Did you know that teams behind creatingMagic: The Gatheringsets will sometimes create cards that are intended for Commander and include them in constructed sets? That is exactly what happened with Nadu, Winged Wisdom.
While the goal was to create a fun card, the teams behind Magic: The Gathering recently had to step in and ban the Bird from competitive play in the Pioneerand Explorer formats. We took a look into what happened to the card and why Nadu ended up being so powerful that it had to be removed from competitive play.
What Is Nadu, Winged Wisdom?
Let us start with what Nadu is. Nadu, Winged Wisdom is a three mana green and blue legendary Bird Wizard with flying and an exceptionally powerful ability that helps protect it and all your other creatures by dissuading your opponents from targeting them, while also giving you a bonus for when you do.
Flying
Creatures you control have “Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, reveal the top card of your library. If it’s a land card, put it onto the battlefield. Otherwise, put it into your hand. This ability triggers only twice each turn.”
What that means for you playing Nadu is that you’re able to get up to two functionaland better Explore trigger.If a creature you control becomes the target of a spell or ability, you can reveal the top cards of your deck, putting it into play if its a land and drawing it if its anything else.
Now, it comes with a stipulation, that you can only trigger this ability twice each turn, which is already a slightly annoying mechanic to track but exceptionally powerful.
What Was The Problem?
As it turns out, there are a few issues with this ability. It turns out, there are a few ways to trigger Nadu’s ability on all your creatures relatively easily. Pretty much all you had to do was get a few creatures out, including Nadu, and then get some ability that targets and costs zero mana. While it seems like an ability that costs nothing wouldn’t be good, and you’re right, they’re generally, not, you now get the added triggers from Nadu on all your creatures, giving you twice as many triggers as you have creatures.
A couple of cards were quickly recognized as being a problem. The first isa rather unassuming equipmentcalled Shuko. This one mana artifact gives the equipped creature +1/+0, which is fine for being so cheap. The part that makes it powerful in context of Nadu is that it has an equip costs of zero mana. That means you may chain Shuko across all your creatures until you get your two triggers per turn. If you have five creatures out with Nadu, that gives you the chance to dig through ten cards a turn.
Then there’s Outrider en-Kor, another card that players probably hadn’t thought about for ages outside of some limited interaction. This creature has an ability that costs zero mana and lets you redirect the next one damage from Outrider en-Kor to another target creature you control instead. It is the same song, second verse with the Outrider as it was with Shuko, but you can repeat everything on your opponent’s turn, letting you double up on all the triggers.
So Why Was Nadu Banned In Pioneer?
All these things lead to a few different interactions where players could draw their entire deck, winning through Thassa’s Oracle, though that route wasn’t super reliable. You could also create a fairly complicated line between the cards Endurance and Springheart Nantuko to gain infinite mana and a board presence that can handle practically any situation.
With several powerful loops, some of which are tutorable through green tutors like Summoner’s Pact and Chord of Calling, you can create a game where you’re consistently doing things, like drawing cards and playing lands, while advancing your board, but also takes a lot of time to do.
At one point, Nadu decks took over massive parts of the meta, with the Pro Tour for example, boasting an impressive 59% win rate.
What Happened With Nadu?
It turns out, there were a few things that happened behind the scenes that let Nadu slip through without appropriate testing. Originally Nadu was supposed to have different text, including giving all your permanent spells flash and it didn’t have the twice per turn stipulation for the second ability, while also affecting all permanents you control, not just creatures.
Nadu’s final text was changed very late in the development process of Modern Horizons 3, leading to a situation where the final version of the card wasn’t properly tested.
The lead designer of Modern Horizons 3, Michael Majors,spoke at length aboutthe problems that Nadu faced, and the whole process is an eye-opening read if you’re curious about the design process. The biggest thing to keep in mind, Majors stresses, is that Magic is a massive game and incredibly complex. Mistakes will happen, and not every interaction is able to be caught, even in extensive testing. While Magic doesn’t want these things to happen, they are willing to correct them to keep the game fun and healthy.
