MTG fans beat designers to it on the new Phyrexia sword

A fan made a card with precisely the same design as the MTG Phyrexia Sword of Forge and Frontier years before Wizards came up with it

MTG Phyrexia All Will Be One sword with orange and green blades

One of the Phyrexia: All Will Be One cards spoiled yesterday was the anticipated new artifact in the well known ‘Sword of’ cycle. It was the red-green member of the group, named the Sword of Forge and Frontier. The card looks great fun to play, particularly in MTG’s Commander format, but interestingly, fans coming up with their own fake cards had already landed on this exact design.

MTG custom card creator ThatDamnPipsqueak came up with their own red-green Mirran sword, Sword of Rage and Tranquility, for the custom set Blood Like Rivers. They made the card back in August 2021, and its design is exactly the same as that of Sword of Forge and Frontier – it lets you exile and play the top two cards of your library until end of turn, and also play an additional land card each turn.

MTG Phyrexia All Will Be One sword - a poster showing similarities between a fan made card and an official design

In fact, while different artwork (a piece by Santa Norvaisaite) was used for the fan card, the rules text is almost word for word identical. Obviously it’s a coincidence, but it’s a fun one – and as Redditors have pointed out, ending up with the same design as an official card is a credit to the fan’s card designing skills.

Blood Like Rivers is a set from Revolution, a custom magic project where fan creators design their own custom Standard environment, with rotation and all, using entirely fictional cards. According to one member of the group, Reddit user Ladsworld “This isn’t even the first time something like this has happened”. You can find them on Discord here.