I think Ward is a pretty elegant solution to the problems of shroud and hexproof. The dev complexity it adds could be an issue, but the calibration options it provides are great. I especially dig when non-mana ward is on a permanent (e.g Discard a card, Pay 3 life, etc). I think that has some really interesting possibilities.
@ech@MysticKetchup If ward didn't replicate one of the classic worst rules interactions (that is better now the IPG was significantly updated) I'd 100% agree.
For real. Shroud and Ward are interesting because they make you make decisions. With Shroud you're making trade-offs during deckbuilding and with Ward it's during the games. But Hexproof doesn't force any decisions. It just says "sorry, no interacting". I can sort of see Hexproof being okay on instants like [[Tamiyo's Safekeeping]], but even then, what percentage of games would actually play out differently if that card granted Shroud instead?