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Among the recent Magic: the Gathering reveals for Dominaria United, the developers also showed off some of the Commander cards. While many of these are rather interesting, Gerrard’s Hourglass Pendant seems to be the answer to a problem that Magic: The Gathering players have faced for many years now.
Sadly, this card is not legal in Standard, but will be available in Eternal formats: Commander, Vintage, Legacy, and perhaps in some of the MTG Arena digital formats. What does this amazing card do, though?
Magic: The Gathering’s Dominaria United Commander set reveals an anti-infinite turn card
One of the biggest problems in virtually all Magic: The Gathering formats is the ability to take infinite turns. It happens in Commander and has been a recurring problem in formats like Standard for years now.
This 1-drop rare artifact is incredibly powerful as it does so much more than simply stop extra turns as they’re happening. This artifact comes in for 1 colorless mana and has Flash. This means that, in response to a player starting an extra turn, it can be played and completely halt it.
“If a player would begin an extra turn, that player skips that turn instead.”
This is what makes the card so great. As a player, you can wait for someone to burn all of their resources and set up their extra turns combo, and in response, play this for 1 mana. At this point, any extra turns that a player would take are instead skipped.
Gerrard’s Hourglass Pendant stops that dead in its tracks, and there are so many Infinite Turn combos in Magic: The Gathering. For example, Walk the Aeons, Azusa, Lost but Seeking, and Ranumap Excavator lets players sacrifice three Islands to take an extra turn, then play lands from their graveyard, and play three lands a turn.
This is an incredibly simple example of an Infinite Turn combo. Players can also use Ezuri, Claw of Progress, and Sage of Hours to consistently take extra turns. Deploying this card at the right time is going to be key, but it can easily put a stop to one of the most frustrating aspects of Magic: The Gathering.
Hopefully, there will be a version or a similar card for Standard, as Infinite Turn decks will inevitably return to the game one way or another. After all, players always find a way. However, that’s not all that Gerrard’s Hourglass Pendant can do.
The card can be tapped and exiled for 4 mana as well. If this is done, it has the power to unwind the clock and prevent board wipe. Typically, Infinite Turn decks also have access to board wipe, in order to clear away any ability that stops their shenanigans.
“Return to the battlefield tapped all artifact, creature, enchantment, and land cards in your graveyard that were put there from the battlefield this turn.”
Gerrard’s Hourglass Pendant is a truly phenomenal card. It could definitely see use in a variety of Eternal formats as a way to counter extra turn decks as well as control decks. The only downside is that to rewind board wipe, it has to be exiled.
However, this is still a smart idea because it prevents the card from being abused too badly. Since it’s a Legendary Artifact, only one can be in play at a time. Either way, it’s a powerful, useful artifact, and there’s no telling what kind of uses players will find for it in the coming weeks.
