Timeless: Arena Anthologies 3 & 4 Review

Since Wizards of the Coast doesn't know how to go a week without announcing anything, we were surprised last Tuesday with Arena Anthologies 3 and 4: two new MTGArena bundles that bring staples from eternal formats like Commander, Legacy, and Vintage to the digital platform, legal for Brawl, Historic, and Timeless.

Each bundle costs 4,000 gems or 25,000 coins and will be available starting next Tuesday, September 23rd. In this article, we evaluate its contents and consider which cards could impact the Timeless format to answer the question: are the new Arena Anthologies worth buying?

We'll start with Anthology IV, as the answer to this bundle is quite simple: it's not worth buying. Most of the cards will never see play in Timeless, and the pieces that might have some relevance, like Iona, Shield of Emeria or Tidespout Tyrant, are unlikely to require more than one or two wildcard copies.

Regal Force could be an interesting option for Elves, but the archetype has severe problems adapting to the Metagame, especially since Goblin Bombardment and Orcish Bowmasters are powerful predators to X/1 creatures.

Iona, Shield of Emeria and Tidespout Tyrant have historically been targets for Reanimator, and there may be very specific situations in the future where having a copy of them to play with Reanimate or Show and Tell is an option, but I don't have high expectations for either.

This bundle has more substance than the previous one and features a dozen cards with potential for the format, so let's take a closer look at each of them:

Flickerwisp is a huge enabler for Blink archetypes, which currently rely on Overlord of the Balemurk, Dedicated Dollmaker, and Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd.

With other additions to the set, it's possible we'll see a Stoneblade Blink list emerge running Stoneforge Mystic with these cards, possibly alongside other effective ETBs and, who knows, even Yorion, Sky Nomad.

We're still short of Aether Vial before we can consider a Death & Taxes, but Timeless is well on its way to adding another famous archetype from the game's history to its potential competitors.

Staff of the Storyteller sees some play in Legacy and has more recently appeared alongside Ocelot Pride, Orcish Bowmasters, Ajani, Nacatl Pariah, and other Energy-based cards. It's also very effective in lists with Voice of Victory, which consistently triggers the artifact's ability. Some Control lists also run the card, but it's been absent from recent iterations of this archetype in Legacy.

In Timeless, it's likely to replicate its Legacy usability and become a source of card advantage alongside the Energy package, especially in Mardu variants—despite being slow compared to the Metagame's most explosive decks, it provides a steady source of card advantage in attrition games.

If we're inserting Legacy and Vintage-level cards into an MTGArena bundle, is it too much to ask for Daze? I can understand avoiding Force of Will as it homogenizes the format too much between Blue-Based, Combos, and the rest, but Daze is much more conditional on resolution and doesn't fit into any Blue deck, while it would help curb the speed of Combos in the Metagame.

Dauthi Voidwalker is a graveyard hate and a source of card advantage we can use when we want to play an opponent's "bomb," all rolled into a 3/2 that's difficult to block and has a decent clock.

It's an instant staple; it should be present in most black decks today, especially considering the presence of cards like Treasure Cruise, Lurrus of the Dream-Den, and Psychic Frog.

More support for Reanimator is always welcome as long as it's not Entomb. Necromancy has the advantage of being able to be played at instant speed, but it doesn't offer Haste like Goryo's Vengeance or Shallow Grave, so it shouldn't enable a combo with Emrakul, the Aeons' Torn.

Another instant staple. Now, Mono Red Stompy is essentially complete in Timeless and can leverage Broadside Bombardiers for powerful interactions alongside Pyrogoyf, Fury, The One Ring, and even against lesser artifacts like Chalice of the Void or Chrome Mox.

Besides Red Stompy, it wouldn't be surprising if some Energy version found slots to leverage Bombardiers as a complement to Goblin Bombardment, given that the attack condition requires little to no effort to achieve, and the new card's damage potential is considerably higher for fewer resources.

On the other hand, Goblin Bombardment is a much more efficient safety valve against sweepers and other board interactions during the opponent's turn, in addition to offering unconditional reach. The three-drop slots in Energy decks are already quite crowded, or not worth it since it would mean losing Lurrus of the Dream-Den.

Chain Lightning is another cheap damage option (it will be common in the bundle) for red decks. It's a decent choice for Red Aggro lists for budget players.

Without Dark Depths, Crop Rotation loses a lot of power in Timeless, and its main target, Field of the Dead, now has too much maindeck hate between Strip Mine and Blood Moon in the most competitive lists to gain more spots in the metagame. However, the next card may motivate some... exploration with it.

Exploration is the best "extra land" effect not called Fastbond. The card, on its own, enables a "Land Control" strategy in the format, using multiple lands with ETB or combat-locking effects, combined with the famous Dark Depths and Thespian's Stage combo to close games.

Without combos, it would be necessary to think of other ways to use it alongside Crop Rotation, and perhaps considering the old Titan Field shell would be a good start, but I would bet on focusing on cards that allow reusing lands like Wrenn and Six, Wary Zone Guard, and Icetill Explorer with Strip Mine to deny the opponent's mana, and consider other options that have effective ETBs and/or can be sacrificed for some effect, like Bojuka Bog.

It's also possible to consider cards like Scapeshift with Field of the Dead to end the game.

Noble Hierarch joins Ignoble Hierarch to close the one-drop cycle with Exalted in Timeless. Now, just add a few Infect creatures to have fun with poison counters.

Another potential staple. Umezawa's Jitte is, finally, one of the main reasons to reconsider the role of Stoneforge Mystic in Timeless. With enough creatures, Jitte can counter many of the Boros/Mardu Energy advances while also functioning as a one-of in most fair matchups in the current Metagame.

Interestingly, including Jitte in Timeless sounds like a test for Modern: if the artifact solves the dominance of Energy decks, it's possible an unban will be on the way in the future to replicate the same effect in the tabletop format.

Jitte can also be included in the sideboards of any more interactive strategy, as long as they include Stoneforge.

The other reason to reconsider Stoneforge Mystic is that the two main cards with Living Weapon arrived in this bundle.

Forget Batterskull. Kaldra Compleat has replaced the card in most lists and should be the top pick in archetypes that, from now on, can consider it a core part of their lists.

My personal bets for this moment are the possibility of testing Stoneforge Mystic in some Energy shells and also in Blink decks with Flickerwisp. The absence of Aether Vial will be a problem for these lists, but it wouldn't be the first time we've seen Timeless adapt to the circumstances to create a new variant of an existing deck.

Azorius versions could also show up, but I believe a more reactive, no-discard list requires cards like Force of Will and the upcoming reprint of Force of Negation in Avatar.

Memory Jar is best known for being the first card preemptively banned in Magic. Today, the artifact is banned in Legacy and restricted in Vintage due to the widespread accessibility of a "second hand" it provides for a relatively low cost in environments with many rituals and cheap mana rocks—something Timeless possesses to some extent, but not to the same degree.

The potential of this card remains to be seen. It's a "second hand" for combos, which can become a third hand while hindering the opponent's ability to interact using their resources. It will usually work to close out a Storm sequence and/or find the necessary pieces to, for example, cast a Show and Tell. However, with fewer free resources available than in Legacy or Vintage, I'm not sure how risky this card's inclusion will be in the short term.

Show and Tell, Sneak Attack, and any other means of cheating on mana costs have the supreme payoff now. Emrakul, the Aeons' Torn does a little bit of everything: she wins the game almost every time she enters, has protection against virtually any interaction at instant speed, and if she doesn't win the game, she will wipe the opponent's board.

It seems the time to consider a Sneak & Show has finally arrived in Timeless, and we can say goodbye to all the bad payoffs that have been used in the format in recent years.

Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth may not be a staple and won't find much space outside a one-of in a few lists, but like Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, this is a good card to have at least one copy in your collection.

So, is it worth buying the Arena Anthology 3 and 4 bundles?

In the case of Anthology 4, the answer is pretty clear: no. Regardless of the format you play, the bundle comes with many cards that you'll rarely use more than one copy of in your Brawl list, and even then, the overall cost of these cards is too prohibitive to include them in most decks.

On the other hand, Arena Anthology 3 is a bargain if you already have a pool for Historic and/or Timeless. Considering only the cards mentioned here for their play potential, and that we receive four copies of each when purchasing the bundle, we get: 12 Mythics, 32 Rares, and some bonus commons and uncommons, not to mention the cards that don't have as much competitive potential but which come with the bundle for the price of 4,000 gems or 25,000 coins.

If you're a single-deck player, however, the bundle might not be worth it, and it might be beneficial to just get the cards you need with wildcards. Still, I'd consider purchasing with MTGArena coins in these cases: no deck lasts forever, and it's normal to look for other lists to adapt to the Metagame. Maybe you're playing Boros Energy today, but tomorrow you might be playing Golgari Midrange or Mono Black and need Dauthi Voidwalker.

Thanks for reading!