Warrant // Warden

The Azorius entry in the guild split-card cycle, and one of the cleaner arguments for why split cards belong in a control shell that despises dead draws. Two mutually exclusive answers to two different board states live on one card: you cast one half, and the whole thing goes to the graveyard. Warrant is the reactive option, a two-mana hybrid instant tied entirely to combat, tucking an attacker or blocker onto its owner's library. Note what it declines to do: no exile, no destruction, just a two-turn tempo tax that also forces the opponent to redraw the same creature on their next draw step instead of a fresh card. Warden is the proactive option, a sorcery that produces a 4/4 flying, vigilance Sphinx to seize the board. The connective logic is textbook Azorius: deny the attack, or build the wall. The design payoff is that the two effects want opposite game states. Warrant rewards holding up mana and reacting to a swing when you are under pressure; Warden rewards a stabilized board where you can afford the sorcery-speed commitment and just want a threat to close. Draw it while behind and it is a combat trick held at instant speed; draw it once you have stabilized and it is a finisher. You never get both, but you decide which game you are playing at the moment you spend it.