn to the Ages at the same time. After all, it won’t have access to early Intensity generation anymore either.
As Wizards puts it, this change should stop these Chorus cards from being “ubiquitous in any deck in their color.” Whether or not this will stop the current winning streak of Izzet Prowess in general, however, remains to be seen. As its strength in Standard proves, this deck doesn’t need any fancy Alchemy tricks to get the job done.
Enduring Friendship
As mentioned, Ribalt Shanty isn’t the only Alchemy card getting tweaked to curb Izzet’s current power. Like Shanty, Enduring Friendship is also getting one generic mana more expensive, while also getting a toughness boost. While this should make Enduring Friendship slightly more survivable, it should certainly slow the deck’s roll.
Right now, Enduring Friendship is devastating when paired with Stormchaser’s Talent and Elusive Otter. For very little cost, you can get an army of Otters that get worringly strong thanks to Friendship’s buff. Now, it’ll take a little bit longer to get things going, but this shouldn’t crush the deck’s performance entirely.
Since Enduring Friendship is still a Glimmer with Double Team, it’s easy to stack these buffs over time. Potentially, this may pivot Izzet Otters decks into being a little more controlling and slower paced. That said, this threat could equally just be replaced, since Alchemy isn’t exactly lacking in aggro.
Naktamun Shines Again
Moving in a completely different direction, Naktamun Shines Again has been a staple of Orzhov Bounce decks since its introduction. Thanks to providing a perpetual buff to every creature in your deck, Naktamun Shines Again provides insane value. This is vital for both keeping your creatures alive and packing a punch.
In the new replace, Wizards of the Coast is looking to cut this ability’s effectiveness in half. Now, the cheap creatures in your deck will only get a +1/+0 buff instead of +1/+1. For better or worse, the card’s other abilities are untouched, so it’s still a value machine, even if slightly worse now.
According to Wizards, his change was made alongside the nerf to Ribald Shanty to stop Dollmaker decks running over the competition. Without this change, red decks would have basically no chance of stopping a buffed-up Naktamun deck. Hopefully, this change should keep the meta somewhat balanced, just a little bit slower.
Awestruck Cygnet
Last, but by no means least, Awestruck Cygnet is also getting a slight, but by no means insignificant nerf. As you can see above, the power of this card, or rather Radiant Swan, is only coming down by one point. This might not seem like much, but it’s actually a substantial hit to the game plan of Azorius Birds.
Typically, this deck wants to play Awestruck Cygnet and Mockingbird to hit Intensity 3 as fast as possible. After achieving this feat, you’ll have at least three 5/4 Radiant Swans, two of which can crash in immediately. This essentially puts your opponent on a two turn clock from as early as turn three.
Technically, this clock doesn’t change, as you’ll only need to hit with five 4/4 Radiant Swans to win now. After hitting with two on turn three, you should untap with three on turn four to win with. The difference now, however, is that your opponent only has to remove one of these Swans to give themselves another turn.
More Changes Soon?
Hopefully, this change should coincide with the other nerfs to give other Alchemy decks another turn to compete, at least. Thankfully, should these MTG Arena card changes end up causing more problems than they solve, Wizards can always rebalance more. Ideally, any follow-up changes will happen sooner rather than later, but we’ll have to see about that.
For better or worse, Wizards of the Coast doesn’t announce Alchemy changes in advance, unlike bans. Thanks to this, we’re just stuck waiting and playing the format until things suddenly change without warning. While this sounds scary, Alchemy changes are almost always for the better, so they’re well worth looking forward to.