The latest card rebalances for the Alchemy and Historic formats were released on January 17. Here is a breakdown of the updates and changes.

Alchemy and Historic Card Rebalances

Goblin Trapfinder

  • Changed: "This spell costs 2 less to cast" to "This spell costs 1 less to cast"

Like Grinning Ignus and Racketeer Boss, Goblin Trapfinder was enabling combo decks using Ominous Traveler in Alchemy and Historic. Since perpetual mana cost reduction is more likely to enable problematic combos in the future, we are making the combo harder to assemble by rebalancing Goblin Trapfinder.

Spirits

Decks built around Brine Comber, Shipwreck Sifters, Patrician Geist, and other Innistrad: Midnight Hunt and Innistrad: Crimson Vow Spirit cards often don't have enough mana to support casting cards for their disturb costs. These changes aim to reduce the diminishing returns of playing multiple disturb cards and make decks built around cards like Brine Comber more competitive.

Binding Geist // Spectral Binding

  • Cost 1U (from 2U)
  • Now 2/1 (from 3/1)
  • Cost for disturb U (from 1U)
  • Changed: "-2/-0 untl end of turn" to "-2/-0 until your next turn"

Brine Comber // Brinebound Gift

  • Now 2/2 (from 1/1)

Devoted Grafkeeper // Departed Soulkeeper

  • Now 2/2 (from 2/1)
  • Changed: "When Devoted Grafkeeper enters the battlefield, mill two cards" to "When Devoted Grafkeeper enters the battlefield, mill four cards."
  • Departed Grafkeeper – Removed: "Departed Grafkeeper can block only creatues with flying."

Dorothea, Vengeful Victim // Dorothea's Retribution

  • Cost for disturb WU (from 1WU)

Dreamshackle Geist

  • Now 3/2 (from 3/1)

Obsessive Collector

  • Now 4/4 (from 4/3)

Gutter Skulker // Gutter Shortcut

  • Cost 2U (from 3U)
  • Cost for disturb 2U (from 3U)
  • Gutter Shortcut – Add: "Enchanted creature gets +3/+0"

Lantern Bearer // Lanterns' Lift

  • Cost for disturb 1U (from 2U)

Mischievous Catgeist // Catlike Curiosity

  • Cost for disturb 1U (from 2U)
  • Catlike Curiosity – Add: "Enchanted creature gets +1/+1"

Patrician Geist

  • Changed: "Spells you cast from your graveyard cost 1 less to cast" to "Spells cast from your graveyard cost U less to cast"

Phantom Carriage

  • Cost 2UU (from 4UU)

Shipwreck Sifters

  • Changed: "Whenever you discard a Spirit card or a card with disturb . . ." to "Whenever a Spirit card or a card with disturb is put int your graveyard from anywhere . . ."

Samurai

Decks built around Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty's Samurai cards have a hard time keeping pace with other aggressive decks in Alchemy since the Samurai themselves have higher mana values. We are lowering the mana values of Samurai creature spells across the board to make Samurai-themed decks more competitive against other aggressive decks in Alchemy.

Asari Captain

  • Cost 1RW (from 3RW
  • Now 2/1 (from 4/3)
  • Add: trample

Ancestral Katana

  • Cost for equip: 2 (from 3)
  • Changed: "Equipped creature gets +2/+1" to "Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has 'This creature has first strike as long as it's attacking.'"

Akki Ronin

  • Cost R (from 1R)
  • Now 1/2 (from 1/3)
  • Changed: " . . . you may discard a card" to " . . . you may put a card you're your hand on the bottom of your library."

Eiganjo Exemplar

  • Cost W (from 1W)
  • Now 1/1 (from 2/1)

Imperial Blademaster

  • Now 2/3 (from 2/2)

Imperial Subduer

  • Cost 1W (from 2W)
  • Now 3/1 (from 3/2)

Peerless Samurai

  • Cost 1R (from 2R)
  • Now 2/1 (from 2/3)

Raiyuu, Storm's Edge

  • Now 4/4 (from 3/3)