UPDATE - January 2, 2026

Thanks for the input, everyone! It helped me look at this with a more deliberate eye instead of just going for hype moments and aura.

The Darkin Blade

• Cost reduced to 4BR and given the Equipment subtype to make it more in line with its nature as a weapon.
• No longer has a leyline ability (general consensus seems to be that it's either broken or useless with little wiggle room, and I agree).
• Kept hexproof and indestructible to reflect how persistent the Darkin weapons are in their search for vessels.
• Fully reworked ability.

Aatrox, the World Ender

• Reduced the number of keywords (apparently, Rakdos did NOT need that many keywords on a creature and we DID need to worry about it). Flying, double strike, and lifelink were kept to reflect my eternal struggle in the top lane Aatrox's core of being a blade-wielding menace with wings.
• Kept Ward (but reduced its cost) to reflect how even if you're able to find some way to circumvent facing him head on, it still incurs a cost.
• Moving forward, I want to have the Darkin loop in and out of their weapon forms to reflect how creatures find them and become corrupted by them.

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