New MTG Powerhouse Is Already Included in Multiple Formats — And It’s Nearly Sold Out

Magic: The Gathering is entering a new era, as its Avatar: The Last Airbender set officially came out just a few days ago, and several formats are now changing, both due to the new cards and the bans on November 10. The November 10 bans for Magic: The Gathering hit Standard the most, completely killing the infamous Izzet Cauldron deck that was dominating all tournaments. Now that the Avatar set is out, the meta for each format is inevitably being reshaped, and some cards are already proving to be extremely powerful — maybe even a tad too much. The most notable example is Badgermole Cub right now, but another can be made for a different Mythic rare, such as Wan Shi Tong, Librarian.

It does make sense for Magic: The Gathering Mythic rares to be some of the best cards in a given set. While rarity doesn’t always equal value or power, Wan Shin Tong, Librarian, has a lot of both. This creature is an excellent example of card design done right, as it can be used in most formats to great success, it dramatically changes the course of a game when played, and it’s a centerpiece of many combos already. However, it’s sold out almost everywhere, and you may have a hard time getting it.

It’s Time to Welcome One of MTG’s Most Broken Blue Cards Ever

There are a few reasons why Wan Shi Tong, Librarian, is such a powerful card across multiple formats. These are;

• Except for Standard, which doesn’t feature many tutor-like abilities, Wan Shi Tong can be played with success in most formats and at any time in response to a tutor trigger to immediately get a +1/+1 counter and allow you to draw a card.
  • Wan Shi Tong is OP in Commander and cEDH, as a turn cycle features four players, so several tutors will be used before your next turn, powering the creature up a lot. As such, it can easily replace or be added to Archivist of Oghma decks, and it’s yet another powerhouse for cEDH’s strongest and most consistent deck: Blue Farm.
• Wan Shi Tong, Librarian, can be extremely powerful as a draw engine in control decks and combo decks, like Dimir Mill in Modern or Dimir Tempo in Timeless.
  • It can be used in combination with the notoriously OP Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student // Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar to help proc it with its card draw abilities. Likewise, it can be a mana sink in longer games or landfall decks.
• It enables some incredible combos with otherwise not-so-competitive cards, like Scheming Symmetry and Archive Trap.
• It can be played in response to MTG‘s fetch lands, too, meaning that it grows bigger and acts as a draw engine even for more basic tutor abilities that are featured in most decks in the game.
  • Powerful staples like Crop Rotation also feed into Wan Shi Tong’s ability, making opponents think twice about whether they should play a certain card or pursue a given strategy.
• Wan Shi Tong, Librarian, can become a stax piece of sorts alongside extremely powerful cards like MTG‘s Rhystic Study, Smothering Tithes, Orcish Bowmasters, and more.
  • Cards like Path to Exile are commonly used as removals, but they double down as power-ups for Wan Shi Tong if they force the opponent(s) to search their library.
• Since it’s a Blue card, it’s easy to have interaction and counterspells in the deck, like Force of Negation, Fierce Guardianship if Wan Shi Tong is your commander, and Flare of Denial. It also pairs perfectly with the recent Edge of Eternities Quantum Riddler card.

MTG’s Decks Using Wan Shi Tong, Librarian

As you may imagine, Wan Shi Tong, Librarian, feels perfectly at home in Commander thanks to its power-up and drawing on tutor abilities. This may seem like the perfect place to use Wan Shi Tong as a commander, but it may be even better in the 99. For example, it can be tutored by Sisay, Weatherlight Captain, to power itself up and always be readily available. It can also synergize with Tymna the Weaver for Blue Farm decks, quickly ramping up the number of cards one can draw.

According to mtgtop8.com‘s last 2 weeks of data for competing decks, Wan Shi Tong is seeing the following numbers:

• Around 2.5% usage in Modern decks
• Around 0.5% inclusion in Vintage decks
• Around 22.6% usage in cEDH decks

Why Wan Shi Tong, Librarian, is Unlikely to Be Banned in Modern

Furthermore, while it’s too early, and it seems unlikely due to how many OP cards populate the format, some are speculating that Wan Shi Tong, Librarian, may be banned in Modern in the long run. Considering that cards like Psychic Frog, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Fatal Push, Force of Negation, Lightning Bolt, Urza’s Saga, and Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury are all still playable in the format with no restrictions, a Wan Shi Tong ban discussion may be too early, if at all warranted.

MTG’s Wan Shi Tong, Librarian, is Virtually Impossible to Get

Wan Shi Tong, Librarian, is already one of the most expensive cards in the Avatar set, sitting at $50-60 on average.

• There are a few copies being sold for $70 on TCGPlayer at the moment, but it’s very hard to find elsewhere.
• There are also six copies available on Card Kingdom at the time of writing, going for $60. Copies of the borderless version of Wan Shi Tong are mostly sold out everywhere, and that also goes for the foil variant.
• Wan Shi Tong, Librarian, is out of stock on CoolStuffInc.
• 9 copies of Wan Shi Tong, Librarian, are available on Star City Games at $65 each.

What follows is that the card is mostly unobtainable right now, unless players are willing to fork out a few extra bucks for each copy. This may be less of a problem for Commander decks in MTG, as they only need one copy of the card, but fans of other formats may be out of luck already.

Systems

Released

September 27, 2018

ESRB

T for Teen // Blood and Gore, Mild Fantasy Violence

Developer(s)

Wizards of the Coast, Wizards Digital Games Studios

Publisher(s)

Wizards of the Coast