Warp MTG: How It Works, All 32 Cards, How to Keep Them and a $53 Tannuk Deck (2026)

Warp is the Magic: The Gathering keyword from Edge of Eternities that lets you cast a permanent cheaply for one turn. You pay the warp cost instead of the mana cost, the permanent is exiled at the beginning of the next end step, and you can cast it again from exile on a later turn for its full cost. Quantum Riddler costs {3}{U}{U}; warped, it costs {1}{U}, draws you a card when it enters, and comes back later for another card.

There are 32 cards with warp, every one of them from Edge of Eternities (August 2025), and one more card, Tannuk, Steadfast Second, gives warp {2}{R} to every artifact and red creature in your hand. That turns the keyword into a Commander plan. We ran a Tannuk deck through 50,000 test games with warp on and again with it switched off. With warp, the deck had dealt 13.3 damage by turn 5 on average. Without it: 9.7. It also got 50% more enter-the-battlefield triggers by turn 8. The price: less power left on the battlefield.

This guide covers the warp rules, what you save, how to keep a warped creature for good, the void cards that reward warp, all 32 cards, the best commanders, legality in every format, how to beat it, and a $53 Tannuk Commander deck.

What is warp in MTG?

Warp is rule 702.185 of the Comprehensive Rules. Rule 702.185a says warp “represents two static abilities that function while the card with warp is on the stack, one of which may create a delayed triggered ability”:

• An alternative cost. “You may cast this card from your hand by paying [cost] rather than its mana cost.”
• A delayed exile. If the warp cost was paid, the permanent is exiled at the beginning of the next end step, and its owner “may cast this card after the current turn has ended for as long as it remains exiled.”

Two more rules give the keyword its vocabulary. Rule 702.185b defines a warped card: a card in exile that was put there by warp’s delayed trigger. Rule 702.185c says “a spell was warped this turn” means a spell was cast for its warp cost this turn. That second phrase is the switch for the void cards covered below.

Three things follow. First, warp only works from your hand, so a card in your graveyard, your library or the command zone can’t be warped (Timeline Culler is the one exception, and it says so on the card). Second, the recast from exile is a normal cast for the full mana cost, so you can’t warp the same card twice in a row unless it goes back to your hand. Third, a warped creature has summoning sickness like any other creature, so it can’t attack the turn it’s warped unless something gives it haste.

Warp rules: 14 common situations

The warp math: what you save

The census of all 32 cards gives one clear pattern: 25 of the 32 warp costs are two or three mana less than the mana cost. Warp is a big discount for one turn, not a small one. Bygone Colossus is the extreme, a 9/9 for {3}. Codecracker Hound is the odd one out: its warp cost is the same as its mana cost, {2}{U}, because the point of warping it is the second “enters” trigger later.

17 of the 32 warp cards have an “enters” trigger of their own. Those are the ones that pay off: warp it on turn 2 or 3 for the trigger, recast it later for the trigger again and a permanent body. A warp card without an enters trigger, such as Bygone Colossus or Red Tiger Mechan, only gives you one attack for the discount, and only if it has haste.

Does warp make a deck faster?

We built a 100-card Tannuk list (below) and goldfished it 50,000 times: 7-card hands, no mulligans, one land a turn, one opponent at 40 life with no blockers. Ramp first, then Tannuk the first turn there’s 4 mana, then the biggest creature you can cast. Each game ran twice: once with warp (Tannuk’s {2}{R} plus the six native warp cards) and once with warp switched off, so everything is hard-cast. Tannuk gives haste in both runs, so the difference is warp alone.

Warp puts damage in earlier: 13.3 by turn 5 against 9.7, and 24.1 against 20.0 by turn 6. The 40-life opponent was dead by turn 7 in 47% of games with warp and 40% without; the average kill turn moved from 7.7 to 7.5. Warp also gave 50% more enter-the-battlefield triggers by turn 8 (1.63 against 1.09). What it costs you is the board: every warped creature leaves at end step, so by turn 8 the warp games had 14.6 power on the battlefield against 15.9 for hard-casting. That’s the trade in one line: warp is tempo, paid back in permanence. The model leaves out removal, card draw, Etali’s free spells and blockers, so read it as a speed check, not a win rate.

How to keep a warped creature

Warp’s exile trigger only follows the object it was created for. Anything that moves the creature to another zone and back before the trigger resolves breaks that link, and the creature stays. The Commander-legal ways to do it:

• Blink at end step. Conjurer’s Closet triggers at the beginning of your end step, the same moment as warp. You control both triggers, so put the Closet trigger on top: it resolves first, the creature comes back as a new object, and warp’s trigger finds nothing to exile. In our sim that happened only 0.07 times per game by turn 8, because the Closet has to be drawn and cast first.
• Blink on combat damage. Brago, King Eternal blinks any number of nonland permanents when he deals combat damage, which keeps every warped creature you control and re-triggers their enters abilities.
• Token copies. Skitterbeam Battalion makes two token copies of itself when you cast it. Warp it through Tannuk for {2}{R} and the original is exiled at end step, but the two 4/4 hasty tramplers stay. The original comes back later for another two.
• Bounce instead of keep. Return a warped creature to your hand in response to the exile trigger and you can warp it again next turn for the cheap cost and another enters trigger.

Scryfall lists 28 Commander cards with the two most common blink wordings (“exile another target creature you control” and “exile target creature you control, then return”). Anticausal Vestige is the warp card built for that: when it leaves, you draw a card and may put a permanent from your hand onto the battlefield.

Void: the cards that reward warp

Edge of Eternities pairs warp with an ability word, void. A void ability checks whether “a nonland permanent left the battlefield this turn or a spell was warped this turn”. Warping anything switches void on for the rest of the turn, even if the warped spell is countered. 14 Commander-legal cards have a void ability, all of them black or red (10 black):

Warping a spell switches void on for the whole turn, so cast the warp card first and the void card after it. On turns without a warp card, a sacrifice, a blink or a creature dying in combat does the same job.

All 32 warp cards

Sorted by Commander play on EDHREC. “Commander decks” is the number of decks on EDHREC that play the card; prices are the cheapest regular printing on 10 November 2026. 22 of the 32 cost under a dollar.

Three cards take 35% of the 1,098,603 warp slots on EDHREC: Exalted Sunborn (130,513), Weftstalker Ardent (128,351) and Haliya, Guided by Light (121,770). Exalted Sunborn doubles your tokens; warped for {1}{W}, it doubles the tokens you make that turn before it leaves. The two priciest, Quantum Riddler and Exalted Sunborn, are also the two mythic rares.

The cards worth building around

Quantum Riddler is the best warp card in constructed: {1}{U} for a card, and while you have one or fewer cards in hand each draw gets an extra card. Starfield Vocalist makes every enters trigger of your permanents go off twice, so a warped Vocalist followed by a warped Riddler is four mana for two cards. Anticausal Vestige is a colourless 7/5 that draws and cheats a permanent when it leaves, which happens automatically at end step if you warp it for {4}. Timeline Culler can be warped from your graveyard for {B} and 2 life, so dying doesn’t end it.

Best warp commanders

Tannuk is the only commander that gives you warp, and the only one that also gives your warped creatures haste, which is why his deck count is so far ahead of Haliya’s and Alpharael’s. Brago and Yarok don’t mention warp at all, but both double what a warped creature does: Brago blinks it so it stays, and Yarok’s Panharmonicon effect makes each enters trigger happen twice.

How warp came to Magic

Warp debuted in Edge of Eternities, the science-fiction set released on 1 August 2025, as the main keyword of its “go fast, leave, come back” theme alongside void and Spacecraft. All 32 warp cards are in that one set, and so is Tannuk. As of 10 November 2026 no later set has printed a new warp card. Close Encounter and Blade of the Swarm are the only cards that interact with warped cards in exile, and the second one does it as removal: it puts a warped card on the bottom of its owner’s library.

Is warp legal in Standard, Modern and Commander?

No warp card is banned or restricted in any format. They’re also legal on Arena in Historic, Timeless and Brawl. Legality checked on Scryfall on 10 November 2026.

Budget Tannuk warp deck ($53)

Tannuk, Steadfast Second is a mono-red {2}{R}{R} 3/5 that gives your other creatures haste and gives every artifact and red creature card in your hand warp {2}{R}. That means a 7-drop with an attack trigger can hit the turn after Tannuk lands, for three mana, and come back for good later. The deck is built around that: big red creatures and artifact creatures with enter or attack triggers, a few cards that keep a warped creature, and enough ramp to cast the second half of every card. 35 lands, average mana value 4.31 without lands, 16 creatures with mana value 6 or more. Total $52.72 at the cheapest regular printing of each card. For a public blink list you can open in the builder, see this Brago flicker deck on KrakenTheMeta.

How the deck plays

• Ramp to Tannuk on turn 4 (12 rocks). Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, the 2-mana rocks and Hedron Archive. Every rock is an artifact, so under Tannuk even Hedron Archive could be warped, but you want rocks to stay.
• Warp for value. Meteor Golem warped for {2}{R} destroys a nonland permanent, and destroys another when you recast it. Pinnacle Kill-Ship, an artifact, deals 10 damage to a creature for {2}{R}, twice. Inferno Titan deals 3 on entry and 3 when it attacks, with haste from Tannuk.
• Warp for damage. Drakuseth, Trumpeting Carnosaur and Etali all come down for {2}{R} with haste, and Bogardan Hellkite, which has flash, can be warped in an opponent’s end step and kept through your turn. Terror of Mount Velus gives the whole team double strike the turn it enters.
• Keep what matters. Conjurer’s Closet keeps one warped creature a turn. Skitterbeam Battalion’s two token copies stay. Ilharg, the Raze-Boar puts a creature from your hand onto the battlefield attacking without casting it.
• Alena, Kessig Trapper. She taps for {R} equal to the greatest power among creatures that entered this turn, and Tannuk gives her haste. Warp a 7-power creature, tap Alena for seven, cast more.
• Interaction. Chaos Warp, Blasphemous Act, Fiery Confluence, Vandalblast, Abrade, Stoke the Flames and Lightning Bolt.

The ten priciest cards

Those ten are 53% of the deck’s price. Upgrades in order: Ruby Medallion (cut for price; every red card costs one less, warp included), Sneak Attack, Goldspan Dragon and Terror of the Peaks. Run the list through the deck analyzer for its curve and mana base, look up prices in card prices, or browse community decks and the Commander precons for more Edge of Eternities lists.

How to beat warp

Warp FAQ

What does warp do in MTG?

It lets you cast a permanent from your hand for its warp cost instead of its mana cost. At the beginning of the next end step the permanent is exiled, and you can cast it from exile on a later turn for its normal cost.

Can you warp a card from exile again?

No. Warp only works from your hand. From exile you pay the full mana cost. If the card goes back to your hand some other way, you can warp it again.

Does a warped creature have haste?

No, unless the card or something else gives it haste. Red Tiger Mechan and Nova Hellkite have it; Tannuk gives it to all your other creatures.

What happens if a warped creature dies?

It stays in the graveyard. Warp only exiles it if it’s still on the battlefield at end step, and only cards exiled by warp can be recast from exile.

How do you keep a warped permanent?

Blink it before warp’s trigger resolves. Conjurer’s Closet, Brago, King Eternal or any exile-and-return effect brings it back as a new object that warp doesn’t exile.

Does warp change mana value?

No. A warped card keeps the mana value of its mana cost. Only cards that count the mana spent, like Astelli Reclaimer, see the cheaper cost.

Can I warp my commander?

Only if it’s in your hand. Warp can’t be used from the command zone. If your commander is exiled by warp, you can move it to the command zone or leave it in exile and recast it from there without commander tax.

What is void in MTG?

An ability word from Edge of Eternities. A void ability turns on if a nonland permanent left the battlefield this turn or a spell was warped this turn.

Is warp in Standard?

Yes. All 32 warp cards are from Edge of Eternities, which is Standard-legal as of 10 November 2026.

What is the best warp card?

By Commander play, Exalted Sunborn (130,513 decks on EDHREC on 10 November 2026), then Weftstalker Ardent at 128,351 and Haliya at 121,770. In Standard, Quantum Riddler. For other keywords that change what you pay or when a creature leaves, see unearth, evoke, emerge and haste, and our cascade guide for another way to get free value from a cast.