Ever since its inception back in 2021, Alchemy has always been a controversial format. The existence of non-paper playable cards that featured impossible mechanics was certainly a big pill to swallow. Sadly, unlike Universes Beyond, player sentiment around Alchemy hasn’t dramatically improved over the years.
If anything, new Alchemy MTG cards have only gotten more frustrating, as so many trend toward being paper playable nowadays. With small tweaks, new cards like Thendar, the Overminer could easily be printed on paper, or at least proxied into Commander. In Alchemy: Edge of Eternities, Wizards even made a brand new five-colour legendary Sliver for MTG Arena players to enjoy.
On top of just making new and exciting cards, Alchemy is also famed, and hated, for rebalancing cards. Thanks to the interconnectedness of formats, this has often frustrated players, but it’s not all bad news. Recently, Wizards of the Coast unveiled a new wave of rebalancing, including fixes to the much-maligned Cori-Steel Cutter.
Cori-Steel Cutter Rebalanced
Outside of perhaps Vivi Ornitier, who is running amok right now, Cori-Steel Cutter is easily the most infamous MTG card from 2025. In its original form, this card is an absolute monster of a value engine, providing a solid buff and scaling tokens on top. While it was banned out of Standard, Cori-Steel Cutter still sees play in Pioneer, Modern, and even Legacy.
Now, in Alchemy, Brawl, and Historic, Cori-Steel Cutter has had its wings clipped. To hopefully make it more balanced, this card will no longer give +1/+1 and Trample. Now, you’re just left with Haste and the Monk Token generating ability, which is still pretty strong. Ideally, Wizards hopes this rebalanced version will still be playable, but not nearly as broken as before.
The big difference maker here will be Trample, as now chump blocking is on the table. That said, while this is an effective strategy, Prowess decks may simply pivot to clearing the board with more removal. Hopefully, should this revised Cori-Steel Cutter become a problem, Wizards can simply rebalance this MTG card again in the future.
A Pair of Typal Nerfs
Unlike Standard, much of the Alchemy metagame is comprised of typal archetypes. Supercharged by Alchemy’s digital exclusive cards, creature types like Bats, Birds, and Mice are all top-tier contenders. Now, however, two of these archetypes are getting hit with some pretty serious downgrades.
“Changed: Whenever a creature you control with flying enters
Wizards of the Coast
To: Whenever another creature you control with flying enters”
For starters, Awestruck Cygnet is no longer going to trigger when it enters the battlefield. This might seem like a small change, but it effectively removes the synergy that used to exist with Mockingbird. Previously, you only needed to play Awestruck Cygnet into Mockingbird, and you’d have two 4/4 creatures with Flying and Vigilance.
While not insurmountable, this explosive start is incredibly difficult to deal with, as it requires multiple pieces of removal. Now, this combo is essentially dead in the water, as you’ll need to play three other creatures with flying. Sadly for anyone who enjoyed this synergy, this rebalance is likely going to leave it dead in the water.
“Changed: Whenever one or more Mice you control attack
Wizards of the Coast
To: Whenever Recruit Instructor attacks”
Alongside Bird Typal decks, Mouse Typal is still alive and well in the Alchemy metagame. Despite repeated nerfs, this deck is still incredibly powerful, as Recruit Instructor, in particular, provided tons of value. When following up a turn one Mouse, Recruit Instructor would start a snowball effect that was especially difficult to beat.
Following this nerf, not only will Recruit Instructor be slower, but it’ll also have to put itself at risk. Due to its low stats, there’s a very good chance this card won’t survive combat, minimizing its potential massively. While this change is unlikely to put Mouse decks down for the count, it’s definitely a welcome balancing change.
Fixing Other Formats
In this latest wave of rebalances, Alchemy isn’t the only format that’s getting some love. Both Brawl and Historic are also seeing some important changes, which should make these formats more enjoyable. Brawl, in particular, is getting a much-needed change that should have happened long ago.
“Changed: Then put it onto the battlefield under your control.
Wizards of the Coast
To: At the beginning of your next end step, put it onto the battlefield under your control.”
In its original variant, Housemeld went against the spirit of Brawl. Thanks to the card’s wording, you could steal your opponent’s Commander using this card, which is incredibly unfun. This is something Wizards has expressly tried to avoid using the format’s ban list, which prevents playing cards like Drannith Magistrate.
Thankfully, this new rebalance fixes Housemeld’s likely unintended ability. Now, thanks to the extended stay in Exile, players will have the option to put their Commander back in the Command Zone. Hopefully, this should allow Housemeld to be used as intended, as a fairly unique creature-stealing control card.
“Changed: You may put a Vampire creature card from your hand onto the battlefield.
Wizards of the Coast
To: You may put a Vampire creature card with mana value 6 or less from your hand onto the battlefield.”
Moving on over to Historic, Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord is finally getting a very welcome fix. While Sorin’s synergy with Vein Ripper is well known, in Historic, he’s used to cheat in Saint Elenda. Offering a utility-filled Spellbook for free, and extra bodies if you gain life, Saint Elenda is an absolute value machine and a huge turn-three problem.
Now, Sorin simply can’t find Saint Elenda anymore. While you can still use Sorin to find Vein Ripper, he shouldn’t be nearly as scary as he used to be. Whether or not this will be enough to kill Sorin decks in Historic remains to be seen, but it’s certainly a major downgrade.
A Bunch of Buffs
Last, and honestly least, the latest Alchemy rebalances also include a series of smaller buffs. While these won’t have a massive impact on competitive play, making underplayed archetypes stronger is always nice. This is exactly what’s happening to Rats, which are getting a small but notable boost.
In this latest round of rebalancing, Shellfish Scholar is getting cheaper, albeit slightly weaker, while Thought Rattle now gains you life. Neither of these changes is likely to set the Alchemy meta alight, as they’re instead intended to make casual games more fun. Rat Typal players in Brawl might be happy about this, but it’s hardly meta-shaking.
The same is true of the change to Ribald Shanty, which has now reverted to its pre-nerf state. This change is intended to make it more fun in Brawl, Historic, and Timeless; however, it doesn’t really suit these formats. If it’s not easy to reach critical mass for your Chrous cards, this mechanic will be too slow for competitive play.
Lastly, Wizards of the Coast has strangely tweaked Speedbrood Stalker. Buffing its toughness at the cost of its power, Speedbrood Stalker should now be more useful against Alchemy’s aggressive metagame. While this is a welcome change, the reason for Wizards’ tweak here is rather surprising.
Rather than explicitly trying to balance the meta, Wizards noted how Speedbrood Stalker “has an exciting built-in minigame that is a good showcase of MTG Arena’s digital design space.” This makes it feel like Stalker is just a fun card that Wizards wants to show off more, which we’re not against, honestly. So long as it doesn’t break the format, having unique cards be more playable is no bad thing.
More Changes Soon?
While today’s changes should be good news for MTG Arena players, there’s one lingering worry. Since Universes Beyond sets don’t have Alchemy releases, it’s unclear when more rebalances will happen. Unlike bans, there’s not really a set schedule for Alchemy rebalances, so we’ll just have to see what happens.
Looking ahead, we can only hope that if any problems do arise, Wizards of the Coast will fix them quickly. Thankfully, we have seen this happen before, when cards like Cori-Steel Cutter was suspended in Alchemy, pending its new rebalance. Hopefully, this fast-acting trend can continue to allow Alchemy to be a fun, if unique, way to play MTG.
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