Wizards of the Coast has unbanned and rebalanced Teferi, Time Raveler in Magic: The Gathering’s Historic format. This is the first time that Wizards has used the new rebalancing feature of Alchemy to unban a card.
Teferi, Time Raveler
T3feri, as he is often referred to, has been rebalanced in three ways:
- His mana cost has been increased by one generic mana up to 2WU
- His starting loyalty has been increased by one up to five
- His static ability has been changed to only impact opponents while it is your turn (rather than all the time)
Teferi, Time Raveler as printed (left) and rebalanced (right).
“We are aiming to move Teferi, Time Raveler away from a generically strong card to a specialized anti-control tool,” Wizards said. “Increasing the mana cost will make Teferi less effective at controlling the board, and the new static won’t incidentally stop cards like Finale of Promise and Dreadhorde Arcanist from working.”
Teferi, Time Raveler has a long history of being “a generically strong card,” as Wizards put it. Its ability to combine card advantage and board impact with its -3 and prevent your opponent from interacting at instant speed resulted in it getting banned in Historic (until today’s unbanning), Standard, and Brawl.
Additional Alchemy Changes
Teferi, Time Raveler wasn’t the only card to receive Alchemy rebalances today. Wizards also made significant changes to many venture cards from Adventures in the Forgotten Realms in order “to make decks centered around the venture keyword action less clunky and more reliable at winning games.”
For example, Acererak the Archlich no longer gives your opponent the choice to sacrifice a create to prevent the creation of a Zombie token.
Acererak the Archlich as printed (left) and rebalanced (right).
Plenty of other cards received changes, as well, such as Assemble from Parts, Cloister Gargoyle, Dungeon Descent, Ellywick Tubmlestrum, Fate’s Reversal, and more!
As a reminder, Alchemy changes are limited to digital-only formats like Alchemy, Historic, and Brawl.