I wasn’t so surprised by vigilance in blue. I’m more surprised I didn’t notice.

"Every color but blue can get 1U 2/2s." Very green thing to do there.

Vigilance felt so natural in Blue that I didn't even notice it happen. It just felt like it was always there.

Now, Islandhome, now there's a fine keyword.

On the notion of planar chaos, I would like to share this one idea that had bounced in my head: alternate reality unignited versions of the gatewatch, each relevant to a different path to their pivotal moments. Kytheon accepting the death of his allies and becoming Erebos' demigod, Liliana turning to herbological solutions to her brother's ailment rather than the necromantic shortcut, Nissa finding Ugin rather than an eldrazi and studying under him, Etc. Wishful thinking for a set that'll never exist.

I've always thought there is good unexplored design space with conditional psudo-vigilance. "When this creature is blocked, untap it" "When this creature deals combat damage to a player, untap it," "U: Untap this creature, use only during combat" "At the beginning of your turn, choose one: +2/+0, vigilance" But of course, as a spider I am always negative on blue getting better at creatures!~

Next thing you know, we’re gonna see 4/4 flying vigilance on creatures outside of Golgari!

I feel vigilance is mainly a White color key word but then it makes perfect sense that it is in the two allies of White; Green and Blue. It also seems to fit Blue's identity of seeking / knowing information thus being able to attack and still block due to intel.

Blue having vigilance feels extremely appropriate and I have been looking forward to it ever since I read it in an article by Mark Rosewater on the (then current )glossary of abilities and what colors have those abilities primarily, secundarily and very infrequently, mind you this was years ago. What I'm still looking forward to is when we get to have UW vigilance matter cards like we had GW vigilance matter cards in Ikoria.

Marauding Sphinx has definitely felt like the most pushed uncommon in limited, the vigilance pushes it trough the roof

I really like stun counters in blue, and to that end I also like blue tapping things. To that end especially in commander/multiplayer formats giving blue creatures the ability to tap creatures they fight and/or put stun counters on them depending on how strong of an effect you want seems like a nice choice. Then the natural blue combo is "block this and get temporarily locked down" or "don't block this and let me draw cards from enchantments/effects". This could give blue an actual "combat ideal" beyond just evasive creatures/bombs. White really wants to have robust armies, Red wants fast/cheap creatures to make fast value, Green wants the giant creature with trample to fight through anything, and Black wants make combat an eventuality with revives, -1/-1 effects, and sacrificial creatures. Blue doesn't really fit into this whole ideal of having a combat style besides "evasive" I guess.

I think Vigilance in blue fits but the issue is that it turns the color that's already the absolute best at digging for answers into one that can both attack and be defensive. That's a significant risk when buying a turn or two is often all blue needs to find the card it's looking for to turn the corner. When blue's the "I have answers" color and is dependent on another color for aggression it balances out with other risks (in limited it's about multi-color fixing, in constructed it's about needing to balance the answers and threats against an ever evolving metagame). When it can just be blue for answers as well as aggression plus defense then the other color becomes much more splashable and, thus, less of a risk. Which is, itself, a massive risk in the color of finding answers.

not sure abou vigi, since blue is so mysterious i think the adequate behaviour would be to use a keyword for stunning/tapping, use the tempo advantage that is so blue, there is a card in this set that stuns if tapped and taps if is untapped, to me, that's the way to go with blue.

I think a good way to print a looter at common would be to make you choose between looting and vigilance. Like it has vigilance but can loot only as a sorcery. Or it has vigilance and a tap ability that makes it so the next time it deals combat damage to a player this turn, you get to loot.

Coming into magic in OG Ravnica, Vigilance in Blue feels like.. It fits? Like Azorious kinda made Vigilance a Blue/White keyword to me so it's honestly more a case of "Oh, yeah I guess it wasn't really a Blue keyword until recently." because it would be on Azorious cards or playing Azorious you'd have access to vigilance cards because White was in the colour combo.

I will say I always like this insight into how wizards looks at fundamental building blocks of the game like color. I didn’t even really notice that much that blue got vigilance (probably because I had only just begun playing seriously when they did) but this insight helped me understand better how the design team looks at the color pie! Thx Gavin

blue being the 'doing a bunch of spells and abilities all the time color' with some of the weakest creatures, having a few that can attack, then still tap to do something, doesn't feel like it's wandering from the colors core

Fully agree that Planar Chaos would be a hard sell today, but I oh so love the "alternate universe" trope and wouldn't mind seeing it revisited. Funnily enough, March of the Machine kind of did this with the unlikely pairings, which I also adored

Blue had the "U: Untap this creature" abbility for years. Vigilance is simply a logical sidegrade of this abbility. Serra Sphinx has some amazing art btw.

Mechanically, I believe this move was perfect as Blue really loves what vigilance does for it. But flavorfully, I was a bit hesitant at first, but once you mentioned how Green also got the keyword and how they each got vigilance secondarily to White, then it made the flavor click into place in my head. So overall, I believe the decision is very sound and I'm glad we finally got here in the end.

Blue creatures already have great evasion to connect damage, they don’t need built-in defense.

Why did I immediately think of the Black-Green Serra Angel when i saw this topic?????? IYKYK

I haven't played the latest sets but I'm not surprised to see this happen. I always felt like Vigilance was a bit redundant with lifelink in white, they both affect the game state in the same way in that they allow you to attack in instead of having to hold back in losing/even situations. Lifelink is a bit better because it also makes it harder for the opponent to catch up when you're winning, so makes sense to spread vigilance to more colors. Honestly what's really needed is for white to get another keyword. Something that is thematically similar to banding or soulbond but without being so complicated/weird to interact with. That would make white more interesting to play.

I so appreciate getting an ear to the ground on the thoughts of the design team. It really helps to hear how deeply you guys are thinking about the game, and to get explanations for seemingly out of the box changes.

I think this one's a good choice. I guess just because I'm old, I thought Vigilance was *already* in blue because of Zephyr Falcon, so when it started showing up again, I didn't even register that anything had changed (I don't really *play* Blue so I never really noticed its absence, either, lol). Also, as an aside, it's really nice seeing more videos from you again!

Vigilance in blue is rather fitting, even more than in green. However, it has the issue of changing the game dynamic a lot if used more than sparingly.

Dude my mind went right to the sphinx!!! I loved that card!!! I've still got one sitting around somewhere

I think it's a testament to how good it fits that I didn't even notice the change.

I love your videos. Sooo interesting to listen to magic’s history and direction

The comment of Prowess being, in a way, at odds with izzet/spell heavy themes because it's more inclusive than just "instants and sorceries" is really interesting because of how in Wilds of Eldraine most recently, both Elusive Otter and Frolicking Familiar were printed. 1 using prowess, the other just instants and sorceries. I still run both in my Monastery Monk deck but I did notice the slight inconsistency when building it and wondered why that was.

I love it. Vigilance always felt more like a defensive ability to me so seeing it on blue makes sense to me.

The problem with Vigilance on 2-drop and 1-drop creatures is that that enables aggro decks which is not what blue should do. They can do tempo like with Delver of Secrets but that's about it.

Gavin continuing to hit us with the history lessons! 🔥

Yeah it should be in blue... It should not be in green (or at least be verry rare). Green has trample as it's main hability, haste and reach. It don't need vigilance as well.

I love this type of content please make more of it ❤

It also really makes perfect sense for the blue pumping creatures too, where being able to attack with your bonus damage (from casting spells, etc.) instead of either missing out on blocking or missing out on actually using your creature's bonus, which always feels bad.

Being a huge fan of slivers and collecting them all to use in my commander deck (with some being rotated in and out to keep it interesting), the blue vigilance of my Synchronous Sliver made it always seem like a secondary color for that ability. Though admittedly it was rare, I wasn't shocked to see it come into play with cards like Vhal, one of my favorite new commanders to play. I paired her with Clan Crafter, which has been a beautiful marriage.

Certainly helps the commander format and keeping blockers up. Rather see more temporary vigilance or ensuring sources of vigilance as payoff for a triggered ability: Example: whenever you cast your second instant or sorcery for the turn you may give vigilance to target creature

I don't mind the change at all. To be honest, I always felt that the whole "x keyword belongs to y color" thing was always a bit heavy-handed. Like yeah, it's a good way to mechanically represent the identity and flavor of a color. But many keywords represent general concepts that often could make a lot of sense in "wrong" colors given the right situations. Trample in blue is a great example, usually that'd be very "wrong", but blue has several leviathans and other giant sea monsters that totally make sense having trample, and some of them actually do! Yet in many of the custom card communities I visit, I often see people criticizing keyword choices for being the "wrong" color, even though it makes total sense for what the card is trying to be. So kudos to you guys for being willing to explore and continue to show the community that keywords can be used outside their home colors in the right context.

I didn't notice it until you pointed it out so ig it doesn't feel too wrong 😂

this felt like the right choice. like its the most fitting combat keyword that already exists that also works in pretty much any set so long as creatures are around to do combat

I feel robbed - my answer was "there still hasn't been one", having not kept up with or having had a chance to play OTJ yet >_

I gotta say I’m open to a lot of things but I kinda hate vigilance in blue mainly when paired with evasion as it almost always seems to be. Blue has the best card draw by miles, bounce spells, protection through countermagic and evasion for days with unblockability and flying. While I’m griping I should also mention it’s frustrating how much super efficient creature removal green has now. The bite effects everywhere at common that ALSO buff your creature should be higher rarity. Even with that there are now five uncommons or rares per pack with play boosters so the already powercrept cards are even more prevalent. I built a draft deck with only 5 commons in it, that really shouldn’t be possible. There used to be upsides and downsides to particular colors and they’ve all kind of been phased out which causes them to lose identity to me.

Vigilance as a word, not just as a mechanic, seems deeply blue

Some custom designers have been experimenting with blue menace, flavorfully it doesn't fit it fits in nicely mechanically. Blue has evasion and each set has a flying budget.

I love the addtional synergy of creatuers being able to attack and also use there tap abilities Blue is the color that should have the most effective tap abilities so instead of making them more directly powerful since things like looting and tap down effects are costed less aggressively than they used to, it holds up that my random 1/3 looter with like UUT: Tap a creature can also attack sometimes since that UU or whatever isn't always a great deal

The 1U 2/2 question got me. For some reason I thought it was like, 2017 or 2014 or something. I thought about it for a while and remembered that it was because of Falkenrath Reaver being a big deal of sorts when it came out as the first real bear in red, even though we'd had 2/2 RR cards for a while, and so I mixed that up with Blue, which hadn't gotten such a thing. It feels a little weird to see Vigilance in Blue, but I don't think there's anything wrong with it conceptually. It's certainly a more fun ability to spam than something like... Skulk... was. And I do think that as fun as Prowess could be it was a really weird ability to stick into sets at random. Vigilance is a commonly seen keyword that's almost always seen on only White creatures, and I think that it conceptually fits the connection between Blue and White very well - it just feels sensible for Blue to be a color that acts defensively even when it attacks. I do feel that it needs to be used with some caution to keep Blue's creatures from being too good at their job - the color still should have the weakest creatures overall - but I think it's a very elegant solution to making it easier to fill in set commons with the color without having to reinvent the wheel. If anything I think Vigilance makes more sense in Blue than it does in Green.

Vigilance fits perfectly. Other ideas are: 1) Keyword X for "creature blocking or blocked by this creature gets -X/-0". This allows blue's poorly stated creatures to play a bigger role in combat. 2) Keyword for "creature blocking or blocked by this creature gets tapped and a stun counter put on it". This can be hopefully be used to open up the battlefield more than it causes board stalls (like the first one probably does).

Frog shirt means new Grolnok confirmed in next set. 🐸

idk if green needs vigilance tbh

I find that one interesting balance change is the introduction of "once per turn" on Magic cards. While it is true that they appeared on cards in earlier sets, they seem to come up much more frequently now. Take Morbid Opportunist, for example. Morbid Opportunist activates on any creature dying, which we see a lot of in black, but draws you a card, which is something kind of uncommon in that color. This is balanced by the use of "once per turn." If we look at Blood Artist, who activates on death but drains target opponent for 1, it doesn't share the same restriction. Perhaps if we keep on giving out odd slices of the color pie but give them "once per turn" restrictions and tie-in requirements, we could allow more liberties! Make a red counter spell that can only be played if your opponent has taken non combat damage! Make white card draw that only activates once per turn when you gain life! I implore you to make use of this restriction to allow interesting new ideas and cards to be made.

I'm very new to the game and loving it so far. Blue is my favorite color, and it makes sense to me for the quintessential tempo color to have the ability to mess with timing and play state. Having a creature that is both attacking and still able to block seems to fit right in with the high control aspect of blue.

Vigilance makes a LOT of sense to me. I know skulk was tried for a new u/b evasion keyword to....medicoure/underwelming results. PERSONALLY, in addition to vigilance, i'd try reviving shadow primary blue/black. OR maybe some new take on flanking in u/w

A good change! Feels natural, and plays well.

An other alternative I could see would be to lean in the shapshifting ability of blue with mechanics similar to bushido and flanking. For expanding on it's combat ability, I would like to see a comeback of cheap illusions that gets sacrificed when targeted. It would help blue close out games and encourage interaction. In limited, it could also allow for a creative use of combat tricks.

I've always thought that blue's access to Vigilance was through untap and flicker effects, which made sense to me because blue tends to hold mana up to change the board at instant speed to bait the opponent into thinking they have the advantage. I don't mind that much about a blue vigilance creature, but it's clear that the concept of "colour identity" has become less relevant over time, and I don't fault the people who have stuck with the game for years for being upset about it.

As a relatively new player. Coming in around strixhaven. Seeing the complexity in full swing since then. Has me feeling that it is all still daunting despite my efforts to catch up on all of it. Thankful for keywords. And they’re flexibility in the color pie

It's been pretty good, to underratedly great to play in limited, especially when paired with flying for "mini-angel" which has carried me in the recent Caverns of Ixalan and definitely made Duelist of the Mind a first pick in drafting OTJ. Just feels like the right kind of "safe" wall that either early for a bit of chip damage or late to REALLY help turn a game around with a massive wall. I do worry if it's "too good" if only because said combination crowds in on white's keyword soup angels department. If you can maintain low power Blue vs "even" white in design, it'd certainly help a lot. Maybe if they're more conditional like Slickshot Vault-Buster's 1/4 Vigilance Blue that gets a a buff on crime so "pseudo-prowess" issues, but I'd say the complexity/interactive fight strength makes it way more blue than a plain good white or red temp attack buff might.

I love how you said “it FEELS right”. You don’t play MTG you feel it. 🙂

Vigilance makes complete sense to blue. Blue is Magic the Gathering's main control color, giving it a defensive combat keyword makes complete sense with its color identity. I'm actually shocked that it took this long for blue creatures to get vigilance because it fits super nicely

Vigilance in blue makes a lot of sense as a preemptive untap. Another ability that could work well if it was keyworded (Binding?) is what appears on Mercurial Kite and Queen of Ice, where damage dealt by them to a creature taps that creature and it doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step. That's definitely a combat-relevant ability. Not sure if that would increase complexity too much with the need to remember something for a future turn.

I like mechanics sitting comfortably in 3 colors. Artifact removal in Naya. Vigilance in Bant. Haste in Jund. Returning creatures from the graveyard in Abzan.

Makes perfect sense to me, especially on creatures with higher toughness than power.

If blue gets to exile artifacts and have vigilance, then white should get better counterspells for commander.

Heyyy that's a video based on one of my comments here! Here's hoping for a black enchantment destruction video :)

I personally also think vigilance fits blue with the tapping/untapping theme it has. And I agree with many other comments, that it felt natural to see it on blue creatures. I’d love to see more of it in the future.

1. Looting as a triggered ability has been clean for making it better to tangle… red has rummage on combat and blue is getting a few loot on combat. However, if you want a blue mechanic that feels clean and combat, a tweak on myriad would probably be where I put my money. Attack or block trigger make a token copy of a thing that is doing the same thing. Just sort of confusion mechanic… stun also feels like it can be base blue combat trigger. With red second white/black as third, and big green creatures getting it last .

I agree with some others that it would be interested to give blue a pseudo-vigilance that reads like "At the end of combat you may untap this creature." Keyword could be something like Watchful, Prudent, or Wary

New combat ability for blue: Shield - If this creature blocks, it gains indestructible (till eot) BUT the attacking creature gains trample (till eot). Lorewise this could be the outer shell of a crustacean or a protective mage spell.

I'm glad blue has an honest-to-goodness evergreen combat keyword. I was beginning to think blue was just going to have to make do with a pastiche of prowess, skulk, shrink, tap, stun, flying, and bounce (some of those would be triggered abilities). Being the color most associated with subterfuge, never quite knowing what a blue player has up her sleeve seems appropriate.

My confusion with Farmstead is why it was errata'd as "Pay 2W to gain 1 live" instead of being a passive "if you've paid 2W for any spell or ability during your upkeep, gain 1 life". For me, it reads like the latter, which is a much better effect.

I like cards that bend the color pie in general. Planar chaos' mechanical quirkiness really speaks to me

Shots fired at Glasses of Urza? How dare you.

I like with double cards they are made to have a word in-between. So, I don't read it as 'dead gone' I read it as 'dead and gone' - same goes for other split cards. They're quite consistent with this too. Other kinds of split cards, like those with aftermath, have a differnt word in the middle. Aftermath's is "to". For example, "Claim to fame", which sounds a lot cooler than Claim fame

I would love creatures like a blue 2/1 to have "first strike when you use an instant or sorcery", even double strike for some one offs(like a 1/3) You can increase the firepower alike prowess, but also increasing defensive capabilities to turn an Opt into a combat trick by itself

Skulk, if it returned as a keyword, has an on board presence that turns low power into an upside. It **also** synergizes well with prowess! Thieves, rogues, ninjas, and adventuring wizards all resonate with skulk. Blue also has a lot of Curiosity effects to make use of it.

Vigilance feels very right in blue. One thing I would also put more of in blue is Protection from (creature type), or perhaps Protection from (Enchanted creatures) or something very specific. Like the subject of their studies has given them deep insight into how to effectively counter a very specific kind of creature or smth, similar to ranger's favored enemy in D&D

anticipated (get it? the blue spell? 🔵) this *years* ago, and nothing's changed my mind about it being a good move so far

I learned a lot from this video. For example Gavin and I have a very different take on what a 'banger' limited format is.

Vigilance in blue felt so correct, I didn't even notice that blue only recently started seeing the keyword on creatures. Its a great fit and it continues

Honestly Azorius shared vigilance so it makes a lot of sense that single white and blue would also have it. Also Sky Hussar(Azorius also) had pseudo vigilance in that it had ETB untap creatures which also feels very blue. Great video and love looking back at the history of cards/colors/ and mechanics, having started around Weatherlight and up since i was a kid

I personally feel like flying is already just a very powerful mechanic. In constructed, blue already does so many things. Of course red is its own whole pile of fun, but blue just makes decks work. So considering constructed, I'd have never thought blue needed any help. But in the context of limited, it makes sense. An example here would be malcators watcher. Its just good filler. Its only downside is that you draw it instead of something else. But its almost never not value. Its an outstanding common. (Not in a pauper sense tho) A bad example would be maurauding sphinx. It just does too much already that it really doesnt need vigilance. Tho otj in general seems just way more powerful that the previous few sets. Pretty obvious to see with turn 4 kill decks running rampant and slickshot being able to one shot kill on turn 3 semi consistently, with only instant speed interaction being able to do anything. And guess who's the king of that? Yeah blue does not need any help in constructed. So on uncommons and above use sparingly. But on commons? I thing blue vigilance makes a lot of sense.

I'm in the same boat as many others, in that I hadn't really noticed. Blue having some Vigilance feels completely natural.

Think others have said it above, but "icetouch" could be an alternative ability - similar templating to deathtouch, but instead of destroying the opposing creature you tap it and put a stun counter on it

Whenever i think "combat ability for blue" flying is always the first thing to come to mind (as mentioned probably the best one ever) it is true that blue do not have 2/2 for 2 but they have often had 2/1 flying for two which honestly might be slightly better, and while I agree that vigilance fits blue nicely, I think it fits in a strictly defensive way (big defense low attack) something they can chip away damage while staying safe not something that can take over the game like the sphinx (that still feels white to me) . Just like how blue gets big stated minions but only at high mana value and kind of clunky so they never feel green like.

Wouldn't mind Blue getting "Whenever you draw a card, this gets +1/+1 until end of turn" as a creature combat ability.

That is interesting, for once it seemed at least secondary for blue to me. For some days I played around some own card ideas for my mana rocks commander deck (Karn, Silver Golem). What would I wish for. The colorless and no creature type, made many other possible cards useless. So I thought of more harmless variants to Forsaken Monument and possible key words, and it looked on the first ubalanced with the key words White: vigilance, lifelink Blue: hexproof, flying, flash Black: menance, deathtouch, fear Red: first strike, haste Green: trample, reach Now I have 5 based on Scion of Draco, which, still some are confusing, because lifelink is in black, it feels wierd to me. And for naming blue with flying would be easier 😅

On the talk of new timespiral ideas. Wouldn't it be cool with some sort of set that have a place for weirder creatures, like biblically acurate angels, more things that look like the elementals and incarnations from lorwyn. Creatures that blend different creatures and challanges how many apendiges something has without making them eldrazis. As a matter of fact they could even be a cosmic counterpoint to eldrazis from the "everseeing impermanence". (You can have that name for free 😄). You could be very experimental with a set like that. Have flicker be a setmechanic for example. Make creatures grow with +1/+1 counters as you pay cumulative upkeep costs or have them flicker back to 0/1 to not have to sacrifice them. Just some food for thought.

The Council Of Colors? Man, think I just found my dream job! Imagine sitting on the black throne, deciding whether spells are 'black' enough! EPIC!

Bounceback: Return blocked creature to owner's hand, or just give blue the flanking keyword As it’s a combat ongoing keyword like the other. Gonna try to keep thinking on this.

I think it makes total sense for blue to get vigilance sometimes, both from a mechanical standpoint and flavor-wise. And as someone who plays Limited as their primary format (been absolutely loving OTJ, by the way!), I’ve been personally really loving vigilance on blue creatures. Haunting Figment was a favorite of mine, given the unhealthy amount of Izzet Balmor and Azorius Raff I played in DMU (another absolute all-star draft format). I’m not as personally invested in Marauding Sphinx, but I do think it perfectly ticks all the boxes for a higher-rarity (even if it only uncommon) finisher in blue. It’s big defensively, chips in for damage over a long game, is hard to kill, and can generate value if left unchecked. It’s the perfect “long game” card, and a good saving grace for blue to have at uncommon in a format where blue is a bit of an underwhelming color overall.

I noticed the shift but it has felt just right to me.

I think white and blue should have a deciduous Thousand Year Elixir-esque mechanic where creatures can tap as though they had haste.

New blue mechanic? Maybe something like Flanking, but probably affecting only power.

Here for the Zephyr Falcon love.

I was watching a let's play of the old Shandalar game which introduced me to zephyr falcon & vigilance before vigilance. It was very unexpected but upon thinking about it, it did feel apt. It didn't feel like a violation of colour philosophy. Vigilance is my favourite keyword (sorry lifelink) so I'm happy to see that it might entice me into blue more rather than all the mill and counterspell meme strategies that advertise it as an unfun colour.

I like the choice I think. I'm not sure how I will feel seeing it on larger bodies in mono blue though.

"Limited sets have been bangers" proceeds to show March of the Machines... At least he knew not to include MKM...

I would have the creature untap after combat. you could pair it with a fix stat boost for the creature depending on its tap status (+x/+0 while taped +0/+x while untaped) it would work as a fixed combat ability while also working with the whole "change" thing blue has going

I've liked blue vigilance a lot, the one downside is the increased prevalence overall combined with fewer tap abilities since the "once per turn" triggers got more common makes it so the white "destroy target tapped creature" effects more often don't kill the creature you've been attacked with or that's activated its ability. Also Red can untap creatures by virtue of Threaten effects.