Over the past few days, leaks from Edge of Eternities have been trickling over the internet. These, have mostly been some uncommons from the set, but today, an absolutely massive leak has hit the scene. This not only confirms that Eldrazi are in Edge of Eternities, but it also introduces a new Eldrazi-themed keyword, invoking some new shenanigans.
That is, if it’s all real, at least. Because this is a leak, there is a chance that it could be fake, but the card certainly looks real. As such, we’ll refer to the card as if it were real for the rest of this article. If you would rather wait until Edge of Eternities’ official spoiler season begins in just a few weeks before seeing any cards, consider this your spoiler warning.
Anticaustal Vestige
Anticausal Vestige, in addition to announcing the presence of Eldrazi in Edge of Eternities, also showcases a new mechanic. Warp functions a little similarly to the Adventure mechanic. You can cast Vestige for its cheaper Warp cost, have it go to exile at the next end step, and cast it again for its full cost from exile later on.
As you may expect, Anticausal Vestige has an ability that triggers on the card leaving which scales the more resources you have. Essentially, you can cheat permanents into play depending on how many lands you have. Notably, cheating lands into play is fair game here, so Anticausal Vestige’s Warp will, at worst, draw a card and ramp into itself, provided you don’t miss a land drop, which is a decent floor.
More often than not, however, you can use Vestige as a way to get other cards that might have problematic casting costs into play without worrying about the mana. Even if you’re just putting something into play you could cast anyway, you’re essentially drawing a card at no cost. Considering that there’s a payoff attached to all this, Anticausal Vestige seems very strong.
While Vestige is already good at four mana, it improves significantly when you don’t use the Warp effect. Now, you get to put a threat into play that replaces itself once dealt with. Even exiling Anticausal Vestige doesn’t get around its replacement trigger. Leaving the battlefield is a really strange trigger that hasn’t existed much in MTG for good reason, as you’re about to see.
This is an incredibly powerful card when used fairly, but it is extremely easy to break. If you can continually return Anticausal Vestige to your hand, the card goes infinite incredibly easily.
All Bets Off
Anticausal Vestige becomes incredibly scary if you’re able to bounce it back to your hand for free. This will still trigger the Vestige since it simply has to leave the battlefield and, if you have six lands in play, Vestige can put itself back.
Once you get to this state, you have infinite card draw thanks to Vestige’s ability. You also have the ability to put anything with appropriate mana value into play. You can simply draw your whole deck and play a Thassa’s Oracle to win the game.
After doing some digging, Cowardice is the easiest way to pull this combo off. Partner Anticausal Vestige with Cowardice and a free activated targeting ability like Shuko or Lightning Greaves, and you can bounce Anticausal Vestige over and over. There are likely other loops available with cards like Cloudstone Curio, but they require more setup. Fortunately, it seems that bouncing a creature for free over and over is not as easy as it seems.
While this can only really be pulled off in Commander, Anticausal Vestige is also capable of creating massive value chains when being flickered. Use an effect like Flickerwisp to blink the creature, and use its leaves ability to play another Blink creature. That blink creature will reset the sequence until you run out of permanents to cheat into play.
In Standard, you could try this card in a Pixie deck that tries to go taller. Using instant-speed bounce effects like Sunpearl Kirin could protect your Vestige from removal while generating card advantage. This is, admittedly, the weakest synergy mentioned so far, but it is a new tool for a Standard toolbox that already has a decent pedigree.
Perhaps more interesting is Anticausal Vestige’s synergy with Up the Beanstalk. Warp allows you to cast the creature for four, but you’ll still draw a card from Beanstalk since this creature’s mana value is six. Sadly, the card that comes into play from Anticausal Vestige will not trigger Up the Beanstalk because it isn’t being cast, but this is still fantastic.
An Incredibly Powerful Eldrazi
Anticausal Vestige looks like an absolute slam dunk for a multitude of different Commander decks, and certainly seems strong enough to see Standard play. That said, should the bans that take place next week fail to significantly impact the Standard, this might be too slow.
Notably, a recent side story in Edge of Eternities just revealed a dead Eldrazi Titan, which basically confirms that Eldrazi are appearing in this set in some way or another. With all the other telltale signs that these reality-warping beings were returning, Anticausal Vestige’s appearance in Edge of Eternities seems very believable.
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