The ice age is officially complete — pitch spells, Glaciers, and seven new restricted cards
THE BIG NEWS
The banners are raised. The glaciers have thawed. After much debate, and no small amount of “but what about Force of Will?” being shouted across tables, Alliances is now legal in Battleworld!
For those following the Dutch Old School scene, this won’t come as a total shock. Alpha to Alliances Ante has been the newest craze in the Netherlands, and it was only a matter of time before the question crossed into Battleworld territory. The answer, after much thought, scheming, and staring hard at Storm Cauldron, is: yes. Absolutely. But with some restrictions.
Battleworld already lives in that weird corner where Ice Age and Homelands aren’t embarrassing footnotes. This is the format where Baron Sengir matters and where Autumn Willow rules. Where Fallen Empires cards stand up straight and say: “I was printed for this!”
Alliances fits. It doesn’t feel like bolting a new engine onto an old machine. It feels like restoring your classic car with original parts.
THE LAST OLD SET. THE FIRST NEW FEELING.
Here’s what makes Alliances special: it sits at the exact hinge of Magic history. It revived the game after what many remember as a rough stretch: Fallen Empires was, well, Fallen Empires, and Homelands had atmosphere for days but power level for lunch breaks. Then Alliances arrived with pitch spells, powerful lands, strange engines, and cards that made players sit forward again.
But it was also the final chapter of something old. After Alliances came Mirage.
With Mirage came real blocks, designed Limited, and the structured future of the game. Alliances still belongs to the older world. The world of oddities. Weird rarities. Table arguments. Cards that feel like they were discovered in a wizard’s sock drawer.
That makes it perfect for Battleworld.
WHAT YOU’RE GETTING
Alliances adds cards that can build new decks without snapping the format in half. White gets tools. Blue gets tricks. Black gets sinister little decisions. Red gets free violence. Green gets weird mana and woodland nonsense. And everyone gets the feeling that something dangerous just walked into the room wearing snow boots.
Cards like Kjeldoran Outpost, Lake of the Dead, Pyrokinesis, Contagion, Arcane Denial, Gorilla Shaman, Elvish Spirit Guide, Helm of Obedience, and Storm Cauldron all have the potential to create new stories inside Battleworld’s structure. Some will become role-players. Some will become deck names. Some will become mistakes we fondly remember while reaching for the errata page. That’s good. Battleworld should grow — but like a haunted castle, not a shopping mall.
THE RESTRICTED LIST — FULL BREAKDOWN
No new cards are banned! But because Battleworld is a multiplayer Emperor format, where teams share a cardpool, non-targeting spells hit everyone, and the Emperor begins protected, some cards scale in ways they simply don’t in a duel. Seven cards are now restricted to one copy per player:
Force of Will — Free countermagic is especially powerful when you’re protecting an Emperor and still need to develop your board. Four of these turns every domain with blue in it’s wedge into a customer service counter. Force of Will is iconic. But if every major moment ends with someone exiling a blue card and saying “no” from behind the castle wall, the format becomes less about war and more about permission slips.
Fastbond — In a format with no mana burn, old-school mana engines get a lot safer. Add Storm Cauldron, which is now legal, and things get dangerous fast. Restricting Fastbond lets the card remain part of the old-school identity of the format, while reducing the consistency of the most degenerate land engines. You may still do something dangerous. You just have to work for it like a respectable lunatic.
Thawing Glaciers — Thawing Glaciers is restricted because it gives slow decks a repeatable, nearly inevitable source of long-game advantage. Battleworld games go long. In that environment, Glaciers quietly fixes mana, thins the deck, shuffles repeatedly, and builds resource advantages. Multiple copies turn games into glacial paperwork. Despite the name, Battleworld isn’t supposed to move that slowly.
Land Tax — One white mana. Fixes land drops. Fills your hand. Thins your deck. Fuels discard. Appears harmless — which is already one of the most dangerous things you can do in Battleworld. Four copies turns “I missed my land drop” into an entire economic policy. One copy keeps the card’s old-school identity intact.
Diminishing Returns — In normal Magic, drawing seven cards is powerful. In Battleworld, it can become a table-wide diplomatic incident. Because non-targeting effects have unlimited range, global hand reset effects are much more explosive than they first appear. Diminishing Returns belongs in that dangerous family of “everybody gets cards, but I planned for it better than you did.” Blue already has plenty. This one stays — but on a leash.
Black Vise — Multiple early Vises punish slower opening hands before the game has properly started. That’s especially brutal when the Emperor starts at 30 life and the early turns should be about establishing the war, not watching your opponent take six damage for daring to keep cards. The Vise may squeeze. It may not run the prison. With Necropotence already restricted Black Vise is not needed to keep the Necro build in check.
Lim-Dûl’s Vault — Cheap, instant-speed, digs deep, sculpts your next draw with frightening precision. It finds the bomb. It finds the restricted card. It finds the thing your opponents were hoping you’d never find. And then it smiles in blue-black. Lim-Dûl may still have a vault. He just doesn’t get a branch office in every opening hand.
UNDER SURVEILLANCE
Storm Cauldron is currently free to roam — but it has been asked not to touch anything sharp.
BOTTOM LINE
Alliances gives Battleworld new tools, new threats, new engines, and new excuses to sleeve up cards that have been sitting in binders since the Clinton administration. That is exactly what this format is for.
Choose your domain. Call your Generals. Protect your Emperor. Shuffle your weirdest lands. Read your pitch spells twice. And never trust anyone who says: “Don’t worry, it’s just a Thawing Glaciers.”
The ice has cracked. The banners are raised. Alliances has entered Battleworld.
The Edge-Man 
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